Fashion in Bloom – Inside and out, the IMA is blooming. Last Friday I checked out “Fashion in Bloom” up on Gallery Level 2 and have had plants and garments on my mind ever since. Sometimes, I like to be contrary, so here are some garments on plants. And just because I think they’re both neat, here is a girl in a zipper dress which reminded me of the oft forgotten fashion item, Units/Multiples.

Innovative Coffee Lid – While I don’t usually drink coffee myself, I do appreciate a clever way to get the cream and sugar back to the office so a buddy can customize their drink to their liking.

Homes of Famous Architects – The IMA recently aquired Miller House and Garden and all the activity surrounding it has created within me an interest for home design. Here’s a connection, turns out the Eames home in Northern California was designed with the help of Miller House designer, Eero Saarinen.

Monday Music – “No One Does it Like You”  by Department of Eagles. I’ve been thinking about getting a fish and supposedly this band has a “Pet Sounds” flavor.

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Filed under: Art, Current Events, Design, Exhibitions, Marketing, New Media

Who is April?

At this stage in my Internet life, I’m wise to April Fools’ Day on the web and haven’t truly been had in years. However, that’s not to say I don’t look forward to the one day every year when cornball webmasters and bloggers try to pull one over on unsuspecting visitors. Honestly, I love the cheap humor April 1st brings and thought it would be fun to share a few fool sightings from around the web.

My first foolish sighting of the day was Wikipedia’s homepage. Most mornings I’m greeted with a rather bland but necessary infusion of random trivia from the web’s main tome of knowledge. However, my eyes perked open and a smile came to my face when I saw that the main article today is for a museum called MOBA (Museum of Bad Art). Cool. The best thing about Wikipedia’s “prank” page is that all of the content is seemingly true. For example, Britain’s oldest man, Henry Allington, really does credit his longevity to “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women—and a good sense of humour.” Latecomers can see the April 1st site here.

An overwhelming amount of unbelievable news is usually a good tip that the calendar reads April one. For example, Warner Bros. Acquires the Pirate Bay for the price of a whopping $13 billion is unbelievable. BMW releasing cars that have a magnetic tow feature is totally unbelievable. And although there are some times I wish Google would really create this feature, Gmail’s Autopilot is unfortunately just unbelievable April news. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Current Events, Marketing, New Media

Indianapolis Art Survey – Scott, over at “On the Cusp.org,” has posted a survey that hopes to collect the thoughts and habits of the Indianapolis art scene. The questions are thought provoking and answering them took about 10 minutes. If you’re in a survey mood, head on over and check it out.

pushbuttonreceivebacon.com – As of late, I’ve had to get pretty good with MS Paint and can really appreciate people being creative with such a simple and broken tool. I’m so used to the constraints of Paint that I actually like it more than say, the Gimp. If you can relate to being creative on a budget that doesn’t include Photoshop, check out this blog with bacon it its title.

Environmental Impact of Google Searches – Who knew?

Koto Sound Team Kyara – This Friday, join us in The Toby as this acclaimed ensemble interprets classical, jazz, and anime themes through traditional Japanese instruments. As much one can rock on a Koto, I expect this performance to be up there as far as “bangers” go. Join us.

Monday Music – “Lucky Girl” by The Pepper Pots. A little sugar for Monday ears that also like to hear a good “Iron Man” reference.

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Filed under: Art, Current Events, Design, Exhibitions, Horticulture, Local, Marketing, New Media, Technology

We asked the people and the people have spoken. The 2009 Summer Nights Poll results are now official and I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to participate. Without further delay, I present to you the winning films.

Rainout Poll Winner: Field of Dreams
On June 26, we will hopefully make up for last year’s frequent summer rains and show an inspiring film about the power of America’s favorite pastime. Starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones, we hope that “if you picked it, you will come.”

Lights, Camera, Action Flick Poll Winner: Fight Club
On July 10, join us as we marvel at Brad Pitt’s abs and his violent fraternity of misfits. Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk and directed by David Fincher, Fight Club not only has a satisfying and complicated plot but is also visually stunning. Some cool effects with this one. Good pick.

Cult Classics Poll Winner: Dazed & Confused

On August 14, pack up your buddies and join us for a summer night where Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Matthew McConaughey and the love of my life, Parker Posey, prepare Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason Landon) for summer break. The music is good in this one too.

Music Poll Winner: High Fidelity *Updated 3/25/2009*

On August 28, music takes a leading role when we show this comedy about girls, mix tapes, and top five lists. Cusack siblings are onboard and Jack Black treats viewers with well timed quips and Belle and Sebastian references. If you’ve got a top five music list, I’d like to see it in the comments.

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Filed under: Current Events, Film, Local, Polls

Phil’s Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

I Has A Designz – is an IMA Flickr group that we created to see what kinds of cool designy stuff people see in their everyday lives. We’re also using it to give away tickets to European Design Since 1985. Check out the stream on the exhibition website. Oh, and the grand prize is a $100 gift certificate to the Design Center.

SXSW 2009 Music on BitTorrent – I’m missing SXSW so I’ll have to take what I can get. For those of you into music, a very nice person has bundled up all the free MP3s from the SXSW website and set up a page with links to some torrents. If you want the music but aren’t familiar with BitTorrent, know that you’ll need a little program to handle your torrents (a client) and that μTorrent is easy to set up and easy on your system.

SXSW on Twitter – There may be more, but I can confirm that at least one member of the IMA Blog team likes Twitter, Pepsi, and Visualizations. If you like any of these things you may like this interesting use of JavaScript that pulls in tweets about SXSW and displays them in a pretty way. I’m not sure how often the tweets coming through “overheard” are updated but the ones from this morning made me chuckle.

Make Something Cool Every Day – Someday I hope to have the time to make something cool every day. However, until that time in my life comes I’ve resolved to find something cool on the Internet every day. Behance does it again.

Monday Music – “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap – Thanks to WeAllWantSomeone.org for the link.

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Filed under: Current Events, Design, Marketing, New Media, Technology