Fur

Dave Eggers reveals his drawing skills in a new book,

It Is Right to Draw Their Fur

Tabloid

Waiting to see...

Tabloid, the next film from director Errol Morris, about former beauty queen Joyce McKinney.

McKinney was arrested in 1978 for allegedly kidnapping a Mormon missionary, tying him to a bed and having her way with him over several days. Morris said, “I have finished my first love story since Gates of Heaven.”

Wonderer

Filmmaker Errol Morris has a really great job; he collects stories. Not in the way a journalist might piece together an exposé or a fiction writer slogs through research for a sound foundation, but with passionate interest in people.

He has been called a documentarian, but his films are so much bigger and more provocative than the subject at hand. Gates of Heaven might consider pet cemeteries, The Thin Blue Line might question our legal system, but both films will spark intense thought and emotion on many levels.

His amazing television series First Person explores the lives of some fairly unusual people: a serial killer groupie, a lawyer for mobsters, and a crime-scene cleaner for starters. The short format of these episodes illustrate his particular gift at finding and telling a story by diving into the meat of it. There isn't a beginning, middle and end so much as a brilliant moment; in this way, he stops time and magically expands it.

Stay curious

A PBS commercial, "Photo Booth," directed by Errol Morris.

10 List: Design

Dieter Rams: 10 Principles for Good Design

Good design is innovative.

Good design makes a product useful.

Good design is aesthetic.

Good design makes a product understandable.

Good design is unobtrusive.

Good design is honest.

Good design is long-lasting.

Good design is thorough down to the last detail.

Good design is environmentally friendly.

Good design is as little design as possible.

Milton Glaser: 10 Things I have Learned

You can only work for people that you like.

If you have a choice, never have a job.

Some people are toxic, avoid them.

Professionalism is not enough.

Less is not necessarily more.

Style is not to be trusted.

How you live changes your brain.

Doubt is better than certainty.

It doesn't matter.

Tell the truth.

Bob

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

--Bob Dylan

On set

From Rolling Stone, behind-the-scene photos of Mad Men.

Letter Museum

To preserve, document and educate the public. The Letter Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Harley Earl

General Motors designer Harley Earl: inventor of the concept car, father of modern design in auto mass production, who also introduced a spectrum of color to the once-drab line up.

Earl in his 1951 Le Sabre convertible

The 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Concept Car sold at auction in 2006 for

an equally cool $3 million.

1954 Oldsmobile F-88 Concept Car

Tribute

Richard Dreyfuss lends his voice to the iconic commercial...

which was made in just seventeen days!

Lilli

Lilli: the girl can't help it.

In 1952, Reinhard Beuthien created a one-panel comic for the Bild, a German newspaper. His character, Lilli, a curvaceous secretary who enjoyed the nightlife and her girlfriends, and who always delivered a clever if sassy punchline, became an immediate crowd-pleaser. The cartoons appeared daily, and developed a loyal following. It wasn't long before a Lilli doll was manufactured, more as a souvenir or gag gift than a toy, but the response from young girls was undeniable. American Ruth Handler purchased several Lilli dolls while she was visiting Germany and brought them to the designers at her small company, Mattel. After some reworking, the Barbie doll was created. The original Barbie doll had the same sort of face as Lilli: sophisticated bordering on hard. Not at all like the teenager she was described to be.

Jeu de cartes

An antique card game from Belgium. Without directions, it is mysterious-- but beautiful too!

Peko-chan

Since 1950, Peko-chan, the little girl in pigtails with her trademark grin, has appeared on the packaging for Milky candy and other Fujiya products. In Japan, some store displays include a beautifully sculpted, life size bobble head mascot of Peko-chan. The mascots are highly prized, and often stolen. The pictures below, from a police station in Osaka, reveal the bounty of a sting operation that recovered stolen mascots. The heart wants what the heart wants.

Also ran

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

--Confucius

Miss Antique Airplane

Miss Color TV

Chiropractor Beauty Contest

Eros and Psyche

Francois Gérard

William Bouguereau

Orazio Gentile

Antonio Canova

Never Let Me Go

In the first minutes of the film Never Let Me Go, the gentle voice of Carey Mulligan as the main character Kathy, describes her work and her past with measured and moving words. The beautiful prose of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, adapted by screenwriter Alex Garland, sets a delicate tone to the story, as do the muted colors and restrained light seen throughout the film.

The young cast delivers astonishing performances and their painful exploration of love and loyalty is deeply emotional. But this is not a story of youthful romance or coming of age. Instead, Never Let Me Go meditates on the brevity of life and the weight of duty and resignation.

Telephone Story

Promotional giveaway poster from Bell Telephone, circa 1969

L. and I took our cell phones on our trip to Japan. Mistake. Japan has the World's most advanced cell phone technology; not only were our phones useless, they seemed prehistoric. It's not about games or cameras or computer access--Japan envisions the phone replacing a wallet, holding all information (memberships, identification, cash, credit) that can be accessed by a variety of sensors installed in stores, gas stations--even vending machines. After returning home, we referred to our phones as rocks. "Do you have/did you charge your rock?"

Currently, some 3G phones will work in Japan or one can rent a SIM card with a Japanese provider that enables one to use their own phone (international roaming rates apply).

World's Fair

Vintage World's Fair posters: you may not be able to make out any particular ride or exhibit, but you're assured it will be big, dazzling and worth the visit.

The Seattle Space Needle, the Eiffel Tower and the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) are remainders from long ago expositions.

Mini

Jean Shrimpton wears an abbreviated dress.

In 1965, British model Jean Shrimpton attended the annual Derby Day event at Melbournes's Flemington race course. Oblivious to the conservative society's standard of dress and decorum, she arrived without a hat or gloves, and wore a short dress that accentuated her shapely bare legs. Although the fashion world had tried to introduce the mini skirt before, the idea was met with only a lukewarm response. After Shrimpton's appearance, and the news and controversy she unwittingly sparked, the mini skirt was officially 'in.'

Voido

The Voido Rocking chair by Ron Arad

Frivolous, loud, quirky...I love it.

Graceful lines

Faut souffrir pour être belle

Vintage ad for Spencer supports

One must suffer to be beautiful

Super, not regular

I'm not alone in the fantasy of converting an old gas station into a home.

The New York Times featured a gas station renovation in Berlin, Germany. Wow!

Extension of the eye

An inventory of effects.

The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan's best selling book is as provocative now as it was when it was first released in 1967.