It’s about time >> Gelato on a stick >> PopBar
PopBar, which just opened in the West Village, offers 25 rotating flavors of gelato on a stick, which are additionally offered dipped in all sorts of toppings from chocolate to pistachio to coconut.
Sophisication and delicousness of gelato + nostalgia of ice cream on a stick = brilliant.
via Grub Street.
Stationery + Snark >> “Mean Cards”
Mean Cards combines snark, humor, a little meanness, but still a little sentiment in their playful cards…
You must know you’re really good friends with someone if they give you a card like this… it at least means they know you well enough to know you won’t take it the wrong way.
Mean Cards here. They also deliver iPhone cards, making it even easier to deliver some snark.
Summer Lovin >> Seasonal Baking
Do you read Smitten Kitchen? If you don’t, you should. Deb, in addition to being a very funny and endearing food writer, has the best recipes and reading the blog will make you want to cook more.
Recently, it’s been making me want to bake more, which admittedly isn’t very hard to do since I’ll take any provocation to bake, but her summer dessert recipes are just too tempting, as they take perfect advantage of summer produce and flavors.
Above and below, this week’s two escapades. First, on Monday, I made this Raspberry Tart below, which I served to two people who claim not to like fruit desserts. They both licked their plates. That’s only barely metaphorical. One of the yummiest summer desserts I’ve ever made.
Then, last night I went for the Cherry Brown Butter Bars at top, and they might have topped the Raspberry Tart. I get so excited when new things arrive at the farmers’ market, and these bars were the perfect excuse to pick up some of the amazing cherries out there right now!
Next up, this Lime Yogurt Cake with Blackberry Sauce. Dear friend Kristin, who I love to talk Smitten Kitchen with, made this one recently and said it rocked her world.
Handmade Nation >> Sweat Shop Paris
This unassuming cafe in Paris, called Sweat Shop, has become the cool new hangout for hipsters with a penchant for sewing their own clothes/accessories/crafts/etc.
With ten Singer sewing machines, customers can use the cafe like a sewing version of a cybercafe– paying to use the machines either by the hour or for a full day, in which case coffee, tea, and snacks are included.
Above, owners Martena Duss, a makeup artist, and Sissi Holleis, who had her own clothing line before opening the cafe. In addition to cafe fare and use of the sewing machines, the ladies offer classes on various sewing techniques as well as kits that include all the patterns and materials necessary to make different things…
Must See >> Winnebago Man
***For some reason the trailer is not appearing on certain browsers. If that happens, just click the jump, and then the whole post should appear, including both videos.
Ever wonder what happens to the people who become accidentally famous via youtube?
Dying to see this documentary, which I think has the potential to be really touching…
“Jack Rebney is the most famous man you’ve never heard of — an RV salesman whose hilarious, foul-mouthed outbursts circulated underground on VHS tapes in the 90s before turning into a full-blown Internet phenomenon in 2005. Today, the “Winnebago Man” has been seen by more than 20 million people worldwide, and is regarded as one of the first and funniest viral videos. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer goes in search of Rebney — and finds him living alone on a mountain top, unaware of his fame. WINNEBAGO MAN is a laugh-out-loud look at viral culture and an unexpectedly poignant tale of one man’s response to unintended celebrity.” -From the Winnebago Man website
Click through for the original Winnebago Man youtube clip, which is even less SFW than the trailer above, as well as more on the film and the history of the clip.
“Following a two-week shoot in August 1988 for a Winnebago sales ad, a 4-minute outtakes reel surfaced and eventually came to be known as “Winnebago Man.” While the finished sales ad was sent to Winnebago dealers to promote the 1989 Itasca Sunflyer motorhome, copies of the “Winnebago Man” outtakes were being passed amongst the crew and their friends on VHS tape. Eventually the video fell in the hands of videotape collectors, who began copying and trading it, sparking an underground phenomenon that turned Jack Rebney into a cult hero. When the online video revolution took off on YouTube and other websites, Jack Rebney became one of the first viral video superstars.
Today, the “Winnebago Man” clip continues to attract new fans from around the world, including a notable following in Hollywood. The “Winnebago Man” has been quoted in movies and on TV by everyone from Ben Affleck to Alec Baldwin to SpongeBob SquarePants. Conan O’Brien named the “Winnebago Man” video as one of his all-time favorites on YouTube, and Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) is rumored to have sent out copies of “Winnebago Man” as Christmas gifts. Iron Man 2 features a scene with Tony Stark’s dad, inspired by the Winnebago Man outtakes. There’s even a painting of Jack Rebney – as Shrek – that hangs in offices of Dreamworks Animation!”
LustList >> Clare Vivier bags
As my dear friend Kristin put it perfectly, it’s really difficult to find a bag in a gorgeous leather that’s not barraged by logos. I would add to that, and also doesn’t have obnoxious hardware everywhere or other details you’ll be sick of in approx. 3 months. I’m after bags that’ll last and that I’ll still like ten years from now and will ideally only get better as they age.
Clare Vivier bags get it just right, especially the perfectly simple one above in that amazing leather. Immediately on the LustList.
Clare Vivier bags here.
Vanity Fair: “The Top Ten Most Stunning French Actresses”
Not in their same order, as I’ve moved Audrey Tautou, star of my favorite movie (Amelie), to the top of the list, but here they are. Don’t French women just have a different quality than American women? Something more naturally, effortlessly enchanting?
Above, Audrey Tautou, according to VF, at her sexiest in in Coco Avant Chanel (2009), so good.
Brigitte Bardot, “” in God Created Women (1956).
Eva Green, “” The Dreamers (2003)
Emanuelle Beart, “” Manon des Sources (1986)
Marion Cotillard, “” La Vie en Rose (2007).
Jeanne Moreau, Elevator to the Gallows (1958).
Sophie Marceau, “” La Fille de d’Artignan tied with Beyond the Clouds
Catherine Deneuve, “”, Belle du Jour (1967).
Aissa Maiga, “” Bamako (2006).
Isabelle Adjani, “” Queen Margot
VF slideshow here.
Kate MccGwire
I was stopped in my tracks by Kate MccGwire’s pieces constructed out of pigeon feathers. You might have noticed by now that I especially love installation art and art made out of bizarre mediums, so MccGwire’s work definitely fits the bill.
I just love seeing materials reimagined. When it’s done well, it makes you immeditately realize how different the mind of the artist is… for example, I would never in a million years have looked at a pigeon feather and imagined something so beautiful and nuanced. But in the hands of MccGwire, something so basic and mundane is transformed and we suddenly see it through a completely different lens.
The beauty of art like this is a great example of Kant’s idea that universal beauty is found in things that appear to have purpose, but not one that we can actually perceive. In other words, it seems like it should have a purpose, but we can’t tell what that purpose would be, and thus we don’t desire to consume or possess it, we simply derive pleasure from experiencing it.
MccGwire’s organic forms seem independent, like they have a life of their own, a goal, a purpose, but we can’t tell what it would be.
The “cage” element is pretty brilliant. It totally changes how you view the piece. In the one above, the mass of feathers looks like its writhing like a python, quickly growing too large for its cage, and it seems to say something about keeping birds in cages. …Or maybe about what kinds of birds we keep in cages and our narrow view of what’s beautiful– pigeons ordinarily wouldn’t be valued enough to be kept, but with the feathers reimagined by MccGwire, the form is beautiful enough to be put on a pedestal– or in a cage– to be possessed.
In the one below, the glass cloche makes the “bird” seem like it’s a taxidermied specimen, neatly preserved under glass for all time, and the white feathers, compared to the irridescent grey ones, seem so much more still and even peaceful, adding to the RIP connotations of the piece.
More of Kate MccGwire’s work at her website here.
Broken Fingaz Street Art
Always love stop-motion animation. And when it meets street art, well, it’s pretty cool.
The Secret Life of Toys
This Argentine artist, who goes by the moniker “Marker,” uses only toys as his models, and brings them to life in hilarious ways…
Marker’s website, The Secret Life of Toys, here.
