new york night and day

New York’s population by day and night from Urban Omnibus.

alex webb istanbul

heather champ pacifica

Pacifica from Heather Powazek Champ’s blog.

cutaways

Drawing of a space station from Corbis.

The inflatable TransHab from Free Republic.

Cutaways on Web Urbanist.

yoga man scrabble

woody allen manhattan

Here’s the voice over to the opening sequence in Woody Allen’s Manhattan –

Chapter One: ‘He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion’ – er, no, make that: he – ‘He romanticized it all out of proportion.’ – Yes. – ‘To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.’ – Er, tsch, no, missed out something. – ‘Chapter One: He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle bustle of the crowds and the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles.’ – No, no, corny, too corny for a man of my taste. Can we … can we try and make it more profound? – ‘Chapter One: He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of individual integrity that caused so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning the town of his dreams into …’ – no, that’s a little bit too preachy. I mean, you know, let’s face it, I want to sell some books here. ‘Chapter One: He adored New York City, although to him it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in a society desensitized by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage’ – Too angry. I don’t want to be angry. – ‘Chapter One: He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat.’ – I love this. – ‘New York was his town, and it always would be…’

tokyo with music

jake and dinos chapman hell

Jake and Dinos Chapman make iconoclastic sculpture, prints and installations that examine, with searing wit and energy, contemporary politics, religion and morality.
From White Cube.

gadawan kura

Pieter Hugo’s photographs of hyena handlers in Lagos, Nigeria from Museo.

He was originally led to believe they were — “debt collectors, drug dealers, and thieves who enlisted hyenas as muscle in support of their criminal activities.”  But by traveling with them for two years found they were, more accurately — “itinerant minstrels …  a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons,” who subsist by staging performances and selling traditional medicine.”

They remind me a bit of the macho guys in New York walking their pit bulls – only more extreme.  

Lagos is one of the largest cities in the world and the object of scrutiny as planners watch to see how the issues of urbanism and population play out in unprecedented ways.

paola pivi

Upside down helicopter in a square, two ostriches in a boat, orange men leaping on dirt mounds, pairs of all white animals in a factory.   Paola Pivi makes unexpected encounters by removing filters.  From Museo.