So Sarah Palin resigned officially a couple of days ago. Vanity Fair took her farewell speech and got their editors to class it up. The cruft and errors (like getting a past President wrong) are just shockingly laughable.

For more than four weeks, I have been listening non-stop to the new Kasabian album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. This, my friends, is my album of the year so far. Thick, fuzzy beats and dirty synths make this album a very addictive listen, despite the occasional aggro ‘ladrock’ lyric. This is like Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR with all the energy and production values but without the political leanings and manic intensity.

One major disappointment has to be the album cover photography and the inlay art. On a conceptual level, the photography works but dressing up the band and shooting them almost feels like an easy way out. The art direction on the inlay is nothing to write (or type) home about either. Not bad, but graphically not great enough for an outstanding album.

Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre. Absolutely bizarre. I mean, seriously WTF?

The Stealth MacBook Pro is a limited edition modded MacBook Pro with a smooth, matte black paint job that can be yours for US$6,000. Or you could buy about 3 MacBooks over the next 6 years for the same money and not worry about faster CPUs.

Just saying’, you know.

A supreme example of wit without words.

An absolutely hilarious spot, presumably made in Japan, promoting cheap flights to Singapore. Why we don’t have this kind of humour in most Singapore ads on TV, I really don’t know.

Sir, I send a rhyme excelling,
In sacred truth and rigid spelling,
Numerical sprites elucidate,
For me the lexicon’s dull weight,
If nature gain, not you complain
Tho’ Dr Johnson fulminate.

›› A nice Piphilology for 3.141592653589793238462643383279

Beautiful water-colour effect (and nice music) for this Shell spot (and another one) produced by Stardust. (You can see Stardust’s showreel here — seems they also did the spot for the Nokia L’Amour campaign.)

There’s a lot more stuff on her blog (including an equally stunning New York poster).

[Via Dirty Mouse]

Simple idea that is nicely executed for a great song. I wonder how much of it was ‘real’, because some of it looks a bit too post-production precise, though that should not take anything away from the overall aesthetics.

Roger Federer wrote himself into the history books as possibly the greatest modern day tennis player after he finally won at Roland Garros earlier this year. Last night’s epic match at Wimbledon was a great spectacle that was a great addition to his trophy cabinet and for the record keepers.

As any sporting icon will tell you, records are there to be broken. Someone better than you will come along some day and set their own records. But the things you win — no one can ever take that away.

Over the next day, hug your spouse, kiss your child, call your relatives, watch the sunset, watch the sunrise, thank your God and relish your life.

›› New York Times’ David Rohde after his Afghan Taliban escape