Cat Bed

Both of these pictures are so hilarious I can't imagine a better way to start the weekend:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/04/remake_desktop_cat_bed.html

The BEFORE is just funny for the over-the-top exasperation depicted. But the AFTER is truly awesome in the way it shows, through sly smiles and furrowed cat brows, an increasingly chilly stalemate.

"So it's come to this, then."

"Yes, so it's come to this."

Affluenza: April 9

If I liked illustrated pillows--I don't--I would like this illustrated pillow:

http://www.jennarose.ca/2008_spring/home_decor/pillows/rooftops.html

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From GeoCities, the cutting edge of high design, comes the work of Tamsin van Essen:

http://www.geocities.com/vanessendesign/index.html

Oh brother...the Medical Heirloom series "appears to have been affected by various hereditary diseases – osteoporosis, psoriasis, acne, cancer, syphilis. As heirlooms, the jars can be passed down through the generations of a family in the same way as the medical conditions: a legacy of ill health."

Students!

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An interview with designer Nikolay Saveliev:

http://futureshipwreck.com/?p=186

"I like the idea of a consolidated aesthetic totality; what you make looks like what you listen to, sounds like what you wear, and speaks like what you believe in. In simpler terms, my girlfriend might look like she's in a band I'd listen to, my haircut looks like it belongs in the chair I'm sitting in, and the work I'm designing might be written about in a book that I would read. Even my cat has to figure in there somehow. It's a meticulous thing to maintain..."

Proper.

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A reader writes that this spatula is "just (strangely) viscerally gross," and I couldn't agree more:

http://www.kitchencontraptions.com/archives/017343.php (NSFW)

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Gas masks are pretty played out, but these are amazing:

http://www.diddovelema.com/designergasmasks/index2.html

I hope these become a thing.

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I'm not sure what a "lifestyle globe" is, but how lovely:

http://www.designerblog.it/post/2520/devign-lifestyle-globe

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Oh puke:

http://www.revolveclothing.com/DisplayProduct.jsp?product=COMM-MZ18&c=Common+Projects&d=b

Apparently their target market is "that guy who only dresses up twice a year and thinks nobody notices his dress shoes are really Doc Martins."

Oh puke, times a million:

http://www.oki-ni.com/invt/js0018navy

"These shoes feature laser-cut cutouts from the shoes' sides - exposing the wearer's feet and providing a stylish but airy solution" to ever getting laid again.

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Less than overwhelming response for the Celia Birtwell for Express line:

http://racked.com/archives/2008/04/08/flops_celia_birtwell_bows_at_e.php

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Any attempt at wit or subtlety fails in the face of this monstrosity.

http://interiordesignroom.blogspot.com/2008/04/evolution-by-nacho-carbonell.html

WHAT. THE FUCK.

Nacho, this is a FAILURE. It sucks, and you should feel bad. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're not cut out for the career you're pursuing? I'm not kidding, this isn't a joke, and I'm not trying to motivate you to try harder. The sooner you admit to yourself that you might not have it in you, the sooner you'll find a way to be happy in your life. Not everyone has to be creative. Thank your parents and your friends for their support, get your resume together, and find a way to pay back your student loans. There's no shame in knowing that you weren't able to best a challenge of overwhelming odds, that after using all of the resources and talents you had at your disposal you looked inside of yourself and found yourself lacking. Passion wasn't enough, and believing in yourself wasn't enough. There's a certain honor in walking away, in quitting, in working an honest job and then saying "I'm home" to the simple conventional chair and the simple conventional table where you eat your dinner. I can tell you from my own experience, man to man, that it may never be easy, but it gets easier every day.

(Bitchin' name, though. "Nacho!")

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This cute Eddy Rocker is probably intended for nurseries, but I bet you could pull it off elsewhere:

http://www.zacandzoe.com/nurserybedroom/ddeddyrocker.html

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I guess I'm being really negative this week, so let me try to JESUS CHRIST HOW RETARDED:

http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?individual_id=125143&portfolio_id=492789&specialty=4&sort_by=1&c=1&

Boy, the home design and fashion world has been really uninspiring this week. I didn't even have a single entry for this until Monday. I flipped through the new Domino in about ten minutes, then tossed it.

HOWEVER, let's end on a good note. No, wait, not just a good note, but a hilariously awesome note. Ready?

***KARL LAGERFELD APPEARS IN THE NEW GRAND THEFT AUTO GAME***

http://men.style.com/news/blog/2008/04/karl-lagerfelds.html

He's creating a custom radio station for the game, that you can play as you drive around, as well as providing "off-color commentary." (!). Sadly, he's not a playable character, but how awesome would that be? All beating up hookers with your elaborate gothic pewter rings?

Okay, now I have the strength to carry on. See you next week.

A Million Hots On His Jock

Junot Díaz just won the Pulitzer for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, beating out Denis Johnson's Tree Of Smoke and something called Shakespeare's Kitchen, by Lore Segal. (Who?)

http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2008/fiction/

I *still* haven't read the novel--thanks for nothing, Jane Austen--but what I said seven months ago is still true: if you haven't read the short story the novel is based on, I implore you to read it right now. It's certainly the best thing I've ever featured on here.

http://babyruthless.blogspot.com/2007/09/brief-wondrous-life-of-oscar-wao.html

Those of you who have read it, you may enjoy this short Guardian profile of Díaz:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,2255226,00.html

I love how he's pretty upfront about being sorta lazy when it comes to his writing...it's a nice change of pace from the usual novelist posturing about how hard they work.

A Novel Take On An Ending

Richard Russo, in the Washington Post:

"One night recently, as I stayed up watching television coverage of Eliot Spitzer's disgrace, I found the media turning a complex drama into a simple story line: Now that he's no longer their unsullied white knight, Spitzer must be a complete hypocrite. Later, I lay awake in the dark thinking about how a novel about Eliot Spitzer might go and what kind of novel it would be."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031401550_pf.html

About three weeks too late, I know, but still an interesting read.

Famous actor Rip Torn's genitals...

There are so many lulz on this Wikipedia list of Mainstream Films With Unsimulated Sex that I don't even know where to begin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mainstream_films_with_unsimulated_sex [If text can be NSFW, you've been warned...]

Green Magic, by Jack Vance

Jack Vance has had a staggeringly successful career, winning the Hugo, the Nebula, the Jupiter, and the Edgar. He's probably the least-known of all the well-known science fiction masters, if that makes sense. (Probably this has to do with the fact that, aside from a TV movie in the 70s, none of his works have been filmed, thank God.)

An old-school writer who came up through the pulp industry, Vance is still writing, even though he's 91 and blind. For perspective, consider that he received a lifetime achievement World Fantasy Award...twenty-two years ago.

This "science fantasy" short story was first published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1963, though it seems so fresh and original I've always thought of it as a product of the Dangerous Visions era of the 70s.

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/green.htm

I realize this is an online cliche along the lines of "I just spit coffee all over my keyboard," but the deeply moving finale of this story literally gives me chills.

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.

A Room With A View

I had intended on taking a short break from the Book Club before starting on Othello. However, on April 13, Masterpiece will be showing an adaptation of EM Forster's A Room With A View, which makes perfect sense because it's been 15 years since Merchant & Ivory's groundbreaking adaptation. But that one was only the most acclaimed production from two beloved filmmakers...*this one* is adapted by Andrew Davies.

ME: Geesh, why don't you just call it Masterpiece Davies already?
PBS: That's an awesome idea.

So this is the thread where I'll be posting notes as I read A Room With A View. Here's the permanent address of this post:

http://babyruthless.blogspot.com/2008/04/room-with-view.html

As before, you can either bookmark it or subscribe to the post's RSS feed. If you'd like to read along and join the discussion, you'll find the reading schedule I'll be following in the first comment of this thread, as well as links to the text. We start tomorrow.

What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

Too long, didn't read:

http://dmiessler.com/blog/what-every-american-should-know-about-the-middle-east

The Baby Ruthless Interview: Amy Poehler

BABY RUTHLESS: How much credit are you prepared to take for Hillary Clinton's Super Tuesday victory?

AMY POEHLER : I don't even want to talk about that, I just want to stick to the UCB stuff and pontificate leadenly about the improv process for 3000 words.

BR: Okay. [Pause. The interviewer becomes weighty and soulful, like Mandy Patankin] Ms. Poehler--can I call you Amy?--Amy, I really only have one question for you, then. But...before you answer, I want you to look deep into your heart and see the truth that's written there. That's all I ask. Okay? Great, here's my question: All of this--this...this interview, this promoting your DVD, this mentioning your new movie--do you think you're doing ME a favor? Or do you think I'M doing YOU a favor?

http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/amy_poehler