You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Other Sites That I Personally Like’ category.
This morning I found a news story about an artist named Jason Polan who recently died of cancer at the age of 37. His biggest claim to fame was that he had this ambition: To sketch everyone in New York City. He would frequently make quick sketches of people he saw in various public places (such as subway stations, museums, and restaurants) then post them in his blog Every Person in New York.
Sketching every person in New York City is a pretty big ambition (especially since it is among the most populous cities in the United States) but he had been doing this continuously since 2008. In time he got noticed by various media outlets, he had his illustrations get published in major publications (such as The New Yorker and The New York Times) and he even participated in an occasional exhibition.
The illustrations that he posted in his blog have a playful quality to them. My only regret is that I hadn’t heard of this guy until his death because I definitely would’ve followed his blog on a regular basis. You might want to see his drawings for yourself.
Need a Valentine’s Day gift idea but you’re cash-strapped at the moment? Check out this this cool “You Rule Valentine” free tutorial using a cheap wood ruler and other supplies that you can find at your local dollar store.
If that previous Valentine’s Day gift idea isn’t up your alley, here are some more free tutorials for other Valentine-themed crafts using materials that you can find at your local dollar store.
Are you interested in learning how to play a musical instrument but you can’t afford to buy or rent one? Check out these free tutorials on how you can build your own guitar, ukulele, banjo, and even a violin out of cigar boxes.
Here’s a free tutorial on how to make your very own neon sign that says whatever you want it to say.
Are you itching to crochet something to wear? Check out these free patterns where you can make variations on the pineapple bolero crochet jackets.
Do you find yourself in this scenario?: You’re in the mood to watch a movie. You’re too broke to go to your local movie theater and pay the ever-increasing ticket prices (let alone buy anything from the concession stand). You can’t afford to pay for Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. Video rental stores don’t exist anymore. You only want just a couple of hours of escapist fun. What’s a broke person to do? Here is a list of the best free movies that are currently available on YouTube, including such classics as Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls, Nosferatu, Detour, and His Girl Friday featuring stars like Cary Grant and Vincent Price. Yes, they are all completely legal for you to watch online without having to deal with torrents and things like that.
Feeling frustrated with President Donald Trump? You can take out your frustration with this free video game called Super Trump Run, whose gameplay is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros.
Free Tutorials
Check out this free tutorial on how to make crocheted hearts in a continuous chain. This is great for making jewelry or as a border for an afghan or even as something one can attach to the hemline of a dress or jacket.
Here’s another free crochet tutorial on how to crochet tulip stitches.
Are you an art newbie who wants to learn how to draw and/or paint or are you someone who wants to brush up on those skills yet can’t afford to buy how-to books or take any formal art classes? The Art is Fun site has free drawing and painting lessons that you can follow along while creating your own works of art.
Here’s a free tutorial on how to make your own fairy house using recycled plastic bottles, stones, and grout.
Miscellaneous Links
For generations many young people have been dissuaded from pursuing a career in the creative field because of the frequent stereotype of the “starving artist” who stands on street corners doing drawings or singing or poetry reading while panhandling for cash. This essay on Why I will never be a starving artist shows an alternative way of living where one can still have a creative career while not living in poverty.
And, speaking of starving artists, there is the disturbing trend of more companies expecting artists, writers, photographers, and programmers to work for them for either free or for extremely low pay while justifying this by saying that the would be creative person is getting exposure that will translate into a well-paying job somewhere else. If you are considering doing a few months of unpaid work for such a company, this chart will help you decide whether to take this unpaid opportunity in the hopes of getting more exposure for your work.
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore has not only digitized its extensive art collection but it has also made them free for anyone to download and use.
Many of us have heard about or are familiar with that one person who is a ne’er do well. From an early age this person constantly keeps on making the wrong decisions that results in that person living in poverty and staying there. The Atlantic magazine’s website has this interesting article on Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions that brings a perspective that most people don’t even consider when they wag their fingers at poor people and admonish them for what seems to be, on the surface, making a series of poor life choices.
Meet Naomi Parker-Fraley, a 95-year-old woman who served as the original inspiration for the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster from World War II.
When I first started on the Internet a number of years ago, The Onion was the one site that was satiric in nature and had gotten a lot of attention for its hilarious fake news stories. Nowadays there are so many fake news sites out there that get shared on social media that it’s impossible to tell which ones are genuine news sites, which ones are parodies, and which ones are propaganda sites that are very heavily one-sided. This rumor-busting site, Real or Satire?, can easily solve for you which sites you can trust. The next time you get some link from your Aunt Mildred on Facebook from a site claiming that Donald Trump is really the biological father of Hillary Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, you can just copy the URL into its form and it’ll tell you whether to trust that link as fact or not.
People of a certain age will probably remember the View-Master, the 3D stereophonic toy that played a variety of disks that showed 3D pictures. This link makes the case for many of these 3D pictures being literally works of art that tended to be overlooked because the View-Master target audience was children.
Check out how one woman made the ultimate video game fan outfit: A Space Invaders kimono. There is even a free tutorial on how you can create your own Space Invaders kimono that’s written in both Japanese and English.
Here is what happened when an organization known as Through Our Eyes gave out 100 disposable Fujifilm cameras to homeless people in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Here’s a heartfelt essay on Why Art Matters, Even in Poverty.
If you ever wonder why it’s hard to make a living as a photographer, check out Rant: It’s Too Easy for Huge Companies to Steal Photos Online. And on that related topic, here’s a story about how a photographer named Carol Highsmith has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Getty after she received a letter from Getty demanding that she pay a $120 license fee for one of her own photographs that she had previously donated to the Library of Congress for public domain use.
Rob Gonsalves is a painter whose surrealist style have led art critics to compare him to Salvador Dali. You can check out some of his work here and here.
An artist named Carlos Carmonamedina has been making new art each week since the start of 2016. The focus of his art is on making postcards of Washington, DC that reflect the beauty and wonder of the city that’s a far cry from what you see on official souvenir postcards. You can see more on his blog.
Read the incredible true story of how a National Geographic photographer was able to get spectacular pictures of pandas in their native habitat—by dressing as a panda herself.
Check out the photos of the Astolat Dollhouse. Valued at $8.5 million, it is probably one of the most expensive dollhouses out there.
And now for something completely different: A video featuring a shelf full of animatronic Christmas snowmen chanting “Hail, Satan!”
I recently came across this unique online art gallery that sells art with a special twist. Explosion Luck is a site that sells art that’s supposed to be in harmony with the ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui.
Prices start at $75 and there are a few items (such as this Inuit art sculpture of a dancing bear) that’s over $500. The majority of the art range between $150-300, The art on the site is higher end than what you’d find at a local Target but it’s still more reasonable compared with purchasing art from a Sotheby’s auction or a high-end art gallery.
Regardless of whether or not you personally believe in Feng Shui, much of the art is really lovely to look at and would go well in any home or office. There are tapestries featuring the Buddha, such as this one. There are photographs mounted on stretched canvases such as Hummingbirds and Orchids. You can easily browse through the art that’s currently on sale at:
http://www.explosionluck.com/collections/all
With the winter holiday season coming up in a few months (like Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), there’s even an online catalogue that you can peruse while deciding on what unique items you can buy for your friends and family.
Here’s a video where you can learn more about the art that Explosion Luck sells.
So, in conclusion, whether you believe in Feng Shui or not, Explosion Luck has a lot of nice art that would look nice in anyone’s home or office.
Lately it seems like I’ve been writing new shorter posts about some other website that has interested me. I decided that I needed to do something a little bit more streamlined so I’m not constantly running back to this blog with new updates. I have to organize myself a bit more because I have other things that I also need to spend time doing.
So I’ve decided to start a new feature called Link-O-Rama where I’ll provide links to other places on the Internet that have interested me and I want to share with you. I don’t know how often I’ll do this feature other than I’ll do it once a week only if I have a link to share. If I don’t have other links in mind for a given week, I’ll skip a week or two.
So here are the first links for this new feature that I’d like to share with you.
FREE TUTORIALS
How to use leftover crayons to create small funky Valentine’s Day hearts.
Make a “no sew” bed for American Girl dolls or other 18-inch dolls.
MISCELLANEOUS LINKS
If, for whatever reason, you need to do some research on clothing, tools, toys, or furniture of the past or you just want to experience a quick trip down memory lane, Wishbook Web is a great resource. The site has scans of old store catalogs from Spiegel, Sears, Lord & Taylor, Wards, JC Penny, FAO Schwarz, Simpsons-Sears, and Eatons. The vintage catalogs posted at that site range between the years 1933-1988. This site also has a Flickr account full of more retro goodies like vintage greeting cards and obscure CD labels.
It’s never too late to code. A story about how people over 50 can learn to code and even start new careers.
I built my rabbit a cart and now he delivers me a beer! Seriously! That video is totally cute.
My father suffered a spinal cord injury that left him in a wheelchair for the last several years of his life. Geoff Raismen says that his research has come up with a new way of beating paralysis. It’s too bad that my father, who passed away in 2000, didn’t live to see this.
A musician’s tale about the hard choices she’s facing regarding putting her music on YouTube and the response from YouTube after her post gained media attention.
An awesome video by Creavite using kinetic typography that also has a serious message about the current state of education: I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate.
Pictures of LEGO Minifigs designed as hipsters.
Here’s a really beautiful yet informative graphic on the development of the various world’s languages, which visually show why some languages (like the ones spoken in the Scandinavian Peninsula) seem so similar to each other.
Jane Perkins is a British artist who creates stunning works of art using everyday objects she finds in recycling centers, second-hand shops, and junkyards.
A brief excerpt from an open letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton: Do you REALLY want to help your party and your country? If so then stop sucking all the (financial/political) oxygen out of the system giving other (genuine) progressives a shot at the White House.
A two-minute educational video on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) narrated by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Here’s a cat’s perspective on the Superbowl, which is this coming Sunday.
For those who want something different for their doll collection and parents who want to introduce their children to dolls other than the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie, there is a company based in Nigeria who is selling fashion dolls that are patterned after that nation’s three major tribes. The dolls are called Queens of Africa Dolls and they are being sold in North America through Slice By C.A.K.E. Boutique. The prices are more expensive than Barbie but these dolls provide an opportunity for doll enthusiasts to have a more multicultural doll collection.
Nearly five years ago I wrote a long rant about my increasingly disappointment with New York City after I came home from a recent trip to visit my then-husband’s relatives in New York City. At that time I felt despair and disappointment over the disturbing trend of landlords and developers pushing out longtime locally-owned mom-and-pop stores in favor of renting that space to corporate-owned chain stores from other cities (and even other countries) because these stores were willing to pay double, triple, or even quadruple the rent that the local stores had been paying. The major result is that shopping in New York City is no longer the unique experience that it once was because many of the shopping areas had stores that were no different from what one would find in suburban shopping malls throughout the United States.
I came across this blog called Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, which is documenting the numerous local businesses that have been forced to relocate elsewhere or even close altogether in order to make room for the chain stores. The last time I went to New York City was in 2011 and it looks like the pace of the corporate chains moving in has totally accelerated since then, which totally sucks. 😦
UPDATE (January 21, 2015): One day after I uploaded this entry, I discovered this video via Dangerous Minds. It’s called Doin’ Time in Times Square and it’s a 40-minute film documenting what Times Square was like in the 1980’s when director Charlie Ahearn pointed his camera outside his window in his 43rd Street apartment. As this film shows, Times Square was literally a hellhole (complete with porn theaters, prostitutes, and frequent street fights) prior to the Walt Disney Company taking over the New Amsterdam Theater in 1993, which kicked off a total revitalization of the area. I’ve visited Times Square a few times since all those renovations and, while it’s great that the renovations got rid of the worst of the Times Square’s problems, I’m not sure that replacing those porn theaters with the same kind of stores that one would find in a suburban shopping mall (such as Toys R Us) is that great an alternative. I would’ve preferred something similar to what I saw in the Camden area of London back in 2007 where I saw a bunch of funky shops (complete with facades like these) coupled together with local pubs and cafes—the majority of which were locally owned and not part of any corporate chain. While the renovations of Times Square got rid of the violence and social problems depicted in Doin’ Time in Times Square, I would’ve preferred a different solution other than just a suburban shopping mall retread with more television screens of various sizes broadcasting all kinds of stuff both day and night.
I found this link showing the many types of arts and crafts one can do using LEGOS and all of the tutorials are free.
Sagittarius Dolly 
You must be logged in to post a comment.