Gizmodo's Black Friday Deals Page

Everything I want for christmas--except cash and peace on earth, goodwill toward men--is on this page. You might think by my tone that this is purely self-serving, but you'd be wrong, because the deals are too good to miss and there is probably stuff on there that you could get other people. After you buy my gift. Thanks.

Jamie.T, Jamie T or Jamie-T

So I was debating posting about this guy for a couple days since I am a little self-conscious about liking his music, but then I was like, "Hey. Hey you. This is YOUR blog. You go tell these people about Jamie T (or Jamie.T, or Jamie-T). You tell them about his music. Tell them he has a new album, Kings & Queens."

I give myself pep-talks like that all the time, you know. "You're a lion. Take what's yours."

So Jamie makes some good music. Apparently his first album was pretty much straight hip-hop, and he maintains that vibe with chanted cockney verses.

EDIT: I have now listened to the first album, Panic Prevention, and it is not conventional hip-hop. Hip-hop is certainly prevalent in the beat structure, and while he does spit his lyrics for the most part, to say he was rapping would be a bit of a stretch. /EDIT

The production on Kings & Queens is solid, if overly-poppy at times, but the real magic is in the lyrics. I hate when music reviews quote lyrics, because there's really no way to properly contextualize them without the whole structure of the song, so I'm not gonna do that.

What I'll do instead is focus on the negative: the reason I debated talking about this guy is that some of the offerings are sickeningly cheeseball. When I say cheeseball, I mean it: there are a couple tracks that are more Spice Girl than Streets, if you catch my drift, and other tracks have the "I'll make a cheerful song about depressing stuff" vibe reminiscent of Chumbawamba. That's right. I GET KNOCKED DOWN BUDEYEGEDDUBAGIN. Yikes.

Here's my favorite track from the album Kings & Queens, his second full length effort:

Jamie T - The Man's Machine

Jamie T | MySpace Music Videos

Volta Special #777

Combination white leather and suede with calfskin laces. It is an attractive shoe. Attractive like a good bonus structure, not like Natalie Portman.

For sale at only 21 locations throughout the world: 7 in Italy, from whence Volta hails, 7 in the rest of Europe and 7 internationally. Special #777. That's some really clever stuff you clever little shoe company.

Go to the clever little website to see where to get the shoes.

via highsnobiety

Medicom Toy Star Wars Bearbrick Set

Usually I post a bunch of crap that's unavailable. These are not like that. They are totally available. Online even. Little Star Wars toy bears. For sale. I am actually going to buy them today.

Oh but guess what? The entire checkout process is in Japanese. If I had more money I'd probably just mash buttons and see if I ever received them in the mail, but I don't, so I won't. Anybody else want to give it a shot? Give it a try over at Gettry. 2,980円. I think that means they're about $35.

via hypebeast

Juan Francisco Casas

Juan Francisco Casas is an artist. He makes photorealistic drawings. With Bic pens. Ballpoint Bic pens. Have you ever tried to draw with a Bic pen? Doodles. That's the best you're going to do. This man, however, this Juan Francisco Casas character, has turned it all on its head. The big wheel of evolution keeps rolling, rolling toward a future in which photorealistic pen and ink drawings are done with Bic ballpoint pens. And the future is now.

Is that enough words? Sometimes I just ramble because I feel that a 'blog' should have a delicate balance of words and pictures, and as a strongly visual person, I like the pictures better. Also, sometimes I'm lazy and pasting pics up here is a far less involved task than sitting at this keyboard and pounding out drivel for you all to read. Or not read; maybe you're strongly visual people as well. Maybe my musings and ramblings are disjointed and unreadable.

That's possible, you know. I don't make any claims to proper literary organization, much less talent. I do claim that I know how to fill a page with words that are spelled correctly, which is sadly better than most of the partially literate masses in this day and age.

Alright, that's another rant for another post. Before I digress any further, I'd like to point you over to Juan's website and tell you that I truly am impressed with his ballpoint skills. The inspiration for this series was photos of nights out with friends, which is apparent from the context and vibe of the pieces pictured.

via juxtapoz

Sh*t My Dad Says: The Sitcom?

My favorite crotchety old man may be getting some more airtime, according to my inside sources. And Adult Swim and Wired...

From Wired.com:

"After moving into his parents’ San Diego home over the summer, Halpern parlayed his father’s obscenity-laced observations into a mini-empire. He signed a Shit My Dad Says-inspired book deal with Harper Collins last month and will co-write the CBS show, which — no surprise — will be retitled if it’s picked up for a full prime-time order."

So there you go: Twitter will provide you with a forum to post what other people say, then you can get rich off it. It's America.

thx maggie