Destination: West End Road, Negril, Jamaica

For those of you who might have ever been to Negril, Jamaica, the hotel where I am staying (Moondance Cliffs) is beyond the Negril Lighthouse on West End Road. This is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, except for a swampy mangrove on one side and cliffs leading to the sea on the other side. 

So, after my breakfast this morning (not at the hotel, because I wanted proper Jamaican food), I thought it might be nice to walk back to my hotel so I could properly check out West End Road.

Mind you, there are no sidewalks. So walking along West End Road really meant walking along the side of the road and minding the gutter. Where taxis came barreling around the corner, honking their horns energetically, and people younger then me by many years on bicycles yelled things like, "HI, LITTLE LADY!" in my ear as they passed by.

I bought a rastafarian beach towel in the classic stripe of red, yellow and green, with the lion of Judas on the bottom — because I had no beach towel and felt slightly guilty taking the bath towel from my hotel room to the beach. It was this towel or towel with the flag of Jamaica woven into it. (Which, while it is a lovely flag and I hope to find some postcards of it, I felt sort of disrespectful parking my incredibly non-tan self on the flag of this country, while eating cookies at the beach. Getting crumbs and chocolate chips all melty into the nation's flag seemed just so wrong.) The guy who sold me the beach towel also sold me some of his jerk seasoning mix. Because I am a sucker? Yeah.

Ackee + Saltfish for breakfast

I had planned to get a huge breakfast at the Royal Rastafarian somewhere down the lane, but the hotel's driver took me to his favorite spot, Sweet Spice, instead. Apparently, he did not think the Royal Rastafarian was up to snuff or something. Regardless, I had an enormous breakfast, and Sweet Spice was a super lovely little place — with a potted ivy hanging basket in the bathroom and paper towels with elephants on them.

The above picture only shows the ackee with saltfish, the callaloo and the johnny cakes. I also had a side plate containing one boiled green banana, a large half moon slice of bammy cake, and some sort of squashed in the middle white boiled dumpling thing. This squashed dumpling thing I skipped since I have tried it before and I found it to be sort of a waste of carbohydrates being that it has zero flavor. But I am sure its lovely once you acquire the taste for it. Regardless, the best part was the tallest, frothiest glass of the most delicious fresh pineapple juice that I have ever had the pleasure of imbibing. It was exliricious.

Ladan + I at the emergency room

Tonight, as I was washing dishes, a metal measuring cup fell off my dishrack into the sink and shattered a cereal bowl unbeknownst to me. As I reached in to the grab the bowl, I cut my knuckle. My first thought was of utter disappointment, since Bodom no longer carries these bowls in the USA anymore. And then I started shrieking quite loudly because the cut on my finger was incredibly painful. Ladan kindly drove me to the hospital about four blocks away (perhaps because I called her in tears?); because of the horrid weather today, there was zero cars available at Blue Car Service. Lovely. 

The wait at Long Island College Hospital was about 2 hours before I even got taken back into the ER. This, however, was most likely due to the fact that I thought that the triage staff were imbeciles and did not hide my feelings on this. I mean, they made me take off my down vest to measure my blood pressure. WTF? I was ridiculously snippy and after a few smart ass retorts, threw my down vest on the floor in a huff. Consequently, despite being the dumbest people on earth, they were smart enough to make me wait until I was the absolute last person left in the waiting room. I got their message loud and clear.

Ladan and I, in the meantime, were completely horsing around in the waiting room (see pictures above), and also in room 5, which is where I was finally taken after I was finally deemed having waited long enough for my punishment. In fact, we were so rambunctious — Ladan was rummaging through the supply closet, through my bio-hazard material in the kidney bean shaped dish, etc. — that the doctor who was working on my finger asked if we were a couple. I guess because she was holding my hand while he was cleaning the glass shards out of my wound. This was because it was excruciatingly painful though, and I explained that while she was my person, we were not partners. 

Seven stitches, one tetanus shot and a round of antibiotics later, I am good as new, or practically. I honestly have to say that I felt validated that I needed stitches. While we were waiting in the waiting room, Ladan was convinced that the doctor was going to just slap a Band-Aid® on there and send me home. (We even contemplated leaving and having Ali stitch me up at home. Hello, what were we thinking?) So, getting stitches, which actually was way less painful then the cut itself, made me feel like I was right for feeling that I as soon as I had cut myself, I knew I needed to go to the Emergency Room. Thank goodness for gut intuition.

Orla Kiely + snack time = blissed out loveliness

This was sent to me from my friend Lara, 

who spotted it on The Dieline.

The above is like a Reese's peanut butter cup: two lovely things that only get better when you stick them together. In this case, it's Orla Kiely's happy leaf prints melding with Bewley's tea from Ireland, in the form of a limited edition tea tin covered in her fetching, and signature, stem print. The tin itself holds 160 tea bags. 

Orla Kiely also designed a water bottle for Brita. The idea behind Wottle was to create a truley eco-friendly product, instead of releasing another bottled water. Wottle itself is made out of recycled materials and is also meant to reduce the disposal of plastic bottles. Therefore, the design of the bottle had to be attractive enough to entice its preservation. Hence, the charming stem print, which is pretty irresistible, personally. You can read more about the Orla's Wottle here, and you can buy it here, although shipping an environmentally friendly water bottle from the UK does not strike me as very environmentally friendly. I am sure that Anthropologie will have it for sale sooner or later, if they don't already.

Snail topiary

Today, I was searching for a gift for my brother for Christmas and came across this super sweet snail topiary featured on Grace's gift guide on Design Sponge. The cute little snail is part of a collection designed by Todd Oldham (fashion designers have moved onto designing plants?! I love it.) for FTD.

3 exciting, delicious & happy condoms

Great condom packaging sent to me by my friend Cherith:

Concept for a packaging competition 

by Mads Jakob Poulsen and Robert Nagy

Client: Sex og Sundhed

"The brief was to make an appealing package for three condoms as a give away for the Danish non-profit organization, Sex and Health. The target group was young people from 15-25 years of age. Combined with no sleep, Thai food and lots of coffee this was what we made in the 24 hours.

This, our first proposal, is a handy package constructed so it opens from the right to left, revealing a simple humoristic statement when you take out a condom. The statements simply connecting condoms with having sex, and no more condoms meaning no more sex. The message should come across in eye level with the target group with out being patronizing or judgmental."

Christmas time at One Girl Cookies

Kate and I passed by One Girl Cookies (my favorite cookie shop in all of Brooklyn) today, and I became all super excited for Christmas when I saw their shop windows. There is nothing like a cake covered in iced star sugar cookies to really get your heart beating for all things Christmas-y. There was no way that I could avoid going inside and buying some cookies, as I have absolutely no will power when it comes to walking by this shop without entering. It is just impossible. 

We all need a little...

Havaianas for Summer

and

Chocolate Pie Chart

Ok, this is truly spectacular. Who doesn't want a pie chart made from chocolate? At least, please buy it for the holidays for all of your accountant-y loved ones. I found it on Mary + Matt's website, which features randomly selected things such as packages of Fruit Stripe gum, a chalkboard made from a skateboard, a $40 handmade bandana, and a rugby shirt, all for sale.

a clean apartment = meditative state of bliss

Every other Thursday, I get to experience the joy of coming home to a perfectly clean apartment. I know it is a bit decadent to have someone come and clean my studio apartment which cannot be more than 300 square feet, and especially when I clean it every night before I go to sleep — but Laura does something special to it that I could never hope to emulate. The moment I push open the door, it is truly like the anticipation of coming downstairs on Christmas when I was six, and seeing the transformation of the tree from having no presents underneath its skirt, to being full of potentially amazing gifts. All for me! And the apartment radiates the most amazing sense of calm and loveliness. All of my things are neatly arranged or put away, and even though I think of myself as an incredibly organized person, somehow Laura just takes it to the nth degree of tidy organization. Without it just becoming into a bunch of neatly stacked piles of stuff. 

Of course, then I stick my keys on the counter; get a snack and crumbs fall every which way; my shoes get slipped off into the corner; my backpack pukes its contents of yoga clothes, cashews, multiple Moleskin notebooks; my knitting; and some back issues of The New Yorker all over the floor as I search for my wallet; and then its all downhill until two weeks from today, when than sense of joyful anticipation will happen all over again.

Candyman

I was just laying in bed watching the Lakers versus the Suns NBA game, and this commercial came on for Nike Basketball, featuring Lebron James. Without fail, Nike commercials always manage to completely affect me in some way. To the point where I actually got out of bed — and since I just changed my sheets tonight, my bed is particularly big and fluffy and very hard to climb out once I was cozily nestled under the covers — and looked up the commercial on You Tube. Sometimes I wish that I was a film maker…honestly, film has the ability to move people in such an affected way that packaging for consumer goods could never dream to do, unfortunately.

From The Inspiration Room:

Nike has released a commercial for the Zoom basketball shoe featuring Cleveland Cavaliers basketball star LeBron James, using his pre-game ritual of tossing talcum powder into the air at the scorer’s table. The commercial, released on Thanksgiving weekend, shows sports photographers waiting eagerly for the moment LeBron throws his chalk powder up, while other forms of dust are released in a barbershop, an outdoor basketball court, a bakery, a classroom, a school locker room, and back among the basketball fans. The ad finishes with the joy of a slam dunk and freshly baked doughnut.

The doughnut was the best part.

Family of the Day: Susanna, Henrik + Ingrid

Today, Kenny and I met my friend Susanna for brunch at Estancia 460. I have known Susanna since 1997, when I first worked at Liska + Associates, where she was the senior designer. At that time, she seemed so mature and she was pretty much my design idol. I thought she knew just about everything there was to know about the world of design, and I so wanted to be as good as a designer as she was when I grew up. Mind you, she was maybe 26, when I first met her. So, I have come upon that age and past it many years ago, and I still think Susanna is just the most amazing person in almost every way. And even nicer is that I still find myself being incredibly inspired by her whenever we have the chance to meet or talk.

So this past fall, I hired her design firm in Stockholm to work on a project for the Global Design Office, and I have had the pleasure of working with Susanna, and her simply lovely colleagues, all over again. It is really rare to have the opportunity to work for a person whom you think of as both a mentor and a good friend. Thankfully, I have been blessed throughout my career, with the sort of creative directors who have always pushed me past what I thought I was capable of creating, and I am immensely grateful. Even if I was crabby and bitchy about it at the time. Susanna is/was one of those people.

We met for lunch, together with her husband Henrik (also an incredibly talented graphic designer) and their youngest daughter, Ingrid. Ingrid has to be the happiest baby that I have ever met, and she was just a joy to be around. Her happiness was infectious, and neither Kenny nor I could stop staring at her in all of her adorableness. The last time that we had seen Susanna and Henrik was eight years ago (!!! we could not believe it had been so long!) when we visited them in Stockholm. Susanna had just moved to Sweden, and she was not even married to Henrik yet. 

Lunch was very relaxed and overall, most delightful — and we spent a leisurely few hours catching up and just in general watching Ingrid be the cutest baby, ever. Plus, Estancia 460 has really perfect french fries. Thin and nicely cooked. I highly recommend it as the perfect lunch spot for catching up with old friends.

Red Hot + Rio 2

Last night and tonight, as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Next Wave Festival, Red Hot revisits one of its old themes: Red Hot + Rio. The Red Hot + Rio cd was released in 1996. It was the first of several Red Hot projects to raise money for HIV / AIDs causes outside the US (this week’s concert will do so as well through partner organization BrazilFoundation).

Now in terms of the music, it’s a bit apples and oranges to compare a cd with a one-off concert. But, oh, why not? The aim of the ‘96 cd was to pay hommage to the tradition of Brazilian pop music of the 60s and 70s, from bossa nova through Tropicalia. This week’s Red Hot + Rio 2 concerts take it from there, honoring the “samba soul” sound that followed. The ‘96 cd was an eye-opener in the way it not just revisited but updated classic Brazilian sounds, often blended with elements of electronica. Some of the artists were Brazilian based but at the time the idea of approaching the music that way in Brazil was pretty new; while there were exceptions (the late Chico Science for one), many of the more forward looking treatments were prompted by outsiders for whom this sort of musical approach was less novel: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mad Professor, David Byrne, Everything but the Girl, even Stereolab.

But today there is an array of artists in Brazil who are using the technology and the esthetics of the day to take a new neo-cool look at their own musical roots, and that’s really what will be on display at this week’s BAM events. The backing band for the concert is centered on a trio of Rio-based poster boys for the cause (who will also do a short US tour afterwards): Alexandre Kassin, Moreno Veloso (yes, a son of Caetano) and Domenico Lancellotti, who have have collaborated on three very contemporary CDs for the Luaka Bop label (each as a variant on the “+2’s”: Kassin + 2, Moreno +2 and Domenico +2). (Kassin is also co-music director for the concert along with Mario Caldato Jr.). They are rooted in the great Brazilian heritage but their influences are unbound. In the concert footage below, they careen from soft samba soul to rock and roll freak outs, loopy electronic dirges, and then suddenly they’re crooning again.

And the artists they will be joining are, for the most part, also members of this new generation, including Curumin, whose complex background (Spanish / Japanese via Brazil) is reflected in this no-boundaries music; the groovier Ceu who scored a Latin Grammy for her smooth neo-samba soul; and the funky but quirky Otto whose playful artiness is reflected in the video below. And while in some ways the very popular Bebel Gilberto (yes, a daughter of Joao) is more old-school in her lush samba soul vocal style, she’s been taken to the other side on several occasions by remixers.

Another big change from 12 years ago: Now vintage Brazilian music is decidedly hip: Particularly the samba soul of the early 70s, represented by artists such as Tim Maia and Jorge Ben. (The original plan for this concert was that it would be an hommage to Jorge but that plan never quite came to fruition.) Labels like the UK’s Mr Bongo have been reissuing old tracks, and club nights centered on the music have emerged, for instance Brazilian Beats at Black Betty in Brooklyn. You’ll pay a pretty penny for the original LPs on eBay. One of the groovy (and recently resurrected) groups from that era will be represented at Red Hot + Rio 2: Trio Mocoto, through singer Joao Parahyba.

You sometimes worry about how one-off mega-collaborations like this will come off, but Yale Evelev, co-producer of the concert (along with Beco Dranoff and Paul Heck, who co-produced the Red Hot + Rio CD) says that the leap hasn’t been too great: “I have been to this weeks rehearsals and it is going to be a fantastic night. All of these musicians have known each other as the Brazilian music scene is deep but not so wide. Though many had never played with each other there were tons of connections. Even the horn section, (Brazilians based in the US), as Kassin was telling Mario that the leader and arranger had recorded some things that Mario and Kassin had sampled for a project they were producing.”

Now the critic in me will argue that the new electro / beat driven samba soul is sometimes interesting, sometimes brilliant and sometimes a bit tepid. I’m not a big fan of the global “lounge” phenomenon of easy listening electronica, and it’s pretty easy for this music to go there: Some of the original samba soul kinda went there already. But when it’s good it’s really good - like on Otto’s rollicking Bob, or on the ebullient Homem ao Ma on the Kassin+2 cd Futurismo. And these concerts provide a rare chance to see many of the artists in Brazil who are moving the music ahead - in one place at one time.
- By Rob Weisberg for WNYC.org

Condom vending machines

"A cheerful condom vending machine near the Yonghegong Lama Temple. The wall colour is typical "Beijing grey." taken by xiaming.

I found this great image on Flickr today. The best is the title on the vending machine, which is "Vending Machine for Condom." You have to love the straight to point communication. There is an article here that talks about the installation of these condom vending machines throughout Beijing about four years ago. When I was in Shanghai, I never noticed any of them, so either the condom machines never made it to Shanghai, but since I was not looking maybe for them specifically, perhaps I just never noticed them. And apparently conservative parents in Tianjin (see my earlier posts from last June, when I was there) freaked out and shielded their kids from the machines whenever they walked past them in public.

I heart vending machines

For whatever reason, vending machines full of candy make me feel nostalgic for simpler times — when the most difficult decision I had to make in life was whether I wanted Chuckles or Dots. Since Chuckles had that one black licorice flavored gum drop bar, I usually opted for Dots. But it was a touch decision. 

There is something incredibly satisfying about slipping in your coins, or these days, stuffing a dollar into the bill feeder, and pressing in the right combination of numbers and or letters (while when I was in the Chuckles/Dots phase, it usually involved pulling a lever), and then the coil slowly moves your candy closer and closer to the edge and then...it gets stuck. Without fail this almost always happens to me. 

There is that slight moment of anxiety — an "oh my gosh, do I have to actually shake the vending machine and make a scene right here in the Audi dealership?!" moment, and then, after a slight hesitation, the peanut M&Ms fall over the edge and land with a thunk at the bottom of the machine, waiting for my eager little hands to retrieve them. And then thunk, another package of M&Ms falls down again, to make up for the moment of mind wrenching anxiety where I almost had to embarrass myself over the retrieval of a 65¢ packet of chocolate covered peanuts.

I love getting two for the price of one.

Gap's Merry Mix-it-up

Lately, I have been finding myself ending up in the most interesting places online. I will be searching for something, for instance googling Jason Bateman + Gap ads, because I received a holiday catalog from the Gap in the mail, and there was some pictures of Jason with his daughter Francesca, and he was just so cute. And it made me wonder, gosh, what is he up to these days? Before Juno, he had been dormant (in my mind) since Silver Spoons. But whatever about Jason, because then I saw found the links to these Gap Christmas carol videos and they were just so silly and fun, that I got in the holiday spirit for like one nanosecond. 

Here is Janelle Monae singing "Winter Wonderland"

and then Trey Songz and Flo Rida singing Jingle Bells:



and lastly, "We 3 Kingz" as bell choired by Jason Biggs, Romany Malco and Freddy Rodriguez: