Ah, weekend getaway. I’m still getting back to it after a camping trip with pals took me to Yosemite, and while I’m not much of a camper, well-outfitted friends demonstrated how much nicer being outside all night can be with select gear. Since I’ve been back in the City by the Bay, I’m realizing what I should have packed from a few eco-minded companies on the West Coast: a) Portland-based Nau’s new merino wool shirt-dress; b) the BPA-free ALEX Bottle, which their team tells me is better for mixed drinks than hot ones; and c) Alite’s “sexy hotness,” alleged to be “the perfect sleeping bag for making love in the woods”–finally! I would have considered it guilty pleasure camping until mi amiga Amrita (who’s woefully London-bound) introduced me to “glamping,” or packing drop earrings in preparation for communal bathrooms.
I speak for production company VidSF and myself when I say it was a pleasure to talk with Slideshare co-founder Rashmi Sinha at the company’s SoMa office recently about her early visions for the site and her career. The interview, which addresses her advice for people considering leaving their jobs to start a new endeavor, is part of Women 2.0′s In Conversation series (and, for the sake of disclosure, her company partners with my own, Federated Media Publishing).
My first question upon seeing creator Patrick Chirico’s “Build Your Block” pillow set based on Brooklyn brownstones was when SF renditions might be made. The answer? When you’re ready. For $75, your favorite corner store/Victorian/vertical park image can grace your couch. Why not go for a full set of Painted Ladies?
Design by Carmel Hagen; photo by Selvaprakash Lakshmanan
Smarties: please join us for a Sunday tea date at Dartealing on September 26 for the sake of welcoming the (alleged) start of summer in SF. Join writers, illustrators, designers, programmers, and activists over scones for a bit of creative brainstorming to benefit the International Museum of Women. The virtual musuem (and creator of the global online exhibitions Imagining Ourselves, Women, Power and Politicsand Economica) is preparing its next public work and we can all benefit from good ideas. And fear not: there will be plenty of time for conversation, you chatterboxes.
You may hear “California public benefit corporation,” but what local group SFMADE actually advocates for is local manufacturing that makes good economic sense. Enter an event series that includes manufacturing best practices and marketing tips for companies with local roots. This Thursday, Rickshaw Bags founder and former Timbuk2 head Mark Dwight will speak in the Dogpatch about branding locally made products. You may not yet know anything about “geographic ingredient branding,” but pride of place is certainly familiar to this site’s kind readers.
Lest you think the return of summer weather has people flocking only to Zeitgeist, there are two meetups worth mentioning on the social web front this week that may make being inside (temporarily, of course) worthwhile. Tonight’s Chomp Tastemaker Party at Sloane on Mission sold on quickly, for which you can thank a Rose/Scoble duo. And tomorrow Ubergizmo will be hosting Digital Summer, their annual combination of photography, tech and fashion at Temple (think gadget demos and eco-fashion by Edun). Hot stuff.
I just returned to SF from an East Coast/Midwest holiday to find that temperatures in the City by the Bay have risen to near-summer levels, and I’m hopeful that they’ll have us turning to new closet items over the parkas we’ve become accustomed to. Enter The Haberdash, a local fashion show and party taking place this Wednesday at the new Burritt Room that promises to combine men’s clothing and “good old fashioned revelry.” Previews early in the week include alcohol ‘n threads soirees at Revolver, On the Fly and other shops, but should you not make them, dropping the name of event producer The Bold Italic at the likes of Self Edge and AB Fits will get you deals all week. But what will you wear to get them?
After making SF Gate’s Best of the Bay List for local galleries, SOMA shop ArtHaus isn’t resting on its laurels. Co-founders and gallerists James Bacchi and Annette Schutz are currently hosting a fantastic (if head-scratching) set of images with “The Backyard,” chromeogenic prints by Chris Schiavo. I was most excited for works compiled for the recent “Red White and Blue-tiful,” but this exhibit may have it beat in the “art you’d want to hang at home” category. If your humor allows, that is.
Starting tonight at 6 Pacific time, the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts will be presenting a second set of SENSEable Cities talks in conjunction with the digital art space’s partnership with MIT. After yesterday’s “New York Talk Exchange” visualization, I’m upset to miss these two talks tonight especially:
Trash Track foreshadows the internet of things and smart dust, where everything that can be instrumented will be. Dietmar Offenhuber will present how his team instrumented thousands of pieces of garbage in NY and Seattle with small location-aware tags. The trash transmitted its location and journey, revealing seldom observed phenomena of the of the reverse supply chain.
The Copenhagen Wheel is part of a global movement to reduce our dependence on cars by embracing intelligent hybrid bicycles that participate in networks. This project is part of a more general trend: that of inserting intelligence in our everyday objects and of creating a smart support infrastructure around ourselves for everyday life. MIT grad Christine Outram will present how this went from idea to a project that debuted at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, along with its implication for people, transportation and urban systems.
Graphic designer extraordinaire Jamie Panzarella passed along Raleigh Denim: Handcrafted in North Carolina from David Huppert, and I loved it after a) researching small batch denim crafting in SF for The Bold Italic, and b) taking a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains last weekend. And not to fear: you’ll see more from the Ladywood founder when her new design for this here site is unveiled in early September.
ar. Since I’ve been back in the City by the Bay, I’m realizing what I should have packed from a few eco-minded companies on the West Coast: a) Portland-based Nau’s new merino wool shirt-dress; b) the BPA-free ALEX Bottle, which their team tells me is better for mixed drinks than hot ones; and c) Alite’s “sexy hotness,” alleged to be “the perfect sleeping bag for making love in the woods”–finally! I would have considered it guilty pleasure camping until mi amiga Amrita (who’s woefully London-bound) introduced me to “glamping,” or packing drop earrings in preparation for communal bathrooms.
