bookofjoe

35 years of Hello Kitty — Evolution of an icon

[via design:related and Pulp]

Andtie — Scarf x Necktie Mashup

 

Apply within.

[via OhGizmo!, inspire me now and my7475]

Big spenders at AbeBooks.com

Gregory Cowles, in his December 28, 2009 New York Times Book Review "TBR: Inside the List" column, noted that "Every month, the used-book Web site AbeBooks.com releases a list of its most expensive sales."

Interesting.

What is it?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Pomegranate Tootsie Pop — This ain't the 50s any more

I got back from Kroger a couple days ago, opened a bag of Tootsie Pops and dumped them into a bowl as I routinely do.

I noticed a couple with red wrappers [below]

in a shade a bit different than the usual cherry, strawberry and red raspberry suspects.

Unwrapping the pop [top two photos and below],

I spread the wrapper out and looked carefully at it, only to be confounded when I saw "Pomegranate" [below].

Freak out.

What with the appearance in the past several years of Watermelon, Lime and now this unexpected new flavor, the next few years promise to be spectacular ones for us pop aficionados.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: how did it taste, joe?

Well, I have to admit I haven't had a pomegranate in decades so I can't attest to its verisimilitude to the real thing but I can say it wasn't cherry, strawberry or raspberry and I liked it.

I'm told by a constant reader that she's had a Banana pop recently but that it wasn't very good.

I'm going to be looking out for that one to see for myself.

Wearable Flexible Hands-Free Book Light

That's different.

"Two super-flexible arms with two high-intensity LEDs on each end.

Excellent reading area illumination is achieved

with one wide-angle LED and one spot LED on each arm."

I might have to try this.

$14.99.

[via 7Gadgets]

'I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art' — John Baldessari (1971)

From ubuweb: "In 1971, Baldessari was commissioned by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada to create an original, on-site work. Unable to make the journey himself, he suggested that the students voluntarily write the phrase 'I will not make any more boring art' on the gallery walls. Inspired by the work's completion — the students covered the walls with the phrase — Baldessari committed his own version of the piece to videotape. Like an errant schoolboy, he dutifully writes, 'I will not make any more boring art' over and over again in a notebook for the duration of the tape. In an ironic disjunction of form and content, Baldessari's methodical, repetitive exercise deliberately contradicts the point of the lesson — to refrain from creating 'boring' art."

Got 13 minutes 6 seconds? Go for it (screengrabs above and below).

If you find yourself in London anytime up through January 10, 2010, you can visit the most extensive UK retrospective ever of Baldessari's conceptual art, comprising more than 130 works, at Tate Modern.

Rattlesnake Pint Glass — Noli me tangere

12 oz. glass is 6" high.

$19.95.