The always entertaining “stuff on my cat” website has a number of orange helmets. Good stuff.

Spread a bit of “dynamic, melodic, and perfectly brutal,” rock this season with a new limited edition EP “Beckon the Dagger God ” by local Brooklyn band Goes Cube. You made have heard about them here, or maybe here, or maybe even here….

buy album here.

(p.s: sweet cover art by nick!)

Looks like there are going to be plenty of opportunities to shop for that perfect, unique, handcrafted gift in Brooklyn this weekend. Not only is there the previously mentioned Indie*Licious Holiday Bazaar but there is also a great art and craft sale this Saturday at the Ethical Society on Prospect Park West from 11-4. Proceeds will go Doctors Without Borders in Darfur. Here is a little info on that:

Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
53 Prospect Park West between 1st and 2nd Streets, Brooklyn, New York
Saturday, December 16 from 11 -4
Prospect Park West is actually 9th Avenue
2 or 3 train to Grand Army Plaza
Q train to Seventh Avenue (and Flatbush Avenue)
F train to Seventh Avenue (and Ninth Street)

It would seem that music is something you have to get right in a musical based on the Nick Hornby novel High Fidelity. This musical tried as hard as it could but just couldn’t get it right. Songs about sleeping with Lyle Lovett, sleeping with the man who handled Kurt Cobain’s intervention and a poor imitation of Neil Young (sans real lyrics) are just a few thing that would make any music lover cringe. Also, being able to sing is something that I expect from actors in a musical but with a few exceptions, they all seemed to strain to hit notes.

One good thing about the play was the set design. It looked like the set designer was the only one who had ever been in a “real” record store. I think that whoever scored this play should have joined the set designer on research trips instead of hanging out in the Coconuts record store browsing through the Yanni /John Tesh section.

If you like music but not musicals you should not go to this play. If you don’t’ know the difference between those two things, then this play just might be for you.

PS - After writing this review I saw in todays Daily News that High Fidelity is getting yanked off of Broadway already. So none of you will ever have to be subjected to the misery of watching it anyway.

Looking for the perfect gift for your robot companion? How about a robot dolly?

Found this site via BoingBoing.

Proving that there’s a convention for everything, Roboexotica is taking place right now in Vienna, Austria. The “festival,” as the organizers call it, cheekily explores the role of mechanized beings — called “cocktail robots” — in alcoholic drinking establishments…which actually might make it the best convention pretty much ever.

Chapok is one of around 30 robots at Vienna’s annual Roboexotica, which showcases how home-built machines deal with the modern pastime of hanging out in bars.

Robots were invited to demonstrate their skills in categories like mixing cocktails, serving drinks and snacks, bar conversation and smoking cigarettes and cigars.

“It’s all about the flair, the atmosphere and the personality that a robot can have,” said Magnus Wurzer, ducking a bunch of cocktail cherries launched by a robot in one corner of the hall to another holding a drink at the other end.

The cherries miss their target and hit onlookers.

“The robots shouldn’t be efficient,” Wurzer said. “They shouldn’t behave like they were in a factory, they should be cultured and urbane.”

!!! There’s more on the Roboexotica site, but unfortunately no discussion of the “Return of the Jedi” scene where R2 serves drinks on Jabba’s sail barge.

An Irish morning talk show that proves once again that even something as classic as a prank call can be funny when said in a cute Irish accent.
Becky Makes Crank Calls

I’m looking forward to a little local shopping this and next weekend. Just got an email about this event, sounds like a good one - plus I’ve never been in the micromuseum.

For your last minute holiday shopping, join the party at Brooklyn’s

MicroMuseum(r) Sunday, December 17th from 12pm - 5pm.

INDIE*LICIOUS features 25 of NY’s hottest emerging designers. Savvy shoppers looking for a unique gift from flirty clothing to kidswear to stationery won’t go wrong here.

Featuring:

*Innovative women’s sportswear from Mignonette, It’s By Erin, Black

Rabbit,and NY Couture

*Handmade precious and semi-precious jewelry from Luka, L2, and Tider Design

*Letterpress stationery from Nolita Graffiti *Handbags and totes by Sylvia Holden, Rowboat, and Reiter8

*Kidswear from Daisyhead, Items of Anymore, and Kataplin

*Menswear from LowProfile and SeaCave

Support local talent this holiday season - Be Indie*Licious.

Visit the Ladies Independent Design League at http://www.designleague.org

I visited my folks up in Maine for Thanksgiving and rediscovered one of my favorite kids books: GNOMES. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and the description of gnome life and culture really captured my imagination. From how they set-up their houses, to how they interact with wildlife to fables and even gnome anatomy - this book has everything. I highly recommend it as a great gift this holiday season. It is the book’s 30th anniversary - which is pretty scary since I probably have a first edition.

Later in the afternoon we went on a family walk and passed by this “fairy house.” I guess the deal in Maine is that people build these little houses for the woodland elves, fairies, gnomes etc for good luck. Not much to do in Maine.

Remember that cool mid-century modern couch that we had fixed up. We’ll we’ve determined that the fancy chenille fabric can’t survive in the same house as our two monstrous scratch-happy cats, and we’d like to find a loving home for it. Are you interested? Drop me an email if you’d like some more info. The couch is about 7feet long, and it actually folds out to a bed (in this very unique way).

UPDATE: Photos of the fold out

CHINESE government officials are planning a Bruce Lee theme park, complete with a rollercoaster that emits the martial arts actor’s signature grunts and screams on high-speed bends.

According to local reports, the park will be patrolled by Bruce Lee “mannequin robots”, radio-controlled from within a giant statue of the late star. Read More…

I’ll have to make a trip out there before the micro-chips in the manneguin robots go haywire. Speaking of Robots, we have a new category at 423 - yes you guessed it - the ROBOTS category. Enjoy.

Banania was always THE brunch place. I would come all the way from my native Kensington (so far that most of you have probably never heard of it!) and friends would come from the city just to meet there and enjoy a delicious omelet with goat cheese, or eggs benedict, or any of their other great dishes, along with the terrific accompanying home fries, salad, and basket of crazy-good breads.

As we all know, the place we renovated and renamed - to “Porchetta,” perhaps a bad sign of things to come - but the brunch menu remained the same. So I kept eating there happily.

However, two weeks ago I convinced two former Brooklynites to make the trip from the city for a Banania/Porchetta brunch, promising that even though the name was changed, the menu remained.

I was in for one of the worst changes since Han shooting first.

The menu was completely different. No more eggs benedict. No more omelet. Instead, there was hamburger (WTF??), sausage, etc. And to top things off, the home fries and salad were gone, sadly replaced by mediocre french fries. (Move on to the next paragraph when you’ve regained oxygen after gasping…okay ready?)

So I ordered the “pancakes.” Pancakes, plural. What I got was one huge pancake, about an inch thick, with apples and ricotta on top. I took a few bites and realized something was oozing out of the pancake. What was it? Ricotta mixed in? No. Some kind of cream? No. It was raw pancake batter! Yay! Needless to say, I lost my appetite and sent it back.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, they did take the pancake off the bill, and apologized. Hell, they even still provide the free basket of really good bread. But it’s too little. And far too late.

Banania is truly dead. I won’t be going back, and I’m sad to say that.

(from friend of Jesse)

Valentino hangs out at one of the old school realty places on smith. They’ve only had him for 8months but the fellas at the store seem taken with him. As evidence by the huge cat bed and number of toys under one of the desks.

A number of my friends are having babies, and time permitting I’ll generally make a blanket as a gift, but I’ve decided to try my hand at stuffed animals. Here is a quick look at my first effort. The duck has a swimming tube around him (incase you were wondering what the blue part was). I figure he is a little uncertain in the water. Now I just need names for them. Any thoughts?