Sometimes we can’t stop staring at horrible, ugly things. Enter Regretsy, a website that puts “the culture of fail” on display for those with the stomach to handle for-sale projects ranging from the hysterical to the horrific. April Winchell launched the site in October 2009 under the pseudonym Helen Killer, and its cult-like following has led to a hilarious book spin-off: Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF. To celebrate its release, we’ve asked Killer to provide a list of the most over-the-top moments found in the new tome. Count on being both traumatized and fascinated after the jump.
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Books
Regretsy: Helen Killer’s Favorite Finds
5Architecture
The Breeding Museum: Pompidou Expands to Metz
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From blueprints to renderings, budget restraints to breaking ground, the architectural review process is slow-moving beast. (Just consider the Second Avenue subway punchline.) So imagine our excitement over the highly anticipated May opening of the Pompidou-Metz after a scant three-year delay. The high profile of the museum means that Metz will have the chance to reinvent itself from a town of industry in northeastern France into a full-blown arts hub.
The idea of the expanding museum brand is nothing new — we’ve seen it thanks to franchises like the Guggenheim and the Tate, while Whitney and Louvre offspring wait in the proverbial wings. So what we can expect from the newest outpost of France’s most venerable contemporary art institution? A sneak peek at Pompidou-Metz after the jump.
Art
Pic of the Day: Aging Pop Icons
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Sure, Batman was svelte back in the day. But the ’80s was ages ago, and Italian artist Francesco de Molfetta sure lets us know it with these campy sculptures. His new exhibition, New Icons, currently on display at Milan’s Don Gallery, takes super recognizable personalities from the decade of excess and places them into a world with a lot less activity, and much more gluttony.
Design
Trend Watch: Condom Fashion
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You may not expect to find sartorial inspiration during a trip to the Museum of Sex, but the rubbery threads from Brazilian native, Adriana Bertini, currently displayed as part of the “Rubbers” exhibition, are sure to boggle your mind.
Bertini’s sustainable collection of dresses, skirts and suits is made entirely from hundreds of factory-rejected condoms, and with her technique, the rubber guys seem to resemble lace, silk, and the finest of fabrics. Her message — that condoms are basic necessities, comparable to a pair of jeans — comes across loud and clear. The designs are not meant to be worn, but viewed as art pieces; her works have shown at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, and even the United Nations.
Design
Design Porn: Lord of the Rings
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Welcome to the latest edition of Design Porn, Flavorpill’s regular roundup of drool-worthy objects. We all know that accessories can make or break an outfit, but never before have we experienced rings that add a flash of bling and tell a story. Whether you’re a wannabe green thumb, an overture aficionado, or maybe you hit the vino a little too hard on occasion, we’ve found a bauble for you. No explanation necessary. Let us know where you fit in after the jump.
Photography
Tribute to Jim Marshall: Rock ‘n’ Roll Royalty
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Rock-and-roll photographer Jim Marshall died on Tuesday at the age of 74. If you’re not familiar with the man himself, you’ve certainly seen his work: he was an official photographer of the Woodstock Festival, the only photographer allowed backstage at the Beatles’ final concert in 1966, and he shot more than 500 album covers. Marshall was known to gain intimate access to the musicians, sometimes even going so far as to live with them, in order to create truly vulnerable portraits. He continued to work after the days of psychedelics and electric guitars, and more recently worked with the likes of John Mayer and Ben Harper. Marshall was scheduled to promote his new book Match Prints this week, written with fellow photographer Timothy White.
Just as the music lives on, we know that Marshall’s photographs will prevail as iconic cultural images. A roundup of some of our favorite shots after the jump.
Design
I Want to Ride My Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle
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Here at Flavorwire, we’re loving the surge of spring-like weather, and plan to take full advantage of morning bike rides free of wind burn and chapped knuckles. And while our bicycles hail from Mom’s garage circa 1984, we can’t help but drool over the winning designs from this year’s International Bicycle Design Competition. Organized by the Cycling and Health Center of Taipei, the competition has featured 10,372 designers from 86 countries over the past 14 years. This year’s winner, Taiwanese Hsi Huang, beat out 719 other contestants and took home a cash prize of $15,745 for his Shopping Bike — a bicycle that can transform into a shopping cart. Check out some of the IBDC designs from their Flickr page after the jump, and try not to poke fun at our rusty chains.
Web
What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office
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Today at Flavorpill, we learned to expect weird and heavy tunes from M.I.A.’s new album. Vague, but we’ll take any information at this point. We thought these clocks would be perfect space savers for our tiny New York City apartments. We were amused by Dame Edna’s take on “Single Ladies” — fantastic sequined dress and back-up dancers. We quickly placed our orders for a copy of Sherman Alexie’s book War Dances, which just won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. We did our best to ignore the Sarah Palin TV wars, and we’re hoping we’ll at least get some Tina Fey out of the situation. We salivated over Steve McQueen’s record collection in the Life archives. We were disappointed to hear that Frances McDormand and John Malkovich signed on for Transformers 3 (really guys?), but at least we’ll officially have our weekly dose of Alan Cumming on The Good Wife. And finally, we were prepared to die happy with the news that Steven Klein will be directing Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” video. Bring on the next phase of Gaga!
Architecture
The Serpentine’s Ever Changing Pavilion
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London’s 40-year-old Serpentine Gallery may have housed works by Man Ray, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons, but the gallery’s most impressive feature is its summer Pavilion series, which was created in 2000 by gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones. What started with Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid’s steel structure became an annual invitation from the gallery for an architect to design an outdoor pavilion on its lawn.
The Pavilion project has attracted some of the most world renowned architects, none of whom had designed a building in England before (yes, that’s the one stipulation). With the financial backing from various sponsors (the gallery lacks any budget for the pavilions), these architects have been able to exert their creative freedom into a project that is completed in a mere six months, and on display for an even slighter 100 days. But no matter — roughly 250,000 visitors come each year, making the installation more than twice as popular as the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Today it was announced that controversial French architect Jean Nouvel is on board for 2010′s installation. Images from the past ten years of Serpentine Pavilions, plus a closer look at Nouvel’s mock-up, after the jump.
Television
MTV’s The Jersey Shore Goes International
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La Situación, la Situazione, Sytuacja (that’s Polish), the Situation. The Guidos and Guidettes that we’ve come to know, love, and in some sad cases, idolize, are going global in more than 30 countries this week. According to Antonio Campo Dall’Orto, who manages Southern Europe for MTV Networks International, Jersey Shore is actually easier to promote overseas than other recent exports, like A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila, “because it has a more human element.” With international marketing slogans such as “Muscles + Gel + Tanning Bed = Sex,” we’re imagining future European tours where the GTL-clan will chow down on baguettes and kielbasas while being chased around like The Beatles.
Check out some of the video spots currently airing in the U.K., and let us know if you think The Jersey Shore — which, broke ratings records here in America — will translate to audiences outside of the U.S. Word is that production on Jersey Shore Season 2 starts this week in Miami. Are you as excited as we are?



