Sunday, August 31, 2008

down and dirty pictures

i'm about half way through peter biskind's fascinating book. it led me to track this video down. the highlight for me is around the 25 minute mark when qt starts talking about the career trajectories of the great filmmakers. fascinating.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

we are the people

images from the current conceptualism exhibit at the geffen contemporary @ moca taken with newest addition to the novel designs camera arsenal.




Thursday, August 28, 2008

can i tell you later?



you want free stuff? you go with holocaust...

i kind of have to hand it to gototrafficschool.com on this one. what an enterprising organization. received this am:

Happy Birthday, Alexander!

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Or, if you know anyone else who has recieved a ticket you can forward them your referral code X763-CAK7 Any person who registers for our course using your referral code will get a $2.00 discount. Not only that, we will deposit $5 into your personal MAKE MONEY account. Login to your account at

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to cash-out whenever you want! Or sit back and watch your Make Money balance grow and cash out later!

You can make a ton of money by referring your friends and family to GoToTrafficSchool.com. From all of us here at GoToTrafficSchool.com, we wish you a happy and safe birthday!

Sincerely,

GoToTrafficSchool.com

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

both are smoking cigarettes

recent mcsweeneys post:

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE'S SCRIPT FOR WITHOUT A TRACE. BY BOB WOODIWISS
- - - -

INT. SUBURBAN HOME—LIVING ROOM—DAY

(Four FBI agents—SAMANTHA SPADE, VIVIAN JOHNSON, MARTIN FITZGERALD, DANNY TAYLOR—stand in a cluster, smoking cigarettes. Their unit supervisor, SPECIAL AGENT JACK MALONE, enters through the home's front door and joins his team.)

MALONE: I got here as fast as your perception of fast tells you I got here.

JOHNSON: Thanks, Jack. You made it just in time for your arrival.

MALONE: Good. What've we got?

JOHNSON: A void.

MALONE: A void? What kind of void?

JOHNSON: Purportedly human. Seemingly male.

MALONE: A purportedly human, seemingly male void. Hmm. That's potentially regrettable.

JOHNSON: Hence our presence.

MALONE: Right. So who used to occupy this void?

SPADE: Some say a successful businessman. Others claim a devoted family man. Then there's the preschool household member upstairs who, when we questioned her a few minutes ago, described the entity that's no longer construed as being here as "my horsie-daddy."

MALONE: So the void could be equine?

SPADE: To certain observers, naturally.

MALONE: Do we know how this void was created? How it came to be?

TAYLOR: Do you mean was it put here by God?

FITZGERALD: Or do you mean was it conceived by the same minds that created the concept of God?

TAYLOR: You know, Martin, your knee-jerk denial of God's existence could seriously hamper this investigation.

MALONE: Hey. Guys. Let's hold off on the dialectics till after we've collected all the evidence. What'd you find, Viv?

JOHNSON: These books were on the nightstand, Jack. A Brief History of Time and Love Story.

SPADE: So there was a struggle.

MALONE: An internal struggle, you mean. Between human intellect and animal passion.

JOHNSON: Right. Which could have led our dichotomous reader to seek contemplative solitude.

TAYLOR: Or self-destruction.

FITZGERALD: Define "self"! Define "destruction"! Your terms are irrelevant in this context.

MALONE: Hold on. What's that? On the floor near the table.

SPADE: Looks like blood.

FITZGERALD: Which would seem to confirm the existence of a physical form at one time or another occupying the present void.

SPADE: And, by extension, our own existence independent of subjective interpretation.

FITZGERALD: Interesting but tangential hypothesis, Sam. Here's where I was going, though: if, for the sake of argument, we accept that the void we're investigating was formerly a flesh-and-blood entity, yet the entity's flesh is nowhere to be found, while its blood is plainly extant, even, in fact, pooled and sticky, can we infer the existence of evil in the world?

SPADE: Don't you infer the existence of evil every time you carry a weapon? Or your badge?

FITZGERALD: No. I infer uncertainty while perpetuating the illusion of objective order, like they teach at the academy.

(A WOMAN with a small child on her hip descends the home's staircase. She pauses a few steps from the bottom, looking across the living room at the FBI agents.)

MALONE: And who might you be?

WOMAN: Who do you see me as?

MALONE: My instinct is to regard you as the spouse.

WOMAN: Then who else could I be?

MALONE: I'm Special Agent Jack Malone. Can you tell me, was it you who discovered the household's human-male void?

WOMAN: Did I see nothingness first?

MALONE: That's the question.

WOMAN: I can't be sure. I may simply have been the last to see the pre-nothingness.

MALONE: Right. Tell me about when either, neither, or both of those events took place?

WOMAN: Just this morning. I was with the baby ...

Flashback to:

INT. KITCHEN—DAY (EARLIER THAT MORNING)

(The WOMAN sits at a table, feeding a BABY in a high chair. Both are smoking cigarettes.)

WOMAN: In a man's world, I am defined as less than a man.

BABY: Gimme, gimme.

WOMAN: In a child's world, I am defined as a servant.

BABY: Horsie-daddy!

WOMAN: In my own world, I am defined as someone who's expecting the cable guy sometime before noon.

Cut back to:

PRESENT

MALONE: And where was your alleged husband-businessman-horsie-daddy during all this?

WOMAN: He was the resignation in my voice.

MALONE: Thanks. You've been very helpful.

(AGENT JOHNSON is at the rear of the living room looking through a sliding glass door at the backyard.)

JOHNSON: Jack, come here. You need to see this.

EXT. BACKYARD OF THE SUBURBAN HOME—DAY

(AGENT JOHNSON, cigarette in hand, stands next to a doghouse. The other agents have gathered nearby, smoking.)

JOHNSON: Apparently, the object of our probe is out here. Look. C'mere, girl.

(A standard poodle emerges from the doghouse and lies down on a bare patch of ground.)

MALONE: Viv, this is a dog. The void we're investigating, I thought we agreed, was left by a male human, possibly equine, entity. How can this be who we're looking for?

JOHNSON: Jack, think about it. How can it not be?

MALONE: Touché, Viv. Nice work.

CREDITS

- - - -

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

i don't have to prove...that i am creative!

but banksy's got strong feelings about creativity:


whereas the chicago public library has nothing to prove as far as i'm concerned:

all my pictures are confused

of the thirty one finalists, chosen from over a thousand pieces of art submitted to the Manifest Hope Gallery Contest by MoveOn.org members and other grassroots artists these two are my favorite.
you can bid on any piece of art and the artists have pledged to donate the proceeds from this auction to progressive efforts aimed at helping Obama win this november.


Monday, August 25, 2008

looking down the barrel of a gun

waxin and milkin' isn't just named after probably the best beastie boys song around, it's an incredible collection of images documenting sports, film, style, art, music... everything good.

here's a visual smorgasbord for your viewing pleasure:










there must be a hundred balloons in here.

i'm late jumping on the band wagon with this one, but not too late. tim and eric awesome show great job doesn't just have perhaps the most brilliant name for a television show ever, but the season three premiere last night absolutely slays.

here are some highlights:





Saturday, August 23, 2008

the name of this blog is novel designs



typography meets commerce meets arithmetic

show off

i quite like this work by artist melvin galapon



Thursday, August 21, 2008

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

decorating the alamo

i'm thinking the following item would be an excellent addition to the pad. about as antiquated as the landline at this point.

sweet ink



i'm not one for body art, but this would make for a killer tattoo.

via chicagoist

how to make something awesome lame

this is like your parents getting to hang out with your favorite band.

inspired host: "well paul shafer was probably your inspiration over there, right?"
awkward barely audible response: "yeah, I love him"

wow. never go on myfox. never. never. never.

Friday, August 15, 2008

it's no bother

apologies for lack posts. CAP is on a road trip from SF to Portland and ASP started a new job. plus there's a move to the alamo happening this weekend.

i caught this quote on, of all places, nymag, from woody allen:

"I remember years ago coming home after a great triumph with Love and Death and the girl in the apartment across still wouldn't go out with me. I was home by myself eating Chinese food out of a bucket, with nothing to do, watching television. It never means anything."

such stoicism. here's a great series of clips from the hilarious film love and death

Monday, August 11, 2008

this siren is not for dancing

just some more photos i've been digging online. once the fm-10 is fixed more novel designs originals will be posted.



Saturday, August 9, 2008

bipedal accessories

these killer kicks drop today for those in SF, wednesday for those is LA. 4 days till purchase time barring extortion level prices.
keep it reasonable huf...


it's your friend, it's your enemy, it's your cousin

ok. i'm gonna get a little carried away here, but i am so impressed by this photographer that i'm gonna just toss up a ton of photos. i don't know her name. i don't know where she's from. i just know her flickr gallery is beyond brilliant.

enjoy...