This is an exceptionally cool series from Public Radio International's Studio 360. Host Kurt Andersen conducts wide-ranging—and often surprising—surveys into the books, movies, art, and architecture that have come to represent American culture and character. In the episode on "Moby-Dick," listen to Laurie Anderson compare Melville's literary masterwork to "Star Trek." In a segment on "The Great Gatsby," hear the only known recording of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Salman Rushdie cites "The Wizard of Oz" as his first literary influence, and Bobby McFerrin performs snippets from his eight-minute medley condensing the entire movie. Other shows take on Superman, Barbie, "Gone With the Wind," Emily Dickinson, Andy Warhol's homage to the Campbell's soup can, and "Kind of Blue" by the truly iconic Miles Davis. So listen up. You might even be inspired to dive in to that book about Captain Ahab and the whale.
Filed under: Literature, Art, United States
The French painter Georges Seurat did no have much time on this earth. He died at 31. But three decades was enough to produce a body of work that still dazzles its viewers. New York's Museum of Modern Art now presents an exhibit that traces the development of Seurat's sketches and drawing. The show runs through January 7, 2008. But regardless of whether you make it to Manhattan, the companion webpage calls out for a lingering visit. Richly designed, loaded with content, it's a visual treat in itself. Broken into three primary parts—sketchbooks, conservation, and subjects—each section includes images, history, background, and commentary on the Gallic artiste. We particularly liked paging through Seurat's worn notebooks. The images they contain, sketches of trees, men in straw hats, the arc of a church entryway, a young girl, are simple and luminous.
You can't get past FFFFOUND!'s masthead without knowing that exclamation points are welcome here. On the "about" page, we encountered not one but three statements punctuated with great enthusiasm: "Find, bookmark and share your favorite images!!" "An inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!" And our favorite: "Learn learn learn! And add!"
The exuberance begins to seem warranted once you return to the main gallery. Here, image-lovers have gathered a wildly diverse assembly of photos, typography, illustration, and graphic design. A Surrealist clip-art collage leads to a vintage etching of a puffer fish, which flows into a woodprint-inspired text design and a classic black and white photo of boxers. In the collections built up by some of the site's heaviest users—some with nearly 2,000 entries to their account—more eclecticism pours forth. We felt like we had wandered into the private holdings of a collector who is passionate and just slightly, and adorably, mad.
And we loved it. FFFFOUND! You inspire us!!!
Filed under: Photography, Art, Illustration, Graphic Design
If you're searching for a daily fix of art from the underground, look no further than Streetsy. Curated by Jake Dobkin, this amazing site offers up fresh street art every day. Besides the beautiful (and familiar) spray paint pieces on display in his epic online gallery, Dobkin provides a look at all forms of semi-illicit creativity bubbling up from the boulevard. You'll stumble across stencils, stickers, and sculpture in the colorful compendium of photos. Browse through the collection by region and glimpse the personalized streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. With every visit, you'll see a stream of new images thanks to a feed from Dobkin's Flickr photo pool, which is over 89,000 pictures strong. Take our advice and open your eyes to the wealth of public art staring back at you from the streets where you live.
Filed under: Art, Graffiti and Street Art, Urban Exploration
It's a beautiful world for you and for Mark "We Are Not Men, We Are Devo" Mothersbaugh. While children of the '80s may know him for his flowerpot-headed punk band, Mothersbaugh has been creating rubber stamp designs, ink illustrations, screen printing, decals, and mail art since he was a kid. His current illustrations are organized into two galleries on this site. The Postcard Diaries represent an "obsessive habit/hobby" where he's been drawing about one a day for 30 some odd years. Whether mixing Mexican wrestling with medical diagrams, making subtle political statements, or creating wacky characters, each postcard is colorful and tinged with a vintage advertising feel. The Beautiful Mutants gallery takes old photographs and turns them into weird Rorschach test-style distortions "using a combination of both antiquarian hand-crafting and modern computer technology." Pug #1 barely looks like a dog, and Pirate Jack has become one psychedelic Chihuahua. The Rotten Lads appear disturbingly undisturbed, as does the Bride With Calla Lilies. If you're through being cool, you can buy one of these hot potatoes for yourself. Whip it good, indeed.
Yahoo!'s crack team of editors serves up the coolest, funniest, or quirkiest sites we encounter on the Web. Got a favorite new link of your own? Share it with us!