DOCUMENT Magazine

My friend Kevin (from the One City Left project) just released his next exciting project: a magazine called DOCUMENT. In his words:


Kevin asked me if I might write something for the debut issue, and the phrase "cultural journal" made my ears perk all the way up. At the time I was thinking a lot about how the economy was manifesting itself in culture – especially here in New York – and I had just written a thing about it. I decided to adapt and tweak the thoughts for the magazine, including newer stuff that had surfaced since I had originally written it.

When Kevin pitched the idea to me, he mentioned that the written and artistic pieces would be packaged in a slightly nontraditional way: unbound and in a box, available at different locations around Toronto. I was very excited to finally receive a copy in the mail last week.




The whole project turned out pretty great! I loved Kevin's piece about an architect who takes her inspiration from animal behavior. There are some quotes and photography sprinkled throughout as well that are 100% inspiring.


My favorite quote (and something I think a lot about):


Give DOCUMENT a visit – you can even download a PDF version. Stay tuned for Issue 2 :]

Urban Outfitters custom bikes

Most of the emails I get from Urban Outfitters look like words cut out of construction paper with some glitter thrown in. That in itself is not a problem, but usually if a clothing store sends me emails, I kind of want to see clothing in them – something other than the fact that I got an email has to make me want to click on it.

That's why I thought the imagery in today's email was of the "lifestyle photography /aesthetics" variety. Looking a bit closer, though, I noticed that Urban now has a bike store.


They have nice, candy-like colors, and a few different parts on the bikes that you can apply them to. I spent the next few minutes wasting my time designing one:


Which is pretty cool, since it kept me on their site longer than they ever have with any other email. I have been playing with the idea of being in the market for a bike (I love my own, but it is SO heavy and unwieldy), and this helped me think a little bit about the stuff I should take into consideration, should that idea ever become a reality.

If someone were to want to go all out with customization, this may not be the best place to go: you only seem to be able to get one kind of frame, one style of handlebars, one type of seat, etc. On the other end of the spectrum is Mission Bicycle Company, which lets you customize a bike so incredibly much that you are out of luck if you don't know a ton about how bikes work:


So maybe the Urban Outfitters bike shop isn't for a hyper serious cyclist, or one who isn't as picky about building a bike with options in a million different places. It's kind of build-a-bike for beginners, if you will. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with that... it actually kind of fits with how I perceive the brand. I – as pretty much everyone else – have had some issues with Urban Outfitters in the past, but this is one of the more interesting things I've seen them do lately.

Give me some Japanese phones, please.

Let me tell you about one of my favorite people. His name is Fumio, he lives in Kyoto, and he found me on Flickr at around the time I was starting to learn Japanese. Over time we became friends, communicating only through Flickr comments. It was a pretty cool dynamic, because our conversations were always sparked by something visual.

Anyway. You probably pretty much know that I am into Japan. Or if you are new to this blog, guess what: I am into Japan. Now, here is a wonderful thing. If it is:

a) Japanese
b) cute
c) flat

Fumio will send it. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, an exciting package came in the mail.


That is a preview; I will write about the issue of Brutus in a couple of days. When I wrote this post, I saw two pretty different thoughts happening, so I split them. Stay tuned.

The rest of the package made me a combination of wistful (I miss working on Nokia); jealous (of living in a place with mobile infrastructure about 5 years behind Japan and parts of Europe); and delighted (with everything). Behold a pretty comprehensive collection of carrier catalogues:


Here is a section that struck out at me from the iida one:


There were a couple of pages with phones in this red /white /dots theme, and that woman was in them also. Fumio let me know that it was Yayoi Kusama. I must a complete twit, because Wikipedia informed me that something of hers recently went for over $5 million at Christie's.

Anyway, the spread displays a line of Yayoi Kusama-designed phones, brought to you by iida. This a really good idea – are you listening, U.S. carriers? Commission a big artist to design a line of phones with a handset manufacturer, and make them only available through you. Do you know how collect-y art fans are? If KAWS were to design a line of handsets, do.you.have.any.idea how many kids would sleep outside of your store in the pouring rain, attracting camera crews, to buy every single one in the collection? Do you know how much eBay would blow up? Please stop releasing skinny phones that play 20 MP3s and do something that people can't get somewhere else.

Back to phones, and back to my jealousy. This design (hardware) and presentation makes me feel like I slept in on a Saturday,


While this one makes me feel like I'm in an MRI (which Noah described once as feeling like you're in a German techno club):


This blurb (?) makes me want to play with Tinker Toys,


And this one:


makes me want to... I don't know, go to a big box retailer or something.

I don't really have a point here, other than to share the delight with you and wish for a bigger culture of cute here. We wouldn't lose our credibility, guys, promise. We don't need Times New Roman on a navy background for credibility. And we certainly don't need stock photography for it, either :B

Synesthesia

This one will be short and lovely, guys. Not lovely on my part, but lovely on Terri Timely's part. They have put together a little video called Synesthesia; by the time three of my friends had sent me the link, I knew there must be a great reason for checking it out. This gem has been making its way around the web, and for good reason. See what I mean:

Synesthesia from Terri Timely on Vimeo.

The most delightful thing I have seen in a long, long time. I loved watching the kid sticking his headphone jack into different foods – especially the octopus tentacle and the turnip. And the mom slicing up the words for dinner? Brilliant. Just fantastic. I also personally love that synesthesia is getting a bit of attention now, as well ^_^

Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!http://sircle.net/

Green Poll

Are any of you guys in a band? You'll want to read this then...

Green Man is an annual, three-day music festival in Wales, happening in late August. It has a really great-sounding lineup (more on this later), and you could be on the bill too, maybe.

Last week, I got a note from one of the Green Man guys, Rob, about a band contest they're having called Green Poll. All you have to do is register your band, upload a video, and wait for people to vote for you. The winner gets to not just play at the festival, but open the whole thing as the first band to play on the main stage. You would also get 6 free tickets for friends and family to see the whole thing, too. And you'd definitely be in good company, sharing the bill with Animal Collective, British Sea Power, Beach House, Four Tet, Grizzly Bear, Camera Obscura, and Gang Gang Dance, among many others. wow!


Hurry up - you have a week left. Just go to the Green Poll 2009 site and upload a video of your band (signed or unsigned) playing a song. That's it. Your peers will vote through two rounds, and the top 6 bands will get to compete in a Battle of the Bands competition at the end of July. A panel of music industry guys will then pick the winner to open Green Man 2009.

Here is a quick recap from their site:

Round 1 - Voting closes at midnight on June 28 and the top 20 bands with the most votes go through to…

Round 2 - Voting closes at midnight on July 12 and the top 6 bands with the most votes go through to…

Grand Final - A live Battle Of The Bands contest in London on July 23rd to find one lucky winner to open Green Man 2009 judged by a panel of music industry boffins

If any of you win, maybe I'll make the trip to watch it myself also :) good luck!