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…
JUST FOR KICKS: THE ART OF THE SNEAKER
A new exhibition at the London Design Museum offers a closer look at the evolution of sneaker design and innovation.…
EXHAUSTIVE: AWESOME 12-MILE, HI-DEF FIVE-AND-A-HALF HOUR REAL-TIME VIDEO WALKING TOUR OF PARIS!
. . . . . This video of a real-time walking tour of Paris is awesome. The video covers a…
DRAWN TO DISTRACTION: DAVID HOCKNEY FLIPPING THROUGH HIS SKETCHBOOK IS BRILLIANT!
. . . . . This video of British artist David Hockney flipping through his sketchbook without commentary is a…
REVEALED: BEST TYPOGRAPHY DESIGN OF 2021!
The Type Directors Club (TDC) recently announced the winners of its annual type-design competitions. The TDC is part of the…
PUMPIN’!: THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED GAS STATIONS IN THE WORLD!
Gas stations tend to be pretty bland and merely functional when it comes to architectural design. Many are drab, dirty…
FANTASTIC PLASTIC: GIANT YELLOW CUBES MADE OF WEST-AFRICAN WATER CONTAINERS!
On the edge of a Native American land tract on the outskirts of Palm Springs, California, stand a pair of…
UPDATES: HEARING NEWS THAT NYC STREET ARTIST BAST HAS PASSED AWAY!
We’re still in a bit of shock this morning after hearing about the passing of the artist BAST! We learned…
ALL OF THE LIGHTS: “EX STASIS” BRINGS L.E.D. MAGIC TO BEAUTIFUL NATURAL LANDSCAPES
. . . . . This video of four audio-visual artworks by artist Reuben Wu are sublime and otherworldly. The…
KOOK SLAMS: BEER CAN DESIGN INSPIRED BY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT HAS US IN DRUNKEN STITCHES!
Kook Slams, the beer. For real, it’s here! It’s a limited edition I.P.A. from Duck Foot, a brewery from the…
WATERING HOLE: HOTEL BAR EVOKES BYGONE ERA OF CALIFORNIA DESERT GLAMOUR!
“Hola, Amigo!” That’s what you should say when you enter the hotel bar of the Ace Hotel and Swim Club…
ICONIC: IMAGE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AT HUSBAND’S FUNERAL SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT MONARCH IN THE PANDEMIC ERA!
Prince Philip, a.k.a., the Duke of Edinburgh, and husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, past away last week. There was…
EXPLODED VIEWS: ARTIST SLICES UP EVERYDAY OBJECTS!
Artist Fabian Oefner’s Heisenberg Objects is a collection of sculptural works created by slicing objects — sneakers, a clock, a…
TRUE GRIT: SURFER-MUSICIAN’S VINTAGE, STICKER-FIED STATION WAGON
Would you drive this stickerfied vintage station wagon? We spotted this car parked along a remote stretch of Pacific Coast…
MEDIA DIET: WHAT WERE WATCHING, READING & LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW!
Here it is, folks! A brief run-down of our current media diet: Some of the TV shows and movies we’ve…
CRYPTIC: HIPSTER-BEVERAGE GUERRILLA MARKETING AS STREET ART!
We saw this wheat-pasted poster on an electricity utility box on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood on Monday. And we thought…
BACK TO THE MUSEUM!: WE VISIT OUR FIRST EXHIBITION IN OVER A YEAR! PANDEMIC BE DAMNED!
On Monday we went to our first art exhibition in over a year. Our first since the start of the…
NIFTY: WE’VE MINTED AND RELEASED AN NFT!
We’ve actually minted and released two NFTs! These are original images of surfers on waves at a couple of legendary…
ESCAPE ARTIST: NEW BANKSY STREET ART DEPICTS MAN SCALING PRISON WALL IN U.K.
. . . Banksy recently painted this stencil street art work on the wall of Reading Prison in the U.K.…
MARK THE SPOT!: EPIC, SPRAWLING “DESERT X” CONTEMPORARY ART EVENT RETURNS TO THE COACHELLA VALLEY!
It’s back! And we are so very happy to see it! Desert X has returned. What’s Desert X? It’s the…
REMOTE CONTROL: AWESOME ONE-TAKE P.O.V. VIDEO OF DRONE FLY-THROUGH OF A BOWLING ALLEY!
. . . . . You’ll want to watch this video at least a couple of times. This well-choreographed and…
ABOUT FACE: MASKS OF THE WORLD, UNMASKED!
. . . . . “Beyond Noh” is short documentary film by Patrick Smith that dives into the subject of…
NIFTY!: DIGITAL N.F.T. ARTWORK SOLD FOR $69 MILLION AT AUCTION! JAWS DROP!
In a groundbreaking auction sale a digital artwork in the form of a JPG file as non-fungible token (or NFT)…
HOME RUN: ARTISTS COMMISSIONED TO RE-IMAGINE ICONIC BASEBALL CARDS!
The Topps chewing gum and baseball card company has launched Project 70 to celebrate seventy years of producing annual baseball…
WHAT PARTY?: FIRST MAJOR KAWS RETROSPECTIVE OPENS IN BROOKLYN!
The New York Times has published a review of the new KAWS exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. KAWS…
A NEW FONT FOR OUR TIME: “CLIMATE CRISIS” TYPEFACE REFLECTS REAL-TIME CLIMATE-CHANGE DATA!
A newspaper in Finland has launched a new variable font called “Climate Crisis.” The font was designed to reflect the…
WHAT DA FUNK? FAMOUSLY UN-FAMOUS FRENCH DUO DAFT PUNK SPLIT UP!
. . . . . Daft Punk has split up. Has ended things. Called it quits. Called it a day.…
“PRETEND IT’S A CITY”: WHY MARTIN SCORSESE’S NETFLIX SERIES WITH FRAN LIEBOWITZ IS MUST-SEE TV!
Netflix’s “Pretend It’s a City” takes its title from a remark by Fran Liebowitz. It’s a command to the tourists…
THE UNLIKELIEST ART STAR: HOW KAWS WENT FROM GRAFFITI-TAGGER TO GLOBAL ART WORLD MEGASTAR!
The New York Times has published an excellent profile of artist Brian Donnelly. Who is Brian Donnelly you ask? He’s…
ADVENTURES IN AUDIO: BRILLIANT A CAPPELLA VERSIONS OF WINDOWS & iPHONE SOUND FX + SUPER MARIO BROS., TETRIS SOUNDTRACKS!
. . . . . This South Korean vocal group’s a cappella versions of Windows and iPhone sound effects and…
FUZZY LOGIC: CULTURE OF MISAKI KAWAI!
Artist Misaki Kawai‘s current exhibition of new work at the Hole Gallery in New York City could at a brief…
WORLDS COLLIDE: FILMMAKER WERNER HERZOG INTERVIEWED BY SKATEBOARDING MAGAZINE!
Skateboarding magazine Jenkem interviewed Werner Herzog. Yes, THAT Werner Herzog, the auteur German film director and actor whose directorial credits…
IN PASSING, IN MAKE OUT CITY: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF IAN HOLWORTH
British photographer Ian Holworth‘s images remind us of the work of another photographer, William Eggleston, and the painter Edward Hopper.…
IN MOTION: OREGON TOURISM CAMPAIGN LOOKS LIKE A JAPANESE ANIME FILM!
. . . . . Travel Oregon‘s newest campaign promoting tourism to the state includes an animated commercial that’s a…
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