NO on California Proposition 8

I will be having another contest to  give away another 500 business cards. The rules may change slightly this time and will be more fun. Details coming very soon.

Since I have rarely given anything away to my readers, I think it would be a great time to start. I will be giving away 500 free business cards this week to one lucky reader and another 500 next week to another reader, courtesy of UPrinting.com. UPrinting is a trusted leader in online printing companies, providing customers with high-quality printing at the lowest possible prices.

The winner can choose from any of UPrinting’s card stocks, including the eco-friendly cover stock (13 pt. Cover Uncoated - Recycled) or the the 14 pt. family in Matte, AQ, or UV at any custom size they offer such as square cards, odd sizes like 3×3 or 2×2. Free shipping to anywhere in the United States and Canada. Note: International customers will have to pay for shipping.

So how does one win the business cards, you may be wondering. It’s simple. For one week, starting from today anyone who comments on any of the posts on my blog has a chance of winning. I will randomnly choose one comment one week from now and contact that person who will win the business cards. Multiple comments are welcome. Not to worry, email addresses posted to comments are only visible to me.

Good luck and don’t forget to comment on any post this week to enter to win.

**UPDATE: Since I will be out of town and not have access to a computer…I am extending this business card giveaway to Friday September 26th. I will choose a winner on this date at approximately 8pm (PST). You can still leave comments on any post to enter to win until this time and date.

This very touching film, directed by Sean Dunne, is about Paul Mawhinney who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. “Over the years he has amassed what has become the world’s largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.”

This story really broke my heart. I sincerely hope there is a rich music artist, company, or anybody who is passionate about Paul’s love of music and willing to help him out. It would be wonderful to know that he could hold on to his record collection for the rest of his life and then be purchased by a museum or another collector.

Huge images of local women’s faces have been emblazoned across one of Brazil’s most dangerous shanty towns, Favela da Providencia. Renowned French photographer and street artist JR traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to meet women for who crime, violent loss of loved ones and arbitrary repression are part of everyday life.

Through a series of striking portraits the project named “Women Are Heroes”, JR aims to share the stories of these women who have led difficult lives by virtue of their surroundings. Coming from different origins and generations, you reach their stories and understand their vision of life in the context of conflict. In each photo you can see a different part of the women’s expression of life. This perspective unites hill and asphalt to give a face to the favela. Blown up and displayed on the facades of houses in the favela, the sheer size of the images will ensure that their presence is felt in the street.

This art project is completely independent and not sponsored by any institution or brand. It has also taken place in Sudan, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Liberia, and will move on to India, Cambodia, Laos and Morocco after Brazil.

More photos and information on the “Women Are Heroes” project:

http://28millimetres.com/women
http://jr-art.net/

A 12 year-old girl from Lebanon has razor-sharp crystals coming out of her eyes. A very bizarre and unexplained condition.

Party madness this past Friday evening as my husband Lars DJ’d at his monthly residency at Moonshadows in Malibu. (Name sound familiar? Well, Moonshadows is the restaurant/bar where Mel Gibson was partying it up the night of his infamous run in with Malibu police a couple years ago.) This spot is always great times..outdoor deck lounge overlooking the pacific ocean, the crowd, amazing food, stiff drinks and of course the MUSIC.

We started by sitting outside at a table on the deck, overlooking the ocean, and enjoyed an incredible gourmet dinner from the Moonshadows restaurant. And then Lars got behind the DJ decks, dropping some sweet music to start out the beautiful early evening. Soon after his guest DJ for the evening, our very good friend Tony Watson and his lovely wife Angie showed up. Tony is one of my favorite DJ’s in LA and listening to him play is always a treat. Both Tony and Lars dropped some serious dope records throughout the night, never staying within a specific genre or style. As the night went on the place became more and more packed and soon the party was jumping and getting crazy. People were dancing, singing out loud and screaming. I’ve never seen Moonshadows get that nutty. All in all..although I was having a sober evening, (Lars drank plenty for the both of us… haha! ) I had a seriously good time and met some great new people.

Click on the image mosaic above and it will take you to my flickr set of all the photos both me and Lars took. Or you can view the slideshow.

Just discovered wordle, a typographic word cloud generator that allows you to create a custom type graphic extracted from the rss feed of any website or from any set of words or sentences that you type. What I really love about this application is the ability to tweak the layout to create various color schemes, fonts, horizontal/vertical type..etc. It’s can definitely be addicting. You also have the option to add your creation to the wordle gallery. The one I created above is generated from katize.com. And the one below, I created (very appropriately) from one of my favorite websites, ilovetypography.

I’d love to check out other creations with wordle. If you’d like to share your type cloud, please post the link in the comments section of this post.

My husband Lars just broadcasted the 250th episode of his weekly XM Radio show Deeper Shades of House. For this special occasion he recorded a two hour classic house special. I’ve been bumping this show at home and in the car and wanted to share it with you. Make sure to check out the playlist on his site deepershades.net.

1st hour:

2nd hour:

Le Le is a project by the Dutch artists P. Fabergé, Piet Parra and Rimeroni Vumani, with influences from different European music styles and languages. This is the video for Le Le’s hit song ‘Breakfast’, consisting of animated illustrations by Piet Parra.

Black Dice is a noise rock/experimental band based in Brooklyn, New York. This is a video for Kokomo, the first tune off their latest album Load Blown.

Black Dice Official Site