Affluenza: August 20

I bet you think that this mirror is being ridiculed on Affluenza because it's made of recycled metal and twigs. Surprisingly, you're wrong:

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2008/08/gaiam-of-course-it-doesnt-always-obey.html

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Harry Allen's Chrome Rollerskate Doorstop:

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


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Carry On Diluting That Brand Name, part of a continuing series.

Condoms by Marc Jacobs:

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/08/heres_one_marc_jacobs_item_we.html

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The Utterly Indecipherable NotCot Caption Of The Week:

"Play, Forward Then Pause Or Stop. Will These Light Do Such Action."

http://www.notcot.org/post/12940/

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Fifty-eight years later, and Hans Wegner's Flag Halyard Chair is as ugly as ever:

http://design-milk.com/flag-halyard-chair-c1950-by-hans-wegner/

Twelve large!

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Blackbird, Fly:

http://www.popgadget.net/2008/08/if_youre_nostal.php

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Ignore Milla Jovovich in these photos, and check out that keen disco ball motorcycle helmet:

http://community.livejournal.com/foto_decadent/1858166.html

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Victor & Rolf have...you know what? I'm not going to ruin it. Just click the link:

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/communication/the-house-that-viktor--rolf-built

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No fat chicks:

http://purecontemporary.blogs.com/behind_the_curtains/2008/08/modern-staircas.html

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Lekker clearly created this lamp just to get featured on Affluena:

http://www.lekkerhome.com/Detail.asp?ProductID=2156

Sorry, poseurs...it only counts if it's an actual LITERAL log, and not much else.

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Is it luggage that comes with free books or a bunch of books that come in an elaborate carrying case?

http://www.selectism.com/posts/archive/2008/august/18/goyard_trunks_for_assouline/index.htm

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This watch is pretty neat, I guess:

http://design-milk.com/ora-unica/

but I'm mostly posting it because of the almost perfect specimen of masturbatory designerese that goes along with it: "Imprecision and defect manifest a fullness of sense, an inherent pluralism of inflections" is only the BEGINNING.

I genuinely asking: how long do you think it takes designers to come up with shit like this? Or do you think they just use something like this?

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A totally wicked toaster concept:

http://www.crazypc.com/other/misc/toast.htm

...and a concept FOR your toaster:

http://www.latestbuy.com.au/toastabag_gadget.html

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Graham & Brown Mode Birdcage Wallpaper:

http://www.designpublic.com/shop/graham-and-brown/12226

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This.

http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2008/08/13/olle-hemmendorffs-nike-air-max-90-burger/

Do Not Detain Or Question Him!

The Eye-Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead and Mercy

Here's a greatly entertaining New York Times slideshow of book ads from the 60s and 70s. The Edna O'Brien photo is just, like, WOW, but the Cormac McCarthy ad is so ludicrous and amusing. What a hunk!

(Oh, and the over-the-top copy in the Harry Crews ad is a treat, too.) (And and and: Gene Shalit blurbing a Joan Didion book!)

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"Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry."

JD Salinger

Stupidfilter

Stupidfilter is a genuine attempt to create a program that will filter out stupid website comments using weighted Bayesian analysis, the same way your inbox filters out spam.

The idea is that the most egregiously stupid comments will also be the easiest to detect while remaining ignorant of context; comments with too much or too little capitalization, too many text-message abbreviations, excessive use of "LOL," exclamation points, and so on.

They had me at the FAQ:

Isn't filtering stupidity elitist?
Yes. Yes, it is. That's sort of the whole point.

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Remember Eugenio Recuenco? He just did an amazing series where he recreated the friezes of the Parthanon. It's really incredible: One, Two.

Affluenza: August 13

Affluenza, definition of: a high-design pushcart for the homeless:

http://www.gregortimlin.com/2006/shelter-cart/

"The project was not seen a solution to the social problem of the homeless but instead as an method of raising awareness about the issue."

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The "did you ... have a ... stroke ... or did ... I ... have ... a stroke [Editor's note: Baby by Baby Ruthless!]" NotCot caption of the week:

http://www.notcot.org/post/12609/

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A Bunch Of Open Flames Is The New Bowls Of Rocks, part of a continuing series:

http://www.complex.com/blogs/2008/08/06/anne-colombos-fire-sculptures-bring-the-heat/

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The Dolce Vita chair and table set:

http://www.youngdesigner.it/lombardia/sedia-e-poggiapiedi-dolce-vita-di-stefano-bigi/

In fifty years, some goof will get it tattoo'd on his arm:

http://awfultattoos.blogspot.com/2007/07/sorry.html

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Link Dump! I just remembered for the first time in like two years that I had a Delicious account. Here are the design bookmarks I'd saved over there:

http://www.jargonboy.com/product.html
http://www.elsewares.com/commerce/Telegram-Stationery-Set.html
http://www.betterlivingthroughdesign.com/gregory_calendar.html
http://www.sebastianbuescher.com/Workpages1/25.html
http://www.greenergrassdesign.com/floraandfaunabytado.html
http://www.chiasso.com/store/Item.aspx
http://www.bolaffi.it/sezione.aspx
http://www.bimbambanana.com/index.php

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Affluenza will not rest until Mika gets a modern rocking horse:

http://www.moderntots.com/go_play/product.php?productid=16932&cat=332&page=2

Orwell

The Orwell Diaries: Entries from Orwell's journal, posted exactly 70 years after he wrote them. It just started, so don't feel like you have to catch up.

(See also the long-running Samuel Pepys blog.)

Dare I call this a link dump?

Here are a ton of links I've been meaning to post forever. No time like Friday night to clean out your bookmarks toolbar! Livin' the dream...

-This one guy ("Soopafabulous") has been taking pretty neat surreptitious portraits of people at the arrivals / departure board at the airport.

-Remember those neat photos by Denis Darzacq? Here's a pretty interesting short documentary about how they're made.

-Most "found art" is pretty lame, but I really liked this series: Old Wedding Photos Found Near A Garbage Can In An Alley Next To An Old Mattress. I'm going to print this one out and tell people it's me. (Peep the URL, too. Ha!)

- The illustrations of Sanna Annukka. (If this stuff looks familiar, it's because she did the cover of the newish Keane album.)

- I love this Japanese family's photo blog. Just don't ask me anything about it. You know as much as I do.

- Christoph Niemann's enchanting essay about his subway-loving sons. Really well-done. “Local…I want the local.”

- Check out the cool visualization used in this chart: click on one of the bubble and watch it fight its way to the front.

Affluenza: Update

That $1000 iPhone app? Somebody bought it...by mistake. Ha ha, you suck.

Also, Ben writes in to point out that those flower and leaf placemats are almost a hundred dollars each, which is hilarious and totally ridic. The placemats are neat, but nothing that Target can't sell for a couple bucks.

Affluenza: August 6

PICK OF THE WEEK
A hilarious app for your iPhone that costs a thousand dollars and does nothing except remind yourself and others that you can afford to spend a grand on a useless piece of software:

http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2008/08/06/armin-heinrich/

I know that I make fun of conceptual artists a lot on here, but this is great. Good job, Armin.

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AQHayon Mirror, with lasercut edges:

http://www.gnr8.biz/product_info.php?products_id=843

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Flower and leaf placemats:

http://www.couturelab.com/browse/PT6SC56C13.html

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I absolutely love these La Valise document holders:

http://design-milk.com/la-valise/

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Carry On Diluting That Brand Name!, a new series:

Vivienne Westwood and "jelly shoe" maker Melissa:

http://inkandwater.blogspot.com/2008/08/jelly-uh-westwoods.html

Globe-Trotter and J. Crew:

http://www.jcrew.com/AST/Browse/WomenBrowse/Women_Shop_By_Category/bags/luggage.jsp

(I like the black, but the cream--which are sold out now--were really something. I love Globe-Trotter's stuff, but seriously, if you're gonna drop almost two large on a SUITCASE, are you gonna do it at friggin' J. Crew? Maybe they'll throw in a free repp tie belt!!!)

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Secret Love Letter Necklace:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_8&listing_id=13897050

I think this might be the first time I've featured something on Etsy without making fun of it.

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Anthropologie's Hedgerow Bedding:

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=890051

Oof: "This two-tone garden scene takes you behind the white picket fence, where an enchanted den of grasshoppers and small perching birds is revealed." Mr. Giada, calm down!

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

http://www.radius-design.com/rshop/uni-flame-p-784.html

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Despite the fact that it's made of cardboard, I think this is actually one of the nicer cheap chess sets I've seen:

http://www.betterlivingthroughdesign.com/2008/08/newwave_chessboard.html

Come on: "Daniel Young, a New York-based inventor / designer. discovered that simply by cutting slits into the fluting of corrugated board he could harness its extraordinary capacity to hold and release inserted flat objects, like chess or checkers pieces." They make it sound like he was Prometheus delivering the gift of fire to Humanity...

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It's A Log You Idiots, part of a continuing series:

http://design-milk.com/albero/

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The Rabbit Hand Mixer:

http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/08/01/rabbit-hand-mixer-why-not/

That is, a hand mixer that looks like a rabbit, not a hand mixer used for pureeing rabbits. Sorry.

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Plush Tears (my new band name, PS)

http://fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=4200&cat=103#

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FINALLY:Oh, come on...you just made this to get featured in Affluenza, didn't you?

http://www.notcot.org/post/12442/

Seriously, you're just fucking with me now.

Christian The Lion

(This has nine million views on YouTube, so you may have seen it already. It was new to me, though.)

Many of you know that I routinely underrate Joy as an emotion, but damned if this video of Christian the lion being reunited with his original keepers didn't make me tingly:



Best unironic use of Whitney Houston ever? (Only unironic use of etc?)

"Apart from the perils [to female researchers on primates] posed by angry poachers and corrupt government officials, there is the threat from the animals themselves. Male orangutans procreate by rape and have been known to rape the women studying them. This was almost the fate of Julia Roberts when she made a documentary at Camp Leakey in 1996. One male took a shine to her and grabbed her as she walked along a path. Luckily, a film crew was present, though it took five men to free her from the ape's grasp."

[see also]

Names In The News

From an unspeakably depressing and utterly hilarious CNN story about a twelve-year-old girl named Indiana Jones, and her brother Dow:

As for Dow Joseph Jones, there was serious talk of naming him Jack Ryan Jones, to keep the Harrison Ford theme. (Jack Ryan is the character Ford played in a series of action movies.) Instead, her husband named their son Dow on a dare while Jennifer was asleep in the hospital bed after giving birth.

She said she cried when she found out and even thought about having Dow's name changed.