PSFK Snapshot: San Francisco Bay Area

by Doug Black

Unlike the conventional tourist guide, the PSFK Snapshot doesn't aspire to be an exhaustive overview of the city. Instead, it serves as a compendium of what the writers consider the city's most interesting and original aspects. Or as they describe in their inaugural issue, it's "a collection of the most innovative businesses, events, organizations and ideas" that the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer.

As a result, there's no neighborhood-by-neighborhood coverage. PSFK instead arranges their guide based on themes. Sections range from "Art & Music" and "Food & Drink" to the more nebulous "Community" and "Ethos." So you'll find a community writing center on the opposite page as a classic burrito shop, and an Oakland arts venue alongside a festival at a NASA base in Santa Clara County. And acutely appropriate for the Bay Area, the Snapshot puts particular emphasis on environmental innovations and healthy living.

You can buy the 80-page San Francisco Snapshot for $30 on blurb. Look out for upcoming PSFK Snapshots covering East London, Brooklyn and Hamburg.

Landscape Tableware: Patricia Urquiola for Rosenthal

by Brian Fichtner

The Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola has been taking the design world by storm in recent years. With a host of furniture and lighting products created for the likes of Moroso, B&B Italia, and Foscarini, it was only a matter of time before she took on the kitchen table. Landscape, her new collection for the revered German manufacturer Rosenthal, is a comprehensive suite of fine porcelain dinnerware, glassware, flatware, and linens.

Landscape represents quite a fanciful departure for Rosenthal, whose tableware collections include the minimal Moon by Jasper Morrison and the austere TAC 02 series by Bauhaus legend Walter Gropius. For this most recent collection, Urquiola has laced the porcelain with a variety of decorative relief patterns that cover the surface, ripple over the edges or turn three-dimensional to serve as handles for cups, creamers, and pots (click right image for larger view). In keeping with our current taste for ornamentation, these embellishments thread their way through the entire collection, creating, according to Urquiola, "a sensual compendium."

New to the Rosenthal Studio-Line, Landscape can currently be viewed at Moss. Five piece place settings run $188, glassware is $126 per pair and the large lacy tablecloth will set you back $2,000. Contact Rosenthal for more dealer locations.

Camitz Sparkling Vodka

by Ami Kealoha

Among the many new sparkling vodkas recently introduced to the market, only Camitz has the taste and quality that pushes the concept out of the realm of mere fad. Using a carbonation process that captures the C02 released during distillation, the air trapped in the Swedish vodka doesn't alter the taste, which in and of itself is on par with other premium vodkas on the market. We also love the visual appeal of its champagne-like bubbles that make for a similarly delightful sipping experience. A cork stopper, specially engineered to pop when opened, draws on champagne's language as well.

Of course, like its flat counterpart, Camitz mixes well with any variety of mixers (as long as they're not to heavy) for fun sparkling drinks. Served straight up, it's a great palate cleanser and is a nice accompaniment to rich foods like steak.

See the Camitz site for purchasing details.

Image via The Strong Buzz

Nike Sportswear Loopwheeler

by Tim Yu

Exhibiting the same qualities as a bespoke suit in regards to fit, detail and tradition, Nike Sportswear recently teamed up with Loopwheeler in Japan to create some of the finest cotton fleece apparel around.

To understand this breed of garment is to understand Loopwheeler. A small Japanese clothing manufacturer in the Wakayama prefecture, about three hours outside of Tokyo, they've built a reputation on tradition and craftsmanship, and are known for delivering the highest quality apparel (they have worked with Colette, Beams Plus and Selfridges in the past). This is due to the fact that all materials are carefully selected and hand cut to be processed in the vintage loopwheel looms, which date back to early 1920s Germany. Each sweatshirt is constructed using this four-needle machine (versus two or three-needle machines, which are widely used today). This slow-pace stitching allows more air to pad fibers creating a loftier feel. A loopwheel can only process 12 meters of fleece per day — which is approximately eight sweatshirts a day — but they supposedly last a lifetime.

A great example of fusing the best quality materials with technique and design, it's the ultimate authentic sweatshirt. Expect more of this type of stuff from Nike Sportswear, although i'd love to see Dri-Fit Loopwheeler garments in the future.

Released through Nike Sportswear under the NSW collection, keep a lookout for this to drop sometime mid-August, right around the Olympic season. Nike Sportswear Loopwheeler is denoted by the orange tag and will be sold around the $250 pricepoint.

Fraction Magazine: Issue 1

by Doug Black

Fraction is a new online photography publication. Started this month, it will be published bi-monthly featuring both new and established artists. The site's unobtrusive white design serves as a basic template that lets the photographs do the talking.

The inaugural issue features five photographers that cross the spectrum of style. Lawrence Getubig's series titled "Action Figure Cutouts" (sample above left) features dark silhouette renditions of iconic scenes from TV and film. Karen Kuehn is another of the photographers included. The photos from her series "New Mexico Artists" (above right) includes conventional portraits of artists by way of introduction when she moved to the state from New York.

Fraction is published by artists Joshua Spees and David Bram in New Mexico and photographer/writer Mary Goodwin in New York. A labor of love, Fraction has no advertisements and covers expenses with voluntary donations.