by Copperpot

West Coast TWBE correspondent senior Copperpot here with the surf report. Not much going on today so I’m headed to the track. But if you’re short on cash, and don’t mind looking like an ass, come on down to the beach and take a surf lesson. Make sure to bring a friend to take some pictures of you and your trucker-hat-wearing surf instructor.

Strange fact, I used to work with this guy when I first moved to New York.

French artist JR keeps amazing me with his street work. I have done some poaching and created a small little worldwide visual essay to support my amazement.  Photo credits at the end

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A leopard savaging a crocodile has been captured for the first time on camera. Photo’s by Hal Brindley/SOLO Syndication [via:Telegraph] For more photo’s check out the Telegraph.

This is a moment of ‘Why didn’t I think of this?’  Proving as always, the best ideas are the simplest.

Read about it all at Animal

Muse/crazy Agyness Deyn

A view from inside Tom Wolfe’s Apartment, by Todd Selby

“Cops Fail to Cut Back on Williamsburg Stabbings” Not sure if you heard about any of these events, or even care. It’s pretty amazing in an area that costs over 1,000,000 a square foot, people are getting stabbed… wait let me think about that for a moment, a lot of money+economic downfall=stabbing

Read more at the Gothamist.

Staten Island is sounding nice, they only had the Ninja burglar

Chubb Rock, Just The Two Of Us, 1991

The latest MTA controversy.  Or not.

View the video here

In a moment of internet go-getterness, I created a Facebook group for The World’s Best Ever. Join now and receive all of the benefits of social networking.

Click here for the madness

The Guardian profiled 10 of these people, but not the two above, that was just the easiest way to illustrate the story.

I always love peeking at art collection installations, and stumbled upon an amazing one the other day. Leah over at More Ways to Waste Time has a virtual tour of the home of San Francisco art collectors Donald and Philip. Their collection includes pieces by Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee, David Huffman and Christina Empedocles. It’s like a photo essay mash-up ripped from the pages of Dwell and Artforum … be prepared to drool.

Click here to check out it out

The Tate Modern has announced a new development in the plan for its new wing. World-renowned Swiss Architectural firm, Herzog & de Meuron, has designed the new plan for the extension, called Tate Modern 2 (TM2). Read More about it at art observed.

Seriously, this is one of the creepiest friggin videos I have ever seen. WTF? Really? Great work.

There is also a book which you can read about on Supertouch

Your favorite Parmegiano here, it’s Mean Gene with a series of new posts where I’ll be introducing the exotic, rarely seen aspects of European culture to you yankee doodle dandies.  Today I’m dropping some seriously awesome new cereal on you folks over there on the wrong side of the earth.  I’m not sure what’s more enticing about this box; the 3 main ingredients listed on the back: sugar, oil and chocolate flakes, or the Duck doing an air-split over the cereal bowl.  This shit looks like it was part of the original Howard the Duck promotion package and I’ve only seen it in Belgium, as if that’s the only country that has Howard the Duck fans?  Either way, we know what Mr. Gene P will be eating every morning for the next couple of weeks…..  

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery hosts a BYO brown bag lunch discussion this Wed. July 23, 12 – 1p with Bay Area artist Tiffany Bozic and her husband Jack Dumbacher, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the California Academy of Sciences.

Tiffany and Jack will talk about their shared interests in adventure travel, strange animals, and unique intersections between art, politics and nature. Gallery Director and curator Meg Shiffler will moderate this sure to be lively discussion.

The SFAC gallery is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue (Veterans Building), San Francisco

If you are just learning about Shepard Fairey’s work and want to build a collection of it, your best bet is this auction on ebay. 20 prints, fairly rare, almost all of them worthwhile acquisitions. I have to say that I kind of enjoy imagining this type of block sale, it really feels like a commodity.