If this were a celebrity gossip magazine, I would say this and call it a wrap: Mel Kadel lives with her boyfriend in an old Mormon stagecoach. Unfortunately, the just slightly higher journalistic standards of this site force me to fill in some blanks. (Or just skip the next paragraph and head right for the interview.)

For more inquiring minds, these are the details: The stagecoach really only represents part of the house (the kitchen), and the boyfriend is more commonly known as Travis Millard (also known as the man behind Fudge Factory Comics). Mel herself is quite literally known as Mel, but is also known as an incredible artist with a style all her own. If you had to place her in a category, she would land in the genre of art that is cooed over by Fecal Face (and their leagues of in-tune followers), but as the days go by, her breezy drawings have caught the eye of even wider audiences. You probably like to place yourself within the “in-tune” category, and if so — voila — a new interview with one of your all time favorite artists. If not, read up.
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Congratulations to Bryan.

Although we would love to give prizes to everyone who gave us camo colored thongs, tampon holders, nutsacks, wedding dresses, condoms, and Ted Nuget’s hat, we find this homage to Dali’s “Lobster Phone” to be the most original, most disturbing — frankly we feel that Bryan deserves the prize because we can’t ask the artist why this exists. Thanks again to everyone this week for sending your submissions. Try again next Tuesday!

Christopher Delorenzo, a freelancer designer for Saatchi & Saatchi, shot us an e-mail the other day asking us to take a look at his work. We were impressed — it’s a dynamic portfolio with an array of projects, from packaging for a Jack Kerouac box set to a website on the gear used by your favorite bands. One of his most appealing designs is for “The Hub”, a rest area and bulletin board space for urban cycle enthusiasts. Thanks for the tip Chris, and keep up the good work.

What happens when you let a bunch of contemporary artists invent carnival games? The V&A's Village Fête of course. For those non-Brits, a Fête is what we in America call a fair, except this is so much more proper and kooky. As with most things, the V&A is giving it a modern twist by hiring contemporary artists to supply some original games and activities. They've come up with helium fueled karaoke, anarchy topiary, human pinball and a few games involving breaking ceramics (I told you it was kooky). Have a look at the full list the activities and games and go play a game or two while the weather in London is nice. The Village Fête beings tonight and runs through the weekend.

If you haven’t scored an Obama poster because of money issues or don’t have any graphic design skills to flex for the Obama Car Art competition, there are no excuses left to deny yourself (unless, of course, you’re planning to vote for the opposing candidate) a non-ugly Obama button that MoveOn.org is giving away for FREE. No self-addressed stamped envelope, no name of your future firstborn child needed. They must be bombarded; I signed up for my button yesterday and a message said my pin will arrive in four to six weeks. Get in on this as quickly as possible because Nov. 8 is coming up soon and you’ll want to stretch as much use out of your pin as possible.

Often when things go mainstream they lose some of their juice, but the Brazilian Girls manage to keep their vibe in tact. Their new record varies more than some of their previous efforts and simultaneously pushes towards mass appeal. New York City, aptly titled for the city that spawned this rag tag group, ranges from eerie (”Strangeboy”) to straight up dancelicious (”Good Time”) and keeps it interesting with an appearance by Senegalese legend Baaba Maal. Currently a three member act (bass player Jesse Murphy sat this one out), BG is starting to resemble a modern Deee-lite, and judging by this release, will continue their trend of catchy experimentalism. New York City is out August 5th. Check out their MySpace page for a handful of preliminary tracks.