"From Public Radio International's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing and the Gweek podcast joins us to share his recommendations this week: the drawing game Depict and the Blackwing 602 pencil."
Listen to the whole Bullseye episode here: (with Daniel Handler, the Sklar Brothers and Nico Muhly).
Ill. Rob Beschizza
2011 was one weird year.
Mark's picks of the very best apps currently available for OS X (with many available on other platforms), in five parts: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. — Read the rest
Though we're delighted to have our own online toystore up this holiday season, there are a thousand things we could recommend from elsewhere. Cutting it down to a couple of hundred, for our fourth annual gift guide, wasn't easy; this year was a fantastic one for books, games, gadgets and much else besides. From stocking stuffers to silly cars, take yer pick.
Pencil logos of yore were very attractive. Bob Truby has nice photos from his impressive collection.
(via Make: Online)
These Woody Guthrie-themed pencils are emblazoned "This Machine Kills Fascists," the motto Guthrie famously inscribed upon his guitar. Not sure how they compare to Blackwings, though!
(Thanks, Sara the Teacher!)
Researchers have found and identified a new species of frog, the size of a pea: Microhyla nepenthicola. For the past century, this critter was previously thought to be the infant form of another frog species. It resides inside carnivorous pitcher plants in Borneo. — Read the rest
Herman Miller's Lifework blog today turns the company's impeccable eye to a design object most of us take for granted: The lowly pencil. Blogger Brian Greene highlights five models, from the Mirado Black Warrior (probably the closest pencil in the bunch to the iconic, schoolbus-yellow Ticonderoga #2) to the exotic mechanical Kuru Toga, which "has a tiny clutch mechanism built into the point, and as you write, the pressure from writing and then lifting the pencil off the paper engages the clutch mechanism that rotates the lead for you. — Read the rest
Comic book historian Craig Yoe has a knack for finding long-forgotten comic book gems. His latest full-color hardback book contains all three issues of Jetta, a Judy Jetson-esque space girl that predates The Jetsons by at least a decade. Jetta was created by Dan DeCarlo, the cartoonist responsible for the famous look of Betty and Veronica (Bob Montana created Archie, but DeCarlo's bold, fresh rendering of the characters are the ones we remember). — Read the rest
bjork (above. seriously. this is. classic.)
salvador dali
on the set
as seen on tv
24: the 1994 pilot
pancake mountain
television obscurities
video home system
ernie kovacs show closing credits
Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. — Read the rest
Andy Welfle says:
— Read the rest
Field Notes is a stylish little pocket notebook inspired by "the vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list," according to their website. What's more, they use graph paper, which is fairly rare, and they are pretty darn durable, too.
(Cory)
Water leak in overhead apartment creates beautiful bump in ceiling (Mark)
A lifetime of creative inspiration is contained in the brilliant closing credit sequence of the Ernie Kovacs Show. Link
