The Brilliance!

HTTP://WWW.THEBRILLIANCE.COM

We’re really internet and we’re really back. A website about things Benjamin , Chuck , Virgil , and various friends & guests think are interesting. Little-to-no specific focus, a bit odd, speling errors, and incredibly culturally relevant.

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Space!

Left-field. Check the link below for the ‘Deep Space’ images from the Hubble telescope. Not exactly sure how to make a whole post about this. But I spent a good 2 hours looking at these. They are just so incredible looking. And they got them in hi-res for free! Snatched. I was that 6 year old kid at the library looking at the Space Shuttle and space type books like crazy. Something about it. So intense to me. The whole idea of how far away from earth these objects are. Jeez. So nuts. So check the link and waste some time. Bar Divani…I’m on my way.

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BPM - Steve Aoki and Mark Hunter!

Come on homie we major. Steve Aoki is cold doing his thing. And so is Mark Hunter…that dude the Cobra Snake. Ssssss. BPM has ‘slammin’ features both of them with a thorough looking Steve aka Kid Millionaire all-up-on the cover. I love the whole vibe of what these guys are doing. Perfect mix of indie and business. Who could have imagined what Mark The Cobra Snake has turned into. The dude ‘makes’ a party…niche promotions at its finest. And Steve Aoki is DJing and doing promotions for damn near every party that matters these days. I love to see these things happen. But yeah, the magazine is a good read…shout to Jesse for the copy. So pick it up and support the ‘indie mafia’ movement as they call it. I don’t know the link to BPM’s site…so here is Steve’s MySpace page.

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Farm 21 Sale!!

I just posted about Farm 21 about a week or two ago. We usually stay away from posting about the same thing twice, but this is an exception. Farm21 is having a sale on a ton of stuff. Their lamps are marked down from $350 to $105 for example (for select pieces) resin lamps marked down, large and mini straw/moss/cork/white rose filled cubes are marked down, for example for the moss cube, from $800 to $280! Pretty good. You could really design an entire space around one of these cubes. I love them. Also, their lichen box-top lucite coffee table is marked down from $2,300 to $980! Pretty good if you are on the market for a beautiful piece. Anyways, what’s up to Sasha at Farm21. Thanks for the heads up on this. Get over there and by yourself that cork filled box you wanted for Christmas.

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Ikea: We won’t stop, because we can’t stop.

I thought I told you that we won’t stop. Take that, take that. Sorry…the little Diddy style intro was corny. Look…I love Ikea. I don’t care what any of the furniture snobs say. Because we all know they have some Ikea in their homes as well. So I was walking thru the corporate headquarters entry-way of one of my client’s today…and the November 14th issue of Business Week with the Ikea cover story caught my eye. Wow. What a wild look at the inside of Ikea and what makes them so unbelievable. They, along with Apple and others, epitomize what a ‘cult’ brand is. Did you know they only have 12 full-time designers? 80 freelancers…but still, 12 seems so small. Must be a wild to work there. Anyway…from their designs, their price points, their marketing, their manufacturing outsourcing, their intensely intricate demographic research, their insane profit margin, their growth-pattern etc…they are hands down one of the most fascinating brands to watch and learn from. Really…they are so inspiring. Side note, I was at the new Ikea in Bolingbrook this weekend…fun trip as always….but I wouldn’t recommend the $.99 breakfast. The article is split up on Business Week’s site, so just search ‘Ikea’.

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Forbes 150 Places to Live Rich

I’m loving this…This is a great resource right here, besides the fact that there is no text-only list, and you have to go through this stupid slideshow method to see each place. But anyways, Forbes has published a list of 150 places to live and get more bang for your buck. I live in a pretty small suburb outside Chicago right now, so it’s definitely affordable but nothing really special about the area. Reading this article and list got me interested in the idea of someday just up and leaving to a place like Oregon or North Dakota or something, living large and comfortably, but not paying even half of what it would cost in say NY or Chicago or LA or wherever. I’ll never move to NY anyways, it’s just way too much for my lifestyle and taste. I love the thought of a smaller, tightly-knit community where you could know most everyone and be very low-key. A few things on this list however do NOT excite me, like the description and picture they gave to Fayetteville, AR. The picture next to it’s description is a photo of Wal-Mart…Sorry, but if the best thing your town has going is Wal-Mart, your town is officially boring and probably has an abundance of overalls and a lack of teeth. Ben’s city is on here, Grand Rapids…and Bloomington, IL is on there which I visit quite often…but then Miami is on there too. So there are good reasons to live in different spots for all different financial and economical reasons, and this list just kind of outlines the details. Oregon and New Mexico look very interesting to me…hmm…The article talks about what they call a ‘Geographic Arbitrageur’ - someone who essentially does what the article talks about. Lives in a smaller city, but gets paid and lives as if they were in big city life. YA RLY.

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OMG NYC Real Estate!

Been a while since I did one of these. Let’s go. ONE—> This is it…seriously. El perfecto. I’m not even going to write any comments, its too good. But not for sale? TWO—> Yikes…$10.2M. Ridiculous. But it’s a beautiful space. The furniture is terrible, but look at the stairs! THREE—> Yet another ridiculously expensive space. But again, check the stairs! This one is nuts. 4000 sq ft just in terraces! Get it how you live I guess. That’s it for this post. Honestly…just check the first one, that’s what prompted this whole post. I used to hit the kitchen lights, cockroaches everywhere. Hit the kitchen lights, now its marble floors everywhere.

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Who Cares?!?!

This is similar to those ‘Deep Thoughts’ post we make. Nothing here is worthy of its own post…just some random whatevers…...............but who cares?!?!
+ Me in Air Max 90s? I’m considering switching out from Stan Smiths. I’m serious too. Chuck doesn’t believe me. I’m getting sick of white-whites…been rocking them for like 4+ years straight. Who cares?!
+ I saw some news article about people who waited in line for 2 days at a Niketown in NYC for some sneakers. I’m sorry, but that is just dumb. Big dummy status. Get a…
+ I went to…get this…a high school football game this weekend. It was a favor for a friend. I felt terribly out of place. But at the same time it was kind of fun. Only because I had my Treo.
+ This ‘Big Boi Presents: Got Purp?’ is a great CD for real. Just listened to the whole thing. The ‘Kryptonite’ track…yessur.
+ Thanksgiving in the Chicagoland area. Super-thick crowds on Friday, $27 3-hour parking, someone insisting we get popcorn from Garrett’s, etc…but I can’t wait. Big shout out to my family.

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Puff (1) Lox (0)...

I like Styles P, I like Jada as well. But Puff is the epitome of true business. Good chance I’ll get a little ‘e-hate’ over this. But I felt like posting…and that’s just whats up. I couldn’t agree more with these quotes and Puff’s whole response. Handle your business, handle your life…just handle it. If you don’t like your current situation then you need to sit down with the parties involved and work through it. Don’t gossip, slander, act gangster, or anything like that. Business is business. Handle it. Some classic quotes: ’I want to see them or any other artist (try this with another label).” Diddy said, “If it wasn’t Puff who you know personally, looks like you, hangs out with you, drinks with you - would you ask them to just let me out the contract, No. You ain’t gonna call Sony with that, because they are not gonna take your call. You not going to call Universal with that, because it’s a contract.’ And one more classic one: ‘When you got a situation, you handle it man to man. Angie can’t help the situation, New York can’t help it. You gotta help yourself. I invested in and I believed in you. You believed in me and I believed in y’all. (If you have problems with me), call me.’ Puff handled it exactly as it should have been handled. Business is business…I hate hearing cry babies mad about their situation and constantly trying to pass-the-buck because they’re lazy. Yikes. Check the link below for full article.

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I signed up for Netflix!!!

Did that title deserve THREE !‘s? I don’t think so. Anyways, I signed up on Netflix the other day because I’ve been getting more interested in film lately and just thought it would be fun. Well, if you know me well, you know I’m the kind of person that goes to a bookstore but doesn’t read, goes to a fancy restaurant but orders a cheeseburger, and goes to the grocery store to buy light bulbs and packing tape. So, I sign up for Netflix and the first 3 movies I get are a sports bloopers DVD, the Mitch Hedberg standup DVD, and The Office Season 1, but the BBC version. Pretty much all of these 3 movies sucked…The sports bloopers one was all this old footage and just pretty lame…The Office had me snoring after the first 10 minutes (I need to get the American version), and the Mitch Hedberg DVD was super short. He’s funny and all, but I don’t smoke weed, so I didn’t laugh as much as i probably would have had I been high on the cheeba. So anyways, those are all back in the mail and the next few I have coming to me are the first Beavis and Butthead season 1 DVD, Paid In Full, and Rushmore. Maybe those won’t suck as much. I know all the people that read THE BRILLIANCE woke up this morning thinking ‘damn, I wish I knew if Chuck signed up on Netflix and if so, what he’s been getting from there?’ So here you have it. I should give Netflix some love though, they are FAST and have pretty much every movie you could want. I know they aren’t new news, but it’s interesting and new to me. AAAAA+++++ Would buy again. **Disclaimer: I know I’m going to have a bunch of doofuses saying ‘you didn’t like The Office? but it’s so funny! dry humor dude!’ No, I didn’t care for it much, but I didn’t give it much of a chance. Maybe I need to watch it with more people. Eh.

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Graves 601 in Minneapolis!

Good morning team. Graves 601 in Minneapolis. A very good look. We usually cover hotels and travel destinations in far off lands or infamous metropolis’. This one is located in ‘don’t-cha-know’ Minnesota. I can’t exactly make fun of it…I live in Michigan, and love it. So the hotel…It’s the only AAA 4 diamond hotel in MN and for good reason. Unbelievable interior space…very, very dramatic. Plasma TVs in every room, Hermes soap in the shower, original art in all rooms, beautiful on-site restaurant and club…etc. All at only $250 a night, quite reasonable. Will I ever stay there? I hope so if I’m in the area. Check the site and photo gallery, well worth it. I dated a girl from Minneapolis once…I wonder what she’s up to. Info via Luxist.