Happy New Year!

I'm pretty excited about this cake. We'll be eating him tonight. I wish I could take credit, but that goes to Deerfields Bakery.

O Little Town of Mos Eisley

Thank you, dumbledad.

They're Back!

Watch the season 2 premiere of the Conchords here! So glad the boys are back to justify our subscription to HBO. Conchords love all around: Pop Candy also has an interview with the adorable Kirsten Schaal today. (Thanks to Elloh for her image of the angels).

Show-Offs

I can't get enough of the retro dioramas lately. A winter storm is coming over here, so I'm loving Artifact Bingo's ice skaters. She takes antique lead figurines and shoots them in real snow! Check 'em all out here.

Barbie Stops By for Christmas

Hey Sailor's Barbie and Ken cards are just about the best thing I've seen this week. The caption for this one: "Every Christmas morning Barbie would make Ken her famous spam 'n' yam quiche...this year she could have slept in." You can see more of Christopher's fabulous Barbie world at his etsy shop.

Add These To My Wishlist

Anyone who knows me knows that I love making mixes. In high school it was a constructive outlet for my mood swings; I would draw the sleeve art and pick the soundtrack of whatever mood I was in that day. All of these colorful tapes are sitting in a box in our basement. I love that my stereo still has a tape deck so that I can revisit them (although some are really embarrassing). I'm still churning out as many at 35 as I did when I was 15... of course they are usually on CD now (not quite as fun but easier to give as gifts). I spend a silly amount of time planning them, actually, so these notebooks from Crooked Walker would come in handy! Check out this lovely post from Amy for more mixtape love.

I'm Feelin' Lucky

So the other day I was sitting in front of the TV and I did what I usually do: I flipped on Bravo, looking for some bitchy programming, whether it be the latest goings on with the Real Housewives or a Top Chef marathon. Instead I was more than a little surprised to find a marathon of Dirty Harry movies. What? Did Bravo swap programming with Spike TV all of a sudden? Or is Dirty Harry a gay icon? I was tired and content to be lulled into complacency, so I sat through Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool. I'd never watched a Dirty Harry movie before; with all the parodies (my personal fave is McGarnicle) I kinda felt like I'd seen them already. I was wrong. It was totally worth it. That Bill-of-Rights-screwing, ethnic-slur-making, phallic-gun-toting guy was a riot. Almost as funny is this fake trailer for Gran Torino. Illustration above courtesy of Oliver Lake.

Merry Mad Men

Now it's going to be a Merry Christmas: Mad Men ornaments! Buy 'em while they last at Fragment House.

Freedom

Okay, so I (guiltily) turned on MTV the other night to watch the Britney documentary. Sometimes I just can't help myself. Brit seemed so pretty on the outside but so sad, sad. Watching her I was reminded of Jonas Mekas' reaction to her head shaving incident. Jones who, you ask? Jonas, 85, was one of the founders of American avant-garde cinema in the 60s. He is still going strong, and recently he did a film every day for a year; one of them was about Brit. I don't know why, but I can watch it again and again. You can watch it here. The cool street art above is courtesy of Nick Damiano.

Temptation

Luckily I haven't gotten sucked into any of this Twilight madness. But I might pick up one of the books if this painting by Jessie Oleson was the cover art. Jessie is the dessert and illustration guru at one of my favorite baking blogs, Cakespy. You can see lots of Jessie's cuppie illustrations here too.