Once again, the art blog Drawn! has brought to my attention an interesting niche in art: Japanese city flags. As seen above, each city in Japan has a flag with a logo (called a mon) similiar in many ways to American cities and states’ seals… but much cooler.

Mons are used not only for cities, but are symbols used similiarly to badges, crests and seals in the English-speaking world.Here’s the most complete index of them I could find: link

Did you know that legendary artist & movie designer H.R. Giger (Alien) has his own museum and bar? Neither did I. The H.R. Giger Museum & Bar is located in the Swiss town of Gruyères. More on their website.
.

The above is an image from photographer Troy Paiva’s book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. Paiva’s “light-painted” night photography of the modern ruins of American civilization evoke a senses of burned out apocalyptic suburbia that most sci-fi works wish they could do. You can see more of Paiva’s work on his site, Lost America, or by buying the book.