Kent Rogowski taught us something new today. Apparently puzzle pieces are interchangeable within a brand. If you take a standard Milton Bradley jigsaw of a sky scene or a flower garden, you can actually layer the elements to arrange a montage. We also learned that these awesome puzzle montages are part of Rogowski’s Love = Love show debuting tomorrow at one of our New York favorites, the Jen Bekman gallery in Soho. Then we taught a course on particle physics. Just to give something back.

How did the Swedes become such good designers? Their idea of Wall-Mart is IKEA, the people are gorgeous, and their streets are always clean no matter what time of night you are out. It’s a question we may never solve. Stina Persson is no exception, as she walks the line between designer and artist, showing her work in big galleries around the world and creating advertising designs for major brands. It's no wonder she has all this attention. Her illustrations are sexy pictorials of attractive urbanites and the fluid surroundings of Europe. Persson is part of the Le Femme show opening at L.A.’s Nucleus Gallery, May 10 through June 3.

If you've ever found yourself in the rare, but nonetheless frustrating predicament of needing to eat sushi while you have only your glasses on you, Brad Gressel's got an inventive solution. The American industrial designer's STIX eyeglasses give you a whole new reason to keep your eye on what you're eating. Combining the practical (needing to see, needing to eat) with the fashionable, you'll find a pair of handy stainless steel tipped chopsticks inside the hollow plastic arms of these glasses. Covering all the bases, they're also fully washable, and the ends of the glasses are left open so there's no nasty bacteria build-up. Plus, there’s a third function. if you're not eating or trying to see, you can always use them to put up your hair.

Do you love gold? No, really love gold. Like an 1840s miner loves gold? Like an unfunny Mike Myers character loves gooooold? U.K.-based Continental Mobiles want to turn your cellular device (or iPod) into a gold plated piece of precious hardware. And not just gold. You want a diamond bezel around that sucker? Sure, why not! How about a bit of platinum for the connoisseur? You don’t even have to ask twice. Besides, what’s a few thousand pounds for a truly unique, bespoke gift? Now if only there was someone we could pay to stop us from losing it.

When you’ve got Sepultura calling you on the phone to do your record cover, you could count that as a pretty good sign to keep on truckin’. It took a couple of years, but after designing the band’s Dante XXI album, Brazilian painter/illustrator Stephan Doitschinoff, aka CALMA, has finally landed his first solo show in the States. It’s been a long time coming for this talented artist, who’s broadened his project scope beyond metal bands and recently did a kid’s book about gypsies. The Fim do Mundo show at Anno Domini gallery in downtown San Jose features his most recent work — always incorporating religious iconography — and a special on-site installation. It runs till June 21.

It was a tough decision, but after sifting through all of the sometimes serious, sometimes hilarious, and generally well-written entries, we have decided on our tokidoki mimobot winners. First, a few gems from contestants that didn’t make the final cut, but still kicked some serious flash drive tail:

“For ease, we’ll name them 1, 2, and 3. Now, 2 is stuck in a predicament. He has to choose between two sets of friends. One represents the good friend, yet is carrying a pineapple grenade. This can best be compared to your best friend who has recently started with a substance abuse problem and is trying to get you to join him.” (We’ve all been there, Dumplins!)

“The pirate captain was known as USB-lackbeard” (Witty, Adam, witty)

“ketchup on noodles
why Japan oh goodness why
must you ruin food”

(Gillian’s got a grudge, and we like it.)

Coming in first for sheer effort: Timothy Nakayama; Second place: Emi, for the best all-around haiku’s; and second second place (yes, we can): Kary, for making us laugh in the shortest amount of sentences.


Winners, send your addresses to feedback@joshspear.com and we’ll hook you up with some tokidoki love. Thanks for participating, everyone — and thanks for making it happen, Mimoco!

When we last left Dominic Wilcox, he was puttering around the U.K., building absurd model airplanes. Now he wants to take you to, Niketown! Well, Niketown, London. Besides running a Nike iD session on May 9 at the megastore (stop by and say hi), Wilcox has been working on a project for Nike’s Art of Football put together by their 1/1 collective. By painstakingly gluing together plastic footballers (read: soccer players), he’s made a tiny “Cave” for your trainers (read: sneakers), a 3D piece called “Top Corner,” and a couple of blocks of toy athletes. Wilcox writes on his blog, “Gluing the footballers was certainly a challenge. It became almost a meditative process. At one point I was in ‘the zone’ to the point that a super glue tube got stuck to the side of my finger, yet instead of spending time removing it, I picked up another tube and continued on.” Wow. We wonder if his design studio has their own fight song.

Normally, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Unless your mission is to hype the 10th anniversary of one of the hottest and fastest-growing film fests in the world. Then, it's all about getting the word out.

Just like Sin City where it all goes down, the CineVegas Film Festival is known for pushing our sensory limits. The filmmakers chosen are cinematic daredevils, and their equally dangerous flicks aren’t the kind you’d find on the slate at more conservative fests. Selecting entries is no easy task, but there are some heavy hitters working behind the scenes. With former Sundance Senior Programmer Trevor Groth as Artistic Director and famed actor Dennis Hopper as Chairman of the Creative Advisory Board, you know the festival is in good hands — whether they're rolling film or dice.

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, CineVegas had alum directors create viral videos with the title "Ten Things I Know About Vegas." Short pieces by Cam Archer, James Fotopolous, and Kevin Everson are already up on the CineVegas YouTube site, with more to be added during the run up to festival’s start on June 12th at the Palms Resort and Casino.