After Disaster, Laundry

A Japanese poster urging people to conserve electricity after the 2011 earthquake.

You must read this post about Japanese grace and Mono No Aware in the face of disaster from This Japanese life.

Women's History Month

via historychannel.com

I came across these beautiful photographs of women working in arms and aircraft factories across the United States during WWII.

Women’s History Month in the US started in Sonoma, California, in 1978. In 1980, Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women's History Week. Six years later, the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress to expand the event to the entire month of March. Hey-o.

Back To The Future.

via FFFFOUND!

Irina Werning's photography project recreating scenes captured in old photos is incredibly detailed, endlessly humorous and highly impressive. She has managed to get subjects in the exact same pose, roughly the same articles of clothing, with exactly the same expressions! This is an ongoing project so we hope to see more on Irina's website in the near future.

Build

Frank Chimero - The Shape of Design from Build on Vimeo.

Perhaps a cousin to the inspiring POP TECH conference we host here in Maine, Build, is a small, yet smart, conference on design and its many facets. Taking place this November in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Build will undoubtably feature some of the best talent in the industry, like the young graphic artist from 2010's conference, Frank Chimero of Portland, Oregon.

ooh la la

via excavation by spoonfuls

Shown above, Paris Creative Couples by edition paumes. Might sound like a press release, but "with a poetic and original approach, édition PAUMES explores the environments of those who stimulate the creative industries." Small Japanese family-run publishers do right.

lady lamb the beekeeper

via shervin lainez

Proud to see her on mtv today. Lady Lamb.
Update: Also proud to see her on the bill for Brooklyn Vegan's
SxSW showcase. And sharing stages with Sharon Van Etten.

Renaissance man.

The American Astronaut / Trailer from Cory McAbee on Vimeo.

A cold east coast evening had me cozying up to good company and the privilege of attending a screening of writer, producer, director, composer, actor, Cory McAbee's musical space western, The American Astronaut at Biddeford's best/only venue for indie film and rock, The Oak and The Axe. Unless it has already been rented, The American Astronaut is available at any quality local independent video store. Look for Oak and The Axe to be screening McAbee's only other filmmaking venture, the episodic serial, Stingray Sam.

Mr. Neil Kellerhouse

via Graphic Exchange

Design firm, Kellerhouse, has been developing some incredible movie posters as well as some of the best dvd art in the past year. Most of which are found perusing titles in the Criterion Collection.

maps oh my

Very happy to see artist Shannon Rankin was all over the web this week. (See her work featured on Colossal,hard feelings, the best part)She's a fellow Mainer who is making good work. "I create installations, collages and drawings that use the language of maps to explore the connections among geological and biological processes, patterns in nature, geometry and anatomy" via the best part.

NASA on Flickr

This past fall, NASA compiled a series of photos, documenting half a century of aeronautical space exploration, that were uploaded on Flickr. So far there are seven sets of pics, totaling around 400 images, of iconic NASA launches, construction of NASA facilities, as well as NASA outfits. According to NASA there are many more images to come.

Tie one on.

via Something's Hiding in Here

Inspired by the personal style of mid-century artists and architects, the talented craftspeople at Something's Hiding In Here have developed a beautiful collection of bow ties. These ties utilize simple hardware, stitched with vintage French woven labels and a vast array of colorful fabrics plaid, striped and patterned.

selling your body, capturing america

In the early 70s, Danish photographer Jacob Holdt sold blood weekly to finance his hitchhike across America. On a cheap camera that was a gift, he documented the country for five years encountering "poverty and the exclusion of the socially disadvantaged." He later showed the body of work in slides titled American Pictures around the world, (I hear a young Barack Obama attended one of his lectures,) he became known for his poignant, spot-on presentation of America. Last fall, Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (of the museum's I've visited, this is my favorite!) held a solo exhibition of his American photography.

via nowness

unseen

via unseen portland

Unseen Portland, modeled after Andrew Kessler's discovery of Denver through the lens of the unseen, is one a collection of close-to-home imagery shot only by inhabitants. His goal: to show the city as raw as possible. Accomplished: I feel like home.

Cassette cover art

via NPR.org

NPR recently posted a Best of List for cassettes released in 2010. This is a showcase of some of the great cover art.