Stuff we forgot we owned, Part 5

Vinyl placemats from Rotterdam, purchased in the gift shop of the Euromast.

The Kids Are Alright

.
The graduating M.A. students from Central Saint Martins put on what was easily my favorite show of London Fashion Week. Highlights from the remaining London shows are upcoming, but this one deserves its own post. The future looks bright.

Katie Greenwood, Derek Lawlor, Derek Lawlor, Katie Greenwood,
Derek Lawlor

Birgit Soerensen, Birgit Soerensen, Virva Launo, Virva Launo,
Enza Avollo

Laura Mackness, David Koma, David Koma, Oden Wilson, David Koma

Abigail Briggs, David Koma, Abigail Briggs,
Oden Wilson, David Koma, David Koma

Out Loud

Walking to the new Pacific Standard office on Friday morning, I ran across this dude making his way down Broadway. You can't tell from the photo, but he was wearing a pair of beat-up maroon Saucony running shoes with one set of laces undone, had what appeared to be the handle of a squash racket sticking out of his messenger bag, and was carrying an old boombox that was playing Three Feet High and Rising at full volume. We were going the same way, so I shadowed this mobile party for a few blocks. Not only did De La Soul sound great in the open air, but coming years into the i-Pod revolution, it almost felt like a political statement. Cheers to you for doing your thing, sir, whoever you are.

De La Soul Jenifa Taught Me mp3

At Your Leisure

.
Here's a picture of the forthcoming Flexions 12", designed and released by Byron Kalet/Popular Noise, with photography by Kyle Johnson and art direction from yours truly. It will be out May 1st in an edition of 500 copies, but you can pre-order it now (the vinyl purchase includes a free digital download) and get more info at popularnoise.net.

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

Even with a pretty bad case of the cancer, Littlejeans is happy, social and sweet as all get-out. This morning he woke me up by tapping my eyelids repeatedly with his hand (also known as a paw). I got up and fed him, and then he went back to sleep on his chair. I ain't mad at'cha, Jeans. Stay gold.

Oh Sister

.
Aaron Rose on Sister Mary Corita Kent:



A new exhibition of her work opens today at the Missoula Art Museum in Montana. MONTANA!

Previous posts on Corita here and here.

Unrelated: Andrew Bird Oh Sister mp3 (from Soldier On... buy it here.)

Nature of the Experiment

Topping the list of places to see next time I'm in New York is the newly-opened Droog store on Greene Street between Spring and Broome. Founded in 1993, Droog is a gigantic, worldwide collective of highly conceptual designers whose self-stated mission with each project is to "tell a story about themes such as memories, nostalgia, re-use, craftsmanship and nature."

With all of that in mind, here are some of my favorite Droog works:

Milk Bottle Lamp by Tejo Remy. Stuff like this is everywhere now but when this came out it was something I hadn't seen before.

Do hit chair by Marijn van der Poll. Emily and I had the (very loud) pleasure of visiting the Droog studio in Amsterdam one time when they were banging away at this thing. The hammer comes with the metal box and you make your own chair design out of it.

Limited fungi shelf by Katharina Mischer. This reminds me a little of a series of hand-carved tables my dad made in the '80s with animals coming out of them:

(Click to enlarge)

Visit droogusa.com for more info.

Unrelated:
Tokyo Police Club Nature of the Experiment mp3
From Lesson in Crime

On to the Next

The whirlwind that is New York Fashion Week ended last weekend, and the party's moved on to London and soon Paris. I thought there were many lovely pieces on the New York runways – and I liked the strong shoulders and all of the hard-edged glamour – but overall the marching orders for Fall didn't surprise. Blazers and slouchy or stovepipe pants continue their reign; dresses tend toward sleek and slim. Choose between ladylike or hard-edged, or better yet, mix the two. Despite the mantra that in these times designers need to give customers a reason to buy that one special piece they can’t live without, that approach seemed to manifest itself in the details, rather than in a lot of fresh lines or new ideas. But it's always fun – and inspiring – to look. A few final highlights below:

Phi

Julian Louie

Calvin Klein

Ports 1961, Tommy Hilfiger, L'Wren Scott, Brian Reyes

style.com

Donuts

Kristen Schaal via SLOG

Painter in Your Pocket

I mentioned our old friend (and Northwest native) Bella Foster awhile ago, and I'm excited to announce that her new portfolio just went online at the venerable Art Department. Check it out here.

Unrelated: Destroyer Painter in Your Pocket mp3 (git it)

Stuff we forgot we owned, Part 4

A little ceramic pot holder thing. I never really got why it's a "cheese and cracker snacker," because you could only fit like four crackers on it with cheese sitting on top – maybe it's meant for one person. Emily found this at a flea market a long time ago, if I remember correctly. I like the color and the type.

Time Won't Give Me Time

I meant to post this last week – we were lucky to be able to see a bunch of our friends in New York the weekend we were there.
Here are some pics:

The legendary Sky Owen Shepard was kind enough to host us at Arrow, where he works Friday nights.

Crombie.

Emily / J.Ralph Phillips / Joe / Christine.

Jeff and Jason.

Sarah / Steven / drunk guy.

Aoife, Jason, Chad.


Janice, Willing, Jason, Ben.

Tim and Sky.

Matt, Sky, Ben, Janice and Janice's cousin, who was visiting from Seoul.

Reunited, and it feels so good.

My brother and his special lady Daniela, in love and oblivious to the fact that Amy Windehouse is waiting for a drink.

Emily at the end of the night.

Before we got on the plane we had a much-needed brunch at Lobo with our buddies Jennifer Szalai and John Williams. On the way back, we walked by this car. It was a windy weekend.

The March Continues

More highlights from fashion week (click to enlarge)...

Phillip Lim channels the swinging 60s.

Michael Kors does Michael Kors better than in recent memory.

Proenza Schouler makes me want to dig out my Georgia boots.

Richard Chai got the tough-chic memo.

Beautiful detailing at Doo.Ri.

Alexandre Herchcovitch adds some sparkle.

style.com

The Shows Must Go On

Tonight at Cairo…round the corner and up the street.

Fall Forward

More highlights from the Fall 2009 shows, in no particular order:

Rodarte. Also, check out Jessica Stam and James backstage, captured by the always entertaining JD Ferguson:



Zero + Maria Cornejo

William Rast, Jill Stuart, Organic by John Patrick

Thakoon, Altuzarra, Max Azria, Tibi, Carolina Herrera

Matthew Williamson, G-Star, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Philosophy

Derek Lam

Daryl K

Behnaz Sarafpour, Cynthia Steffe

Narciso Rodriguez

style.com

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

On the heels of all that great stuff posted yesterday, I have some troubling news to report about our favorite little guy.

Jeans has been having these wheezing attacks in recent months, and they have gotten more frequent. We thought maybe it was because we have carpets here, whereas in Brooklyn we didn't. We took him to the vet this week, where they performed an x-ray and discovered an inflammation and/or mass of something in one of his lungs. They referred us to a clinic up in Lynwood. We took him there this morning and they are certain that Jeans has cancer. He's getting ultrasound right now and we'll find out later today if surgery is an option and something worth pursuing.

Jeans at 9 months, the day we got him from the Westside Animal Hospital in Hell's Kitchen.

It's weird, I know he's a cat, and Emily and I both grew up with a lot of cats. Heck, we have another cat now (Inez, the rescued stray cat who lives inside our couch). But there's something special about Jeans. We first got him to keep Emily company when she was studying around the clock during law school, and he has been with us every step of the way since. He's lived in three boroughs of New York City and crossed fifteen states to live with us here in Seattle. He is a part of our family. The reason Jeans has been okay with all of this moving is that he looks at me and knows he's safe, and looks at Emily and knows he's loved. On some level, and people who "don't get pets" will not get this, but the three of us understand each other.

I know that cats don't live as long as humans (of course – like I say, I've had a lot of cats) but he's only ten, and I want him to be with us a lot longer. Hopefully we'll get good news from the clinic and there will be a relatively easy fix…stay tuned.

UPDATE:
It's definitely cancer – there's a big area in his left lung. It doesn't appear to be anywhere else. So now we have to decide if we want to go forward with an extremely expensive procedure to remove it; the doctor says that after these surgeries, cats live an average of six to fifteen months. Littlejeans is a very healthy cat other than the cancer (and his weight, but that does not appear to have affected his health) – so we're leaning toward skipping the surgery and just letting him live out his days as the happy cat that he is, until we have to put him down. That might be as long as he'd live after surgery anyway. Right now, I'm glad to report, he is totally happy and oblivious, clearly in no pain, just as he's been. More updates later (though I still promise this will not turn into a purely cat-related blog).