Birds on A Wire, Japan’s Penis Festival, and An Abstract Artist Battle Royale

 
At London’s Barbican, zebra finches play guitar for the pleasure of museum goers—play “Freebird”, dudes! (Guardian UK)
 
Only 33 years after its last use, France has opened a museum dedicated to their favorite method of capital punishment, the guillotine. (Guardian)
 
If you’re liable to blush or giggle at the sight of giant wooden weewees and whowhodillys, you should probably avoid Japan for the next few days. (Global Post)
 
The final showdown to determine America’s greatest living American abstract painter begins! (The Awl)
 
Off to shop the vintage bazaars of Paris or London? Here’s five useful things to know before you dive into someone else’s dress. (Shine)
 
A new student documentary gives us a closer look at the man who has become a local celebrity by adding mosaic details to trash cans and lampposts in New York’s East Village. (Gothamist)