Whether you’re of the mind that horse-drawn carriages are quaint, charming throw-backs to a time long-lost or you think they’re a totally cruel, unnecessary, inhumane tourist trap, you most likely at least agree that shouldn’t be used up and thrown away—literally sometimes—with the garbage. But that’s what’s happening with some of the carriage horses from New York City. As is, there aren’t any governing laws that require any documentation whatsoever when the horses are taken out of the city. So owners can do pretty much anything they want with these animals.

So take, like, one second, and sign this petition at change.org. It proposes the radical (italics denote sarcasm in this case—I’m not an ironic qoute marks kinda guy) notion that owners of carriage horses in NYC be required to sell the animals to private individuals or legit animal sanctuaries. Nothing crazy.

As you may have already guessed, we happen to fall in that second camp, by the by, and think that the whole industry is fucked, and guess what? That lady from Glee agrees with us! …though she didn’t use that exact wording. Check out her totally not lip-synched video below. It’s actually very enlightening and well-done. Then, if you want to speak up for the 200 horses working day in and day out on the rough (currently super-snowy) streets of New York, take another quick second and visit this site. Seriously. Like, seconds to speak up for these poor creatures who can’t speak up themselves.

And thanks!

Photo above, courtesy of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages; video, courtesy of NYCLASS/PETA; and poster image by us, from a campaign we did with NYC vegan shoe store, MooShoes a couple years ago.

Flowers + light.

You know how you sometimes come across something—usually something tiny, something you can easily hold in your hand—and it totally intrigues you, totally pulls you in? Whether it has a much of a function or a purpose or not, you want to take it with you and make it part of your life somehow. Well, last month I happened across a store that’s essentially a gallery of such items.

Our Find, this week—as we’re all in the depths of well-intentioned consumerism, frantically running and e-running about for various awesome gifts—is vegan purveyor MooShoes‘ annual Holiday Gift Guide. They’re a favorite client of ours—and yes, that IS a lovely design on that gift guide—and they’ve put together QUITE a nice list this year.

…no, it’s not JUST a bunch of shoes…though they’ve obviously got a lot of those. But they’ve also got some superb ideas on the ever-expanding vegan food front, a shout-out for lovely companion animal photography from Avery Wham, some animal-friendly cosmetics, hard-to-find animal-friendly travel planners, and a great suggestion if you’re looking to give the gift that keeps on giving—the support of your favorite non-profit.

And if you like the sound of that last suggestions, check out Refinery 29’s EXCELLENT charitable gifts guide.

Happy economic stimulating!

Holy stunning, Batman!

No, your screensaver didn’t kick in, mini-style. And no, you’re not having a tiny, drug-induced trip…er, maybe you are. But the image above is a 12′ x 6′ x 16′ of thread, nails, and wood. And a fuck ton of incredible skill and creativity, from what we can tell.

Texas-based artist and former graphic designer Gabriel Dawe creates these installations and other artwork that harkens back to his Mexican upbringing “where he grew up surrounded by the intensity and color of Mexican culture.” In addition to these stunning pieces, he’s done some pretty cool fiber- and object-art. Check it all out on his site. And see more of the installation piece, “Plexus no. 4”, below.

Marion Bolognesi is a Brooklyn-based artist and deisgner who ‘hopes to capture the emotion & beauty of her subjects without hindering the natural fluidity of her medium.’ That sounds nice and all, but we just think she creates some down-right awesomely emotive, organic paintings that you could spend all day staring at.

Art, in its myriad forms, can obviously come from one thousand different places and have prismatic, dispersive meanings to its creators and audience, but, when it comes down to it, I personally just want to get lost in a work—standing like Cameron in-front of that Seurat painting with all those kids filing along behind him. Point being, Bolognesi pulls us in, and you should check her out. Her prints make for a lovely gift, by the by. Also, I think that’s Björk below!

If you’re ANYTHING like us, you probably put things off for way too long. Example—You hear that one of your favorite living visual artists is having a show a mere subway ride away from you, and you play it all cool, Fonzie-style, leaning up against the jukebox of life, going ‘whoa,’ and ‘eyyyyy’ and snapping your fingers and letting the jocks and lame-o’s file past you to, you know, do stuff. You probably also REALLY like pistachios. Seriously. They’re so good. On the prior, we urge you to not be like us. Most specifically with regards to Japanese artist, Yoshitomo Nara‘s first major exhibition in New York, now showing through January 2 at Manhattan’s Asia Society Museum. We took our own advice on not being like us this past weekend and checked out the show and were REALLY happy we did. Not only was it our first opportunity to see his work up-close, but the exhibit is set up almost as art itself, with music and video accompanying much of the visual art, little shack-like rooms housing familiar and unfamiliar works, and even a tripped out hang-out room with a ginger-bread-looking house and pop-art-style round stages. Seriously, if you’re in NYC or will be soon, add it to the very tip-top of your list of things to do. We promise: You won’t regret it. And for those of you not in the area, the Asia Society site on the exhibition is actually really nice too and definitely worth checking out.

CUTE! Our friends over at Portland-based Herbivore—grand purveyors of superbly designed animal-friendly merch—just announced these beautiful, SUPER-CUTE cow-hugger aprons. Best thing, beside the awesome illustration, obviously—they’re not white, so you can ACTUALLY wipe your hands on them an not look like that cook from You Can’t Do That On Television right away. Buy one!

Just came across this searching for a file—A poster we did way back in 2003 to promote the brief foray Katie and I made into DJing. Yes, that is an awesome DJ team name. And yes, we did love color gradients.

About three years ago, a very creative friend of ours—Agatha—started something called the Brooklyn Music Exchange, which basically boils down to getting a group of people who love music together and having them create and then distribute a new themed mix on a regular basis—in our case, every month. So, one person or couple or pair of roommates sends out a mix one month in the year and then gets eleven other mixes from their various friends on the list throughout the year. Kind of like an awesome pyramid scheme. Though it can be a bit of work and the idea’s evolved somewhat over the years—CDs have become a little less common that shareable MP3s and, after some Brooklyn exoduses, BMX now more accurately stands for Borough Music Exchange—we’ve discovered countless new bands and tracks that we may never have heard without BMX and we totally suggest giving it a try with your group of friends.

We wanted to quickly share our entry this year, built around the theme of old-school Choose Your Own Adventure books and a fantasy-style quest to find “The Ultimate Band.” Many who know me know that I’m a total nerd and, in addition to growing up on a steady diet of D&D games, I was a HUGE fan of the CYOA book series. Though Katie’s opinion on freeform roleplaying games differs a tad from mine, she also shared a love for the books in her youth. So we bought a collection of the actual old CYOAs from the 70s and 80s and designed new covers/jackets for the books, staying as absolutely true to the original designs, fonts, layouts, and writing style as possible. We used a combination of hand-sketching, in-Illustrator pen + blob brush work, and some other random illustration work to get the cover art and back jacket down. The result—Katie can conjure musically-inspired mystical energies and looks pretty damn snazzy in a hooded cloak and our cat has some bad-ass dragon wings. The books, which we sent out to the BMX list, each featured a call to visit a Web site we built to Begin the Rockventure!

Via our regular Music Monday, we now extend the invitation to you, dear reader. Don your feathered cap and totally tough tunic and enter the weirdly rock-nerdy musical world of our 2010 BMX—IF YE DARE!!! Out of respect for the artists involved and because….um….we’re not made of storage space, it won’t stay up for long, so check it out while you can. And, obvs, if you’re one of the artists involved and would like me take your tracks down, say the word.

Below: The entirely sensible site navigation diagram and full front-back jacket design. Click for larger versions.