I'm inspired

[First things first, click the pic to see it bigger] Kehinde Wiley is an LA native, that holds a SF Art Institute BFA and Yale MFA - and Gen Art Pulse just did quite the e-newsletter on him (which by the way, is one of the only newsletters these days i actually look forward to!). He’s found a niche in bringing the back the glory days of paintings where you imortalize men and women in larger than life gold framed paintings… they were big in the days of kings, and even just a few generations back (there are even quite a few of these at the family house in asia of my grand/great-grand parents)… you know the type - you’ve seen them in any art history and history class. Wiley has put a spin on them and brought this grandeur back to the modern day, imortalizing important Black figures in our lives today in a similar style - but with that modern flair that jumps out so nicely at you. He’s was even comissioned to do the portraits of all the VH1 Hip Hop Honor Honorees in 2005. Its really beautiful breathtaking work - and the idea is pretty sweet. Pity that his work doesn’t cover other people as well! But maybe it will be a start to help inspire others to take on the old school portrait styles and reinvent them for today.

Messy organizer

This is the new “organizer” (perhaps its more a mess-pile-maker?) called Harry, designed by Reinhard Schmoelzer for Mocha It comes in two sizes, and an array of colors, and is basically your catchall in the form of a mess of maleable wires ready to do your bidding. So bend away - have a cluster everywhere, put many together and have a wall to suspend all your crap… or toothbrushes… or tech… or jewelry… so versatile! Fun idea.

Tees me

Who needs screenprinting? Not the folks at the San Francisco based label, Lemon Twist. They have these hand-(spray) painted tshirts that are sort of 80s, sort of DIY, and cooler than those airbrush tshirts from the 80s & 90s.

Temporary Target

When Target decides to step it up a notch or ten, it is apparently no joke. With their new Go International collections, every month there is a new famous designer collection at ridiculously low prices ~ and their third collection is by Parisian Paul+Joe’s Sophie Albou, available only from Aug1-31st. While only partial collections are available at your standard Target stores, the FULL collection is available in at the Target Pop Up Boutique on the corner of Melrose Place and La Cienega.

Aluminium minimalism

Ohh this is a great chair.

Made of aluminum with a powder coating, stackable and available in 186 colors, mat or glossy.

Designer: Alexandre Berthiaume

Seating pretty

Yes, it's a chair. Kind of hard to absorb at first, but then you get used to it. I think it's beautiful, and most likely worth every penny (if you've got that many pennies to spare).

"an interesting and original piece that is signed by the designer, veryround is a masterpiece in technological construction. it is made of a single .08" thick steel sheet frame which is cut by a three-dimensional laser, colored white and varnished for outdoor use."

Try Dry

Seattle-based DRY Soda offers four flavors of "culinary" soda that were created to be paired with food—a strategy similar to that of Modern Spirits Vodka.
One of the first things you notice about DRY sodas is the aroma of the four flavors, which is pleasant and not overwhelming. The sodas are caffeine free, very lightly sweetened with cane sugar, flavored with natural fruit and herb extracts and weigh in at a guilt free 50-70 calories. The packaging and bottles are also nicely designed

Gnotorious B.I.G.

This one’s hot off the press! Remember that hot mashup The Grey Album by DJ Dangermouse which featured Jay-Z vocals over Beatles tunes? In an ironic twist, the DJ duo who goes by the name Sound Advice, have chopped and screwed Gnarls Barkley tracks together with the lyrics of the Notorious B.I.G. The result is a mashup album called The Gnotorious Gnarls Biggie. The tracks have been removed several times from MySpace, but can now be listened to at Gnotorious.com. There’s no telling how long this site will be up, as I’m sure the record labels are having a fit over this one. Listen now while you still can.
www.Gnotorious.com

The Bipedestrian

The folks at Xylon Bikes are going old skool with this range of wooden frames for your two wheeler. The designs are made of wood and beautifully finished to add a retro feel to the frame work. The four designs, Cell, Oll, Klassic and Singera differ from one another so that you could purchase all four and flash a new design each day. If you happen to be a bike fashion connoisseur, just add wooden clogs and your Heidi on a bike!

The Bipedestrian

The folks at Xylon Bikes are going old skool with this range of wooden frames for your two wheeler. The designs are made of wood and beautifully finished to add a retro feel to the frame work. The four designs, Cell, Oll, Klassic and Singera differ from one another so that you could purchase all four and flash a new design each day. If you happen to be a bike fashion connoisseur, just add wooden clogs and your Heidi on a bike!

The Prance Electric

Last night a host of fancy society-types, car buffs and our good friends from AutoBlog got a unique chance to check out Tesla's electric sports car. The zero-emissions whip (it's so green it doesn't even have a tailpipe) will get about 250 miles on a single charge, and reaches speeds of about 130-miles per hour, with a 0-60 time hovering around a pretty impressive 4-seconds. Stop driving it long enough to peek under the hood and you'll find a 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor and a Power Electronics Module at the heart of this slick ride. Don't run out to the car dealership yet, as these babies aren't hitting the streets until mid-2007, and when they do, they'll run you somewhere between $80,000 and $120,000.

Cooler Fan

It's getting hot in the ATL, so having a decent fan at hand is a necessity right now. Most on the market favor function over form, but the Tykho Fan looks, and keeps you, cool. Designed by Marc Berthier and made by Lexon, its safe rubber blades spin at two speeds, and come in several colors. An example is also kept in the permanent collection of Paris's Centre Pompidou.

Re:turntable

We all miss album cover art work, and the tiny digital cover art on your iPod just isn't the same. English designer, Michael Kennedy, has the answer that makes retro meet modern in a funked up way. I-Deck is a touch screen music player that revitalizes album art and user interaction, that has been lost in current mp3 format. You simply doc your mp3 player into the base and use the touch screen to cycle through and select your tracks, flick it to skip, spin it to fast-forward and turn it to play. Then sit back and watch the album art play. From Nirvana nude baby floating thru to Madonna in a leotard, album art is back in vogue.

AmmonContact

Somewhere in between extraterrestrial innovators Sun Ra and Sa-Ra, in the outer regions of the musical galaxy, lies Ammoncontact. Hard to pigeonhole, Ammoncontact is as much hip-hop for free jazz heads as it is minimal techno for afro-funkateers. Dark, moody, spiritual, and deep, Carlos Nino and Fabian Ammon’s unique blend of acoustic and electronic beats has been evolving organically over the last five years, and is at its ripest yet on this new release.
http://myspace.com/ammoncontact

Logo-motion

Here's a new twist for ya... Around Atlanta I've been spotting cars sporting logos of different brands all over the place. Not the multi-logo wall paper of Nascar, but one brand emblazoned on the hood and quarter panels. I don't know where or why this came about but it's all the rage. It doesent seem to be "officially" sponsored by any company and it doesn't look cheap. Most go as far as actually matching PMS colors to their exterior paint.

Crank calls

Designer Andre Minoli crafted this innovative prototype for Motorola to address that very issued. Dubbed the PVOT concept phone, the unit operates on a single AA rechargeable battery and features a flip handcrank. While a single AA battery won’t provide much talk time, 25 cranks on the flip handle will provide a single minute of talk time.

No doubt busy Wall Street types have better things to do than spend their days cranking away. On the other hand, for the vast majority of the world’s population who still view electricity as a privilege (as opposed to a right), this thing offers true utility.

Like to watch

I love watches. I think I saw this on Gizmodo.com a couple of weeks ago, and figured since I keep thinking about it, I'd go ahead and post it. Available in a tan leather wristband with yellow lights or a black leather wristband with red lights.

Eek -a- dresser

I don't get the name Eek Dresser but I love the style. This piece has me a little floored. It's so simple and yet really well done. It has a baroque pattern which is wallpapered onto a steel base. $3,270.00 http://www.twentieth.net

Mac to the future

MacFormat magazine (http://www.macformat.co.uk/) commissioned a conceptualized future iMac to accompany a related article. The design is based on current Apple design trends, as well as the previous iMac incarnation.

The iMac features a 30" utra-thin LCD screen, which is totally transparent when the iMac is not in use. The screen can also be set to various levels of translucency, and can fade during sleep modes etc. The keyboard is also totally tramsparent, low profile and a curved ergonomic design, with light sensitive illuminated keys.
Everything is of course, wireless.

Cut to the chase

Thieves and criminal thrill seekers beware – the police car chase will never be the same again. Thanks to some sophisticated new technology created by Virginia-based company Starchase, police can now track crooks by shooting Batman-esque GPS homing devices like darts and sticking them to the back of fleeing vehicles. Instead of a frantic pursuit, the pursing police cruiser eases off and allows police headquarters to track the suspect by computer. Police can then move in for a calmer arrest.