A collection of 17 photos of very famous artists’ sketchbooks. This Frida Kahlo one is probably my favorite but there are others that are definitely worth a look.

(via Flavorwire » Inside the Sketchbooks of Famous Artists)

Don’t you love it when somebody takes a solved problem and re-solves it in a much more intensely satisfying and laborious way? Witness the “Corkscrew Designed by Rob Higgs,” a steampunkish mechanical marvel for opening and pouring wine.

[via American Winery]

The American Society of Magazine Editors has published their Cover of the Year Finalists. I love the Eliot Spitzer cover for New York Magazine.

• Literature: The image of Franz Kafka as a saint and a recluse is turning out not to be true. A new book explores Kafka’s porn collection and how it may change academic readings.
  

  Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life

• Architecture: I absolutely love the way that light and color interplay on the Planar House by Steven Holl Architects.
• Architecture: The plans for the Kilden Performing Arts Center in Kristiansand, Norway make it appear as if the building is a force of nature, rather than a man-made building. Striking work from ALA Architects.
• Art, Design, and Architecture: You’ve just gotta love a Big Bowl O Fire!
• Art: The work of Greg Gossel is explosive, poppy and just plain fun to look at.
• Architecture: Funny, broken Engrish but if you want to see something hilarious, watch the intro videos for the dome house. A woman dressed in Japanese school-girl style will walk you through it. You should definitely buy one if you live on Tattooine or if you have a Japanes schoolgirl fetish, which I’m guessing, is the same audience. Those sand storms can be awfully dangerous.

Brandon Keim recounts the essence of a talk by neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran given at the World Science Festival.

The essence of art is, arguably, metaphor, and its practitioners are especially prolific — and metaphor is just a convenient shorthand for the connection of unlinked cognitive phenomena. That’s exactly what appears to happen in the minds of synesthetes. Far-flung parts of their brain have unusually high levels of cross-wiring.