NJS[BLOG]

There is something I’ve always loved about a city with hardly anyone living in it.  I just recently blogged about China’s Ordos and before it, about others like it.  Urville, though, takes the cake because it exists entirely in the head of its chief architect, savant Gilles Trehin.  And he’s been drawing it for the last twenty years.

(io9 – again)

The “whole” story of A Wrinkle in Time presented as a single comic page. You’re welcome.

(And thank you, io9.)

I concur with Engadget on this one: this would make a fine iPad app!

Fashion!  Models!  The apocalypse?

This is a brand new, absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful museum designed by some truly phenomenal architects in the middle of Ordos, a city in China…with a population of zero people.  Did I mention it’s also in the heart of the Gobi dessert?

China, dear, what are you doing?

I would also like to point out that it’s basically a set from the Charlize Theron reboot of Æon Flux, a fact that I have no problem with but still merits mentioning.

Come to think of it, though, if you were to construct the last city on Earth, you couldn’t really do much better than the Gobi, right?

(io9)

Earth is trapped in the crossfire of an unwinnable war between two alien civilizations. Its leader is perpetually on the verge of death. And on top of it all, a new drug has just entered circulation a drug that whips its users back and forth across time.

io9 has news about the latest Philip K. Dick adaptation, Now Wait for Last Year.  Also in the report:  absurd hats are pondered and I’m reminded of the impending Gondry-fication of Ubik.  Hoorah!

This:

Might look familiar to you if you are a Mac user, as it is – and has been for years – the Command key icon.  Did you know what it actually represents?

A castle as seen from above.  It was apparently widely used to mark points of interest in Swedish campgrounds.

You can learn more fun facts like the one above by reading Steve Silberman’s article on the icons Susan Kare designed for the Mac nearly three decades ago.  It even includes some fun original sketches as she was brainstorming the visual language of the revolutionary little computer.

Featuring a crystal skull.  One hopes that it was the vodka-filled kind.

I might just consider buying one of the lithographs from the 1969 illustrated Alice in Wonderland to which Salvador Dalí lent his talents, as pointed out by io9.  Because, you see, they look like this:

In looking up the price of a copy of the actual book (not found), I also turned up a video or three about the project:

With Xmas time just around the corner, feel free to take this post into account when considering how best to splurge on me…

At the suggestion of both Dave and Hannah at work, I finally got around to watching PressPausePlay – and I must say that I’m duly impressed. I actually just stopped the film moments ago to look up more about Japanese visual artist Takafumi Tsuchiya. You can see his amazing 2011 show reel below:

TAKCOM SHOWREEL 2011 from takcom™ on Vimeo.