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Obituary Monograms
One of my favorite annual New Year’s activities is to read the entire New York Time’s magazine of obituaries. They highlight a collection of people you knew died and a bunch of characters who fell through the cracks, mostly because they weren’t famous anymore. This year I learned about people I should have known more about, like Richard Holbrooke and George Steinbrenner. They made a beautiful website for this year’s collection, and Mother New York made remarkable monograms for each person.
Photos from Mother New York.
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Miranda on the Web
We all know more clever and fun coding could be happening on the internet. Miranda July is the only one who seems to actually think of anything.* Above is the splash page for her website.
In other MJ news, she has a new movie coming out! Get ready for some things to be uncomfortable! Watch a little interview here, or read an interview with her about it here. There’s no preview out there (that I can find) but there is, of course, the movie’s website.
I think it’s really interesting to use Paw Paw {a talking cat} as a narrative device because cats are so often thought of as tricksters, or at best, unreliable narrators. –from the interview.
*If you missed the website for her short story collection, check it out now. Her love-community-building-project website Learning to Love You More is now considered modern art.
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The Venmo Way
Of all the new free webbie things of 2010, Venmo is definitely one that made its way into my habits. You can pay or charge people either online or via text message, for free. I use it to pay friends who covered the bill for dinner, my mom sends me spontaneous pedicure funds (yes, she is awesome), my younger brothers unexpectedly split the pizza bill with me, I charge my friends who share our AT&T bill, I bought my brother a drink when he was celebrating his 21st birthday in another state….
You don’t have to have a smartphone and if a few of your friends join with you, it’s super handy!
Photo of Venmo’s app, also an option
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Transparent Trends
Anti-fashion conspiracy theorists occasionally complain that fashion trends are deliberately planned to embody the opposite of the previous trend. Instead of easing from flats into kitten heels, for example, fashion leaves the ballerinas behind and chunkifies into wedge-cum-boots flourished with lacings.
I thought of that theory when I saw Anthropologie touting flair jeans for this summer. (Not that it’s Anthropologie’s personal sneaky effort–the 70s are in! They just made me think of it.)
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SpiderWard
The broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has been plagued with four performer injuries so far. This week’s New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt is a funny take on the cursed production.
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Saturday Reading
A few things I enjoyed reading lately, for your snowy Saturday review:
Wednesday Chef’s wishes for our New Year. I almost cried thinking about juicy peaches–will that season ever arrive?
A New Yorker short on what the kids are saying these days, which is, as always, immediately more cool and apt than anything I’ve ever said.
Elif Batuman on koalas, Oprah, and critical reviews of her Top 10 book. I didn’t make it through her book, but I think she’s a genius blogger–goofy, interactive, and cheery.
Painting of dog reading, with coffee, by Maira Kalman.
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Sart. Craft
A great little video in which The Sartorialist talks about his craft, and we get to see how he approaches people on the street, which I’ve always wondered.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5NgG5koPZU&feature]
I’m glad he did this longer feature piece because when this surfaced awhile ago, the haters were all “oh the sartorialist is so annoying and bossy.”
We are such the benefactors of this new “we like what you like” approach to advertising, aren’t we? I hope they never go back to the meaningless ’90s-Super-Bowl-ad style we were all put through in our youth.
seen on Chris Glass, but it’s everywhere now
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Things I Talked about Over Christmas
Mark Madoff’s suicide: so sad. And: did he really not know? And: did we take the generational-sin-blame thing to far?
The scoundrels at J.Crew who sell lesser-quality replicas at their Factory Store. Who knew, until you fell for it and realized it was not the shirt you thought it was?! Very sneaky of them to subvert the ol’ just-last-season’s paradigm that we’ve come to expect from outlet stores.
Aluminium in deodorant: is this still a concern or just a rumor? Yes, no, respectively. Is the Deodorant Stone a possible solution? Some say yes, but it’s hard to get over how weird that website is.
I like this new Sugar in the Raw ad/recipe by Mother Design:
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Siggi’s 0% Milkfat Yogurt
After reading about the Siggi’s founder in O Magazine, I finally bought some at the grocery store. Their marketing is soo pretty.
It tastes lighter than Greek Yogurt with the same amount of protein (double what normal yogurt offers).
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A Little Something for the Ketchup
