LOOK AT ALL THOSE TINY PEOPLE

There is an intern at work who is about 16. She has brought in her own 2 foot Mac screen and wireless keyboard from home and she is the first person who thinks I'm an old loser. I know it's won't be the last time, but it is the first, honestly, because people ask me for id when I buy cigarettes so, even though I've felt like a loser before, I've never felt like an old one. Anyway, she did show me something pretty awesome the other day and it's this screensaver. It is a series of different locations in Japan filmed using tilt-shift video (or hi-speed photography) which changes everything to look like it's in miniature. They put out new scenes every 2 months or so, along with a different music selection

GIFT-WRAPPING EMERGENCY? LET ME SHOW YOU TO THE GIFT-WRAPPING ROOM

 

Some people might say I'm a little bit obsessed with Tori Spelling ... I'm sorry but how can you not be? Is she a freaky, skinny, black man in drag? I think so. She's also married to someone called Dean McDermott so I'm probably going to be related to her. The reason I want to talk about her today though, is that Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Bernie Ecclestone, has just bought her father's $150 million dollar house in Los Angeles.  Known as The Manor, it is the most expensive house in America, and boasts 26 bathrooms, car parking space for 100 cars, a room of dolls and ... wait for it ... a gift wrapping room. A gift wrapping room? Who possibly imagines they may need one of those? I have been playing a game with myself, it's called "Rooms I would prefer before a gift-wrapping room" and so far I have come up with: a disco room, a fancy dress room, an arts and crafts room, an I don't feel like seeing anyone else but life size mannequins of myself room ...

FAKE TAN AND FISH TAILS

Just when you thought that people were normal, something like this happens - MerCon, a mermaid convention "celebrating all the mermaid realm has to offer" happening in Las Vegas this summer. 1,000 mermaids, mermen and spooky people who like half naked girls with tails have already signed up to attend the show and awards ceremony.  There are 15 different categories of awards including best environmental mermaid, best YouTube mermaid and youngest mermaid. Highlight of the show will be the appearance of professional mermaid Hannah Fraser. Speaking to reporters last week about her work, Hannah said, "It definitely ignites some sort of primordial return to the human soup." What is human soup Hannah? It sounds like something you'd find on a cannibal's menu and probably not something you should be swimming around in dressed up like a complete ninny.

CHART GALLERY

 

This made me laugh today. Jason's blog I Love Charts features designs of charts for people who love charts. I think I like this one the best. But perhaps it's still not quite as good as these old favourites ...

 

 

 

 

SKY HIGH OR UNDERWATER COVERS

I think it might be time for another ode to the book cover designer. These dreamlike covers are by Henry Sene Yee, the creative director at Picador.

Just wanted to give you an example of what a difference a beautiful cover might make to your favourite book.  Voices is a grisly crime novel set in Rekjavik, Sene Yee's design is on the left while the one on the right is what you're likely to find in most bookshops. In a paperless, digital age, this is the reason to buy a good old fashioned book. Even trees are happy with the deal.

THE CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS

Please please go and see Werner Herzog's fantastic The Cave of Forgotten Dreams if you can.

It's a marvellous, moving homage to the Chauvet Cave in France. Hidden for over 20,000 years and discovered by accident in 1998, the cave has been sealed to all but dedicated scientists ever since. Now Herzog has been allowed extraordinary access to the cave and all it's breathtaking treasures - sparkling carbonised stalactites, the overwhelming silence, the preserved footprints of a boy and a wolf and, of course, the astonishingly beautiful cave paintings. Horses, rhinoceroses and cave lions roam across these walls, as well as the hand prints of a man which are over 30,000 years old. Being able to watch the film in 3d is also a pretty mind-blowing experience.

Written and directed by Herzog, it's much more than a dry documentary, full of music, humour and philosophy, as he meditates on who these people were, why they made these drawings, how we connect to them and whether this is the birthplace of the soul of man.

PORN FOR BOOK LOVERS

Sometimes, when I'm feeling a little bit lonely and it's late at night, I sit in bed and glance through photographs on the internet. It's not an addiction or anything, I don't have a problem, they just look so good and I want all of them so much. The site I'm talking about, unsurprisingly, is Bookshelf Porn - picture after picture of the most beautiful shelves and shops and scultpures in the world (they even have one of Daunt Books in Marylebone, as they should). I think this is one of my absolute favourites.