Episode 60: Everyman and Ariane

“A stick, a stone, the end of the road…” is how the song Águas de Março (The Waters of March) begins. For the 2014 Alliance Graphique Internationale conference in Brazil, Michael took Antonio Carlos Jobim’s list-like lyrics, did a Google Image Search, and put the first result on a poster:

What the song is about is the beauty of everyday life — you know,  that just these boring things that surround us is what life and existence is all about — and it was an attempt to hijack the boring character of Google Image Search to generate a similarly quotidian attitude about the world.

The Atlantic‘s James Fallows rounded up some favorite versions of Águas de Março a couple of years ago, including one in Slovenian, a paean to Trader Joe’s, and this long instrumental:

Also mentioned:

• Autostraddle, 75 Lesbian Ken Dolls Ranked by Lesbianism
• Elle, All the Ken Dolls You Will Meet in Your Lifetime
• Michael and Jessica discuss the Barbie revamp on Episode 27 of The Observatory
• Weekend Edition, Diversifying Stock Photography
• Tonl
• Facebox
• Ariane: The Overexposed Stock Image Model
• McMansion Hell
• 99% Invisible, McMansion Hell: The Devil Is in the Details
• Electronic Freedom Foundation, McMansion Hell Responds to Zillow’s Unfounded Legal Claims
• InspiroBot