Alastair Callender's Soliloquy Super Green Superyacht

by Karen Day

Keeping luxury afloat, Alastair Callender's eco-friendly Soliloquy yacht proves that future pleasure vessels can maintain opulence without damaging the earth.

At 58 meters long, wind, solar and hybrid marine technologies power the rigid wing yacht, resulting in zero emissions capabilitity, lower fuel costs and a quieter journey.

Originally intended for the environmentally conscious crowd, the Soliloquy is attracting attention worldwide not only from activists but also designers and sailing enthusiasts for its innovative use of a rigid wing rig of three solar sails, which can collect enough energy during 12 hours of sun to allow the Soliloquy to run fuel-free at nearly eight knots.

The entire yacht features careful construction, keeping both sustainability and splendor in mind. Using renewable materials, the state-of-the-art, ever-evolving superstructure creates the option for converting indoor space into outdoor socializing areas or alfresco living spaces. The on-board gym offers both guests and the ship an energizing opportunity—in-use equipment recharges the vessel's main batteries.

Combining Solar Sailor's proven technology with Alastair Callender's yacht design knowledge, the Soliloquy pushes the boundaries of both clean living and luxury yachts of the future.

See more images after the jump.

via Luxury Culture

Poketo Pop-Up Shop

by Phuong-Cac Nguyen

Substantially-sized, fully-stocked and visually-engaging, Poketo's first Pop-Up Shop debuted this past weekend for a three-week stint at Royal/T in Los Angeles, the Japanese-style cafe and gallery known for its waitresses in French maid costumes.

In addition to offering Poketo's trademark artist-designed wallets and tees, the launch kicks off a new line by Apak, with tees and a mug, plus a new shirt by James Gulliver Hancock.

Poketo convinced Royal/T to allow them to design a special menu of Japanese-inspired street food, which includes ramen, a chicken katsu Cordon Bleu and green tea flan. The tasty menu will only be around for the duration of the pop-up shop.

On 10 July 2009, Poketo will throw a karaoke dance party at the site with prizes for the unabashed singers out there. Karaoke celebrity Raina Lee is scheduled to appear at the event and sign her book on karoake and wallets by Devil Robots and The Wonderful! Design Works will go on sale. RSVP for the free event by sending an email to rsvp [at] poketo [dot] com.

Poketo Pop-Up Shop
Through 18 July 2009
Royal/T
8910 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232 map
tel. +1 310 559 6300

Furnigraph Mumbletronic Digital Watch: Interview with Bob Kronbauer

by Nathan Suberi

Canadian-based skateboarding blog Club Mumble and custom furniture designer Furni recently teamed up for some awesome ventures, including Contributor, a skateboarding charity for underprivileged youth, and the newly released (today) Furnigraph Mumbletronic Digital Watch. We had a chance to chat with the founder of Club Mumble, Bob Kronbauer (pictured right), and learn a little more about these projects.

Let’s start simple, what kind of message or culture does Club Mumble play around with?
As a designer and a documentarian, I come from a skateboarding background, and almost all of the contributors to the blog come from the creative side of skateboarding, so I guess you could say we're focused on stuff that revolves around that.

What inspired you to pull this together? How has your vision changed as the project matures?
Mumble started off as a blog that I was updating by myself, reporting on what my peers were doing and trying to bring attention to a bunch of different projects they might be interested in. As time went on I realized a couple of things, one being that I didn't have time to sift through the insane amounts of awesome stuff that people were putting out and two being that it didn't need a one-man filter deciding what was worthy of posting and what wasn't. I decided it would be more fun if I invited people I respected and admired to come on board to talk about what they're doing themselves as opposed to me telling those stories for them, so I turned it into "Club Mumble". I guess you could say it kinda went web 2.0., the content is more organic than it was in the beginning and right now we've got 135 people on board as members (contributors)...all friends of friends of friends.

We’ve heard about your skateboard charity Contributor, what’s it about?
I wish I could claim that Contributor was my own project but it's actually the brainchild of Annie Lam and Mike Giles. The goal is to raise money and get donations to provide at-risk youth with skateboards. So far they've got a lot of support for it, I think because it really resonates with people who work in skateboarding; so many people that I know (including myself) might have gone down a different path in life if they hadn't found skateboarding. Annie and Mike are trying to provide that point of discovery for kids.

I co-curated their upcoming fundraiser art show, "Smile On Your Brother", and we're teaming up to help promote all of their projects through Mumble just because it's such an awesome thing that they're doing.

Mumble recently teamed up with Furni to design a new watch. Any comments on your part in the design?
Yeah! The Furnigraph Mumbletronic is basically a take on the watch that you guys did with Furni a couple years back, only with a different face design and a couple of tweaks here and there.

My favorite contribution to it is the gold accents. Talking to Mike while we were designing this thing, I came to the realization that I wasn't even going to be able to wear it because I'm allergic to pretty much all metals except for gold. Mike was like "we could just make the accents gold!" and it was a done deal.

One last thing, any insider tips on up-and-coming skaters? Any personal favorites?
There's this Canadian dude named Torey Goodall that I've been really stoked on for awhile now, if you search his name on YouTube you'll find some awesome stuff.

The Furnigraph Mumbletronic is available for $24 through Furnigraph Mumbletronic.

Otto Real-Time Beatslicer

by Ami Kealoha

Taking the remix to the next level, Otto is a new prototype that enables real-time manual beat slicing. The brainchild (and master's thesis) of Luca De Rosso, made using open-source hardware, the handheld electronic instrument lends the user the sense of holding the sampled music in their hands.

It works by connecting to a computer and using software to feed the sample into the device, which then displays a visualization of the music in lights. To see a demo, watch the above videos. The graphic representation enables precise cutting and manipulation, an interface sure to win fans among deejays and experimental musicians alike.

Though it's currently not on the market, check De Rosso's site for more info.

via Core77

Netflix Find Your Voice

by CH Contributor

by Brian Rigney Hubbard

Netflix and Film Independent have teamed up to find the next great independent filmmaker, launching a nationwide online vote to rival the likes of American Idol. The contest features 10 semifinalists, chosen from over 2000 scripts, and a viral social media campaign drives it all—complete with its own Facebook application. The top five vote-getters will move on to the final round to be judged by heavy hitters Josh Brolin, Dustin Lance Black (screenwriter of "Milk"), Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen (producers of "Milk" and "American Beauty"), Columbia Pictures' Stephanie Allain and the indie institution John Sayles.

The films range from comedies to dramas and cover every current topic imaginable, including the intersection between technology and art in the virtual reality thriller "Sarahn_12." (A still from it is pictured above.) "Our film is all about the ever encroaching questions surrounding online behavior in our society, so I think if we get our funding through an internet contest, it'll be perfect," says filmmaker Sasie Sealy. "Whether it is Myspace or Facebook or Second Life, entire generations are growing up online, creating communities and identities in virtual spaces, where the rules still remain unclear. When does what we say or do online cross legal boundaries? Or moral boundaries? Do we have the right to stay anonymous in cyberspace?" Whether Sarahn_12 answers those questions remains to be seen, but I'm sure Sasie would appreciate your vote. The contest ends 5 July 2009.

Mac Icon Typeface

by CH Contributor

by Laura Neilson

Thanks to the character-inspired icons for various Mac-related applications, there's a new word-building form of entertainment to get bored workers through the doldrums of the day. Like a contemporary version of the grade school novelty of spelling out words on calculators (it actually had a name, beghilos), art director Mike Giepart's posts examples of the new "typeface."

While the technique seems too recent to have been given a common name, Vermacular sounds about right.

Check it out and add to the character-building experience on Giepart's site.

Brooklyn Is Burning III

by CH Contributor

by Franklin Melendez

The art queers are at it again, offering the third installment of the much talked about video/performance series, Brooklyn Is Burning. Curated by Sarvia Jasso and Andres Bedoya, the one-night event takes gender bending to whole new heights, featuring the work of emerging artists interested in expanding the boundaries of sex, sexuality, the body and whatever is left in between.

Past efforts have featured the work of Deitch Projects superstar painter Matt Greene, London performance artist The O and the psychedelic visions of Brazilian collective Assume Vivid Astro Focus. (All images from previous installments.) Highlights from the latest cohort includes video artist Desiree Holman (who’s building buzz with her upcoming show at the Hammer in November), and New York-based Kathryn Garcia, with her ode to Liz Taylor and hysteria.

Needless to say, the event itself promises its own share of antics and characters, enough to justify a weekend ride on the L. With enough decadence and perversion to fill in the backdrop for any late Fellini movie, BIB attests to an energy many feared had disappeared from New York City…turns out it just hopped a borough.

Glasslands Gallery
5 July 2009, 9pm
289 Kent Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211 map

Coil Guitars

by Nathan Suberi

Bruce Jacob's pioneering instrument fuses his two passions—guitars and computer system engineering—to create Coil Guitars. Coil revolutionizes electric guitar customization, allowing guitarists to engineer their favorite tones without having to open up (and potentially damage) their instrument's circuitry. We spoke to Bruce to find out more about what makes Coils a must-have for the discerning guitarist.

There are a multitude of different guitar production agencies and designers in the field today. What were these lacking that inspired you to create your own line of guitars? What elements distinguish your products from other guitar designers and manufacturers?
I grew up playing guitars that had a wide palette of sounds, not by choice but by luck. My first electric (an Electra Outlaw) was simply what they were carrying at the place I took lessons. My second (an Ibanex Roadstar) I got when I heard my band member's Ibanez and thought, "Wow, I need that sound." Those were my only two electrics for almost 20 years. Both have very wide ranges of tones they produce and when I bought a new guitar in 2003 (off the net), it was the first time I played a guitar with what I would consider a limited palette. It felt black and white, compared to full color.

So I looked into why I felt dissatisfied with that guitar (which was really expensive and should have been a home run by all accounts). After some research, I figured out how to get a huge range of tonal possibilities and then a student of mine pointed out that my experimental set-up was actually the product. So I decided to see if other people are as crazy about lots of tones as I am.

The bottom line is that we give guitarists way more sounds than they will get in other guitars, at a fraction of the price of guitars with similar specs. We give end-users the ability to experiment with different tones in a non-destructive way (e.g. one of our switches lets you fully customize all the settings of the guitar, without having to rewire anything). And, most importantly, we do it in a way that is simple and easy at performance time—one or two switches on the front of the guitar and that is all. I don't know many guitarists that want to fiddle with a half dozen knobs, levers, and push/pull pots to get their sound. That works fine in the studio, where the atmosphere is relaxed and you can make mistakes. Playing live is a different matter; the guitar has to be dead simple. I think we've achieved the best of both worlds: dead simple, with the widest possible range of sounds.

The Angel, Ronin, and Shogun body designs all hail from very familiar construction shapes. What are the functional and acoustic qualities that you are able to achieve from the Hammer's (pictured below) more atypical design?

Read more from Bruce and see additional images after the jump.

Lisa Sitko's Ceramic Apple Pipes

by Karen Day

An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but Lisa Sitko's ceramic apple pipe will likely do more for relieving built-up stress—as much for the way it riffs off the adolescent stand-in as for its actual purpose.

The L.A.-based artist sculpts and glazes the one-offs by hand, creating an unusual and charming device for smoking or just a lovely addition to any bookshelf.

Available in over 20 colors, the pipes can be purchased from the Ooga Booga Store for $80.