Living in Ikea
Mark Malkoff is living in an Ikea store in New York City for a week.



Srange.

I came across this story of Mark Malkoff's week long stay at Ikea today on MSN.com under the heading of "Living Cheap". He's a comedian, writer and filmmaker in New York whose apartment was being fumigated and he needed a place to stay for a week. All of his friends have tiny studio apartments and hotels in New York are really expensive so he asked Ikea if he could stay in their store and they said yes.

What does Ikea get out of it? Free advertising, free publicity, free news stories! It's a win win situation. Actually it's quite ingenious.

As a person who has been obsessed with the Ikea catalog lately... I can't think of a better store to stay in for a week and try all the cool stuff out. I think I would go a little crazy with all the cool stuff!

Here's the prologue video from his website.



He's posted several more videos all hilarious! Watch them and see how he messes with the customers, races the night security gaurd with Ikea carts, gets lost, and has other adventures of exploration.

This just goes to show that a little creativity, self promotion and web savvy will open doors.

Would you live in Ikea for a week?

Labels: creativity, diy, Ikea, ikea.com, Mark Malkoff lives in Ikea, self promotion

  posted by Matildakay at 11:44 PM 0 comments

The Wish Book
Do you remember wish books? I remember looking through catalogs when I was a kid and circling the toys I wanted. The possibilities were endless in the Sears or J.C. Penney catalogs.

Those childhood catalog days bred the wish book desire and obsession into my soul. I’ve always been one to pour over catalogs and wish for all the pretty things I found inside. And with the Internet… the wishing possibilities are infinite.

Until a couple of months ago, I had diligently avoided ebay.com afraid that I wouldn’t be able to control myself. I was right to avoid it. I broke down recently and searched ebay for a vintage perfume bottle and found more choices than I could navigate and too many that I wanted to buy. My one item gift turned out to be a disaster in over spending. I have since realized that although ebay is a wonderful thing. I don’t think it’s for me. I don’t like being in a bidding war and I don’t like having to leave pleasing little feedback comments after the item arrives. Too much work involved. I just want to buy what I want and wait for it to come in the mail. I don’t want to be spammed in my inbox with reminders to leave “feedback”. That’s why amazon.com and I are good friends. (Amazon even has a wish list!) I buy what I want and they mail it to me. No fuss, no bidding wars, no hassle, just good old-fashioned purchase power.

While you can find anything with google, I still peruse all my favorite stores websites online. However, I love sitting down with a catalog and flipping through the pages and finding all the possibilities inside. A tribute to my childhood I’m sure. Lately I’ve been obsessed with the 2008 Ikea catalog and my growing need for a bigger DVD storage unit. Ikea has endless storage possibilities!

A new wish book found its way to my house the other day in the mail. I received a Pottery Barn catalog belonging to someone on an adjacent street with the same house number as mine. I’m sure that lady whoever she may be is missing her catalog because I’ve been pouring over the pages and finding new things to wish for.

Labels: amazon, amazon.com, catalogs, ebay, ebay.com, Ikea, ikea.com, j.c. penney, obsession, pottery barn, sears, shopping, wish book, wishing

  posted by Matildakay at 8:29 PM 2 comments

Adventures in Hollywood: The search for Johnny Depp and how I broke Batman’s heart.
Disclaimer: Johnny Depp obsession liberally indulged.

Once upon a time two Smalltown Girls set out for a Hollywood adventure.



Chingpea and I were on a mission to explore the dirty streets of Hollywood, the gritty underbelly of the celebrity’s city, the place where people walk on the stars instead of looking at them in the sky. We were on a mission to find Johnny Depp on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

We left Bakersfield with a tentative agenda of shopping, sightseeing, searching for Johnny Depp and exploring Hollywood. There was no way we would get everything on our list done in one day, but we intended to have fun trying.

We stopped at Ikea in Burbank before reaching Hollywood. Ikea is a dangerous place. I could go broke at Ikea. After buying a few items, we rummaged through a few near by vintage clothing stores where I found a really cool top for six bucks.

Next we headed to West Hollywood and poked around the Bodhi Tree Bookstore next door to the Urth Caffe, which has been featured on the HBO series Entourage, before eating lunch. We planned to eat at the Urth Caffe, but it was extremely packed so we ate at a little place across the street whose dry tasteless chicken, the company of friends and literary talk was much more memorable than its name.

After lunch, too late for the Max Factor Museum, we began our search for Johnny Depp on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. First we went to Graumans Chinese Theatre where the stars handprints and footprints adorn the cement courtyard memorialized for all time.



We compared hand and foot sizes with Hollywood’s elite: Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, even our governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was there. So were newcomers: Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and George Clooney. And then we spotted Johnny Depp’s block of cement nearer to the theatre and surrounded by girls.



We both screamed in delight and ran over to where Johnny Depp once kneeled and stood while making his Hollywood cement memorial.





All poise was lost as we indulged our Johnny Depp obsessions as true groupies would with cameras flashing and laughter ringing in our ears.









Once we had stood and kneeled where Johnny Depp had, we ran into a few good men outside the Kodak theatre, Batman, Captain Jack and Davy Jones. We waited our turn to take photos with Captain Jack and Davy Jones while three women giddily posed with them.

“Where are you ladies from on this fine evening?” Batman took my hand and kissed it.

“Bakersfield.”

“Ah Bakersfield.” Batman said still holding my hand.

“Would you ladies like to have your photo taken with a dark knight?”



“I’m sorry. But we’re waiting for photos with the pirates.” I said breaking Batman’s heart.

Rejected. Batman bowed over my hand and backed away watching as Chingpea and I took a photo with Captain Jack and Davy Jones.



I felt bad for breaking Batman’s heart but Batman doesn't hold a candle to Johnny Depp in my book. So we left Batman, Captain Jack and Davy Jones to find other fans and we began our search for Johnny Depp’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Thanks to a crafty google search, we had a general idea of where Johnny’s star was located on Hollywood Blvd. We walked up and down both sides of the 7000 block of Hollywood Blvd. several times searching the names of every star for Johnny Depp to no avail. We couldn’t find his star. Chingpea and I were feeling quite dejected and about to give up when we decided to ask at the El Capitan theatre’s box office if they knew where Johnny Depp’s star was located.

“It’s just down the block a little ways in front of the Roosevelt Hotel.” The box office worker pointed.

Our eyes followed her pointing finger, which led to our coveted prize, Johnny Depp’s star.

“Thanks!” We took off walking briskly almost skipping towards the Roosevelt Hotel while searching the names on the stars.

When we finally found Johnny’s star, it had smeared gum on it. Chingpea tried to clean off the gum with her shoe so we could get a good photo with Johnny’s star.





The end of our search for Johnny’s star was the triumph of our adventures in Hollywood that day. But not the end of our Hollywood adventures, for we’re going back to Hollywood soon for more adventures and the Max Factor Museum.

Labels: Batman, Captain Jack, Entourage, HBO, Hollywood, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Ikea, Johnny Depp, Max Factor Museum, obsession, Smalltown Girls, Urth Caffe

  posted by Matildakay at 9:35 PM 1 comments