Griffin BlueTrip: Hands-On Review and Giveaway

by Ami Kealoha

Of the bluetooth-enabled iPod gadgets hitting the market recently, Griffin's Bluetrip wins points for its straightforward plug-and-play usability. Simply connect the fin-shaped receiver to any auxiliary input using included RCA cables, pop the transmitter onto your iPod's dock, and start using your iPod as a remote from distances up to 33 feet away. Though it only produces two-channel audio (don't expect surround sound), a mini jack on the receiver provides optical or 1/8" connectivity options, runs on 12v, and can work with other bluetooth devices that use the A2DP profile, such as headphones. The transmitter gets its power from the iPod (eliminating extra cords and batteries) and currently supports most models as far back as third generation (nanos and fifth generations work with the BlueTrip LE that recently came out in small quantities). We wish the Bluetrip was designed for car stereos or to also work with other non-bluetooth music players, but multi-purposing it would likely complicate the easy joy of playing DJ from nearly any spot in your home.

Griffin and Cool Hunting would like to add a little of that joy to two lucky Cool Hunting readers' lives. Go here and tell us your best (brief) "dancing with myself" moment (i.e. a memorable experience of dancing by yourself at home) by next Thursday, 31 August 2006. We'll reward each of the top two with their own BlueTrip kit and print their story on Friday, 1 September 2006.

New Balance Stingray III F**ked Up

by SummerSeventySix

This is a special version of the third in Microzine's New Balance Stingray trilogy, concisely called "F**ked Up." Based on a 576, the Stingray III is made of navy leather with special stingray fabric accenting the logo and heel tip. As the name suggests, they are then literally f**cked up by New Balance so they arrive with that pre-scuffed—yet new—look. The box has been designed by Liverpool studio JUNO, which is best known for coming up with the now-unavoidable cover of the Arctic Monkeys' debut album.

Only 60 of this style are available, exclusively at Microzine, and they drop tomorrow, Saturday 26 August 2006, priced at £90.

Velco Dojcinovski

by Lost At E Minor

Some nice photographic work from Velco Dojcinovski, a member of the Melbourne-based design studio called Maybe, which is "situated somewhere between yes and no; ticking away quietly, holding the key to every door."

Light Works

by Ami Kealoha

Dan Flavin's pared-down constructions and more recent works by Leo Villareal and Spencer Fitch (Sunset (South Texas, 6/21/03) pictured)—to Bruce Nauman's tongue-in-cheek neon, Tim Noble and Sue Webster's interpretations of Vegas strip-style signs and Jenny Holzer's LED proclamations, light installations often play off the captivating nature of luminescence. Other artists, like Felix Gonzalez-Torres' delicate strings of lightbulbs and Tatsuo Miyajima's interactive, pulsing LEDs, use light as an elegant metaphor for weighty themes, like life, death, and existence. Connecting light to the physical world, James Turrell makes large-scale, sky-like expanses, while Olafur Eliasson recreates weather. Check all these artists out and more on Artkrush.

RE:UP x I-Manifest Tee

by Ami Kealoha

RE:UP Magazine and I-Manifest, features a nature-inspired design printed on an off-white organic cotton tee. Pick one up soon, because for a limited time this soft shirt comes with a free one-year U.S. subscription to the growing music quarterly. $28 from I-Manifest.

Also on Cool Hunting: I-Manifest Tees