It's Irena's Birthday!

I made her this and it's not even 10 yet.

Tell me that's not the cutest.

Cool Like Space

So it looks like over the weekend when we coined the phrase "Cool like space," (while talking about deep sea creatures, of course) we were actually riding on the cusp of a rising wave of awesome. Space is back, full force.

Tomorrow the House will vote on a NASA appropriations bill, and they're slated to give nearly $2 billion extra per year by 2013.  Honestly, that's not really that much compared to a lot of things, but check out their upfront goal:

"The long term goal of the human space flight and exploration efforts of NASA shall be to expand permanent human presence beyond low-Earth"

Their goal is to get more people in space! We all know that the only thing cooler than space is going to space.  Even the U.S. government can get behind it. Basically this is the only time you'll ever get the chance to say, "Fuck yeah, Congress!" and mean it.

Oh, and did I mention that now, thanks to billionaire Richard Branson, we can go to space too?! That's right, astronauts. It's time to share your piece of the space pie. This means two things:

1. Richard Branson is the coolest billionaire on the planet, and makes Bill Gates look like a nerdy asshole. 
2. I need to immediately make friends with one of the other 937 billionaires (yup, looked it up) and make them give me $200,000.  Because I need to get to space like woah.

In the meantime, I'm going to be all "like, e-wow man" over Discover articles about space. I'll also desperately try not to be a nerdy ass like Bill Gates.  (I can feel the fail already.)

Oh, and in case you forgot how cool space is:

Oh, and in case you were expecting Morgan Freeman:

Tripping Out on Friday

I mean... we don't really have to talk about this or anything. We can just stare...

I guess I should give a little bit of something. This is at the BMW Museum in Munich. It's 714 metallic balls held up by string. From there, I have no idea how the magic happens, but I do know I want to buy a BMW. (Sucks about the music though, huh?)

And hey, while we're at it, let's have a little car company competition. See who's cooler. Right now at the London Design Festival artists Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram have an installment with Audi robots that write light messages with what are basically metal octopus tentacles of awesomeness

Try and figure it all out at Dezeen, where people seem to get it a lot better than me.

Burberry Prorsum Makes My Dreams Come True

Omigod you guys, remember this post when I realized how amazing and underused clouded leopard print is? Burberry read my mind.  Look at this jacket!

I am a prophet! And the obvious reward for my supernatural skillz is.... this jacket!  Now on the Christmas list. (But I think the bedazzled horse still ranks higher.)

Kids, We're Going to Seattle

Seattle is where Ivar's exists.  And Ivar's is where all good clams go to die. Look at their amazing ad campaign from the 80s!

Speaking of which...

Is it just me, or does this tornado look a little, little bitty bit like a clam?

Tornades

Every time there's a tornado warning in New York City, I scoff it off. "That's preposterous!" I say. (Especially when I'm wearing a plaid hat and talking to people 40 years older than me. Otherwise, I say "Fuck that.")

There are too many buildings in the way to give the tornado room to form, right? Is that even scientifically sound? Whatever, that's what I believe, so it must be true.

Until last night, when it was

TORNADO MAYHEM IN BROOKLYN dun dun dunnnn
(AND ALSO ALL OTHER PLACES IN THE CITY dunnn)

Prospect Heights. Photo by Brian Melcher

Seriously, there were so many smashes all over the place. 

Car smash...

House smash... 

Taco Bell smash... 

On the plus side, now your backyard's a crazy awesome jungle! Yeah!

All photos were reader-submitted at the New York Times. 

Jeremy Scott Goes from "Ready to Wear" to "Ready to do a Kegstand"

Okay, okay -- one quick post about fashion week before it's over. This is just too easy.

Jeremy Scott's line, while completely over-obvious in it's message, is still worth noting.

A. Let's save the planet.

B. Let's relive all those "Anything But Clothes" party moments. (Except now they're not-clothes that cost thousands of dollars.)

From the runway (all photos taken from Style):

Jesus Christ, just think of all the walks of shame you could have gotten with a trash bag getup like that!

OMGZ Give Me Suitcase Furniture Now

And I'm not talking about the kind with rollers.

Gone are the days of hard-topped, square-shaped, leather-handled briefcase-style suitcases.  You know, the kind you might wear with a bowler hat, some white gloves, or a weird smattering of lace across your face.  The kind of suitcase you held in one hand, while puffing a pipe in the other saying, "Now, look here, see!"

Now it's all nylon and rollers, and people who can't seem to take responsibility for 30 pounds of their shit dragging behind them.  (That's you, guy running over my foot.)

But wait! These sexy traveling vestiges are back! Back and better than ever.

This brilliant idea comes from Recreate, a furniture design brand started by Katie Thompson in 2009.  Everything they make comes from recycled bits of awesomeness past, i.e. this old scale-turned-clock:

So brillz, I can't take it.

Ok, that's it. Go buy.


PS - this is all procrastination from talking about New York Fashion Week. 2much2handle.com.

PPS- let's buy the domain 2much2handle.com right now

While scouring the internetz for fun things to do at San Francisco's famous tourist trap, Pier 39, I came upon a pretty awesome pearl in the rough.

The Pearl Factory is a jewelry store unlike any other. For $15, you get to pick out your very own clam and the staff will murder it for you, revealing a lovely little pearl! You can then get it attached to a pendant or a ring or something like that for more money. There are three different locations in San Francisco alone, so I think I'm going to have to convince boyfriend to take me there and buy me a clam.

It's Been a While...

So the daily clam got a little un-daily.  Bringing it back!

By the way, this thing was priced at 20 British pounds in 2007.  That's just downright absurd.

How Have I Not Seen These Yet?

Grist has called it "stunning satire." Playboy said it's "one of the most thought-provoking games we've seen in years." And since those are basically the only two sources I trust... sold! 

Folks, I'm talking about a set of hilariously sick and twisted games from British gaming start-up, TerrorBull Games.

You can buy actual board games from their site, like War on Terror (no explanation needed) and Crunch, in which you play a fat cat bank CEO trying secure a posh retirement.

But, since we're more like emaciated alley cats trying to secure a bottle of jack while still keeping on the electric, let's go for the free printable games instead! 

Seriously, go click on the pictures and download these PDFs now.

Oh, and uh, game night anyone? I mean, it's only right that we compare these to Class Struggle.

In Honor of the Coming of Fall....

A bunch of ridiculous books about pumpkins. 

The scary thing here is all the "Users who bought It's Pumpkin Time! also bought I Like Pumpkins" messages on Amazon.  If your kid is that into pumpkins, it's not time to buy him multiple pumpkin books. It's time to sign up for gymnastics camp.  Pumpkins should not be your number one interest.  And definitely not the way you get drunk. (Although I would be more than willing to drink pumpkin moonshine, if that exists.)

Go Out and Buy This Right Now

Mascara is not normally one of the things that gets me all excited. For the most part, I'm usually just annoyed that I have to shell out $10 every three months for some crap that DOES NOT give me eyelashes as long as my arms, contrary to what Drew Barrymore keeps telling me. When LashBlast came along, I settled, finally finding a mascara that was decent enough.

That is, until Maybelline The Falsies Volum' Express came along. Ridiculous name aside, this is the best mascara I have ever used in my life. While I do own quite a few high-end beauty products, I never spend the extra money on mascara since I have to buy new ones so often anyway. The real reason I bought Falsies in the first place is because it was on sale, and I'm cheap. For about $7, I'm pretty sure I've found a magic potion that makes me look like twiggy.

Since not all us can be blessed with eyelashes made of angel wings like Erika, I would highly recommend that every one of you go the nearest drug store and buy this immediately.

OMG You're So Jellz of My Pen Palz

Hey, guys! Remember that time Mayssa lived on the other side of the planet?

She sent me the most ballin' good letter from Australia; I'm not even scared about blasting out my address to the world. (Or about proselytizing my love for Lisa Frank.)

Look at the back!

Attention to detail everywhere.  You can't even imagine what's inside.

(P)G'd Up

Look at how gangster these babies are!

They're brushing animal cracker crumbs off their shoulder, rapping about pampers, and sucking hard on their binky grillz, fo' real. Judging by their outfits, they might have also just done some hard time out.  Plus, they're twins!

Nat Geo snagged this (bedazzled on my baby phat jacket) gem of a pic at the annual twins festival.  See more here!  And definitely go play the twins matching game.  It's kind of creepy, kind of awesome.

Too Many Punks

A few days ago, I awoke to the warm California sun shining in through the skylight in my bedroom. I splashed some water on my face, pulled on my favorite sweatpants, and walked barefoot down my newly carpeted staircase. What lovely scene greeted me in my sunny, airy living room?

10 dudes, about 100 beer cans and the unmistakable stench of bleach and barf.

Our dear friends, Dani Nash & The Villains are at the tail-end of a month-long west coast tour with their friends, Clepto. Dani Nash and The Villains hold a very special place in our hearts, ever since they let us dress up like jazzercise zombies in the music video for their jam "Eating at My Brain." Our deep and abiding love for their music aside, hosting two punk bands in one house has been an interesting experience. Two of our three toilets are currently tainted with the byproducts of a leisurely game of Edward 40 Hands. There are two separate Ford Econolines dying in front of our house. One of our roommates now has a black eye (he kind of deserved it). But, they did bring a super cute dog named Elvis with them who looks just like Benji, and we love him extra tons.

The boys are playing a show tonight at Johnny V's in San Jose, so stop by in the unlikely event you're in the area. After this show, they're headed back to home base in LA. Dani Nash & The Villains play shows around the city almost every weekend, so check them out if you ever make it to the second most important city in the entire world.

Go Figure

Even though Glee sucks, and Heather Morris is, like, whatevs, this picture is kinda great, right? Especially for an outtake. Go figure. 

Oh yeah, and this was jacked from Nylon. 

Dancing Dogs Are Here Again

Guys, I think I've spotted a trend.  There has been a recent influx of dogs who seriously know how to get down. 

Merengue dog -  Shakin' what his momma gave him, even though she was a bitch:



Techno dog - I need to get this guy's digits:

Dog Raves His Face Off - watch more funny videos

And finally, Weiner dog. We thought this wasn't going to be on par, but then it totally was. Um, but only for about 35 seconds. Right when the technicolor background hits start, that's gold, 2010. Then after that? We're just getting down to Hot Chip, and maybe eating cheese products.

Kiiind of Can't Get Over this Right Now

2007 throwback!  Why doesn't the world love Kenna as much as he deserves?  Or at least as much as we do? Ok .... ready?  Dance party!

2010 Architecture and Design Film Festival

Just got the news (a little late thanks to Labor Day festivities):  The Architecture and Design Film Festival will be hosted at Tribeca Cinemas, October 14 - 17.

This is the first film festival to celebrate architecture and design in New York City, and it should be a great place for industry minds to commingle.  Plus, the connected bar/lounge will most likely be filled with swank new design products -- hooray sponsorships!

The line-up of films has yet to be announced, but event organizers promise a mix of feature-length films, documentaries and shorts, profiling architects and their process, environmental issues, and all the obligatory, cool design eye candy one would expect.  

Movies will be announced in mid-September.  Perhaps too much time has gone by for it to be included, but while we're on the topic of design films, here's a quick shout to Objectified, which was excellent.  Here's the trailer. 

Tickets will go on sale September 27th.   Keep updated at the festival site here. 

Obligatory cool design eye candy! Yeah!

“Artistic Foyer” - Nüvist Architecture & Design's entry to the Izmir Opera House Competition

Fortune Cookie + Clam Cookie

Got a fortune cookie today:

The best revenge is wild success. 

So true, and what better way to kick off some wild success than with these clam cookies: