I’m off to my 3rd GEL (Good Experience Live) Conference in NYC this week. This years speakers list is a bit more unknown which is great since they are usually the event highlights. I’ll come back with a small list of thoughts and anything worth sharing. Otherwise, check out the past GEL lectures here.
I finally got to see “Rodrigo y Gabriela ” live in concert last night at the Roxy in Boston and it rocked! (having front seats helped 😉 ) Their vibrant, thrashing, duo acoustic guitar sounds rippled through the jam packed audience with amazing energy and kept everyone stomping for more. I’d talk about them over and over again, but I’ve posted about them before and can only suggest for you to buy their tickets FAST. The boston show sold out a few days after they were available to 1500 peeps. Run over to their websites tour list, find your nearests city, and buy buy buy! They are seriously one of the most dynamic, inspirational, and lively duos I’ve heard in a long time!
If your brain hasn’t overloaded in inspiration and knowledge from the TED TEDtalks or PopTech PopCasts video archives, check out the GEL conference Videos! I attend these 3 incredibly stimulating, overcharging, brain shaking events yearly and now their lectures are avaliable online for everyone to absorb! GEL’s coming up this week, so catch up while you can before the next batch of speakers goes online!
Googles 411 service has been out for a few days, but I finally gave it a go today. It rocks! Simple to remember, free, fast, and useful. The voice recognition software is really fast and quite accurate from the few calls I made so far.. The best part is that it’ll text message you the info if you want instead of connecting you right away….(no more scrambles for pens) Give it a call: 1-800-goog-411. It’s fun just to test the voice recognition software as well.
Update: Here’s another free sms 411 service, TellMe, which was acquired my Microsoft..you pick which big cookie monster to use!
My journey over to Milan from Florence was delayed by 4-5 hours, hence my well planned shopping safari around Milan never took place, but my late night visit for dinner did included a quick journey which I’ll post about here. In comparison to Florence it’s much more diverse, more of a city, more lively at night, but with the same rustic streetscapes surrounding Florence with finely detailed buildings. It’s more modern while stylish with a larger urban crowd hovering abouts the area. Most of my spare hours in Milan were spent eating at Obika, but I took a few pics here and there….so enjoy them after the jump! (I’ll include a few interesting going away images as well)
The Obelisk Chairs by designer Janus et Cie is pretty nifty and expensive($9k)set of chairs that modulates into a towering piece of artwork when stacked. I’m not sure which option I like best, but be assured, I’d be showing everyone!
via uberreview
More pics at dedon
Buy here($9k)
I’m not one to usually get too pumped about furniture, but these scrabble pillows with scrabble stacking like sofas by design studio Stephen Reed just made me smile today.
via geekologie
A few more pics after the jump.
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The sensational PopTech Conference I attended last October just launched their new PopCasts website with several of their amazing lectures from the 2006 event.
The above MUST watch video is an astonishing and inspirational highlight from the 2005 conference of Jesse Sullivan & Todd Kuiken presenting the world’s first non-fictional bionic man maneuvers of his prosthetic arm using only his mind. (Don’t ignore me…watch it!)
Watch the rest of the captivating videos after the jump!
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“Can one of the nation’s great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?”
Here’s an astonishing experimental story that questions talent, location, knowledge, culture, perception, a bit of marketing, and displacement. What happens when you take a world famous musician, Joshua Bell, and put him in the morning DC metro posing as a street performer seeking extra change? Do people stop and listen, do strangers acknowledge his talent, does a crowd form in awe, does he cash in, does talent simply pass by ones ears because of his environment, or are people too busy to stop and listen?
Read this incredible experiment after the jump along with videos. (mirrored from WashingtonPost.com)
After arriving to Milan (or Milano as they say here) 4 hours later than expected, I trekked around quickly by foot then stumbled upon “Obika: the Mozzarella bar” which my friend Yasmina mentioned since I told her my love of mozzarella in Italy so far. We really had no idea where to eat since our meeting was so sporadic but it was pretty late on a monday night when everything seemed to be closed, and we were in the neighborhood craving to eat, so we went here…which turned out to be an amazing simple choice.
more pics after the jump…
Manufactured Landscapes is a stunning must watch documentary film created by legendary photographer Edward Burtynsky and award winning director Jennifer Baichwal that has received several awards this past year. The film visually captures China’s massive industrial revolution through Edwards camera while questioning our own human endeavors in impacting the planets future global proliferation, destruction, and waste.
I was not aware of this film until recently while talking with Edward at TED about his amazing slide show he gave at Poptech which previewed images used in this film. I missed the film when it was in theaters, but the DVD’s are available which I’d highly encourage everyone to buy (or the book) and share. (it’s a bit odd thinking about the movies message on massive product waste while using the exact same substance to distribute this film)
As an industrial designer I’ve been greatly influenced by the huge message Al Gore gave in Inconvenient Truth (meeting him pushed me as well) while also advocating Alex Steffan of Worldchanging.com‘s message that “your either in, or your wrong”. I’m stuck in a field where products and massive sales are king, yet the sustainable need for global changes is so uneducated in a cost driven but not globally aware or active field if not society. I’m not saying change is not happening, but time is not something you can pause… this change must happen, not sooner, but now. Perhaps I feel more like architect and famous product designer Philippe Starck when he was onstage at TED and said “I believe in general that my job is absolutely useless; but now, after Carolyn(Porco) and these guys, I feel like shit”.
Anyhoots, before I get ya’ll stuck in my own dilemma, give the trailer to Manufactured Landscapes a view and perhaps question your own actions in your own field, home, and surroundings and get motivated for some simple changes like recycling, changing to longer lasting light bulbs, or even reusing your CD spindles.
Trailer Preview
Manufactured Landscapes website
Worldchanging.com
ClimateCrisis.net
