Carnival

These are some really impressive images from a photographer named *brynne. She (and a friend) went through the abandoned Six Flags park in New Orleans last year, four years after Hurricane Katrina passed through the region. 80% of the park was demolished; only one ride was considered salvageable.

I was impressed to see that she has a number of other sets like this -- abandoned buildings -- as well, until I read her profile, which says, in part:

If I controlled the world, it would be cloudy every day at 67 degrees and I would be allowed in every abandoned building on the planet. I'm an aspiring stormchaser, urban explorer and future horror fiction novelist. I love to read, learn about new things and I am very well known as a trance music fanatic.

The post-processing on the images is quite good; be sure to check-out the silhouetted images of the park at the end of this set as well.  [Found via daringfireball.net]

» Flickr: “Six Flags New Orleans 228” – uploaded by *brynne

Notepad

Notepad++ is an advanced, tabbed, text-editor that I have been using for a number of years now. It's always really impressed me and I don't think I've ever been left wanting for features (except for a Print Preview option; I don't need it often, but I do wish they'd add it in). What it does have is: more syntax highlighting options than I've ever seen; super-quick load time; easy-to-use, uncluttered work environment; macro capibility, etc.

The small team that puts together this product have just last week released a new version of the program (v5.8.3) and had over the summer opened a new website as well (previously, it was hosted as part of the SourceForge empire I believe).

If you're looking to do some hand-coded (x)HTML/CSS work, plan some SQL scripts, write some C# code or whatever, consider this program. It's 100% free ("as in 'free beer' or 'free speech'" according to the website) and gets my stamp of approval.

» Found at: notepad-plus-plus.org

Shread

 

I don't quite remember how I stumbled on this image this morning, but it's one of a series of three images created by Rethink, a Canadian ad agency, for the Vancouver-based Sparrow Guitar company. If the design company's information page is to be believed, "in 2009, more Guitar Hero guitars were sold than actual ones." That's a pretty scary claim, but I don't know if I believe it... whatever the case, it's a pretty solid ad campaign in my eyes!

According to the website, members of Pride Tiger and You Say Party are using Sparrow guitars.

» Found at: Rethink Canada

Giraffes

Nothing like a silly bet with a friend to get a website going, eh? It seems that Norwegian Ola was bet by his friend Jorgen that he couldn't collect one million giraffes; seems Jorgen was wrong. Ola did collect them (and seems to still be collecting them) on-line.

Unlike the (original) Million Dollar Homepage, which also started out as something of a word-of-mouth internet phenomenom, this project was done for fun, not financial gain. That said, considering that the MDH was created back in 2005 -- before the days of Facebook, Twitter and the like -- it's still quite the accomplishment.

Any how, I just thought this was a fun, bright, playful site to feature here. An example of positive crowd-sourcing at it's best. So, if you like giraffes, go check it out!

» Found at: One Million Giraffes

Winner

Last night the 2010 Polaris Music Prize was awarded to Karkwa for their fourth album Les Chemins De Verre. I haven't personally heard much from this band; only what is available on their CBC Radio3 page. From the Polaris site, the album is described by Philippe Papineau (Le Devoir, Montréal) as:

Killer melodies, intelligent lyrics, and the impression of a group in total communion. This is especially apparent during the hymn Marie Tu Pleures, recorded in one take in a old French manor house. Singer Lous-Jean Cormier usually pushes his gritty voice into the low octaves, but here he dares incursions into the higher range to great emotional effect. Think about Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, The Beach Boys; even good old Quebec prog music from Harmonium.

I think this was a very strong year for the Polaris Prize; the short list had at least six or seven very strong albums on it. If Karkwa isn't your cup of tea, be sure to check out other bands on the short list, such as: Dan Mangan, Broken Social Scene and/or my pick for the year, the Besnard Lakes.

» Found at: Karkwa's official home page

Games

I'd heard something about this previously, but recently someone linked to a review in The Toronto Star about the newest coffee shop in the Toronto Annex area: Snakes & Lattes.  To quote the article, since I probably couldn't explain this better myself:

Castanie and Peynet moved to Toronto from France four years ago. The idea for the cafe came to them when they were browsing a game shop in Chicago. For the last two years, they have scoured the Internet, Value Village and toy stores to create a collection of 1,500 games, including obscure classics like Fireball Island, and other delights like Mall Madness and Settlers of Catan. For $5, customers have unlimited access to the collection and Castanie’s expertise.

 $5 for access to 1500+ board games? That's pretty awesome in my books. Frankly, I think this is a really excellent idea for a coffee shop. I'm not one much of a 'coffee shop patron', but I'd visit just to see that wall of board games (see photo, above) in person!

What other creative coffee shops are out there that I haven't heard about?  I have previously heard of the Indie Coffee Passport for the Toronto area; anything else?

» Found at: Snakes & Lattes (official website)

Soap

Adam Sidwell has challenged himself to create a new illustration of a "bad dude" each week in 2010. These range from video game villains to movie baddies to television evil doers. Regardless of where the inspiration comes from, the artwork itself is top notch.

The image above is from Fight Club and, if you've seen the movie, you'll notice subtle clues that connect the two images ... which tells me that the artist doesn't just grab any ol' scoundrel and draw them up; there is some good thought put into each piece.

» Found at: 52 Bad Dudes (Tumblr)