• Giant Squid Pumpkin - top notch execution!
• What We Are Coming To - Don't be scared, this is far less political commentary and far more incredible vintage illustration than you think.
• Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin - a perfectly scaled replica. True or false: there was at least one person in the nation that went as Darkwing Duck for Halloween?
• Instant iPhone Jailbreak - temptation levels rising.
• Sony Camera with Smile Detection - I wonder if they'll come out with a model in the future that lets you toggle between emotions you want to capture. I really want to see the icon for Angry Mode.

• 20 x 200 - an art site along the lines of Tiny Showcase. Limited run art at affordable prices.
• Holy F**k - Milkshake - still forming an opinion on this band but they've got a video animated by Chad VanGaalen and that's got to be a good thing.
• Lance Bangs with Thurston Moore - a 3 part interview all about Moore's massive literary collection. It's always interesting to see the interior / collections of a musician that's been doing their own thing for 20+ years.

Scene: So you guys are pretty into using creative, well-thought-out album art—which is ironic considering that this is an era when people are buying fewer and fewer physical CDs.

Knopf: I’d like to think that we’d do this even if the music industry weren’t dying. And I wish that we’d been more successful. I wish I could say that our album artwork single-handedly was working wonders. It’s a puzzling time, in terms of the precipitous decline in CD sales, but I think the underlying motivation for us, beyond all that, is just realizing that the packaging for music, whether it be vinyl or CD or whatever, is an opportunity to not waste someone’s time. We just try to maximize that chance. Why not? You have a chance to interact with someone, you have a chance to create something that someone interacts with, why not make it worthwhile and put some time into it. So, that’s kind of our philosophy. And, in the back of our minds, sure, why not give someone a reason to buy the record instead of stealing it? Or rather, why not have there be a reward? If you buy the record, then you get this really cool packaging with all these different levels and layers and design. So, we’ve taken a similar approach to the vinyl packaging. It was really elaborate for our first record.

• The Awakening - this incredible sculpture in DC was installed in 1980 but has remained for 27 years despite the "temporary permit" being long expired. This is a good thing as it has officially made my list of "things to see." Via Ronnie.
• Lego Ads - I was never much of a Lego user myself as a kid but these ads are on point. Via Friends With Managers.
• Flaming Lips expand Zaireeka - if this means that a proper mix of all of these songs will finally surface (some have existed on various singles through the years) then I'm in. Unfortunately, I'm not so into re-buying the whole set of discs so my fingers are crossed for a digital release.
• Beard Guard - everyone thinking of participating in Whiskerino should probably go ahead and order at least one of these. Via Wil.
• HIV Knockout - while not a cure it is good to see that some breakthroughs are being made.
• Hotel Chevalier proper release - looks like Hotel Chevalier will actually be tacked on to the nationwide release of Darjeeling Limited. This will make the whole experience more pleasant but probably not enough to salvage it on the whole (in terms of story). Via Jeremy.

Our nation is at a Fork in the Road. Some say we should go Left; some say go Right. I say, “Doesn’t this thing have a reverse gear?” Let’s back this country up to a time before there were forks in the road — or even roads. Or forks, for that matter. I want to return to a simpler America where we ate our meat off the end of a sharpened stick.

• Pt. 1: First on the Scene, To What End?
• Pt. II: Check My Stats
• Pt. III: The Perpetual Debut Album
• Pt IV: Coalescence

• Sprint vs Pika Pika
• Toyota World of Warcraft Parody vs South Park World of Warcraft Parody?

• Best Image on The Web - via Ryan
• Pet Shop Boys - "Integral" - a simple concept video that works incredibly well. Via Mason.
• Roger Wong Portfolio Teaser - please watch this video as it probably won't live on the web much past the 22nd. Also via Mason.
• Find He-Man - no, not the cartoon, the real life He-Man that lives in New York. Hilarious. Via Chad.
• Wiseacre Photo - new temporary site up. I just keep refreshing and refreshing for new background images.

Inconvenient experiences don’t have Web-scale potential, and platforms which monetize the gigantic scale of the Web is the only way to compete with the control you’ve lost, the only way to reclaim value in the music industry. If your consultants are telling you anything else, they are wrong.

• Hobos are the new Unicorns: A Primer - the first and foremost entry on Hobos that you must read. Everything from fecalface interviews to John Hodgman hobo illustrations realized to Hobo Soup.
• The Vagabond - a 1941 comic book hero that was a millionaire by day and a crime fighting hobo by night. All trends happen in cycles so it's good to see that the hobo cycle has happened once before and is just churning over again.
• Hobo Symbols - start learning these codes now because it will soon be your new language.