The Ikeman Bank, offering compliments with savings
With the global economy in ruin and savings having dried up under the excitement of an endless credit tap, this Ikeman Piggy bank could well be the answer. Once you make a small deposit into it, the LCD screen allows you to choose between five virtual characters, who interact with you every time it gets a top up. Heck, deposit a decent amount and they’ll even offer you compliments. Forget the bailout of Wall Street. We urge the American government to buy one of these for every household instead.
Tagged: cool gadgets, gadgets, Japan, Japanese gadgets
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Piano Bar: a bar in Tokyo which seats just 8 people
Quietly nestled in the ‘Street of Drinkers’, Shibuya, is the tiny Piano Bar. Upon entering through the windowless door, you are transported to a bizzare world of red velvet, crazy chandeliers and bizarre portraits. There is a maximum capacity of just eight people, so make sure you get there first. Read more
Japanese dental students practice technique on sex dolls
From the WTF files, some dental students in Japan are practicising their oral techniques, as well as their people skills, on hapless Sex Dolls created by Yoshida Dental Manufacturing. The Hanako Showa 2 comes complete with tongue and cheeks (tongue in cheek?) and punctuates its time in the dental chair with an array of human emotions and expressios, such as ‘blink, cough, sneeze, choke and move its eyes’. Surreal!. Perhaps one can take my place for my next check-up.
Awesome t shirt design by La Mano Fria
La Mano Fria is a graphic artist who uses sampled imagery and re-configures them and in a way mirrors what hip-hop producers do with vinyl records. From these appropriated images, he reconfigures text and shapes to form something that’s in-between hand=printed posters and early digital artifact heavy graphics. These shirts are produced through Beams T in Japan.
Also by CASPER JOHANSSON
FAIL! Man wears crack jacket to drug trafficking court date
From the ‘what were you thinking’ file comes this news report of a man in Fort Lauderdale accused of drug trafficking who turned up to court for his trial wearing a jacket with a cartoon recipe for cooking crack cocaine. Yes, smart indeed.
New Banksy artwork angers the Catholic Church
Banksy has struck again, this time offending the Catholic Church with a bold artwork that critiques their stance on ongoing child abuse scandals. Banksy has taken a replica of a bust of an eighteenth century member of the Catholic hierarchy and added multi-coloured tiles to the face — pixelating it — as a comment on what he considers to be the Church’s cover-up. ‘I’m never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one’, Banksy noted. And who are we to disagree? Read more
Tattoo artist sued by ex-girlfriend for obscene design
Oh boy, this is so bizarre it could only be true. Apparently a Dayton, Ohio, tattoo artist has been slapped with a $100,000 lawsuit by his ex-girlfriend for tattooing an image of, erm, excrement with flies on her back rather than the scene from Narnia that she had requested. The reason? He’d recently found out that she had been cheating on him with one of his buddies. Damn! And here we were thinking this was the hot new look for trailer park trash crowd.
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Massachusetts-based artist Adam LoRusso is working on his first solo show, which will take place at Dark World Gallery. Through the use of various mixed media techniques, the work in the show will be constructed entirely on found materials — breaking down original drawings, magazines and textbook clippings and giving them new life as original graphic transmissions. Read more
Los Angeles painter Lisa Solberg was just what I was in the mood for this morning, as I was glancing through my links. Color, lots of color, tossed about, smeared and swirled all over the canvas. It really hits the spot. She also has a new video of her painting process.
This interview with James Lavelle gives a fascinating window into the making of the latest UNKLE opus, End Titles, Stories for Film.
Anything goes in New York, even a white peacock in the middle of Manhattan. Yes, a white peacock! Who says the Upper West side is ‘upstate?’ Come visit one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York, which host the famous Cathedral of St. John The Divine (112th St. and Amsterdam Avenue). Read more
We invited Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, who aside from being the DJ of the moment is also the remix whiz behind tracks from Beck, Tokyo Police Club, and Grizzly Bear, to give us a rundown on the songs he’s wearing out right now for our sister site, My Secret Playlist. He started off by propping Beyonce’s anthemic single, Single Ladies [listen below]. Go figure! ‘This is one of my favorite Beyonce tracks ever. It has so much energy, and the chorus gets dark in a great way. The clapping never stops. The video is a flawless execution of a performance style clip. It’s perfect’. Read the rest of Girl Talk’s Secret Playlist.
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Lyon-based Babylon Circus is music laced with ska, gypsy, rock, vaudevillian antics, dancehall and reggae. Their first Australian East Coast tour in 2008 saw the nine piece band sell every show out. They feature on the So Frenchy So Chic compilation. We asked them to tell us about their favourite music right now, and they started with Django Reinhardt’s Minor Swing [listen below]: ‘Backstage, home, in the bus, cooking or having breakfast, is there a time you wouldn’t love to hear this one? We love it anytime, any style, too, as it’s been remixed and rearranged so many different ways. Still, we love the original best’.
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Barcelona label Kinkiking have launched their new collection, Kinkiking Industries, which consists of four t-shirts representing imaginary businesses. The team behind the label take their visual inspiration from comics, music, design and graffiti. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
A little infectious lollipop rock anyone? Feel free to embarrass yourself singing along at the stoplight. If the other drivers give you that look, roll down the windows and spread the love.
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Cookie Boy’s creative cookie designs
I don’t eat cookies, so good thing Cookie Boy’s cookies are little pieces of art too pretty and cute to eat. Read more
Pencils made from recycled newspaper
The problem with awesome things like these pencils made out of recycled newspaper is that you almost don’t want to use them.
Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
Matthew Dear’s Black City album totem
Our friends at Ghostly International are releasing Matthew Dear’s Black City album as a limited edition ‘totem’. A what? A totem – a limited edition metal bar used to access a private music chamber. Cool! Read more
Using Kyoko Hashimoto’s popular design, these acrylic earrings are made with unique hand formed sterling silver sleepers that make them light enough for everyday wear. Part of Kyoko’s collection, I Blame the Uni, (pronounced ‘oo-nee’, the Japanese name for sea urchin) and inspired by her experiences in the underground club scene of Tokyo. Read more
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