Urban Outfitters

My High Times by Spruce

How To Spend 4/20

Whoa, it's 4/20! If you're in Colorado right now, congrats! If you're not then it's time to wake 'n bake in the secrecy of your home and seize the day! Even if your day only involves moving from your bed to the couch and then maybe down to the kitchen for a minute before going back up to the couch again, that's okay! Let's get this stoner party started! Here is where I would insert the "raise the roof" hand emojis if I could. —Katie

Keebler Mini-Pie Maker
When you first get up, you're gonna be hungry, so why not make some mini-pies to keep your belly happy throughout the day? Think of all the shit you can put in them: breakfast shit, taco shit, chocolate (Nutella!!!) shit. The possibilities are endless!

Supaboy Portable Game Console
After you've made pies to stuff your face with all day, settle onto the couch and pull out this bad boy so you can get reacquainted with all your old-school SNES games. Remember how hard Zelda was? You will now.

Hamburger Bean Bag
If the couch gets uncomfortable, scoot on over to this burger bean bag so you can have the ultimate munchie session while watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Altru Leaf Tank Top
Now it's time to throw on some clothes and head outside. I know it's a lot of work, so I won't blame you if you skip the next few suggestions in favor of lying in your house all day.

Glow-In-The-Dark Vinyl Cruiser Skateboard
Don't forget your sweet, glow-in-the-dark board. Cruisin' down the big hill by your house is going to be extra entertaining.

Lomography 120mm 400 Speed Color Negative Film
While you're skating around, snap a couple pics with some negative film. You'll totally be like "OMG, no waaaaay" when you get them developed.

Pot Psychology's How To Be By Tracie Egan Morrissey & Rich Juzwiak
After you've worked up a sweat, go home and curl up with one of those Nutella pies and this incredibly useful book. It's gonna make so much sense to you right now. You and that french bulldog on the cover are going to have a psychic connection.

From London

04/19/13 09:59AM

Cookbooks

I'm no stranger to Mary Jane. In fact, she was one of my best friend in college—even though I had to pay a lot of money to hang out with her everyday. Even so, she was really fun, and we spent a lot of nights together, up late making weird faces into my Macbook Photo Booth. One thing we sucked at, however, was cooking. Instead of trying to make anything remotely edible, we'd eat wraps laced with ranch dressing, chips dipped in ketchup, and the occasional attempt at a marshmallow and Rice Crispies mix in the microwave.

Since graduating from college, and loosing touch with my good old friend Mary, I got a little bit better at cooking (or at least the guys I dated did). With my new-found abilities, I thought I'd give her a call to try out a few new recipes. With the help of this friendly little journal called My High Times, I can now say I know how to cook with Mary Jane—all you need is some TLC, 20+ hours and a meal involving lots of LOLs. Check out the book for a step-by-step guide to cooking with your BFF with recipes including Cannabutter and peanut butter cookies!

Now, my friends, it's time for you to try it out on your own and incorporate your new knowledge with all the cookbooks you can find that use butter. Make it, cook it, eat it and then scribble away in your journal to remember how amazing this weekend was (even if it was all a haze). Now that's some food for thought.

No cookbooks in sight or too in a daze to find one? See our selection below, and run to your closest Urban to make some treats in time for Saturday! —Ally

High Time Cannabis Cookbook by Elise McDonough

The first-ever cookbook from the kings of cannabis, High Times Magazine. Includes 50+ delicious recipes, complete with easy-to-follow instructions

Love: Fries By Love Food Editors

Delicious fry recipes, from hand-cut to triple-fried. Complete with topping tips & dip tricks!

Cox, Cookies, And Cake By Patrick Cox & Eric Lanlard

Bring the attitude of Cox Cookies and Cakes to your kitchen with 80 edgy recipes, from bejeweled cupcakes to classic Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies.

03/21/13 01:36PM

Nieves Zine Box

Über-cool zine and art book publisher Nieves (which is also famous for having one of the best logos/mascots ever, Knigli the Ghost) is releasing a limited edition box set of all their best zines published from 2012. Featuring a great selection of artists like Olaf Breuning, Jocko Weyland and more, this box seems like a very awesome collection. - Hazel

03/15/13 09:37AM

Wildsam Field Guides

Wildsam Field Guides are "a series of American field guides, small books with a lot of soul, packed with local lore, interviews, a cultural almanac, vignetted memoirs, a best-of list, hand-drawn maps, and much more." Sounds perfect for those of us looking to travel. The Nashville Field Guide was the first book in the series released by Wildsam, and in May the newest field guide for Austin will be available to the public. If you happen to be at SXSW this week, then you'll be able to get your hands on a preview of the Austin guide. You can check out where they'll be available here, and once you check it out, you can start having the Austin time of your life!—Katie

03/13/13 09:10AM

Books About Travel

Sometimes you just want to read a book that will let you feel like you're getting to experience a new place. Whether that's through a road trip plot, a character traveling, or just an excellent setting is up to you. Here's a short list of books to check out if you're feeling particularly wanderlust-y lately. Since I'm terrible at summarizing books in a legitimate way, I pulled each description off of Amazon for you guys, and if you click the picture, you'll go straight to the Amazon link so you can load up your cart with brain-strengthening tomes. Look how easy I made reading for you! Do it!—Katie

On The Road Jack Kerouac [BECAUSE DUH]
"On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, 'a sideburned hero of the snowy West.' As 'Sal Paradise' and 'Dean Moriarty', the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance."

Blue Highways William Least-Heat Moon

"Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about 'those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.' His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience."

America Is in the Heart Carlos Bulosan
"First published in 1946, this autobiography of the well-known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West."

An Abundance of Katherines John Green
"When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself."

Killing Yourself to Live Chuck Klosterman

"For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end -- one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set. At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us."

A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
"Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence."

From Austin

03/08/13 04:36PM

Wartella's Strip Show

M. Wartella, a cartoonist who has worked with MAD, Wonder Showzen, and Superjail!, as well as other publications and shows, is now releasing a 12x12 book filled with his awesome cartoons that parents totally hate (if you don't believe me, just watch the video below and die at how mad the adults in it are). You know you want to get in on this. If you'd like to pre-order the book, you can do so through Burger Records, or if you're going to SXSW, you can hunt down a limited-edition hardcover copy there!—Katie

02/21/13 04:17PM

Blog Staff Book Recommendations

Here at the UO blog we spend a lot of time trolling the internet. Like, a lot of time. I mean, there are thousands of cat videos out there. And although the internet is the greatest thing the world has ever seen, we can't forget about dear, sweet books. Books are still awesome! Plus, sometimes it's just cozier to curl up with a book instead of a metal laptop. So, even though none of us are book experts, we thought we'd throw out the titles of our current fave books. Spreadin' the book love, yo!

I've been re-reading Dave Egger's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. A Gen-X manifesto, I liked the book when I first read it at 18, but now that I'm in my (guh) mid-20s, I'm really appreciating Eggers' skill and honesty. I'm also reading a comic called Y: The Last Man, about a world where every male on Earth dies in a sudden and violent manner, except for one dude. Sounds good, right? I'm just getting into it but so far it is badass.—Angelo

Right now I'm totally on a Stones binge, and this is a great book to go along with that. Aside from just chronicling the insanity of their 1972 American tour, Robert Greenfield gives a good commentary on the rock and roll scene at the time.—Maddie

The last novel I read and finished (ha!) was I Love Dick by Chris Kraus. Me and a lot of the Rookie gals are really obsessed with this one. It's a semi-autobiographical account from Kraus about falling in love with a man named Dick and the transformative, introspective journey she takes to get close to him through letters. It's radical and redefines feminism and is really great.—Hazel

I received this book over the holidays and have spent the past couple months getting acquainted with Ms. Coddington. Grace's memoir is filled with delicate illustrations that bring to life the people, places and stories that have been scattered throughout not only the book, but her long-lasting career in the fashion industry. This is one of those books that fills your eyes with wonder the minute you open your hardback and are greeted by front row she has so frequently called home. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Grace's life. —Ally

This book, Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy, is like a little behind the scenes look at the different people who do various forms of taxidermy. It's super cool. I haven't finished it yet, but I give it a solid two thumbs up because learning how to make dead shit look neat is awesome.—Katie

I came across a dog-earned copy of this compact 1961 novel in a second-hand bookshop recently and devoured it in one afternoon. It's such a beautiful, life-affirming tale of tolerance and triumph over adversity that will make your daily dilemmas seem suddenly microscopic. Also, the beatnik-era New York dialogue is the best. It was a pretty gutsy book for its time, candidly exploring issues of race and disability, and was made into the equally boundary-breaking 1965 film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters.—Natalie

02/12/13 10:03AM

The Unfeathered Bird

This book, The Unfeathered Bird by Katrina van Grouw, is a combo of taxidermy and art. It looks so cool! I don't even care about birds, but I'm totally interested in flipping through this book and gettin' my learn on. Dead things are cool, guys.—Katie

02/08/13 05:13PM

Iconograph Magazine

Iconograph Magazine is in its second issue and features an awesome collection of visual pieces that explore "the contemporary use of Ritualistic Iconography" through art, design and photography. Some of the artists involved in this issue are Curtis Kulig, Julien Langendorff, Adam Tullie, Cleon Peterson, and it's dedicated to the memory of Justin Van Hoy.—Katie

From Los Angeles

02/08/13 12:46PM

LA Zine Week at Space 15 Twenty

If you're in Los Angeles this weekend, stop by Space 15 Twenty (1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd) to help celebrate L.A. Zine Week! This Saturday, February 9 from 1-5 PM, join Sara of Freeways Collide in the courtyard for a zine sale featuring Bruised Zine (plus the launch of the new issue), Aurora Lady, Influentza Zine, and so many more. Go out and support independent publishing this weekend! - Maddie

02/07/13 11:23AM

This Is How You Win Her Back

Thisishowyouwinherback.com is a website dedicated to, you guessed it, winning back a girl. The guy behind the website broke up with his girlfriend ten months ago (!!!) and now he's decided to start plastering this poster all over NYC in the hopes of winning her back. Two weeks ago he put up 200 posters in one day. He put up 100 last week. The quote on the poster is a Lolita quote that he wrote in her kitchen on the day of their last big fight. Also, it is wrong. Also, I can't tell if this whole "endearing" "romantic" gesture is more or less annoying than if he were to stand outside the girl's window with a boombox playing Peter Gabriel. At least if he chose the boombox option, his poor ex would get to listen to some sweet tunes. Thisishowyoucreepherout, dude.—Katie

From Toronto

01/30/13 11:49AM

Team Art: '90s Pop Divas Coloring Book

Team Art Delights makes a coloring book filled with '90s pop divas and I need it. They also make other coloring books, including one titled "Boy Bands" which speaks to my soul on a very personal level. It's stuff like this that convinces me Etsy is the greatest website to ever exist.—Katie

01/29/13 11:36AM

A History of Girl Stuff: Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board

"Light as a feather, stiff as a board" is a slumber party staple and an age-old rite of passage for teenage girls. If you haven't at least attempted to summon the powers of levitation, you're doing your sleepovers wrong. To begin, one girl lays flat on the floor while the other girls surround her, placing one or two fingers underneath her. Then all the girls chant "light as a feather, stiff as a board" over and over, as they try to lift the middle girl off the floor. Eventually, she'll be as "light as a feather" and will be easier to lift, even rising a bit on her own. It's totally real guys. But how exactly did this whole thing start? - Hazel

1600's: The practice of LAAFSAAB (whoa, long abbreviation) was actually prevalent among young girls during the Great Plague of London. A naval administrator named Samuel Pepys saw four young girls lift a young boy who was lying straight on his back, claiming him dead. Pepys was so struck by it (aka creeped the fuck out, amirite?) that he wrote about it in his diary.

Photo by Georgina Mascolo

1862: In the book The Magician's Own Book, or the Whole Art of Conjuring by Arnold George and Frank Cahill, a game of LAAFSAAB is described as having been played successfully at a large party in Venice using the heaviest man at the party. No confirmation on whether or not this was a rad slumber party.

1940: Boarding school girls were keeping the magical LAAFSAAB alive during the '40s. An English boarding school teacher who saw the game being played was recorded as saying, "Whether by self hypnosis or not I do not know...it was more like real magic than anything I have ever seen." Dude, get with the program. It IS real magic! Duh! *insert major eyeroll here*

1996: This moment in history saw the creation of the best on-screen portrayal of LAAFSAAB in the movie The Craft. The movie, which tells the story of four teenage girls who discover the powers of dark magic and witchcraft, shows how this game should really be done. Levitation rules!

Today: Girls are still playing this game at slumber parties and the like. It's crazy that girls have been playing this game since the 1600s but then again, it doesn't seem that crazy, considering how all teen girls are attracted to magic and mystery and witchcraft to begin with.

01/24/13 01:18PM

Ladies Who Rock: Bronte Sisters

Okay, so maybe that picture isn't making you feel excited about picking up a Brontë novel, but I promise you won't be disappointed. Even though these sisters lived in the mid 1800s, they were real good at writing. I mean, holy shit, these books are dramatic. These ladies could have made decent livings as soap opera screenwriters if they had been born 150 years later. In any case, Emily, Charlotte and Anne were talented enough to ensure that their novels are still important to this day.—Katie

Wuthering Heights
This book is out of control. If you've never read it, you need to. It's filled with weird love affairs and like, every single character bites the dust. (That is not a spoiler because this came out literally 150 years ago so c'mon.) There's also about 50 million characters in this book so it can be hard to keep track, but stick it out! And I better not hear anyone tell me that they have a crush on Heathcliff because he is a turd.

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë's novel is probably the most dramatic out of the bunch. This book has mysterious mansion occurrences, multiple fires, doomed love and the main character, Jane Eyre, has an intense brush with death. Oh yeah, and rich uncle inheritances! Seriously, I think every drama made after Jane Eyre used this as a guideline because damn.

Agnes Grey
This is totally the least dramatic of all three books mentioned, but it's still worth reading. In this Anne Brontë novel, Agnes and her family fall on hard times so she goes off to work as a nanny. If you can believe it, the families she works for are big, fat jerks and make Agnes' life a living hell. Although Agnes is probably the least exciting of the Brontë heroines (she doesn't even die), it still makes for an interesting read. Nannies for NYC Park Slope families could probably relate to this one.

01/23/13 02:30PM

Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History Of Women And Tattoo

The third edition of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo was released this week, and it promises more than 100 new photographs of women sportin' tattoos throughout history. Way to go, ladies! Crushing the social norm and all that. This New Yorker article on the book also mentions that more women than men were tattooed in 2012 in the U.S. To me, this seems like a victory for women everywhere, but I'm sure my mom would be clutching her pearls. Anyway, suck it, fellas!—Katie

From Philadelphia

Modern Wall Shelf

01/23/13 02:04PM

Trend: Put It Away

In the spirit of getting it together, let's take a look at some things that can help your apartment start looking more like a real human's house instead of the home of disorganized wolverines. Who knows, maybe you'll get inspired.—Katie

Invisible Double Book Shelf
This shelf is great because the screws just go straight into the wall and boom, you're done. If you've ever tried to put up an Ikea Lack shelf, then you'll understand why this is so important.

Over-the-Door Vanity Station
This is seriously the most ingenious thing ever! Over the door! Shelf space! A mirror! Whoever invented this thing deserves a Nobel Prize.

Scroll Wall Hook
This coat hook/shelf combo would be so handy. Just make sure you aren't screwing this sucker into a plaster wall because plaster + five heavy coats + delightful succulents = probable catastrophe.

Waiting Room Magazine Rack
A magazine rack is basically like, "Here, let me hold this trash for you until you stop being too lazy to put it in the actual trash can," but at least your old magazines will look classier in this thing than strewn all over the bathroom floor.

Cubed Curiosity Shelf
Perfect for displaying your dog-baby hybrid vase (trust me, you want to click that link).

01/18/13 09:27AM

Female X-Men

So, in April, Marvel is relaunching the X-Men series with a new #1 issue and an all-female team of X-Men. Yes! This has the potential to be so, so awesome, and it would be amazing if something like this took off. While the series is still being written and illustrated by men (Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel, respectively), it should prove to be one of the more interesting reboots in the comic world. Even though three of the six ladies in the illustration above may be wearing sexy catsuits, at least half of them have on sensible, ass-kicking outfits. As long as this series doesn't revolve around crying over men, I'm totally on board. (via Wired)—Katie

01/17/13 01:49PM

David Sedaris 'Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls'

Author David Sedaris has announced that he will be releasing a new book in April titled Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls. Hallelujah! While his last book, Squirrel Seeking Chipmunk, was more of a fiction book of sorts, it sounds like this new one will be a return to his normal essay style ("normal" being the subjective word here since he likes to write about how to flush big poop at parties and how he attempted to learn French from medical cassettes), and I could not be more excited.—Katie

From Philadelphia

01/14/13 04:51PM