In the last six months, could any of these scenarios have applied to you?: ➽ You forgot your flip flops and have to limp home in some kind of thin, disposable foam from a pedicure? ➽ You thought breaking your heel after that last shot of Cuervo would get his attention (fail). Limping again. Read More | Comment »

Feather everything is everywhere right now! The hair extensions are especially popular. From the heads of ER nurses to middle-aged mothers and their children, the dyed rooster feather hair extensions are a rock-star way to add some color and funk to the ol’ noggin without the commitment of a crazy cut or color job. Read More | 2 Comments »

This Tuesday, 8pm at the ND @ 501 is the time and place to wig out at this sexy-fab, do-not-miss fashion frolic, wig-in, and costume showcase: 12 Dangerous Women. Let's have a li'l chat with Mz. Coco Coquette herself, shall we? Read More | Comment »

Yes, yes, everyone has a top 10 for everything. And honestly, I don't know why I should be any different. So here it is: national/local art & design related goodness from 2008. 10. The Austin Museum of Art's new building, which is to be called Museum Tower, is a hybrid office tower/museum space. Not that we're jazzed about the office tower, but damn, is it time for AMOA to move out of that broom closet! 9. Bravo's Top Design is difficult for me to resist. Firstly that show has more queer folks on it than a cruise ship named after Dolly Parton. So that's great. And the show features Jonathan Adler, my interior design boyfriend. Too bad he already has a husband. 8. Austin ranks 10th in Popular Science's top 10 greenest cities. Ratings were determined by a complicated analysis (we're told) of the energy usage, transportation, green building, and recycling in each city. Austin could do better in transportation and green building, but at least we're in the top 10! 7. When the design firm TimeLinks proposed to build an arcology (a city enclosed within a building), many a sci-fi nerd's heart skipped a beat. Add to it that this arcology is in the form of a a Ziggurat, will hold over 1 million residents, and that it will be completely off the grid… well, what can one say? It's a visionary idea. 6. Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama poster was a clever regurgitation of fascist propaganda posters. The hard graphic message – Progress – was anything but. Read More | Comment »

If you can wait until the panting days of summer, you will be able to hold in your sweaty little design-whoring hands a number of two-dimensional Charles and Ray Eames replicas, for only 41 cents each.

You may also lick them.

From the USPS press release:

In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture,
furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored next summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. If you’ve ever sat in a stackable molded chair, you’ve experienced their creativity. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.

Oh, there's more. Read More | Comment »

I've got moving on the brain at the moment.

I'm giving up my digs on East Oltorf for a duplex in French Place in my efforts to ensure that this year is 2000-and-great!

Moving always provides the opportunity to gift/Goodwill/throw away all that crap … er … stuff … that seems to be plaguing my life, and I guess it doesn't help that I seem to be attracted to anything shiny, electric, or colorful. Really, I'm like a small child or a monkey.

Which is why I'm excited about the possibility of using decals to decorate my new space. Luckily there are several online retailers of adult decals, and I'm having a hard time choosing. So maybe you can help me … Read More | Comment »

Art Basel Miami, the city's annual art clusterf*ck, is about to explode a can of art and design lovin' whoop-ass onto the generally depressed real-estate market and populace of Dade County, Florida.

Down in the dumps because you can't sell your condo for a couple mil? It's ok – go to Swarovski's booth and purchase one (or two, or THREE!!) of the deconstructed chandeliers made in collaboration with Diller and Scofidio Renfro, a fabulous and fabulist architectural firm (check out that Blur Building!). The Light Socks, as they are called, are made from an open mesh bag, pounds of crystals and a hidden light. They are available in three sizes: single, double, and long.

During Art Basel the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami will be exhibiting a survey of Jorge Pardo's works in a conceptual installation entitled House. The Cuban-born artist's practice blurs the (ahem, non-existent) boundaries between art and design. Bravo!

And finally, although this has nothing to do with Miami (sorry!) Design House Stockholm recently began selling their Chord Lamp, a truly magical and whimsical light object. Can I add that to my wish list? Read More | Comment »

I don't know how many of us eventually found time last weekend for the big Thanksgiving payoff after hunting and gathering and then gathering again: gettin' down like a raccoon in your favorite socks with some groovy new books. I begged for, borrowed, and stole the time. Rain was welcome.

It seemed appropriate for a holiday so steeped in family memories that my first choice was Texas Quilts and Quilters: A Lone Star Legacy by Marcia Kaylakie (Texas Tech University Press, $39.95). A gorgeous monster of a book, it is so well-organized that after wading into what appeared to be a simple coffee-table affair one realizes that it is in fact a lengthy and important resource for Texas historians. Kaylakie has been turning a shiny needle on the national quilt scene for more than fifteen years, and conducts a wide array of lectures and workshops. It was also interesting to note that she is a curator of next month's art quilt exhibit, Eye of the Needle, at the Quattro Gallery here in Austin.

This book is beautifully designed around stunning photographs taken at such close range that you can almost smell cotton flour sacks and goodness. The type is large as well (note to self for gifting), lending even more immediacy to the material, which includes painstaking documentation for thirty-four Texas quilts created from 1870 to 2003, biographies of their creators, and the family photographs whose memories are surely found deep in the batting. Read More | Comment »

I don't know how to look at art. I always see people gazing, stroking chins, remarking on the "vulnerable tones" and "emotional inner landscape." That's fine and all, but thankfully it was also kind of impossible to do during the sixth East Austin Studio Tour, a sort of scavenger hunt to see as much as you possibly can in the alloted time. Yes, there's plenty of bad art (just say no to erotic bronze sculpture), but there was also plenty of "wow"-worthy stuff to peruse when I went EAST Saturday afternoon.

Pump Project Art Complex housed a dizzying collection of local artists, as did Big Medium, over in Bolm Studios. Down the street from Bolm, some very friendly polo-shirted boys listening to Ghostland Observatory invited us in to their house see their art, though it was clear they were already way in party mode. Local poster gurus/silk-screeners Obsolete Industries displayed their prints, including a Sonic Youth poster that I eyed in extremely vulnerable tones for at least 15 minutes. Dog House Studios collected the wonderful, surreal, and often zaftig paintings of Jennifer Balkan. Read More | Comment »

I'm a lighting fanatic. So much so, that my place is in danger of being too well lit!

But how can I resist a levitating lamp by upstart design firm Crealev?

Answer: I can't.

This is my cry for help. Read More | Comment »