Love Your Feet: Curtis Kulig Gets Into Socks

January 7, 2013, 10:55 am

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Artist and PAPER photographer Curtis "love me" Kulig is continuing his string of fashion collaborations with three Valentine's Day designs for Sweden's Happy Socks, Women's Wear Daily reports today. Following work with Nike, Vans (pictured above) and Catherine Malandrino, Kulig's line with MeUndies just launched at Art Basel, because butts need love too.

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Cocktail of the Week:The Shibui at Neta

January 7, 2013, 11:45 am

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When gorging on sushi, sake makes for a reliably welcome companion to wasabi and soy sauce. But with its elegant bricks of duck-laden crispy rice and Serrano pepper-laced king mushrooms, West Village Japanese boîte Neta is hardly predictable.

Cocktails here are earthy and intriguing combinations that complement the cuisine. Enjoy one  with a plate of cucumber-dressed fluke while peering into the open kitchen, or dine at the communal table; there is no raucous bar. As suggested by its namesake, the Japanese aesthetic of pure, simple beauty, the Shibui is a graceful and subtle drink. It comes courtesy of bartender Aaron Polsky, who if you're not lucky enough to catch in a guest appearance at Neta can be found across town at Amor y Amargo.

A swirl of three equal parts Hakushu 12-year-old single malt Japanese whisky ("light, smoky and well-balanced," according to Polsky); wild cherry- and quinine-infused Maurin Quina white wine; and Gran Classico Bitter liqueur, topped off with spicy-tart Bittermens Burlesque bitters and a dried cherry garnish, the amber-colored Shibui is "essentially a sixth cousin of the Negroni," as Polsky points out.

The Maurin Quina pops with fruit and almond notes, and it may soften the whisky on the palate, but it certainly doesn't lessen its might.

1 oz. Maurin Quina

1 oz. Hakushu 12-year-old single malt Japanese whisky

1 oz. Gran Classico Bitter

10 drops Bittermens Burlesque Bitters

Build ingredients in a rocks glass. Garnish with dried cherries.

Eight Items or Less: Studio 54 Memorabilia For Auction...

January 7, 2013, 12:31 pm

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1. Bleecker Bob's is closing soon and one of the store's employees told the New York Post some funny stories about the store's celebrity customers like Lou Reed, Bruce Willis, Keith Richards, David Bowie and this one about Rick Rubin: "One time Rick Rubin came in and gave me a Def Jam jacket, but it had someone's name on it -- something like 'Greg.' He said the manufacturer printed the wrong name on it so he decided to give it to me instead."

2. Designer Marc Jacobs will be this week's guest at 92Y's "Fashion Icons With Fern Mallis" lecture series on Wednesday, January 9, 8 p.m. at Kaufmann Concert Hall (Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street). $29 tickets are here. (Photo by Bill Farrell/BFAnyc.com)

3. Steve Rubell's private collection of memorabilia from his nightclub, Studio 54, will be auctioned in Florida on January 19. There are tons of celebrity photos, drink tickets, invitations and several copies of a two-album disco compilation called "A Night At Studio 54" that's estimated to sell (in a bundle with five other LPs) for $200 - $300. Go here to see the entire list of items and/or to make a bid online, but don't be surprised if prices end up a lot higher than the estimates.

4. While you've been wasting your time writing "Wash Me" on your neighbor's dirty car, here's an artist who really knows what to do with a blank canvas. (Dirty Car Art)

5. Downton Abbey actor Dan Stevens is set to star with Dominic Cooper in a "love-triangle" film about British painter Alfred Munnings. The film, "Summer in February," is currently in post-production. (Telegraph; photo by Joe Schildhorn/BFAnyc.com)

6. If the US Treasury mints a $1 trillion platinum coin, will Obama avoid another debt-ceiling showdown? (Outside the Beltway)

7. Still using your GoPro camera for snowboarding and sky diving? Attach it to your trombone, dude!

Style Scraps: Twincest in Philipp Plein's Ads + Kate Lanphear Is Going to T

January 8, 2013, 9:33 am

≫ Next: Watch Jodie Harsh Go To A Crazy Drag Party Full of Hot Dudes in "The Sextape, Pt. 4: If You Ain't Got Soul"

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This morning, T magazine retweeted: "Kate Lanphear has joined T: The New York Times Style Magazine as style director. She'll be at the upcoming women's shows with Team T." Congrats, Kate! [via The Cut]
 

The Venezuelan government has officially ruled out kidnapping as a possible cause of Vittorio Missoni's disappearance. [via Fashionista]


The Marc Jacobs beauty line for Sephora will hit shelves in the fall! Prepare yourselves. [via Fashionista]


Holy shit, the new Philipp Plein ads feature two twin brothers making out! (It also features Terry Richardson and Lea T., but that's old news.) Anyway, gross. [via Fashionista]

We love the collages of artist Ernesto Artillo, who combines trendy fashion photography (think scantily clad models of the moment) with ancient pieces of art. The results are slightly terrifying but completely engrossing. [via It's Nice That]


Check out these YGA limited-edition turbans made of re-purposed snakeskin and leather. We like, we like. [via High Snobette]


Carine Roitfeld is going to be a stylist at Balenciaga, which should be a great advantage for Alexander Wang. [via The Cut]


Norma Kamali has launched a new project, Stop Objectification, which aims to stamp out the objectification of women by sharing their day-to-day experiences of it. She cited fashion as being a particularly bad culprit, noting that "our medium, our ads and our promotions say, 'You're not thin enough, pretty enough, rich enough to buy this dress this girl's wearing.' It's perverse. It's a really kind of a strange business we're in." Agreed. [via Fashionista]

Watch Jodie Harsh Go To A Crazy Drag Party Full of Hot Dudes in "The Sextape, Pt. 4: If You Ain't Got Soul"

January 8, 2013, 11:51 am

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Here's your drag party/sex party moment of the day, brought to you by Room Service, the popular London-based gay party. In the fourth installment of the gay pornstar/nightlife impresario mash-up that is "The Sextape" video series, we see British queen Jodie Harsh cross the pond for a party steeped in debauchery and Jeremy Scott. Some of PAPER's favorite gays make appearances, the party looks looks crazy and everyone involved is absurdly hot. All in all, a great late afternoon pick-me-up.

Eight Items or Less: The First Gay Bible...

January 8, 2013, 1:05 pm

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1. The Ace Hotel (20 West 29th Street) has a cool exhibit in their lobby gallery called "Fifty and Fifty" that features graphic interpretations of state mottos. Greenpoint, Brooklyn, designer Dan Cassaro asked fifty people to "re-imagine" and illustrate the motto of their home states and the results are amusing and informative. Did you know the state motto of Michigan ("If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you")?

Recovering Eyebeam's Archive from DEEPSPEED media on Vimeo. 

2. Chelsea's Eyebeam Art + Technology Center (540 West 21st Street) is bouncing back from Sandy-inflicted damage with a new exhibit, lecture series, workshops and film screening that "examines the challenges of digital preservation." The free event is called "The Future of the Digital Archive" and it runs from January 8 to 12, plus there's a $25/ticket benefit reception on January 10, 7 to 9 p.m. All the details and benefit tickets are here. 

3. Stealth saucer.

4. NYC's award-winning nightclub Cielo (18 Little West 12th Street) is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year and they've scheduled 10 special events during January. Stop in and say "hello" to Nic and the whole crew. Can we get on the list for Jan 20th? Here's the line-up: 

January 10 Cesar Merveille + Maayan Nidam (Cadenza Showcase)

January 12 Ryan Crosson (Visionquest) & Manik

January 17 The Martinez Brothers

January 18 Wolf + Lamb vs Soul Clap

January 19 Tania Vulcano, Willie Graff, + Filsonik

January 20 Horse Meat Disco

January 24 Victor Calderone

January 25 Tedd Patterson

January 26 Nicolas Matar & Willie Graff

January 31 Todd Terje & Danny Krivit

5. Out now: The first gay Bible -- known as "The Queen James Bible" -- tries to "resolve interpretive ambiguity as it pertains to homosexuality." Order yours on Amazon ($34.95). (via dot429)

6. The kilogram has gained weight because of surface contamination. (Yahoo!)

7. A parkour gym opened in Bushwick. Seriously. (The Brooklyn Paper)

This Burger Blog Is Pretty Insane

January 8, 2013, 1:15 pm

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We just learned of this absolutely crazy blog called Fat & Furious Burger, which has raised burger Instagram-ing to a very laborious artform. We don't know who runs the blog -- we just know that he's French -- but the images are cheeky, fun, and sure to make you slightly hungry through your awe. Check 'em out below.


The Burger Is A Lonely Hunter.


Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the burger.


Bling burger.
 

We'll take a drumstick, please.


This burger may have a deep impact --sorry, we had to -- on hunger as we know it.
 

What happens when you unwrap it?


Heart disease.


We'll take one scoop, please.

Bill Pullman Shares His Homegrown Remedies

January 8, 2013, 1:30 pm

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Presidential sitcom 1600 Penn hits NBC next week, but star Bill Pullman has been on his own bully pulpit, protecting the "Hollywood" sign from heavyweight developers and popularizing the new L.A. trend of outdoor harvesting parties he calls "picking kitchens." Pullman has a personal stake in both issues: he owns a 2 ½-acre orchard below the sign and has been a fresh fruit activist since he was five, a fact that caught the attention of Canadian director Young Chang, who features Pullman in his new documentary The Fruit Hunters.

What's the highlight of growing your own fruit?

Anyone that I've ever spoken to from anywhere around the world, all seem to share the biggest joy when they are finally sitting down to feast on a meal with loved ones. The true value of homegrown food is registered by the company you share it with. No one is trying to be an agricultural genius, we just want quality food and relationships.

Any secret fruity remedies?

You want all my secrets don't you? We harvest and juice home-grown lemons, then pour the juice into ice trays and freeze them up. I use them in ice water daily and if I'm feeling a little sick, I pop a cube in some hot tea with a little apple juice, honey and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. It makes that sore throat disappear.

Have you ever grown marijuana?

Um ... No, that is a very complicated subject. I think it's a good experiment and if it's done responsibly, sustainably, and informatively in small farms it could be beneficial.

What angers you the most about the food industry?

When I hear people say, 'Oh I can't eat that, it's just growing on a wild tree.'  It actually makes me sad and pisses me off. I feel like we are getting further and further away from nature. When people won't eat a piece of fruit because it isn't in Saran wrap, I'm not sure if that's because of not being educated or if it's just the commercial world taking over.

Did you climb trees when you were little?

I still do. When I was a little boy we had this amazing old apple tree in the backyard. I remember making a sign that said "The Reading Tree," and I would lay back on a thick branch, munch an apple and read a book.

You started a new trend in L.A. What exactly is a "picking kitchen"?

That's the real core of the magic. We all meet up around 9 a.m., split up into groups of six and go around harvesting fruit off trees in different neighborhoods and along freeways. While we start gathering bags and piling them on corners, trucks come pick them up then take them to the pop-up kitchen, which then washes and separates them. We have a little community feast and then donate the rest to local food banks.

You've played the president before and you're doing it again in 1600 Penn. Any tips to playing the most powerful man in the world?

This is different from the last time because it's a comedy, packed with surprises. But no matter the case, the president has to keep his cards close to his chest and it helps that President Obama's ex-speechwriter [Jon Lovett] is now co-creator and head writer for the show. He gave me three speeches to study: the Affordable Care Act speech, the revoking of Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Correspondents' Dinner Roast. Need I say more? 

You recently shot Beyond Apollo. Are you down with commercial space travel?

Oh man yeah, put me on the next flight! There is an addictive nature to space; some of the things astronauts talk about when they come back are so mesmerizing. Tom Jones (not the singer) says the two most amazing things about space travel are the teamwork it takes to make it happen and the pure aesthetic of that vast visual world. Every second your eyes are staring out into space is spectacular.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

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Morning Funnies: Betty White, National Treasure

January 9, 2013, 6:30 am

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Oh no, too cute! Betty White meets Jimmy Fallon's dog, Gary. (Go to the 2:50 mark)

And in part 2...



Betty says something amazingly bitch about Kim Kardashian. This woman is a national treasure. [LNJF]

Tina Fey is in final negotiations to star as a Russian gulag prison guard in the next Muppets movie, a "European-set adventure" co-starring Ty Burell and Ricky Gervais. Fingers crossed for jewel thieves, pencil mustaches, tandem bicycle chases and Miss Piggy in an ushanka. [Flavorwire]

Each episode is just 30 minutes of Ryan Loche standing very still, making that exact face.  [100YearsofLolitude]

Lego pot leaves, anyone? [Reddit]

Welcome to Puggingston Court. Pugglesby will show you to your chambers.[Afernoonsnoozebutton]

OK. [AfternoonSnoozeButton]

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm really looking forward to this season of American Idol. [ONTD]

New policy. [Flickr via New York Shitty]

Bruce Willis on the set of Pulp Fiction, enjoying a Pepsi. [FYeah1990s]

If you need us, we'll be staring at this for the rest of the day. [FYeahDementia]

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Cuckoo New Video

January 9, 2013, 8:28 am

≫ Next: Style Scraps: A Chanel Show Is Coming To Texas + Beck Stars In The New Saint Laurent Ads

≪ Previous: Morning Funnies: Betty White, National Treasure

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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion use a different and colorful animation stye for their new "Bag of Bones" video.  Directed by Lucy Dyson and Joseph Jensen, the clip looks like it was made from old magazine cut-outs and then switches to live footage and splashes of blood. It's pretty funny, too.  The NYC-based trio is playing at the Bell House (149 7th Street, Gowanus) on Sunday, January 13, for the WFMU benefit -- the station lost two FM transmitters during Sandy.  Tickets for that show (with The Relatives, Dot Wiggin Band, Arrington Di Dionyso and DJ Jonathan Toubin) are HERE.

Style Scraps: A Chanel Show Is Coming To Texas + Beck Stars In The New Saint Laurent Ads

January 9, 2013, 9:01 am

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Beck is the new face of Saint Laurent Paris. We feel like we should be weirded out by this but somehow it works. [via Complex]

Karl Lagerfeld is taking Chanel's next Métier d'Arts show to Texas! When asked why he made the decision, he said: "I love Texas. I love Texans. There's another reason. When Chanel reopened, the French press was beyond nasty. The only press that understood it immediately was the American press, and Neiman Marcus gave her the Oscar for her collection, so I think it's a nice thing to go there." Here's hoping they erect a larger-than-life ode to the lone star state. We're gunning for a giant snake encrusted with jewels. [via The Cut]


Since Eva Mendez couldn't make it to the premiere of Gangster Squad, Ryan Gosling's mom accompanied him, wearing clothes from Eva Mendez's closet. Weird, but then again why not? [via Gawker]


Fashionista helpfully pulled the best quotes from the Harper's Bazaar article "24 Hours with Roberto Cavalli." Here are our favorites:

1) "I cannot sleep when I am dressed. I have to be naked. I am like Marilyn Monroe."
2) "I used to have a small tiger and a monkey but not anymore. The monkey was mean."
3) "I went to Papua New Guinea a couple of years ago and met one of the last cannibal tribes existing on the planet. Very exciting!"

Who knew?


PPR is rumored to really be working towards giving Christopher Kane his own luxury label. They're apparently looking for the "chief executive," so if that sounds like the job for you, send them that resume! [via The Cut]


There were some pretty out-there looks going on at the MAN show -- which, for those who are interested, is a collaboration between Topman and Fashion East, a British non-profit -- in London. [via Huffington Post]


Attention, shoe-lovers everywhere: The Generic Man and Comme des Garçons are collaborating on a line of shoes, which are available at Commes des Garçons worldwide. We'd spring for a pair. [via Press Release]

Emil & Friends Perform "Royal Oats" and "Ali Baba" in the PAPER Kitchen

January 9, 2013, 9:30 am

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"Royal Oats"

"Ali Baba"

AndrewAndrew Insta-Review Golden Boy and Water by the Spoonful

January 9, 2013, 10:30 am

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Golden Boy

Golden Boy, now playing at the Bellasco Theatre, was such a hit when it played the very same house over 75 years ago that it made the leap to film in two short years. Will the current revival's star-studded cast -- Tony Shalhoub from television's Monk and the Men In Black films and Seth Numrich of War Horse fame -- garner the same knock-out response or is this aging champ to old to go the full nine rounds? Find out in our full review!

Water by the Spoonful

2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes' Water by the Spoonful, now playing at the Second Stage Theatre, is the story of Elliot, a Puerto Rican veteran with a troubled past. When the aunt who raised him dies he's forced to confront his mother, who abandoned him. She may have cleaned up her act and started an online support community but is she just replacing one addiction with another? Find out if people can truly cambiar in our full review!

Web Design and Production Interns Wanted!

January 9, 2013, 10:45 am

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We're looking for a few good design and production interns this winter/spring to help out with basic web-related tasks like editing photos, formatting feature stories and photo galleries, and maybe even Photoshopping someone's head onto another person's body or two.

Here's what we're looking for: a quick-learner who's detail-oriented and thorough. You should be good with HTML, love editing photos and have a knack for coming to work sober. You should also enjoy working in an open, collaborative environment and petting dogs (we usually have two to four scampering around on any given day). It's also a huge plus if you're familiar with, and enjoy reading, our website and magazine but, at the very least, please double-check your email and make sure you're not applying to VICE, NYLON, PASTE, FADER, or SPIN (you'd be surprised how often that happens)! Video editing skills are also a plus (though not required).

Please send resumes and a brief cover letter about yourself to abbys@papermag.com. The internship is unpaid but we are able to offer college credit. Applicants should live in the New York City area

Above: This is our previous design intern, Timothy. He's studying abroad this semester in Barcelona and we were sorry to see him go.

Our 2013 Golden Globes Predictions

January 9, 2013, 11:15 am

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Actress Most Likely to Burst Into Tears If She Wins, Charming and Slightly Annoying Us All: Anne Hathaway, who's nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables.

The Winner We're Going to Be Pissed About: The Big Bang Theory, which we saw once on an airplane and turned off half-way through (and that was AFTER watching all of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and crying at the end), is nominated for "Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical" alongside Episodes, Girls, Modern Family and Smash. Where is 30 Rock and Parks & Rec? Why does the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hate TV?

Most likely to Lose But Shouldn't Because He Is One of the Best Actors Ever and If You've Never Watched Deadwood, Oh My God, Watch It: John Hawkes.

Most Likely to Over-Indulge at the Open Bar: Jack Black, who's nominated for a "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Comedy or Musical" award for his role in Bernie and, given that he's up against Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables), Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), and Bill Murray (Hyde Park on Hudson), he'll ... probably not win.

Movie That Will Probably Sweep More Awards Than You Want It To: Lincoln. 

Movie Most Likely to Win the Foreign Category and That You Still Haven't Seen But Keep Meaning to See: Amour.

Actors Most Likely to Give an "I'm Just Happy to Be Here" Smile Whenever the Camera Pans to Them: Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt who were both nominated for "Best Actor/Actress in a Motion Picture -- Comedy or Musical" award for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Does this movie exist?

Embarrassing Typo on the Golden Globes Website Most Likely to Remain Uncorrected: Leaving out the "c" in "Deschanel."

TV Mini-Series You're Going to Search For On Demand As Soon As the Golden Globes Are Over: BBC America's The Hour. It's like Mad Men-meets-Newsroom meets...Homeland (we think)! We need to DVR it, too!

Renaissance-Man Director Whom Other Directors Are Most Likely to Be Secretly Jealous Of:  Tom Tykwer, who co-wrote the score to Cloud Atlas.

Most Likely to Just Be a Coincidence (But What if it Isn't? And What Does it Mean?): Les Mis is the only musical/comedy best picture nominee to have neither a color nor a celestial phenomenon in its title. Other films in this category: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Salmon Fishing In the Yemen and Silver Linings Playbook.

Competition Most Likely to Be a Little Awkward: The night's co-hosts, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, are both nominated for "Best Performance By An Actress in A Television Series -- Comedy or Musical."

Mean Nickname We'll Most Likely Give to a Movie While We're Live-Tweeting: "Django Dumbchained." Runner up: "Fartgo."

Person You Will Most Likely See On Screen While the Nominees for Best Actor Are Read and Be Like, "What movie was he in this year?" Richard Gere.

Nominee Who Will Be Having a Great Time Because He Is the Best: Bill Murray.

Nominee Who Won't Show Up: Maggie Smith. She is better than all of us.

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Maude Apatow Does the Best Kardashian Impersonations Ever

January 9, 2013, 12:30 pm

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We saw This Is 40 over the holidays and, even though Judd Apatow could've ended the movie 27 minutes before he did, it was still pretty great. One of our favorite subplots by far was the quasi-romance between Sadie and her Bieber 1.0-esque classmate Joseph (played by Maude Apatow -- daughter of Judd and Leslie Mann -- and Ryan Lee, respectively) and we could've used a little bit more of them and a little bit less of Albert Brooks and John Lithgow playing Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann's respective well-meaning but crappy fathers (though Lost In America is still one of our all-time favorite movies). Fortunately, Funny Or Die posted this deleted scene from This Is 40 featuring the star-crossed tweens video chatting about the Kardashian sisters. You should watch it because Maude's impressions of Khloe, Kourtney and Kim (especially Khloe) are pitch-perfect -- down to their nasally whining and liberal use of 'creaking voice.'

If E! ever needs to hire someone to dub over a KUWTK episode, Maude's apparently your girl.

Eight Items or Less: Japanese Schoolgirls vs. Robots

January 9, 2013, 1:10 pm

≫ Next: Welcome: Jan Chipchase's Red Mat Project

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1. Lola Montes Schnabel opens "Within Reach," an exhibit of her new paintings, next week in New York City. Tripoli Gallery is mounting the show in a pop-up space at 980 Madison Avenue on the 3rd floor. It will be up until February 11.

2. Save the date: The annual "No Pants Subway Ride" is this Sunday, January 13. HERE's all the details. (Photo via WikiCommons)

3. School of Seven Bells plays a FREE (with R.S.V.P. here) show at the Dr. Marten's store (868 Broadway) next Wednesday, January 16, 6 p.m. White Castle is one of the sponsors.

4. "Last Night's Party" made a video! Nightlife photog Merlin Bronques is apparently releasing an album on Dim Mak and he shot this clip for a track called "Lies" with his GoPro camera.

5. BATTLE OF THE BANDS: Compressorhead vs. BabyMetal.

6. Jens Lekman promised to write a song for anybody who would drive his pianist up to Boston following Hurricane Sandy -- and he did. (Consequence of Sound, photo via Flickr)

Welcome: Jan Chipchase's Red Mat Project

January 9, 2013, 1:35 pm

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In a small café in Shanghai, Jan Chipchase described his latest personal design experiment, Red Mat, which used China's ubiquitous red welcome mat to explore questions of globalization and morality. He was a little concerned. "Normally, we're interested in amplifying the effects of what we're doing. And actually, with this, it's about containing them," Chipchase,  creative director for Global Insights, a global design consulting firm, told me. "I mean, if it gets too big, things could get pretty f*cked. Frankly, I don't know how it's going to play out."

The experiment started with six rules:
1.    It must engage people from across China
2.    Every Chinese person must be able to recognize the final thing that is made
3.    None of the people taking part should understand what is made until the exact moment it is made
4.    Only Chinese people and services can be used
5.    The experiment's goal and process is reviewed after each step
6.    The process must be transparent, insofar as it doesn't compromise Rule 3

In April 2012, volunteers gathered in a large warehouse in Beijing to assemble the pieces. They were given 45 minutes, seemingly random numbers sketched on the reverse side of each piece of mat, and an 8x12 meter area taped off on the warehouse floor. As Chipchase recalls, "Nobody said 'Build a flag.' They could have stacked them up and burnt them. They could have rolled them up. And, if we'd given them four hours to complete the task, maybe they would have come up with a completely different outcome and shape. But, it started as a set of mats; then, in a matter of 15 minutes, a flag emerged."



As soon as volunteers in Beijing assembled the flag, all 100 pieces were dismantled and loaded on a truck headed for Shanghai. Red Mat's year-long final phase will test the result of selling each piece at online auction against selling them through a fixed-market model on China's e-commerce giant, Taobao, which collects revenue from each sale to fund similar experiments among Chinese artists exploring questions of national identity in countries around the world. Chipchase says he's "expecting to be totally ignored, if this is seen as too abstract. The other reaction could be highly nationalistic and 'How dare a foreigner do this?'"

As this final phase kicked off, Chipchase was preparing his move back to the US. He had high hopes for what Red Mat could indicate about society.

"Is it possible to radically change or challenge the status quo, whatever it is, if an individual, a corporation or a foreign government manipulates many little situations with just enough of a touch and then, right at the end, reveals it and, in the revealing, people know what to do, even though just the moment before, they had no idea what it's about? It's that spontaneous coming together that I wanted to explore. I have no idea if this is very, very dumb and a completely self-indulgent waste of time or if it's a blueprint that we have to be very careful with."

To read Chipchase's full Red Mat report, download the booklet here. If you're interested in purchasing a piece from the project, you can visit the official Taobao site or contact Chipchase directly.

Amanda Mooney writes about the Internet and design for Papermag. She is a senior manager for Edelman and works in their Shanghai office.

Morning Funnies: Jimmy Kimmel Makes More Celebrities Read Mean Tweets

January 10, 2013, 6:30 am

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Here's a video of fast-food employees getting freaked out when a driver-less car pulls up to the drive-thru window. In reality, the driver has made a car seat costume. The window-opening quadruple-take at 2:45 is pretty awesome. [via Gawker]

It's been a while since we checked in on that website TotallyLooksLike.com and upon our perusal, we saw this gem: Quentin Tarantino = Really High Guy. Brilliant. [via Totally Looks Like]

The only New Year's resolutions worth having. [Thanks Jonah!]

Little kiss. [via Coin Farts]

Personally, we prefer to think there's a Wendy's. [via Rats Off]

Here's a semi-mulleted Courtney Cox talking about periods and feelings in a 1985 Tampax commercial. [via Buzzfeed]

Remember that time Macaulay Culkin and Michael Jackson wore matching outfits to hang out with E.T.? [via Sofa Chips]

 

Some dum dums in Virginia called the police to say that a lion was on the loose. It was actually just a golden labradoodle by the name of Charles the Monarch whose owners have shaved him like a lion. Watch him playing above. [via Gawker]

Dope threads! [via Pizzza Time]

Here's what happens when Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling interrupt Jimmy Kimmel's show to sell knives during an infomercial. [Vulture]

And, while we're at it, Jimmy Kimmel aired his latest installment of "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets" featuring Selena Gomez, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Tom Arnold, Anderson Cooper, Simon Cowell and others reading means things people tweeted at them. Tom Arnold's is the best/grossest. [via YouTube]

Visit the "L.E.S." with Childish Gambino

January 10, 2013, 7:55 am

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How about a night out in New York City. Nothing better, right? If you don't live here, this new Childish Gambino clip will give you a little taste of our "L.E.S." Gambino, of course, is the actor -- he plays "Sandy" on the upcoming season 2 of Girls -- comedian and rap artist otherwise known as Donald Glover. The song is from his major-label album, Camp, released in 2011 on Glassnote. He supposedly came up with the Childish Gambino name by using the Wu-Tang Name Generator -- and we believe him. Ours, btw, is "Irate Worlock."

[LES from Ibra Ake on Vimeo]