Today at Flavorpill, we got lost in this visual history of tourism ads. We spotted a pair of heels that no woman should ever wear. Because they’re made from elephant dung. We almost cried over Hole’s SXSW setlist — we can’t wait to see them when they play New York. We got confirmation of the sad fact that Americans hate movies with subtitles. Why do you think this is? We couldn’t decide whether a film adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time was inspired or the worst franchise idea ever. We looked at a bunch of girls who Nate Hill (aka Death Bear) wants to sleep with but can’t. We were insanely excited by the news that there might be a feature-length Dr. Horrible 2. And finally, we tried to wrap our heads around the idea of a list of rap songs in which complete sets of things are listed. It took a while, so we figured that it was high time to head on home. Have a great weekend!

You know that we have a thing for living on the edge. That’s why Flavorpill loves AMC’s smart, addictive series Breaking Bad, which stars former Malcolm in the Middle man and two-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston as a high-school chemistry teacher turned drug lord. We’re particularly excited for the third season, which begins this Sunday night.

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With most of the music world’s eyes trained on the live performances at the South by Southwest Festival this week, you might think that it would have been difficult to come up with a handful of cool, new videos for you to check out. Not so, which is great news for those of us who didn’t make it to Austin (cough, cough). After the jump, check out the latest offerings from Devendra Banhart, Hot Chip, Lykke Li, Gus Gus, and that crazy Fat Boy Slim/David Byrne collaboration project that’s all about Imelda Marcos.

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OK, so we’re launching a new weekly feature. It’s called Hipster Headlines, and the idea is pretty self-explanatory. We’ll round up the most interesting hipster-related stories of the week and leave you to do with them what you will. Play along after the jump, or, if you hate the term and all things associated, head over to Gawker, where they’re voting for a new word to replace it. Which, come to think of it, will make finding these stories a lot harder for us…

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What started out a decade ago as a ragtag bunch of 25 artists in rural North Carolina is now one of the hottest group exhibitions in the Chelsea gallery district. This spring, Joshua Liner Gallery has tapped the global Barnstormers collective to bring its dizzying brand of murals — or “motion paintings” — to the largest show the venue has ever organized. With their numbers swelling to 35 (including appearances by Swoon, Doze Green, ROSTARR, Ryan McGinness, and founder David Ellis), the Barnstormers use image, sound, materials, and technology to connect with contemporary culture.

View an exclusive slideshow of works from the exhibition>>

Yesterday while watching the new trailer for Ramona and Beezus — a film adaptation of Beverly Cleary’s beloved books about Ramona Quimby and her sister Beatrice — we felt old. We blame the casting of shiny tween idol Selena Gomez as Beezus. We preferred the Beezus from that short-lived Ramona TV series from the ’80s, which starred Sarah Polley as Ramona. Anyway, as we sat there self-soothing over the magical opening credits, we started thinking about the other shows we used to love when we were little. And suddenly, we were too busy being incredibly entertained to feel old. Drink our youth-enhancing elixir after the jump.

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This stunning die-cut paper canopy — which is made up of 800 inter-connected pieces — is currently on display at LA’s Fix Gallery through April 8. We want to sleep under it. The name of the installation is “Fat Fringe,” which we find kind of funny; it was developed through a series of workshops led by designers Lisa Little and Emily White of Layer (who have worked on some insanely cool projects in the past) and organized by Materials & Applications. Check out more images after the jump.

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Swedish neutrality has come to an end. Publisher Top Shelf has prepared a full Scandinavian broadside on the American comics scene with five titles storming our shores in the month of April. The standout of the bunch is underground rapper and cartoonist Simon Gärdenfors’ insanely entertaining memoir, the 120 Days of Simon.

The premise: Simon’s turning 29 and his world needs a shake up. Inspired by, of all people, the Amish, who let their teenagers run wild before returning to the fold, he sublets his apartment and spends four months on the road, vowing to never stay in the same place more than two days. Part stunt book, part quarterlife crisis, 120 Days chronicles the weirdness that follows. Simon has liquor bottles smashed over his head, chants with the Hare Krishnas, gets drunk at an aquarium, and explains the practices of the Karela Sect, who advocated the stroking of each other’s anuses with pastry brushes.

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Marco Bellocchio’s breathtaking new film provides Ida Dalser — Mussolini’s alleged first wife and the mother of Benito Junior — the voice and vitality that Il Duce took when he left them in asylums to perish anonymously.

In this full-bore cri de coeur for the missus, Bellocchio depicts Dalser as a feisty, resolute, and somewhat delusional woman, rather than some haloed madonna — a figure seared into memory by Giovanna Mezzogiorno’s impassioned performance. Bellocchio contextualizes the torn-out chapter of history with actual propaganda newsreels and declamatory texts that pulsate and surge from the screen.

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“It was one of the most fun things I ever got to do.” That’s Todd Oldham speaking about the work he did on his new book Joan Jett, perhaps one of the most devotional monographs in the history of music. Jett, one of the founding sisters of good, hard rock ‘n roll, has been a hero to quirky girls and boys in the worlds of fashion and music for over three decades now. As a teen, she founded The Runaways, still considered one of the toughest acts of all time. With her next band, The Blackhearts, she not only started one of the first indie labels ever, but she did it with a song that no one wanted to sign. That track, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” would go on to top the charts for seven weeks straight, and it remains one of Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time.

Timed to coincide with the release of Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, Joan Jett sets a place at the head of the table for a woman who’s always been ahead of the pack. We talked with Todd Oldham about Jett’s enduring impact on fashion, reading British music magazines in Iran and how Mary Tyler Moore brought the designer and the rock goddess together.

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