Greenopia provides consumers with high quality information to help them reduce their impact on the environment through their daily purchasing decisions. Greenopia publishes extensive green business directories, product directories, and brand directories, as well as offering a growing community, news articles, blogs, and tips to help everyone eat, shop, and live green.Get the app here.
18 November 2009
eat, shop, live green
Greenopia provides consumers with high quality information to help them reduce their impact on the environment through their daily purchasing decisions. Greenopia publishes extensive green business directories, product directories, and brand directories, as well as offering a growing community, news articles, blogs, and tips to help everyone eat, shop, and live green.Get the app here.
healthcare reform - and the winner is . . .
Over the past few weeks, I've been posting the 30 second commercials about healthcare reform done by amateurs and submitted to the Organizing for America campaign. I presume the one picked will air on TV soon. So here's the winner:
I Deserve Health Care
by Eric Hurt
This was my favorite:
Human Instinct
by Natalie Kaufman & Jeff Goldstone
You can see them all here.
I Deserve Health Care
by Eric Hurt
This was my favorite:
Human Instinct
by Natalie Kaufman & Jeff Goldstone
You can see them all here.
Saint Laurent's last belongings sold as his dog looks on
PARIS, Nov 17, 2009 (AFP) - From pots and pans to antique chandeliers, the last belongings from the homes of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge went on sale Tuesday 17 November, with the late fashion icon's bulldog looking on.
The celebrity bulldog, Moujik, joined scores of dealers and well-heeled seekers of YSL memorabilia for the four-day auction held in a Paris theatre just off the Champs Elysees boulevard.
"I'd like to have something that belonged to them in my home," said blonde Italian retiree Giuliana Giovannelli, hunting for something to distinguish her Parisian flat. "But nothing too expensive."
It was a slow start for some of the more expensive pieces, with a massive 19th Dutch chandelier and a large 16th century Chinese basin both going 50 percent below their top estimates of 60,000 euros (80,000 dollars).
But then a flurry of bids for smaller bric-a-brac sent prices flying.
The celebrity bulldog, Moujik, joined scores of dealers and well-heeled seekers of YSL memorabilia for the four-day auction held in a Paris theatre just off the Champs Elysees boulevard.
"I'd like to have something that belonged to them in my home," said blonde Italian retiree Giuliana Giovannelli, hunting for something to distinguish her Parisian flat. "But nothing too expensive."
It was a slow start for some of the more expensive pieces, with a massive 19th Dutch chandelier and a large 16th century Chinese basin both going 50 percent below their top estimates of 60,000 euros (80,000 dollars).
But then a flurry of bids for smaller bric-a-brac sent prices flying.
17 November 2009
a curated home
Photographer Anita Calero migrated to West Chelsea long before the current stampede of millionaires. Back in the 1990s, she rented a 2,000-square-foot loft in an artists’ condominium, which she then bought and began to reconfigure. Calero knocked wide doorways into several rooms, including the new eat-in kitchen with its major appliances carefully hidden from the adjacent spaces. The dining table and chairs are lightly restored Jean Prouvé “standard chairs,” with a faux-coral chandelier above (Calero frequents furniture dealers and flea markets). Of course, this kind of archaeology isn’t possible in the ultra-luxury apartments rising around Calero’s building.
letterpress kit giveaway
Did you ever want to do your own letterpress cards? Here's your chance. iDiy blog is giving away this do-it-yourself kit. Click here to see how to enter the contest.
Prize: The L Letterpress Combo Kit (valued at $149.99)Prize Ships: To USA or Canada address only
16 November 2009
madoff auction
They came to see evil. Instead, they found a creamer shaped like a cow.
“All this, bought with other people’s money,” murmured a woman staring at a table full of goods seized from the homes of Bernard L. Madoff that went up for auction Saturday at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.
Read more here.
“All this, bought with other people’s money,” murmured a woman staring at a table full of goods seized from the homes of Bernard L. Madoff that went up for auction Saturday at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.
Read more here.
13 November 2009
ingo maurer
My absolutely favorite lighting designer, Ingo Maurer, has a new design entitled Lacrime del Pescatore (Tears of the Fishermen). He says, "30 years ago, on the waters of the Venice lagoon I saw fisherman’s nets covered in thousands of water droplets. And as they sparkled in the early morning sun I was inspired to create lacrime del pescatore".
The fixture is made of three layered nylon nets dripping with 350 crystals and is one of the most eye-catching light installations this year. Lacrime del Pescatore gives the sensation of being underwater. Each individual crystal hangs suspended in the air, creating a phosphorescent glow reminiscent of the way light filters through water.
Available at Unica Home for $1,872.000
eva zeisel turns 103 today
Truly the matriarch of the industrial design, Zeisel has been producing her signature fluid looks since she was 18, and launched a new career as a furniture designer when she was in her 80s. Her career has spanned centuries, continents and cultural clashes, and the inventions that have occurred in her lifetime include the telephone, jetliner and penicillin, just to name a few.
Born in Hungary in 1906, Zeisel’s life has all the elements of a great novel, and in fact, part of her life inspired the book Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. (A timely read considering it’s the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.) It was May 1936 when everything changed for Zeisel. She was 29 years old and working as the artistic director of the China and Glass Industry in Russia – an important job that Zeisel says she got because of her “personal charm.” But charming or not, with the job came enemies, and one night “at 4am, the doors knocked and so began a different life.” Falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Stalin, Zeisel was sent to prison for 16 months, 12 of which were in solitary confinement. Her release happened as mysteriously as her arrest, and to this day, Zeisel doesn’t know how it happened. “I hadn’t seen any colors for a year and a half,” says the designer.
Despite this dark period in her life – and perhaps because of it – Zeisel is continually intrigued by what she calls her “playful search for beauty.” Upon her release from prison, she married Hans Zeisel. They lived in Vienna briefly, before the threat of Hitler made them leave for America. “I saw the Statue of Liberty and my fears came down. It was a very touching reception,” says Zeisel of her October 1938 arrival. The next day she went to the magazine China and Glass and was immediately commissioned for 10 ceramic miniatures for $100. She was also hired at New York’s Pratt Institute, where she became the first person to teach ceramics as industrial design for mass production, rather than handicraft.
Born in Hungary in 1906, Zeisel’s life has all the elements of a great novel, and in fact, part of her life inspired the book Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. (A timely read considering it’s the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.) It was May 1936 when everything changed for Zeisel. She was 29 years old and working as the artistic director of the China and Glass Industry in Russia – an important job that Zeisel says she got because of her “personal charm.” But charming or not, with the job came enemies, and one night “at 4am, the doors knocked and so began a different life.” Falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Stalin, Zeisel was sent to prison for 16 months, 12 of which were in solitary confinement. Her release happened as mysteriously as her arrest, and to this day, Zeisel doesn’t know how it happened. “I hadn’t seen any colors for a year and a half,” says the designer.
Despite this dark period in her life – and perhaps because of it – Zeisel is continually intrigued by what she calls her “playful search for beauty.” Upon her release from prison, she married Hans Zeisel. They lived in Vienna briefly, before the threat of Hitler made them leave for America. “I saw the Statue of Liberty and my fears came down. It was a very touching reception,” says Zeisel of her October 1938 arrival. The next day she went to the magazine China and Glass and was immediately commissioned for 10 ceramic miniatures for $100. She was also hired at New York’s Pratt Institute, where she became the first person to teach ceramics as industrial design for mass production, rather than handicraft.
A person of delightfully defiant spirit, Zeisel has never been one to follow the predictable path of the fashionable avant-garde. “I didn’t accept the purism of modern design,” she says. “In my definition, if it gave beauty to the eye, it was beauty.”
To learn more about the woman who many (including me) believe to be the most important ceramic designer of the 20th century, check out the documentary Throwing Curves – Eva Zeisel (click here for the trailer) and her talk at TED.
Gwendolyn Horton, dwr
12 November 2009
11 November 2009
choosing civility
"The quality of our lives is about treating each other well in every situation. We are all the trustees of one another's happiness and well-being in life."
*Dr. P.M. Forni ~
the iconic trench
Burberry has a new advertising effort called Art of the Trench, which features photos of trench-wearers from around the world. It began with a series of photos by Sartorialist's Scott Schuman (above), but now anyone can submit their own shots as well. Very clever!via otis & frank
kitchen sink dramas
For the literary-minded chef: Kitchen Sink Dramas tea towels, featuring pages from six Edwardian-era works of fiction, ranging from The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde to The Escape by Katherine Mansfield. The towels are available directly from Kitchen Sink Dramas; £14 per tea towel (or £75 for a set of all six tea towels).
10 November 2009
09 November 2009
another one bites the dust
Met Home obit
Hachette is folding Metropolitan Home magazine. Its December issue will be its last.
I heard rumors this morning, and now it has been confirmed in a press release.
It is with a feeling of sadness that I make the announcement to close one of our magazines," says Lemarchand. "However, we believe the best strategy in the upscale shelter segment is to boldly focus our resources and investment on ELLE DECOR, which is the ad-page leader within the U.S. market. Despite the downturn in ad pages that has affected all magazines, the ELLE DECOR brand has multiple opportunities for growth across all platforms."
via decorno
sweeping health care plan passes house
WASHINGTON — Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday night, advancing legislation that Democrats said could stand as their defining social policy achievement.After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Democrats said the legislation would provide overdue relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.
“This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and one of the chief architects of the bill.
Now it's on to the senate!
Read more here.
marimekko - new & improved
I chanced upon Marimekko's web site over the weekend. It seems they've been working hard and it shows. Their new look is fresh and hip again.
Marimekko Corporation is a leading Finnish textile and clothing design company that was established in 1951. The company designs, manufactures and markets high-quality clothing, interior decoration textiles, bags and other accessories under the Marimekko brand, both in Finland and abroad.
06 November 2009
it's complicated
Even though it doesn't come out until Christmas, I'm already excited to see It's Complicated, the romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. It's written and directed by Nancy Meyer, who also did Something's Gotta Give and What Women Want. I really love her strong, smart, funny, sexy older female characters.
And also, these two guys, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, will be hosting the Academy Awards this year, together!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)