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  • Sanjhih

    “Sanjhih is a small town on the north coast of Taiwan, near Taipei.
    In late 70’s, a keeper of a rubber company worked out the prototype of the UFO house using his own factory.
    However, the company closed down in the energy crisis in 1980.

    In 1989, a development company bought the unfinished UFO houses. They planned to make it a five stars resort hotel. Almost a year after, they decided to shutdown.
    Then the buildings was abandoned until now.”.

    		 Sanjhih house

    The abandoned future: Sanjhih. A set on Flickr.

    Above: a detail from the cypherone@Taiwan’s photostream.
    Work released under a Creative Commons license.

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  • Cycling in the park is prohibited

    “The boy was sitting on the bench, with his rucksack beside him, the girl was standing up, she was walking back and forth in front of him saying nothing.

    I lifted up the dog which had dragged me there because I had a feeling that something unpleasant was about to happen, something that would make me wish I were elsewhere: the guy seemed subdued and she was furious.

    Finally it happened. Slaps, with both hands, all over his head and face.
    He didn’t move, he didn’t even defend himself. It looked as if it was all over when the final blow struck, violent, with a smack that obliterated the blackbirds calls.

    She then took the rucksack and bike lying on the grass, and she walked off.
    At the end of the path, or at the beginning, but it was an end in this case, where the sign was, she got on the bike and started pedalling.”.

    (Alessandra Galetta, Cycling in the park is prohibited, 2008)

    Text in italian

  • Sexy People

    Jerry - Sexy People “I think I know him…
    he used to be my neighbor… I think.

    If it’s him he’s definitely as creepy as he looks.”.

    Sexy People. “A Celebration of The Perfect Portrait.”.

    Above: Jerry (1974).

  • New Alphabet

    New Alphabet

    “In the 60’s I became very much interested in grid systems and digital systems. In 1965 I saw the first digital typesetters, and the result was horrible. Then I came to the idea to make another system of alphabet.
    I called it the New Alphabet.

    This is a six point Garamond from the digitized period.
    If you have it twice as big the basic idea is still there, but the whole shape changes, and this is what I couldn’t stand for.
    So I did “Let me do a typeface with only 90 angles and 45 roundings”.
    I published it, and I said “This is a theory. This is the way of thinking, and typeface designers should design along this line of thinking”.
    It made me travel all around the world to give lectures on it.”.
    (Wim Crouwel)

    Wim Crouwel: Proposal for a New Alphabet. From Helvetica (2007), by Gary Hustwit.
    Above : New Alphabet font, by Matt McInerney, sample.

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  • Tanuki

    “In folklore the tanuki is a bit like the plump, comical brother of the fox, equally prone to mischief and shape-changing and the deception of humans.

    It seems to have a hedonistic bent, constantly on the prowl for saké, food, and women, and is known to disguise worthless leaves as money to obtain those things.
    It also seems quite good at turning itself into inanimate objects.”.

    		 tanuki

    The Tanuki.
    From The Obakemono Project, “a Gaijin’s Guide to the Fantastic Folk Monsters of Japan.”.

  • AudioBody

    And now, a cup of Diet Coke + Mentos: AudioBody.
    Listen : You Gotta Tap, Not Easy, Going to Michigan, Bass Aquatic, Fireflys.

    Techno / Rock / Electronica.

  • Andre Jordan

    astronaut I sit on this wall and
    wait for you who ever
    you are where ever you may
    be I’ve been sitting on
    this wall since I was 17
    years old just waiting for
    you just praying for you
    who ever you are where
    ever you may be to find
    me I shall sit on this
    wall for the rest of
    my life if need to be
    (Andre Jordan, And I wait for you)

    A beautiful revolution. By Andre Jordan, illustrator.

    Above: Astronaut boy.

  • Type, handwriting, and lettering

    Enjoy life and health

    “Not long ago, friends of mine came to me with their their nine-year old son. He couldn’t write.
    Again, I suggested zigzags.
    Take a pen in your hand.
    Move it up and down, as if you were waving goodbye.
    That’s the movement you need.
    How do you turn zigzags into letters?
    You depart slightly from a regular movement, just enough to make characters.
    A closed top becomes the letter a.
    An extended line makes an ascender.”.
    (Gunnlaugur SE Briem)

    briem.net: type, handwriting, and lettering, by Gunnlaugur SE Briem.
    Above: La Operina, (Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi, 1522), detail.
    Meaning: “Enjoy life and health.”

  • Patently Silly

    nutcracker “Necessity is the mother of invention.
    The father is unknown.”

    “Each week there are thousands of new patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patents I pick are usually a) really weird, b) really cool, c) really scary.”.
    Patently Silly: the humor of invention.
    By Daniel Wright and Alex Eben Meyer.

    Above : Nutcracker (David Aaron Powell, patent US D494820).

  • 42

    “I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe.”

    (Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
    42 : the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.