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Nicolai Howalt’s portrait series of child pugilists before and after a match is oddly compelling.

The Ritual Project documents the creation of a Stella Artois ad that covers the side of a Manhattan building.

UK Channel 4 commissioned Lenka Clayton and James Price to create People In Order, a series of short portrait films that reveal something about life by arranging people in scales:

Age / Human beings from age 1-100.
Birth / 34 women arranged by length of pregnancy (weeks 4 - 41).
Love / 48 couples arranged by length of relationship (in descending order).
Home / 73 households arranged by income (400,000 - 3,240 pounds).

Making creative content that utilizes the help of crowd-sourced strangers seems to be something of a curious trend at the moment. The music video for More is Less is definitely the most impressive and most intriguing approach I’ve seen yet. Currently, almost 13,000 people have uploaded a posed photo to a site that incorporates the video into a newer version of the video every hour - clever, clever, clever.

Author, Mary Roach gave a wonderfully humorous TED talk on Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasms.

(via kottke)

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns. Organisers of a British circus recently put on a workshop to help young audiences to gradually overcome their phobia.

Killings provoked by Sinatra’s My Way???

Here is a nice little video from a new record pressing company that explains how vinyl records are made.

Why are you so terribly disappointing?

Every year since 1949, a mysterious visitor has paid tribute to Edgar Allen Poe by leaving a bottle of cognac and roses at his tomb on his birthday. This week marks the first time in 61 years that nobody came,

Here is a fascinating read on Moscow’s estimated 35,000 stray dogs. One grouping has taken up life in the subway system, where a select few have actually learned to ride trains.

Few people would doubt that David Blaine is one of the finest illusionists ever. It’s when he started playing with reality that his stunts went to a whole other level. Here he discusses how he held his breath under water for 17 minutes.

Here is to remembering the life of Joe “The Great” Rollino, a Coney Island sideshow strongman who just passed away at the age of 104, after being struck by a car near his home. He was clearly a remarkable human being.

A friend of mine is something of a hardcore conspiracy theorist. He recently shared this list of 33 conspiracy theories that turned out to be true.

Pentagram offers up some design psychotherapy by asking the question, “What type are you?” The password answer is “character.”

What if you and everyone in your town all received mysterious hand written letters and nobody had a clue where they were coming from? The Mysterious Letter project plans to write a letter to everyone on the planet. I hope they have lots of ink and strong wrists.

It’s pretty true; you can stereotype people by their favorite author.

(via kottke)

Letters of Note is a site that archives intriguing correspondences of the written and printed variety. In this letter, J.D. Salinger explains why he has no intentions of letting anyone have the film rights to The Catcher in the Rye. And here, Edgar Allan Poe apologizes for drunken behavior and asks his publisher to purchase an article, as he is in desperate need for cash.

Adweek lists The 30 Freakiest Commercials of 2009.

Imagine buying a building and discovering a prohibition-era bowling alley and speak-easy in the basement.

This year’s NYC Santacon is coming up - Saturday December 12. I’m actually considering taking part in the holiday spirit this year. It does sound fun.

I have big problems with the corporate agriculture industry; however, lab grown meat sounds less like an alternative and more like an equally awful idea. How about good old sustainable farming?

Joe Vanhoutteghem’s music video for The Hickey Underworld track Blonde Fire is one of the most bizarre and intriguing clips I’ve seen in some time. His commercial work seems to be a touch on the darker side as well.

Now that another Halloween has come and gone, we all have another full year to work out costume ideas for next time. Here are some brilliant makeup creations from senior artists at MAC. I’m partial to the design inspired by Roy Lichtenstein works.

I thought it appropriate on Halloween to share the gruesome delicacies from a Bangkok based bakery that make confections that look more like special FX props from horror movie sets than food. Warning this is not for the squeamish.

While there are probably several good reasons not to put ice skates on a bear, a particular one comes to mind first.

The story of Germany’s invasion of Ukraine during WWII is told in this astonishing real-time evolving sand painting. My mind is thoroughly blown.

Here is a series of photos taken at the sites of different cultural icon’s deaths. Each image was snapped on the anniversary of the event at the exact same time that tragedy struck.

I’ve been making my way through Six Feet Under DVDs and it is quite clear to me that there is absolutely nothing about a funeral home that is comforting. Should I cross the street and get hit by a bus tomorrow, let it be known that there should be no casket for me. Just to be a pain in the ass, I might like to be flash-frozen and then blasted with an ultrasound wave into a million pieces. But that doesn’t sound very practical; I guess cremation it is then. Check out this nice little NPR piece on burial.

Kooky people with kooky obsessions and hobbies like the fellow in my previous post make me happy. I truly admire the spirit of people who live life marching to the beat of another drummer, even when that means driving a car that looks like a giant telephone. Here is the trailer for Automorphosis, a documentary on art car enthusiasts. On a similar note - check this out.

I remember once seeing something on TV about a woman who can swim long distances in extremely cold water. In fact, she successfully swam a mile in the frozen waters of the Antarctic wearing only the usual swim suite, goggles and cap. This ability is absolutely rare. I thought of her when I heard about the subject of Thomas Hilland’s short documentary Sweat - Timo Kaukonen is a four-time World Sauna Champion who enjoys sitting in the extreme heat that would cause other people serious skin burns.

I’ve always found people who walk on the beach with metal detectors to be amusing to watch. I had no idea that these folks have clubs. One member of a British metal detector club recently uncovered more than 1.345 gold and silver relics hidden on a farm that date back to the 5th century. It is believed that the collection’s value will be well into the millions - half of which the finder will keep. Maybe I should add metal detection to my weekend activities list.

Meet Ed Houben, a sperm donor who is responsible for 46 children and counting - lovely.

Alain Robert aka the French Spider Man has an odd hobby/career. He is an urban climber who has made a habbit of scaling skyscrapers without the aid of ropes. He has scaled 85 towering buildings around the world.

I’ve lived about a mile from Flatbush and Fourth Ave. for nine years and have never once seen the dancing traffic cop. Now I feel that my life in Brooklyn won’t be complete until I see him.

Here is an inflatable house of worship.

While doing some research, I came across the death masks of a few historical figures. Some even date back to the 1300s. It’s truly fascinating to look at the cast of a person who lived several hundred years ago and realize that you are essentially seeing exactly how they looked in their final moments.

I’ve been looking for a new hobby and think I just found my inspiration in Rufus Hussey aka The Slingshot Man.

The public testing of the HAL robo-exoskeleton suite brings people one step closer to actually being robots. I figure that we may be just a generation away from kids telling parents that when they grow up, they want to be an android. Swell.

These are the United Steaks of America.

(via Swiss-Miss)

The crypt directly above the one in which Marilyn Monroe eternally rests was recently up for auction on ebay and brought in several bids in the millions.

I’ve always loved the British phrase “are you taking the piss.” However, if asked the question while standing next to one of these - the proper reply would be, “No mate. I’m taking a piss.”

Check out these amazing prints of imaginary sea life and bacteria-like creatures that my friend Celia created. The project originally stems from her website collaboration with electronic musician Amon Tobin.

I’ve always thought dog shows are wrong on so many levels and speak far more about the absurdity of the owners of these animals than the pets themselves. I suppose this is precisely what made Christopher Guest’s comedic faux-documentary, Best in Show so damn funny. So that said, I wonder what it says about the owners of these poodles that they’d rather groom them into something other than a dog. Frankly, this sort of thing really doesn’t bode well for the human species.

The Personas website creates a colorful graphic representation with keywords that shows how your name floats around in cyberspace.

Last night, I caught one of the documentary films in The Pursuit of Excellence series from filmmaker Mark Lewis on PBS. The film, Synchronized Swimming takes an in-depth look at the passion, sacrifice, and determination it takes to compete on two of the top youth synchronized swimming programs in the US. The film is truly one of the most cinematic documentaries I’ve ever seen. The camera takes great pleasure in capturing the visual spectacle that is this little known sport. The film can be purchased through PBS for $10 and is certainly well worth it.

I have to know what an amber ale made with 45 million year old yeast tastes like.

NPR has redesigned their site with a beautiful contemporary sense of clarity and readability. Be sure to check out this piece on Lonesome George, the last known living Galapagos tortoise. It is believed that he is about 100 years old which is roughly the point of sexual peak for the species. He has finally been doing a little bit of naughty business lately.

This week, I spent some time with a friend who was in town visiting from Japan. She told me about the ceremony in which her family recently laid her father to rest. After making their final goodbyes, the body was cremated in a process that took about two hours. Following the cremation, the family was invited to personally collect all remaining bones with chopstick-like tools and place them in an urn. This tradition that she has three times taken part in was created to begin the process of closure for the family. Perhaps more than anyone I know, she seems to be at a certain peace with her loss. I can’t imagine how an urn designed to look like a loved one could possibly provide this kind of peace.

(via The Daily What)

The NY Times docu-photo series One in 8 Million takes a look at some of the unique souls that are New Yorkers. Get to know a few of them; Jesse Villanueva (a sneaker connoisseur), Alexandra Elman (a blind wine teaster), and Ed Grajales (the dictaphone doctor).

Dumpster-diving has a whole new connotation. An NYC based real estate developer is experimenting with how to utilize unused space in the city. He has rented a land plot adjacent to my neighborhood and outfitted it with a few swimming pools made from converted industrial dumpsters.

Today, the oldest man in the world died at the age of 113. Henry Allingham was born in 1896 and lived long enough to see three centuries.

Here is a perfectly good excuse for swearing.

When I was in college, a classmate introduced me to the world of art cars. He had outfitted the entire exterior of his pickup with working TVs. He also made a short film documenting a cross-country caravan of these kinds of vehicles. This is what I was reminded of when I came across these pictures of trucks and bikes by Japanese enthusiasts who take it to the next level.

There was once a time when skateboarding was considered counter-culter in the US. This was while I was growing up. No skating signs were posted just about everywhere. The image of a teen with a skateboard came to represent a punk ethos. Times have changed. I remember reading a few years ago that in the US more children own skateboards than baseball bats and gloves. I probably shouldn’t be surprised to see that skating has seeped into cultures of underdeveloped nations like Uganda. Check out these fantastic photos documenting an East African skate park.

(via WMIG)

Wallpaper Magazine commissioned artist-photographer Robbie Cooper to make Immersion: Porn. The project examines how people interact with pornography and gives us the chance to watch them watching porn. Some people really do make rather odd expressions while in the moment.

(via kottke)

Charlie White’s newest photo series compares teenage girls with male to female transsexuals on their paths towards womanhood.

(via kottke)

1984, Peter Feldstein photographed the entire population of Oxford, Iowa (676 people). Twenty years later, he came back to update the portrait series.

This very well might be one of my very favorite music videos in ages despite the fact that there is no music.

Seed Magazine has designed a very cool interactive piece called The Universe in 09. The project celebrates the kind of creative thinking that makes the human experience a more positive one.

Stephen Wiltshire is an illustrator unlike any I’ve ever seen before. Born with autism, Stephen is capable of drawing landscapes with exquisite detail all from memory.

Scientists have proven that chimpanzees who wine and dine their partners are more likely to have sex.

Here is a blog dedicated to awkward family photos.

Casey Anderson is an environmentalist who raised a grizzly bear named Brutus from an infant to an 800 pound adult. Sunday May 5th, National Geographic will air a program that documents their year long expedition together to follow lives of grizzly bears in Yellowstone. Below is a picture of Brutus celebrating Thanksgiving with his family. See more remarkable images of Casey and Brutus here.

There are so many this-or-that ways to categorize human beings: tall or short, quiet or loud, upbeat or down trodden etc. There are the more judgmental categories as best illustrated in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a good egg or a bad egg. There are the folks who use the world as their private office to divulge personal issues on their cell phone. Some people will always be courteous and hold open doors for strangers and there are those who just don’t do that. On the subway yesterday, I noticed a woman who fell into one of my very favorite categories. There are those who will ride on the train during rush hour and plaster on their face with make-up and those who are horrified at the very thought of transforming a subway into one’s bathroom.

People and robots can be friends. The tweenbots experiment encourages the better side of humankind.

I’ve long suspected that many of the store-front fortune tellers scattered throughout NYC might actually be facades for brothels to those in the know. These ragtag little setups almost always are run by young women whose ages seem to range from their teens to early thirties, but never older. Often, the entrances to the setups require a trip through a seedy stairwell. The ones at street level usually seem to utilize only a fragment of a larger space which is curtained off to the public. Within a few blocks of my brownstone are several of these spots. The first real indication that the palm reader around the corner might be a prostitute was that she would persistently ask me if I wanted my fortune told, day in and day out. Patterns began to emerge. She would only attempt to indulge me in her services if I walked by alone. Then came the pregnancies. Every nine months or so it was clear that she was yet again an expecting mother. She has now been pregnant so many times that I’ve lost count. Last night on my way home from dinner, I noticed the detail that would certainly substantiate my suspicions. Parked in front of the storefront was a glitzy candy-apple red Bentley. Two large goons dressed in suites flanked the entrance to the building. Almost as if I were watching a slow-motion scene in a movie, a large figure also dressed in a suite appeared from the gaudy vehicle and stepped through the doorway.

Did you know…

These abandoned villas in Taiwan may not look like the vacation destination originally intended, but they sure would make for a great location to shoot a film.

French pole-vaulting champion, Romain Mesnil took to the streets in a naked fashion in an attempt to re-negotiate his sponsorship deal with Nike.

Skate boarding tricks captured beautifully in slow-motion + explosions + Spike Jonze = title intro to Lakai Fully Flared.

Thirty year old Melissa Dixson is a self-taught taxidermist living in NYC of all places.

Fifty People - One Question: Where would I wish to wake up tomorrow?
Asked in Brooklyn & London.

The interior furnishings of Amsterdam based ad agency Nothing are entirely created out of cardboard.

There is a pretty interesting story about the hidden message inscribed on the inside of Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch.

Here is a photo series shot in Pripyat, Ukraine. The abandoned town had once been home to many of the workers at Chernobyl and was evacuated after the disaster 23 years ago.

Read about the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo and Sleeping Beauty, an almost pristinely preserved mummy of a two year old girl who died in 1920 of pneumonia.

The mind works in odd ways. When I got out of bed this morning, I was immediately inspired to find a quirky short film that I had seen several years ago. Here is Copy Shop by director Virgil Widrich. The film tells the bizarre story of a copy shop attendant who begins to duplicate himself over and over.

Julien Cottereau is Sick As A Dog.

Smiley face clouds have been hovering over London lately.

David Lynch is also on twitter and indeed it really is him. Apparently he likes to update with weather reports for LA. I found two gems linked off his page. Here is a clip of David Lynch, the cowboy singing in a studio. And here, he talks about making art. Only Lynch would think to title a painting, Woman with Broken Neck and Electric Knife Speaks to Her Husband.

A dome is such a great shape to project a movie on. I think one day people will have domes in their homes. They’re magical. - David Lynch

Twittering with Shaq.

Plenty of people have claimed to have spotted Elvis. But really, I did see him. He wasn’t picking up his dry cleaning and I didn’t see him at the drive through car wash. Nor was this an apparition of him that had sizzled it’s way onto a slice of bread like Jesus toast. Elvis goes to my gym in Brooklyn. I had never seen him there before, so I guess we are just on different schedules. He looked great and thinner than many of us remember him. He still has a penchant for wearing oversized sunglasses indoors and sports the old zip up suite. I’d say he appeared to be in his late 60’s so the gym is doing him well since he was born in 1935. Honestly. I am not crazy. My girlfriend asked if I noticed him and pointed him out. My jaw dropped. Elvis goes to my gym, holy shit!

Sometimes truth is much stranger than fiction. Learn about the colonies of wild tropical parrots in Brooklyn and how they got there.

Paying what you think a meal and drink are worth, what a novel idea.

The Abode of Chaos.

Whenever I walk past this tree, I am reminded that nature has a way of showing us who is boss. I think the caption for this photo should read, Sign Eating Tree.

The mysterious maple syrup smell that took over NYC on several occasions is no longer a mystery. Surprise! It came from New Jersey where so many awful odors originate.

(via Kottke)

NYC love expressed through LEGOs.

Bacon should be considered it’s own food group. If I were religious, I might call it food from the gods. Speaking of bacon, I stumbled across Bacon Today which is my favorite new website. While bacon infused vodka sounds curiously disgusting, I’d probably be interested in sampling a bacon shell taco.

Here is a pretty fascinating portrait series of families from around the globe photographed with the food which they consumed that very week.

I’ve written before about how dancing can unite the world. Just yesterday, I posted on the charms of an 85 year old disco dancer living in Shanghai. As technologies advance, we are all certain to find ourselves sharing even more of our lives electronically. T-Mobile recently staged an incredible event that plays on this very idea of sharing our lives and how a simple dance can bring us all together.

Somehow I got the idea in my head a while ago that it is good luck to spot a rat on the tracks while waiting for a subway. The larger the rat, the better the luck. That said, the thought of touching, holding or cuddling with one had always struck me as a terrible idea until this summer. My landlord asked me to look after his son’s two pet rats while they were away. The commitment was a month long relationship that somehow grew from almost disgust to a sort of fondness. Everyday, I’d drop by to feed them and make sure they had water. In the beginning I’d lift open the tops of their cages and quickly look after their needs. And then they grew on me. When I entered the room they were clearly happy, climbing on their bowls to greet me, desperately begging for attention.

And then of course, there is the charming rat named Remy with a penchant for the culinary arts in PIxar’s Ratatouille. This also happens to be my girlfriend’s favorite film; I’ve now seen it countless times. So I guess it’s fair to say that rats aren’t so bad. But this is a bit much; check out director Matthias Hoene’s short docu-film about a Fancy Rat Show.

Should you be in need of a good chuckle, there are some pretty ridiculous postings on Craigslist’s Best of 2008. Here is my personal favorite.

Could your child be the next Jedi knight? I sure hope you never buy this for them to find out.

Japanese artist Daito Manabe really does suffer for his art.

This is the most amazing extreme sport I have ever seen. These are humans literally flying like eagles at speeds of up to 100mph with nothing but a special suite. Just insane.

The annual Darwin Awards are named posthumously to those who have managed to die in a feat of great stupidity, thereby removing themselves from the gene pool. The 2008 winner was awarded to Reverend Adelir Antonio di Carli who was attempting to fly in the air for 19 hours suspended by 1,000 helium balloons. The reverend was performing the stunt to raise money to build a “spiritual” trucker’s rest stop in Brazil. He went missing for three months when winds carried him in the wrong direction out to sea. Apparently, the idea of lifting people or even cars with helium balloons is not that uncommon.

If you’ve never been to Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum which was found to educate physicians on human medical anomalies, it is an absolute must visit for fans of the bizarre. And if a trip to the City of Brotherly Love is not in the cards for you anytime soon, you can ring in the new year with the Museum’s first calendar in six years.

Here is a film that shows how the classic Eames shell chair is produced. 

It’s the beginning of a new year and a new cycle of sorts. So I figure either yesterday or today are opportune moments to post a secret and start anew.

Henry Gustav Molaison was a man with no past.

While Neil Gaiman is a writer probably best known for his mysteriously dark tales, he has also penned several books for children with illustrations by Dave McKean. One of those stories, Coraline has been brought to the screen by Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas.  This very promising looking animated film opens in theaters February 6.

This story is too pathetic not to share. Some real charming couple from New Jersey named their kid Adolf Hitler, and are wondering why nobody wants to inscribe “Happy Birthday” on his cake.

Japan: Robot Nation is a short expose style short film that explores how the nation may go about dealing with a quickly dwindling population. When people are too exhausted from work to have sex and reproduce, who will run the factories or take care of the elderly? Japan is on track to have too much work and not enough people to do it. Allowing for greater immigration is one approach to solving the problem, but a rather unlikely answer when considering the historical view of outsider’s in a such an ethnically proud country. However, in a culture that is already fascinated with anthropomorphisising so many different kinds of non-human characters, daily interaction and dependence on robots may not be such a huge leap.

For some random reason, I just remembered an odd observation I made a few weeks ago on a subway ride. I was sitting adjacent to two young women in their mid-twenties whose faces I can’t recall. I had taken notice of their fast-paced conversation that was taking place in sign language. As their hands frantically drew words back and forth, I could hear the mouthed echo of the two women conversing over the drowning sound from my headphones. The music from my ipod played like a soundtrack to the scene. I noticed that the women were so involved in whatever it was they were discussing, that a baby belonging to one of them went completely unattended in a stroller. I watched on as the doors to the subway which was parked in a station came to a close. And seemingly in slow-motion the train launched forward with a powerful jerk and the child’s stroller rolled backwards several feet down the aisle. Quicker than I could react, I had envisioned the stroller zipping to the far end of the car and coming to a crash. In one spontaneous swoop, the deaf mother spun around and nabbed her child with arms that appeared to extend several yards. Casually, she placed the stroller back into position locking the breaks on the wheels this time and returned to her conversation.

Adjoining the introverted and eccentric life of Franz Kafka with the illustrative work of Robert Crumb makes for a rather peculiar read. The Fantagraphics release Kafka by Zane Mairowitz and Crumb is definitely worth picking up.

Going to the gym really is a chore. What if it were more like a video game? Check out the short film Cecil by Terri Timely.

The Beauty Kit by Pleix sure would make for a unique gift from Santa.

The winter chill is in the air today. It’s that time of the year when the front yards of my neighborhood are transformed into a carnival of tacky holiday decor. No house is complete without an inflatable something or other. But to prove that I am no Grinch or Scrooge, I’ve decided to share a few short film clips to express my holiday cheer.

I believe both Santasm and Warm And Fuzzy Feeling were directed by Mike Kuntz. (NSFW)

Mary Jane older than Jesus was found in China.

Here is a fascinating documentary photo series from the time photographer Livia Corona spent with Mexico’s Los Enanitos Toreros (The Dwarf Bullfighters).

Many thousands of people have removed their clothing while gathering with complete strangers to participate in one of Spencer Tunick’s large scale nude photos. Signing up on his site to model sure would be an interesting way to get over any self-image issues one might have with their body. Maybe I should put this on my list of things to do before I die.

Square America is a web-archive of found snapshot photos dating from the 1890’s-1970’s. These extraordinary images present a unique window into the past.

Recently. the director Pes was doing some research at the Woodlawn Cememtary in the Bronx, and happened upon a rather curious epitaph.

LOST LIFE BY STAB IN FALLING ON INK ERASER, EVADING SIX YOUNG WOMEN TRYING TO GIVE HIM BIRTHDAY KISSES IN OFFICE METROPOLITAN LIFE BUILDING

Further research revealed an article from the February 16, 1909 NY Times that details the bizarre account of how an attempted kiss cost young George Millitt his life.

(via kottke)

A few years back, I worked on the design of the Criterion Collection dvd release of the documentary Hoop Dreams. Since then, I’ve wondered what has happened to the two young high schoolers featured in the film who had ambitions of rising from poverty to make it in the NBA. The Chicago Tribune has caught up with both men now in their mid 30s.

(via kottke)

Apparently it is indeed true that Hitler really did only have one testicle. You really do learn something new every day.

In conjunction with Google, Life Magazine has posted an online archive of photos spanning from the 1750’s to present day. Most of these images were never published.

When I die, I want to be cremated and turned into a pencil???

For some time now, I’ve been fascinated by the transformation of the body undergone by female bodybuilders. There is something about the change to the form that many of us find grotesque or even perverse. For several years now, I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a documentary on the subject. And today, I came across this photo series of women who are competitive body builders.

It would seem appropriate to share this music video directed by Thomas Hilland for the Ralph Myers track Nikita. The video focuses on the day in the life of a female bodybuilder, leading up to a competition.

(via kottke)

I’ve come to realize that the web can be a very strange outlet for people. For example, take this page that allows you to watch a litter of Shiba Inu puppies grow up in real time.

Parkour is a sort of sport that combines spirituality and the body in a physical challenge to overcome our made environments. Parkour originated in France about 20 years ago and has now grown in popularity in the US, especially among woman. I first had seen the sport on display in the following commercials and music video; I just didn’t know it had a name.

Nike “Angry Chicken”

Nike “Young Love”

Nike “The Scary Cat”

Madonna “Jump”

(via Kottke)

I happened upon a series of intriguing images on a French blog and realized that the images were actually from a book called Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia, published by Steidl. I’ll definitely have to track this one down knowing the quality of books Steidl produces. For more entertainment related to tattoos and Russian crime, I can’t recommend David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises enough.