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Apple Laptop Stickers With Style

Apple has always been much more about fashion than PCs are, so it's only natural that an Apple computer fan has taken their message of individuality one step further by allowing people to customize their laptop with cool vinyl stickers. The coolest thing about the designs by Vinylville is that each one incorporates the glowing apple logo on the back of their laptops. The Snow White looking at her poisoned apple is stylish and hip. The squirrel one above is cute and playful. There are even more fun and... READ ON

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The Gigantic Robot

If you're looking for a good book that won't take a lot of time to read, but you'll want to hold onto for a while, consider The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld. The 32 page book details the trials and tribulations of a massive and impressive secret weapon whose promise consistently remains unfulfilled. Each page has only one sentence on the left and a stark, striking, black-and-white image on the right. Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder reviewed the book, noting that "even though it took 60 seconds for me to... READ ON

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State Plates: All 50 States in Convenient Souvenir Plate Form

You've definitely seen them: commemorative state plates featuring landmarks and slogans from a particular state. I call them "state plates," but the official term among collectors is "souvenir state plates." They're often displayed in kitchens, and the designs range from kitschy to classy to impossibly bizarre -- see below for examples of each. According to CountryHome (in their "What's Hot Now" feature!), state plates have been around since the 1870s: Souvenir state plates date back to the 1870s.... READ ON

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Dead Fly Art

Swedish photographer Magnus Muhr makes great cartoons from dead flies placed strategically on paper. As you can see, the result looks like an acid-induced reenvisioning of The Far Side, only without any actual punchlines. I wonder what PETA would say about this "art." If they were enraged over president Obama's fly swat heard round the world, how could they be anything but downright bloodthirsty when they see this? What do you think, _flossers? Cruel abuse of an innocent creature or hilarious artwork... READ ON

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Fantastic Commercial Photo Studios

Some people have a negative opinion of commercial photography, mistakenly believing it is not an art, and is merely a way to showcase the product being sold. This is a grossly unfair conception. While some commercial images are no more than a product picture, some are imaginative and exceptionally artistic. WebUrbanist has a great collection of the works of 18 cool commercial photography studios. Carioca Studios created the shocking photos above with the hope that it would bring attention to the plight... READ ON

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Turn of the Century: Old Photos

Here's a lovely blog consisting simply of old photos, advertisements, paintings, and such: Turn of the Century. Pictured below: two of my favorites; at left, The Garden Portrait (c.1910), at right, "His Name Is Ben": The Portrait of a Coyote (1909). There are tons and tons more where that came from. NOTE: the way you navigate between pages on the Turn of the Century blog is clever but may be unfamiliar to some folks; just click the huge black-and-gray arrows on the left edge of the... READ ON

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When Art Imitates Toys

Artist Adam Beane uses his big talent on a small scale. He makes action-figure sized creations of real-life people. He has an amazing aptitude at capturing highly dynamic poses and recreating the intricate details ofÂ people's facial expressions when they don't expect to be photographed. Many of his creations actually go on to be sold as action figures. To make these creations, he works with CX5, a highly versatile clay-like substance he created. His subjects include Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (as... READ ON

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How Mick Jagger Got Dissed By M.C. Escher

On January 1, 1969, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger wrote artist M.C. Escher a letter asking Escher to provide an image for the Stones' second volume of greatest hits, entitled Through The Past Darkly. Jagger was a big Escher fan, and addressed the letter to "Maurits," the "M" in "M.C." Well...turns out Escher was NOT a Stones fan. Below is the correspondence, as reproduced by a World of Escher forum post from 2002. It's kind of mind-blowing to think that an artist would turn down the chance for a... READ ON

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Annie Leibovitz Fairy Tale Photos

For those of you who don't know Annie Leibovitz, she's the rock star of photographers. Of course, it doesn't hurt that a majority of her subjects are rock stars. Even if you don't recognize her name though, you're probably at least a little familiar with her works, particularly the famous image of John Lennon kissing Yoko Ono. I'm a big fan of Annie's works, which is why I was so excited to find out she did a full re-imagining of some of Disney's greatest movies to advertise the parks. On top of... READ ON

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The Impossible Has Happened: Polaroid Is Back

Founders of The Impossible Project have just announced a huge deal: Polaroid instant cameras and film are coming back to the market in 2010. After being discontinued over the past few years, Polaroid fans have lamented the lack of film packs, and many commercial Polaroid instant camera users (for example, in the fashion industry) have been buying up all remaining film stock, making it very hard to come by a pack of Polaroid instant film. The folks at The Impossible Project -- a project to re-start... READ ON