Here come the lists...

It's about that time again, the end of a year always brings a flurry of wrap-ups and predictions. So instead of making another list, I thought I'd round-up a few of my favorites.

Starting with a cultural line-up:

The films of 2009 delivered in seven minutes:



Worst movies of 2009, trailers here. (I hate to admit it, but I have fallen prey to all things vampire-esque and watched New Moon, which was truly crap).

Top book covers of 2009.


Web videos of the decade.



Best music of the decade.
Shows that changed television.
10 most NSFW videos.
The best books of 2009.

Moving on to a year review round-up by some my favorite bloggers:

Iain Tait of Crack Unit / Poke fame gives his 2010 digital predictions.
Top 10 of Noah Brier's blog in 2009.
Top 9 blog posts from Alan Wolk.

And one for 2010...top digital trends ahead.

Colorful Characters

I'm in a really visual mood these days and filled with an acute sense of polarities (I'm suffering from the tension created from the pull towards security and adventure simultaneously) and colors, from super-charged store front windows (red sales) to gray, rainy streets of London that saw a layer of dandruff snow evaporate just before Christmas.

Mark Laita's Created Equal photography series captures the absurd, diverse and contrasting characters that makes this place so damn colorful. Check out his website here.

Beauty Salon Customer / Man with Curlers

Polygamists / Pimp

Catholic Nuns / Prostitutes

Vegetarian / Butcher

Female Body Builder / Drag Queen

Cowboy / Indian

Beauty Pageant Contestant / Topless Dancer

Mariachis / Elvis Impersonators

Motorcycle Gang / Altar Boys

Luchador / Transsexual Prostitute

Dominatrix / Housewife

Chain Gang / Cheerleader Squad

Young Ballerina / Go-Go Dancer

Rock Band / Polka Band

Amish Teenagers / Punk Teenagers

Book Covers

It's not only the styling and great photography that makes this Couples series so interesting, it's the way each scene or image elicits an immediate response or reaction, or judgment - about who they are, what their views are, what they do, where they party, etc. Great project by reclarkgable.

Gender Portraits

Christa Palazzolo's depicts her own version of famous women in her "Talking Heads Series" (oil and acrylic paintings). Seemingly inspired by models, I appreciate the modern twist, but can't help but think most of these women look sexy, strong, and perhaps a bit clueless (and some oddly enough, resemble Tiger's mistresses).

Yet these paintings are made by a female artist (and I do think they're is something interesting about them), but still seem to fit in a Gossip Girl's box. I wonder what a alternate interpretation of these women would look like. However the artist's intent may be an ironic and comic commentary on how our current media lens may contort history.

It reminds me of Marvel's recent attempt to attract more female readers with their new special edition series, Marvel Divas, that connects the lives of four superheroes: Patsy "Hellcat" Walker; Felicia "Black Cat" Hardy; Angelica "Firestar" Jones; and Monica "Photon" Rambeau, and involves female cartoonists from Amanda Conner to Molly Crabapple to bring these divas to life. I have yet to read the series, but the name 'Diva' for a superhero series about women speaks volumes.

I need to find new archetypes.

Poetic Lyrics

Just like cover bands, which range from Atlantic City crooners, wedding singers to some decent bands like Nouvelle Vague, I've been thinking about writing a series of poems that use either song titles or a lyric from a song as a catalyst for a poem. Not sure where I'll take this, but I tried one on for size:

I'll stop the world and melt with you
because it's spinning too fast
strands of hair whip our faces
get stuck in open mouths
filled with confetti laughter
pieces of color dance in the air
like seeds looking to root in the stars

the ride plays music from the 80s
purple glitter cars spin and twist
thighs touch, sticking together
like candy apples on a white cotton t-shirt
crimson stains flush,
heat rises and subsides
a wave,
a rush, tickling, climbing, entering,
brought closer
under a cloud of popcorn
hot salt tasted on perfumed necks
a yogic pose
melts, melds, fastens us together
like a pair of 501 jeans.

The snow came & went...

...but you can still make snowflakes with Cogapp's ‘infinite snowflake’ application for its website, where users can design, save and send digital snowflake creations.

Users can make their own flakes that can be emailed as a direct link to others, and are also added to the infinite snowflake database, which has amassed 1,485 flakes thus far.

Make a Flake here.

Warm Science

Probably because our boiler broke on Sunday, December 20th and only got fixed this morning, leaving us with no hot water or heat (which put us in slumber party, cuddling, huddling, lazy (and crusty) mode), that I found this series of photography on knitted science particularly attractive.

Regular Irregularities

As technology speeds us steadily along, we often look ahead, but don't really take the time to look over our shoulder at everything we've left behind. VHS tapes, engines, CDs take their place in electronic cemeteries, stripped of functionality, only their forms remain.

Michael Johansson's art work captures these strange yet regular, or inevitable transitions. (I remember living in Sri Lanka and wondering why plastic Santas appeared on the sides of dusty roads in January/February, and was told that the country was a dumping ground for unwanted/unused goods from other countries).

There is something arresting about the way in which he removes objects from their environments and contexts; something haunting about the repetition and regularity, the way that they're packed and unpacked, devoid of function, transformed into skeletal symmetrical shapes.

Johansson states that, "I am intrigued by irregularities in daily life. Not those that appear when something extraordinary occurs, but those that are created by an exaggerated form of regularity. Colours or patterns from two separate objects or environments concur, like when two people pass each other dressed in the exact same outfit. Or when you are switching channels on your TV and realize that the same actor is playing two different roles on two different channels at the same time. Or that one day the parking lot contained only red cars."