Found in New York Magazine

P.S. Gameover has a really good rendition of Space Invaders.

P.P.S. This is even better.

From the Times:

Over the last decade, Mr. Torghele, 56, an entrepreneur in this northern Italian city who first made money selling pasta in California, has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza.

Currently making room in my apartment for one of these.
Read the article.

Visit Next American City’s website for a photo essay by my sister Miriam. She was in New Orleans last summer to learn about, photograph and help out with the organizations working to improve the education system.

A really flattering photo of Caroline Kennedy on the front page of the Times today.

Photos: Jacqueline Di Milia

Congratulations my studiomate’s, Evianna Hartman and Samantha Pleet, of Bodkin, for winning Ecco Domani’s Fashion Foundation award for sustainable design. xo

Read more about the award in WWD!

 
Here is the beginning of a new section featuring letters from my dad. I typically get a post it note attached to something about once a month. This is the most recent. Please click on the image above to see the contents.

I’m going to see if I can find the one from last month which was full of Obama spirit. Also, though he signs most “Love Mom & Dad”, Mom doesn’t have much to do with it.
Please note: Dad’s return address sticker

Look at Bush duck that first shoe:

This Mexican cave, is featured in the November National Geographic. Awesome.

Photograph by Carsten Peter

Upon the official announcement that Barack Obama would be America’s next President, Gary and I roamed the streets of Park Slope and Downtown Brookyln. Hundreds of fellow New Yorkers filled the streets inciting impromptu fireworks, parade-esque drumming (on mailboxes), dancing, hugging, crying and cheering. New York’s attitude had been flushed away by the sheer joy that Obama’s victory brought us. Even the local police joined in and set uo barricades allowing us to spill into the streets.

Here is a video I shot from the corner of 5th Ave and Union Street in Brooklyn.

As Election Day creeps closer and closer, and we prepare to vote for the next president of the United States (Barack Obama), we’d like to share a few projects and articles popping up on the internet that are mobilizing voters, shedding light on important but under reported information, and making the case for an important change for all future elections.

First up is Plus One, a project initiated by Open that asks everyone to encourage at least one friend, family member or stranger to get out to vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Next is Behind the Candidates, a website designed, developed and researched by Lindsay Ballant and Ian Boyle that shares information on the people Barack Obama and John McCain have behind the scenes of their campaigns now and who they would have on as advisers once either of them win the office of the president.

And last is an Op-Ed by Steve Israel and Norman J. Ornstein from last Friday’s New York Times that explains the history behind why we vote on tuesdays and makes the case for moving Election Day to the weekend.

I think it’s been weeks, no months since I’ve last posted. The truth is, that I’ve been working, moving into a new studio, and trying to squeeze in some last drops of summer, just to start.

I’m in Paris this week, and I’ve been staying up all night long – romping the streets, nightly, with two friends, glasses of wine and champagne, and a heavy camera making my shoulder hurt. And, finally, I find something to post on chunk again. Some new crazy pastry? some cool boulangerie signage? a curiosity from Clingancourt?

No, no, no.
It’s a story about Men + Cats in the New York Times today.

Not to flood this blog with cat content (but why not, I guess), Phil just informed me that Princess Chunk is actually a boy named Powder. Here he is (via Gothamist) on Regis and Kelly.

While searching for any updates on Princess Chunk, a story of a missing cat, named Dipity, caught my attention. She’s been missing since June 24. Last seen sporting a smashing pink dress in South Edmonton Commons, Canada. It is suspected that Dipity has been snatched up by a young woman disgusted by Dipity’s wardrobe.

“…the kitty, which loves car rides, had squeezed out of her car through a window, while she was in the coffee shop for a business meeting. (Her owner) explained that Dipity — who’s been known to dash from the car — was wearing a pink dress at the time because it makes it easier to spot the grey cat against asphalt.

A witness told Abercrombie that a blonde, petite woman between 17 and 21 years old scooped the cat up, remarked that a feline shouldn’t be wearing a dress, and said she would take the animal to a relative’s farm.”

There is a $1,000 Canadian Dollar reward.
If you think you may have seen her, there is more information about how you can help here.

In the to-good-to-be-true department, a 44 pound tabby cat was found in Blackwood, New Jersey. While officials are perplexed how someone could lose such an enormous cat, we’re excited to hear that the shelter has renamed her “Princess Chunk.”

She might also be moving to a new home in Brooklyn, if she’s not claimed by Saturday. From the article:

“Shelter volunteer Deborah Wright tells The Courier Post of Cherry Hill the cat is built like a quarterback. The cat’s owner has until Saturday to reclaim her. After that, “Chunk” will be eligible for adoption.”

Congratulations goes out to Scott, for being awarded this years Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communications Design. Here he is below, accepting the award from the First Lady. I’d like to think that he’s purposefully placed himself as far off to the left (from our point of view) as possible in protest of the current administration, and as a show of his support for the change that is hopefully on it’s way.

Photo by Pete Erickson/The Bulletin

From the Week In Review:

“Once you’re up, it’s really pleasant,” [Couch] said. “It’s so serene. That’s a word I never used before this.” … Although Mr. Couch is largely self-taught, cluster balloonists like Jonathan Trappe, who went aloft for four hours on June 7 with 55 huge helium balloons, prefer to take no chances. “Cluster ballooning is something people can do,” Mr. Trappe said. “They just need to do it safely. I’m very concerned that people will do it without the appropriate training.” … Mr. Trappe’s gondola was actually his office chair. “It represents a contrast between the normal mundane world,” he said, “and the world of my dreams.”

I wonder how my office chair would do.

Plans to close two lanes of traffic on Broadway between 42nd and 35th streets, to make way for a public esplanade, were discussed in the New York Times today. The short 7 block-long bike path that you enter from busy traffic and exit back into it not 5 minutes later makes this esplanade feel more like a rest area along the NJ Turnpike than a safe place to ride. And, while I have similar feelings about the bike path on 14th and 8th, it’s a great sign of the changes being made around the city. And, cycling aside, this space is way more about people having more public space allotted for just sitting around, eating lunch and taking a short walk. From the article:

“Broadway is not famous because there are a gazillion cars going through it,” [Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan] said. “We’re trying to have the public space match the name.”

My vote for the next underused plot of city land to be turned into a bike path and park would be the median running along Delancey Street, which would be much better utilized as a continuation of the cycling and pedestrian path coming off the bridge. Read the article here.

A great article in the Times today about Paul Otlet, an early predictor and creator of hyperlinking, data storage and information sharing. Read it here. The piece (and the above photograph) is by Alex Wright, who talks more about this topic here.

Paul Otlet and his Mundaneum are also the subject of a documentary:

Reading about his dedication to collecting data on every book and catalog ever printed, I can’t help but think about the mission of Bob George and the ARChive of Contemporary Music.