How to Tie a Bow-Tie

Bon Iver covers Feist.

Bon Iver does a sweet rendition of Feist's 'The Park'. Click here to download the free MP3 from Yellow Bird Project.

An EASY DIY project

I love do-it-yourself stuff, but sometimes it's just one little thing that deters me (ex. I need a glue gun? Forget that. An electric mixer? Sigh. A welding torch with a 5-pronged tip? Um... no). Here, at last, a trick from Anthropologie's store designer (damn her) for all those used magazines you just can't bear to trash...

From Apartment Therapy...

Directions:

Pull out any subscription cards from inside the magazine. (And subscribe if you like it--it's so much cheaper than buying off the newstand!)

Flip open the magazines and leave the cover out to the left. Thumb threw (about) ten pages, then fold them in half towards you, tucking the page ends back towards the binding. The crease should be on the right side, and the loose ends should be on the top.

Repeat for the entire magazine, including the back cover. (It's okay to vary the number of pages a little, so don't worry about counting them.)

Fold the cover to the right, over the first crease, and tuck it in towards the binding to secure the folded pages. You'll have a semi-circle fan shape.

Repeat for any other magazines. Place them back to back, with the flat sides together. If you're stacking two on top of each other, rotate the second layer a few degrees so that they stack like bricks, and not directly on top of each other. This will make them more stable.

Yes, We Can Dingbat.

Resigned to the flu bed today (but not foggy enough to not watch the Inauguration), I still have to throw in my shoutout to the Man of the Moment today. Congratulations, Obama, and congratulations world. Now celebrate with (downloadable!) Obamabats! Great for essays.

Nick Cave's Sound Suits

Some of the most amazing pieces of wearable art (if you can call it that) I have ever seen. One of the most intriguing aspects of Nick Cave's "sounds suits" (and no, I don't think THAT Nick Cave), is his grounding principle that a costume can inspire someone to become someone - or something - else for a moment in time. At times traditional, at other times somber, but almost always animated - these suits are what dreams are made of. Check his interview with B/D here, currently showing at the Jack Shainman Gallery in NY.

Oh, and what the hell, here's some of that other Nick Cave for ya'.

Blurb.com

This site has definitely been kicking around for a while, but as wormy ideas of musings and doodles squirm around in my head these days, the thought of ol'Blurby has been keeping me busy. Would be great to compile photos as other memories as a gift to someone, cause really - who actually prints their digital photos these days?

Creepin' on Craigslist Creeps.

As an avid Craigslist user, with my fair share of weird & wonderful transaction encounters, this helped reassure/worry me that this online world be a frightful one.

{via Coudal}

5 Great Things About Hong Kong - #1

Mmm.... dessert balls. Whether it's filled with fresh mango, a sweet bean paste, or whatever other delicious gooey concoction they can come up with, it don't come tastier (or fresher) than this.

5 Great Things About Hong Kong - #2

Shopping. In this way Hong Kong has done me a huge favour: and that is discourage me from any further expeditions of consumerism (well, at least for the time being) back here in Canada. How can anything possibly live up to glories of Argyle Center and it's jam-packed boutiques swarming with cheap & cheerful clothing, accessories, and knee socks? Or the newer and rather unconventional set-up of their malls (picture taking an escalator up 12 floors and walking back down through winding boutiques)? My transition therapy for now will have to be Pacific Mall, till we meet again, sweet shops.

5 Great Things About Hong Kong - #3

People walk around with songbirds in quaint birdcages.

5 Great Things About Hong Kong - #2.

The city that really never sleeps - and instead stays up shopping and eating. Night markets, delicious curry balls, soups, desserts and pastries on every street corner, and even the mall is open till 11pm... 

5 Great Things About Hong Kong - #1.

Cafe de Coral: This massive chain puts McDick's to shame. Large, legible, well-designed signs, constantly evolving menus, aesthetically superior packaging and the service of clean and nutritious meals? And did I mention you could get this - 
for the equivalent of $5 CAD?!?! (Okay, I know, that's the power of conversion), but seriously, bring this bad-boy to Chinatown and I won't eat another Egg McMuffin in my life.