Love : The Wonderlust Journal

August 2, 2011

July 20, 2011

July 19, 2011

July 7, 2011

June 8, 2011

May 24, 2011

Like No Other

May 19, 2011

There’s no way this video/ad won’t put a smile on your face. It made me so happy I almost cried.

Maybe y’all have already seen this, as it was on TV, but I don’t watch TV really (except whatever my dear roommate has on in the background while I blog, or series that I get way obsessively sucked into via Netflix instant, but then there’s no ads) so I miss out on all the ads that get raved about. And I don’t really care if you’ve already seen it. Watch it again.

The team (who I think are brilliant) behind this spot for Sony Bravia TVs wanted to connect people to the product in an emotional, rather than rational way, which is SO smart– it’s what Apple does all the time. TVs are traditionally sold by bragging about the specs and high tech this or that. This spot said absolutely nothing about the product other than “Color like no other,” as part of their larger “like no other” branding campaign, and they made you feel something instead of telling you something.

I also loved this behind the scenes/making-of video, as I was very curious about the details! Here are the basics: 250,000 bouncy balls, 23 cameras. (Tangentially, did anyone else get really thrown off when the theme music from NPR’s On Point came on??)

Also, the images at top are available for purchase as prints– photographer Peter Funch was at the scene and captured these amazing shots.

PS- Happy birthday to my sister Kaki and my niece Ginny! Festive post for your birthday, no?

via WTF

Lost Pictures of New York Blizzard

April 6, 2011

This is SO This American Life!! Apparently I’m waaay behind on this one, but just in case some of you were too, I had to share it!

Guy resolves to have more adventure in life. It snows in New York, he decides to ski in Prospect Park for some adventure. Finds a film canister in the snow. Develops it. Makes a film about and puts it on youtube to try to find its owners. The video gets over a million hits, and emails pour in from people who believe they may have clues for him.

I don’t want to give away the end of the story, because it’s just much better if you watch the videos. (I will tell you he travels to Europe as a result!) Definitely watch part 1 (about finding the film and requesting help finding the owner) and part 3 (about his journey to Europe).

It’s convenient that he, Todd Bieber is his name, makes films for a living– I can’t remember for whom now, I think it was Upright Citizens Brigade– so the story is really well told in the video.

I think storytelling as a thing is underrated– it’s something that everyone loves, but perhaps not consciously, as it’s not often discussed as it’s own thing. People love movies and great conversation, but it’s rarely discussed that it’s because we all enjoy great storytelling. But why else would this video have gotten over a million hits? Anyway, I think this is one of the best examples of storytelling I’ve come across in a while. The actual “plot” is awesome, and Todd is a wonderful storyteller, not only giving you the facts, but drawing some wonderful conclusions at the end. Enjoy!

April 4, 2011

March 29, 2011

March 16, 2011

Franck Durand / Kilian Martin

January 27, 2011

Les Ailes Pourpres

November 15, 2010

I haven’t seen this film, The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, but I was entranced by this trailer, with its stunning imagery and Coldplay-esque music by The Cinematic Orchestra. Produced by Disney Nature, the documentary was filmed in northern Tanzania in a region never before shown on film.

If you liked Planet Earth or the LIFE series narrated by Oprah, I think you’ll like this. It’s an awe-inspiring reminder of what an amazing creation our planet is.

Music by Cinematic Orchestra

Yes to All >> Ingredients for Good Style

October 11, 2010

E. Tautz, whose awesome branding I mentioned back here, is sponsoring an effort to bring back snail mail. As a part of this project, they are asking influential fashion icons and writers to write postcards with quotes or quips or lessons about style. I loved this one above– it’s so true! If you could have all of those things your style would be pretty unstoppable.

PS – Patrick Grant, the guy who bought E. Tautz and it’s parent company Norton & Sons, gives an interesting interview on his own thoughts on style here.

Masters and Their Crafts >> Tartine

September 28, 2010

Tartine is one of my absolute favorite bakeries and a must every time I’m in San Francisco. I actually am a little bit worried about what might happen once I move up there… I fear it could be habit-forming.

Their bread is incredible, as are their sandwiches, desserts… pretty much everything. It’s a bakery, cafe, and even wine bar, and I love the vibe that comes from people opening up a bottle of white at lunch on a Saturday. With the line almost always out the door, there’s always a ton of energy, great people watching, and a cool European cafe-meets-San-Francisco,-specifically-the-Mission,-vibe.

Check out this video to see the owner and head baker, Chad Robertson, in his element. Although I’ll warn you, this is dangerous to watch if you’re hungry.

[Tartine]

[Tartine cookbook]

[Kitsune Noir]

Yes to all.

September 23, 2010

I frequently send my boss an email full of issues and questions and in response I get back, “Yes to all,” which is frustrating in its vaguery, but at the same time seems to imply (I hope) that I’m on the right track with everything. To this girl’s outfit, I simply give a “Yes to all.”

Tastemakers >> Badgley Mischka

September 13, 2010

Still seriously loving the Kentucky home of Mark Badgley and James Mischka, as photographed for Elle Decor.

This photo above always gets me, I like pretty much every element… the color-coordinated cookbooks + hanging pots and pans + white subway tile + high-contrast countertop + brass drawer hardware.

Lots of my favorite things for a dining room– built-in bookshelves, cozy size, dark walls… Interesting that the books on the bookshelves provide almost the only color throughout the house.

Notice that the house has almost no color (other than the books on the bookshelves)– they make great use of contrasting whites and black and warm it up with lots of wood tones and shades of leather. Also no patterns other than plaid! Sounds like it would be severe but it’s not!

Love this bedroom.

The walls of most of the rooms Sherwin Williams Modern Gray, according to the article in Elle Decor.

Badgley is actually a serious horse-person, so they fully refurbished the barn and riding ring for his two show-horses, Brando and Cooper, so named “because they are so good-looking.” Ha!

[original Elle Decor article online here]

Obsession: Theo Jansen.

May 13, 2010

You MUST watch this video. It’s very short, and it will add a lot of wonderment to your day. I’m enthralled.

Theo Jansen explores the boundaries between art and engineering, creating these “kinetic sculptures.”

These “animals” move. Or I should say, they walk. They’re wind-powered. It’s amazing. They look like a cross between an exoskeleton and an erector set, which is basically what they are, and then they start moving and they become so anthropomorphic, you wonder if they’re alive in some way.

Many of his creatures are so “evolved” that they are now capable of “living” on the beaches on their won– the wind powers their “walking,” and they have sensors that tell them to stop and turn around when they hit either water or dry sand, keeping them permanently on the wet sand.

They even have sensors that tell them when a storm is coming, and their “brain” tells them to start pounding a stake into the ground so they don’t fall over in the storm.

Can you imagine having a brain that dreamed up stuff like this?

In the video above, you see the “rhinoceros”-like sculpture walking.

If you want to learn even more about Jansen and his work, click here for a ten minute video presentation by Jansen that shows more animals walking and an explanation of how they work.

It’s also extremely interesting to hear how he talks about the animals– he doesn’t discuss them as art, or really as machines or product prototypes either– he talks about them as though they are animals that he is looking after, and he doesn’t seem to feel any need to explain the “purpose” of them, which I think is an amazing insight into the brain of someone this creative.

I think that science and art are going to continue to merge in this way, in the minds of people like Jansen who are capable of seeing their relation to each other, and have a desire to explore their intersection without the desire to make a practical product or advancement in technology. While in art, it seems sometimes that “we’ve seen it all,” and there’s nothing new under the sun, science is continually evolving and pushing boundaries in material ways, and through the integration of science and art, art could do the same.

via Uppercase

I Love Maps >> I’M DYING THIS IS SO AMAZING

May 5, 2010

THIS IS A REAL MAP. I saw this and thought someone had painted something pretty on top of an old map.

Not so, which means this might be the most amazing map I’ve ever seen.

In the early 1940s, the Army Corps of Engineers commissioned a guy named Harold Fisk to make a map of the various courses the Mississippi River has taken over time. He showed each course in a different color, to show when and how they happened. This is the result.

Just goes to show, the representation of practical information can be executed in a way that is also aesthetically pleasing.

I feel like I could look at these forever. I’ve searched and searched and I’m pretty sure you can’t buy any prints (original or reproduced) of this, but I wish you could*! I would frame a whole bunch and hang them on my wall!

(*If anyone can find any originals and would like to give them to me, it would be like the coolest gift eveerrrr, just sayin)

Rivers are constantly in flux, as they erode banks and make deeper curves (or “meanders”), until the meanders become so meandering that the two sides of the curve almost touch. At this point, the river cuts off the curve and so that it has a straight path again, and it leaves an oxbow lake behind.

Here’s a detail:

When all the pages, each showing a different section, of his study are fit together, they form this long continuous path of the Mississippi. I can’t get the image to load any larger, but it looks really cool when it’s shown as the same width as the pages above.

THE ALLUVIAL VALLEY OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Harold Fisk, 1944

via Pixels & Arrows

Spike Jonze: “How They Get There”

May 3, 2010

An amazing short by Spike Jonze of only 2 minutes and 26 seconds.

via Dalliant & Dainty

Treehouses

April 30, 2010

Love these incredible treehouses…

Aren’t they the fulfillment of all your childhood tree house daydreams?

Maybe my favorite interior shot from the book– love that the tree is coming through the wall, the cozy built-in nook, the bookshelf, the totally simple cushion and pillows…

Click the jump for more treehouses….

Another great looking built-in sofa… those pillows and the cushion in the simple ticking stripe look perfectly casual and comfortable.

A super posh one!! It has a chandelier!

Love the awning windows on this one, and the gingham pillows.

All images from the book Exceptional Treehouses.

Wonderment for your Monday

April 26, 2010

Loving this project…

French journalist, environmentalist, and photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand started an image bank called Altitude Agency, for which he commissioned and assembled over 500,000 aerial photographs of the earth.

Then, alongside UNESCO World Heritage, he gathered the most beautiful images into a project called The Earth From Above (la Terre vue de ciel).

This one is a shot of an underwater plant that is only visible

when a certain tide changes the water level in the Loire River.

These images were put into a book with the same name, and they were additionally shown in numerous free exhibits, in which the images were printed on giant posters and hung in public places like on the gates of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. I love that the public got to see them…

A wonderful reminder of how incredibly beautiful our world is…

LustList >> Wrapped Up in a Book(shelf) – Pt. II

February 25, 2010

More of one of my favorite things– bookshelves wrapping over things… doorways, sofas, etc.

Portsea Place on Beach Studios

Now this is interesting — this is the same room that I posted in the last post on this subject, but now the walls are this olivey green-brown! They are white in the other one! Totally changes the room. By Courtney Giles.