Streetwear label LRG highlights the technique of Chicago-based graffiti giant Pose in their two-part “Artist Driven Series”.  Pose based each piece on the graphics he originally designed for LRG t-shirts.  Watching Pose wield a spray-can is like watching poetry in motion.

See more of Pose’s work via the Known Gallery.

Check out Pose’s blog here.

Read a recent interview he did with Juxtapoz Magazine here.

posted by: Harold Johns III

Synopsis:

Thirty-eight years after it was completed, a 1972 documentary following Leonard Cohen—the enormously influential poet, folk musician and, since 2008, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—on tour in Europe finally has its moment. Originally made as a promotional film for the artist, whose record sales were meager at the time, Bird on a Wire was produced and edited by Tony Palmer, then famed for his seminal 1968 documentary All My Loving, an eye-opening dissection of rock n’ roll that featured, among others, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Donovan. In Bird on a Wire, Palmer neatly captured the tour itself––threadbare, fraught with technical difficulties and emotional upheavals––but on first viewing, Cohen balked at the bare bones honesty of the film and demanded a complete re-edit from another source. The result was so disastrous that the film opened and closed on the same day, was forgotten about, then lost. In 2009, 294 cans of celluloid labeled Bird an a Wire were found locked in a Hollywood warehouse and immediately shipped to Palmer, who set about re-creating the original film he made all those years ago. The work is a visual poem—Palmer’s camera followed Cohen without judgment, opening the floor to the man as well as the artist. Today’s exclusive clip shows the music legend during an abortive attempt to ask a young German fan out on a date.

Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire by Tony Palmer is available now on DVD.

Synopsis:

Mesrine: Killer Instinct – the first of two parts- charts the outlaw odyssey of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel), the legendary French gangster of the 1960s and 1970s who came to be known as “French Public Enemy No. 1″ and “The Man of a Thousand Faces”. Infamous for his bravado and outrageously daring prison escapes, Mesrine carried out numerous robberies, kidnappings and murders in a criminal career that spanned continents until he was shot dead in 1979 by France’s notorious anti-gang unit. Thirty years after his death, his infamy lives on. Mesrine was helped along the way by beautiful and equally reckless Jeanne Schneider (Cecile de France), a Bonnie to match his Clyde. Mesrine made up his own epic, between romanticism and cruelty, flamboyance and tragedy. Both a thriller and a biopic, Killer Instinct explores the man behind the icon.

In select theaters now. The sequel Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 hits select theaters on September 3.

Synopsis:

In his feature–length documentary The Big Uneasy, humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap, The Simpsons) gets the inside story of a disaster that could have been prevented from the people who were there. As we approach the fifth anniversary of the flooding of New Orleans, Shearer speaks to the investigators who poked through the muck as the water receded and a whistle–blower from the Army Corps of Engineers, revealing that some of the same flawed methods responsible for the levee failure during Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the new New Orleans from future peril.

In short segments hosted by John Goodman, Shearer speaks candidly with local residents about life in New Orleans. Together, they explore the questions that Americans outside of the Gulf region have been pondering in the five years since Katrina: Why would people choose to live below sea level? Why is it important to rebuild New Orleans?

The Big Uneasy is laced with computer imagery that takes you inside the structures that failed so catastrophically, and boasts never–before–seen video of the moments when New Orleans began to flood and the painstaking investigations that followed. The Big Uneasy marks the beginning of the end of five years of ignorance about what happened to one of our nation’s most treasured cities — and serves as a stark reminder that the same agency that failed to protect New Orleans still exists in other cities across America.

The Big Uneasy was only in theaters for one night on August 30, it will eventually make its way to DVD sometime this month. Check the film’s Facebook page for more information and updates.

Bonus: Chloë Sevigny co-stars in Barry Munday, the story of a suburban wanna-be ladies man who loses his testicles after he is attacked at a movie theater.

posted by: Brent Carter

In honor of 9/02/10, here’s some 90210. Check out our 90210 Style Trends post from back in the day here.

Note: Watch for Tori Spelling’s intro scene, while everyone else got to come off looking relatively cool, poor Donna just eats a sandwich.

posted by: Tricia Rock

Blonde Ambition, POP Fall/Winter 2010, photographed by Jamie Morgan

If Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ defined an untouchable height for blonde cool, a detached silverscreen/silkscreen perfection, then that hasn’t stopped others returning again and again to the template with a renewed passion. For 2011 the blonde is powerful, cultured, independent, self-aware… and ubiquitous.

See the entire editorial on Fashion Gone Rogue

posted by: Tricia Rock

A device designed to control unruly inmates by blasting them with a beam of intense energy that causes a burning sensation is drawing heat from civil rights groups who fear it could cause serious injury and is “tantamount to torture.”

The mechanism, known as an “Assault Intervention Device,” is a stripped-down version of a military gadget that sends highly focused beams of energy at people and makes them feel as though they are burning. The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department plans to install the device by Labor Day, making it the first time in the world the technology has been deployed in such a capacity.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized Sheriff Lee Baca’s decision in a letter sent Thursday, saying that the technology amounts to a ray gun at a county jail. The 4-feet-tall weapon, which looks like a cross between a robot and a satellite radar, will be mounted on the ceiling and can swivel.

It is remotely controlled by an operator in a separate room who lines up targets with a joystick…

Read the full article via Salon.com (published August 26, 2010)

Our two cents: Making people feel like they are burning alive doesn’t really seem like the best way to quell a riot or rehabilitate inmates. Besides wouldn’t they just move around more as they attempt to dodge the heat beam?

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THE GOVERNMENT CAN NOW TRACK YOUR EVERY MOVE WITH GPS, AT LEAST IN THE 9th CIRCUIT

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway – and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre – and scary – rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states (Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants – with no need for a search warrant.

It is a dangerous decision – one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle’s underside…

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno’s privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the “curtilage,” a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government’s intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno’s driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited.

Read the full article via Time/Yahoo News (published August 26, 2010)

Our two cents: We can only hope the Supreme Court will reverse this decision, otherwise say goodbye to the 4th Amendment.

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FDA FINDS ‘OBJECTIONABLE CONDITIONS’ AT EGG FARMS RESPONSIBLE FOR MASSIVE RECALL

Flies “too numerous to count,” rodents, wild birds, maggots, and open piles of manure four to eight feet high were among the observations released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday, illustrating “significant objectionable conditions” at two Iowa egg farms responsible for the recent recall of over half a billion eggs.

With the release of the inspection reports for Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, FDA said the two companies failed to implement internal protocols and FDA egg regulations, which went into affect July 9.

The farms came under investigation after being linked to a sharp spike in Salmonella enteritidis illnesses between May and August. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 1,500 reported illnesses are likely linked to the outbreak.

Federal officials are still trying determine exactly how the disease-causing bacteria entered the large-scale egg facilities. The observational reports released yesterday indicate there are numerous possible modes of contamination.

Read the full article via Food Safety News (published August 31, 2010)

Our two cents: Where the F was the FDA before this outbreak? Open piles of manure four to eight feet tall don’t exactly show up overnight. At least I hope not…

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A U.S. MAN MAY FACE 16 YEARS IN PRISON FOR POSTING A VIDEO OF HIS ARREST ON YOUTUBE

When police arrested Anthony Graber for speeding on his motorbike, the 25-year-old probably did not see himself as an advocate for police accountability in the age of new media. But Graber, a sergeant with the Maryland Air National Guard, is now facing 16 years in prison, not for dangerous driving, but for a Youtube video he posted after receiving a speeding ticket.

The video, filmed with a camera mounted on Graber’s motorcycle helmet designed to record biking stunts rather than police abuse, shows a plain clothes officer jumping out of an unmarked car and pointing a pistol at the motorcyclist. It does not portray the policeman in a positive light.

After he posted the video on Youtube, police raided Graber’s home, seized computers and put him in jail.

“The case is critical to the protection of democracy because I don’t think you can have a free country in which public officials are able to criminally prosecute people who film what they are doing,” David Rocah, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland who is representing Graber, said.

Read the full article with video via Al-Jazeera (published August 28, 2010)

Our two cents: Although it’s unlikely Graber will have to do any time because The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has publicly stated a police stop is not a private conversation and therefore is not covered by Maryland’s Wiretap Act, the fact the plain clothes cop pulled a gun on a citizen for speeding still makes us say WTF.

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VENEZUELAN POLITICIAN RAFFLES BREAST IMPLANTS TO RAISE MONEY

A Venezuelan politician is offering breast implants as a prize in a raffle to raise funds for his parliamentary election campaign.

“Some people raffle TVs and we decided to offer this. It’s an interesting prize and there’s a lot of interest,” Gustavo Rojas, an opposition candidate for a National Assembly position, told Reuters while campaigning in Caracas.

Cosmetic surgery, especially breast enlargement, is widespread in image-conscious Venezuela, whose beauty queens have won numerous international pageant titles.

Read the full article via Reuters (published August 27, 2010)

Our two cents: American politicians please take note, this is how you raise money without going through corporate lobbyists.

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JAPANESE MEN GO TO A HOTEL TO BE WITH VIRTUAL GIRLFRIENDS

This resort town, once popular with honeymooners, is turning to a new breed of romance seekers—virtual sweethearts.

In the first month of the city’s promotional campaign launched July 10, more than 1,500 male fans of the Japanese dating-simulation game LovePlus+ have flocked to Atami for a romantic date with their videogame character girlfriends.

The men are real. The girls are cartoon characters on a screen. The trips are actual, can be expensive and aim to re-create the virtual weekend outing featured in the game, a product of Konami Corp. played on Nintendo Co.’s DS videogame system.

Love Plus+ re-creates the experience of an adolescent romance. The goal isn’t just to get the girl but to maintain a relationship with her.

After choosing one of three female characters—goodie-goodie Manaka, sassy Rinko or big-sister type Nene—to be a steady girlfriend, the player taps a stylus on the DS touch-screen in order to walk hand-in-hand to school, exchange flirtatious text messages and even meet in the school courtyard for a little afternoon kiss. Using the device’s built-in microphone, the player can carry on sweet, albeit mundane, conversations.

Read the full article with video via The Wall Street Journal

Our two cents: So you still have to impress these virtual girls by working out and doing homework, still have to listen to irritating girl talk, still have to spend money on expensive dates and still can’t have sex with them? It sounds more like a level of purgatory then anything remotely resembling fun.

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Bonus: Rubber Puppet of Sweden performs during a Rubberdoll contest at the rubber and fetish event ‘Latexpo 2010′ in Hamburg late August 21, 2010. Rubberdolls are mostly men wearing a female shaped bodysuit made of latex or rubber and dressed in fetish related dresses. The Latexpo runs August 20-22 and designers will present new materials and styles. There will also be fetish parties, a fashion ball and a Rubberdoll contest. See more weird photos via Reuters’ slideshow.

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Bonus: Watch supporters of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor ” rally pathetically try to explain their “reasoning”  in interviews with New Left Media.

posted by: Harold Johns III

Banksy hits England’s Brighton Pier with a “reconditioned dolphin ride with crude oil and a tuna net.”

Click here to see it in action.

Click here to see more of Banksy’s new work.

posted by: Brent Carter

Loving The Angels Betrayed editorial for the October 2010 edition of Vogue Nippon. The spread features model Mathilde Frachon in looks from Marc Jacobs, Celine, Alexander Wang and more styled by Beth Fenton and photographed by Lachlan Bailey. Clean, classic cuts with a bit of attitude – part vintage, part modern – perfect inspiration for fall. See all the images on Fashion Gone Rogue.

posted by: Tricia Rock

“The Girl and the Bear, 2008″, c-prints on archival card and foamcore, 108 x 108 x 22 in

Artist’s Approach:

Through her tri-dimensional works designed to evoke the virtual modelings simulating reality, Susy Oliveira questions our habits of replacing nature with fabricated replicas. In her works, there is a playful dynamic which associates the characteristics of photography with those inherent to sculpture. Their structure incorporates the angles and features of some giant origami. The photographs are mounted on each face of a volume to restore the three dimensions of the image. Through this process, the shape is both simplified and amplified, giving the photography a volume, an ambiguous character oscillating between reality and fiction. (via)

“Night eyes open”, 2007, c-prints on archival card and foamcore, 20 x 24 x 6 in

“Time is never wasted”, 2006, c-prints and foamcore, 144 x 58 x 15 in

See more of Oliveira’s work here

posted by: Brent Carter

Bonus: You can also download Clinic’s 2001 live set from WMFU’s Scott Show here

Sufjan Stevens
“I Walked”
From Steven’s latest full-length The Age of Adz, out 10/12 via Asthmatic Kitty
Download here (via Steven’s Bandcamp page)

Download audio file (01-I-Walked-1.mp3)

Glasser
“Home”
From Glasser aka Cameron Mesirow’s debut full length Ring, out 9/28 on True Panther Sounds
Download here (right click + save link as)

Download audio file (02-Home.mp3)

Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab)
“One Million Year Trip”
From Sadier’s first “proper” solo album The Trip, out 9/21 on Drag City
Download here (right click + save link as)

Download audio file (01-One-Million-Year-Trip-1.mp3)

Coma Cinema
“Business as Usual”
From the upcoming album Blue Suicide, out soon via Wonder Bread Tapes
Download here (right click + save link as)

Download audio file (01-Business-As-Usual.mp3)

Houses
“Endless Spring”
From the forthcoming album All Night, out 10/19 via Lefse Records
Download here (right click + save link as)

Download audio file (02-Endless-Spring.mp3)

El Guincho
“FM Tan Sexy”
From El Guincho’s aka Pablo Diaz-Reixa’s second album Pop Negro, out 9/14 via Young Turks
Download here

Download audio file (06-FM-Tan-Sexy.mp3)

Zola Jesus
“Sea Talk”
From her latest EP Valusia, out 10/12 via Sacred Bones Records
Download here

Download audio file (03-Sea-Talk..mp3)

Bonus: Surfer Blood’s Daytrotter session

posted by: Harold Johns III

This video captures Mission of Burma, one of the greatest American rock bands, in their prime performing “Red” live in the band’s hometown of Boston at the Bradford Hotel on March 12, 1983. “Red” is from Mission of Burma’s debut EP Signals, Calls and Marches, which was released in 1981 on the indie label Ace of Hearts. Their full length follow-up Vs. with its masterful mix of punk, pop and avant-garde experimentation continues to be a seminal record to this day and has inspired countless other bands including Nirvana, Sonic Youth and fellow Bostonians The Pixies. This footage was taken from the companion DVD to the 2008 reissue of Vs. by Matador Records.

Learn more about Mission of Burma here

posted by: Harold Johns III

The Brooklyn Museum is set to host a mid-career survey of artist Fred Tomaselli’s work. The show runs October 8, 2010–January 2, 2011 in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor. Read on to find out more about Tomaselli from the gallery:

This focused mid-career survey presents a selection of Fred Tomaselli’s unique hybrid paintings and collages from 1990 to the present. These layered paintings combine cutout images of plants, birds, smiling mouths, and hands (clipped from field guides and magazines) with passages of paint and actual prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants to create highly stylized, eye-popping compositions. Tomaselli’s artwork draws upon a wide range of sources from both popular culture and art history, and from his own hobbies of gardening, kayaking, and bird-watching. Growing up near the desert in southern California, Tomaselli felt the influence of nearby theme parks, with their manufactured reality, and the music and drug counterculture of Los Angles in the 1970s and 1980s. His distinctive melding of these influences coalesces into a folk-driven, utopian vision of the mythic American West and of lush gardens as sites of contemplation, loss, and possible redemption. One of the pioneering artists who moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 1980s, Tomaselli continues to live and work in the borough.

“Hang Over”; 2005; leaves, pills, acrylic and resin on wood

“Untitled (Expulsion)”; 2000

posted by: Tricia Rock

Studio Synopsis:

127 Hours is the new film from Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning director of  Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. 127 Hours is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s (James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers (Clemence Poesy), family, and the two hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident. Will they be the last two people he ever had the chance to meet? A visceral thrilling story that will take an audience on a never before experienced journey and prove what we can do when we choose life.

In theaters 11/05/10

Studio Synopsis:

From Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson (No End In Sight), comes Inside Job, the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia. Narrated by Academy Award winner Matt Damon, Inside Job was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

In theaters 10/08/10

Updated Bonus: In this new documentary learn about The Extraordinary Ordinary Life Of Jose Gonzalez, the critically acclaimed Swedish singer/songwriter.

Bonus: The trailer for Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is now online. It will be released only on DVD November 9, 2010.

Bonus: Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, co-creators of The Office, are sending close-minded simpleton Karl Pilkington around the world in their new show An Idiot Abroad. Not sure when this show hits stateside.

Bonus: The official four-and-a-half-minute trailer for Frank Darabont’s live-action adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, which was screened at Comic Con, is now online. The 90-minute series premiere will air October 31 on AMC as part of the network’s annual horror film marathon Fearfest.

posted by: Brent Carter

From: A History Of The Greatest 50 Animated .GIFs Of All Time

posted by: Harold Johns III

MAN SHOT IN HEAD DOESN’T NOTICE UNTIL 5 YEARS LATER

A Polish man living in Germany went about his business for about five years without noticing he had been shot in the head because he was drunk when it happened. Police in the western city of Bochum said on Tuesday doctors found a .22 caliber bullet in the back of his head after the 35-year-old went to have what he thought was a cyst removed.

Presented with the 5.6mm projectile, the man recalled he had received a blow to the head around midnight at a New Year’s party “in 2004 or 2005,” but had forgotten about it because he had been “very drunk,” a police spokesman said…

Police said they were not treating the incident as suspicious as the bullet might have got lodged in the man’s head when a reveler fired a gun in celebration.

Read the full article via Reuters (published August 24, 2010)

Our two cents: The gauntlet for drunkenness has been laid down with vigor.

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BABIES WITH BREASTS SHOCK CHINA

Once again, China’s most vulnerable citizens – its babies – are the central figures in a food-safety scandal. Two years ago, milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine killed six infants and left 300,000 more suffering from kidney stones. Now, some Chinese babies are growing breasts, and their parents are blaming the Nasdaq-listed company that produces the baby  formula they were drinking.

But tests conducted by the besieged Ministry of Health have exonerated Synutra International, based in the northern coastal city of Qingdao. No abnormalities were found in samples of Synutra’s milk powder or any other formula that was tested, the ministry announced on Sunday. Laboratory tests of 42 Synutra samples found no trace of added hormones that could have led to the premature development of four infant girls. But this may in fact increase the parents’ anxiety: if this was not caused by tainted milk then by what?

Read the full article via The Asia Times (published August 17, 2010)

Our two cents: Please, don’t try to visualize a baby with breasts, it’ll just make ya feel weird.

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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SEEKS EBONICS EXPERTS – DEA TO HIRE NINE “BLACK ENGLISH” LINGUISTS

The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media”…

In contract documents, which are excerpted here, Ebonics is listed among 114 languages for which prospective contractors must be able to provide linguists. The 114 languages are divided between “common languages” and “exotic languages.” Ebonics is listed as a “common language” spoken solely in the United States.

Read the full article via The Smoking Gun (published August 23, 2010)

Our two cents: I had no idea Ebonics or “Black English” were terms (white) people still used.

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13 YEAR OLD BOY HIT BY LIGHTNING AT 13:13 ON FRIDAY THE 13th

A 13-year-old boy was struck by lightning — at 13:13 hours on Friday the 13th, according to reports.

The teen was watching an air show at Lowestoft, England, when he was struck and was later treated for burns to his shoulder, the U.K.’s Mirror newspaper said. He is expected to fully recover.

Rex Clarke, leader of the St. John Ambulance team that treated the child, described what happened.

“Suddenly there was this huge crack of lightning really close to the seafront and really loud thunder,” he told the Mirror. “Seconds later we got a call someone had been hit. The boy was breathing and was conscious.”

“He had a minor burn to his shoulder and was taken to hospital as a precaution. It could have been a lot worse,” he said, adding: “It’s all a bit strange that he was 13, and it happened at 13:13 on Friday the 13th.

Read the full article via MSNBC (published August 15, 2010)

Our two cents: If you’re gonna get hit by lightning, might as well do it with style.

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THE PACIFIC GARBAGE ISLAND HAS A NORTH ATLANTIC COUNTERPART AND NOW IT’S BEEN MAPPED

Millions of pieces of plastic — most smaller than half an inch — float throughout the oceans. They are invisible to satellites, and except on very calm days you won’t even see them from the deck of a sailboat. The only way to know how much junk is out there is to tow a fine net through the water.

Scientists have gathered data from 22 years of surface net tows to map the North Atlantic garbage patch and its change over time, creating the most accurate picture yet of any pelagic plastic patch on earth.

The data were gathered by thousands of undergraduates aboard the Sea Education Association (SEA) sailing semester, who hand-picked, counted and measured more than 64,000 pieces of plastic from 6,000 net tows between 1986 to 2008.

“The highest concentrations that we observe in the North Atlantic garbage patch  are comparable to that of the North Pacific, but we don’t have enough data about the size of the North Pacific one to say whether they are comparable in size,” said oceanographer Kara Law of SEA, lead author of the study published August 19 in Science…

The highest concentrations of plastic were found roughly from the latitude of Virginia to the latitude of Cuba. While they were able to clearly define the north and south boundaries of the patch, the cruise tracks didn’t venture far enough east to find the eastern boundary. They estimate the average concentration of plastic in this area is about 4,000 pieces per square mile, though it is as high as 250,000 pieces per square mile in some places.

Read the full article with photos and graphs via Wired (published August 19th, 2010)

Our two cents: U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. …

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3 COLOMBIAN TEENS ON FACEBOOK HIT LIST KILLED IN PAST 10 DAYS

Three teens who were on a 69-name hit list posted on Facebook have been killed in the past 10 days in a southwestern Colombian town, officials say.

Police say they do not know who posted the list or why the names are on it.

“It is still not clear,” Colombian national police spokesman Wilson Baquero told CNN. “This is part of the investigation.”

But officials note that a criminal gang known as Los Rastrojos and a Marxist guerrilla group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate in the area.

The hit list on Facebook, which was posted August 17, gave the people named three days to leave the town of Puerto Asis or be executed, said Volmar Perez Ortiz, a federal official whose title is defender of the public.

Police at first thought the posting was a joke, Perez said in a statement issued Saturday. But the publication of a second list with 31 additional names led authorities to convene a special security meeting Friday, Perez said.

Read the full article via CNN (published August 24, 2010)

Our two cents: I thought Facebook tattled on people all the time for much lesser crimes, so what gives?

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Bonus: TWILIGHT WEREWOLF TAYLOR LAUNTER EMOTIONALLY DISTRESSED OVER RV TRAILER

Bonus: BEDBUG INFESTATIONS ON THE RISE IN THE U.S. NEW YORK TOPS THE LIST

Bonus: TRAFFIC JAM IN CHINA REACHES 11 DAYS AS OF AUGUST 25, 2010

posted by: Harold Johns III

FRIDAY AUGUST 27

• Final Fridays in Downtown Lawrence, Kansas
Downtown Lawrence (Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS)
Friday, August 27, 5-8pm

Lawrence’s first Final Fridays, a monthly celebration of the arts. Final Fridays will be presented by the Downtown Lawrence Arts District.

The gallery walk will include 15 commercial galleries as well as a number of local merchants who will take part in Final Fridays by hosting live music or displaying art. A few empty retail spaces will become “flash galleries” filled with temporary exhibits by local artists. Look for the bright yellow flags that signify a venue’s participation.

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Art event locations and participants for this month include:

739 Massachusetts Street
Flash Space, formerly Maurices
Group show presented by B.A.L.M (ongoing through September 17 by appointment)
From the organizers:
Opening reception for b.a.l.m. TRANS•parent TRANS•lucent. This is a group show exploring the idea of translucency and transparency curated by Darin M. White. Featuring works by Leah Busch, Jon Cowan, Christina Dostaier, TR Ericsson, Matthew Farley, Tyson Gough, Rex Hausmann, Vincent Leandro, Keith Lemley, David Parker, Andy Norquist, Debra Seeger, Linnea Spransy Shannon White, and Marc Wiegand.

1109 Gallery (Lawrence Art Guild)
1109 Massachusetts
According to the 1109 Gallery Facebook page, they will have “wine and cheese, great art and fun” as well as a “use your mom’s grocery bag for a book” art making activity from 5-8pm, $3 including all materials. Not sure what this all entails, but we do like, wine, cheese, art, and fun! Lawrence Art Guild’s Member Show of over 40 members work is currently on display through August 29.

Aimee’s Café & Coffeehouse
1025 Massachusetts
Paintings by Steve Swaggert, reception presented by South Massachusetts Art Guild

photo by Jeffrey Stephens

Bourgeois Pig
6 E 9th Street
Baby Heads 02 by Wayne Propst
From the organizers:
FREE HOT DOGS!

Twisty Bracelet by Makenna Bartel

Diane’s Artisan Gallery
4 E 7th Street
From the organizers:
Trunk show of jewelry by Makenna Bartel

Eccentricities
716 Massachusetts
Paintings by David Gross, Barbara Cleary, Hooshang Khorasani, and Shelly Bedsaul.

The Eldridge Hotel
701 Massachusetts
Artists displaying in the Crystal Ballroom include Stan Herd, Clare Doveton, Zac Barnes, John Stephen Howard, Louis Copt and Donna Dennis. A trio from The Lawrence Chamber Orchestra to perform in the lobby along with specials in the Jayhawker and TEN Restaurant.

The Etc. Shop
928 Massachusetts
Frank Lloyd Wright Collection items on display and for sale

Global Cafe
820 Massachusetts
Paintings by stained-glass artist Vivian Faulkner

Hobbs Taylor Lofts
730 New Hampshire
Installation by Zaguar (Zach Hangauer), owner of Rangelife Records

Invisible Hand Gallery
801 1/2 Massachusetts
Closing reception of Mask-Portraits by Jeromy Morris

It’s About Time
816 Massachusetts
Going out of business sale, 40% off metal works for your yard and home

by Jennifer Jarnot

Lawrence Arts Center
840 New Hampshire
Stan Herd and Simon Cardova photographs (ongoing through September 26)
From the organizers:
Stan Herd will exhibit photos and materials connected with the creation of the earthwork piece, “Countryside” while Simon Cardova will show photographs of the making of the film Earthwork.
Jennifer Jarnot, Reconstructing the Paint-by-Number
From the organizers: My recent paintings take their cue from my fascination for the nostalgia of popular culture, particularly those items that were influential, i.e., the stuff of one’s childhood, toys, books, and games.

Lawrence Percolator
Alley behind LAC at 840 New Hampshire
You Can’t Scare Me, I’m a Teacher! opening reception. Featuring artwork by art teachers from USD 497.

Lawrence Public Library
707 Vermont
Paintings by Dian Hauser in the main gallery
Insect Art by Katie Van Blaricum in the entrances
Jewelery by Rachael Sudlow in the library cases
Pencil, charcoal and pastel sketches by Stephanie Barrows in the lower level
All shows are ongoing through August 30

Love Garden Sounds
822 Massachusetts
I’m OK, Art Quilts by Hannah T Johnson (ongoing through September 2)

Mirth Cafe
745 New Hampshire
Photography by Matt Needham

Pachamamas Restaurant
800 New Hampshire
Acrylic paintings by Liberty Hollis

People’s Optical
737 Massachusetts
Paintings by Marilyn Horsch

Phoenix Gallery
919 Massachusetts
Highlighting local artists represented by the gallery

Signs of Life Gallery
722 Massachusetts
Through the Artists’ Eyes: Landscape Interpreted, paintings by Rodney Troth, Elizabeth Rowley and Deb Schroer

Through A Glass Productions
1009 New Hampshire, Suite A
Screening of Cigar By Car by local filmmaker Marlo Angell.
From the organizers: The sleepy day of a cigar attendant is disrupted when he follows a young shoplifter through a mystical cow pasture.  When the cows break free of the fence that binds them, Genius Grass finds the spirit to reclaim his youth and wake up to life.

Van Go Mobile Arts
Flash Space, formerly Arensburgs Shoe Store at 825 Massachusetts
Live mural painting from 5-8pm by students and teachers from Van Go

WheatFields Bakery and Café
904 Vermont
Paintings by Barbara Reid

White Chocolate Skateboards & More
933 Massachusetts
Photography by J. C. Cirese (ongoing through August 30)

by Sighn

Wonder Fair Art Gallery
803 1/2 Massachusetts
No One Knows How Deep This Goes, featuring the work of Sighn (Matthew Hoffman), text-based object installation

Update: New Art Space Opens Its Doors
Quintessential Gallery
512 East 9th Street, Lawrence, Kansas
“Quintessential Gallery” opens its doors for the first time to help ring in the inaugural Final Friday event in Lawrence, Kansas.  Founded August 1, 2010, Quintessential Gallery will be showcasing work by the gallery’s founding artists and Fresh Produce Art Collective members. Traditional and new, the works included are an eclectic mix of mediums from fabric, paint, photography and more.

Exhibiting Artists:
Brent Teufel – Bobbie Powell – Erok Johanssen – Leo Hayden – Rachel Herring –
Fresh Produce Art Collective
Exhibition curator(s):   Leo Hayden, Erok Johanssen and Bobbi Powell

Quintessential Gallery is comprised of five local artists who believe in sharing art with the community.  Located in a shared space with Anam Cara – A Healing Resource Center, Quintessential Gallery is devoted to the continuing creation and exhibition of new work.

posted by: Scott Stewart