If you didn't get MAD enough with our earlier round-up of critical reactions to the newly opened Museum of Arts and Design, stay tuned, as we're heading inside later this week. Meanwhile, the talented Amanda Barrett, mediabistro.com's associate director of marketing for events and education, was on site at last week's gala opening and made the below video for us with her trusty flip camera and the assistance of mediabistro.com video production oracle Weston Almond (note their right-on-the-money soundtrack selection!).

Who did Amanda spot among the VIP-studded crowd? Countess Marianne Bernadotte of Sweden draped in a gold cape, Empress Farah Pahlavi of Iran, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (who MAD should tap for what we imagine is a massive collection of pins and brooches). Among the design dignitaries in attendance were the dashing Yves Béhar (who designed the Swarovski chandelier in the grand atrium), Wendell Castle, Karim Rashid, and Chris Hacker, chief design officer of Johnson & Johnson. Also among the guests of honor? The wonderful and charisma-oozing Michael Bierut, who designed the museum's new graphic identity. "It's based on the building's circles and squares...and of course Columbus Circle itself," Amanda tells us. "He chose Futura because of its perfectly round 'O.' Move over, Helvetica!"

No, that's not an exterior shot of Pee-Wee's Playhouse above, it's the House of Artists at the Art/Brut Center Gugging just north of Vienna. The center houses a museum/exhibition space where visitors can purchase works by the artists in residence, all of whom happen to be mental patients, which seems appropriate, as the center was once a sprawling psychiatric hospital. Daphne Merkin explains further in her recent piece on Gugging and its unique twist on Outsider Art in Culture+Travel. Meanwhile, in the latest travel-themed issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, columnist Stephen Metcalf journeys to the Territory, a renegade art collective in Paris of which his first impressions are of "a firetrap, a serial-killer lair, and Willy Wonka's chocolate factory." He later describes the place as "a semi-commune dedicated to artsy poverty in an era that has not been kind to artsy poverty." Sound like your cup of tea? Before you apply to be a resident/member, consider this:

To live in the Territory, one must follow 135 rules, which include elaborate habits of communication (via walkie-talkie) and egress (everyone must master exiting in one minute, with passport, laptop, and pants), so that no one will ever be harmed in a fire. Other rules encompass kitchen etiquette, the management of the "strategic reserve" of 300 frozen salmon and the necessity of obeying the Art Class Alarm, which draws together the Territory at any hour, night or day, for an art project.

On a field trip to Selma with Greensboro, Alabama-based Project M (no, we didn't walk from Montgomery, we drove), we were tipped to a cultural destination just over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Artist unknown, but it's a little bit Paula Scher and a little bit Howard Finster. And once we started taking it in, we realized we were a bit frightened, and it was probably preferable that the artist remain anonymous.

Along with renovating their accommodations, getting to know the neighborhood, and being forced to take jogs every morning with John Bielenberg (oh, wait a minute, that was just the advisors), Project M engages in little design challenges to keep their minds sharp and their hands busy.

One morning we participated in a Renga, which is a Japanese word for collaborative poetry, the kind where people build stanzas upon stanzas to create one big happy masterpiece. Here, in Rural Studioland, a Renga means actually building, of course, so we were equipped with 2x2s, drywall screws, a table saw and some drills. Teams of two were instructed to make it graphic and make it 3D, using "stanzas" of six 2x2s every turn. Away we went. More coverage at M's blog.

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As the Project M team continued to wrack their humidified brains, we were treated to a personal tour of some of the Rural Studio's sites with Bruce Lindsey, former head of the Studio. If you're not familiar with the story, feel free to educate yourself, but here's the skinny: Since the early 90s, thanks to one Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee, Auburn University architecture students have been designing and building houses for residents in and around Hale County, an extremely rural and economically depressed community. There's also an Urban Studio in Birmingham.

With coverage in most design publications, museum exhibitions, books, you name it, we were worried about tourism overwhelming the area, but students and faculty have worked really hard to keep the experience authentic. Although we heard word of tour buses (yes, there are some, apparently), it's preferable to grab a simple map and respectfully navigate the country roads yourself. Supposedly the influx of interest brings $2 million to the county per year, which was a shocker. But besides the stunning projects, there's no real sign of gentrification as far as we could see. Kudzu-covered derelict buildings dot the lush landscape, and many of the buildings on Main Street here in Greensboro are abandoned. In many ways, it hasn't changed much since its appearance in the Walker Evans-James Agee book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (we've all been reading the follow up article in Fortune, which checks in with the descendants of those photos). But these are some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet--who are plenty proud to show you their homes, by the way. Plus there's mountains of crispy fried catfish for dinner.

Above is the animal shelter--referred to by everyone as The Dog Pound--which was definitely one of the most impressive things we've ever seen. Namely because the three students were working away on it in 95-degree heat.

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Two planes and 30 degrees Fahrenheit away from our LA environs, we are coming to you live from Greensboro, Alabama, located in the now world-famous Hale County, home of the Rural Studio, and also this summer's ground zero for the design-for-good program Project M. John Bielenberg (that's him up there in the orange) and eight young designers have been cooking up ideas for making a difference here since June 1, with a steady stream of advisors shipped in regularly to invigorate and inspire.

Swiss designer Thomas Sevcik blew in for a day, Adam Brodsley was here a few weeks back, and his Volume partner Eric Heiman is here now, with Brian Collins rumored to be peeking his head in next week (en route to China, perhaps?). Erik Cox and Christopher Simmons are also headed this way, and we were thrilled to have Washington University architecture dean Bruce Lindsey here for the weekend, who was former head of the Rural Studio.

First, some shots from our orientation, including the HERO Knowledge Cafe (a housing resource center for the county) above, which is serving as M's base of operations.

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It's just not leafy, humid or chicken-fried enough for us out here in LA, so we're jetting to Greensboro, Alabama this weekend for some serious sweatin' in the South with the fine young things of Project M. We mentioned how M master John Bielenberg was taking this show on the road this year, so we'll be heading to the Rural Studio, where eight recent design grads plucked from city life are hoping to spread the word about a yet-to-be-determined message. Check their progress at the 2007 Project M blog, and we'll be sure to check back in soon--but not until after we have ourselves a nice, big slab of gravy-smothered meat.

As folks who seem to be in the know about such things, you are probably familiar with the Museum of Jurassic Technology, one of the most fascinating collections of anything we've ever come across. Lawrence Weschler once wrote an entire book about the place, but if you're looking for an introduction almost as bizarrely awesome as the museum itself, try this: the tremendously-talented Pamela Z has turned the experience into a one-woman opera. No kidding. Writer Jade Chang was there to take it all in.

We're both, most of the time, far too modest to post about our individual goings-ons unrelated to the holy UnBeige empire, but therein lies the brilliance of having two editors. When one does something cool, the other one can pop it up here on the site. And such is the case with our own Alissa Walker, who just yesterday appeared on Los Angeles-based KCRW's program DNA in an episode about design solutions for making LA a more habitable place. Alissa's piece is about, gasp, taking the bus. It's a really great listen, even if we weren't slightly biased or enjoy hearing her say "Sexy Flexy" and "the Wiggles." Here's about the whole program:

Groaning with traffic and people, Los Angeles is going to hell in a hand basket. Or is it? New problems bring new solutions. We look at some of the ways the Southland is adapting to its growing density, including the makeover of public transit and the explosion of new green spaces. Also, the LA Auto Show celebrates its centennial and gets an edge on the Motor City, and the MTA -- now called Metro, wins the American Public Transportation Association's annual award for an Outstanding Public Transportation System. Plus, a native Angeleno’s favorite building.

Also of semi-related note, check out this story by Melanie Orndorff about, gasp, walking the entire Wilshire Boulevard, from downtown LA all the way to Santa Monica. Our poor little legs shudder at the thought.

It's been a while for this writer and she lives a black away Union Pacific North rail line and often commutes downtown on Metra. Even if you don't use the train on a regular basis, there's something romantic about locomotives. This writer enjoys seeing the conductors in their starched white shirts, crisp navy pants, squarish matching hats, making change with the old-fashioned coin changers strapped on their belts.

So it was beyond cool to discover Walthers, a site dedicated to model railroads. We don't have a mini rail line downstairs, but if we did would most definitely bring the legendary Empire Builder to our layout, to quote the advertisement on the homepage. Walthers just started selling the 60-seat coach last month, and you can get a new car every 30 days until June. Just think - your HO scale model replica will come graffiti-free! Wow! We'll get a man to buy the train, we'll just pretend to get off and on a spring day in 1955 with our hat boxes, D'Orsay pumps, and white gloves. What do you think?