Sneaker Freaker 6

by Josh Rubin

The 6th issue of the Australian Sneaker Freaker magazine arrived here yesterday and it's hands down the best so far. It's got a great balance eye candy and head candy, with stories ranging from the history of Vans to the reality of opening your own kick boutique. This time around there's a more diverse range of brands represented and lots of styles not previously seen elsewhere. It's a must read for casual collectors and hard core enthusiasts alike.

Dec-aurum

by Parker Hutchinson

From a brand ever-obsessed with celebrity consumption (and self-consumption), comes a line of luxury products "for the man who has absolutely everything." Ju$t Another Rich Kid has teamed up with super-conceptual designer Tobias Wong to create "Indulgences," the most expensive form of social commentary we've seen in ages.

Dipped in 18 karat gold, these everyday objects are meant to "address the creation of and demand for the unnecessary, directly commenting on the expanding market of luxury items in our culture. " Self-referential jabs at cultural excess aside, some of them are damn desirable. Our favorites include the 10 lb. dumbbell set, the mini-racer remote-controlled car and the gold-cast Bic pen cap. And if we scrape up the savings to afford these beauties, worry not: the irony won't be lost on us. It's just that with products this gluttonous, we may simply choose to ignore it.

Mobiado Professional Executive Model

by Josh Rubin

Mobiado is among the few handset manufacturers focused exclusively on fashion phones. Their latest, the Executive Model, is available with Cocobolo or Honduran Rosewood casing and has stainless steel buttons. The interface is based on Nokia's Series 40 UI and though Mobiado is not affiliated with Nokia, the guts of the phone are presumably similar as well. The feature set is standard for a high end handset: high res camera that supports video, Bluetooth, push-to-talk, MP3 player and more.

So if you have US$1900 to drop on a beautiful handset no one around you is likely to have, get yours now.

The Knitting Machine

by Ami Kealoha

The Knitting Machine is Dave Cole's performance art piece that uses construction equipment and 20-foot long knitting needles to construct large-scale objects. Starting yesterday June 30th and throughout the weekend, the artist will use a pair of John Deere excavators to hold the needles and a Genie to wrap the yarn, creating an oversize American flag at MASS MoCA. The flag will then be folded military-style, housed in a diplay case about the size of a Volkswagen Bug, and become part of an exhibit in the museum along with other work by Cole. Something about the mix of domestic craft and construction seems like a fitting way to celebrate the 4th.

The Diorama Show

by Ami Kealoha

Sometimes it's best to think inside the box. That's the case (literally) with the recently opened show in San Francisco's Mission 17 gallery. For the exhibit a group of artists were tasked with creating artwork within the restricted form of the grade school standby. Confined within a space roughly the size of a shoebox, results range from otherwordly such as Kristina Lewis' alien, sea urchin-like orbs to sleek and mysterious like the view through Taro Hattori's peephole as pictured here. Through July 16th.

via SFGate

Live Show: Annie

by Ari Bendersky

There’s nothing more annoying than when hype isn’t followed by substance. Annie’s debut CD, Anniemal is fantastic, filled with upbeat, uptempo disco beats, breathy vocals with poppy lyrics. When I interviewed her last week, I was taken with her sincerity, her sweet attitude and her excitement about her success and the current buzz surrounding her music.

But when I saw her last night in Chicago, I was fairly underwhelmed. But I have to say the lackluster show can’t be blamed on Annie. The event was set in entirely the wrong venue.

Sonotheque is a long, thin scenester "club" that is not necessarily set up for a live performance -- especially for someone with as much indie cred as Annie. Because of the odd setup, she stayed behind the glass walls of the booth instead of hanging on a stage – or even a faux stage. And the sound system was too bass heavy and drowned out her vocals.

Midway through, things started to get better and Annie, ever the cutie-pie singer (who is honestly even more beautiful in person than she is in photos), held her own, told the crowd how excited she was to be in Chicago and kept on singing.