bookofjoe

MorphWorld: The Hirshhorn Museum lobby into a Gene Davis painting

Noted on the front page of yesterday's Washington Post Style section, the summer makeover of the Hirshhorn Museum's lobby (above) by Scotsman Jim Lambie, a Turner Prize finalist who used thousands of feet of brightly colored tape to "make edges disappear."

I really did think, when I first looked at the photo, that the museum had taken a Gene Davis painting like the one below,

perhaps from its own collection, and projected it onto the floor.

The stripy floor will be up (down?) until October 2.

Bonus: here's a link to a wonderful time-lapse video of the installation being created.

Wheelie Ottoman

From the website:

Otto-Mobile

The Otto goes mobile

We put our popular leather cube on recessed casters to make it even easier to scoot this ottoman around to where you need it.

Otto-Mobile can cruise around your living room as an end table, extra seat or handy footstool without your having to give it a lift.

• Cushioned full-grain leather

• 19.5"W x 19.5"L x 17"H

• 4 recessed casters

• Solid wood frame

....................

Comes in (from the top down) Black, Walnut

or Chocolate.

$198.

If you'd prefer the old-fashioned version sans wheels it's still available, measuring 19"W x 19"L x 16"H.

In Black

or

Chocolate — $198.

You want a walnut ottoman, turn on a walnut light.

Where'd that come from?

We get email: From Jane Wildgoose, founder and keeper of the Wildgoose Memorial Library

Not five minutes ago (it's 12:12 p.m. as I type these words and her email swooped in at 12:08:07 p.m. today) came press-stopping news, which follows.

Dear Joe

I am delighted to inform you that The Wildgoose Memorial Library's virtual premises have recently been extended to accommodate the most recent work of the Special Events Dept, notably The Wildgoose Memorial Library Portrait Project:

http://www.janewildgoose.co.uk/projects_and_publications/wml_portrait_project.html

Please also be informed that our Annual Review has just been published:

http://www.janewildgoose.co.uk/projects_and_publications/annual_review_2006.html

and that you may view the Keeper's Award winning submission to the Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition:

http://www.janewildgoose.co.uk/projects_and_publications/letherium.html

We trust this news finds you well.

With best wishes

Jane Wildgoose
Keeper
The Wildgoose Memorial Library

.......................

If you haven't yet visited the Wildgoose Memorial Library you haven't begun to live.

When you stop by ask for Jane and tell her I sent you — she'll give you a special behind-the-curtain look at the mysteries she shares only with the chosen — not the misbegotten hosen.

To whet your appetite take a virtual tour.

And don't give me that malarkey about how you're too busy — you're here, aren't you?

Res ipsa loquitur.

bookofjoe welcomes readers from the Islamic Republic of Iran

For the first time ever that country makes up a percentage of my readership high enough to make the pie chart (above, a snapshot taken moments ago of my current traffic).

Who knows?

Perhaps President Ahmadinejad himself reads it.

Anything for whirled peas, I say.

w00t!

Bodum double-walled glasses — So fragile an ice cube will shatter them: 'Like an egg shell'

Just in yesterday afternoon, a bookofjoe World Exclusive™® from Stephen Bové, one of my bleeding-edge crack research team members.

Steve emailed the following (yeah, yeah, we know, joe, not one word has been omitted — you know, maybe back in the 50s when Pocket Books bragged about it it meant something but nowadays it's really no big whoop. Maybe you should wake up and join the clue train. Wait a minute, that's not right... find the clue train? Get a ticket for the clue train? How does it go, anyhow? I so used to know...):

Dear Joseph:

A new comment has been submitted to your weblog "bookofjoe," on the post "Double-Walled Glass Bowl."

Comment from: Sbove

Comment:

I have now shattered all of my beloved Bodum double-walled iced tea glasses....

These things are FRAGILE. Like the tips of lab pipettes. All 4 fell to the same tragedy... ice cubes... even gently released... "pop" -- the bottom of the glass breaks like an egg shell... sounds like an xmas tree bulb breaking on a rug....

This great concept needs 2x glass thickness... until then, I abstain from further purchases....

So before you get all excited about that cool double-walled ice cream dish (top) maybe you should consider, "What is the sound of a rock-hard scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip hitting the bottom of the [$14.95] dish?

I'd not read a single word anywhere about the fragility of this glassware until Steve's alert.

I wonder what my homies over at apartmenttherapy think about this issue.

Sara Kate?

Maxwell?

Bueller?

Anyone?

And what's that music I hear in the background?

Fisheye Camera — Price Break

From the website:

See Life Though a Different Lens With a Fisheye Camera

Fisheye lenses have long been reserved for professional photographers and artists.

Now you can create your own amazing images with the first-ever 35mm compact fisheye camera.

See the world through the eyes of a goldfish in his bowl as you use this 170-degree wide-angle lens to take pictures of animals, bars, city scapes, friends, parties — anything you can think of!

This handy marvel captures an incredible amount of your field of vision and takes all varieties and speeds of 35mm film.

It even has a booklet with suggestions on living life and taking pictures through a fisheye lens.

Takes standard 35mm film and can be developed at any photo lab.

Includes a built-in electronic flash and lens cover.

Flash takes one AA battery (Not included).

2.5"H x 4"W x 2.5"D.

Plastic.

$50.

Halley's Comet — by Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006)

Miss Murphy in first grade
wrote its name in chalk
across the board and told us
it was roaring down the storm tracks
of the Milky Way at frightful speed
and if it wandered off its course
and smashed into the earth
there'd be no school tomorrow.
A red-bearded preacher from the hills
with a wild look in his eyes
stood in the public square
at the playground's edge
proclaiming he was sent by God
to save every one of us,
even the little children.
"Repent, ye sinners!" he shouted,
waving his hand-lettered sign.
At supper I felt sad to think
that it was probably
the last meal I'd share
with my mother and my sisters;
but I felt excited, too,
and scarcely touched my plate.
So mother scolded me
and sent me early to my room.
The whole family's asleep now
except for me. They never heard me steal
into the stairwell hall and climb
the ladder to the fresh night air.

Look for me, Father, on the roof
of the red-brick building
at the foot of Green Street—
that's where we live, you know, on the top floor.
I'm the boy in the white flannel gown
sprawled on this coarse gravel bed
searching the starry sky,
waiting for the world to end.

LED Carabiner Luggage Watch

From the website:

Get a watch that will help you see in the dark

The LED Gear Watch sheds a bright light visible up to a half a mile away when you push the little red button.

• Easy-to-read inverted face

• 1-½"W x ½"D x 3-¼"H

• Durable alloy case



• Hooks onto bag or belt loop with a carabiner spring clip

• Lightweight — 3 ounces

• Long-life LED bulb



• Luminous hands and numbers

• Quartz analog movement

• Mineral crystal

• Silver or Matte Blue

....................

Love that inverted face.

I'm somewhat surprised there's no black — look for it in the next catalog.

Two other suggestions:

1) Lose the word "light" identifying the red button: we know what it does and if that's not the case we will as soon as we push it.

2) You want a blue beam, turn on a blue LED:

if indeed that's the color of the light, say so in the product description.

$38.