Jake Meet Samantha. Samantha Meet Jake.
Great movie. Great scene. Great song… Divinyls – Ring Me Up.
When the Dog Bites. When the Bee Stings.
These are a few of my favorite things: (from top)
A) Russell Moccasin Safari PH II Boot in standard OD Green (cleaned, waxed and ready to kill winter number 3).
B) Our Legacy 1940 Indian Check Flannel courtesy of the lovely folks at Rooney.
C) J.Crew Linen/Cotton Cardigan with toggle closure.
D) Max Bill Automatic wristwatch by Junghans.
E) J.Crew Grey Chambray Utility Shirt.
F) Simon Miller “Skinny D” Selvedge Jeans (Thanks Sarah!).
Shakes? Me too… I get ‘em bad.
I love my wife. I love that when you’ve been with someone for long enough, they not only share some of your obsessions, but they will indulge the other things that you’re into – even if they think it’s gross. Before you read anything into that, let me clarify.
We are both Blade Runner fans. Big time Blade Runner fans. Not “stand-in-line-for-8-days-in-costume-reciting-lines” fans, but big fans nonetheless. I know that a big part of it is our mutual love of Ridley Scott. Another big part of it is the sheer volume of visual information in the film. You know how you could live in New York all your life and not possibly see it all? Well Blade Runner is like that in the sense that you will invariably see something new that you never noticed before each and every time you watch the film. It’s the epitome of eye candy.
Most of my favorite sequences in the film take place around Dekkard’s apartment – staged on the mezzanine level of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House in Los Angeles. I think it best exemplifies just how remarkable a job Lawrence Paul and David Snyder did merging 1920’s architectural style with Syd Mead’s futurist visions of a 21st century metropolis. The details are amazing.
One of the things that I love about the scenes in that apartment are the double old-fashioned crystal glasses that Dekkard loads up with whiskey after a tough day of “airing out” Replicants (or getting his ass kicked by them).
So, back to the point… My wife finds the ACTUAL glasses for me. They are ridiculously heavy (in a good way) and just as beautiful in person as they are in the film. The company in Italy that manufactures them has been doing so since the 70’s – a testament to the longevity of good design.
I have been enjoying them with a ‘94 Glenrothes (heavy on carmel and vanilla notes) lately, but I’ll be pouring palette-busting peat/smoke heavy Isle-based malts into these bad boys in the frigid winter months to come. Mmmmmm.
Thanks for the awesome present babe, and I promise not to breathe on you too much… (whiskey’s not her cup of tea).
For the rest of you BR fans out there you should check out Phil Steinschneider’s site for other memorabilia. If your into the glasses, you can find them there. You can also look here.
Bueller?… Bueller?… Bueller?
Was late for an appointment today. Had to cut through a backyard or two. I felt like I was in high school again… (sort of). It made me remember this.
Then I remembered I had THIS:
More JH soundtrack gems to come.
PUR Success.
The official results of the World Vodka Masters were released on October 19th and PUR Vodka won both the gold medal in the Super Premium category and the silver medal – which is effectively considered a second gold as it is the only medal awarded for the “Rest of The World”.
Yesterday, the news came in that PUR had been awarded a solid 89 points and a silver medal at the 2009 Beverage Institute of Chicago’s Tasting Championships.
Considering that they have not even sold a single bottle through the SAQ to the general public, it is a HUGE accomplishment. I’m extremely excited to be part of the PUR team and looking very forward to seeing what happens once a premium product manufactured exclusively in Quebec makes it onto the shelves and into liquor cabinets across the country… and the world.
See you soon San Francisco!
A Tribute.
Back in August, I posted a fairly epic piece about John Hughes. I don’t know why it still bothers me that he’s gone, but I guess it boils down to what nostalgia is all about: the idea that the source of something that is such a big part of your life can be extinguished at any moment, and the fear that what made it relevant will die as well… Not to fear in this case. It’s not like his films are going anywhere; if anything, I am expecting a big surge of re-releases and tributes in the next 12 months.
Speaking of tributes, here’s mine. Simple but effective, and it just felt like the perfect graphic to sum up all that I was feeling when John passed away. I watched a John Hughes film every night for a week and this screen capture from the opening credits of The Breakfast Club jumped out at me. There’s another t-shirt I made as well. It’s from some old stills that I bought years ago at Hollywood Book and Poster. If you are ever in LA, you need to go to that shop. It’s where I got Anna a copy of the script for Sixteen Candles for her birthday. Amazing place.
Paul was kind enough to make my best attempt at a graphic eulogy into a limited run that is now available exclusively at Off The Hook and online at the Sometimes webstore.
The Razor’s Edge
A lot of things are getting worked out in the kitchen lately. Paul has been over for dinner a few times in the past few weeks so it’s no surprise that it’s been feeling like the creative epicenter of our home. I’ve been wanting to hang some of Paul’s work in our home for a while now, but I wanted something original… something that fit with the space. I looked to Scorcese for inspiration. There’s a lot of discussion about the best scene in Goodfellas. Billy Batts getting stomped. Spider losing a toe. Tommy getting made.
For me it’s all about the dinners in prison.
Paulie cooked me up something special (see above). He has a really good system. It will be hanging over my prep station soon.
For the record… some other great cinematic food moments:
1) Cooking with Clemenza
2) A Big Night for Timpano
3) Eat. Drink. Man. Woman. Knifework.
4) You Got Your Chocolate in my Quaglia.
5) and the first minute and twenty-five seconds of this.
Happy Birthday Zoë
My youngest just had her second birthday and Mia made a ridiculous cake. Light-as-air chocolate layers with a generous helping of wild Quebec blueberry confiture in the middle. Chocolate ganache over top with organic powdered sugar and some last minute stencil action. The mark of Zorro… I mean Zoë.
Don’t hate Banksy.
Back from Deep Space.
When I first moved to Michigan to go to College in ‘94, I knew that what was already a borderline obsession with electronic music would likely evolve into something deeper and more profound; I was (after all) moving within a short drive of the city that absorbed much of what had been musically done with machines to date and reshaped it into something else entirely: danceable music with a soul and intensity that reflected not only the capabilities of these primitive instruments, but the unique creativity of the men that were pulling new life and new sounds from within the machines.
It wasn’t until 1996 that I was introduced to Derrick May. The meeting was intimidating, exhilarating and brief. The challenge was to design a group of t-shirts that would later become a line of apparel and accessories for DJs. It worked out, and it led to what would become a working relationship with Derrick and Transmat that celebrates its twelfth year as I write this. You can see an archive of the work here.
Transmat has been around for a long time: just over 20 years actually. To me, the label has always embodied the spirit of Detroit Techno and it has consistently identified, promoted, released and celebrated up-and-coming talent. When Derrick contacted me earlier this year and told me that he wanted to re-launch the label, I was thrilled. When I found out that the first release was going to be from Toronto-based DJ/producer Greg Gow, I was elated. I feel that Greg’s tracks are a perfect fit for Transmat and will go a long way to carrying on the tradition of the label and supporting Derrick’s ongoing mission of “saving the world from bad music”.
The Pilgrimage EP has been released exclusively on Beatport this week. I encourage you all to check it out; Derrick has been playing The Bridge and Black Sun for almost 2 years now, and both tracks get a massive response whenever they drop. The bar has been set high, and we expect to see great things from Transmat artists to come.
You can preview and purchase the Pilgrimage EP here.
Oh yeah, and for those of you who don’t know… now you know.
Your Youtube introduction/education is as follows (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10)
Your bonus beat
Time: Space: Transmat
Restructured… Restructured.
Did you ever meet someone for the first time, realize how many people and things you have in common, get along like a (ware)house on fire, and then wonder why the f_ck you didn’t cross paths 10 years earlier? That’s what happened to me when I was “introduced” to Greg Gow almost a year ago.
Greg has been quietly making not-so-quiet music in Toronto for the better part of 15 years. In addition to long-standing residencies at System Soundbar, Comfort Zone and Film Lounge – as well as frequent gigs at the legendary Guvernment Nightclub – Greg manages his label Restructured which continues to be an outlet for some of the most consistent and solid techno being produced and released in Canada.
This is an exciting time for Greg and – despite the ridiculous fact that we have yet to actually meet in person – we’ve been busy working together on some pretty cool stuff. In addition to designing the artwork for his material soon to be released on Transmat Records, Greg asked me to come up with a new look for his releases on Restructured. The first release is a series of reworks of Mateo Murphy’s Standing Waves track that was released a while back. Mateo is a friend and former colleague from waaaaay back and it feels oddly appropriate that his EP should be the first to reflect the new visual direction.
The concept will be carried over the next 10 releases on the label with only minor changes to the information, color and background imagery to differentiate between individual EPs. A while ago I posted about Rowan Mersh and – after having contacted him with this project in mind – he kindly gave us the green light to use images of his Future Landscapes series for the artwork. These “Landscapes” are composed by vacuum molding fabric over a prefabricated substrate, much as you would do with paper pulp or fibers to create bas-relief. In this case, the structures have a repetitive pattern that is reminiscent of soundproofing materials and synewaves. The idea of visually mapping the surface of a form is not exactly new to music or film imagery (some obvious examples spring to mind 1/2/3), but Rowan’s work has an architectural quality to it that pairs beautifully with the music and the aesthetic traditions inherent to this industry and the artists within it. I am very excited and honored that he accepted being part of the project.
Mateo Murphy’s Standing Waves Rework Series EP should be available on Beatport within the next week or so. There will also be more big news on Greg Gow in the weeks to come and I will post the balance of the images from the Restructured series as they are released over the next several months.