LO2

A platinum Hello Kitty figurine entitled Queen, encrusted with diamonds, on display at a Tokyo department store August 31, 2004. The 41mm-tall 'Queen' Kitty was created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the popular character, and is worth 10.5 million yen ($95,640) including tax.

Reason #131 why I wish I was rich: Visionaire Magazine.

I had heard of the "Play" issue of Visionaire before, but I didn't know the actual magazine title, so I never got to get a closer look. Now, thanks to Josh Rubin's Cool Hunting, I can.

Keep in mind that every issue is handmade to ludicrous proportions, and every issue is totally different. Subscriptions are Seven Hundred Dollars for four issues.

The description from the fantastic Visionaire website (An absolute must see for fans of good design):

Visionaire invites you to PLAY with us.

Sixteen artists take to their cameras and computers to create original films in the form of flip books for Visionaire 39 PLAY. This collection of sixteen flip books comes in a sleek tilted case.

Contributors include leading photographers Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, Mario Testino, Steven Klein, and Craig McDean, plus a provocative dance number photographed by Peter Lindbergh and a blooming flower photographed by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

The issue also features a daredevil explosion by video artist Roman Signer; a collaboration between film-graphics firm Imaginary Forces (Minority Report) and architect Greg Lynn; a special message straight from artist Tony Oursler's lips; cross-country travel from the Snorri Bros. directing team; and work from preeminent filmmakers Pedro Almod—var (All About My Mother), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), and Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love), as well as a burlesque Visionaire can-can dancer by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge).

Visionaire 39 PLAY was conceived in collaboration with the creators of PlayStation 2, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE).

Limited Edition of 4000 numbered copies.

Awesome.

Ok, who's going to China with me to see this thing?

Video of the 2008 Beijing National Swimming Center, China

Yes.

Click if you dare have your mind warped by insanity!!!! ...not really.

Many More Here.

Many More Here.

Went a little link happy, didn't I?

I lost the link to where I got this from, but whoever did this was a genius.

METHOD 1

Enter this string in Google search:

“parent directory ” /appz/ -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

“parent directory ” DVDRip -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

“parent directory “ Xvid -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

“parent directory ” Gamez -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

“parent directory ” MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

“parent directory ” Name of Singer or album -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

Notice that I am only changing the word after the parent directory, change it to what you want and you will get a lot of stuff.

METHOD 2

Enter this string in Google search:

?intitle:index.of? mp3

You only need add the name of the song/artist/singer.

Example: ?intitle:index.of? mp3 jackson

METHOD 3

Enter this string in Google search:

inurl:microsoft filetype:iso

You can change the string to watever you want, ex. microsoft to adobe, iso to zip etc…

Eighty-Three things happened.

Most memorable: guy telling me how easy it was to jump from building to building, doing an impossible le parkour move, then slipping shortly afterwards to fall to the ground, head first, followed by a "pop."

Runner-up: driving a sports car through a really nice mall, down stairs and everything (Who do I think I am? Tango, or Cash?).

Dreams are messed up.

Click to Enlarge.

Bought a copy of Sync Magazine at Barnes and Noble today, mainly because I was looking for a new magazine, I dig gadgets, and it was only three bucks.

So not worth the three bucks.

Sync is basically the result of an idiot corporation that said "Hey! Gadgets are cool now. There are some other gadget magazines. And Maxim sells a lot of magazines (see Stuff), so let's to that. Get gadget thingies and put some girls in it! Whee!"

The result is beyond sad. The writers/editors don't know shit about technology, and much of the information is useless. Examples:

Referring to a 400 Mhz Pentium as pre-Pentium II (i.e. Pentium I). Correct me if I'm wrong, but they never existed.

Reporting the same PC as having 64 bits of RAM when purchased. Um. Commodore 64s had more than that.

Also, the PC was purchased with an 8MB video card. No. Also, that would mean that this PC had 1024 times more video memory than regular memory.

Referring to the first Metroid as a "classic first person shooter." No. No no no.

Reporting that US cellphone carriers won't activate the world's smallest cellphone (a Panasonic), despite the fact that my next door neighbor talks on one often.

Also, the big winner for me: Favorably reviewing Johnny Cash's "American V" album. Which hadn't even been put to CD yet when this issue was printed. Even for review copies. Really. Although unlikely, this album could consist entirely of farting noises and prolonged silences, and Sync would be none the wiser.

God, I wish I could start a gadget magazine so I could get all the free gear I could ever want without knowing shit. Wait! I am. I'm a magazine! Send me the free videogamey thingies! I'll be waiting...

Click to Enlarge.

My Dark Horse Is Horny. The dumbest short film ever made. Ever.

Japanese Maze Game. Possibly the scariest flash game ever made.

Helicopter. The greatest flash game ever made.

Astonishingly large hamburger from Denny's Beer Barrel Pub.

A digital wristwatch made from tiny Nixie Tubes (the old old school vacuum tubes used for counters and clocks). Can't decide if it's too geeky to even look at, or too cool to not own.

Unfortunately, this model is currently sold out, but a new one is in development (pray for a cooler case/design).

Found at amug.org.

Teenage Japanese guy beatboxing as good as Rahzel.

Take a bear like this:

Add code like this:

var shit;
shit = document.getElementById("shit");

What do you get? This.

Feeling a little silly, put up an unusual item on eBay. The picture does not adequately describe it.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais has published six images from a security video showing the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings at Atocha station, covering a period of 13 seconds. I normally don't blog images of the "shock" variety, but from what I've gleaned from people I've spoken to, most folks don't really understand how much explosive power one person can easily carry, and I think this illustrates it well without using any possibly overbearing video. Note: if you didn't read about it, the multiple flashes are the result of multiple suicide bombers. A total of 10 bombs exploded on four commuter trains during the March 11 morning rush hour, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800.

Fixing my friend Tracy's laptop. There's so many popups and viruses on this thing, it looks like fricking performance art. She should just turn it on and charge admission.

Anyway, I'm bored, because it's taking forever for the virus scan, and I don't have a mouse plugged into this thing, so websurfing's a pain. Should be working, but I don't wanna.

Depressing thing of the day: I was at a burger joint I enjoy this afternoon, getting some lunch, while I was fixing this laptop. I opened up the wireless connections window to get online, and I noticed that one of the students in the area had set up a network entitled "Shoot The Jews." I just love people.

Does anyone know a cheap effective way to track a wireless signal? I really want to find this guy, knock on his door, and ask "hey, do you actually want to do the Jew shooting, or is it a suggestion for others?" That, or punch him in the neck.

I'm really big on not having a sweeping hatred for groups of people, but does hating people that do have that kind of hate in them count? I don't think it does...

Honesty, it took a while for it to sink in. When I heard about this film, my Pre-Spider-Man-X-Men movie instincts kicked in, and I filed it in the back of my head under "Gonna Be A Big Disappointment."

That was before I saw these pictures, and read this:

Directed By: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

Segment Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Bruce Willis (Hartigan), Mickey Rourke (Marv), Clive Owen (Dwight), Elijah Wood (Kevin), Nick Stahl (Junior/Yellow Bastard), Carla Gugino (Lucille), Brittany Murphy (Shellie), Jaime King (Goldie/Wendy), Jessica Alba (Nancy), Josh Hartnett, Marley Shelton, Maria Bello (Ava Lord), Rosario Dawson (Gail), Benicio Del Toro (Jack), Devon Aoki (Miho), Alexis Bledel (Becky), Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Madsen, Rick Gomez, Sherrell Murphy-Ramos, Scott Teeters, Arie Verveen, Tommy Nix, Makenzie Vega, Lauren-Elaine Edleson, Jason McDonald, and Jason Douglas.

I am taking the day off, and the next day off just to get drunk in celebration. I cannot explain how fucking exciting this is.

So far, the most info I found was here.

Thanks to Jarrett for this bizarre video.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate good looking women, but not so much that I would devote what has to be a huge amount of time compiling a 50 gigabyte database of a quarter million images online. Yikes.

Look at our butts! And our dog! And our lack of sports bras! We even drop the S-bomb TWICE! Wow!

Sorry, but this is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on the internet. And I've seen My Dark Horse is Horny and thirty-seven chewies.

On the bright side, it turned me onto this cool new album.

Found at This Is Broken.

Be aware: ABC's new show Lost is a fatty trunkload of pimp. Watched the first episode on a lark (heard the effects were cool), and I not only got a hour of truly suspense-filled TV, but a hell of an unexpected surprise as well (But only if you're old enough to know who Sid and Marty Krofft are.). I could be wrong about the surprise part, but if I'm not, this could be an amazingly cool series.

Fun sticker for sale at Jinx. I know a few people who might want this one to stick on their laptops.

I know it's five years away, but no more Leno is something deserving one of those online countdown timers or something. 2009 will mark the beginning of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Awesome. More at Reuters

Sorry, but I never enjoyed Leno. I think Conan is much more in the mindset that will fit the show that Johnny Carson made great.

In Reference to The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations, from CMJ's New Music Monthly, Issue 126:

"Note: don't sample this unless you have Wilco money. Yankee...Hotel...Substantial out-of-court settlement."

Oops.

Winzip is required to open this MP3. If you don't already have it, you really should.

Note: I made this track in 2001. I'm much better at this shit now.

I love Annie, love her ass. She was one photographer I don't mind having shoot me. It's an honor. She really captures my soul
Brian Wilson

Brian and I did get along. I never knew why. Now I learn it's my ass. In those days, you know, whatever worked.
Annie Leibovitz

Taken from Rolling Stone #958, The Photographs: The Fifty Greatest Portraits and the Stories Behind Them.

That's a 45-foot drop straight into the Pacific Ocean. They built the diving board themselves. Photo by Tim Barber.

Found at the totally bizarre Vice Magazine.

She showed us, moving like language across the water.
John Hodgen, "My Mother Swimming"

Each instant is a place where we've never been
Mark Strand

Even if you drink unsweetened tea and have a Yankee accent, you're still all right if you love Jesus.
Eve M. Stevens

Set down before her, the wedge of cake, lushly black as creekbed mud, parting under the tines of the fork, brings her to her senses, but then she's sorry, because the whipped cream is an airy petrochemical quotation of real cream, and the aftertaste of licked tire-tread provokes an abrupt tumble into depression.
Elizabeth Tallent, "Eros 101"

As for her hair, it is red and in torment, copious, strenuous, anarchic hair, writhing, heavy, ardent, gorgeous hair tricked into confinement, knotted at the nape of a neck so smooth and white its single mole seems to cast a tiny shadow.
Elizabeth Tallent, "Eros 101"

The oldest thing ever is a 2,200 year old underground mushroom. Really. Story at BBC News.

Anybody want to tell me what the hell happened here?

Bonus: A pic for you Ducati fans.

Just watched the second episode of Lost. This show is great. Really really great. Problem is, you miss an episode, and you're pretty much behind the curve. Luckily, Episodes 1 and 2 are going to air again this Saturday night at seven (central time).

Watch these shows. Tivo them, tape them, download them, whatever. You will not be disappointed.