There is too much awesome in this This collection of Retro Beauty Ads. It reminds me of one of my aunts who has had the same hairstyle for thirty years, which actually, is not awesome.
OMG, Look at the lacy faux collar thing! What is that, a neck dickie?
The Library of Congress has it's own Flickr account, people! The Library of Congress!!!
This set of color photos from the 1930-40's is just astounding.
Artist David Horvitz wants to send YOU something. Or maybe he just wants your money, but he has quite an inventive way of asking for it.
Check out his page titled "Things for sale that I will mail you." For donations as little as a dollar or as generous as thousands of dollars, he will send you anything from a blank envelope to one filled with star sand from Okinawa.
You can also send him money to mail you items from Buddhist temples, distribute copies of The Little Prince outside the New York Stock Exchange, kiss a moon tree, buy a homeless person a meal or think about you for one minute.
And who doesn't want to know someone's thinking about them?
So, hipster boy sees hipster girl on subway (wearing a flower in her hair and drawing in her journal, of course). He spends the entire subway ride imagining all the ways he can get her attention and then the next day, he creates this website (complete with his phone number and email address). And then this vimeo.
Uhm. 'Hello' might have worked. But I guess there's no publicity in that.
...to send the very awesomest.
{via the Sweetney}
"Polish man that lives next door, lives alone in a 3 flr house. always
has lights off. complains when children are playing in their own back
yard. threatened to poison family pet that was barely outside. (pretty
sure he hired some1 2 run over our old dog)calls cops for every little
thing. Only picks fights with women neighbors, but never the males.
walks into or yard thinking he owns the place. IS AN OLD GROUCHY ASS
POLISH MAN! WHO NEEDS A DAMN WOMEN! HE NEEDS TO GET LAID!"
I've been using Mint to track my spending habits for the last few weeks, and what do you know! More than 25% of my income goes to "SHOPPING."
Well, at least it's a business expense, right?
I've never been one for balancing a checkbook, but pretty graphs and pie charts make online banking actually interesting. I can also see in huge, enormous, plain view in front of my eyes that my Target budget is a big off the grid. Thankfully, Mint reminds me of this each time I spend over an amount (that I set) and sends me a polite text message to walk away from the hair dye aisle before my account is empty.
Now, how can I make $230 in pedicures tax deductible?
Hey hey hey! We've been nominated! Check out our page at the Blogger's Choice Awards and send in your vote!
We *know* there's wayyyyy more than 200 readers out there, so we *know* we can get in the top three. Plus anyone who votes gets a free car and ice cream!!
**Oh yeah, free car and ice cream not provided by Awesome.
Our friend Brenda is a finalist in the Apartments.com Possession Obsession contest! Go Brenda!
She's got a great video up about her amazing pinup girl collection and is now in the running to walk away with $20K! And really, how can you not love this collection? Next to the creepy guy who is obsessed with Halloween and the weird girl who's apartment is stuffed with trash, Brenda's the only normal one in the bunch. We think her collection is fun and sexy and so worth the vote.
Give her your vote before October 19, and keep in mind you can vote once per day per email address. When you're done voting, check out her blog for more pinup madness!
Let's face it: we live in a busy society. We have errands to run, jobs to do, and cocktails to mix. So who has the time to read up on where every presidential candidate stands on every single issue? Hey, in the minute it took me to write the last sentence, Perez has updated his site about 5 times. People, I don't have time to read about politics!!
But I'm gonna vote. And I'm gonna vote for someone who stands for stuff I believe in. So, enter the Candidate Calculator. In the time it takes to polish 5 nails, you can discover the candidate best aligned to your beliefs.
Oddly, the calculator suggested I vote for Dolly Parton. Perez never even mentioned she was running!
If you're planning a move anytime in the near future, movingscam.com is your friend. Seriously, it's a wealth of great information, jam-packed with helpful tips and links to informative articles, and it even has this blacklist with names of all the moving companies to stay away from. I haven't even moved yet, and it's probably saved me thousands of dollars and at least a few good nerves in my body.
Now, is there a heisnogoodforyou.com yet with a blacklist of all the jerks we should avoid dating? Because that totally would've saved me at least a couple broken hearts and tortuous Friday nights. For real.
If you've ever lived in a shoebox and lacked design inspiration in such a small space, the entries for the 3rd annual Apartment Therapy Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest will put you to shame. Most recently up for your vote is this gorgeous 300 square foot NYC pad. 300 sf!! In Chicago that's about the size of most people's bathtubs.
Anyway, submit your own small cool apartment, vote on others', or just drool over all the creative inspiration and quit bitchin' about how bad you've got it in your 900 sf palace in Seattle.
Ok, so maybe I google things like "baby bunny pictures" and "panda hands". What do you expect from me when Cute Overload is slacking so much?
The Cute Project is my latest obsession because OMG, I found pics of PANDA HANDS!
There's nothing else I can add to panda hands!
I don't know whether to be relieved I don't resemble any of the
scenesters, or kind of sad I have become so old. Does it count if I
still think the prehistoric emo boy is sort of cute? (via Josh Spear)
If you like reading weblogs for the personal stories and to peek into strangers' lives to see how inherently similar and indelibly connected we all are, but you hate sifting through all the self-serving and poorly-written "what I ate for lunch" and "sorry, folks, I've been busy" posts, you should check out Common Ties.
Started by a journalist and a producer who hit the road in search of personal stories, Common Ties began when they soon realized there were so many stories that they better take submissions from readers all over the world. You can submit your own stories (you'll even get paid if they publish you!), or just enjoy the well-written, compelling stories of others. And we promise, no ham-and-cheese-on-rye-with-an-apple entries.
P.S. For other well-written personal stories, there's always our book too, you know!
For probably the first time ever, I don't mind starting a post with, "A friend of a friend of a friend..." It's only half way true: This video is about the cousin of my friend Ben, who I've known for 17 years. Eric Volz is an American living in Nicaragua who is now serving a 30-year sentence for a murder he did not commit. This film has been created by his family and friends to bring attention to his conviction, and hopefully help make some changes. A Wall Street Journal article is here, another article here.
For those of you who'd rather curl up with a good book after work than watch Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest call each other homos while Paula cries, and a bunch of questionably talented twenty-somethings with good hair get "pitchy" with the mic, then maybe First Chapters is more your kind of competition.
Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition is "a first-time author's gateway to publication. One Novelist will win a publishing contract with Touchstone/Simone & Schuster, a $5,000 cash prize and promotion by Borders!" Anyone can read and vote on the best first chapters of an unpublished book and the votes continue on through successive chapters until a winner is chosen.
So put that remote down already and get to reading. The hair might not be as great, but there probably won't be as many pitch problems, either.
Recently, when I asked for book recommendations on my other blog, I got a wide range of great suggestions, including one for a website called Goodreads.
Goodreads is a social networking site for bookworms--for those of us with arguably too much time on our hands...or maybe just long commutes--who devour books like chocolate and want nothing more than to discuss literature in great detail long into the night.
While on other social networking sites you might leave comments about individuals, on Goodreads, you write reviews for books. And while on other sites there's a plethora of "creative" grammar, people on Goodreads actually spell out the words correctly and in their entirety, And if that isn't enuf reesin 2 chek owt Goodreads, I don't no wut iz.
"Somehow people must be free,
I hope the day comes soon.
Won't you please come to Chicago,
To show you face.
From the bottom of the ocean
To the mountains of the Moon.
Won't you please come to Chicago
No one else can take your place."
Check out our friend Nick's video blog, Look Shiny!
Austin Kleon opens up the newspaper and stands above it with a black magic marker, running the felt tip in it across unnecessary words and poorly worded metaphors. They have nothing to do with his feelings, so he excludes them in the most obvious way, cutting deep to the chase.
Where other people see ink on the page in random order, he sees where the ink meets the paper with the potential for meaningfulness beyond that found in mere storytelling. The basics of life are revealed to be boring, inconsequential most days, but Austin resuscitates it, bringing the benign back to life.
If you've ever wondered what you'd look like in your old age, or as a Botticelli rendering, or as half-man/half-chimp, you'll love the face transformer!
Seriously, who has the time to come up with stuff like this? And who has the time to sit there uploading a bunch of different pictures of themselves and seeing what they look like morphed into an anime character or a 19th century impressionist painting?
I guess I do since I just did, for like two hours.
Today I learned about something pretty awesome: GreenDimes.com! Sick of junk mail? Sick of worrying about criminals rummaging through your garbage looking for your name and address so they can steal your identity? Guess what? So are they!
For just over $3 a month, you can have your name removed from all those junk email lists, and a tree will even be planted on your behalf. Let them automate the process of protecting your personal info in the mail and get back to worrying about when the next new issue of BUST will show up on your doorstep.
$3 a month? For no junk mail? Yeah, that's awesome. {via Ev}
We've had jp33 as an Awesome sponsor for two whole weeks now and if you haven't made your way to the site to check out the beautiful prints, apparel, and web design samples, I guess you must be hitting the eggnog harder than I imagined.
Would it help if I told you you can get $6 back on your order if you mention "OhMyAwesome"?
Ah, finally! Something to get you to put the booze down. It's about time. (Uh, can I have the rest?)
Our friends at Flickr have made sending gifts to your friends and family super easy this year! Just click the button and buy someone you love a Flickr subscription for a mere $24.95! I just bought a friend a subscription and it took me all of two minutes to change their lives forever!
With a Pro account they can upload as many photos as they want, make sets and join community groups, and set all sorts of privacies on their photos until their heart’s content.
What could be better than saying to your loved one this holiday season, “Hey, uh, I don’t like Photobucket.”
Incase you don't already know, Smith Magazine is an online publication that "explores storytelling in all its forms." That means you finally have a place to send the blog entry you wrote last year about your break-up that everyone said was so raw and beautiful.
Anyway, Smith is sponsoring a six-word memoir contest, the winner of which will be awarded an iPod. Think about that for a minute: six words! A memoir in six words!
Mine would say: "Need coffee to write. I'm out."
Contest ends December 25, 2006.
Literally, I was just browsing the interweb, when I literally found the funniest site I've seen in ages, literally. It's literally an entire collection of misuses of the word "literally"...literally.
Now that word is really starting to sound weird.
Perhaps you know about JPG Magazine already. Perhaps you don't.
Perhaps you saw a recent issue at Barnes and Nobel or Borders. Perhaps you didn't.
Perhaps you know that now JPG members can vote for submissions with the hopes that maybe their favorite photo will be published. Perhaps you didn't know this, and now you're going to click over there and VOTE FOR MY FUCKING PHOTO ALREADY.
I mean, please vote for my fucking photo already. And thank you, sir.
My friend Mike Monteiro is all fancy these days, curating a whole art show for Timothy Buckwalter.
Mike commissioned the beautiful drawings from Timothy and now they're all available for sale in his online shop for about $25 a pop. It's a great way to invest in modern art and help perpetuate all those pretentious misleadings about how the internet is supposed to be a place of "culture" and "class" and "original thought."
Or whatever. They're just pretty awesome.
Just check them all out when you can.
Dudes, remember when we talked about Vox a while back? Well it's only gotten better, and we should know since we've started another blog over there. We're using it to catalog quick picks and coupons, sales and deals and whatnot, and we'd love for you to come visit and leave comments and - Gasp! - favorite things! Just like on Flickr!!
What? you don't have a Vox account? Because we offered them to all our readers and ran out in the first half hour? Guess what?? We've partnered with Vox to give out ONE THOUSAND INVITES to our Awesome readers!!!!!
I spend a lot of money on fabrics and then do nothing with them most of the time. That's because I can't bear to cut up some of my favorite finds, especially the awesome fabrics I've gotten from ReproDepot. They're all unique and in perfect condition, and the colors are simply awesome.
Like this amazing moss colored one that is part of their Japanese import line. And don't forget to check out their fabrics from the 20's and 30's, and all the buttons, notions and ribbons they've got for sale, too.
Where else can you find fabric as beautiful as this or this?? Probably in Japan, but I can't link to a country.
I think this little convo with my friend Nick sums it all up:
Seriously, is there anything more entertaining on a low-key day in the city, than heading to your nearest hipster hotspot-hangout and making fun of everyone? Bonus points if you happen to be a hipster yourself, dressed to the max in oversize necklaces and leggings and stunted baby pigtails.
Hipsters denying their hipsterdom while making fun of other hipsters is the ultimate entertaining cliche, which is why the site hipsterotica is so brilliant. I discovered it while sniffing around Gawker the other day and immediately read through all the old posts, like this one, which is so dead-on.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go put on my vintage Pumas and head to the coffee shop on my vintage blue cruiser with my mullet and indie jewelry so I can write on my other blog and upload new pictures of myself to Myspace, not that any of that makes me a hipster, it doesn't!!
So, I have a new favorite online literary and humor magazine (and all-around cornucopia of
sophisticated story-tellers) called yellow, which makes its long-awaited debut today. In addition to yellow being just one more way you can kill time at work
while you put off actually, well, working, the very nice and tireless editors of the rag suffered enough lapse in judgment to give yours truly her very own column. Despite my inclusion in it, the magazine is still pretty good. Hey, I haven't ruined this site yet, have I? Have I? Oh, shut up.
This first issue will be up for two months with periodic changes and updates over the next few weeks (including maybe even more dumb stuff from me). The second issue will be out around the end of October. Check it out!
Here's a favorite from Megan, sister of Tracey who was featured in our awesome book earlier this summer:
"Colorstrology is a site my girlfriend showed me while we were picking out paint colors for her bedroom. I have since then been obsessed with it. You can go there and find out what your birthday color is, what color is best for you to meditate with, will give you energy, be soothing and trust me, you're going to spend lots of time there and then want to go buy new clothes in your power color and repaint your whole house.
The second one is my sister's blog. Her name is Tracie Masek, and there's some funny shit and really embarrassing photos and now that I think about it, there are some really embarrassing pictures of ME and I don't know why I'm sending you the link. But you guys have actually read her stuff before, you published her "Ode To My Winter Coat" in the Best of Weblogs book. Anyway, I love my sister and I'm trying to help her out, and I think her blog is awesome, hence why I believe it should be on a site about awesome things!"
Thanks Megan!
From our awesome friend Lester comes his awesome, awesome, awesome, audition for Brokeback Mountain!!
Here's another reader favorite from Kirsten:
"So I thought you should know about Stylus, which is like Pitchfork without the hipper-than-thou attitude. Very refreshing.
Also, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, is not just for Veronica Mars addicts like me, but is really entertaining on its own. It satirizes not only the fear machine and sensationalist newsmaking, but the conventions of musical theater themselves. Good stuff. "
Editor's Note: So, what's this Veronica Mars show all about? This isn't the first time I've heard someone give it a glowing remark. Should I be watching??
We couldn't possibly have a month of favorite things without mentioning our favorite modern lit mag for women, Swivel! The wonderful Editrix-in-Chief Brangien writes,
"Bust Magazine called Swivel 'a one-two punch of style and substance,' and we all know how awesome Bust is. Featuring funny writing by such hot writer mamas as Evany Thomas, Aimee Bender, Melissa Bank, Vendela Vida, Holiday Reinhorn, Starlee Kine, and many more, Swivel is... well, it's Swivelicious. And PS, nothing earns more indie street cred than being caught reading an indie mag on the bus. So get yer Swivel on at swivelmag.com!
The PrairieMod Squad has elected itself awesome in this month of favorites:
"Our blog, PrairieMod, is all about the art of living in the modern
world. Our site is a 21st century forum to showcase books, art,
products, places and ideas that fit with our own particular take on the
new cultural movement we affectionately refer to as "Prairie Modern."
You can read all about what the Prairie Modern lifestyle is on the site.
Also, check out a couple of Confessions From A PrairieMod Squad Member."
Do you have a cool site you think our other readers would like? Submit it as a favorite this month!
Since it is our month of favorites an all, I'd be quite remiss to not tell you about my favorite comic ever, Bill Burr.
I've professed his greatness on every occasion granted, and yet I still can't tell you just how funny he truly is. If you don't believe me, check out his site and click through all those videos and then try to tell me when you've laughed harder. The bit about salary differences? Or computers? Or OMG his HBO special? Bill Burr is magic, people. MAGIC.
For even more of the best comic ever, check out his MySpace page and some awesome blogs, with fucking great observational humor like this small gem:
"People who eat at Arby's would have no problem eating a fellow passenger after a plane crash. They'd just grab a torso and begin dining, with that far away food court stare and a loop of Paul McCartney solo music playing in their heads. They're just a horrific demographic of human beings..."
Oh my mother effing Lord people, Snakes on a Plane is almost here, and what better way to remind your friends than to send them all a personalized phone call from Samuel L. Jackson?
That's right, type in a few character traits about your friend, enter their phone number and Mr. Jackson will give them a call to remind them that Snakes on a Plane opens August 18! When the calls come in, they even show up with your caller ID, and if your friend misses the call it'll go right to voice mail.
What's better than a Samuel L. Jackson voicemail? Snakes on a plane, man.
Another awesome reader, Emily, sends her favorites!
Schick intuition razor: 100% worth the extra cost because you don't have to do the stupid lathering thing EVER AGAIN.
This table from Crate and Barrel that I can't afford but looks like it was just hewed by Norsemen. (check out the Room View and look at the awesome bench that matches it).
Pretty much everything here, except for the stuff that's all eileen fisher's skanky little sister.
Veronica Mars, which is hands-down the best show ever (watch the first season and you'll see).
My friend, James, says the following blogs get his "cool vote&
