A few weeks ago I spent a weekend at the mysterious Hotel Amour, rumored to be a former rent-by-the-hour hotel in Pigalle, Paris' red light district.

The history of the place now serves as Amour's theme - from the name and interior to its philosophy. In their own words: "Even though we love kids; Hotel Amour is indeed a more appropriate place to make babies rather than bringing them".
Like art hotels such as Winston, Fox and Des Arts, each of Hotel Amour's 20 rooms are different and have their own character, most of them styled by co-owner and street artist Monsieur André.

Some notes: Rooms must be booked in person or by phone. In the age of doing everything via the web, this can be quite a challenge, especially in French. Furthermore, you won't find much (any) information on their website thus fueling the mystique and myths about the place. Actually, the one-page website has been down for the past 4-5 weeks - perhaps they don't mind, because guests appear to be regulars and information about the hotel is virally distributed anyway (word of mouth). Rooms do not have conventional hotel-stuff like: TV, hairdryer, table, chairs, minibar and telephone, all of which urban travelers don't really need anyway. Besides the atmospheric decor, rooms are basically just fitted with queen-sized beds, an i-Pod base and a bathroom with Kiehl's skin and hair products. During my stay, a jazz quintet was playing live in the neighboring room. The SM/erotic picture on my wall didn't match the rest of the room's colorful cartoon-like style and for some Lynchian reason, the picture wouldn't hang straight. The restaurant/bar is frequented by local non-hotel guests, which is a total plus because it generates a lively non-hotelish atmosphere. Amour is not just a 'hotel with personality' but also a 'personal hotel' where basic human interactions seem to be in focus. Despite its somewhat hip reputation, it is quite relaxed and unpretentious.

• hotelamour.com (currently/permanently down)

The (excellent) free cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly has launched a fundraising campaign in which they've taken their own editorial content hostage. Readers must collaborate and pay a ransom if they want the content to be printed or else, Amsterdam Weekly will consist of blank pages.

It works like this: Each of the paper's upcoming pages has been divided into blocks and each block is being sold for €5. Readers can buy one block or as many as a full page.

Only blocks that are being sold will be printed. If the sale is not successful, readers will receive a paper missing individual blocks of content.

Nb: if you buy at least 3 blocks you'll get an invitation to a fundraising party on Saterday 26 April.

• www.amsterdamweekly.nl/forsale

Karriere is a newly opened and much hyped (rightfully so) bar in Copenhagen where everything from the name to the interior has been designed by a long list of artists, such as Olafur Eliasson, Ceal Floyer, Douglas Gordon, Jesper Just, Robert Stadler, Dan Graham etc.

Now, the price on selected drinks at Karriere Bar has been turned into a work of art by artist Kenneth A. Balfelt, who created a 'price policy' that experiments with the relation between price- and social structures.

The new prices are determined by your look and circumstances related to your person. It is the waiters and bartenders who decide if you qualify for the special prices

Some price examples: Yuppies pay extra for beer. Hippies and activists pay extra for organic soda. The homeless get a discount on cafe cortado. Gay couples who French kiss for 30 seconds get a discount on apfelschorle. Immigrants, asians who speak Danish as well as blacks in company of whites get various discounts. And so on.

Probably not politically correct, but it should generate some unexpected and interesting situations!

• karrierebar.com

As mentioned here before, knitting has been going through quite a renaissance in recent years. Partly because old things sooner or later come back into fashion, partly because new technologies has made it possible to create new kinds of knitting products and services.

Belonging to the latter category, is the Swiss website Net Granny where users can buy sock, personally knitted by a granny of own choice. The site contains a gallery of grannies, each of whom has a profile with an overview of the socks they make.

The service is provided by a small apparel company called Tarzan, based in Basel.

Related: SCHALALALA! + Generative Knitting

• Net Granny

The Danish music-poetry duo Bo hr Hansen & Nils Lassen has come up with a novel - and potentially very time consuming - way to promote their latest CD "Hvem er jeg?" (Who am I?).

Those buying the CD are offered a free private concert - via telephone.

In order to qualify for the concert, you need to send them an MMS (a photo via mobile phone) of yourself holding the CD, preferably with the receipt. Upon receiving the documentation, the duo will do their best to find a concert date and time that suits all of you.

Thanks Mogens for the link.

Related: Bubble Star At Home

• Private Telephone Concerts (Danish)

Design Reaktor Berlin is a multi-disciplinary research project of the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK)/Berlin University of the Arts. Their aim is to encourage innovative cooperation between small and medium-sized companies and young designers.

In a two-week series of workshops held earlier this year, the experimental links between trades, materials, technologies and tools provided by 52 companies produced hundreds of ideas. After an assessment of their feasibility and market potential, 52 products were developed further in cooperation with the involved companies.

Design Reaktor's website contains a gallery of the results, some of which are ready for production while others are more speculative.

Two eye catching products are Garden Gun by Jakob Diezinger, Markus Dilger and Rayk Sydow (which doesn't need much explanation) and Music Drop by Noa Lerner, a tiny music player shaped as a drop. The drop contains one song which can be used only one time.

Interestingly, except from Music Drop, all 52 designs appear to be stand-alone products. No experiences or services were developed.

• www.design-reaktor.de/

Not so long ago when browsing through a glossy Danish magazine (forgot which) I stumbled across an ad for RENT A MINI, a car-rental company based here in Copenhagen.

As the name suggests, the provider rents Minis only (Mini Cooper that is) and the idea behind the concept is that renting a car should be easy, cool and relatively cheap at the same time. The cars can be booked online through a simple interface. Currently, the service is available in Copenhagen only, but the ambitious goal is to operate in all metropolises within the next five years.

RENT A MINI's website does not tell how closely affiliated they are to BMW, the manufacturer of Mini. They are probably not that close, but in any case, I am intrigued by the idea of a car-company that does not only produce cars but also design service-systems (car sharing/rental) as an alternative to individual ownership.

• www.rentamini.dk

For more than 10 years the Dutch design platform Young Designers & Industry (YD+I) has developed and facilitated explorative projects that bring together young talented designers and public and private industries to solve complex problems.

One of the latest results to emerge from one of YD+I's projects is the fashion brand Pal West.

The project provided youngsters between 14-17 in Amsterdam's New West area a unique opportunity to develop their own fashion brand with the help of a team of young professional designers. Together they developed everything from clothes, marketing, communication and business concepts for the Pal West brand. The first collection was presented in June at the Streetart Festival held in conjunction with Amsterdam International Fashion Week.

The purpose of the project is to help generate economic, social and cultural opportunities for the the youngsters as well as help contribute to a positive image of the Amsterdam New West area.

YD+I is directed by Peik Suyling who is also the chairman of Amsterdam Creativity Exchange. If you are a visionary company or organization interested in unconventional approaches to innovation, you should get in touch with him. Companies to have worked with YD+I include Heineken and British Telecom.

• Pal West Mode

It was the Italian team that won the Young Creatives Competition:Film 2007.

The competition - sponsored by Nokia Nseries - took place between Wednesday June 20th and 22nd in conjunction with the International Advertising Festival in Cannes.

Twenty young creative teams was given the same creative brief and 48 hours to create a 20-second TV commercial using the Nokia N93i.

The brief is not available from the website ('page not found') but from watching some of the films, it appears that it was politically correct and had something to do with creating an MTV-ad that promotes ecologically responsible living.

(From those I watched, my favorite is the Canadian submission)

• Competition website