Archive for the 'Design & Style' Category

Monday 09 October 2006

Video of the Day #23

By Gonzo | Arts and Leisure ~ Design & Style ~ Video of the Day

excerpt:

Not much information available on this, but it supposedly was filmed over just one week:

Something about this makes me feel hopeful. Something about the future being in the hands of creative, younger people. Like my son, maybe, or spaceneedl’s kids.
Yeah, military recruiters, stay the fuck away.

more Gonzo | more Arts and Leisure ∞ Design & Style ∞ Video of the Day

Thursday 27 April 2006

Construction began on French Tower

By jekyll | Design & Style

excerpt:

At least the French can pick a flattering angle.

Er, Freedom Tower. I use Walter Jones in jest to belittle the tower’s name because, architecturally, c’mon. Look at that! That is u-g-l-y you ain’t got no alibi, you’re just ugly ugly. I sorta liked the first version but it still wasn’t all that. But this version [...]

more jekyll | more Design & Style

Thursday 13 April 2006

pounding headache

By spaceneedl | Design & Style ~ Family & Friends

excerpt:

“jesus christ, could we have a little more hammering in here?” –dabney coleman in “tootsie”
i have a new respect for jackhammer guy.
i’ve done his job, and i don’t want it.
it started so innocuously: “sweetie, take a look at this picture…”
for the intelligent homeowner, a photo featured in met home should be a blatant red flag: [...]

more spaceneedl | more Design & Style ∞ Family & Friends

Tuesday 11 April 2006

If it’s local, fetishization is not as bad

By BlogWench | Design & Style

excerpt:

Eons ago, a favorite blog posted a story about eco-friendly, handmade, “vegan” purses. The example photo they used, however, was not a purse that was available at the site.
Imagine my surprise when, following up on an old comment left regarding the bag I loved, I found a corrected link to none other than our [...]

more BlogWench | more Design & Style

Thursday 09 March 2006

Then there’s packaging the stuff

By cpkpdx | Arts and Leisure ~ Comedy & Jokes ~ Community & Culture ~ Design & Style ~ Life and Society ~ Science & Tech

excerpt:

Josh has been raving about the skill of Apple design and packaging. Yup. They’re pretty good. I don’t recall ever finding a swear-word-inducing blister pack encasing any of their products, either.
But let’s bring the M word onto the scene. How would Microsoft present the friendly iPod to the marketplace? Have a look. And a laugh.

more cpkpdx | more Arts and Leisure ∞ Comedy & Jokes ∞ Community & Culture ∞ Design & Style ∞ Life and Society ∞ Science & Tech

FlossQuotes

And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of the American people in three simple words — yes, we can.
– Barack Obama

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Naturally
If anyone's been paying attention, I listen to a wide variety of music, only a fraction of which I've reviewed here at Transcendental Floss. I tend to go through phases when I'll be stuck on a particular artist or genre, really immersing in it for a few weeks at a time, and what I find so interesting and exciting is that during each phase I have this experience where I feel like there's no better music than what I'm listening to right then and there. Well, I've just discovered Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and I can say with complete confidence that this is the best music I have ever heard. Seriously, this is magical stuff. Brooklyn, New York's Daptones Records have managed to produce record after record of fine R&B/soul/funk music using vintage musical equipment and analog recording techniques in the ultimate homage to the legendary Motown and Stax catalogs. The Dap-Kings, serving as the Daptone house band, are the modern day equivalent of Stax's Booker T & The MGs, laying down the tastiest grooves, sweetest guitar riffs, and of course the horns that make this music so electrifying. Sharon Jones is the quintessential soul singer, able to capture moments of tenderness just as easily as moments of gritty passion. Enjoy!
— Gonzo

Van Morrison - His Band & The Street Choir
As much as I love the 1991 movie The Commitments, Van Morrison, some 40 years earlier, had already proven that the Irish have plenty of soul. Perhaps my favorite album of his, His Band & The Street Choir could easily be said to share some DNA with the music of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (soulful crooning, grooves, horns, etc.), yet with a decidedly unique twist that is all Van The Man. This music simply makes me feel good on a deep, deep level. What's so great about Van Morrison is that he's covered such a variety of genres, from soul to blues to country to jazz to celtic to a kind of meditative, almost new age sound that is all his own, and so as I move from phase to phase of musical immersion he's very often right there with me.
— Gonzo

Be Kind Rewind
I was not prepared to love this movie nearly as much as I did. While I've liked a lot of Jack Black's work, he's a guy with limited range who I can easily see wearing out his schtick. However, teamed with a very sweet and funny turn by Mos Def, an equally sweet Danny Glover, and under the direction of the mad genius of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep), Black's occasionally formulaic performance does nothing to keep this film from achieving success as a comedy and a bittersweet slice of life in Passaic, New Jersey. I was surprised over and over again how Gondry unapologetically went sentimental, eschewing so much of the cynicism that passes as gritty realism these days, which is music to my unapoligetically sentimental ears. I laughed. I cried. I learned that Mos Def is by far the best artist to crossover from music to acting that I've seen in a long, long time.
— Gonzo

Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
I work at a university where I supervise a team of student employees. One employee, in painfully embarrassing hindsight, reminds me an awful lot of me, but before this hindsight came into focus he was a big, fat pain in my ass. Relentlessly sarcastic and arrogant, yet brilliant, this guy pushed my patience to the limit. Then, one day, I saw him sitting under a tree on campus reading Franny & Zooey and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I know this kid. I WAS this kid. So, I stopped to talk to him about the book and about Salinger in general. He'd read The Catcher in the Rye first, then moved on to Nine Stories, which, with the story A Perfect Day For Bananafish, introduces the reader to the inimitable Glass family. Franny & Zooey, then, becomes the natural next choice, with Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenter & Seymour: An Introduction to follow, and this was exactly the same sequence that I followed 20+ years earlier. Ever since, while we're not buddy-buddy, there's been a new-found understanding between us, a sense that I'd been his shoes, that we shared some interests. Oh, and I went back and re-read Catcher, Nine Stories, and am currently falling in love all over again with Franny & Zooey.
— Gonzo

Lick your chops and chip through the nuggets of past Floss Aid recommendations.
— floss aid

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Archive for the 'Design & Style' Category

Monday 09 October 2006

Video of the Day #23

Thursday 27 April 2006

Construction began on French Tower

Thursday 13 April 2006

pounding headache

Tuesday 11 April 2006

If it’s local, fetishization is not as bad

Thursday 09 March 2006

Then there’s packaging the stuff

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