IKEA related fun fact

I am a big Battlestar Galactica fan (I even do a podcast on it with two other geek pals) so when this came over the Google alert I knew I wanted to post it…

Commander Adama has a shaving mirror in his cabin. This mirror is made by IKEA, and is a model called “Fräck” (spelling according to IKEA Web site). This word is similar to “frak” (spelling according to the subtitles with an “a” and without a “c”), which is the primary vulgarity in the Battlestar Galactica universe. - Article Link

Now that’s funny. I know one of the set decorators had to do it on purpose… love it.

From a fellow line-camper:

Sweden Comes to Ohio is from Eric King, a fellow designer, and father of the four kids that were wearing the I-K-E-A shirts. You need to go there for the pics and great commentary. Nice tying up of the events too!

(Oh, and West Chester councilfolks: He’s right. Your little logo sign on the post was NOT well received by the assembled fans, and was panned as hideous and ugly - at best. We all seemed to get on the topic of it. Bleh!)

Don’t forget to checkout the IKEA West Chester Photo Group on Flickr, many folks have ben adding pics of the opening! You have some you can add yours too!

I’m recovering from a little head cold (go figure!) so I haven’t had time to out up a big photo post yet.

The few, the first, the proud…

I order of arrival:

More pics here

What other openings have looked like

I’m a HUGE flickr fan so of course I go there first to find pictures to use as examples of what you will be seeing this week:

The early line campout:

The line on the BIG day:

Things I ponder at 1am:

Has there ever been a IKEA meatball eating contest? Would Kobayashi compete? How many could someone eat before your stomach explodes?

What’s the deal with the uncovered wood above the door on the new store? Did Sven in packaging leave something out of the box? Will the just break down and paint it if it doesn’t show up?

Someone needs to write an IKEA bible. Here’s the first passage to start with: “In the beginning there was light, then some dude named Ingvar re-formed it into the shape of a flower and got it to fit in a 4″ high box - and it was good. Except for the one missing clippy-do thingie.”

Gold, pure gold.

Mark Malkoff’s videos with him living in IKEA are funny as hell. I'm dying laughin on each one. They are hitting YouTube faster than his own site, though, So I've made a playlist for them so you can have them all in one place at a glance.  

I’ll add new ones as they arrive on YouTube.

Or watch them here and now!

My favorites are “Mark’s first night” and “Mark gets buff”. Kudos to IKEA and their folks for playing along!

New IKEA Products for 2008!

Mega IKEA fan site, IKEAFANS has a great post up with what is new for 2008 at IKEA. New stuff added since the catalog I assume. I love their move to more COLOR!

I see myself picking up  some of the new PLOKA dishes with little companion bowls etc. Just one more day till I'm there!

Not Ohio related but…

I wasn't going to post this until next week but as Craig at the Huffington Post has popped the news early, and since yours truly helped make this happen by getting him in some contacts within IKEA to start the ball rolling, I'll put this up too. 

NEW YORK - Mark Malkoff, a filmmaker and comedian whose video "171 Starbucks" documented his visits to all of the coffee chain's Manhattan stores in a single day, will live in an IKEA store in Paramus, N.J., for an entire week starting Monday, Jan. 7.

"My apartment has to be fumigated and I need to move out for several days," said Malkoff, 31. "All of my friends have tiny studio apartments. Hotels in the city are too expensive. My apartment is 80 percent IKEA products anyway. Moving into an IKEA store makes sense."

Miraculously, IKEA has agreed to let Malkoff live in its Paramus store for the week. Each night, Malkoff will post a video recap of his day at MarkLivesInIKEA.com, which will be up beginning Jan. 7.

"This isn't a commercial for IKEA," Malkoff said. "They are not paying me to do this. To me, it made sense for my living circumstance and I thought it would make an interesting video. IKEA is giving me 100 percent creative control of the video content, which is pretty amazing."

 

It is! I was happy to help! I'll be on the site everyday! 

New IKEA on the Blog

TheIKEABlog.com is a new blog that’s just lovely to look at and fun to read. They take on products more than I do, at least right now, so that’s good.

I’ve added it to the blogroll if you ever want to find it and the name esacpes you.

IKEA Transylvania

Ikea Dracula from SpaceHamlet on Vimeo.

This was shot entirely on location in IKEA ELizabeth, NJ.