Polyvore.com

I’ve just discovered the website www.polyvore.com and I’m really impressed. To sum it up, it is essentially the virtual equivalent of playing paper dolls. You can mix and match real clothing items, shoes, hats, tights and other accessories from various websites with different backgrounds, models and props to create a fashion magazine-like spread of new “looks.”
I spent some time on it the other day and it’s really fun, although more challenging than what you might think to put together an interesting outfit. So many fashionistas are running rampant on there that the simple, all-black aesthetic that I always seem to resort to just isn’t going to cut it. In theory, it’s a great way to try out different looks before buying them and to get more creative with your wardrobe. But that’s assuming you actually have time to put that much thought into your appearance! I’ll probably just stick to copying the outfits the fashion mavens create.
I can totally see a website like this existing for interior design. Imagine how fun it would be to mix and match paint colors with furniture, lighting, rugs and artwork before you buy them! Does this already exist?

NY Export: Opus Jazz

If you ask me, the hottest thing happening in ballet right now is a dance/film project by two New York City Ballet Dancers called NY Export: Opus Jazz.

Opus Jazz is an adaptation of a ballet from the 1950’s by Jerome Robbins. NCYB dancers, Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi had the idea of re-making Robbins' work back in 2007. After months of editing and years of planning and fundraising, the film has finally come to fruition. Each movement of the ballet is filmed in a different part of the city and danced exclusively by NYCB members. Check out the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GGa6xXJfTo&feature=player_embedded

Tom Friedman

On the heels of April Fools Day and my last post about Jason Peters, I wanted to write about Tom Friedman (1965), an artist with a sense of humor. Friedman is best known for creating sculptures out of everyday materials: toothpaste, laundry detergent, sugar cubes, Pepto-Bismol and more. While I most admire the painstakingly labor-intensive and time-consuming craftsmanship he employs in his work, I don’t always love the finished product.
For example, while its fun to realize that Image 1 is a self-portrait Freidman carved out of a single tablet of aspirin, at the end of the day it’s a silly little aspirin. I feel the same way about Image 2, a sculpture made of hole punches, and Image 3, a perfect sphere molded out of 500 pieces of chewing gum.
A more successful work to me is Image 4, a starbust-like sculpture made out of thousands of toothpicks, because the sculpture is visually stunning and therefore can stand on its own without the toothpick gimmick.
Freidman’s art is clearly full of jokes, but they’re the kind without a lot of substance, or what the comedy world might refer to as “one liner.”