Hasta La Ideas

Portrait by Isaac Schell

We’ve devoted a fair number of pages and pixels to that singular design object known as the bicycle, and whether you’re a leisure rider or all-weather commuter, weekend warrior or retrogrouch, there’s no denying the functional elegance of the human-powered conveyance. Thus, when Harry Schwartzman reached out to us about lending our support to the inaugural Bike Cult Show, a celebration of the beautiful machine and a local-ish community of individuals dedicated to building them, we were happy to support the cause.

Bike Cult Show: Save the Date · Ezra Caldwell · Johnny Coast · Thomas Callahan · Rick Jones · Jamie Swan

With the first annual Bike Cult Show just around the corner, we’re pleased to present our fifth and final builder profile, a short film on the inimitable Jamie Swan by filmmaker Isaac Schell.

Swan may not command the broad recognition of, say, Richard Sachs or Peter Weigle, but he is certainly a legend in the cycling community, in which he is a self-proclaimed “Keeper of the Flame.” At least some of Swan’s renown is simply due to the fact that he’s only built a handful of frames since he put together his first one back in 1981—they’d be grail bikes if he actually had a wait list—yet he’s anything but a recluse. On the contrary, Swan is glad to take the role of mentor and spirit guide (for lack of a better term) for savvy up-and-comers: He admires the current generation of craftsmen who are making a living building bikes precisely because he’s never had to do so.

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Tattoo Cat..(Read…)

I have been struggling with some way to tie this video into industrial design, modelmaking/propmaking, or creative pursuits in general, just so I’d have an excuse to post it. But you know what, it’s a Friday and we Americans are on the verge of a holiday, so I’m going to see if I can sneak this one in while my bosses are hopefully loading their cars up with fishing gear. This is from a TV variety show in Japan, where a non-litigious society combined with focused creativity has turned pranking into an art form.

Probably staged, but does it matter? And how awesome is that costume, human legs aside?

Via io9

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Le record du monde de la plus haute tour réalisée avec des Lego a été battu hier par une équipe d’étudiants de Wilmington dans le Delaware. Elle mesure un peu plus de 34 mètres de haut et est faite de plus de 500 000 briques. Un défi impressionnant, inscrit dans le livre des records, à découvrir en images et en vidéo.

Nobody wants to admit it, but summer is on its way out. And while we’ll all miss the casual clothing that goes along with sun-soaked days, the thought of welcoming boots back into rotation is pretty damn nice. It was good timing then…

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