Hrag Vartanian

Some odd locales worth a look (via Contemporary Confections)

Miss Heather discovers “Darth Dreidel”…for Jewish Star Wars fanatics?

Umm…you have to see this ad on Craigslist Vancouver…try to figure out why he can't find a renter.

Monequote: "The problem lies in the fact that it continues to be only a small number of giant real-estate business corporations and general constructors, as well as the inflated advertising agencies that control the realization and representation of the city. Such capital-driven urban planning (a scheme that art critic Sawaragi Noi once denoted as ‘capitalist realism’, playing on the existing term ’socialist realism’) proliferates an archaic form of social engineering in which a small minority makes arbitrary decision in disregard of social consensus."

This article also helps you learn the lingo…like "dame kenchiku" which means bad architecture.

Eugen Sakhnenko is a Ukrainian-Canadian photographer and his "In Praise of Shadows" series shows the interiors of nightclubs fully lit. Needless to say, they look much better in the dark.

Obama will be the first President sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861. Books are incredibly important symbols of power.