Cool Hunting
| 30 January 2006view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Chocolate Thongs
by Evan Orensten
We've spent the last hour writing clever things about these tasty thongs, but decided it would be best to let them speak for themselves. Stay tuned for more gifts in CH Valentine's Finds.
Belgian milk chocolate thongs, £5, for men and women from BoysStuff.
New Rich
by Ami Kealoha
New Rich, a collaboration between Swiss clothing designer +41 and the Swiss- and Belgium-based design team Big Game, debuted this month at Cologne's International Furniture Fair. Un-democratizing objects like ballpoint pens, thumbtacks, and iPod headphones, the collection exalts the mundane, transforming near-disposable commodities into coveted pieces and highlighting the intrinsic value of already-ingenious design elements. A continuation of questions posed by Big Game's first line, "Heritage in Progress," that riffed on traditional 19th-century furniture and home decor, their work touches on issues of class, status, and design itself.
via Josh Spear
Previously on CH: Indulgences
What's Your Rupture?
by Ami Kealoha
New York-based indie label What’s Your Rupture has been busting out some of the best punk and classics-sounding rock records I’ve heard in awhile. The label is fresh and everything you want an indie label to be: rough and tough with a heart of gold — no strings attached.
The latest in WYR’s line up is a Swedish band called Love Is All and I can’t get enough of their new record, Nine Times That Same Song. This record is SUCH a good time, soulful punk at its tightest. A sax blasts though the album, adding an awesome component to an already amazing sound. There’s no doubt that Josephine Olausson's punctuating vocals will get some Yeah Yeah Yeah’s comparisons. But is that a bad thing? Hell no.
Recommended tracks: "Talk Talk Talk" and "Busy Doing Nothing."
Buy the record at Insound or drop into Rocks In Your Head, a great record store in Soho, NYC where What’s Your Rupture’s founder works. They have plenty of copies there. (map)
by Sean Thomas
Ski Thing
by Evan Orensten
We're partial to boarding, but if you're a skier check out Ski Thing, a new ski carrier that attaches to your ski boot. It's a very simple design that allows you to place your skis in a small "cup," making walking around with your skis less cumbersome. When you hit the lift you can either remove the Ski Thing from your boot or snap it shut.
The Ski Thing is available online in a few colors for $30.
Glee's Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kits
by Evan Orensten
Before all of the chemicals and artificial compounds used in most chewing gum today, gum was made from the sap of the Sapodilla tree, which grows abundantly in South American rainforests (and other locations). The sap is called chicle, and the men who climb the trees to collect the sap are called chicleros. No doubt you recognize a brand or two that utilize these words. It's no surprise that as the contents of most gum moved from chicle, a natural and sustainable resource, to artificial, it has also impacted the community of chicleros because the demand for the Sapodilla sap has decreased.
Glee not only offers chicle-based tangerine, cinnamon and peppermint gum, they also offer a do-it-yourself kit. Part science lesson and part eco-chic custom experience, these kits also reinforce the virtuous values of sustainability and natural over artificial.
Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kits make around 50 pieces of gum and are available online for $10 from Glee. Refills available.
Beautiful Crime
by Jacob Resneck
"Graffiti is not vandalism, but a beautiful crime," is one of the philosophical pillars that this guerilla gallery operates on.
Now that we seem to have stopped arguing whether graffiti is art, we can start to enjoy some of the fine stuff collected by the folks at Beautiful Crime.
The current exhibition by San Francisco artist Pure Evil chronicles how a tale of giant bloodthirsty rabbits descending upon NYC from Upstate. (Pictured above.) But there's more than just graffiti here; BC exhibits a variety of artists whose works — for different reasons — can be classified as challenging and subversive.
You don't have to go down to your local culvert to see graffiti, these guys bring it right to your computer.
And, at "The Counter," there's merchandise too.
So you see? It's not vandalism - vandals don't merchandise.
by Jacob Resneck
