Ventury Paris recently released their limited edition Divine lounge chair. Ventury is looking at furniture design through eyes inspired by fashion, creating what they are tagging as couture furniture. I really like the mix clean, elegant, modern lines with a touch of old world and traditional details. I also like their approach to doing limited color ways in the realm of furniture.

Jeremy Cowart is one of my favorite photographers.

I found out about Cowart when I picked up his photojournalism book Hope in the Dark. The photos were so awesome that I went to Jeremy’s website and recognized a lot of his work from band/musician photos and CD covers I’ve seen.

I don’t really know much about the specifics of what makes great photography so I just go off intuition and I know I really like his stuff. I could look at for hours… well, put together I probably do. I’ll shut up now and let you see his work.

Oh, last thing… he is a fun guy to follow on Twitter. There are almost always cool pictures to go with his tweets. (nerd alert, I know)

After watching last nights Lakers vs. Jazz game I remembered why I hate Sasha Vujacic so much; he’s the epitome of what’s going wrong in the NBA. Playing for the foul instead of the basket and crying (I mean that literally) over every flop that doesn’t get called, even though too many of his already do. With Manu Ginobili effectively out for the season (thank god), Vujabic has stolen the crown as the queen of the NBA.

Dear Sasha Vujabic, either quit crying and stay on your damn feet or please do the honorable thing and remove yourself from the NBA.

Damn.

I really liked Twitter. I liked getting updates throughout the day on what crazy things Rainn Wilson is doing, or how Eddie Izzard’s show went last night. I liked posting stupid pictures for people to see (or not). And I liked that only about 10 of my friends were on Twitter.

Then Oprah had to go and ruin everything. Pretty soon I’m going to get requests from all those people from high school I didn’t have the heart to reject on Facebook either  trying to “follow” me. Obscure relatives will want to follow my updates. 

I’ve come to grips with the fact that Facebook is no longer ours – it’s been hijacked by the 40-somethings of the world, and now I have to live with that. But, shit Oprah, couldn’t you have just left Twitter alone? We needed it.

Immediately after seeing this duo you’re asking yourself three things…

1. Are they husband & wife, brother & sister, lovers…?
2. Which one is more attractive?
3. Has my sexual preference just been compromised for asking that?

I only have the answer to one of those and the answer is “yes!” Actually I know the answer to all of them. They happen to be brother and sister. (but not twins)

It’s a pretty interesting dynamic but I guess it wasn’t always that way. In fact, until a few years ago Angus and Julia each did their own music. They came together when being jobless, their father offered them both free rent. Naturally, without anything to do besides surf, they began playing and singing together. However, their songs did and still do remain uniquely separate. Each sing harmonies and play on the others’ but you won’t find the alternating verses that you might see on a track like Ben Gibbard and Jenny Lewis’ “Nothing Better.”

With the US release of their latest album A Book Like This and a recent appearance at this year’s SXSW these guys are rapidly gaining popularity… and for good reason. Their melodies are catchy, song structures have a jazzy undertone to them, and they’ve created uniqueness within that folk genre, which is hard to do. A lot of their appeal is from their unique vocal styles. Tracks like “Bella” and “Paper Aeroplane” don’t immediately queue you in on the fact that the soft, comforting, almost childlike voice, belongs to Angus… that is until you Julia whose distinct vocals have subtle hints of Bjork and Jolie Holland.

Check em’ out… A friend helped Angus and Julia make this video for their most popular song, “Just A Boy.”

Here is another guy that pairs well with Angus and Julia Stone for your lazy/sleepy day playlist…

Mike Kinsella is guy I saw a few years back touring and recording under the name Owen. As you can see, on stage you’ll find Mike, a guitar, a stool and his iPod which serves as his band/orchestra. He dedicates time to take questions from the audience, casually starts/stops songs as if it were a rehearsal, and tells intense stories about broken relationships with family members. Worth seeing if you get a chance.

Angus & Julia Stone – Paper Aeroplane

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Owen – The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi

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This is by far one of the craziest street/trials bike videos I have seen in a very long time, if not the craziest ever. The rider’s name is Danny MacAskill, a 21 years young rider out of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Beyond the unthinkable tricks that Danny pulls off, there is also some spectacular cinematography, really good editing, and funny astonished reactions by onlookers. This is a great video all around. If you are a trails biker you should check out his sponsor company, Inspired Bicycles, also out of the UK.

The other thing that I love about this video is the song selection. The song is The Funeral by Band of Horses. For some reason they’re not the first band that comes to my mind when creating a playlist, but then I hear them in a video like this and it reminds me what I’m missing when I don’t have them in my playlist.

Band of Horses – Ode to LRC

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Band of Horses – Island on the Coast

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I came across this great looking floating bed by Falegnameria 1946 and became a bit discouraged. Mainly because this is right along the lines of a couch set that I’ve had in my head for a couple years. It’s also encouraged me to finally get the prototype created, it’s been on my list of things to do for way too long. So if you don’t see a post, about my prototype, within the next month make sure and give it to me. Until then, keep looking at this wonderful bed.

So where do you find a man whose cult status is beginning to rival that of Sufjan and Connor Oberst…. who has been receiving national and international acclaim for his creativity with the release of For Emma, Forever Ago with his most recent project Bon Iver… who is being sought after for collaboration by some of the industry’s most respected artists?

A high school jazz auditorium.

That’s right. A high school jazz auditorium. Last night Justin Vernon (frontman of Bon Iver) performed a fundraiser show with his former high school’s jazz band. Pimping a white suit and staying out of the spotlight as much as possible, Vernon and the Memorial High School Jazz Ensemble performed both Bon Iver tunes such as “Lump Sum” and “For Emma” as well as more peculiar pieces such as Sinatra’s “The Lady is a Tramp” and Mahalia Jackson’s “Satisfied Mind.”

This guy is the shit.

In the past week or two I haven’t listened to any music that wasn’t created by either the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Angus and Julia Stone, or Fever Ray. I just can’t seem to get enough of them… Ever…

After three years sans recording, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new album, It’s Blitz!, will undoubtedly go down as one of the years greatest releases. With remixes already out by Animal Collective and N.A.S.A. it’s proving to live up to the hype. This album is quite the glorious offering.

Ben was recently telling me about Angus & Julia Stone, so I decided to look into them and was extremely pleased. I’ll let Ben tell us more about them, but I thought I’d mention them in this post so you can now go and look into them yourselves. So good. Thank you Ben!

Over the past couple years I’ve been a huge fan of The Knife. Unfortunately they haven’t had a new release since Silent Shout came out in 2006 (they’re now actually working on a darwin opera due to premiere in September 2009). Swooping in to fill the void, with a self-titled album, is Fever Ray. Fever Ray is is the project of Karin Dreijer Andersson, one-half of The Knife. This debut album is exactly what I’ve been craving lately.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Runaway

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Angus & Julia Stone – A Book Like This

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Fever Ray – Now’s the Only Time I Know

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Fever Ray – When I Grow Up (Lissvik Remix)

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Last weekend I got away from it all and headed down to southern Colorado for some solitude and time to unplug. While down there I went to a flea market’esque shop hoping to come across some old vinyls, or just any retro design inspirations. After the first thirty minutes I thought I was going to strike out, until I came across a few boxes of sunglasses. The boxes were mainly filled with cheap gas station glasses, but then I found a pair of scratched up vintage Bolles. I asked the owner if he had any others and he brought out a few boxes. He went on to tell me how he had purchased them direct from Bolle twenty or so years ago. There were four different sunglass styles and a pair of rec specs. All were brand new, in box, with stickers still on lens. I bought them all.

I’ve been searching the internets to try and find some history on them and get an official year, but I haven’t found anything useful. If you have any info, let us know in the comments.

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