Like something out of a Wes Anderson film, this Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Nagoya, Japan, is a too-perfect, polished,…
PARKS AND REC: A QUICK VISIT TO TOKYO’S POPULAR “ROBOT PARK”!
Tucked away on a hillside between two leafy residential blocks of central Tokyo sits Sakurazaka Park. Better known colloquially as…
SHOW ME THE HONEY : STREET ART SWEETENS THE HYPER-SHOPPING MECCA OF TOKYO’S SHIBUYA!
It was a sweet surprise to see the street art of San Francisco-based artist Fnnch (pronounced “finch”) in Tokyo a…
IN YOUR FACE : TOKYO ELECTION BILLBOARDS COLOR EVERY CORNER OF CITY WITH PORTRAITS OF POLS!
It’s election campaign season again in Tokyo. If you’re on the ground in Japan’s capital, you can’t help but know…
FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE : JAPANESE ARTIST’S TOWERING HEAVENLY “SURF ANGEL” STATUE IS AN INDELIBLE EPIC DREAM!
Japanese artist Motohiko Odani’s massive, fantastic, classical-style neon and plaster sculptural object “Surf Angel (Provisional Monument 2)” towers in a…
EVERYBODY HATES PUBLIC ART, EXCEPT WHEN THEY DON’T : THE INCREDIBLE, INEDIBLE AND POPULAR “TOKYO EGG”!
It seems almost axiomatic that most public art is bad. Like really, really mind-blowingly f*cking bad. And though it is…
PRINTED MATTER: HIGHLY ENTERTAINING “THE NINETIES” IS MUST-READ ROMP THROUGH A DECADE’S POP CULTURE HISTORY!
We’re reading the paperback edition of Chuck Klosterman’s most recent book, a look at 1990s pop culture and historical trends…
JET LAG CONFIDENTIAL: BACK IN TOKYO! BUT FIRST, COFFEE!
We’re back in Tokyo and it feels so good. Except for the mad jet lag, which feels very much not…
CONTEMPORARY ART 101: FROM “SUPERFLAT” TO SUPERSTAR – WHO IS ARTIST TAKASHI MURAKAMI?
Takashi Murakami is perhaps the best-known among a handful of Japanese contemporary artists who have over the past couple of…
PEAK TV: MENAGERIE OF A-HOLES “SUCCESSION” RETURNS FOR FINAL SEASON!
It’s here. The fourth and final season of the HBO dramatic black-comedy series “Succession” aired in the United States Sunday…
ANTI ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB: NEPO BABY SPAWN OF INDIE FILM AND MUSIC POWER COUPLE BREAKS INTERWEBZ!
Well, well, well, looks like we’ve got ourselves a little “NePo baby” on our hands. For those of you who…
OH, MEMETIC WORLD: THOUGHTS ON THE A.I.-GENERATED TRUMP ARREST MEME!
Well, well, well, if it isn’t the latest internet sensation: hyper photo-realistic A.I.-generated image memes of former President Trump being…
CINEMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE: WHY “EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE” DESERVED ITS OSCAR!
The film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2022. Some may argue that…
FROM THE STREET TO THE WHITE CUBE – WHO IS THE ARTIST KNOWN AS “KAWS”?
The work of KAWS, the pseudonym of American artist Brian Donnelly, has been taking the art world by storm for…
STREET ART 101: IN PRAISE OF SUBVERSION — WHO IS BANKSY?
Banksy, the elusive street artist, has become a legend in his own time, carving out a unique niche in the…
ART 101: THE POLKA-DOT PRINCESS OF CONTEMPORARY ART – WHO IS YAYOI KUSAMA?
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist who has captivated the world with her mesmerizing polka dots and psychedelic installations, is nothing…
CAFFEINATED BY DESIGN: THE COFFEE TABLE BOOK ABOUT COFFEE!
The name of Italian espresso-machine maker La Marzocco may not roll off the tongue easily or be a household name.…
WIDE WALLS: MEMORIAL MURAL REMINDS OF US THE GREATNESS OF THE LATE, GREAT KOBE BRYANT!
Just over three years since NBA superstar Kobe Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash on a Calabasas mountainside, his…
SPEED FREAK: DESIGNER HANS LOHRER’S BOLD VISIONS FOR PORSCHE!
Hanns Lohrer was a German painter and commercial graphic designer based in the city of Stuttgart. In spite of his…
ON VIEW: ALEX ISRAEL’S PASTEL-TINTED, SURF-INSPIRED VISION!
We’re fans of artist Alex Israel. It may in part be due to the fact that we’re surfers here at…
FILM 101: WHO IS WES ANDERSON?
Wes Anderson is a renowned American filmmaker and screenwriter who has made a name for himself in the film industry…
ARCHITECTURE 101: WHAT IS “GOOGIE” ARCHITECTURE?
Googie architecture is a style of modernist architecture that emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century, predominantly in…
“GOTHIC FUTURISM” : THE BLOCKBUSTER ARTWORK OF PIONEERING HIP-HOP ARTIST RAMMELLZEE!
We went to Deitch Projects gallery in Los Angeles on Saturday for the last day of the blockbuster “Gothic Futurism”…
“HALF-ARSED!” : HORROR SHOW OF UNFINISHED ARCHITECTURE PLAGUES NEW ART MUSEUM NEAR L.A.
The recently opened Orange County Museum of Art (“OCMA”) is an architectural cautionary tale. When the $94-million-dollar new museum opened…
PRINTED MATTER: GRAPHIC NOVEL AS AFRO-PUNK MEMOIR IS A TOUR DE FORCE!
If there’s only one graphic novel you buy this year, “The High Desert: Black, Punk, Nowhere” should be it. It’s…
AT THE MUSEUM: INCREDIBLE NAVAJO-INFLUENCED ART OF ERIC-PAUL RIEGE!
We’re blown away by the artwork of Navajo artist Eric-Paul Riege. His current show at the Hammer Museum in Los…
INCREDIBLE EDIBLE: ARTIST CREATES GIANT FOOD SCULPTURES TO DROOL FOR!
We checked out the whimsical “Fulton’s Exhibit” in Hollywood last weekend. The show is a collection of giant food sculptures…
VAN LIFE: YET ANOTHER VEHICLE PAINTED BY KENNY SCHARF!
We spotted yet another vehicle adorned with artwork by the artist Kenny Scharf in Los Angeles. This one was on…
MEDIUM IS MESSAGE: THE POTENT RELEVANCE OF BARBARA KRUGER!
The Broad museum in Los Angeles has several major works by the influential American artist Barbara Kruger in its permanent…
DEUS EX MACHINA: THIS TOKYO VENDING MACHINE SOLVES OUR THIRD-WAVE COFFEE LUST!
A cluster of vending machines stands on a Roppongi street corner next to a small public parking lot a few…
VISUAL TRASH: STREET ART, GRAFFITI, ADVERTISING, OH MY!
On the shiny, new gentrified south end of Downtown Los Angeles there are remnants still, old and recent, of the…
POST-MODERN CLASSIC: REVISITING ANDY WARHOL’S “MAO” PAINTINGS!
Between 1972 and 1973, the late great pop-art pioneer Andy Warhol created 199 silkscreen paintings of the notorious Chinese revolutionary…
HOUSE BEAUTIFUL: MR. DOODLE TURNS 12-ROOM U.K. MANSION INTO TRULY EPIC GRAFFITI ART CANVAS!
British artist Sam Cox, better known as Mr. Doodle, spent roughly two years during the COVID pandemic painting black-on-white doodles…
STYLE BEASTS: THE REAL FASHION SHOW IS ON THE STREETS!
The New York Times has an excellent photo essay on how the streets of Milan come alive with style beasts…
CINEMATIC WAVES: WE MADE A SURF FILM!
So we made a little surf film. Though the word “film” here is used broadly. “Somewhere” is a short surf…
KILL YOUR TELEVISION: WHAT WE’RE WATCHING, RIGHT NOW!
We’ve just started watching the second season of the Hulu original series “Only Murders in the Building.” We’re three episodes…
COSMIC THING: KENNY SCHARF CARTOONS ADORN L.A. TIRE SHOP!
Two dark-pink, disembodied cartoon heads by Los Angeles-based artist Kenny Scharf bookend the signage on the facade of a tire…
PRINTED MATTER: THE TINY TOKYO BOOKSTORE STUFFED WITH AMAZING COLLECTION OF ART-PHOTO BOOKS!
It’s the little bookstore crammed with enough books to fill a shop twice its size. It’s the Shelf bookshop in…
STREET ART: MURAL BY MR. B-BABY IN LOS ANGELES
Awesome street art mural by Mr. B-Baby near intersection of Venice Boulevard and Centinela Avenue in the Mar Vista neighborhood…
ROCKSTAR GAMES: ROBOT SINGER IMPROVISES LYRICS IN REAL TIME! WE’RE DOOMED!
Desdemona is her name, and she is a pop singer and a robot. Mechanical, life-size and driven by artificial intelligence…
LET THERE BE LIGHT: THE HOT, SEXY NEW LAMP TAKING OVER NYC!
According to the New York Times, there’s a new lamp that seems to be ubiquitous in New York City restaurants.…
LONG GAME : LEGENDARY 95-YEAR-OLD “PAINTER’S PAINTER” PREPS FOR HIS NEW SHOW AT GUGGENHEIM!
The New York Times had a great article on the artist Alex Katz last week. The artist is a giant…
LA LA LAND GRAFFITI : “SICKID” BILLBOARD HUSTLE IN HOLLYWOOD !
Driving around a major U.S. city long enough and you’re bound to see unused billboards that have been hijacked with…
STREET ART P.S.A. : HOUSTON GRAFFITI GIVES IMPORTANT HEALTH REMINDER!
Here’s an important message we should all heed: “Breathe.” A lovable and small graffiti artwork on the side of a…
BREAKING – THE PASSING OF A FASHION VISIONARY : R.I.P., ISSEY MIYAKE !
We awoke this morning to the news that Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake has died. He was 84. The Washington…
ON THE BOOKSHELF: A CHEEKY LOOK AT MEMES!
“The Memeing of LIfe: A Journey Through the Delirious World of Memes” is a droll, entertaining study of a most…
CRYPTO ART : MURAL OF THE BORED APE YACHT CLUB NFT AS GYM DECOR
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been around for few years now, but it was in 2021 that these captured the public’s…
ARCHITECTURAL DESSERTS : GEOMETRIC VANILLA MATCHA POPS!
These vanilla-matcha popsicles are like no other pops we’ve ever had. They’re called Dream Pops and are vegetable-based, containing only…
WRIT LARGE : MASSIVE “MSK” GRAFFITI THROW-UP IN L.A. ARTS DISTRICT
We spent a morning in the Arts District on a recent visit to Los Angeles. It’s home to lots and…
POST-MODERNISM IN THE PARK : CONTEMPORARY ARTWORK AS PLAYGROUND
Dubbed the “post-modern playground slide” in the park across the street from my in-laws’ home near Roppongi in Tokyo. The…
“KONNICHIWA!” : BACK IN TOKYO AND IT FEELS LIKE HOME!
We got to Tokyo early in the morning just after sunrise. It was a bright, hot morning with the humidity…
UP IN THE AIR : BACK TO TOKYO!
Yup! We’re heading back to Tokyo. After getting all our COVID booster vaccinations and updated health documents and customs and…
BEYOND “SUPERFLAT” : AT THE MIND-ALTERING TAKASHI MURAKAMI SHOW IN L.A.!
We finally made it to the landmark Takashi Murakami exhibition at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. We posted about…
UN-CONTAINABLE : AT THE OPENING OF THE BRILLIANTLY-CURATED “VESSEL” ART SHOW IN LA LA LAND!
On Saturday we went to the opening of a new group show at Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles. It’s called…
ON THE SCENE : DESIGN VISION, STYLE & SURF CULTURE AT MOLLUSK!
The Mollusk surf shop in Santa Barbara, California is a beautiful showpiece of a retail space. It’s the recent addition…
BEFORE INSTAGRAM : DIVING INTO THE IMAGE COLLECTION OF A GROUND- BREAKING MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY!
Artist, filmmaker and photographer William Klein is arguably one of the 20th Century’s greatest image makers. While Klein worked in…
NIFTY : NFT STREET ART SIMULTANEOUSLY EVOKES AWE AND EYE-ROLLS IN TOURISTY POST-GENTRIFIED OVER-HIPSTERED VENICE HOOD!
On a wall in an alley behind a block of fashionable cafes, luxe-hipster boutiques and a foodie-grade ice cream shop…
SUPERFLAT IN LA LA LAND: TAKASHI MURAKAMI’S FIRST MAJOR SOLO SHOW AT THE BROAD MUSEUM OPENS!
This weekend saw the opening of a major Takashi Murakami exhibition at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. It’s the…
ARCHITECTURAL DEATH: THE DEMOLITION OF ICONIC TOKYO BUILDING!
The Nakagin Capsule Tower Building in Tokyo is an unmissable architectural oddity and gem in the heart of the Japanese…
LOST AND FOUND : TREASURE TROVE OF PHOTOG’S MISSING IMAGES FINALLY ON VIEW TO PUBLIC AFTER DECADES!
“A marvelous and delightful way to earn a living” is how American photographer Marilyn Stafford describes her career in an…
CURRENT EVENTS : POLISH ARTIST’S POSTER CAPTURES ESSENCE OF RUSSIAN-UKRAINE WAR!
The geo-political conflict and humanitarian nightmare unfolding in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s horrific, invasive military aggression has captured…
BRIMFUL OF “MEH!” : LATEST INSTALLATION OF STAR WARS BOBA FETT SPIN-OFF LEAVES US “JUST BARELY ENTERTAINED!” MEANING OF LIFE QUESTIONED!
We finally got around to watching “The Book of Boba Fett” on Disney+ TV. We hate to admit it but,…
STREETSY : BAFFLINGLY ABSTRACT MURAL CONFUSES VENICE BEACH LOCALS!
The Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, its fashionable neighborhoods and adjacent districts, is home to a lot of street…
BRUSHED UP : HOW A GIANT COMB SCULPTURE BLEW OUR MIND!
The first time we saw Latvian artist Vija Celmins’ giant plastic comb at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art…
GIANT STEPS : LEGENDARY MOVIE DIRECTOR’S DISTURBING OBSESSION WITH STAIRS COMPILED INTO SUPERCUT!
The filmography of legendary British film director Alfred Hitchcock is studded with iconic movies that defined the modern Hollywood suspense-thriller.…
SO JUDGY! BEST BOOK COVERS OF THE PAST YEAR!
We all know the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” That’s a pretty good nugget of popular wisdom.…
NEW ISSUE OF BELOVED, ARTSY INTERNATIONAL SHELTER MAG HAS ARRIVED AND WE FEEL BLESSED!
The new issue of Apartamento magazine arrived in the mail from Barcelona, Spain last week ands we’ve been savoring its…
MOVING PICTURES: THE LITTLE MOVIEMAKING TECHNIQUE YOU’VE SEEN A MILLION TIMES BUT NEVER HEARD OF!
You’ve seen this a gajillion times in tons of movies: At a critical moment the shot you see on the…
NO LOGO : ARTIST RENDERS FAMOUS BRAND MARKS IN CHROME!
For this “36 Logos” project German artist and designer Martin Naumann re-worked the logos of some of the world’s biggest…
SELLING THE SIZZLE! : JAPANESE CAR COMPANY UNLEASHES AN EPIC NEW COMMERCIAL!
The 60-second commercial is for Honda and is called “Origin of Determination.” The spot features 100 Honda products, from race…
FLIP MODE! SHREDDED BANKSY RE-SOLD AT AUCTION FOR MORE THAN $25 MILLION!
We’re in the wrong business. We should be in the business of flipping infamous Banksy artworks. Especially the kind that…
“LIT A.F., DUDE! “: SEEING THIS ICONIC L.A. ARTWORK NEVER GETS OLD!
Artist Robert Irwin’s wall of multi-colored fluorescent tube lights at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art serves as post-modernist…
BEAN HERE NOW : OUR NEW COFFEE STATION UNVEILED
Here’s the coffee set-up at our headquarters. We put up these shelves above the counter where the coffee-making gear is…
ULTIMATE PAINTING: ARTIST SARAH CAIN PAINTERLY PROVOKES ART WORLD GATEKEEPERS!
The New York Times arts section has turned a deservedly keen eye towards Los Angeles-based painter Sarah Cain. Cain’s paintings…
RUB A DUB: FAREWELL THE LEGENDARY UPSETTER! LEE “SCRATCH”PERRY, R.I.P.
Has it already really been a week? Yes. Actually, it’s been just over a week since news hit us that…
STOP MAKING SENSE: NEW WORK FROM TEXAS ARTIST RAY DUNLAP DIVES DEEPER INTO GLORIOUS ABSTRACTION !
Houston, Texas-based artist Ray Dunlap has unleashed a new series of paintings dubbed “American Made Witchcraft.” This new work delves…
SPARKLING COLLAB: TAKASHI MURAKAMI BRINGS “SUPERFLAT” TO A PERRIER BOTTLE NEAR YOU!
It was only a matter of time until we see a contemporary art superstar lend their artwork to a major…
SMELLS LIKE LAWSUIT SPIRIT: “NIRVANA BABY” SUES ICONIC GRUNGE-ERA BAND!
The guy who was the baby on the iconic cover of Nirvana’s”Nevermind” album is suing the influential Seattle grunge pioneers.…
INEDIBLE EDIBLES: ARTIST CROCHETS PASTA!
Somebody’s got a lot of free time on their hands. They’ve got vision. They’ve got yarn. They’ve got a crocheting…
BUILT FOR SPEED : JAPAN’S NEW “BULLET TRAIN” DESIGN REVEALED!
Japan Railways (JR) recently unveiled the design for its newest shinkansen, a.k.a., “Bullet Train.” It’s called the “Kamome,” which translates…
WEIRD FLEX BUT OK: FREESTYLE COMPETITIVE CANOEING! FOR REAL! SEE FOR YOUR SELF!
Soooo, today we learned there’s such a thing as competitive interpretive freestyle canoeing. It’s really a thing. Think of it…
101-ISM : HOW TO DRAW YOURSELF AS A PEANUTS CARTOON CHARACTER! FOR REAL!
Happy Monday! And we know what you’re thinking! Wouldn’t it be cool to draw yourself as a character from a…
PHOTOGENIC : NEW SHOW REVEALS DEEP TIES OF TWO JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERS!
A new exhibition at the European House of Photography in Paris (Maison Européenne de la Photographie or MEP) showcases two…
EXHAUSTIVE : NEW DOUBLE EXTRA-LARGE BOOK OF EVERY FRIDA KAHLO PAINTING EVER!
Taschen’s new XXL-size coffee table book contains the entire set of artworks by the late great artist Frida Kahlo. Aptly…
SUPER COOL COFFEE-TABLE BOOK! “AFROSURF” CELEBRATES AFRICA’S RICH SURF CULTURE!
As regular readers of this blog know, we love to surf every chance we get. So when a new artful,…
SHAMEFUL OR SMART? : TOKYO OLYMPICS ARCHITECTURE LACKS OVERPRICED, PRETENTIOUS NEW TROPHY BUILDINGS!!!
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will open this week in the here and now of 2021. The world’s biggest sporting and…
BAD DESIGN: A COLLECTION OF THE “WORST VOLUME CONTROL USER-INTERFACES IN THE WORLD EVER”!!!
This collection of extremely poorly-designed volume-control user interfaces (UI) is curated with tongue very firmly in cheek. It’s a hilarious…
POP CULTURAL: A “SEINFELD” TV SHOW LEGO SET WILL BE RELEASED THIS SUMMER!
Yes, Danish toy-maker LEGO will be selling a set of their iconic bricks to build your very own set of…
DESIGNED TO DEATH : AWESOME POST-MODERN VERSIONS OF CLASSIC MOVIE POSTERS!
Check out these retro post-modern movie posters designed by Patrick Concepcion. These are so good. Concepcion’s graphic design manages to…
TATTOO YOU! : ARE “PANDEMIC TATTOOS” REALLY A THING?
Maybe. The New York Times is reporting that for some tattoo aficionados and newbies alike, getting a tattoo commemorating the…
ADVENTURES IN AUDIO: NEW AMBIENT CHILL-OUT MUSIC BY ALOHA DEATH
We produced a new original piece of music for Aloha Death. The song is called “Gallery Meditation” and is a…
TOUR DE FORCE: OBAMA PORTRAITIST AMY SHERALD’S BRILLIANT “THE GREAT AMERICAN FACT” EXHIBITION IN L.A.!
It’s a small show, but one that packs a punch. Amy Sherald’s collection of five new paintings manage to fill…
LIKE A VERSION: 100 INTERPRETATIONS OF ANIMATION SEQUENCE ARE MIND-BLOWING!
This short montage video showcases 100 animation interpretations by 100 different animators. It’s absolutely wonderful. The video reveals all the…
SUBLIIMELY CAFFEINATED: THE INTRIGUINGLY MINIMALIST COFFEE THERMOS!
We recently got this ultra-minimalist travel mug for our coffee. The form factor and style of the container can’t get…
CALIFORNICATION!: THE SURF-INSPIRED ART OF DJ JAVIER!
One could draw a Venn diagram with one circle for artists, designers, musicians, actors, and all manner of creators, and…
TRANSPARENT THINGS: THE MINIMALIST GLASS CUBE THAT TURNS THE WORLD RED!
Artist Larry Bell’s red, glass cubes at MOCA Los Angeles are a masterful use of color, materials and space. The…
LIGHT LINES: THE STUNNING IMMERSIVE SPACES OF BRAZILIAN ARTIST BLOWS OUR MINDS!
Last weekend we went to the new exhibition of artwork by Brazilian artist Lygia Pape at Hauser and Wirth Los…
IMPORTANT MESSAGE: “DON’T SURF!”
“Don’t surf!” We found this message scrawled into the layer of road dust caked onto the rear window of a…
CAFFEINATED DESIGN: CRUSHING HARD ON THIS COFFEE BRAND’S DUSTY PINK PACKAGING!
If you’re a regular visitor to this blog then you probably already know by now how obsessive we are when…
SO VIRAL IT’S SICK! VIDEO OF THE LINDA LINDAS PERFORMING “RACIST SEXIST BOY” DINGS INTERNET!
By now you may have heard of and seen the Los Angeles power-pop indie-punk band the Linda Linda’s. A YouTube…
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 