Nearly every small Western town we stopped in on our road trip over the holidays had an “antique” store like this one. Aisles and aisles of old cookbooks, silverplate candlestick holders, broken toys, old military medals, crocheted table clothes.

We couldn’t help ourselves; we almost always stopped and poked around. We used restraint and made no “fine collectibles” purchases (the car was super full with our ridiculous amount of luggage–three weeks is a long time to be on the road).

That said…there are two sets of things we regret not buying. Is it worth the trek back to Silver City, NM and Childress, TX?

A ritual we quickly established on our road trip was for me to look up the next small town we were coming up to on my iPhone while he drove. I Wiki-ed dozens of tiny towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. More often than not we enjoyed the “facts” of town, most of which were established during the migration west in the late 1800’s and involved the rail road.

Driving home, I looked up “Desert Center, CA” and it was by far the most interesting and in depth Wikipedia entry I read aloud. So much information (and drama) for such a little town in the middle of literally nowhere. A preacher who writes bad poetry and gets shunned for “dallying,” the country’s first managed health care, lots of fortune, even more loss, and palm trees planted in a crazy pattern. Read it.

A Google search on Desert Center also brought up an interesting photo stream on Flickr of the town’s abandoned schoolhouse. The images were beautiful and strange. As soon as we saw them, we knew we had to exit off the boring 10 and check it out. And I really wanted to steal that typewriter.

The school is situated right alongside the Interstate and is surprisingly new for being abandoned.  We stepped over the chain barring the driveway and poked around. Alas, the typewriters were gone, but everything else looked much like Bill Lindsay’s Flickr pictures.

A couple of hundred yards down the dirt road from the school was another motel we did not stay at:

We’ve been trying to stay off Interstates as much as possible…how many Quality Inn’s and McDonald’s do we need to see? Consequently, we’ve driven through a whole bunch of small towns with places we decided not to stay at…

And of course, we also passed a whole lot of places we decided not to eat at…

My camera and iPhone are full of these: “In Defense of the Poor Image,” a provocatively smart and complex essay by Hito Steyerl.

The poor image tends towards abstraction: it is a visual idea in its very becoming.

Here’s some stuff that’s caught our eye recently:

So perfect for purse or pocket: Sneak-It-In Disposable Flasks. (Thanks, estarLA)

A design that should not have come to fruition: an opener for screwcap bottles. Really now. Stop it. (Thanks, Dr. Vino)

Pictures published in The Daily Mail of Constellation Europe’s wine warehouse, which is currently housing just their Holiday Collection, remind us of the wine equivalent of an industrial stockyard. Interestingly, must of the wine is shipped there in bulk and bottled on site. As if we needed another reason to seek out boutique wines. And the images have a nice Thomas Demand / Andreas Gursky / Gerhard Ritcher quality. (Thanks, Dr. Vino)

We do it already, creating the perfect music mood to match our drinking mood. Now there’s an app that will do it for you: The Wine DJ. “The application builds a playlist of “Music to Match Your Spirits” based on mood, setting and which Liberty School wine is being consumed.” And…it’s free. (Thanks, Serious About Wine)

The name says it all, but the shelf talkers the marketing team developed for pro-mis-Q-ous wines make sure you get the point: “Are you ready to mingle? May we present a casual dalliance with more than one partner – a sensual blend of…When you’re in a red wine mood and want to drink a red wine that’s not so ridiculously serious. Practice safe sipping.” Sex sells. (Found this one on our own, simply Googled “wine sex” images)

Workers of the mind unite: “The futurists were against sadness, moonlight, marriage–even pasta…” (via Bookforum)

Loosen up: movement class and you get to wear his old clothes.

Relic??? Mmm. Maybe he’s just mad these shoes aren’t made for walking.

Go see it: “My goal is to make obvious in your face art that ninety-nine percent of the people who walk by.”

But, if we’re lucky, there will be an image that we fall in love with: the cropping, the colors, the placement of objects…it  all just seems to work. And the best part: no Photoshopping required.

An example (driving down Eagle Rock Blvd. Friday night):

R & S brought us back a big bag of treats from their trip to New York. A whole bunch of goodies from Zabar’s: smoked trout, spinach spread, lox, jam, coffee. Everything was delicious and the gift was good timing because we hadn’t been to the store in a few days. None of the yummy stuff lasted too long, but we still have the bag…and this may be our favorite part. We love the retro styling, clip-art graphics, and the way the text (listing all their products) becomes its own graphical element. The design breaks rules we learned in school (no all caps!, avoid cliché, don’t over-do alignment choices)…but it’s so, so good. Check out the equally beautiful cover of Zabar’s Deli Book, designed by Seymour Chwast of Push Pin Studios.

Introducing Little Perky: We like this diverse designer more and more.

Diary, To Do List, Sketchbook, Assemblage: Just call it what we’ll be working on.

Next theme party: Live painting. (via VLU)

How to divide up a room: One wall doesn’t really know anything about another.

Cultural anthropology: The meaning is still subject to debate.

I see esses everywhere. And I just want to give them legs.

The perfect sign to come across while on a walk to Staples to buy rubber cement.

Our latest card for Valerie Confections is all about fall picnicking, best friends, and the best PB&J you’ve ever had.

Check your mail in a few days, Randal. And what’s your t-shirt size?

(We send free stuff to people who give us their address–sign up.)

This one’s for you, Babs. It’s flashy.

The line up of nominees for the First Annual Art Awards at the Guggenheim is impressive and inspiring.

The list includes some of our favorite shows: “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution,” “After Nature,” “Lawrence Weiner: As Far as the Eye Can See,” “The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984” as well as artists we love: Louise Bourgeois, Urs Fischer, Dan Graham, and Mary Heilmann amongst others.

But that statue. Geez. It looks so sadly dated…an ugly thing waiting to collect dust in a dimly lit corn of a dive bar.

(But which lucky winner will have theirs presented by Mary-Kate Olsen?)

And how great of a division name is Art Theft Detail.