Beats by Dr. Dre.

These are the dopest headphones. Ever. They look awesome and are super comfortable and the sound is insane. There's a sick "b" button on the side that pauses the music and a microphone attached to the main cable. I can't decide whether or not I should've gotten them in white (http://beatsbydre.com/products/Products.aspx?pid=3808) - you can also get them customized for about a bazillion dollars (I'd probably go with gold and/or pink): http://www.colorwarepc.com/p-176-beats.aspx

Today's beat (if you're into soft french-electro):

http://discodust.com/files/Marchand%20-%20Starlove.mp3

You decide...

Street art by Paul ... Richard? 2008. I can't seem to decipher the black glue on the Brooklyn pavement. I'm going to go with slightly heavier versions of Cary Grant and Dali (or an obese John Waters), what about you? The liquid tar drizzles are really nicely done - reminiscent of these drawings my art teacher used to make us do where you weren't allowed to take your pencil off the paper. I definitely hope to see some more.

no. way.

After a relatively gruesome midnight bus ride back home from Montreal - aren't they always? - I had about 3 hours to get to an internship interview in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It took about 2 hours to eat and get to my dad's office to change and look somewhat clean/not like I'd been playing sleep-contortion-opoly for the last 9 hours. Now, there are two bits of exciting news, the first being that I got the internship. The second is that THE STREETBOTS ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD! I saw one on Grand Street in Williamsburg and was shocked to say the least - I wonder if they travel in packs! I guess I'll have to keep an eye open for the crazy critters...

UPDATE: Apparently these actually ARE all over the world! A friend who is traveling around North America told me he saw some in Toronto and Chicago as well!

Let's take a stroll down...

Memory Lane actually exists and can be found in Greenwich, CT. I saw this and brought my car to a screeching halt to take some pictures. It's always interesting to see street signs that have double meanings or that pertain to one of life's many metaphors. Of course, this one is pretty tame unlike so many that can be found on the interweb (there are also some funny ones here: http://www.funnysign.com/) but I found it to be a very nice street name - minus all the predictable jokes the property owners of this street must deal with: "'Hey Bob, you want to take a stroll after dinner?' 'To where?' 'Oh, I think you know...'". Well, I drove down Memory Lane and I must say it was more of a curious adventure rather than a nostalgic experience. The scenery was there at least. And some insane (but typical) Greenwich mansions (apparently Tommy Hilfiger's house is not far).

In search of the master of the suicidal streetbots

Durocher & Milton

Parc & Milton (north side)

Hutchinson & Milton

The squashed little square bodies, the outward pointing feet, the familiar triple-lined center. They're everywhere! On Milton Ave., anyway. Who is creating these buddies (and how!)?

UPDATE: Apparently, our buddies can be found all over Montreal - Place Ville-Marie, St. Laurent, Square Victoria... Looks like I'm going to have to go on an adventure and find the whole family!

Ah, the moustaki.

The "moustache" is an interesting concept. More interesting, however, are the various styled shapes these facial hairs can take. First and foremost, this exists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Beard_and_Moustache_Championships.

(Please note the "Dali" sub-category, requiring "artificial styling aids".)

The reason I talk about moustakis today is because it seems to have been a recurring theme in everyday conversation, for the last few days. One friend, Romain, is actually able to create the "Handlebar Club" look - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handlebar_Club, using his wet index finger and thumb to gently twist the ends of his furry upper lip coat into a slight curl (see below).

Another is growing his whiskers into what seems to be turning into the Hungarian look ("Big and bushy, beginning from the middle of the upper lip and pulled to the side. The hairs are allowed to start growing from up to a maximum of 1.5 cm beyond the end of the upper lip.")

Why is the growth of one of these facial duvets so important? It's not very comfortable to the opposite sex, it's not generally attractive (although I'm sure some girls find it appealing) and it seems to take tedious care. Perhaps the moustaki is the perfect way to alter one's look without consequences (you can chop it all off in less than 5 minutes). I think it's because moustakis are awesome. They're the perfect way to add a little pizzazz to the face without any to much effort. They can update and outdate any look at the same time. Clearly, there's nothing better than a man who can successfully pull off the horseshoe moustache, Hulk Hogan style.

Let's call it DIY, studs

Lauriane (photo by 4Mika - 4Mika.com)

Lauriane (photo by 4Mika - 4Mika.com)

fig 1.

fig. 2

fig. 3

Military style became particularly trendy after the death of the King of Pop. We saw the gold rope-like embroidery across the chest and epaulettes, which veered into familiar faux shoulder insignia, colorful ribbon strips at the wrists and bright buttons. Of course, we've all seen the boyfriend blazer trend as well. Recently, however, I've noticed an amalgamation of the two with the increase of an edgier side to these looks - studs. There seems to be a punk version of the military jacket and blazer- studded shoulders, studded wrists, studded pockets. Balmain (fig. 1) has created a few of these and I've seen some nice studded lapels at Zara (fig. 2). A couple weeks ago, my brother's girlfriend Lauriane was wearing a plain v-neck grey sweater with the perfect studded detail on the shoulders from Sandro (take a look at the studded Fall '09-'10 collection here: http://www.sandro-paris.com/). Fond of the look, I decided to search for some studs to DIY a sweater myself. I went first to Omer de Serres, an art supply story in Montreal, where one of the employees showed me her studded belt (making sure I was in fact referring to the right peice of metal) and directed me towards St. Denis, to a punk store store called X2O-Rio, where I could find studs. They were selling 10 for $2, so I bought two bags, went home, and carefully folded 5 metal prongs into each shoulder of the sweater. Et voila! Not as nice as last year's Givenchy studded number (fig. 3), but still cool.