Somehow Sydney managed to dodge the global boutique hotel boom for a full ten years. (Blame—or credit—the glut of new properties that were constructed, like Marion Jones' thigh muscles, in the run-up to the 2000 Olympics.) The just-opened 77-room Diamant—the city's first new boutique hotel in nearly a decade—is worth the wait, however. Located, as the best new hotels are, in a gentrifying former red-light district, the property has huge, well-designed rooms featuring the requisite plasma TVs, iPod docks, and fancy grooming products (by the Vidal Sassoon of Oz, stylist Kevin Murphy), with prices that start at a Schrager-shaming $205 American. Expect to pay more for one of the soon-to-open suites, which boast roomy outdoor terraces with killer views, especially if you opt for one facing the harbor.

The property is part of the Eight Hotels group, which plans to open an 80-room Diamant in scene-deficient Canberra this February. "We're going all out with some of the best architects and designers, and it's set in an old heritage building with an amazing history," says company CEO Paul Fischmann. "We'd love to go overseas next year, and we're talking to a developer in London." Just as long as it's done in time for the 2012 games.

Diamant Hotel, 14 King's Cross Rd., Potts Point; 61-2-9295-8888,  eighthotels.com

Pantone has put its signature pigments on everything from Sharp cell phones to Barber Osgerby furniture, so a fashion collaboration would seem only natural. Unfortunately, its first, a T-shirt line for Uniqlo last spring, was overshadowed by the label's hipster-friendly UT line, which was designed by the likes of Terry Richardson, Kim Jones, and Gareth Pugh. Attempt number two, a series of cashmere sweaters, hits Uniqlo next month and includes crewnecks and cardigans done in 20 different hues, all of which skew toward "more complex muted colors, the dark and murky shades," as Lisa Herbert, VP of Pantone's apparel division puts it. Designs are mostly muted as well, though the cardigans', ahem, button-up neck helps them stand out from the cashmere currently flooding retail outlets. And in a fortuitous bit of marketing synergy, the launch coincides with Uniqlo's 25,000-square-foot London store, opening Nov. 7. Dark and murky? In England? It'll never work.

Speaking of synergy, Pantone has just overhauled its legendary Matching System—essentially the design industry's Rosetta stone—for the first time in 45 years. The new so-called Goe System adds 2,000 colors for graphic designers to play around with. Our favorite: 138-5-3. (Trust us—it's awesome.)

Pantone Color Collection cashmere sweaters, $129.50; Uniqlo, 311 Oxford St.,
London, 011-44-0208-247-9200 (temporary number), uniqlo.com; Pantone Goe System book, $499, pantone.com

What's the point of investing in a high-end home audio system if you're going to use it for crappy-sounding MP3s? That's the premise behind the new Sooloos music server, which combines the random-access, all-in-one convenience of digital music storage with CD sound quality. Yours for the price of a secondhand Volvo, it's obviously not intended for casual listeners—though if you're the type to blow ungodly sums on amps, preamps, speakers, and cables, what's another 12 grand? And frankly, the Sooloos sounds like money: It uses FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), an uncompressed (a.k.a. "lossless") audio file format that retains fidelity as your tunes are converted from disc to hard drive. Those sweet-sounding FLAC files take up significant space—about 1,000 times more than MP3s—but the system compensates with three terabytes, or about 3,000 gigs, worth of storage, which is enough for 6,000 albums. And it's all housed in an unobtrusive, brushed-aluminum storage unit with a separate 17-inch touch-screen monitor, where you can browse and shuffle as you please. Preferably with a beer in hand. As Sooloos cocreator Rob Darling reminds us, "Everyone has a favorite memory in their life that involves alcohol, loud music, and a jukebox."

Sooloos high-fidelity music server, $12,000, sooloos.com

MUSIC: What's In Rainbows, the new pay-what-you-want album from Radiohead, really worth? You've got till tomorrow to set your price. Meanwhile, today in actual stores you'll find The Flying Club Cup from Beirut, The Black and White Album from the Hives, and worthy new releases from Bob Pollard, Band of Horses, and Sunset Rubdown. And this might not be saying much, but Steve Jablonsky's orchestral score for Transformers is way better than the movie.

BOOKS: Sadly, the funniest thing about Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So
Can You!) is the title. Elsewhere, real-life blowhard Paul Krugman offers The Conscience of a Liberal, and for his latest stunt A.J. Jacobs grows a really thick beard in The Year of Living Biblically. And, not to be outdone by that cheater Pattie Boyd, Eric Clapton tells his side of things in Clapton.

MOVIES: Jude Law continues to trudge in Michael Caine's footsteps in a remake of 1972's Sleuth, while Ian Curtis comes back to life in Anton Corbijn's Control. Michael Clayton goes wide, and director James Gray reteams with Mark Wahlberg (and Joaquin Phoenix and Robert Duvall) in the melodrama We Own the Night.

TV: Can Irv Gotti rebuild Murder Inc.? Gotti's Way, premiering Monday on VH1, is evidently his way of locking in cash flow either way. And steel yourself for another round of lame "sexy time" imitators as Borat goes into heavy rotation on HBO beginning Saturday.

DVD: Gus Van Sant's low-fi favorite Mala Noche gets the Criterion treatment, and Devil's Night comes early with 28 Weeks Later, a 25th-anniversary edition of Poltergeist and Adam Sandler's post-9/11 movie, Reign Over Me.

Senior prom was the last time we wore a boutonniere, but a new take on the classic if oft neglected accessory might have us reconsidering. Today, Jack Spade is introducing a limited line of 24, all made by hand from fly fishing lures—a significant improvement on that wilted carnation we bought at the grocery store. The feathered collection is the brainchild of Mordechai Rubinstein—a.k.a. Mister Mort—and it was inspired by a recent fishing excursion to the Great Lakes. So did he have any luck with the fish? "No, not so much," he says. Well, at least the trip wasn't a total waste.
Mister Mort for Jack Spade boutonnieres, $45 each, available at Jack Spade, 56 Greene St., New York, (212) 625-1820, jackspade.com

Most Arab countries aren't exactly known as hotbeds of rock 'n' roll fervor, so, sadly, few Western bands have actually played the Middle East. But wouldn't a concert tee look cool if they had? That's the idea behind 26-year-old graphic artist Brendan Donnelly's newly unveiled collection of shirts, which sport the logos of bands like Joy Division, the Velvet Underground, and the Ramones (left), all translated into Arabic. Obviously intended for audiences with a well-developed sense of irony, the tees subvert the familiar in a way that somehow manages to make fun of both repressive regimes and Western-style consumerism. But what about all that cumbersome translating? "I had a friend help me with the Arabic," Donnelly says. "But some of the words might be off. For instance, Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz: There's no Arabic word for 'blizzard.' So it reads 'Wizard of Oz.' It's got that homemade bootleg quality, which I love." Homemade—and definitely not band-approved. "I guess I'm going to keep going until I get a cease-and-desist order," Donnelly says.

Brendan Donnelly Spring 2008 T-shirts, $45, available at Atrium in NYC and revolveclothing.com in January. Can't wait that long? (Hey, who knows if he'll still be allowed to sell them.) Contact Donnelly via his Web site, and he may sell you one directly. brendandonnelly13.com; Atrium, 644 Broadway, NYC, (212) 473-9200, atriumnyc.com