The Monkey Bar - NYC

I was lucky enough to attend a cocktail party at the Monkey Bar, which is Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter's latest restaurant venture. The atmosphere in the bar and dining room is overall very soothing and exquisite. Some say the mood reminds them of being on a luxurious ocean liner. Perhaps this effect was enhanced by the fact that the bar staff wore very ship-worthy uniforms as they poured our libations. In addition to the dark wood and warm lighting, there are delightful monkey-themed murals and fixtures all around the bar room, which I was able to snap a few photos of to share with you! On display in the dining room is a large mural featuring various stars from old Hollywood and modern literature (Fred Astaire, Dorothy Parker, Zelda & F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.) painted by Ed Sorel. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the name of the artist who painted the monkey murals, but I am very curious to know. Until a later post, here are the pictures:

Monkey by Rocket… and hot chick too

Sketch by Rik Rocket.

A friend posted this sketch on Facebook today. You may not notice at first that there's a monkey in this drawing. Keep looking. Get a better look.

©1999-2010 Rik Rocket.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit CreativeCommons.org or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Flying Monkeys aren't just for Oz anymore

Label from Flying Monkey Patisserie in Philadelphia.

A friend recently posted pictures from his birthday on Facebook. They included cupcakes from Flying Monkey Patisserie and this very cool label and logo.

Their website is very well-designed. I hope to try something from there if I'm ever in Philly!

Nothing funny here

There's nothing funny about this monkey with cheese.

This cute little fella showed up in a Fark thread discussion. There seems to be a lot of love for monkeys there.

Monkey place settings

Monkey plates

Monkey bag, place mats, bowls, cups

It seems monkeys are making it into all kinds of merchandise. The bag is super-cute. Not so sure I love the art on the plates, bowls and cups, though. It's slightly awkward, but maybe that's intentional.

Monster monkey dolls at toy art show

These monkeys were designed by Bianca Panzram.

I went to the MF Gallery opening of the 2009 MF Toy Show last night in Brooklyn, NY. There were lots of crazy toys designed by talented artists. I wanted to take everything home. Some of it was gross, some was cute, some was weird, but nothing was conventional, and everything was inspirational.

These simple striped monkeys by Bianca Panzram were my favorites.

Artists and studios included:

MF Toys

Cupco! (fun site!)

Jenny Harada

Moses Jaen

Ed Repka

Bianca Panzram

Aaron Tomkins

Bastet2329

Elmer Presslee (bonus monkey on the front page of the site)

EatYourChildren

Sara Lanzillotta - - - Monkeyhouse Toys

Aya Kakeda

Steven Lopez

Jaz Harold

Tyson Summers

Ciou

Fernando Carpaneda

Nikki Taylor (did I find the right artist here?)

Mary Doyle (bonus chimp on front page of the site :)

I'm thinking of heading back to buy a piece or two. I highly recommend it if you are into toys, in the toy industry, or just need to be inspired by some wicked art.

You've got monkey!

A monkey from AOL.

My sister-in-law emailed this to me wondering about the legality of posting the image on Millions of Monkeys. "It was on AOL this morning."

Hey, AOL, you're not gonna sue me, right?

Smoking monkey

A cigarette smoking monkey at Forbidden Planet.
[identified as Frank Cho's Monkey by Isaac Bidwell]

I make a point of stopping in Forbidden Planet every time I'm near Union Square in NYC. I don't know who the character is, but this vinyl monkey with a cigarette in his mouth was in one of the display cases.

Angry T-shirt

Saw this poorly drawn version of the Family Guy monkey on a T-shirt at the Union Square Market in NYC this summer.

Chimpanzee T-shirt

Chimp silkscreen T-shirt.

I saw this guy on the subway more than a year ago, and asked to take a picture of his shirt. All I had was my phone camera, and I had no clue how to get the picture. My wife rescued me with instructions. I feel like a dork, it was so simple.

CG portraits

Jacques Defontaine's CG portrait.

This is a CG portrait done by Belgian artist Jacques Defontaine that I found in an artical on Noupe.com showing realistic computer generated portraits.

Below is another CG image by Olivier Ponsonnet from the same article…

Olivier Ponsonnet's CG portrait.

Absinthe maketh the hearth gwow fonder

My cousin sent me this monkey he found on an absinthe bottle.

Monkey's Jewels

It's some kind of jewelry. I can't find a link on the page. BUT IT'S MONKEYS!!! :)

marcalary.com