We are living in a golden age of coffeehouses and coffee culture, but for me nothing will ever match the charms of the quintessentially Viennese kaffeehaus. Give me a groβer schwarzer , ein apfelstrudel and the daily paper in one of Austria’s capital’s fin-de-siècle gems and I’m good for the morning.
If you share my love for coffee, you will certainly enjoy Orlando Gili’s wonderful video “This Old Coffeehouse” below.
Here in Philadelphia we are just getting around to launching a bike sharing program, but Paris is already celebrating eight years of the Vélib project. For the next six weeks, the Paris Rendez-Vous concept space at the Hôtel de Ville will be hosting a free exhibition called “I Vélib, I Can Fly”. The show features original silkscreen posters by French and American artists from the collective known as ARTCRANK, which extolls the bicycle and ride sharing in art.
For the next two years, passengers who ride the iconic Mersey Ferry in Liverpool, England will be able to choose to sail on the outrageous Everybody Razzle Dazzle boat. Designed by Peter Blake, the ferry—officially named Snowdrop—is a tribute to the role the Mersey Ferry fleet played during the World Wars. It also celebrates the concept of dazzle camouflage, created by Norman Wilkinson, which works by confusing enemy navies through patterns that make it difficult to estimate a target’s direction, range and speed.
photos © Mark McNulty
Life goes on day after day Hearts torn in every way
So ferry ‘cross the Mersey ’cause this land’s the place I love and here I’ll stay
People they rush everywhere Each with their own secret care
So ferry ‘cross the Mersey and always take me there The place I love
People around every corner They seem to smile and say We don’t care what your name is boy We’ll never turn you away
So I’ll continue to say Here I always will stay
So ferry ‘cross the Mersey ’cause this land’s the place I love and here I’ll stay and here I’ll stay Here I’ll stay
Gerry & The Pacemakers
Artist, cartoonist and animator Nina Paley has been creating amazing animated versions of the Biblical Exodus story and the ten plagues of Egypt. The video below is the last installment, the “Tenth Plague : Death of the Firstborn Egyptians”, with soundtrack by The Duke of Uke. If you like this one, check out all of the other nine plagues on Paley’s website.
Isobelle Ouzman is a very talented, young British-born artist and illustrator living and working in Seattle, Washington. Exclusively using recycled books, Ouzman magically transforms discards with only an x-acto knife, ink, watercolors, and glue into stunning book art. You can see more of her work, and even commission a piece, on her blog.
Musician and writer Nick Cave just released a new book that provides a visual chronicle of a 22-city 2014 North American tour. The Sick Bag Song is an absorbing collection of poetry, lyrics, drawings, doodles, and ideas all captured on airplane vomit bags.
Arranged in the geographic order of Cave’s 2014 tour schedule—Nashville to Montreal—The Sick Bag Song offers a unique glimpse into the ruminations and tangents of the artist’s mind.
To promote the book’s release, cave will be appearing in live events in NYC, LA and London this month. He’s also releasing five short films to accompany the book on the project website here.
The always entertaining and imaginative NYC art collective Dawn of Man has been using projection mapping techniques in an intriguing project that transforms ordinary city walls into meditative works of art. Check out the fascinating video of “Projection Napping” below, which offers unexpected tranquil, intimate vignettes in the impassive urban landscape. Visit the Dawn of Man website for more on the project and the group.
Back in 2013, Dutch designer/curator/agency director Jeroen Smeets launched a brilliant project that combined his love for art and for travel. The Jaunt recruits artists to visit a place that they have never been and to create an original work of art inspired by the locale. Once they have returned, a limited edition print is produced and then sold to finance the trip.
Thirteen artists have participated in the project so far and now ten of the trips are documented in “The Jaunted Book”. The inspiring volume (which is available online) offers uncommon insights on the impact of travel on the artistic process.
The video below chronicles project artist David Shillinglaw’s visit to Denmark for The Jaunt.
Paris: 75 hours in under 2 minutes is a wonderful timelapse video documenting London-based French illustrator Guillaume Cornet’s project drawing a Parisian neighborhood.
If you have ever visited Barcelona, you likely returned home raving about the city’s stunning architecture. Now along with Barcelona’s grand townhouses, mansions, museums, churches, and historical sites hundreds of late 19th and early 20th century small retail buildings are getting special legal protection from alteration or destruction.
City planners have designated more than 200 cafés, pharmacies, bakeries, clothing shops, and other retail spaces built in Barcelona’s home-grown art nouveau modernista style as off limits to developers. Among the architectural treasures being protected are the famous Els Quatre Gats café, the Pastisseria Escribà on the Rambla, and the Café de L’Opera in the Bari Gotic.
Travel Between The Pages 