Why did you wear velcro sneakers when you were a kid? Because you couldn’t tie your shoes. But how much better did your life get after you learned to ‘loop, swoop, and pull?’ According to me — and the Australian founders of Royal Elastics — the answer would be ‘not much better.’ That’s why R.E. has been designing lace-less, yet fashion-forward shoes since 1996. The new Zedlen Leather shoe is one of Royal Elastics’ best designs yet. With a great truffle/lime color scheme, quilted leather quarter panel, and vamp closure, these things mix casual and stylish quite well. You can buy them directly off of the Royal Elastics website for $80. If nothing else, you should check out the website to peep the some of the uninhibited new designs these guys have masterminded.

An easy and great looking combination of an everyday 9V Battery and a simple LED-based light. We think this tea light interpretation is simply gorgeous. No details on ordering and prices (as of yet), but if you have any interest you can email the designer: Richard Lawson at richl[at]forpeople.co.uk Via Core77

I wanted to give a special nod to the ingenuity behind the campaign promoting Waking Rothko, a local Denver band clearly comprised of more than just stoner musicians– they’re musical strategists. The first EP encourages unauthorized duplication, in fact they say duplication is much appreciated. Each disc is also what they call a ‘traveling CD’– that is, each CD has a code on the back that you type into their handy CD Tracker and find out where it’s been and add your name, location and comments to the log. They ask you to leave it on busses, in taxis, park benches, etc. Also, they produce all their own performances in undisclosed locations– only the first 500 people to sign up in each city are added to the list and invited. Clearly influenced by relationships and making music, give Waking Rothko a listen and support good people making good music by buying their EP on iTunes.

Wow. It has only been launched for two weeks and OwnYourC has already won ’site of the month’ from Favourite Website Awards. The site is part of a State of Colorado teen anti-smoking initiative, and was designed jointly by ad agencies AgencyNet and Cactus here in Denver. OwnYourC takes a form conducive to internet-saavy teen visitors–an interactive world, full of animation, green-screen video, 3D characters, stop motion animation, sounds, etc. The substantive premise of the site is that people are faced with an array of decisions everyday–whether easy or tough, each decision we make defines us and has its own consequences. The campaign conveys this message artfully throughout the site, and the site creators are starting to see that kids are ‘becoming the voice to extend the campaign.’ The creators of OwnYourC have also observed that the forum function of the site has been the most powerful aspect so far. According to Norm Shearer, Creative Director for Cactus, ‘great intellectual conversations are starting to seed and grow this area with awesome organic teen driven content.’ We agree Norm … OwnYourC’s concept is powerful from a variety of standpoints. Congratulations!

We sure do, actually we’ve got a few questions for the indie-pop superstar. We’re sitting down with Mr. Kweller tonight after his show at the Fox Theatre in Boulder to ask him a few questions about life, love and music– but, in the spirit of co-creation we want to know what YOU, our readers, want us to ask him. Drop us a note or leave a comment here if you have anything particular you want to know (no, he will not marry you, he’s already married).

SWINJ is an artist collective based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. I know what you all are thinking: ‘ohhh man, Utah?’ But these artists have some real talent, and they just pressed their sixth publication. SWINJ #6 features the work of 31 Utah-based artists that was collected over the period of one year. The limited edition book has some great work in it, looks good aesthetically, is well put together (from a publishing standpoint), and exemplifies the major growth that the collective has experienced in the past 8 years–it started out as just a small magazine publication in 1998. Trent Call is the motor behind SWINJ #6–he was responsible for the publishing, editing, and organization of the book. Nice job Trent … it is always nice to see artist books that are put together this well. The books are available for purchase off of SWINJ’s website.

Okay, so we can change our minds fast about this kind of thing. We were pretty set on the new Audi R8 we mentioned early this week as the next JS company car, but when Neiman Marcus introduced their legendary Christmas Book and we found this limited edition BMW M6 with ruby black exterior paint, piano black trim and gold brown merino leather seats– we had to wipe the drool off our chin before anyone saw us. Other highlights of the guide include a Virgin Galactic charter to space (for a cool 1.765 Million), a sports dream package (VIP Travel, accommodations and tickets to every all star game, world series, etc.), and much, much more. Put a bib on to protect your shirt from drool stains and go check out the most luxurious, borderline disgusting Christmas shopping list we’ve ever seen.

Last year, RollingStone writer Andrew Vontz was responsible for one of the best quotes I had read in awhile. Commenting on Ryan Adams and the phenomena of the popularity of the ‘homeless-hipster look,’ he wrote: ‘Now we have frat guys imitating hipsters who are imitating celebs who are imitating the homeless. This is known as the Circle of Life.’ Beautifully put. Ryan Adams is all at once a whisky-drinking cig-smoking alt-country superstar, self-proclaimed asshole, ‘homeless dude,’ and dork. His new website is a true testament to the dork in Ryan Adams. Upon reaching the site, you are greeted visually with a first person spaceship console view, and lyrically with a new song entitled ‘Welcome to Ryan Adams Dot Com Motherfucka (Aw Shit),’ where Ryan threatens (to a rap beat) to ‘destroy galaxies of alternative country wannabes with a bottle of whisky and a wizard and a mime,’ raps about Ancient Samaria, and explains that that the site is updated by Witches (he does this in a Witch’s voice mind you). The new site has some great features–like an embedded lunar command video game, a tour tracking feature similar to the Josh Spear global locator, and access to frequently updated streaming tracks from Ryan’s current tour (right now he is in the U.K.). It’s a thing of beauty.