Continuing our small fascination with miniatures is Microworlds, the book from Marc Valli. The blurb describes it as ‘a world in which very little people climb over buttocks and ice-skate over cocaine strewn mirrors. At weekends, they may decide to go rowing on a paper boat, or choose to mow stubble, or shoot down bumblebees, or paint butterfly wings.’ We’d agree with that description. Published by Magma. Available from Amazon.

See more after the leap.

Kyle Garner and his Sit & Read shop bring back to new old chairs including their Blanket Chair No. 7 which uses custom Hudson Bay Blankets for the cushions on a Poul Jensen for Selig Z chair frame. Beautiful in any home. Check their online shop for other unique pre-owned mid-century modern and beyond designs for your home.

More looks after the click.

We were tempted to fill this post with loosely related Velvet Underground references. But then we realised that’d be as silly as waiting for the man on a sunday morning and then run, run, running to all tomorrow’s parties in a coat borrowed from a femme fatale. So, yeah, we decided against making any Velvet Underground references in this post. (Someday)

Those who venture into the basement of Dover Street Market hunting down the men’s room may well run into this installation from Monocle Magazine while down there. On display through January 2012, the Monocle shop-in-the-basement features all the high-profile collaborative works from the periodical’s collection. Take a stroll.

If you have your priorities straight then you should dress well for one reason; The feeling you get from looking good. As we all know, a man is only truly well dressed when he’s G’ed up from the feet up and there can be no cheating in this department. Which means no pre-beaten vintage shoes or shoes that look an imitation of a nice shoe. Start the new year off right with a pair of these Chelsea boots. Don’t wear them for a New Years Eve outfit though, you’ll only end up looking uncomfortable. (A fine pair of shoes)

A quick note on some boots coming from the Amsterdam Shoe Company. This AW2012 preview comes a few weeks ahead of the men’s markets and tradeshows hitting Europe and beyond. Their Regency toe cap boot features black tumbled leather on the upper and tan leather for the lining. An awfully familiar but clean look. Amsterdam Shoe Company distributes in the U.K,., Germany and France. Find them online.

More looks after the click.

We’re not going to spend too much time describing this one. Michel Gondry’s very special version of Taxi Driver in 2.41 minutes starring himself, with a plot revolving around colouring pencils and multicoloured paint. You should probably press play.

Phaidon introduce us to Guido Castagnoli’s Provincial Japan series. Shot in the Shizuoka district, a collection of seemingly uninhabited landscapes and multicoloured Americana with more than a touch of the surreal. “Shooting his first photographs on an old family Leica camera, Castagnoli left his position as an art director at an advertising agency in Milan to pursue photography full time in 2001. His interest in advertising and signage has not decreased, as is evident by the focus of his photographs.”

Do you want to smell like Mos Def? Well, do you? We’re not big fans of the celebrity fragrance but this one, with its impressive design and refreshing lack of celeb branding, struck us as a little interesting. Yassin Bey as he’s known to his friends and family has recently set up a design coop called ‘Fellowship Mission’. A group of creative minded cohorts (including Chris Gibbs of LA’s UNION) looking to produce all manner of stylish goods, this fragrance is one of their first products. “Harun No. 7 is a special blend of woodsy, spicy, Indian attar, with a refreshing citrus top note. Bottled in Brooklyn…100% natural and  free of alcohol and chemicals, can be used as a fragrance for the body or burned in the home.” Find it at UNION.

Click for images

01. Kate Bellm (Pictured)

Freunde von Freunden visits another place in Berlin we’d love to live in. (Freunde von Freunden)

02. 2011’s best short stories

“Are these hard times for the short story? Perhaps not so very tough: in his introduction to The Best British Short Stories: 2011 Nicholas Royle mentions the increase in UK-based paper and ink publications regularly publishing short fiction and concludes that “there have been harder times for the short story”, and I think he’s right. In the introduction to the The Granta Book of the African Short Story, meanwhile, Helon Habila notes that across the continent “the internet is today doing what the newspapers and magazines did to the development of the short story in Europe and America at the start of the industrial age”. (Guardian)

03. One Cut

“This is the story of one cut. Back in October 2010 George Osborne announced £95 billion in cuts to public services, saying he’d leave it to councils to choose what to shut down. Inevitably most of the casualties ended up being unrenowned places, unlikely to stir up much protest – drop-in centers in housing estates, inner-city park rangers, community theatres, etc. I wanted to write about just one of them, about the ripples created by a single closure. I made my selection quite randomly. I chose a place called Youthreach. I didn’t know much about them, only that they offered weekly counseling sessions to young people, aged 11–25, in Greenwich, South East London.” (Jon Ronson)

04. 2011 round of year: Kirkland-Angulo

“You’ve heard the term “bull in a china shop,” right? Now imagine if two bulls were actually let loose at the same time in said china shop.

The ensuing destruction would probably look pretty much like the first round of the James Kirkland-Alfredo Angulo fight. Wild, with heavy-duty contact. Violent. Total chaos in a small area. Easily the 2011 ESPN.com round of the year.” (ESPN)