Affluenza: October 31

A realistic piggy bank, in various colors and finishes:

http://www.designpublic.com/shop/harry-allen/8677

"The Pig Bank is cast from a piglet that died a natural death." Wow, thanks for the fucking downer, you dicks! You couldn't pretend it was just a sculpture? Geez.

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The Capucin crypt beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione:

http://eternallycool.net/?p=728

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Korkeasaari Island Lookout Tower:

http://www.contemporist.com/2007/10/30/korkeasaari-island-lookout-tower/


Related? Kanazawa Station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanazawa_Station

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Hilarious: if you purchase something at the Beate Uhse Sexshop, you're given awesome black bar glasses so you can stay incognito:

http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2007/10/beate-uhse-glasses/

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Theory11's gorgeous Bicycle Guardian deck:

http://www.theory11.com/playingcards/guardians.php

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OMG! Awesome Party Guy Vid!

http://m.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=1791870446

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Open Flames Are The New Bowl Of Rocks, part VII:

http://www.radius-design.com/de/produkte/indoor/home-flame-collection.html

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If this were just an iPhone painted black, I probably wouldn't send it to you. But I love how it looks all Newtony with the retro logo:

http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/822/paint-it-black-the-iphone

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I love these masculine Contraforma cabinets, with their mix of modern and traditional elements, from Lithuanian designer Nauris Kalinauskas.

http://www.ona.com/en/products/57/1817

I guess they still use rotary phones in Lithuania...

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Maggie Williams does some pretty amazing glasswork:

http://www.maggiewilliamsglass.co.uk

I particularly like the alien and organic hanging vases...

http://www.maggiewilliamsglass.co.uk/hanging.html

...though I prefer them when they're all in one darker color:

http://www.maggiewilliamsglass.co.uk/images/maggiewilliamsglass-logo.jpg

Gorgeous. But I have a feeling a few of you will be more taken by her Teatime Series:

http://www.maggiewilliamsglass.co.uk/teatime1.html

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Refinery29's eBay blog:

http://refinery29.com/ebay_blog/index.php?topcategory=shopping_news

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The illustrations of Ian Kim:

http://www.ikplay.com/

A Drink Before The War

Holy shit, GONE BABY GONE is so so SO fucking good. It's smart, lean, and just utterly heartbreaking. I'm sitting in the parking lot of the theater, still reeling.

As usual, the AV Club can probably say it better than I can:

http://www.avclub.com/content/cinema/gone_baby_gone


The biggest appeal of the movie is the performances, and the really appealing set-up: Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan are a couple in their earlier thirties who are inherently good and honest people, and who love and trust each other. I know that sounds dull on-screen, but they portray it so fluidly and so naturally that it's incredibly endearing. They're like Nick and Nora Charles, except sober and not funny. I hope they make five more movies about them. (They could; this movie is the adaptation of a book in a series.)

It's natural to say "ignore that Ben Affleck directed it, just go see it," but the direction is a big part of the movie. That is, it's actually directed, not just filmed, and I eagerly look forward to what he does next.

Jesus Christ, I can't get over how greatly moving the film was, while still delivering a solid mystery. I highly recommend the movie. (Duh.)

Weapons-Grade Elegance

I sat down to write a long post about my father remarrying when I was 11, and my older step-brother's "game closet," full of all the games my bus driver father had never been to buy for my sister and me, and how the Mastermind cover had such a huge influence on my adolescent sense of who I wanted to be once I outgrew my baby fat and second-hand clothes, and left West Virginia.

But: too bloggy; didn't write.

(The box also had just as profound--though decidedly different--an effect on
the musician Momus, as well.)

However, without getting into the impressionable psyche of the Bobby Hill-like pre-teen that was yr pal Johnny, suffice to say that the box had almost a profound effect on my 13 -year-old self as Steven Tyler at the end of the Rag Doll video. (Don't ask.)

If you've ever been curious about the two cover models, who they were and what they're doing now, Junkyard Clubhouse has an update.

http://www.junkyardclubhouse.com/2007/04/08/mastermind/


A warning, though: this link will forever dispel whatever mystery the cover image has built up in your mind. There's no shocking surprise--they're both decent and successful people it seems, and happy--but perhaps they'll no longer be linked to the vision of badassedness wrapped in elegance that has become such an integral part of your make-up.

Um.

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RELATED:

She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html


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I think most of us are aware of Michael Paulus' groundbreaking work on cartoon anatomy:

http://michaelpaulus.com/gallery/v/character-Skeletons/



Now, a similiar researcher details the anatomy of balloon dogs:

http://freeny.deviantart.com/art/Pneumatic-Anatomica-53318794

One Of The Great Unexplained Phenomena Of Modern Astronomy

An excerpt from Tom Wolfe's "The Intelligent Coed's Guide to America," republished in Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976).

In this section, Wolfe has attended a panel discussion at Princeton in 1965, in which the participants included Paul Krassner, editor of The Realist magazine, and Günter Grass.

The next thing I knew, the discussion was onto the subject of fascism in America. Everybody was talking about police repression and the anxiety and paranoia as good folsk waited for the knock on the door and the descent of the knout on the nape of the neck. I couldn't make any sense out of it. . . . This was the mid-1960's. . . . [T]he folks were running wilder and freer than any people in history. For that matter, Krassner himself, in one of the strokes of exuberance for which he was well known, was soon to publish a slight hoax: an account of how Lyndon Johnson was so overjoyed about becoming President that he had buggered a wound in the neck of John F. Kennedy on Air Force One as Kennedy's body was being flown back from Dallas. Krassner presented this as a suppressed chapter from William Manchester's book Death of a President. Johnson, of course, was still President when it came out. Yet the merciless gestapo dragnet missed Krassner, who cleverly hid out onstage at Princeton on Saturday nights. . . .

Support [for Wolfe's view that fascism wasn't coming to America] came from a quarter I hadn't counted on. It was Grass, speaking in English.

"For the past hour, I have my eyes fixed on the doors here," he said. "You talk about fascism and police repression. In Germany when I was a student, they come through those doors long ago. Here they must be very slow."

Grass was enjoying himself for the first time all evening. He was not simply saying, "You really don't have so much to worry about." He was indulging his sense of the absurd. He was saying: "You American intellectuals — you want so desperately to feel besieged and persecuted!"

He sounded like Jean-François Revel, a French socialist writer who talks about one of the great unexplained phenomena of modern astronomy: namely, that the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.

A Public Shaming

Melvin Jules Bukiet looks at the role "wonder" plays in the works of young popular novelists, to almost indescribably hateful results:

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/au07/wonder-bukiet.html


Wow! That's not literary criticism, that's the Old Boy hammer fight!

Warning: contains spoilers of just about every popular book published in the last five years. I can't believe that's what The Lovely Bones is really about. And The Secret Life Of Bees! Kisses "like moth wings brushing [her] lips"...Jesus Christ, even JK Rowling laughed at that line.

(Not to be missed in the article is Milan Kundera's definition of kitsch: “The translation of the stupidity of received ideas into the language of beauty and feeling [that] moves us to tears of compassion for ourselves, for the banality of what we think and feel.”)

Morbid Optimism

Americans shouldn't Cosplay:

http://www.morbidoptimism.com/forums/2007/05/03/americans-shouldnt-cosplay

The most interesting part is his reasoning. Americans should stay away from Cosplay not because it's dumb or nerdy, but because we're bad at it.

(Some of those "good" examples are amazing, though.)

Affluenza: October 24

Mike Finley Photography:

http://www.mikefinley.co.uk/

http://www.efikim.co.uk/

I particularly like the monochrome floral studies.

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Whoa. Sick of dealing with all the little screws of a USB hard drive enclosure? Check this out:

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/10/19/usb_disk_dock_l.html?p=3&cat=undefined#more

Awesome! And 46 bucks!

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Exquisite skull-shaped chocolates:

http://www.valerieconfections.com/store/index.php?cPath=31&osCsid=a2dc83fc672912b6a2067e46e1e809cc

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David Barsalou has spent the last 25 years of his life going through every illustration in over 30,000 comic books, in order to find the original sources of Roy Lichtenstein’s pieces:

http://davidbarsalou.homestead.com/LICHTENSTEINPROJECT.html

http://flickr.com/photos/deconstructing-roy-lichtenstein/

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Takumi Shimamura's wooden briefcase:

http://www.boystomengifts.com/shop_products/men/executive_gifts/product_62

Surprisingly affordable, actually.

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Icon notepad:

http://www.atypyk-e-shop.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=2&ref=AT27118&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=0

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Bølgen, a housing development in Denmark:

http://www.boelgenvejle.dk/

Savant

This is what the actor Terrence Howard's actual autograph looks like:

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/6525/thoward01fl5.jpg

Take a good look at it. Can't read it?

Turn it over and HOLD IT UP TO THE LIGHT:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4728/thoward02ui9.jpg

!!!

canel cancel cancel this cursed Google

Having a problem with Google? Well sure, just search for "cancel google", click on the first web page that comes up...

http://www.ok-cancel.com/archives/link/2004/09/google-answers-hci-phd-program.html

...don't even bother reading anything and post a comment demanding Google be removed from the computer.

Put Away Childish Things

Even a non-believer like me will admit that I've long considered 1 Corinthians 13 is of course one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament...

http://worldebible.com/1_corinthians/13.htm

..but it never occurred to me to get it tattooed on the small of my back:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYo-kSb2Nxyb2StvWno6g5t-iR9fP4jiM6w2_QY-3rENl8Q_K9BqDVRXri8Wh1VItH_8M77_OIhGRi3WZM-eBCoVINh2qKDfVPGybj78dMGYs5RHjVzWF6RXFH3fUNhpQICKHPUjX-p0I9/s1600-h/escrita.jpg
(somewhat NSFW)

Now THAT'S a tramp stamp! She looks she's starring in Joe Francis' remake of Cape Fear...

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Unrelated Donald Sutherland quote: "The first film I auditioned for, the director told me, 'This character is a guy-next-door type, but you don't look like you've ever lived next door to anybody.'"

Men's Grooming Special

Esquire Magazine just published their list of recommended men's grooming products for the year. I typed the list out for myself so that I'd have a copy on my Blackberry when I went shopping, but I thought maybe you guys would be interested in having a copy as well.

Keep in mind that these sorts of lists are far from definitive, having more to do with keeping advertiser's happy than empirically choosing the best products.

Mostly what's important is just using a product at all. I use a cheap foaming face wash that costs about two bucks, and though the ten dollar cleanser they recommend might be better--it has microbeads, yo!--I bet it's not eight dollars better. But definitely use a cleanser and not some bar of soap, you know?

But still, it might be interesting to try a few of these newer products. I'm pretty excited to try out a few of them, anyway, though perhaps that's a deeply sad admission.

Now...prepare yourself for some of the stupidest product names you've ever seen:


HAIR
Shampoo: Redken For Men Aquafy
Conditioner: American Crew Tea conditioner
Texturizer: Molton Brown Easygroom Quillaja hair texturizer
Pomade: Aveda Men Pure-Formance pomade
Putty: Matrix Men Form Putty

Texturizer is for medium to long hair, to "create separation and definition while removing fluffiness." Okay! Putty, I have no clue, but I'm not putting it in my hair.


FACE
Face Scrub: Anthony Logistics face scrub
Face Wash: Sephora Face Deep-Down cleanser
Preshave oil: Refinery shave oil
Shaving Cream: Billy Jealousy Hydroplane
Aftershave: Zegna Intensa aftershave balm
Moisturizer: Lancôme Men Hydrix face moisturizer

The most important item on this list is the preshave oil. It softens up the beard and prepares your skin for the shave. If you use a good preshave oil, you could get away with using Dial soap as a shaving cream. (Do not do this.)

Think about getting a shave brush, too, which lifts the hair as you spread on the shave cream. Some insufferable types bloviate on the need for a proper badger hair brush, but those types probably carry monogrammed flasks, too, for their favorite "tipple." Oh my god, fuck those guys.

Despite what we learned at the sink with our dads, aftershave isn't necessary. If you need it anyway, by all means skip the alcohol-based ones and get an aftershave cream instead, which is really just a scented moisturizer. Moisturizer is essential; you DID just scrape a metal blade across your fave.

I personally use the Anthony Logistics face scrub they recommend, and I love it. And it smells like a orange creamsicle, and the effervescent beads are a great wake-me-up. (Note: DOES NOT taste like orange creamsicle.)


MOUTH
Toothbrush: Ultrea ultrasound toothbrush
Mouthwash: Crest Pro-Health Night
Toothpaste: The Natural Dentist peppermint sage
Lip Balm: Jack Black lip balm
Dental Floss: Glide Whitening Plus Scrape
Tongue Scraper: Any brand, just use one.


BODY
Soap: Every Man Jack Tea Tree Body Bar
Body Wash: Bigelow Barber hair and body wash
Body Scrub: Origins For Men Skin Diver charcoal body scrub
Body Lotion: Vaseline Intensive Rescue or Kiehl's body moisturizer with
sunscreen
Deodorant: Burberry
Cologne: Prada Amber pour Homme

The Burberry deodorant costs $24; spending that much on your armpits is not only absurd, but a clear symptom of affluenza. (Never mind that it supposedly smells like "a pinecone in an old baseball glove.")

However, that's not to say that deodorant isn't something to give at least a little thought to. Moreso than any other product on this list, your deodorant is the one grooming choice that's most likely to be sniffed by someone else. And most deodorants smell terrible, and are marketed like sports drinks: Mountain Breeze and Extreme SportsZone and whatever.

So though I can't recommend a $24 deodorant--but for special occasions when you're pretty sure someone's gonna be close enough to smell it, why not?--I would certainly take the time to find one that has a masculine and natural scent.

As for the cologne suggestion, this reeks (heh) of Esquire giving a little back to a favorite advertiser. That's not to say that it's a bad choice...I haven't smelled it yet, but all of the other Prada colognes are pleasingly light. And, at $68, it's a great price.

No, my problem is this: cologne is probably the most overrated of all grooming products, getting a disproportionate amount of attention from people who don't know anything else about grooming. (Nothing says "guido" like a nightstand cluttered with cologne bottles.) I find cologne to be superflous in most cases...if you use the grooming products you should, you're going to smell pretty good anyway, and without the need for an extra scent.

And most guys use too much, anyway. When used properly, only two people should EVER smell your cologne: someone you whisper to, and someone you're kissing. If anyone else can smell it, you're wearing too much.

I don't wear cologne in my daily life. When I do, I favor Thierry Mugler's Angel. It has a thick and rich scent that's almost chocolatey. (The women's version is quite nice, too.) If the occasion is VERY special--a trip to a casino buffet, perhaps, or a morning in traffic court--I'll use one or two precious drops of my dwindling store of Tobacco Flower, a Body Shop scent that God at his most unknowable and cruel allowed to be discontinued. A few bottles still exist, but a ravenous online fan base has driven the prices for these beyond what your
humble correspondent could pay with a clean conscience.

http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2004/06/10/body-shop-tobacco-flower-scent/

(Note the comments: three years of Googlers begging for the scent.)

Adidas, believe it or not, has a very light and refreshing cologne that I recommend for daily wear. Perhaps you could decant it into a less embarrassing bottle.

NEXT WEEK: The Baby Ruthless Guide To Ascots, Cravats, And Jabots.

Affluenza: October 17

Let's just assume that I approve of absolutely every single thing that Brocade Home sells:

http://www.brocadehome.com

Seriously, spend some time with this site. There are a few duds--the padded headboards, a few of the ottomans--but the overwhelming majority of Brocade's line is exactly what I look for.

The chairs! The laser-cut bureaus and headboards! The wallpaper...OBSERVE THE WALLPAPER!

The hardest part of looking at Brocade Home is trying to decide which five pieces you could get away with putting in your place. Because, really, more than that and you'll be living in some 65-year-old bachelor's house in Palm Springs. Ahem. If you get my drift.

(That is, a homosexual's house.)

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BUSINESS IDEA: A guy's-only video game arcade, where men can relax with their bro's and drink a few beers and play Joust and maybe look at a few boobs. We'll call it The Brocade.

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A straight-up gorgeous wool tie in charcoal:

http://www.shopjake.com/index.php?page=shop/product&parent=01_03_03&product_ID=2048

Breaking off a solid hondo for a tie is Re. Tar. Ded, but if ever there was a tie that was worth it...

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Speaking of ties, these chick ties are concerned with some "cat's tooth" fuckery...

http://cyberoptix.com/catstooth.php

...but sweet holy Jesus look at that mind-boggling outfit! You could measure the awesomeness of it with a SLIDE RULE. Forget the ties, can I just buy a print?

Ladies of Affluenza: this is your fall look, right here. This is what you're going for this autumn.

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These faux fur water bottle covers are mildly amusing, I guess:

http://www.mooreandmooretextiles.com/hotties.html

But I gotta say, their dedication is admirable. Most design firms would have made a quick leopard print and been done with it. But these guys have 21 (!) different furs to choose from.

Perfect for all the drag queens with hangovers in your life.

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Smythe les Veste's mouth-watering Tulip Coat:

http://shoplanguage.com/product.asp?lt=c&catid=5894&pfid=LAN00280

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Most of the products on Fractalspin are too dorky, but I find this compass ring to be charmingly silly:

http://www.fractalspin.com/x/product.php?productid=237

Everything else on the site looks like what Cory Doctorow would get his wife for an anniversary.

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The Art Of Shaving--a product line I like but refuse to use because I hate their stupid fucking name--have expanded their line for women:

http://www.theartofshaving.com/taos6/the-perfect-shave-womens.php

Cute packaging! Oh, and if you're curious, I use Anthony Logistics For Men shaving products:

http://www.anthony.com/index.cfm/a/catalog.catshow/catid/206

and a Mach 3 Turbo.

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Everyone is making fancy chocolate these days, but only Lagrange34 is producing truly mindblowing shapes:

http://www.lagrange34.com/

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Charm bracelet with adorably tiny tea party charms:

http://www.bethanlloydworthington.co.uk/work_14.html

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Endurance's Stainless Steel Butter Slicer:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000JIMF5G/notcot-20

For when you need your butter slices to be scientifically precise.

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Usually if I can't link directly to an item I'm like "fuck it," especially with Flash sites. I don't want to be all "click on Houseware, then on Bedroom..." This is a link dump, not a scavenger hunt.

However, House of Cassette's 100% wool hooded cape is flawless enough to make an exception. Go here...

http://www.houseofcassette.com/

...and then scroll down to Item 14. Fantastic. The rest of their lookbook, if not just the rest of their site, is worth looking at, too.

(The cape is also perfect for when you need to play chess on a deserted beach with a Swede.)

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La Murrina's glass chandeliers:

http://www.lamurrina.us/new_products.php?category_id=4

The first half of this page--the 31 or so traditional chandeliers--are among the most beautiful things I've ever featured on here.

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New Blik designs:

http://www.whatisblik.com/mellim.html

Is not so gret aktually.

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Here's that poster from the cover of a recent Domino:

http://vllg.com/products/Village/Villageposter_limited/

I love how they insist that this poster is "Not for resale." That's cute, you guys.

Movie Sign

Mike Nelson, former host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, is a hard-core right-wing Republican:

"Well, let me say this, I read the National Review cover to cover. Check in at Townhall.com every day. Check the Washington Times daily. Listen to Dennis Prager and Michael Medved on a regular basis. Read Mark Steyn with regularity. Read the Weekly Standard. So, yes, I do vote Republican. As the pundit Hugh Hewitt has observed, there are indeed two Americas: Serious America and Silly America. The Democrats seem bent on turning this into Silly America, so I stick with those who wish this to remain Serious America.

"Of course, in addition, as angry as it makes me, I check in with the monolithic press: the NY Times, the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe. One thing I can’t do, that makes me just insanely angry, is read my local paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, known to many as the Star and Sickle, or the Red Star Tribune."

(If he were just a garden-variety Republican, that'd be one thing. But Dennis Prager? The Washington Times? "Star and Sickle"? Whoa.)

The Secret Language Of Douches

"Ridonkulous" has reached widespread acceptance now, yet I'm still not entirely sure what the appeal is. It's not a pun: "gigundous," another recent invention that's been catapaulted into the mainstream, is clearly the merging of gigantic and humongous; "ridonkulous" is the combination of ridiculous and...what, exactly?

Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English suggests that the etymology is "possibly a blend of ridiculous and donkey" but that's hardly satisfying. It's not like "donkey" makes any sense in the context or is a commonly used meme. That is, if the word were "rininjalous," I'd understand its douchey appeal.

I suppose the increasing use of the word can be chalked up to its absurdist nature, which as you know is never my favorite thing.

This reminds me of a recent Vice essay about slang that makes the point that words like "ridonkulous" and "gigundous" are clever and funny if you actually make them up, otherwise its just the tired parroting of someone else's coining.

But what's interesting is another clever coining that's since entered our lexicon: "humongous," believe it or not, only dates back to the 1960s...it's a blend of huge and monstrous. We've been using it our entire life, never suspecting that it's just slang from the Laugh-In era that's became a mainstream English word.

And that's rininjalous.

Faust

Holy shit, look at these film stills from the 1926 version of Faust by F. W. Murnau (who is best known for Nosferatu.) I know this is a cliche, but in this case it's true: I've never seen images like this before. I'd love to see the movie.

http://community.livejournal.com/film_stills/830066.html

PS: I've been "reading" this LJ for a while now, and it can be pretty great. Recommended.

Comment Snob

YouTube Comment Snob:

http://www.chrisfinke.com/addons/youtube-comment-snob/


YouTube Comment Snob is a Firefox extension that filters out undesirable comments from YouTube comment threads. You can choose to have any of the following rules mark a comment for removal:

• More than X spelling mistakes: The number of mistakes is customizable, and the extension uses Firefox's built-in spell checker.

• All capital letters

• No capital letters

• Doesn't start with a capital letter

• Excessive punctuation (!!!! ????)

• Excessive capitalization

Well, there goes the rest of your life...

Quote:

A new application called Polyvore enables users to grab images from around the web (and any images others have uploaded) and create "sets": ensembles of individual items, arranged, for instance, to be a complete outfit.

The sets can be viewed by others, commented on, rated, shared, embedded, etc. Clicking on any item brings up information about it and a link back to the original page on which it appeared. It's basically a social network for shoppers. And the application can be used on Facebook, so everyone can see how cool your dream wardrobe is.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Polyvore

Affluenza: October 10

Felt shoes designed to encourage father and daughter dancing:

http://www.com-pa-ny.com/shop/salakauppa/tanssipage.html

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Mona Lisa and others recreated with train tickets:

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/10/mona-lisa-from-recycled-train-tickets/

The best part is that it was made on the employees' breaks. Beats fantasy football.

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These wooden bathtubs from a Swiss yacht-building company are breath-taking:

http://www.laguna.li/german/

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I try to stay objective and non-personal with these, but I WANT THIS:

http://www.reformschoolrules.com/pc/barbkskpcalm/art101/Keep+Calm+And+Carry+On+Poster

It's $22, so you really have no excuse.

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I also really want this Tron chandelier, but something tells me that's not gonna happen:

http://www.atelierabigailahern.com/

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More doll photos:

http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/004623.php

I especially like that first shot.

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This wine rack is so cool, it seems a shame to fill it with bottles of spoiled grape juice:

http://www.unicahome.com/p36943/umbra/cru-wine-rack-by-dennis-lin-for-umbra.html

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These Ball Chairs are really nice:

http://www.bodieandfou.com/productdetail.asp?prod=BALL_CHAIR&pid=479&cat=13&subcat=100#

I prefer the more muted colors, or even that wood-grain model.

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The more realistic of these Parisian wall stickers are sorta dumb, but the abstract ones are fantastic:

http://www.blographic.com/shopping/paristic

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Obviously high-waisted pants are retarded and ugly, but I'll (begrudgingly) admit that I like the look of this high-waisted skirt:

http://www.revolveclothing.com/DisplayProduct.jsp?product=MISS-WD9&c=Miss+Sixty&d=1

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Well, this is weird. Joy Division (the band, not the groups of prisoners kept in concentration camps for the sexual pleasure of Nazi soldiers) has "inspired" TWO pairs of fugly, pointless sneakers:

http://www.cerysmaticfactory.info/joy_division_trainers.html

http://www.newbalance-blog.com/2007/04/03/joy-division-custom-nb/

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But speaking of, I do like these Alexander McQueen sneakers:

http://www.ssense.com/Puma-Men-Shoes/Alexander_McQueen_for_Puma_Radiography_Mid_Sneakers/3587

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This is a reference to the great DANCE video by Justice, but I sorta like it just as a shirt:

http://www.bountee.com/members/design/view.jsp?id=58545

I bet it would look great with Joy Division sneakers!

cf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo_QVq2lGMs

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From the same site: if you've ever wanted a t-shirt featuring a manga illustration of Karl Lagerfeld, TODAY IS YOUR DAY.

http://www.ssense.com/K_Karl_Lagerfeld-Women/95

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Here, I'm gonna let the New York Times write this one:

Looking for that perfect accent for your design-conscious toddler's room but don't have the budget for a set of junior Panton chairs? The Swiss designer Nicola Enrico Stäubli has just the solution: his Web site, www.foldschool.com, provides downloadable patterns for a stool, a chair and a rocker, all of his own design - for free.

The easy-to-follow instructions guide you through the cutting out, scoring, gluing and assembly. With a knack for crafts and a free afternoon (or two or three), you can put together the crystalline Frank Gehry-esque seating. Eco-friendly (corrugated cardboard is reusable and recyclable), not to mention crayon-friendly (you can actually encourage drawing on the furniture), it's just the kind of conversation starter your child needs for her next play date.

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This article is a big "who cares," but check out the gorgeous Jil Sanders dress in the photo:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=108775&f=37

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Caviar Bracelet:

http://www.glintjewellery.co.uk/1024x768/items/07Caviar%20Bracelet.htm

I like this, but I do wish it were a little less, er, caviar-y.

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Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg Bird's Wing Dish:

http://store.roseandradish.com/product-exec/product_id/637/nm/Porzellan_Manufaktur_Nymphenburg_Bird_s_Wing_Dish

Okaaaaay, then!

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Lacquer Table Lamp:

http://www.lotusbleudesign.com/itemView.php?itemId=92

Available in Butter, Lime, Pistachio, Mint, Lavender, Raspberry, Tangerine, Strawberry.

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A long layerable necklace that, when wound around a special card, reveals a secret message:

http://charlesandmarie.com/lifestyle-gems/todays-soupe-du-jour/product/magic-symbols/?tx_ttproducts_pi1%5BbackPID%5D=321&tstmp=1191928987

Cryptography meets Claire's Boutique.

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LeCie Gold Disk, an external hard drive you might actually want to have sitting on your desk:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=10971

I really like this, and the price isn't that much more than the regular beige brick. Also, it looks delicious.

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The classic George Nelson ball clock, now available in both magnetic and suction form:

http://www.pedlars.co.uk/page_1557.html

http://www.pedlars.co.uk/page_618.html

I like the idea of perfectly mounting the magnetic one towards the top of an otherwise undecorated fridge, turning it into a stocky mid-century modern grandfather clock.

Creative People Must Be Stopped

Michael Fallon on How Creativity Is Killing the Culture:

We’ve become so inundated with creativity--in weblogs dedicated to every petty interest and whim, in vanity websites created by people of not much interest, in random belly-gazing podcasts of the braindead, in home-edited YouTube snoozefests, in well-meaning “preprofessional” writing associations, in endless craft groups and quilting associations and art meet-ups, and so on and so on—that actual audiences for honest-to-goodness good art and real creativity and cultural production are driven into hiding.

http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=161511

Pretty Ladies

Anna Badkhen reports on the declining usage of bookmobiles in The Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/10/02/bookmobiles_final_chapter/

This is sad and all, I guess, but who knew bookmobiles are such a big industry? There FOUR companies that make them? There are "specialists who study bookmobiles?" Huh.

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How is Sarah Silverman any different from Ann Coulter?

http://snarkmarket.com/blog/snarkives/societyculture/pretty_ladies/

This is a really interesting piece, however I have say: Snark Market? Snarkives? Fuck OFF.

Skulls Unlimited

After watching this fascinating Nature special on hippos about a week ago--Africa's most dangerous animal!--I decided that I wanted a hippo skull. Uh, in my mind the connection makes perfect sense.

The first Google result:

http://www.skullsunlimited.com/hippopotamidae.htm


This teaches me two things:

1. Hippo skulls are expensive. Which in retrospect I guess I should have known. I mean, what was I expecting, twenty bucks?

2. Someone already has skullsunlimited.com, which, even though the phrase had never occurred to me and I'd never run across it before, and is in fact essentially meaningless for any purpose other than running a skull-selling business whose inventory could colloquially said to be unlimited, this fact nevertheless fills me with a Proustian sense of loss. O to mourn something I never knew I had lost, etc.

John Milius

Some facts about John Milius, the director of Red Dawn and Conan The Barbarian:

-He describes himself as a "Zen anarchist" and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association.

- He contributed the famous USS Indianapolis monologue for the film Jaws, and suggested to Steven Spielberg the "book-end" scenes in the military graveyard in Normandy which were used at the beginning and end of Saving Private Ryan.

-He coined the famous "Go ahead, make my day" line from the Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact

-He also wrote "Charlie don't surf" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now.

-He was involved with the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and was the one who suggested the fights take place in an octagonal cage.

-Director George Lucas was inspired by his friend Milius to create the "John Milner" character as the protagonist of his film American Graffiti.

-He was one of the three creators of the drama series Rome.

-He is a frequent guest on The History Channel's show Modern Marvel, credited as a "Film-maker/Weapons Expert."

-He is the inspiration behind the Walter Sobchak character (played by John Goodman) in the film The Big Lebowski.

Affluenza: October 3

The DaVinciAudio Labs Luxury Edition Turntable:

http://www.audiojunkies.com/blog/572/davinciaudio-labs-luxury-edition-turntable-a-thing-of-beauty

I like the three-part construction...a steal at only $42,000!

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Exquisite black walnut clutch:

http://www.vivre.com/control/product/~category_id=25/~product_id=39379

While researching that, I discovered BagSnob, a blog about purses:

http://www.bagsnob.com/

Obviously I won't be bookmarking it, but I'm sure a few people who read this will be instantly interested.

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Adam Stennett, “Use Only As Directed":

http://www.complex.com/blogs/?p=6653

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Solar autonomous floating lamp for swimming pools:

http://www.goldesign.com.ar/medusa_light_design.htm

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Beautifully expressive paintings and illustrations by San Francisco artist Michelle White:

http://www.roadsidescholar.com/2007/09/28/fantastic-michelle-white-illustrations/

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Rue Oberkampf Lounge Rug:

http://www.2modern.com/designer/HZL/HZL-Rue-Oberkampf-Lounge-Rug

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"Hey, those are REALLY cool shades! Wow! Where did you get them?"

http://m.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=1455137826

"Oh, uh, I don't remember, actually. Online...I guess. Heh."

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"The Bentley of beauty luggage":

http://shop.fredsegalbeauty.com/Give-Leather-Train-Case-P1352C620.aspx

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I don't care about the audiophile properties of these speakers, or even the design, really, but I love the idea of a set of speakers that tower over me:

http://purecontemporary.blogs.com/behind_the_curtains/2007/09/muon-giant-spea.html

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I'm not usually a fan of abstracts, but I'm really taken with Reed Danziger's paintings:

http://www.reeddanziger.com/index.html

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Most of the stuff I feature here is just a prettier redesign of common items, but this Clockwork Lamp is different...it's a new and genuinely great idea:

http://www.nuacco.com/2007/10/01/a-clockwork-lamp/

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Finally, a new "toaster concept!" It's been about a month, hasn't it?

http://www.siemens-hausgeraete.de/?5=TT60103

Fuck! I wish hadn't changed the name of Link Dump to Affluenza, since Produktsteckbrief is SO MUCH BETTER!

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A wind-up Mario Batali toy:

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2007/10/mario-batali-flips-me-off-see-why-im-so.html

You know how, every year at Christmas, I get at least a couple copies of that book Taxi Driver Wisdom? Yeah, Michael Stipe is gonna get like seven of these...

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A purse caddy, like the kind they have in Vegas, that you can carry around with you:

http://www.goneshopping.ca/store/product_info.php/products_id/1034?osCsid=92c58fc8a1d11edb5d7d94396a1c9cc9

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What a fun idea...Who Tall Are You? (sic)

http://www.whotallareyou.com/

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A great art installation by Sanaa Studio for Contemporary Art Museum of Kanazawa:

http://www.elmanco.com/2007/10/02/la-piscina-del-kanazawa-art-museum/

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Man, that pink-haired cartoon in those Esurance commercials is HOT.

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