Sotheby's Atari Auction

by Tim Yu

Sotheby's is branching out a bit and validating gaming history with their upcoming auction of vintage video game paraphernalia beginning at 10am this Thursday, 21 June 2007 in New York. The collection, an extensive archive from 1981-1983, consists of 2000 pieces of original Atari marketing materials including early design and graphic work, original sketches, proofs, instruction manuals, screen diagrams and some mechanicals. Some of the classic titles represented include Pac Man (original art work pictured right), Dig Dug, Bezerk, Asteroids, Pong and Mario Bros.

The lot is expected to fetch $150,000-$250,000. You can join the auction here, but you need to register first.

Griffin Elevator Laptop Stand

by Ami Kealoha

With little more than a simple u-shape design, Griffin's Elevator solves a few different problems and offers a few added benefits for laptop users. The device is so handy in fact, that a certain founding editor appropriated the sample from my desk while I was out of town. Now nearly every desk at CH HQ has one and we're all the happier (and maybe even more productive) for it.

The biggest and most obvious advantage to the Elevator is the ergonomic benefit of raising the screen 5.5 inches to eye level, making it more functional on its own and better for use with external displays. It also makes plugging and unplugging cables a less frustrating process and allows air to circulate around and cool the computer.

Practicality aside, the acrylic and aluminum materials are a perfect match for silver Macs and unobtrusive enough to work with most any other setup. A sturdy design, using non-slip foam grips on the top arms, means your laptop is safe. Pick one up for $40 from Griffin.

São Paulo Fashion Week: Summer 2008 Summary

by Phuong-Cac Nguyen

Nearly 50 collections and a full week later, São Paulo Fashion Week closed yesterday with Ellus' 2nd Floor summer/winter 2008 line. (Pictured right.) An international brand built on its denim reputation, there's definitely a more youthful spirit in its sibling collection. The trends seen in the earlier shows—an abundance of sequins, metallics, neons, cuts and fabrics that played with movement, and solids, especially black—continued here in the form of short satin dresses that flounced and skinny jeans in I-dare-you colors.

Alexandre Herchcovitch (left) was the most hyped and didn't disappoint the Brazilian audience with his menswear collection, though there were many who weren't impressed with the overall fierce heavy-metal/goth look he chose as his theme, with hems on some shirts left rough and other pants so tight they wouldn't look good on anyone else except Iggy or Axl. Better was his Cori line. (Pictured right.) It's meant to be more classic and mainstream (read: sellable), but its soft shorts and wonderful use of leather will ultimately make a bigger impact among consumers.

Do Estilista (Below left.) was by far this writer's favorite collection. A Brazilian fashion critic remarked that the label's designer Marcelo Sommer doesn't get the recognition he deserves in his home country, but this time might be his lucky turn. Sommer added the type of glam found in 1920s Rio de Janeiro to this season, with carefully designed cropped jackets and sequined dresses in a rainbow of colors. Skinny cargo pants were also key, in pinstripe especially, and he relied on repeat images (all nautical-related) to give roots to his theme.

Cavalera, (below far right) the eponymous label conceived by former Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera, also relied on the same method. Its designers pirated famous couture logos and remade them into the label's own. They were huge and glorious on everything from thin hoodies to wide-leg pants. With the addition of clunky sneakers and fat laces, the look was distinctly '80s Bronx, with ghetto blaster on at full volume to the Beastie Boys track that opened the show.

Eyes have been on Brazil for the next import, and despite some of the hit-and-miss collections, these are among the worthy contenders.

LiMAC

by Ami Kealoha

LiMAC, billing itself as the Lima Museum of Contemporary Art, is in fact a fiction. It inhabits no physical space; it commissions no works; it does not host any real exhibits. The art, though, is real, taken from actual catalogs around the world to create an interesting visual visit.

While not a brick-and-mortar institution, it has replicated the trappings of an art museum complete with souvenir gift bags (above right) and pens in its online shop as mementos of visits that did not—and likely will not—ever occur. Hidden among the fakes, there are some literal artworks, such as founder Sandra Gamarra's free postcards available for download and her watercolor "Guided Visit." (Pictured below left.)

"Our museum has begun its construction from the end; it begins as a memory of what has not yet been lived," writes the Peruvian-born Gamarra in an essay that explains the thinking behind the illusion.

LiMAC is a conceptual art piece that playfully explores and deconstructs the institutions that house contemporary art in modern society, while at the same time questioning the line between fact and fiction in its actual institution, the internet. It's a thought-provoking experiment.

New Balance Super Team 33, Fanzine 1400s

by Josh Rubin

Inspired by homemade publications, this limited-edition series of New Balance 1400s, called "Fanzine," is designed by NB's European team. It's the third and latest collection from their Super Team 33 (ST33) line, named for the 33 artisans who hand make the shoes in Skowhegan, Maine.

A print evoking black-and-white photocopies that lines the socklining (and also shows through a translucent sole) features text that translates "DIY" into several languages. The three colorways, red, blue and white, are an homage to popular paper stocks used in making zines and the vamp and midsole are a reference to the look of heavily inked dots made by old typewriters. Somehow all the elements come together nicely and the shoe has the raw simplicity of the fanzine aesthetic.

To see the previous season of ST33s as well as a complete listing of the 33 shops where they will be sold starting 20 July 2007, go here. For more images go here.