Monthly Archives: June 2013

At Bear Pond Espresso in Tokyo

Over the weekend we posted about some coffee we had from a third-wave espresso roaster and cafe in Tokyo called Bear Pond Espresso. As our regular readers already know, we here at Global Graphica are kind of obsessed with hunting down the best coffee wherever we go. Here are some pix of the Bear Pond cafe and surrounding area in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa neighborhood as seen from the street. (The cafe has a policy against taking photos inside without permission, so we just have a few quick snapshots from outside.) Bear Pond is the fussiest, most meticulous and attentive espresso purveyors and coffee roasters we’ve ever met, which is why we like them and their coffee so much. They’re also really nice and have great style. As noted in that earlier post, they only prepare and serve espresso for two and a half hours each day, from 10:30am to 1:00pm. Furthermore, they’ll only sell some of their coffee beans to you if you first take a short course they offer on how to properly prepare the coffee in the Chemex style. We have to say, their coffee is probably the best we’ve had anywhere.

Coffee from Bear Pond Espresso Tokyo

We’re enjoying some coffee in New York this hot summer morning brewed with coffee beans from Bear Pond espresso cafe in Tokyo. We just received the beans via heavily sealed and re-sealed — and personally couriered — package from a friend who recently arrived from the Japanese capital. Bear Pond serves all kinds of coffees, but famously only serves espresso at its tiny Shimokitazawa cafe for two and a half hours a day. If you can’t get there during “espresso hours” another place you can find Bear Pond coffee is at the restaurant called On The Corner in Shibuya.

New Mural at Deitch Wall by REVOK and POSE

A new massive street art mural has just gone up at the Deitch Wall in New York City. We’ve got lots of pix below. We were there Friday when the artists REVOK and POSE were working late into the evening putting some of the final touches to the artwork. More details to come.

Breaking: New Mural Going Up at Deitch Wall

Friday evening we stumbled upon the artists REVOK and POSE working on a new street art mural at the Deitch Wall, the commissioned space at the corner of Bowery and Houston streets in downtown New York City. Looking forward to seeing the finished work. More pix to come.

Fresh Street Art by Con Artist Collective

This boldly graphic wheat-paste street art poster by Con Artist Collective just went up on a building hoarding at the corner of Broome and Allen streets, in the art-fashion part of the Lower East Side, in New York. The artwork was inspired by the classic Japanese sci-fi comic “Akira,” and is a mash-up of Japanese manga imagery, as well as a layer of stylized Japanese-like kanji typography.

What’s Outside the Window? – Vol. 29

In Vol. 29 of the photo project series What’s Outside the Window? are these images we took at sunrise this morning of the downtown Manhattan skyline as seen through the window panes of an old-school lofts building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“Wacka” Artwork in Progress at L’Asso

A new street art mural is going up at L’Asso, at the corner of Mott and Kenmare streets in Nolita.

New Street Art by Rae in Tribeca

We went for late-night bicycle ride in downtown New York City last night after a late dinner and rainstorm and stumbled upon some fresh street art by the artist Rae in the Tribeca-Chinatown border area. This wheat-pasted artwork is on a billboard in a parking lot, and it’s probably the largest scale work we’ve seen by Rae so far.

Claes Oldenberg Sculpture at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is currently holding a major retrospective of the influential American artist Claes Oldenberg, as we’ve reported on this blog in recent months. Oldenberg is one of the giants of 20th-century and modern art, and this exhibition is definitely worth seeing. But if you go to the show, there’s a major piece of sculpture from the artist that you might miss because it’s in MoMA’s sculpture garden and not included in the main exhibition galleries where Oldenberg’s work is being shown. The artwork is a large, painted aluminum and steel object titled “Geometric Mouse, Scale A,” and we’ve got pictures of it below. You can view full specifications of the sculpture on MoMA’s website,too, if that’s your kind of thing.

Performance at MoMA

We recently stumbled upon this performance art by two women in red jumpsuits at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. We didn’t get the details, but the performance was a kind of feminist protest against the museum in regards to women artists.

The Notebook with First VW Sketches

This is one of the more interesting things we’ve seen in a museum lately. It’s the notebook of the man who originally conceived the iconic Volkswagen van, which eventually became the basis for the more popularly known VW bus. The notebook contains his initial sketches of the vehicle, and it’s on view in the design section of Amsterdam’s spectacularly renovated — and recently re-opened — Rijksmuseum. Though Volkswagen is a German company, the concept for the VW van was created by a Dutch race car driver named Ben Pon, who in addition to being an Olympic athlete and vintner was also an importer of VWs after World War II. Pon wanted a smaller, lightweight “truck” type of VW vehicle more suitable for the needs of the Dutch market. He was inspired by a small cart he saw in a factory, and based on his design VW began to produce the vehicle. The full story of how Pon’s idea evolved and got produced is fascinating.

JR Hits Tokyo

This is the front of the Watari Museum of Comtemporary Art in Shibuya, in Tokyo, where French street artist superstar JR recently revisited with his well-publicized posters of faces of people from Japan’s Tohoku region. Tohoku was the scene of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster happened following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. JR became famous for putting up his street art images of people’s faces and eyes all over the world and eventually developed the “Inside Out” project in which participants have their photos taken by the artist and put up as street art. Participants then get to bring home their very own photo poster of their face. Lots of fun!

The Rooftop Bar at Hotel Chantelle

The view out toward the Williamsburg Bridge from the beautiful rooftop bar at Hotel Chantelle in New York City’s Lower East Side.

Cool Werner Herzog Photos in 032c Mag

The indie art-lifestyle magazine 032c recently published a photo essay of old images of and by acclaimed auteur German film director Werner Herzog, who directed “Fitzcarraldo,” one of our favorite movies of all time

“Love Hurts” at Sue Scott Gallery NYC

All manner of illustrated anatomical hearts on this wheat-paste street art piece “Love Hurts” outside the Sue Scott Gallery on Rivington Street in New York’s Lower East Side.

Massive Broome Street Mural … New York

What’s Outside the Window? – Vol. 28

In the latest installment in the ongoing photo project series “What’s Outside the Window?” here are images of the view out the window from the back room at Bar Bossa, a Brazilian boteco bar and restaurant housed in a classic NYC tenement building on Elizabeth Street in New York City’s Nolita / Lower East Side neighborhood. Outside there’s a clothes line with famous football (or soccer) jerseys hanging out to dry. We’ve previously posted photos of the view from the front windows facing Elizabeth Street.

“No Milk” in Chelsea … New York Street Art

Who is This Mysterious Woman in Sunglasses?

This street art “wheatie” is on the famous Puck Building in SoHo, New York, on the side facing Mulberry Street. We’d like to know who this woman is. And who the artist is.

Summer Afternoon View at the New Museum

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