Canada is the new Estonia...

So you know how people are always saying that beef is the new chicken, white bras are the new tank tops and yeast infections are the new irritable bowel syndrome?

Yup, it's an annoying little phrasing that is so overused it's pretty much meaningless, but which we're all guilty of using once or twice.

You've got to love Leisure Art's contribution to The Diagram magazine, where they mapped every occurance of the phrase in various sources over the course of 2005. The resulting diagram is funny, nostalgic, and a good illustration of how an idiom reaches critical mass and becomes meaningless (see 'bling' circa 2003).


Check the full diagram here

My personal favourites? Space travel is the new HIV; cheese is the new morphine; and thug shooting is the new lovemaking.

Clearly.

Julie Dermansky: Adventures in Natural History Museums..

One thing that makes photography such an interesting medium is that it documents and captures something real. Whether the subject is found accidentally or constructed artifically (see the amazing Cindy Sherman), it happened.

So how great is it to find a photographer who is not only making beautiful images, but is also documenting something important and fascinating?

Enter Julie Dermansky, an artist across a range of media, but best by far at photography. Some of her photo sets interest me more than others, but just take a moment to enjoy my personal favourite - Natural History Museums around the World.


Clockwise from top left:
Elephant Fetus - Kruger National Park's Elephant Museum In South Africa
Ethiopian Hyena: Natural History Museum in Addis Ababa
Giant Squid: Capetown's natural history museum
Desert Landscape: Former display in Las Vegas' Natural History Museum
Bird with nut in mouth: Pretoria's Transval Museum
Ape: Capetown’s NH Museum


Not impressed? Well how about when she explored the storage rooms at the Everhart Museum of Science and Art in Scranton PA , and found a muthafucking BOX OF WEASELS. Yes, you heard that right - A BOX OF WEASELS PEOPLE. Have mercy.


Holy crap! It's a box of weasels! Insert joke about lawyers at a baseball game here.

Or how about you get ready for your head to blow off, when you see what she found in Pretoria, South Africa. Only maybe the greatest piece of taxidermy ever performed. The creativity! The artist's touch! Manifique!


Leopard, Transval Museum. Eating the... eyes... of a... seriously though, the eyes?!?

She has a lot of great stuff on her site, including a series called Mankind’s Monuments to Barbaric Act and Other Unusual Vacation Destinations, in which she visits and documents places like genocide museums in Rwanda and Apartheid museums in South Africa.

Amazing, amazing stuff.

Only funny to designers...

Hey, it's a cartoon that will be lost on 95% of the general public, and hi-LARIOUS to nerds in the design/advertising/branding world.

Perfect!


Holy crap! It's like Dilbert got a job at DDB!

Lots more similar funny on skydeckcartoons.com, where Tom Fishburne cartoons about branding, business, parenting, and a million other things I'll deny being into if we meet at a party.

Instead, you'll meet my alter-ego Muffy McBeav, a nightclubbing euro-skank with a badger-like love of cocaine, tanning beds and Lamborghini Gallardos.

Circle Circle Dot Dot

Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone made this. I think Jamie Kennedy is played here by the African Legonian actor.

This is pretty random, but infectious and funny.

Gangsta lego guys? Obviously awesome!

It took me a second to figure out the title. Then I was all 'ohhhhhhhhh, I get it'.

Gold Pants Lullaby

Leslie Hall, gem sweater collector and conceptual/media artist. Such goodness!

I can promise one thing:

when the day comes that I spawn mini-Beckstars to dominate the multiverse with their inestimable radness...

...this will be the song that lulls them to sleep every night.

I work mainly in kittens...

I dare you. Watch these paper-cut-out-style animations of adorable kittens rocking out to classic hits, and deny that we're living in a wonderful age.


The kittens cover Emerge by Fischerspooner.


Chinchillas. DMX. Consider that this video, and the genus mammal, are likely the only links between these two creatures.


And the amazing continues - Joan Jett as played by a kitten. You know which song.

This is all the work of UK artist/experimenter Joel Veitch from rathergood.com. He also does commercial work [see below] much in the same vein, as well as some interesting experiments which can be seen on the site. He's also a member of the ska band 7 seconds of love. He also... what... can breathe underwater?


I'm not sure what they're selling... but I'll take three cases.

Let's Get Em. Let's Party.

So so so amazing. Just enjoy it.

You've probably seen this, as it's been passed around like crazy, but if not... it rules!

Erin + Dale: Argyle Extravaganza!

Saturday night saw us toasting Erin and Dale's engagement, an event which happened about a year ago, but which is obviously worth celebrating at any time!


Awww... such a lovely couple!


A small part of the infamous Argyle Gang, repping their pattern.


Eileen and Brandi share a laugh.


Eileen and Robin share a moment.


Here I am fearing Erin's alleged giant head.

Their wedding is going to be be even more fun, so... yay! Any event with a cupcake-pyramid cake is obviously tops.

How Friday Nights Get Out of Control Part III: Tickle Trunk!

So... what can you say about the spontaneous costume party that occured later back at the townhouse?


So cute.


So debaucherous.


So weird.


So adorable.


So Nickelback Roadie.

And a shout-out to K-Dizzle, the man on a mission to make the blog, and someone who clearly earned the title of Party MVP. So fun to have him in town!

What other photo could round out the evening?

So disurbingly hot and yet so very wrong.

How Friday Nights Get Out of Control Part II: Chill Winston

Watch closely now. The leather pants are stowed away tidily in their pant-cave BUT a large disco phallus and a dozen drunk friends have arrived. Witness the mayhem:


Bride-to-be Jelena wears disco phallus with luminescent pride.


For real though, WTF is up with this photo?


During this night, I found a camera setting that looks way better for clubs and night shots. Score!


KT and D getting their shine on.


KT and The Beckstar, roommates, friends, sister-wives.


Miss Moore (as her students, whom we ran into later, call her) and I work weekends as professional bangs models.


Brandon and Ken! Ninjas of obscure pop cultural knowledge!


Party MVP K-Dizzle, faced with the complicated situation of having a best friend's wife's tongue in his ear.

How Friday Nights Get Out of Control Part I: Leather Pants!

Obviously any night where the following stars are in alignment is going to get pretty messy.

Check it:

- Jelena in town from New Zealand
- Mel in town from Norway
-Kyle in town from Sunshine Coast
-Steve with new job to celebrate...

and The Beckstar starting the evening off wearing a mindblowing pair of leather motorcycle pants. Hotness!


It is possible that in a parallel universe, this is a typical moment for Beckstar 10892.


Re-tooling and finetuning of the replicants is a full-time job.


My alter-ego: Beefstar the Disco Sleaze.

Doodling with Light

Photograph: Gjon Mili

So Picasso did it. Beautifully, as you'd expect.

Now this crew - Tochka - out of Japan does animation, graphics and comics. Their Pikapika project is a hypnotic little abstract animation piece, using the same technique Pablo did: flashlights on long exposures. They stitch the photos into this film, which was nominated in the Ottawa International Animation Festival. [Psssst, I know that's a pretty pathetic honour, but don't tell Tochka okay? They were led to believe it was the Canadian Cannes.]

Capricorn Birthday Party III: Cody

Last Friday was all about good times as we celebrated Cody's birthday by getting hella drunk at the Bayside.

If you don't know Cody, you should probably get a clue, because anytime you want a dance floor, party or really any moment to be 40% more fun, who else you gonna call? Ghostbusters?

As an added bonus, we got to party with Monica, who left the next day for Europe indefinitely. Lucky for her; unlucky for Vancouver.


Our household gift to Cody - a product of our cumulative artistic efforts. Everybody needs a self-esteem collage.


Birthday Boy meets Travel Girl on the dance floor. Can the two belles of the ball share the spotlight? Of course they can!


Brief snapshot. I love the colour in this one.


K-Ro and the Beckstar.


Woo hoo! Scott's signature party face.


I know exactly what story I am telling Allison here. No, you so don't want to know.


My other gift to Cody - commemorating him in fog. Cody's very equestrian you see.

The Other Evolution of Dance...

Sure, you could watch that guy doing the Evolution of Dance comedy performance. You know, the one where one guy performs the entire history of popular dance, from the twist to the robot and beyond. Yeah, it's pretty good I guess.

But, if you will, let me present an alternate, more compact, little history, focusing on funk styles which are obviously awesome and rule:

Let's start with an all-too-timely video from one of the first hugely popular masters of the style, Mister James Brown:

Grab your notebook, because the Godfather is taking you to school.

And after James of course came Michael:

This video compilation of MJ's best dance moments? Reason #4510 that I love YouTube.

And... do I even need to 'justify' including the current master of pop dance?

Haters can hate, but I'd like to see them dance like JT.

As an additional bonus, check out this video of one of the many, many unsung masters. This guy, Pop N Taco, taught Michael Jackson to dance. Word.

Breakin'. One of the best movies of the 80's by far. After Revenge of the Nerds, obviously.

Missy said it best I think:

Big Daddy Kane and Public Enemy, Salt'n'Pepa, Lyte,
EPMD, LL, Run DMC, KRS-ONE, Rakim.
Most of them artists used to dance
and still get respected in the street.

Don't be scared to bank-head or bowl-gowl [??]
Or moonwalk as far as I care - it sold Michael Jackson 43 million.
Shoot, everybody had a zipper jacket, and have of these thugs had the glove to match it, you feel me?

Yo it's okay though.
If you wanna be hard and ice-grill,
and Harlem-shake at the same time.

Whatever - let's just have fun.
This is hip hop, man. This is hip hop.