robotmonkeys

the monkeys know all

Month: March 2009

  • Brothers’ Kiss Destroyed

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    The 19 year old mural of Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev kissing East German General Secretary Honecker, known as “Brothers’ Kiss”, has been destroyed by the city of Berlin. Dmitri Vrubel painted the mural on September 28, 1990 along a stretch of the wall running along the Spree River. That segment – now known as the East Side Gallery – is one of several that remain as a memorial.

    The wall is currently undergoing restoration. As part of this process, the wall is being steam cleaned, and the underlying concrete repaired. Officials say that the artists can then repaint their images. Vrubel has been given €3000 to repaint his iconic image, but instead he plains to paint a similar, but different image. After all, art can’t simply be replaced.

  • March Tech Meetups

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    Dorkbot SF is tonight at the Hat Factory (801 Minnesota St #08, SF)

    SHDH 31 is this Saturday (March 14) at the Rainbow Mansion (21677 Rainbow Drive, Cupertino).

  • Lincoln’s Watch

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    Yesterday, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, opened Abraham Lincoln’s watch. Lincoln’s watch was undergoing repair when the Fort Sumter was attacked, starting the Civil War. Jonathan Dillon, the repairman, engraved a message inside the watch and there it sat unseen until now.

  • Organize Before They Rise!

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    Caffe Pergolesi (418 Cedar) in Santa Cruz is hosting all this month “Organize Before They Rise!”, a zombie themed show featuring local artists.

    Zombies have been played out for a while now, but this show features some talent, and it’s local so check it out.

  • The Cult of Done Manifesto

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    This has been kicking around the tubes for a while, but
    Bre Pettis of Make, Thingiverse, and of NYC Resistor fame, along with Kio Stark have written what they call The Cult of Done Manifesto. It’s only 13 lines, but it boils down to the same sage advice that’s been around for years.

    1. Start today.
    2. Build one to throw away.
    3. Nothing is ever finished.
    4. Nothing succeeds like success

  • Mine is Better

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    Strange Attractor mentions Greenpeace’s Design Awards 2009 call for submissions. That’s not what this post is about. This year’s logo?

    Well that’s familiar.

    Not entirely sure how I feel about this. Obviously they’re different, and I have no reason to suspect anything beyond independent creation, since it’s not like anyone ever reads this thing. But still…

  • Blocks from Above

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    Via Grafik sent these black blocks to the Prague streetart festival Names.

    In related news, Technabob found flickr photos of Gaffa‘s “Giant Tetris (aka ‘One More Go One More Go’)”, an exhibit in Sydney’s “Live Lanes – By George!” outdoor exhibit that sadly ended in February.

  • Monochrom USA Tour

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    monochrom has announced their USA tour. SFBay dates include this Saturday (March 7) at Chez Poulet (3359 Cesar Chavez, SF) and this Wednesday (March 11) at the Fairmont Hotel (170 S Market) in San Jose.

    via somewhere I’m quite sure I can’t recall

  • Recovery.gov has a Logo

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    Obama unveiled logos for recovery.gov and the Department of Transportation’s TIGER project. The logos designed by Mode Project. The logos not only represent the economic recovery program, but will be affixed to projects that have been funded though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

    The idea of affixing logos to the projects that are receiving ARRA funds reminds me of the blue eagle from the New Deal’s National Recovery Administration.

    The eagle was displayed in the windows of businesses that agreed to economic restrictions such as a minimum wage, maximum work hours, and minimum price laws.

    I like the idea of clearly marking how the money is being spent. Not only does it promote accountability (assuming of course that the logos are properly affixed), but also highlights just where tax money is being spent. Too often people complain that they never see where their tax money is going. That’s because it’s spread out and in the background. It’s road, the police, the fire truck, the post office, and the school. Perhaps it’s naïve, but maybe seeing a logo will promote an idea of community. I don’t know.

    The unveiling of the recovery.gov logo, caused me to notice that TARP doesn’t have a logo. Perhaps one of these could be displayed on doors of and ATMs of Citi and AIG.

    hooverflag tarp moneybag tarp logo

    via Swiss Miss

  • 9

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    via Almost Scientific and Design Related:

    Shane Acker created an animated short a while back about tiny numbered cloth people in a post-apocalyptic world. Tim Burton is turning the short into a full movie.

    Visually, it’s amazing, but I think I prefer the original short to the feature. The short doesn’t feature any dialog, and so that adds to the outerworldness of the story. I understand that most people can’t be bothered to watch something with no dialog (even Wall-E had dialog), but dialog forces extraneous notions like backstory, romantic subplots, interpersonal conflicts, that take away from experience the presented world. I’m not saying that these things can’t exist without dialog, they clearly can (well perhaps not backstory), but by using dialog they are brought to the forefront with a sledgehammer. Still, I’m hopeful for the feature.

    9, comes out surprsingly enough, 09-09-09. (That’s ten years to the day of the North American Dreamcast release.)

    Original short:

    Trailer: