New Pics from the Museum of Unnatural History

Featuring Nancy the sci-fi docent :)

Well why don't you just put a dildo in my fishbowl

Aquarium by Matteo Cibic

Aw, shit that's funny- Wallpaper has the worst design crap of 2008. Enjoy.

via c-monstah

Feelin'

“You know The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche?”

The Phoenix Commotion, builds [homes] in Huntsville.

The house [Dan Phillips] working on now — his 12th in an oeuvre that’s garnered national attention — is made almost entirely from materials that had been bound for the trash. There are leftovers from other builders’ projects. Bits of broken mirrors. Wine corks and beer-bottle caps. T-shirts. Wood scraps. Signs discarded by a state park. Brown paper. And bones: beef bones, deer bones, even a whale rib.

By all rights, the place ought to look a mess, like “a slum admixture, or something out of Sanford and Son.” But it’s not a mess at all...

The secret, Dan says, is design and philosophy.

Which, like his materials, are free.

“You know The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche?” Dan asks.


“You know how he described the two strains of culture? There’s the Apollonian culture, where everything is crisp, tidy and perfect. And there’s the Dionysian culture, where everything is passionate and organic.

“If an Apollonian is hanging a picture, he gets out his level and his measuring tape and precisely centers the picture on the wall. If a Dionysian is hanging a picture, he takes the picture, holds it up to the wall, and goes, “Hmmm. Does this look about right?”

“Our building industry is entirely Apollonian. Architects pre-think their design, specifying these ideal materials and aiming to create these idealized shapes. They’re at a disadvantage. They work off in an office, drawing blueprints. They can’t get feedback from the materials and let the designs evolve.”

...

Recently, a butcher offered to give him as many beef bones as he wanted. Dan likes bone — it’s elemental, he says — and he recognized that beef bones could be treated like ivory. Bone, he decided, would be the motif he’d repeat , the concept that defines his project. The Bone House was born.

He tiled the kitchen counters with rectangles cut from rib bone. Bits of bone decorate the wood mosaic floor. Ribs form the balustrade on an upstairs balcony, and in the kitchen a jawbone with two gold teeth serves purely as a decorative flourish. Cross sections look like round tiles atop the stair treads. Outside, leg bones alternate with vertebrae over windows and under eaves...


excerpt from article by Lisa Gray
via Chron

Imaginary Death Trap Museum

Step right up, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Gentle-ladies, and Lady-men...
We will have it all on January 10th 2009!

At Stephen Gros' Imaginary Death Trap Museum And Poetry Showcase!!!!!!!!

Performances(poets)

6:30 Lupe Mendez (MC)
6:40 Stephen Gros
6:50 Dee!Colonize
7:00 Ken Jones
7:10 Alex Wukman
7:20 Cam Kolaja
7:30 Andy Barnard
7:40 Jessica Villasano
7:50 Salvador Macias
8:00 LoveSun
8:10 Kiawitl
8:20 BGK

also belly dancers!

then the music:
Dj John The Third
(intro and outro to poetry/set up & breakdown between bands)

9:15 - 9:45 John the Third
9:45 - 10:30 Nareme
10:30 - 11:15 Dj Akshun Kid & the Seed
11:15 - 12:00 The Ton Tons
12:00 - 12:45 Magnetic
12:45 - 2:00 HueMan


plus a live artist showcase!
these artists will be painting/performaing throughout the event:

Obsidian Stark(visual artist/ screen printer)
Peter Swik (painter/visual artist)
Richard Lewis III (painter/visual artist)
Christian Navarrete (painter/visual artist)
Kiawitl (graffiti artist)

Plus
Free Keg Beer till dry, Full Bar, Crafts, Jewelry, T-Shirts, Prints

Pre-Sale tickets: $8 At the Door: $10

to order your tickets or to get more info:

Myspace.com/fifbaseprod

Who Took A Cookie From the Cookie Jar?

Idea Fund Winners!

Kevin Curry: Curry is an artist who was raised in Puerto Rico, South Africa and Australia. His proposal, Housewarming, consists of an oversized quilt that will cover a house in Houston, embracing the present with the past.

Mary Margaret Hansen: A photographer, Hansen has had work shown at FotoFest and is a community leader serving for American Leadership Forum. Her project titled Second Seating will be an installation of fantasy dinner tables from a variety of products from Houston’s East End.

Kara Hearn: Hearn is an interdisciplinary artist who is currently in her second year as a Core Fellow at the Glassell School of Art at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She plans to create a 30-minute narrative video based on dreams and nightmares adults have about being in high school.

J. Hill: A multidisciplinary (is that different from interdisciplinary?) artist, Hill participates in traditional gallery exhibits and community-based projects. Consisting of a bicycle with a specially outfitted trailer that looks like a cottage porch, The Welcome Wagon will be a setting for collecting and distributing culture.

Ayanna Jolivet McCloud: McCloud acts as an artist, curator and collaborator. Her exhibition, Screwed Anthologies, will be a mix of videos and sound art inspired by DJ Screw and sippin' on syzurp.

Cody Ledvina and Brian Rod: Ledvina and Rod plan to use funding to continue The Joanna, an experimental exhibition space for emerging artists and curators.

b. December 1, 1847 d. April 2, 1932
(oh, wrong 'benjamin mason')

Benjamin Mason: Benji Mason is a Houston-based artist who helped start Workshop Houston, a non-profit that offers creative, technical and academic resources to youth in the Third Ward. His project will be to create an art space within a King's Market stall aimed at bringing art into a comfortable place.

Zach Moser: Born and raised in Screwston, Moser will construct a series of small sailboats to be sailed and rowed through public waters in Houston.

(googleing 'kelly pike')

Kelly Pike, Sasha Dela and Kara Hearn(Double Hearn!): This collaborative of filmmakers will be applying the funds to launch the inaugural issue of The Buffet, a DVD publication sourcing Houston artists to create a portrait of where they find themselves now.

Ariane Roesch and Sasha Dela(Double Dela!): Acting as co-directors, this duo will use the funding for =SKYDIVE= exhibition space, The Free School for the Arts and an online venue for writing projects.

Eating Darwin's Lunch

Museum of Unnatural History
A dioramic installation of new works by Elaine Bradford

opens tonite
Art League Houston (next to Texas Art Supply)

plus
Saturday, January 24 from 9:00 am to noon, ArtBound!, designed to promote family literacy and interaction for parents and children 5-12 years old. Crazy Animal Characters is conducted by sculptor Katy Heinlein. Children and their parents will make animal characters based on their own stories. This workshop is free, reservations are required.

Beers n' Bayous

Details for "EL Clean up the Bayou with Saint Arnold Brewing Company"

It's the first Community Outreach event of 2009! Join Saint Arnold Brewing Company in cleaning up Buffalo Bayou: picking up trash, clearing brush, planting trees, painting over graffiti and that kind of stuff.We'll start at 11:00 AM and then clean until it is done... should be around 1.5 hours of cleaning and then we'll tap the kegs after that. Please bring your own lunch if you like. No food will be provided. And check your email/phone around 10AM Saturday. In the event of inclement weather I will notify you by 10AM Saturday via email. Or call/text at 281.785.1089.

Sirmans Sightings

Franklin Sirmans with painting by Kehinde Wiley

Not as good as those UFOs in New Jersey, but Menil curator Franklin Sirmans garners props at Grand Valley State in Michigan.

Monster Mash

Too much fun, the Top 25 Billboard Hits all together at once.
by DJ Earworm



The German Top 25



19 of Korea's top songs



Everything is always the same :)

Taggers Get Legit

There is no better indication of the ascension of grafitti than Shepard Fairey's inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery. Street art, prepare to be passé.

That's gotta hurt

all that money, into the abyss

According the The Art Newspaper, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's endowment fell 22% to around $780 mil by December 2008.

That's a loss of over $170 million.