The wonderful short film series Creature Comforts, by Nick Park and Aardman Animation, is coming to BBCAmerica on digital cable - so set those DVRs and Tivos.

All of the Nick Park/Aardman animations are top-notch (the original Creature Comforts won an Academy Award in 1990 for best animated short) and I’m sure this series won’t disappoint. Hopefully you didn’t miss Wallace and Gromit’s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - one of the better films this year.

Saw this walking down smith street - pretty neat. I hope somebody drops one down in front of our studio. I can make out the term “spektor” but haven’t figured it out yet.

This looks like fun, and possibility of getting a free toy and a taco. Here is some info.

Abe Lincoln Jr. and Kidrobot cordially invite you to the Grand Opening of “Taqueria Pendejo” at the Orchard Street Art Gallery, NYC, Dec 1st 2005.

Abe Lincoln, Jr. is proud to announce his first solo show at Orchard Street Art Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Primarily recognized for his street work, an adorable pooping bird named Char, Abe Jr. will present his first installation piece “Taqueria Pendejo”. Abe will transform Orchard Street Gallery into the Lower East Side’s newest “Authentic Fast-Food Taqueria”.

Showcasing both his vector work, a new series of his hand rendered pieces and 4 t-shirt designs for both men and women. “Super Pendejo Meals” will be available while supplies last (complete with a veg or chicken taco and beer). Strictly limited edition, Abe’s art will be packaged in signed and numbered boxes commemorating the opening of Abe’s show and the opening of “Taqueria Pendejo”. Just think, getting into a line to buy art from disgruntled fast food employees… Come and enjoy “El Sabor De Caca”!

ALSO: the first 50 people at the show will recieve free mini figures courtesy of Kidrobot NYC.

Taqueria Pendejo
Dec 1st
7 -10 pm
Orchard Street Art Gallery
139 Orchard Street
NY NY

We went into the city yesterday to catch the latest Harry Potter movie (which is pretty disappointing if you ask me). But, prior to seeing the movie we walked around the 34th street area, got some food and checked out the windows at Macys. Here is a quick run-down.

Pho 32 and Shabu
We found a great little place that has Pho. It is located right in the heart of Korea Town. The soup was excellent with very tasty broth, and what a big bowl of soup it was. We both ordered large bowls and barely made it half way through. They also serve Shabu - and have these cool little embedded heaters in each table. 2 west 32nd street

iboxers: a gift that makes little sense
On our way to Macys we passed this advertisement for iboxers. This is the perfect gift for that special someone in your life who likes to re-enact Tom Cruise’s dance scene in Risky Business. But for anybody else this seems like a problematic place to store your music. Every time you want to skip to the next song, or change the volume you have to reach into your pants and fiddle with your boxers? Does this seem like a bad idea to anybody else?

Macy’s Windows
The main Macys windows are a pop-up book theme. You wait a few minutes and the books open and reveal a new york holiday scene. Maybe it is because I’m a big fan of animatronics, or maybe because this style of illustration doesn’t appeal to me - but I thought the windows were disappointing. I like the “idea” of the pop-up book but that’s about it. Bad photo of a bad window below.

Subtalk
And last but not least, I’ve seen this subway sign about 300 times, and I still don’t get it. I really don’t - can somebody explain? Is it supposed to be a joke, as in “We are actually so lo-tech that we can’t even figure out where to put the correct signage?”

Boothbay Harbor Maine isn’t exactly around the corner from 423 smith - but it is a lovely place to go for Thanksgiving. I got my butt whooped at Risk by my little brother, but it was still well worth the trip.

lonely dollop and stinky clove

Ok, so clearly a frenzy of Christmas shopping links are headed your way.
Like www.shawnimals.com where you can get some stinky (and rather cute) little plushies. Many moons ago I got one of his originals “a wee lump” for our studio. Each of their characters hails from a different regions of shawnimaland and are divided into various species. The character write-ups are great.

The shawnimal’s site (FAQs) has been kind enough to explain the origin of the color orange for us:

Why orange?
Well, it all happened a long time ago when red and yellow spent a lot of time together and eventually fell in love. When two colors fall in love, sometimes they hold each other in a very special way. And sometimes when they hold each other long enough, a new color is born. This particular time, orange came along. And they all lived happily ever after.

We just love these beautiful hand silk screened holiday cards - available at www.reneperry.com

A friend sent me a link to this PostSecret blog where you can get that horrible secret off your chest. The post cards kind of remind me of the Griffon and Sabine books.

Boy do I have a bunch of secrets to send in!

We thought this sign was just clever copy writing to get us into the BK door, turns out Meatnormous is an actual sandwich! and it’s called MEATNORMOUS! Appealing to the “health food backlash” meets “atkins on crack” crowd, the tv commercial advertises “meat… on top of meat… on top of meat.”

Here are a few other reviews:
www.smthop.com
www.slashfood.com

While in Wyoming this past weekend, I had the pleasure of exploring the wide-world of jello salad. Prior to this trip, the most exotic Jello salad I had ever tasted was the school lunch standby of mint jello with shredded carrots. Oh, how narrow my jello world view was. The salads were all splendidly colorful and creative, and there was 1 or 2 that I would say were “keepers”.

The best one (not picture here) was a variation on cranberry sauce. It was really very tasty - and had more of a cranberry flavor than a jello flavor. Here is a quick picture of 2 of the 6 jello salads present at one of our meals. This is probably not the exact recipe - but it does sound good like a good cranberry variation.

Mary also tracked down this page showing a “Cracked Glass” jello dessert. Pretty!

Here’s a recipe for disaster: sleeping pills + booze + transatlantic flight + smoking jones. Looks like Courtney L’Amour took a flight to Australia this weekend — and those French, they sure know how to fly!

Lauren Pilgrim just launched her website (ok, small shameless plug - because we helped her with it..) But anyhoo, she is an excellent local caterer and personal chef who has absolutely convinced me that organic butter is the only way to go! Not to mention the fact that she can whip up a tasty baby shower / dinner party / family meal.

We watched White Line Fever last night starring Jan Michael Vincent as Carrol Jo Hummer, a young and idealistic trucker who takes on corruption. I was only really familiar with JVM from his Air Wolf days - but now it’s like I’m meeting him again for the first time. And I likes what I see.

During my freshman year at University of Maryland, I saw “eno is god” graffitied on a wall in the mathematics building. I thought “why is this eno person a god?” Thus started my trip down a different path of music. What does this have to do with Robert Pollard, well, not much really. I just felt like mentioning him along with several other musical gods that I worship - The Beatles, David Bowie, Ian Curtis, Brian Eno, and Robert Fripp.

Tonight you can go see Mr. Pollard promoting the new book about Guided by Voices (along with James Greer, the author) at the Chelsea Barnes and Noble, 7pm.

The Bodies exhibition is coming to New York! Starting November 19th you can see them at South Street Seaport - would be great if they had a bunch of plastinated seamen at work.

You can get tickets at Ticketpro.