The Americana at Brand is a just-opened $400 million outdoor mall in Glendale from the creators of the theme park-esque The Grove in Hollywood. They both feature trolleys designed by George McGinnis, a regular designer of vehicles for the Disney parks. You can rent apartments that overlook the park and pond for $3000+ but you’ll hear the fountain show all day long. I know because they were vacant and unlocked when I was there opening day, that’s how I got the photo from the balcony.

Despite barely having a handle on my real life, last night I joined Second Life, the online simulated world. After shopping at the adidas store, and lurking in the “gay forest” watching a winged bear bothering some deer, I ran into an author I once sat next to at a book signing, then somehow ended up at a pirate-themed bar chatting with a guy from SanFrancisco. Which, now that I think of it, is basically a normal day in my real life - even the winged bear part.

If you haven’t joined Second life I highly recommend it. It’s more fun than the standard online chat room. And it’s not a “game” so you’re not required to do anything.
(I know the hair is not a faithful rendering of my own, but I’m working on it.)

When Bitney Spears is refered to as one-dimensional, I wince. They mean to say two-dimensional, that is, she lacks depth. Likewise I cringe when a 3-D film that incorporates in-theater effects is promoted as “4-D.” The fouth dimension is time, not smell or water squirting on your face or seats that move.

For a flash film explanation of all 10 possible dimensions visit the site for the book, “Imagining the Tenth Dimension” and poke “Imagining the Ten Dimensions.” Your brain may explode before the narrator gets to number seven.

The same author is also working on, “The Anthropic Viewpoint” and other songs about the ten dimensions - yay!

It’s a sad thing we Americans learn our geography via war coverage, instead
of, say, hyperbolic promotional theme park videos.

“Although it is a long and costly war, the number of soldiers increases instead of decreasing. So let’s take part in the war of development together, and let our victims be poverty, ignorance and backwardness.”

-Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai speaking about Dubailand, the new $5 billion entertainment development under construction in his country.

He’s funny. I like how he gets you thinking he’s talking about jihad or something. Nope. When he says “radical extremism” he means a new water slide.

See, Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (they border the Persian gulf opposite Iran) is bursting with nifty stuff, like those man-made islands in the shape of countries, and other islands that look like palm trees, and that neat building that looks like a sail. And soon they’ll have dinosaurs and roller coasters too. I just wanna know when I start work on it.

One: The first Viktor and Rolf: ­ boutique, located in Milan, features an entirely up-side-down interior. I say put in a bar and serve conceptual cocktails like "Mud In Your Eye" and "Shitface" and lets dance on the ceiling.

Two: Their first fragrance is named Flowerbomb, has it’s own song, and comes in a bottle shaped like a grenade. Fuck terrorism ­ smell my flowerbomb!

Dave Eggers disposes this Harvard kid’s snot-nosed concepts (and many of our own) during this interview turned angry rant against critics, selling out, and "keeping it real."

You don’t have to know who Eggers is to understand the key points in this, but you should anyway­ Read his Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and shop at the pirate store at his 826 Valencia too!

Komar and Melamid, two fellows, often called conceptual artists, created works both visual and audible based upon surveys of the public’s likes and dislikes. See the "most liked" and "least liked" paintings at their site.