Gondolas are running aground and hotel docks hang in midair as Italy's lagoon city Venice, more commonly awash at high tide, dries out because of good weather and an unusual combination of planetary influences. See this image for a visual and more info, or CNN. View full entry
James Kunstler (Geography of Nowhere) is back with a new book: The Long Emergency, a vision of the U.S. and the world after fossil fuels. He also has shifted his Clusterfuck nation writings to this blog. Related discussion on his lovely work in the eyesore of the month. View full entry
After a piece of contemporary art was dumped and incinerated, thirty of Frankfurt's dustmen are now being sent to modern art classes to try to ensure that the same mistake never happens again. (via Guardian | Artdaily | DW) View full entry
Perhaps more important than the I.D. Top 40, here is the Urinal Top 10 (via sexblo.gs). Perhaps we should add number 11, the best invention I've seen in all of 2005: the Whizzy. (via bev). View full entry
These are the people that apparently best know how to fry the fish and bake the clams in the design world, according to I.D. Mag, and Design Observer has a vital discussion going. DO View full entry
Our Dorkwave friends in Detroit have teamed up with AFH to throw a special fundraising event for the Tsunami re:build project. This Friday View full entry
Huge Sculpture. Period. 180 ft. And spiky. "To keep it anchored it has foundations weighing 750 tonnes, including a 400-square-metre reinforced concrete slab. The sculpture itself weighs 300 tonnes and leans at an angle of 30 degrees - 10 times more than the leaning tower of Pisa." Guardian View full entry
27 January will mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. BBC is running a program on the architecture of Auschwitz. | BBC | Related: Waterloo's esteemed professor Robert van Pelt's books. View full entry
Estorick Collection in London presents a show of a Futurist subgenre of painting, or aeropainting. The problem, says Jonathan Jones in the Guardian, is a cozy alliance between Silvio Berlusconi's government (backing the show) and the curatorial stance; a bit of a tacit approval of the artists'... View full entry
Houston tops Men's Fitness Magazine annual fattest cities list for the fourth time in five years, with four other Texas cities waddling into the top 25. Reuters View full entry
"The Tsunami has shown us how fragile our existence is"...the guardian publishes as cover story an extract from the book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive by Jared Diamond. View full entry
Former architect with Aldo Rossi and Morris Adjmi, Lisa Mahar establishes design-oriented shop for toddlers: Kid-O. | metropolis View full entry
Greg Allen wrote an engaging article (NYT) on the art-collection world's growing obsession with Dan Flavin and the sometimes contradictory approach he had towards the long-term durability of his work. Flavin's son, Stephen, emerges as a somewhat shadowy figure in the article, but he has now... View full entry
Surface Magazine attempts to predict the next ten years of design. Vote for your favorite. View full entry
www.nomentalblock.com A hardback-glossy-foiled-art book project promoting Northern (England) creativity with an "anything-is-welcome" brief! Wanting submissions from "Northern" graphic designers/artists/photographers and even poets everywhere. Deadline for submissions Saturday 2nd April 2005. View full entry