MY MORNING JACKET

I saw this last night and thought it was awesome. Maybe you've heard of My Morning Jacket before, but I hadn't. Apparently they once played a four hour set at a festival in Tennessee, featuring special guest star Kirk Hammett from Metallica. Remarkably, their set also included a cover of Kool and the Gang's Get Down on It. Obviously another reason I'm keen is their beautiful song The Librarian.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI ASKS SOME ANIMALS TO SEDUCE HER

Last night a very charming ballerina recommended this strange series written and directed by Isabella Rossellini for the Sundance Channel. Seduce Me, as it's called, is a celebration of animals and their delicate existence by focusing on some of their weirder seduction and mating rituals. This video become a viral hit last year when New York suffered a bed bug epidemic.

FOR FLAPPERS TO PHILOSOPHERS

One book cover designer you'll be seeing everywhere at the moment is Coralie Bickford-Smith who designs all of Penguin's classic editions. I think they're mixed, but the Scott Fitzgerald collection of six novels and short stories is absolutely beautiful. They also make great presents - a treat for anyone who hasn't read them or a glorious edition for anyone who has.

POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

"But dear, are you sure they let same sex couples adopt?"

"Did someone just fart?"

"Nobody knows, but I just peed my pants a little bit."

Terry Castle shares her brilliant collection of vintage postcards. She is uploading one a day for a year and  you can take a look at them on her blog.

THE TERRIBLE ENDS OF THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES

Many of you will know him already, but I'm continually thrilled to see Edward Gorey books in the best bookshops. Born in Chicago to parents who were divorced and then remarried 16 years later, he has illustrated or written countless books all recognisable for their strange, macabre and Edwardian feel. Think Tim Burton crossed with Hilaire Belloc.

My favourite of all is his creepy alphabet book about the terrible ends of the Gashlycrumb Tinies.

HOW ABOUT A BOWL OF CORNFLAKES DEAR?

It's official, I'm a bit of a prude. I thought the Museum of Sex, here in New York, might be rather interesting but in fact it's mostly porn, life size sex mannequins and photographs of a duck's penis. I spent my entire trip studiously reading the wall notes, too sheepish to look at the exhibits themselves and desperately trying to avoid eye contact with fellow voyeurs. The strangest thing of all is that they have an aphrodisiac cafe in the basement, a dark, grubby, pervert's dungeon slap bang in the middle of 5th Avenue, which seems both an unsanitary and awkward place to get frisky. Far from being a wasted trip, however, it led me to a discovery ...

In the 18th century Samuel-Auguste Tissot wrote a paper on the dangers of onanism (masturbation to you or I), a paper that became so successful it's as if Allen Carr wrote The Easy Way to Stop W*nking. A young doctor and Seventh Day Adventist named John Harvey Kellogg was inspired by the paper which suggested that chronic onanism could lead to severe illness and even death. Kellogg wrote his own response, apparently while on his honeymoon, which suggested a variety of cures including chastity contraptions, yoghurt enemas and even circumcision. His real interest however, was the diet. He believed a healthy diet avoiding red meat was the best way to control sexual urges. With this in mind, him and his brother developed an equivalent to the fried breakfast which became known as Kellogg's Cornflakes.

Puts rather a different slant on the 'regular size' doesn't it?

FOR THE BOOK COVER LOVER

In honour of my dear friend the Book Cover Lover, I thought I might do some features on beautiful book covers and their designers.  The master of contemporary book design is undoubtedly the marvellous Chip Kidd. I've picked two of my favourites here, but you would recognise many of them, for example the covers of Jurassic Park and The Essential Tales of Chekhov were designed by him. If you fancy a bigger fix then his collection, Book One, is irresistible.

ROYAL WEDDING TIP NUMBER ONE

Being in the market myself these days, I thought it might be nice to pass on a few wedding tips to Wills and Kate. Like any couple, they're keen to make their big day special so what better way to make a splash at Westminster than to hire a celebrity minister? It will cost you just a snip at $5,000 to hire Tori Spelling for the big day. Spelling is no novice, having officiated at a same-sex union when she ran bed and breakfast Chateau La Rue. She said, "It was so beautiful as I united Tony and Dex as life partners in love. They wrote their own beautiful vows and there was so much love surrounding them that there wasn't a dry eye in the driveway!" Maybe she could help Will and Kate write their own vows?

THE ELVER GUIDE TO RHINEBECK, NEW YORK

Two hours upstate from Manhattan, where Chelsea Clinton got married and Rufus Wainwright grew up (which explains why he may or may not be prepared to sell you some chintzy wallpaper in this photograph). 

Very pretty and populated by farm shops, antiques stores and homeware bargains - see no further than Hammertown, unrelated to M C Hammer. Other favourites are the rug shop where the salesman Dave explained he couldn’t buy a rug for himself because he doesn’t have a house, and Grooming by Betsie which may or may not be an emporium for pedophiles. 

Outside the Rhinebeck Smoke Shop is this statue of a Native American chief looking like an outraged transvestite caught in flagrante. It may well be the oldest sculpture of a Native American in America, Rhinebeck claims the oldest everything in America.

If you have a car, check out the range of faux Georgian country houses in the area dating from the “let’s pretend to be English” phase - see Edith Wharton for details. But be warned, there’s a surprising amount of road rage simmering below Rhinebeck's Martha Stewart exterior. 

NO, OR AT LEAST NOT RIGHT NOW

Scientists at the Weizmann institute in Israel have discovered that female tears, based on an emotional reaction, reduce sexual arousal in men. Dr. Sobel from the institute explains: “Basically we found that it’s a chemically conditioned signal indicating no or at least not right now.” Unfortunately, they weren’t able to measure the effect of men’s tears on women because they couldn’t collect enough tears from their male volunteers. So basically ladies if you think “no” or at least “not right now,” then think of that bit in Last of the Mohicans when Jodhi May jumps off a cliff. And guys, what the hell is wrong with you people? Bambi's mother died, she's never coming back! You could at least shed one tiny little tear!

CAUSE JESUS HE KNOWS ME, AND HE KNOWS I"M RIGHT ...

Of all the weird and unexpected celebration days in the world - Squirrel Appreciation Day, Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk Day - I think this one tops them all. Every year, on the 15th February, Brooklyn hosts the Phil Collins Day Parade. This year saw 250 attendants dressed in Phil Collins masks, a float, a band and an imitation Phil. 

ARE YOU GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO?

For any lovers of San Francisco, this is the book for you. Author and resident Rebecca Solnit has created an atlas charting not only the geography of this 7 mile urban space, but a social, political and cultural history. A loving, minute exploration of the bay area with endless discoveries, from blues clubs to butterfly habitats. There are also 22 coloured maps, each by a different artist, which illustrate the book perfectly. 

DO YOU LOVE ME, NOW THAT I CAN DANCE?

Because it's been a bit of an art week, I'd like to bring your attention to MONPA, or the Museum of Non-Primate Art. The organisation has got some really great stuff this season that is definitely competing on an international level and I'd like to bring them some much-needed publicity. Their three current online collections are the thought-provoking Why Cats Paint, the emotive Dancing with Cats and the expressionist Bird Art. The purpose of the museum, as they define it, is to "preserve the movements, marks and sounds of non-primate species and consider them, without prejudice, as modes of aesthetic communication, in the hope of gaining new insights into our world." I can honestly say that this work has given me some new insights into our world. If you'd like something to keep forever (and who wouldn't?), what better than a powerful photographic collection that accompanies the exhibition from Heather Busch and Burton Silver.

BOXER TURNS BIRDMAN

Nicknamed the "Baddest Man on the Planet", once famous for biting off a man's ear and a convicted rapist, Mike Tyson has launched a new reality show where he races pigeons. The Social Network told us it's better to be convicted of necrophilia than animal cruelty, but obviously it works the other way round too: if your nice to animals it doesn't matter what your convicted of. What's next? O. J. Simpson timing guinea pigs on treadmills? It's not all roses for Tyson, though, because PETA aren't happy. They've issued a statement saying "if Mike Tyson truly loved birds, he would fight for their protection - not force them into a 'race' that tears them away from their families." I'm not sure what their use of quotation marks around the word race is meant to mean, but I think we can agree that the "Baddest Man on the Planet" has a murky relationship with birds.

ALIVE ALIVE-O

East 15, a trendy New York sushi restaurant, seems to be taking dining to a very nasty level. Top on their menu of specialities is live lobster.

ART ATTACK

This week is New York's Armory Show and I wanted to share with you some of the highlights.  Gilbert & George had laid out postcards in the shape of the urethra sign (who knew there was a sign and I'm not sure which sign language it belongs to), my favourite was a postcard explaining the meaning of douche. There were a series of photographs making everybody smile of a number of different chairs, some wicker, some plastic, some lined, some holed, and next to each one was a photograph of a woman's naked bottom with the imprint of the chair on her butt cheeks. Finally, New York photographer Lori Nix painstakingly builds tiny models of imaginary places and photographs them to produce these absorbing, strangely beautiful images.

AND WHAT BIG KITCHEN UTENSILS YOU HAVE GRANDMA!

Illustrator Jean-Francois Martin and cookery journalist Esterelle Payany have published this quirky little cookbook with recipes inspired by fictional villains. Unlike a lot of small, stocking-filler type books, this is funny, well-written and the illustrations are beautiful. The Big Bad Wolf teaches you how to make Pigs in Blankets, Brutus makes a Caesar salad and Hannibal Lector shares his recipe for sweetbreads with sherry.

BREAST MILK ICE CREAM FANS DENIED FIX

I'm gutted to hear that Covent Garden's speciality ice cream shop, Icecreamist, has had to  withdraw one of its newest and best-selling products. The jugs, I mean tubs of Baby Gaga, alternatively known as breast milk ice cream, have been confiscated by local authorities when some concerned customers complained that it was illegal to sell food products made from bodily fluids. Can't wait to see what's next on their list...