Take that, Mr Hirst

"Art is Boring"

By Polish-based graffitti artist Peter Fuss. I like how the greys and blacks fit in to the bleakness of the industial Polish landscape, and the way the people photographed around the works seem not to notice them at all. Does a bleak life and/or environment condition you not to respond to art, or is it just that Fuss's works look too much like advertisements? Or are they too unexpected in this setting to even warrant a glance? I'm not sure, but I like him a lot. Here's some more:

"They are together because they don't want to be alone"
"He pays her bills. She cooks his dinners"

"This means love"

"This means peace"

By the way, if my post title doesn't make sense to you, the following images should help clarify.

Chlorprotamide, 1996

Bardzo milutki!

Oh Frankie, will you ever find me a link that I don't instantly fall in love with? Apparently not, if this is anything to go by:

Pan tu nie stał is an archive of vintage and folksy goodness from Poland. Frankie says the title means "Don't think this is your space" and my Polish-English dictionary says it means (roughly..) "You haven't been here before," but really this is irrelevant: the cute images are clearly the important part. I have a weak spot for all things Polish as I spent six months there in the winter of 2004, working as an English conversation assistant at a nun-run boarding school. Sounds crazy, I know -- and a little too much like something out of the Sound of Music -- which in fact, on several occasions it did indeed resemble.


The girls and I, accompanied by the nun who was the English teacher, did go on several walks in the mountains, and each time I was ever more tempted to break into a rendition of "the hills are ALIVE...." This impression was heightened by the fact that "my" nun was young, mischevious and liked French pop music and skimming stones. If she had left the convent to spend time looking after the motherless children of a grumpy Polish Baron I would have started worrying that I was living in some crazy Von Trapp alternate reality. But I digress. Pan tu nie stał is bardzo milutki (very cute) and an endless source of amusement for nerds like me.

On another note, and in another language, I am totally loving Yelle. Why? One, she is French, and French musicians are automatically cool (Phoenix, AIR, Camille....OK, maybe Serge Gainsbourg is an exception), two, her songs are infectious and put a big cheesy grin on my face, (the fun and infectiousness hides the fact that the lyrics are raunchy and witty - "Je Veux Te Voir" sends up Cuizinier from the mysogynistic hip hop group TTC) and three, her videos are absolutely nutty. Case in point:


(Ce Jeu)

and


(A Cause des Garçons)

Ah, those crazy, crazy French. The only problem with all this is poppy infectiousness + cute videos = only a matter of time before Yelle becomes yet another iPod commercial. Bleurgh.