And onto the honeymoon . . . (photograph by Sweet Pea Photography).

I realize that I recently posted about a modern dog bed, and I swear I’m not trying to become a dog-centric writer, but I just had to share my latest obsession, which consequently, happens to be about dogs. I’ve been looking for a tasteful leather collar for our new pup and keep coming up short, everything either looks too cheap, too expensive, or too flashy. Is it really that impossible to make a nicely designed dog collar that’s not adorned with Vineyard Vines-like ribbon or synthetic? Apparently so.

Save for Mungo and Maud Dog and Cat Outfitters, which seems to recognize the lack of class and style in the selection available to pet owners. Its merchandise is truly beautiful (and unfortunately quite pricey and located in London, not helpful for this Bostonian). I would LOVE our pup to don its gray canvas and leather collar and lead, eat from a modern Inu Bone dog bowl, and play with a fleecy lamb (which ended up buying for Dollar at Polka Dog Bakery, he then methodically gutted the poor lamb over the course of an evening). And maybe someday, like after Christmas (hint, hint), he will.

Chilewich, the company known for its woven vinyl tabletop decor and durable indoor/outdoor rugs, has branched out into iPhone covers — a genius and natural move really. Partnering with Griffin Technology (your neighborly iPod outfitter), Chilewich has released a line of stylish and durable iPhone covers (for both the 3G and the 3Gs). The Elan Form is available in two colors (gravel and light grey) and retails for $40.

All-City? Check. Super-Tags on the Hells Gate Bridge? Check. What’s next? How about the largest fill-in ever caught on video?

Check.

Last night marked the debut of French artist Nicolas Pol’s first ever US exhibition, entitled The Martus Maw, at the old meat market on Essex street in New York and quite the debut it was, with guests like designer Jean Paul Gaultier (at right), French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld (at right), and Mickey Boardman and Kim Hastreiter from Paper Magazine showing up. It should also be noted that Carine showed up in a Lady Gaga-inspired pantless and black lace number that was disturbingly flattering for a 55-year-old woman. There’s no doubt it helps to have Valdimir Reston Roitfeld (Carine Roitfeld’s son) backing the exhibition and having some of the heaviest hitters in the fashion and art industries come through for support. The show was also made possible by West Coast skate company RVCA, which has been recently delving into the fashion and art scenes with collaborations like model Erin Wasson’s fashion line to shows like this one and an upcoming show for Phil Frost and Barry McGee at Prism Gallery in LA. Word on the street is that RVCA’s biggest investor of the moment is a young 20-something by the name of Stav, whose parents are big timers in the art world.

Whip Whip

Puaka Crusade

Flashy and non-flashy guests alike arrived clad in black (yes . . . the stereotypes are true) amidst wafts of incense in a dimly lit large warehouse with lighting solely focused to outline Pol’s giant paintings. The effect was that the colorful, large-scale paintings looked spell binding like giant luminary figures in the darkness.

My Son’s A Batselman

In the press booklet — which it should be noted was taken from an interview with famed fashion writer Judith Benahmou-Huet (cheers to connections) — Pol mentions Warhol as an influence, which was certainly discernible, but it was clearly Basquiat who drove his inspiration. The masculine paintings were clearly derivative, but they were also crowd pleasers and had everyone ooing and ahhing. The paintings certainly made a statement and a violent and dark one at that, with paintings like Lupus Gutus, which features a wolf with a severed and bleeding head or Wooden Spell, a black and white painting on wood with voo-doo like hearts and animal figures. You got the feeling that Pol painted with as much passion and violence as his own subjects evoke, with giant sweeping, streaming brushstrokes splattered across the canvas in paintings like Crying. And indeed, Pol cites his childhood in Africa (and giant rotting elephants) as the source for his “fascination with the morbid.” Despite the déjà vu feeling in Pol’s work, his influences seem to haunt his works in a dark and rather appropriate sort of way and judging from the amount of paintings with red dot “sold stickers,” it’s just the kind of enveloping juxtaposition of darkness and light that people are in the market for these days.

-Written by The Function Key’s NYC correspondent Paige Reddinger

All photos by Nick D.

Meet your newest obsession — litl. It’s an intuitive Webbook designed for Internet surfing, and it weighs just three pounds. You can use the litl in two ways — laptop mode (self-explanatory) or easel style, which gets a little more clever because instead of navigating with a trackpad or keyboard, you use a wheel (designed to simulate an old TV dial) or a remote to browse through content.

All of litl’s data is stored in the cloud — there’s no hard drive (part of the reason it’s so lightweight) — which means if you ever lose your litl or forget it at home, your data will still be safe and sound and accessible. And because it’s designed to be used all over your home, it also connects to your TV, so you can stream movies, video games, or whatever else your little heart desires — oh and that’s all in HD. See, what’d we tell you? Your newest obsession, right?

Order yours now.

Next time this week, we’ll be sleeping in our comfy platform bed at The Standard Hotel in West Hollywood, enjoying the first leg of our honeymoon, and I cannot wait! We booked our trip ages ago, and now that’s it fast approaching I’ve got a one-track mind for relaxation and sunshine.

Our first stop?

The Standard Hotel

It’s a hip place to stay, while not breaking the bank, The Standard is an Andre Balazs property and boasts 24/7 room service, a heated pool, Andy Warhol-designed textiles, a daily social calendar, and even a bathing suit vending machine!

And then onto a luxurious 8-day cruise (a la The Love Boat) through the Mexican Riviera . . .

Finally, back to LA for a few days, where we’ll stay at . . .

Farmers Daughter Hotel

Located in Fairfax Avenue, Farmers Daughter Hotel is within walking distance of CBS studios (The Price is Right!), The Grove, and right across the street from the Farmer’s Market. Plus, it has an onsite restaurant — Tart — whose menu sounds simply divine!!

My preferred aesthetic is to interpret the traditional in a fresh and modern way, which is why this Delft porcelain set by lovegroove & repucci probably caught my eye. Using centuries-old, iconic blue and white Dutch pottery, the designers swapped the customary motifs with an atypical choice — graffiti. So what do you think? Clever or crass?

This year instead of dressing up ourselves, we opted to dress up the dog — it’s more fun anyway. And so, on Saturday, Dollar attended his first dachshund meet-up — Happy Hallowiener — on the Boston Common dressed as a skunk. There were more than 100 wiener dogs signed up for the costumed event, and what a sight it was!! Here are some great pictures that Ryan took at the meet-up. Enjoy!

Pepe Le Pew?

This dude was my favorite — flap, flap, flap . . .

The anarchist/punk dachsie — complete with a dyed mohawk!

Chicken fat and little, this little dachsie was sooo squeezy!!

But not as squeezy as Dollar . . .

We haven’t posted a Darcelism in quite sometime, but his sentiments on Halloween are eerily similar to mine . . .

10.29.2009

A Snuggie, a Croc, an Ed Hardy, an Ugg and a Kanye is the scariest Halloween costume I could ever dream of.

Darcel, are we secretly related???