Judging Judy

According to the NY Times, Judge Judy's annual salary is "$26 million more than the combined annual salaries of all nine United States Supreme Court justices."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/dance/31john.html?ref=arts

handy skirt!

Aya Tsukioka has started a Japanese clothing line aimed at those who fear crime. Featured above is a skirt which folds out to disguise the wearer as a vending machine. Also featured is a purse resembling a manhole cover and a backpack that can disguise a child as a fire-hydrant. Aya admits, " These ideas might strike foreigners as far-fetched, but in Japan, they can become reality.” She has already sold 20 skirts at $800 apiece.

To see a slideshow of these inventions: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/20/world/20071020_JAPAN_SLIDESHOW_index.html

To read an article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/world/asia/20japan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

costly split

Madame Tussauds is a series of international celebrity waxwork museums which paid £10,000 to separate their wax models of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Even more ironic, Brad and Jennifer were the first human waxworks they had ever joined together.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4566526.stm (number 17)

Wow!

Paul Smith (1921-2007) had severe cerebral palsy but created fantastic pieces of art on his typewriter. For each key, he had to use his left hand to steady his right hand. Using only the symbols:

@ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _

he created hundreds of pieces of art, often giving them away. The pictures above, like all of his art, was created entirely by him on his typewriter.

To learn more about Paul, visit http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/index.html

To see more of his amazing artwork, see http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/main_gallery.html

To catch a video of him working, look at http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/videos/incredible_sunday_clip_01.mov

Blobfish

Behold, the blobfish that lives off Australia and Tasmania. To remain buoyant in the deep ocean, it mainly is a "gelatinous mass." Because it is slightly less dense than water, the fish floats above the sea floor and eat what floats by.
To see more interesting animals, check out http://www.alistoflists.com/animals/10-weird-as-hell-animals#comments

free trade?

In a "conceptual art" project, Kristian von Hornsleth offered to give Ugandan villagers free goats, sheep and pigs if they adopted his name. His exibition in Copenhagen, "We Want to Help You, but We Want to Own You," has pictures of 108 villagers holding ID cards with his name. Before the project was stopped in October 2006, 270 villagers had changed their names.

George Sabadu Hornsleth commented: "Africans adopting European names for gifts - that's nothing new. We've been doing that since colonial times. Why do you think I'm called George?"

From his press release, the artist comments: "“Basically I believe in free trade. You sell something to me, and I buy something from you. In this case the Africans are fond of the animals that I offer them – and I am happy to be able to give them a beautiful name and to make some art. The result is that both parts are happy. Nothing else matters."

For pictures of the villagers: http://www.hornsleth.com/template/t03.php?menuId=52.

For an article: http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1715632006

I will never understand some art

• Samuel Beckett wrote the 35 second play Breath. The one page script decribes a debris filled stage filled with faint light, then stronger light, then faint light again. Also included is a faint human cry, a human breath and another faint human cry. Rather unsuprisingly, Petherbridge, who brought the play to London, descibes the audience's reaction as "respectful silence" or "uncontrollable mirth." http://samuel-beckett.net/Londoners_gasp.htm


• Marcel Duchamp created the piece Fountain by signing a urinal "R. Mutt." In 2004, it was voted the 20th century's most influential artwork. >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_%28Duchamp%29