You know that I’m a graphic and apparel designer… but did you know that I’m also a home designer? Neither did I, until recently. I’ve always been interested in the spaces that we call home… and those we call work, school, gym, restaurant, retail shop, etc. I’ve been stopping the car to tour model homes since the day I got my license, I have had architectural plans up on walls around my house for years for no apparent reason, and I’m a subscriber to several home design and architectural magazines…. how did I not see this coming? Anyway, I just stumbled upon Homestyler and it’s the most amazing thing I think i’ve ever found on the internet.
Autodesk has just launched this incredible home designe software that allows anyone and everyone to design their own home or space. The program works in both 2D plan view, and 3Dimensional view to give you great perspective on spacial relations throughout your project. It is set on a grid and allows you to make precise measurements of every aspect of the design. Since all elements are extremely alterable, you can make mistakes and fix them, change your mind and re-draft, or save and continue. This is amazing because it brings the advanced tools of the trade to anyone with an internet connection – and makes it even easier to try things.
My interest in living and working space design is this: I feel you can never underestimate the significant role that our environments and surroundings play in our attitudes and outlooks, both moment-to-moment and long term. I am approaching this venture more as “lifestyle design” than home design, as I think the ultimate goal is for the finished space to let its occupants naturally lead a certain desired lifestyle. In this, the space is innately emphasizing the pleasures and pass-times that cut to the core and essence of that lifestyle. Homestyler has already helped me find new ways to do this – it’s awesome.
In the spirit of Alice Waters and others like her, my favorite local coffee house/eatery has recently begun creating their own herb and vegetable garden immediately adjacent to the restaurant. Set in an area that is chalk-filled with environmentally conscious youth as well as body-conscious cougars, Alta’s focus on fresh and local produce is bound to boost its already soaring local cache.
Alta Coffee Warehouse & Roasting Co. (simply called “Alta”) is a great little bistro that roasts a slew of organic coffees and serves up some delectable healthy food options. It’s a no-brainer for vegetarians, vegans, and the like… but caters very well to us carnivores too. If you’re local to the Newport area and you’re between the ages of 15 and 35, you know Alta well and probably frequent the spot, especially past 9pm. It’s not tough to assume that Alta’s local vibe, vegan-esque menu, and proximity to Costa Mesa make it a hipster hangout. Come after 7pm any night and it’s wall-to-wall skinny jeans (on guys and girls), lots of flannel, newsboy hats, mustaches, tattoos, bibles and Nietzsche novels, fixed gear bicycles, cigarettes, chess boards, and boisterous social and political conjecture.
When I walked up with a friend yesterday, I saw a couple of the long-time waitresses pushing dirt in the planters next to the restaurant patio. They were planting zucchini and squash, herbs, tomatoes, and other vegetables and spices… all for use in cooking items off the restaurant menu. If you were scratching your head at my earlier Alice Waters reference, she is a well known American chef and co-owner of famed Berkeley California restaurant, Chez Panisse. She has spent the last decade plus promoting restaurants and foods that are organically grown in small, local farms. Through her strong influence in the Berkeley area, she has been able to implement her homegrown garden foods concepts into the curriculum throughout the entire Berkeley school district. Her “edible education” has been adopted to help the crisis with childhood obesity, and to educate youth about food quality and important health factors. If you don’t know Alice, maybe you’ve heard about Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef) and his Food Revolution to promote the youth of America to start eating healthier in schools.
Through people like Alice Waters and Jamie Oliver, processed and fast foods are becoming recognized for the counter-nutritional ‘lack-of-option’ options that they are… and a strong focus and premium has been placed on healthy, organically grown foods. If it takes the hipster crowd at Alta to keep that momentum going and to pass those values along to their kids in a few years, great. Kudos to Alta for recognizing the importance of an organic menu as much as an organic environment, and for making their values self-evident to anyone who eats there…. now all patrons have to do is look to their left and see the garden that produced the food on their plates.
ALTA COFFEE WAREHOUSE & ROASTING CO.
506 31st St., Newport Beach, CA, 92659
(949) 675-0233
Old Spice sells deodorant, after-shave, and body wash right? Hogwash! They sell ‘lady-getting’, and right now…. they sell comedy.
This new “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad campaign is a great mix of ridiculousness and genius. A good looking, svelte, black man goes from being in a shower, to on a boat, to on a horse, in 30 seconds… offering theatre tickets and diamonds to your lady along the way. All playing off the exaggerated, almost sarcastic idea that your man switching to Old Spice body wash will instantly turn him into the man of your dreams, yacht included. Not a single person watching these commercial takes even a glimmer of truth about the product claims to heart, and that’s just fine by Old Spice. The spots have been parodied all over television… the first one has been viewed 7.7 million times on youtube… and “I’m on a horse” is undoubtedly becoming part of daily conversation for guys in college and beyond. Is this destined for the immortal ranks of “where’s the beef”, “hey mikey, he likes it”, or “got milk?”?
I think it’s hilarious and can’t get enough, but I wonder if it’s selling body wash. Anyone know?
A friend of mine who works in sales for Ayres Hotel in Irvine just let me know about a great promotion they are running a cool promotion for the Rose Bowl.
It’s 9:21 am and I’m sitting at my desk in Corona Del Mar, CA waiting for the Burberry Prorsum runway show to begin…. in Milan! I’ve spent the last 15 minutes watching live streaming video that is constantly switching between an entry hall full of mingling guests and a podium venue rapidly filling up with spectators. Maybe this has happened before, but I certainly missed it if it did.
The world is shrinking via technology, we all know thins… but in the cases of entertainment and fashion, there has always been an inevitable lag. Milan Fashion Week is an institution. Only the top designers, fashion critics and writers, celebrities, etc. have had the freedom, funds, and (most importantly) invitations to attend. Live streaming video coverage of an event like this levels the playing field in a lot of ways – especially in the modern times where ‘Fast Fashion’ is taking a strangle hold on the women’s contemporary market. You better believe executives from Forever21 and H&M have designated designers and design assistants tuning in on their home computers as we speak.
Ok, lights went out in the auditorium and the show’s about to begin. I feel like i should silence my cell phone or something – this is awesome.
Update Post Show: The show was great. The line is strong and very military chic – several oversized coats in leather and soft wovens. Ultra tall collars seem to be the visual staple here, along with tailored trousers and brown mid-calf boots. I could have done without some of the heavy metallic banding, but all-in-all a great line.
Maybe the coolest part about this streaming live was that it was set up through facebook and twitter – so you can watch a constant dialogue of impressions on the consumer blogged and posted live as each new style walks down the runway.
Just when you thought this little guy was all about the cover songs… he surprises you with a little lyrical magic of his own! Mainakumana is destined to top the pop charts.
Perhaps all of you have known for awhile that you can download wordpress on your blackberry…. to write blog posts, complete with images, from your phone. Well, I was clearly not aware. This is fantastic.
I realize it’s been damn near 6 months since i last graced you with my presence…. but i just saw this and couldn’t hold back.
This kid is a true genius. I think you have to forget the fact that he doesn’t know, or sing, a single word of the English language (or any other dialect that i know of for that matter)…. because really, does anyone know the words to that Mraz song? Just respect this little guy for his talent on the guitar, and to carry the tune.
We’ve heard this question asked and answer 1,000 times in different, equally trite, ways… with romanticized examples and all. If I donate that $0.66 cents a day, I will make a difference in the life of a child. If I turn the lights off when I leave a room, or ride my bike instead of drive, I will be cutting down on some energy use and pollution emissions and therefore playing a role. So yes, it’s indisputable that one person can make some sort of difference; how much of a difference, or how influential that difference is… now that’s debatable.
I think about this kind of thing a lot -- but when I do, I’m usually thinking about the ‘difference’ that one person can make in the energy or perspective of people and things around them. I think about how laughter is contagious. How hearing, saying, or even reading the word yawn has the ability to actually make you yawn. (sorry if you’re yawning right now)(damn. I just did). Anyway, I came across this silly video that’s quickly become viral and is flying around the web because it’s of a guy in tight shorts dancing like a stooge by himself… and a couple other guys who quickly followed suit (probably in attempts to subtly mock the first guy). Regardless of their reason for joining, the 1 dancer becoming 3 grabs 3 times the attention. The 3 become 9… and the 9 becomes 81 (or hundreds. but you get the idea). Point is, stuff like this is about energy. There’s nothing more powerful than it, and nothing is more contagious. That said, positive energy is the most influential and invasive kind… whether that’s a smile, a compliment, an unconscious whistling, or a guy in tight, short shorts having a solo dance party.
There’s this great, cheap, fast sushi spot right by my office. It’s one of those conveyor belt places with the plates that zip around the room so you can grab ‘em as they pass. Yes, it is just as amazing as it sounds. I go there alone ALL THE TIME. I see nothing wrong with this. Of course I notice the awkward glances and expressions of pity on the faces of some other patrons, but I eat on – ego unscathed. It does get me thinking though… What’s with the social stigma about eating alone?
I just don’t get it. We’re all pretty much fine with spending time alone in our cars or at home… at least I hope we are. And yes, I know that’s different because those times are private and spent alone – so I can only deduce that this negative connotation about eating by ones self is less about the eating alone, and more about other people seeingyou eating alone. But that begs the question, what about all the other things people do alone, in public, with no qaulms? We take the bus/train/subway alone. We shop at the mall alone. We walk down the street alone. We go to the grocery store alone. And on and on and on. So THAT then begs the question, is it the aloneness? Or is it the eating? I guess it must be the eating. Ok, now we’re getting somewhere…
But wait – what about Starbucks (feel free to insert local trendy coffee ‘experience’ spot here) and the ever so popular Pinkberry (and now insert local trendy natural yogurt place here)? I see people in these places eating alone all the time. I do work in coffee houses sometimes and see people sitting in there for hours on end by themselves. And some of the yogurt stores practically pull up a chair and require that you sit back and chill for a bit in their ultra luxurious ‘lounge-like space’. People do this alone. People love this. But how is that possible when we’ve just established that it’s about the eating? These people are eating, or at least they’re ingesting some sort of substance, be it coffee or yogurt. So, if it’s not about the being alone.. and it’s not really about the eating… what IS it about? Unless…!!! Could it be the texture or solidity of what we’re eating/consuming that constitutes whether being alone is acceptable or unacceptable? [For example: Hamburger = not ok; Jamba Juice = perfectly fine; Jello/Flan/Custard = teetering right on the edge.] This must be it. Wow. This opens up a world of questions for me. Think I’m crazy?… Why don’t you run this notion up the flagpole a bit and take notice at your local eateries for a week or two before you roll your eyes at my now well-researched hypothesis.
Oh, and if I’m right… I think my sushi excursions are in the social stigma clear. Rice – soft. Raw fish – very soft. Miso soup, soy sauce, & ponzu – liquid. Tempura – uh oh.
