Given two of the main categories of this weblog, bikes and independent film, it comes as no surprise that I’m jazzed about the currently running Bicycle Film Festival with its wheel-friendly programming. The country-wide celebration includes music, gallery showings and movies, including a Joyride Art Show at Ever Gold on Thursday. And I’m probably not the only participant who thinks the promotion of “Fun Bike Shorts” is a reference to padded pants, right?
Archive for July, 2009
apliiq=Amazing
San Francisco by way of New York creative consultant Liz Chernett tipped me off to clothing upstart apliiq, a great clothing company that creates “custom, limited and upcycled” wares in the way of shirts, second life Reeboks, and jewelry. The Splesh V-neck tee and Oliver hoody look like something you might create yourself if you had good throwback checkered fabric, decent sewing skills and, oh yes, a solid design aesthetic.
Ethan Lipsitz started apliiq after stitching hoodies in his UPenn dorm room. “Philly has some great old fabric shops with basements and hidden corners–I felt like a DJ digging for rare records as I would build the fabric collection,” said Lipsitz, an urban development and design student who wanted to encourage customers to be inventive in selecting patterns. The company still uses basic methods and geometric shapes to show off bright materials, and some items can be found online at Cultist and Karmaloop.
Partially republished from JoshSpear.
Money, Nau
Amazing graphic designer pal Jamie Panzarella tipped me off to a great competition that organic apparel company Nau is hosting to give one lucky changemaker $10K to expand their work. Nominees for the Grant for Change can include:
“ATHLETES who are challenging assumptions about what it means to move through the world. ARTISTS, designers or other creatives who are moved to design better solutions to the world’s greatest problems. ACTIVISTS who are seeding positive change in their communities, and moving others to do the same.”
I’m a big fan of the company’s designs and their community work, and it’s great to see the company have a second life. Nominate a pal (or yourself).
Mashable: Community Arts Groups’ Social Media Success
A post on community arts’ organizations innovative (and broad-ranging) approaches to social tools online went live on Mashable this week, and it was a great excuse to talk to the founders of Flak Photo, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, IndieGoGo, and The Auteurs about the promotional outreach they’ve tried. We’re not just talking about blogs–there are great examples of rotating film festivals, innovative video tutorials, and fundraising competitions created by the featured arts and community organizations. Among the groups using social media thoughtfully and in big ways (which aren’t necessarily representative of their limited budgets) are independent artists and companies in photography, film, modern art, radio and craft. I’d love to hear your thoughts and what other organizations have caught your eye with their unique engagement.
Quirky Q
Idyllic summer nights (especially those in places where it’s warm at night) can leave little to be desired–unless you’re Q Tonic founder Jordan Silbert, that is. The gin and tonic lover discovered that the tonic water he was drinking four summer ago was chock full of artificial flavors and high fructose corn syrup, and in the name of not standing up for something so undignified, he set out to create a crisper tonic. After pulling together quinine from South America, organic agave and lovingly designed floral-inspired glass bottles, Silbert’s concoction can now be found locally at NOPA.
“One of the things that excites me most about Q Tonic is that it enables you to actually taste the difference between and gin and tonic made with different gins–a gin and tonic made with Plymouth and Q Tonic tastes very different than a G&T with Hendricks and Q Tonic,” says the drink maker, who slaved over the recipe in his Brooklyn kitchen for more than a few seasons. “Unlike when you use mass produced tonic waters, you can actually taste the different botanicals that make different gins great in their different ways.”
When asked about non-gin drinks, Silbert suggested a few so simple that they may get me out of my mojito-making habit this summer, including:
Lil’ Q
* Fill a highball glass with ice
* Add 3 oz Lillet White
* Top with 3 to 4 oz Q Tonic
* Garnish with mint or an orange twist
Gin-ger Tonic
* Fill a highball glass with ice
* Add 2 oz of your favorite gin
* Add 1 oz ginger infused simple syrup
* Add .5 oz lime juice
* Top with 3 oz Q Tonic
* Stir
* Garnish with a lemon wedge and/or a piece of candied ginger.
Thanks to Headline Shirts for the company tip. Partially reposted from JoshSpear.
FRONTLINE/World’s Fabulous Short Docs
I’ve been a big fan of each of the screenings I’ve been lucky to see at the local women-focused theater Brava this year (Pop-Up Magazine and SF Women’s Film Fest included), and tonight’s film celebration of global social entrepreneurs was no exception. FRONTLINE/World, the documentary TV series created with KQED and WGBH in Boston, hosted the “Heroes from a Small Planet” event with the innovation advocate organization Skoll Foundation.
The brief international stories are carefully researched and well told, and two are particularly worth a watch. Marjorie Macafee’s “Wheels of Change” about a Bay Area engineer who’s created an open source model for this RoughRider wheelchairs tracks the chairs’ production and use in a Vietnamese factory. And Jenny Chu’s “Yeabu’s Homecoming” about a Sierra Leonen doctor’s surgical efforts to repair the obstetric fistulas caused by prolonged labor is a stark wakeup to the lack of adequate medical care in parts of the developing world. Brava is right.
Simply Snik
Genius Jimi wallet creator Mike O’Neill tipped me off to a Snik recently, and I’m most grateful. With the global user base of mobile phones approaching 3 billion people, more than a few music listeners and callers find themselves in a daily tangle of headphones/bags/jackets that might be avoided if Snik creator Rob Honeycutt has his way. His product line of zipper puller and cord grooves featured on snaps and buckles relieves pressure on the earbuds (runners rejoice). “I believe there is a widespread need for this ‘interface’ between a person’s clothing and their mobile technology,” said Honeycutt, who would like the feature to become ubiquitous on clothing and bags over the next decade. For now, the small devices are available by the 6 and 12 pack, each of which is less than $20. Dangling cords be darned.
Partially reposted from Joshspear.com.
IMOW
