Another Ji Lee production!

The recent arrest of Roman Polanski for the rape of a 13 year old girl in 1977 has caused much debate around the world.

On one side, Polanski’s defenders argue he should be freed immediately because the case is too old. On the other side, Polanski’s non-sympathizers argue he should be tried just like any other sex offenders regardless of how old the case is.

What do you think? Cast your vote on POLLanski.com

Yesterday, Rick Smolan released the top secret project he’s been working on with HP: THE OBAMA TIME CAPSULE, a customizable book. Using the HP print-on-demand technology we last showed you with MagCloud, people can weave their own names, photos and messages into an historic large format book featuring the work of the world's leading photographers, graphic artists and writers.

The book can be extensively personalized by answering a few questions and uploading photos to the project website. THE OBAMA TIME CAPSULE offers readers seven different ways to personalize the book. If you’ve been courting your own ISBN, you’ll come close with co-author credit on the front cover and a photograph of you on the back (as well as inside amongst celebrity supporters). Each collectible copy of the book is printed one at a time. Most publishing industry analysts agree that print-on-demand will be the publishing model of the future.

“From grass roots Facebook campaigns to viral YouTube videos, the Obama campaign took the presidential race to a new level in terms of personalization,” said Smolan, co-founder of Against All Odds Productions (AAO). And the book follows suit: Using the Internet, publishers have fewer barriers to market and by only printing what is necessary, excess inventory and waste are eliminated.The OBAMA TIME CAPSULE (retail price $64.95) is now available exclusively through Amazon at an introductory price of $34.95. Additional sponsors for the book include Google, AOL, Facebook, Glam Media, Blurb, Microsoft, eMotion and NewPage.

While Steven Soderbergh's film Che has gotten mixed reviews on the festival circuit, there's one piece of media, Che: A Graphic Biography, that provides an indisputably great snapshot of the Argentinian Marxist revolutionary's life and death. Created by longtime cartoonist Spain Rodriguez — one of the original members of Zap Comics with Robert Crumb — the illustrated life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara is lovingly told in the tradition of underground political comics. You'll find details on parts of his life you've heard about (Latin American motorcycle adventures, leadership in Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement) and many you haven't (severe bouts of asthma, extensive African travels).

If you've seen images at the Whitney, SF Museum of Modern Art, or Minneapolis' Walker Art Center (or the Magnum Photos archives for that matter), the shots of photographer Alec Soth may have caught your eye. The Minnesota-based artist's photos are colorful yet haunting, and his most recent frameset, shot in the days before President Obama's inauguration are no exception. “The Last Days of W” is a visual critique of the impact that the outgoing head of state had on Americans — from mothers of Marines to religious imagery in offices. The show opened with an exhibition in Zurich and is now being featured in a self-published softcover book that serves as a celebration/requiem for President Bush, who once uttered that “one of the great things about books is, sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”  What else would you expect from locations like California's Camp Purgatory and Detroit before the promise of the automaker bailout?

Between hosting foreign dignitaries, raising kids in the White House, and, oh yeah, trying to do something about the economy, our newly elected President doesn’t have much time to visit average Americans where they live. But that didn’t stop Jon and Olivia Lancaric, the creators of Obama in Our House, to take shots of the former Illinois senator at their home on election night. (Never you mind that he was made of cardboard — according to the couple, “that didn’t stop people from hugging him, dancing with him, clamoring to have their picture taken with him…in general, just loving the hell out of him.”) When you’re done looking at images of the Lancarics’ personal friends wrapping their scarves around the then President Elect, take a look at the site’s list of good causes, including World Vision and Feeding America. Go on, spread the Obamaness.

If you’re not already completely absorbed in this morning’s inauguration activities, jump over to SpeechWars and check out their graphs of different words our nation’s Presidents have spoken in their Inaugural addresses – from women to union to world to evildoers (oh, wait, that’s not one) and notice any trends that may have occurred due to such powerful cultural changes caused by the civil rights movement and the rise of feminism. What Obama will say, we don’t know – strangely, unlike CNN we didn’t receive a copy of it – but we have a hunch the word “hope” will pop up more times than it did in the last eight years.

Today is a very important day. We couldn’t be more excited about an Obama presidency. Just to add to our excitement we cracked up over this Obama Run DC shirt. You can pick up your own here for $20. More importantly, we hope you enjoy today’s celebration and historical significance, regardless of whether or not you have a clever T-shirt on.

People are bound to have a spectrum of reactions to the Inauguration Day proceedings, so if your gut is telling you to react by buying toys, it’s ok. Barack Obama’s message inspired an unprecedented array of art toys in 2008 from action figures to vinyl busts. Now’s the time to stock up. Wizard Sleeve Toys is having a one-day 20% off sale to celebrate the inauguration of our 44th president. Whether you go in for urban or herb-n art, here’s your chance to pick up an Obama action figure at a reduced price. Just enter “NEWPREZ” at checkout.

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We’ve written about the music of Daft Punk, Barack Obama action figures and Daft Punk designer toys, but I never imagined I’d have the occasion to write about all three in one post. In the latest mashup of politics and pop culture, UK DJ/producer Adam Freeland remixes Daft Punk in a video animated by the progressive directing team, GOLD. The stop-motion music video is meant to function as a celebration to commemorate the upcoming inauguration of Obama as the 44th president of the United States. While plastic Obama makes an appearance, designer toy fans will be interested to see Qees, Be@rbricks and other mini-figures getting down on the dancefloor. How many items from your own toy collection can you spot in the video?

Last year, you sported Obama tees, held BBQs at your pad to get likeminded voters together, and threw a giant party on election night – with extra champagne on hand to drown your sorrows should the other guy win. But all of that is passe now that Obama is just days from being inaugurated, so you’ve got to find a new way to show your support. We think this skateboard will do the trick. Designed by illustrator Oliver Barrett of Go Media, this board that has been emblazoned with the President-elect’s mug serves as both wall art or, if you don’t mind a few scratches, your Democratic transportation around town. If you want it, snag it quick, because like tickets to the Inauguration, these 800 decks will go fast.

We brought you word of the ART + ACTION = OBAMA ‘08 custom action figure event back in October. Following that successful benefit — and indeed the success of its central character — Jailbreak Toys will release two new Obama Action Figures. Jailbreak’s founder, Jason “J*Rock” Feinberg, gets the props for designing the Inaugural Edition, which replaces the O.G. figure’s dark duds with a “funky, fresh and very shiny gold suit, while keeping the action figure Washington, DC-ready in a classic red tie.”

The Hope Edition transforms the now-iconic image of president-elect Obama into a 3D action figure. Shepard Fairey gave his blessing to artist Nelson X Ascensio and Jailbreak Toys to produce the toy. Both new editions of the Obama Action Figure are limited to 3,000 pieces and will be available exclusively at Jailbreak’s website. The 6-inch figures have eight points of articulation and will be sold in numbered window boxes for $19.99 starting Monday, January 12th.

We’re not sure that Dubya, Dick, and Rummy will ever give a straight answer for their reasons for invading Iraq this last time, but popular opinion can be best summed up by that early 90’s anti-war mantra, “No Blood For Oil.” Echoing that sentiment Andrew Wilcox (noted for his collaboration with Ji Lee on Tag A Dummer) along with photographer Jonas Lara have created a video showing Iraq veterans invading a gas station. It serves as a scathing critique on the Bush administration’s foreign policy, as they assert through Operation W.A.N.T. (We Are Not Toys) that soldiers should not be treated as plastic toy pawns in their war games.

Nearly three years ago, Ian Silverstein, one of my dear friends and guest contributors to this site was simply minding his own business, asleep, when his home and everything in it was destroyed by Britain’s largest peacetime explosion.

His life would never be the same.

It’s now known as the Buncefield Depot explosion, and little has been done to remedy the situation for the people affected by this massive incident. Ian lost everything, his beautiful home, all of his belongings, and years later he suffers from symptoms caused by the blast. Frankly, he’s lucky to be alive– and he knows it, but deserves closure and help from the companies that caused it.

Literally, nothing has been done to help him with his situation — or anybody for that matter. The local authorities have failed him, the governments have failed him, insurance has failed him, and the companies that operated the facilities — Total and Chevron — have ducked blame entirely. The massive companies made more than £18 billion in cash last year, but can’t help a few people out when a leak in their tanks caused massive and catastrophic damage to dozens of people’s lives.

Watch this video, send it to your friends, and let’s help Ian get the closure he deserves. Don’t believe how big this thing was? Check out this feed of Flickr photos. A sample after the jump.

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Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States of America. To honor and celebrate his historic achievement, Robert Bosch, Faculty at Oberlin went ahead and created a portrait of President-Elect Obama out of 44 complete sets of double-nine dominoes. Want to do this yourself? Thought so, here are the plans by number, also after the jump.
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If there’s one thing that you’ve learned from us down the stretch of this recently passed Presidential election, it could be that a lot of merchandise has been made in support of Barack Obama. The current President-Elect has inspired the sale of everything from prints to moose antlers. But what will become of all of that good stuff now that the voting is over. Well, the folks at Zazzle have taken an everything must go approach. The online T-shirt and apparel site is slashing prices 10 percent on all political merchandise before November 8th. If you’re hope is still getting the better of you and you want some Obama merch to savor the flavor of victory, all you’ve got to do is type in the promo code: ObamaZazzle. If you’re a dejected McCain supporter or ironic hipster voter whose only relief would come from a recount, you’re included too. All McCain goodies get the same treatment as long as you type in McCainZazzle for your discount. So if in the next two days anyone asks you if they can get cheap election memorabilia, you can reply, “Yes We Can!”