Laughing Squid

Surrealist Painter, Sculptor and Writer Dorothea Tanning Dies at 101

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

Ms. Tanning in 2010 by Sylvia Plachy

The Dorothea Tanning Foundation has confirmed that American surrealist painter, sculptor and poet Dorothea Tanning died on January 31, 2012 at the age of 101. Tanning, a brilliant artist, writer and the oldest surviving Surrealist, had been married to German painter Max Ernst for thirty years until his death in 1976. In 2011, Graywolf Press had published Coming to That, a book of new poems from Ms. Tanning.

Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Portrait of Muriel Levy

via Vulture

images via The Dorothea Tanning Foundation

photos by Lee Miller, Robert Bruce Inverarity and Sylvia Plachy

Filed Under: Art, Books, People

Switchblade Spork

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

Seattle-based retailer Archie McPhee brings us the Switchblade Spork, an ingenious way for “hopped-up punks with uncontrollable appetites” to handily carry a spork, the spoon and fork hybrid.

Survival in the epicurean jungle was a matter of brawn and culinary skill, in which mastery of the Switchblade Spork was king. Gangs of sous-chefs and line cooks ruled the streets and no food was safe from the steely glint of their sporks. This metal and plastic utensil snaps open with the push of a button to 11″ long and also feature a safety lock to prevent unexpected deployment.

via Archie McPhee’s Geyser of Awesome

Filed Under: Food, Humor

Vintage L.L. Bean Catalog Covers Recreated as Modern-Day Photos

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

Catalog Cover Art, 1933 Reinterpreted

For their 100 year anniversary celebration, Maine-based outdoor retailer L.L. Bean brought on commercial photographer Randal Ford to create modern-day photo reinterpretations of their classic catalog cover art from the past. For the photo of the 1933 catalog cover art, Ford shot the images of local residents at Maine’s Acadia National Park incorporating some pieces from the L.L. Bean wardrobe archives.

Maine magazine went behind-the-scenes and talked with L.L.Bean creative directors Marcia Minter and Jenna Klein Jonsson about the project:

The apparel is a mix of old and new. For example, the older man is wearing vintage L.L.Bean waders we found on Ebay, while his fly rod and coat are from L.L.Bean’s archives in Freeport. The young boy in the same cover is wearing an outfit borrowed from the Metropolitan Opera. The woman is wearing a shirt from L.L.Bean Signature, but it is remarkably similar to the shirt in the original painting. The man is wearing a chamois shirt, pants, and belt from L.L.Bean’s current menswear line…

The reinterpretations of the 1933 and 1956 covers will appear on catalogs coming out in late January and late March 2012, respectively. We know people may be intrigued by the art, so we are making the images available for purchase as canvas reprints.

via L.L. Bean Blog

photo by Randal Ford

image via L.L. Bean and BusinessWire

Filed Under: Fashion, Photography

The Pheromone Party, Love Connections Made by Huffing Smelly T-Shirts

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

The Pheromone Party attendees swap bags of smelly t-shirts in order to potentially make a love connection based on the chemical attraction of other attendee’s pheromones. Every attendee was asked “to wear the same shirt to bed for three nights, without any perfume or deodorant.” Part art experiment and part dating event, the first party happened in Brooklyn in 2010 with some pretty decent results (“out of 40 guests in attendance, 12 of them “hooked up,” and half of those began longstanding romances”). The Pheromone Party is the brainchild of Georgia-based artist Judith Prays, who told Justin Rocket Silverman The Daily, “The first time I dated someone for purely physical reasons, it was amazing how well it went…I was so into his smell even when it was objectively nasty. So then I just thought, what if I could choose people by smell?”

Screenshot from the 2010 website of The Pheromone Party:

via The Daily

image via The Daily, The Internet Archive and Judith Prays

Filed Under: Love

Retro Handmade Punch Boxes Hold Sweet Messages on Scrolls

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

Oakland-based Lea Redmond of creative studio Leafcutter Designs has made a cool retro-modern version of the punchboard, a nearly-forgotten parlor game from the 1920s and 1930s that are “a playful object with tiny compartments containing little paper scrolls that are only revealed when “punched” out”. Her handmade Punch Boxes hold sweet customizable scrolled messages and may be just the thing to cleverly reveal your thoughts of love on Valentine’s Day. You can take a peek at the 12 standard messages or make your own for a few dollars more. This project was funded by a successful 2011 Kickstarter campaign.

We have previously posted about Lea’s projects, including the World’s Smallest Post Service and The Small Times, a mini newspaper for the World’s Smallest Post Service Kit.

Collectors Weekly recently ran an interesting article titled Reformed Gambling Swindle Becomes a Punch Board of Love on the unsavory history of punchboards and Lea’s refreshing new take on them.

…the origins of these pre-smartphone amusements are not so cutesy. First designed for gambling, punch boards quickly became the go-to scam for gangsters and mobsters like Jack Ruby, con artists, and lottery operators hoping to swindle the gullible. We found a thorough history of the parlor games’ less-than-savory past at Punchboard.com.

Fins ‘n’ Deuces vintage punchboard

images via Leafcutter Designs and Collectors Weekly

Filed Under: Crafts, Holiday, Retro

The Originals Factory, A Robot That Makes Abstract Paintings

By EDW Lynch on February 1, 2012

“The Originals Factory” is an art robot that creates landscape paintings in the style of the American abstract expressionism movement. The robot was created by Israeli artists Liat Segal and Assaf Talmudi.

The Originals Factory is a work in progress fusing together and questioning digital, mechanic and plastic approaches to art, abstraction and originality. It is basically a DIY robot, built and programmed to create landscape paintings in the style of American abstract expressionism.
The computer system uses real time video input to control motor movement and pump actions to release paint drops on a large canvas. The drops are then drawn downwards courtesy of gravity, leaving thin colorful line marks.

via Hack a Day

Filed Under: Art, Robots

Crack The Surface, A Documentary Series On Urban Exploration

By EDW Lynch on February 1, 2012

“Crack The Surface” is a web documentary series on urban exploration and its practitioners (see episode 1 & episode 2). The ongoing series is by British urban exploration site Silent UK.

via Nerdcore

Filed Under: Culture, Documentary

Pop Bottles, Kid-Themed Booze Bottles

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

Italian model and designer Anna Utopia Giordano has created Pop Bottles, a tongue-in-cheek art project of kid-themed branded booze bottles topped with rubber baby bottle nipples. For example, Grey Goose Vodka becomes “Hello Kitty Vodka”, Jack Daniels Whiskey is now “Fisher-Price Whiskey” and so on. The complete set of Pop Bottles images can be found at her site.

The author says: the bottles are NOT for sale, they are part of an art exhibition. This is an art project to raise social awareness on topics such as alcohol abuse by teens, alcohol abuse by pregnant women, the disinterest of some parents towards their children (abandoned for days between toys and video games), how far marketers can go to gain the attention of their younger customers. There are no commercial purposes.

via Who Killed Bambi? and Got Stuff?

Filed Under: Alcohol, Art, Design, Kids

RePress, An Internet Censorship Defeating Plugin For WordPress

By EDW Lynch on February 1, 2012

RePress is an anti-censorship plugin that allows anyone with a self-hosted WordPress site to uncensor a blocked website. The plugin turns the WordPress site into a proxy for the blocked website, rerouting traffic from a user, through the WordPress site, to the blocked website. RePress is under development by Dutch hosting company greenhost. It is currently available for download as an alpha release.

More and more governments from east and west are trying to censor the Internet. For different reasons the governments of countries like Iran, the USA, Syria, The Netherlands and China seek ways to block websites of the web and limit free speech. This plug-in will enable you to get those websites online again for you, your friends and the rest of the world without any hassle.

via Y Combinator Hacker News

Filed Under: Activism, Internet, WordPress

Before Watchmen, DC Comics Publishing Prequels to Watchmen Series

By Rusty Blazenhoff on February 1, 2012

DC Entertainment has announced plans to publish Before Watchmen, a “seven inter-connected prequel mini-series” to the popular graphic novel, Watchmen. The announcement, however, has not come without controversy. The New York Times has quoted original Watchmen creator Alan Moore, who is not involved with the project, as saying the new series is “completely shameless.” The mini-series will be released by DC Comics in Summer 2012. All seven cover images are available to view online now.

To see the covers and read exclusive interviews with the writers of the seven mini-series, as well as the CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR back-up story to be featured in each issue, visit the following media outlets.

• USA Today: RORSCHACH – Interview with writer Brian Azzarello
• LA Times Hero Complex: MINUTEMEN – Interview with writer/artist Darwyn Cooke
• The New York Times: THE COMEDIAN – Interview with writer Brian Azzarello
• Entertainment Weekly: SILK SPECTRE – Interview with writer Darwyn Cooke
• The Hollywood Reporter: NITE OWL – Interview with writer J. Michael Straczynski
• Wired: OZYMANDIAS – Interview with writer Len Wein
• Comic Book Resources: DR. MANHATTAN – Interview with writer J. Michael Straczynski
• Associated Press: CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR – Interview with writer Len Wein and artist John Higgins