To a Stark-cold winter one:

This serendipitous discovery (more discussion at Reddit) brought delight.

The Guggenheim Museum

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The exterior features a winding helix stack, part of the original Frank Lloyd Wright design in 1959, and a square atrium expansion which was added in 1992 by the museum’s foundation. A massive exterior renovation occurred from 2005 to 2008, removing the original paint, laser/echo mapping cracks in the concrete structure and repairing them after determining that the superstructure was structurally sound.

The interior’s main feature is the winding spiral, housing galleries affixed the walls, terminating in a twelve-paned skylight that allows natural light to fall on the pieces contained within. The curved walls the museum make hanging paintings flush with the walls impossible.

The museum does not allow internal photography, but I jotted down the names of some of my favorite pieces. Here’s a brief sampler of the art you can see in the Guggenheim museum. In spirit of presentation, I’ve arranged it chronologically as well:

Portrait of Comtesse Albazzi

Édouard Manet (1881)

Done in the interesting medium of pastel on primed canvas, this is part of the Thannhauser Collection currently on view at the Guggenheim.

Peasant with Hoe (Paysan à la houe)

Georges Seurat (1882)

I love the brilliant colours of this impressionist oil on canvas painting, and it is only one of at least three Seurat paintings on permanent exhibit at the Guggenheim. You can read more about this piece at the Guggenheim’s permanent page.

Roadway with Underpass / The Viaduct

Van Gogh (1887)

Post-Impressionist oil on canvas landscape, done in France (hence the original name “Le viaduc” in French).

Fernande with a Black Mantilla

Pablo Picasso (1905 – 1906)

An oil on canvas made of his Parisian lover during Picasso’s Rose period, I find it a refreshing departure from the cubist works which have made him popular today. When you look at this painting, its eyes exhibit a haunted look that follow you through the foggy gaze of the portrait. You can read more about the story of Fernande, the art model, or Fernande, the painting at the Guggenheim.

Planes by Colors, Large Nude

František Kupka (1909 – 1910)

Also known as Plans par couleurs, grand nu in French, this painting is an interesting experiment in using colour as a kind of x-ray vision to bring out the innate nature of the human form. The Guggenheim has a permanent page for this piece.

Solidity of Fog (Solidità nella nebbia)

Luigi Russolo (1912)

An oil-on-canvas attempt at synaesthesia inspired by a foggy day and the then-new electric city lights, Russolo’s painting features the outlines of human figures and a carriage moving through the street, illuminated through the fog by concentric circle rings of electric light.

Dynamism of a Cyclist

Umberto Boccioni (1913)

An oil on canvas, this is part of the Masterpieces of Futurism exhibit.

Composition 8

Piet Mondrian (1914)

Mondrian saw cubism, and took it to the next level, leading to an entirely unrecognizable painting (above) of a tree. Check out the Guggenheim permanent page for Composition 8 for more!

I also liked Far Away (fern) by Vasily Kandinsky and the $100,000 room of Hugo Boss 2010 winner Peter Feldman but images of neither are to be found online. You can read more about the museum’s history at the Wikipedia article “Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum”.

Chinese readers should check out Wendy’s great post 来自谷歌首页的圣诞祝福!

Combining 17 different images together, Google’s prime Doodler Micheal Lopez spent 250 hours to create their latest Christmas-card masterpiece, a beautiful, abstract rendition approximating the Google logo. According to the WSJ, Chief-Doddler Lopez said, “We want to end the year with a bang.”

As seen on Google’s homepage

Each of the 17 images represents an image of holiday cheer, a sort of cultural Christmas card. So, the entire Google represents a global merry Christmas! Below, I will explode each image into its component links.

1. Acropolis
2. St. Basil’s Cathedral
3. Buche de Noel

1. Mt. Fuji
2. Great Wall of China
3. Indian Dance Styles
4. Pierogi

1. Sahara desert
2. Sydney Harbour
3. Oud
4. Chili pepper

1. Venice gondolas
2. Nepal

1. Chilean vineyards
2. African kanga

1. Up on the housetop
2. Henna lamp

I wish they would provide higher quality versions of these, but I love the holiday spirit. Merry Christmas, world!

Materials needed:

• One (or more) gloves
• Conductive thread ($5 sample on SparkFun or Soft Circuit)
• A heavy needle

Here’s what you do. [Step 1] put your index finger in the glove and mark with a marker, pen, or pencil, where your finger pad lies (so that you know where to sew). [Step 2] measure off a good length of thread and thread your needle. Make a knot at the other end, like this:

[Step 3] Begin to sew a small vertical square through the pad all the way through the glove and into the inside. The thread bridges your finger to the outside world:

[Step 4] Finish up your square, and it should look like this. If you sew well and use a heavier needle than me, yours should look far better than this!

[Step 5] Sew another horizontal square overtop the previous one. When done, tie off the thread and cut the excess! You are done!

I just tried it out on my wife’s iPad and it works! My index finger has magical properties! To get better results, practice on a softer glove first–sewing into leather with a regular needle (like I did here) is not just hard, it’s stupid.

And here’s a 30s mockup in Microsoft Word using their famous “Word Art” tool:

You would think they would spend a little more time on this, but perhaps the iTunes 10 team was too busy making iTunes suck more on Windows, and this is subtle Microsoft jab, or else building the useless social network Pring. People have also complained that the icon is horrible and suggested alternatives. Oh well, Apple.