Museum of the Moving Image: Warhol's World

by Tim Yu

The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, often neglected in the NYC museum circuit, is making a major star power push with the upcoming can't-miss retrospective of Andy Warhol's films.

Warhol's World, a film series showing 40 of his works behind the camera, opens this Saturday, 20 October and runs through 11 November 2007. Some of the films are new prints and the run will also include a preview screening of the new documentary, A Walk into the Sea: The Danny Williams Story.

In a short five year span from 1963 to 1968, Andy Warhol turned the Factory into a filming studio and churned out dozens of motion pictures. This series aims to exhibit what some might argue was Warhol's favorite and most enabling medium. Curator David Schwartz comments, "A visual artist fascinated with popular culture and mass production, Warhol was attracted to the deceptive case of creating images with a movie camera, and he was drawn to a medium that allowed for voyeurism and cool detachment."

Showing two films daily, go to the Museum of the Moving Image for complete details and schedule.

Warhol's World
20 October through 11 November 2007
Museum of the Moving Image
35 Avenue at 36 Street
Astoria, NY 11106 map
tel. +1 718 784 0077

Also on Cool Hunting: Andy Warhol "Giant" Size, Warhol Watches, Blow Job Puzzle Card

Socialight London

by Ami Kealoha

First introduced a few years back by a couple of ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) students, the cleverly named Socialight, a free service using social networking to deliver localized info to your mobile phone, launched in London today. Like a combination of Dodgeball and Google 411, The service works by geo-tagging places with "stickies" that list the particulars of a favorite bar (for instance), which then can be accessed by other users who use the mobile web app or who text a query. Socialight figures out where you are using network-positioning services, providing pinpointed details.

You can also simply configure your mobile to notify you of nearby stickies posted by friends or the entire community, so that you automatically navigate an area like an insider. The data lives on a website as well and "channels" curated by celebs and publications (such as Anthony Bourdain and Monocle) and others provide a richer experience.

Also on Cool Hunting: Dodgeball Social, Dodgeball

Pacemaker

by Ami Kealoha

When one of CH's designers tipped us to the Pacemaker, the world's first hand-held DJ system, (right after we also heard about it when in Europe recently), we knew it was worth checking out. Fortunately for us, we had the chance to experience it first hand when co-founder Ola Sars stopped by our offices earlier this week. In person, the "PSP of music's" look, feel and usability surpassed expectations; it's an innovative product in a great package.

The unit's black turntable-based design features solid construction and heft that makes it seem like the serious piece of equipment that it is. With a 120GB hard drive, the ability to preview tracks, adjust beats per minute, split and cut loops, crossfade, alter levels, add effects and more, the Pacemaker achieves the founders' goals of packing all the features of a full-fledged system into a gadget that's "the size of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

One of the round panels is a full-color display and the other is a touchpad that navigates through the menu, selects and cues tracks, adjusts volume and a performs a couple other tasks, all with a few intuitive motions. Buttons on the front and side round out the system, connecting with a USB 2.0 jack to your PC and using a mini line out.

Though arguably nothing compares to vinyl, the Pacemaker caters to audiophiles supporting WAV, FLAC and other files for sound quality 25 times better than what you get out of an iPod. It comes with a free embedded software client, comparable to iTunes but with mixing. All your mixes are automatically saved by default, which means they can then be edited or shared via the community platform Pacemaker's introducing.

An included DC charger enables seven hours of DJ use or 20 hours of listening to music off the battery. Both Mac and PC compatible and supporting 28 languages, the Pacemaker's set to reinvent deejaying as we know it—or at least make the "everyone's a DJ" cliche ring even more true.

Priced at €520, it's Due out on the European market this December (and expected to hit the U.S. in early '08), you can reserve yours from Pacemaker now.

Lulu Organics Hair Powder

by Letizia Rossi

Hair washing in cold weather is a tedious burden for those of us with long locks, not to mention the health risks. I don’t have the time or patience to blow dry before braving the elements, which is where the Hair Powder “for hair on days of unwash” from Lulu Organics comes in. It soaks up the shine and leaves my hair smelling great without any nasty chemical residue.

Lulu originally created the recipe as a gift for her best friend when she realized that the talcum powder they had been dousing their hair with could be potentially carcinogenic. She read up on beauty product ingredients, and used her fashion publishing connections to set up meetings with beauty companies and eventually came up with a fragrant combination of natural and organic ingredients. The talc-free powder is made with white clay, baking soda, USDA Organic corn starch and rice powder, and Oregon Tilth Certified Organic horsetail powder and essential oils. Available in four distinctive scents Lavender/ Clary Sage, Patchouli/ Amber, Jasmine and Tuberrose each 4.5oz container is $40.

The beautiful packaging designed by Lulu, an herbalist at heart and a graphic designer by trade, is a work of art worthy of display on even the most well-curated vanity. The labels are hand-screened in Vermont by The Paper Moon Project and are made in small runs to emulate the pared-down aesthetic of the crude printing jobs you might find on import products in dusty ethnic pharmacies.

Available online directly from Lulu Organics and at Opening Ceremony in New York and L.A. and Honey in the Rough in New York.

Aesop

by Lost At E Minor

For the entire month of October, cosmetic retailer Aesop transformed their signature space in Fitzroy, Melbourne into a book store containing nothing but hundreds of copies of "Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen." The store looks amazing, and not only do we love such a quirky statement but we've got the word on how and why.

Why was Gabriel Garcia Marquez chosen as the featured author?
There are literary giants and then there are writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose talents redefine not only the genres they choose to work within but what's possible in literature as a whole. The fact that his work has transcended his own language and culture has also prompted our decision to pay homage.

Aesop's alternative beauty products promote wellbeing. How does the display of "Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen" reflect Aesop's love for balance and wellbeing?
At Aesop we often make reference to writing that inspires us. We encourage daily consumption of selective, intelligent reading matter as an important way to learn and feed your imagination. The internet does offer access to good content, and Slate is an example of a site we visit daily, but the intimate act of reading a book should not be forgotten. If our display of "Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen" encourages a little more quality book reading, and perhaps introduces some clients to the brilliance of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, we will be very pleased.