• I found this trailer during a journey to a highly praised, but under-delivering fried chicken palace in middle ohio. Anyways, apparently haunted houses now come in the industrial variety: The Factory of Terror. I’ve always loved the idea that horror stories and cultural demons are very deep reflections of the society that they exist in. Today’s apparent ghouls: the spectre of employment. (Related: for more on the horror/culture connection check out, “On Monsters” by Stephen T. Asma. An excellent, academic read on the cultural origins of western supernatural creatures)

• Alex Bogusky ponders ways for art to buy mass media

• Australia’s (I would use a word right here like AUDACIOUS! or CUNNING!, but at this point I think the word should be more to-the-point and straightforward. Perhaps, responsible?) plan for a zero-carbon economy by 2020

• Shots from Lee Friedlander’s series, “America by Car” and other American Documents

• Reconsidering crumbling cities: “Detroit has a vast supply of decayed and vacant buildings, many of them architectural treasures. Even if MCD [Michigan Central Depot] is somehow restored, it will be one of only a handful saved, while so many others will languish for some time. Many, like the Lafayette Building, may become so damaged that they have to be torn down. What if instead of spending a huge amount of money to try to save one building, the city found a little bit of money to do basic maintenance to preserve the structural integrity of many buildings – and create a safe path through parts of them that tourists could walk through similar to how ancient ruins are displayed in Europe. Heck, don’t even clean the buildings up. That saves money and makes them even more impressive to visitors. This could preserve more structures for the long haul, and create a tourist attraction. The structures can always been renovated later when demand warrants. Actually, the tourists are already coming whether it is authorized or not. Thirty folks a day at MCD is pretty impressive.”

• What it means to be a Clevelander: ”It’s a winter town full of people who grew up on meat-and-potatoes peasant fare and soul food. We don’t exercise much because the weather sucks and we can’t always walk in our neighborhoods after dark, we like our comfort food like our grandparents made it, and we drink because life here gets depressing. Of course we’re unhealthy. A love of grease is in our rusty blood.”

Good afternoon Spicy readers! As we’ve undergone a site transition, new year, and general reinvigoration, the catacombs have been cleared out to make way for new goodness. What follows will be the first of a large number of posts, highlighting things collected, but never-before-shared. Enjoy.

• A miniature Canal Street subway cross-section by Alan Wolfson. I had the chance to see it in person at the Museum of Art and Design’s OTHERWORLDY exhibition in September. Seriously remarkable attention to detail (pictured above).
• On climate change and mental health: One more reason why climate change is so pervasively important — there are very few ‘traditional’ causes (read: poverty, hunger, mental health, and so on) that are not directly affected and/or exacerbated by it.
• Robert Montgomery: 
• Considering race, civil rights, and Arab Activism circa 1900: The Behannesey Brothers. An excellent read.
• Expanding on the best part of any psychology education: The top 20 most bizarre experiments of all time.

And we’re back! It’s been an odd and liminal year++ is all I will say, lest this this site of mine devolve into middle-school xanga territory. But, I’m back and have 70 odd post blips, new art projects, and random goodness that I plan on sharing. Time to slow things down, type out my thoughts, and get back to being Spicy.

Here’s a little bit of that now, a favorite Eef Barzelay b-side find, ”The Moment’s Gone.” I’ll be back soon.

I love Halloween.

It’s an unholy confluence of basically everything I hold dear in life: food, ridiculousness, creativity, and monster cereal. Of course the night itself is magical, but the assured stockpile of sickly blue Boo Berry at my grocer is reason enough to celebrate.

Unfortunately an artificial free for all is limited (mostly) to October.

In the off season I’ll occasionally get hit with a Chocula, Frank, or Boo craving. Maybe three times a year I nervously debate about ordering an entire palette from Amazon and whether or not that would be a healthy decision.  Then, inevitably, I pacify myself by diving into wikipedia’s monster cereal/cereal pages, waxing about other gloriously processed breakfasts that I, sadly, never had the chance to taste. Fruit Brute, Yummy Mummy, and Dunkin’ Donuts Cereal all give me that tiny pang of remorse I get from current, but elusive cereals.  Its an odd feeling, waiting for an October that’s never going to come.

Fellow PSFK contributor Simone Haruko Smith made an incredible find at an Alexanderplatz, Berlin grocery store: the USA section.  It includes, in true Yankee fashion, everything from Betty Crocker to cheese-whiz.  Although, in my opinion, the Germans left out (for better or for worse) a few notable pieces of Americana: Aunt Jemima, velveeta, fun-yuns, oatmeal cream pies, and general industrial-sized packaging.  Overall the standout detail is in the barbecue sauce which only features whiskey/molasses hybrids.  The subtle implication exists that, here in the US of A, we love corn liquor and smoked meat so fervently they’ve been combined into one gluttonous mega-bbq hoe-down. It’s too amazing to even comprehend.

[via @kylecameron]

In an age of 3D mega-tainment, finding artists that speak in quiet truths and vernacular can be an unexpected joy.   Sparrow Songs, a collaboration between filmmaker Alex Jablonski and cinematographer Michael Totten, is one of those surprises.  This year long project consists of 12 mini-episodes, one per month, exploring everything from the life of a puppet-maker to a home for special needs adults to porn star karaoke.   You can find two of these episodes below:

“Untitled” (Living through the recession)

“The Donut Shop”

[via Susannah Breslin]

This is just a quick PSA for anyone else whose high school experience was augmented by the escape of an even more acerbic and surreal Lawndale High. Daria Morgendorffer has finally made it to DVD. I can hardly contain my geeky-self.

Hit up the normal retail venues for more info.

Some people take themselves too damn seriously, which is why this playful analysis is refreshingly different. Mini sofa Calatrava’s are judged for their inspired use of cushions, afghans, and coffee tables. Build LLC explains in more detail: “Unrepresented and ignored for too long in the architectural industry, today’s post pays respect to the wonders of couch cushion architecture. We’ve rounded up a (mostly) admirable collection of projects, taken from a randomly conducted search on the internet. Join us as we take a critical analysis of the architecture, methods and design philosophies of living room furniture re-appropriation.”

“A clear derivative of the Miesian box, this handsome project is “informalized” with the use of colorful, freeform roof panels. Taking further direction from the Archigram movement, the project explores architecture as body wrap and propels couch cushion architecture to new and exciting territory. Grade: A”

“Good God gentlemen, you’re a mess! You need walls, you need a roof. Get to work man! Grade: F”

[via Swissmiss]

[Al’s Tower, a block of flats on Harrow Road, Berea, overlooking the Ponte building, from the “Jo’Burg” series, 2004]

Guy Tillim’s quiet photo documentary of Hillbrow, South Africa manages to clearly and thoughtfully describe post-apartheid life, without posturing or explicitly capturing individual suffering. His photos really are quite remarkable.

“Though Guy Tillim is often considered a war photographer, his subject is more likely to be the aftermath of war. This point is very apt in relation to the “Jo’Burg” series of 2004. There we see the still very present after-effects of apartheid in the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow.”

[via Fans in a Flashbulb]

If there is one thing in my life I can say with utmost certainty it would be this — if I had spent my youth playing The Tamale Trail, The Southern BBQ Trail, and/or The Southern Gumbo Trail instead of the standard Oregon Trail, I would have defiantly chosen to remain a child forever. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I dodged a bullet. However idyllic these Trails sound, they do exist in reality as collected paths of southern cuisine and culture cataloged through oral history. The Southern Foodways Alliance has gathered stories and media, plotting it on an interactive map replete with trip-planning tools. Though the stories are engaging, with destinations like Jim Neely’s Interstate Barbecue I can’t imagine a road trip would take much convincing.

The Southern Foodways Alliance Documentary

[via BoingBoing and The Paupered Chef]

In most cities the idea of having 26.2 miles of car-free pavement at your disposal sounds like a dream — especially in auto clogged L.A. So, with an eye towards creative urban intervention, the Wolfpack Hustle bike crew has managed to turn the night prior to the L.A. marathon into an event in and of itself.  The Wolfpack Hustle: LA Marathon Crash Race begins at 4 am and gathers 369+ riders for nocturnal rivalry on two wheels.  Surreal footage of the event can be found above.

[via GOOD, pic via Take Over LA]

Well, it’s that time of the year and despite outward attempts to hide it, I can’t help but admit my love for the sugar-coated imps.  In keeping with my infatuation, here is the trailer for “Peeps: The Movie.”  I don’t care what you have to say about the production quality, peeps and zombies always make for a winning combination.

Ross Racine creates aerial views of faux-sprawl.  His works highlight the incredible beauty, mundanity, order (of a sort) and absurdity of American suburbs. Someone should really start marketing cloud-shaped developments.  I can think of a few gated communities from my hometown alone, that would have the gall to construct that kind of awkward utopia.

[via This Isn't Happiness]

* Odessa to the Future on community and crowdsourcing abundance

*Altruistic ants: Infected Temnothorax unifasciatus ants abandon their community, imposing self-exile in order to protect their colony

*Urban Omnibus explores methods for reforesting cities (pictured above)

*Quick rant: The US Mint is updating the penny. Why?! The miniature Lincoln in his miniature memorial was the absolute highlight of American currency.

*Architects at Diller + Scofidio map the chaos of dining

*HP goes big with CeNSE, a billion sensor Central Nervous System for the Earth

*The increasingly pervasive use of the green screen: so much for shooting on location.

*3D printing takes on ceramics

*BLDGBLOG and Atlas Obscura explore the geoglyphs of an abandoned burbclave-cum-ghost town

This surprise recently landed in my inbox care of street artist, NosE.  ”Snow Graffiti” is beautifully minimal and cleanly executed.  Specifically, the final wide angle shot — that type and the stacked edges of the balconies — it kills me every time.

[previously on Spicy: Snow Graffiti: Protest with Kool-Aid]