Actor, producer, noted chess enthusiast (and oh yeah, Wu-Tang Clan co-founder) RZA has just launched his first Web site: wuchess.com, where players can meet up and get a game online. (Naturally, there's a blog, too.) The first 500 to sign up get special designation as a "Founder"; perhaps more importantly, proceeds benefit the Hip-Hop Chess Foundation. And hey, you might just end up going a few rounds with the Rzarector himself.

[ Pitchfork]

New York design collective Gar-de has built its debut collection around leather, with every piece made entirely from the material. The result: part badass biker, part tailored gent. The focus is on craftsmanship and updating traditional shapes: jackets are finely detailed, like the seventies-style Bottle Sling (pictured, left) and the varsity-inspired Highway Man (right)—in short, this ain't your dad's bulky bomber. The Gar-de line debuts this fall, and will also include leather pants—but you'll be pleased to know, those are for women only.
Gar-de Bottle Sling ($1,825) and Highway Man ($1,680) available this fall, for more info, visit garde-de.com

Remember Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far, Stefan Sagmeister's show at Deitch Projects earlier this year? (It was the one with the weird sayings and 10,000 bananas.) Well, much of the exhibit was designed to evolve, from the ripening of the aforementioned bananas to a section where visitors could write their own saying on a steamy window. Filmmaker Hillman Curtis captured that evolution, and his short doc from the exhibit just went online. Check it out below:

Coming never to a rec room near you: This high-design foosball table from Dutch firm GRO Design. (They've also designed cell phones for Nokia.) Too bad: With its solid-brass, chrome-finish players, this board far outclasses that broken-down beater you used to play in your friend's basement. Inspired in part by Pelé's autobiography (hence the name), it makes its debut today at the Milan furniture fair, where passersby can test it over the next few days. Enjoy it while it lasts: There are no plans to put the concept into production.

My favorite pavilion at last year's Venice Biennale was the Korean one—mostly because the work inside had a wit and playfulness that came as a relief after all the nod- and hmm-inducing stuff around it. A black cube inside featured a small number of bright white-spotlighted skeletons that resembled a dinosaur exhibit for kids—the difference being that these were the bones of Wile E. Coyote, Tom & Jerry, and other American animation icons. It was jarring, amusing, and totally bizarre.

Nine months later, Hyungkoo Lee (the artist responsible) has shipped those cartoonish skeletons to America, added some new work, and cloned the black walls-and-spotlight setup of the pavilion, all for New York's gargantuan Arario Gallery. And this June, he'll continue with his subversively witty work at Art Basel—which is just like Art Basel Miami Beach without Paris Hilton or any of the fun parties. He's also planning another gimmick: One of the cartoon skeletons is already on loan to the boffins at Basel's Natural History Museum, and they're using their dinosaur-reconstructing techniques to "re-create" an animal from those conceptual innards. Expect a post-Chernobyl-like creature—but produced with typical Swiss precision.
Hyungkoo Lee solo show, through Saturday, Arario Gallery New York, 521 West 25th St., (212) 206-2760, ararionewyork.com

Searching for the cause of the incipient recession? Try testosterone. At least, according to a new study out of Cambridge. The Guardian Reports that among London traders, those with higher levels of the hormone in the morning tended to (ahem) perform better—but it can also lead to overconfidence and irrational behavior, which then triggers stress hormones and clouds judgment, resulting in (you guessed it) potential market crashes. Tough news for manly men, we're afraid—especially given that another new study suggests Gordon Gekko was right: Money might be the root of all happiness, after all.

Sadly, you're not bidding on the chance to decamp with a live specimen. But tonight's auction does include donated work from Will Cotton, Eric Fischl, Kenny Scharf, and photographs by Andy Warhol. (And besides, how many charity functions allow, and indeed encourage, ogling?) You can still get tickets online or bid online at liveauctioneers.com. Better yet, you can, er, preview the works here.

Colored lights, male nudity, Jesus Christ? Yep, it's time again for Salone del Mobile. The annual Milan furniture fair, kicking off today, is mostly home to cool design shit (which we'll feature next week), but there are a number of wacky art shows, too. And this is probably the wackiest: Peter Greenaway's The Last Supper, a performance piece in which the British director projects images (including Christ's genitalia, from another da Vinci work) onto a recreation of the Renaissance canvas. (Greenaway planned to use the original, but the Italian government put a stop to that just a few days ago.) You can check out the show in three places: the Sala delle Cariatidi at Palazzo Reale (today through April 22), the Refectory at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (today through May 30), and, of course, in preview form on YouTube, below:

Few condiments are as proletarian or American as Heinz ketchup—or so we thought. In two weeks, the brand is releasing a gourmet version, made from "12 plump tomatoes, spices, sea salt, Demerara sugar, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice." Even worse, it's U.K.-only—evidently, the brand doesn't think impoverished Yanks can handle the price tag, which is triple that of the regular version. Hey, we'll just think of it as another upside to the recession: One fewer stupid decision to wrestle with at the grocery store.

[Daily Mirror via Epi-Log]

Sure, they'll always be known for scotch, but the Scots are doing interesting things to ale these days, too. Now, one of their best concoctions is coming stateside: BrewDog, a microbrew launched in the Aberdeenshire region last year. The core range consists of handcrafted ambers and IPAs, but their best is the Paradox imperial stout—aged in, yes, single-malt whisky casks. This gives the brew just a hint of smokiness; true connoisseurs can even choose between Islay or Speyside varieties. (The Islay casks previously housed vintage Ardbeg and Bowmore.) A few weeks ago, the first container load (1,300 cases) sold out before it hit the dock, but three more are now making their way across the Atlantic and onto select shelves next month. Barring thirsty pirates, of course.

For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond, opening today at London's Imperial War Museum (and timed for the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth), includes all the cool shit you'd expect from a Bond-themed exhibit, from prototypes for Lotte Lenya's flick-knife shoes in From Russia with Love to Halle Berry's bikini from Die Another Day (the movie's indisputable highlight). But it also examines 007's development via Fleming's original manuscripts, research notes, and even his service record, all of which make for an interesting contrast. "Bond was a man of inspiration who preferred the finest foods and wine," says James Taylor, the museum's head of research. "Fleming had rather simpler tastes. His favorite dish was scrambled eggs." His pedestrian sensibilities weren't for a lack of education, though. Like Bond, he attended the elite boarding school Eton. Unlike Bond, Fleming wasn't kicked out for "improper conduct" with a maid.

Click here for a slideshow from For Your Eyes Only >

For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond, today through March 1, 2009, at the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ, +44 (0)207 416 5320/5321