Cool Hunting
| 29 November 2005view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Smencils
by Evan Orensten
Smencils are scented pencils made from recycled newspaper, which allows the pencil to retain one of ten "gourmet" scents: Bubble Gum, Cherry, Chocolate Milk, Cinnamon, Cookie Dough, Grape, Hazelnut Latte, Orange, Peppermint and Rootbeer. They can be used as a fundraiser for schools or can be customized with your personal or corporate logo. Innovative and ecological (until they put them in a plastic tube). Retail cost is around $1.
Labyrinth Balancing Board
by Evan Orensten
For the snowboarder in training or any kid who wants to learn balance and control, this labrynth rocks. Just added to the Gift Guide.
Boards of Canada : Campfire Headphase
by Mike Reger
Not new but worthy of mention here, the latest Boards Of Canada album "Campfire Headphase," released last month on Warp records is to me the music my dreams are made of. The new arrival of guitar (however warbled) to the BOC sound just adds a new layer of authenticity to their magical oeuvre. Its so easy to forget how cold it is outside when you put this on your speakers or headphones.
Well, at any rate it transports me back to this past summer, camping out in the rolling hills of Malvern, England at the Big Chill festival. Although I can't guarantee you'll have the same flashback, I'm sure it will spark warm conversation amongst friends, especially in front of a fireplace or bonfire.
20.21 at the Walker Art Museum
by Evan Orensten
Heading to Minneapolis? Check out 20.21, the recently opened Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Walker Art Museum. Similar to the successful pairing of Danny Meyer and the MoMa (where The Modern shines as brightly as the building and the art), Puck has collaborated on the food for the Museum’s restaurant and café.
Chef Scott Irestone’s (Photo credit: Tom Wallace, Star Tribune, 2005) menu is heavily Asian-inspired and while not overly adventuresome or risk-taking delivers several winners (try the Szechuan Flatiron Steak, the baby back ribs and the miso-saké Butterfish). Presentation and service were top notch. Prices were perhaps a bit high for Minneapolis but very reasonable in comparison to LA, SF and NYC. The house desert, the Cube and Spoon and Cherry, which replicates the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture in the acclaimed Sculpture Garden was a big success.
The dining room (like the rest of the museum’s recent addition) was designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Dramatically cantilvered into the Twin Cities’s most attractive views, a seat at “table 1,” in the corner of the overhang, is one of the most coveted in the city. The dining room is somewhat small, simply furnished and perhaps one of the loudest restaurants I’ve ever been to. The noise level was deafening and had us shouting at each other most of the meal. This distracted us from fully enjoying the tasty food and the people watching, two things relatively new to the Twin Cities dining scene.
1750 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403
+1 (612) 253-3410
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