Fantasy Fourth of July – Expat Chronicles
I live far from the fireworks, parades, picnics and red white and blue that punctuate every fourth of July in America. Of course here in Barcelona there’s plenty of pop, bang, crackle throughout the summer, especially on their biggest holiday of the season, Sant Joan. On that day the amount of explosives expended would put any heavy metal pyrotechnics roadie to shame, but it ain’t no fourth of July.
Instead, I can only dream up a fantasy fourth of July picnic that I might have if I were stateside. I tried to find as many female makers as possible, but here and there I added some goodies designed by men or companies whose founders I could not identify.
Hope you enjoy the reverie:
Pentti Monkkonen art piece at New Jerseyy gallery
image credit: www.contemporaryartdaily.com
First step: Picnic basket. For something a little different and romantic, vintage shop around for an old suitcase or wooden box to turn into a picnic basket.
Inside, pack a Marimekko tablecloth that blends in with the woodsy area you’ll be setting up – like this Siirtolapuutarha pattern (*designer: Maija Louekari):
image credit: The Lollipop Shoppe
*Marimekko was founded by Armi Ratia, one of the most famous entrepreneurs in Finland.
Then, prepare a table setting of vintage midwinter Jessie Tait ceramic soup bowls all around for the guests in this Ming Tree pattern. A cold soup like maybe a Vichyssoise would be delicious.
image credit: Grannies Kitchen Etsy Shop
Next, the plates. Something sturdy yet lovely like these Bongenre melamine plates designed by Jill Fenichell:
image credit: www.bongenre.com
Time to toast. Champagne for the adults. Kiddies get fruit punch (100% natural of course) in eco-friendly edible “jelloware” cups which are not yet for sale but were runners up at the GSS Jell-O Mold Competition in 2010:
image credit: thewayweseetheworld.com
adorn with patriotic straws:
image credit: Showers Bring Flowers shop on Etsy
If it’s just a few people, bring along a brightly colored Bodum grill:
image credit: Bodum.com
Ideally though, you’d want to build a fire using this ingenious Prairie Campfire log holder by Maandag Meubels. This is the male designer I was talking about but it’s one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time:
Image credit: maandagmeubels.nl
If you do use a grill and you want the warm glow of subtle lighting as the sun goes down and before the fireworks begin, try one of these eclectic candle chandeliers made from knick knacks and odds and ends by designer Madeline Boulesteix. Just tie a rope or metal wire between two trees and hang the chandelier from the center over your picnic blanket:
Then fill a bowl with themed cookies. Try a completely out of the ordinary juxtaposition. How about an upcycled PET bottle made into a jellyfish-like ethereal centerpiece bowl by Gulner Ozdagler:
Add some red, white and blue jelly beans by Jelly Belly:
image credit: CandyNation.com
To top it off: Dylan Lauren (Ralph’s daughter) owns a popular New York candy emporium uptown called Dylans Candy Bar. She carries these quirky hamburger cookies. Add two or three to the bowl to add some old-fashioned Americana flare:
image credit: www.dylanscandybar.com/
And then go food shopping, invite your friends and family, and head to the park!
-Chauncey
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W+K Pop Up Shop
Wieden + Kennedy NY presents SHOP, a five day retail event in celebration of New York City’s fashion culture. Participating brands will be offering pieces at sample sale pricing and selective discounts.
Fri 6/17, 5-9PM
Sat 6/18, 1-7PM
Sun 6/19, 1-7PM
Mon 6/20, 5-9PM
Wieden + Kennedy New York
150 Varick St., 6th Floor
Graphic Designer Laura Varsky
I just opened a tumblr account and my world is exploding. There are so many beautiful images and after years of focusing on the three-dimensional design object, my love of the flat image is resurfacing – pardon the pun – yet, I didn’t find this Argentinian graphic designer and illustrator through tumblr but through a random Google search for ‘swooning woman’ that led to a blog dedicated to wedding invitations. The invitation I landed on was really quite lovely but it was the typeface that stole the show. Ever since I began writing blogs, I’ve been on the myfont.com mailing list – and somehow I’ve spared their emails from the ‘send to spam’ filter I impose on every other email newsletter to guard against ignored unsubscribes. Instead, I find myself reading their interviews with typography designers even though I doubt I’m their target readership.
Typography is fascinating and endless. It’s where the human hand meets the digital world in a harmony that doesn’t compromise the purity of either. Unsurprisingly, my hunt for Laura led me back to MyFonts and then to her website where I found these beautiful illustrations on the theme of travel.
Rome
India
Orient Express
And what could make Buenos Aires look more enticing than this?
As delightful as her illustrations are, as uplifting and musical as her spindly and curvilinear typefaces can be, the patterns that fill her drawings could be marvelous textiles. As wallpapers, they surely would be a hit.
- or -
- or -
This one makes me think of Barcelona’s beloved icon, Gaudi – and art nouveau which had a big influence on Gaudi and this city. There is a large Argentinian population in Barcelona (almost 9,000 according to a 2011 government report) and I do think the two cities share a commonality – a playful, unpretentious, vibrant mishmash of bold shapes and spirited juxtapositions heavily influenced by art nouveau but also incredibly contemporary. Some of her patterns are strongly reminiscent of the tiling of old Barcelona apartments for example.
Here is one of her commercial designs, of which there is no shortage; In 2006, Varsky received a Latin Grammy as Art Director for best record packaging.
(and lo and behold, this work says Barcelona!)
I’m going to finish up like I started, with absolute favorites from her portfolio
and
and here is the original wedding invitation that piqued my curiosity about this Argentian typeface designer
The End.
For my new friends at TheFoxIsBlack.com
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My To Do List (Sunday Scheming)
Sundays are days where I often cook or go out for brunch, lament not going to yoga, sit in park Ciutadella, and work on a blog post. I also flit from Mashable to the New York Times to the Guardian to Facebook & Twitter, my Google Reader, and other business and social media technology innovation blogs looking for more information, more knowledge, more opinions, more tools to aid be in my search to accomplish more, satisfy more of my goals. Often I end up like a deflated little balloon just listlessly bouncing and dropping, swaying and collapsing, through the intersphere (just made that up), kinda getting nothing DONE. So I should take a breather. Go watch some Vampire Diaries for that glorious banality we all need on Sundays or go have a cana (local word for small beer in Spain) at the cafe with husband and dog.
I’m always writing such serious content on this site and I designed it so I could also blog in a carefree manner. So today I will. My carefree blog post today will be: my To Do list. Fun! I want input. Advice. Opinions. Commiseration. Are you with me? This site doesn’t get very many comments so I won’t get my hopes up but at least writing it will be a little weight off my chest so I can float back up to a buoyantly productive Monday.
Is my to do list anything like yours? read on…
(1) ORGANIZATION APP
Find an app that organizes my life by project, filtering down to the smallest task. Let’s say the bigger goal is “Save World”. I might then have sub-tasks like this:
Save World>Eradicate Pollution>Start with Oceans>….>Organize Clean-up At Local Beach>Check Around For Good Day and Time>Create Committee from Interested Parties>Call & Email Friends>Create FB page>Invite Everyone>…Pick Up Garbage Bags>Head to Beach
Something like that. Okay so now that I’ve done that futile exercise (is it so futile? maybe not) I want to know if anyone out there knows of such an app that isn’t some big ugly corporate monster where 20 people weigh in on when to pick up another hard drive. I have been searching the app store for two weeks now and nothing quite fits the bill.
I am an Extreme Laggard when it comes to iPhones. I just got one. Don’t judge me! It’s just that I have been an expat since January 2007, before they came out, and I just couldn’t commit to a country, let alone a phone contract. Also, I was writing a novel and did not want the distraction. Now I’m gaga for my phone. Four years later.
I need organization. I want an outside hand-holder to do this. I am such a thought starter (read: dreamer) that I get an idea and think so globally that sometimes the minutiae get lost. I’m very ‘onto the next’. Not good.
Does anyone know a really good app for project management and organization?
(2) WORDS FOR MONEY
Write again for magazines that pay. Since I left New York it seems like the editorial hierarchy couldn’t possibly still exist as it once did. Where does a former ad agency-go-write-a-novel-build-a-2nd-blog type gal (re)enter the freelance writing world now? I just write for magazines I like and ignore the money but money is good. I like money!
(3) CONFERENCES
Go to more conferences! I know it’s June and I should be taking it easy but I missed so many good conferences this year just by the fact that I had no idea they were going on. I need to know and interact with more of those energetic innovators I only know through Twitter and blogs. In person!
The conferences I missed that I’m kicking myself about include: SXSW, The Women in the World Conference. Since 2010 it’s been about DESIGN (the London Design Festival, Salone Del Mobile) but design is not the only thing WWM is about. I want to focus on the other topics that make up the convergence of women, design, art, innovation, business that is WWM . Right now it’s a bit lopsided; I’m missing some of the business and innovation part. (And that save the world part from my #1)
I have to go down the Rabbit Hole to make sure I find some good events to attend come fall.
most wanted: genius developer start-up partner
(4) SHOW LOVE
Keep growing Show Love, the social content company I’ve started with my videographer photographer husband to provide images and words to all those shiny websites out there with no content plan.
Now back to working on my farmer feature, The Happy Farmer, part of the mini-doc we shot a few weeks back in rural Catalunya.
Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
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WWM Weekly News Bulletin – Women, Art, Design, Technology
Kate Gilmore
Walk the Line
“On 6 June, 2011, at 8:30 am, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art will launch Walk the Line, a dynamic site-specific sculptural artwork by the American artist Kate Gilmore on Exchange Square, London. Inaugurating a new strand of events, entitled Parasol Public, this public art project promises to be one of the most thrilling summer events in London.
For this project Kate Gilmore proposes a vibrant site-specific art work in Exchange Square, London. During the live performance, teams of eight women in two shifts will walk continuously on top of a red structure for nine hours a day; from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Members of the public will be able to walk both around the structure in order to experience the work visually and through the passageway beneath the platform to get a sensory experience of the women walking above. By creating such a visually striking and powerful work, Gilmore highlights and gives prominence to the daily life of professional women in the City of London.”
The event will be broadcast live.
Where: Parasol unit
14 Wharf Road
London
N1 7RW
via e-flux
New York version
Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry
Anne Tyng (b. 1920 Jiangxi, China; lives San Francisco), one of the first women to receive a Masters of Architecture from Harvard University, and a woman at the forefront of experimentation in the field of using complex geometry as a source for new forms in building, is the subject of this exhibition at the Graham Foundation in Chicago.
“This exhibition introduces her work to new generations who are also working to push the spatial potential of architecture.”
Read more at GrahamFoundation.org
Where: Madlener House
4 West Burton Place
Chicago, Illinois 60610
Film: The Price of Sex
June 24, 2011 9:30pm
My pick for the upcoming 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York, June 16-30:
“A feature-length documentary about young Eastern European women who have been drawn into a world of sex trafficking and abuse. It is a story told by the young women who refused to be silenced by shame, fear, and violence. Emmy-nominated photojournalist Mimi Chakarova, who grew up in Bulgaria, takes us on a personal journey¬–exposing the shadowy world of sex trafficking from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Western Europe. Filming undercover and gaining extraordinary access, Chakarova illuminates how even though some women escape to tell their stories, sex trafficking thrives. (2011 Nestor Almendros Award Winner)
Discussions with filmmaker Mimi Chakarova to follow all screenings. A panel discussion will follow the Saturday June 25 screening and a reception will follow the June 26 screening.”
Where: Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater (upper level)
165 West 65th Street
btwn Broadway / Amsterdam
She Lights Up Your Life: 10 Great Lighting Designs From Bright Young Women
The Solo Pendant Light by Donna Brady, a.k.a. Re-Surface
Light Reading Lamp Chandelier By Lucy Norman a.k.a. Lulu Dot
Linda Allen’s Live Anywhere lamp via YankoDesign, DesignMilk and many others.These lamps are cordless and can go anywhere indoor or out. They are weather resistant and rechargeable. “She re-designed the LED bulb to 7 watts, which emulates the power of a 50-watt bulb”, reports Design Milk.
Objects in Relation – A Spring bike ride through Barcelona architecture and design
Out my window I see these wonderful ovals that remind me of Cameos.
Like this Bottega Venetta Cameo necklace via shopstyle
Or…
Like a dress by by my favorite designer, Manoush from Paris
trop mignon! here’s another…
These Manoush earrings look very Barcelona, actually very Spain.
which reminds me of these girls in front of me at the Fleet Foxes show during Primavera Sound
Oh look! Mesh like hairnets around street lamps on Calle Ferran, Barcelona
like this NOOK chair by Henry Sgourakis via @Contemporist
or the filigree-like latticework of this one-off chair by Louise Campbell via @ bonluxat.com
Another street lamp seen on my bike ride today. I couldn’t find a design counterpart by the time of this posting.
Can you?
Look at this painted wall outside an architect’s studio in barrio gotico,
a bit like a Jonathan Adler design
And reminiscent of the mad-men-esque designs of Se this past season, like this “I only have eyes for you” coffee table by James Hayon for Se in stainless steel
Look at this fantastic vignette:
reminds me of this Cumulus modular lamp by Sebastian Jansson
Part of the fabric of design in Barcelona are the markets. They are iconic and epic. A fish head, even a gigantic fish head, is not an uncommon site. (photo by visiting friend and photographer, Michael Sharkey)
Inspires me to find a much smaller fish – to put into this delicate aquarium by Amaury Poudray
And that’s what I spied with my little eye on one of the first hot, sunny, skirt-and-flip-flop days of the season here in Barcelona.
All Barcelona street photos by Chauncey Zalkin
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Hadid’s Mobile Pavilion – Rounded Edges that Chaff
When Zaha Hadid’s Mobile Art Pavilion finally parked after it’s world tour at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, I wasn’t going to miss seeing the thing. After leaving the pavilion, my husband asked, is it legitimate to have an exhibit of an architecture firm put on by said architecture firm? (Is it?) Without being organized by a third party, doesn’t it lack the curatorial perspective that makes it a cultural / art exhibit? It’s really just ‘outdoor’ (outdoor advertising) at that point.
Once inside, the feeling was like embarking on trip to Tomorrowland at Disneyworld, a bit chintzy, and no rollercoasters waiting just a monorail ride away. Intellectually, I was engaged by the explanation of new paradigms for building highrises that change the way forms relate to one another and the urban environment but they were touted as organic. I get it; the sinewy undulating shapes are amoebic, imitative of cellular life – but they definitely do not feel earthy but instead alienating, sinister, even menacing. Not a future I want to cozy up to.
Below are pictures by my photographer husband of the outside structure, then a picture of Ms. Hadid by my photographer friend Michael Sharkey, and then two of my own. What do you think? Are you a fan of Hadid’s vision?
See the rest at Peter Crosby Photography
Zaha Hadid at the Moore's Building, Miami 2008. Photo Credit - Michael Sharkey
And a few more by me..
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