The Visual Dictionary is an awesome new media (Web) project on a mission to build an online photo-image catalog of English words. The images are of words that appear in what geographers like to call the "cultural landscape" -- signage, street art and graffiti, and advertising. It's sort of like a Flickr "cluster" of photos of words (if such a cluster exists). The Visual Dictionary is a fascinating idea and leads one to re-think how one perceives language in the everyday environment, as well as re-rhink how one assembles vocabularies and meaning from imagery. The project is only a month old, but growing fast, and the public can sign up to contribute images to the project. (That means you -- and us -- can participate.) There's also a Visual Dictionary Blog chronicling this new media adventure.

From the Global Graphica file this week ... Here's an amazingly crisp stencil portrait of a girl's face we found on a lamp-post base along West Broadway (between Houston and Prince streets) in Soho yesterday evening. More images at Global Graphica. (Global Graphica /Ivan Corsa Photo).

"Mr. Furley" was how we remember comedic actor Don Knotts. Knotts played "Furley," a bumbling apartment landlord, on the immensely popular -- and immensely cheesy -- American television sitcom "Three's Company" from 1979 to 1984. As child, we were (we confess) suckers for the silly, formulaic plots and slapstick comedy of the show and often wasted many half-hours in the early 80's watching afternoon re-reruns of the classic low-brow series. Knotts passed away last Friday in Los Angeles. Don Knotts, rest in peace.

Dave Chappelle is back. Yes, that Dave Chappelle, the one who walked away from the $50 million deal and his third season of "Chappelle's Show" at Comedy Central last year, the one who walked out at the peak of his success in a controversial and sudden escape to South Africa amid rumors of a breakdown. His new movie "Block Party" opens this week and we really want to see it. From the looks of it and from what we've read so far, it's the kind of film that we'd usually just wait to see on DVD or when it airs on TV a year or so after theatrical release. But we're really curious about this on. Why? Well, for one thing, because one of our favorite film directors, Frenchman Michel Gondry (he directed "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), helmed this project. For another, 'cause it's Chappelle and he's funny as hell. "Block Party" is not a comedy film, but rather a comedic documentary about a massive block party in Brooklyn put together by Chappelle in 2005. It's also part concert flick featuring Chappelle's stand-up comedy riffs onstage at the block party, as well as musical performances by some of the brightest names in hip-hop and new soul over the past decade -- Mos Def, Kanye West, the Roots, Jill Scott, Erykah Badhu and -- get this -- a reunion performance by the Fugees! We love Chappelle and his comedy. We love Hip-hop (we're especially big fans of Mos Def and the Roots). And we love the documentary format and Gondry's work. So ... we've just gotta see this film when it opens.

There was an in-depth story in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine on the Toronto band Broken Social Scene. The article was not so much a profile in service of the band itself, but rather about how "Torontopia" -- the city's creative scene -- works as sort of a collective community, with bands, artists and labels sharing talents and resources with each other. Broken Social Scene, the most successful artist to emerge from the Toronto indie scene of late, has members who are involved in their own separate music projects or with multiple bands simultaneously and move in and out of the BSS.

We at the Massive were sad to hear last week of the death of Harold Hunter, a downtown Manhattan scenester, actor and pro skateboarder with the Zoo York team. He was found dead in his apartment on February 17 from an apparent cocaine overdose. For those who didn't know him either as friend or as a resident of the East Village, Hunter may be better known for his supporting acting role of "Harold" in the controversial and classic 1995 indie film "Kids." The film, which was directed by Larry Clark and starred Chloe Sevingy, was a day-in-the-life story of a group of promiscuous Manhattan teenage friends, one of whom has contracted HIV. We didn't know Harold personally, but we crossed paths with him around downtown numerous times -- at a party here, an art opening there, a bar or restuarant in the nabe. Once we caught him hanging out at one of the sidewalk cafe tables of the Japanese restaurant below our apartment. Funds are being raised to help defray the costs of Harold's funeral and wake via the Harold Hunter Web site. Rest in peace, Harold Hunter.

We caught a screening of Hong Kong action-drama "Fulltime Killer" on the Independent Film Channel Saturday night. Released under the title "Chuen jik sat sau" in Hong Kong in 2001, "Fulltime Killer" is one of those Milky Way productions, this one co-directed by Johnnie To Kei-Fung and Wai Ka-Fai. First off, let's just say this about the movie: it is a "guilty pleasure." This film is not "bad" in the usual sense, but it's certainly not "good" either. It's a weak movie salvaged only by enough action and energy to keep your mind off the fact it's weak, at least until the movie reaches the credits. The plot is one of those classic hitman-versus-hitman stories. One hitman is considered "number 1," and a lesser hitman is jealous and aims to become the top assassin by taking out his rival. The top hitman is a Japanese sniper based in Hong Kong, so the narrative is checkered with scenes in Japanese. "Fulltime Killer" is a schlocky, at times preposterous and silly, genre film filled to the brim with gun-toting action-drama cliches and plot holes big enough to fly a 747 through. The movie is fascinating insofar as you can peg the many genre cliches and the movies you've seen them in and insofar as those cliches are executed with a new twist. It's like a boilerplate of a boilerplate of a boilerplate of Hong Kong action movies from time immemorial. To Kei-Fung and Wai Ka-Fai's movie is just asking to be made with a bigger budget by a major Hollywood studio. (We'd actually like to see that.) In the end, "Fulltime Killer" is full of unexplored potential and is handicapped by its rushed production, thin and shallow dialogue, anemic scripting, and low-budget values. But, hey, those gun battles are awesome!

The excellent Love HK Film Web site is, as its name suggests, about Hong Kong movies. The site has run an annual readers' poll of the best of Hong Kong cinema since its launch in 2002. Love HK Film is currently running a poll for 2005 releases. The polling ends March 23, 2006, when, as the site notes with cynicism and cheek, "results will be tabulated and the lucky winners (not) informed. It's just like Democracy."

From the Global Graphica file ... We were out of town visiting Washington, DC last weekend and snapped this series of graf images in the Adams Morgan district of the Amercian capital. Washington is a famously clean, well-groomed and orderly city (or, at least, it is in most of the city, that is, in those areas where the well-heeled work, live and play). While in Adams Morgan, the only graf we saw was hidden in narrow back alleys. Most of it was aesthetically insginificant, but some, like the throw-ups we found in this alley off 18th Street, across from the Caribou Coffee, was really good, first-rate stuff. (Global Graphica / Ivan Corsa Photo)

A Bathing Ape gets a mention in a Hampton Roads article on Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D. / Neptunes / hip-hop fame. Pharrell is from the Norfolk-Virgina Beach area and is heralded as a style-maker in the article, which celebrates his fashion spread in he new issue of GQ mag. The story claims that Pharrell introduced America to the ultra-hip Japanese brand A Bathing Ape, a claim with which we don't exactly concur.

The item also says the rapper-producer was the force behind the trucker hat fashion phenomenom a few years ago. Sorry, but we disagree. That's a style that came from the underground up, from over-educated, under-employed urban hipsters fashioning an iconic white-trash artifact into a new style with an ironic, knowing smile. Sure, by dint of his fame, Pharrell may have helped spread the style after adopting it, but the same could be said for Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton and half the people under the age of 30 living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn between 2001 and 2002.

Actually, Ashton Kutcher probably deserves more cred for spreading the style because many months after the blue-collar mesh-foam baseball cap emerged among the indie kids, Ashton was the first celeb we saw actually wearing truckers hats on TV -- this was when he hosted the series "Punk'd." Apparently, others have made a similar observation.

No dis to Pharrell -- he does have great style and a sense of putting nice things together and looking good. He was one of the first hip-hop stars to champion BAPE, but lets not give the guy too much credit for starting a headwear fad that most of us would rather forget ever came and went.

We've been spending a lot of time watching the Internet animation series "Weebl and Bob." This website for this cartoon is one of the most popular, most-visited sites in the world. The Flash-animated series is a British production created by Jonti Picking and is actually official called "The Everyday Happenings of Weebl and Sometimes Weebl's Friend Bob." The series is now on its 102nd episode. We're addicted.

Apple has just posted "A Scanner Darkly" movie trailers on it's Web site. "A Scanner Darkly" is the forthcoming Richard Linklater film based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. The movie stars Keanu Reeves, Wynona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr. Like Linklater's 2001 film "Waking Life," this movie appears as animation, but it's actually a digital film that has been processed using sophisticated animation-editing, rotoscoping and special effects software to give it the look of animation. It is a stunning and beautiful work from what we can tell by viewing the preview and the official "A Scanner Darkly" movie site. This is one of our most-anticipated film releases of 2006 -- we will be in the movie theater on premiere night!

Cable music-video channel Fuse TV has just rolled off a spin-off Web site that has some of the hottest, freshest Web design, illustration and animation we've seen in along time. The site is called "Just for the 'F' of It." When you land on the splash page, you get try to shoot down a flying angel by aiming a bow and arrow. Once in the site, on the main page, you get to see a small, beret-wearing French rodent sitting in a comfy chair, smoking a cigarette and watching telly. It's good, fun, tongue-in-cheek Web design from some very talented creatives at Fuse. P.S., we think the site's name is brilliant.

The war of words between "The O.C." starlet Mischa Barton and hotel heiress Paris Hilton is now in full swing with today's reports of Paris swinging back after Barton struck out at the blonde celebutante by calling her "a silly bitch" while in the U.K. for the BAFTA, or the Brit Awards, show. Paris shot back at Barton, according to the New York Daily News, by remarking, "I don't even know the girl. I could care less. It seems like she's the one trying to stir up a rivalry. I've never said a word about her in my life. But she seems to be spending a lot of time thinking about me." Hmmm ... I don't know, Paris. That rejoinder somehow isn't ringing with what the Colbert Report would call "truthiness." C'mon, admit it, ya' silly beee-otch, you watch "The O.C." religiously and can't stand Mischa. Stay tuned for Act III, kids.

We were channel surfing cable TV this evening when we stumbled upon an airing of the Don Letts' documentary "Punk: Attitude" on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). The film was released in 2005 and is now out on DVD. We had actually seen about half of the film last year when it was first shown on IFC, so this second chance was an opportunity to watch the bits we had missed the first time around.

"Punk: Attitude" documents the evolution and emergence of the music, style and attitude that would eventually be called "punk rock" or just "punk." The documentary is told in dozens upon dozens of interviews and recollections with many of the artists and infulential figures involved with the music. These interviews include conversations with CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Henry Rollins.

"Punk: Attitude" also connects the dots between the seminal musical influences and its many descendent sub-genres and trends. From MC5 and Iggy Pop & the Stooges through to the Ramones, New York Dolls, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Dead Kennedies, Fugazi, Nirvana, Green Day and up to Blink 182 and Sum 41, the movie traces the steps and pop cultural tendrils of a music style that was born out of the New York City rock scene and malaise of early 1970's America and that made an international name for itself in the London music scene of the mid-70's. We could watch this fascinating movie again and again.

As far as we're concerned, the real, official Paris Hilton backlash is gaining momentum by the minute. Oh yeah, baby ... it's ON!!! The media, dissed celebs, ex-boyfriends, ex-reality TV show co-stars, jilted publicists, British footballer's wives -- it seems everybody has finally had enough of Paris and are ready to take her down. Now it's Mischa Barton's turn to make a verbal slap. The svelte and sexy star of the hit American TV series "The O.C." called Paris a "silly bitch" according to the Australian Broadcast Company (ABC) News Arts Web site "The Shallow End."The weblog is also saying that Barton is pals with Paris' ex-bestest-friend-ever Nicole Richie. Hmm ... In our ongoing Paris Hilton backlash coverage, we'll keep tabs on the latest "news" to come across the Internet transom. Stay tuned kids.

From the Global Graphica file ... Graf is pretty rare on the posh and anodyne Upper East Side of Manhattan, a district that is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the America, if not the world. (That is, it's pretty rare below East 96th Street and Spanish Harlem. ) But one way graf appears in famed U.E.S. nabes like Yorkville and Carnegie Hill is when "bombed" delivery trucks arrive. Here's one in the process of unloading produce at a local deli. (Global Graphica / Ivan Corsa Photo)

We went uptown last night to the massive Loews on the Upper West Side to see the new Michael Winterbottom film, "Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story," which stars Steve Coogan of "24 Hour Party People" fame. When we saw the trailer for the movie about a month ago, we were intrigued, but thought the film looked pretentious and, worse, like a great idea gone sour. The preview made it just seem like a regretable, bad Brit-indie experiment that was trying too hard to be "original." But we still wanted to see it, afterall, it was directed by Winterbottom, whose work we like, and it had Coogan and a familiar, eclectic cast of British and American stars. And it was about and based upon -- in a meta-meta way -- the infamously difficult-to-adapt novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Anyway, we're very happy we went to see it. The movie is funny, fascinating and clever, maybe almost too clever for its own good. People will either get it or not get it, either like it or be confused by it and end up wondering what the hell it is. But we found it funny, witty, sophisticated and entertaining. Most of all, we want to see it again right away, which too few movies make us want to do. We'll definitely get the DVD when it comes out.Tristram Shandy gets a Massive Rating of 3.75 stars out of 5.

The U.K. gossip mill is all a-flutter with news of Paris Hilton's homewrecking advances on Chelsea Football Club and England team star midfielder Frank Lampard. While British gossip sites and media folks have weighed in heavy in the rumor-mongering, the "reputable" Sky News (Sky Showbiz) reported that the Hilton hotel heiress, Paris, met Lampard at the recent Brit Awards and gave the footballer her cellphone number. She reportedly stalked after him, following the Cheslea lad to two after parties in London. Lampard, who is engaged to Elen Rives, the mother of Lampard's six-month old daughter, Luna, apparently wasn't interested in "spicy" Paris. Hilton's actions are said to have infuriated Lampard's fiancee.

The ever-more-readable New York magazine profiles the state of the blogosphere. The feature set of articles in the February 20 issue of the weekly mag highlights the stars of the blogging world, explains "linkology" and "the long tail" graph, and gives a brief history of weblogs. Good primer on where things were, where things are at, and why.

Sad to hear that Bollywood actress Nadira passed away last week. She was, according to various reports, either 73 or 75 years old. Nadira's best-known films are "Aan" and "Shri 420." It was the latter film that stamped her with the vamp character-type that she cemented in subsequent films throughout the 1950's and 60's. Nadira's acting and iconic style (she was famed her arched eyebrows) set a standard for the modern, Westernized Indian woman. Though one of India's most famous film stars, Nadira was actually an Israeli named Florence Ezekiel who had migrated to Mumbai to pursue a movie-acting career. Nadira, R.I.P.

Essential Linkage
Bollywood veteran, Nadira, dies [BBC News]
Nadira, Who Played the Vamp in Bollywood, Is Dead [New York Times]

From the Global Graphica file ... Here's a close-up of an awesome color paste-up by the artist Bast (or Bäst) in Chinatown, New York City. The subject of this wheat-paste work is John Gotti, the late, convicted NYC crime boss who was dubbed the "Teflon Don" by the media. This black-and-white version of this artwork appears in Nolita, a few blocks to the north of C-town and Little Italy, where Gotti managed his business out of a storefront "social club." (Global Graphica / Ivan Corsa Photo)

Essential Linkage
"Teflon Don" Gotti Paste-up by Bast - No. 1 [Global Graphica]
Global Graphica

Yup. It's a massive snow day here in New York City. The Massive couldn't resist a walk in Central Park on this record-breaking snowfall weekend. The shots above are opposite views taken from the same spot in Central Park, in the Cedar Hill area at the southern end of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Fifth Avenue.

Happy snow day!

The 48th Grammy Awards have come and gone. U2 swept the awards. Greenday and U2 won, oddly, for songs/albums from 2004, not 2005. Both great artists, admitedly, but seriously, there was so much great and greater music out there in 2005. U2 is a massive, great band, and it's good to see them win any ol' time. But c'mon, the whole Grammy Awards themselves are so not representative of great music as much as they are of popular, well-produced music. We were happy, however, to see that the nominations at least recognized a lot of innovative and relatively new artists, a la Dangermouse, Kanye West and Gorillaz (who, in a sense, performed on the show as their cartoon avatars). The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper has a good overview of the awards broadcast, which from all reports sounds like it was a shambolic, ill-conceived and ill-executed mess for those watching what had already become a yawn-fest. (Or as our British pal Rob would say, "an utter wank-fest." Grammies ... BORRRRRRING!

Essential Linkage
It's age before beauty as U2 leaves younger acts in the dust ... [SFGate.com / SF Chronicle]
48th Grammy Awards Web Site

There's an excellent profile-interview of photographer Ryan McGinley on Artnet. Penned by by Ana Finel Honigman, the article is titled "24-7." By now, you may have seen McGinley's work without knowing who the photographer was. Or, given McGinley's meteoric rise and influence, you may have seen images used in advertising and produced "in the style of" McGinley. (Yet further appropriation by marketers ... Whateva'.) His subjects are often young people, his friends, partying, mucking about, and just being themselves. What first garnered attention for McGinley was a self-produced and self-published 50-page book of his photos. The D.I.Y. art tome was called "The Kids are Alright." According to Artnet, he sent copies of the book to a hundred magazine editors and artists. Later his work started appearing in mags like Index, Vice, and Dazed and Confused. Our favorite image by McGinley of all time is a photo titled "Dash Bombing," which as the title suggests, shows the graf writer named "Dash" perched on a building spraypainting his tag in the dark of night. We've been a fan ever since we saw this image.

Essential Links
Interview with Photographer Ryan McGinley [Artnet]
"Dash Bombing" (2000) by Ryan McGinley [Artnet]
Ryan McGinley Web Site]

The ever-reliable music journalist Sasha Frere-Jones positively reviews "Show Your Bones," the new disc by the Brooklyn-based indie sensation the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, in this week's issue of the New Yorker magazine. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their iconic frontperson Karen O. broke onto the scene with an forceful, original indie-pop album two years ago. The band's 2004 gold-certified-selling album "Fever to Tell" and powerful live shows revealed that the group was as great as the hype had promised. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the real deal. What sealed the deal for us was the song "Art Star," which was released in the body of Yeah Yeah Yeahs music a year or two prior to "Fever to Tell." The song blew us away. We found the track on an obscure Japanese pop CD compilation called "U.S. Pop Life Volume 15," which was produced by a friend of ours who runs a small label called Contact Records. Our friend was on to something. Yeah Yeah Yeahs will have a show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City later this month as part of a concert tour in support of "Show Your Bones," so you'll be able see them in the flesh and see what the talk is really all about.

Essential Links

POSITIVE ATTITUDE: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs new album [New Yorker]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Website
Bowery Ballroom Website

The 2006 Academy Awards nominations were announced this past week. While we usually discount the artistic and aesthetic selection of the Oscars every year as sentimental, mainstream Hollywood tosh, we have to admit that the Best Picture nominations for 2005's crop of films has impressed us

This year's Best Picture noms include several serious, politically-minded films ("Good Night and Good Luck," "Munich") as well as "that gay cowboy movie," "Brokeback Mountain," and a movie that explores racism in America, "Crash." The nominations in general reflect the presence of many small "indie-major" films that cost relatively little to produce and that were backed by big studios.

A look at the other categories undercores these themes, for example, George Clooney getting the nod for "Syriana" and a Best Foreign Film nom for "Paradise Now," two more politically-charged films focused on current events, and Felicity Huffman for "Transamerica," a movie about a pre-op transgendered man.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences system of categorization, nominations and winner selection is seriously flawed and fails on many levels to account for the broad spectrum of film releases in a given year. It tends to reward the "serious" much more often than the "comedic." And don't get us started about its convoluted, unfair and anachronistic approach to vetting foreign film entries.

The awards show and the awards themselves may seem increasingly irrelevant to television viewing audiences given the plunging ratings figure for recent broadcasts of the annual program. Sometimes we think that the television broadcast is really less about films these days and more about celebrity gawking -- albeit at a distant remove -- and passing judgment on the fashion parade of starlets and their designer gowns that file down the red carpet of the Kodak Theater. (And really, hasn't that always been a part of why people watch the show?)

But mighty Oscar and its noms and wins carry much weight for movie marketers. A win is an awesomely powerful tool for advertising a movie and prolonging its theatrical run. We've had little faith in Oscar as a reflection of true filmmaking merit in the past.

This year may change that.

Essential Links

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Website

A few weeks ago, while hunched in front of our computer at work, we heard a series of loud laughs coming from the other side of the floor where our company's interactive designers sit. The laughter quickly grew steadily, louder and more frequent. We went over to investigate.

Our design guru, let's just call him "S," was sitting at his desk with his headphones on and giggling. "What are you listening to?" we asked. "A podcast by Ricky Gervais, the guy from The Office, the British version of The Office," he said. As fans of the BBC's groundbreaking sitcom "The Office," as well as the HBO series "Extras," we were of course familiar with the British actor/comedian/writer/producer Ricky Gervais.

In fact, we had heard a month or so earlier that Gervais was going to have his own podcast on the website of the popular U.K. newspaper "The Guardian." Even though we like the Gervais brand of comedy, we just hadn't been that interested in listening to it as a podcast.

Until now.

The Ricky Gervais Show podcast on Guardian Unlimited is a 12 episode series now in it's ninth week. And it is pretty damn funny. If you're not a fan of British humor, Gervais and his two friends with whom he does the show, may change your mind. They are funny without even seeming to try to be funny.

Gervais has a keen sense of this -- he has made the show into what amounts to simply an entertaining series of chats among friends. The program follows a very loose format and seems almost entirely ad-libbed. As podcasts go, this is one of the best. And most popular. The show is available for free via the Podcast Directory in the Apple iTunes Store or via the Guardian website. Check it out.

Essential Links
The Ricky Gervais Show on the Guardian Unlimited
Ricky Gervais Web Site

From our Global Graphica file ... And here's the wider, context shot of "Shapes." Not your average East Village-graf, "Shapes" is a stencil-like splatter-work of red paint and sans-serif letters in all-caps. While the artistry and style is neither "wild" nor "hip-hop" by the standard of traditional techniques, this is a highly distinctive and original tag. Even though it's small, you can't miss it on East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, a stretch of gentrified and expensive downtown Manhattan real-estate with practically zero graf but least a half-down Japanese restaurants. (Global Graphica / Ivan Corsa Photo)

Essential Links
"Shapes" in East Village, NYC - #1 Detail [Global Graphica]
"Shapes" in East Village, NYC - #2 Context [Global Graphica]
Global Graphica

http://www.globalgraphica.com/main/archives/000388.html