Shopping Vancouver: 4 Favorites

by Josh Rubin

In the last 24 hours I've hoofed all over most of downtown Vancouver looking for hot retail and interesting products. This is a great little city with lots to see and do, but being the turbo consumer that I am, my focus was clear. Results after the jump.

Mad Professor

by Josh Rubin

Yesterday I checked out Vancouver's premier sneaker store, Livestock. They had all the stuff you'd expect to see-- Adidas 35th Anniversary Superstars, BAPEs, various Nike Quickstrikes, Ice Creams and more. They did introduce me to a few new things, though. Mad, for example, is a Japanese brand that has been around for awhile. This pair, called the Mad Professor, is covered in 3M Scotchlite reflective material to add a little sparkle to the already funky-fresh design.

Volvo 3CC: Too Cute to Crash

by Josh Rubin

Volvo's coupe concept car, the 3CC, pushes the safety envelope in addition to having an adorable Trekkie style. What makes this thing unique is that the entire floor of the car will shift to absorb the force of impact in a head on collision. The dash and seats move, too.

Check out this b-roll to see how it all works.

Now For Something Spicy

by Ari Bendersky

From the Spice Girls to Ab Fab and now to a successful solo career.

Donít kill me but I have to say I actually like the former Baby Spice, who now simply goes by Emma.

Yes, itís pure pop, a guilty pleasure. But her single, ìFree Me,î which is already huge in the UK, is catchy. It has hooks and built-in dance moves. Sure the lyrics are repetitive, but watch how long it takes you to start moving once the music gets going.

Emmaís all grown up and sexy as hell Ö but still cute as a Bunton (sorry, couldnít help myself). Not to mention she seems like the only former Spice Girl to actually have a chance at going on to have a career of her own (sorry Ginge, you tried sweetheart. Next.).

Check out the single for Free Me.

Tagging Time

by Ari Bendersky

When it comes to fashion, are you ever on time? Or always ahead of schedule? Now you can track it.

Vessel created the teeny-weeny Tempo Time Tag – a sleek chronometer that doubles as a fashion accessory. This wee digital timepiece is the size of your fingertip and clips anywhere: use it as a tie tack, a collar brooch, a “pocket watch” or simply attach it to your attaché.

You’ll never be too late – or too early – again.

via Apartment Therapy.

Ashley Wood Popbot

by Carol T Chung

Australian artist Ashley Wood weaves an interesting stream of thought story of sex, technology, and revenge in book 2 of Popbot. His style has the lyrical line quality of Dave McKean's work Cages. The richness of color is also similar to some of McKean's other works, but also has some of the looseness of David Mack's earlier Kabuki work. Although I draw similarities, this work stands strongly as its own with a nice mix of comic panel narrative, block copy, and full page illustrations.

Kozik Smoking Bunny

by Carol T Chung

What is it about cute things being naughty? I'm in love with these Kozik bunnies. Okay, so the one on the left is the Kozik Smoking Bunny, which is available at Toy Tokyo for about $60. If you're unwilling to throw down that amount of money, check out the Smorkin Labbits (right) at Kidrobot. I think I'm gonna build a small army.

Bring the Noise

by Josh Spear

At one time the words portable and audio probably sounded akward in a sentence together. Today, that's much different-- nearly everyone I know has some kind of portable audio device, or at-least is lusting after one. CBC Arts Online has a great photo essay about the evolution of portable audio written by Matthew McKinnon called Bring the Noise. He takes us through the history starting out with the old pocket transistor radio in 1954 made by Regency to the reminiscent times of the super woofer boom boxes in the late 1970's and early '80s all the way to the present, the age where the iPod and wearable audio reign supreme.

via Core 77

Hacking the Pepsi iTunes Giveaway

by Josh Spear

iTunes songs, and yep--the hack introduced by Macmerc.com during last year's contest still works like a charm. I don't drink Pepsi, but if you do please help yourself to a winning bottle and a free song ahead of the competition on me. Pepsi says 1 in 3 is a winner, which is great odds but wouldn't you prefer to win every time? I would. Macmerc.com has great directions on their site.