Artists Chris Stain and Billy Mode painted “This Just In” over the long Memorial Day weekend in Bushwick. The new mural features a trio of stenciled kids by Stain over Mode’s three dimensional block letters spelling out “esperanza.” Chris Stain says, “the idea with this piece is to inspire hope. Just like Whitney Houston said, the children are the future.” |Brooklyn Street Art|
Photo by Jaime Rojo
In what they hope will be their “ultimate exhibit,” the Manchester Museum will lock up an artist alone for 40 days to think about “the nature of loss” and “the impact of extinction.” Similar to the millions of internet addicts around the world, artist Ansuman Biswas’ only escape from the tower of isolation will be through his webcam and blog. |BBC|
Like the FBI, the DEA often uses erroneous data and scare tactics to argue against legalizing weed in the United States. They falsely characterize how the liberal policies adopted by the Netherlands have transformed that nation into an oasis of crime and drug abuse, even publishing bogus shit like this on their website: “The increasing use of marijuana is responsible for more than increased crime. It has widespread social implications as well.” Well if that’s true, then why are the Dutch closing eight prisons? This could be the reason: “The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry’s research department expects to continue for some time.” Someone needs to update their site.
Though his attorney claimed he showed up early, T.I. was a half hour late arriving to his new Arkansas prison home yesterday. The 28-year-old gun collecting rapper will serve a year and a day on various felony weapon charges after his bodyguard implicated him in a shoddy attempt to buy illegal machine guns and silencers. But with good behavior, he could be out in 10 months. |MTV|
On the first day (the first day!) of the Time Square traffic renovation project, the New York Post’s ranty columnist, Andrea Peyser, wrote an op-ed already blasting the public space reclaiming improvement as an epic failure. She cites her disdain of all the “flimsy” and “cheapo furniture” people were sitting in, plus it’s apparently going to promote more cigarette smoking amongst European tourists filing in from Newark in between layovers. |NYP|
First, let me get the finger-wagging social commentary out of the way: bottled water is unholy water, if you buy it, you’re waterboarding Mother Nature. OK. I don’t know what Spa’s ad production budget is, but I bet they just blew it shooting these two outrageous spots for the brand’s Barisart sparkling water. The tagline, “water with more action in it,” is very literally reinforced by these commercials. Both spots, by Antwerp’s Duval Guillaume, were filmed completely under water in a big tank in Berlin. The first, “Bar Fight,” is reminiscent of a scene from a cheesy 70s disco action movie. Pretty damn cool, and it sells bubbles more memorably than Perrier ever has. But, do I want my water to be so ultra-violently sparkling? Will Spa make my mouth bleed? Jump for the second Kung Fu spot featuring a sensei styled after Pai Mei from the Kill Bill films. |Videos: adme.ru| Read more »
Yesterday, the first business day after the city closed parts of Broadway to cars, traffic still flowed without the disastrous effects that cabbies and drivers ominously claimed would cripple all of Midtown. While its too early to assess the traffic impacts for the inevitable tweaks, the nascent project appears to be a success so far on the human front with more people taking a respite from crowded sidewalks in the new car-free space. |NYT|
Behold John Pugh’s “incredibly lifelike” 3D murals that will screw with your brain and make you wonder how this was done with only paint and no wrecking balls. |Daily Mail|
Yesterday marked 32 years to the day that George Willig aka “the human fly” ascended the South Tower (WTC 2). Using custom climbing gear, it took the Queens resident about 3.5 hours to reach the top where he was immediately arrested by the NYPD, leading us to wonder: when did he have the opportunity to tag his name on a rooftop beam? The city ended up fining him $1.10 (one penny for every story), but never buffed the high altitude graffiti which remained visible until the building was destroyed.
Photos by Maksimal
Adding to the already offensive onslaught of Orwellian surveillance, the BBC is reporting that a national network of license plate reading cameras will soon be in place across England. And like the United States, police forces have placed innocent old anti-war activists on a “hotlist,” one of whom was pulled over by an “anti-terror unit” while motoring through London and presumably munching on granola. |BBC|
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