My colleague and friend David Fiorito’s toy company (DreamLand Toyworks) is having an official launch party for a line of excellent collectible toys called Hoodiez, designed by Carl Jones, the artist behind Boondocks.
Check out the site, but if you’re in town, definitely go by the gallery, because even after the party Jones’ work will […]

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I’m a huge fan of Jonathan Lethem. And I hadn’t gotten round to reading all of his essay in Harper’s until just lately. Here’s a slice. And yes, the writing is this sharp and elegant all the way through:
“The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism” by Jonathan Lethem (Harper’s Magazine)
For substantially all ideas are secondhand, […]

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“Forget the wax & feathers, and do a better job on the wings.” *
YouTube - Stanley Kubrick Accepting the DGA Award
* Kubrick’s take on the moral of the Icarus story, rather than “Don’t fly too close to the sun.”

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The incredibly talented Kyle Webster is doing the art for a new graphic novel called Light Children. The story sounds fascinating: creepy orphans with special powers, a macabre carnival of some kind, and lots of mysterious intrigue. I can’t wait to see it come to life.
From the site:

The first chapter of the book […]

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This video is amazing. I’m not sure how to describe it. Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing said this about it:
“Web 2.0… the Machine is Us/ing Us,” is deeply moving and incredibly smart. The creator is Michael Wesch, an assistant Cultural Anthropology Prof at Kansas State U, and he has strung together a bunch of animations, […]

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Guillermo del Toro is a bloody genius. The Devil’s Backbone is one of my favorite movies ever, and I can’t wait to see Pan’s Labyrinth — I have to wait until January 12 for it to even open here though. Argh!
Click the poster below to see delToro’s sketchbook …

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At the IA Summit this year, there was a lot of talk about whether or not individuals organizing information was still relevant (which is an absurd question on one level, but I suppose it’s important to work through this identity crisis together as a community).
There are some things that a designer’s understanding of context […]

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I had no idea Google had a repository of all its special-occasion logos.
Google Holiday Logos

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wacky castle house

Originally uploaded by inkblurt.

Last time I visited my folks, on my drive between their place up around Canton, GA, and the Atlanta airport, I ran across this strange castle-like house, tucked in the midst of semi-rural suburbs.
I’m dying to know what the […]

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Day of dead south street

Originally uploaded by inkblurt.

South Street in Philly had a day of the dead parade on Sunday. It was small but charming. This picture was actually in a shop window, but there are a couple of shots of the skeleton puppets in […]

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This is just grand: The Haunted Mansion - Secrets
An in-depth history and explanation of the Disney Haunted Mansion.
As a kid, I used to have some of the most delightful nightmares about this attraction. And in my child dreamscape I’d sometimes just have happy dreams of Disney in general, the Haunted Mansion was second only […]

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Nearing Halloween, you really don’t get any more Halloweeny than this.
Kostnice Ossuary, Kutna Hora, Sedlec, Church of Bones

Having gazed in wonderment down into the ‘bells’ where countless bones were stacked one upon the other, I began to appreciate that every skull represented a person; a life so different from my own, yet connected in […]

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