Cartoons that I’ve sorely missed…

Life’s fun when your friends are animators. After watching Wallace and Grommit (the original shorts, not the crappy movie) for the nth time the other night, we got to talking about really good cartoons we’d missed. Or will be missing. Like Invader Zim, for instance. Like Spongebob Squarepants, Invader Zim, which only enjoyed two seasons on Nickelodeon (mainly because it’s NOT a show for kids), is one of those hilarious shows that totally makes you feel like you’re high on something when you watch it.

Zim, who is from the Irken race, whose social hierarchy is based on height (if that isn’t already hilarious, I don’t know what is). Zim was banished to the planet Foodcourtia as a fry cook for accidentally destroying part of Irken city with a giant robot, but returns begging for a planet to be assigned to conquer in the upcoming Operation Impending Doom. Desperate to get Zim as far away as possible, they assign him to a “Mystery Planet,” which turns out to be Earth. The rest of the show basically features Zim’s attempts to conquer Earth while his arch-nemesis Dib tries to stop him.

(Fun Invader Zim fansites with tons of information, updates, fan stuff and obsessively done picture galleries: Bad Bad Rubber Piggy, The Scary Monkey Show, and Room with a Moose & GIR.)

Another show which is still on TV via Nickelodeon (Asia) but has stopped being produced beyond its third season is My Life as a Teenage Robot. It’s a little Kim Possible, though significantly more sarcastic and more adult in humor and a little Small Wonder (anyone remember that show?).

My Life as a Teenage Robot is about the robot girl XJ-9, or simply Jenny. Jenny goes to high school, likes to hang out at the mall, and be with her friends Brad and Tuck, instead of saving the world. Her creator and “mom,” Dr. Wakeman, designed her as a highly sophisticated battle robot, but Jenny has more trouble getting along in her teenage world. She has an ongoing rivalry with the Krust Cousins, popular girl Brit and Tiff, and even has a human suitor in Sheldon. Jenny actually loves a robot named the Silver Shell (he was created by Sheldon, who “wears” him like Iron Man wears his suit), but then later disliked him for being a spy. Jenny is also being pursued by Queen Vexus, leader of a robot clan called the Cluster, to get her to join them.

(My favorite MLaaTR sites are the creator’s blog, The Teenage Roblog, and this whole selection on YouTube that features whole episodes of MLaaTR. I hope the episodes don’t get pulled off anytime soon.)

One show that hopefully won’t be going anywhere anytime soon is Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. With a whole set of neurotic characters (or normal characters that go neurotic when fed with sugar), this show plays on ridiculously impossible situations and bizarre characterization to achieve its flipped out humor. Well, most cartoons do, but Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is just way too lovable and fun, with constant pop culture references and puns and inside jokes easily appreciated by adults.

Incidentally, all these cartoon have been nominated or have won Emmy Awards or Annie Awards (prestigious animation awards). Of course, by now it’s obvious that awards don’t always mean ratings. And I can only hope these great cartoons find a new home somewhere else.

Addicting Blogs: Malcolm Gladwell and the Postmodern Courtesan (yeah, yeah, I know that didn’t read right)

Because I’m too damn lazy to update my links list, these two blogs haven’t made it there yet, although I visit quite often and have been quite addicted to them for some time (obsessively so, by the way). Besides, despite resorting to the supposedly superior connection of local WIFI services, making modifications to the blog is a horrid pain, and I’ve spent much more time waiting for pages to load rather than actually writing anything… so this should suffice for the meantime.

I’ve always been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s, even before Tipping Point and Blink became so damn popular. (Actually, at the height of that I almost lost interest in following Gladwell’s writings because I was so annoyed at being greeted with comments and post and reactions to whatever he wrote by every self-satisfied intellectually mastubatory moron on the planet.) I try to check back on his blog whenever I can, because he often comments further there on the articles he write for The New Yorker.

One of Gladwell’s latest post is jumps off from the increasingly popular subject of debate: the relevance (and perhaps life span) of print journalism in relation to blog. The entry actually is an answer to statements made by Wired editor Chris Anderson (who, despite the fact that I regularly read his publication, I have not particularly liked and, like some of his writers and contemptuous know-it-all reviewers, am finding more and more annoying). Anderson basically took certain statements Gladwell had made in a panel discussion sponsored by Slate magazine out of context, and summed it up as Gladwell asserting that bloggers are just commentors propagating non-value-adding chatter and couldn’t possibly write “quality content” as “professional journalists” do. Of course, the statement was far fromwhat Gladwell meant, but the misunderstanding spun a whole discussion which covered everything from defining certain terminologies, to opinions on media not citing news sources if they orginate from blogs. And yes, a LOT of it is grossly masturbatory.

On a totally different note, another blog I’ve been addicted to lately is Postmodern Courtesan (um, no puns intended). It’s been around for awhile, but I only discovered it recently. The author is basically a high-class companion with a very interesting back story (coming from prestigious schools and having even worked in investment banking) and an even more interesting day-to-day life. She does not–I repeat, DOES NOT–encourage going into her profession (and has even written a post in answer to every teenage girl who suddenly asked her advice about becoming a call girl) but she sure as hell makes it look really glamorous and interesting.

Well, her unusual case is that she also happens to be extremely well-read, eloquent and intelligent. She doesn’t just talk sex or porn, rather, she talks about politics to history to literature to art and everything in between, and her writing is always witty, never pretentious and incredibly addicting. She also has really hot reading lists worth checking out, some of which includes War and Peace, Foucolt’s Pendulum (I went berzerk reading that!), Mignight’s Children, The Sex Lives of Cannibals (yes, you read that right), Getting Stoned with Savages (and you read that one right too), No Touch Monkey: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late (I want this book!), and Hold the Enlightenment (I want this too!). Check out her wishlist on Amazon.com. Hats off to her.

As interesting as her blog is, another even more interesting read are the comments that her readers leave. You won’t believe how many people with savior complexes plead with her to lead a better life. Some tell her to consider a career as a writer, others to find a new path in life, and a handful who want to save her themselves. All in all, this is one of the most literate, intelligent and at the same time fun and interesting blogs around.

Animal Fact of the Day: On the Black Swan

From Eric, my absolute favorite source of rude animal facts. (Still trying to recall his last animal fact about mating habits of Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail.) May you someday change the face of Animal shows.

“A number of male black swans form permanent pair-bonds with each other and these ‘queer’ swans adopt eggs, raise chicks, and on average, raise twice as many offspring to maturity as straight swan couples do. Go black swan dads!”

Isn’t the animal kingdom just too much fun?

Image swiped/borrowed/stolen from this site.

Illustrators: David Bray and Steve James

Two illustrators I have been particularly interested in lately. A lot of David Bray’s work feels retro with a touch of the surreal, sort of like an acid trip, only with far more controlled, subdued colors. He has a portfolio of some really fantastic pieces on PVUK. Here’s a sampling, forgive the watermarks:

Another illustrator of totally different caliber is Steve James. Apart from his work in 3D modeling, he also creates these wonderful portraits that are, well, unglamorous and hint of a certain childlike-ness. He has great control over using strong, bold strokes and he creates very interesting textures that look slightly realistic but have a decided softness and blurred feel to them. They remind a bit of children’s book illustrations. His newest works are on his blog. (link via Drawn!)

Popular Dance in the Philippines (no, not Tinikling)

Over the last few months, I’ve been interviewing local dance companies or organizations that have each taken their own forms of dance and either made them distinctly their own (as Filipinos are always good at doing) or have developed them to be competitive enough with the rest of the world. There’s a long and drawn out predicament that most of these groups (none of the them being “culturally” Filipino dances in the traditional sense of the word) have faced: finding support, recognition, and even a regular audience that can truly appreciate their creative level and globally competitive skills.

Two of these group are categorized under what are considered dance art forms–namely, jazz and ballet–while the third group, a hip hop or streetdance group, thanks to the efforts of certain members who are part of the academe (actually, singular, and that’s Jerome Dimalanta of UP Streetdance), might very well be on their way to be recognized as a dance art form (though it may obviously take some time). Of course, categories are far from strict, as most of these groups have proficiency in many a dance art form or are in the process of training in a lot of dances. (Mainly because, as Bam Damien, Artistic Director of Ballet Philippines, puts it, “it’s actually helpful to be multi-lingual in dance, because as you know more and more dances, it becomes easier to pick up even more later on.”)

Douglas Nierras’ Powerdance is one of those jazz companies that have been around for the longest time. Douglas himself has been hailed the dance guru on local television, and he’s known for his temperamental outbursts on local American Idol ripoffs.

(Aside: Douglas had many interesting stories and hilarious to tell about the young starlet wannabes who had it figured that since the audiences seemed to sympathize with contestants whom Douglas has bursting into tears with his harsher remarks, they would beg him to yell at them on National TV. Other outrageous stories include the occasion when he almost freaked out at a cultural dance event in Luneta Park, when the dj played the Spaghetti Song before the event, hoping to draw in a crowd.)

Douglas’ group recently performed Black Theater Dance, a variation of the Black Light Theater popularized in the Czech republic. The basic principle of the performance is the use of black lights, which basically, when turned on in total darkness, enhances bright colors and significant lessens the visibility of black colors. What makes Powerdance’s performance so extraordinary is the extent to which they employed black light techniques: while most existing performance of black theater use black lights sparingly throughout the performance, often in between regular dances or theater performances, Powerdance used it all throughout the performance, basically playing on the possibilities of what can be seen and what can’t be seen.

Ballet Philippines, on the other hand, is one of the three major ballet companies in the countries and the only one that has focused on Modern Ballet. The company’s founder, Alice Reyes, was known from early on to have been a major influence on Modern Ballet in the Philippines, with her fusion of native influences (either cultural settings and references or native dances) with traditional ballet. Today, the company performs fusions of everything from jazz, samba to hip hop with ballet. It’s a trend that has been long popular in Europe and the United States (”You should see modern dance companies in New York,” says Bam. “It’s no holds barred. They do everything there.”).

The company’s main concern has been the dying patronage of ballet in general, and the difficulty of pleasing older audiences (purists and traditionalists who are used to tutus and Swan Lake only) while reaching out to younger ones (who haven’t seen BP’s modern ballet performances and still think ballet is only tutus and Swan Lake). It’s a dangerous balancing act they are constantly striving to perfect, risking alienating either their existing patrons or their possible newer, younger audiences.

(Aside: While most visual and performance artists recall the days referred to as the “Golden Age of Dance” because of the sheer number of support and patrons, Bam takes a more skeptical view, often wondering if “it wasn’t all bogus to begin with.” His point is that if there were true patrons before, then they wouldn’t have just disappeared so easily around the same time the likes of Imelda Marcos also could no longer give support. While there are true patrons in the likes of the Essenses Foundation and individuals who quietly stay on the Board of Directors of such dance companies, most seem to be rather questionable supporters who gave money and watched shows when it was the fashionable thing to do. Now, the fashionable thing it to buy designer bags, so guess where all the patrons went. Bam is reconciled to the fact that the problem also with watching a ballet is that “unlike a Gucci bag, when you watch something that features soul, it doesn’t show right away.”)

The third dance group I interviewed recently is the Philippine National Hiphop Team/s, led by Head Coach (and arguably local “Father of Streetdance”) Jungee Marcelo. Consisting of three individual groups (the recent Italian Open Champion, All Stars, the elite group The Crew and the UP Streetdance team), they started competing in the World Hiphop Championships a year or two ago, and some of their teams have made top places in different competitions as well.

What has been most interesting about this particular dance story is the very history of hip hop dance in the Philippines. We call it by a name that is definitely associated with the local hip hop scene (and is not a term used anywhere else in the way we use it)–Streetdance (regardless of what this Wikipedia entry says). Streetdance was a term given by Jungee when he first came back to the country after learning his moves on the streets of LA. There are certain distinct differences between hip hop dance and streetdance, especially when it comes to meaning (since hip hop has strong cultural undercurrents in the African-American community while streetdance is rooted in entertainment from back in the ’80s) and style (Pinoys dance with a certain grace and incorporate expansive and lateral movements not found in hip hop).

Popular dance in the Philippines has come a long way, but it seems that audiences are the ones who have a lot of catching up to do. Hopefully, more support will come and people will realize the richness around them. In the meantime, here’s wishing them the best.

Ballet Philippines photos by Oscar W. Profos. The Crew and UP Streetdance photos by Ali Vicoy. All articles originally published in the i section of the Manila Bulletin. Read the full article texts here: Powerdance, Philippine National Hip Hop Teams and All Stars, and Ballet Philippines.

10×10: Images of our times

Created by a series of complex automated tasks, 10×10 is a site that uploads news from prime sources (like BBC, NY Times International, etc.) every hour and sets them into a grid of images that viewers can click on to take them to each specific site. It’s really quite a visual feast, and sometimes proves to be quite a powerful composition.

10×10 is designed to be intuitive and simple to use. On the grid which displays the top 100 world images of the hour, the images are arranged in order of importance, from left to right, top to bottom (which seems a bit counter-intuitive if you’re Chinese). On the right side of the screen, key words corresponding to each image are listed and highlighted when you rollover an image.

Inspired by this site, Yahoo! worked with 10×10 creator Jonathan Harris to create Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 Years, 100 Moments of the Web in 2005, uses the exact same grid to display top net moments as part of Yahoo! 10th Year Anniversary. The featured moments range from VeriSign to Napster to Blair Witch to Atom Films.

There are a couple of articles on 10×10, including this feature on Wired News.

Mix tapes

I always felt a little resentment towards the people in my past (including family, friends, and other direct influences that I won’t mention so I don’t offend) because I always felt I was deprived (of culture or–ooooo!–coolness or whatever). I grew up listening to mainly Gospel music (often by white people backed by kiddie choirs or African-American singers), Christmas music, Broadway, children’s music or the “cleanest” kind of pop music that was pre-approved by authority figures (and for them the Backstreet Boys was cool as cool got).

It was something of a shock when I finally, through friends I’ll always be grateful to, got to listen to a wider range of music, and eventually discovered my tastes. My favorites in college (because high school was an unfortunate season of Jim Brickman and David Pomeraz where I grew up, and I don’t know how I survived that) were Metallica, System of a Down, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Korn, among others, but as I got a little older, and started working while still studying, I found I outgrew a lot of that kind of music.

From my roots, I still listen to Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially older musical or classics like Pippin, Camelot, West Side Story, or Phantom of the Opera, and some really good newer musicals like Blood Brothers by Willy Russel and EVERYTHING by Jason Robert Brown (although my hands-down favorite is The Last Five Years). I still pop in the occasional Metallica CD (although I usually prefer S&M these days) or even Ozzy Osborne. But what’s on my player now is anything from Counting Crows, Wallflowers, High Llamas, Aimee Mann, Beats for Beginners, Ben Folds, Bruce Springsteen, Massive Attack, Stereophonics, Vienna Teng to, well, a host of music that people whose tastes I trust have fed me over the years.

I have a point to all this, and I’m getting to it now. I remember when my editor asked us to text our top five songs we’d have in our iPods (or hypothetical list for those of us who didn’t have iPods), I sent in Counting Crows, Stereophonics, Beats for Beginners, Silverchair, and Vienna Teng. (And then B. tried to text his list, which was basically Earth , Wind and Fire songs.) I realized how terrible I would be at making a mix tape. My list was far beyond disjointed–it was schitzophrenic. Then I realized it was the same for pretty much my taste in music. At that point, I then admitted to myself that, for all the reasons in my past, my taste in music was, well, learned. Or forced. I know what music is acceptable in my circles before I know what I like, and it has been that way for awhile.

Part of it was a reaction to my past, part was an effort to fit in with the friends I came to have in the latter part of college. I do truly appreciate a lot of the music that I learned to love over time, but sometimes, I just envy people who, when they turn on the radio and hear, say, a new Linkin Park or Creed song, don’t always stop to think about the music and just know if they like it or not. It’s become second nature to me to examine, which B. has pointed out on several occasions.

It seems such an odd thing to a lot of people that I am that way. And it seems grossly pretentious too. I do love the music that I’ve grown accustomed to. But it’s been awhile since I’ve bothered to turn on the radio, for reasons that match those above. And it’ll be awhile before I try to make a mix tape.

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While we’re on the topic of mixtapes, check out this section in Tiny Mix Tapes site. It’s a fun list of possible mix tapes based on topics suggested by readers. The topics range from “I just lost my iPod–songs to help me forget I like music,” to “depressing songs to play at the porn store i work at, so customers forget they’re horny and go home and quit bothering me.” Some lists are funnier than others, and some are actually quite interesting and worth putting together.

Being Spaces

While doing research in my favorite net haunts, I came across a recent trend report on Trendwatching.com which discusses the case of branding in the real world. It’s always been fascinating and frustrating for me to check up on new marketing trends because of how conservative the market is here in the Philippines. (Aside: Once, when I was trying to pitch a marketing project to the local reps of an international sports apparel brand, the project got shot down by regional before it even left the drawing board. The reason? Regional felt that the extra investment wasn’t worth making in the local market, since it wouldn’t increase sales anyway. I don’t blame them for thinking that way, what with all the fake items in the tiangges and ukay-ukays that the locals totally eat up. Anyway…)

The brand article runs down a list of familiar and not-so-familiar consumer marketing and branding concepts that have proven successful in many places in the world today, and so far, it seems to me that we’ve latched on one concept in particular–Being Spaces.

For those not familiar with it, the most basic example would be Starbucks. Basically, Being Spaces are commercial outlets which, apart from selling products and services (i.e. coffee, food, books, etc.), offer livingroom-like setups, where you are welcome to reading a book, meeting friends and colleagues, work on your laptop (which I am doing now), or even, as with some places in Japan, watch Dvds and play video games.

Now, what the article discusses is further capitalizing on the opportunities created by Being Spaces, hence transforming them into what is called Brand Spaces (which has yet to find full realization in the local market). The article explains Brand Spaces as “…literally accommodating consumers outside the home and office, becoming a relevant and useful part of their daily lives, offering them surprise, discovery, empathy, transformation. A place to lounge, hang out, try things out, work, or relax.” Some of the best examples referenced are from brands as diverse as ING Direct, Apple, Kodak, Eddie Bauer, and Nokia, and the Brand Spaces may be small or big, or temporary or fixed, but all far beyond any advertising stunts we’ve been able to imagine. Check out the Xbox360 lounge.

Of the resulting trends, Pop-up Retail receives the most mention, with brands ranging from Levi’s to Swatch cashing in on this very practical consumer retail trend. Pop-Up Retail is exactly what it sounds like: temporary stores that come and go as quickly as their products. Variations on Pop-Up Retail shops are Caravan, which is a store on wheels that can carry items for individuals who might not be able to put up their own Pop-Up stores, Pop-Up Concerts and Pop-Up Bars. Other great examples are the Nokia Silence Booth and the Kodak One Gallery Masterclasses.

Read the complete article about Being Spaces & Brand Spaces at Trendwatching.com.

There are a number of other marketing/retail ideas which don’t quite fit into the Being Spaces concept but are still interesting, concept or design-wise. One is the inQbox store in Singapore, which has the tagline “urban retail utility.” This nifty store is basically an entire outlet consisting of even-sized boxes, which individuals can rent to place their items in for sale. The rental is fairly inexpensive, and it allows product designers of all kinds to get their stuff out there in the market without spending a fortune. It’s also great for consumers, since the sheer variety is hugely entertaining to begin with.

Another fun commercial outlet is Kid’s Republic (link via Cool Hunter), which is a children’s bookstore in Beijing. This is a great little bookstore that can spark kids’ imaginations. The layout allots spaces for kids to sit and read, and maybe run around and play a little. Functional architecture has never been so fun. Or so colorful.

Now, going completely off topic, I just have to mention Volkswagen’s new storage facility in Wolfsburg, Germany. While this one has considerably less to do with commercial space, it’s worth mentioning just because it looks so damn cool. Read the rest of the write-up at Cool Hunter, and check out VW’s photo tour of its transparent factory as well.

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While there is little effort made locally for unique branding concepts, there are one or two individuals who are trying to push for more advanced, more entertaining and eye-catching advertising and branding ideas. One of them is Clear Channels. I had an interview with Cyril Manadlang some time in 2005, when they first brought in their cold inflatables and flying shapes (from an exclusive partnership with Minizepp, the Swiss-based company specializing in innovative inflatable advertising). At the time, they were pushing it for basketball games and other sporting events, since most people thought of inflatables as basically blimps, blown-up SMB or Coke bottles, or those long dancing figures at events.

What Cyril’s group offered was far more extensive than that. They could actually make inflatables of anything you can dream of: towering arches, mascot costumes, kiosks, life-sized products, play sets, giant slides, castles, auditoriums, tents, cars, trucks, full-sized cement trucks, a real ‘rock’ climbing wall, and life-sized snow globes, among others. One of their biggest designs is a full auditorium about three times the size of the local NBC tent. If you go online, you’d find how popular inflatable bars are on the party scene, which is also soemthing Clear Channels had hoped to spread here.

They also make airships, on which you can mount cameras (for air shots) and even screens to play video. That would be radically effective advertising say, along EDSA, where billboards are becoming ineffective because of their sheer density.

A bad movie and then some

It’s been awhile since I walked out of a movie theater. And it’s the first time B. actually initiated the walkout. The last few occasions I dragged him out, because I was close to throwing up in the theater (never did have the stomach for explicit blood and gore horror movies), but this time, he was far more bored than I was. Which is saying a lot considering I have absolutely no patience with bad movies.

Of course, I’d be talking about Just My Luck. I wouldn’t have agreed to watch it except we’d run out of My Name is Earl and Scrubs downloads to watch, and we’d caught the other movies already. It didn’t help that we’d watched Earl right before the movie on my laptop, so five minutes into the film we were already itching to leave, which we did twenty minutes later, with B. scratching his head irritably (”Do they actually expect us not to be IRRITATED by this script?”). I just can’t believe the rest of the audience actually stayed.

Sure, I’m all for comparing apples to apples, which is a thing I learned from our movie reviewer Carljoe. Plus I’m usually patient about understanding what the film is trying to do in the matter that it tries to do it. In all fairness, I enjoyed films that range from Adaptation, Moulin Rouge, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, to films like While You were Sleeping, My Best Friend’s Wedding, American Pie, Transporter, Mission Impossible and Tokyo Drift. And I know teeny-bopper flicks and family movies that have been done well, so all I can say is Just My Luck was condescending, trying too hard to be funny AND clean, and absolutely senseless. (Yes, it was really THAT bad that I’m actually bothering with an entry dedicated to blowing off steam about it.)

It happens so often that it isn’t so much irony any more than fact, that shows like this, in a shallow, vain effort to be funny and smart, end up being absolutely stupid and unentertaining, while on the other hand, shows that are sincere and really try to say something or try to find as real and unique a voice as possible end up being funny and rabidly entertaining, like Clerks or Orange County or High Fidelity or even The Incredibles.

Sad how these chick flicks also reflect what certain moviemakers think of the audience they serve. And sad how so many people populating the theater during Just My Luck may just have proved them right. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just about right that people are getting dumber because, among other reasons, of our entertainment. It seems that with “commercialized” work, it’s a fight to lower the bar, to try to make the lowest common denominator of appreciation to suit the greatest number of audiences. After all, how many time have I heard, “That’s too smart for the market,” or something similar?

I find these days that I’m deliriously happy if a half-decent movie comes out. I wonder if there’ll be another movie like the farily recent Crash any time soon. That was one movie that inspired me to sit down and write after watching it. How many more of those gems, in each their own genres, can we hope to see in the future? Meantime, while I’m waiting, I’ll pop in a copy of Earl or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or anything else that’ll really make me laugh.

Lookie! Football-Inspired Fashion and Helsinki Style

It’s been a few weeks since the World Cup (somebody pinch me), but as I was going online to research my next article, I found some interesting items related to football-inspired fashion. The i section of the Bulletin released a football special right before the finals, which I think is one of my favorite men’s fashion spread so far. Here’s a (badly cropped–sorry!) image from the spread shot in the local JVC showroom, photographed and art directed by this wonderful group everywhereweshoot.com (more photographs available at their site).
(Check out i in the Manila Bulletin, every Friday and Saturdays and every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month.)

Incidentally, if you check Issey Miyake’s Spring 2007 collection on Style.com, you’d find a football-inspired collection. Miyake’s inspiration hails from an older fanhood of football, and he is “claiming inspiration from the green of playing fields and the white of chalk lines, tokens to him of an era before ESPN and multimillion-dollar contracts.” (Style.com)

Another interesting football fashion event (yes, it’s a little old news, but I’ll post it here anyway) was the Fashion meets Football show in Berlin, featuring creations by up-and-coming designers and fashion students inspired by the beautiful game, divided into 4 categories: Catwalk with Ball, Ballroom Fashion, New Fanwear, and Element of the Game.

(Entries above by Una Trompler and Ulrike Adam)

And of course, the site isn’t in English.

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Love street fashion blogs. Have a whole set of links to them on my sidebar, in fact. Usually, the Tokyo street fashion site would be the prime site on my list, yet more and more, I’m loving the curious and wonderfully creative street fashion of Helsinki. I mean, beat this:

Unmatched stockings, pinks platform boots, great tees and hoodies, and one hell of a competition for the Japanese Goth Lolita getups.