Joy Division Zune Giveaway

by Josh Teixeira

Zune continues to innovate with custom device designs and inventive packaging, this time upping the ante with a black version in homage to Joy Division. Since the launch of the Zune originals series, we've been impressed with Zune's willingness to let users customize the look and feel of their device and this latest release takes this marketing concept to its next logical step: a limited-edition branded customization with related pre-loaded content.

To commemorate the release of Joy Division The Documentary, Zune partnered with artist Peter Saville to create a stunning device engraved with the iconic artwork he originally crafted for the "Unkown Pleasures" album. The Zune is customized right down to the menu backsplash and the accessories that come with it. But even better, the Zune is pre-loaded with the new documentary.

The packaging is also incredibly elaborate, including a suitably-minimalistic one-page album insert and Peter Saville’s signature etched into the foam lining.

We know the Joy Division Zune has been covered elsewhere, but we're taking it a little further and offering one of these strictly limited, individually-numbered Zunes to a reader. Follow the contact link at the bottom of the page, select Joy Division Zune Giveaway and tell us why you're the Joy Division fan that should get this by Thursday, 10 July 2008, 11:59pm EST.

If you'd rather not take your chance, buy it from Zune for $400.

Images via Engadget

Weekend Warrior

by Doug Black

Most commonly known as weekend getaway for the West Coast elite, Ojai, California is also the location for a month-long art exhibition opening this Saturday. Curated by Beautiful/Decay, "Weekend Warrior" features the work of eight diverse artists who work in a wide variety of media.

Some highlights are Case Simmons and Andrew Burke, whose super-detailed digital landscapes employ thousands of images taken off the Internet and can have a dizzying effect on the viewer (example above right, click for detail). Far removed stylistically, but equally engaging is Robbie Conal's drawings. He makes overt satire out of cultural and political figures that can both funny and indicting. Other featured artists include Tony de los Reyes, Ruby Osorio, Steven Shein, Vanessa Chow, Allison Miller and Robert Olsen.

Weekend Warrior
Opening reception: 12 July 2008, 3-6pm
12 July-10 August 2008
Nathan Larramendy Gallery
107 South Signal Street
Ojai, CA 93023 map
tel. +1 805 646 2750

Rei Sato

by Brian Fichtner

Discovered by Takashi Murakami when he staged the first GESAI art fair in 2002, Rei Sato has become part of the Kaikai Kiki roster of emerging Japanese talents that includes Chinatsu Ban, Aya Takano, and Chiho Aoshima, each of whom was included in the 2005 exhibit "Little Boy," Murakami's sweeping survey of contemporary Japanese pop art. Only born in 1984, the young Sato is now staging her first solo show in the States at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York.

Like her elder peers, Sato's work dovetails nicely with the Murakami art factory brand of bubblegum art. Exploring notions of kawaii (the Japanese pop cultural affinity for cuteness) and alienation, Sato paints smiling children over innocuous photos of everyday existence (click image for detail). Separated, these techniques could result in saccharine paintings and mundane photographs, but combined, the works succeed in conveying an ethereal, albeit cute, subtext to quite normal surroundings.

Through 8 August 2008
Lehmann Maupin Gallery
540 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001 map
tel. +1 212 255 2923

More images and caption info after the jump.

Bubble Calendars

by Evan Orensten

Our friend Stephen Turbek, an experience designer, stopped by CH HQ to show us his new project, the Bubble Calendar.

Based on the universal premise that everyone likes to pop bubbles, memories of Advent calendars, interesting ways of marking time's progression and needing to know what day it is, Stephen came up with the Bubble Calendar. After much development and working through production issues (lining up all of those bubbles is not as easy as it looks) the calendars are finally available; they come in both horizontal and vertical versions, and are backed on clear acetate or on white paper. All major holidays are noted.

Bubble calendars are available online, starting at $30.

June Taylor Ketchup

by Evan Orensten

We've been fans of June's conserves and other specialties for seven years. We finally got around to visiting her Berkeley, CA Still Room, where we shot an upcoming episode of Cool Hunting Video. It was then that she dropped the bomb on us: she's started to make ketchup. And just like her jam isn't just jam, her ketchup isn't just ketchup.

Made from Early Girl tomatoes, which are organically grown and dry-farmed, her version starts sweet. Then your tongue is treated to a spicy finish and a strong but not overpowering blend of secret herbs and spices.

At $15 a bottle this is not your everyday ketchup, but like her conserves they bring a lot of love and an incredible purity to your table.

For those who cook, she also makes a Tomato paste.

Available online from June Taylor and at these retailers (not all stores carry all items).

Also on Cool Hunting: June Taylor Organic Jams