You know we’re lighting dorks around here, so when Lola dumped the Troja Arc Lamp by hanzandfranz in our Design Showcase this week, we got the jitters; crafted from hundreds of LEDs, the adjustable aluminum lamp envelops one in a bath of gorgeous warm light. And, like everything worth owning, any other information on it is pretty much unavailable. Got something that’ll get us gooey and subsequently crazy looking for more information about? Take a trip over there and and take the Showcase for a spin.

It’s nice that the U.K.’s It’s Nice That keeps pointing me towards so many outstanding artists. What’s even nicer than that is how Danica Novgorodoff, on top of being an incredible master of enchanting aesthetics, has the kind of last name that could back a new house at Hogwarts — a detail that somehow adds even more credit to her diverse range of whimsical work. Novgorodoff’s paintings, prints, photographs and comics display a widely endearing range of skill, but it is her gently muted pencil and watercolor drawings that, to me, demonstrate the most character (it should be noted that I said “character,” not “talent,” as all of her work demonstrates a high level of dexerity in each medium). Danica’s art is of the variety that guides viewers to emotion rather than forcing them to emotion, a quality most easily noted in her hand-drawn pieces (like Sharklips, pictured), and one that I truly value in the hunt for art that I love. Novgorodoff’s full portfolio can be viewed on her links page, which will send you off to several other enjoyable sites.

We love Enjin, a high-quality skateboard company, for a bunch of reasons. Not only do they take the idea of skate deck artwork pretty seriously, they also have made it their business, from the get-go, to work with some of the best international artists around, including Spear Collective’s very own Matthew Curry. The young company is pulling all the stops to get their fresh brand rolling, including a newly launched website (that displays as much attention to design as the products they sell), a few interactive ways for fans to spread the word about Enjin, and an nice focus on the artists that make their boards so awesome. You can browse through enjin’s reasonably priced selection here, and then help spread the word by downloading… shoot. I was going to send you to an enjin stencil download so you could do some late night arts and crafts, but it looks like the link’s gone bad. Ugh, I bet Bush did it. I guess you’ll have to make your own with your old pal X-Acto — or just go the safe route via t-shirts and skate decks. Up to you.

Mike Heisler, the artist behind the Slobot robots that we’ve gushed about here before, designed this Bart Qee figure for the Toy Tokyo leg of the Bart Simpson Qee show in NYC. The 10” tall Bart comes equipped with positionable arms, legs, and his very own remote-bearing baby-Bart. Like Mike’s other Slobots, Slobart was made from a combination of mixed media and found objects, but this one gets the extra distinction of being attached to a power cord that, when used appropriately, turns Bart’s head into a beacon of LED love. Slobart is not currently up for sale, but if you like what you see in him you should absolutely check out Mike’s other Slobots, which still manage to be awesome without calling on one of the world’s most popular cartoon characters.

If you’re in the New York realm and lookin’ for a little something to occupy your Sunday, stroll down to the Brooklyn Book Festival. If you’re anything like me and you can spend hours wandering aimlessly around The Strand or maybe Powell’s — I’m still annoyed that I missed that one while I was in Portland — then this is right up your alley. It will have the requisite thousands of books to peruse that you’d expect at any worthwhile literary event taking place in the big city, but the Brooklyn Book Festival takes it a couple of steps further.

In addition to the millions of words, the festival will feature a poetry slam, a define-a-thon, and a ton of exhibits. And, it gets better: the organizers have gathered some of the top authors we all know and love to show their faces and sign some copies of your favorite books. Dave Eggers anyone? Let’s put it this way, it’s a book festival and they’ve managed to put together enough stuff to fill seven stages. That alone makes it worth checking out, right?

With the Extravigator website, the discerning traveler finally has a website to call home; a place where he or she can talk to other discerning travelers about the kind of topics that discerning travelers need to discuss: how to tip at a five star hotel, the location of the best seafood restaurant in Venice, and the relative value of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami.

The thing to understand about Extravigator, is that it’s all about exclusivity. While the most impressive feature of this internet phenomenon is the democracy of it, there’s still undeniable value in people with common interests coming together to talk about things that only they know or care about. And so Extravigator — which is still in beta and will open to the public shortly — is rife with forums and discussions about popular locales and how to best take advantage of them from the well-heeled connoisseur’s perspective. It’s an absolutely fantastic resource if you’re in that world, and even if you’re not it’s fun to look at.

In between occasionally eating cake for dinner and cookies for lunch, I do make an effort to be healthy. I’m an avid swimmer, logging hours of laps in the city pool each week. I switch up my routine with the frog to backstroke to freestyle, but as any runner knows, things get boring fast. If it weren’t for my SwiMP3 underwater MP3 player, I would probably be a 200 pound fatty with no way out of Fat Land. I bought Finis’ SwiMP3 more than two years ago (and it’s still alive and kickin’, which is more than I can say about my iPod) because I was curious about its bone-conduction technology. Rather than earphones, the SwiMP3 transmits music through your cheekbones to your inner ear, and since water acts as natural earplugs while you’re underneath, the sound is crystal-clear and you don’t have to freak out over not being able to hear a kid’s friends egging him on to do a cannonball right into your path. Finis has recently improved on the SwiMP3 with a more streamlined version, which now packs in 256MB of music and plugs directly into your computer’s USB port so you can load up more easily the tunes that get your heart rate in the ideal zone. For those of you who have the old version, they’re offering a great trade-in deal where you pay $90 to get the upgrade.

Surfers might prefer the SwiMP3 Surf, which uses the traditional setup of earphones attached to a separate device, but my question is, What the hay happens when someone yells “Shark!”?

Yesterday, the German automotive giant BMW launched their newest media campaign, BMW-web.tv. What might be called The Ultimate Marketing Machine, the YouTube-esque site is filled with content encompasses all of BMW’s divisions. Each division gets its own channel so it is simple to switch between cars and technology, for example. The site uses Adobe’s Flash player which (usually) makes for quick loading videos. The content is surprisingly varied with the expected commercial pieces to interesting behind the scenes interviews and glimpses into the what goes into creating BMW’s. One small complaint I have is that the site is plagued with slow speeds, even on a high-speed pipe, due mostly to the decision to make videos auto-play and the physical dimensions of the videos. BMW promises to provide plenty of exclusive content (including product launches) on their web magazine so it’ll definitely be worthwhile subscribing to.