Bridget

wowtastic-nature:

King of the only Castle by Dave Ovenden on 500px.com

micdotcom:

Watch: Staggering time lapse shows the true size of Saturday’s #MillionsMarchNYC 

Even if you don’t want to bid, you can get a glimpse into where street art is now at the third biannual Street Art Auction. The event will include several Banksy “Rat” pieces — dating from “Existencilism,” his first L.A. exhibition in 2002, held at the 33⅓ Gallery on Pico... by David Cotner Even if you don’t want to bid, you can get a glimpse into where street art is now at the third biannual Street Art Auction. The event will include several Banksy “Rat” pieces — dating from “Existencilism,” his first L.A. exhibition in 2002, held at the 33⅓ Gallery on Pico.…

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For a stunning installation entitled Intersections, Indianapolis-based mixed media artist Anila Quayyum Agha created a large wooden cube that bathes gallery spaces in breathtakingly intricate shadows. It’s like a much larger, more precise version of the coconut shadow lamps we featured last week.

Suspended from the gallery ceiling, the cube measures 6.5 feet square, each side of which was laser-cut with intricate patterns that are cast on the walls, floor and ceiling by a single light bulb in the center of the cube. The effect is truly dazzling.

Anila was born in Lahore, Pakistan and this mesmerizing project “combines the patterning of Islamic sacred spaces with architectural aesthetics.”

“The Intersections project takes the seminal experience of exclusion as a woman from a space of community and creativity such as a Mosque and translates the complex expressions of both wonder and exclusion that have been my experience while growing up in Pakistan. The wooden frieze emulates a pattern from the Alhambra, which was poised at the intersection of history, culture and art and was a place where Islamic and Western discourses, met and co-existed in harmony and served as a testament to the symbiosis of difference. For me the familiarity of the space visited at the Alhambra Palace and the memories of another time and place from my past, coalesced in creating this project.

Visit Anila Quayyum Agha’s website to learn more about this extraordinary project.

[via Beautiful/Decay]

absquatulate:

americanwizarding:

These pumps, crafted by Mexican designer Lucita Abarca, caused quite a stir at a recent Sixth Borough fashion show. These crystalline high-heels were grown by Wyrm’s Pass artisans, deep below the Rocky Mountains, using a mixture of firebird ash, waters from the springs at Paradiso, and a variety of secret ingredients, rumored to include Australian fire opals and powdered moonstone. The result of using the firebird ash become immediately recognizable when the heel of the shoe is dragged backward across any dry surface, as it creates an impressive streak of magical fire which can be accurately aimed with a little effot. Ms. Abarca said she wanted a shoe that made a statement, and that statement was “Any bastardo brujo catcalling me on La Plaza de Sangre better be ready to dose his huevos, you know?” 

THIS is my kind of fashion statement.

moon-selkie:

{The Luna Moth} by {Littleredelf}

unite4humanity:

No lies detected. h/t AntiRacismMedia

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: The Weeping Song commentary (2004)

vintageeveryday:

Oxford bags trousers, ca. 1920.

Let’s check in on the work of Vancouver, BC-based multimedia artist, designer and illustrator Hiné Mizushima (previously featured here), who is still hard at work creating fantastic needle felted and hand-stitched creatures, including a delightful pair of Nintendo-playing cephalopod friends, vibrant mushroom specimen collections, and adorable sea and garden slugs.

Visit Hiné Mizushima’s website to check out even more of her recent creations. She also has a variety of original pieces and prints available via her Etsy shop.

[via Colossal]

Last year Moby made waves with an article for The Guardian titled “I left New York for LA because creativity requires the freedom to fail.” The gist of it is that NYC has become habitable only to the rich, and the artists and creative types who make cities interesting places to live usually aren’t rich.

Moby, however, is rich. Having licensed every one of the tracks on his seminal record “Play,” scored films and sold a bunch of records to boot, Moby is in the money.

Not that that necessarily makes you douche. Moby has long been a passionate appreciator of architecture and he bought himself a spectacular castle-house in Hollywood, sitting on four acres of land and overlooking the Hollywood Reservoir. Called Wolf’s Lair, it was built in 1927 and named for its first owner (not the other, infamous Wolf’s Lair.) He just sold it, and he shared a bunch of the pictures on his site.

Curbed reports that after spending $2 million in renovations he made $6 million in the sale. Not bad. Check out Moby’s architecture blog as well as our recent interview with him.

[Source and Images: Moby]

This partner story is part of BrainMic, a collaboration with GE to share the latest advances in brain research and technology.

We're all aware that smoking kills. But what's less well known is that when compared to men, women get hooked on cigarettes more quickly, have more trouble quitting and experience worse withdrawal symptoms.

Why is it that women face more problems ditching cigarettes than men? According to recent science, it might have something to do with when they try.

Studies suggest menstrual cycles and the accompanying hormonal fluctuations may make it physiologically harder to quit at certain times of the month. Read More

Stephen Colbert is gearing up for his last week of guests before he makes the switch to CBS next summer.

But it was last night's guest which might go down in Colbert history as one of the best: Smaug.

That's right. Colbert got a chance to talk with the fire-breathing star of Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and the results were hilarious. Take a look for yourself above. (Extra points if you figure out how Colbert's production team managed to pull off the stunt.)

dwnsy:

Frida Kahlo (1907.07.06-1954.07.13)

Don’t fuck this up

This December didn't exactly sweep in on a cloud of good tidings and evergreen scent, now did it? But don't despair, for unto you a child is born—specifically, a baby pygmy goat named Benjamin who's being raised in a nursery and is the absolute goddamn cutest thing ever.

Read more...

Number one, earning $620 million in 2014, is... Dr. Dre. Those headphones paid off.

The rest of the list might surprise you. The Eagles were number three at $100 million, beating Paul McCartney ($71 million), Jay Z ($60 million), and the Rolling Stones ($47 million).

You know who else beat the Rolling Stones? Michael Bublé ($51 million).

See the top 30 earners below the jump.

1. Dr Dre ($620m)

2. Beyoncé ($115m)

3. The Eagles ($100m)

4. Bon Jovi ($82m)

5. Bruce Springsteen ($81m)

6. Justin Bieber ($80m)

7. One Direction ($75m)

8. Paul McCartney ($71m)

9. Calvin Harris ($66m)

10. Toby Keith ($65m)

11. Taylor Swift ($64m)

12. Jay Z ($60m)(tie)

12. Diddy ($60m)(tie)

12. Bruno Mars ($60m)(tie)

15. Justin Timberlake ($57m)

16. Pink ($52m)

17. Michael Bublé ($51m)

18. Rihanna ($48m)

19. Rolling Stones ($47m)

20. Roger Waters ($46m)

21. Elton John ($45m)

22. Kenny Chesney ($44m)

23. Katy Perry ($40m)

24. Jason Aldean ($37m)(tie)

24. Jennifer Lopez ($37m)(tie)

26. Miley Cyrus ($36m)(tie)

26. Celine Dion ($36m)(tie)

28. Muse ($34m)(tie)

28. Luke Bryan ($34m)(tie)

30. Lady Gaga ($33m)(tie)

30. Drake ($33m)(tie)

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On Thursday, visitors to the Grand Canyon got to see something striking and fairly unusual — the entire canyon was filled with a dense, white fog. It looked like this:

Total cloud inversion near Desert View, Grand Canyon National Park, Thursday, December11, 2014. NPS photo by Maci MacPherson. (Grand Canyon National Park/Flickr)

And like this:

Total cloud inversion as seen from Mather Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, December 11, 2014 NPS photo by Michael Quinn (Grand Canyon National Park/Flickr)

And like this:

Total cloud inversion near Desert View, Grand Canyon National Park, Thursday, December11, 2014. NPS photo by Maci MacPherson. (Grand Canyon National Park/Flickr)

Those photos were taken on December 11 by Maci MacPherson and Michael Quinn and posted to the Grand Canyon National Park's Flickr page.

So what caused the fog? The short answer is that a temperature inversion basically trapped clouds inside the canyon. Jason Samenow of the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang has a helpful explanation:

The fog formed due to what's known as a total temperature inversion. This occurs when a cold layer of air is trapped at the base of the canyon and is topped by a warmer layer.

On clear, calm nights, the rate of cooling near the surface increases and, if there is low level moisture present, condensation processes kick in and fog forms. And on Thursday at the Grand Canyon, recent rains in the region provided the moisture necessary for the fog to develop.

The diagram below gives some sense of what an inversion looks like. Normally during the day, the air near the ground is warmer than the air higher up (largely because of solar radiation hitting the Earth's surface). But under certain conditions — say, a high-pressure system that brings clear skies and calm winds — the air near the ground can cool rapidly and an inversion will form:

Now, if this happens when there's a lot of moist air in the Grand Canyon — for instance, because it just rained — then that inversion layer of warm air will trap all that moisture near the ground. And when that moist air cools and condenses at night, you get fog. (Eventually the sun will burn it off, but it's neat while it lasts.)

Inversions in the Grand Canyon region happen a couple times a year — usually in the winter — but it's a bit rarer for one to fill the entire canyon with clouds. The AP reports that this only happens a few times per decade, with the last such event occurring in December 2013.

20th Century Fox is ruining the seminal TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There's no other way to put it.

The studio is putting out a widescreen edition of the show, but it has bungled the job so badly that some scenes show crew members standing around on the side of the screen. The remastered episodes have been airing since August 2014, but as more episodes get added to the package, more and more people are noticing the awful changes.

Here is a screen grab from the Buffy HD conversion, which I believe is paid for by 20th for Blu-Ray. Look right. pic.twitter.com/MsU92jerEn

— Gossi The Dog (@NexusFandom) January 26, 2015

None of this is new. In 2014, HBO announced a version of The Wire remastered for high-definition televisions. This caused much consternation among some, because the network changed the show's aspect ratio (basically, the shape of its image) from a more squarish image to a more wide-screen format. (For a thorough explanation of what this means, see our earlier explainer on aspect ratios.)

That project, however, at least brought the series' creator, David Simon, on board as a consultant. He wrote at length about the agonies of changing aspect ratios, and how doing so can make a work of art lesser, even with the utmost of care.

But the Buffy remaster is much, much worse. The company doesn't seem to be consulting the series' creator, Joss Whedon, or any of its original technical personnel. Episodes remastered for HD have been popping up in reruns on the cable channel Pivot, and the company appears to be finished with remastering the first three seasons (of seven).

The problem is that the HD Buffy seems to have simply chosen at random how to change the program's aspect ratio. Some shots have added visual information at the edges, while others crop out visual information at the top and bottom, making the shot wider, sure, but also removing crucial context here and there. Some shots have even had effects and other important visual cues removed entirely.

Fans of the program have been tracking the changes, and this Facebook note is the best repository of them so far. Here are some additional examples.

Yes, that's a crew member in the shot. The new, wider image now includes things that were cropped out of the original broadcast, including the guy standing just off-camera.

A filter was originally applied to this shot to make it appear that the scene was taking place at night. That filter has apparently been removed, rendering this scene a little nonsensical.

Here you get a good sense of how zooming in on a portion of the shot to make it fill an entire 16:9 screen ruins the composition and removes some of the grandeur of a moment.

There's so much more at the link, including video comparisons and talk about how the visual effects work has been affected by the switch.

Whedon has spoken about this issue before. He said:

Adding space to the sides simply for the sake of trying to look more cinematic would betray the very exact mise-en-scene I was trying to create. I am a purist, and this is the purest way to watch BUFFY. I have resisted the effort to letterbox BUFFY from the start and always will, because that is not the show we shot.

Whedon also made brief mention of this issue on Twitter, calling widescreen Buffy "nonsense."

Buffy was shot 4x3 cuz TVs were shaped that way. Widescreen Buffy is nonsense. (Firefly was shot wide - Fox cropped it.) #apsectratiowoes

— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) December 13, 2014

20th Century Fox TV declined to comment.

fer1972:

Paintings and Illustrations by Marianna Gartner

“Bitch”

Big bushy beards are approaching the mainstream, so wannabe trendsetters need to find new ways for their facial foliage to stand out. This holiday season, these bizarre Beard Baubles will do the trick – these clip-on Christmas decorations will turn men’s faces into glittering festive centerpieces!

The Grey London creative agency, together with designers Mike Kennedy and Pauline Ashford, came up with this strange product. Surprisingly, they are wildly popular – the first run of them has already sold out, though more should be made available. The proceeds will go to Beard Season, an Australian charity whose goal is to raise awareness of melanoma.

More info: beardbaubles.tictail.com (h/t: dailymail)

For the third year in a row, Christopher Lee reminds us why we all love and fear him by singing about the baby Jesus in a haunting, sonorous voice with shredding guitars behind him. Reminder: he is ninety two years old. Satan bless him.

The above video includes samples of his previous holiday hellscapes, but if you’re hankering for more, he also put out an EP in 2012 and in 2013, and works on other non-Christmas tune slayage with Charlemagne Productions. You can buy those, as well as “Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing,” on iTunes. Just… maybe don’t leave a bad review if you end up not liking the whole track. I have a feeling that won’t end well for you.

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Clark Carlton is walking in his Beverly Grove neighborhood. A few streets down from the Spanish Colonial revival home he shares with his partner, he stops by a white, glistening, angular house — a modernist's dream — that takes up most of a corner lot.…

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The Church of Scientology's L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition, Los Angeles

For the last couple of festive seasons, I've been keeping an eye out for Christmas decorations whenever I'm in a place that's especially miserable. 

Whether it's at the DMV, a cemetery, or a building where children go to be treated for cancer, everyone seems keen to spread a little festive cheer at this time of year. 

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DMV Hollywood West, Los Angeles

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Newark Airport Baggage Claim, Newark, New Jersey

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Culver City Army Recruitment Center, Los Angeles

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Skid Row, Los Angeles

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Euston Station, London

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Metropolitan Detention Center federal prison waiting room​, Los Angeles

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Camper's Corner check-cashing service, Los Angeles

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Detroit Metropolitan Airport

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Children's Hospital, Los Angeles

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Los Angeles School Police Department cruiser, Los Angeles

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606 S Olive St., Los Angeles. Home of the US Immigration Court

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San Julian Park, Skid Row, Los Angeles

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UK border, Heathrow Airport, London

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Saint Catherine's Cemetery, Burbage, England

Follow Jamie "Lee Curtis" Taete on ​Twitter.