Above are the contents of a package recently sent to me by a ne’er-do-well friend currently living in Bangkok. For your convenience I have numbered the contents of this mysterious mailing. Let’s explore, shall we?

1. A lovely silk scarf from a Thai market. So far, so good.

2. An illustrated bookmark/coupon for a store apparently called Goose. This is the best name ever. I want to open my own business just so I can steal it.

3. Brightly decorated envelope, sure to arouse suspicion at Customs.

4. An article on how to improve my bowling skills, neatly clipped from a magazine. I do not bowl.

5. Card advertising an exhibit for a Shanghai-based photographer. Unfortunately I missed the show by one month and several thousand miles.

6. Slightly suspicious-looking candy.

7. Book promising me a fruitful and harmonious life. Book was apparently purchased from a man wandering on the beach. Actually, that's how I acquired most of my library.

8. Coasters(?) advertising a Thai sex workers advocacy group that my aformentioned friend was volunteering with. A definite conversation starter for guests!

I am nerviously awaiting my next mailing, due to arrive from Australia. Who knows what novelties will be uncovered in the land o’ Vegemite?

Hoon is my new favourite word. Australian in origin and popularized by car blog Jalopnik, it refers to someone performing great acts of vehicular stupidity, such as drifting a limo or deliberatly crashing an Eldorado into a camper. And it’s versatile! Hoon, hoonage, hooning, hooned - pretty well any variation is acceptable.

Linguistically, it’s the perfect combination of sound and meaning. But what about the visual aspect? There must be a a perfect Hoon typeface out there …

Flash mobs, crowds of wacky people doing something ridiculous and then dispersing, first started appearing about five years ago. They made a blip on the cultural radar before fading away. Personally, I saw the failure of flash mobs to catch on as an extremely encouraging sign that there was still hope for modern civilization.

However, recent evidence suggests that flash mobs have made a comeback. In Berlin, a vast crowd assembled in front of a McDonalds. Not to protest, but to eat as many burgers as humanly possible before dispersing. And on May 31st, the London Underground hosted a massive crowd of revelers hoping to have a last drink on the Circle Line. Are we entering an age where no one is safe from random pillow fights on the street or coworkers talking like pirates? Well, maybe we can all be like this guy, and use it to our advantage.

(Photo by mrlerone)

The video he made to promote it is, frankly, terrifying, but don't let that scare you away from Chip Kidd's new novel. "The Learners" picks up a few years after his first book, "The Cheese Monkeys" ended. Leaving behind the terror of 1950s' design school, Kidd moves along to the wonder of an early 1960s ad company. There's all the design-related discursions you could hope for, but overall it's a much darker book than "The Cheese Monkeys". Stanley Milgram even makes an appearance, sending everything into a spiralling debate about good and evil. Pick it up and see how Chip Kidd manages to work in smart ass copywriters, typography, art, and one huge, drooling dog into a great novel.

Better code and block rockin' beats. Usually people feel like they have to choose one or the other, but not the Poetic Prophet aka the SEO rapper. Thanks, Shawn.

…the entire 'Kermit' collection from legendary skate shop/label Supreme sold out in less than a week. Even weirder? Semi-legendary and extremely skeevy photographer Terry Richardson shot all the Kermit images. There's even a video documenting the photo shoot. Thankfully, it's totally safe for work, proving that there are limits to Richardson's perversions. The French boutique Colette is also running an exhibit of the photographs this month, just in case you're in the neighborhood. And if you absolutely need a Kermit skateboard? There's always ebay.

There's a theory of trend development that says innovators find their inspiration at the farthest edges of what's currently unpopular. So, if you want to be ahead of the curve for the next big thing in fashion, you have to think about what looks terrible right now. What clothing is hanging unloved and unbought at thriftstores, or is hidden away in boxes in the basement? That's next year's runway. I'm clinging to this theory, because it's the only thing that can explain the overwhelming horror of Chloe Sevigny's new collection for Opening Ceremony. How else did the most trendsetting store in North America and a woman famous for prescient style end up with a collection of clothing last seen at my junior high school dances, with a bit of 90210 thrown in? Click 'lookbook' in the upper right corner and check out the future.

It's fitting that the bookstore famous for 18 miles of books would come up with a Books by the Foot service. Customers can get themselves a length of hand-tooled leather and gilt lettering for the low, low price of $33 an inch. Consider it if you've got a date to impress, 'cause that tattered stack of iCreate just isn't going to do it. Via Consumerist.

South by Southwest is coming up fast and the world premiere of the documentary Beautiful Losers is going be one of the major highlights. The film has interviews with the practically the entire constellation of skateboard and street artists and features some footage from the early 90s, allowing us a glimpse into the early days of these future art stars. And If you can't get in to a screening, you should definitely check out Aaron Rose's oral history of the Alleged Gallery or the catalog for the Beautiful Losers exhibit that's currently touring the world.

Colourlovers has an exclusive interview with Blue Iris, recently crowned Pantone's Color of the Year. While it's nice to hear from the color that's been described as "anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic", the article is really just a puff piece. They don't even mention New York Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn's dismissal of Iris Blue as "on the curve, and not ahead of it", which is the kind of fashion smackdown that some colors never recover from.