How badly I want The Criterion Collection’s tasteful packaging of artwork and critical essays to indefinitely trump the obsolescence of DVDs. The ephemerality of media vies against its substance. In any case, more than a few of my favorite original film posters and box illustrations are attributable to...
Why an artificial Mondrian? Perhaps there’s an obvious and immediate affinity between his iconic compositions and such computer-generated figures as those that appeared in Japan’s IBM Review in 1964. But Hiroshi Kawano did not simply digitize Piet Mondrian; it could be stated...
If you’re anything like me, you probably went into season three of Crime Blood Kingdom wondering just how much more cinematic TV could get for undercover serial paedophobe anti-hero detective Billy Whiteman. His morally ambiguous mission to do crime with the bad...
Dear Mr. Editors, From a young age, growing up in the backwoods of western [REDACTED], my father taught me the basic skills that every young outdoorsman learns: how to safely disarm a pathogenic bioaerosal canister, the proper way to jerry-rig a common...
Smithe is a fresh-faced illustrator and graffiti artist from Mexico City whose work can be seen as far afield as lovely Brooklyn. His tangled comic book geometries and retro science fiction metamorphoses without end are appealing enough. But it’s the disparate love affairs...
Dear Upworthy, A poor fisherman from Santa Cruz del Norte who lived beneath a corrugated metal roof that would rattle and wake up his baby during the rainy months taught me all that I need to know about baiting. The fisherman was...
That wistful moment just before takeoff—the cabin is still with apprehension, hushed excitement, the quiet shuffle of handheld diversions, an occasional release from consciousness. John Schabel’s voyeuristic Passengers masterfully collects these many faces of anticipation. Having captured his anonymous subjects with a telephoto lens, Schabel...
There’s a certain something about the paintings of Tom Wesselmann that we can’t quite put our finger—or our lips?—on. For one thing, it gives us the uneasy feeling that somebody’s about to be gunned down in front of a fruitstand or on...
With the solstice behind us, we in the north are settling in for the quietude of winter’s lingering, deathly chill. Perhaps you’ve already a hearty cord of wood cut, stockpiled, and seasoned, just waiting to flood your dacha with a soft glimmer....
Constructed in 1883, the East River Bridge, later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, was once the longest suspension bridge in the world, and remains one of the most iconic architectural marvels today. In 1899, Edison captured this leisurely train ride across the river...
Although we love l’art pour l’art as much as the next postmodern aesthete-cum-aviator themed weblog, we’re also thoroughgoing political absurdists. So, all in all, we’re glad Jean-Luc Godard got off that weirdly Catholic purism of the early Cahiers du Cinema crowd and...
With the election season finally behind us — and Mitt Romney thankfully defeated — we can’t help but find ourselves left with a certain white, multimillion-dollar, Mormon-shaped hole in our lives. Looking back with fondness at all the gaffs, the absurdities, and the warmly...
We’ve been admiring the colorful, curvaceous work of Berlin-based Icelandic designer Siggi Eggertsson for some time now. His artwork for Pólýfónía, our favorite album from fellow Icelanders Apparat Organ Quartet, packs quite a powerful punch, devoting a brilliant, iconographic vignette to each track, all the while...
Emerson called New York City “a sucked orange.” We’ll take it as a compliment, because today’s an orange-letter day here at Overhead Compartment, wherein we offer some curated delicacies of a tart persuasion. The scent of citrus is in the air, a...
We had the chance to catch producers Javier Bardem and Lilly Hartley, along with director Alvaro Longoria and Kerry Kennedy from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights present their compelling new documentary, Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony this week...
This week we had the opportunity to hang out with the Analog Research Lab, a hidden gem of a screen-printing studio started by designers Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak which operates out of the basement of Facebook headquarters. Barry and Katigbak began...
Every dullard schoolchild knows the story of how pumpkin spice was introduced at the first Thanksgiving, leading to the economic expansion of the West and the widespread consumer franchise of assorted Fall flavors that we hopelessly depend upon to mark the changing...
Relentlessly cool, brazenly domineering, the heroism of unapologetic masculinity found a renaissance in the West during the Cold War years. America reveled in cunning, heavily-armed heroes who could thwart those Commie baddies, keep their wits against the seductive wiles of a buxom double-agent, and...
An almost childlike appreciation of colors and shapes characterizes the work of Jonas Fredén, a Swedish artist and illustrator who has contributed some brilliant album artwork to Gazell Records. In spite of its simplicity, Fredén’s jazz-infused work mirrors the mood and movement of a...
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective will be opening at Tate Modern early this Spring, showcasing 125 of the artist’s most renowned paintings and sculptures. With his ironical appropriation of comic book imagery, advertising, and cartoon illustration, Lichtenstein irreverently challenged the limits of how art functions within...