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Giant Forks: Sign of the Tines

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Recently a giant fork appeared on a traffic median in Pasadena, California. No one seemed to know who was responsible for the guerrilla installation of the 18-foot-tall rogue utensil…

Parking Spots: House of Cars

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

The National Building Museum could use a jazzier name (Architecturama?) and their new exhibit, “House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage” (October 17-July 11), takes on a generally less-than-scintillating subject. But the curators may have a point: this overlooked and much maligned practical urban necessity deserves a spot on the exhibition roster. For, as the press release states, “In a world without parking garages, parking lots would sprawl across our cities.” And that would be yucky.

The Urge To Burj

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, is set to open to the public on December 2, 2009. This titan of towers is the centerpiece of a 20 billion dollar development project that is bizarrely ambitious and ostentatious even by Dubai standards. Other record-setting features of this enormous undertaking include Dubai Mall (”the world’s largest shopping [...]

Chupacabra On This!

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Creationist realtor John Adolfi has been trying to open his Lost World Museum in Phoenix, NY for years, seeking to undermine evolutionary science through the exuberant fun of an old-fashioned sideshow chock full of entertaining oddities. Now it looks like a mysterious blood-sucking monster has come to the rescue (A dead, stuffed one, admittedly).
The Chupacabra [...]

Step Right Up!

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Stairs are so ordinary and prosaic that we rarely think of them as tourist destinations. Oh sure, we’ll stand in awe before a magnificent stained-glass window. We’ll wander for a wall mural or travel for a turret. But it’s about time that we pay tribute to an often overlooked, exceedingly everyday structure. So here’s a [...]

Don’t Diss The Kiss

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Sarasota, Florida has finally embraced the 26-foot-high, painted fiberglass sculpture “Unconditional Surrender,” which depicts a sailor enthusiastically planting a smoocherooni (as they called it in liberated villages) on the lips of a loose-limbed nurse on V-J Day in Times Square. After a combative public hearing, city commissioners decided to accept a donation of the $500,000 [...]

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