Justin and Christine of Wants For Sale (etc) fame are at it again. Scissors blindfolded? Oh god. I can’t wait to see the results.

If you’re in New York this Saturday come by and we will wrap your holiday gifts, blindfolded. Bring a gift or buy one there and we’ll wrap it. All money raised will be donated to New York Cares.

Blindfolded Holiday Gift Wrapping
Saturday December 12th
Partners & Spade
40 Great Jones St NYC
12 – 7PM

I’m headed down to Art Basel for a quick weekend tour (Airplane WiFi Rules…). Looking forward to my 4th Art Basel! (I skipped last year, so very happy to be back). What’s good? Looks like my friends at Cool Hunting have been doing a great job covering the best parts.

Grand Opening pulls it off again. Now I can have a holiday office party and not deal with the clean up!

Invite your network, invest in quirky gifts, decorate the tree with office supplies, snuggle up by a wastebasket fire. PLUS, EggNog presents the world’s first virtual push button Santa wish list confessional. And, don’t forget egg nog—brimming with goodness, awaiting your parties’ arrival and the soul-warming-fire-water stashed in purses and pockets. By day or by night—Party like its 1920 or 60, or 90. Photography of your party included with photos of your tree decorating efforts featured on our website. For a limited time only and space is limited. December 14-23.
Related: Get Married in the Lower East Side

My friend Justin Gignac of Wants For Sale and NYC Garbage fame (among other things) will be speaking at the Apple Store SoHo this Monday, November 23rd. That’s tomorrow!

Monday, November 23, 2009

6:30 – 8 PM
Apple Store SoHo
103 Prince Street, NYC

If I was in London, I’d absolutely be checking out the Dieter Rams “Less and More” exhibition at the Design Museum. If you don’t know who Dieter is, he was the director at the German electronics company Braun for 30+ years. No question he was a visionary.

“My aim is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential s shown to the possible advantage…”

This year’s 99% Conference was a huge success. So, why not register for next year way ahead of time? For a limited time they’re offering $300 off the regular ticket price of $699. A steal. Go, do it, now!

On Friday October 16th Cut & Paste will take over the Hammerstein Ballroom with 48 competitors from around the world (16 different cities) duking it out for design championship and victory. Onsite and webcast viewers can tweet during the show with #cutandpaste, and all the comments on the work as it’s happening will be shown on screens between each round. Interactive awesomeness.

Want in to the event with a pair of free tickets? Tweet “I want to go to #cutandpaste NYC @joshspear” and I’ll choose two lucky winners randomly by the end of the week.

I wish I was in London next week to check out the Frieze Art Fair. If you’re there, pop by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin’s booth (F11) at Regent’s Park in London. The opening reception is Wednesday 14 October, 2009 15 – 18 October, 11am – 7pm.

The Blackout Film Festival is New York City’s only event-inspired film festival and it returns on Sept. 19, 2009 with a 90 minute program of short films centering on the theme: The Great Recession.

Filmmakers around the globe have submitted a surprisingly light-hearted group of films about the current economic recession that we are extremely excited to share. I saw your coverage of one of my favorite New York film festivals, the Bicycle Film Festival, and I think the nature of this year’s event and the films we are screening will be of interest to your readers.

Check it out Saturday, September 19th with screenings at 3pm, 5pm and 7pm at SVA’s new Visual Arts Theatre. Tickets can be bought online here.

Attention femme fatals: if the past few weekends have consisted of daring missions to Bed, Bath and Beyond and seducing the bag boy at the grocery story, maybe it’s time to really indulge in something more exotic. Stiletto Spy School will plan full day adventures for ladies looking to improve their hand-to-hand combat, martini mixing, stunt driving, or tango dancing skills. You can choose from one of their planned itineraries, or create your own assignment. James Bond, meet Jane Bond.

Via Zoomdoggle

What are your plans this Saturday? If you’re a fan of MWM like we are, then they should include seeing some new work at the Chorus Gallery in Somerville, MA. On tap is his signature canvas work, a small series of prints, and a new collaboration with Open and Traitor Cycles that consists of of five hand-painted frames, a cycling cap and t-shirt. The opening reception is this Saturday at 8 p.m., and in case you can’t get there, it will be on display until Sept. 8.

The term ‘experimental rock’ can sometimes conjure up images of unlistenable frequencies laid over even less listenable instrumentation, especially for those of us without the technical (and sometimes masochistic) craving for the likes of Frank Zappa or the Residents. Battles brings the genre home for fans of anything. Relatively straightforward drum lines by Helmet’s former drummer, and odd, piecemeal harmonies by former guitarists of Don Caballero and Lynx (as well as the avant garde jazz pedigree of Tyondai Braxton) come together to form something experimental without the pretentious sentiment often bundled with acts of the sort. It’s simply good listening.

Battles is playing a one-off at Terminal 5 (my favorite Manhattan venue) on September 4th. See it now or wait indefinitely for another record and another set of shows.

Nice work, the MoMA Summer planner customizes a plan of events for your experience based on your social profiles and personality. Looks sexy too, check it out.

It’s incredible to see a blog grow into something that comes to change pop culture. The blog reports on it, but in the process, inevitably becomes a part of that pop culture as well. One of our smart classmates who’s been running in parallel alongside us all these years, adamantly pushing its cause, is Slamxhype.com, which started off as a simple street apparel-update blog but has recently made its foray into the print world—an interesting move considering media companies usually do it the other way around. The New Order is a heavy tome of a magazine that comes out quarterly and merges the right now of fashion, art, film and relevant topics affecting our generation. The second issue has just debuted and features a double cover with KAWS and Takashi Murakami, two significant icons of pop culture who consistently challenge ideas and keep them relevant. Each issue runs $25, but if you make it to the launch party tomorrow in L.A. at Carmichael Gallery, you’ll score a free copy that includes a special KAWS poster. Those who can’t make it can get a preview of the issue in a video on Slamxhype.com.

Hypebeast has the scoop on some new LIVESTRONG goodies. In addition to the Marc Newson special edition designed Zvezdochka, you get guide maps to the city of Paris, a LIVESTRONG band and an invite to the STAGES art event which opens this weekend (July 17th) in Paris at the lovely Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.  Very hot.