Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Live crab vending, sound sculptures, an app for healthy food shopping and more in our week’s worth of links
1. Paris vs New York, A Tally of Two Cities
A recent NYC transplant from Paris copes with culture shock by creating a lovely blog of simple graphics showing how the cities compare and contrast. Pitted against each other are Le Pain, La Peste, Le Tip and more in this friendly feud.
2. New York: Portrait of a City
From heavenly images of Grand Central to Scorcese and DeNiro on the set of “Taxi Driver,” the series of images published by Photo District News is a sneak peek at the just-launched book “New York: Portrait of a City.” The work of Taschen and former Photo District News executive editor Reuel Golden, the love letter is a top-to-bottom look at the city as told by a cast that includes some of its earliest residents and some of the world’s finest artists. (Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s “42nd Street” 1996, pictured above.)
3. ShopWell iPhone App
A new app allows you to easily comparison shop at the grocery store, searching its exhaustive database just by scanning a barcode. Results include nutrition info, personal reviews and alternative options.
4. Haslinger Collection of Vintage Heuers
Selectism Heuer Chronographs. Highlights include the 80 vintage Heuer chronographs from Haslinger’s personal collection and a TAG Heuer 1/1 limited edition watch signed by Jack Heuer with proceeds benefitting Green Cross International. Check out Hodinkee’s video to learn more about the collector and the brand’s racecar heritage.
5. The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Vanity Fair shows an excerpt from the new coffe-table book “The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” featuring rare photos of the set and annotated behind-the-scenes details.
6. Bringing Colour to Life: The Making of the Pixma Campaign
A behind-the-scenes look at how the creative team at Dentsu made sound sculptures for a recent Canon commercial, this video is a HDSLR and sound sculpture nerd’s dream-come-true. For those who just want to see more pretty pictures, there’s plenty of slow motion footage of the neon-hued paint splatters too.
7. Live Crab Vending Machine
Whether dispensing ramen or safety, there’s not much vending machines can’t do. Now in addition to one in Japan that sells bananas, this video shows how a Chinese inventor came up with a way to automate crab sales by keeping them at temperatures that cause them to hibernate. A sign on the machine promises three free crabs if you get a dead one.
8. Richard Chai x Snarkitecture
The latest in the Building Fashion series (collaborative pop-ups pairing architects and fashion designers) sees rising fashion darling Richard Chai hang his clothes in a futuristic cave that art and architecture duo Snarkitecture hand-carved out of white architectural foam.
