State of the Blogosphere: the Highlights of Online Fashion, Lifestyle & Pop Culture for the Week Ending 4/9/06. FASHIONTRIBES FASHION BLOG

In this week's roundup, give the gift of the 10 plagues of Egypt for Passover...as stuffed toys. Find out if you suffer from Infolust. Head north, way north, for the world's coolest marathon. Sex up your skinny jeans with snazzy suspenders. Get a shirtdress & the right summer bag. Fido needs a fab new collar, right? And while you're at it, give your wee one an adorable anarchist pendant. Enjoy a glass of, wait for it, good wine that's cheap (or is it cheap wine that's good?). Make a dirty martini. Win a place on a reality show because of your hair. Find out the latest from the Milan Furniture Fair. Marvel at Chris Meloni & his Unibomber ensemble. And join in the George Clooney vs. Gawker fun.

- Lesley Scott

POP CULTURE DETRITUS

• Just in time for Passover, it's the crowd pleasin' Plush Plagues Bag. Delight your chosen loved ones with a sack o' stuffed representations of all ten plagues that wreaked havoc on Egypt: a spooky eyed drop of blood, a giant lice, a cow for cattle disease, a black locust, a white satin lump of hail, a black cube of darkness & even an "icky" boil on a piece of flesh. via Boing Boing
• From researching pretty much everything on Google to ferreting out the best price on anything to finding out the 411 on 18th century gardening or alternative medicine, we want our information & we want it now. We're a society in the throws of Infolust says Trendwatching.
• Researchers at MIT are using a virus to build tiny batteries reports Engadget, a process which involves a version of a common virus - but gene-manipulated - which "then assembles itself as an ultrathin wire on top of thin film." Eventually, they predict they'll be able to replicate millions of wires which has the potential to dramatically improve everything from hearing aids to electric cars.
• Basic Instinct 2 bombed, majorly, at the box office. Is it the fault of the moral majority & our hypocritically prudish government, or because the movie sucks? La Dolce Divas investigate the possible end of Eros stateside.
• Could you live without shopping for a year? MSNBC writes about Judith Levine's experience doing the unthinkable.
• South Park wins a George Foster Peabody Award? According to CNN.com, the completely politically incorrect series - with its equal opportunity poke in the eye for, well, pretty much anyone & thing that's deserving - won for its button-pushing which reminds "us of the need to be tolerant."
• The 75x110 foot vinyl replica of Maxim's latest cover with Eva Longoria which the mag put in the desert outside of Las Vegas to celebrate their 100th issue - & which can be seen from space - is cool idea because any space aliens planning to attack will be momentarily distracted which gives us time to fight back. via The Superficial
• More than 50 runners from all around the world have gathered to compete in the North Pole Marathon. Check out the NPR podcast about "the world's coolest marathon."
• Whoever wondered if today's teens are growing up illiterature hasn't come into contact with the exploding Young Adult category of publishing, where teen novelists are telling all about what it's really like to be young today. via YPulse. (Note: a prime example is The Notebook Girls penned by four Manhattan young 'uns.)
• Vanity Fair's Green Issue is on the stands and while it features one of their own, Treehugger is disappointed it isn't on paper made from recycled content.

• Eventually a day will come when blogs are no longer a novelty opines Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune; instead of being sectioned off for easy show & tell, they will be integrated into a news site's presentation.
• Second Life is so not just a game insists Eric Rice, who explains that it's a game the same way playing with Lego is...a similar argument to the one made by Steve Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, praising the problem-solving skills developed by playing videogames.

FASHION, FASHION, FASHION

• Rock the new dark skinny jean the Luella way: with suspenders. Fashiontribes podcasts about how. Denimology has more skinny on skinny jeans.
• Yes, we all know white is huge this season, but did you know the shirtdress is baaaaaack? The New York Times investigates.
• Mixed media jewelry is growing in popularity right now, with combinations of wood and metal from artists like Wendy Culpepper & her new Tribute Collection, reports Jewelry Weblog.
• Should you find yourself escaping to Positano or Capri this summer & you want to blend in with the well-heeled locals, the Bag Snob recommends schlepping the Michael Kors Santori tote made from soft chocolate brown calfskin with gold hardware.
• If life is a catwalk, you'd better be ready for your closeup & wardrobe is key. Choose the right designers says Second City Style - from Lela Rose to Hollywould to Collette Dinnigan - to get the look.
• A tee with "9/11 is a Joke" splashed over really annoyed Kobayashi5.
• Teen girls love to dress like twins, especially when it comes to fashion fads. But if it pisses one of the twins off, should they speak up and risk confrontation, or seethe in silence - which sets a questionable blueprint for womanhood muses Counterfeit Chic.

BABY & KID STYLE

• Oufit your stylish pooch with a fresh, new collar for spring, says Pup Style, and don't forget to pick up a lead set to match this season’s peep toe flats & colors that coordinate with your Necco wafer habit.
• Win a delicious satire of modern motherhood: Celebrity-Babies is giving away 13 copies of Mommy Land: Entering the Insanity of Motherhood.
• The latest in baby chic? Why, a shiny white gold pendant of the anarchist symbol. "A baby anarchist??? Why not? We've circumcized or baptized infants for millennia and the kids have no idea what they're getting into," remarks BlingdomOfGod.com

BON APPETIT! FOOD & DRINK

  (Counter Restaurant's The Dirtiest Martini)

• Everything old is new again, especially the 40s. Fashiontribes recently reported on the 1940s-inpsired Humphrey Bogart collection of furniture by Thomasville, and PSFK posted about a new 40s-themed bar/supper club in London's West End called La Pigalle, with "suitably attired staff", mezzanine dining, and even a 26 piece band.
• If one should never trust a skinny cook, then no one is more trustworthy than Mario Batali. The celeb chef brand with the Falstaff-like personal proportions (who is also the official cook of NASCAR) has his pleasingly plump finger on the pulse of what the people want reports Time.com
• A sample of dishes that Ideas in Food is working on for spring: artichoke soup with rock shrimp gnocchi, kimchee crisps and sabayon; king trumpet mushroom with shishito pepper marmalade, yuba strudel, ponzu ice cream; Foie Gras terrine; warmed hamachi & cucumber-sour cherry relish, barbequed eel, charred onion vinaigrette; lamb sweetbreads & waldorf salad.
• Wine in the US is not only getting better, but cheaper, says Vinography about the noticeable increase in bottles in the five to ten dollar range sold at mass market outlets like supermarkets.

• If you're in NYC and get your wine jones on, Dr. Vino helpfully came up with a color coded map of the most worthwhile wine shops in the city.
• A different glass for every type of wine. Fetish or vino necessity? Organic Wine Journal is on the case.
• When it comes to classic cocktails, forget chi chi or newfangled and opt for tried-and-true recipes like martinis made with gin, and Manhattans made with rye says Eric Asimov of The Pour. For an organic & tasty take on the classic dirty martini, try this recipe from Counter NYC.
• Gluten-free beer. Yes indeed. Chow has the 411.
• Home cooking meets the New Age with a quick and easy recipe for Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta & Prosciutto from Martha Stewart Living.

GET GORGEOUS: BEST OF BEAUTY

 

• Spring has sprung, and the beauty palatte is vibrant & gorgeous. The evidence is at Zoozoom.
• Not quite candles, but just as romantic & minus the added risk of torching your haven to the ground. Pop Gadget features the handy Spa Lights that stick to any surface by suction & even float in water.
• Win a chance to be on a TV reality show, The Show Off, just for having sexy hair podcasts Fashiontribes Beauty Buzz.
• Despite the same scores as the non-gorgeous in solving mazes and in levels of productivity, a recent study reveals that being beautiful actually makes others think you're smart - whether it's true or not. via Jack & Hill

A CASA - HOME DECOR & LIFESTYLE

• Live from the Milan Furniture Fair courtesy of Design Sponge: glitzy parties (Swarovski! Wallpaper! Edra!); 2500 exhibitors from far and wide; a massive lucite chandelier as part of Interni's HeavyLight exhibit; modular/customizable furniture from Sangiorgio; behemoth light-up vases from VG Newtrend; jewel & gem tones...and the ubiquitous Karim Rashid.
• Spill some bright paint on the floor, and leave it that way! A clever decor idea from Apartment Therapy.
• If your house isn't making you happy, Oprah.com shows how to turn things around.
• Now that the tulips have bloomed, compare your skills to other gardeners around the world on the BBC's Tulipwatch map.
• Funny looking, but way effective, the "Silicone Heat Holders" (these are no mere oven mitts, thankyou) get the big thumbs up from Girlawhirl.
• Paint-by-numbers was such a blast as a kid. Relive the fun with wallpaper-by-numbers, a home color-by-numbers kit in a variety of patterns. via Product Dose

CELEB FUG

• Why would Law & Order SVU's Chris Meloni attend a premier dressed like the Unibomber wonders Go Fug Yourself. Good question.
• Just what is Katie Holmes - of non-bloated face & way thin arms - toting under that maternity smock top? Like the majority of celeb-watching bloggers, the Manolo of Manolo's Shoe Blog has his suspicions.
• Bitch-slapping "celebrities whose greatest achievement is un-chipped nail polish...whose only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs" is Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, which is why Pop Candy loves her.
• George Clooney: 0 Gawker: 10 The hilarious ongoing beef between the beefcake & the blog Gawker continues. (It should be noted that Clooney started the whole affair by exhorting people to send in fake celeb sightings and shut down the Gawker Stalker feature which details exactly - on a map, no less - where glitterati were sighted around NYC, often within the last 15 minutes.) One reader trying to win an Oceans 11 DVD who failed to snap a pic of Clooney on her cameraphone because she couldn't help staring. She was helpfully advised: "His hotness is a powerful tool against your photography skills...Rise above his sex appeal and get that camera phone picture, and claim your DVD prizes." And perhaps pick up a fun tee while you're at it.

- Lesley Scott

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