If Looks Could Kill - Graphic Art & Design

Found this analogy interesting: “The meaning of life. A unified field theory. The big reason why.”

The earth, he’d say, is just a big machine. A big processing plant. A factory. That’s your big answer. The big truth.

Think of a rock polisher, one of those drums, goes round and round, rolls twenty-four/seven, full of water and rocks and gravel. Grinding it all up. Round and round. Polishing those ugly rocks into gemstones. That’s the earth. Why it goes around. We’re the rocks. And what happens to us - the drama and pain and joy and war and sickness and victory and abuse - why, that’s just the water and sand to erode us. Grind us down. To polish us up, nice and bright.

Article on the similarities between rats and humans. Interesting bits:

• They laugh when tickled, especially when they’re young
• Rats dream as we dream, in epic narratives of navigation and thwarted efforts at escape
• Look forward to good sex, “They wiggle and paw at their ears, hop and dart, stop and flash a come-hither look backward.”
• One study showed that rats accustomed to good times tend to be optimists, while those reared in unstable conditions become pessimists.

(Source) - NYTimes free signup required

Brings this documentary, on animal emotion, to mind.

Whoever wrote this article hated his ass. However, they mention some things I’d not heard about him:

• He “suggested that the deepest way to demonstrate one’s love for another is to eat their excrement”
• Congratulated the dictator (Francisco Franco) on political tortures and assassinations
• Enjoyed hearing of transport disasters

It goes on to describe numerous other ways he was a pompous ass. Unsure of the validity behind the claims of the writer, but I love Salvador Dali’s work, especially his surreal, sultry portrait of Mae West.

(Source)

Straying from my signature style, it should be noted that the emphasis for this project was the typography, rather than image quality. Further, the image is not my own, nor was it used for profit, but for a school project.

This is intriguing, the angle to which a dog’s tail wags is indicative of their mood:

• Wagging to the Right = Happy Dog
• Wagging to the Left = Anxious

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Also gives me an excuse to post a Typography project based on my favorite Led Zeppelin song, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, which is all about the good times had with the best dog ever. That song is also not typically my style, but it’s so upbeat & fitting, for what it describes!

Amorphophallus rivieri

• It emits a corpse-like smell when in bloom, to attract flies for pollination.
• The flower contains both male and female flowers that open at differing durations to avoid self-pollination.
• Varying names for this pungent plant: devil’s tongue, voodoo lily, leopard palm, snake palm. Those are the best names ever.

Georgia O’Keefe &/or Robert Mapplethorpe would have dug this flower. ;)

One must pardon the hickboy editorial tone from the source, it’s the info I’m after.

Isolated and tweaked the photo a bit, to better suit my aesthetics. Everything always looks washed out to me, I LOVE saturation, the intensity of color - the more, the better.

Far too frail, Spain has disallowed use of lithe mannequins in stores because it “contributes to eating disorders.”

Personally, I don’t get it. Clothes, fashions, etc. look BETTER on physically appealing specimens - it helps move product. If an enormous ass is devouring the seat of some pants ‘tween its massive cheeks, it’s less flattering to the clothing, thereby potentially affecting sales. I’m being extreme though, their mandate limits it to Size 6 and up, which isn’t big at all. I just get riled when people imply that the media is responsible for girls’ feelings of self-loathing.

What I dig about this article, is that “designers will standardize women’s apparel so a given size will fit the same way no matter who sells it.” YES! Do this. I hate shopping, and if sizes were universal across designers it would make life so much easier!!! Do it to shoes too, then I can order everything online and never set foot in a store again.

Futuristic Badassedness:

To get a better idea of the shapes of Spanish women’s bodies, the government is employing some heavy technology. Using laser-fitted booths that can take 130 measurements of a body in 30 seconds, the Health Ministry is fanning out across the country to assess the sizes of Spanish women.

I demand an uprising, we require this in America, too - the standardization of sizes, that is, NOT the banning of mannequins!

SOURCE