Lively leaves

Biodiversity by Christoph Niemann for the NYT blog.

It's almost summertime

If a stop-motion video of Morocco doesn't make you ready for summer vacation, try Stuart Gibson's photos of the ocean. (via NotCom)

Collective Yawn

Peter Funch takes photos on New York street corners and pastes them into single photographs. (via Kottke)

Check it out

30 emerging photographers selected by PDN. (via Kottke)

One in 8 Million

Screenshot via Swissmiss.

One in 8 Million, brief oral histories with New Yorkers, including slideshows of black-and-white photographs. Pure magic. Thank you, New York Times online.

Plimpton Prize and latex leggings

Factory photo via Bouncing Red Ball.

Peter Matthiesson loves you, Alistair Morgan.

It's cute that you can write a whole article about letter-writing making a comeback without any evidence to support it. (via The Elegant Variation)

In old news, everyone seems mystified by The Way We'll All Make Billions On the Internet.

MIA might be an apologist for the Tamil Tigers, but she is indubitably pregnant.

Two great links from BoingBoing: photographs of factories in Japan, and of a broken-down hospital in Maryland.

Oh! And one more! I've been meaning to post recipes for making your own toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc., but BoingBoing links to How To Make Your Own Latex Leggings, which seem to be a New York essential these days. You're welcome.

Brooklyn Morning

I can't remember whether I've posted about it, but I've been completely in love with Youngna Park's work for about half a year now. I finally purchased a piece called Brooklyn Morning (above) from Jen Beckman's gallery. It not only captures the mood of my neighborhood, but some of the magic that's leftover here in early daylight.

Younga Park has an incredible archive that makes me wish I could thank the internet for granting me access to such beautiful, high-res photos.

Check out her sense of light and geometry:


Her sense of space, color, and mood:


The way she uses simple props to construct a narrative:


And her unusual use of focus:


All photos courtesy of her archive. If you too want to wake up to a street full of confetti, check her stuff out.

Things that make you wonder

Art made from money. Some very nice paper hats for our presidents and others'.

The Explainer posts many questions they did not answer in 2008. A few favorites:

"Could you please explain why it is that squirrels are capable of such amazing athletic feats? What is it about their brains and, to a lesser degree, their bodies that allows it? I watch them at my house and have seen some amazing things."

"It is a common baseball prank to give someone a cream pie in the face during a TV interview. Where do these cream pies come from? Do baseball teams keep cream pies in the dugout?"

"My toaster identifies which of the two slots should be used for making a single slice of toast. Why does it make a difference which slot I use?"

The New York Public Library is on Flickr (via C-MONSTER). Flickr is getting some serious institutional action these days. Here's Ruth St. Denis in Yosemite Valley.

Play with the Life photo archive

Go make yourself a fake book cover.

Scared of Santa

What a brilliant idea for a photo collection online. And timely, too. (via Gothamist) [A note: this may be one of the trashiest things I've posted on the blog.]

Can you find the artist?

Just found Todd Selby's portraits - writers, artists, editors, film directors, fashion designers, multitaskers, ice cream truck drivers, all photographed in their homes or offices. Really strange and really vibrant. (via SwissMiss)

Thanksgiving, economy cycle back around

The Gothamist links to a nice collection of photos of New York from the 1930s.

It is a relief that the recession has not made the city revert to existing only in black and white.

This Tuesday

On our drive back from Ohio, I read an issue of Tuesday: An Art Project. I happen to have a weakness for postcards in general, but there was something lovely about having a series of postcards printed on fine, thick paper with both poetry and images.

This may be my favorite new little literary magazine. (Indubitably I've professed love for Ninth Letter on this blog before, and you know how I feel about the Kenyon Review.) Tyler Meier recommended these to me, because the outside of the journal folds out to be a poster and the inside is full of things you can mail.

There is something about the presence of a crowd of poems settled into your lap that quietly demands your attention. I highly recommend a back issue for a long drive, if you have one coming up in the next few weeks.