Daran sent me a strange link in comments: this very disturbing television tower, located in Prague. The tower is swarmed by ten enormous, faceless babies; they’re crawling up and down it. What the hell?

Mark Jenkins meets… Encephalitic Goya? According the afore linked post, the sculptor responsible is one David Černý.

* Presumably.

“Semi-Charmed Life,” by Third Eye Blind.

Via Jeff Koons, fest your eyes upon some strange, yet somehow hilarious, creations.

My personal favorites are, of course, the giant balloon animals and the Kama Sutra positions. All these and more can be viewed here, at Jeff Koons’ official website (the balloon sculptures are under the heading Celebration, while the glass renderings of the Kama Sutra can be found under Made in Heaven).

And for those of you with a more philosophical bent, in his book on postmodernism, author Glenn Ward defines Koons’ work as “neo-geo-postmodernist visual art”. And no, I don’t actually know what that means. But hooray for animal balloons!

From MAKE, check out this horrible optical illusion. I say “horrible” because it’s the kind that can make you sick.

The phenomenon is called peripheral drift. As you look away from the image, each “snake” appears to slowly rotate, glimmering like a mirage. Maybe that’s what makes me queasy: the strange similarity to those wavering pools of water that appear in the desert here, vanishing as you approach.

Take a look at these beautiful knitted organ models by Sarah Illenberger (via Boing Boing). They’re really amazing — gauzy and intricate, especially that heart. Illenberger has made a bunch of other cool stuff, too, like these kitchen appliance robot sculptures (I think?). See also these terrifying food faces.

I’m burnt out on politics, by the way. I care less than I used to. If the world could be changed with signs on street corners, fervent support of well-intentioned bills, votes cast for the right politicians, it would have been changed already. Wouldn’t it? Not that we shouldn’t do those things — we must. And yet…

I believe, today, that the world we’ve made will be changed by only two forces: love, and catastrophic disaster.

I await both of them now, with equal anticipation.

Dear sweet species, I love you endlessly, in all that we have made.

Two wonderful things, which happen to illustrate the complementary natures of MAKE and CRAFT.

Item one: this has got to be the most beautiful bike the world (from MAKE).

Item two: make your own adorable mushroom friend from felt scraps (via CRAFT). Like Toad from Mario, but tangible!

Check out these sweet hand-cranked movie machines (via Boing Boing Gadgets). It’s a clever fusion of the flip book and the spin reel, making for a lovely little entertainment system.

The same company makes lots of other great things, too, including a beautiful paper pop-up dollhouse and the Thaumatrope Mechanique.

Now if only I could figure out how to buy the damn things.

Jamelle tagged me for fun sort of meme: list your favorite album from every year you’ve been alive. Here goes.

1989. Hi, How Are You? Daniel Johnston*
1990. Ani DiFranco, Ani DiFranco
1991. Nevermind, Nirvana
1992. No Doubt, No Doubt
1993. August And Everything After, Counting Crows
1994. Out Of Range, Ani Difranco
1995. Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt
1996. On Avery Island, Neutral Milk Hotel
1997. Either/Or, Elliott Smith
1998. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
1999. Le Tigre, Le Tigre
2000. All Hands On The Bad One, Sleater-Kinney
2001. Orange Twin Field Works: Volume 1, Jeff Mangum
2002. Oh Vanille/Ova Nil, Diane Cluck
2003. A Is For Accident, The Dresden Dolls
2004. Funeral, Arcade Fire
2005. Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene
2006. Gold Lion, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2007. No Shouts, No Calls, Electrelane
2008. Women As Lovers, Xiu Xiu

Close seconds and honorable mentions:
2004. Seven Swans, Sufjan Stevens
2005. Countless Times, Diane Cluck; Darkness At Noon, A Hawk And A Hacksaw
2006. Paper Television, The Blow; Songs About Teeth, Cake Bake Betty; Etiquette, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

As you can see, I had some trouble settling on just one album for each of the last several years. In some of the earlier years I had trouble finding one at all. It’s harder than it looks. This took hours. Yes, hours.

With that, I tag anyone who feels like giving it a shot, either in comments or at your own blog (if you have one). Feel free to do another, smaller favorite albums exercise in comments, if you’d like — your top five or ten all time favorites, for instance.

* Originally released in 1983, but reissued in ‘89, which I think counts. (It was reissued again in 2007.)

Tomorrow, my younger brother and I begin a journey to Ghana to join a distant relative of ours who runs a music program there. From what I understand (and it’s not much!), he provides free lessons to the local children throughout the year, and invites around 20 college students from the U.S. to participate for 3-4 weeks in the summer. We’ll spend the majority of our time hand drumming, which is something I’ve never done.

We’re staying in a very rural village on the coast, which we’ll have to hike into. As you might have guessed by now, I will not be blogging during this time.

I have no idea what to expect from this trip, from Ghana, from this program. Undoubtedly, I’ll have much more to say when I’m back. In the meantime, keep Daisy company for me and join us in celebration of the completion of our second year here at Our Descent Into Madness! Our first post was July 14, 2006. It was about Hufu, The Healthy Human Flesh Alternative.

Love the next few weeks of your summer, and I’ll see ya early August.

~Emily