VOGUE’s “Voice of a Century” is a 448-page anthology for serious fashion experts and collectors. The leather-bound tome has been made to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the magazine, and includes iconic photographs, illustrations and interviews……
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Super-boppy “Stop Desire,” from Tegan and Sara’s fantastic Love You to Death is yet another pop gem off the record, that steers clear of being vacuous and formulaic. Rather, it’s an ’80s-tinged treasure (not unlike what we’ve come to expect from Carly……
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There’s a tangible link between a great meal and the sensation of happiness. We are all aware of this. But what can one expect from a feast, or more accurately a food experience, dedicated to stimulating cross-modal happiness first and foremost……
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How do you make a truly ground-breaking bike? You can’t really pick up innovation from the automobile industry and transpose it on the bike industry. There’s a long way for a bike to go before you can make it “smart” right? I bet Google and Apple haven’t really kicked off smart-bike interactive projects (billion dollar idea, btw… you’re welcome). You could however attempt at making it autonomous. The BMW Motorrad Concept Z explores a road less walked on, or driven on. The Bike design adapts to commute and sport applications, but there’s also a third. The Bike comes with an Autonomous mode, where the rider literally lounges in his/her seat while the bike glides across from A to B. Sounds weird, doesn’t it! Self driving cars sounded weird a decade ago, btw.
Personal shout-out to young designers. Let’s see some absolutely crazy self-driving bike ideas! How about we make Yanko the epicenter for the Autonomous Bike movement, eh?? 
Designer: Anja Didrichsons
This is turning out to be an eventful week for matters related to the late poet Langston Hughes.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that thanks to a successful fundraising campaign, a Harlem home on East 127th Street where Langston lived for several decades is to be transformed into a cultural center. And today, in the print edition of The The New York Times, there is a full-page reprint of his 1926 poem “I, Too.” Although the fact that this print version immediately follows the unrest in Charlotte is purely coincidental, it is a powerful juxtaposition nonetheless.
A full page in @nytimes today dedicated to a poem. One that everyone should read and reread. pic.twitter.com/sNHr60xUvH
— Pamela Paul (@PamelaPaulNYT) September 22, 2016
The poem is not a paid ad but rather part of a special section in the paper about the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Smithsonian’s 19th museum opens this weekend in Washington D.C.
A Times rep kindly passed on to FishbowlNY the backstory for today’s unusual poetry presentation. “Alicia Desantis in our graphics department, who also happens to have a Ph.D. in 19th century American literature, was part of the conversation about the headline for the section and recalled the phrase from the Hughes poem, “I, Too, Sing America.””
“Our Culture desk settled on that as the headline for the digital presentation that published last week. Wayne Kamidoi, who was designing the print section along with Fred Bierman, was pondering the back page of the section and wanted to do something simple and fitting. He thought of the poem and presented the idea, which the editors loved.”
Separately today, on the Smithsonian website, David C. Ward offers some great analysis of the featured poem’s language and imagery:
There is a multi-dimensional pun in the title, “I, Too,” in the lines that open and close the poem. If you hear the word as the number two, it suddenly shifts the terrain to someone who is secondary, subordinate, even, inferior.
Hughes powerfully speaks for the second-class, those excluded. The full-throated drama of the poem portrays African-Americans moving from out of sight, eating in the kitchen, and taking their place at the dining room table co-equal with the “company” that is dining.
Langston died in 1967. Click on the link below to hear him read “I, Too.” The poem was also read by Denzel Washington in the 2007 film The Great Debaters.
H/T: The Huffington Post
You might be familiar with Danielle Trofe’s Mush-Lume lighting collection and the concept of growing objects with mushroom mycelium—we’ve covered both stories on our site before. Thanks to Trofe and Ecovative Design, I learned how to DIY my own mushroom-grown container in the comfort of the GROW studio space at Industry City, Brooklyn. Yes, I really did grow a mushroom mycelium planter in my kitchen last week—here’s a breakdown of the process. Learn the basics and then freestyle—post your creations in the comments!
Trofe’s Mush-Lume lighting collection.Much to my surprise, the process isn’t complicated at all—I was intimidated by the strange live material at first, but I quickly realized how friendly it can be. All the mushroom material needs to start its new life as a planter are flour, water and patience (about a week of patience, to be exact). Just add regular flour and water to a mixture of dry chopped mushroom roots and agricultural waste (seed husks, corn stalks, etc.)—the flour acts as a food source, and the water activates the growth process.
White fibers are a good sign!During the next three or four days, the mushroom mycelium will recognize the agricultural waste and flour as food and begin coming back to life. The mixture will form white fibers in the process. Break the material up again by hand (don’t forget gloves!) to prepare it for its growth into your desired shape—in this case, small planters.
Before molding into a tool (a growing container), poke a generous amount of holes in the lid and a few on the bottom of the tool to allow air flow. We used plastic containers as our tools, but feel free to get creative with your material choice—wax, wood and clay are all in the clear, just make sure your material is waterproof and non-porous. During the molding process, the mushroom material feels like it won’t stay in place due to its relatively dry and crumbly texture. This is OK—the mushroom material’s bonding power is stronger than you’d think. Make sure to pack the material in tightly, but keep it loose enough to allow air flow—fungi is alive, after all.
Once left to sit in the mold for four days, the mushroom mycelium needs to sit for one extra day in a sealed plastic bag, allowing the material to set itself. Air flow is key throughout this whole process—blow air into the bag and situate it in a way that none of its sides are touching the tool (except the bottom). After one day, remove the planter from the bag and its mold, and let it sit on a cookie cooling rack for one extra day. I also put mine in front of a fan to help with drying, which worked out well. You’ll notice that the planter feels strange to the touch. After racking my brain for awhile, I came to the conclusion that it feels exactly like the moldy rind that encases brie cheese.
Looks like brie, but avoid giving your object a taste test!Since mushroom mycelium is live matter, it needs to be heated in order to lose its activity. I found myself feeling guilty thinking about killing the fungi I’d spent the last week nurturing. However, if this step is skipped, little mushroom spores will start growing out of your product, which is not the desired result.
My finished planter coming out of the oven—note the slightly browned edges.Bake the pot at 200 degrees F for 30 minutes. I panicked when I realized my oven starts at 250 degrees F—luckily I’m a baker and thought to bake mine at 250 degrees F for 25 minutes instead, and it turned out well. When you remove the planter from your oven, you’ll notice that its moldy hand feel has been replaced by a stiff, paper mâché-like one. This means you’ve done well, and your final product is ready to function as a planter, or whatever else you have in mind. Drill or poke a small hole in the bottom of your planter to allow water drainage, and you’re all set to plant your small plant—one that doesn’t require a lot of moisture works best. Yes, it really is that easy.
An example of one of Trofe’s finished products. She chose to use this one as a bowl instead of a planter, but it would be just as safe to pot her plant directly in the bowl.After awhile, your planter will start to degrade and lose its shape. No worries! Simply re-pot your plant in a larger planter while still inside of your mycelium one. The mycelium material will break down, acting as a food source for your plant as it adjusts to its new home.
Want to try this process out yourself or learn more? Go for it!
Anyone familiar with PAX’s previous range of vaporizers understands the impact they’ve had on the smoking community. Thus far, they’ve coupled a tech-forward vaporization experience with an elegant design-driven product. We’ve been fans forever……
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There’s plenty of negative stories out there right now, so let’s cast a tiny bit of light into the darkness with this Women’s Running cover.
That’s Rahaf Khatib, a runner who created the Instagram account Run Like a Hijabi to inspire people who cover to stay fit and to help cast aside stereotypes about Muslim women.
According to Women’s Running, Khatib is the first Hijabi woman to grace the cover of a health or fitness magazine in the United States. That’s pretty f-ing cool.
Alex Connock turns a number of memorable phrases in his look-back for London’s The Spectator.
A tour in 1990 of the finest suite at Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal hotel and casino in Atlantic City delivered an aesthetic that ‘was Aladdin meets Donatella Versace’s underwear drawer.’ The reincarnation of Cleopatra with an Amex gold card would not have caused quite the same level of excitement among hotel staff as the sight of Michael Jackson, then at the peak of his musical and performance powers.
And Connock, who covered the opening of the Atlantic City resort for an American weekly, punchlines Trump’s PR wizardry as follows:
Jackson retired to his suite. I later heard a rumor that he’d been spotted disguised as an old woman, playing the slots with a plastic bucket full of quarters. Meanwhile, Trump got on energetically with the marketing — an Olympics of superlatives with only one contestant. Biggest, greatest, most expensive, finest, pure class, high-rollers, helicopters and gold. And that was just his hair.
Ha ha. On the second day of the Taj Mahal junket, Connock wound up on a private plane with Trump and Jackson, headed in Indianapolis. At one point during the flight, Jackson chatted with Trump about the fact that the latter was on the front page of the National Enquirer. To find out whose jet it was, and why this gang traveled to the Heartland, read on.
Photo via: trumptaj.com
What was the last difficult moment you had with a project? Was it a particularly complex joint or a nasty bit of figured grain? How did you tackle it? I bet the solution, regardless of the tools being used, was to slow down and take care of it meticulously. If you think about it, “difficult” tasks just force us to slow down. Sometimes to glacial speeds.
So when you look at it that way, no project is really that hard to make, but rather just slower.
It’s quite liberating!
I’m a firm believer that any woodworker of any skill level should feel free to tackle any project that strikes their fancy. Woodworking is just a series of individual tasks, often repeated many, many times. Break down those tasks far enough and you will see just how simple a project can be. For that matter, the tools we use to do those tasks play a major role in how “difficult” it is to accomplish.
Consider the humble groove for, say, a drawer bottom:
Cut with a router and a bearing guided bit, this is fast and easy. The slow part is in setting the bit height and securing the workpiece. Now drop that router into a table with a lift and the groove becomes even easier (faster).
On the non-powered front, using a plow plane is just as easy. Set the fence and depth stop and the joint is a cinch.
Take away the plow plane and hand the woodworker just a chisel. Funny how “difficult” that simple groove is now. In actuality, the act of using a chisel to chop out a groove is as simple and easy as can be, but you have to go slowly and meticulously lay out the extents of the groove. And you’ve got to be careful of taking too heavy a bite with the chisel while ensuring you maintain an equal depth. There are a lot of variables to keep track of that, with other tools, we could rely on fences and depth stops and bearings to take care of.
It’s the same joint, but each method discussed above takes different amounts of time and can therefore be perceived as more difficult than another.
Now I have cut grooves using all of these methods (plus a few more) and one quickly learns that this “difficult” joint can be made easier by bringing to bear a different tool. But that’s not always the case. Whether because the best tool is cost prohibitive or just so specific as to not be logical for a unique situation. But there are also times when no matter what tool you throw at the problem, it won’t speed things up. These tasks are the truly difficult ones that scare many a woodworker away.
For me it was the ball and claw foot. There were several lovely furniture pieces I wanted to build but they all included the ball and claw foot. I loved this detail and didn’t want to skip it so I seemed to have no option but to either cower in fear or suck it up and learn to carve this detail.
My first example took me about five hours, but when finished it looked really good. I would not have hesitated to use it in a project. There was no way to speed this up other than make some more and to get more comfortable with the steps and with the carving gouges. But as evidenced by the respectable appearance of my first foot, it wasn’t hard at all, just slow.
Hopefully you are starting to see what I’m talking about and perhaps that bucket list project of yours went from scary and difficult to something that you just need to slow down and get done.
Name a difficult woodworking task that has you stumped. I bet we can figure out an easy way to do it slowly.
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This “Hand Tool School” series is provided courtesy of Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker. Rogers is founder of The Hand Tool School, which provides members with an online apprenticeship that teaches them how to use hand tools and to build furniture with traditional methods.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
