[via Core 77)

Missed the 2009 International Housewares Show? Fear not, fair coveter of cleaning products and kitchen gadgets, two intrepid cartoonists have you covered with these hilarious send-ups of the trade show.

Speaking of design contests, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his 1909 Plan of Chicago, the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects has invited 20 design teams to sumbit proposals for a memorial to celebrate planner and architect Daniel Burnham. From those, they plan to pick between three and five design teams from whom they’ll solicit completed designs. The winner will be chosen in July and, after the obligatory capital campaign (big R recession + tax code changes = harder than ever?), the memorial is scheduled for constuction in the spring of 2010 on the chosen site in front of the Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum.

Compiled here, in glossy art-press color, is the history of an American art movement that has received little notice in the mainstream art press, but has transformed the worlds of fine art and commercial design forever. In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor (Ginko Press, $30) is the catalog companion to the retrospective of the same name curated last year at the Laguna Art Museum in California, and features the work of 150 artists of the “lowbrow art” movement, as defined by the aesthetic of Juztapoz magazine.