The Home Front

On March 17th I attended a design talk called Making It, the second talk in the series Home Front: American Furniture Now, at MAD curated by Dan Rubenstein.

No one cares more about the plight of the independent designer in America than I, and bravo to everyone involved in The Home Front for instigating a dialogue, but the conversation on the 17th was very basic.

I wish these talks well, but I have yet to attend a panel discussion about design that actually forges new ground, or offers real solutions to our predicament here in the USA. I will try to make it to the other talks, to lend support and see if discussions get more interesting, but ultimately I do not think discussing it will change anything.

There are three more presentations in the series at the MAD on Columbus Circle in the cute little theater in the basement (I'm pretty sure its from the original building design).

DRAFTED: The evolving role of architects in furniture design

Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm

tickets | more info

AFTER CLASS: The first steps of the American designer

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 7:00 pm

tickets | more info

AMERICAN DESIGN CLUB

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 at 7:00 pm

tickets | more info

Brief to Build

We are very pleased to be included in From Brief to Build, a new book from our friend Jennifer Hudson. The book showcases a wide variety of interiors in a case-study format. For each project it includes sketches, renderings, fabrication shots and images of the completed project. It is a very interesting document, especially the 8 pages detailing the design process behind the Corian Design Studio in Philadelphia.

Spiderman

When theater is great it inspires me. Julie Taymor's work on the Lion King was incredible. She did so much with so little, and that is the magic of the theater. I was excited for her new production of Spiderman so we ordered preview tickets. Even after the early reviews came out I had hopes that the sets would be fun. But 65M doesn't buy creativity, it buys more stuff - more mechanisms and special effects - and they actually get in the way of the storytelling. The take-away from Spiderman ... too much is too much.

The Next Drag Superstar

My gold Banana Bowl has taken a star turn. It was spotted on Monday night amongst the bevy of beauties on RuPaul's Drag Race Untucked! Every queen, real or imagined, should have a gold Banana Bowl in which to keep her fruit, and so it made perfect decoration in the "Gold Bar" where the contestants go after the main show to drink and dish. Bravo/a to RuPaul for bringing drag to the masses, and bringing some REALITY to reality TV.

Pickup Picked Up

Our Pickup for Areaware was nicely featured last weekend in the Wall Street Journal. I named this piece "Pickup" because I like the association between the truck form and the idea of picking things up - as in picking up paper clips and putting them into the Pickup on your desk. It is after all just a fancy dish; the truck bed holds lots of small stuff. This bothered a few people because it is not technically a pickup truck. It is a dump truck, but I cannot bring myself to call it Dump, and Truck lacks poetry, so Pickup it will remain.

Memphis with Murray

Today I had a lunch date with Murray Moss, who wanted to go to "that Memphis restaurant on Lafayette." Where? The Noho Star, of course.

I have been to the Noho Star a few times over the years, but never taken notice of its historic design value. It was in fact completed in 1984 and is pretty Memphis-y, right down to the little laminate hostess stand. It is a time capsule.

Lots of things discussed, including his upcoming Arthur Show on March 3rd.

Lunch with Murray is always fun.

ON MY WAY TO TOKYO FOR A FEW DAYS

Is that a banana?

I love this picture of me holding my Mixed Fruit Bowl.

Just kidding!

Special thanks to photographer Adam Raphael for letting me use this photo of a very handsome guy named Josh holding my Mixed Fruit Bowl. I uploaded it a little bigger than usual so you can see all of the beautiful details.

Gift Show

I ran by the Gift show on Monday to see what was happening. It looked busy, which is a good sign, and all of our products were doing well. Our new silicone pill boxes for Areaware were on prominent display.

And I stopped by to give Gaye Cevikel of Gaia & Gino a hug. She looked wonderful with her new short hair and her new collection is timely - affordable high design.

Dwell

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