The new luxury is a posh dog bowl

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article6730933.ece
As we stay in more and more, blingy handbags have been replaced by high-end loungewear and artisan baking
Alice Olins
Who would have thought that the recession could have had such a positive effect on the luxury industry? Not in terms of sales of course — every business has felt the pinch. But it has brought a [...]

CrunchPad coming in November with built-in 3G connectivity, says Straits Times

(Engadget)

Last week we heard, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington wasn’t ready to talk about a timeframe for the release of his self-proclaimed “science project,” the CrunchPad tablet. That’s not the case for The Straits Times, however, who’ve published an article claiming that developer Fusion Garage is aiming to get the device out to the masses by November [...]

Barack Obama’s jeans VS Gordon Brown’s chinos – which is the winner?

(Telegraph)
By By Charlie Porter

There seems to be a pattern developing in the Obama marriage. Michelle has been widely lauded once again — this time for her new haircut. Meanwhile, her husband, the 44th President of the United States, was pilloried across the internet for what has been dubbed his “Mom jeans”.Obama was throwing the first [...]

The New Antiquarians

(NY Times)
By Penelope Green

Collectors like Hollister, left, and Porter Hovey, sisters with an appetite for late 19th-century relics like apothecary cabinets and dressmakers’ dummies, are turning their homes into pastiches of the past.
For many, it seems, the smooth surfaces of modern design have lost their allure.
Hollister and Porter Hovey, sisters age 30 and 26, used [...]

Bravado That Swaggers to Its Own Beat

(NY Times)
By Roberta Smith

No Discipline Part of “Concrete Stereo”(1983), in a retrospective opening on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art.
The designer Ron Arad has always had a lot of nerve, and it ricochets around his rambunctious, ultimately inconclusive retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art like an ammo belt’s worth of stray bullets. Sometimes [...]

Will the indie chart rise again?

(The Guardian)
By Bob Stanley
In its 1980s heyday, the indie chart was a beacon of top alternative music. Then the majors took over. Now it may get a new lease of life

The Smiths outside Salford Lads Club during sessions for The Queen Is Dead.
It seems like a folk memory already. Could there really once have been [...]

Ego warriors: U2 speak out on rock-star hypocrisy

(The Guardian)
By Dorian Lynskey
Over the years, U2 have taken many a kicking. But the band believe they’re unjustly maligned for their unique brand of ’stadium activism’

Tuesday night in Amsterdam. Inside the city’s ArenA, the colour green floods a giant mosaic of video screens, below which stand the four members of U2, three weeks into their [...]

Chaoyang’s sunlit Blue Harbor

By Jackie Zhang
Solana, a comparatively new shopping area opened last June, is a place of sunshine, water, elegant architecture and a romantic atmosphere.
Located near Chaoyang Park, Solana takes advantage of the scenic park environment to beautify itself. The Western architecture, lanes and plazas make it feel like a scene out of Europe. For many Chinese [...]

Weave the missing Tibetan tradition

By He Jianwei
Once inside Kawachen, a Tibetan carpet shop, it is easy to get lost in the maze of colored carpets. It may not be on the plateau, but the latticed carpets carry the scent of mountain air and Tibetan herbs.
“The wool all come from the plateau’s sheep. The long hair and fiber make the [...]

Speed and passion on the ice

By He Jianwei
The All Star Skating Club is one of Chaoyang District’s best places to go ice skating. The club has a rink in its basement that is the size of two basketball courts.
Every Saturday night, two children’s ice hockey teams train under professional coaches. The club plans to organize a third ice hockey team [...]