I know you’ve all been missing my posts about cars and things that are “so freakin’ stormtrooper”.. so without further uh-doo…

This is a picture of my friend Jeff Gunn’s 8th birthday party… guess that’s what you get when you tell everyone the cake is gonna be vegan.

There was a time when Jaguars were cars for old people.. old white people. Well, the times they are a-changin’… this is the proposed Jaguar XKR-S. It’s no Aston Martin, but it ain’t far behind.

It’s been a while since I’ve added anything here, but when I found this invite to my friends Jason and Erin’s wedding in the mailbox today I was reminded of what talented friends I have.

This little lovely was created by Ellie Snow, a Durham based designer and blog-machine! Ellie and her husband Brendan Ward are two of the most talented people I know, and, much like my friends Matt Haffner and Laura Bell in Atlanta, also a sickeningly adorable couple. Just kidding.. sort of.

Ellie’s blog; Mint is a constant source of inspiration, from her own beautiful work to the work of other talented people that her keen eye discovers. I am lucky enough to own a couple of her beautiful photographs and have purchased oodles of inexpensive art that has been featured on Mint.

In addition to being a talented person, Ellie is also a sweet and deceptively funny girl (“what’s faster than the Big Bang Theory? I mean, it’s like BAM!..”). Brendan is a barrel of laughs too, but this post isn’t about him, so he can suck it.

Ellie works hard on her blog and it has become a regular stop for thousands of people looking for inspiration and information; as, in addition to her own work, Ellie regularly features beautiful and creative work from all over the intenet. Take some time to look through her site and I promise, you will walk away feeling creative. For that I say: “Thanks, Ellie!”

I spotted the image below on Ellie’s shithot blog, Mint, and followed it to Julie’s Etsy page, where I spotted these Valentine’s cards that made me lol. At $3.00 a piece, you’d have to be about to break up with that “special” someone not to give them one of these. I’m just sayin’…

Matt’s experiments with encaustic, stencils, spray paint and drawing; as well as his large scale cut paper and wheatpaste installations are simple, clever and beautiful; check it out:

Check out his website and blog for more images (and bigger ones!).

Matt’s wife, Laura Bell, is equally amazing; her art is delicate and intricate and absolutely beautiful. I love the layered soft/hard edged colors and blacks. These pieces really invite you to look closer and reward your eye with all of the tiny, subtle details.

Take some time to hit up her website and blog for more of her incredible work.

I saw, in a car magazine of all places, these RAD typography based city posters from orkposters.com. You know I bought some (at $22 for a poster and $27 for a screenprint, who wouldn’t?!); I picked up this dope orange Manhattan poster:

and this screamin yellow BKLYN poster:

They have have posters of Beantown, Phillie, Portland, San Fran, Seattle, Chitown and several more. These would make great Christmas gifts (I think you can still get them by Christmas if you order now) for someone (or yourself, as I have done); so get on it!

Being a huge fan of both the artist and the author I had no trouble shelling out my hard earned sheckles to get my hands on a copy; which I promptly devoured in about an hour. Cooke’s artwork perfectly evokes the time period and his storytelling is flowing, making it an effortless read.

The design of the book, including endpapers and embossed cover is commendable, making the whole package feel very deliberate and well thought out.

Hit up IDW’s site (they are the publishers) for a very nice preview of the first 19 pages.

Ok, so the first time I saw this on Spike Jonze’s blog ‘We Love You So’, I thought that Benedict Radcliffe had Photoshopped a CAD drawing of a Lamborghini Countach into a photo shoot image; I thought “That’s brilliant, that is!” But then I realized that the crazy fucker had mad a full sized Lamborghini Countach out of metal and painted it bright orange. Now *that’s* art!

Check out this talented fucker’s website. Fucker.

“In 1993 Roddy Doyle wrote one of the best books about childhood ever published and, fittingly, won a Booker Prize, possibly the most prestigious award in English-language literature. The book is Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and it’s written from the perspective of a ten-year-old kid growing up in a suburb of North Dublin in the 1960s. The thing is, it really IS written from the kid’s perspective, replicating the consciousness of a young’n through its language, observations and insights.

If the Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is occasionally hard to follow, it’s also achingly realistic. This probably goes to show that ten-year-olds have more complicated emotional lives and intellects than we commonly give them credit for.

In a review of the book for Entertainment Weekly, Tom De Haven wrote that “Even the best writers seldom capture the temper and shifting textures of childhood with approximate, let alone absolute, fidelity.” Doyle’s novel is awe-inspiring for the simple fact that it accomplishes exactly this.”

I recently stumbled on Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre‘s photography site; this talented duo are two after my own heart. Their portfolios of the ruins of Detroit, the factories of the former East Germany and abandoned theatres here in the US are breathtaking.

Similarly, this Flickr set of Hellingly Asylum in the UK is stunningly frightening, but I’d still explore a bit… just not at night.

I’ve also bookmarked a Polish site that features less-than-high-quality photos of old factories and various Nazi and Soviet fortifications/bases/factories. These may be more haunting because of their assumed histories.

The Polish site is here, look for the descriptor “Fortyfikacje, obiekty militarne, fabryki” for these types of galleries.