Big in Japan: Dutch architects UNStudio's proposal for a new Japanese flagship for Louis Vuitton. Current renderings show a towering ten-story building, decked out in LV-inspired leaf insignias, with plans to include a cafe, spa, bookstore, and exhibition space. That ought to take up a floor or two. What to do with the remaining space? Our best guesses, above.

[Dezeen]

Back in 1978 (when Al Gore was just a humble member of the House of Representatives), Jack Nicholson was extolling the virtues of Chevy's solar-powered hydrogen car, which never made it to market. Watch him in the clip below—particularly about 1:50 in, when Jack gamely sucks in a bit of (carbon monoxide-free) exhaust. Also: Anyone know where we can find a pair of those shades?

[Treehugger via Gizmodo]

Spotted in the A.P.C. Fall '08 catalog: this T-shirt, which, when you think about it, is an exercise in subtlety compared to the "It's not a beer gut, it's a fuel tank for a sex machine" tee Thom Browne did for Brooks Brothers last season.

While New Yorkers have a very Vice weekend in store, Left Coasters can hit up Mini Market, a temporary boutique from Citizen:Citizen opening tonight at San Francisco's Silverman Gallery. The setup is part art show, part clothing store, with offerings from a who's who of West Coast hipsterdom: Selima et Benjamin Optique, photographer Ari Marcopoulos, and artist Luke Butler, among others. The highlight of the monthlong affair? An August 15 screening of Liquid Sky, a 1982 sci-fi cult classic about aliens and a cross-dressing heroin-addict model that the Times praised for its "sly humor and ferocious fashion sense." Sounds like Citizen:Citizen to us. (Also: Not sure how to get there? Allow us to recommend a bike.)
Mini Market, at Silverman Gallery and Look Boutique, 804 Sutter St., San Francisco, silverman-gallery.com; citizen-citizen.com

As the WSJ reports today, a just-released bottle of 2005 Château Latour—a first-growth Bordeaux from the so-called "vintage of the century"—retails for $1,950. That's enough for 500 gallons of gas or, as the Journal points out, 170 shares of GM. But is it worth it? Before you answer, consider the paper's description: "Flawless&the red wine that other red wines hope to be." In other words, slightly better than that bottle of Cavit you uncorked at your last BBQ. So how much would you pay for a perfect bottle of wine? Sound off in the comments.

File under things that could never occur today (but we wish they could): Elliott Gould's strange superstardom. Despite his nervous tics and habitual mumbling, the actor was (apparently) a hit with the ladies, becoming a huge box-office draw in the seventies by starring in Altman classics like M*A*S*H*, hosting early episodes of Saturday Night Live, and, of course, later making a cameo in The Muppet Movie. (That's not even to mention Friends, but let's forget that happened.) Starting today, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Elliott Gould: Star for an Uptight Age, a cinematic retrospective of the actor's career (including screenings of The Long Goodbye). The movies are excellent, but Gould's style, both on-screen and off, was truly legendary—and still is today. As the man himself once said, "Success didn't change me. I was already distorted before I became a star."
Aug. 1-21 at BAM, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; for screening times and dates, visit bam.org

Click here for a slideshow of our favorite looks >

Sure, more megapixels don't always mean better photos, but sometimes, more actually is more. Such is the case with Leaf's new Afi 10, a camera that packs a walloping 56 mp, Schneider lenses, and new "Verto" technology, which allows the sensor to rotate from portrait to landscape without moving the camera body. Muscle like this will cost you: The Afi 10 will retail for around $43,000 when it's released later this year, marking the next level of escalation in the burgeoning camera wars. This news comes less than a month after Hasselblad released pics of its own 50-mp giant: Consider the gauntlet thrown.

[Dvice]

Williamsburg's chattering classes have their weekend cut out for them: Vice celebrates its annual photo issue tonight, presenting an exhibit of previously published works. Among those included are Dave Markey's seminal shots of the SST Records punk scene from L.A. in the eighties, and Patrick O'Dell's pics of the Girl and Antihero skate teams from a recent tour of the Northwest. Things only become more hipstery on Sunday, when Vice Records bands the Black Lips and King Khan & the Shrines play a free show at—where else?—McCarren Park Pool. Expected to attend: plenty of porkpie hats, some of them worn by those who think No Doubt is a ska band.
August 1-31, Vice Gallery, 99 N. 10th St., Brooklyn, vice.typepad.com

The Ewan McGregor documentary Long Way Down, thankfully, doesn't dwell on how he tumbled from Trainspotting to The Island. Instead the ten-part mini-series follows him on a 15,000-mile, 20-country, 85-day motorcycle odyssey from Scotland to Africa. Expect hyenas, pyramids, and male-bonding over BMW R 1200 GSs. Sound familiar? It's a quasi-sequel to his 2004 London-to-New York journey Long Way Round, and we all know McGregor would never make a sequel that disappoints (gulp).
Saturday, August 2, 9 p.m., Fox Reality Channel

High on the list of things you should never have to say to a ticket-taker: "In search of a midnight kiss, please." But it's worth stomaching that exchange to check out In Search of a Midnight Kiss, Alex Holdridge's sweet (if poorly named) indie drama. The festival-circuit darling, a misanthropic romance, waxes lyrical on the confusions and charms of Los Angeles, where loner Wilson (Scoot McNairy) chaperones cranky Vivian (Sara Simmonds) around after she answers his Craigslist hater-seeks-hater ad. The dialogue sometimes falls victim to mumblecore's whiny self-regard, but the star of the show is Tinseltown herself, a vision in sooty black-and-white. It's a cinematic postcard: In short, wish you were here.

Remember those stylish city-themed fixies we told you about last year? Well, Specialized just announced three 2009 additions to the line: Tokyo (above), Vegas, and San Francisco (both below). Each is decked out to evoke its namesake's style—Sin City gets cards and poker chips, for instance, while Frisco gets psychedelic lettering and graphics. (Stereotype-busting, we know.) Our favorite, though, is the Tokyo, which features kanji lettering alongside a handsome red, black, and gold paint job. The new models also get a useful upgrade—new carbon-fiber forks that help make your ride vibration-free. And despite the criticism lobbed at the '08 NYC version—painted to resemble a cyclist's mortal enemy, the taxi—it sold well overseas and is coming back for '09.
$880, specialized.com

Five things worth knowing today

- Lollapalooza, that diminished but somehow still annual summer tradition, begins today in Chicago. For those inclined to softer fare, there's the Newport Folk Festival, which we expect will be heavily bearded.
- Williamsburg's Monkeytown reopens with a screening of Vice's Daft Punk movie, Electroma.
- The Berlin International Beerfest begins in Germany.
- Today in 1936, late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent was born.
- And today in 1981, MTV began broadcasting in the U.S. with the music video for The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." Have things improved since then? You be the judge: