The Brilliance!

Man, I haven’t posted in forever - even before my last post it’d been a while. So yeah, I gotta do my ‘randomzzz’ to get back into it. Go: Where is summer man?! I can’t take much more, its like 50 right now, but freezing at night, I hate that on late night rides. I don’t know if I posted this before, but I started wearing simple Adidas Superstar track tops in black and its become a bit of a uniform for me, its my Steve-Jobs-turtle-neck. It’s super utilitarian. How crazy is twitter?? I’m surprised how much I’m using it. Travel, travel, travel. I want more of it. I’ve been doing little trips here and there, but I really need to do a vacation - zone out style. How many posts have I said that in?? I just picked up a copy of ‘Everybody Dance Now’, so good, have to admit I would have bought it for the cover alone. I wish we had a really nice rail system here in America like Europe has. Like overnight trips from Chicago to New York on a well appointed train car…how nice would that be? Amtrak doesn’t quite cut it. Why doesn’t Vans do a series with all solid color shoes, like solid red, grey, blue, orange, etc? Seems so obvious. I’ve got a new project coming up that will be my first step into the fashion/clothing world, something I’ve been working on for a while. Speaking of new businesses, I predict the economy we’re headed into is going to foster, and hopefully treat well, super small businesses. I hope we see a return to tons of smaller businesses. Has anyone who reads this ever gotten acupuncture? I’m interested in trying it out. I’m also still pretty obsessed with solar/wind energy for emerging areas that don’t currently have grid-access - I have a feeling alternative energy is going to be a trickle ‘up’ rather than ‘down’, like, we’ll see it be completely normal and functional in 3rd world countries before we see wide acceptance - I like the thought of that. This remix, done by Death To The Throne, is crazy. Alright, I think thats it. I got another post I want to write too coming shortly.

“Coffee on the menu was 47 cents.” So a good friend of mine/riding partner, Geoff Holstad and his lovely girlfriend SarahDarnell set off on a trip from downtown Grand Rapids, MI all the way to Portland, OR on their bikes. They started about a month ago and they’ve been steadily updating their blog, So Sweaty, along the way. I love how Geoff puts it all together on the blog, seriously, love the short quips, little details, tone, etc. Funny, its one of those things, how do you update a blog about riding a bicycle across the country? Seems like you either write a book when you’re done or you do a blog just as Geoff has with the simple and super fun to read updates. Well done my man. So yeah, check the blog out and get inspired to do your own trip/adventure. And to: Geoff and Sarah: we miss you guys here downtown, and yes, I’m riding the Madison often, seriously!! Have fun, ride safe, can’t wait to hear all the stories.

Ben and I email a lot…just constantly sending emails back and forth about design, music, art, life, emoticons, splash pages, internets, e-viruses, www’s, and so on. I would say that of all the links I send Ben, about 20% either get no response because they were just really not that interesting, or I get one of the following: “Meh. ha.”, “Ehh…”, “Hmm…not for me”. 79% of the time I get “crazy dude…” or “SO cool man…” or “HA” (a capital ‘HA’ means it was a really, really funny video I must have sent). The other 1% is reserved for links like this: Tim Walker for Hermes, upon which I receive an incredibly rare (think Honus Wagner T206 baseball card rare) response of: “Holy crap, those are awesome! Make a post man!” Keep in mind, for Benjamin to say “Holy crap” about a link I’ve sent must mean it’s really, really special. Tim Walker is a 39 year old photographer from London who honestly is doing some of the most beautiful, simple, elegant, and downright cool work out there. It can’t hurt that he was a full-time assistant to Richard Avedon in the 90’s and started out working for Vogue at 25 either…sheesh. So, this post is wholly about Tim Walker’s photography in general, but more specifically this set for Hermes I found on Booooooom. First of all, that first picture with the guy in the window in the field is just ridiculous. I love it. Took me a second to wrap my head around it. And the African tribal stuff and those giant snails!? I love it. So creative. The fact that this stuff is for Hermes makes these even better. As Ben said, “Awesome to see a really, really old brand like hermes doing something like that. they’re one of the only luxury brands that isn’t owned by a holding company - they’re literally still like super small.” So yeah, there you have it. Tim Walker. A true master…

Man, I don’t get too excited about most things. But this…this?! I remember when the Tesla was announced I was like, ‘man, I cannot wait to figure out a way to get in one of those and do a post on THE BRILLIANCE about it. It was kind of like my holy-grail of posts. Really. So I won’t go into the detail of how, but about 30 minutes ago I was fortunate enough to squeeze myself into the tiny cockpit of the oh-so-famous all electric Tesla Roadster. Metallic black, natural hide seats, and dust gray wheels. Man. You could have put almost any car in front of me and I would have picked the Tesla to try regardless. It’s not just a luxury car, its not just a crazy sports car…it’s that car. The first production electric sports car…and it can smoke a Lambo. So after fiddling around throwing it into the only gear it has, I drove down one of my favorite streets here in GR, Ionia Street which made this whole thing even sweeter. Right here in my city, on my street. The steering is super stiff as its not assisted, the car begins braking when you take your foot of the gas due to the regenerative braking feature, yeah, the seats are tiny, the hum from the motor actually sounds pretty vicious, etc, etc…who cares about all that, its crazy, crazy fast. No shifting, no gears, no crazy roar, just instant power and acceleration. So, so cool. I didn’t get to drive it for too long…but long enough to know that yeah, I kind of want one. Duh. So there it is, check it off my list of things to do on THE BRILLIANCE, I’ve driven a Tesla Roadster, and it was awesome. Check the pictures at the link below. ***Next to check off the list is that interview with Steve Jobs…

Ah, I love it. Right in my city, Grand Rapids, the world’s largest art prize. Just announced last week, the 23rd of April, this is going to be just huge both in the art world as well as the impact its going to have on my young city. I’ve made a handful of posts about Grand Rapids and how much I’ve enjoyed living here and participating in its growth over the pst 6 years or so…and this is just bringing it to a whole other level. It’s hard to draw comparisons, and I almost don’t want to as its really a totally new thing, but I would imagine that what SXSW is to Austin the ArtPrize will be to Grand Rapids. I love the thought of that. We have such a fantastic city, I can’t wait to show it off to the world a bit via this project. The official site explains it better than I will here, but the concept is to build a framework where businesses/spaces/parks/etc can open their space to artists to exhibit in - where the public will ultimately decide the winner by popular vote, which requires registration in person, perfect. It’s open to any artist, anywhere in the world. The attention grabber being the prize: $250k for 1st, $100k for 2nd, $50k for 3rd, and $7k each for 4th-10th. More to learn on the site, but its pretty simple and straight-forward stuff with super huge potential. I can’t wait for it…the art, the atmosphere, the parties, the voting, the creative use of spaces, the response, everything. And right here in my city…nuts. Thanks to Rick for putting this together, and Grand Rapids, get ready.

This might be a ‘duh’ to everyone, but Twitter’s search seems to matter to me more and more everyday. So first off, press/media and getting press/media attention is a funny thing. The first time you get it for a project you’ve done, business you own, etc, etc you’re like ‘whoa, I’m being talked about!’ Or are you?? I remember my first time getting in the local business paper here in GR I was so stoked, front page, etc…and oddly it did very little for the traffic/awareness of my project. Maybe because of the reader demographic, etc, who knows. But I remember realizing, ‘wait, these papers are in the business of having pages full of articles..thats pretty much it’ and then I kind of grasped that papers, blogs, etc, will write about anything to simply get content. And 99% of the time the writer isn’t some fabulous taste-maker - they’re simply doing their job. So, the reality is, I was indeed being talked about…but by only one person, that writer. When I launched my last project, I pretty much stopped checking what blogs/press outlets where saying and strictly relied on Twitter’s search function to see what ‘the people’ where saying. People were giving their opinions, thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc, and it was all happening in real-time and quickly. I then searched a competitors name and found very little - even though they had considerably more traditional press than I did. Was super validating - my product was getting more traction with the actual public - the consuming public. I’m still figuring out where I sit with Twitter personally…but I guess that doesn’t matter does it? The public has already made their decision and that collective decision has made for some pretty awesome free market-research available to everyone who wants it.

On my usual stroll thru the internet it’s amazing how quick really great photography will stop me in my tracks. This look book changed my mind about what a good lookbook looks like. Jewelry designer Saskia Diez has got a very fresh aesthetic and very cool jewelry. Real simple, cool designs, great materials. Flipping thru all her look books makes me want to get off my couch on this friday night and start shooting all these knick-knacks around my loft. Hmmm… This Canon G10 and its Macro setting are worth a whole other post on its own. Check the link, get inspired.

Anyone that is switching scenes/industries and trying to get their point of view across I am am a general fan of. Way back when Nino told me about his push to get skateboarding on the big screen done in the right way I wasn’t even expecting all this. Street Dreams featuring some of the biggest names in the game Rob, Ryan, Paul, and Terry is the type of movie I’d love to see more of. Real people playing the kids that make up their subculture. Anyone remember the glory days of RocaFella films. I need to re-watch those. Any how go out and support. I can only imagine how tough it was to get a movie where skateboarding is portrayed properly as it is here. So ya’ll, get interviewed by the BRILLIANCE and you’ll get even bigger!!! And twitter Chuck for the latest skateboard trick names, he’s good at it.

“The internetest most internet site.” Happy Monday everybody!! Hope your weekend was fun, mine was. Thanks to Virgil and Marc on this one. Just another bit of randomness that is this website we run here. Mr. Gangsta Grillz himself gives us a proper drop. We’re doing a mixtape ourselves actually coming up soon, be on the look out. Free download of course. Check it out:

So I am in the midst of “upping” my taste level of designers. Going beyond the knee-jerk reaction of saying “that’s weird” and really studying what they are trying to say. Coming from adolescent-Polo growing up, you figure Purple Label is the epotime of American “dressing up”. I had always known Thom Browne’s take on menswear but no I see how it is super revelant in this moment in time. The “suit” is no longer the working uniform… why not have fun with it. Thom Browne is made famous by his “short-suit” flooded trousers, shorter sleeves and little tweaks to a traditional suit. The end esult is something refreshing. If you have the confidence to pull it off, you get to have all the fun. Isn’t that what fashion is about? Wierdo or status quo. Word on the street is the company is in limbo, I have a feeling that won’t be the case for long.