Los Angeles's Merry Karnowsky Gallery, a pioneering showcase of Pop Surrealism and Lowbrow Art, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an incredible group show that runs through July 28. Many of my favorite living artists have work in this exhibition, including Camille Rose Garcia, Mark Ryden, Robert Williams, Shepard Fairey, and more than a dozen others. I'm thrilled that the art is also viewable online. Seen here, Eric White's "Unit 9" (2007, oil on canvas, 24" x 24"). Link to online gallery, Link to press release
Fred Saberhagen, author of the classic Berserker novels, has died at of cancer the age of 77. He was a giant of science fiction.
The iPhone camera lens is flush with the back of the perfectly flat back of the device making it easy to hold a pocket magnifier loupe in front to convert the camera into a microscope. Here I am using a Radio Shack 15x 3-lens magnifier on a keycap of my Powerbook. An LED flashlight is adding light to the backlit keyboard symbols. Most any kind of loupe or pocket microscope should work. I'll be trying binoculars and spotting scopes too.
San Francisco musicians 
I like Mod Podge for many reasons. First, the logo for this all-in-one glue, sealer, and finish is exceedingly pleasant. It tells you that there's plenty of fun in store when you unscrew the cap.
"This plaque made from pills by a pharmacist is great medicine for a wall suffering from the blahs. Mount pills on a piece of masonite or glass. Apply Mod Podge to mounting surface and let dry. Draw a design on the board, or draw it on a piece of paper and put it under the glass. Apply Mod Podge to the design with an artist's brush and put on the pills, pressing firmly. Let dry, then apply Mod Podge over pills. Frame. Hang out of reach of children."
Mark - loved the post about modpodge. It's great stuff! in college I used it to cover my
An orange, giant-headed, one-eyed mascot for a hunger-awareness organization was handing out buttons to people waiting in line for iPhones in NYC. The 
Seattle designer Boo Davis handcrafts heavy metal quilts. Seen here is "Bangover." The rawking quilts range from $700 for a crib size to $2000 for a king. Her company's name? QuiltsrĂżche. 
Yesterday, I posted about the idea of a "third culture" bridging the gap between the sciences and the humanities. BB reader Carl Pappenheim sends along this delightful example of the third culture, from the celebrity pages of the June 1939 issue of Marie Claire, a still-popular women's magazine first launched in France.
On April 21, 1964, James Harvey, with his friend Joan Washburn, walked into New York’s Stable Gallery to see an opening for a rising artist named Andy Warhol. The show—which attracted a line around the block, despite mostly negative reviews—consisted of 400 large replicas of supermarket product boxes for brands such as Heinz, Del Monte, Mott’s, and Kellogg’s, stacked around the gallery as if in a stockroom. The ones that attracted the most attention were the 120 containers for Brillo cleaning pads. “Oh my god,” Harvey said to Washburn when he saw the Brillo boxes. “I designed those.”
[Q] So, AT&T? I mean, seriously. AT&T?
Love this "Kung Fu tape dispenser" from Wrapables.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, many astounding revelations came to light about the Stasi, the East German secret police. One of the more bizarre activities the Stasi was found to have engaged in was the collection of Geruchsproben — smell samples — for the benefit of the East German smell hounds. The odors, collected during interrogations using a perforated metal “smell sample chair” or by breaking into people’s homes and stealing their dirty underwear, were stored in small glass jars. Many of the remaining East German smell jars are on display at the Stasi Museum in Berlin. They are also described in Stasiland by Anna Funder.
WN: In the new trilogy, the U.S. government embarks on a New Deal-style initiative to prevent the climate from going more awry than it already has. Many people dream of this now -- but in the books, it only happens when the United States experiences storms and weather patterns more catastrophic than ever seen before. Is that what it'll take for us to engage climate change in a meaningful way?
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