Apple has replaced its iPhone Upgrade Program with Apple Upgrade, a Klarna-backed U.S. leasing service covering most iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. MacRumors reports: Apple Upgrade has lower base prices than the iPhone Upgrade Program, with iPhones available starting at $17.99 per month and the Apple Watch available starting at $11.99 per month. Macs can be leased starting at $24.99 per month, and iPads start at $11.99 per month. AppleCare+ is optional and not included in the lease price, with customers also able to opt for AppleCare One. There are 12-month and 24-month leasing options for the iPhone and Apple Watch, along with 24-month and 36-month leasing options for the Mac and iPad. Lease cost varies based on device, and is lower with a device trade-in that's applied on a monthly basis. [...]

When leasing an iPhone, customers are required to choose a plan from AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile, and prepaid plans are not eligible. iPhones need to be leased with a carrier plan, but the iPhones are unlocked so customers can switch carriers if desired. MVNOs like Mint Mobile or Visible are not supported. At the end of the leasing period, customers can choose to return the device and exit the program, pay off the remaining amount owed on the device with a one-time payment and keep it, or return it and upgrade to a new device with a new lease.

The payoff amount is the difference between what was paid during the leasing period and the retail price of the device, minus any remaining trade-in credits. Klarna is not charging a fee for the leasing program, so an iPhone that's $1,099 can be leased and then purchased for $1,099 with no extra cost beyond taxes. As with trade-ins, Apple will send a pre-labeled and prepaid shipping box for device returns or upgrades. If you don't opt to pay the purchase fee at the end of the leasing program, you will not own the device and must return it. Last week, after Bloomberg reported on Apple's upcoming leasing program, 9to5Mac uncovered code in the iOS 27 beta suggesting the company was developing a system that could restrict leased iPhones when customers fall behind on payments. Apple has now told The Verge that the new "Restricted Mode" will not be activated in response to a missed lease payment. What the new system is actually meant for remains unclear.

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AI-assisted vulnerability discovery has yet to produce the expected surge in real-world attacks: VulnCheck found that only 14 of 1,061 attributed discoveries, or 1.3 percent, had been exploited, which is "almost identical to the rate across all vulnerabilities in VulnCheck's dataset," reports The Register. "That's a far cry from the narrative that frontier AI is dramatically tilting the balance in attackers' favor by churning out instantly weaponizable bugs." The findings suggest AI is currently better at increasing the volume of bugs found than making them easier to weaponize. From the report: The report takes particular aim at Anthropic's much-publicized Project Glasswing, unveiled in April with warnings that AI-assisted vulnerability discovery could allow attackers to hijack systems, disrupt operations, or steal data. Claude Mythos may have identified 23,019 vulnerability candidates, but there's remarkably little public evidence showing what became of most of them. VulnCheck notes that only 126 have been published as CVEs, that just one has been confirmed exploited in the wild, and that Anthropic's public disclosure record has seen little movement since Project Glasswing launched.

But that doesn't mean AI-assisted vulnerability research has failed, according to Patrick Garrity, security researcher at VulnCheck. "AI-assisted vulnerability discovery clearly has value for both attackers and defenders," Garrity wrote. "The data does not suggest that AI-discovered vulnerabilities are inherently more likely to be exploited than those found through traditional methods." Instead, he argues, AI is simply helping researchers discover more flaws, giving defenders an opportunity to patch them before criminals get there.

Garrity stopped well short of declaring the threat overblown forever, but he did suggest some of the rhetoric has outpaced reality. "The data so far, including Anthropic's own stalled disclosure ledger, suggests that AI-assisted vulnerability discovery and frontier capabilities have been overhyped relative to the evidence available today," he wrote. "That doesn't mean the risk is imaginary. It means the impact has been real but modest."

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eBay and several former executives have agreed to pay $56 million to Ina and David Steiner, the newsletter writers targeted in a 2019 corporate harassment campaign that involved threats, surveillance attempts, and deliveries of live insects and other disturbing items. The settlement closes the couple's civil case after seven former employees pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the scheme. TechCrunch reports: Ina and David Steiner, a married couple and the co-authors of EcommerceBytes, inspired the ire of high-level eBay executives after occasionally criticizing the company in their newsletter. In 2019, a plot was concocted to intimidate the couple into halting their negative coverage. Executives used sock puppet social media accounts to harass the couple, while also sending them anonymous threatening letters and bizarre items in the mail -- including live spiders and cockroaches, pornographic magazines, a bloody pig mask, a funereal wreath, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse. According to previously released court documents, a plan that was attempted but never successfully carried out involved affixing a GPS tracking device to the couple's car. Yet another internally broached plan involved sending a "Samoan gang" to the Steiners' home.

The settlement this week resolves a 2021 civil case brought by the couple against eBay. The law office representing the Steiners writes that the settlement includes $46.15 million paid to the couple by eBay itself, as well as $2 million from former eBay executive CEO Devin Wenig. Additionally, $500,000 will be paid out to the couple from former eBay executive Wendy Jones, as well as $50,000 from former eBay executive Steve Wymer. Additional funds are being paid to various non-profits. In 2022, seven former eBay employees were criminally charged and pled guilty in relation to the plot, including the company's former security chief, James Baugh -- who was sentenced to nearly five years in prison. Others indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice include David Harville, Brian Gilbert, Stephanie Popp, Stephanie Stockwell, Philip Cooke, and former eBay contractor Veronica Zea.

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Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview has "found flaws in a weakened version of a digital encryption standard that is in pervasive use throughout the internet," reports The New York Times. Researchers said the model discovered novel attacks against weakened versions of AES and the experimental post-quantum HAWK system, including one that was 200 to 1,000 times faster than previous human-developed methods. From the report: The flaws identified do not concern a cryptographic standard currently in use today, which means that modern banking and communication systems are not subject to immediate potential intrusions from A.I. Instead, Anthropic's technology cracked a watered-down version of an algorithm for Advanced Encryption Standard, or A.E.S., a ubiquitous protocol that safeguards web traffic, wireless networks, data storage and more. It is common to perform tests on weaker versions of encryption algorithms to understand whether more powerful computers could someday crack the actual standards, akin to solving a simpler math problem to identify whether patterns may exist for a more complicated one. In the testing, Mythos was able to break the weaker version of Advanced Encryption Standard in a way that Anthropic said made an assault 200 to 1,000 times faster than what previous human research had managed to do. While the immediate ramifications are minimal, the long-term implications could be significant. In previous tests, large-language models seemingly could not match or best what humans can do in the mathematically dense field of cryptographic research, but their rapid advances could suggest a future in which top models can surmount traditional internet security protections that are foundational to just about everything that takes place on the internet.

[...] In addition to the attack on the encryption standard, Mythos also orchestrated another improved attack against a different digital cryptographic system known as HAWK that is designed to be bulletproof against both traditional and quantum computers. HAWK is not currently in use, but under consideration by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to become a new standard. The HAWK attack was validated by its authors, and independent cryptographers reviewed the Advanced Encryption Standard attack, Anthropic said, adding that it had shared its findings with the U.S. government and industry partners ahead of publication. Mythos devised the cryptographic attack on A.E.S. almost entirely autonomously, Anthropic said, but only after first refusing to contemplate the problem because it believed it was impossible to improve on existing methods of analysis. But after some coaxing, the chatbot sat with the puzzle for about a week before engineering its novel attack. Two human researchers then worked for nearly a month to verify that the method appeared correct. "Given that we are constantly underestimating the power and time of availability of future models, are we really comfortable that two years from now strong encryption won't be threatened?" said Glenn S. Gerstell, the former general counsel at the National Security Agency.

"Mathematicians would tell you that it shouldn't be possible given current computing powers to break strong encryption in any meaningful time," added Mr. Gerstell, who helped write a report on cryptology in 2022. "But I don't think the capabilities of future models in the medium term -- before quantum computing or quantum-proof cryptography -- should be dismissed as trivial in this context."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Minnesota, the first US state to prohibit prediction markets, was prevented from enforcing the law by a federal court ruling just days before the ban was scheduled to take effect. But while Minnesota was stopped from enforcing a total ban, the state may ultimately be allowed to prohibit some types of prediction-market wagers. The Trump administration and the two largest prediction markets -- Kalshi and Polymarket -- sued Minnesota after the state enacted the law in May. The cases were consolidated, and a ruling (PDF) issued yesterday imposed a preliminary injunction blocking the law that was scheduled to take effect on August 1.

Minnesota lawmakers saw prediction markets as indistinguishable from gambling, but the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) argues it has exclusive authority to regulate the platforms under federal law. One of the primary legal questions is whether event contracts are "swaps," which are regulated by the CFTC. Swaps are defined broadly in US law to include contracts in which payment "is dependent on the occurrence, nonoccurrence, or the extent of the occurrence of an event or contingency associated with a potential financial, economic, or commercial consequence." US District Judge Katherine Menendez in the District of Minnesota, a Biden appointee, said Minnesota's total ban on prediction markets is likely to violate US law because many trades on Kalshi and Polymarket are swaps.

Menendez wrote: "Specifically, it appears that whether the Minnesota statute is expressly preempted turns on whether the state law attempts to regulate trades in event contracts that qualify as "swaps" within the meaning of the CEA [Commodity Exchange Act]. And there are several examples of event contracts hosted by Kalshi and Polymarket US that fit that definition because they concern the occurrence of events with clear potential economic, financial, or commercial consequences that are neither remote or unattenuated. Kalshi and Polymarket US are designated contract markets, so the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate transactions involving those 'swaps.'"

Menendez said the CFTC, Kalshi, and Polymarket met their burden of showing they are likely to succeed on the merits, so she issued "a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of Minnesota's prediction market statute until a final decision on the merits is reached." But she said Minnesota may be able to prohibit some types of event contracts offered on Kalshi and Polymarket because not all of them appear to meet the definition of swaps. For example, Menendez doesn't think prediction-market bets on the outcome of Love Island USA meet the legal definition of swaps. Minnesota could continue litigating the case in district court or ask a federal appeals court to overturn the preliminary injunction.

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DEF CON has banned "Meta-style glasses with recording capabilities," with no exceptions being made even for those with prescription versions. "Be sure to pack non-violating eyewear if you need them," DEF CON said. The Register reports: [The conference's official photo policy] has not been updated since 2023, predating the recent growth of camera-equipped eyewear developed by Meta with EssilorLuxottica under its Ray-Ban and Oakley brands. It states that public photography is permitted but with several caveats that essentially prohibit capturing the image of anyone, except on-stage speakers, unless the photographer obtains consent from the subject(s). "Love to see a 'no pervert glasses' policy at DEF CON," said EFF director of cybersecurity Eva Galperin.

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A decade ago, when I was still speaking at conferences and heavily marketing myself, I’d often think of personal branding ideas. We’ve seen the trends. The business cards. The t-shirts. The stickers. The buttons. The socks! Can’t forget the socks. My logo is branded across not only my sites but my computers and my slide decks, too.

I also liked using colour to reinforce my brand. I’ve continued that tradition with green threading throughout the latest redesign. I even considering wearing green for all my conference talks. Thankfully, that ended up being a short-lived idea.

At one point in my career, I was getting interviewed for a number of podcasts and considered starting up my own podcast. One of the ideas that came out of preparing to start my own podcast was how to brand via audio. I liked the idea of doing chimes like the NBC chimes so that’s what I did:

It’s five dings in the pattern of how I spell out my last name: Ess Enn oh-OH Kay.

Had I implemented this, I had considered using it to intro my conference talks. I likely would’ve integrated it into the site somehow as well. Maybe clicking on the logo rings the chime as the letters of my name pop in sequence.

For now, I’ll simply document this little artifact of time.

---

Have something to say? Tell me about it.

We wandelen langs het Planetenpad bij het Herdenkingscentrum Westerbork en verdiepen ons in de op schaal geplaatste informatieborden over de planeten in ons zonnestelsel.

Een Precies Vier bestaat uit 16 woorden, begrippen of namen, die moeten worden verdeeld in precies vier groepen van vier. Er is telkens maar één oplossing mogelijk. Welke woorden vormen een connectie?

Een kruiswoordpuzzel, maar dan heel klein (en snel).

Wie of wat staat er midden in het nieuws? Een actuele puzzel, die makkelijker is als je het nieuws een beetje volgt.

Als je wel zin hebt om te sudokuen, maar het liever bij een gridje van 5x5 houdt.

Je krijgt een paar cijfers cadeau, maar het grid van 9x9 moet foutloos ingevuld worden.

Bij het Homomonument in Amsterdam is dinsdagavond de aanslag tijdens Pride Berlijn herdacht. Zowel de sprekers als de aanwezigen wilden hun solidariteit met Berlijn tonen, maar meer nog een tegengeluid laten horen. „We pikken het niet langer.”

Bij de Zeeuwse ggz-instelling Emergis lopen ze er elke dag tegenaan: het tekort aan gespecialiseerde gezondheidszorgpsychologen. De ggz in Nederland hoeft volgens een adviesorgaan niet te groeien, maar heeft voor de zwaardere problematiek wel beter opgeleide psychologen nodig. Toch sloeg zorgminister Mirjam Sterk (CDA) dit advies in de wind.

We now have a better idea of how OpenAI's models broke out of their cages to attack Hugging Face. The rogue models found zero-day vulnerabilities in JFrog’s universal binary repository manager Artifactory around the time they escaped, according to JFrog CTO Yoav Landman. While Landman doesn’t outright admit that the JFrog flaws were the zero-days that OpenAI’s models found and exploited, ultimately allowing them to breach the massive model mart, it definitely looks and quacks like a duck - err, frog. Landman says OpenAI's models discovered the Artifactory zero-days during a security evaluation. The AI giant notes the incident occurred while its models were being evaluated on the ExploitGym benchmark. “During a security evaluation, OpenAI’s models identified previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities in self-hosted Artifactory installations that could be exploited to gain unintended internet access,” Landman said on Monday. JFrog Artifactory is a central platform that organizations use to store and distribute all the software artifacts across their supply chains. It supports more than 60 package formats including Docker, Maven, npm, PyPI, Helm, and AI/ML models. OpenAI “responsibly and immediately” disclosed the vulnerabilities to JFrog, Landman continued. “Our security team treated the report with the urgency it deserved, as a genuine zero-day unknown to the world, and moved accordingly. We developed, validated, and released a fix for all JFrog customers, self-hosted and cloud alike.” On Monday, JFrog released the fixed versions, and credited OpenAI researchers for reporting at least eight of the now-patched Artifactory vulnerabilities: CVE-2026-65617, CVE-2026-65925, CVE-2026-65921, CVE-2026-65923, CVE-2026-66018, CVE-2026-66014, CVE-2026-66015, and CVE-2026-65924. The Register asked JFrog whether at least some of these were abused by OpenAI’s rogue models to access the internet and compromise Hugging Face, but the DevOps firm isn’t talking. JFrog's admission comes about a week after OpenAI said two of its models, GPT-5.6 Sol and a second pre-release model, escaped their testing sandbox during a security evaluation designed to test their cyber capabilities. During this test, the models found a way to access the open internet, then broke into Hugging Face and accessed private information and stole some credentials. “While operating in our sandboxed testing environment, our models spent a substantial amount of inference compute finding a way to obtain open Internet access, in pursuit of solving the evaluation problem,” OpenAI said on July 21. “To gain access, the models identified and exploited a zero-day vulnerability (which we’ve now responsibly disclosed to the vendor) in the package registry cache proxy.” The Register also reached out to OpenAI and asked if JFrog is the vendor referenced in its blog, but did not receive any response. Luckily, your humble vulture is headed to Vegas in a week for Hacker Summer Camp, so we will be sure to test our betting prowess in the appropriate environment. Without guardrails, of course. ®

Hold on tight to your tokens: AI search firm Perplexity on Tuesday expanded its five-month-old Model Council to its cloud-based Computer platform, giving users more ways to configure multi-model queries. The idea behind the Model Council, Perplexity said in Tuesday’s release, is to “allow users to build a board of top models for a single issue.” Models assigned to a council and given a prompt will tackle the problem independently, resulting in a synthesis report that explains where their conclusions agree and diverge. According to Perplexity comms chief Jesse Dwyer, Model Council functions as a skill that tells an orchestrator model to spin up parallel subagents, each acting as a full agent harness and tackling the problem independently. “A wait barrier holds until every perspective finishes, then the model the user selected acts as the ‘chair,’” Dwyer told us in an email. “It reads all the perspective outputs and synthesizes them, explicitly surfacing where the models agree and where they diverge.” When originally launched back in February, the Model Council was restricted to three models available on Perplexity with no user choice. Ask a query, get an answer put together by a synthesizer model from whichever models aren’t on their smoke break - that was that. With the addition of Model Council to Computer, users can now choose from two to eight models for their AI advisory board, with options ranging from models supplied by frontier labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to open-weight models including GLM and Kimi. Analysis depth can also be customized, and while a synthesizer model still puts together the report, Computer can also “turn that synthesis into outputs like reports, board decks, and other work-ready assets,” Perplexity said. Computer, for those unfamiliar with it, is essentially a web interface for a model orchestration layer. Perplexity describes the overhauled and expanded Model Council as being ideal for ambiguous questions involving “judgment calls, tradeoffs, assessing risks or other situations where there’s no one right answer” because model-to-model dialogue “shows where there’s consensus and where there’s conflict.” “Consensus gives people more confidence to move forward,” the company said. “Gaps show them where to go deeper.” Model Council has a number of intended use cases, Perplexity said, like legal questions, financial queries, corporate decision making, business growth modeling, and even engineering. Being added to Computer makes it even more useful, apparently, because users can now ask it for additional details to “sharpen the answer,” and ask pointed follow-up questions to get a stronger result. Perplexity also encourages users to ask the Council for confidence levels to see what different models think of their collective answer. “Disagreements often come from different starting assumptions, so ask each model to state the assumptions behind its conclusions.” Of course, all of this comes at a price. Access to Model Council was previously restricted to enterprise tiers (either $34/month per seat for Pro or $271 for Max) and individual Max ($200/month) customers. With the expansion into Computer, the Council will now serve individual Max and Pro ($20/month) users, as well as those on enterprise tiers. But that’s not the only cost associated with the reformed Model Council, because Computer relies on usage-based billing. Pro users get an initial pool of 4,000 bonus credits, while Max customers get 35k and a renewing 10k a month. Enterprise Pro customers get 8,000 bonus credits and 500 a month per seat, while Enterprise Max customers start with a 45k bonus pool and get 15k per seat per month. According to Perplexity, 100 Computer credits are equal to $1. A "light" task, like summarizing a document and pulling out key points, can eat between 100 and 350 credits. A "heavy" task, which Perplexity describes as creating work-ready assets like pitch decks, can eat as many as 2,275 credits. Because Computer credits function at the product level rather than mapping directly to raw AI token usage, it's not clear how many credits a Model Council session could burn, and Perplexity didn't get specific. In other words, if you want the Council to weigh in on one of those aforementioned ambiguous questions, it could cost you. AI tokens can get quite expensive, after all. “Query complexity will affect token usage more than the specific model selection,” Dwyer explained. “Simple queries in Computer can cost less than a penny while complex tasks run higher.” ®

Ultra-low tides bring rare chance to walk to an island lighthouse. A rare chance to walk 1 kilometre [0.62 of a mile] offshore to an island lighthouse attracts thousands of trekkers to a North Queensland town. Extremely low winter tides will make the walk to the North Head Island lighthouse at Bowen possible for five days this year.

Bentonville is a small town in Northwest Arkansas that has, over time, become synonymous with massive retail operations and corporate ecosystems. The bustling hub is ingrained with the legacy of Walton’s, a small nickel and dime convenience store that opened on Bentonville’s downtown square in 1950 to serve its surrounding community. The shop quickly found success, and owner Sam Walton opened another store nearby that would evolve into the largest retailer in the world: Walmart.

During this time and throughout the ’60s, a post-war boom overtook the burgeoning commercial landscape of the United States. The suburban American Dream became a catalyst for retailers to adapt to an evolving social fabric that aimed to serve families hunting for necessities at an affordable price, and in a pinch. As a result, various amenities were introduced to convenience stores and chains, including the emergence of self-serve gasoline pumps.

The 1980s and ’90s, however, ushered in a new frontier of American commerce rooted in modernization. Supermarkets began to resemble the eptiome of a “one-stop-shop,” significantly transcending previous notions of convenience. In just one trip to the store, busy parents had the ability to pick out groceries for the week, restock housekeeping supplies, fill prescriptions, and feed their families lunch at the food court—all while waiting for their vacation photos to develop via rapid film processing. Securing a quick and easy premade dinner was possible thanks to the popular frozen food aisle, and as a cherry on top, VHS movies were available for purchase to pair with the titular “TV dinner.”

U.K.-based artist Lucy Sparrow refers to this moment as “the beginning of convenience,” which doubles as the title of her newest large-scale installation and first museum exhibition in the United States. The Beginning of Convenience at The Momentary calls to the nostalgia of regional chain stores, retro packaging aesthetics, and a time when life was, as the artist described at the show’s opening, “becoming more about enjoyment and less about toil.”

For many, modern grocery stores can be imposing, and Sparrow’s monumental assemblage conjures a similar feeling of being carried away. The immensity of The Beginning of Convenience, however, invokes feelings of joy and comfort, rather than a newfangled sensory overload. Stocked to the brim with more than 20,000 handmade objects, an expansive collection of soft, felt artworks take over a 4,000-square-foot gallery space, creating an immersive experience for visitors—or, more fittingly—shoppers.

Much of the magic comes from the painstaking details that work together in molding an all-out sensory experience. For instance, as viewers weave through the aisles, music in the style of old-school supermarket beats hums in the background. The music however, is occasionally interrupted with amusing, familiar intercom announcements in a fuzzy tone, calling the parents or guardians of a lost young girl named Lucy to make their way to the photo department.

At the opening earlier this month, the artist was dressed for the occasion wearing a light blue, collared button-down shirtdress with vertical stripes running down the middle. Sparrow and her team shared that the custom garment was inspired by original Walmart uniforms from the company’s archives, extending a subtle nod to the fitting location of the exhibition.

Sparrow wields a remarkable ability to craft welcoming spaces for quite literally anyone. Each of the artist’s renowned installations over the years are the brainchild of her own imaginative world, and a sense of vulnerability comes with our invitation into it. “Lucy’s work is quirky yet subversive,” says an exhibition statement. “Her soft and colorful felt creations charm and disarm visitors, while her detailed research practice and incisive observations inspire strong feelings of nostalgia, community, and conversations around shared history.”

This deeply humane feeling is refreshing within the context of American consumerism and growing corporatism. Especially as of late, the simple task of grocery shopping has become an increasingly divisive experience, and for many Americans, trips to the store are a looming reminder of shrinking household budgets and soaring prices, making it nearly impossible to associate ordinary retail environments with anything but exhaustion or stress.

The presence of joy and childlike wonder in The Beginning of Convenience offers a significant subversion. Injecting this feeling into a visceral environment allows each viewer to shift their focus to enjoyment, the marvels of retail innovation, and the nostalgia that comes with it.

Evoking the emotional power of soft toys, felt as a material inspires feelings of warmth and security. While walking through Sparrow’s produce and meat department, this impression seems nearly impossible to ignore as netted bags of oranges, piles of juicy grapefruits, and fresh cuts of pork chop look up at you with shy smiles.

Because of this, it seems easy to tap into an imaginative world where many of Sparrow’s plush products unmistakably possess individual souls. Perhaps the Georgia peaches have a more bubbly personality than their spiky pineapple neighbors, and, conceivably, the beef steaks across the aisle may be tough on the outside but tender at heart. Somehow anything seems possible in a world that melds the energetic spirit of commercialism with the with the slow, mindful creation of the same objects through cutting, stuffing, sewing, and embellishing.

Upon exiting the supermarket experience, viewers encounter even more felt versions of common items within grocery store vestibules: vending machines dispensing your choice of Coke or Pepsi products, a photobooth, a coin-operated mechanical car ride, and an electronic ATM, which, at the time, was reaching its ubiquity.

Turning a corner into the separate area, visitors are met with a massive floor-to-ceiling installation of more than 3,000 stuffed bananas. The sight is a recreation of the artist’s “Banana Room,” a comforting place in her studio to relax and “be surrounded by happiness,” she says. Sparrow received her first plush banana when she was nine years old as a present from her father, and later received a larger version who was named Sebastian. Sebastian’s presence throughout the show and as a mascot for the artist’s practice is further proof of the unfaltering childlike wonder imbued within every corner of Sparrow’s practice.

Across from the Banana Room sits a replica of the “Felt Cave.” The space—previously an ambulance station that was converted into Sparrow’s studio—offers more insight into Sparrow’s artistic process and the teamwork that goes into creating thousands of objects, one at a time. Sparrow is supported by five full-time assistants, four cats, freelancers, and, of course, Sebastian.

Along with a faux window displaying the exact view from the studio—overlooking two colorful cars frequently parked outside, including a hot pink Jeep sporting a “F3LT U” license plate—The Felt Cave is filled with thousands more surprises. As the exhibition label notes, there is “an ‘HR Department’ of bespectacled bananas, a canary yellow cuckoo clock, and ‘dab dabs’—abstract paintings created from dabbing the excess off the tip of a paint bottle.”

The Beginning of Convenience is on view through July 11, 2027.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Lucy Sparrow Invokes ’90s Supermarket Nostalgia in ‘The Beginning of Convenience’ appeared first on Colossal.

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En toen waren ineens alle Nederlandse showmedia in rep en roer wegens een vage aankondiging van Madonna in het Nederlands. Ze wil ons iets vertellen, maar wil nog niet vertellen wat ze wil vertellen en het is allemaal erg vaag. Wellicht heeft de toch wel uitgerangeerde kwien of pop besloten om zich volledig te storten op de Nederlandse markt, misschien gaat ze alleen nog maar nummers van Nick en Simon coveren, misschien neemt ze de vastgoedportefeuille van prins Bernhard over, misschien wordt ze de nieuwe burgemeester van Terneuzen, misschien tekent ze een lucratief contract bij de NPO of heeft het allemaal tóch iets met de World Pride in Amsterdam te maken. We zullen wel zien wat er dadelijk aan onze reedt geroest zit. Goed nummer wel, Believe.

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Misschien koopt Madonna de vuurtoren van Schiermonnikoog?

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