The Religion of Bruce Bacca. Based On Die Hard, Bruce Willis & A Chewbacca Mask.

First off, I realize I've recently posted many things related to Star Wars. It's just a coincidence and no, this is not a Star Wars blog (although I am a huge fan). That said, thanks to Upper Playground, I have learned about this very unique experience taking place in San Francisco, opening tonight and continuing through December 26th.

Friday December 10th at 7pm marks the opening of the Bruce Bacca Pop-Up Church, a unique artistic ideology by Alexander Tarrant, at 248 Fillmore St., San Francisco.

Like the earth itself, it took 7 days to construct this church and it’s vague system of beliefs based on the 1988 film Die Hard, it’s mythical leading man Bruce Willis, and an exquisitely carved wooden Chewbacca Mask (shown below, courtesy of the Citrusreport.com).



Churchgoers will want to bring their cameras to capture the moment they walk the carpeted broken glass gauntlet, wear the wooden mask, and become an indoctrinated member of this temporary system of worship.


above: Bruce Willis in the 1988 action flick, Die Hard.

Following the dry baptism, available for $10 is the short(er) film “Incident at Nakatomi” – a pious remastering of the classic film Die Hard (1988) in which the image and voice of Bruce Willis has been completely removed. The resulting film is introspective and thought provoking, yet still contains enough explosive excitement to keep even the most discerning action fan satisfied.

The church will be open from December 10th – 26th, and will be performing the civic duty of holding a soup kitchen on Christmas Day.

The Hippest Gifts In Every Category For Everybody This Holiday Season.

Let me be your personal shopper this Holiday Season. Seriously.

I have spent the past several years creating specific shopping lists on the community shopcasting website This Next. The lists I have painstakingly compiled include images of the items, a description and a link to purchase, making it very easy for you to find and buy the perfect gift for just about anyone this holiday season.

My Christmas Gift To You.
You can benefit from the fact that I've already scoured the online (and offline) stores for the hippest items in tons of specific categories. The coolest products for designers, kids, pets, friends, fish-lovers, art-lovers, buddha-lovers, dog-lovers, gun-lovers, tattoo-lovers, graffiti-lovers, luxury lovers, casual acquaintances, signficant others and more. Home decor and furniture, technology and gadgets, piggy banks and jewelry... whatever you need, if it's hip, it's here.



From $10 items to $100,000 items, from trendy items to classic items, there's a total of 4,643 items to choose from, starting with the hippest holiday home decor.

Here's how it works. Click on the category below that interests you and you'll be taken to that list of items. Click on the name of the item that interests you and the screen will change to display that item. Lower down on that page it says : shop for this 'here' and you just click on that! Easy, peasy.

• MODERN CHRISTMAS DECOR (wreaths, trees, ornaments, etc) -205 items

Now, for the selections of gifts:

• PANTONE AND PANTONE-INSPIRED PRODUCTS (great for designers) -30 items

• SALUTING DESIGN: An Army Of Military Inspired Items - 35 items

• AQUARIUMS THAT ROCK: the coolest fish tanks - 40 items

• BUDDHA BOUNTY: All Things Buddha - 76 items

• MODERN DOLLHOUSES & ARCHITECTURAL MODELS - 44 items

• THE COOLEST WAYS TO WARM UP (candles, radiators, towel racks) - 131 items

• THE DISH ON DISHES (hip dinnerware and tableware) - 229 items

• EARTH-FRIENDLY AND ECO/ GREEN PRODUCTS - 87 items

• DIVINE DAMASK (home decor and products with damask patterns) - 72 items

• TAG, YOU'RE IT! (Graffiti inspired and related products) - 74 items

• WOOD WONDERLAND (wood furniture, toys and more) - 156 items

• GREAT GIFTS FOR GEEKS - 20 items

• REALLY ROMANTIC GIFTS -104 items

• FOR THE HIP BABY OR CHILD - 250 ITEMS

• LIST FOR LEGO LOVERS (Lego® everything) -50 items

• LIGHTEN UP (The best lighting and lamps) - 160 items

• MONDRIAN MADNESS (products inspired by Piet Mondrian) - 46 items

• ALVAR AALTO INSPIRED ITEMS - 14 items

• CHAIRS THAT ROCK (modern rocking chairs) - 56 items

• OBSCENELY DECADENT GIFTS (luxury products)- 60 items

• DEATH BECOMES YOU (over 160 things with Skulls) - 164 items

• FANCY FRIGGEN FLOORING AND RADICAL RUGS -163 items

• OUTDOOR ITEMS (from furniture to birdhouses) - 142 items

• HEDGEHOG HEYDAY (items inspired by Hedgehogs) - 33 items

• IF IT'S HIP & STICKS TO THE WALL (art and more home decor) - 180 items

• READY, SET...GLOW! (illuminated items and furniture) - 77 items

• CONTEMPORARY ART I WISH I COULD AFFORD - 117 items

• THE HIPPEST ANIMAL/PET STUFF (for both people and their pets) - 203 items

• TECHNOLOGY THAT ROCKS - 215 items

• TATTOO YOU. AND THIS. AND THAT. (tons of tattoo-related products) - 77 items

• HIP JEWELRY FOR MEN AND WOMEN - 216 items

• MODERN PIGGY BANKS OR MONEY BOXES - 65 items

• DIY STUFF FOR FRUSTRATED ARTISTS - 96 items

• PUT THAT DOWN, THAT'S MY GRANDMA! (modern cremation urns) - 27 items

• SHOP OR I'LL SHOOT! (gun-shaped products of all kinds) - 71 items

and lastly, many of the items that have been featured in this blog :

• IF IT'S HIP IT'S HERE - A list of items that celebrate design, functionality and art. Things to appreciate and admire. - 2056 items


Now, you have no excuse not to have found the perfect, or at the least the hippest, gift.

Glove & Hate Tatted Oven Mitt By Stuart Gardiner For Of Kings & Cabbages.

Of Cabbages and Kings and UK designer Stuart Gardiner have collaborated to make this super fun and functional oven mitt.






It is a single double-sided mitt oven mitt printed in 4 color inks with a metallic gold bracelet. 'Love' on the right hand side, 'Hate' on the reverse left hand side.


Made in the UK.

Buy it here at CultureLabel
Every purchase from CultureLabel helps to support the arts.
or buy it here from Of Cabbages & Kings
or buy it from Stuart Gardiner here.

Sweet Bread. Now, Toast Yourself.

The post just prior to this one today featured the fabulous new music video for the song "Last Leaf" by Los Angeles quartet, OK Go.



The stop motion video features illustrations burnt into toast with a laser. Created in conjunction with the Samsung Create Your World website to promote their new NX100 digital camera, the site also features a fun and easy interactive way to place your own image on a piece of toast.



Simply upload your image, choose your level of toast darkness and voila!



Go toast yourself here.


See the Stop motion video of laser burnt toast for Last Leaf by OK go! here.

Fun With Skype Screen Grabs By James Callahan.

I figured it wouldn't be long until we began seeing more and more 'art' made from the latest tech apps and devices. We've already seen a wonderful series of illustrated versions of You Tube's most popular videos and seen how the New Yorker Magazine has featured covers created with an iPhone painting app.



Now, UK advertising art director, illustrator and photographer James Callahan has had some fun with screengrabs of his Skype video chats. His ongoing project which he calls Screengrabography is simply his superimposing of screen grabs from Skype chats over stock photos or art.

They are not super impressively composed or even that inventive (men's heads on women's bodies), but they are fun nevertheless and certainly simple enough for almost anyone to do. The results are good for a chuckle. And may just inspire you to start making a few of your own.





Extra points to James' friends Daisy and Joseph for being such good sports.


See James Callahan's portfolio here which includes some very impressive advertising and design work.

Stickers With A-Peel. Chiquita Banana Design Contest & A Little Brand History.

above: 6 of the 18 winning designs, all of which are shown later in this post

"I'm a Chiquita Banana and I've come to say...." Okay, most of my readers are probably too young to remember the legendary jingle, so I'll just get to the point.

The Chiquita brand just ran a design contest in an effort to both refresh the brand and elicit consumer engagement. They asked people to submit new designs for the stickers that are placed on their bananas, which they have been doing since 1963. Note that you can still use their sticker generator to create your own online sticker and then purchase that design from Zazzle.


above: the current Chiquita brand sticker was designed in 1986

Each entrant was limited to submitting no more than 25 designs. The designs had to be on a white background and in the classic Chiquita sticker shape and could not use "Miss Chiquita", the brand mascot, in any way, shape or form. Entries had to include the outer blue ring and the design had to be contained within what they term "the yellow racetrack."


above: the company mascot, Miss Chiquita, as the 1944 version by Dik Browne and the current version drawn in 1987 by Oscar Grillo, was not allowed in the new sticker designs

50 designs were selected as finalists based on the following criteria
* Creativity (30%)
* Visual impact (30%)
* The extent to which the sticker embodies the following five Chiquita brand attributes :Fun, Family-friendly, Youthful, energetic, Fresh (25%)
* The extent to which the sticker can be recognized as a Chiquita banana sticker (15%)

A person could have no more than one design in the 50 finalists which were then posted on the sticker-contest website. The public was then invited to vote for their favorite sticker design.


above: 8 worthy finalists designs that did not make it into the winning 18

Before I show you the 18 winning sticker designs, here's a little brand and sticker history:

Miss Chiquita was introduced in 1944 and Chiquita was the first company to brand a banana. The idea of the stickers came along in 1963 and believe it or not, they are still put on by hand so as not to bruise the fruit.


above: The brand used posters like this one from 1950 before putting stickers on the bananas.

The very first drawing of Miss Chiquita in 1944 and stickers from 1963 to the present:


Now, the 18 final winning designs which will be appearing on bananas in November.












Be sure to see all 50 finalists because there were some great designs that should have made it into the final 18. See all 50 finalists here

Go here to learn more about the winning designs.