Erik Moe Art & Design

I am truly moved by last night’s clinching of the Democratic nomination by Senator Obama. It is a good day to be an American after so many not-so-good ones. Might I suggest now is a good time to donate to the nominee’s campaign.

…And Historic Documentation in St. Paul

Some reports claim 50,000 turned up last night for the 18,000 seats in the Xcel Center. From TV coverage, it looked as though nearly everyone brought a camera. It is no surprise then that flickr is accumulating huge pools of images dated yesterday and tagged “obama minnesota,” “obama stpaul,” or “obama xcel.”

Someday will we re-assemble in virtual reality massively documented events such as this? Imagine if we had 10,000 small cameras at Lincoln’s inaugural.

In a sign that the battle is indeed continuing, ex-Dodd über-blogger Matt Browner Hamlin and his always frequently sound commentary has a new home over at Hold Fast. Do stop by. While you’re visiting, complement him on his lovely tattoo-themed WordPress installation.

Apparently all of Edwardian England was in a kerfuffle for the better part of a decade (and rightfully so) over the (alleged) torture of a cute pooch by medical scientists. The memorial for the dog caused riots in the streets due to the provocative question on it’s plaque, “Men and women of England, how long shall these things be?”

The story is fascinating to me not only because animal rights seem more like a 21st Century issue, but also because of the role of the simple, symbolic artwork in the controversy. Admittedly, the intrigue of “Swedish women activists” infiltrating the medical school and the “pitched battles” between medical students and police assigned to protect the bronze dog add a certain level of incredulity.

Is there a lesson here for today’s animal rights advocates? If the sympathy of cuddly dogs is such a catalyst for change, perhaps activists should seize upon the popularity of Cute Overload to help their cause instead of photographing naked vegetarians over and over again. I mean — I like to think we vegetarians are good looking, but the approach always results in a troublesome mixed message and doesn’t really win the cause any allies. Best to stick with creatures that are easier to identify with.

Full entry: Brown Dog Affair (via Wikipedia’s usually more banal article of the day).

A designer’s blog ought to touch on design now and then, and because good design makes anything better – especially coffee – here is a quick photo appreciation of the exterior. This cup from Intelligentsia has a lot going for it: a single star, a coffee cup (or is it a bean?) in aviator wings, squiggly lines. The bold, clean arched text with shadows. What’s not to like?

Intelligentsia is the reigning U.S. coffee roasting champion according to Roaster Magazine. I can’t really disagree with that decision. They are also doing plenty of fine things in pushing the “Fair Trade” concept even further.

For some reason I’m just now getting around to experimenting with Flickr. More (exciting!) images of this cup have been deposited, tagged, and cataloged there.

…The Nietzsche Family Circus, pairs random Family Circus cartoons with Nietzsche quotes.

Discovered after my recently posted podcast playlist, the art-talk podcast Bad At Sports is well worthy of its own post. I’ve caught three episodes so far, and each has been at least nine times as entertaining as any artist talk I’ve attended in recent years (and without uncomfortable folding chairs). Though its focus is the Chicago art scene, I’m sure Seattle and Philadelphia will find plenty to love in its brainy and witty dissection of art, art school, and the scary world of the professional artist. The most recent episode (#61) features an excellent interview with Kerry James Marshall.

While exploring after dinner last night, the paintings of Icelandic artist Anna Jóelsdóttir caught our eyes. A few of her works are on display at Zg gallery - located under the brown line tracks at Chicago St. They don’t reproduce as well on screen, but the combination of detail and sparseness was appealing to me. This is a detail from a journal in which she draws one panel daily before flipping the page. These drawings then become the basis for larger paintings. More works at the zggallery.com.

So that last post about (virtually) meeting the neighborhood bloggers needs to be amended a bit. Not only because half the neighbors mentioned added comments about having left the Wilson/Sheridan neighborhoods, but also because I didn’t end up living there either. I’ll save you the gory details two-plus months after the fact. For now, lets just appreciate the simple joys of shopping for soy milk, tofu, and pasta. More interesting photos and Chicago explorations are forthcoming.

P.S. Go Twins!

Two books starring the 1893 World’s Columbian Expo have been on my favorites list for some time – and have shaped my understanding of Chicago ahead of my move there next month. Sunday’s Sun-Times reports that both Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth and Eric Larson’s The Devil in the White City are being made into feature films (via Gapers Block).

If done right, the Expo could be a perfect subject for the big screen. It was itself a sort of fleeting fantasy that was (mostly) destroyed after its six-month run. It is unlikely that any other event did as much to craft the American cityscape of the 20th Century (for better or worse, I suppose). Most fascinating to me is the monumental scale of the Expo. Quoting Chris Ware in the Sun-Times:

“Ironically, to the modern mind, the whole fair seems a wondrous and practically inconceivable ‘folly,’ something I think people today unconsciously hunger for, though they might not be willing to admit it… The scale and expenditure that went into the 1893 Exposition is really only matched today by Hollywood blockbuster movies, and is just about as transitory, but there’s still something so much more reassuring, dignified and hopeful about it being a real place to visit and encounter rather than simply a brief flickering of colored shadows on a screen.”

It would be great if Hollywood could do a good job recreating the 1893 Expo, but it would be better if cities were inspired to take more risks with fantastic architecture. In these conservative times, would any city take on something like a Statue of Liberty or a Mount Rushmore? On that note, Mayor Street has still not commented on my proposal for 8th and Market.

Pictured: vintage playing cards from the World’s Columbian Exposition

Since Tuesday’s primary election solved all of Philadelphia’s problems, Rachel and I are turning our sights to Chicago. Above is a panorama of two giant video art monoliths in Millenium Park – just across the street from Rachel’s new school for the fall (click image to enlarge).