We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

We love this sweet mini-documentary about a kid recording an EP with the help (and occasional hindrance) of his friends.

San Francisco is a town of many pleasant associations. To start, there’s sourdough bread, Pier 7, 826 Valencia, the Embarcadero, fog, Keith Hufnagel, Barry McGee, burritos, bridges, hills, bookstores, FTC, Amoeba, and so forth. The list goes on.

That’s why it’s particularly exciting that Issue 33 of McSweeney’s Quarterly comes to us in the form of a faux Sunday-edition sized San Francisco newspaper, the fictionally titled San Francisco Panorama (above, a sample page). The issue features news dispatches, sports and arts coverage, comics from Chris Ware, Dan Clowes and Art Spiegelman, three pull-out posters, a books section, a weekend guide and more. The best part? It will be sold on the streets of San Francisco. For those unlucky enough to live elsewhere, copies can be scored online.

Muppet man Jim Henson was known to dabble in experimental cinema. Maybe that’s an understatement– after all, practically everything the man did was an experiment. He wasn’t one of those cautious, measured individuals who simply puts a fresh spin on a successful formula. No, luckily for us, Jim Henson was more interested in remolding the world in a way that made sense to him, paving his own path along the way.

What’s special about works like Ripples and Limbo, The Organized Mind, is that we’re treated to an intriguingly abstract vision of Jim Henson’s thought process. We’re given a glimpse of Henson’s deeply contemplative inner world. Can you imagine The Tonight Show having the audacity to air a piece like Limbo on national TV today? Even back in 1974 when Johnny Carson was still in charge, it seems unlikely that anyone but Henson could have brought a film this unusual (and rad) to the mass audience of late night TV.

Keep an eye out around the 3:29 mark for Henson’s sly homage to his pal Maurice!

via Andy Neuhues. Thanks for the link!

There’s a whole range of childhood phenomena that has been destroyed by the internet. OK, not destroyed. But certainly demystified.

I’m talking about the mysteries of mood rings, shooting stars, funny bones, baking-soda-and-vinegar volcanos, oobleck and countless other occurrences that take on the appearance of miracles to the average ten-year-old. Now that almost every kid has access to a computer, however, an explanation for these wonders is only a click away. We’re trading a sense of awe for a generation of extremely well-informed young adults– and depending on your perspective, the swap is either terribly disenchanting or highly necessary.

At any rate, all hope is not lost. You can still grasp at the remnants of your former incredulity by following Make’s instructions to make a thermographic notebook cover with just a bit of adhesive and some liquid crystal film. Voila, a notebook that looks like a mood ring and changes color in response to changes in temperature. If it doesn’t dazzle you like it might have in 5th grade, it’s guaranteed to at least stimulate a lot of experimental poking.

Megan Deal is selling everything she owns in preparation for a move from Detroit to Greensboro, Alabama, where she will help operate a design lab dedicated to innovative community projects.

“One part stoop sale and one part personal experiment,” as Deal puts it, the site features an array of objects ranging from the mundane (item #0562- a slow coffee pot, still available) to the fascinating (item #0547, “a collection of various necklaces, all equally worth nothing to me”, sold).

“By ridding myself of these possessions,” she writes in a footnote, “I aim to both lighten my travel load and remove the obtrusive clutter from my everyday life.”

We could all follow her lead.