Pictures are the OH MY GOODNESS

I love the Nike Skateboarding website.

The work of Jeff Brouws is fantastic. He photographs American landscapes, much like Stephen Shore or Joel Sternfeld or William Eggleston. His published book, Approaching Nowhere: Photographs, is a good overall view of his work. Or you can actually see small images of his work at artnet.

Sara Bareilles has (as of this moment) iTunes’ top selling album. Her album, Little Voices is highly rated, so I decided to just have a listen for myself. Wow, this album is good. Definitely give her a listen on iTunes or her website. Her single Love Song is catchy. You’ll be humming it all day. She also has her own page on Virb.

I don’t remember seeing this in the states, so I’m not sure that it’s strictly isolated to Australia, but I absolutely love how Penguin books is releasing some of its classics with no cover art whatsoever. The books come with all the original text with the major difference being that instead of some fancy artistic cover, the books all have a blank white canvas for you to create your own cover art. It’s a great idea I think and I’d love to see more books like this. Personally, I’d buy the books and just leave them blank. I love how they look just stark white and plain.
The My Penguin series of blank cover books include these tites. You can see a gallery of submitted cover artwork on that site as well.

According to consumer research conducted on what factors matter to people when they decide whether or not to pick up a book in a bookshop, the cover design comes out as most important. So this might be the stupidest thing we’ve ever done.

However … Just over two months ago I was standing in the corridor talking with my boss about books, and suddenly we had a new idea: why not publish our favourite books without front covers?! And that’s what we’re doing.

Does anybody else think this is neat???

Infiltration.org has this book out called Access All Areas: A User’s Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration. I’ve never seen the book in person, but from the title alone, it sounds like something I’d love to read.

I think anybody who explicitly goes out of his/her way to make a sign for FREE HUGS and then walks around doing just that is stupid. FREE HUGS should be an unpublicized action of free will, not some stupid gimmick popularized by some internet video phenomenon.
As good of an idea as FREE HUGS actually is, I think it has become something for people to find personal amusement in, mainly concerning the thought of seeing just how many people will actually hug them, instead of actually doing it to give free hugs.

New York Times: The wealthiest Americans ever. The Richest of the Rich in a New Gilded Age.