Nathan Sawaya: Brick artist

What this guy can do with Lego is incredible. Eat your heart out ages 6 - 99!

Check out his site and gallery!

Recycling is vogue

Peep Nash's kicks: they look pretty good for shoes made of garbage

Taking eco-consumerism to the next level is Steve Nash's "Trash Talk" shoe. Nash isn't much of a trash-talker on the court, but he has teamed up with Nike to create these shoes completely made of manufacturing scraps. The materials include pieced-together scraps of leather and synthetic leather waste straight from the factory floor. The sole is made up of materials including ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. On last night's NBA All Star Game, Nash called the shoe, "trash. Because it is made of trash."


Another company going the recycling route is Nokia whose Remade concept phone is made mostly of recycled materials including aluminum cans, plastic bottles and old car tires. I didn't know this was possible, but the phone consists of environmentally sensitive technologies called printed electronics, which reduces waste and CO2 emissions during manufacturing. At this rate, Nokia products will consume less natural resources, reduce landfill waste and be more energy efficient in the future.

Hopefully all major manufacturing companies can see these advances as a benchmark and as a trend that will continue, aiming to reduce our global ecological footprint.

Gotham Knight

I caught a glimpse of the new DC animated film called Batman: Gotham Knight. It looks ridiculously impressive.

Gotham Knight is set in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and will consist of 6 short films by Japanese animation companies - in the tradition of The Animatrix - and written by American comic book writers.

By the look of it - through the character designs, animation, stories- this interpretation of Batman will take the character to another level and takes the franchise somewhere it has never been before. Rumour has it, that Christian Bale may even voice Batman! I can only imagine how highly anticipated Gotham Knight is. It's definitely got me excited! This one's going to be big.

To peep the preview, click here.

Cloud City

No, this has nothing to do with Lando Calrissian, but an architectural firm called Studio Lindfors.

Cloud City is a response to a recent design competition called What if New York City... where architects and city planners were asked:

"What if New York City were hit by a Category 3 hurricane? What if the most densely residential city in the country loses hundreds of thousands of homes in a few hours? What if millions are left with nowhere to live, to work, or to go to school? What if subways flood, streets close, and whole neighborhoods are submerged by up to 23 feet of ocean water and battered by 130 mile-per-hour winds? What if New Yorkers need a place to live during years of reconstruction?"

If we continue to have density issues on land, why not move it to the sky? There could be some downfalls with this idea (such as blocking of sunlight) and maybe some kinks that would need to be worked out (like waste disposal, etc.), but it is an ambitious idea and definitely an option as soon as we get out of the traditional thinking about ways of planning.

Read more about Cloud City on BLDGBLOG.

Examples of 'Cities in the Sky' from contemporary fiction - Laputa: Castle in the Sky & Bespin Cloud City from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

I have always imagined this to be a possibility in the future, when technology could permit such a migration. Seems very sci-fi, but could very well be a reality in the not-so-distant future.

Imagine leaving your house dressed like this...

Kanye at Grammys, 2008

Talk about, "comin in the club with that fresh shit on..."

He's wearing glowing glasses!

ComicRack

Yeah, okay. I'm a comic book nerd. What can I say?

For those with me, here is a cool program so you can read your comics on your computer!


It's like iTunes, but for comic books as it organizes your books with a menu where you can see your collection's covers. Info about the book - such as writer, publishing company, etc. - can be edited and displayed as well.


ComicRack makes reading your books much easier than the traditional picture viewer. It even has a magnifying glass application (for those hard to reach areas)! It has some issues, but it's one of a kind on the net. I'm sure as the program develops, they will make it a bit more user friendly.

High fives for the great idea!

http://comicrack.cyolito.com/

Juan Francisco: Bic Pen Artist

Takes doodling during lectures to another level.

I bet this guy got all the girls in university.

http://www.juanfranciscocasas.com

Crazy jacket.

by Yves Saint Laurent