Consumerist
ikea
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minds of mush
Kids Design Cute Heinz Ketchup Packets, Learning Important Early Lessons In Mass-Market Commodification
Today my sandwich came with these Heinz ketchup packets with cute little designs on them, part of an insidious plot to sell more ketchup.
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art
Move Over Museum Curators, Bank Of America Wants Your Job
Cash-strapped art museums across the country are turning to an unlikely source for new exhibitions: Banks. According to a story in the New York Times, Bank of America, Chase, and a number of other global entities have put together traveling art exhibits and are offering them to museums across the country. More » -
frickin' laser beams
Laser Engraving Gone Wrong? Just Fill It In With A Sharpie
If you spent about $150 to have the case of your laptop computer laser-engraved with a cool design and something went wrong, would you expect to be told to fill in the problem areas yourself with a permanent marker? That happened to Haje. He's sympathetic to the technical issues involved, but not happy with the end result. More » -
kitty plate
Buy Tchotchkes At Yard Sale, Make Up A Story About 'Em, Sell Both On eBay
Have you ever picked up something at a yard sale and wondered where the heck it came from? Like a disturbing clown painting that the owner has a hard time parting with, or a queer Hummel knockoff. The bloggers at Significant Objects seem to have. More » -
pretty
Fancy Fast Food Makes Your Favorite Junk Into Eye Candy
We're really intrigued by Fancy Fast Food, which takes standard fast food items and, using only those ingredients, transforms them into something approaching haute cuisine. The recipes are available on the site if you want to try at home. (Pictured above: the Tacobellini) -
art
Thomas Kinkade, Painter Of Crap, Must Pay $2.1 Million To Former Gallery Owners
Thomas Kinkade calls himself the "Painter of Light," and allegedly uses his "faith" to lure in investors to his gallery business. Now two former gallery owners have won a judgment from Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that forces Kinkade to abide by a 2007 arbitration decision that awarded the former owners $860,000 in damages and more than $1.2 million in attorneys' fees and arbitration expenses. Ouchy. More » -
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stanford
100 Kilos Of Gold Art Show Cancelled
100 kilos of gold bricks will not be arriving at the Gagosian Gallery in Santa Monica, California this weekend. The bricks were to have been the centerpiece of a show called One Ton One Kilo by artist Chris Burden. The gold was bought from Stanford Coins and Bullion, part of the Stanford Financial group. You know, Stanford, the mini-Madoff guy accused of bilking investors in an $8-billion ponzi scheme. Now the transfer is frozen while the SEC investigates Stanford. It appears that large-scale conceptual sculpture is but the latest unexpected casualty of the economic crisis.
Announcement [Gagosian Gallery] (Thanks to Dan!) (Photo: bhrgunatha)
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hot topic
The Hits Keep Coming: Hot Topic Is Selling Another Eerily Familiar Design
We really hope there's a good explanation for this. Hot Topic is selling Twilight perfume, a fragrance that comes in a bottle very similar to Nina, by Nina Ricci.
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hot topic
Hot Topic Steals Yet Another Design And Sells It As Its Own
Once again, Hot Topic is selling someone else's art as original work. The mallternative retail chain purchased the supposedly original design from Newbreed Girl, which has its own history of ripping off designs.
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walmart
Jdimytai Damour, RIP
Artist Jeremy Scheuch made this digital image of Jdimytai Damour, the Walmart worker who was trampled to death by a crowd of Black Friday shoppers after they broke down the front doors and stormed in.
"Art is subjective, but I didn't mean to cause offense in any way," said Jeremy. "People were shopping at the Wal-mart the next day as if nothing had happened. I was appalled at the events that happened and this was my reaction."
Black Friday [jeremyscheuch]
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money meltdown
Artists To Stage Literal Meltdown Of American Economy
On October 29, the economy will melt down. Not the general economy per se, but a 5 foot tall, 15 feet wide, 1,500 pound ice sculpture of the word "ECONOMY" in Manhattan's Foley Square, relatively near to Wall Street. Artists Ligorano/Reese say, "this sculpture metaphorically captures the results of unregulated markets on the U.S. economy." October 29 also happens to be the 79th anniversary of Black Tuesday.
Main Street Meltdown - New Ice Sculpture - Oct. 29, 2008 [voices4demoracy]
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hot topic
Hot Topic Likes Your Art So Much... They're Selling It!
I'm glad I'm bad at everything so I never have to worry about anyone plagiarizing my work. Sadly, this is not the case for Nina Matsumoto. Whoever is in charge of "designing" Halloween merchandise for Hot Topic is apparently a big fan of Nina's. More » -
annoying
Despite Your Manly Bits, Art.com Signs You Up For Working Mother Magazine
Reader Brian doesn't have a womb, so when he saw a copy of Working Mother magazine in his mailbox, he was pretty sure that he didn't order it:Last December I placed an order at art.com for a framed print which I intended to give as a Christmas present. I placed the order well within art.com's recommended time frame for delivery in time for christmas. During the order they promised delivery by December 17th. Well, as you may guess December 17th came and went with no package (they shipped it on the 15th via DHL.) December 24th came and went with no package. DHL finally delivered it on the 26th after I had been forced to go out and purchase another gift to replace the one that had not arrived.
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sad
Polaroid Instant Film Is Dead
Polaroid has announced that they will no longer manufacture instant film or instant cameras and will instead concentrate on TVs, digital cameras, and printers, says the Chicago Sun-Times: More » -
consumer alert
Cruise Ship Art Auctions Scams
Here's a fun scam: buying art at auction on cruise ships. In one case, a woman paid $20,000 for what she thought were high-value Salvadore Dali, but when they got shipped to her, an independent appraiser told her they were worth maybe $700 each. The business is conducted on international waters, so there's no consumer protection laws to throw you a lifesaver. Consumerama says they're not even run under real auction rules, but are instead, "coordinated inebriated sales hysteria."
Cruise Ship Art Auctions: Disasters at Sea [Consumerama]
(Photo: jimg944) -
childhood fantasies
Man Builds Secret Apartment At Mall, Gets Away With It For Four Years
An artist in Providence, Rhode Island was apprehended the other day by mall security as he left the secret apartment he'd built almost four years ago, in an unused utility space in the mall's parking garage. The apartment had no running water (they used mall bathrooms), but it did include "a sectional sofa and love seat, coffee and breakfast tables, chairs, lamps, rugs, paintings, a hutch filled with china, a waffle iron, TV and Sony Playstation 2," according to the Boston Globe. More » -
Whether or not Paho Mann's pictorial taxonomy of all of his and his partner's personal possessions, sortable by color, cize, material, location, owner, cost, use type, and use amount, cause you to reevaluate your personal politics of consumerism is up for debate, but it's unquestionable that his site is neat. [Sort]
