I’m excited about the new iPhone. But not because I’ll be able to surf the web at the speed of light– because my fiance is giving me his “old” one while he upgrades.
Interestingly, over the past 5 days, I have met an astonishing number of women who are also eagerly awaiting their significant others’ iPhones, including a 65 year-old lady next to me at a bar. (Techie-feminists, don’t get upset. It’s not that I don’t value or can’t afford to get a new iPhone, I just don’t think I need it. And that is the difference between me and my bethrothed).
It raises some intriguing questions. I wonder if the prescient Apple team has thought about the “Significant-Other-Hand-Me-Down” experience. Will second-hand users have the same reverence for the phone without having undergone the same product initiation? Does it mark a new type of relationship with phones where they are valuable enough not to just throw out or recycle?
My friend John said to me, “You’re just cheap.” Maybe so, but I can’t wait to get my hands on my new phone. And I bet John’s (apparently cheap) girlfriend can’t wait either. –Kat
Last week, NOTCOT alerted me to the fact that American Apparel has recently launched a line of ‘Thermochromatic T-shirts’ that change color when exposed to heat or cold. The site went on to point out that this is essentially the same technology used by those unrelentingly awesome Hypercolors t-shirts that were all the rage in the early 90s. And lest you forget just how awesome it was, the official American Apparel site has a nice little video of a model microwaving a shirt and then wearing it into a freezer. But my initial excitement gave way to cynicism when a few days later I read this article in the LA Times, saying essentially: hypercolor is back from the grave, so start counting backwards from 15 minutes again.
Here’s the thing. There’s nothing wrong with Hypercolors coming back. I lived through the trend the first time around and still think it’s amazing in a 12-year-old boy sort of way. But this isn’t an isolated incident. (more…)
I’ve been a long-time fan of Paul Ahern’s “Cardboardistry” art — the pieces feel familiar yet striking and simple yet meticulous. I recently had a chance to catch up with the man with the mad knife skills, newly invigorated after his first show in Austin, Texas. –Kat
What is this thing you call Cardboardistry?
I discovered this method of working in summer 2003 in Brooklyn when I was the production designer for a music video for The Natural History. Our rule was that all sets and props had to be made from cardboard. I needed a pop art “painting” for the wall of this cardboard living room set, so I devised a method of creating a black and white image by removing the surface paper and revealing the corrugation beneath to act as the blacks in the image, and leaving behind the white. It turned out so well that I hung it up in my apartment after we were done, and a few different people asked to buy it.
Before I knew it, I had commissions for a series of huge wall pieces. People seem to be attracted to the mystery of how I create these pieces, but really it’s nothing more than steadfast determination, in the face of a rather mundane and repetitive process – scraping corrugated paper with an X-Acto knife. (more…)
You know those garbled words that websites prompt you to input for security purposes? Originally designed to prevent spam-generating computer programs, or “bots,” from accessing your personal information, “CAPTCHAs” today actually make beneficent use of your distinctly human ability to read distorted print.
I recently learned that reCAPTCHA, a program developed by Carnegie Mellon, puts these security precautions to good use in the movement to digitize books. Instead of bugging you with purely random text, reCAPTCHA uses words illegible to standard “Optical Character Recognition” programs, thus involving Internet users in a largely unnoticed, yet widely pervasive effort to bring books online. So far, heavyweights Ticketmaster, Facebook and Craigslist have all signed up for the clever program. –Johnny
CARACAS – Just in from my fiance in Venezuela. It is difficult to encapsulate the weirdness in words:
Is it the diapers with the holes cut out for the tail? The random guy feeding the monkeys through the customer service opening? Or perhaps the fact that this all took place in a lottery ticket booth at a high-end mall in downtown Caracas?
It’s a topsy-turvy place: Venezuela is well-endowed with oil, but in spite of soaring oil prices, its economic growth has slowed. 38% of the country is below the poverty line, and barrios continue to spread like wildfire, yet the famous El Sistema has inspired unprecedented passion for classical music in underprivileged youth, creating an astounding 220 youth and children’s orchestras. Perhaps lotto monkeys aren’t so strange after all. –Kat
As a New Yorker, suspending one’s cynicism can be a mighty challenge. So when I was invited this Saturday to see a little comedy troupe called The Story Pirates perform a series of short plays conceived by small children, I admit I was a tad skeptical. Yet much to my delight, the Pirates’ performance was a big bowl of chicken soup for my sardonic city soul! The hour-long show cleverly blended playground humor with sophisticated playwriting and Broadway-style musical scoring. Oh, and puppets! Lots of irreverent puppets with silly names like Francoise Debun and Siegfried the Orange.
But what appeared to strike the audience most was the group’s refreshingly earnest mission. Comprised mainly of Northwestern University acting alum, the Pirates spend their days visiting underfunded public schools teaching student workshops in literacy and creative expression. The resulting mini-adaptations, carrying such titles as “The Dodo and the Dead People Next Door” and “How to Have the Best School on the Planet,” clearly preserve the mini-writers’ original intent. Ultimately the Pirates’ slogan says it all: “Plays written by kids, performed by adults who wish they still were.”
The Story Pirates perform a kid-friendly show every Saturday at 2PM at The Drama Book Shop. Once a month, they perform an edgier 18+ show at the Zipper Theatre. Check out more details here. –Johnny
See a video of 4th grader Michael Breen’s “Giant Bugs 2″ below:
Still not sure if we’re in a recession? An article in yesterday’s Denver Post may diminish all doubt. Apparently, brazen thieves are roaming the Rockies stealing an unusual commodity: restaurant waste oil. In the past, deep-fryin’ eateries had to pay recycling companies to dispose of their messy used cooking oil. Yet as gasoline prices surge and demand grows for alternative energy sources like biodiesel, restaurants are having no problem getting rid of their excess grease. These days, it seems, even a barrel of waste oil sells for $30.
While biodiesel production was once the niche domain of energy-conscious environmentalists, this surge in oil crime marks its movement towards the mainstream. Sure, stealing oil from restaurants is illegal, but such criminal behavior is a positive indicator of a genuine, emerging demand for this efficient new energy source. Whether or not the oil industry chooses to invest in biodiesel, industrious people are already at work building the technologies, creating a black market supply chain, and ultimately fueling their own future. — Johnny
I had a chance to stop by the Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park Pool this weekend (like every other New Yorker with a blog). In its fourth year, the fair brings together a huge and colorful group of Etsy-approved DIYers selling lithographed prints, letterpressed cards, resin-cast jewelry, plush baby furniture and a whole host of other cleverly constructed stuff.
What was fascinating about the fair was less its variety of vendors and more its overarching ethos: the value of an object is as much in its origins as its use. There are only so many ways to embroider a onesie or handprint a t-shirt; the crafts’ ‘individually made-ness’ was the key to their appeal. Each booth sold wares, sure, but also posed as a neatly-wrapped story, complete with a friendly history, a discussion of construction techniques, or an eye-catching business card.
While the trendspotters have been crowing about the authentic allure of craft for a minute now, the fair was a good reminder of where our consumer culture is moving overall: we buy things more and more as an opportunity to build our own personal narratives out of the little stories they provide us.
Don’t get me wrong, many of the attendees were pretty amazing. Some of my favorites:
Domestic Construction designs lamps (among other things) that make me wish I could rewire my apartment.
Because only a moron would spend $2 on purified New York City tap water in a bottle! Now I’m not usually inclined to rant, but holy crap, Tap’dNY has me seething with pent-up rage! Every sentence deserves an exclamation point! Or even two!!
According to the label, Tap’d is “the anti-bottled water bottled water.” Turns out they’ve deluded themselves into thinking that their product is a radical departure and even, gulp, environmentally responsible. Their website provides advice on a “new way of drinking,” including a suggestion to “drink tap whenever and wherever possible.” But aren’t they in the business of bottled water? Indeed they are, and their true intent quickly overshadows any higher message of abstinence: “if you do need a bottle of water, drink Tap’dNY–it’s local!” Sadly and superficially, that argument might just resonate with consumers merely looking to do the right thing. Sure, next to Fiji’s trans-Pacific haul Tap’dNY’s transportation emissions are miniscule, but that comparison misses the pressing bigger picture.
Singer Jackie Wilson once famously asked, “what becomes of the broken-hearted?” Well Jackie, apparently, they become web entrepreneurs. Take for instance Ex-BoyfriendJewelry.com, a new site that allows women to buy and sell jewelry from their expired relationships. With commodities prices soaring at the moment it’s no shock that the black market for such sentimental goods has come out of the shadows. The Boston Globe even did an interesting video piece on what they call “The Ex-Boyfriend Economy.” Man, that Cubic Zirconia never looked so good. –Johnny
Last week, 
Johnny
Kat
John