Archive for March 2006

Gizmodo points to Toshiba’s latest eco-project, TERRE (Toshiba’s Environmental Recovery and Recycling Effort). They’ll send a courier to collect old electronic equipment for safe and proper recycling andthen in four to six weeks, they will send you a new USB flash drive in the mail.

Toshiba Offers USB Flash Drives for Laptops, LCDs, PDAs - Gizmodo

Check out this insightful television advert from Zurich, an international financial service provider:

We have a survey to find out what type of folk read this site. Any chance, you could have a go at completing it? Thanks.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=121524787E2229

It’s rare in NYC when you get a second chance to see an event that you missed. Last night, old fave’s The Orb played in Brooklyn at Warsaw. Tonight they are down in DC, but for those NYC’ers that slept on the Brooklyn date, you’ve got another chance to catch them Saturday night. This is the final show on their US support tour for Okie Dokie released recently on Kompakt.

Why is this show worth seeing? ‘Techno’ for those genre subscribers, has moved back underground in recent years and has gotten more serious sounding. The Orb, while having finally fully transformed their sound to fit Kompakt’s aesthetic, still manages to be fun and enjoyable to listen to. Fehlmann opens the show with a short DJ set. Travel photo’s from Alex’s digital camera are projected on the screen behind him. It’s a nice personal touch.

Alex comes out and handles the audio while Thomas does visuals. The set last night was a mix of new stuff with a few classics. It sounded great and everyone was having a good time (something personally I’ve not seen at with techno recently) The visuals were cool and related to the tracks they played. Alex then finishes with a DJ set including some of the original tracks the Orb have sample from. There’s a few photo’s of the SF show here on flickr.

The Orb bids the US farewell tomorrow night at Avalon.

The infinite class of Planet Magazine returns with the latest Visionary Edition. San Francisco’s cultural niche publication delivers an intelligent mix of art design and music for modern movers and shakers.

Focus, the leading German news weekly, recently featured the Sheik of Chic –Majed Al-Sabah. The entrepreneur of celebrity status, who also happens to be the nephew of the country’s Prime Minister, stands proud amongst other fashion featured in Focus menswear supplement - Lagerfeld, Bathing Ape and Tom Ford.

The Focus menswear supplement was released at the beginning of this week and is available in Europe.

Earlier this week we showed a photo we took of a micro-apartment building in London’s Westminster near Victoria Station. Now, we find an article in the Times that explores the aims of the makers, Barratt.

The “Barratt iPad” is just 380 sq ft — 25 per cent smaller than an average 500 sq ft one-bedroom flat, but larger than a studio apartment.

The one-bedroom version, which includes a small lounge, dining area, fully fitted kitchen, double bedroom, fully fitted bathroom and balcony, will sell for between £80,000 and £120,000… Barratt has spent 18 months developing the concept and has already pre-sold its first 30 iPad homes in Middlesbrough.

A further 170 iPads are being built on six sites in areas including Sheffield and Hull, while another 1,600 are in the pipeline for locations including Leeds, Slough, Reading, Swansea, Kent and the Isle of Wight.

Times Article

Earlier this week we showed a photo we took of a micro-apartment building in London’s Westminster near Victoria Station. Now, we find an article in the Times that explores the aims of the makers, Barratt.

The “Barratt iPad” is just 380 sq ft — 25 per cent smaller than an average 500 sq ft one-bedroom flat, but larger than a studio apartment.

The one-bedroom version, which includes a small lounge, dining area, fully fitted kitchen, double bedroom, fully fitted bathroom and balcony, will sell for between £80,000 and £120,000… Barratt has spent 18 months developing the concept and has already pre-sold its first 30 iPad homes in Middlesbrough.

A further 170 iPads are being built on six sites in areas including Sheffield and Hull, while another 1,600 are in the pipeline for locations including Leeds, Slough, Reading, Swansea, Kent and the Isle of Wight.

Times Article

There’s a pretty lengthy article in New York mag about this concept of ‘Grups’ - thirty and forty somethings who refuse to grow up. It says:

It is a story about 40-year-old men and women who look, talk, act, and dress like people who are 22 years old. It’s not about a fad but about a phenomenon that looks to be permanent. It’s about the hedge-fund guy in Park Slope with the chunky square glasses, brown rock T-shirt, slight paunch, expensive jeans, Puma sneakers, and shoulder-slung messenger bag, with two kids squirming over his lap like itchy chimps at the Tea Lounge on Sunday morning. It’s about the mom in the low-slung Sevens and ankle boots and vaguely Berlin-art-scene blouse with the $800 stroller and the TV-screen-size Olsen-twins sunglasses perched on her head walking through Bryant Park listening to Death Cab for Cutie on her Nano.

Which in reality is a load of bollocks. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of thirty and forty year olds running around NYC city looking like a bunch of sloppy c-u-next Tuesdays (I’m probably one of them) - there is a trend here - but don’t think they’re imitating 22 year olds.

Personally, I don’t know many American 22 year olds who fit that description - there’s no mention of Hip Hop, text messaging, gaming or blow job parties. (Ok, ok, I Know: the parties are held by younger Americanos - but 22 year olds don’t wear Rogans - I promise you.

Anyway, do read the article as it has some great insight - but check your thinking and consider whether this trend is less about being young as about making steps to remain relevant, connected and youthful. They’re inventing their own version of youth and trying to ignore their mortality that they have now realized after their twenties.

Up With Grups - New York Magazine