 |
 |
|
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter here and "like" us on Facebook here
If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed.
Email tagged Vaclav Havel, Your Daily Insight 
Sometimes you just need to stop what you're doing and stare blankly at some hypnotic visual art. We're sure this week has you running around like asylum escapees, so take a second, pause and mosey on over to Visual Melt.
As Visual Melt's co-curated by premier creative directors James Lake and Leif Podhajsky (who, for you music aficianados out there, you may recognize from album covers for artists like Tame Impala, Peaking Lights and Lykke Li) we thought it wrong to heist their gallery. So like we said: Just go there. If it doesn't grant you momentary technological solace, you'll at least score some excellent new desktop wallpaper.
What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.
You encounter lots of different typefaces over the course of the day, from the custom Cheltenham of the New York Times' headlines to the Helvetica that graces all of the MTA's subway signs. But how well do you really know your letters? We're not talking your basic ABCs here, but the subtle curves and proportions of typeface anatomy.
Find out by heading over to Shape Type, an interactive letter shaping game from the peer to peer education website Method of Action. Presented with mis-shaped characters from ten different typefaces, you can adjust their shape and see how good your eye is for balanced and beautiful type. It even supports multi-touch if you've got a tablet handy. Surprising word of warning: ITC Edwardian Script is tough.
-- John Ruscher
Email tagged Design, Education, Go Here Now, interactive media, typography 
Back in May we showed you a wonderful Walnut Waterfall Table made by our very own Michael Wong, and now we're pleased to present another one of his amazing creations, an Antique Brass Dining Buffet with Bronze Birch Bark Doors.
A collaboration between Wong's ETHER Atelier and MR Architecture + Decor, this private commission features an exterior consisting of a light antique brass waterfall surround, natural bronze cast birch bark doors and metallic bronze lacquer. Inside you'll find ultra-suede silverware drawers as well as a remote-controlled security lock. We can't imagine a classier addition to one's dining room.
Wong has recently been exploring new techniques with bronze, and this piece brings together his expertise in woodworking and metal fabrication in a unique and profound way. He also got some assistance from 3rd Ward's ever-present network of support, including Lenin Hercules, Johnny White, Luis Herrera, Jamie Partington, Lee Stehly and Ellen Rosenberg.
Check out more images of this beauty after the jump and head to the ETHER Atelier website for more of Wong's superb work.
-- John Ruscher
Email tagged ETHER Atelier, Member Pursuits, Member-Made, Members, Metal, Michael Wong, Wood, work 
The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.
Email tagged Antony Jay, Your Daily Insight 
Poster design by Nate Duval
Forget mall santas, fairy lights, even It's a Wonderful Life. For us, the reason for the season is holiday markets--they combine tasty snacks and drinks, good cheer, and, yes, commerce.
If our own Handmade Holiday Craft Fair last weekend whet your whistle for wintertime cheer and lovely handmade goods, then might we suggest a trip to the Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market at Littlefield art space in Gowanus this weekend. This two-day event has different vendors Sunday than it does Saturday, for a total of 65 carefully selected pop-up shops.
You can fuel your wild shopping orgy at food trucks--Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, Mexicue, Eddie's Pizza, and El Olomega will all be on hand. And there will be a full bar serving fancy Christmas cocktails, because you'll have much better ideas about what your friends & loved ones want and need after you knock back a few.
We trust you'll sober up in time to wrap all your gifts (in post-consumer handmade paper, of course), and then you'll have the remaining week until Christmas or two days until Hanukkah to watch Miracle on 34th Street, don a reindeer sweater, and drink a punchbowl full of eggnog. Happy holidays, you crazy shopping machines.
--Layla Schlack
Have you every biked the entire length of Broadway? That's OK, we haven't come close either.
But thanks to the folks at Buzzfeed you can experience that 13-mile ride without worrying about all of the wayward pedestrians and crazy cabbies along the way. Broadway runs from the northern tip of the island in Inwood all the way down to Bowling Green, and this time-lapses video covers the whole route, slowing down to point out notable landmarks along the way. Girl Talk's "Every Day" provides a fitting mash-up soundtrack for the trip. We particularly like the moment when John Lennon's "Imagine" kicks in around Midtown.
Speaking of bike-related marathons, the great cycling advocates at Transportation Alternatives are currently in the home stretch of their year-end fundraising campaign. If they raise $600,000 by the end of the year, a local foundation has promised to match that with an additional $600,000. They're 75 percent of the way to their goal (we'd say that's somewhere around Times Square if you're comparing it to a north-south Broadway run) and they've thrown in an extra incentive for would-be supporters. Donate now and you'll be entered to win a Jamis Commuter 4 bike. Then you'll be all set for your own Manhattan-spanning excursion (or for any less-ambitious, but still relatively-high-octane urban pedaling.)
-- John Ruscher
Ideas dictate everything. You have to be true to that or you're dead.
Email tagged David Lynch, Your Daily Insight 