Hasta La Ideas

Rome SDS, the Waterbury, Vermont-based snowboard company, recently unveiled next year’s installment of the annual Addictive Collection: a series of three boards designed by a trio of artists. Whereas virtually every other board is a composite of many people’s input, these boards benefit from the complete control of Rome photographer and art director Mike Paddock.

The first of the series (above) is Paddock’s own, the 155 Agent Rocker, is based loosely on an H. L. Mencken quote: “There comes a time when a man must spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.” To that particularly macabre end, it opts for a red and black palate and copious blood-like drips. And like the 157 below, it features the new Rocker shape with camber tips and a rocker mid-section for the most all-mountain fun.

The 156 Agent is the brainchild of former Rome employee Al Engleheart, and features a summer’s worth of Polaroids taken of his food. The meat-heavy fare sits on a pink checkered pattern in what they’ve dubbed a “smorgasbord of shred.”

And finally, the 157 Agent Rocker is Mike Forester’s blunt comment on our celebrity-fueled tabloid culture. It’s a dark spin on Da Vinci’s Last Supper with Michael Jackson supplanting JC and surrounded by a flock of celebrities who all passed away in the last year.

Visit the Rome site for more info on the generally hard-to-find Addictive Collection.

OK, so in my last entry I was pretty hard on the NYTimes.com site and how “slow, plodding and innovation-averse” it — and almost all other similar newspapers — tend to be in an increasingly digital era. Well now I need to give them a few props.

Today, I just found the Times’ “Inside the Playbook” section, where it offers original, 3-D generated videos that break-down certain key plays and strategy in NFL football games. Now those of you who know me, know that I’m a pretty passionate (embarrassingly so, sometimes) Philadelphia Eagles fan, so this was a pretty interesting find for me, personally. See the video grab below:

This is actually a very cool feature. As shown above, it gives step-by-step insight into the strategy employed, as well as a very realistic 3-D rendering of the play itself. The video shown above is the “Explanation” view.

There is also an “Aerial view”:

Aerial view

as well as “Player’s view”:

Player's view

Most of what I said regarding the NYTimes.com site, as well as the rest of the newspaper industry and their sites, still applies. But I wanted to post this because I am very impressed by the use of this interactive technology! Kudos!!!

.chris{}