The Daily Intelligencer rises up about socialite/designer/whatever Amanda Brooks agitating hard for the return of the ‘uptown beard’ over on the Men’s Vogue Website. Like ‘Intelli’, I can’t tell exactly what seperates an uptown beard from a downtown beard or any of the others for that matter. They “quite like the idea of regional beard styles. For instance, there could also be the downtown beard, dark and spirited, like Simon Hammerstein’s. Or the Williamsbeard, which would be pomaded with Miller Genuine Draft and sprinkled with panko bread crumbs (the East Williamsbeard would have side curls.) The Jerseybeard would be a soul patch.” I guess anything passing as whiskers i.e. Whiskerino would automatically qualify as outer borough and I’m not totally sure of what to do with The dubstyle Itch short film, Ryan Hale’s ‘Beard Until Death’ print, and the spectacularly cuddly Whiskerbear.

Female rapper Riskay is blowin’ up on Jezebel, “When your man keeps coming home at 5am, and you don’t believe a word he says about his whereabouts, snooping through his email and reading his texts aren’t always the most reliable methods of figuring out where he’s been. Sometimes you just gotta smell his dick.” Miss Nasty sings a whole tune about her olafactory archaeology, check her MySpace page to hear other potential hits like ‘Krispy Kreme’ and ‘You Ain’t Shit’.

I love this modern incarnation of Ganesha, one of the best known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon. He is widely revered as the ‘remover of obstacles’ and generally as ‘lord of beginnings’ as well as patron of arts and sciences. The deva of intellect and wisdom he is honored at the start of rituals and ceremonies and obviously on the cover of Chemmie bootlegs. Block Rockin’ Boots, available here, is a 2 part concept album from French friends ElectroSound and ToToM, based on Chemical Brothers tracks including 12 exclusive remixes and mashups from DJ Schmolli, DJ Moule, DJ BC, ToToM, ElectroSound, DJ Reno, The Illuminoids, Copycat, PartyBen, elbarto&liamb, DJ Clive$ter, World Famous Audio Hacker, and 3 Bonus Tracks from Lobsterdust, DJ Moule & DJ Zebra. An entertaining and mixed bag with occasional bright moments that handle the ‘Brothers’ groove with varying degrees of success.

Ping Mag checks out the Tokyo Motor Show 2007 for a look at some of the new concept cars, “Every year the giants of the automotive biz gather in Makuhari to show how our future vehicles might look. PingMag presents some sleek ones, and even those of you with no clue about cars can admire their racy shapes”. Is the above Suzuki Biplane Manga made real, or just a new look for choppers.

From Bookforum, “Patrick J. Egan (NYU): Explaining the Distinctiveness of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals in American Politics. Further evidence that genetics has a role in determining sexual orientation in men. Easy Out: Benefiting from the social gains that earlier generations struggled to achieve, gay and lesbian teens are coming out at younger and younger ages. A review of Gay Artists in Modern American Culture: An Imagined Conspiracy by Michael S. Sherry. A review of The Third Sex, a quasi-scientific tour of European homosexuality, circa 1927. From Cracked, here are the next 9 children’s characters that should come out of the closet.” Let’s take this post one step further and add, F.O.D. or Friends of Dumbledore from Nightcharm, or Open Letters to the biggest Closet Cases in Films and Fiction.

I’ve been a fan of Krink for awhile now, especially the K-71 model, it’s a product that combines street innovation and industrial technology. Krink markers have the right sort of chunkiness in your hand, much like the old uni-bodies, but don’t be fooled as these really aren’t markers at all, these are cool cold cylinders filled with permanent ink. Krink closely mimics the grip and feel of dragging a loaded paint brush across a slick surface with just the right amount of drag. Seriously beautiful tactile quality, pump up the chiseled pen to load it for that old school drippy look. If you’re near an Alife Store, you can pick up some markers and check out the series of t-shirts designed by artist/photographer Craig Costello (and founder of Krink). These include the Stain t-shirt, K-71 t-shirt, Choices t-shirt, Mailbox t-shirt and Postal Long Sleeve t-shirt…but for me, it’s all about the damn marker.

The Book Design Review blog offers up its picks for the best book covers of 2007; no surprise, there are two Chip Kidd designs included in the listing. I recently received Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006 from the publisher and I have to say it’s an eye popping and swank production that reads both as a retrospective of Kidd’s popular book covers and as a memoir of his career in publishing. David Sedaris is a contributor to the work, with John Updike jumping in for the introduction.

I caught the Q&A with Kidd in the November issue of Smithsonian Magazine. When asked if books will ever become obsolete with digital technology, the designer responded, “No, the book is not going anywhere. The book is already the most concise piece of technology to deliver what it delivers. When the last Harry Potter book came out, kids weren’t downloading it. They were lining up at bookstores. People like something they can pop into their bag.”

After reading Newsweek’s hefty article on The Future of Reading and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ wont to change the way we read, I still agree with Kidd. Although The Guardian UK does offer up a few interesting ideas on the release of Bezos’ Kindle ebook reader.

Censors in Singapore had initially banned the highly-anticipated Microsoft roll playing game Mass Effect due to a human-on-alien, girl-on-girl lesbian love scene. The Straits Times says officials announced that Singapore will allow retailers to sell the futuristic Xbox 360 title in Singapore, if it carries an M18 rating. USA Today reports, the Board of Film Censors in Singapore released a statement allowing such games to enter the market with immediacy ahead of a games classification system proposed for 2008. This isn’t the first time a video game got banned in Singapore, God Of War contains a sex mini-game featuring the main character in bed with two semi-naked women, off-screen moans and much urn shaking was a call for much debate and eventual censorship. Mass Effect’s lesbian scene is less explicit, quite tame really, and in no way interactive, see the video for yourself. Joystiq, a gaming blog reports that the norm has been for virtual male characters to initiate sex between himself and virtual human woman or humanoid female alien. Looks like we’re going to have to wait awhile for virtual man on man or is that man on male alien sex scenes?

New York Magazine reports on the democratization of the star system as A-listers minglewith the Internet’s own gang of, freaks, exhibitionists, animators, comics, and indie filmmakers to bring us one hell of an explosive video content stream. Check out their field guide to, the funniest web videos of 2007, top five art videos, the world’s funniest minivan talk show and much much more, including an excellent highlight reel of 108 vintage New York videos.

An eye-catching poster ad from Eurostar is being used to promote British tourism in Belgium. The campaign features a shirtless skinhead with the St George’s Cross painted across his back. A man of unexpected talent, he’s urinating from an inordinate distance, into a china teacup. The ads are placed on street corners and designed so that pedestrians see the urinating skinhead first, when they round the corner the receptacle of choice appears. The rationale according to Eurostar is that London is close, diverse, full of surprise and eccentricity. As you can well imagine, the advert is taking the piss out of some, while a spokesperson for Eurostar maintains in a Sky News article, that the ad shows how London is quote, “cosmopolitan”.

*Bruno points out that the advert could be a play on the Manneken Pis statue in Brussels.

Now is the chance for all Robot Rock fanatics to interact with the French phenoms online with an exclusive Daft Punk Live Chat Tuesday November 20th. 2007. Find out the story behind those outrageously cool helmets, their interstellar live performances and the new album, Alive, set for release December 4. Daft fans must register here, follow the directions and be online 6:30pm central European time, 5:30pm UK time, 12:30pm US eastern time, or 2:30am in Japan.

The Headbones Gallery announcement reads, “Christmas has morphed into Xmas and become outlandish in aspect. Commercialism reigns with high-end demands for better gifts as children loose perspective (children!?) of the inspiration for the holiday season. Art too has found its seat in elfin freaky realms peopled by crazy characters, strange in countenance and design. Rather than becoming jaded, our grab bag presentation is a joyous holiday celebration, straight from the ‘art with a wrestling extravaganza for the opening reception on December 1, replete with freaks, queers and weirdos.

It’s worth being ringside at 7pm when Headbones presents Queer Wrestling, a colorful collaboration of showmanship, ritualism, choreography, and the performative aspects of pro wrestling amidst an exhibition of Scott McEwan’s Neo-Psychedelic paintings. Defiance Pro Wrestling grapples with Christmas in wrestling gear by fashion designer Matthew Simpson.”

*Dec 1–Jan 10, 2008 Reception 6-9 PM, Saturday, December 1 @ 260 Carlaw Ave., Unit 102, Toronto, ON 416-465-7352, featuring Joseph Anderson, Stephan Bircher, Robert Farmer, Daniel Hannequand, Zachari Logan, Craig Ziper, Scott McEwan, Claudia Nagy.

Not one for the briefs, prefer square cuts or board shorts but I have to say that I like the Rubics cube design on these trunks. The perfect swim suit to geek out at the beach; from Sydney artist Brendon Marczan’s company Blue. All designs are limited edition made of quality material designed to wear and fade with age. Check the skull printed board shorts, small skull printed legs create a hypnotic vision with a single bright blue skull to break up the pattern, looks like a nice fit.

Record Envelope is the little library of factory record sleeves, a reference for vinyl geeks and graphic artists alike. Not to be confused with the 45 picture sleeve, these are the company paper sleeves that used to protect the vinyl single. Nice collection and study of vintage graphics in categories that include typography, photography, illustration and more. I’m particularly fond of the Op Art Decca Sleeve and of course STAX!

Dostoyevsky the undisputed master of the psychological novel displayed an unmatched-understanding of human nature, especially the torturous emotional states of guilt and despair while exploring the minds of those on the margins of society, pair, the author with the prototypical superhero Batman. It might take you a moment or two to adjust to Batman yielding an ax but once you do it all rolls along quite nicely. Robert Sikoryak, an illustrator who’s drawn many New Yorker covers, turns Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment’s Raskolnikov into Batman, and renders his story in the visual style of mid-century comics. Originally published by the excellent Drawn and Quarterly as an anthology, Dostoyevsky Comics is now available free in full-color scans on the Web.

Erroneously gay action figures from eBoy, now available from KidRobot. Just because they’re plastic, doesn’t mean they want to spend their life on a shelf or even worse, in a box! PEECOLs live life to the max, and here’s proof!

Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory is the first in a projected series of unisex fragrances created under an agreement with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Bond no. 9. The scent developed by Aurelien Guichard is a smoky yet spicy cocktail of incense, grapefruit, wood resin, amber jasmine, cedarwood and violet, one Warhol’s favorite aromas. The term is no longer ‘unisex’ but ‘universal’ to indicate that the perfume can be worn by both men and women and is said to smell like metallic rubber. Bond No. 9 and the nonprofit foundation plan to launch more Warhol-inspired fragrances, all using the artist’s paintings, silkscreens, illustrations and film stills as inspiration. Every scent created by the fragrance house has a New York theme, and so will the Warhol scents. Silver Factory comes in a 3.4-ounce size and will set you back a whopping $230. Can you tell I rarely wear cologne?

Having the Rugby World Cup in France this past summer must have been an eye opening experience for those in the fashion world, as designers suddenly realized that there were thousands of rugby enthusiasts and male consumers who can’t or won’t buy into the pretty boy image of the impeccably styled British soccer player David Beckham. Taking one out of the play book of Australia and New Zealand where Rugby players are role models and advert mainstays, European fashion houses are playing beauty to the beasts of Rugby, as labels look for fresher, rougher role models to appeal to male consumers who eschew over-grooming.

“What’s interesting about rugby at the moment is that it expresses the new man. It’s distinct from the pampered beast that is today’s soccer star,” says Rita Clifton, chairwoman of the British unit of Interbrand, a global branding consulting firm that is part of ad holding company Omnicom Group Inc. The often-battered faces of experienced rugby players, Ms. Clifton says, have the charm of what fashion watchers refer to as jolie laide, or “beautiful ugliness.”

Earlier this year, Italy’s Giorgio Armani designed the off-field formal attire for The Rabbitoh’s an Australian rugby team co-owned by actor Russell Crowe. Italian suit maker Lebole, owned by Valentino Fashion Group SpA, this year designed off-field uniforms for the Italian national rugby team, what about the unexpected collaboration between Impetus, a Portuguese underwear brand and Raphaël Ibanez, the captain of the French rugby team.

Colette, the fashion boutique in Paris, this September began carrying Polo Ralph Lauren Corp’s Rugby label, a brand that is more prep school than blood and guts roots rugby. (via WSJ Online Rugby’s Rugged Appeal Is Catching Fashion’s Eye and French Truckers.)