150 Best Online Flash Games.

'It was a long and exhausting task: playing hundreds of online games for hours in a row, day after day. It was hard, but someone had to do it.'




Pyestock Turbine Facility.

Closed research facility in Hampshire.

'For over fifty years, Pyestock was host to the development and testing of gas turbine engines. From the 1950s through to the 1970s, it was the largest facility of its type in Europe (if not the world), and the design, experimentation and testing at Pyestock helped to usher in the jet age...'

'... at it waits its fate, Pyestock has become an unofficial museum. The entrance fee is a combination of dexterity, intelligence and courage. Those able pay are constantly amazed and inspired by what they find; and are saddened that one of the most important research sites in the world is to be swept away and forgotten. '




Madhubani Painting.

'Hindu women who live in villages near the market town of Madhubani in northern India maintain old traditions and teach them to their daughters. Painting is one of the traditional skills that is passed down from generation to generation in the families of some of the women. They paint figures from nature and myth on household and village walls to mark the seasonal festivals of the religious year, for special events of the life-cycle, and when marriages are being arranged they prepare intricately designed wedding proposals...'




Broken Koans.

What is the sound of two hands clapping?




Junk Drawers.




Kitchen Drawers.




Inside Your Drawers.




William Claxton: Photographic Memory.

Photographer William Claxton, who passed away recently.

'... Less well known is the fact that throughout his career Claxton has just as assiduously photographed people from all walks of life, both the famous - writers, actors, directors, composers, artists, and fashion designers - and the family and friends to whom he has been closest. Often there has been little distinction between the two. In a sense, he has always been a kind of neighborhood photographer, though later his neighborhood became the world. Many of the photographs shown in the gathering of pictures featured here - whether shot in a recording studio, on a Hollywood sound stage, or in the living rooms of his subjects - were taken within a few miles of Claxton's home at the top of Benedict Canyon above Beverly Hills. '




The Burial of Mickey Mouse.

Nonfiction autobiography of Paris-born, London-based (by way of Paraguay) artist Natalie d'Arbeloff. She's had an interesting life.

Also : Blaugustine - http://www.nataliedarbeloff.com/blaugustine.html

Also : the God Interviews - http://www.nataliedarbeloff.com/interviewgod.html




Drawing Babar.

'A dignified elephant, dressed in a green suit and wearing a yellow crown, walks upright across the page. This image—both absurd and endearing—has become instantly recognizable to several generations of readers throughout the world. The exhibition Drawing Babar returns visitors to the two essential moments of Babar's creation: when Jean de Brunhoff and, years later, his son Laurent, set down their initial thoughts on paper. Their earliest drafts, shown in juxtaposition with their finished watercolors, allow viewers to track the changes, both subtle and substantive, that both men made as they refined their work, bringing together word and image with elegance and exuberance. '




History of African Art.

'The representation of motherhood in plastic art is a familiar subject in the majority of African cultures. It celebrates the fertility of women and revives beliefs in the mythical mother who gave life to humankind - a crucial element within society in that it ensures the continuity of the species. The composition of figures generally consists of a seated or kneeling female with a baby at her breast or on her back. The representation of maternity by most African peoples is characterized by idealism rather than realism. The mother figure usually has an expressive face that conveys a sense of tranquil dignity- but seldom shows obvious emotion...'



Querying the Hive Mind.


'Besides MetaFilter, whats the must read of the day? '


'I'm looking to update my birthday wishlist and need some specific inspiration from a broad spectrum of people-types.'




Jack Common: Selected Articles.

'A selection of articles by the undeservably obscure Jack Common, a Geordie who wrote both novels and essays on various aspects of culture and class relations. His friend George Orwell had written of Common: "he is of proletarian origin, and much more than most writers of this kind he preserves his proletarian viewpoint".'

'A fascinating writer, his analysis of the emerging mass consumerism of the 1930s & 40s seems to closely anticipate the concept of the 'society of the spectacle' later developed by the situationists.'