The Greatest Animated Gif Ever Created...

I must found out who made this, because they deserve a savage high-five.

I'm Smelly...

...in a good way. My signature scent is Prada perfume - I find it simply irresistible, have worn it for well over 3 years and still love it as much as the first time I caught a whiff in a magazine. It is a heady, layered scent of sandalwood and patchouli that encapsulates everything I desire in a perfume - it's spicy, sweet and warm. However, as absolutely perfect as I find this scent, it has one major drawback - it is very dense, and not at all appropriate for the warmer months. I simply can't bring myself to wear it anytime after May, as it feels the olfactory equivalent of wearing a fur stole to the beach.

Thus began my search for the ideal summer fragrance. This hunt has been going on for well over a year now. Some girls are perfectly happy flirting around with a different perfume each day, but not me. I am all about commitment, baby. It took me YEARS to discover the perfect perfume in Prada, and I certainly didn't intend to throw on just any old fragrance for the other half of the year.

In the process of searching, I have had my brief flings: first with a
Voluspa I picked up on the Jersey Boardwalk on a whim. While Mimosa Martini's intoxicatingly sweet and buttery scent made me feel like I was perpetually fresh off the sand, it was a bit too wild for my tastes: she was the one dancing on the bar by the end of the night, while I was longing to curl up with a book and a cup of tea.


Voluspa Mimosa Martini

Next came a stint with the more subdued Sugar Lemon. Fresh's scent was a nice change of pace from Mimosa's tango-stylings, and it's fresh lemon scent made me think of porch-swings and grassy yards. However, in the end there was no...magic. Lemon Sugar was just that - sweet lemons. No subtle notes, no implied hints, and in the end it's lack of layers just bored me. We parted on the best of terms, though.



Sugar Lemon by Fresh

Fortunately, by the end of these two romances, the leaves had started to change, and I could once again return to my old love. But here we are, almost June again, and driven by an empty bottle of Prada I took up my search afresh (my sample bottle of Chloe was only going to last so long). So yesterday found me at Sephora with my friend Sundari, spraying and whiffing away once more for the perfect perfume. And suddenly, between a handful of paper sticks and a ticklish nose, BAM. Found it.

Michael Kors by Michael Kors

I have to be honest, I generally find Michael Kors fashion a bit of a snooze-fest. But damn, can he make some perfume. Michael Kors by Micheal Kors is a lovely, rich fragrance that perfectly blends floral and spice. The moment I smelled it, I practically swooned. It has freesia in it, which is one of my favorite scents, and just a hint of musk to give it weight. I was surprised to discover tuberose was the main ingredient, as I am not generally drawn to scents with floral bases, but I think that just shows how well the scents in the fragrance compliment each other. To me, it's just perfect: sweet and blamy, like a warm summer night.


Lolita Lempicka's L Perfume

Honorable mention goes to Lolita Lempicka's new fragrance, L. I have been enamored by this fragrance for months now, and came very close to purchasing it on several occasions. This scent has a base in bitter orange, much like my beloved Prada, and the fragrance reminds me of warm sugar and evergreen and awesome. However, like Prada, it is a very strong scent, and I think much more appropriate for the cooler months. Maybe I can have 2 winter scents after all...

Felipe Oliveira Baptista's Supergirls

I am completely smitten with Portuguese designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista's 2008 Summer Collection. It is bursting with such luscious colors, shapes and a sense of fun that it just makes me giddy to gaze upon. Baptista succeeds in using large geometric shapes and strong colors while maintaining a soft, feminine grace, a rather tricky and remarkably impressive endeavor. The color-play across the entire collection is not only insanely fun and vibrant, but succeeds in marrying many different styles under one collection: from punk-rock lightning bolts to peasant capes to hippy fringe to frock coats.













See the entire colection here.

The superhero-esque masks are simply too sweet, and the icing on the cake of this amazing collection. Do you think I can get away with wearing one this summer?

(snatched from Allure)

Light and Dots and Stripes O My!

Is it just me, or is fashion photography getting better? These images by Solve Sundsbo are simply brilliant. I love it when someone creates something amazing from something simple, and it's amazing how simple light can create such a wonderful transcendent effect.











See the rest of the set here.
(Snatched from Gala)

Zena Holloway's Photos From the Deep

Zena Holloway is a UK director and master of underwater photography. Her clientele has run the gamut of industries: from fashion brands (Nike, Olay) to ecological organizations (National Geographic, Greenpeace). Throughout all, Holloway's style shines through: otherworldly beings, moving through a realm apart. Holloway's ability to blend the human form with fabric is simply irresistible, creating effects that long for you to reach out and touch them. There is a grace about her work that goes beyond simple liquid immersion - an eye for texture and movement that creates pieces that feel almost sacred.

Zena Holloway, "Netskirt"

Zena Holloway, "Fire 1"

Zena Holloway, "Gold 2"


Zena Holloway, "Angel 5"


Zena Holloway, "Lips"

See her films here.

Andrew Bird in the Studio

photo by Michael Maly

Andrew Bird is a Chicago singer-songwriter, violinist, guitarist, and self-proclaimed professional whistler. If you haven't heard his latest album, Armchair Aprocrypha, I suggest you do, as I consider it a personal favorite from last year. Bird has this warm, holistic sound that I think can only be the result of someone who has a thorough knowledge of every piece going into a song.

Andrew Bird has an article in the New York Times this week on life inside the studio. As someone who has never been inherently musical, and extremely jealous of those who are, I found this a great read. It really shows the amount of care that goes into creating a fine piece of music.

"In the studio, a number of things can conspire to turn the natural act of making music into an awkward dance. First there is no audience, no one to impress. Second is the temptation to be too careful, to isolate every sound and not let it mingle with other sounds. The third deals with the voice, the most personal and vulnerable instrument. Recording vocals can be fraught with aural illusions akin to the weirdness of hearing your own voice on your answering machine. 'That’s not me, is it?'"

Read the article here.

And for those new to Andrew, here's the video to his song, "Imitosis"...

Bjork in the Third Dimension

I have been an enormous fan of Bjork since I was a wee girl of twelve, when I first caught her music video for "Human Behavior" late one night on MTV. It still stands as possibly my favorite music video of all time.

I not only love her music, but feel that what really separates Bjork from the crowd is her dedication to an aesthetic that is uniquely her own. In everything she does - music, movies, projects and dress - she infuses an essential part of herself, radiating a confidence and uniqueness that is simply breathtaking.

Her latest work is no exception. Recently, Bjork teamed up with Encyclopedia Pictura to create an amazing new video replete with puppets, computer-generated animation and magic. Shot with a custom made stereoscopic camera rig, the result is a video that is not only awesome, but 3-D (the old school kind, with the glasses)! It is featured on a DVD accompanying the new "Wanderlust" single (3-D glasses included!), available through One Little Indian.

Bjork "Wanderlust" 3-D Music Video






However, thanks to Wired.com, you do not need to purchase the single in order to see the video in all it's three-dimensional glory. Wired.com is hosting the video on their site here, IN 3-D, and even gives you directions on how to mock-up a pair of 3D specs from used CD cases you have lying around.

My Daily Covet: Tokidoki for Onitsuka Mexico

My pal Letwin and I have decided that we will buy
these sneakers, and then become a superhero crime-fighting team, saving the world and kicking-ass with our fly fun kicks.

Mine...


His...

My Daily Covet: BambooZoo Mini Figures

Kidrobot is just awesome. It's one of those companies that makes me so damn proud of my generation: a company that says "We are grazing thirty, and still we love toys, because we are AWESOME."

I am completely head-over-heels for their current collection: BambooZoo. Brought to life by British artists, Peskimo (David + Jodie), BambooZoo is full of mindblowingly adorable little 3 inch creatures, that will probably make your eyeballs melt from cuteness.

Kid Robot's BambooZoo Mini Series





Now, I just need to figure out a way to fit these all in my mouth.

Häagen-Daz Makes Some Buzz

Yesterday was Free Cone Day at participating Häagen-Daz, and while I was seeking out a place to grab my free-bee I came across the
Häagen-Daz Loves Bees site, and was utterly blown away:


Häagen-Daz Loves Honey Bees Banner Ad

This campaign, created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is meant to spread awareness of Colony Collapse Disorder, the name given to the sudden and mysterious disappearance of millions of honeybees from their hives. Häagen-Daz asserts that without bees, a majority of the food we consume could not be pollinated and produced, ice cream included.


www.helpthehoneybees.com

The site itself is simply stunning, and an wonderful example of what a flash site can be if done well. The container makes wonderful use of the white space that is often problematic in flash sites, by incorporating a floral border that makes the surrounding area part of the perspective. The animation captures this cute, whimsical style, which manages to be endearing but at the same time very modern.

The pages themselves have some wonderful things going on in them. One page allows you to "tour" the pasture and learn more about the honey bee crisis, while another lets you send your friends a customized honey bee. Great care has been put into each particular page and it's corresponding art and animation: even when a page is generally inactive, there is always some wonderful detail occurring: honey bees floating by with picket signs, or simply a butterfly drifting about in the background.

I love the fact that Häagen-Daz has made such a wonderful site, and adopted such a wonderful campaign. And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go sample their new flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, and do my part to save the world.

The Future of Search?

A picture is worth a thousand meta-tags: Search Me is a new web browser that allows the user to peruse the web visually rather than textually. Much like the latest Mac operating system, Search Me shows its search results on keywords by displaying real-time images of the web pages, allowing the user to "flip" through results. In a world where "junk-sites" are getting better and better at disguising their textual search results as genuine web space, this platform can be incredibly useful in saving the time and trouble of clicking into sites that are not at all what you are looking for.


Search Me Beta

Another nice feature of Search me is that the browser provides visual subject delineations, so you can narrow your search results to the general area you are looking for.



Now for the bad news: in terms of functionality, Search Me is terribly lacking in its current iteration: it's just doesn't seem to be performing a very comprehensive search. After doing some general search analysis, it seems clear they are not feeding Google results, but using some new search system (a friend of mine who deals in Search Engine Optimization took a gander at this for me and didn't have a clue what they were using). Unfortunately whatever they ARE using as a search basis is currently not very good in its present state - the search results seem somewhat random in popularity, which can become troublesome in a platform where scrolling through each result to get to the next is mandatory. Typing in "CMYKABOOM" not only does not turn up this site, but no results whatsoever (Google displays it #1, with numerous other websites as well). But what really bothers me is that it couldn't even find this site when I went as far as typing the URL into the search form!

That being said, I still find this site a compelling new browser conceptually. In an environment where the web is becoming more fluid and transparent, Search Me's visual display could easily find a warm welcome. If Search Me were to refine their search functionality, and perhaps build an alternative view option to allow the user to view multiple pages at once, I feel it could be a very strong and competitive platform, and possibly a contender against all the search big-boys in their text-based world. I would not be at all surprised if this is the direction of future search engines; a "Browser 2.0," if you will. And I also wouldn't be surprised if Google snatches this puppy up any day now.

99 Things

My amazingly awesome sister, Linda (that's her in the dark blue), has spent the last 2 years teaching English in Japan. She is preparing to return to the States soon, and recently reached the 100 day mark before she is to come home. In honor of her adventures and the countdown, she has begun listing 99 things she loves about Japan on her blog.

Her list is really wonderful, and I encourage you to read it. And then I dare you to resist the urge to pack your bags and head to Kyoto.

Brigid McLaughlin's Summer Rush

With summer just around the corner, I start longing for light, diaphanous fabrics; clothes that allow those warm breezes to reach my skin. The summer is the time when I feel closest to nature - when the elements are no longer something to contend with, but delight in, particularly through my wardrobe. If the time I get to wear such light garments is still several weeks away, then looking at Brigid McLaughlin's collection is a close second. Brigid is an Australian designer who launched her independent collection in 2006, and when I gaze upon her summer collection I can almost taste the sea-salt in the air, and the sand between my toes...











Summer, you can't come fast enough.

Font Luv: Marat

I am continually searching for the ideal font: that Swiss-army-knife text that can suit all my needs. Something that is fun, but also subtle when it needs to be. Almost like a good pair of shoes. I think I just found it in Marat:


This font seems to have it all: that chunky quirkiness in it's thicker aspects (reminiscent of Cooper Black), but refined enough in its text weight to stand for beautiful body copy. Each weight feels like it was crafted with the utmost care, and really makes you understand the term "font family." They are composed of the same parts, but not simply carbon copies slanted, thickened, or squeezed. This result is simply beautiful typography.

The fact that it's named after a radical French theorist that killed himself in a bathtub is pretty neat too:




Update: Boyfriend Kaboom, in all his historical wisdom, informed me that Marat was assassinated, and did not commit suicide. My bad!

Melville on the Tattoo

"carlatattoo4 butterfly tattoo" by Beautiful wwworld's

I have recently been reading "Moby Dick," and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is not simply a book as an almanac to the mystical moments surrounding every second of our lives.

One of my favorite characters in the book is Queequeg, the heavily tattooed harpooner and close friend of the narrator, Ishmael.

Being a rather tattooed person myself, I was struck by this one passage about Queequeg and his tattoos. To me, it encapsulates what is so wonderful about this timeless artform...

"...this tattooing, had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wonderous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even he himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unresolved to the last. And this thought it must have been which suggested to Ahab that wild exclamation of his, when one morning turning away from surveying poor Queequeg - "Oh, devilish tantalization of the gods!"

My Daily Covet (Claimed!): LG enV Mobile Phone

Ever since my pal Sue got the LG enV, I have been obsessively desiring it. She wouldn't even let me hold it anymore because I was drooling over it so much. But I was having an internal conundrum about purchasing it, since it was a wee bit out of my phone budget. I had since resigned myself to trying to figure out how I would continue to exist without possessing this sweet little piece of technology.

This weekend some plans got canceled, and I found myself stuck on 6th Avenue with not a darn thing to do. So I walked into the nearest Verizon store to browse my other upgrade possibilities. Lo and behold, my dear little phone was on sale! Suddenly the phone I coveted so was quite suddenly in my price range. Score!

Here's the enV in all its grandeur:



Why this phone rules:

The Color: it is by far the most colorful phone in Verizon's offerings, available in a popping orange, and lush olive, and a cool silver (I got the olive one).

Keypad Goodness: The phone flips open to reveal a full alpha-numeric keypad, with calendar capabilities. I have since started texting like an insane person.



The Camera: The phone contains a 2.0 megapixel camera, complete with autfocus and flash. Flip the phone, and suddenly you have a very competent camera



The Size: My last phone was a Rzr, and taught me that there is such a thing as a phone that's too small. The thing was so light and flimsy, I was constantly dropping it, where it would immediately shatter into 18 pieces all over the floor. The enV has quite a bit of bulk to it, and I honestly couldn't be happier. It's nice to have a phone that seems like it can take a beating.

Now, if you need me, I'll be texting everyone in my contacts list my grocery list. Just 'cause.

George Steinmetz's tree people

According to his website, "George Steinmetz sets out to discover the few remaining secrets in our world today: remote deserts, obscure cultures, the mysteries of science and technology. A regular contributor to National Geographic and GEO Magazines, he has explored subjects ranging from the remotest stretches of Arabia’s Empty Quarter to the unknown tree people of Irian Jaya."

According to me, his pictures are proof that fairies indeed exist...











See the whole set here.