'Been Slacking!

Hello friends and those who are still checking my site after, (heavens!) 2 weeks of not posting anything. As we all know, the holiday season is knocking at the door and I have been left here gasping for air after a hurly-burly couple weeks of non-stop graphic designing and christmas shopping and witnessing my father perform a mountain-man dance in front of hundreds of employees. At least he didn't cross-dress this year.

But yes, I will be back and at it, and with an upcoming holiday trip to HK, be sure to catch some more goodies soon. 

Thanks, and happiest of happy holidays.

"So broke so poor catch the 97 Bloor"

I, too, get on the TTC.

{via Torontoist}

Paint or Die or Love Me

With a dining table like this, who cares what's for dinner?

Get on Santa's "Good" list.

One of the best things I've discovered this week (thanks to Torontoist) is Santa in the City, where good cheer visitors scroll through letters to Santa from kids who just might not get a visit from Santa this year. In partnership with social centres around the GTA, you can read through the letters and "adopt" the letter you want, and to any degree you want, fulfill that child's wishlist. Above, one from Joshua, aged 9. For me, I gotta find some Dora goodies and a Barbie.

M/M (Paris) 2009 Catalogue

For those of you who, like I, cannot afford a poster for 200 Euros, but prefer to safely admire them from a nice comfortable online distance, feast your eyes on M/M's 2009 catalogue. I am especially loving their 2008 decoupage-esque posters. Mmm/m/m//m/mmmmmm....

Cute, furry little pole-dancing animals.

As if I needed another reason to adore animals, strippers, and... Orangina? The fab French come up with a perhaps rather traumatizing interpretation of the Circle of Life for Orangina. Naturellement Pulpeuse. $10 cover, 19+.

{Thanks Michelle!}

Be Sweet cushion

Love this merino wool cushion, with a social conscience, too. Question is: Do I sit on this? Who cares?!

Look out! 100 movie spoilers in 5 minutes!

Save hundred's of dollars in rental and late fees, and use that time you save to do something more useful! Like... umm.... wait... hold on.....

{via CollegeHumor}

Thought about Xmas yet?

It's time to start, or at least think about, the holidays. Judging by this nightmare, there's no better place to start than at the cozy, parking-free domain known as Etsy. After a must needed hiatus from this site (my Visa couldn't handle the pressure), I was back, and in business! Lo and behold, the thing I simply could not resist was this badass brass octopus necklace from Toronto's Chrys Designs Jewelry. 

And for your cutie'p-tootie girlfriend (ahem, hint, cough, hack), why not send her an old-fashioned love letter, with 88% less time and effort than it would take to actually write an old-fashioned love letter?

Yes, the little "I Love You" postcard comes out of the envelope. Awesome. And if it couldn't get any better, it is completely affordable through Etsy. There's even something for that jerk who left you before the holidays. Ohhhh, diss!

Even a rainy weekend wouldn't bring her down.

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.
Some cheer on this drab Saturday in the city.

Interview with Spraygraphic.

Here it is, me yapping about my vision for our planet and how I fit into that vision. Well, not really. Check out my interview on Spraygraphic here.

The New York Times - "Special" Edition

Read all about it.

ABC3D

"ONE OF THE MOST DELIGHTFUL AND INNOVATIVE POP-UP BOOKS I HAVE EVER SEEN.—Robert Sabuda

MARION BATAILLE is graphic and book designer who has never before been published in this country. She lives in Paris. This is just a hand-made mock-up of the actual book which publishes in Oct. 2008. We couldn't be more excited about it.

Also for those asking that's the incredible 30's trio The Boswell Sisters singing "Roll On" "

Check out ABC3D here. Watch the video and enjoy the brilliance.

"For the discerning fashionista".

This is one of my favourite sites to pick up unique clothing pieces, and this is coming from someone who is a) skeptical about buying clothing online unless it is of the mass-produced tshirt variety, and b) skeptical about buying vintage in general. Thus, it speaks volumes that I have poured my former fashion-student faith into Nasty Gal Vintage. Updated regularly with glorious finds, this site has saved me from personally rummaging through the musty bins of junk to amass the diamonds-in-the-rough onto one, functional shopping site. Here, two of my fave vintage dresses on the site, fresh outta the 80's. But it's best to react quickly - there is, obviously, only one in stock. These two are, er, already "SOLD OUT". I could possibly be the culprit.

Kickin' it old school.

Real life Photoshop. The tagline reads "As real as it gets". Love love love this.

The Snowman Scarf.

I remember watching 'The Snowman' at school every year as a child, and today, I think I might love it even more. Almost like a "Le Petit Prince" effect - a beautiful, simple story that earns even more appreciation as I get older and life, gets, well, a lot more complicated. Now wouldn't it be nice to remind yourself of simpler times with this official "The Snowman" fair-trade alpaca wool scarf? It even has Raymond Briggs' signature on it!

Deck the halls with boughs of sabers.

“Neon was an obvious choice for me,” he said, referring to the set of his Spring 2009 Paris debut show. “I think the simple melding of tradition and modernity aptly suits the mood at the moment. we are all looking to a brighter future.” Here, Gareth Pugh's nightmarisly delightful concoction for London's Topshop, er, holiday, display. 

Love it or hate it, (I, personally love it. If you want your red/green, reindeer and rosy-cheeked elves fix, go, well, anywhere else and you'll find it), it's an attention grabber.

{via Style File}

Spraygraphic AOTD.

Thanks, Spraygraphic, for picking me as your artist of the day! Check it out on the link, and don't forget to check back this Friday for my interview.

Criterion.

It's always been a secret dream of mine to design movie posters and their accompanying packaging. Now, I can continue to be jealous of those who do with this collection of fantastic DVD covers from (what else?) the Criterion Collection. These show just how beautiful covers can be, which again, prompts me to ask why Hollywood insists on dumbing down their own DVD releases with lame-azoid covers. Anyway, enough with being disappointed with one segment, instead, let's celebrate the good. Here's some Criterion. Below, some of my favourites:

"It's been a long time comin'..."

For those of us who didn't stay up to watch this, or, er, don't have cable, here it is, Senator, oh, let's just throw it out there, President Obama's acceptance speech.

Palin as President.

This is way too much fun - I mean, so long as it never crosses into the real world. Er, just stay in the World Wide Web, President Palin.

{Thanks Rod for this.}

Tonight is the night, the end of...

This. Fucking. Election.

The fellow behind the canvas.

So we all know the face of Mona Lisa - but how many know the face of da Vinci? See how portrait artist Woldhek cracked that code in this video.

{via Coudal}

Christopher Doyle's Identity Guidelines

Came across this while, coincidentally, in my own mind was mulling over a brand guide I'll be working on with my friend. Would love doing this for myself as I've been doing a huge haulout of my closet and reimagining my "brand" a little. Would be interesting to do this each season as a personal documentary; goodness knows how we look speaks volumes about who we are - or at least who we'd like to be.

3-D is the new 2-D.

Excellent excellent site showcasing the fine work of Amsterdamians (?) Barcinski & Jeanjean. Especially love the concept behind their site for FITC Amsterdam 2008 - it involves cowbells and Brazilian percussion so what more do you need to know? I could link directly to it but then you'd miss out on the fun of tracking it down in their mini virtual Amsteramian world. 

99% fun without 3-D glasses. 127% with.

{via Computerlove}

We have more in common with the Yukon and Nflnd than we thought...

Holy crap! That's a lot of blue! As we beach ourselves back onto the shores of Tory-manned Canada this morning, here's a quick and comprehensive look at how Canada voted (note: the GTA's propensity for Red - man, are we ever products of our environment), compliments of CBC.ca. Nice interactive zoomy map there! 

Kriegsmann on Flickr.

I wish I was the one who found that box in Venice...

A Passion for Fashion and Twisted Ankles

Models, including Canada's own Jessica Stam, literally fell head-over-heels for Prada's, well, heels this past week at Prada's Spring 2009 show. I've never seen anything like this. It's just so blatantly ridiculous to be pushing fashion, even haute couture, to these levels. Below, poor Katie Fogarty one of the many casualties at this show.

{via fashionologie}

'This American Life' tees

Back from a rainy week in the Dominican, and, like most vacations, feeling like saying "oh, Marge, I feel like I need a vacation from that vacation" while crossing my legs and throwing my head back, Starbucks in hand, and what the hell am I even talking about anymore?

In any case, my fine-feathered resorting partner, Michelle, introduced me to that little podcast known as This American Life. As I'm listening to their 'Going Big' episode, I discover the winners of their recent t-shirt design competition. Here: the winners, and some of my personal faves.

DUCK! GUN SHOTS!

It's possible that this video alone will save P. Diddy's career.
Thanks to Justin for this diamond in the rough.

A final, depressing thought on this Friday.

Rickrolled.

During the joy that is my daily commute on the subway this morning, I couldn't help but rip out this ad in Metro today. I was compelled. Fascinated. Unsure if this was real, or just some bad joke, but it just looked so genuinely bad that I couldn't help but follow the link to funcareer.ca. And ah ha! (Insert Giant Corporation's name here) got me good. Kudos to the people behind this prank, because I would otherwise have never bothered to check out their site.

A meal fit for a criminal.

That makes Paul J. Kneale either a genius or a wacko.

NOKIA's Design Manifesto

A corporate manifesto that gives us cynical and internally embattled designers a bit of hope. And hey, though actions speak louder than words, it is commendable for Nokia to at least strive towards their goals here.

{via chroma}

"You won't hear me laughing as I terminate your day."

With help from Nick Hooker (and the PhotoBooth app?), Grace Jones successfully scares the b'geezus out of us with her new single.

More gig posters.

{find and buy pretty well anything at GigPosters, also soom via Well Medicated}

Aesthetic Apparatus

Minneapolis based Aesthetic Apparatus uses their aesthetic apparatus for screenprinting to create dozens and dozen-zos of band posters, art, and (hey, we all gotta pay them bills), Burger King crowns. Check their store for tons of good stuff for your walls.

Now get ready for the most intense screenprinting video ever:

Summer's Ice Cream

Studs that remind me of wistful sun-drenched visits to Summer's Ice Cream in Yorkville. Farewell sweet heat, hello pistachio ice-creamed ear baubles.

T-postman Sam.

This is great. T-shirt subscriptions from T-post based on the latest and greatest current affairs, like the man who woke up from a coma after 19 years (illustrated above, obviously).

TIFF brief

Day -1: On the eve of the TIFF opening, standing in the sweltering sun with makeshift program visor to pickup tickets to Detroit Metal City.

Day 1: TIFF begins! In true spirit I celebrate by going to an unrelated Vice party.

Day 2: Volunteering in English, Cantonese, and French. A bit past midnight (okay, they were behind schedule), enjoys first movie, DMC. Laughs, headbanging, and one Q&A later, home and watching Laguna Beach at 3:30 am.

Day 3: Waiting 2 hours for Lebron James and abandoning that ship for Faubourg 36. Noting how Nora Aboudezer should have ditched the jacket-part of her outfit that afternoon. Volunteering, gets to be a ballot girl on stage, watches Spike Lee introduce Youssou Ndour.

Day 4: Early morning Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Different from book but not bad different. Bad cold. Tourists with TIFF questions for me tonight, bring a hanky.

It's almost Christmas again...

And by Christmas I really actually mean The Toronto International Film Festival, where we essentially do the same thing: lots of unnecessary lining up and dreading the end of it and oh my god i think i heard Brad Pitt on the rooftop can I leave him some cookies.
This year, I have the privilege of not only playing attendee, but also volunteer. So far, I have scored tickets to 'Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist' (good book, by the way), as well as 'Detroit Metal City' (movie poster, above). Some other ones I'm hoping to snag tickets for are:

• 7915 km
• Hunger
• Seraphine
• 24 City
• Birdsong
• Achilles and the Tortoise
• Afterwards
• Blind Loves
• Faubourg 36

See you film buffs there! In the buff!