Cool Hunting
| 19 January 2006view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Crown Angels T-Shirt
by Ami Kealoha
The elegiac Crown Angels T-Shirt by Brooklyn-based Roxy's Tee Parlor takes New Orleans imagery as its inspiration. In pale green for men or on a grey American Girl tee for women, twenty percent of the proceeds go to the rebuilding efforts of Habitat for Humanity on the gulf coast.
$24 from Artez'n.
Pees on Earth
by Ami Kealoha
In one of Tom Robbins' famously trippy diatribes, he theorizes that humans were invented by water as a means of transport. The mythology of pee is one way to read New York-born photographer Ellen Jong's photo-essay, Pees on Earth, a document of her worldwide outdoor pissing project. Another is as a practice in the spirit of Duchamp, a giggly, slightly subversive appropriation of public space that re-codes the way we see and experience our everyday environs and the mundane act of peeing. Of course, Jong's act also is an inherently feminist one and not without references to pornography (the book includes an interview with legendary San Francisco-based porn star and performance artist Annie Sprinkle). Above all, Pees on Earth is a coffee table tome filled with full-bleed photos that range in tone from lyrical to violent — all shot in a fresh, first-person style. Currently building a pee pod called "The Ladies Room" with photo capabilities for the book launch, Jong's pee party's not over. Check out more images after the jump.
Priced at $30, preorder signed copies from Powerhouse (get 20% off at checkout by entering "PEEPARTY" or from Amazon.
Mounds [Placemats]
by Josh Rubin
Placemats - something kids need to keep from staining the table cloth? Perhaps. But these ones aren't exactly age-appropriate. Introducing avant-garde Brazilian-New Yorker Vik Muniz' special edition placemat set, featuring appetizing photographs of mounds of, well... cat hair, aspirin, headless army men, poison scorpions, rat poison, and even... granola. Shudder. Printed and packaged by the folks at Printed Matter, Inc. in Manhattan, VM has crafted a set of four uniquely grisly placemats. Featured here, this placemat offers an amalgamation of goodies from Killer Bees to Jade Buddhas. Each mat measures 30 x 38 cm, and only 200 sets have been produced. VM's works have been exhibited in the best galleries from Chicago's Art Institute to London's Tate - and now your dinner table. And each one is numbered and signed by VM himself, so you'd better not spill on 'em.
$150 at Printed Matter.
Chairman
by Josh Rubin
In the comic books, superheroes-in-disguise Clark Kent and Peter Parker answered to editors Perry White and J. Jonah Jameson. But what did these two captains of industry have in common besides being press barons with superheroes on their payroll? They ran their respective empires from the comfort of a grandiose executive chair. And now you can too. Dutchman Marijn van der Poll's design firm, North Industries, has unveiled the ultimate chair for the work-a-day office superhero. Through van der Poll's brilliant design, anyone from cubicle dwellers to boardroom lions, can command instant respect as this single piece of essential office furniture. Something as simple and necessary as an office chair transforms any deskbound suit into: Chairman. Van der Poll says he draws inspiration for the design from his comic book heroes. "I figured I'd try and give today's CEO the ultimate corporate seating object with special powers," he told Cool Hunting from his secret below sealevel lair known as Holland. Kidding aside, this is no ordinary chair. Because ordinary chairs don't levitate. But "Chairman" does. With the flick of a switch, the turbines in "Chairman" produce a thin cushion of air, reducing the friction between the sitter and the ground, virtually nil. What does this mean? It means that this two hundred pound throne can be pushed around the boardroom with the touch of a finger. Though with "Chairman" you'll rarely find yourself being pushed around.
About $7,000 (plus shipping). Email Marijn van der Poll to order: post [at] marijnvanderpoll [dot] com
Bear Naked Instant Oatmeal
by Evan Orensten
Bear Naked granola is a staple in the CHHQ pantry. Their products have always impressed us for their quality, variety, light and natural sweetness and their wholesome natural ingredients.
We were intrigued by their new line of instant oatmeal (two words we don't like to see together, honestly). Instant oatmeal is usually pretty gross, but we were impressed—really impressed—with the tasty, not-too-sweet, 90 seconds-in-the-microwave goodness that came out of these packets.
So while we may take our time and cook up a pot of organic steel cut oats from Fiddler's Green Farm in Maine on the weekend, we've hooked up a few boxes of Bear Naked for the rest of the week. We especially dig the Banana Walnut.
A box of eight packets costs around $5 and is available in Banana Walnut, Triple Berry, and Peach and Nut flavors. Availble at a store near you or online from Bear Naked.
Cool Hunting Video - CES 3
by Josh Rubin
CES 3: LED Billboards and Kodak V570
by Josh Rubin
Our third video from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This one features beautiful LED billboard technology and a presentation of the new dual-lens Kodak V570 digital camera.
