omg this is awessssome: Multicolr Search Lab

This is super cool: search through images on Flickr based on color. (They've picked what they've deemed the 10 million most "interesting" Creative Common images.) The display format alone is beautiful. You can mix and match, too.

very cool illustrations by tina berning

more at her website.

" And they sort of enjoy that they are the great showdowns."

I want to show you all of them right here right now! but I can't so here are a few favorites. Go check out the rest, from 12 Angry Men to some Big Trouble in Little China at Mr. C's Great Showdowns. You can also see his other devastatingly cute & clever works at his blog.

a very cool painting of a snake by edel rodriguez

More of her work here.

Jeeves contd

My Best of Wodehouse is one of my proudest acquisitions. It's fancy & hard-covered and a seriously for real classy Everyman's edition.

The above is cool, too. It's from the blog Inside a Black Apple. The artist, Emily, also has an Etsy store with some sweet stuff.

Typographical map of NYC by Ursula Hutz [detail above of places I lived-- we lived on 31st St for awhile though I'm not sure it's really Chelsea or the Garment District. . . call in Penn Station adjacent?] I've linked to her blog, seagull's eye, which features other cool pieces by her, including similar maps for Paris and parts of London.

I love Jules Verne. So these? There are awesome. Possibly the most awesome senior thesis ever. If you browse his blog you can see the lead-ups to the final product and also some other sweet stuff. This guy has a fantastic eye for design and is worth checking out. [via the millions]

like you need another reason to love Plan59. or be reminded of a time when men were men-- cos this is the least subtle thing I've ever seen. I love it.

hey, i haven't seen you in awhile!

Scott Campbell's art blog, which features art that I think is okay to refer to as stupid cute. He has a lot of great stuff, including this series of musician illustrations, which the above is detailed from-- everyone from Devo to the Ramones to Mozzers shows up. Also check out the intriguingly titled Adorable Battles, from while my new desktop image (which changes daily) is culled. After the jump, a rawther entertaining Adam Ant vid (as post-Adam & the Ants, as in my songs are all labeled as AA & the As so now I gotta go figure that all out ugh). . . there are like tapdancing WACs or something.

Continue reading!

yr scene gonna fight my scene.

unbeknownst to most, not all skinheads are racist, but all of them happen to own the entire skrewdriver discography, s.h.a.r.ps included. they’ll tell you they like them “only for the music”. most find this excuse hard to believe since there hasn’t been a single oi record released that doesn’t sound like it was recorded anywhere but a toilet.

inevitably all skins begin to save up their hard earned money to convert their wardrobe over to all of the latest rockabilly gear as part of his skinhead retirement plan [x].

heh. So you all know about this site already, and I had totally forgotten about it til today because I met a real life scene queen (or something like it crossed with this thing) last night-- you know, the one who thinks paint stripes are from Solange Knowles not. . . like, Adam Ant. Or Indians-- featherhead not red dot-- anyway, went to a show last night in the BK shiiit. And it was shit. Only band that was good was the roomie's (why are you still in the bathroom, I gotta pee) sister's band, despite their own problems. This is not favoritism. You can check out the lineup here (yesterday was Saturday) and see which of those acts actually doesn't make you look around like you're worried your neighbor or guardian angel noticed how bad the shit you're listening to is.

Anyway, if it hadn't been roomie's (yooo son you still in there?) sis' gig-- ok, I don't think I would have thrown down especially because no- getting- drunk- til- February but GODDAMN. These kids suck. Hey, guess what? Yelling about your vagina might get your New England dynasty, including your great uncle ex robber baron who still looks for Thomas Nast cartoons in the newspaper in order to get agitated, riled up, even so far as to threaten to take away your trust fund because you are shrieking about your ladybits because it's OMGSHOCKING & OMGREBELLIOUS but hey guess what-- to the rest of us? It's irritating and ohmy you said condom really loud too? . . . yeah, still gotta work on it. And your face paint and you and your buddy chasing each other around the dance floor while wagging a wee baggie of, well, gee, I don't know what it was because I probably can't afford it-- heyyy how about this? Use it, sell it, or put it away. We can't all get off charges as fast as you got that pony when you were 8. Oh yeah, and touching my roommate's face like it's okay to? I think they call it getting all up in someone's face and that's never been cool. And best of all you were crashing into me when you weren't dancing. Like the moment I got there. And you guys know how it is. Somebody bumps into you, you don't like the way they look. . .

Anyway, the excerpt above was what convinced me that the site is legit. The guy knows his stuff. It's all funny. It's not as mean as it seems like it would. SO DEAR READER I'm not gonna ask which sucky scene you're in because introspection is a lot to ask for on a Sunday night. Which scene would your scene fight? I believe the question is as absurd as integrating oneself into a "scene," so let's go! (Aw I wish I could afford lovely Fred Perrys.)

You know what? Speaking of awesome? Go look at the rest of this picture by MS Corley-- who PS has an Etsy page. Than go see Night Watch. I am rather ashamed that this movie completely slipped my mind when I was doing the best of the decade-- Night Watch is in like Flynn, yaddamean. Great action sequences, strangely moving stories, beautifully shot. Fabulous antihero. Completely confusing but equally awesome sequel. Most amazing subtitles ever-- really wish that style had been picked up by more studios.

fuck yeah! oscar wilde!

Came across this via the LA Times lit blog, Jacket Copy. Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time combines 2 of the most awesome things in the world-- literary figures (characters and authors) and badass illustrators.

Like. . . Pia Guerrra does Philip Marlowe! Shit, if that's not enough awesomeness for the rest of your week there is no pleasing you.

And somebody I don't know but now want to know all about does Phileas Fogg! Shit! And Mike Mignola, some Lovecraft for you dorks, and much more-- I've already found a bunch of new favorites just by browsing the archives. Make sure you check out the headers (detail above from the one by Ming Doyle), too, which are hilarious. It has also reminded me I need to finish The Master and Margarita.

i loved this. you will too. or else.

Read "Eric" (12 panel comic-- worth the three minutes it takes!) by Shaun Tan from Tales from Outer Suburbia

io9's best Comic Covers of the Decade

Gawker imprint io9 has 100 of their choice covers posted, limited it to 1 per series. My favorite & most familiar cover artists, I'm realizing, are James Jean, Adam Hughes, Ben Templesmith's work on Fell, and of course Mike Mignola, so it's fun to browse the selection and find new artists.

• i09's Favorite Covers of the Decade

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

I have always associated this story with the above Norman Rockwell picture because our family owned the Norman Rockwell Christmas book. As an ardent fan of the man, I'd rather resort to fisticuffs than try to intellectually explain his greatness (luckily someone smart at Vanity Fair did that for me.)

Fifty-Two Stories, a site sponsored by Harper Perennial that I've been meaning to mention, say for fifty-two weeks, has posted the master of the twist's Christmas-time twist for this coming Christmas week. The version they've chosen is a newly illustrated format by Joel Priddy, whose art is as cheerful and gentle as the story.

• The Gift of the Magi from Fifty Two Stories

To go with it--though not sure how much I like this version, maybe I hafta hear it a few more times--

• Tom Waits - Silent Night, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis [live | Skreemr]

Ur a card. Ima card. Sending cards?

J & I have been trying to decide if we should do Christmas cards. ("Should we do Christmas cards? Is it too late?" "I dunno. Maybe." Which is repeated every time I see a cute card I like.) The question is if we really even know enough people "by address" to send them to. I could be a dick and Photoshop (with credit) some of the cards I like and e-mail them to people. But that means 1. I'd be being a dick. And, 2. e-card, just not the same.

C sent me this link (the above graphic) this morning (which I also received this morning, which means I got up in the morning and not, say, at 3pm) and it was stupid cute with the added bonus of being made by TopatoCo, which is also producing some of Wondermark's Christmas cards which, needless to say, make me giggle.

Check a few more out after the jump. This one is also quite silly. Then go see the real deal. They go for $12/pop.

Continue reading!

This is Cool: Japanese Barcodes

"Masters of turning the mundane cute, we recently came across this collection of the clever ways Japanese designers have extended this eccentricity down to the boring barcode" [from Cool Hunting-- visit them for more!]

Those wacky Japs-- as in Japanese--and their insanely cute things. Make sure to visit Cool Hunting for more, some are quite funny, all are stupid cute. You can see the hippie gun barcode over there and more at Barcode Design Gallery, which designs and licenses out the retooled barcodes.

artsy fartsy friday with bil donovan

I name these things using the day of the week (it is Friday, right?) like it will become a regular thing. Bil Donovan does fashion and design stuff, and it's all delightful and colorful, but what I really like is his portraits of classic movie stars.

For more, including Marlene, Grace Kelly, and Katherine Hepburn. . . Continue reading!

Check out his website for others like Sophia Loren and Mae West, as well as his other work.

Jesus Hates Zombies feat Abraham Lincoln Hates Werewolves?

Came across this picture on Ben Templesmith's blog. He is illustrating the cover for the comic called Jesus Hates Zombies by Stephen Lindsay. Which sounds like the best thing ever. Templesmith used on old Russian-style icon, very cool, and it's a picture of Jesus hatin on zombies. Look at the shit. Look at that nail through the bat. Shit.

Unfortunately I've been drinking and it's making research hard. Yes, it's noon. Yes, this is an auspicious start to the day and the weekend.

And yes, even with minimal research, it is easy to find out how awesome Jesus Hates Zombies sounds. From the Amazon.com description:

The zombie plague has swept across the Earth, and Jesus has been sent down to take care of it. Along with Laz, (his loyal zombie sidekick) Jesus must unite the remaining humans to stand up and defeat the zombie menace. A werewolf-slaying Abe Lincoln makes his debut here, fighting in the 19th century while Jesus saves the world in the 21st century. Will these two historical heroes finally cross paths? You'll have to read to find out!

You think you're cooler than that? You think you are? Cos you're not.

Orientalism Yeah!

This is the illustration "Demonism" by Vania Zouravliov, a positively amazing artist--spooky, precise, detailed, strong, exotic, erotic--I just incidently discovered. I'm hoping to put a post together with more art in the next week so you can see what he has to offer, so here's a preview.