Admittedly, I may be too late: If you haven't yet seen Once, then last Sunday night's schmaltzy, strings-and-hair product-enhanced rendition of its Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly," may prevent you from enjoying the movie the way it's meant to be enjoyed. That is, at home on a whim because everything else in your goddamn Netflix queue had a so-called "short wait," and it showed up in place of something you actually wanted to watch. Anyway, that's how I encountered the little Irish musical and quickly found myself swept up in its story of yearning and unrequited—or is it?—love. The tunes (when performed without the help of Bill Conti's orchestra, anyway) are pretty good, too.

To create his pictures of airplanes, photographer Jeffrey Milstein hangs around LAX and snaps pics as the craft take off and land. He then whites the sky out of the resulting images, creating an eerie, iconic shape that's easier to appreciate when they're blown up. (The photos, not the planes.) Starting this weekend, you'll be able to see for yourself at AirCraft, a new show of Milstein's work at Brussels' Young Gallery. A bonus: Trying to guess which bird sports which design. (For starters, that's a Southwest Boeing 737-700 pictured.)
AirCraft, today through May 17, Young Gallery, 75b Avenue Louise, 1050 Brussels, 011-32-2-374-0704, younggalleryphoto.com

City of Men, out today, is a sort of spiritual sequel to City of God, the 2002 import directed by Fernando Meirelles. He merely produces here, and the movie suffers a little for it. Still, it's hard to complain about a film that uses God's setting (Rio's slums) and many of the same actors to tell a totally new story. Or rather, a new variation on that old tale of the city's gangland warfare—which, sadly, still feels fresh.

And in case you missed it, Will Ferrell has a new basketball flick out, too.

With Sunday's opening of Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today, the Museum of Modern Art transforms into the perfect place to throw a rave. (Okay, not quite, but all those bright hues do recall the season's dance-y neon aesthetic.) For the show, the museum's main floor has been turned into an installation (pictured) by Jim Lambie, with visitors encouraged to walk on top of his geometrically designed colored tape. (The exhibit also includes works from guys named Warhol, Stella, and Richter.) "In the last century, color went from involving a mystical artistic process to referencing the commercial color chart at the paint store," says curator Ann Temkin. "It marked a shift to art more readily referencing everyday life." No surprise, then, to learn that the exhibit is funded in part by Benjamin Moore Paints.
Color Chart, March 2 to May 12, Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St., NYC, (212) 708-9400, moma.org

The CBC's Confidential series has covered everything from canines to wine, but their latest covers something more sartorial: the cultural history of the blue jean. It's a little pedantic—evidently, the pants are "now a hot fashion item"—but where else can you see a self-identified "denim engineer" (?!) saying that "getting a pair of jeans to fit perfectly is harder than landing a man on the moon"? (Too true, by the way.) It aired north of the border last night, but today the rest of us can watch it here.

PLUS: Check out our basic blues Hotlist.

This weekend, French label Kitsuné will open its first Paris boutique. The store will stock music from its reputation-making roster of artists (Hot Chip, the Klaxons) alongside their menswear line, complete with button-downs, skinny trousers, and V-neck sweaters. They'll also sell specialty collections of Scheisser Underwear for Kitsuné and James Heeley candles—here's hoping the latter will help you show off the former.

In other Parisian boutique news (weird, right?), Colette's current first-floor art show is by Swiss artist Comenius Roethlisberger. Dearest Constellation, Sweetest Invitation is comprised of a series of chocolate blocks carved with designer logos (Dior, Gucci, Versace) made from a powdery mix of cocaine and sugar. We know what you're thinking—yes, the sugar is real.
Kitsuné, 52 Rue de Richelieu, 75001, Paris, kitsune.fr, opening March 1; Colette, 213 Rue Saint-Honore, 75001, Paris, 011-33-1-5535-3390, colette.fr

For two-and-a-half years, everywhere from London to Salinas, Kansas, architect Fritz Haeg has been helping people replace their resource-gobbling front lawns with resource-generating sustainable gardens. The work is documented in a new book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, whose essays and how-tos are perhaps a little too persuasive—suddenly this apartment-dweller wishes he had a lawn to convert.

Haeg has also gained a following in the art community, and one of his "Animal Estates" will be part of next week's Whitney Biennial. You can actually preview it now—among its habitats for 12 animals is an eagle's nest perched atop the museum's Madison Avenue entrance. No word yet on whether actual animals will be part of the display.
Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, $16, amazon.com

The guys at No Mas—who also put on last summer's Warholian basketball-art auction, The Lottery—just posted the first in a new series of boxing documentaries, The Undercard. Episode one, "A Night Out With Kid Chocolate" (good to see the sport still has a penchant for, erm, colorful nicknames), shows the title figure, Peter Quillin, fighting at NYC's Roseland Ballroom. Pay attention about 2:50 in, when he explains what it's like to land a left hook.

The company's long-in-the-works Mako 2.1 speaker system finally hits shelves this month, and not a moment too soon—it offers a major leap forward in desktop audio. (And for once, that's not a backhanded compliment.) Credit THX, which codesigned the system, thus making its entrée into the genre. The 300-watt speakers use a unique downward-firing technique that bounces the waves off your flat desktop to produce booming, distortion-free sound. (Here's hoping your neighbors share your enthusiasm for that new Vampire Weekend record.) Their spherical shape might be more of an acquired taste—for the record, we like 'em—but they guarantee it neither looks nor sounds like anything else on the market.
Razer Mako 2.1 speakers, $400, razerzone.com

Just might be this salmon, resin-lacquered one at Montmarte's new Corso café. The splash of color comes courtesy of designer Robert Stadler, who also did window designs for Christian Dior stores worldwide last Christmas. Unfortunately, this photo's lack of café dwellers—particularly French café dwellers—does not reflect how it really is during business hours.

[Dezeen]

This is barely SFW: Supercarmovies.com is a site devoted to arty, high-def videos of well-designed automobiles doing what they do best: roaming the road. The latest episode went up today, and stars the Wiesmann-GT, a curvaceous German coupe built around a 362-hp 4.8-liter V8. Check out a (sadly, regular-def) preview below:

[Autoblog]

Milan-born photographer Paolo Ventura had been shooting fashion spreads for nearly a decade (clients included Italian Elle and L'Uomo Vogue) when he decided to train his lens on models of a different scale. "I was going out and looking for this perfect landscape but finally realized it was impossible to find," he says. "So I started building them on a table in my studio with clay and G.I. Joe action figures." Having re-created (and shot) everything from a Denny's in California to graphic scenes from WWII, the 40-year-old shutterbug has now sculpted (and shot) a fantastic world of new characters—from circus performers to barnstormers—for his noirish, two-years-in-the-making series Winter Stories, opening tonight at NYC's Hasted Hunt Gallery. "It's kind of inspired by my childhood," he says, "A place where I'd like to live, only it doesn't exist."
Winter Stories opens tonight through April 12 at Hasted Hunt, 520 W. 20th St., 3rd Floor, (212) 627-0006, hastedhunt.com

When 10 Corso Como (Milan's 17-year-old hipster-friendly boutique, gallery, and bookstore) decided to open its second freestanding branch, it naturally settled on the fashion capital of, uh, Seoul, South Korea. Due to open March 20, the store is the same size as its Milan forebearer (13,000 square feet), and will stock the same mix of upscale clothes (think Comme des Garçons) and home decor. So why Seoul? Turns out the shop there has backing from Cheil, a subsidiary of the city's own Samsung.
10 Corso Como, 10corsocomo.co.kr

The Guardian has an interview today with Paul LeBlanc, the Canadian hairdresser behind Javier Bardem's Oscar-winning hair in No Country for Old Men. He claims it was inspired by the Crusades, "when knights and Muslims were murdering each other, and this was a typical haircut." Well, obviously.

Better yet, the brand will also begin funding his critically successful (if commercially troubled) eponymous line (pictured). What that means: You'll now have two ways to wear his futurist, complex designs—with the Puma line presumably being a bit more affordable. The move is expected to be made official later today.

[WWD]

Over its seven-year existence, Swedish skate brand WeAreTheSuperlativeConspiracy (WeSC) has sponsored everyone from K1 fighter Jörgen Kruth to artist Chris Pastras to pro-skater-turned-actor Jason Lee. (Why Earl needs the money is beyond us.) This weekend, its work has been collected in the brand's first-ever gallery show, curated by L.A.-based photog Alex Prager. (That's her work, above.) She asked nine other so-called WeActivists (including Pastras and Lee) to contribute one piece that represents the artist alone and one that represents what WeSC means to them. "We all live in different parts of the world, and each of us has a very different style and work in different mediums," Prager says. "It just seemed like this was the right time for us to get together and have our first exhibition." Think of it as scratching a seven-year itch.
WeSC opens Saturday and runs through March 15 at Robert Berman Gallery, Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave., Suite C2/D5, Santa Monica, (310) 315-1937, robertbermangallery.com

That's right, a Four Seasons. But in March, the chain is righting that wrong with its first property on the subcontinent, a 202-room hotel set in the business district of Worli (near Bollywood). It will include an Ayurvedic spa—an ancient, local variation on the Western variety—and a fleet of 20 BWM 7 series sedans to help you around town. Naturally, this comes at a cost—rooms start at just over $450 per night. But something tells us you'll forget about that the first time you take in your room's panoramic views of the Arabian Sea.
Four Seasons Mumbai, 114 Dr. E. Moses Rd., Worli, Mumbai, +91 (22) 2481-8000, fourseasons.com/mumbai

The epidemic of smoking bans—even Paris? Mon dieu!—is still leaving stylistic aftershocks. Take the endangered status of the luxurious lighter, which chivalrous gents once used to spark ladies' cigarettes at dressy affairs. But even if you have to brave the elements to light up, why fall back on furtive Bic-flipping? We suggest something solidly though subtly luxurious, like a classic windproof lighter from venerable Parisian firm ST Dupont—the kind carried by James Bond in Casino Royale. Its latest version is rendered in an elegant, masculine grid pattern in the ultimate stealth luxe precious metal—18-karat white gold, which the uninitiated will dismiss as mere stainless steel. Only you'll know it cost 12 grand—which should ensure that the lighter (if not the lady) goes home with you.
S.T. DuPont solid white-gold squares lighter, in stores soon, $12,000, st-dupont.com

And this time it's German: Wundervoll is a new luxury brand of underthings from some guy named Matthias Jaschke. Judging from the pictures, he seems to know what he's doing—and the carefully placed guitars and mixing boards suggest an appeal to girlfriends of Rob Gordons everywhere. Perhaps sensing a trend, future collections will use eco-friendly cotton.

[Refinery 29]

Like the late, great Slim Aarons, who once said he only liked taking pictures of "attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places," photographer Roger Moenks likes his women hot, rich, and perfectly pedigreed. (Who doesn't?) As a lavish exercise in inequality, his new book of haughty heiress portraits, Inheriting Beauty, is a smashing success. It could well serve as a fortune-hunter's guide to big game or even provoke a class war, but more likely Moenks' book will merely serve as coffee table decor for the women pictured between its covers (and the men who love them). Speaking of which, count us in the latter category—the guy's got a damned good eye.

Click here for a slideshow >

As if Armani's home-decor line, cell phone, and (oh, yeah) clothes weren't enough, now he's making something for the tennis court. No, not polo shirts—Emporio Armani has teamed up with French tennis brand on a racquet. Part of the brand's EA7 activewear line and made from graphite, it weighs just under ten ounces and sports a 100-square-inch head-size. Will it help your game? Beats us, but at least your opponents will think you're serious—after all, the label's brand name is printed on the frame.
EA7 Emporio Armani tennis racquet, $345, available at Emporio Armani shops, emporioarmani.com

The conservative commentator has died at 82. Here, we present an excerpt from his televised 1968 debate with Gore Vidal. (Aside: Remember when TV was awesome?) The best moment takes place about 55 seconds in.

A year after they butched up the TT's design (and just months after debuting a diesel R8 concept at the Detroit Auto Show), Audi is bringing those ideas together with the new TT 2.0 TDI Quattro, the first TT with a diesel engine. The coupe's good for 44.3 mpg—good timing, with some saying gas will hit four bucks a gallon this spring—and its 170 hp engine goes from 0 to 62 in 7.5 seconds. Not mind-blowing, to be sure, but unlike the diesel R8, this one's definitely going into production. (Sadly, U.S. availability is TBD.)

[Autoblog]

Even if your wallet doesn't resemble the Costanza (overstuffed, overflowing, overgrown), there's something to be said for cleaning house. Enter Alejandro Ingelmo, best known for his reflective kicks. This season, the designer is introducing a svelte line of wallets in the same metallic style as his footwear, only made from ultrathin snakeskin. Flashy? Only a little. "When I design something, I make it first for myself," he says. "Prada and Gucci are all cluttered up with logos. I wanted to carry something that looked cool but wasn't so showy." He's making belts to match, and down the line plans to produce bags and laptop cases. The inspiration for the latter? Apple's slim new MacBook Air, of course.
Alejandro Ingelmo credit card holders, $195-$400, wallets, $600, and belts, $200-$400, available at Bergdorf Goodman, 754 Fifth Ave., New York, (212) 753-7300, bergdorfgoodman.com

In 1960, JFK received an elegant, ultrathin Omega watch during the campaign. He won, as you might recall, and ended up wearing it during his inauguration. The timepiece is now at the watchmaker's museum in Biel, Switzerland—that's it at left, pardon the mold—but this June, you can own a replica. Omega is issuing a limited run of 261 timepieces, each bearing the same 18-karat gold casing and black leather strap as the original. They also come at a Kennedy-esque price point: $8,250. On the upside, they're totally fungus-free.

Onstage, Ghostland Observatory's frontman Aaron Behrens whirls around in serious braids and Nudie-inspired suits—think Willie Nelson meets Gram Parsons—while cape-clad bandmate Thomas Turner maintains the beats. A good show (their next tour kicks off Friday in their native Austin), but only with their new third album, Robotique Majestique, have they captured that energy in the studio. It's an earful of sweaty, swaggering electro-rock the duo has described as sounding like "a robot making love to a tree." We like it anyway.

And while the last thing the world (or your record collection) needs is another Stax compilation, the label's new Stax Does the Beatles is worth reaching into the wallet yet again. It includes Otis Redding's classic "Day Tripper" alongside lesser-known gems like Booker T. and the MGs' funky riff on "Eleanor Rigby." Simply put: Your next barbecue just found a soundtrack.

Vans' new Cardiel x Pendleton kicks (pictured), out next month as part of the company's Syndicate 007 series, have a limited run of 5,000 and are made from (you guessed it) Pendleton plaid flannel. But there's another reason to pick 'em up: Each pair comes with a DVD documentary about their namesake, skate legend John Cardiel, who was forced to abandon the sport after a freak car accident in 2003. "The doctors told him he'd never walk again," says director Patrick O'Dell, who also created the Epicly Later'd web site and TV show. "But Cardiel [still] does what he always does—goes to the wall, makes himself walk. … And he bikes around the way he used to skate—like he's got nothing to lose." It's powerful stuff, but if you're not in the market for new sneaks, the movie is also available on VBS.tv. See the trailer below.

Vans Syndicate 007 Cardiel x Pendleton shoes, Half Cab "S" ($70), Old Skool "S" ($65), Sk8-Hi "S" ($75); available at Supreme, 274 Lafayette St., NYC, (212) 966-7799; 439 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 655-6205, supremenewyork.com; and HUF, 808 Sutter St., San Francisco, (414) 614-9414, hufsf.com, vanssyndicate.com

Sure, HD-DVD is dead, but don't run out and buy a Blu-ray player just yet. Instead, wait till next fall, when Sony's just-announced BDP-S550 goes on sale. For $500, you get a gigabyte of hard drive space, ports for USB and Ethernet cables (ideal for burning high-def home movies or importing Web video), and audiophile-friendly 7.1 analog sound output. Less patient? Try the BDP-S350, out this summer: It lacks the mammoth hard drive, but costs 100 bucks less. Either way, they both sport a royal-blue exterior—a welcome change from black, even if it doesn't match anything else in your bachelor pad.

The brand's big year continues: Last week, it announced that Justin Timberlake would be the face of a new cologne, in stores this fall. Soon you'll have a new place to buy (or, let's be honest, sample) it: a 3,750-square-foot flagship, opening this weekend in the City of Lights. Now all it needs is someone to design its clothes—it's been using an in-house team since splitting with Ozwald Boateng last year.

[WWD]

Finally, an easy way to bring eco-friendliness into the bedroom: Upscale online lingerie retailer Figleaves.com is opening a new, er, branch next Monday. Dubbed Greenleaves, the shop will carry underthings for women from environmentally conscious brands like Enamore, Green Knickers, and Eco Boudoir—everything for the scantily clad hippie (or wannabe) in your life.

Plus: 16 other eco-friendly things that don't suck.

[Vogue UK]

As previously mentioned, the Japanese retail behemoth has tapped the NYC collective for its Designers Invitation Project, in which emerging talents produce inexpensive capsule collections for the store. (Past participants include Alexandre Plokhov.) For its six-style line, out in March, LD produced basics like trousers, button-down shirts, polos, and over-the-knee shorts, as well as a truncated, notch-lapel two-button blazer with shirting material lining the sleeves—each available for under 80 bucks. "Think circa '68," Loden Dager's Alexander Galan says of his inspiration. "Scooter rallies at Brighton Beach, mods lounging at Parisian sidewalk cafés, sipping Pernod in the summer heat, Ace Faces on holiday, under the sun, lounging on the sands of the Riviera." For a translation, check out our exclusive slideshow.

Also: Tim Hamilton's collection for the brand is due in April. "I haven't even seen the final outcome of edits," he told us over the weekend. We'll keep you posted.
Loden Dager for Uniqlo plaid short-sleeve shirt, $29.50, white short-sleeve shirt, $29.50, red polo, $29.50, shorts, $39.50, pants, $39.50, blazers, $79.50, available at Uniqlo, 546 Broadway, NYC, (917) 237-8811, uniqlo.com

Nokia is known for making cool cell phones that no carrier will pick up, so it might as well go all-out with its concepts. Case in point: The Morph. Announced today, it's translucent, self-cleaning, and (for lack of a better word) stretchy, using nanotechnology to help it take the shape of a wristwatch or a tablet. (Though it still has an old-fashioned keyboard.) Designed in tandem with the University of Cambridge, it's part of MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit. Get a good look below, because they're only hoping to produce it within seven years.

[Gizmodo]

San Francisco's 16th annual weeklong music festival kicks off tomorrow, but there are two ways to enjoy it without setting foot inside a Bay Area dive. First off, locals can check out Sights of Sounds, a group show devoted to artists in the music community. Contributors include late singer Wesley Willis, photographer Terri Loewenthal (whose work is pictured), and Yoko Ono—typically better seen than heard anyway.

Those outside the city can experience the shows via Wolfgang's Vault. The site—best known for hosting high-quality audio of classic rock concerts by bands like The Who and Neil Young—is sponsoring the festival for the first time, and will be hosting video and audio for free.
Sights of Sounds, Feb. 27-March 25, Park Life, 220 Clement St., San Francisco, (415) 386-7275, parklifestore.com, wolfgangsvault.com

The dame (and "star of everything that matters," according to host Jeremy Clarkson) drives a Chevy Lacetti as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on tonight's tenth season premiere of Top Gear, airing.on BBC America. The episode already aired in the UK, and you can check out a clip below:

Also on tonight: HBO's The Gates, a doc about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Central Park art installation. Though the project went up in 2005, work on the film (directed by Antonio Ferrara and Albert Maysles) began in 1979, not long after the crazy idea was first hatched.

Novices too overwhelmed (or just too cheap) to spring for a DSLR should consider the brand's just-announced DSC-H50, a mid-priced alternative that accepts screw-on wide-angle and telephoto lenses. The nine-megapixel, 15x optical zoom shooter can also hit shutter speeds up to a superfast 1/4000th of a second and boasts a long-distance flash that can light subjects from 55 feet away—though what you need that for is nobody's business but yours. Not bad for 400 bucks. Available in May.

When The Darjeeling Limited came out last fall, the movie was overshadowed by Owen Wilson's personal problems (understandably) and a long-stewing Wes Anderson backlash (less so). Too bad: It's a hell of a show—more focused and more engaging than its bloated predecessor, The Life Aquatic. Yes, Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody play the director's typical flawed hipsters, but Anderson forces them to interact with the real world in the form of three drowning Indian boys. (Brody's work in these scenes is his best work to date—and that includes The Pianist.) The movie's out tomorrow on DVD, where it's augmented by a short prologue, Hotel Chevalier. And hey, Natalie Portman is naked in it, if you need the extra incentive.

When James Joyce waxed poetic over "the light music of whiskey falling into glasses" he was of course talking about the Irish variety. But while undoubtedly useful for composing a sodden epic like Ulysses, Irish hooch has always been something of a second-class citizen compared to Scotch. Happily, Bushmills' new limited-edition whiskey, 1608, levels the playing field. The special bottling, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Bushmills' license to distill (hence the name), is more than a match for most single malts. In place of the somewhat briny character of Bushmills' regular blend, the 1608 is all smooth, mellow magnificence. For $100 a bottle, we'd expect nothing less.
Bushmills 1608, $100, bushmills.com

Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't the only one giving the tux a tweak last night. Our favorite sartorial moments from the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

Click for slideshow >

Last fall, Patrick McGovern faced a familiar quandary: He couldn't find a decent suit for his wedding. Fortunately for him—and for us, it turns out—his resourceful bride-to-be, designer Samantha Pleet, whipped up something for him to wear, which then inspired her to create the 18-piece Patrick Pleet collection, due in stores this fall. The clothes mix mod-style cuts with grunge-inspired materials to great effect—think slim-fitting plaid flannel button-downs with shell buttons, or a three-piece corduroy suit complete with elbow patches and leather piping. If the look is a bit Savile Row meets grunge, thankfully so is the pricing: A suit will set you back a grand, and a button-down shirt $250.
Patrick Pleet, available this fall at stores including Stuart and Wright, 85 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, NYC, stuartandwright.com