29 August 2011
aren't these fun?
I would love to have a few of these around just for the fun of it. The “Roo” seat is from manufacturer, Woodnotes.
28 August 2011
postcard from provence
27 August 2011
26 August 2011
color forecast
Promostyl : Key Colours Winter 2011/12
A season under the sign of « revivals » of all kinds! Stubborn colours are injected into stimulating, creative and economic collections for brand new harmonies! Promostyl, international trend research and design agency, presents the key colours for Winter 2011/12.
MANY-COLORED
A merry-go-round of winter brights: dense, matte and warm. Coloring and recycling of bits of yarn and scraps of paper to dress up and to play. Disorderly associations of the blue-yellow-red trio – with a preference for Malachite blue, Saffron yellow and Crimson pink.
Visit Promostyl website to find out about exclusive fashion information: http://www.promostyl.com/
A season under the sign of « revivals » of all kinds! Stubborn colours are injected into stimulating, creative and economic collections for brand new harmonies! Promostyl, international trend research and design agency, presents the key colours for Winter 2011/12.
STONE
A neutral, persistent shade – soft and all-purpose, like a pebble, a trench-coat or the famous raincoat by the renowned British ready-to-wear brand. The synthesis of grey, beige, of greige and nude tints – not too light, not too dark. The embodiment of unisex, uniform, universal…
POMEGRANATE
An ambivalent color: suave and precious, edible and cosmetic, halfway between pink and red. Rich and sensual contrasts with rugged, velvety, matte, moist and varnished textures.
BRASS & CO
The exact opposite of show-off gold: a muted trend with tarnished bronze and brass tints. Worn and oxidized treasures and neo-camouflage patterns with speckled moths and night-flies.
MISTS
Five veiled colors in half-tones. A quiet monochrome of discreet colors and felted, marled textures. Gentle passages from cold to warm, from crystal to felt and cashmere, from nostalgia to modernity…
A merry-go-round of winter brights: dense, matte and warm. Coloring and recycling of bits of yarn and scraps of paper to dress up and to play. Disorderly associations of the blue-yellow-red trio – with a preference for Malachite blue, Saffron yellow and Crimson pink.
Visit Promostyl website to find out about exclusive fashion information: http://www.promostyl.com/
22 August 2011
new blog alert
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19 August 2011
casa olivi
Casa Olivi is an XVIIIth century farm in the Marches, a gorgeous region in Italy commonly referred to as the "other Tuscany". The farm has been renovated and remodeled using stone and wood and sparingly furnished and available for rent at the small price of 4.200 € - 8.400 € per week depending on the season. That's $6,000 to $12,000. It does sleep 11. One can always dream!
More about this beauty here.
{Photos Gaelle Le Boulicaut}
via French By Design
More about this beauty here.
{Photos Gaelle Le Boulicaut}
18 August 2011
if your house was burning, what would you take with you?
The latest addition to the retailer Anthropologie's "Anthropogist" series is entitled "The Burning House". In it photographer Foster Huntington documents what one would save in the face of a fire. It's effect on the 23-year-old has been significant. Says Huntington, "Seeing other people's photos and hearing stories of those who have actually lost everything has forced me to reevaluate and condense." As he learned the definition of the word "irreplaceable" is quite subjective, and shifts considerably with age.
This got my attention because we live in a high-fire danger area. We're supposed to be ready at a moment's notice to be able to evacuate, have everything packed and ready to go by the door. Of course we're not ready. After living here for three years, it's high-time we get serious!
Here's a few of the "collections".
This got my attention because we live in a high-fire danger area. We're supposed to be ready at a moment's notice to be able to evacuate, have everything packed and ready to go by the door. Of course we're not ready. After living here for three years, it's high-time we get serious!
Here's a few of the "collections".
The author's
Baby Boomer: Denise Fike, age 58
Gen X: Melia Marden & Frank Sisiti Jr, age 30s
iGeneration: Antonio Blanchett, age 10
Millennial: Eric Elliott, age 22
17 August 2011
pot calling the kettle black
Abercrombie & Fitch wants clothes off Jersey Shore
This is beyond stupid . . . .
NEW YORK | Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - Teen clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co has offered money to get away from what it sees as an undesirable Situation.
The preppy retailer has offered to pay cast members from MTV's popular show "Jersey Shore" to stop wearing its clothes, it said in a news release late Tuesday.
The company is "deeply concerned" that Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino "could cause significant damage" to the brand's "aspirational nature."
"Jersey Shore" features a cast of twenty-something Italian Americans partying, tanning and complaining about their jobs at a beach-front T-shirt stand.
The offer could be considered an abrupt about-face for a company that previously sold T-shirts emblazoned with the wording "The Fitchuation."
I think both they're images are pretty repulsive.
I've never watched "Jersey Shore" and even though I've purchased from Abercrombie, I refuse to use their bags with naked white men on them.
Read more here.
Follow-up: Abercrombie Wants Off ‘Jersey Shore’ (Wink-Wink), Click here.
This is beyond stupid . . . .
NEW YORK | Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - Teen clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co has offered money to get away from what it sees as an undesirable Situation.
The company is "deeply concerned" that Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino "could cause significant damage" to the brand's "aspirational nature."
"Jersey Shore" features a cast of twenty-something Italian Americans partying, tanning and complaining about their jobs at a beach-front T-shirt stand.
The offer could be considered an abrupt about-face for a company that previously sold T-shirts emblazoned with the wording "The Fitchuation."
I think both they're images are pretty repulsive.
I've never watched "Jersey Shore" and even though I've purchased from Abercrombie, I refuse to use their bags with naked white men on them.
Read more here.
Follow-up: Abercrombie Wants Off ‘Jersey Shore’ (Wink-Wink), Click here.
16 August 2011
an inconvenient truth - revisited
It's amazing how the same issues are with us six years forward. What the documentary has to say is still highly relevant. Climate change is still a political football with people in influentiual places still denying it exists.
But I think the most compelling thought that comes to mind when I watch Al Gore is how much different this country, in fact this world would be if he'd been allowed to become president.
There most certainly would have been no Iraq war and possibly no financial crisis. Beyond that is conjecture. But I know things would have been radically different, for the better.
He introduces himself saying he "used to be known as the next president of the United States". As the crowd laughs, he says that isn't something to joke about. I agree!
You can still catch a few repeat broadcasts on Current TV of "An Inconvenient Truth". If you don't get Current TV, you can get a copy of the documentary on Amazon or at your local retailer. Or rent it at Netflix.
12 August 2011
10 August 2011
postcard from provence
07 August 2011
05 August 2011
29 July 2011
postcard from provence
a plea from new orleans
Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in New Orleans, which despite its standing as a rare and important work of modern architecture (one of the best examples of regional modernism in the city), and despite surviving the storms and levee breach of 2005, is currently slated for demolition in August. DOCOMOMO Louisiana and the World Monuments Fund, which listed the school on its Watch List in 2010, are lobbying to save the building through adaptive reuse. The school was designed by architect Charles Colbert in 1955; Colbert considered it his highest achievement in architecture and planning. It incorporated both traditional and innovative design ideas, like an elevated structure for flooding and natural ventilation, and a playground beneath its cantilevered wings.
Filmmaker Evan Mather has created a short documentary illustrating the importance of saving this structure.
The video does a great job putting the structure in context, both in terms of the neighborhood (it's in the African-American neighborhood of Tremé—and in fact the film is narrated by actor Wendell Pierce, of the TV show "Treme") and the history of architecture and architectural appreciation in New Orleans and the U.S. As John Stubbs, Vice President for Field Projects at the WMF, says in the film: "Preserving modern architecture in the United States is somewhat an uphill battle for historic preservationists because it's art and architecture of the recent past." He also points out, quite significantly, that "if Wheatley School is lost through demolition, it will be the first site on the monument Watch List to have died in our arms."
The video is essentially a call to action; at the end, Mather lists the phone numbers for the city's mayor and the superintendents of the school district and school board. Saving this school will cost the same as tearing it down and replacing it—and it's well worth preserving.
A Plea For Modernism from Evan Mather on Vimeo.
Click here to sign the on-line petition to save Phillis Wheatley Elementary School.
Filmmaker Evan Mather has created a short documentary illustrating the importance of saving this structure.
The video does a great job putting the structure in context, both in terms of the neighborhood (it's in the African-American neighborhood of Tremé—and in fact the film is narrated by actor Wendell Pierce, of the TV show "Treme") and the history of architecture and architectural appreciation in New Orleans and the U.S. As John Stubbs, Vice President for Field Projects at the WMF, says in the film: "Preserving modern architecture in the United States is somewhat an uphill battle for historic preservationists because it's art and architecture of the recent past." He also points out, quite significantly, that "if Wheatley School is lost through demolition, it will be the first site on the monument Watch List to have died in our arms."
The video is essentially a call to action; at the end, Mather lists the phone numbers for the city's mayor and the superintendents of the school district and school board. Saving this school will cost the same as tearing it down and replacing it—and it's well worth preserving.
A Plea For Modernism from Evan Mather on Vimeo.
Click here to sign the on-line petition to save Phillis Wheatley Elementary School.
dieter rams: as little design as possible
A few weeks ago I blogged about Dieter Rams, the head designer at the German company Braun from 1955 to 1995. Recently Design Addict blogged about a new book that profiles the products he designed and the philosophy he used to create them.
Dieter Rams is one of the most influential product designers of the twentieth century. Even if you don’t immediately recognize his name, you have almost certainly used one of the radios, clocks, lighters, juicers, shelves or hundreds of other products he designed.
He is famous not only for this vast array of well-formed products, but for his remarkably prescient ideas about the correct function of design in the messy, out-of-control world we inhabit today.
These ideas are summed up in his ‘ten principles’ of good design: Good design is innovative, useful, and aesthetic. Good design should make a product easily understood. Good design is unobtrusive, honest, durable, thorough, and concerned with the environment. Most of all, good design is as little design as possible.
Photographer Florian Böhm was invited to document the archive and Rams' house, providing a previously unseen look at the world of Dieter Rams.
Read more and see more photos at Design Addict.
Read a delightful review of the book in the NY Times here.
He is famous not only for this vast array of well-formed products, but for his remarkably prescient ideas about the correct function of design in the messy, out-of-control world we inhabit today.
Photographer Florian Böhm was invited to document the archive and Rams' house, providing a previously unseen look at the world of Dieter Rams.
Read a delightful review of the book in the NY Times here.
Book for sale on Amazon: Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible
By Sophie Lovell and Klaus Kemp - Foreword by Jonathan Ive
Edited by Phaidon Press
By Sophie Lovell and Klaus Kemp - Foreword by Jonathan Ive
Edited by Phaidon Press
26 July 2011
22 July 2011
15 July 2011
postcard from provence
20cm x 13cm (8"x5") oil on board
To be auctioned over 24hrs.
Auction starts;
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14 July 2011
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