happy friday!

Photo of Bob Dylan by Ken Regan via Tea and Strumpets


a super sweet story
giggle fest
trout do it, too!
art made from everyday objects!
I love England, and these gifts for England-lovers do sound fun :)
do you know your sitcom Rachels?
really, Lohans?
total well-being
a happy accident in Paris
wow. sexy.
what news anchors do during commercial breaks


&
celebrating Steve
Papa and I watched this video last weekend when he and Mom were visiting me in NYC. It's really, really lovely.

happy friday!

Photo by Shanti Knight

Austin, Texas, March 2011 (SXSW)

These are the gorgeous blonde locks of Casey of Bits of Yum

What a big day!! I'm on my way back to America, and just in time. Southern Japan had delightfully light, breezy, perfectly warm and perfectly cool weather for the past month, until yesterday, when without warning it switched to outrageously sticky hot and humid weather. In Japan they call it mushi mushi! (Which is different from moshi moshi. That's what they say when they answer the phone.) Today I'll be making a trippy time zone jump when I cross the International Dateline. I will arrive six hours before I left! How wild. Here's some fun from around the Web for a Friday afternoon.

a fantastic fun art blog via my university

ideas for beach reads (I adore this writer's description of trying to read David Foster Wallace's The Pale King as "jogging backward in sand while drunk")

girl power via the great Susan Hyatt

Since I'll have access to a kitchen again, I'm wanting to make these yummy-looking popsicles.

thoughts on valuing children, by my friend JoAnn

I'd love to get this face cream for my papa

I really love Pink and Carey Hart's first family photo with their newborn daughter

welcome, summer. by my pal Chelsea Sanders

happy friday!

via Birneviselin

Feeling groovy. Plus lots of creative love from the interwebs...


wallpaper (scroll to the bottom) for dog lovers

consolation for creative types, when your work disappoints you


gorgeous photos of misty London


the ziplock-bag glass jar


it's how you say it


a darling polaroid with "Uncle Karl"


sometimes, the perfect conversation transition


making a case for stress


thoughts on soap


live for each day (I love the photo, too)


for people who like wine and bikes

happy friday!

Portrait of Barbra Streisand courtesy of Last.fm

What are your weekend plans? I'm making a special trip to see my family for Easter. I'm excited to wear a spring dress!

Here are some little nuggets of artistry from around the Web:

enthusiasm + high activity levels + loose skin = cute basset hounds

1 year ago: Tina Fey's big night out, via Esquire

an almost outdoor shower

young and old, preserved in crazy life-like sculpture

a farm journal, for when you need a break

musings on living your best life

happy friday!

Photo by Shanti Knight


Have a fantastic weekend! Here are some of the cooler things I found on the internet this week...

Totes wish I could be in London on the 29th! If I were, I'd be doing this.

Ah, Savannah! (via Jamie Beck)

Janis Joplin's take on music.

The new J. Crew blog.

Symbolic mid-day revitalization.

I saw Lil Wayne live this week. Here's the story of how an Indiana college town got on his tour.


For art people.


Being disagreeable.


Everybody loves a mud puddle.

embroidered book covers

How fabulous are these? Jillian Tamaki embroidered these beautiful, whimsical covers for three reprints of classics. I love how they're so interpretive. Penguin Group will release them in the fall.

See more about the making of these from Jillian Tamaki herself here.

Images courtesy of Jillian Tamaki

via A Cup of Jo

woody allen & his likeness

I love Woody Allen.

Photo courtesy of ReadingEagle.com

joianne bittle at churner & churner

Remember the incredible Joianne Bittle? Well, I am thrilled to announce the opening of her first solo exhibit in New York, at Churner and Churner gallery in New York. If you missed "Preserving Mass Extinction" in Marfa, "No Man's Land" can be found in Chelsea, opening tomorrow night from 6-8 p.m.


"No Man's Land" will showcase together some of Joi's most recent striking work— the portable diorama from "Preserving Mass Extinction" (now the first of a series, "Portable Landscapes") and the recently completed group of paintings called "Jackrabbits" (2008-2011), which will be shown together for the first time. Presented with these works is an artists' book, Field Companion.

Image courtesy of Joianne Bittle


The exhibit can be viewed through April 27 at
Churner and Churner

205 10th Avenue

NY, NY 10011

inky crash

Car crashes are no good, but if they have to happen, they might as well be pretty, right?

Photo by Winlsow Townson for The Boston Globe, courtesy of Boston.com

Two weeks ago, a semi truck hauling industrial printer cartridges rolled over on a Massachusetts interstate, spilling ink all over.

Unfortunately, the ink presents health risks for clean-up workers. Fortunately, the ink is not considered a hazardous material and the driver of the truck was the only person involved in the crash and is uninjured.

105-year-old movie clip

105 years ago in San Francisco, somebody had the foresight to attach a video camera containing some of the first 35mm film ever to the front of a cable car. The most conspicuous landmark in this video is the clock tower, which is still there today, at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf.


I got this in a chain email, the author of which revealed more details of this piece of history. David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum read New York trade papers' announcing of the film showing. He researched car registrations and plate numbers. He also observed the weather conditions seen in the video (wet streets from recent heavy rainfall) and shadows indicating time of year, then compared these to weather records from the time period. From all of this, he concluded this was shot on April 14, 1906— just four days prior to the Great San Francisco Earthquake. It was shipped to New York via train to be processed.


For me, seeing something like this and truly appreciating it can be a bit of a challenge. Our movie industry is so awesome, it makes me almost desensitized to seeing this actual footage and realizing that these are actual people, not actors, and these were actually their lives. For me, the trick is letting go of everything I think I know and just letting myself sink in and really see this. These are people, like you and me, just dodging streetcars and horse-pulled wagons and going to work. Except that at work, there were no computers. And Teddy Roosevelt was the President. The Titanic hadn't even sunk yet!


I'm struck by how few women are on the street. There are women, but in proportion to the men— quite few. The author of the email noted that at the 33-second mark, a policeman crosses in front of the cable car. He's carrying a truncheon, which apparently was a 26-inch club. I kind of like the way he carries it so casually. The author also astutely observed that some of the steering wheels on the cars are still on the right side and wondered about when they were standardized. (According to this answer from the Antique Automobile Club of America, it was around the early 1920s, though, of course, it's still technically legal today.)


And just so it doesn't go unsaid— awesome music choice, am I right? It almost feels like a Luke Wilson movie. That's just the vibe. But the beat of the music seems to jive perfectly with the pace of the street.

trouser snake

oh me, oh my.

Normally, snakes creep me out in a big way. leave it to (the incredible) Elizabeth Messina to make a photo of a snake that doesn't give me nightmares.

via kiss the groom


On second thought— I am creeped out. This photo is just super cool anyway.


hilarious euphemism (headline) via the brilliant Louise Rennison

looks like fun!

I just love this image of a girl flying away on a popped champagne cork. Love champagne, love flying. Love art like this!

A 1915 ad

Image courtesy of The Naked Scientists


P.S. Loving Rachel's input over at Fur Coat, No Knickers

brrr

After a weekend that almost felt like springtime, it's back to freezing rain as usual. Fortunately, I've got my cute weather widget on my Dashboard to give me a smile with its graphics.

P.S. The trees look really pretty, too!

matchbook magazine

Have you seen Matchbook Magazine yet? It's an online-only publication that launched just last week! I'm really enjoying it. Katie, Jane and Fallon call it "Field Guide to a Charmed Life"— it's an eclectic collection of fashion, design, beauty, travel and anything else you can imagine falling under the umbrella of culture. In other words, just my cup of tea.

sculptures at the met

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is easily one of my favorite museums in the world. Jamie over at From Me To You recently put up a gorgeous collection of photos that she took of the statues at the Met. There's so much emotion and her photos really do justice to the beauty and skill of these pieces.

All photos are by and courtesy of Jamie at From Me To You

Thanks, Joanna, for the tip!

new yorker comic

Loving how The Monkeys You Ordered literalizes New Yorker cartoons. Happy Friday!

Courtesy of Comics Alliance

nicholas knight at 65 grand

Back in November, I shared a story published in an Italian magazine about my brilliant artist cousin, Nicholas Knight. Now, Nick's opening a new show in Chicago at a gallery called 65 Grand.

In Declaimed, the artist uses three different photography series (Taking Pictures, Disclaimers and White Outs) to examine and scrutinize originality and reproduction. To read more about the works that will be presented, visit the Facebook event or read the artists' statement.

Declaimed opens on January 14, with a reception from 7-10. It will be up through February 12. If you're in Chicago and you get a chance to stop by, I am confident it will be an intellectually stimulating and visually beautiful show. (For more information about the gallery, including location, visit 65grand.com.)

An image from Taking Pictures

Photo courtesy of 65 Grand

loon tattoo

I was reading Joanna Goddard's look back on 2010 and noticed that she had done several posts about tattoos... always asserting that she isn't a tattoo-type. I'm not very interested in tattoos for myself, but back in Vermont, I met Karina's friend India, who has a super rad tattoo of a loon on her arm.

I love India's loon because it's just so beautiful! It feels natural, in both form and color. Having her tattoo on the underside of her arm is interesting and helps it feel unique. And I love the association of a bird to nature and to freedom.

The loon has a much more significant and specific association for India, though. India is half-Canadian, and in her childhood, her grandparents lived on a lake in Canada where the loon population is so spectacular that it is a tourist attraction. Since their death, India and her brothers now own the house and spend their summers there, with the loons. The comforting association is coupled with India's admiration for the grace of the prehistoric birds. She says, "To have kept that amount of gracefulness over millions of years is a really nice thought."


To read more of India's description of the house in Canada and the loons, visit her blog.


Photos courtesy of India