Now that steampunk has been in the NY Times and this Boston alt-mag, can we declare it as having jumped the shark and let it die a death worthy of heroin chic, Zubaz pants, and shaved Nike logos?

Am I alone in thinking that Steampunk has about as much to do with art and fashion as a Trekker convention?

Beautiful photo. Thanks for posting.

I saw that same Law and Order episode last night... Mo Rocca and Robin Williams were the flash mob ringleaders of a pillow fight and also staged a Grand Central freeze.

Flash-mobbery jumped the shark, y'all.

I agree with the statement @32, but it needs some clarifying:

Designers that think they are coders are bad.
Coders who think they are designers are worse.

Very cool idea. I live in Boston and loathed the "SANTA IS REAL" sidewalk tags that proliferated this area a couple of years back. 'Yeah, tell that to the poor kids', was my response and I subversively slapped on some "HARD" stickers at the end of some of them.

These are way smarter in the way that they interact with the viewer. No taglines, no trite sayings... these are reflective and meditative. Love it.

"Generally speaking, I love being a Londoner, but when my fellow residents decide that the best response to terror isn't keep calm and carry on, but rather "When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." it's downright embarrassing -- like being a Bostonian or something."

I don't quite get this dig at Boston, please explain yourself furtha.

I agree with Noen about the questionable use of 'photorealistic'. Photorealism is used to describe a style of painting which was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. 'Hyperrealistic' might apply better here.

Eeew.

Third post in a row on not getting it. I'm all for esoteric humor, but this is confusing. (I love type and typography and naked people, BTW.)

I read somewhere that in fact the new $5 bills are printed on 2-ply.

@#4 posted by Charlie Wade , March 17, 2008 9:32 PM

People conned into a sub-prime mortgage, often when they were not told of other options or if they were presented with distorted facts could hardly be called "greedy and/or stupid". Don't lose sight of where the real greed lies in all of this: the bankers and the credit corporations that since the Reagan deregulation orgy have had carte-blanche.

Awesome! Down with Rodent Yankee Imperialism!

@15, Moderator. Lighten up.

I would have bought these maybe 10 years ago when I could afford to blow $120 and when cargo cuts were in style.

I like the idea, but it should have been a robot her size.

@Figment88, #29: To me, a bus stop with graffiti is a little more than just a boring ol' bus stop. Its poetry in the midst of these boxes that we go back and forth from. Its a sign of life in these dead beige climate-controlled hills. Where do we collectively aim our frustrations when the finger is constantly being given to us with Box stores and coffeeshops and pylons littering the landscape? Mom-and-Pop stores supplanted by chains supplanted by FOR LEASE signs?

You don't have to tag a wall to be a narcissist. You can plug away at your computer, call yourself a "Lefty", and scoff at the things around you that you can easily call evil. I think you need to fine-tune your definitions, son.

I question the artistic merits of scrawling a generic tag on a bathroom wall (as opposed to making street art on the street) and I can empathize with this business owner's frustration with it. However, this kind of generalization about graffiti doesn't do anything but further the urban alienation that gives rise to a new crop graffiti artists.

As soon as I saw this graphic yesterday in the paper, I knew it would end up on BB. Favorite bit: "Blogging About Diagrams".

This made my day. Awesome!

What about the Golden Jasmine Yeti Dancers?

#3: We are already overloaded with examples of how the world is the playground of the rich. I don't see what's so fun about setting the example for your kid that rules only apply to certain (lesser) people.

Beautiful rotoscoped 2D charcoal animation... *sigh*.

It's a nice idea, but I'd hate to walk into my kitchen and look at it everyday.

Your poo is sent to the year 2000.

If I see another set of Brooklyn/SF-based paintings in this Claire Rojas style, I'm going to wretch.

A television for people who drink water. Hilarious.

My stock in Monsanto just went up... whoo-hoo! I'd cry from happiness but my tear ducts shriveled up.

I thought the designer toy craze jumped the shark.

For 3 bills, I wish the figure emulated Biskup's style a little better. Make a nice hood ornament, though.

I will be dumping the Yahoo account I've had for nearly 10 years and my Flickr Pro account if this deal goes through.

Would have read better as:

SHWAR

or a lesser minimalist variation:

SHWARWAR.

These pics are great! Good luck to the filmmakers... very few films can accurately depict a time period.

ZODIAC comes to mind as a movie that got the 1970's down pat.

Conflict of interest, anyone? Advertisers as posts?!?

Take a look at the 'Federated Media' link on the right to see how much Gama-Go is paying for their banner ads. I don't care so much that BoingBoing is making millions in advertising, I only hate when the ads are done in such a thinly-veiled way.

I have a suggestion for some savvy web architect: how about a t-shirt database?

Skunk and SCUL are awesome and his Disco Ball Bike is something to see!

I can't wait for summer when they ride by my house around midnight on Saturdays. !VIVA SOMERVILLE!

This reminds me of an excellent article by Jonathan Letham for Harpers about this very thing. He writes that art exists in a market economy and a gift economy and says, "We in Western society are going through a period of intensifying belief in private ownership, to the detriment of the public good. We have to remain constantly vigilant to prevent raids by those who would selfishly exploit our common heritage for their private gain."

A few other notable quotes from that article:
"The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors but “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.” To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate."

"Contemporary copyright, trademark, and patent law is presently corrupted. The case for perpetual copyright is a denial of the essential gift-aspect of the creative act. Arguments in its favor are as un-American as those for the repeal of the estate tax."

"Art is sourced. Apprentices graze in the field of culture."

"Digital sampling is an art method like any other, neutral in itself."

For those that don't already know, the true cleverness of this article comes at the end.

Here it comes... I'm just observing the sheer number of posts about this topic. Why don't I go somewere else to discuss? I'm ALWAYS on those places and BB and the discrepancy between those posts and these was just notable to me. Forgive me for breeching some rule of yours by stepping out of the box momentarily.

No judgements, CPT. Don't worry, your lifestyle is totally safe.

88 comments and counting. Nice to know what gets people talking. Recession? Class Warfare? No! Misuse of grammar in a popcorn movie? Storm the castle and boil the babies!

Just a casual observation about my spoiled generation. Don't get your hate on.

I like nitpicking (sorry, appreciation) as much as anyone else but this level of scrutiny is a little weird. Movies will continue to be riddled with stuff that makes the geeks, the purists and the natives cringe... so what? Its the gaffes that make us see the movie more than once or search for them on YouTube or IMDB.

Unless a director wants to make a visual statement like Wes Anderson or has a hawk's eye view for detail like David Fincher, most mainstream filmmakers will neglect certain details, have contradictory plot elements and just be flat out erroneous in order to move the plot along. Often in the script-storyboard-shooting-editing process, some elements are going to be lost or sacrificed.

Oh sorry, I didn't realize the simplicity of my comment was going to be a judgment of character. At the risk of countering smarmy with smarmy, I'll state that my 'yawn' was a universally existential one born out of frustration of repetitive design, agreeing with previous posters about how this skull icon has been played to death (Irony or coincidence? Perhaps, neither).

Funny thing is, I got all this across in my previous post but it would seem that I have to qualify myself now. I think the moderator was just bored. The holidays can stress a person out. I understand and forgive you.

Now watch me get banned.

Yawn.