As Little as Possible

"'Totally. That's why I do feel like it's a challenge to the design world to reassess what we're producing, why we're producing it, and how we could do it better. Do we really need all this stuff?' asks Hustwit, in a way he knows his question isn't even a question. 'San Francisco is the center of the design world, packed with all these people, and they're listening to this 86-year-old German guy in his backyard for an hour and a half, about like, how they're fucking up. And they're loving it, and they're laughing!'"

Mark Wilson at Fast Company writes about a new documentary about designer Dieter Rams.

And Harry McCracken offers an obit for designer Charles Harrison, who died in November.

"Melville's Bartleby in Unfertilized Yolk Form"

"Cute is more than just a look. It has the power to change us, be the salve to our greatest frustrations and fears, and perhaps show us something in ourselves that we didn't know we needed—especially if your true self is an egg with a butt and a distaste for life."

Alex Abad-Santos at Vox takes a look at the popularity of Japan's Gudetama.

"Lego Renderings of Crematoria and Barracks"

"This week, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland, announced on its website that it has acquired Libera's concentration camp creations. The museum said it purchased the artwork on Dec. 30 from a Norwegian art collector for 55,000 euros, or approximately $71,800. The museum described the pieces as 'one of the most important works of contemporary Polish art.'"

A 2012 Los Angeles Times article by David Ng discusses the most controversial Lego set of all time.

"The Most Unusual Exhibition That We've Done Here at the Museum"

"Her interest was sparked by a family friend, Dr. George Burgess Magrath, one of the first medical examiners in the country, who believed many cases went unsolved because untrained investigators contaminated or misread crime scenes.
"Marks said, 'They would talk for hours and hours in the evenings about crimes and the state of crime detection. And she decided, "I can do something about that."'
"At age 65, Lee--then living in New Hampshire--began meticulously constructing the 3-D models, spending three to six months of each one."

Erin Moriarty on CBS's Sunday Morning views a Smithsonian exhibit called "Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death," dioramas of unsolved crimes.

"This Is a Robbery in Progress"

"Private equity firms borrow massively to buy companies, and use corporate cash reserves to pay themselves back. Workers who supply the value to the business see nothing; in fact, to service the debt, companies usually cut staff. When the retailer collapses under the borrowing weight, all workers lose their jobs. And even when sales go up, like they have by 5 percent annually in the toy sector over the past five years, dominant toy sellers like Toys"R"Us cannot compete because of the debt burden. The company's profitability was increasing when it filed for bankruptcy."

David Dayen at the New Republic argues that the retail "apocalypse didn’t have to happen."

And Derek Thompson at The Atlantic discusses the rise of "bricks-and-clicks" stores

"The Funniest Superhero Movie in Years"

"So Batman, over about an hour and 45 minutes, has to learn to let people in, even the villains who clearly bring him great joy. Somehow, the film (credited to a horde of writers including Community's Chris McKenna and the novelist Seth Grahame-Smith) stretches this into a feature-length story, though it feels a little thin at times. The film works best when it’s furiously lobbing jokes at the screen, à la Airplane!, rather than trying to construct a meaningful action-movie narrative. The expected happy ending feels a bit more pat than The Lego Movie's radical meta-twist, but it's largely earned (partly because Cera's voice work as young Robin is surprisingly, and hilariously, heartfelt)."

David Sims at The Atlantic reviews The Lego Batman Movie.

"I Did Warn You Not To Get Me Started On The Shortcomings Of The 'Lego Indiana Jones' Games"

"This is what happens when you license the John Williams music and assume everything else will fall into place. Did the designers never play a good, puzzle-driven Indiana Jones game like Fate Of Atlantis or Infernal Machine? I daresay Raiders for the Atari 2600 or even Indiana Jones And His Desktop Adventures delivers more intellectual stimulus than your cherished Lego Indiana Jones, Adam."

From The Onion.

"System of Play"

"Psychically, the Lego brick is also distinctly calibrated; it operates in a space shared by childhood imagination and parental ambition. For children, Legos allow them to build whole universes to their idiosyncratic specifications. For parents, Legos seem like the vegetable your kid actually requests and then eats in heaping mounds—a toy that's also a building block for future creativity, a mechanics lesson that doesn't feel like schoolwork, a wholesome embodiment of Scandinavian craftsmanship, something tactile in a world that is increasingly pixelated. It is the plastic plaything that even the parent most committed to natural, wooden toys will gladly buy. It is also more popular today than it has ever been, which is a surprise even to some at the company, since roughly a decade ago it was nearly bankrupt."

Genevieve Smith in New York calls Lego "the perfect toy."

"Gooey, Drippy, Oozy, Cold 'n Clammy"

"It didn't go away completely—one still finds oozy, yucky toys on sale and green goop on certain shows for kids. (Kobe Bryant got slimed on Nickelodeon last week.) But I'd submit that 21^st-century slime is just a trickle of its former self. The marketers for the Ghostbusters remake will try to sell us slime again: in slime-filled Twinkies, for example, or rebooted ecto-flavored green Hi-C. But slime may simply be too slow and viscous for the modern world."

Daniel Engber in Slate offers a cultural history of slime.

"Out of the Playroom and Into the World of Design"

"Lego shares the sort of simplicity and clean lines that are found in so much mid-century modern and Scandinavian style, Kenney says, adding that it’s the same aesthetic that has made Ikea, another Scandinavian giant, so popular. 'It has an instant charm to it, and it's also very clean and classy.'"

In a 2012 Globe and Mail article, Dave McGinn reports on product designers who use Lego.

"It's Been a Gateway for Girls"

"Toys R Us is seeing more fathers buy building playthings for their daughters, said Richard Barry, the company's chief merchandising officer.
"'There is absolutely a pattern of dads buying and building Legos with their daughters,' he said. 'It introduces a play pattern that maybe girls would like.'"


Shan Li in the Los Angeles Times explores the growing popularity of construction toys for girls.

The $64,000 Stingray Mobile

The Los Angeles Times runs obits for animator Ray Harryhausen, car customizer Dean Jeffries, bicycle designer Al Fritz, actor Taylor Mead, and television psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers.

"4-Year-Old Shows New Doll The Ropes"

"'And remember, I'm in charge here, so I make the rules.'"

From The Onion.

"I Saw My Father March with Martin Luther King"

"I did not see it with my own eyes."

First was Mitt Romney Flip-Flops and Multiple Choice Mitt, but now, behold Etch A Sketch Mitt Romney.

It's Kenner! It's Fun!

"Some of his experimentation was conducted in the Howes’ own kitchen before he and other Kenner engineers finally settled on the concept that made the idea both safe and practical by deciding to use a light bulb to heat the oven.
"And the rest is toy industry history."

Barry M. Horstman in the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the death of Ronald Howes, the inventor of the Easy-Bake Oven.

Spirit of the Game

"In 1937, Fred attended a picnic held by the family of his girlfriend, Lucile Nay, known as Lu. Before long, the fateful popcorn lid was thrown. The young couple soon discovered that Fred’s mother’s metal pie tins were far more durable. Mrs. Morrison’s reaction is not recorded."

Margalit Fox in The New York Times writes an obit for Fred Morrison, inventor of the Frisbee.

He Was Gumby, Dammit!

"At age 8, Clokey's life took a tragic turn when his father was killed in a car accident soon after his parents divorced. The unusual shape of Gumby's head would eventually be modeled after one of the few surviving photos of Clokey's father, which shows him with a large wave of hair protruding from the right side of his head."

Jason Felch in the Los Angeles Times writes an obit for Art Clokey.

Snap and Pop

Christian Wienberg in the Irish Independent marks the fiftieth anniversary of Lego, and Tom Scanlon of The Seattle Times looks back on twenty years of Sub Pop.

The Real Norville Barnes

Valerie J. Nelson of the Los Angeles Times writes an obit for toymaker Richard Knerr, co-founder of Wham-O.