Yay! Travelwisconsin.com is live.

Heeeeuge congratulations to my team for getting this puppy (and a brand new custom content management system) up and running in a little over 4 months. If it lacks anything in glamour, it makes up for it in brute strength -- integrated mapping, dynamic templates and a full-blown CMS that allows the Wisconsin Deparment of Tourism and their partners to maintain the site... (It may be a little buggy for the next few days, but it works!)

Travel Wisconsin

Well done, Vista.

If you haven't seen the Windows Vista "Clearification" site, you should check it. Great voiceover by Demitri Martin and perfect illustration. Completely engaging and distinct from any Apple site. It'll be interesting to see if this is a brand move or a one-off.



Clearification

Packaged marriage proposal/weekend getaway.

1) I honestly don't know if I'm more impressed by the marketing of this or appalled by the idea of someone buying it.

2) At $60K a pop, could they NOT find a better graphic?

====================================================================================

DETAIL: Valentine's Day Propose Package

Seal the deal forever with that special someone with The James PROPOSE package. Propose to your loved one between February 9th - 19th, 2007 and receive:

* 1 Night's stay in The James Penthouse Loft
* Van Cleef & Arpels Engagement Ring
* Private dinner for two including your own personal Primehouse Chef, romantic private dining room and Chicago Symphony Orchestra 4 string quartet
* Spa Experience for two from THE SPA.
* One year anniversary gift from The James

Rates start at $60,000
(Only 2 packages available)

The James Hotel Group | Packages

Champagne cork guys.

I love the pic from this posting on the DWR site - a group of folks decided to give this year's Champagne Chair Contest a miss and just make what they wanted.



DWR Design Notes :: Hello from the French group

Eat me. Drink me.

Alice in Wonderland dishes! Ace. However, they're missing my faves - The Queen of Hearts, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum. Shame.





Fishs Eddy :: ALICE IN WONDERLAND dinnerware

(via Homestead)

I'd go see this just for the name.

(And the fact that Helvetica, the typeface, and a monk are main characters.)


In 1450, Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press. In Nutley, NJ, Bud and Doug wrote a musical about him. They don't have a cast, an orchestra, or a clue, but they have a lot of hats.



GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL!

Buzzkill coasters.

Pack of six letterpressed coasters with phrases that only your mother can get away with.



Stars & Infinite Darkness :: Buzzkill Coasters

Jim Flora's album covers.

Fantabulous, daddy-o.



JIM FLORA

(via the equally fantabulous Fuse #8)

Stand-alone internet radio.

Not very pretty, but pretty cool.


The AE Wi-Fi Internet Radio is the only stand-alone system we've ever found that works right out of the box. This means no software to load, no complex set-up operations, and no need to be a computer expert. In fact you can tune in Internet radio without even turning on your computer. Simply plug the radio into an AC power outlet located within range of your wireless internet signal and then press the power button to turn it on. The AE Wi-Fi Internet Radio automatically uploads available stations and lists them alphabetically by country and category.

Acoustic Energy Wi-Fi Internet Radio

Broken image graffiti.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.



Wooster Collective: Broken Link

(via the gorgeous Beton & Garten)

The library police.

How fun are these jackets? SO fun. Apparently, they're based on the comic strip at the bottom.




Overdue Media Store

(Kinda via Chris Glass.)

P.O.S.H. Chicago

So, SO many fantastic finds here!





P.O.S.H. Chicago | Silverware, Restaurant China, Flea Market Finds

(Thank you, Wishful Thinking. You're my new hero for turning me onto this store...)

Waiter, there's a chicken in my soup.

Like all our glassware, float animal soup bowls are skillfully handblown from borosilicate glass in the Czech Republic, and were inspired by the delicate handblown animal figurines that are popular in that country.

The rooster, featured in this edition of animal soup signifies good luck in the kitchen.

molo design :: our products - animal float

(via Terramia)

Great cheap plates from CB2.

I've been drooling over the new CB2 catalog...




new shopping and more from CB2

You kinda have to love the simplicity and economy of this.

The Douche Card - $5

(via Found on the Web)

Sticks & stones.

Some lovely organic designs by Bleu Nature.




Bleu nature - Blanc de blanc

(via productdose.com)

Giant bunnies. Real giant bunnies.

Yes, it looks like a camera/perspective trick, but these are real rabbits. German engineering, man. These bun-buns are being bred to help boost food production/eliminate hunger in North Korea.




Watch the video here: For Sale: Giant Bunnies

Read the article here

(bottom photo via BREM experience)

50 Utterly Charming Hotels Around $100

Excellent list of beautiful, economy hotels around the world. It's not easy to find a hotel room in Venice, Istanbul or Maui for $100... They did their homework. If you're planning a trip, you should definitely check this out.

Budget Travel Online :: 50 Utterly Charming Hotels Around $100

The Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona

This looks like a funny little place to stay if you're in Arizona and feeling a little adventurous...


Welcome to The Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona

Art after life.

I was going to make fun of this until I saw the pieces. Beautiful.


Opening this Saturday in Graton, California, Art Honors Life is a gallery that will showcase the work of artists and artisans who create urns and other funeral vessels. The gallery's owner previously organized exhibitions of funeral art and also runs Funeria, an online arts agency that promotes and sells original, finely handcrafted urns, vessels and personal memorial art.

(borrowed from Springwise newsletter | 24 January 2007)

Vic & Bob. (A special post for L-Dawg.)

For those not familiar with Reeves & Mortimer, they're the most surreal comedy sketch artists you may ever see. Certainly not everyone's cuppa, but the BFF and I loved Vic & Bob.



It's hard to hate a show with the following recurring characters:

The Man With The Stick
"The Man With The Stick" is a man (played by Mortimer) dressed in a large paper helmet which covers his face. He also wields a long stick, the end of which holds an object obscured by a bag. In response to this, the audience would cry the catchphrase: "What's on the end of the stick, Vic?".

The man would come out each week to a fanfare, and then proceed to talk casually with Vic about a number of line drawings spaced around his paper helmet. The helmet "graffiti" would act as a pictorial guide to what he'd been investigating during that week. The item on the end of the stick was usually revealed at the very end of each programme.

Over the course of the second series it is revealed that The Man With The Stick has sold his children to Vic, and, since they are still under contract, he is unable to get them back. Vic uses them as a means to various ends, such as trading them for a car, signing them up to the territorial army and selling their souls to the devil. This gradually plunges the Man With The Stick into a terrible depression.

Morrissey, The Consumer Monkey
A monkey puppet with the face of Morrissey, operated by Vic and voiced by Bob. Morrissey the Consumer Monkey would often come on to give advice on shoddy or unsafe consumer goods. Usually these items were manufactured and sold by Reeves & Mortimer Products, and the pair would be forced to try a hasty cover-up.

Morrissey had a theme song, sung in duet with Vic, which began with Morrissey claiming "I like watches, I like woods" and Vic countering with "He likes various consumer goods."

Les
Played by Fred Aylward, Les was Vic's bald headed, dribbling, mute, lab coat wearing assistant. During each show, Vic would reveal a new fact about Les - most notably, that he cannot help but raise a smile whenever he sees a spirit level and that he has a terrible fear of chives. Les also had a fixation with mangoes and was later accompanied by a sycophantic little robot called Dylan.


VIDS:

YouTube :: Reeves and Mortimer - The Two Of Us (In A Bottle)

YouTube :: Reeves & Mortimer - Frustrating monkeys

(Thank you, thank you, Lex10 at GlyphJockey for completely making my day. I salute you.)

Hey, ladies - eat your fiber.

The University of Leeds researchers, who studied 35,000 women, found those who ate 30g of fibre a day had half the risk of those who ate less than 20g.

BBC NEWS :: Fibre 'lowers breast cancer risk'

Whoa.

This is not an ad campaign that I'd want to touch. I actually winced when I saw it.


For nature everyday is 9/11

(via adrants.com)

Superhoodie.

Hooded sweatshirts for graffiti artists, ugly people, snowboarders, fetishists...or just superheros.


ANTICON :: ONLINE STORE

(via my favorite superhero, steelbuddha)

5 things you may not know about me.

I've been tagged by Czeltic Girl to participate in this lil meme. She probably thinks I was ignoring it. Nay, CG, tis not the case. I just had a hard time thinking of things that you might not know about me since I don't really hold a lot back. Especially after a few drinks.

Anyway, here goes. This will, no doubt, be the longest post you'll ever get from me. You have only yourself to blame.

BB Factoid #1:
In high school, I sang a duet from "Shenandoah" with my best friend on a local cable access channel in Beaver Dam, WI. It was part of a telethon to raise funds for the Beaver Dam High School Hockey team. I have absolutely no idea how I got roped into this since a) I didn't attend BDHS and b) to this day I've never seen a BDHS hockey game. It still baffles me.

BB Factoid #2:
My freshman year of college, I accidentally locked myself in my tiny dorm room closet, looking at a Captain Crunch glow in the dark map. Stepped in, shut the door, then realized there was no doorknob on the inside. I will never forget watching my roommate come in 10 minutes later -- me, peering through the louvred grill of my closet door; my roommate, Julie, jumping about 5 feet in the air when I said her name, then laughing her ass off for about a hundred years when she opened the closet door and discovered what I did.

BB Factoid #3:
I have O+ blood. As demonstrated above, having O+ blood does not make you smarter.

BB Factoid #4:
I think Italian is the most beautiful language on earth. However, the only thing I seem to have retained from my Italian classes is the word "apicultura," which means "beekeeper."

BB Factoid #5:
I hate the sound of whistling. Really hate it. I don't know why, but it sends me up the wall. There is one exception to this, though -- my mom's whistling. My mother has a very sweet tendency to whistle in the kitchen. Very quietly. Kind of like humming to herself. Whenever she was mad at me, I knew she'd gotten over it when she started whistling to herself in the kitchen. And, when she was going through chemotherapy, I knew she was doing better when she whistled. So, Mom, you go on whistling to your heart's content.

So, that's it for me. Having paid my dues, I'm now tagging two of my bestest gal pals and blogging buddies, swissmiss and martina. Have at it, girls.

What a blind photographer sees.

Every photo I take I have to have perfectly organized in my head before shooting. I put the camera at the height of my mouth and that's how I photograph people I hear talking. The autofocus helps, but I can manage without it. It's simple. I measure the distance with my hands and the rest is done by my internal desire for images. I know there are always things that escape me, but that's true of photographers who can physically see. My images are fragile; I've never seen them, but I know they exist, and some of them have touched me deeply.

Evgen Bavcar

(via Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society)

First Life vs Second Life

Since I find myself a little skittish about the ever-growing phenomenon/alternate universe of Second Life, I love this. Especially the Q&A section:

Got First Life Questions? We've Got Answers

- Are five senses enough?
- What's this body thing, and what do I do with the dangly bits?
- Why can't I build a dirigible with my mind?
- Penguins, spoons and you -- what's life like among the flightless?

Get a First Life: A One Page Satire of Second Life

(via Core77)

Why I hate Fox News, Reason #3,487.

Hard-hitting journalism. Ultra-professional graphics. Nuff said.


Media Matters :: Gibson called Obama's long-known cigarette smoking a "dirty little secret"

(via Chris Glass)

Happy birthday, Martina!

Ah, my dear Kinky:

Another year older, wiser, more gorgeous and STILL NOT ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE OCEAN.

Something must be done about your living-in-exile situation. I mean, how am I supposed to take you out for birthday drinks when you're so very, very far away???

Hmph.

I can only wish you happiness, love, longevity and many free airline tickets, my friend.

x! bb

p.s. Here's a lovely birthday poem for you:

21 MAXIMS FOR MY GIRLFRIEND ON HER BIRTHDAY by Jin Haishu


(Picture of the birthday girl swiped and vandalized from swissmiss's flickr account. Click the link to see the beautiful original photo.)

Like a tiny studio apartment on wheels.

Though I can't imagine I'll ever step foot in one, Airstream trailers fascinate me. Such a perfect blend of old and new design. This new itty-bitty one -- the Bambi -- particularly tickles me.



Inhabitat :: Airstream Bambi Trailer

Ace wooden alarm clock.

A simple and lovely take on an everyday item.



ELSEWARES :: Independent Art & Design