Today at Flavorpill, we learned just how snarky Nickelback’s Twitter account can be. We watched a badass panda burning trash in a shopping cart for warmth in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. We uncovered the level of artifice that goes into crafting daytime courtroom TV shows. We pondered calling the G-Spot (now said not to exist), the G-Zone. We were weirded out by this Obama/Hulk mashup. We stared at a red dot that made our eyes do funny things. We listened to some of the purplest musical artists of all-time. We giggled at Alec Baldwin’s Piers Morgan impersonation. We found out what the Vimeo updates will entail. We watched a comedian attempt to sleep at 13 celebrities’ homes. We wanted to travel back in time to this neon New York office building in the 1980s. And finally, we loved Iggy Pop’s description of his job as Record Store Day Ambassador. He said he felt like, “ … a representative from some exotic jungle full of life and death and sex and anger, called upon to wear a leopard skin and translate joy to the world of the dead.” He should probably get a side gig writing job listings.
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the attacks on New York on September 11, 2001. At 8:46 this morning, the memorial ceremony began with a moment of silence led by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush were also in attendance. Hundreds of family members, firefighters, police officers, and other New Yorkers were in attendance as the names of those killed in the attacks were read aloud. Today is also the official opening of the long awaited 9/11 Memorial, which will now be open to the public.
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It might not matter what the President is reading, but since we’re firm proponents of the idea that books shape your mind, your way of seeing the world, your decisions, even, we think that then again, it just might. Jacket Copy reports that President Obama, who is currently vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, visited an independent bookstore called Bunch of Grapes on Friday, picking up Rodin’s Debutante, by Ward Just, and The Bayou Trilogy, a set of three novellas by Daniel Woodrell, who also penned Winter’s Bone. Those books will ostensibly be added to the other books he brought along on his summer vacation: Abraham Verghese’s bestseller Cutting for Stone, David Grossman’s To the End of the Land, and Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Though none of these choices are particularly controversial (although the Woodrell is decidedly hip), Obama has been known to dip into many different genres — take a peek at this infographic of the books he’s read since he took office – and from we’re standing, it looks like he has pretty good taste: David Mitchell, Jonathan Franzen, and Richard Price are among our favorites, too, so maybe we’ll follow suit and pick up a few of Obama’s choices for our own summer reading. Is it wrong that the fact that our President reads good books makes us breathe just a little easier? We don’t think so.
Last weekend, 41-year-old Shepard Fairey, who created the HOPE poster now synonymous with the President’s 2008 campaign, was attacked by Danish left-wing radicals outside a nightclub after the opening of his exhibition in Copenhagen. The angry men called him “Obama illuminati” and left him with a black eye and a bruised rib. Like any good street artist used to skirting the law, Fairey refused to go to the cops, so it was only this weekend that the Guardian got the scoop.
Earlier this month, Fairey completed a controversial mural in Denmark commemorating the demolition of the left-wing community base, “Ungdomshuset” at Jagtvej 69. The mural, while promoting peace, enraged many members of the community. Hours after its completion, it was vandalized with graffiti saying ‘no peace’ and ‘go home, Yankee hipster.’ ”The media reported that it was commissioned by the city, which wasn’t true,” Fairey told the Guardian. ”It looked to the people at 69 like I was cooperating with the authorities, making a propaganda piece to smooth over the wound.” So he tried to promote peace with his art but managed to offend the people he was trying to support enough that they ambushed him and beat him up? All we can say is, Fairey, you Obama-loving hipster, don’t bring any of that peace and harmony stuff to our town.
[via BoingBoing]
Barcelona-based photographer/illustrator/mixed media artist David Gomez, whose work we spotted over at Pomocracy, certainly has a vision. Influenced by his shoe-designer father’s sketches and inspired by “indigenous tribes and mystical cultures,” he creates highly stylized portraits, turning his friends, family and cultural heroes into tacit members of his own, very colorful, tribe. In turns African-inspired, futuristic and baroque, the portraits are simply created but nonetheless satisfying. We’ve collected a few of his celebrity portraits here, so click through to see your cultural icons in a whole new light, and be sure to visit Gomez’s website, where you can view many more of his illustrated portraits and also check out his other projects.
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With the announcement yesterday that American Apparel lost $17.6 million in the first quarter of 2010, we became worried about the store’s future. (OK, not really. It kind of made us giggle.) Although we realized that we have little power to help the hipster haven, we figured that a few celebrities out there might be able to pull the support needed to save the best place in America for golden tights, striped tube socks, and highlighter yellow V-necks.
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Last week, in an effort to ease your holiday shopping, we offered you our list of the 10 best books for non-readers. But what about books for readers? Even if you’re a class-A literary nerd, it can be hard to figure out what the other bookworms in your life would like best. To make matters worse, there’s no room for slacking — giving the perfect book to the perfect person shows just how well you know them and can also give them a little insight into you, so you want to make sure you do it right.
To help you out, here are our suggestions — great books for Mom, Dad, your brothers and sisters, your best friend and your significant other — all guaranteed to please.
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Edited by Shepard Fairey and Jennifer Gross, the lavishly illustrated Art for Obama is more than just another coffee-table tome.
In the new book, Gross and Fairey — whose own iconic “Hope” poster ignited the art community’s involvement in the Obama campaign — detail the evolution of the Manifest Hope galleries at the DNC Convention in Denver and DC inaugural. The images range from portraiture to symbolic abstractions, representing the 150-plus artist/activists who joined forces to spread the word. Read More »
‘Twas the epithet heard ’round the world, when even our fine nation’s president agreed that Kanye West was being a “jackass” by interrupting widdle ole Taylor Swift onstage at the VMAs. Artificial drama aside (we know, New York Times, we should be much more concerned about health care than Lady Gaga‘s gender, the architectural taste of Prince Charles, or Perez Hilton vs. minor pop star of the week), we’re using this week’s keyword as a fearless guide into the depths of Flickr. That’s right, it’s Found Photo Friday, and we’re taking a donkey ride. Read More »
Today at Flavorpill, we cowered in fear as we caught a glimpse of Dennis Rodman’s face… upside down. We were pleased to see that Disney payed their respects to Obama by building an animatronic Obama-bot. We were slightly worried by the idea that blogging could become extinct, but cheered up when we realized that Guillermo Del Toro probably digs Twilight. We were proud to see that Winnie the Pooh could hold his own in a Hundred-Acre Woods brawl. We marveled at today’s most awesomest thing on the Internet. We were confused that the Baywatch movie is now officially a comedy, since the concept was always quite funny. We thought that the Black Keys’ drummer’s decision to call his new band “Drummer” was quite appropriate. And finally, we felt pretty cool learning how to pwn subway newbs.
