Eat your morning toast on one of these Breakfast Boards from Elkedag.
25 January 2008
The Magic of the Market in Kreuzberg
I was feeling homesick for the Turkish Markets in Berlin today. It's a cold and rainy day and it reminds me of shopping at the wonderful, color-filled, noisy, busy markets in Kreuzberg. I found this video and it takes you through all the stalls there and you get a really nice sense of the bustle there. I sure miss all the wonderful spices, people and delicious cheeses.
21 January 2008
Mayer - Berlin
From the Mayer 2008 Summer Peace Collection.
This is from an older collection from Mayer. The red leather neck piece is separate from the coat.
The white is also from the 2007 Summer collection. You can see here how the white leather neck piece stands alone and is delicate and strong at the same time.
Heath Ceramics
Floor at Clear Creek Spa
These two installations caught my eye. Check out Heath's website and read their story. These are true artisans. I want to be on their staff - the staff profiles are great; what interesting people!
Entryway at the Maritime Hotel - NYC
{via Heath Ceramics}
Museum of Wonder Doo-Nanny: 12th Annual
Butch Anthony and many others are gearing up for the 12th Annual Museum of Wonder Doo-Nanny. Never seen before sights are the focus of the party. Seale, Alabama. March 29th 2008.
17 January 2008
Berlin's Environmental Zone
Since the start of the year, drivers to the inner city of Berlin - the 88-square kilometer area inside the subway 'ring' - must display badges to show their cars meet new rules for particulate and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions. Cars without badges are subject to the not-too hefty ticket price of 40 Euros (US$58) and a penalty point on the errant driver's license. Police say they will go easy on delinquents in the first couple of months. Altogether about 1.7 million older diesel cars and gas cars without catalytic converters will be too polluting to meet the new emission requirements and are thus banned from the heart of Berlin as well as Cologne and Hanover. Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Munich as well as 14 other cities will all deploy the system later this year. 
In Berlin's 'green' zone, eventually only cars with a green badge will be able to pass go. In 2010 the emissions law will be further tightened, and only 'green badge' cars will be able to go into the inner city zones. Perhaps the measure will put even more Berliners on their bikes and help the city reach its goal of 15 percent of city traffic made up on cyclists.
Via Berlin.de
14 January 2008
The Octopus has more arms than the Sock Monkey
Pretty Socktopus from Elsewares. The Socktopus is the seafaring cousin of the famous Sock Monkey. Made from real recycled sweaters.
We Can do This: Eco-Design Game
Here's a chance to create innovative ideas about recycling and re-tooling design - in a board GAME. Got to love it!The latest from playrethink. The game is about creating new functions for standard, everyday bits; grocery trollies, tables, old books.
Pema Chödrön - Troublemakers
Here is the link to Pema's video on the Troublemakers in our lives.
She has written a number of wonderful books and her latest book, Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns and Encountering Naked Reality, is a powerful piece.
Bike Nation - Can the US do IT?
Congressman Earl Blumenauer was in Portland this week to kickstart a fundraising campaign for his re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives.{via Bike Portland}
In recent weeks, the media has taken note of Blumenauer’s rising position of influence in the halls of Congress and his reputation as the “bike guy” on Capitol Hill.
“It’s about changing land-use patterns so you don’t have to burn a gallon of gas to buy a gallon of milk.”
Much of his talk focused on the example Portland is setting for the entire nation. He called Portland, “the epicenter of an American cycling revolution.” He spoke about our campaign to establish a network of bike friendly streets and said, “families cycling on bicycle boulevards are an indicator species of a livable community.”
He also rallied the troops and spoke of the critical importance of a “citizen infrastructure…the people who’ve decided that they’re going to make a difference.” Blumenauer wants to, “make the cycling community a powerful political force”. He said that if one million “cycling fanatics” around the country could get together than it would have “a transformational effect on politics.”
(Anyone up for organizing a One Million Man (and Woman) Ride to Washington?)
Here’s what Blumenauer said about the climate change crisis:
“We’ve got about 10 years to turn around the global warming equation. We’ve got an 80% reduction by 2050, which means we’ve got to get started on it now; it’s energy, it’s transportation, and it’s land use, and the bicycle is something that can bring people together that can make a difference in a hurry, and start changing the way we that regard how we work with one another, how we deal with natural resources, how we live a little lighter on the planet. So this isn’t just about bicycle advocacy, this is about saving the world, and healing the political process.”
Blumenauer also stressed the importance of taking advantage of the current political climate in Washington:
“We’re going into a three year window of opportunity that is unparalleled. We have 378 days until there is a new administration, and in that period of time, we’re going to be setting the table legislatively and politically.”
Blumenauer said that he guarantees that no matter who the next president is, “he or she will be much more receptive to what we’re trying to do, without question.”
As for the recently defeated Bike Commuter Benefit, Blumenauer was upbeat and spoke of a silver lining,
“We got a bike commuter benefit through the House twice this year…it was the Republican road block in the Senate that knocked it out, but we’re going to get there. We’ve now got people in the House Ways and Means Committee that agree it makes sense…and the good news of them knocking it out is that we’re going to be able to raise it when it gets back in, it’s going to be a bigger number. It’s the sort of thing that will level the playing field. We don’t even have to level the playing field, but if we just don’t tilt it quite so much against cyclists and pedestrians I think it will make a huge difference.”
And on the next Transportation Bill, which is up again in the next Congress, Blumenauer said the cycling stars are coming into alignment with Jim Oberstar — the “#1 cycling advocate who’s ever served in Congress” — is in line to become chair of the House Transportation Committee.
Blumenauer said Oberstar’s leadership of that committee will be “transformational” and “profound”. He also said that Oberstar is convinced that what Portland has done with cycling, transit and land use is “part of what’s going to save America.”
Blumenauer also noted that the chair of the House Subcommittee on Transportation will be Oregon’s other bike-friendly congressman, Peter DeFazio.
But Blumenauer also warned of some storm clouds ahead. He said the Transportation Fund is going into deficit next year for the first time in history and that he “wants to make sure we don’t have to have a food fight for table scraps over transportation.”
Blumenauer seemed to pin much hope on a grassroots, citizen-led movement for bikes. He closed his talk by saying,
We’ve got to transform this into a national movement. We’re making progress, we’ve got a great opportunity, but it’s going to be tough sledding because there’s lots of competition and we’ve got some significant hurdles to overcome.
Polish Pavilion
This is a rendering of the conceptual design for the Polish Expo Pavilion for the 2010 Exposition. Architects Wojciech Kakowski, Natalia Paszkowska, and Marcin Mostafa will be designing the Polish Pavilion for Shanghai's World Expo in 2010.The building's design, the architects write in a mass-circulated press release, was required to "denote, by its esthetic distinctiveness, the country of origin," and it had to "constitute, by the strength of its stylistic connotations, an evocative, recognizable and memorable cultural ideogram."
In this case, the "cultural ideogram" their winning design was meant to embody is "the motif of folk-art paper cut-out[s]."
{via BLDGBLOG}
10 January 2008
Winter Warmest - Funny
This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. You can actually purchase this at Scandinavian Grace. This is almost as funny as a tattoo I once saw on the inside of an index finger. It was a mustache and by making the little-kid mustache gesture with a finger - viola! - you are mustachioed!{evidently - there's a whole community of finger mustache people}
Advice for Femmentrepreneurs
Here's a link to Mogulette blog. Carmina Pérez offers up advice and interesting bits on technology, networking, online communities, and business. She was recently featured in the New York Times. Go Carmina!
09 January 2008
A Dozen Pencils
Yuta Watanbe has put out a series of clever takes on a pencil. This one allows you to personalize your pencil.
07 January 2008
Transforming the Idea of a Kitchen
This post comes from the YDN Design Guide (you can subscribe to their video podcasts here). With this installation Mike Meiré wants to bring life back into the kitchen, thereby creating an antithesis to the minimalist design that has taken over this space in recent years. He believes in the social dynamic of the kitchen and plays to the functional space that is the center of a home's community.
“The Farm Project” is an improvised living space, filled with materials, animals, plants, and objects.
“The Farm Project” is an improvised living space, filled with materials, animals, plants, and objects.
Community
In 2006, after touring the world over, the Icelandic band, Sigur Rós, went back to Iceland to give a series of free, unannounced concerts to their public. They traveled to out of the way villages and communities - often playing outdoors or in small cafes, even an abandoned fishery made the list. As they detail in their documentary film (released November 2007), they did the tour because they felt like it was something they had to do to show respect for they community from which they came. News of the tour was passed along largely by word of mouth and was visited by young and old, families and friends to celebrate music, nature - beauty. Wow. Sigur Rós is joined by the female Icelandic quartet, Amiina on the documentary who are quite legendary in their own right.
Needless to say, the footage is breathtaking. The documentary comes with a spectacular book with photos printed on sublime paper. An amazing band and film. All made in a grand gesture of appreciation, humility and reverence for community.
Needless to say, the footage is breathtaking. The documentary comes with a spectacular book with photos printed on sublime paper. An amazing band and film. All made in a grand gesture of appreciation, humility and reverence for community.
Story of Stuff
This is an interesting series of videos designed to outline the process of how we consume. She specifically targets the concept of perceived obsolesce. This fast-paced, fact-filled video shakedown is cleverly made and artfully presented.
Traffic - Motivation
Check out how this fellow beats the bus.
He describes his journey starting out with the bus and details how he ends up passing them up "never to be seen again."
He describes his journey starting out with the bus and details how he ends up passing them up "never to be seen again."
Trees - GreenBelt
Isabel Allende's speech at the TED conference mentioned Wangari Matthai of Kenya. It prompted to learn more about what she is doing and how she is doing it. She was the 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Check out her work and her Green Belt Movement.
Innovative Food
I recently visited Chicago and learned of the creations that Grant Achatz and his staff are developing in their kitchens at Alinea. Take a look at the Gallery - exciting food that's off the innovative charts.
Isabel Allende - Tales of Passion
Here is a lovely clip from author Isabel Allende's talk at the 2007 TED conference. It is such a pleasure to hear someone talk with such beauty, conviction and insight. This is supercharged inspiration for 2008.
Improvisation - Composition
Loads of people probably already know about this amazing woman, Jennifer Lin. This is an older TED video that features her taking the piano by the horns. She talks about the "state of flow" and allowing yourself to create and improvise. At the time of this video, she was 14.
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