Groan

Emily Kaiser reports for City Pages that the Minneapolis City Council is looking at options for banning drink specials and "bar games" at bars throughout the city. When I say banning drink specials, I mean just that: goodbye happy hour. So long nightly specials. Good grief, in this economy we have the state's largest municipality angling to shuffle bar patrons to adjacent cities to get a good deal on drinks, putting a millstone around the ankle of restaurants and bars that are already on thin ice. How out of touch can these people possibly be?

The theory behind these measures is to decrease binge drinking. What the fuck is next, mandatory coasters and seatbelt requirements for barstools? In a state with the most unfriendly booze laws this side of Utah, one must ask, as Kaiser does, "Could Minnesota drinking become any more lame than it already is? Apparently Minneapolis is trying to make it so."

The story was apparently broken by WCCO on Feb. 10. Link. The next council meeting is scheduled for March 9.

via citypages.com

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 = $199

So remember how I was saying that you could easily get a netbook or mini laptop that would offer leaps and bounds of functionality beyond the Kindle and Kindle 2 for around the same price? Well here is your proof.

$199 for one day only! Go here now.

via gizmodo

Bummer

OObject is reporting on 15 amazing skyscraper projects that have hit the skids due to whatever it is that people in finance have done to the rest of us who don't know anything about finance. I'm pretty bummed that some of my favorites are among them: the Chicago Spire, the Russia Tower, and 56 Leonard St. in New York. All three pictured below.

The Chicago Spire, Santiago Calatrava

Russia Tower, Foster + Partners

56 Leonard St., Herzog and de Meuron

via dvice

StripGenerator

StripGenerator lets you make your own comic strip without requiring artistic talent. Believe it or not, I made the strip below in less than five minutes!



via allmyfaves

385: Gallery of Inspiration

Here are a few examples of "inspirational" images from the web that you can find at 385.


The post-it made me chuckle. Out loud. AT WORK. So embarassing. Yeah...so what are you up to tonight? You wanna get some Thai food and watch The Biggest Loser? Oh...no I didn't realize...no I'm sorry...well how the hell was I supposed to know you find the topic of obesity offensive? Oh, get personal, real mature...no...no...well fine, I don't want to see you either you fat-hating bigot. Maybe they can't afford...well of course its cosmetic, but their health is at stake...Jesus, plastic surgery is your answer to everything isn't it? WHY DON'T YOU JUST LIPO YOUR FUCKING BRAIN?!

mmmmm coffee.

UNO Industries @ POOLTRADESHOW

So last week all two of you and my mom may have noticed that the blog was severely neglected. That is because, as previously stated, I was in Las Vegas for the POOLTRADESHOW with my pals Abraham and Rachel, the muscle behind the superbrand UNO Industries. Below are several fairly unrepresentative photos of the chaos that is registering, building, setting up, and selling at a trade show.

On Monday morning, I took a cab from the airport to the Planet Hollywood Hotel (awful place, don't stay there). After a quick change of clothes, I was picked up curbside by a U-Haul panel truck. As there were five of us for set-up day, I took my place in the back of the truck with the lumber and Oscar, the outside construction consultant who was gracious enough to help out. Riding in the back of a dark panel truck is scary, and also dangerous: I nearly lost a leg to flying lumber and shifting tools. Thankfully Abraham is a skilled truck driver and these uncomfortable incidents were kept to a minimum.

The Canvas

We arrived at the LVCC, which is probably about the size of downtown Minneapolis, at around noon. Making this logistical nightmare all the more fun was the fact that UNO had two booths at the show, each on opposite sides of the convention center. After shuffling materials from one booth to another, the building process began in earnest. After several hours, some ill-fated experimentation with tables and drop-cloths, and a splinter or two, we had the foundation in place. Day one in Vegas ended with a $14 club sandwich and me snoring loudly.


The Agony


The Product

Tuesday. Opening day of the show. Madness. The guys from Homage constructed a beer pong table, the fur was flying, and I spent 3 hours driving around in the panel truck looking for a phantom Home Depot. In my defense, my iPhone map is clearly not up to date. After locating a store in a distant location, I made my way back to the show and began demonstrating to looky-loos and serious buyers alike the magic that is UNO magnetic jewelery. Day 2 ended with the best Cuban sandwich I've ever had, the opening night party at Beauty Bar, and some intense craps at Caesar's with Abe and Terrence.

Creative Differences

Slangin'

Wednesday... sick. Desert air? I don't know, but I had a head cold to beat the band (what the hell does that even mean?). I slept in and let the professionals handle the show. I had lunch and dinner with my cousin, who works for MC2, who ironically build trade show displays... I learned a great deal about the trade show business and assault weapons, as well as a powerful lesson that upsetting my cousin could be a terrifying prospect. Ah, the Dahlens...

Thursday, and its getting to be about that time. I pack up and help out on the last day of the show. UNO is huge in Japan, and so am I.

Snooze City Designs

Another offering from the POOLTRADESHOW, Snooze City Designs out of West Hollywood showcases some pretty badass pillowcases. The Great Wave design is awesome. Hopefully they come out with colors sometime soon.

DynoMighty Designs

Last week I was in Vegas helping out my friends at UNO Industries for the bi-annual Magic and POOLTRADESHOW exhibitions at the LVCC. While I was there hocking magnets and ball chain, I met Terrence Kelleman, President and Designer for DynoMighty. The Brooklyn-based company made its name in the magnetic jewelery game, but has moved on to produce wallets and totes made out of recycled plastics.

I used to make duct tape wallets with my friends in high school, so I can appreciate the fabrication process, but the gimmick here is the unique decor of each wallet. The prints range from Air Mail envelopes to dot matrix print paper and comic strips. The illusion of flimsy paper folded into a wallet is only dispelled when you touch the recycled plastic material and feel the quality of construction and toughness of the product. $15 at the Dynomighty website.

Sebastian Onufszak - Hyper World

Enough with this commerce-driven Monday. Eye candy time.

Seabass has done graphic design work for the likes of Ray-Ban, MTV, and Sony. The prints below are remarkable for their organized chaos. A couple of them are overly cluttered in my opinion (which is saying alot since I generally enjoy sensory bombardment) but he has an undeniable sense of color and space which I really respect.

via thecoolhunter.net

iPhone 3G $50-$100 Off @ Best Buy for Reward Zone Members

So I got an iPhone for Christmas and it is pretty much the greatest thing I have ever laid hands on. While I don't like to talk about it on the blog, as I don't want to come off as a Mac fanboy, it is a glorious piece of engineering. That said, Gizmodo is reporting that if you've been a Best Buy Reward Zone member since Feb. 21 of this year, you can get $50-$100 off an iPhone 3G with a 2-year agreement with AT&T.

I am not usually one to gush, and this is no exception, but were I prone to gushy episodes the iPhone would certainly precipitate them on a regular basis.

Twisten.FM

Twisten.FM is a Twitter-related site that crawls the entirety of the 'I-share-too-much-with-people-I-don't-know' universe for music people have twitted, tweeted, twatted(!), about and condenses it into medium quality streaming links. Alot like Hype Machine, which crawls well-known music blogs for streaming audio content.

Printliberation "I Survived the Bush Administration" T-shirt

Awesome. $16 here.

Kindle, Kindle 2 Really Expensive, Author Fails to See the Point

So this is not timely per se, given the fact that the whole world was abuzz with the Kindle 2's release a few weeks ago, but I am waiting for some pics so I can post about the POOLTRADESHOW I was at last week and this seems an appropriate way to fill the time.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the Kindle and Kindle 2 are digital readers. What that means is, much like an app from the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, you can pay around $10 per book and download it directly to your reader via wifi or 3G. The Kindle library currently stands at around 240,000 books. I guess the obvious advantages are that $10 is less than the $20-40 you'd pay for a new hardcover--and also slightly less than paperback bestseller prices; you don't have to store your books on a bookshelf; and the portable nature of your library means you don't have to pick and choose which books you'll take with you if you travel or commute.

As someone who sits at a desk and reads crap on a monitor pretty much all day everyday, I guess my question is, why would I want to stare at yet another backlit LCD surface? With a price point ($240 for a Kindle, $360 for a Kindle 2) that rivals some low-end netbooks and laptops, why would I not go the extra mile and just get a fully functional PC with an operating system and disk drives?

I admit that speaking logically, the Kindle is a more efficient way to read in nearly every respect, but is that really what reading for pleasure is about? I'm not sure I can accept that... I grew up on good old fashioned paper, and I'll continue growing up on it. There is a feeling, a tactile sensation, that you get from opening and closing books, feeling the paper, turning the page, that I find to be an integral part of the reading experience. On top of that, I am a notorious underliner and margin scribbler, and I doubt very much that I would get the same joy out of annotating in a separate notebook or even leaving a little digital post-it on the page.

I do not fear technology. I embrace it. I like the fact that I can sit on my couch and control every single piece of electronics in my apartment with my cell phone. I like the internet. I like you. BUT, I also like gasoline guzzling sportscars, the outdoors, and reading books made out of trees and glue. I am not saying that the Kindle is garbage or anything, I just think it defeats the purpose of reading books. Why in the world would you want to live life without a fully-stocked bookshelf?

Half-assed hybrid horsepower and digital readers be damned. Unapologetically I say to you that I am living in the past and proud of it.

Mihara Yasuhiro x PUMA sneakers

Perhaps no designer skates between couture and pop-streetwear more often than Mihara Yasuhiro. While I find some of his fashion styles too...something, these PUMAs, set for release this summer, are gnar. I especially like the melting illusion you get between the upper and outsole in the back. Available at PUMA retailers this spring for what I suspect will be a king's ransom, but I might actually be able to get a pair since they will be released at a broader number of retail outlets.

via hypebeast