I Can't Get Enough...

...of Awkward Family Photos.


Image Source


Image Source

Isn't This The Funniest Picture Ever?

It was on a Facebook ad for "Economic Bailouts for Moms." I love the baby surrounded by cash. It's so absurd.

Some Goodies To Share

Very Short List has been rocking my world recently and I'd like to share some of their relatively recent content so I can rock your world.

Check out Nathan Kensinger's Photography at his blog. He takes pictures of the "real" New York and posts two photo essays each month that he describes as "the abandoned and industrial edges of New York." The current essay (that just went up today) is this one:

"A forgotten two mile stretch of Manhattan waterfront property sits at the edge of industrial Inwood. Mostly hidden from sight behind chainlink fences and razorwire, this section of the Harlem River is surprisingly accessible. From the Broadway Bridge to Swindler Cove, the riverbanks are riddled with hidden beaches, pocket parks, fishing holes, crumbling piers. forgotten inlets, and abandoned boathouses. These hidden spaces border a maze of MTA railyards, Sanitation buildings and bus depots.

"The Harlem River tidal straight connects the Hudson River and the East River. Eight miles long, it is spanned by 15 bridges, most of which connect Manhattan to the Bronx. Its waters are navigated by New York's famed Circle Line and are bordered by busy transportation routes like the Harlem River Drive, the Major Deegan Expressway and the Metro-North Railway.

"Yet despite supporting this huge amount of daily traffic, the Harlem River was dubbed 'New York’s Forgotten Waterfront' by the Columbia University historic preservation program. Their 2004 report states that 'while the Hudson and East Rivers are commonly recognized for the grandeur of their scenery and structures, the Harlem River figures less prominently in the collective consciousness of New Yorkers.' The report goes on say that 'as other parts of Manhattan’s waterfront become increasingly homogenized... The Harlem River... remains a heterogeneous stretch of old industrial buildings, parks infrastructure and residential developments.'"

There are tons more great photos on the site... check it out.

Another great find was the movie Adam starring Hugh Dancey and Rose Byrne. Dancey, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, and Byrne, who suffers from chronic bad relationships, are neighbors and start to develop a relationship over and above their personal struggles. One line of dialogue that VSL points out, when Byrne brings Dancey a box of chocolates, is, "I'm not Forrest Gump, you know."


[If you're reading this via email, click here to view the trailer.]

What goodies have you discovered recently?

Non-Celebrity Flickr

batwoman (026/365)
Originally uploaded by Katherine Elizabeth

I posted earlier today (about sixteen minutes ago) about the Flikr photostream for President Obama.

To balance that out, I thought I'd post some awesomeness that doesn't blur any socio-political lines--just unadulterated awesomeness.

Check out the photos of Los Angeles-based freelance photographer Katherine Elizabeth. I was most intrigued by a set she called 365, a series of 365 self portraits completed over the course of one year (aka, 365 days). The lighting and coloring, styling, etc., of the photos are pretty amazing.

I've added one of my faves from the group, "Batwoman (026/365)". Check out the set and enjoy yourself immensely. Have an awesome time!

Where's Uncle Pete?

The White House official Flickr Photo Stream has been made public, and I don't post this to ask, "Does anyone think we're blurring the lines between the office of President and celebrity?" (because that would be a silly question). I post this little tid-bit of info to ask if anyone else thinks that, after Obama's term(s) are up, his daughters will ever ask their parents, "Why doesn't Uncle Pete live with us any more?"

["Uncle Pete" is my idea of what Malia and Sasha call Pete Souza, Chief Official White House Photographer, who is capturing nearly every moment of the Obamas' life in the White House, from Oval Office [pictured at left] to private family chats, [pictured above].]

Why Do We Do It?

I saw this picture, which struck me as humorous, on Design Watcher, which is a blog that I subscribe to. I thought it was so funny looking--I'm a sucker for pugs--but then I wondered why people put a cigarette in their dog's mouth and take a picture?

What does this kind of picture say about the psychology of the pet owners and/or photographer?

What does my giggling at this picture say about my own mental health?

Hypothesize in the comments.

More Non-Novel Posts

Today is apparently the day for me to jack the unique ideas of others and pass them around, at least that seems to be the trend I'm picking up based on my posts on the "What Was I Listening To?" and "What Was I Reading?" blogs.

In that spirit, I'd like to bring you the unique art stylings of Chicago-based elementary school teacher Brian Graves. As reported on the great blog designWatcher.com, Graves began his work as a unique fusion of his love of literature and art, an expression of the impact of teachers, students, words, and speech on a community.


Above is a picture of the Nettlehorst Door Project (a painting that serves as part of the facade of Nettlehorst Elementary School in Chicago). Below is a close-up of said door.

That's pretty boss, eh? I'm wondering if some of his art can't be integrated into my living space which is (somewhat) designed as an homage to literature. Now you're all wondering what said living room looks like, aren't you?

Quote of the Day

I usually try to mix up my Quote of the Day features, and I thought I'd bring you a quote from the world wide information super-net. I found this totally rad website and I'm going to drop a blurb from their home page as today's QotD:

"The term "morgue file" is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats... The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits. This is the world wide web's morguefile."

Morguefile.com is a sweet website with like a bajillion photos that are in the public domain and can be used. No longer do you have to feel like you're stealing from others when you throw in a pretty little picture to augment your blog post. [The photo above is from morguefile.com.]

Do you have any photo source websites you like to use and/or photography blogs you routinely visit? By the by, there are two totally cool photography blogs I follow (check out their links in the right-hand side bar with the other "miscellaneous" blogs I follow).

Re-Post: Out, About and Dancing

A portion of this post was originally put on the now defunct "What Was I Thinking?" blog on July 18, 2008. Reposted here for your enjoyment.

I'm going to wrap up this week of blogging with a re-cap of yesterday's "activities" and highlights of the week to come... everybody strapped in for this whirl-wind blog?

Yesterday, I went and viewed the special exhibit at the IMA, "On the Road," with a special presentation by exhibit curator (from Indiana University) David Canary--his lecture was quite interesting and humerous, detailing his travels with "The Scroll." There was a short film that was put together by some University of Iowa students about Jack Kerouac's scroll that was then shown. One interview during the film was from a gentleman who said the motto of the beatnik generation was, "Be Here Now," and with the rise of the iPod and cell phone, our current motto is more like, "Be Somewhere Else Now." My, how times have changed. After the lecture and film, I went up to the third floor (contemporary art) and viewed the exhibit.



This photo shows a sample of the Robert Frank photographs that surround the Kerouac scroll in the gallery. Back story: Robert Frank (fellow beatnik and friend of Jack Kerouac) took a two-year, cross-country trip (New York, down the eastern sea board, through the southwest, up California, across the north, down through Chicago, and ending in Indianapolis) that was funded by the Guggenheim and he chronicled his trip with photographs. Frank wasn't making a "scrapbook" of his travels, rather a living history of what the country looked like at the time. His photos are presented in the book Robert Frank: The Americans.



This photo shows some people viewing the Jack Kerouac scroll (the 84' that is visible at the IMA installation). It was kind of amazing standing that close to the original scroll, viewing the editing notes that Kerouac made in his own hand that are still visible, wondering what was going through his head when he was re-reading the manuscript. The story goes (as told by David Canary) that Kerouac used the scroll (not really Teletype) because he typed roughly 100 words per minute, and wanted to be able to get his thoughts out in a stream of consciousness, rather than having to stop and feed individual sheets of paper into the typewriter. He eventually re-typed the manuscript into a format the was suitable for presenting to publishers, but this was the first draft of the now ground-breaking book.



This is another of Frank's photographs that struck me as interesting. It's hard to see in the photo, but this is a picture of a display of cemetary wreaths in a department store with a sign that says, "Remember Your Loved Ones, 69 cents." I was kind of thinking about what value we place on our families now... hmm.

I saw some other really interesting installations in the Contemporary Art Gallery that I didn't take photos of. Here are links to the IMA site with photos of their art: Do-Ho Suh, Floor (Untitled); Kara Walker, They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another); Scott Stack, Apartment (I couldn't find a link to this on IMA, this is from another gallery). If you're interested in contemporary art (because so many people are), I'd suggest checking out the PBS series Art:21 (a series reviewing art in the 21st Century).

This is a photograph of a dress in the Simply Halston exhibit (2nd Floor, Textiles Gallery). The Simply Halston isn't quite as interesting as the Dior exhibit that was there last year, but Dior was hard to match. Interesting, none the less.

Anyway... after the exhibit at IMA...

Re-Post: Doing the Impossible

This post was originally put on the now defunct "What Was I Thinking?" blog on July 25, 2008. Reposted here for your enjoyment.

Li Wei is kind of amazing. If by "amazing," you mean incredibly cool and totally unbelieveable. Check out these photos of his performance art that are done without CGI/photoshop--they are accomplished with the use of mirrors, wires, and human strength/agility.

Check out more cool photos, and see the source for these pictures at his website: here. [This blog was brought to you courtesy of VSL.]

Re-Post: France is Full of Bull

This post was originally put on the now defunct "What Was I Thinking?" blog on July 23, 2008. Reposted here for your enjoyment.

So, there's an awesome blog (Paris Daily Photo) that I check out on my feed reader. Today's post was about how the nation of France wants to ban the drink Red Bull because it contains an acid, derived from bull tissue, that has unknown effects on humans. I think this is awesome for a couple of reasons...

1. What is the deal with France? Aren't there bigger issues to deal with in the country? If no, then things are good in France and I'm going to be putting in for a transfer to this utopia post-haste.

2. Can you imagine the results of this study? Seriously, they're likely going to find that consuming copious amounts of Red Bull over an extended period of time leads to cancer or something. Next thing you know, all of "Young, Hot Hollywood" is going to develop cancer.

Red Bull is going to single-handedly cripple the entertainment industry of the United States because celebrities seem to exist on a diet of Red Bull and cigarettes. Kudos to Red Bull!

Re-Post: Very Short Blog for Very Short List

This post was originally put on the now defunct "What Was I Thinking?" blog on July 22, 2008. Reposted here for your enjoyment.

If you haven't visited the website Very Short List, do so now. Immediately, I say... that's an order. Very Short List (VSL) is an awesome service that combs through everything related to film, television, books, music, and popular culture and sends you a daily dose of the coolest that can be found.



They're the ones who turned me on to the cool stylings of PES videos. Yesterday's email was about an awesome collection of photos of the earth taken by NASA that look like contemporary art. Check out the photo above as proof (this is a photo of Akpatok Island in Canada). You can check out all of the photos at this website.

VSL is one of those awesome services online whereby they distill a large amount of information into a bite-sized daily dose that you can digest and then pass off as novel information you have while chillin' with your homies at the water cooler. They make you look awesome. How sweet is that?

In the vein of cool things to see/do... I visited the IMA again this weekend. I took advantage of the Star Studio exhibit (artists display their works and then there's a lab where you can try your hand at the art). The exhibit, "Squares-Folds-Life," was about the coolest origami artist ever (Robert J. Lang). I know, I was not aware that there was cool origami either. This exhibit ended on Saturday, and they haven't yet installed the new exhibit, but I've never been disappointed by Star Studio and is an awesome way to get children (or adults) interested in art appreciation... definitely worth the price of admission (free). [Watch the video of Robert J. Lang below.]

Re-Post: On the Road at IMA

This post was originally put on the now defunct "What Was I Thinking?" blog on July 9, 2008. Reposted here for your enjoyment.

So, there's this awesome exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA, to the in-crowd) that I wanted to share with you all. I read an article in NUVO (see the article here) about how the original Teletype scroll that Jack Kerouac used to type his single-spaced manuscript sans punctuation of On the Road had been purchased by Jim Irsay (former narco-addict owner of the Indianapolis Colts) and was making the rounds of museums. The scroll is now on display at IMA, being showcased as a form of art.

The exhibit sounds interesting, and I'm planning to catch it next Thursday with a screening of the documentary, On the Road Now: Artists and Writers Respond to Kerouac in the 21st Century. Although I do love to visit the free IMA (I caught their Christian Dior exhibit this past spring), this isn't the sort of thing I do that often. However, seeing as how I'm always complaining about the fact that Indianapolis is the armpit of the U.S. without a good cultural scene, I have to be more proactive about making the most of the offerings that are provided.

I encourage you to check out the article because there are some cool photos of the work that went on at the IMA to install the exhibit. Anybody else have suggestions for other interesting cultural attractions in the Indianapolis area?