That was a tempting purchase I left behind this weekend. A glass from the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair, with the Sunsphere likely represented by that red ball in the top left? Nice. Thank you Simpsons for making me care about things I never would have cared about otherwise.

P.S. The Simpsons episode I'm talking about? Gotta be one of my top 5. For sure.

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If you didn't already know this, sometimes my girl Jenna send me some cool stuff. Here's a selection of items she sent me recently:

Michelangelo Nintendo Remix. Impressive. Tragic. Cute.

Larger paper mache animal and human heads. Weird stuff. Check out more crazy stuff from the whole catalog.

Shoes that make everyone the same height. I would not need those shoes, as I am 2 meters tall with regular shoes on. My license says 198cm, which always makes me sad. Why didn't I just say I was 200cm!? It sounds so much cooler.
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Here's a shoe that is definitely on my 'to get' list. Some day. Still kicking myself for a pair I found on sale in my size about 2 years ago and didn't pick up.

Such a classic. Love it. Gotta love A Time To Get for featuring it. Great taste over on that blog.
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Arial, it's a little bit bullshit. Well said.

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This is a great response to the presence of the Westboro Baptist Church.

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President Obama looks at awesome things. Well done! I gotta go with the Tardis as my favourite, just because the Tardis is awesome, but they're pretty much all great.

If Fonts Were Dogs. Been thinking about dogs a lot lately. Not ready for one yet, but maybe someday. Looking at adorable puppies on kijiji is both great and terrible.

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Hobbit houses in real life. How long have I wanted to live in a hobbit hole (just ignore how poorly I might fit in one for a second...)? Pretty much for ever. Neat stuff.

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Nintendo cartridge harmonica. So clever! Awesome!

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Fixing monuments with lego. Clever & awesome as well. Neat stuff.

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Hey Marc, speaking of things you might in a beautiful dream, check this out. OH MAN could not be more correct. I want to eat that. Of course, the chance of dying immediately would be high, but it might be worth it... Except I just realized that it looks like it's made with cheese slices. Missed opportunity on that one.

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While looking for something else today, I discovered these shoes, and instantly became obsessed with the idea of them. Neat stuff. I'd like to try on a pair. Buying them seems impractical obviously, but just to try them on could be pretty cool.

Apparently blogging fell apart on me last week as we found ourselves shopping for house stuff every evening.

This weekend, as the image above indicates (which was an awesome project to get to do, by the way), was Marc & Celene's wedding, which was a great time. Good people to hang out with all over the place. And now that it's over I can finally wear my groomsman shoes out and about. Got 'em on right now.

Hopefully I'll get back to posting more now, but we'll see, it's film guide time at the Princess right now...
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Jenna sent me this one and my only response was 'DAMN.' Nice stuff.
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Sometimes I just don't know what to make of Richard Linklater. I really want to love him. He made one of my favourite movies, employed some great sounding practices while doing so, and has also made a number of other interesting films. But then he's also made some crap.

I guess I didn't realize that Me and Orson Welles is one of his, but when I saw this poster for it, it just made me think that he's out to make some money, you know? I do think that the movie could be good, but the marketing is just so lacklustre and pandering feeling, you know? Citing School of Rock (mainstream, fun movie) and Before Sunset (romance!) is obviously toeing the mainstream line, versus the possible tag of 'From the Director of Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, and A Scanner Darkly,' which would definitely get ME to watch the movie. It's just hard to know what to make of such fluctuations.
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Speaking of artists fluctuating back and forth from mainstream to underground, Shepard Fairey designed the program for the Grammy's? Seriously? It's like, the worst award show.
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Somewhat entertaining, definitely tragic: Tacos exploding in slow motion

Believe me, poster, I wish...

It seems like my favourite two months are just slipping past my eyes. With one stress after another, time just keeps trucking past me. Lots of good things are happening though, so I can't really complain. I just love fall, but keep feeling too tired or busy to appreciate it. Oh well, there are many more autumn's to come (and still November too!) (image from Absolute Sellout)
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This past weekend, thanks to Sue and Ron's friends, I got to drive an Olympia Ice Resurfacer. Pretty awesome.

We had a tour of the factory in Elmira, where most of each machine is hand built from the frame up. Impressive stuff. It's unfortunate that the name Zamboni is so prominent, as Olympia probably does bigger business, and is a home-grown Canadian product. Their machines are used all around the world. Definitely something to be proud of.

Resurfice is actually providing all of the ice resurfacers that will be used at the Vancouver olympics. The machine I drove is one of the ones being sent out there, one of their new electric powered machines (it was so quiet!).
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Loving these skateboard decks. Just the right amount of dark/creepy-ness. And nice patterns to boot.
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The grey version of these shoes look pretty nice! I'm not sure how they'd look in person, or on (especially on big feet like mine), but I'm loving the concept. Like a pea coat for your feet.
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This guy doesn't go by the name Andy Awesome for nothing. Such cute art!
Charlie Brown and Linus!
Batman and Robin!
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Here's an awesome series of pictures about crate digging, and the reasons not to do it, fittingly called Crate Digging, Don't Do It. There's a nice intro to it, that explains what crate digging is in case you don't know. The lettering is particularly nice in each one, and I'm really just digging the overall style too.

My form of crate digging is more digging through stacks of last season's shoes, looking for great deals, but you know, I think I understand.
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Jenna sent me a link to a great looking little book for kids written by Ann Rand, and illustrated by her husband, designer Paul Rand, called Sparkle and Spin: a Book About Words. It shouldn't surprise you to hear that I want it. Examples of great design being used in products for kids keep popping onto my radar recently. Specifically, I LOVE the Charley Harper ABC's board book, 123 board book, and blocks. I bet you can guess what friends of mine will be getting when they have kids! While buying copies of everything for myself too, of course (actually, maybe two for when I actually have kids...)
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Looking at Paul Rand stuff got me thinking about Saul Bass, who, of course, is another design god. Being a former film student, I obviously knew a thing or two about his movie title work (you know, aside from his movie poster work) but it never occurred to me that he pioneered the idea of making interesting opening titles. Crazy. Check out this video to see the man himself talk about some of his big title sequences. Of course, you'll get to see some sequences too if you don't know what I'm talking about.
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All Known Metal Bands. Interesting, funny, and maybe informative? (I've never actually flipped through the book, just stumbled upon the title...) Beautiful cover though. Not surprisingly for McSweeney's though, of course.
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Great Flickr set here: anthropomorphic cannibalism. Definitely something I love seeing in a sign, all brought together in one nice little set.