I was reading a book about con men last night and came across one really interesting figure, George Parker.  It turns out that he was so good that for some time he would sell the Brooklyn Bridge at least twice a week.  Other major sales included Madison Square Garden, The Met, and the Statue of Liberty.

Oversaturated, limited edition, dumb.  Jose Cuervo did it right a while ago with the Reserva de la Familia, those have nice, classy boxes, but this 1800 marketing gimmick just sucks. Get back to the basics.

via, notcot

Animal’s Pope print, in a holy edition of 666.

Their coverage of the Pope’s visit is unsurpassed as well.  Have a look

So if you’re from the midwest or the product of the seventies, you may remember these moments. Olan Mills Moments that is. Click here.

Brawling.

I found a great photo dump essay titled Lurkers Lurking, all about creeping.

I guess this would never air on Saturday Morning Cartoon hour. Check out this “banned” Bugs Bunny, cartoon.  I grew up watching bug’s and have to say they wrote the book on pushing the envelope especially during the time when America was hunting down Communist. And when it was ok to shoot ducks.

Banksy has been quiet for some time. Your patience has paid off.  Appearing on the streets of London over the weekend was his newest and possibly most ambitious piece “One Nation Under CCTV”.  The 3 story high painting portrays a red hooded child on a ladder doing a huge roller piece above the watchful eye of a policeman and canine.  The genius of this piece is that it was painted behind a security fence directly in view of one London’s many CCTV cameras.  Take that Big Brother!  More photos can be found on eddiedangerous’ flickr stream.

via, thisislondon

Peter Beste, Natterfrost of Carpathian Forest, available from BLK/MRKT Gallery

The first time I learned of Norwegian Black Metal was through a photography series by Peter Beste. While clicking around VBS TV, I happened upon their own True Norwegian Black Metal series that also included the photographer. After the jump I have embedded all five series, just to make it easy.

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News.com.au has compiled a list…How to tell if a woman is up for a one-night stand.

“…

But how can a man walk into a pub or a nightclub and know instantly which women offer him a good chance of shooting the yogurt gun that night? There are a myriad of urban myths relating to this sort of thing:

1. she starts playing with her hair while you’re talking to her

2. she smiles at you from across the room

3. she laughs really, really loudly at your jokes

4. (a) she takes hold of your forearm as if to steady herself (while laughing)

4. (b) she doesn’t let go of your forearm for several second, but lingers there and applies a subtle pressure

5. she comes up to you and initiates a conversation

6. she follows you into the male toilets

7. (a) she tells you the last time she had sex

6. (b) it was more than six months ago.

…”

For more on this go here

Get all Design Geeky in your spare time and challenge your knowledge of Font Names in The Rather Difficult Font Game.  Now if you could only challenge your usage.

via, mrvader2u

I could not be happier about Shepard Fairey redesigning the covers for the Penguin reissue of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. The reissues which are due out in July were created to attract an audience who may tend to be pulled in visually. Whatever gets them, right? It is a nice executive decision to ttract readers to these classic books. The use of design elements from Fairey’s Big Brother Is Watching print is a nice touch too.

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We’ve all heard about this vortex in the Pacific where the trash of the world collects.  Luckily, the always daring VBS correspondents braved the open sea to bring us back this 12 episode report.

For your organic coffee table…”This latest addition to Prestel s acclaimed Street Art series takes the train to Brooklyn to present a dizzying collection of urban images that gives testament to the vibrant culture in New York City s largest borough. From the warehouses of ultra-hip Williamsburg to the brick facades of Bushwick tenements and DUMBO S waterfront cool, the 150 images in this book by photographer Jaime Rojo capture the wide range of mediums and styles of today s exciting street artists. Presented as full-page images. . .” -This is from the excerpt at target.com($10.17)

So if you can’t afford a Banksy or A Shep you can flip through them here.

A show not be missed, Judith Supine’s Dirt Mansion opens up at the English Kills Art Gallery in Brooklyn this Saturday.  Working in a manner that could be likened to psychedelic collage, Supine’s installation consists of “a darkly lit maze of tunnels, chutes, and ladders intermingled with twenty foot wooden puppets.”  Thanks to our friends at Paper Monster for the heads up. Another image after the jump

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Well we have received more proof that the bad white dancing is all the rage at least it was in Europe 8 months ago and here it comes. Thank you frenchy.

Closing out Rivington Arms’ 4 weeks / 4 shows is Brendan Fowler.  Two performances, the opening night with Disaster and the closing with a performance as BARR should both rock and be jam packed.  Full details after the jump.

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I was happy to find out that Harry Kim’s documentary about David Choe, Dirty Hands, has finally been completed.  Giant Robot’s Eric Nakamura reviews it here.

The trailer after the jump

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