Cool Hunting
| 19 August 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Black Maple Hill Small Batch Bourbon
by Tim Yu
Aged for an average of eight years, Black Maple Hill Small Batch Bourbon is bottled in small batches straight from Heaven Hill Distillery oak casks in Bardston, Kentucky. The technique and the fact that Heaven Hill is the largest, independent family-owned distillery in the state makes for an especially rare find of superior quality and taste.
In spite of its affordable price, Black Maple Hill is a nicely smooth bourbon. A 95-proof liquor, it expectedly has a bit of heat but it's met with a surprisingly mellow and dry finish with hints of butterscotch and oak.
Be careful when purchasing as Black Maple Hill also bottles a Small Batch Bourbon that comes out of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky but it's not a Heaven Hill product. Recently bottled in time for the inevitable colder weather, you'd be smart to snatch this up while you can. Available in limited quantities at your local liquor shop and online at K&L for $33.
Black Maple Hill also bottles a few older bourbons and ryes including an 18 and 21 year-old but those are quite a bit more expensive, albeit most likely worth it.
charity:water: The Born in September Project
by Ami Kealoha
Virgos of the world unite! After a successful campaign based on his birthday last year brought wells to Kenya, Scott Harrison of charity:water is using the excuse again to this time fund a larger goal of getting more clean water into Ethiopia — the African country that's home to the most amount of people without access to safe water.
The September Project tasks people with donating $33 in honor of his 33rd September birthday that marks the 2nd anniversary of his undertaking to bring clean drinking water to Africa. He's also calling on other September babies to celebrate their birthdays in the same way by asking for a donation in lieu of gifts. One hundred percent of the money donated will go to the cause, which has set its goal at $1.5 million to benefit 150,000 people in the region.
Participants can set up their own page on the Born in September site where people can donate. You can also check out a series of shorts that document the challenges Ethiopians have when it comes to potable water, as well as the trailer for the project.
Graft: Kanera 1 E Sink
by Josh Rubin
Slated to open Spring 2009, the new W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences brings a number of media-worthy gems (a $2,000 per square foot pricetag, for example), but this stunning sink by Graft, the building's award-winning interior designers, is what caught our attention. Looking at the bathroom as "a place of purification, relaxation, revitalization and timelessness, "Graft came up with the 1 E "to sensually stage the poetry of water within the overall concept 'bath.'"
With gently sloping curves that look as much man-made as they look carved by glaciers, the designers clearly have mastered the impossibly sleek organic forms that define today's aesthetic. The sinks will be available for purchase outside the W Hotel and Residences as well. Contact Kanera for more info.
Pangaea Project Artist Tees
by Ami Kealoha
by Nicole Schlomann
Spearheaded by Chrissie Lam, the Pangaea T-shirt Project is an effort to "connect artists and activists, communities and causes," and profits benefit her efforts in Rwanda and other developing nations. Made from super-soft organic tees donated by Save Khaki and others, with some made in Uganda, the shirts are emblazoned with quirky graphics by artists like Bryan Collins, Steve Green, Chris McNally and Jon Theiss .
Artist and designer Lincoln Mayne volunteered to screenprint the designs himself. Lam's goals include "raising awareness and funds to help sponsor orphans, and filming genocide survivor testimonies." Her blog www.createforacause.com chronicles personal anecdotes of her volunteer work, as well as photos of her Rwandan experiences and the collection's tees.
