Good, fun art & design!
This article from the New York Times really caught my eye, and I couldn’t resist sharing it with you, so just one more post to end the week and begin the weekend!
For those subway riders who get off before the last stop — almost everyone — the end is just a sign on the train. What’s there, anyway? It turns out there is often mystery, lonesomeness and beauty (NY Times).
This interactive “Going to the End of the Line” project includes photos, video, and audio from the “end of the line” (places most of us never see… unless we happen to live there) on NYC subways.
Above: plaque at entrance, grand Entrance, map at entrance (I’d bring my own, too!)
This week, I’ve been highlighting all kinds of things Flushing, Queens, especially the World’s Fair grounds at Flushing Meadows Park. You can find all of my Flushing/Fair post here, or navigate to specific posts using this list:
You can find lots of information about the fair grounds and all that they have at nycgovparks.org, this page includes a little map that you might want to use in conjunction with google maps. There are also a number of about.com articles about the park if you want help planning a visit.
To end my fair grounds posts, I’ll just highlight a few additional places I stopped by briefly at the grounds — you can’t quite do everything in a single day!
Above: I want to point out “The Fountain of the Planet of the Grapes of Wrath” (actual fountain at center, title at right) from the Flushing Park map at the entrance to the fair grounds. Do you think the word “planet” is a typo from “The Fountain of the Planet of the Apes?’
Above: The New York Hall of Science is also at the fair grounds. Although it’s more expensive than the art museum, it looks like a fabulous place to take kids — there is a crazy looking playground out back!
Above: There is a carousel right next to the zoo! I couldn’t resist the cotton candy.
This weekend I visited the dilapidated version of the pavilion at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York, home of the 1964 World’s Fair (all my other Flushing & fair related posts can be found here).
Technically, all of the fencing and “Do Not Enter” signs currently surrounding the large structure should have kept me out, but it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to visit the fair grounds in the first place.
The pavilion was a colorful hot spot in the days of old (pictures above from jetsetmodern.com, which has tons more old pictures, and a detailed history of the pavilion), but is now falling apart.
It’s now, actually, quite beautiful in all of its misery, and it is the inspiration for lots of photographs (two at left my own, beautiful photo at right from a New York Times photography project).
Creative photographers love it, including Tod Seelie, who took photos of a dinner party inside the pavilion remains. You can read a bit about the party here (and see a gymnast hanging off the unisphere!), and view lots of great of it photographs here.
As for my friend (left) and me (right), we just like to stand around it, and imagine what it was like back in the 60s, before the internet, to see all of the cool things the World’s Fair had to offer. In our imaginations, the World’s Fair was a spectacular event. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s fun to pretend.
We sneaked peeks instead the center of the pavilion, which was locked off.
The pavilion and two observation towers (of Men and Black fame), as seen from the unisphere.
The Unisphere, leftover from the 1964 New York World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Flushing, Queens (that’s a mouthful), is a stainless steal model of the earth that extends twelve stories high!
The fountain below the sphere, like many others in the park, is now empty, and is often filled with a handful of skateboarders or rollerbladers. The empty fountain also means you can stand right under the Unisphere to take pictures or just admire its massiveness.
The Unisphere is the highlight of the Flushing Park and is arguably the most prominent symbol of Queens itself. The Queens Museum of Art (with its awesome panorama of NYC) is located directly behind the Unisphere, and its little gift shop contains lots of specially collected old World’s Fair memorabilia, like the Unisphere salt and pepper shakers (for some reason, these just really crack me up).
Side Note: The Unisphere, along with other Flushing hot spots, like Shea Stadium and the Observatory Towers (right), are featured in the movie Men in Black.
(Two more pictures after the jump.)
If you’re in Manhattan, you have dozens of amazing museums at your disposal — so why would you make a trip out to Queens to see a lesser-known museum, with lesser known artwork? One word: PANORAMA. The Queens Museum of Art, located just behind the unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, home to the New York World’s Fairs of old, has a mixed bag of exhibits, but the Panorama of New York City really steals the show.
The panorama is a giant, 3D, scale, changing (the buildings aren’t glued down, so when the city changes, the panorama changes) map of all boroughs of New York City. (Yes, if you live anywhere in NYC and have a sense of direction, you can find your house!)
Check out the picture above carefully and you can see people on the platform in the background — that should help give you a sense of scale. The entire panorama is bigger than the average Manhattan apartment (according to CNN, the average Manhattan apartment is about 1300 square feet, in which case the panorama seven times larger at 9,335 square feet)! It was created for the 1964 World’s Fair and contains over 895,000 individual structures. The panorama is to scale, 1 inch equaling 100 feet.
Museum Info: Hour long tours of the panorama are offered at 4pm Saturdays and Sundays, but you can visit the Panorama during any museum hours without a tour. Although the museum web-page suggests that museum entry costs about $5, I got in for $2 with a student ID. As for travel, you can get there by bus, train, subway, or car (free parking), all modes of transport are described on the museum’s web-site. You can make a day of it and visit the World’s Fair grounds, right outside the museum’s front door, at the same time.
If you want more info on the panorama, or you want to see a person standing in the middle of it, check out this NY Times article from last year.
Remember to check out all of my articles on Flushing here — more will be added throughout the week!
Checkout the slideshow associated with a New York Times article about a New York University mural depicting six famous writers who lived in New York and the spaces in which they wrote (with special attention paid to their bookshelves).
A colorful page from Nylon magazine, with added commentary from a co-worker (given to me because I wear a lot of bright colors, and would probably “wear all of this at once.”)
The front page of a 2001 Rolling Stone article about author and Merry Prankster Ken Kesey. I love the frame, typography, and brackets (and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of my favorite books).
Mini-postcard from Danish artist Bo Bendixen. (My mom was born in Denmark, so I have a special place in my heart for the bold primary colors and simple lines of Scandinavian design.)
Large bumper-sized sticker from a Harry Potter sticker book (”beware of the DARK ARTS”).
Another graduation card, this one from KOCO New York. I especially love the quote: “There are only four colors, ten digits and seven notes; it’s what you do with them that’s important” (Ruth Ross).
A quote I wrote down while reading Oscar Wilde’s A Portrait of Dorian Gray: “It’s the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution” (Oscar Widle).
A little comic I drew in indesign about cubical and shared-office life.
The 2008 Shoe Mini-Calendar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009 calendar shown above).
In the end, the walls of your office might define you more than the walls of your home. After all, these are random bits collected, taken down, put up again, transported from job to job or office to office. These little pieces mark who you are when you aren’t carefully matching frames with prints with the walls of your home. They just might be a sneaky way to understand the things that move you, and somehow help you get through each day.
Technorati Tags: time out new york, letterpress, typography, cubicle, decorate, postcards, graphics, calendar, card, graduation, Bo Bendixen, harry potter, sticker
Today I offer you a tour of the walls of my office cubicle. A cubicle is always an interesting amalgamation of quotes, articles, and postcards — usually little reminders of what life really means, of things you might enjoy if you weren’t at work, or your own personal version of motivational posters or cynicism.
A beautiful letterpress graduation card from Hello Lucky. (Love the typography!)
A Frida Kahlo card featuring the image above, from the Frida Kahlo ArtBox.
An Edward Gorey postcard (”Donald imagined things.”)
A 2008 Frida Kahlo wall calendar.
A postcard featuring the 2006 National Poetry Month poster design. Love the poetry & graphic design combo!
The “you’re-loved self-esteemizer” availible for download as high quality pdf from Time Out New York. (Another example of great design, and very funny!)
New York Time’s Home & Garden section always has awesome slideshows sneaking peaks at unique and funky homes. The picture above is from “Secrets of an Offhand Decorator,” which shows off the East Village home of Pamela Bell, one of the original partners in Kate Spade.
Her children are a large part of her decorating, the couch shown here was colored by her daughter and her classmates.
On my last trip to Washington DC I visited The International Spy Museum, another DC “edutainment” museum, like the Newseum, that costs a $18 entrance fee, but is well worth it due to its sleek, new design and fun atmosphere. (I love well designed museums.)
The museum includes a mix of fact and fiction, including true-life spy stories and some prominent television spy history as well. Exhibits like “The Secret History of History” explain early code making and historical spy missions. Most exhibits include interactive features that help to keep older children (and child-like adults) entertained.
If you are in for a little Carmen Sandiego-like adventure, I encourage you to get a $25 ticket that includes the Operation Spy adventure. This adventure isn’t really very educational, and could be written off as a silly gimmick, but I found that it’s fun for adults and older children. You have to break into a room and a safe, follow someone on a security camera, and more.
If you choose not to do the Spy adventure, the museum provides you with a mini-adventure of its own, asking to you choose and memorize a “spy identity” throughout your museum trip.
As you may know, I spent approximately the last week in Washington DC. This time around I enjoyed a day at the Newseum. Unfortunately, it’s one of the DC museums that actually costs money, but for that money you get interactive, clean, sleek design (unlike some of the less-updated museums, such as the Air & Space Museum).
The Newseum is one among a brand of new “edutainment” museums popping up in DC (the New York Times recently reviewed some of these museums here).
My favorite exhibit, “Today’s Front Pages”, was on the top floor.
“More than 500 newspapers transmit their front pages electronically to the Newseum every day. Up to 80 are enlarged and printed for display in this gallery — among them one from every state and the District of Columbia as well as a sampling of international newspapers. Additional front pages are displayed outside the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue” (newseum.org).
I also enjoyed the special exhibit on G-Men & Journalists, where I got to see the actual cabin that the Unabomber lived in (yes, this is exciting to me). My cousins (and my aunts, actually) really enjoyed making their own newscast, which was later availible for download online.
If you’d like, take a 3D tour of the museum here, but I recommend an in-person visit!
Technorati Tags: Newseum, museum, edutainment, education, entertainment, Washington DC, travel, review, children, news
These colorful houses in Japan have been posted on Cool Hunter, UO’s blog, Tree Hugger, and the NYTimes, but since I’m away on vacay, I thought a little re-posting couldn’t hurt, especially since they are such bright colors!
Part of the point of these homes is that they have wavy floors (and whatnot) and thus they are a little hard to navigate. Yet they are made for adults & the elderly, not kids! Supposedly, keeping you on your toes keeps you young (if you don’t break a hip trying to get to the kitchen).
I recommend checking out the NY Times article (especially this slideshow) for more information about these homes & a few others like them!
Cherryflava recently posted about Ikea’s “out of the box” advertising methods. How cool is this?
This “box” was placed in Brookyln and filled with furniture (elegently placed, of course, despite the small space… most of us NYC-ites like to say we “live in a box”) for Ikea’s grand opening.
Cherryflava also shows off another Ikea stunt where balconies were made to look like boxes for storage.
“The architectural designer Eric Clough embedded clues into a Fifth Avenue apartment, leading the family who lived there on a scavenger hunt through the rooms of their home” (NY Times).
I couldn’t believe this article today in the NY Times. You can actually be an adult and a real person and have a house with hidden drawers and closets and clues! (This may be more thrilling to me than when I found a book about tree houses that real, actual, non-unibomber adults live their lives inside.)
The apartment apparently comes with its own book, soundtrack, and slews of hidden doors, drawers, codes, messages, games, and treasures. And the architect put the whole adventure in without the family even knowing, and it took a year before they even realized there was a mystery to be solved!
For more pictures of the mystery apartment click here and read the full article here.
When I moved into my new room in Queens, it was not lime green. What a difference a day makes. Amazingly, I transformed a boring-brown stucco room into a delightful lime green & turquoise nest in less than 24 hours.
The very sad before picture (scroll down quick! you don’t want to look at this one too long!):
Thanks to the stucco walls, the entire room was painted (twice over!) in a single evening. Although I managed to not-quite follow the drying instructions, I nonetheless got great results (mistakes were pleasantly lessened by the already bumpy walls).
The very cheerful after picture:
Don’t you love my turquoise nook? (It’s a big messier these days.)
Continue on to see more before and after pictures! (more…)
I know, the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) and the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) are the places to go in NYC, but if you want the kind of out-of-city experience you can only find in Manhattan, I recommend The Frick (5th & 70th). Why?
“The Frick Collection is housed in the former residence of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), the Pittsburgh coke-and-steel industrialist…. Mr. Frick bequeathed the residence and the works of art he had collected over a period of forty years to the Board of Trustees…” (frick.org; pictures also from the web-site).
If you are student (or someone who considers herself to be a life-long student and still happens to have a seemingly valid Student ID card…), everyday is your lucky day because the entrance fee is a mere $5. If you aren’t a student the fee is $15, though Sundays are “pay as you wish” from 11am-1pm. (Fairly or unfairly, those under 10 aren’t allowed in the museum at all and those under 16 need adult supervision.)
My favorite painting there is
On my recent trip to Philadelphia I happened to stop in a funky homeware store called Foster’s. It was full of bright colors, fantastically designed kitchen & houseware products, and unique gift items (you know, like Sigmund Freud action figures). You can find this cool place at 399 Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or you can (luckily) shop online at shopfosters.com. (I’ll feature some cool products I found there later this week!)
Need a pretty Mexican Restaurant to coincide with your visit to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art? Of course you do! Xochitl is the place to go (the picture above is actually from Time Out New York Online) — especially considering it currently has a special Frida Kahlo three course meal filled with all of Frida’s favorite dishes. (Unfortunately, it’s $35 per person!) If you can’t afford that, you can purchase a single appetizer, dessert, or meal that is also included in the Frida full-course meal. For example, I recommend the $7 Sopa Azteca (tortilla soup).
I know this is an art & design site, so it’s a bit out of my realm to advertise a soup, but this soup gets design & creativity points all its own. At Xochitl the soup portion of the dish was poured out of a jug over a bowl of tortilla strips, avocado, and cheese (which delightfully melted in the warm soup).
If you aren’t in Philadelphia, (more…)
I visited Philadelphia this weekend (mainly for the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art), so this coming week I’ll bring you my reports on art & design in the city of brotherly love. (Okay, so I spent most of my time AT the museum of art and was only actually in Philly for two days. So let’s call it an abbreviated report…)
BKNY (stands for Bangkok New York) is a Thai place in far Flushing, Queens (the Auburndale / Bayside area). While the food is tasty and not too expensive, the atmosphere is what’s most impressive. The place looks like it could have popped right out of Manhattan, somehow accidentally misplaced in Queens.
The best part?
Pictures and logos on this page were collected from the BKNY web-site which offers more information on menus, pricing, location, etc.
If you are ever in the Lower East Side at… whenever o’clock… stop in at the Yaffa Cafe (97 St. Mark’s Place). It is “Open Always” and it is Always Cool. The decorating is Vintage Random: the wallpaper ranges from flowers to leopard print, the Christmas lights are up year-round, and the paint is cheerfully exuberant.
For more information check out NY Magazine’s Restaurant Listings. (Three images on left gathered from New York Magazine. Two images on right are my own.)