“A terrible omen for the continued existence of the world as we know it”*

Yesterday while driving I heard a piece on a chart-topping pop star from Japan, Miku Hatsune. Pop in terms of the kind of synthpop music she sings and pop as in popular—she has oodles of fans and does sold-out live shows. She’s 16 years old and has blue hair and has been performing since 2007. So far this sounds like standard fare, right?

It’s not, quite.

Random acts of culture

The Hallelulah Chorus at Macy's

I’ve always liked the idea of the Random Acts of Kindness movement; evidently there’s also one for Random Acts of Culture. Their latest, 650 choristers exploding into the Hallelulah Chorus at Macy’s in Philadelphia, is quite wonderful. And I’ll bet the acoustics  were amazing.

Minus five

These pictures are from a moss-over-sandstone meadow. The mossy parts are quite boggy, so when the temperature drops there’s a lot of ice where the water flows over the trail, which is the bare sandstone part. Not so good for walking on, but great for photographing.

I have to admit that I don’t actually mind cold weather, if it’s not horribly cold and I have clothing adequate for going out in it. Minus five is actually quite nice for walking. A little less nice for taking gloves off and taking pictures, but sometimes the result is worth it.

Dogs don’t understand….

Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving.

Priceless.

Is it just me….

Or is there something really weird about this print ad?

Life is like a box of choclits

This is part of a full-page ad promoting “business friendly Bahrain,” one element of an overall campaign handled by M+C Saatchi. It uses a box of chocolates as a metaphor for what Bahrain offers; as with real chocolates, accompanied by a handy key that matches the symbols on the chocolates to flavours. The box label says: “Fact: according to expats, the best place to live in the Gulf is Bahrain.”

It’s the symbols on the flavour key that interested me. As a designer, I’m often dealing with creating icons to communicate meaning visually. The point of such graphics is to communicate through symbols even if someone doesn’t have the language to understand words. So I look at one of the symbols for the chocolates in the box with some perplexity.

Refreshing tolerance: an oval in a square. Makes sense.

Eternal sunshine: a heart. Well, it’s not as obvious as a sun, but communicates happiness, so there’s some connection.

Delightful diversity: a complex pattern. Logical.

Luxurious living: an elegant spiral. Ditto.

Turquoise seas: a stylized wave. Logical but not executed in such a boring way as to be too obvious.

Cultural surprise:

….jail bars?

I think I must be missing something here.

Waterdrops on oregon grape

Check out the magnification in the drop.

The drop is amazing, but then the whole thing was gorgeous.

Orange

Puffball

I don't know about you, but it reminds me of a very tiny version of Alien.

Not exactly a mushroom

Kinda like cauliflower

Found this today; it was a darker yellow than the picture shows. I’m not good on fungi, but this appears to be some kind of Ramaria sp. (coral fungus).

The other one I found was what looked like an orange-tipped lichen. But I’ve no idea what it actually is.

What the heck is it?

 

And speaking of “pink” and “having fun”….

P!nk.

The most visual in-your-face bad grrl fun since Annie Lennox first hit the stage.

(I think “Stupid Girls” remains my favourite.)