We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Postings To Bring You...

...this article that I read in the Sunday Styles today.

As evidenced in at least one place on this very web log (or "blog," for those of you multiple-syllables-impaired), I quite like art. Specifically, I like design: fashion design, building design, etc.

Every month when my mother receives a new, simplistically-designed Design Within Reach catalog, I swipe it quickly without giving it a second thought. Following this theft, I stalk down the hallway to my room and proceed to pour over each and every armchair, table, couch, and bed pictured. Left to right, then back again. If I could I would live in an IKEA, and my favorite part of the so-so Please Give was the used furniture store that Catherine Keener and her husband owned.

I love furniture. Repeat: I stinking love furniture.

So even though I had never heard of him before, and even though he was not quite as conventional as my aforementioned commercial architecture havens are, I felt quite drawn to Alex Williams' "The Mysteries of Tobias Wong," the front page article of today's The New York Times Style section. It helps, of course, that Wong lived a life that seemed perfect for a Hollywood (or perhaps a bit more indie) production. This story involves sleep terrors, elaborate pranks, and pills that make your poo silver. Its this undeniably cinematic undertone that compelled me to share this article with you; this story, although it may be real and its ending devastatingly sad, is as enjoyable and dare I say whimsical as a party in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel (just finished The Great Gatsby today, by the way; pretty good).

Click here to read the article.

R.I.P. Tobias Wong. And don't worry, we'll be back to bringing you the finest in poorly-made dancing .gifs and Justin Bieber rants tomorrow. Or at least by Tuesday. Maybe Tuesday.

Photo credit: The New York Times (Dean Kaufman. Cool name!)

"Someone with mental problems who happened to have a camera."

This weekend I did a lot of things, most of which are not pertinent to this blog. But I saw a movie, so let's talk about that. It was called Exit Through the Gift Shop. It was pretty cool.

Basically it's about street art, which is mad cool. Since I'm supposed to be studying right now, I'll just let the pictures (by Banksy, Shepard Fairey (whose work you have definitely seen), and Thierry "Mister Brainwash" Guetta, the three "main characters") do the talking.

Banksy, Bethlehem

Banksy, Bristol

 Banksy, New Orleans

Yeah, more Banksy. London

(The coolest part about Banksy is that no one knows who he is. No one, aside from his posse, has seen him before. His parents don't even know that he's the Banksy. It's kind of a romantic notion. This unknown guy making all of this cool artwork, and all we know about him is his pseudonym.)

Shepard Fairey. See? That's him in the middle. Say hi! HI SHEPARD FAIREY

Shepard Fairey

Sheps F-ayer-ey, Boston

S. Fairey, Boston

(I felt really cool watching this movie because I knew who Shepard Fairey was. I mean, I didn't remember his name, but I had read the Wikipedia page for Andre the Giant Has a Posse before, and I remembered it. It was bomba. Do people actually say that?)

Mister Brainwash (MBW), LA

MBW, Paris

MBW, New York Ci-tay 

(Okay, a little more background. Mister Brainwash goes from being Thierry, our "hero" of sorts, our subject, to being the villain. Well, kind of. He starts out as the trusted confidante, lackey, and cameraman for the street art masters, like Sheps and Banksy. But eventually, when Banksy outs him as being a crap filmmaker and turns him loose into the world of street art, he becomes MBW and makes this really bland, borderline copycat artwork that he actually doesn't even make himself. The student becomes the master, and also the millionaire. Sheps and Banksy go from loving this simple-minded Frenchie to feeling disdain for him, resenting him so much that Banksy made this movie about him and made him look like the pompous fool. But whether he's talented or not probably doesn't matter much to him, because he's got the money now, and that's all he needs.) 

BOOOOOOONUS: 

Ozone's Angel, Banksy, London. 

Photo Creds: here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and HERE