Candle with Matchbox Built In

by Josh Rubin

I like things tidy and feel that most things have their place. While I never thought to combine matches with a candle, this marriage to be quite satisfying. Originally designed by Jeremy Walton in 2002, Hygge-lys is a candle with a built in matchbox and is now available for purchase at the MoMA Store for US$18. As Shiny Shiny point out, it is a bit disappointing that the match box is protected from the flame—nothing like a little tension to go along with romantic ambiance.

Entorno: Grass Grows Greener on the Other SIde

by Ami Kealoha

Urban planning throughout Chicago’s history has been used deliberately to form the city’s current composition and character—for better and worse. Entorno: Grass Grows Greener on the Other Side, a show that opens at Polvo, an alternative art space in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, on 28 April 2006, is being mounted as a reexamination of what the city grid has come to mean. Polvo’s founders Miguel Cortez, Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa, and Jesus Macarena-Avila are bringing together urban planners, community activists, scholars, and artists to collaborate on installations, video, photography and traditional sculpture and painting addressing history, current change, and the future. Macarena-Avila and Rodriguez-Ochoa are two artists whose work traverses contemporary, near-academic conceptual practices and the gleeful impulsiveness of street art. Both have dealt with issues of gentrification in their work, but rather than simply discussing displacement of economically disenfranchised people, their work questions where the practicing artist stands in the cityscape where prefabricated housing is replacing architecture.

Entorno: Grass Grows Greener on the Other Side through 20 May 2006
Opening reception: Thursday April 28, 2006, from 6-10pm

Contributed by Kristopher Irizarry

Vice Scandinavia adicolor Contest

by Jacob Resneck

Lystring skandinav!

Vice Scandinavia is hosting a juried design contest for adicolor Adidas sneakers. You have to be a scandalous Scandinavian (från Sverige, Norge eller Danmark—ibland även Finland) to enter by using an entry form in the current Food issue of Vice or downloaded from the website. At a party 21 April 2006 at a secret location in Stockholm, attendees can vote on the top 10 finalists that will be displayed along with a soundtrack by Detroit's DJ Godfather, Bruce Leenus, and a live set by Sway. Though the event's not public, we hear there'll be 100 tickets available at the Adidas Originals Store in Bruno Gallerian around noon the day of the party. Winners will get 10,000 Swedish Kronor ($1200) worth of schwag from the Adidas Originals Store and their design will be promoted on Vice's site.

Check our adicolor archive for more from adicolor mania.

M3 Summit

by m ss ng p eces

Now in its third year, the M3 Summit is taking shape as the premiere experimental music festival during the annual Winter Music Conference week in Miami. Episode 27 of CH Video presents highlights of the unique acts that performed throughout the weekend as well as excerpts from the Keynote Speech by Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired magazine.

Cool Hunting Video - M3 Summit

by Josh Rubin

Cool Hunting and Missing Pieces M3 Summit Now in its third year, the M3 Summit is taking shape as the premiere experimental music festival during the annual Winter Music Conference week in Miami. Episode 27 of CH Video presents highlights of the unique acts that performed throughout the weekend as well as excerpts from the Keynote Speech by Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired magazine. Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:55:00 EST http://homepage.mac.com/josh.rubin/.Public/video/mp027.m4v 3:35

Orange Shop: Notting Hill

by Josh Rubin

For many of us buying a new mobile phone is a task, even a quest, which is not satisfying until it's over and the device is in hand. In the U.K. the mobile operator Orange is experimenting with shop concepts that create a better customer experience. We stumbled on this one in Notting Hill last week, apparently the only one of its kind in London. The "not another phone shop," opened about 8 months ago, is a laid back place where you can try out working phones and talk to salespeople who are both intelligent and patient—surprisingly rare. As one employee explained, they're not paid on commission and are rewarded for positive feedback from customers so that helps change the game significantly to the shopper's advantage.

The welcoming space is decorated with photos taken with camera phones and the expected orange furniture. Phones are displayed in lucite cases, but can then be found in drawers beneath. Customers are encouraged to come back often—in the shop you can grab a coffee while your mobile is charged and cleaned or you can learn how to load music and read email on your particular device.

Address and interior shots after the jump.

Free Spirit Spheres

by SummerSeventySix

I've had a thing for treehouses ever since seeing the Ewoks in Return Of The Jedi, which led to my dad building a great one for my brother and me. We loved playing in it, but if we'd been given one made by Canadian Tom Chudleigh, I can guarantee I would still be living in it now.

His beautiful tree spheres evolved when an original plan to build a boat didn't quite take off, and he put what was effectively the cabin up in a tree in his native British Columbia instead. Since completing the first prototype called Eve, which was made out of yellow cedar wood, Tom has perfected his techniques. Now, he also constructs the spheres out of fiberglass, fitting them with plumbing, wiring and the all-important windows. Prices start at around US$45,000.

His amazing work is also featured in the the book Treehouses by Paula Henderson and Adam Mornement, which is well worth looking at (U.S. click here, U.K. click here).

More of Tom's pictures, used with his permission, can be seen after the jump.