Check out Slüm, an interesting look at making your home liveable when you're in a poverty stricken country (or just poverty stricken general area). The strangest part about the site isn't the thrown together house designs or lean-to style beds, but rather the superbly light and lush photography. What a kick in the shins it would be to have some random company like Benetton send some expensive photographers down to your "hovel" to photograph it. It's not quite exploitation, because they are praising the goods, but it's close.

Ever wish you could drive a tiny remote controlled car across the internet in someone's office? Your dreams come true.

Thank you Nick for the link to the first Arnold Campaign Ad. I started laughing as soon as it started.. noone says "California" with quite the pizazz that he does. Now when is Larry Flynt going to start promoting?

I saw this on Die Puny Humans (thanks Rocco) the other day and thought "okay, now what in the world is the point of that!?" Yea, they moved it to the right spot once it was done growing but it's still strangely creepy. Like humans are becoming capable of autotomy. Russians are kooks.

MIT is offering Open Course Ware, free classes to anyone who is interested in participating. Pretty amazing, but I bet the kids who pay to go there are pissed.

I will read this once I get into the office.. but that picture of Maynard is amazing. Pigtails and all.

The other day I received this email: The bearded trucker hat look, eh? How cool. Um... that was sarcasm..

To which I responded: Thanks for the kind words. How nice of you. Umm.. that was also sarcasm.

But alas, the email bounced back. I only wish "greg@deadcelebrities.com" had supplied a valid email address that I could respond to. It's not like I ever claimed to be the pinnacle of coolness, or even remotely cool. In fact, I often proclaim how lame and geeky I am. I'm glad he spent those 15 seconds of his day in such a productive manner.

My brother put it best... Just when you thought it was safe to go to the post office... Definetly kind of creepy, that whole invasion of privacy thing.

David Blaine's next trick is to encase himself in a box suspended over the river Thames for 44 days. No food, no water, no outside stimuli, just kickin it in a Plexiglass box. I liked him better when he made cards stick to things.

Apparently I love Swedish design because this site is great. Very simple straightforward portfolio approach, kind of mocking the business world, super hot logo, and a variety of really strong works. And that happens fairly consistently with designers from Sweden.

Interesting example of just how much airbrushing goes on with photography. Kind of an extreme case, but it is quite ridiculous.

I need to remember the mp3's from the Ultimate Driving Experience site when I get home. The guitars remind me of Failure a bit, and the vocals remind me of Shudder to Think occasionally. Not a bad combo actually, horrible bandname though.

The latest installment of VAST music is available for download. It's called "Crimson" this time - and it's supposedly 10 new tracks that will help comprise the next full-length VAST record. For $2.99 that's not a bad deal, and the last set ("Turquoise") had some goods on it for sure.

That last post reminds me of something... has anyone noticed that alot of albums have really strong covers but the back cover is just completely half-assed and such a let down? Why is it that the back cover doesn't get the same love that the cover does? Sure it's not being posted in magazines, subway ads, etc. but it's got all the super pertinent information and still represents the band. Know what I'm sayin?

I saw this yesterday and meant to log it - and now I am. Some fake "heavy metal album covers" - though no self-respecting heavy metal artist would ever have any of these covers adorn their disc. They are either too silly, arty, or just too well done ( except maybe this one or this one which are kind of perfect).

Stupid imports.. why you gotta be so expensive? Why's the US market so crappy for singles with cool b-sides and bonus material?

Weird, Moe from the Simpsons is an Emmy winner.

Nice illustration stylings over here. Lots of goods to browse. Don'tcha think?

Noice, a little Design is Kinky via NinjaCruise. Love that drawing style.. and now I've got it as a desktop. The skull is the best.

New works from Kii Arens are up on his site. The SpinArt stuff strikes me as really cool, or really weak - but I guess that's just me. Nice to see some of his photography up there, diversify that portfolio!