I love trade shows! It’s a fantastic opportunity to check out what’s new in the industry and network with like-minded individuals. And next week I have the amazing opportunity to attend not one, but two in one week! On Sunday, my awesome photographer, Nick McGlynn from Random Night Out and I travel to Detroit as guests of Ford Motor Company for the North american International Auto Show. Nick is a car freak and I’m more of an enthusiast but both of us are beyond excited to attend the Design Fantasy Camp Ford has planned for us, as well as walk the trade show floor and see all the cool new cars coming out. This will be several firsts for me:  my first time in the Motor City (or Motown, if you will), my first auto show and my first inside look at the whole car design process. Damn, this is going to be so frickin cool!  I’ll be tweeting and blogging along the way so I hope you’ll follow along on this amazing adventure.

From there we fly to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, or as I like to call it, the gadget geek’s wet dream. I’m so crude! It’s my first time at CES, but Nick is an old pro at navigating the halls of gadgets and from what he says, we’ll have our grubby little paws all over every imaginable electronic device. And of course shmoozing with our fellow geeksters at every type of celeb filled party imaginable. Lucky for us, the old adage, ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ still applies!

Stay tuned MUL fans! We’ll be posting all the juicy stories soon!

I would argue that there is nothing creepier than a rug that looks like your neighbor took a face plant from the Empire State Building. Even though it’s so very obvious the rug is not real, it looks like a cousin of the blow-up doll, with it’s creepy slack jawed stare, it’s still a little unsettling. I rather like the windblown look of the hair, as I imagine that’s exactly how mine would look had a just taken a colossal nose dive.

Human BookShelf

I’m sorry I’m just not one of those people who is comfortable with the naked human body, so for me this has to be the creepiest and most disturbing of any of these pieces! Not to mention my obsessive/compulsive love of symmetry is set off balance by its many dips and crevices.  Also, you’d want to pay particular attention when grabbing a book. The title, Moby Dick, could prove to be just that.

Dismembered Baby Doll Coat Rack

Our first creepy item comes in the form of a little DIY project. Looking for a way to recycle all of those broken baby doll parts you have hanging around the house? Screw the appendages into a wooden board and voila! You’ve put those tiny hands (and legs) to work.

 A Bench with Arms Holding a Large Tumor

What can one say about the Surrealism chair by David Pompa? I’m sure we could have a lengthy conversation about the designer’s intent and how it makes us feel, but less just cut to the chase, it’s fucking creepy! I mean I’m not sure what repulses me the most; the arms belonging to uh, no one, jutting from the side of the chair or said arms fondness of, what looks to me like a large tumor. I can only assume this chair belongs to descendants of your favorite appendage and mine , Thing from the Adams Family.

Duck Lamp by Sebastian E

 Big-Ass Nose Soap Dispenser

Coffin Couch

 Human Furniture Collection by Dzmitry Samal 

The new Scion iQ on a test drive in Los Angeles, California.

I’ve been car free for years. Having lived most of my adult life in large cities with excellent public transportation, I’ve never seen the need for one. And once I became an avid bike rider, I felt a certain pride in the ability to commute to and from work without harming the environment with nasty carbon emissions. However, this last year I’ve noticed a shift in my anti-car stance. I have found myself renting a lot of vehicles for travel and I’ve been making the most of my Zipcar membership.  While the convenience of an instant car has been awesome, the expense has put a dent in my transportation budget. Having recently moved to a new apartment with a parking garage, quite  a luxury in the city, the prospect of getting a car has become more and more appealing. So it must have been synchronicity that brought Scion calling, asking me to come to California to participate in a test drive of their new Scion iQ.

Little Scion iQs all in a row

How could I say no to two wonderful days in L.A. and an opportunity to test drive the Smart Car’s new competition? Scion flew photographer, Nick McGlynn from Random Night Out and I out to Los Angeles for the test drive, along with other bloggers and members of the press to learn more about the Scion iQ. In addition they also wanted to enlighten us to the various lifestyle initiatives Scion supports, such as; short films, art installations and Scion enthusiast’s events. Needless to say, it must be a lot of fun working for Scion’s marketing department! While we had a great time learning about the hip culture Scion cultivates, we were really looking forward to getting out on the road to see how the car performed.

When, I first saw the car all I could think was, ‘Wow, it’s so little!’ but one look inside and I realized it was actually quite roomy. Scion calls the iQ’s seating arrangement ’3 +1′  meaning you can comfortably seat 3 people and have a little extra room for cargo. If you really had too, you could squeeze 2 people in the back, but only if the driver is short. This is way better than the Smart Car, which only seats 2 with no storage whatsoever. So far, the Scion iQ looked pretty good. But how did it drive?

After attending a thorough briefing on the capabilities of the Scion iQ, it was time a test drive. Climbing inside I noticed the interior was nice, exactly what you’d expect from a new car but what surprised us even more was, we didn’t feel like we were sitting in a small car. In fact, the Scion iQ was a bit too roomy, if that’s possible! The only thing I wasn’t so keen on was the ’manta ray’ design of the navigation device. It was a little over done for my taste. I would have liked to have seen a simpler design. What we really wanted to check out was the turn radius, which Scion claims is 12.9 ft. My living room is 13 feet wide, could this car really turn a full circle in my apartment? You betcha! If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t have believed it, but sure enough, Nick did a u-turn in a narrow Venice beach alleyway with no problems whatsoever. Awesome.

One of the questions that kept coming up again and again was, how did the Scion iQ stack up against the Smart Car?  As we were taking our test drive we drove right past a Smart Car and couldn’t resist putting them side by side. As I mentioned before, the seating in a Smart Car is super limited. The lack of passenger and cargo room in the Smart Car was blatantly obvious once you got them close together.

The Scion iQ was an awesome ride. And we had a great time getting to know the people at Scion, a really fun bunch. They really have passion for their jobs and I can’t blame them, it seems like Scion is really committed to creating not only a fun car to drive, but an eclectic sub-culture amongst Scion drivers. So what about the iQ, would I buy it? I’d definitely consider it. It has everything I’ve been looking for in a car: plenty of room for me and a couple pals, great gas mileage(it gets nearly 40 mpg) and easy  to park, it’s so tiny it fits in half a parking spot. The sticker price is reasonable as well, at almost $16,000, it’s less expensive than other cars its size. Overall the Scion iQ performed really well, it was fast, easy to maneuver and would  make a great car for any urban dweller. Much thanks to the Scion crew for inviting us!

The Home Traveler by Anne Lorenz is part handbag, part stool. Presented as part of D3 Design Talents exhibit at IMM Cologne, the Home Traveler is a huge carryall with a stool like base. The bag has ample space to hold whatever you can stuff it with. Not meant for actual traveling, the Home Traveler, is more of a conversation piece, however, I can see another use for it. Say you have a surprise visit from your parents. Cram everything on the floor into the Home Traveler, then take it to another room before company arrives. The base makes the bag more stable and the large straps make it easy to transport from room to room. 

“The portable storage unit can easily be carried from one place to another and be arranged in the living space like an accessory. Instead of normal furniture it has no fixed place in the room – it’s travelling through the home. It is as spacious like a chest but more flexible in the use.”

via Dezeen

The design community came out in full force last night for NYDC’s 5th Annual Masquerade Ball benefiting Alpha Workshops. The event was a lot of fun and the costumes were so fantastic, we had to share them with you!  The Elle Decor staff (above) came dressed as the cast from Glee! The best coordinated costumes by far. And let me tell you, they sure could dance!

Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton in their prison costumes, complete with pooch!

And speaking of cute pooches, this poodle was absolutely fantastic! He was a hit and posed for a lot of photos that evening.

I didn’t see any Jack Sparrows but Edward Scissor Hands made an appearance at the festivities. He was having a hard time with his drink last time we saw him!

The Degas Ballerina Girls stop for a photo op. I loved their costumes. There were a half dozen or so ballerinas roaming the party.

OK I am pretty sure this guy was a character in some Dr. Seuss book or something but I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. I should have asked!

These folks had us singing, ‘Let’s do the time warp again!’ The wig is super groovy!

The lampshade costumes were really great. It must have taken awhile to make them, they were so elegant!

Surprisingly, we didn’t see any True Blood characters in the house. Perhaps this werewolf made them keep their distance!

I was really impressed with this guy’s duct tape suit! Head to toe duct tape. Wonder how he held up in the humidity!?

These sailors were just too cute to pass up!

Some of the ladies came dressed to impress in fancy gowns. I really liked this one, it had an embroidered look to it and she worked it!

Surprisingly comfortable, the Concrete Chesterfield Sofa by Gray Concrete is cast in glass textile reinforced concrete.

Designer Fukutoshi Ueno wanted to bring nature indoors with the Bambi Frame.Use it as a backdrop in your living space or drape clothes over it for a more utilitarian purpose.

When off the the Wall Hanging Mirror/Lamp by Chai Young Lee is a reflective surface, but turn the lights out and it’s a ghostly, glowing chandelier/lamp.

The Mambo Cocktail Table by Coconut Lounge

Instead of numbers the Daily Life Clock features figures of a grandmother, grandchild and dog represent hours, minutes and seconds.

Compact Sofa perfect for a small studio from James UK.

No kryptonite cocktail, Dry is actually an LED lamp. to turn it off simply turn it upside down. -from Lighthouse Design