You may recall that I pointed out a striking vintage Thailand travel poster back in January.
The image comes from the Boston Public Library’s collection of travel posters, viewable on Flickr.
Here’s the poster again:
Fast forward a few months. I received an interesting email yesterday from a Tim in Massachusetts. He wrote:
…I came across your site purely by accident as I was looking for a copy of that SIAM poster that had an unobliterated printer’s stamp. I pulled my copy from the Boston Public Library site and then repaired it with Photoshop and did an auto-set color levels and contrast to brighten it up. I wasn’t able to find a copy with an undamaged, printer’s stamp so I’ve opted to erase it entirely. Anyhow, I just wanted to pass it on to you if you care to update yours with the one I’ve fixed up…
Below is Tim’s repaired image. You’ll notice that the corners have been cleaned up, and the image is a bit clearer. While the vintage version has an interesting, frayed look, perhaps this one is closer to how the original appeared:
Thanks for sharing, Tim.
The Times: “High-kicking new life into beautiful game”
Think you’ve seen Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God”? Of course you have. But probably not as danced by a tiny ballerina in a short frilly tutu, raised high into the air by men in tights, slapping an imaginary ball into an imaginary net. To the strains of Nessun Dorma.
…
“You’ve got to be a highly polished athlete as a dancer and as a footballer. You need discipline, technique, teamwork and a few players of genius, and both careers are short,” Wayne Eagling, the artistic director of the English National Ballet, said.
Eagling’s company has created The Beautiful Game: A Football Ballet, a 15-minute work commissioned by The New Football Pools to showcase ten iconic moments as voted for by 20,000 visitors to the Pools’ website.
(Emphasis mine.)
The (understandably) England-centric moments reproduced in the ballet include:
Gazza’s tears in the 1990 World Cup semifinal
Maradona’s “hand of God” goal (context here) in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal — though his “Goal of the Century” (clip, context) from the same match didn’t make the cut, apparently
David Beckham’s free kick against Greece that sent England to the 2002 World Cup
(Sadly Fortunately, one of the most memorable moments in goalkeeping history has been snubbed also been featured. I refer not to England’s Gordon Banks denying Pele in the 1970 World Cup — the so-called greatest save of all time — but to Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita’s scorpion kick in 1995.)
Thanks to A for the link.
EDIT: fixed the above — the scorpion kick was, indeed, reproduced 
Worldle is a new site that allows you to create aesthetically-pleasing “word clouds” (or tag clouds). Above is one for the Newley.com home page.
And here’s one I created using the text from the main page of 2Bangkok.com.
Fishing tackle as objets d’art? Damn straight.
Field and Stream‘s got an excellent photo gallery of the 50 Greatest Fishing Lures of All Time, many of which are simply beautiful. The Dardevle Spinnie, for example, is awfully pretty. I also love the sleek Rapala, the flamboyant Rooster Tail, the irreverent Hula Popper, and the bulbous Berkley Bat Wing Frog. (Okay, so that last one might not be so easy on the eyes, but you’ve gotta love fishing with something that resembles a miniature frog.)
My all-time favorite lure, though, is the Mepps Aglia (above), which I would argue is just as attractive as many contemporary women’s brooches I’ve seen. It is nothing less than a work of art.
Related fishing post: remember when my buddy Chad caught a deer in the Chesapeake Bay last summer? Well, his photos from the event were subsequently forwarded via email — each sender embellishing the tale a bit — to such an extent that some labeled it an urban legend. But it’s not. You can even look it up on Snopes.com.
The world’s flags given letter grades is a tongue-in-cheek look at national symbols that are rarely viewed from an artistic standpoint:
Some time ago, browsing through my friend’s atlas, I realised that there are significant differences in quality between the flags of different countries. Some are good, some are bad. Some countries have clearly taken care in the choice of colours, layout, and design. Others have been lazy, stolen the flags of their neighbours, or just designed flags that are clearly supposed to cause pain to those who look at them.
To my surprise, there is no international body responsible for upholding simple standards of vexillilic aesthetics. Nor do the UN or Interpol have the power to call in and punish those responsible for such atrocities as the Brazilian or Cypriot flags. I suppose there is probably a conspiracy of rich western nations (those with permanent seats on the UN security council, no doubt) to prevent such crimes from being brought to justice; however, in the meantime I am giving letter grades to the existing flags of the world.
Here’re the A grades, the failing grades, and an alphabetical listing of countries.
(Via Kottke.)
CRANKbait! Lures of Distinction: “What would happen if you shipped 20 unassembled old-timey wooden fishing lure kits off to be finished by a bunch of artists? It turns out that the answer is CRANKbait! Lures of Distinction.”
(Via.)
I'm Newley Purnell, an American journalist in Bangkok. I report for Bloomberg BNA, ABC News Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more.