Looking like something straight out of a Barbarella DVD extra, this swingin’ cephalapad (oof) belongs to some lucky design-minded couple in Mexico City. Conceived by Arquitectura Organica’s Javier Senosiain (the mastermind behind such jaw-dropping works of organic design as the Quetzalcoatl Nest ), the house boasts spiral staircases, indoor gardens and a knockout mountain view. Its shell is made of ferrocement, an earthquake-resistant material consisting of cement, sand and water slathered on a wire frame. If you crave more Nautilus eye candy, check out Senosiain’s site. [via BoingBoing; photo courtesy DVICE.com]

Well, folks, there’s only a precious few hours left until Jon Stewart and his prehensile eyebrows ascend the Academy Awards podium. And with most of the Oscar coverage trained on the merciless scrum for Best Picture between No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton and, uh, Juno, it’s easy to lose sight of the littler guys — like this year’s animated short film nominees. Haven’t seen them yet? Here’s a sampler platter to whet your appetite. [Credit goes to the excellent illustration blog Drawn.ca for doing most of the legwork here; thumbnail pics courtesy Magnolia Pictures.]

Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
Here’s a rather bonkers French film about shyster priests and cheating death, with a cute micro-twist sprinkled on at the end like visual bacon bits. (Knuckle-dragging philistine that I am, my favorite part was hearing them say “highway to hell” en français.)

Madame Tutli-Putli
Here we find a rheumy-eyed puppet maiden riding the night train to Sadsville, pursued by her own personal demons — and it’s just gorgeous. Canadian animators Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski spent two years either holed up in their studios (they report that “a 16-second shot would take maybe a week” to film) or gathering bits of smashed mirror off the road, which they used to create Madame Tutli-Putli’s ethereal lighting.

Part 2

I Met the Walrus
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatles fan barged into one of John Lennon’s hotel “bed-ins,” jammed a reel-to-reel tape recorder in his face and managed to nab a great interview. Forty years later, animators Alex Kurina and James Braithwaite have taken these clips and bathed them in splashy, frenetic, stream-of-consciousness imagery.

Moya Lyubov (My Love)
Backed by three previous Oscar nominations, animator Aleksandr Petrov wields a lovely technique that involves filming oil paints directly on glass — a tricky medium. The plot of this may love story set in 19th-century Russia might seem a little sterile (it’s not a huge surprise to learn that the majority of Petrov’s work consists of commercials), but never mind; there’s plenty of visual distraction here. (Note: A lot of the effect gets lost in YouTube’s pixel-squishing format. For a crisper vid, see the trailer at Studio Ghibli.)

Parts 2 and 3

Peter & The Wolf
Suzie Templeton breathes new life into Sergei Prokofiev’s musical tale with her mesmerizing stop-motion work — her sinewy wolf is disturbingly realistic, as it slinks through the forest, while scrawny little underdog Peter has an intriguingly dark tinge to him.

Parts 2 and 3

Bonus Oscarificness

MoviePosterAddict.com has put together a neat little collection of movie posters for (nearly) every single Best Picture winner since the Academy Awards kicked off its first awards ceremony 79 years ago. [via Neatorama]

Charcuterie connoisseurs, rejoice: Spain’s famed jamón ibérico, a luxury cured ham, has arrived in the States. Up until this point, the USDA has shunned this product on account of being skeeved out by its curing methods, as making it basically involves hanging hunks of raw salted pork out to dry for anywhere from 9 months to 2 years or more.

However, due to the efforts of Don and Ruth Harris (co-owners of online Spanish gourmet store La Tienda), a family business in western Spain has tweaked its facilities and curing process to meet the USDA’s standards. The first jamón ibérico hit US stores in December 2007, while the prized bellota variety is scheduled to make its stateside debut in July 2008.

The bellota ham is to Spain roughly what Kobe beef is to Japan. It’s made from pigs who spend their pampered — albeit short — lives wandering around “specially maintained oak forests,” gorging themselves on acorns. Here’s a particularly vivid description of the setup, from this WSJ article:

Jamon Iberico “bellota,” which La Tienda also will be importing, can be thought of as the holy grail with a halo. It comes from Iberian pigs that toward the end of their free-range lives eat up to 20 pounds of acorns (bellotas) a day. Noting the premise that calm pigs have the best meat, Harris describes how, on their last day, these pigs “have Mozart played to them and are given hot showers,” then are gently euthanized (”sacrificed” is the Spaniards’ term) with carbon monoxide.

Wow. Of course, salivating gourmands can always turn to La Tienda as a source for this porcine ambrosia. But if any of you Boston-area foodies need a jamón fix immediately, the kind folks at Formaggio Kitchen will gladly help you out.

Really, the lifting of this restriction really couldn’t have come at a better time — after all, Hardee’s was dangerously close to running out of sodium-larded meat products to cram into its burgers. (Then again, with this pork fetching $100 a pound, you’re probably not going find it under your Monster Thickburger bun anytime soon.)

[Thanks to Apartment Therapy; photo courtesy Flickr user su-lin]

OK, let’s explore a hypothetical situation here: Valentine’s Day is just mere hours away, and you’re totally stumped about what to do for your significant other. With restaurants booked to the seams, your options now are rapidly dwindling to raiding the much-picked-over cards and dubious chocolates and ragged bouquets at Shaw’s (or, worse, CVS). And let’s face it, even if you did manage to snag a last-minute reservation at some fancy little boîte, you’re most likely getting jacked for exorbitant prix-fixes and harried service.

Wait, this isn’t so hypothetical, is it?

Fear not, friend — it’s not too late to surprise your special woogums with a totally handmade, heartfelt, delicious meal. With our special V-Day tapas menu, all you need is a working oven, a few groceries, and a few spare hours. (Oh, and some tiny plates wouldn’t hurt, either.)

We decided to go with tapas (basically, classy finger foods traditionally served in Spanish bars) for reasons of variety and efficiency: These recipes allows you to showcase a lot of nice little dishes to dazzle your date; meanwhile, there’s a lot of overlap between recipe ingredients, so you won’t have to worry about making room in your fridge.

MENU

• crusty bread with olive oil
• cheese with quince paste (queso con membrillo)
• marinated olives (aceitunas marinadas)
• roasted peppers (pimientos)
• white bean salad (ensalada de judías blancas)
• pear turnovers (hojaldres de pera)
• Spanish omelette (tortilla española)

Now, this might look like a lot of work, but the nice part is that you can prepare the most labor-intensive dishes in advance: the pimientos keep for days, and the tortilla espanola and white bean salad actually taste better when they’ve spent a few days chilling in the fridge. The rest is basically a cinch to throw together (take it from a kitchen novice). For such minimal efforts, the results are pretty impressive. (Note: Unless your date’s a linebacker with a glandular problem, you’re probably going to have leftovers if you follow these recipes to the letter. In fact, this same menu makes for a great party spread, too — perfect for any cheerfully bitter anti-V-Day celebrations.)

Read on for recipes and more pictures.

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It’s hard to imagine a force strong enough to pull Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, hemp-wearing econauts and an enormous pile of processed elephant dung into the same room — but last weekend’s Going Green Expo did exactly that.

In its Boston debut last weekend, the fledgling Going Green Expo did an admirable job of demonstrating the breadth of what “going green” can mean — with over 150 exhibitors showcasing everything from industrial washing machines to clothesline advocacy; from health-promoting cookware to paper made from Sri Lankan elephant poop.

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