The French might not like Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami (well, at least a very vocal portion of them don't), but we Americans apparently like him so much that we're giving him a spot in arguably our most famous national parade. The NY Times reports that the organizers of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade have commissioned Murakami to turn two of his creatures, Kaikai and Kiki, into massive balloons for this year's event. This now puts the artist in the rarified club of other artists who have previously seen their work in balloon form, including Jeff Koons and Keith Haring. Here's a bit:

Kaikai, a childlike character in a rabbit costume, and Kiki, a companion with three eyes and sharp fangs, are examples of Mr. Murakami's signature superflat style, but their balloon likenesses will be about 40 feet long when completed, and about three stories tall when filled with helium. Since the spring, Macy's parade studio and Mr. Murakami and his Tokyo-based team have traded notes on two-dimensional sketches that were used to create clay models, which were then further refined and colored before the fabrication of the balloons (now underway).

Nothing is ever as quick and easy as it sounds, and no good deed ever goes...well, without carefully scrutiny. In early July, we told you that Charles Saatchi, the advertising veteran turned world famous art collector, had decided to donate his gallery, along with £25 million worth of art, to the British government and have them turn it into a museum upon his retirement. While there were guidelines put in place with the offer, like changing the Saatchi Gallery's name to the Museum of Contemporary Art, London, and letting the collector himself continue to control the collection as he best sees fit, which didn't come without catching some flack from the press, it seemed as though some papers might be signed and it would be a done deal. Of course that was absurd thinking, as this sort of hand-off would never be so easy. The BBC is reporting that some setbacks have stopped the process in its tracks for the time being. Of the most pressing issues are a) that the government doesn't like the idea of taking over the financing of a museum that has the ability to buy and sell from its permanent collection as will, and b) that a new museum of modern art in London would directly compete with the other modern art museum in London, the Tate. There were apt to be hurdles such as these and here we now are. "A spokeswoman for Mr Saatchi said: 'There is nothing more to say for the time being but hopefully [there will be] in the next few weeks,'" so we suppose all we can do is wait to learn what's what.

While it was all excitement and anticipation when we told you that musician Bob Dylan would have his own exhibition at the National Gallery of Denmark, featuring never-before-seen paintings created just for the show, the story has changed considerably now that it's open to the public. Denmark's art critics have ripped the show apart, calling both Dylan "a Sunday painter" (meaning amateur/hobbyist) and the museum itself shameless for being so star-struck. Of the two, the museum really gets the most flack. Here's a bit from the AFP:

The financial newspaper Borsen turned its criticism to the the Statens Museum for Kunst's management, which it said "put financial interest ahead of artistic judgment", knowing that the Dylan name "would bring in a big public."

While the critics are right, that the museum is sure to draw in larger than usual crowds simply due to Dylan's celebrity, at the end of the day, all of this is always entirely subjective.

Diane von Furtstenberg has taken a page from fellow fashion designer Ben de Lisi, with the forthcoming release of her own signature hospital gown. As you might recall from earlier this year, de Lisi was hired by the UK's Design Council to come up with something less awkward to wear during doctor visits. While what he came up with probably wouldn't be your first pick for daily outerwear, it was a vast improvement over its horrible predecessor. Von Furstenberg got into the market by way of the Cleveland Clinic, after meeting its CEO at a conference and learning they'd been working on redesign for several years prior (since 2007, when their last gown update had been released). She agreed to come in to help and lent designers, patterns, and various other assistance to push the project along. While still in the testing phase (there have been issues with buttons and shrinking fabric), but the hospital has said that it's still a work in progress that they hope to be in regular use in the near future.

Matthew Ritchie's anti-pavilion, "The Morning Line" (2008-09), a collaboration with Aranda Lasch, Arup, and Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary, installed at Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain

"For me, art is a way to examine the limits of perception. I find it really interesting that all architecture starts as a blueprint; in order for a building to be understood as three-dimensional, it has to first be flattened into a colorless, linear framework. But where is the stuff behind the walls? We know it's there, but we can't see it! What I'm really interested in is the invisible things that hold everything together."

-Artist Matthew Ritchie

Speaking of museums hitting some bumps along the way, in New York, the new Robert A.M. Stern-designed home for the Museum of African Art has been forced to push its opening back a full six months, from April of next year to sometime later in the fall of 2011. The NY Times reports that the building's developers were to have most of the structural bones of the project finished months ago, but still hadn't finished, which has slowed down all the other pieces that need to be put into place before the building is able to open. Furthermore, the paper reports that, like with all new projects being built in the thick of a recession, finances have been an issue as well:

[Museum president, Elsie McCabe Thompson] said fund-raising was not a factor in the delay. As of June, the museum had raised only $71 million of the $95 million it needed to pay for construction. Mrs. Thompson said she had since raised an additional $4.5 million. Asked if the museum was considering a phased opening, she said, "I promised a full building, and I'm going to move earth to make it happen."

Previously on UnBeige:

The last couple of years have just been a roller coaster of ups and downs for the Seattle Art Museum. First, right in the middle of the economic collapse, JP Morgan pulled out of the museum's new building, leaving it in the lurch for roughly $60 million. But then they had a year of record attendance and Nordstom stepped in to pick up some of that rental space slack the bank had stuck them with. However, five months after all this good news, the museum was announcing layoffs, salary cutbacks, and a two week closure to help them catch their financial breath. It appears that the rollercoaster is still pointed downward at the moment, with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporting that the museum is now asking "a court for approval to borrow up to $10 million from its endowment fund to avoid defaulting on its downtown lease." It's the first time the museum has needed to borrow from the fund and desperately needed while fund-raising and Nordstrom's rent checks still aren't covering all their bills. The paper goes on to report that museum has promised the court that if it's allowed to use money from its endowment to pay these expenses, it has planned "a major capital campaign to both repay and increase the endowment." Eventually the roller coaster has to start chugging back up again, right?

It seems as though there are two go-to careers for dreamy male leads in romantic comedies: writer or architect. So while we're not usually excited to hear the words "developing a sitcom," it's nice to see that aforementioned go-to flipped a bit with the news that the CBS network is working a project based on former VH1 veejay Susan Brightbill's upcoming book The True Adventures of a Terrible Dater, whose main character is a female architect working in Chicago. We can't find any information on the book itself, nor when it's coming out, nor any information about how large a role architecture will play in it (we're guessing it'll be more about the terrible dating), but it makes us happy that we might have a female lead in the business of building. Will she be fighting to become a partner at Skidmore, Owings, and Merril? Or a hot shot rookie working with Adrian Smith? Can we get a Jeanne Gang cameo in there somewhere? Entertainment Weekly posted a poll based on the news of the show, asking if men would find it as attractive to have a female architect as women do when male characters are employed as such. Thus far, all responses are pointing toward yes.

It's one thing to try slipping a construction project in at your home without the proper permits. It's something else entirely if you also happen to one of the world's best known architects. Such is the case with Richard Rogers, who was just slapped with a stop work order on renovations and water damage restorations to his massive, £12 million house in London after it was discovered that he hadn't filed everything deemed necessary by the government. In particular, because his home is more than 150 years-old, the Telegraph reports that it is required that he have something called a Listed Building Consent (pdf), which serves as a kind of historical preservation, making sure any renovations use authentic-looking building materials to maintain the original facade. A spokeswoman for Rogers has said the project started off as simply minor renovations, until it was discovered how much water damage the building had suffered over the years and quickly became something much larger, thus leading to this "potentially embarrassing" oversight. Thus far, it looks like all will be taken care of, Rogers will get his Consent without issue, and work will resume shortly.

Admit it. Your seven-year-old nephew could out-HTML tag you any day and you think that a Cascading Style Sheet is something with a thread count. That's where the mediabistro.com mothership comes in. They've asked us to tell you about the upcoming weekend course in HTML Fundamentals. Later this month in New York City, artist, designer, and interactive developer David Tristman will teach you the basic structure of HTML and many commonly used tags as well as the role of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in HTML pages and current recommendations such as XHTML. By Sunday, you'll be creating fully functional web pages and geeky birthday cakes like the one pictured above. Register here to get cooking with HTML.

From left to right, notebooks created by Repeat Press, Smart & Wiley, and kHyal for the Feedback Loop Notebook Project

Before you wrap up your back-to-school shopping, be sure to load up on notebooks for a good cause. The Feedback Loop Notebook Project asked 25 leading leterpress printers to create 50 unique notebooks to benefit Design Ignites Change. The sky's-the-limit design brief and the ability to choose any stock from Mohawk Fine Papers' eco-friendly Loop line made the invitation irresistable, and printers including David Wolske (Smart & Wiley), Allison Chapman (Igloo Letterpress), Matthew Kelsey (MK Printer), and Jessica White (Heroes & Criminals Press) whipped up distinctive notebooks that will be available for purchase beginning Wednesday, September 8, at the Felt & Wire Shop. Every last cent of the $15-per-notebook price will go to support School: by Design, a Design Ignites Change and Designers Accord youth mentoring initiative that asks high school students (in collaboration with their college or professional design mentors) to "redesign your school." Procrastinators take note: each book is a limited-run edition, so snap them up while you can—or risk getting schooled.