Has The Hills gone post-meta?  People are saying it’s fake n all, but maybe that’s the point.  The show’s just forging its own path past the truth portion of reality.  Does life come in stories?  Do dates always have plots (yes)?  Fake show/real people?  Real show/fake people?  Fake people/fake show?  I made a Punnet square for just this kind of query:

It’s based on science, so feel free to use it in your anthro reaction papers.

This beautiful, witty campaign was created by Young & Rubicam:

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• Marc Jacobs on heels: “I don’t see it in a way that it’s like women suffering. I see it in a way it’s like women get to have all the fun.”

From twitter.com/thebandfrom

I realize it took me a bit to post these songs.  Sorry!

Paris definitely had the best soundtrack this season!  This playlist is again roughly in order of my personal favorites (of music, not the clothes). I noticed a lot of these have been added to YouTube 2 years ago – coincidentally, they were popular when the designers first started working on the collections (a coincidence b/c I very much doubt designers fiddle with such details).

“Borderline” by Madonna (Balmain)
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I live in LA, a town of fair weather, abundant parking, and excellent gyms.  Despite these comforts, the city hasn’t managed to cultivate a music scene that I love/like/enjoy.  I get to see good shows, of course, whenever out-of-towners stop by.  But how am I supposed to find musicians for my band here??  Booooooo.

My fav current music comes from Stockholm.  I lived there till spring 08, actually.  It’s beautiful.  It’s home to friends/ex band mates I really miss.  And it didn’t work.

Should I stick it out in LA?  Or should I try someplace else?

Lots of blog bands seem to come from Brooklyn.  I wonder if daily life there is particularly inspiring.  Gossip Girl makes it look okay, but you never see a Brooklyn gym on that show (it’s not a documentary).

Brooklyn can give a band authenticity, but it’s hard to sort out if the authenticity is real.  Even Domino’s clued in on this controversy: Read more »

The Volkswagen Polo clean-diesel gets 70 mpg!  It’s now available in Europe (see info in German here).  BMW’s launching the 335d and X5 xDrive 35d this fall in the US.  Diesel engines are now much much cleaner than the ones from the 70s, and, no worries, they still have their power.  I like my cars aggressive.

More about clean diesel in Popular Mechanics

Barneys teamed up with VW and artist John-Paul Philippe to create a custom Beetle.  It’s inspired by 60s décor, which naturally means I love it.  They’re opening up some sort of contest to win the car, and tickets will benefit the Volkswagen Carbon Neutral Project.  Check back here in November for all the dets.

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Remember 2005?  All the indie bands bands with “wolf” in their names?  Crown Dozen has a handy list which includes Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, and a baker’s dozen more.  Oh, and that’s before the comments.  Catbirdseat ran a list naming the top 5  band names containing “wolf” that remain after so many were taken.  The San Francisco Chronicle crowned 2005 the Year of the Wolf.

Safe to say that “wolf” owned a trend if not a mid-naughts blog meme.  Could we be entering a new era?  I’m feeling a little “”"gold rush”"” as we end 2008:

1. Santogold
2. Fool’s Gold
3. Golden Animals
4. Extra Golden
5. Gold Streets
6. Black Gold
7. Goldcure
8. The Golden Filter
9. Solid Gold
10. Eureka Gold
11. No Gold
12. John Moreland & The Black Gold Band

Does Ari Gold count?  Fool’s Gold Records?

Can you get similar results with any word searched through elbo.ws and hypemachine?

You need to check out the lovely Sold Gold:
MP3: Solid Gold – “Who You Gonna Run to”
Via have fun club

Sources: CMJ lineup, elbo.ws, hypem, my own sporadically useful internal catalog.  The loose requirements for bands: formed in the last 5 years or so, blogged about in the last 3 months (hence no Goldie, no Goldfrapp, no Silver, Platinum & Gold, no Golden Smog).

It’s so hot in LA now. It got to 34°C/93°F yesterday. Will it cool in time for Halloween? Or will people resort to wearing skimpy outfits? Or are skimpy outfits inevitable because the economy is shrinking everyone’s costume budgets?

I would like to keep the hope alive. My inspiration? Bears in costumes. Not only are they fully furry to begin with, these bears are also wearing an additional layer of clothing especially for Halloween. Fun doesn’t just happen – you have to work at it, as these bears might say if they had free will or a talking mechanism.

Keeping it true to the holiday:

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• bar in a box
• Could someone dial down the sun? 31 in October!!

From twitter.com/thebandfrom