Room XX by Miguel Barcelo

Miguel Barcelo (there should be an accent over the 'o' but I'm not dealing with finding it right now) is a Spanish artist from Majorca who has produced this significant sculpture on the ceiling of the United Nations' Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The stalactite forms were created with a plaster mixture and were colored using 35 tons of paint. 35 tons. Of paint.

The most intriguing artistic aspect of this piece is Barcelo's trademark directional painting style: the first layer of paint consisted of every conceivable color spread over every square inch of the sculpture. The second layer was one blue-grey color and was sprayed from only one direction, giving the work a different feel depending on where in the room you're located.

The artist's inspiration for the project (aside from geological forms) is best described by Barcelo himself: "On a day of immense heat in the middle of the Sahel desert, I recall with vivacity the mirage of an image of the world dripping toward the sky." Generally when I have seen things like the world dripping toward the sky, there have been circumstances which would render vivacious remembrances of any kind impossible, so I guess that's what separates artists from the rest of us. Well, that and talent.

via designboom

Thom Brown

Here are a couple examples of outerwear from Thom Brown, who was recently crowned the GQ Designer of the Year. I like these conservative yet fashion-forward pieces and look forward to someone producing them for people in my tax bracket in the near future.

via hypebeast

The Hundreds x Disney

Streetwear designer The Hundreds has teamed up with Disney to put out some Peter Pan-themed gear. The t-shirts feature the Lost Boys and Tinkerbell, but the hats are where it's at. New Era 59 Fifty fitted caps, one with Peter Pan's signature green and feather, the other Captain Hook's black felt pirate hat.

If you don't live in San Francisco or LA, you're probably never going to see any of this crap because its only being sold in store. If you live in LA, the line debuts tomorrow, Thursday December 11, and I will love you forever if you scoop me that pirate hat.

I already asked a friend of mine, but he is all uppity about Disney trying to gain street cred and says he won't do it. He went to a liberal brainwashing camp out in the desert instead of college though, so I usually just smile and nod when he starts with that crap.

Like I said, available in-store only.

via hypebeast

Phuze Design Glass Cocktail Rings

These glass rings by Phuze Design look like bits of hard candy. I like the array of colors and the fact that each ring is unique due to the materials and crafting process. Phuze comes to us out of Mexico City, which if I'm not mistaken is in Mexico. $62 here.

via core77

DOUBT

I typically try to proliferate only that which I know to be glorious. In the present case, I don't necessarily recommend this as a something I know to be good, great or grand, but rather as something I've got a sneaking suspicion will be.

Based upon John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-Prize winning play, DOUBT is a "story about the quest for truth, the forces of change, and the devastating consequences of blind justice in an age defined by moral conviction" -- or so says the press packet that is neatly packaged into the film's website.

But, hey, if the made-for-Oscar-buzz cast [see: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis], transcendent directorial credentials [see: he's the same guy that wrote the play...which won the most glorious prize known to authorial man], and pliable moral fabric [see: this movie is about nuns, priests and their tenuous station in a society embracing the countercultural revolution] aren't enough, listen to what these guys have to say...

EBERT: "One of the best films of the year."

TRAVERS: "Expect fireworks! 'Doubt' will pin you to your seat. The suspense crackles and the arguments cut deeper..."

ENTERTAINMENT: "Buoyed by four phenomenal performances..."

OTHERS: "Call it heresy, but [JPS's] 'Doubt' outshines his Pulitzer-Prize
winning play..." (Karen Durben) & "Brilliant, riveting, even thrilling..."
(FoxNews.com)

...and go see the movie. It opens this Friday (12.12.2008).

Chinese Attempts to Revolutionize Kissing Exposed, France Unnerved

A Chinese woman in Guangdong Province has temporarily lost all hearing in her left ear due to a furious, passionate, sloppy kiss from her beau, the BBC reports. Apparently, the news was so shocking that Chinese state-run newspaper China Daily ran a story in which it issued the following warning: "While kissing is normally very safe, doctors advise people to proceed with caution."

The doctor who treated the understandably confused 20-something attributed the incident to a loss of mouth pressure, which "pulled the eardrum out and caused the breakdown of the ear." The prognosis? The young woman is expected to regain her hearing within two months.

So I'll be frank: bad things have happened to me while kissing. I have had my lip nearly bitten off, I have been raked by braces, had various other collisions involving tooth and flesh, and not infrequently been slapped for various perceived slights accompanying or occurring prior to said kissing. What we have in the instant case is clearly an attempt at some new form of kiss that would probably be unrecognizable to Americans. Like the flag of Tajikistan, or various international treaties signed in Switzerland dealing with invading other countries and not torturing people.

Developing a new form of kissing is the only explanation my mind can accept, because unless this woman's boyfriend is a shop vac or a leaf blower, kissing as it is presently understood in Western civilization cannot possibly be fucked up badly enough where you blow out someone's eardrum, can it? Until presented with clear evidence to the contrary from reliable sources, I'm going with a Chinese plot to depose the French as the gold kissing standard as retribution for mimes and the Maginot Line.

Consider the Wallace

Recently, a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this article, noting that it was one of the best articles ever written about depression. While that's not necessarily my idea of fun reading, I dug in nonetheless.

I haven't read Infinite Jest and have only read snippets of David Foster Wallace's (pictured) other work [see: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again & Consider the Lobster]. Overall, I don't know all that much about DFW other than that McSweeney's [see Internet Essentials - "Words"] seems intent on publishing way too many tributes to his life, that most literary minds of our generation regard him as a a writerly Superman, and that, in my eyes, his prose gleams with brilliant and shiny newness.

All opinions aside, I recommend that you settle into a comfy spot, click this link (if you didn't yet), and prepare to be walloped.

Illinois Governor in Federal Custody on Corruption Charges

I will write more about this later because I have a lot to say, but in brief, the governor of Illinois was arrested today on corruption charges for allegedly attempting to 'sell' President-Elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

In case you were unaware, the governor, Rod Blagojevich, has the privilege of selecting a replacement for Obama, who was elected during the 2006 election and has (I believe) more than half of his elected Senate term remaining. Federal agents overheard multiple conversations about various schemes to gain financially through political appointments and other equally illegal means. And by overheard, I mean his phones were tapped.

Oh and by the way, he's a Democrat.

via CNN

Netflix Streaming

So Netflix has come out with its instant queue service on both the xbox 360 and TiVo platforms, and the verdict is mixed. On the technical side, if HD versions are available and supported by your gear, that's what you'll get, without the hassle of a $300 Blu-Ray player. The performance is not really an issue--a brief adjustment will occur if your internet connection slows down in the middle of your video--but the content is so-so. There are very few movies worth seeing available for streaming, and by very few I mean Ghostbusters.

On the other hand, they have a grip of TV shows, which is pretty sweet since you can watch an entire season without dealing with disks at all. Also, they have the current season's episodes, so in case you forgot to watch it and forgot to set your DVR, there is now a last failsafe to ensure you will not have to wait for the DVD.

Netflix packages start at $8.99/mo, and you still get DVDs delivered in addition to the instant service.

UPDATE: sony sucks

paranoid self-awareness

I cannot go to school today.

Does Newrosis confuse you yet? Have you yet reached that point where you tune in to our program with certain expectations only to find something that contradicts the very reason you've adjusted your dial?

What?

What's that you say?

You say today is Saturday?

Okay, I'm going out to play.

Listen, Newrosis confuses me and I write here. I tell people to read the blog and they promptly ask me what it's about. Its the inevitable certainty. People in this day and age seem to have an inherent aversion to seeing things for themselves. They must be told what it is they're getting into. Thus, with gracious exasperation, I attempt to articulate our obscure purposes -- and if you've ever attempted to expound upon a complex variable via standard text message, you will feel this pain.

However, as my thumb bounces upon my phone, searching for that perfect summation of Newrosis, I realize that our purposes are decidedly more vexing. Authorially speaking, what we're doing here is actually quite novel.

Authors through time (yes! I'm am equating us to authors...through time) have been stymied by the question: What is your book/work/poem/pamphlet/treatise/etc about? While some have attempted to answer this question with a tidy summation, others have seen little purpose in such pandering, opting instead for the well wrought sentiment: If I could tell you what my book/work/poem/pamphlet/treatise/etc is about, I wouldn't have needed to write the book/work/poem/pamphlet/treatise/etc.

Well, that's how I feel about our endeavors here: If we could tell you what it was all about, we wouldn't have created said blog.

There is, of course, a flip-side to that coin: some, myself included, might argue that those who refuse to summarize their work might have no idea what it's all about in the first place.

Well, I'll cop to that too; to a certain degree, we don't know WTF is going on and we've created this blog to figure that out.

This post was supposed to be about Lincoln Logs by the way. Shit, man.

Regardless, here's a picture of Millard Fillmore to round things out:


WORD.

The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray and DVD Today

If I were to review movies, I would not use stars or a numbered scale to rate them. Instead I would employ an awesomeness factor wherein a movie like... Battlefield Earth would receive a rating of 1986 Plymouth Voyager, whereas a movie like The Dark Knight would get... oh I don't know... a Saturn V Rocket or a Bugatti Veyron. Maybe a Jessica Alba if she wasn't married with a kid now.

At any rate, this is my favorite movie this year due in large part to Heath Ledger being the most awesome Joker in the history of the storied franchise; high praise considering some of the other names who have played the role.

Secret Mark Throwing Star Magnets

These Throwing Star Magnets will really impress your friends when they're stuck to the fridge. Then your friends will realize they are just magnets, and the illusion will be ruined. Maybe if you tell your friends that the throwing stars are covered in poison, they will never realize they are actually magnets because they will be afraid to touch them. Then those jerks will start giving you the respect a ninja deserves. $19 here.

via core77

The Natural Year Phone Looks Like a Waste of a Bag

The Natural Year Phone was designed by Je-Hyun Kim as a green alternative to the biennial phone swap that most Americans engage in when their contract runs out. The brick weed ("hay," according to the designer) will break down over time, leaving only the keypad and screen, which will be recyclable. The theory is that this phone will decompose in a fraction of the time it would take for the plastic and transistors and candy and whatever else is in that crackberry to return to dust. No word on how the phone will be powered, but I suspect good vibes and patchouli are involved.

via gizmodo

The Electric Paper Airplane Launcher

Now, gizmodo seems to think that this contraption is for those too lazy to throw their own paper airplanes. I disagree. I submit to you that what the Electric Paper Airplane Launcher really does is allow for more advanced aerodynamic testing of paper airplane design by eliminating the potential for human error in the delivery. By delivering a flawless, 30 MPH launch, this revolutionary machine creates the potential for some intrepid adolescent or co-worker to pierce the cornea of his foe from distances once thought to be in the realm of sheer fantasy.

$18 at Urban Outfitters, AA battery required. Should probably also include the names of local personal injury defense attorneys.

via gizmodo