New Museum NYC

(photo via airoots.org)

Cripes!

Have I been asleep, in a cave, with my head under a rock?

How did I not notice this?! How did I not notice this ravishing, thrillingly wonderful building? And the fact that this incredible building is an art museum?!

I'm slipping.

This is the New Museum on Bowery. Easily one of the tastiest buildings in Manhattan.

"On December 1, 2007, the New Museum opens its first freestanding, dedicated building. Conceived as a sculptural stack of rectilinear boxes dynamically shifted off-axis around a central steel core, this innovative structure has a variety of open, fluid, and light-filled spaces, with skylights created by the setbacks between floors. The exterior is clad in a seamless, anodized aluminum mesh, which emphasizes the volumes of the boxes while dressing the whole building in a delicate, softly shimmering skin. The elegantly rough structure suits both the New Museum’s character as well as its neighborhood. The edifice appears as a shimmering beacon, visually mutable and dynamic, animated by the changing light of the day—a perfect metaphor for the ever-changing nature of contemporary art. Inaugural exhibitions include “Unmonumental,” an international group show in four parts, as well as exhibitions and special projects by YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Ugo Rondinone, Jeffrey Inaba, and Sharon Hayes."

You'll notice in the first picture the rainbow neon sign on the front?
This building screams "Hell Yes!", and I wanna scream "Hell Yes!" right back.

Here's their intel: New Museum Site

Look at their mission statement, it's four words!:


I love it!

G'Obama!

Barack Obama has SuperForest all in a tizzy!

The man is pure excitement.

Look at this:



Can you imagine any other candidate inspiring a piece of art like this? I can't. And I can imagine a lot.


Hooray to progress!
Hooray to peace!
And hooray to the good people of these United States!

love to all,

J

Grizzly Bear: Knife

The incredible mix of creativity and collaboration in this song/video make it the SuperForest Snippet of the Day.

Grizzly Bear makes me proud to be human.

Grizzly Bear - The Knife
Uploaded by grizzlybear

Wonderhowto.com

Do you have questions?

Would you like to know stuff?

Wonderhowto.com is your site, gooseberries!

Hot Water Powered Solar Water Pump

Very exciting! Especially for places where sunlight is abundant and water is scarce. Places like, uhhh, most of earth's surface.

It pumps water on the upstroke, and generates power on the downstroke.

I think Parliament Funkadelic sang something about this years ago...

On Perfection: Tampopo

It was almost ten years ago that I first came across Juzo Itami's transcendent Tampopo.
Since that time, I've probably watched it once a month, if not double that.

Why?

Because it may just be the perfect film.

Ostensibly a conventional story about a drifter who ambles into town and helps the local widow achieve a better life for herself and son, while protecting her from local bad guys; this incredible film is so much more than that.

It's nothing less than a meditation on perfection.

What is perfection? That's entirely arguable. Tampopo humbly posits that perfection is the ultimate union of form, function, and effort.

In this case, the local widow, the Tampopo of the title, has inherited her deceased husband's noodle shop, and is struggling to keep it afloat. When Goro, the driver/cowboy, and his partner stop in one rainy night for noodles, they find Tampopo serving mediocre ramen, her son getting beaten up, and surly toughs infesting the bar. Dire straights.

I don't want to spoil anything, but Goro is wise in the ways of many things, including noodles, and he agrees to tutor Tampopo in the art of making a great bowl of ramen.

Research is done, a crack team is assembled, and the search for the perfect bowl of noodles is off and running.

If you like food movies, or Japanese comedies, or meditations on what is best in life, or adventures, or romance, then you'll love Tampopo.






Tampopo on amazon.

Tampopo at wikipedia.

Wonderful Tampopo review from Hal Hinson of the Washinton Post.

Juzo Itami at imdb.com.

Daily Inspiration: Biomimicry

Good Morning All,

If you watch one thing today, watch this:



Love to all,

Jackson

16 Year Old Builds Working Wooden Bike

(from gadgettastic.com)

Marco Facciola built an entire bike out of wood, chain and all, in his spare time.
I reserve the following word for special occasions: Flabbergasting!

Go Marco!

The best part in the article is how he talks about only having one cheap set of drill bits and how he had to use them both carefully and sparingly, only removing a bit of wood at a time, then backing off and rubbing a bit of soap onto the bit, which both cooled and lubricated it.

Marco, you smart. And thrifty.

What an inspiration.

Marco Facciola on gadgettastic.com

Air Trees

Via inhabitat:



"Ecoboulevard is shaped around recycled gasworks, allowing the project to grow from repurposed industrial materials. The “air trees” share the service of pavilion, what the designers call a “social revitalizing” space. These centers have, by way of the rooting vegetation, a cooling effect on the urban environment. The open structures can also facilitate social gatherings that require electricity - each “air tree” is equipped with solar photovoltaic to meet on-site energy needs.

The architects have gone beyond the obvious benefits of reusing materials and have considered a growing urban landscape. When the plants are established, the remains of industry can be disassembled and removed, leaving behind a flourishing greenway. This aspect, what the AR Award jury referred to as “the idea that a temporary structure could make a long-term proposition about the way a city streetscape might adapt in the context of ever-hotter urban environments,” is one of the most impressive facets of the project. On its top pick this year, AR calls the Ecoboulevard “an urban intervention as delightful as it is functional.”

We need these here in NYC.

So, just to recap: They're made out of recyclables, provide clean air, electricity, a place for people to congregate, and look cool as the dickens.

Double tasty.

Project Optimism

(via swissmiss)


Project Optimism Site

Positivity is so hot right now.

Love,

J

NY Street Snaps

What is this?!

Why is it laying in the street on 26th & 11th?

I love you, New York City.

Best Aptera Video

This is the best Aptera video I've seen yet. It's funny, you go to their website, and the video they have of the car is people standing around, looking at the car.

Show me how it moves.

Sell me.

Getting better all the time.

Ooooh, wait! They've got this video up now:
Popular Mechanics viddy on Aptera's site


The Aptera: Now for tattooed, baguette-buying muscle men too!

High End Coffee

I love coffee.

Now I'm an espresso man myself, but you've got to appreciate the level of performance and nuance in each video.

These cats are taking drip coffee to an entirely new level.

Enjoy.




The Clover.




And you must read the incredible piece in today's NY Times!:
"At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee"

Nanyang Tech's Green Roof!

"(This is the) 5-Storey Teaching Facility at Nanyang Drive for School of Art, Design and Media.

Located at the junction of Nanyang Ave and Nanyang Drive, the new iconic School of Art, Design and Media is situated in a wooded valley, right in the heart of the campus.

The design was conceived as 3 intertwining blocks that are apparent natural extensions of the ground. These blocks interweave to enclose a picturesque plaza and landscape. Major spaces such as the Auditorium, Media Studios, library and art galleries surround this outdoor activity node."
(from NTU.edu)

We need more buildings that look like this.

Don't you just want to roll around on it? I don't often think that about buildings.

Outdoor Activity Node? Sign me up!

Yet another good reason to visit Singapore.

LAPCAT!

(via inhabitat.com)

"In a hurry? Need to get from Sydney to Brussels in a dash? Not too far in the future you may be able to travel that entire distance in less than 4 hours - emissions free - thanks to an amazing hypersonic hydrogen jet project called LAPCAT. LAPCAT stands for Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologie, and is funded by the European Space Agency. This type of hypersonic jet would put the Concorde to shame with it’s speed, and the best part is that it would not be powered by the typical fossil fuels, but instead by a much greener hydrogen alternative."
-Jorge Chapa

Wowee wow wow!

I fly a lot and this is very good news.
I hope Richard Branson is buying a few of these for Virgin Airlines.

LAPCAT: it's just fun to say.

Lily and the World

Hello All,

My sister just sent me this link.

Lily - The World (Click Here!)

It's pretty unbelievable.

She's not even two.

I sat there and was like: "That's where Turkey is?"

Observe and be staggered:

Lily - The World (Or Here!)

Robo-Fly

Get ready to bow at the feet of our robot overlords!

Albeit, their tiny, segmented, fly-shaped feet.

Harvard University has brought us one step closer to WorldMachine with the introduction of the first robotic insect that generates enough thrust to take off on its own.


(via Deviceguru)

Check out Robo-Fly in action:


Amazing. I would like a cloud of them surrounding me at all times. They could protect you from UV overexposure, visually filter out billboards and ads, hide your identity, run errands, provide security...

And that's just one tiny facet of personal use. Miniature robotic flies could track bird migration, deter crime, tend to and nurture flowers. Their uses are nearly limitless.

What do y'all think? Run and hide? Dance and smile?

-J

TED Talks

I am completely addicted to the TED Talks!

Okay, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a yearly conference where great minds get together and share great ideas.
(TED Wiki)

Now, you can access all of those incredible ideas online, in a superclean site.

Beyond the incredible ideas, the site is SO user friendly. You wanna download just the audio? Fine. Where do you want it, ipod or desktop?


This week, I've watched Will Wright discuss his incredible new game, Spore.


I've seen Dean Kamen discuss DEKA's bionic arm.


I've nodded enthusiastically as Gever Tulley highlights 5 dangerous things you should let your kid do.


I've sat astounded as David Gallo showed off the incredible underwater exploits of the octopus.


And that's just a smidge of an incredibly diverse and inspiring set of lectures and talks:



All for free! All for you! Whenev's you want! Such a mind-blowing resource!

I love the internet.

The Beatles were right: It's getting so much better, all the time.

Be excellent to each other.

-J

Whoah 2: Cellphone Novels!

The Japanese are on fire today!
First Space Origami and now this:

From the NYTimes:

(In Japan) "of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels.
What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere."

So let me get this straight, of all the authors in Japan, professional authors, who sit at home writing for a living, thinking deep thoughts, etc. Every single one of them were overtaken on the best-seller lists by ordinary folk who texted themselves a novel on their cellphones in their spare time?!

That is staggering.

What an amazing time to be alive.

So if I were smart, considering that we in the US takes about five years to get hip to what the Japanese hipster elite are doing, now would be a good time to start an American cellphone publishing site.

I'm sure someone's on it.

Dean Kamen's New Arm

Dean Kamen...

Wow.

For those of you saying: "Who?"
Dean Kamen Wikipedia

The modern-day Da Vinci has once more outdone himself. Beyond inventing the first portable dialysis machine, or heart stents, or insulin pumps, or gyroscopic wheelchairs, he's now set his sights on prosthetics.

Because so many of our troops in Iraq are coming back missing one or both arms, the Department of Defence came to him and asked him for help. He researched the idea and his team came up with the most amazing thing I've seen today: A working prototype of a prosthetic arm.

Check out this video:



I love and worship this man's ingenuity.

Few people have done so much in so short an amount of time to help their fellow humans. Dean Kamen is an inspiration to us all.

p.s. check out ALL the TED talks! They are so inspiring.
TED talks