For his exhibition Cidade Limpa at Galeria Choque Cultural, Sao Paulo graff artist Zezao hung his work in specially re-created scenes of degraded areas in the city, the very environment that drives his art. On the walls, among the mock litter on the floor, were oxidized metal and old canvas pieces bearing his “flops,” long swaths of blue paint outlined in a darker blue. A manhole cover section bore his signature bright trail.

The spaces Zezao crawls into to bomb, such as murky waterways and grimy underpasses — all places where the homeless live — are usually unseen by the public. But by painting in close proximity to a forgotten locale, his flops call out to anyone passing by to take a look and notice the place. It’s an action that urges Paulistanos to remember the time when a specific place had been new, novel and hadn’t been ignored by society. The show runs until August 18.

Onitsuka Tiger, the hip tattoo artist to its parent company Asics‘ podiatrist, is showing off. These Onitsuka Tiger Rakugaki shoes have a unique scribbled-on look — which makes sense because apparently rakugaki means “doodle” in Japanese — while maintaining the classic and recognizable Onitsuka Tiger logo. I don’t have a lot else to say about these except that I covet them but there’s no information anywhere as to their availability or the release date. But while you’re at the Onitsuka Tiger website, and you didn’t catch it here the first time around, you may as well check out the Made of Japan link as well. It’s a collage of tiny images from the Japanese internet which combine to make a shoe; each image is linked to its origin, so you could probably spend about two days just clicking around it if you wanted to…and I might do just that.

At a height of 297 meters, Melbourne’s Eureka tower is the tallest residential building in the world. Its Skydeck, which opened on May 15 and sits on the 88th floor, is the highest public vantage point in the southern hemisphere*. Sounds impressive, right?

Just for perspective’s sake: the Empire State building (completed in 1931) is 381 meters tall; the current tallest building in the world, Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan rises to a height of 448 meters and don’t even get us started on the Burj Dubai. What specifically interests us about the Eureka building isn’t so much its raw height, as much as how that height is being used, namely the Edge. The Edge is a nub-like, all-glass protrusion coming out the side of the Skydeck. For an additional fee, you can get in the Edge and experience what it’s like to be suspended 300 meters off the ground in a glass cage. But there’s more: the Edge moves. When you enter, it’s not fully extended and its glass windows are frosted over. As the Edge extends to its full length, the frosted effect is removed to a dramatic shattering noise, and the spectator is left gawking at a 300 meter drop to downtown Melbourne. Once you clean your pants out, you’re returned to the body of the skyscraper, and can go for a ride through the nearby wine country. Super fun!

*FYI, and maybe/probably just a coincidence — 88 is an auspicious number for the Chinese, signaling prosperity. Shanghai’s Jin Mao tower is 88 stories tall. Does anybody know if the Eureka has any ties to the Chinese?

To indulge in what seems like a pretty darn accurate stereotype, here’s what I love about the Japanese: they’re never satisfied with a good thing; they’re always trying to make it better. From the country that brought you Toyota and the DVD now comes…smelly pencils.

We’re not talking bad smelly here — who would want to buy that? Pentel’s new Ain Supplio pencils have been smellified by expert aromatherapists who, according to Pink Tentacle, used ingredients like rosemary, mint, lemongrass and green tea. The lead has been infused with scent via a new nanotechnology, which Pentel claims will make for a much longer-smelling pencil than was previously available — up three years, if kept in the box. It’s good to see nanotechnology is finally providing something useful, and seriously, if you have to use a pencil you may as well use one that smells good and that might make you work better. And what kid wouldn’t want to be the first on his block with some nanoengineered, aromatherapeutic pencils? The Ain Supplios won this year’s Stationery of the Year Award, and they will be sold in Japan for under $2 each. If you speak /read/understand Japanese you can learn more about them here, and maybe then you can enlighten the rest of us some more.

This weekend, while retrieving a dog-slobber-drenched tennis ball wedged between my sheets, I wouldn’t have considered a constructive or attractive use for such things, besides a non-noisy chew toy for Stella and a reason for guys to stare at Maria Sharipova whilst claiming to have a “valid” excuse. +Remy/Veenhuizen’s Tennis Ball Benches, designed for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam though, gave me a new appreciation for the humble tennis ball, as they now provide fun, striking — and apparently quite comfortable — seating for hundreds of museum patrons every day. Tejo Remy discussed this project (amongst others) on this year’s Reclaiming Design panel at HauteGreen in NYC, which you can catch in it’s entirety here if you missed it.

via Inhabitat

Jeremyville has a brand-spankin’ new online store open that you have to go check out. Chock-full of all the goods you’ve grown to know and love — sketchels, vinyl, sneaks, etc — he’s gone and packaged it all up in one flashy-animated site of pure goodness. You can also find what Jeremyville is up to at any given moment (well, sort of) on his news page, where he documents the shows and projects he’s been working on of late. Head on over and support him, because tenacity and talent like this should be rewarded. Seriously.

My pal Chuck just dropped me a line to let me know that he launched a brand new site (same great work, new layout) as well as a couple of new prints and finally the addition of some t-shirts to his online store. The shirts go for $24.00 and are hand printed on super-duper soft cotton. Guess what? Chuck doesn’t know this, but I’m going to give away some of his early stock to get things moving. Lets say… 4 shirts, 2 yellow and 2 black to the first people that can tell me where Chuck is going for his honeymoon (congrats) next week. Go ahead, comment away.