Hasta La Ideas

Any city with a museum known as “SMoCA” is OK by us, and now our old friend Simon Doonan is spotlighting Scottsdale as “a place that you should seriously think about adding to your could-I-bear-to-live-there? list.” The Arizona town will soon be home to a Barneys flagship store, and Doonan, the store’s creative director, has been making “reconnaissance trips” to prepare for the October opening. In addition to SMoCA and oodles of spiny succulents, the city is home to Barbara “Jeannie” Eden, bacon-wrapped Mexican hot dogs, a deep-seated fear of precipitation, and a Westin hotel with a staff bagpipe player, reports Doonan in his latest New York Observer column. And there’s no shortage of drama:

Last week, I had my first Scottsdale health emergency. Here’s what went down: A colleague and I were taste-testing mini-desserts for the opening bash. The proffered stuffed raspberry looked innocent enough. But while masticating, a strange electrical tingle exploded in my head. I assumed the worst and prepared to collapse to the floor and transition into a vegetative state.

“Pop Rocks!” shouted the chef, who had cunningly inserted the weird 1970s candy into the offending fruit. I am telling you, nothing is too wild and crazy for the people of Scottsdale.

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Created by Ryan Berkley to illustrate an article is our Summer issue, Strelka the Russian Space Dog is now available as a digital print in Ryan’s Etsy shop. I purchased the painting as a birthday gift to Glen, so we’re lucky to have the original in our living room. But for just $18 you can have a beautiful 8″ x 10″ print!

Ryan says, “This little lady went to space with her friend, parachuted back down to earth, and later gave birth to six puppies, one of whom became the grandpuppy of John F. Kennedy Jr. And all I’ve done today is the dishes.”

by Tamara Warren

Porsche’s new four-door Zentrum made for a flash of contemporary zing in contrast to the vintage cars on display at the Pebble Beach Concourse D’elegance earlier this month. As the feature marquee at the annual classic car show, car enthusiasts could test drive the new 2010 Porsche Panamera, the German automaker’s only four-door sedan.

Porsche design chief Michael Mauer explained that, unlike most cars on the market today, he hand-sculpted the Panamera. “The surface treatment of Porsche is hard to do on the computer, because the surface is concave. I need a physical clay model,” Mauer said. “The car is wide and low, which is perfect for design. We have more dramatic proportions than the 911.” With three models ranging from the powerful 400 hp S to the 500 hp Turbo, the Panamera’s confident performance caused quite a stir among the 1,000 invited Pebble Beach attendees.

Making the Zentrum experience more inventive than that average test drive, guests were treated to an in-depth two-hour custom process. Working with on-hand consultants to choose from 40 fittings, the event mimics the level of personal attention Porsche is implementing at its headquarters and dealerships.

The base price on the Panamera comes in at $89,800, the 4S at $93,800 and the Turbo goes for $132,600, arriving in dealerships this October.

Design Event, the North East, U.K.’s annual design festival named their new graphic design exhibition “Democracy,” applying the concept thematically as well as in a curatorial sense. With the goal of making the entire exhibition democratic, artists and designers will submit their own interpretation of Democracy to the website CreateDemocracy. The public will then vote their favorites (see examples below) into the festival showcase. Organizers encourage artists to promote their works globally using the Internet’s democratic platforms like Facebook, forums or blogs.

With no curators involved, everyone has a fair chance of getting their work in the final exhibit, which will be constantly changing based on ongoing voting. The deadline for submissions is 30 September 2009.

Design Event 2009 takes place 16-25 October 2009 in Newcastle upon Tyne in the U.K.

It’s hard to ignore the cultural phenomena surrounding AMC Network’s Mad Men. In just two seasons they’ve racked up significant nominations and awards, inspired fashion designers, and have perhaps even sparked a renewed interest in proper cocktails. For many years bartenders got away with mixing rum and Coke, vodka and tonic, Apple-tinis, and the vile Red Bull mixed with anything, calling them cocktails, and the public accepted this. The past few years, however have given way to the term Mixologist; glorified bartenders who specialize in the resurgence of the classic, proper cocktail as well as many new classically inspired concoctions. The popularity of Mad Men has undoubtedly been a major catalyst in the cocktail revolution.

What do you drink and what character are you? Click here to find out