The Brilliance!

For a little business and a little fun. It’s been a while since I’ve been in Manhattan. I don’t think it’ll ever get any less impressive…so immense. I’m actually at Gotham Hall right now as I type this. What a beautiful space. Yeah, so hit me up if there is anything interesting going on that I should know about…don’t really have any plans. That’s my post.

Every year it seems like Christmas time rolls around and there is a ‘must-have’ gift, usually for kids…Then of course this year everyone really is getting in on that with the HD DVD player sales, big TV’s, cheap external hard drives, etc. Nothing like adults lining up at 3AM outside a Target and fighting their way into stores to be the first to get something. I slept in on black Friday though. I’ve already figured out what all these people need to figure out. You can get most of these deals online from Amazon already. Anyways, I was thinking…what if you just got whatever you wanted for Christmas? Literally…every year…just whatever you wanted. Like if I wrote up a list this year… “Planet Earth DVDs on Blu-Ray/HD, Audi R8, 10 iMacs, five 10x10 foot Josh Keyes paintings, a live show in my family room with Radiohead, Kanye, and Fugazi all playing each others songs, a lifetime supply of gummy bears, a new Vitra white leather and polished aluminum Eames Lounge Chair, a blank check like the one Brian Bonsall aka Preston Waters (thanks Kevin) got in that movie, and a trip to another galaxy.” And I just got it all. No questions asked. I don’t even care where it all comes from. What if? Anyways, I was just reading the new Wallpaper yesterday and they had a little feature on some ‘must-have’ books…like that Charley Harper book that Todd Oldham worked on. Now that’s a good gift right there. What are some other would-be awesome gifts this year? Email us. hello@thebrilliance.com. And no, your start-up t-shirt company’s shirts are not a good gift. Don’t send us those emails.

I really was like ‘should I even post this?!’ But how could I NOT post it? I mean, people come to our site looking for stuff exactly like this…maybe not exactly like this, but you get the idea right? I can’t really co-sign the song, I mean maybe…but I can, without question, co-sign this video. I 100% vouch for Snoop doing something this crazy. Crazy. I think the best way to describe this video would be…‘far out!’ Ha. Just like our friends at NahRight.com said, I really don’t think you’re ready for this video…really. So without further ado, I present you with Snoop’s latest video for his song ‘Sensual Seduction’...wow.

These once a week trips outta town are really throwing me off. I am on the internet, outside Gmail like once a week now. I am reading blogs that are a week old, kinda weird. I just came across this Karl Lagerfeld interview on Mr. Kim’s blog. Someone please name me a better interviewer than Charlie Rose. Whatever genre of celebrity he masters the art of asking questions and really getting into what makes people tick, political figure or fashion designer. Every time I find a Lagerfeld interview odds are I am going to post it. Genius. Too many great quotes, so I will just quote one.

“Designers shouldn’t talk, they should just design.” -real talk, Karl Lagerfeld

Benjamin says: Been wearing Vans shoes on-and-off since I was 10 or 11. One thing I love is heritage. Name a ‘skate’ soft-goods brand with more heritage…and Vans is nothing short of iconic Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the surf world, skate world, slacker kids, hipsters, artists, rock stars, etc. Nothing more to say really. Give me some off-white Eras with the little blue strip on the sole. I just wish they were still made stateside…and I missed out on the whole customization thing they did!
Chuck says: I used to wear Vans slip-ons all the time. Then I got this one black pair that were a little too narrow for my feet. Every time I looked down it looked like I had giant lima beans coming out of my jeans. They were like a shoe-sock, kind of formed to my foot. My bad for getting a size too small. But a more serious note, nobody makes a cooler more classic shoe than Vans.
Virgil says: First thought that comes to mind about Vans is the chewed up sock I got after skating them for a few days, which lead to me thinking that skating my pair of OG Jordan 8’s was a good idea. That shows my age. Vans masters that fine line of modern classic in a less in your face why than Converse. It speaks to me. One color Sk8 Hi’s work whenever, wherever.

So yeah, this is a new thing we are trying out here on THE BRILLIANCE…all three of us throwing together out thoughts/comments/etc on a given ‘thing’. But instead of us just reviewing stuff we’ve come up with ourselves…we’d liek the readers to throw us suggestions of ‘things’ for us to cover. So…yeah, do that. Email your ‘thing’ suggestions to: hello@thebrilliance.com.

Tired of Terry Richardson a little? I mean…yeah, I actually dig his stuff…but I’d almost forgotten what really amazing fashion/beauty photography can look like. Gilles-Marie Zimmermann’s work is just amazing. Specifically the project titled ‘Simply I Project’. So, which do I like more? The the photography or the amazing subjects? Ha. The composition and lighting are so ‘thick’...and its not like 15-20 great shots. The quantity of pretty much perfect pictures is just unreal. So yeah…I’m a fan of Gilles-Marie Zimmermann.

It’s funny, I first heard of this director Ruben from the crazy list of links on the asilentflute blog when it was the source of ‘real’ information. Like 2 years later my friend Nino is like, “my friend Ruben is shooting this Kid Sister video in Chicago for basically no money and I need a stylist, quick”. So I called up Sharon Mackin at Barneys and wallah, a fresh video for next to nothing. I just saw an interview on The Fader he did a cool little behind the scenes/making of thing about the video. It’s cool. I love the fact how television is not even in the equation of music videos anymore. Its all about that attention grabbing camera trick or look & song and Youtube. (sidebar: anyone know that music video that has the people wear all black jump suits doing all the in-camera special effects/pls email me that) Check out Ruben’s cool back catalog of videos for M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal etc.. He’s heavily involved with the Rob & Big too so you know he’s graduated to the big stage.

I am all about championing this new-era of designers becoming the new rockstars. Hence another quick but valuable insight into another influential fashion designer. This is taken from the Supreme Luxury Conference in Moscow. How nice would it be to get an invite to that…Tom Ford is another fashion character who I am familiar with but never heard speak. Who knew thats what he sounds like? Why did Gucci and him split ways? In my mind he is what Gucci lacks on a number of levels. They have the red/green heritage but there no ‘face’ to the the brand which is so important these days. He’s obviously onto bigger and better things like building his Tom Ford Group empire with his finger on everything his brand touches. Talk about supreme luxury.

“We don’t have logos, we have (Tom Ford) logos about the store but they are representative of your own initials”. - Tom Ford. That’s pretty much my whole frame of mind right about now.

We actually haven’t done many ‘negative’ posts in the past year or two here on the site. We like to highlight stuff we find interesting/inspiring more, you know? But I felt like I had to put this one up. So Saab, listen up…we’re giving you free ‘market research’ here…free consulting. Stop doing boring stuff. Stop making irrelevant cars like this new ‘Aero’ model SUV…and start making brilliant and quirky cars like you used to. I find it so funny that brands do these ‘green’ initiatives like Saab has done with its bio-fuel and diesel stuff…and then they come out with an ‘Aero’ or tricked-out-for-speed SUV. That couldn’t be farther from their brand image…and its not at all an efficient or ‘green’ move on their behalf. Not to mention its really boring and uninspired design. ‘Oh wow, it has 20 inch wheels on it right out of the showroom!! Vrrrooomm!’ Uhhh…so to the crew over at Saab, or GM, or whatever: go back to your roots a bit, go back to the quirky design that made your brand important in the first place, and work to make fantastic and RELEVANT products. Relevant products…wouldn’t you say thats the majority of car companies are missing right now? (Except VW. I’m loving their stuff more and more everyday.) And yeah, I’m a Saab owner.

“One of Jay-z boys, now I am skating in your pool, not to be rude, I am just hatin’ on your rules” – Lupe “Gold Watch” Crazy. The Cool is out today. Lupe’s sophomore effort is such important music. In an era ‘singles’ and not ‘albums’ its amazing he was able to make an album with a story. The best stories stick in your mind and replay in different life scenarios. Like watching Crash and riding the train the next day. The Cool is equally a novel as it is an album. The trinity of characters The Cool, The Streets, The Game play out throughout the album painting a moving picture of reality. He sets the concept up here. Its like a secret book on tape for today’s youth. It makes the inside album artwork from Food and Liquor even more eyebrow raising. Real music is too refreshing. His site just launched the in-depth imagery. Check your local itunes store for a copy. Peace and much love to ya.