RIP Alexander McQueen (1969–2009)

unhappyhipsters:

There it hung — a bicycle built for two, an exclamation point to her lonesome heart.

Vija Celmins, To Fix the Image in Memory, 1977-82
11 stones and 11 painted bronzes

“It’s this guy who remembers everything he sees, and his head gets so filled up that he can’t function. Because he remembers everything. When I was looking at the rock and painting the bronze, I had to remember what it is I saw even though it was only five inches away. And it was like building a sort of memory. Then I was thinking, well, it’s sort of a criticism of realistic art, you know? Like a kind of ‘fuck you’. You point out that art is always invented, and that there’s nothing real about it the way nature is real.”

(via vesolt)

Design and Art Direction 1966 Annual, with superbly minimalist cover design by Alan Aldridge and Lou Klein. From D&AD’s Flickr page (via Peter Nidzgorski):

During the past few years one has been aware of a growing professionalism in editorial, film and advertising techniques. In this Annual you will see work where a strong idea has been welded to this competence, to solve a design problem with economy and flair.

(via matthewb)

GPOYW, part two: 23 seems like a good age for me to stop cutting my own hair.

GPOYW, part one: pickled pearl onions, or jar of eyeballs?

I read this book when I was seventeen and lost in my first year of college. my ex-boyfriend recently told me that I remind him exactly of Naoko, except that I “got better and became hip.”

cutest teacup in the world

designage:

“Ceilings are usually dead space. People don’t look at them. I find that interesting. I also liked the idea that somehow there’s a parallel universe that coexists with ours. The room belongs to an imaginary East Village rock guitarist type.”

google lab’s creative director ji lee has installed a miniature room on his living room ceiling.

vinyl-flavored goosery

art opening tonight at Park Life on Clement Street, featuring the work of Mary Iverson, whose paintings appropriate nature scenes in juxtaposition with perspective lines and geometric representations of shipping containers.

two excellent books read recently, both by San Francisco-based writers, though both coincidentally found during my birthday trip to Chicago:

On The Lower Frequencies: A Secret History of the City (Erick Lyle)
imagine my surprise when opening this book in a Chicago bookstore, and then realizing that the opening essay is about my very own neighborhood in San Francisco.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Rebecca Solnit)
if the title of this book does not entice you in the least, then we are very different people.

Barry McGee installing his piece for SFMOMA’s 75th Anniversary Exhibition (via lynrei); definitely one of my favorite pieces in the show!