I love you Google. Thanks for even showing the word “Free!” while I was making my call from Amsterdam to California.
Hey Skype — fuck you.
via Engadget
Tagged in: news
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Call the US & Canada for Free from Anywhere in the World!
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The Best of Martha Stewart: From Her Home to Yours
Somewhere between trying to do it myself and trying to get others to do it for me, I usually turn to Martha Stewart for inspiration and am always surprised at the amount of new shit (admirably) this woman can churn out per calendar year. Keeping in mind that Martha Stewart isn’t just about ideas (she’s about lifestyle), it shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise that in 2008, there isn’t a product line left on earth to attach the Martha Stewart name to. This queen bee has cross-pollenated one too many times.
Martha Stewart Custom Homes
Good taste is being exported from Connecticut to places like North Carolina and Atlanta where these bastard clones of Stewarts’ actual estates are sprouting up. KB Homes has taken inspiration from the basic blueprints of Martha’s beach cottage in Long Island, her stone house on the coast of Maine, and even her house in Westport, to the ultimate Lego level. Customize any house with a variety of plans and sizes. All include interior detailing like molding and built-in bookcases, so that every decorative sea shell and first edition book will always have a place to be displayed.
Martha Stewart Macy’s Kitchen Collection
Getting back to the bread and butter of her business, Macy’s has also teamed up with Martha for quite some time now on a variety of kitchen products. Until now, I had assumed it was only Martha Stewart branded dinner and flatware, but actually there is an abundance of fantastic products and cheap prices like the igloo cake mold (pictured above and left), multicolored melamine mixing bowls, and collapsible colander. Best of all, many of the products can be purchased from macys.com and sometimes reflect the same in-store sale prices, online!
Martha’s Vintage
Not to be confused with “Martha’s Vineyard”, the summer playground of American royalty, Martha’s Vintage is a limited release of red and white wines available in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon. I’ve already brainstormed the perfect ad for this product. Picture it – A grey haired woman gets up from the couch in tears after watching the most recent episode of Oprah, tops off the last drop off of a Martha’s Vintage into her mouth, turns to the camera and says, “Ignorance really is bliss. Merlot. By Martha’s Vintage”. -
Petits Pierres for Wednesday, Feb. 13
♥ NINTENDO-THEMED VALENTINE’S DAY CARDS
If you get one, you’ll know just how much that lazy sack of shit on the couch with the bluetooth headset on really cares about you.♥ KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR BLOGS ON LA TIMES
Destined to attract long-time fans, first time listeners.♥ INTRODUCING BUD LIME LIGHT
Lose weight the Karen Carpenter way: With diet drinks and self-induced vomiting.♥ PATTERNED TIGHTS RULE THE RUNWAY THIS SEASON
Which goes along side of the growing trend of “no pants”.♥ YOU HEARD IT HERE LAST, FIRST!
Directions for Listening:
1. Slow dance with the closet door
2. Go to Hospital
3. Have the “Cut Copy” single bouncing in your bludgeoned head all the way there.♥ MUSEUM NACHT (N8) FOR ROTTERDAM & BRUSSELS
Time to get your Tom Cruise Mission Impossible 3 Premier skills on. For one night only on March 1st in both cities.♥ MAN, THOSE HEART SHAPED GLASSES ARE REALLY MAKING THE ROUNDS!
The white ones are pretty hot too, just not on this particular model.♥ TYPE FLICKR
Favorited type Flickr groups from the font freaks over at TypeNeu. -
Pretty Much Everything That Makes Amsterdam Fun to Ride a Bike In An Endless Circle Disappears This Year
Peeps, this is Charlie Geerts, “Porno-King”. Charlie Geerts, the Peeps.In an effort to clean up Amsterdam’s Red Light District, the Dutch government has planned to eradicate the criminal activity it believes is the result of having sex and drug related establishments. This includes shutting down many of its sex theaters and coffeeshops all over the Red Light area by using tax dollars to push out property owners as well as their businesses. Charles Geerts has already been forced to sell 18 of his properties back to the government who will in turn rent out the space to fashion designers and art galleries. Although most people agree there are aspects of the Red Light District should be changed (like the rights of prostitutes), there are some who think the way the government is going about it the wrong way:
[Will Boef, local advocate] also thinks local ‘porno king” Charles Geerts didn’t sell his properties to the council on an entirely voluntary basis:
“They made it as difficult as possible for him, so that he ultimately caved in.”
The Amsterdam authorities purchased eighteen properties from Charles Geerts – a well-known figure in the local sex industry – and now plan to put fashion designers into them.
It’s a most welcome development for the two designers behind the ‘And Beyond’ label. One of them, Jolanda van de Broek, explains,“We’re getting the space to do what we want in stimulating and creative surroundings.”
The And Beyond duo is part of a group of fifteen fashion designers who are taking part in the Red Light Fashion Amsterdam project, set up by the city council and fashion recruitment and ‘matchmakers’ HTNK. Under the scheme, the designers will get the use of the premises for a year, and only have to pay for gas, water and electricity; no rent.
Wim Boef reacts thus:
“Nice initiative, but still strange that these properties have been bought with taxpayers’ money and that the designers get to use them for a year for mere peanuts. While other business people in the Red Light district have to struggle to pay their rent.”Come July, the smoking ban will take affect, making it illegal to smoke indoor at public establishments such as bars, cafés, and may even cover coffeeshops. There is still some confusion on whether or not places that create a separate smoking and buying area for marajuana will be able to keep their smoking customers, or if the ban will go so far as to disallow the drug (which is commonly mixed with tobacco to make a joint) to be smoked at all.
Magic Mushrooms were banned last year, but by the looks of things (as in I still see them in shops) the ban has not formally been put into use.
More information on the whole story here.
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Petit Pierres For Thursday, Feb. 7
♥ DAVID LANGHAM (ILLUSTRATOR) MAKES THEM BIG N’ SMALL
The genius is in the mini-pixel icons he does for his larger work.♥ SPICE GUN!
Not to be used on Spice Girls unless you want them muy caliente.♥ “TACTILE” SPATIAL DESIGN BOOK
Makes me actually want to buy a design book for the first time
since I graduated art school.♥ OLD PEOPLE PARK
Just as scary as Oakland, California’s People’s Park.♥ THORSTEN BRINKMANN, SCULPTOR OF THINGS
There’s a stool with feet too if you click on the link.♥ BEST KIDS’ MEAL ON EARTH IS IN AMSTERDAM
At HEMA, the free gift with your happy meal is “design”.♥ PRADA REDOES THE DREAM SEQUENCE IN CLASH OF THE TITANS AS ANIMATION FILM
Unfortunately, the mother of Calibus is nowhere to be found.♥ THE GAYS LOVE THE ‘DAM
Amsterdam wins the gold medal for the favorite international destination for the ‘mos.
“HEEEEEY!!!” -
Chris Paul, Cutie Pie
It’s some kind of “Law of the Universe” that makes it impossible for anyone to completely hate a jock. They don’t make it easy either. You have to begrudgingly admit they are (for the most part) all tall, dark, and handsome, have great sense of humor, and have the kind of physical talent no one in your family tree, present or future, will ever own. Throw in the fact that they make a month what you spent on your entire college tuition, and well, you really want to beat some ass. Then you hear something like Chris Paul on NPR’s, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, and all OF that doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
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You Can Take Your Carbon Footprint and Shove It Up Your Ass
Today’s trip to Ikea brought not only the need to take public transport instead of “Silly”, the big silver bicycle I bought at the fietsfabriek before the new year (named for the “silly” little way it sends me to the ground every time the wind blows a little stronger than usual), but also the realization that if I had not had brought an extra tote with me, I would have been carrying back a lamp under my shirt, set of knife sharpeners in my backpocket, and three packs of batteries in my shoes. Everything else I would have had to leave at the cash register after finding out that Ikea has decided NOT to supply their customers with plastic bags for their purchases anymore. Now I’m as environmental as the next guy and happily supply my own tote going to the grocery store, but this is friggin’ Ikea, and no one wants to find out after spending an hour meandering through a giant warehouse of things you don’t really need that you can’t really take it all home. Honestly, a little warning would have been nice. Something along the lines of, “Please don’t enter this building if you don’t have the carrying abilities of the Hindu god Ganesha” by the ice cream machine would have been nice.
Meanwhile, the Rest of the Netherlands Has Decided to Kick Flooding in the Taco
Since the Netherlands isn’t really a country for warning, the next time Mother Nature comes knocking on Holland’s door threatening to flood (for the country’s overall attitude that a couple of dykes can prove she does not exist), the powers that be have decided to actually let her huff and puff and blow the doors in. It’s a new project called “Room for Rivers” in which the Dutch government is allowing the dykes in about 40 parcels of land that will now become flood zones. They have even convinced inhabitants of these areas to sell their land to the government and relocate. Apparently, even though some of the people who have to move squabble over the cost of their property, the government overall doesn’t seem to have that much trouble convincing them with their superior Dutch logic that it’s what’s best for the country. And it probably is. What other country would come up with a solution like, “Hey, those people are in danger. Let’s go ahead and move them”. -
Today is the Most Depressing Day of the Year
So don’t try to tell me I’m over-reacting.
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AH CRAPPITY-CRAP!
According to the New York Times:Shu Uemura, 79, Makeup Artist, Dies
TOKYO (AP) — Shu Uemura, the Japanese makeup artist who won acclaim in Hollywood and then built an international cosmetics brand under his name, died on Dec. 29 in Tokyo. He was 79.The cause was pneumonia, according to a statement released Tuesday by his company, also called Shu Uemura.
Mr. Uemura first gained acclaim transforming the actress Shirley MacLaine into a Japanese beauty in the 1962 Hollywood film “My Geisha.” Then working in Hollywood as a beautician, he was called in after the staff makeup artist fell ill.
In 1960, Mr. Uemura developed his first cosmetics product, a cleansing oil that remains popular today. He later opened a school to train makeup artists in Tokyo.
In 1983, amid Japan’s economic boom and just as Tokyo was establishing itself as a fashion trendsetter, Uemura started a cosmetics boutique that drew crowds with its gallerylike interior.
Mr. Uemura gradually expanded his brand to include handmade makeup brushes, perfumes and voluptuous fake eyelashes. The company’s eyelash curlers were mentioned in the 2006 movie “The Devil Wears Prada” starring Meryl Streep.
The company, which has stores in New York, Paris, London and Hong Kong, was acquired by the French cosmetics maker L’Oreal in 2004. Mr. Uemura is survived by his wife and a son.
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I can’t believe none of you interweb people told me sooner.:’(
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KIM’S ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL AGAIN:
Built By Wendy’s Sew U Follow Up Book on Pre-Order!
The follow up to the indispensable Sew U book from Wendy Mullin is on pre-order over at Amazon and costs a mere $17.15. This time, it’s time to take on the t-shirts and the overlock machine as our seamstress from Third street dives into the crazy world of stretch fabrics.Book Description
Looking to give your wardrobe some pizzazz? Start sewing! Like knitting before it, sewing is being reclaimed by a new generation, one that celebrates individual creativity. Fresh on the heels of her first book, Sew U, which focused on sewing with woven fabrics, Wendy will now teach the creatively inclined how to make perfect t-shirts, dresses, and hoodies, all with soft knit fabric. She’ll take your sewing to the next level, providing step-by-step instructions (both for sewing with a serger and without) and patterns directly from her own studio. And with tips on how to alter T-shirts and clothes you already have, you’ll soon be revamping all your clothes to make fabulous custom creations.