Affluenza: April 2

One thing you may have noticed these many months is that I almost never feature clever watches. This is because 1. I hate the logos all watches are allowed to sport on their faces, and 2. I hate cleverness.

Having said that...until otherwise noted this is the official watch of Affluenza:

http://www.watchismo.com/modern.php?cmd=view&id=314

Now somebody just needs to create a computer monitor with the words Nobody Cares burnt softly into the display.

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Molly sends us this bathtub bookcase combo:

http://www.bornrich.org/entry/bathtub-with-book-storage-for-bookworms/

Born Rich dot org! I haven't been this jealous of a URL since Skulls Unlimited!

http://babyruthless.blogspot.com/2007/10/skulls-unlimited.html

See also: BOOKSHELF, "the home of interesting bookshelves, bookcases and things that look like them":

http://theblogonthebookshelf.blogspot.com/

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Remember this, from last week?

http://eluxury.com/estore/browse/product_detail.jsp?id=11711529

Maison Martin Mariela gets a short write-up in this week's New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/2008/04/07/080407goav_GOAT_avenue_marx

It's Nathan Barley's favorite shop!

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An Open Flame Is The New Bowl Of Rocks, part of a continuing series:

http://www.menu.as/Default.asp?ID=2853

There's also this one, which I can't actually find on their site:

http://charlesandmarie.com/blog/modern_living/2008/03/28/lighthouse/

"Oh, you think you're eco-friendly? Check it: I spent the morning scrubbing SOOT off my walls...how you like me now?"

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Have you noticed there's been a shortage of OMGs on the web this week? It's because everyone used their's up gushing over Phillip Lim's unbearably adorable child-sized versions of his stunning designs:

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

Spending more than $20 on an item of clothing for a toddler goes beyond affluenzic and into the realm of offensive. And spending more than $200 is clear evidence of a diseased soul, and should be grounds for having your children taken from you. (Not kidding.)

On the other hand: OMG cute!

http://www.thisnext.com/item/6667D706/Phillip-Lim-Childrens-Trench

(faints)

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Check out Eric Tan's cool X-Men poster:

http://erictanart.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-need-sleep.html

It's beautiful, isn't it? Too bad nobody reading this is allowed to buy it when it's released. Sorry, we're all adults now.

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The illustrations of Jerry Seguin:

http://www.roadsidescholar.com/2008/03/26/jerry-seguin-illustrations/

Some of you may be wondering why I link to Roadside Scholar's blog entries whenever I feature something she's covered, though I don't do this for any other of my sources. Two reasons:

First, Gigi is an incredibly friendly person who always takes the time to answer her readers' email and comments. Though I think it's fair to say that she and I have differing worldviews, I find her sincerity and attentiveness to be warmly appealing.

That makes her a good person, but the reason I link to her site is that she's also a good blogger. Look, I read a lot of home decor blogs, and almost none of them attempt to do anything original or new beyond "here's some cutesy disposable crap I found on another blog" or "here's some insufferable avant-garde crap I found on another blog." But Gigi puts a lot of work into creating original content for Roadside Scholar.

Of particular note is her Let's Chat series, a collection of short interviews with artists and crafters. Also impressive are her massive Etsy link collections, in which she manages to find some pretty interesting stuff lurking unawares on that empire of mediocrity.

So, all things considered, I think Roadside Scholar deserves the traffic. I bet you think I'm gonna end this uncharacteristic rave with a snide self-deprecating joke, as a sort of defense mechanism against unseemly sincerity, but I'm not. Suck it, haters.