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I have to admit I found the name really misleading. I mean... gorillas spend most of their time on the ground and not curled up in trees and hanging all over the place. Granted the thing itself is well, kinda ugly as well but all that still doesn't hide the fact that this is a great idea.

The Gorillapod is a tripod substitute and gets your camera places that would be otherwise impossible. Its legs can cling to almost anything and provide a steady shot for your camera. The benefits are obvious although I'd love to see how this could possibly be improved if it allowed some sort of interface where the user can see what they're taking, in other words combining this freestyle tripod with the ability to adjust the shot via remote. So maybe you could manipulate the tripods legs and its still clever enough to keep hanging on, or at least make minor adjustments easily.

First seen on Cool Hunting. 

LaCie is a company well known for making hard drives. What's notable is they've recently spruced up their rather tech style offerings with some sexier options. The pink thing is by, you guessed it, Karim Rashid. I can't seem to recall the last object or interior or whatever he did that didn't have some pink in it. Anyway, LaCie also got the help of Neil Poulton as well as Ora Ito, who did the Lego brick stacking one that has been making the rounds more.

Just caught this off Boing Boing! A fun looking watergun collage that you can buy off here. Like BB suggests, might as well make your own and have fun doing it. Nostalgic for all kids of the 80s. The only issue is where you can get so many different shapes. Hmm I think I might actually do this on my wall. I'll stick all sorts of 80s stuff all over the wall, all the hot kiddie items of the era. If I can still find them...

Designer hotels are popping up all over the world. Choice is the name of the game at the moment and undressing and redressing old hotels to futurefit them in a variety of interiors seems to be the latest buzz right now. I blogged before about a sorta budgety type one in Bangkok I went to, Reflections, which has each room done up by local artists, kooky and homely. Very very Thai.

Here in Singapore, The Majestic hotel opened recently to some fanfare till it was featured in the papers and every other rag here.

Often, these designer hotels don't really sort out space issues, which I'd suppose would be the priority in a hotel room; but rather just the aesthetic decorations in most cases. That's not to say that I hate this stuff. I just find its a good example of how design trends are explained by a propulsion of technology and affluence. You wouldn't have funky designer hotels that appeal to the young and trendy if they didn't have the money in the first place. Places like this thrive on the hype generated by magazine/newspaper/blog features.

Check out HOTEL FOX from Denmark. FRAME mag says that the hotel was a result of car company wolkswagen opening up this place in Copenhagen to different artists, designers and the like. The room above is room 107, Good Spirits by Rinzen. Gotta love those splatters on the bed huh. The Oz based wizards also did up another 3 rooms in the hotel. Other featured bignames are... Geneviève Gauckler, WK Interact and tokidoki among people from from as far afield as Brazil and Venzuela, to Germany, the UK, US, Scandinavia and Japan.

In WoW, the first character I made was named Grcic, all because I remember spotting this book on the celebrated designer at Basheer graphics at the time and I figured an Eastern European sounding name would fit an undead rogue.

Anyway, if you haven't already seen that baby up there, its Chair One by Konstantin Grcic for MAGIS. I love how they've also got a non stacking version that contrasts the incredibly lightweight structural top with a cement base.

Anyway, in my future restaurant/shop/paradise, I will have these lying around for people to take photos with. No one would be allowed to actually sit on them of course.

Ok everyone's going gothic/baroque and stuff for interiors! I wanna be trendy too! Satisfy your new lighting urges with a chandelier then! Everyone's hanging one! Its THE latest must have accessory for all the bleeding edge creatives.

Alright! So now where do I get one of those de riguer chandeliers you see in every ultra hip joint/office/lobby/morgue at the moment? Why, Brand van Egmond of course!

If they have a full page ad AND an article in FRAME, they can't be half bad right? Who cares! Its just too difficult to find antique ones and rework them in ultra trendy bold single colour paints anyway! I recommend Flower Power, one of their latest creations. To not buy a chandelier this week is to be behind times. Better get on with the evolution. Chandelier your life NOW!

FLUIDFORMS makes and sells these organic shaped objects made of wood and also design your own to a certain extent. Basically, you can choose the wood grain and the level of distortion to each vase or pepper mill to your liking.

Its only in today that we can actually have the technology to create really abstract shapes like this AND deliver the opportunity for individualism and customisation at the click of mouse. Pictured above is the Medusa vase made out of ceramic.

Link stolen off Gizmodo.

At the coincidence of two friends both telling me that it was worth checking out, I got my girlfriend to go along with me to find The Asylum after a failed attempt to have Tian Tian chicken rice from Maxwell market for dinner. The Asylum is this store at 22 Ann Siang Hill in Singapore that sells some pretty cool stuff, from Mihara shoes to Fred Perry polos, design books, magazines and more. It also doubles as a design studio. The decor is decidedly ultra trendy and kooky at the same time, with some humourous stuff all over the place, like little red birds on the white chandelier or a cartoon on the wall declaring the colors of the panties he is privy to from his position.

The name seems to be rather fitting as their website will demonstrate. The pic above is stolen from the Flickr page of one of the artists that decorated the wall at the shop.

*Update. The wall has been repainted! So it no longer looks like this and I expect it to change as well!

Dorm or Dek Hor is the title of this Thai ghost story that had me on the edge of my seat and not because it was horrifying. That's largely because it's more a coming of age story than a ghost story.

I hate horror movies. On the one hand, I make silly noises and embarrass myself and get freaked out to no end. I jumped along with many members of the audience at one point in the show, yelling AIYO~! at a scene most horror buffs would laugh at. Then, there's also the fact that there's not much worth viewing in horror movies in the first place. Just lots of gore or sudden camera twirls to a ghoulish face, a hand grabbing you from out of nowhere blah blah blah. The Ring (Jap version) was the first big hit that broke the mould and was actually a decent movie.

In any case, Dorm isn't your run of the mill scare fest at all. Its really a retelling of the director's childhood spent in a boarding school with the added dimension/twist of a ghost story. The reason for the ghost story is twofold. One, to draw audiences and two, to relate to the lead character's loneliness. It's a pretty touching story about friendships and a very complete ending where you really feel everything worked out. Easy to watch for those non-horror types like me. It mixes a good amount of humour in with the scary and emotional bits. Actually, there aren't any scary bits.

Here's a link to the lead actor's website where you can check out some pictures and more info about this kid. Be warned. Endless howling on the Dorm page.

Some time back, Nike Football had this film made by Brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles, who made films like City Of God and the recent Constant Gardener. Entitled Ginga, The Soul Of Brazilian Football, it showcases seven Brazilian footballers from a young kid trying to make the big time to Real Madrid's Robinho and even a one legged footballer chasing his dreams.

On the NIKE football site, you can check out all the brilliant videos as well as a series of ads from Joga TV. Joga Bonito, or play beautiful, showcases a series of short ads, starring former Man Utd and Leeds great, Eric Cantona. Its a semi-spoof like tv show in which Cantona pleads with the viewer to play beautiful. Amongst the ads is a brilliant clip where Ronaldinho bangs the ball against the crossbar repeatedly after trying on a new pair of boots, all the while showing off his glittering array of tricks and flicks. As a riposte, another vid shows Ronaldo saying it should hit the net not the bar after he bangs a shot in.

BEINGHUNTED has a feature on Joga Bonito you can check out.