The Brilliance!

Alright, here is my full year in review, sike! “2009?? Never heard of it.” - Benjamin Edgar

2010 is here, but lets be honest, its just a date on a calendar - nothing has ACTUALLY changed? But you know, its a nice to have like a “place-marker” to move past, re-consider and do new stuff. I’m getting more and more like Mr. Lagerfeld in my complete disinterest in the past - I just don’t care about it. Here’s to the future everybody! Here’s to a year full of fun. Building the brands/businesses/projects I’m already a part of and some fun new ones too that I’ve been working on. Can’t wait to see what happens with some of them. Hearing new music. Goofing around more. Traveling. Having a ton of fun. Get out what you put in! Alright, back to this new South Rakkas Crew album and diet coke! Woowww. See you on the internet, later crocodiles.

Honestly - does anything get done on Fridays around 2:30? I’m not sure I’ve ever actually been hard at work on a Friday at 2:30. I might be at my computer and I’d tell people I’m “at work” but..yeah…nothing’s really…happening. Anyways - a little Friday reading for you.

☃ THEWORSTPORTFOLIOEVER - shout out to Alex Cornell for this one. “The worst portfolio ever” (TWPE) is a 110% hater but like 120% accurate so I’m good with it. Illustrating the proliferation of run-of-the-mill design portfolio sites that fall victim to mundane trends, TWPE tells it like it is. Little to no design being shown, glamour shots of Apple products with a designer’s work on it but real small, too much talking about themselves and their interests, not enough just…“here’s my work.” You can actually just read this bio intro and you’ll get it…ha. “I am a 23 year old designer/thinker living and making in sunny San Francisco. A penetrating storyteller, I like to massage my hand-crafted, beautiful pixels. I’m obsessed with kitesurfing, minimalism and making things easier and more delightful. I make stuff, I ship stuff, and I like creating engaging visual experiences for real people. I also like craft beers and whales.”

✏ I don’t play guitar, but I’ve been really enjoying Noisey’s series ‘Guitar Moves’ lately. Finding it really inspiring and just a lot of fun to watch. Matt Sweeney, a musician & the host of the ~10 minute episodes, basically sits down with renown musicians like Josh Homme, St. Vincent, James Williamson from the Stooges, Dan Auerbach, and others with a guitar and just picks their brain about how they learned to play guitar. They show some of their best stuff, play slowly so Matt and viewers can try to mimic what they’re doing, and it’s just fun to be a fly on the wall of what feels like a high-end guitar lesson.

☮ I know this absolutely deserves its own post, but have you seen this Nike Flyknit technology video?? Man…Nike just never settles for anything but the very best when it comes to their film, commercials, ads, everything. The detail in this is stunning…honestly one of the most visually memorable spots I’ve seen in a while. It was created by Digital Domain, who were actually also responsible for Hologram Tupac (!!!)

♫ Check out the work of Terry Fuiz . Outer space paint splatter jellyfish whatever. Dig it.

✞ ¯(ツ)/¯ still the best.

☸ I just closed this window on accident and thought I lost this post, but then I reopened it and here it is, so that’s good.

☣ Instagram video. I’m still torn on whether I love that it exists or hate it… a part of me “misses the old Instagram”, but it’s cool. I guess I just loved how simple Instagram was, but video was inevitable. There’s like a million articles about this, so whatever, just check out Benjamin’s one and only video he’s posted to IG so far. It’s the best thing. http://instagram.com/p/bOfkhPmpqr/

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Have a cool weekend.

Blend all the scenes, every single one of them!! This is one of those classic juxtapositions - I love all the people who thought Gucci was super terrible find themselves thinking: “hmm, maybe I can get into it.” Diplo summed it up best by saying Gucci never said he is anything he isn’t, he’s just enjoy himself and making music. We look at Baile Funk, for example, as this amazing sounding music from a far-off land - thus better or more “cultural” than what we have here state-side right? Thats what makes it fascinating right? I’ve always wondered what the creative kids in, say Paris, who don’t speak much English, think of Gucci Mane. You know? Or some kid in Denmark. How we seeBaile Funk could be how they see Gucci Mane, you know? There is a weird, kind of intangible thing to msuic from other cultures where you can’t understand what they’re saying, etc. Anyway - thats the magic of Diplo, anything goes - his curation doesn’t have a formula, its this beautifully messy collection of a zillion different styles of music from a zillion different cultures. Call me on it, who cares, but Gucci has this Willy Wonka approach to the entire “rap game” - super creative. What’s seen maybe as cliche, the jewelry, the cars, etc, the bravado, etc, etc - he just does it better than anyone else. The old Bart Simpson chain??, perfect. And if you haven’t seen the Miss Info interviews on youtube, they’re super interesting. All this analytical stuff aside: BURR BURR!!! ***And yeah, its “nsfw”/offensive music to some, whatever.

So yeah, I first posted about Maestro not that long ago at all - maybe a few weeks ago at most? In that mean time, we’d been chatting and decided an interview would be fun. You really get the feeling watching Levi that he’s going to be “super big” soon - tv, documentary, movie, something we’ve never conceptualized before. A dreamer and a doer - and positive inspiration for so many kids in this culture and beyond. A great interview with him, we’re honored to have it in our collection.

“Whoa, the new iPhone is huge!” I gotta get this post up/out of the way while its still fresh in my mind - and while I’m watching the replay of Steve presenting it. If you read our site you know I love Apple. Some friends say I do too much - but they truly are the best when it comes to products that capture our imagination, I’ll argue anyone on that. Today Steve Jobs showed us the iPad for the first time. Hmmm. I guess I’ll just go right in - its truly beautiful looking, does what it does very well it seems, the price point is almost unbelievable (in a good way), and it will set the tone in the market. But is it “magical”? The iPhone was like getting hit in the head with a basketball in gym class - stunning. It totally changed the way you thought about phones - it really was, as they said, 5 years ahead of its time. Magical. But this iPad, especially to existing Apple users, doesn’t make you want to grab your card and immediately purchase it without thought like most of their products tend to do - they usually fill whatever need/gap PERFECTLY. So, with that said, its interesting to think that the iPad isn’t filling an existing need - but maybe creating a new one? Also, I mentioned “existing Apple users” - there is a huge chance that this is not who they are concerned about. I see my grand mother and parents who either don’t use Apple products, or are just getting into them, purchasing this device - and never seeing a reason to buy a MacBook. You know? It truly is nudging itself between the iPhone and the MacBook - and again, it will set the trend and it will be copied, period. But for us who’d seen all the patent stuff, rumors, speculation stuff - let’s be honest - it was a bit underwhelming. No flash support? No camera? Isn’t the bezel kind of big (I know its for holding)? No multi-tasking? Apps run in the middle of the huge screen at their native size??? Etc. But you know who doesn’t care even a bit about those - a ton of people with $499 to spend. Like, a TON. And if you missed Apple’s $15+B quarter announcement for the end of 2009 - let it remind you that not only do they make really, really amazing products - they make really, really amazing amounts of money and its certainly not on accident. “I have to say though, watching it is nothing like getting it in your hands.” - Steve Jobs. I’m going to admit this is the probably case, and that while I’m on the fence about one now - I’ll play with it and my heart will melt a bit. The price is unreal, this is just the first version - its only going to be approved upon. So Apple, yeah, I was hoping for something just insane - but I’m excited to watch you define a totally new category. ***Steve looks healthy too doesn’t he? Good stuff.

“Man…we should start a blog that’s basically these emails we write to each other. I know it sounds egotistical but whatever - I feel like people would be into reading our take on all this stuff we talk about pretty much every day and probably think it’s pretty funny too…” “Ha, yeah. We could call it The Brilliance.” “Dude…thebrilliance.com is available…” “You think we should??”

And so we did. That was basically the conversation between Benjamin and myself all the way back in 2005. Benjamin and I have known each other since 1999 and really started becoming friends around 2003. Neither of us went to college, both of us loved computers and art and the internet, and we just started talking over email at some point like..every single day. When you write an email to a friend and you’re simply shooting the shit, talking about music and weird websites and life and whatever, you don’t overthink it, you don’t ‘curate’ your email, you don’t use spellcheck, you just write. We sought to carry that exact mentality into a website and boom. THE BRILLIANCE! was born. We argued with each other in the beginning about if it was ‘cool’ to post about Carmex, edamame, Scrabble, and Chanel on this site (all some of the very first post topics). Would people ‘get it’?!? What’s the ‘theme’ here? Are we a ‘streetwear blog’?? (NO)... Ultimately we both agreed - who cares?? The goal is to write freely and openly and in our own voices. If it’s cool, people will enjoy it. Simple as that. In the beginning, we never really wanted to bring a 3rd writer on board but in the beginning we also didn’t know Virgil. Virgil was as perfect a fit for the site as a person could possibly be - equally passionate about art, music, culture, the internet, Chicago, traveling, and everything else Ben & I were. He came on board and it was seamless. Years went by and we kept at it, kept posting, and all 3 of us kept doing our things. Eventually we hit a spot where we all weren’t posting as much as the site deserved and we agreed to take an indefinite hiatus. That was almost 3 years ago to the day. Well, we all got the itch at the same time to start writing again recently and felt like it was just time. We had to bring it back. Felt like the internet just had this big Times New Roman-shaped hole in it and so here we are again…some dudes just sort of writing about whatever and hoping you dig it. And if you don’t!? SO!??!?! THE BRILLIANCE!

Where we're at is a perfect time to look back... in all senses of the phrase but specifically on what the Brilliance is about. We’re still a time capsule of “stuff” that we deem important. Skipping ahead Devon / Ojas of seminal shop and creative entity Nom de Guerre has launched an audiophile project that feels fresh in the revolving world of merch. But maybe life is merch, but you get the premise. We caught up with Devon and company to get a window onto what’s been up from then to now and the story of how the scene evolves. So on that note deep dive. Our first interview in forever is up.

I mean, I want to write a whole post about the movie. Don’t know if I’ve even processed it yet, you know? And I hate reading the little synopsis things about movies like these - its like, yeah, he was a stunt motorcycle rider, bank robber, trying to take care of his kids, etc, - but those are just the physical things that happened to carry a simple and in my opinion super elegant story of humanity. Top 5 movie. Anyway, this whole post is around that fashion in this film. My goodness - was like a character itself. It’s like Ryan Gosling’s outfits in 2 hours did better at painting the picture Balmain has been trying to do for 3 or 4 years. Just brilliant. And, Dane DeHaan’s character, that baggy sweater he was wearing in the woods, with the slim jeans and black sneaker, the chain wallet, etc. Oddly perfect. Sorry - these are the details that make a story so much better - even when you don’t notice them. Everything about the wardrobe was just perfect, perfect. And new! Like it was something new - I suppose that is my favorite part.

***Ehhhh! I messed this one up, originally I said it was Meghan Corea behind these looks, then my dude @MikeCarson hit us up with THIS link. Thanks man.

It’s cool to be posting again, first off…second off, all 3 of us - Chuck, Benjamin, & Virgil, have our own individual Twitters. But…we have the Twitter name @THEBRILLIANCE now too, and it cost us a TON of money, so help us recoup the costs by following us. You get paid every time you get a follower on Twitter right? That’s how it works right? I’m not seeing any more info about this anywhere…hmm…well, we’ll have to figure that out. We might be out like a million dollars…Let’s recap:

•Follow @THEBRILLIANCE on Twitter
•Benjamin on Twitter: @benjaminedgar
•Virgil on Twitter: @virgilabloh
•Chuck on Twitter: @nopattern

There’s a post forever ago I made on here, 2006, it was about how I was using one of those PCMCIA (ha!!!) cards on my laptop that was basically a little cellphone from Sprint that gave you a web connection wirelessly. I was obsessed with this whole concept of properly wireless internet. Even since I was in high school when I wanted to make a Packet Ham Radio modem for my TI-80whatever calculator. Wow…nerd out. Google “packet radio”. Anyway, like 2 years ago I actually committed to this whole thing - cancelled internet at my condo and added the “tethering” service on my iPhone and bought a cellular iPad too. My friends were like?!!? It seemed silly until LTE became commonplace and now my cellphone has faster internet than most coffee shops and offices - everywhere I go. iPad and iPhone combined I go through like 16-18GB per month, so its not the most cost effective - but whatever - its not that far off in price. Remember when people were like “man, I don’t think I need a landline anymore…”??? #always #internet #everywhere