Friday Finds 11.11.2009

Miyoko: Spacing Toronto Subway Buttons

This week I was perusing Spacing.ca, the site of Canadian urban landscape magazine Spacing and jumping point to its Spacing Toronto and Spacing Montreal local blogs, and stumbled upon my favorite find in a long time: its Toronto Subway Buttons. Though Spacing created these quite a number of years ago, it was the first time I'd seen them. Each one-inch button features the name of one of the city's 73 subway stops as it appears on the tiled walls of the station. I studied architecture at the University of Toronto so the two Spadina station buttons are on my wish list.

Jordan: Subway Architecture

Wow. Designboom rounded up a list of awe-inspiring subway stations around the world, and I can't help daydreaming about what my morning commute would be like if it began by stepping into one of these amazing mass transit destinations. San Francisco's Muni system seems like such small potatoes in comparison to Shanghai's Bund Sightseeing Tunnel flashing-lights-and-sounds sensory experience.

Sam: ISO50 Blog

I'm an increasingly big fan of what's going on over on the ISO50 Blog, which is run by Scott Hansen, better known to those of us in the music community as Tycho. It's a one stop shop for a lot of things that I find interesting. For instance this week you'll find posts about industrial design, graphic design, obscure Italian progressive rock, and even choosing paint colors for a studio. Of course you can also check out the newly released Coastal Brake 12" with limited-edition poster that features a remix from yours truly.

Aaron: Animated Dock Ellis No-Hitter

This video has been making the Internet rounds, but I can't stop watching this clip by NoMas and illustrator James Blagden chronicling Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis's 1970 no-hitter--the only one on record in which the pitcher was high on LSD. The animation really gets at the humor, the horror and just a bit of the desperation of Ellis's gem, and as it's narrated by the man himself, you know it's the real deal. Baseball season may be over, but at least we've got this great video to keep us warm.

 Amanda: Depero Futurista by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

I'm loving these shots depicting some of the interior pages of Depero Futurista, a gorgeously rendered tome created by Futurist founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in honor of his friend, painter Fortunato Depero. Blogger Kelly Rakowski, who captured these shots at The Wolfsonian museum last week, calls her images "wonky" but I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree—I think they do the trick quite nicely.

Alexis: Modern Kokeshi Dolls

Illustrator and Dwell contributor Mark Giglio has created a wonderful collection of modern, brightly colored dolls that are a spin on the classic Japanese Kokeshi doll. What a lovely group of characters!  (Some may be sold in limited quantities.)

Sarah: Converted Phone Box

Though a couple of weeks old now, I thought it worth pointing to this great little story from the Guardianabout the reappropriation of those classic red UK phone booths for use as a tiny library. A small village in western England came together to install some shelves and fill them with books. According to the paper, a lively exchange of free reading material has ensued and hundreds of requests have piled in for turning other disused booths into neighborhood libraries. via ediblegeography.com