Friday Finds 3.25.11

Diana: Alternate Histories

Just came across this shop on Etsy run by Pittsburgh-based Matthew Buchholz. He doctors vintage photographs to "create history that never was" including dinosaurs in pastoral landscapes, zombie mayhem in a turn-of-the-century park, or King Kong ravaging an Arizona mission. My favorite? "The Wrath of Andrew Carnegie." via @steeltownanthem

Miyoko: Clever Little Bag by Puma and FuseProject

Though not new, I stumbled upon this video while poking around Material ConneXion's site about Puma's Clever Little Bag designed by FuseProjects and still enjoyed it all the same. It's a good reminder that good design is smart design and design that can help our planet.

Jaime: The Seed, Istanbul

Random, but at some point this week I stumbled onto this conference center/concert hall in Istanbul, Turkey, and was struck by the bright and colorful theater, filled with a rainbow assortment of 300 Spira chairs by Lammhults. More views of the inspiring interior here.

Aaron: Bizness Video by tUnE-yArDs

I've been digging this very catchy, very sharp jam by tUnE-yArDs for a while now and was very happy and thrilled to finally catch the music video. Modern dance, silly makeup, cool graphic costumes, and loads of kids having fun. Do it!

Alexis: Kiel Johnson Cardboard Cameras

LA based artist Kiel Johnson does some pretty amazing things with cardboard! These cameras are made from cardboard/paper, tape and glue...the detail is incredible. I wonder if they are functional, like a pin-hole camera? Would beat carrying around a weighty Rolleiflex!

Meredith: The James Brown of Bed Wetting Prevention

Tag this under "terrifying tots" or "what happens to home schooled kids when their parents are fame hungry, gypsy, vagabond superstars." The breakout star of The Kelly family, Angelo, is the James Brown of Bed Wetting Prevention. Read the scarier-than-fiction real life bio of The Kelly family, their rise to European super stardom and their castle on the Rhine here.

Jordan: The Best Journalism Want Ad Ever Ever.

This makes work—challenging, often unrewarding work—sound really, really effing awesome.

We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However, our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede.

We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: "I can’t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20th Pulitzer." As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko.

For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family.

Send questions, or a resume/cover letter/links to clips to my email address below. If you already have your dream job, please pass this along to someone whose skills you covet. Thanks.

Matthew Doig

Sarasota Herald-Tribune
1741 Main St.
Sarasota FL, 34236
(941) 361-4903
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com

Dakota: Cloudy Collection Letterpress

It's always nice to come across art that is both good looking and affordable. I'm coveting this Simple letterpress card edition released by Cloudy Collection. Every edition is made up of seven cards created by seven different artists. Each set is only $35 with shipping and a portion of the proceeds to go charity. These will soon be on my wall!