Everyone loves fireworks (well, almost everyone) and there is no better time of year for a firework aficionado than the 4th of July when it comes to enjoying colorful and loud pyrotechnics. Though for one artist named Rosemarie Fiore in New York City, fireworks are not only something to casually enjoy, they are her chosen medium for creating some really cool art. Check it out.

Have a fun 4th of July weekend.

Known for his innovative and functional design in the fashion world, Marc Jacobs is now breaking ground in the mobile technology arena with a stylish, hand drawn QR code. The design is quite a change from the typical black and white images typically used for QR codes, like this one:

(For those not in the know, QR is short for Quick Response. It’s essentially a two dimensional bar code that in conjunction with a mobile device can be used in a variety of interesting ways).

The Marc Jacobs code, featuring the Miss Marc drawing, works on Japanese mobile devices and drives people to his web site. It’s exciting to see such a prominent designer jumping into a technology that’s still in its infancy elsewhere in the world.

Marc Jacobs isn’t, however, the first high end brand delving into QR codes. Ralph Lauren has incoporated them into mobile shopping and Louis Vuitton recently launched a QR code campaign with a notable design that’s in color.

Parisian street artist Invader loves Rubik’s Cube so much that he has made a name for himself using the once insanely popular little puzzle box from the ’80’s. Invader is the originator of what has come to be termed “Rubikcubism,” which utilizes the ubiquitous 3-D puzzle game to create a large series of art pieces that reference everything from classic 8-bit video games like Space Invaders and Pac Man to classic albums by The Clash, Nirvana and The Beatles.

Invader originally started out using mosaic tiles to create his pieces of street art, which can be found plastered about in over 40 cities all over the world, a feat which Invader deems as his mission: to invade all the inhabitable continents with his pixelated wonders. Currently Invader’s work is on display at the Jonathon Levine Gallery in New York City.

Do you ever ride your bike at night? Have you ever come close to getting clipped by some driver who was not paying attention? Many cities now have dedicated bike lanes that make urban riding a little safer for all, as a bike lanes create a visual “envelope” around a cyclist as the bike lane provides a well-defined boundary between the bike and motorized traffic.

The unfortunate fact is that for all the municipal bike lanes, there are thousands of roads where no such lane exists. The makers of LightLane rethought the concept of the traditional bike lane for a design competition to promote bike commuting and while they did not win, there was enough interest in their idea that they’ve gone into development with the LightLane. The concept is simple: Adapt the bike lane to the cyclist instead of the cyclist having to adapt to the bike lane.

By projecting a virtual bike lane on the ground using lasers, the cyclist is surrounded with a bright “lane” that drivers will see at night and hopefully steer clear of. In essence, the cyclist is wrapped in a virtual envelope, and the darker it is, the more effective the lightlane becomes.

As a person who rides my bike a great deal at night, anything that helps protect me from distracted drivers is a good thing. Maybe the makers of LightLane will come up with an ingenious way to avoid getting doored as well?

As a lover of wine and technology, I’ve been excited about the idea of virtual tastings, which of course combine these two loves. Aside from my personal interest in this, virtual tastings also open up some interesting doors for brands. I recently joined TasteLive, a site that puts on regular tastings and links in Twitter. I joined just in time for the Pinot Days pinot noir promotion, which corresponded to a real world event taking place in San Francisco.

Throughout the week, TasteLive participants were encouraged to drink pinot noir at home and Tweet about their experiences. At the end of the week, the promotion culminated in a virtual tasting with specific pinot noir bottles being sampled and Tweeted about. For the wine world and wine brands, the online Pinot Days’ tie in meant an awareness push for the pinot noir varietal, in addition to call outs of specific brands.

As a participant, tasting virtually has meant that I’ve been exposed not only to new bottles but also to new folks on Twitter who share my love for wine. For a brand, being connected to a passionate community like that can only mean good things.

“Dear Emo Joe, I think my mind is melting because I watch too much reality TV, should I turn that junk off?”

Emo Joe responds:

No way! Watch more. Soak your eyeballs in it until you can’t take another second of the madness. Why you ask?

First off, reality TV is very emo, in that it is overflowing with raw nerve passion, intense heartbreak and emotional unraveling. Reality TV puts all of life’s nasty little dramas in razor sharp focus. Reality TV is the windshield we peer through as we blast down life’s cruel blacktop. The folks on these shows are like the fine mist of splattered bugs that we occasionally clear away with our wipers. Reality TV shines a white-hot spotlight on a seemingly endless legion of dimwits and has-beens as they all attempt to out-peacock each other in the vicious TV barnyard.

Reality TV actually makes me ponder the deepest and perhaps most important question of the modern age, “Is my existence real if it’s not lived out on reality TV?”

But, you might wonder, what is the difference between reality and reality TV? Is there one? Is there a line in the sand? Let’s just sit back and ponder the word “reality” for a moment. One definition says reality is, “Actual being or existence, as opposed to an imaginary, idealized, or false nature.”

Do you think that reality TV is imaginary, idealized or false in its nature? What’s imaginary about such real life searches for essence and meaning like “Flavor of Love” or “The Cougar?” What’s idealized about the Darwinian “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette?” What’s false – besides various nips, tucks and enhancements - about the “Real Housewives?” Aren’t all these TV shows steeped in the sort of hard-bitten reality that you deal with each day as you slog through the muddy trenches of your own life?

Another definition says reality is, “Everything that actually does or could exist or happen in real life.”

Couldn’t 20 people really get stranded in a jungle somewhere, wearing only bikini tops and tight shorts and be forced to eat six inch bugs, pit themselves against each other in brutal contests of strength, and form Lord of the Flies style alliances, or else they’ll be banished from reality TV forever? No different than most people’s average day at work or school.

Another definition says reality is, “Something that has real existence and must be dealt with in real life.” Kind of like when the Kardashian girls have to seriously deal with a major shopping crisis. These are real people, flesh and blood, just like you and I, who are forced, under the camera’s unflinching glare, into confronting and then dealing with intense, real life issues and then coming up with complex and ingenious methods for overcoming them.

I guess what I am trying to say is this: reality TV is sort of a guide for living your life. Go turn on about 10 full hours of the stuff. Just pour it into your brain. Study how the king and queen, Jon and Kate and their scampering brood of eight, navigate the troubled waters of potential infidelity and divorce. Watch how they harness their anger, resentment and fury, and then deftly navigate the unforgiving waters of a life lived on screen. Note the life lessons you see played out on screen.

For instance, if someone has 15 stripper girlfriends cat-fighting on a tour bus, like Brett Michaels does, note how he handles the pressure and apply his deft moves to your own love life. If some uppity, prim and proper visiting matriarch on “Wife Swap” finally comes around and gets her psychic groove on with the double-wide dwelling family of backwoods hicks who are into all night partying, ritual tattooing and Viking metal, apply her newfound ability to bend with the punches to your own life.

Stop here. You know I jest, right? Turn that junk off. Reality TV is a seven head brain-sucking leech. It’s a slow acting acid eating through our frontal lobe, a smelly wart hog gnawing on our backbone. Step away from the TV and turn on the Internets where it’s safe.

Hungarian born and Brooklyn-based artist Edina Tokodi brings her unique take on graffiti or grass-fiti to an urban environment. Her work has became well-known in her Brooklyn neighborhood as she utilizes living moss and grass to create the shapes of the sort of animals that might have trod this landscape a long time ago, but have been replaced by people, steel, brick and concrete. The works are playful and meant to be touched.

I think that our distance from nature is already a cliché. City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery. As a public artist I feel a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life.

…I believe that if everyone had a garden of their own to cultivate, we would have a much more balanced relation to our territories. Of course, a garden can be many things.

Recently she installed a new work on the roof at Brooklyn’s Green Spaces (touted as a “workspace to launch green entrepreneurs”) for the Fort Green Garden Walk event that utilizes plants to create a wonderful photo realistic living wall portrait called “Succulent Living Wall.”

Have you seen the new Facebook fan site for premier winemaker Lapostolle that BFG recently launched?

Founded in 1994 by France’s Marnier-Lapostolle family in the rich soil of central Chile, Lapostolle is now regarded worldwide as one of Chile’s premier wine producers.

Since the mid ‘90s, Lapostolle has become a force in the world of wine. For instance, Lapostolle’s 2005 Clos Apalta was honored by Wine Spectator as the number one wine for 2008. Also in 2008, Wine Enthusiast named the Lapostolle winery “The New World Winery of the Year.”

Now friends of Lapostolle on Facebook have a chance to fly down to Chile and see the stunning Lapostolle winery up close. Lapostolle is sponsoring a “Win a Trip to Chile” sweeps exclusively on Facebook (sweeps ends 9/30/09) and one lucky fan will win three nights at the gorgeous Lapostolle winery.

The winery is a modern work of art nestled in the Colchagua Valley a few hours south of Santiago. With the towering Andes mountains as a backdrop, this region of Chile has become world renowned for producing great wines, with Lapostolle leading the way.

If you love to pair food and great wine, Lapostolle is also sponsoring “The Ultimate Dinner Party.” Register to win using Lapostolle’s Vine & Dine application, a Facebook app that helps you pair the right wine with your menu. For the lucky winners, Lapostolle will come to the winner’s home and provide a fully catered dinner party for 10 people.

If great wine and food is your thing and you like to share this enthusiasm with your friends, then become a friend of Lapostolle and spread the word to your other Facebook friends.

JetBlue now has a few new cross country routes from NYC & Boston to Los Angeles and what better way to promote this these days than to get a plane load Web 2.0 celebs to make the first trip and then tweet, blog and seed YouTube about their experience.

The airline used its one plane that has WiFi access, BetaBlue, to make the maiden voyage so all the bloggers could record the trip in real time. According to JetBlue, no one was paid, although the flight was free, and all they asked of the bloggers was to keep things “family friendly” and to mention the relationship with JetBlue.

“We wanted it to be transparent; we’re not trying to hide JetBlue, we just wanted them to have the space to do it in their own voice and make it interesting,” said Rachel Viega, account supervisor at MediaCom Interaction, a unit of WPP, which oversees JetBlue’s digital marketing.

JetBlue opted for a low-budget, slightly experimental media plan around the flights. The company bought outdoor and radio spots in Los Angeles to promote the new routes, as well as print ads in AMNewYork. But the airline is counting on the cast of video bloggers on the plane to seed YouTube and the Twittersphere with reports from BetaBlue.

The JetBlue vids are produced by Howcast and other quasi-famed YouTubers such as Kevin Nalts, Delphine Dijon, Justine Ezarik (who may have found her niche as she is also pushing Carl’s Jr. and Meghan Asha.

If you’re a music fan and should find yourself in Budapest between now and July 5, a stop at the Ludwig Museum for their Anton Corbijn exhibit should be at the top of your list of things to do (after sampling goulash and checking out the castle of course).

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Dutch photographer and videographer the focus of an exhibit in Hungary but then again his work over the past 30 years has gone beyond borders. And in this case, it’s even gone beyond the walls of communism, with the exhibit featuring some of Corbijn’s older (and powerful) work, such as the Joy Division photograph shown here. This was shot many years before the fall of communism in Hungary.

His use of black of white in this shot is typical of Corbijn’s work at the time and it’s also what separated him from the glitzy photography that was customary in the ’70s and ’80s. Other works in the exhibit show off Corbijn’s grainy development, use of shadows, and his subjects hiding their eyes. It all adds up to a unique body of work, one that brings our idolized musicians and celebrities into the shadows, making us question who they are and the way we’re used to seeing them portrayed.

If you make the exhibit, also be sure to spend time checking out shots from his 23-year relationship with Depeche Mode. And whether you make it there or not, Corbijn’s film Control about Ian Curtis of Joy Division isn’t to be missed.