This tasty morsel of short film — entitled ‘Le Grand Content‘ — comes to us from digital designers Clemens Kogler and Karo Szmit, and was narrated by Andre Tschinder. I found it by browsing Jessica Hagy’s blog ‘Indexed,’ which is one of my favorite blogs in existence (as I’ve told you before). In a similar style to Indexed, which rationalizes life’s big and little issues with charts in graphs, ‘Le Grand Content’ adopts some of Jessica Hagy’s material and “examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential … which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more.” While the exercise fails to its desired end (which is to be expected I would say), it nevertheless touches on some interesting and nuanced topics. I enjoyed watching the film very much, and I think you will too.

Via Indexed

Executive Chef Michael Gilligan is no stranger to the kitchen– we were glad (and very pleased) to try his newest creation called Atrio, a gem of a restaurant tucked inside the Conrad Hotel in Miami during our trip to the area last month. Gilligan’s resume is impressive– food has been in his blood ever since he was born in a room above the family-owned pub in his home town of Birmingham, England. A graduate from The College of Food and Arts, he has done everything from sous-chef at the Ritz Carlton in NYC to owning and operating several restaurants such as Candela, as well as cooking everywhere from Antonio’s Ristorante to Metro 53 in NYC, and Rumi on South Beach–we feel like it’s safe to say he has made it around. Atrio really shows off his power of creation, and of course, his imagination. He calls many of his creations ‘la-sian’, a cross between Latin American cooking and Asian cuisine. Rarely on one menu do you find such gems as a Sushi of the Day, delicious crab cakes, chilled avocado soup with lime and jalepeno, and a broiled miso marinated black cod (our favorites). Interesting combinations, exquisite tastes, and a wonderful atmosphere off the beaten path.

We know, we know, this campaign has been around for a while– but it wasn’t until recently that we tore open the packaging on our Phillips Bodygroom shavers to take them for a test drive. The campaign for these shavers was one of the most humorous, honest and engaging male grooming efforts we’ve ever seen– the interactive site featured a character (that popular one) out of any fraternity USA giving a bit of a pep talk on the importance of shaving… everywhere– kind of creepy, but we admit, we laughed. The product itself seems solid, fully waterproof, very ergonomic, and most importantly– safe when it comes to shaving around those hard to reach and extremely sensitive areas. We’ll spare you anymore details, if you’re looking for a new shaver, here it is.

When Josh passed this little nugget of goodness on to me this morning, I thought it was too good to be true. For the cost of a call to Iowa, you can make phone calls to a bunch of countries around the world using AllFreeCalls.net. The list of available countries is pretty large, and is supposedly set to expand in the near future. According to the folks at TechCrunch, this is how it works: the founder of the service established a phone company in the great (corn laden) state of Iowa, which is apparently the only state in the Union taking advantage of an FCC ‘kickback scheme’ that gives telephone companies a portion of the fees arising out of every single inbound call to an Iowa number. When you dial AllFreeCalls’ number, some of the long distance fees you pay to call Iowa go to the company. The key is that these ‘kickbacks’ are sufficient to, on average, more than cover the international outbound calling fees. Complicated? Yes; but who cares? You can make free calls overseas people!

Via TechCrunch

Perttu Murto is a 20-year-old Finnish graphic artist, and his portfolio ‘Overmode‘ is nothing less than breathtaking. He only recently started (2003) working with graphics and photography– and he clearly has a gift. When he’s not doing work for a solid client list like Volvo, Dolce & Gabana and ICON Snowboards, he’s a first year student in information technology at Oulu Polytechnic Institute of Technology. Keep up the good work Perttu!

Last year was my first year attending the Honda Session in Vail, and I have to say it was one of the most impressive and enjoyable snow-sliding competitions I have ever attended (and I have been to my fair share). I think what grabbed me the most about the Honda Session is that it’s a few weeks before X-Games, and it’s not as hyped in the national media, but the riders still go buck wild to try to set the pace for a long and hectic season filled with competitions, photo shoots, travel, and rock stardom. The heart of the event is a Steel & Sky Competition on Friday night — which features rails, boxes, gaps, and a huge quarter pipe — and a slopestyle comp on Saturday night. The creme de la creme of snowboarders will be at the Session, that’s for sure– people like Shaun ‘the flying tomato‘ White, Danny Kass, Travis Rice, and local heros (if you live in Boulder anyway) JJ Thomas and Jeff Cormack, not to mention all the ripping ladies. If you are in the vicinity, I highly recommend taking the trip up to Vail to watch the event live; otherwise, you can watch it on NBC on January 20th at 3 p.m. (EST). I will be leaving the office early today to head up to Vail, and hopefully I will have some good photos and coverage to share with you all early next week.