photo by Blake Boston’s mother

Scumbag Steve is a persona of Blake Boston, a man whose MySpace picture was made into an internet meme in 2011. The photo shows Blake (then a high school student) standing in a hallway wearing a backwards cap. Unbeknownst to him at the time, redditors made up an entire character named Scumbag Steve by adding white blocked text to the photo that, as described by Know Your Meme, “centers around unethical behavior regarding drugs, partying, and other hedonistic behaviors.” Later, his trademark hat became a submeme as people began photoshopping it to other images using similar captions as the original meme. When Blake first discovered his image was all over the internet, he was hurt but later embraced what was happening and adopted the meme as his own.

In May 2012, according to TechCrunch, a Brisk Tea ad campaign featuring his memed photo began running on Imgur. He also began starring in a weekly web music video series titled Scumbag Thursdays as an effort to launch his rap music career. His debut video titled Scumbag Steve Overture currently has over 2 million views on YouTube.

Team Laughing Squid recently met Scumbag Steve at The Webby Awards in New York City and became part of his latest music video titled Dirty Girl. In the video, there are cameos of PRGuitarman (Nyan Cat creator) Brad Kim (Know Your Meme), Shira Lazar (What’s Trending), our own Scott Beale and David Klass, and yes, yours truly. For the record, Blake isn’t a scumbag at all. He’s a really great guy.

video by Ben Lashes

Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) & David Klass at The 16th Annual Webby Awards

Chris Torres (PRGuitarman), Ben Lashes, Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) & David Klass

photos by Scott Beale

Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) & Rusty Blazenhoff

photo & text by Scott Beale, photo memeification by Ken Dashner

More information about the Scumbag Steve meme can be found at Know Your Meme.

Fucked in Park Slope has posted scans of a fake menu one of their readers received while leaving Brooklyn’s The Great GoogaMooga festival. The menu is for a non-existent restaurant called Fuds which features such trendy treats as “Facebook Fries”, “Panty Slaw”, and “Two-bean dickbread wrap”. “Garnick Mushed Malonies” can be washed down with some “Yankee Poison” or even a pint of “Chocolate Crap Porterboy”. Of course, no Fuds meal would be complete without “Sweet pork smear and tin whistle cakes”. The parody menu was created by Dan Klein, Kelly Hudson, and Arthur Meyer and it sounds like a couple more menu pages will be posted soon. According to Hudson, they handed out a few thousand at last weekend’s festival.

via Lance Boyle and Portlandia

images via Fucked in Park Slope

NoHo Design District commissioned Chicago-based design studio ODL (Object Design League) to create Balloon Factory, a meat balloon window installation for Japan Premium Beef in New York City. These balloons were handmade by Steven Haulenbeek, Caroline Linder, Michael Savona, and Lisa Smith. The installation was curated by Sight Unseen and was on display May 18 to 21, 2012. Randomly chosen meat balloons can be purchased online for a limited time. See the entire image gallery of the installation at ODL’s Flickr page.

A selection of uninflated steak balloons were displayed on butcher trays, framed by an installation of hanging sausage balloon links. This iteration extends the original Balloon Factory project and carries a strong reference to the intricate fake food prevalent in restaurant windows in Japan.

via designboom

photos by ODL

Photo Gallery: The 16th Annual Webby Awards

photos by Scott Beale

Brooklyn-based artist Takeshi Miyakawa was arrested on Saturday while he was installing illuminated “I Love NY” shopping bags around New York City. Miyakawa intended the art installation to be his tribute to the city, instead the bags were reported to police as suspicious packages, resulting in the dispatch of the NYPD bomb squad. Miyakawa has been charged with planting “a false bomb or hazardous substance” among other crimes. He is now in jail pending a court-ordered psychological evaluation. Designboom has started a petition demanding the artist’s release.

via designboom

The 16th Annual Webby Awards is hosted by Patton Oswalt and will be streaming live in HD tonight on webbyawards.com. The livestream is also available to view on iOS devices via The Webby Awards mobile app. The Red Carpet starts at 4:30 PM ET and The Webby Awards Show commences at 5:30 PM ET.

Tune in to the live online broadcast to see:

*Appearances from this year’s Special Achievement Honorees Louis C.K., Björk, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Juliette Lewis and Graydon Sheppard from Sh*t Girls Say

*Hallmark 5-Word Speeches from your favorite Webby Winners

*A can’t-miss special musical performance from Passion Pit

*Plus many more surprise guests as we honor the best of the Web

I am visiting New York City for Internet Week New York and spotted this Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch tribute mural by CRAM Concepts on East 7th Street in the Village. It reads “Just Me, My Posse… And MCA…”.

photo by Rusty Blazenhoff

Walking through Midtown Manhattan this afternoon I came a cross a tiny Steve Jobs dilegently hawking iPhones in the window of Cellular Express on 38th at 6th Ave. I could just barely make out him saying “insanely great”.

photo by Scott Beale

Chinese artist Ming Liang Lu stations himself on a New York City subway platform and creates intricate paper cut portraits of commuters (video).

via The New York Times

photos by Joshua Bright/The New York Times, video by Andrew Flynn Soltys

Today at Internet Week New York, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne and Internet Week New York Chairman David-Michel Davies announced the “Made in NY” Digital Jobs Map, which is “an interactive guide to the City’s startups, investors, incubators, and coworking spaces, including over 325 digital companies that are currently hiring for thousands of jobs.”

Created by Internet Week New York in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Made in NY Digital Map already plots more than 500 digital companies across the five boroughs. The map offers direct links to the companies’ jobs listings pages and pinpoints the city’s hottest tech hubs, from the Flatiron District to DUMBO. The Mayor made the announcement at Internet Week headquarters and was also joined by Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky and Branch CEO Josh Miller.

…The Made in NY Map draws its data from sources including NYC Digital, New York City Economic Development Corporation, Internet Week New York, New York Tech Meetup, and user-generated submissions.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Internet Week New York Chairman David-Michel Davies unveil the Made in NY Digital Jobs Map at Internet Week New York Headquarters on May 15, 2012

photo by Patrick Kowalczyk of PKPR

Patrick Willems and Matt Torpey of Bleeding Cool take us on a Ghostbusters tour of New York, where they visit every single location in the film, reenacting some of the scenes along the way.

via Neatorama & Nerd Bastards

Old Jews Telling Jokes is an ongoing web series that, not surprisingly, features old Jews telling jokes. It was created in 2008 by Sam Hoffman (who also directs the videos). His rules: joke tellers must be at least 60-years-old and Jewish (“The age thing I would be strict about, the Jewish thing would be in spirit.”). . Eric Spiegelman and Tim Williams of Jetpack Media produce the series which launched in 2009 and became an immediate success. An archive of all of the jokes are available to view. An off-Broadway play based on the internet series also titled Old Jews Telling Jokes opens May 20, 2012 at New York City’s Westside Theatre.

Risqué jokes from a bygone era, delivered by a generation that loves to tell them . . . in private.

Journalist Lorena Galliot moved to New York from France and wanted to learn what about hipsters. The Hipster Hunt is a short video that shows her going to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (aka “Hipster Central”) and learning about the world of hipsters with the help of her friend Julie Percha. The video also provides a lesson in the word’s origin.

We all know hipsters. Every New York City neighborhood has its share of them, and a quick Google search brings up dozens of hipster blogs, hipster YouTube videos and hipster hangouts. Hipsters are the ones everyone loves to hate.

Everyone? When Lorena arrived to New York City from France last August, she’d never heard of hipsters. And when she asked, she got vague, often contradictory responses: Hipsterism is a lifestyle. No, it’s an attitude. No, it’s a pseudo-attitude. Hipsters are penniless creative types. No, they’re just rich kids pretending to be. Hipsters are environmentally conscious. No, they pose as tree-huggers but shop at Wal-Mart.

She was confused.

This video attempts to de-code the hipster for the clueless foreigner, like Lorena. In this piece, she invites viewers along for the journey as she hunts for the meaning of the term “hipster.” This quirky piece takes viewers around the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they are guided by an “accidental hipster” blogger. It also incorporates the voices of the Journalism School’s own Prof. David Hajdu, as he delves into the term’s jazzy origins.

via Doobybrain.com

“Cloud City” by Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno is a futuristic modular structure that is currently being installed on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The structure consists of 16 connected modules of stainless steel and acrylic. Visitors will be able to explore the structure during its temporary stay on the Met roof, May 15 through November 4, 2012.

via The New York Times

photos by Richard Perry/The New York Times

Michael Marantz and Barry Pousman made “Thank You Mom”, a wonderful video featuring New Yorkers thanking their mothers in honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday. The video was commissioned by Thanksfa.

via Modern Primate

photos via Retronaut & NYC Corners

photos via Retronaut & NYC Corners

photos via The New York Public Library & NYC Corners

NYC Corners is a blog of contemporary and historical photos of New York City street corners. Whenever possible, the blog’s editors present the photos as fascinating “then and now” historical comparisons.

via EV Grieve & Dennis Crowley

Ancestry.com recently posted the yearbook photo of children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. It reads: “Your delightful drawings make us all gay, A famous artist you’ll be someday.” Sendak graduated from Brooklyn’s Lafayette High School in 1946.

The iconic author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who died yesterday at the age of 83, was considered one of the most important children’s book artists of the 20th century, and will forever be remembered with his groundbreaking children’s masterpiece “Where The Wild Things Are”. Before he went on to become who we all know him to be, we found hints of his stardom in his 1946 Lafayette High School (Brooklyn, NY) yearbook, which he also was the art editor for.

via Sarah Elizabeth Murphy

Team Entree paid homage to Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch with this lovely MCA Gratitude Tribute Mural they recently created in Midwood, Brooklyn.

A description and note from Team Entree about the mural:

May 7th 2012, the rain let up in Brooklyn for just enough time to let us pay homage to an inspirational artist and person from our hometown. MCA, who sadly passed away on May 4th, 2012, was a founding member of the prodigious Beastie Boys. On a personal note, the Beastie Boys were like older brothers to us. Inspiring us as rappers,stereo type crushers, instrumentalists, culture kings, videographers, editors, business men, show men and as exceptional and special human beings. Thank you for the inspiration, for this and many many more good reasons, in the heart of Midwood Brooklyn, where it all began, we payed tribute to the energy he gave us in the best way we knew how. Thank you for your contributions to music, art, and humanity. Shout outs to Mike-D, King Ad Rock, and all of the family and friends of Adam Yauch. Our condolences during these difficult times. MCA’s essence lives on.

via Gothamist

images via Team Entree

Brooklyn-based art cooperative United Photo Industries will host Photoville, a large-scale photographic village created with shipping containers in Brooklyn Bridge Park in summer 2012. Photoville starts Friday June 22, 2012 and runs through Sunday July 1, 2012.

This summer we are taking the next step in helping to create an extraordinary global community of artists. Working in partnership with local galleries, national institutions, and an international network of curatorial partners, we are building PHOTOVILLE – a unique, large-scale, photographic village with Shipping Containers in the heart of Brooklyn Bridge Park, at the Pier 3 Uplands, located on the Brooklyn Waterfront.

With its primary focus of celebrating photography in all its forms and across all levels, PHOTOVILLE will be a feisty mix of exhibitions, lectures, hands-on workshops, nighttime projections, photo dog run, and a summer beer-garden that will create a photographic destination like no other.

UPDATE: Photoville was featured in The New York Times Lens blog and is raising funds for the event via Kickstarter.

Now in its fourth year, The Webutante Ball is a celebratory evening event that is part of Internet Week New York 2012. The 2012 ‘Unruly’ Webutante Ball takes place on May 16, 2012 from 8 PM to midnight at Marquee in New York City. Tickets are available to purchase now. The Next Web and Unruly Media are two of the partners of the Ball.

Courtney Boyd Myers has a post on the The Next Web with more details about the Webutante Ball.

EarthCam created a time-lapse video of One World Trade Center being built from 2004-2012, showing the construction process in under two minutes. On April 30, 2012 One World Trade Center became the tallest building in New York City, surpassing the height of the Empire State Building.

via PetaPixel

Doin’ It In The Park is an upcoming documentary on the pick-up basketball culture of New York City (trailer). The film is directed by Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couliau and is scheduled to be released this summer.

DOIN’ IT IN THE PARK: PICK-UP BASKETBALL, NYC explores the definition, history, culture and social impact of New York’s summer b-ball scene, widely recognized as the worldwide “Mecca” of the sport.
In New York City, pick-up basketball is not just a sport. It is a way of life. There are 700+ outdoor courts, and an estimated 500,000 players, the most loyal of which approach the game as a religion, and the playground as their church.

For their latest mission, Improv Everywhere created an “instant date” for an unsuspecting couple in New York City’s Central Park, complete with fancy dinner and classical concert (video).

photos by Katie Sokoler

photo by Joe Woolhead

photo by Michael Nagle/The New York Times

One World Trade Center, the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex, is set to become New York City’s tallest building today with the installation of the first column of the building’s 100th floor. It will exceed the 1,250 foot tall Empire State Building, which has been the tallest building in New York City since the original 1 World Trade Center and 2 World Trade Center were destroyed in the attacks of September 11, 2001. When construction of the new tower is completed, it will top out at 104 stories and 1,776 feet in height. Its estimated date of completion is December 2012 with a Spring 2013 opening.

via The New York Times

photo by Joe Woolhead

Now in its fifth year, Internet Week New York is a festival that celebrates digital culture and is a showcase for New York City’s thriving technology industry. Internet Week New York 2012 takes place May 14-21, 2012 and passes to the event are available now.

…Internet Week New York 2012 is expected to bring more than 45,000 people from around the world to nearly 250 events at the festival’s new 50,000 square foot, two-story Soho headquarters at 82 Mercer and dozens of locations throughout the city, including such hot-ticket favorites as The Webby Awards hosted by Patton Oswalt, The Webutante Ball, Girls Who Rock, and Time Inc.’s “10 NYC Startups To Watch“.

Judah Friedlander: The star of 30 Rock was a 2011 Make The Stage winner for his entry “Everyone’s A Comedian: Comedy is Hard. So, Why Is Everyone Doing It On The Internet?”. On the panel: comedians Michael Ian Black, Sara Benincasa, Alf Lamont, and moderator Sean McCarthy