[video width="600" id="D12pPY8SuHc" type="youtube"] For a bit of good old sub prime schadenfreude, check out The Queen of Versailles which follows time share billionaires David and Jackie Siegel as they set out to build the biggest house in America. It may seem like the latest from Christopher Guest but it is actually the work of Lauren Greenfield and was the opening documentary of this year's Sundance Fest ...

Thanks to Jane Sommerville for this review of The Faulty Towers Dining Experience at the Edinburgh Fringe. We're delighted that Jane will be writing a food and restaurant column for Avocado Sweet. A Faulty-less Foodie Adventure: The Faulty Towers Dining Experience Edinburgh Fringe is a peculiar phenomenon. For the month of August, our poised and stately capital unbuttons its collar, kicks up its heels and i ...

Chilled fizzy red wine made by a Scottish female wine producer? Pamela Geddes, who grew up in Bridge of Allan, is breaking a few of the unwritten rules of the wine industry.  Now running her own winery near Barcelona she has been featured on Scottish Television, Catalan television, BBC Radio Scotland and in the Daily Express. Here, friend and wine drinker Lesley Ratomska tells us how Pamela started Lobban w ...

Alber Elbaz, the celebrated Casablanca-born creative director at Lanvin says, 'I love wrinkles. I love grey hair'. His new fall/winter campaign features non models of varied body shapes and personalities who range in age from 18 to 82. All were cast after being spotted on the streets of New York city and were photographed by Steven Meisel. The campaign is undoubtedly very smart and it's great to see a more ...

[video width="600" id="fJ1O1vb9AUU" type="youtube"] Handsome trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's take on the creation of a modern cult. Anderson denies it is the story of Scientology but the comparison is inevitable: 'He's making all this up as he goes along - you don't see that?' Starring Joaquim Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, the film is due out in the UK in November. ...

We came across Canadian fashion illustrator Danielle Meder recently at the Scottish Fashion Awards. She was crouched at the side the red carpet producing amazingly lovely sketches at lightning speed. Below is an edited piece from her excellent blog Final Fashion in which she shares her unique point of view of this month's haute couture shows in Paris. Danielle specialises in live runway sketching, design dr ...

[video width="600" id="bVd7pTfcDY0" type="youtube"] by Jennifer Cairney 'This is what panthers would sound like…if panthers could sing.' Maya Angelou uses this phrase to describe a character in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and it fits these three to perfection. Sleek, powerful and more than a little bit scary their performances are unmarred by the fact that one of them totally disagrees with the lyrics t ...

[video width="600" id="WfBlUQguvyw" type="youtube"] Such a brilliantly clever video this for Sour's Hibi no Neiro (Tone of Everyday) featuring web cam footage supplied by the band's fans around the world. Some people really know what they're doing with computers... ...

Street art was always ripe for a send up. Mobstr, a street artist himself, obviously thought so too. What really gets his goat though is advertising. 'We’re indoctrinated with the belief that graffiti (or now known as street art) is a blight on our space yet the majority of us happily walk around the visual bombardment of advertising without a moment of questioning its justification. We’ll happily put a six ...

These carved fruit skulls manage to be menacing and endearing at the same time, especially the aubergine. Carved by artist Dimiti Ksykalov who was born in Moscow in 1963 and lives and works in Paris. Via Bored Panda ...