Check out the Ilusion Table by John Brauer

This is a piece of furniture created by John Brauer. Illusion is an handmade side table of 3 mm acrylic.

The design gives the impression of a table cloth on a round table.

Meet the Sneaker Keeper

My favorite part.....when he was playing with the black and orange adidas shelltoes

Timelapse of Cube painted by Upper Playground

I thought this video was neat, a while back Upper Playground artists featured here: Alex Pardee, Jeremy Fish, Sam Flores, and David Choe live paint a cube at YouTube Live

Another great commercial by Director Ivan Zacharias

DJ Clark Kent Air Force 1's

A few months ago DJ Clark Kent release a pack of Nike “112″ Air Force 1, Air Max 1 and Air Trainer 1.

This is his 2nd project, you can check out these new Nike AF1's that was released by DJ Clark Kent. I definitely think this is one of the nicest designs Nike has put out recently for Air Forces. The black fur and reflective all work together I feel with this shoe.

Even check out the hook Bun B did for called "black friday"

JASK HOLIDAY SALE

30% off the latest tees...and as always, plenty of clearance items....get yours here....

MIXTAPE WATCH: Motivation v2

This mixtape right here might be old (earlier this summer), but it definitely gets my a$$ movin' like I got something to do. The versatile Mick Boogie, Benzi aka Mr. Get Right and Canadian native DJ Neoteric lace this booty-shaker. Best thing about this mixtape: Lil Jon is NOT yelling over every track!!! Download it here.

LeBron James is at the Garden tonight to face the Knicks and Nike has special shoes for the Cavaliers' superstar just for the occasion. The color of the upper is supposed to be Big Apple red and the soles look like they are made of concrete, according to Cleveland.com. List price: $140.


Fans looking to purchase the Zoom LeBron VI – “Big Apple” edition can do so in New York City on Friday, November 28. The shoe will be available at retail locations throughout the city such as Niketown and House of Hoops by Foot Locker and will retail for a suggested price of $140.

Supposedly The Rivington Club, they will have 23 pairs for sale as well.

G-SPEAK

Remember that movie, Minority Report. Remember that dope user interface they used to determine pre-murders. Well that's actually a reality via Oblong Industries. 

Alexander Wang: Fashion Fund Winner

Alexander Wang: Fashion Fund Winner



One of the hottest fashion designers to look at for 2009.

I've heard through his circle of friends he doesn't work that hard but apparently his purses and dresses are becoming very popular for celebrities.

Coldplay featuring Jay-Z Lost

Robot Jules mimics human expressions realistically

The University of Bristol-developed project Jules uses software to imitate the human expression.

Jules's facial expressions are as real as the software can make them to be.

Jules's face is made of some sort of flexible rubber skin and embedded with 34 internal motors to control the robot's expressions

The Humanoid uses a video camera at twenty five frames per second to pick expressions of the bystander, responding in ten pre-stocked human emotions.

The engineers from the University of Bristol developed Jules for a project entitled “Human-Robot Interaction.”

ALL THE SINGLE LADIES!!!

Justin Timberlake and the dudes at SNL with another music video. This time featuring Beyonce. Nuff said!

World Record Base Jump in Dubai

FYI: Base jumping is not allowed in the UK and should not be imitated or attempted to be imitated.

Who do you know has never dreamt of flying? Well I have surely felt that I could when I was a kid. Very few friends who sky dive but have told me something that needs to be done before your next life and watching these 2 guys from France jump off the world's tallest building up to date at 160 stories measuring: 555.3 m (1822 ft) and it has beaten the building Taipei 101 (doh!!) -Burj without approval from Dubai's government.



Apparently one UK man attempted the jump and succeeded while a second frenchman (Herve) got caught before he jumped. They both got arrested in Dubai.

What this story is about to unveil is that either the authorities or the world in general, is that two men that you will about to see had already succeeded in climbing the tower and base jumping from it without being caught. Whats ironic is, they happen to be another UK and the same Frenchman who was later caught attempting a second jump.

These two men were the first in base jumping while setting the World Record This is the story of that jump. Talk about inspiring going by the slogan by Nike "Just do It". These guys should be doing a Nike Commercial.

Bush = Herb Denenberg

During last weekend’s G20 Economic Summit, leaders from around the world refused to acknowledge with President Bush as they walked on stage for a photo-op. Everyone was “greeting each other and shaking hands, but Bush walks with his head down like the most unpopular kid on the block.”

Love at first bite

I thought this was a neat campaign for a chocolate bar which I think will be quite successful. Its a 17 minute clip, but makes you want to go to the Greek Islands and even Athens while eating Lacta.

This integrated campaign seems to target a younger demographic around 18-24 young
women and men, the primary target group for "Lacta", one of the most renowned chocolate brands in Greece.

The campaign is also promoting Lacta's sales, by placing special "on-pack" codes, that users could then submit on the website and get tips in order to progress the story.

Whats really neat is that you are asked to use your mouse during some of the chapters which makes you the character which I felt was really creative.

I feel that telling stories is a great way to market a product especially when you can capture the audience for that long on your website. Hey, it worked for me.

Bruce Lee featured for Nokia's N96

You can check out the phone here at the Nokia china website.




Also check out Farfar's new site for Nokia - The Unloader. The problem is that the few five files I tried failed as they were not compatible. Shame. I tried uploading .swf, .xls, and even .vsd, but only had success with a .doc and a .pdf.



Lets see if you have any better luck. If you make something like this make sure it accepts all extensions as the user will just run away otherwise. That is something to be learned for usability.

Nooka video animation

was stumbling on sites today and haven't been on Freshnessmag in a while but I believe I saw them last night at Niketown.

Anyways, saw that our local NYC-based watch maker NOOKA produced a dope video in flash.

Playmakers Part II

Was able to drop by last night and on the way felt a bit of the holiday spirit on the way to Niketown's event Playmakers which was kicking off the season with Nike's holiday collection of sportswear at the 5th floor.

Wermser opened the set and DJ Just Blaze was on the 1's & 2's to finish the night off.



Checked out the scene nearby with Cgod on our way and got stopped by some Japanese Reporter on what the meaning of the snowflake means to me, which I felt was to lift the spirits of New Yorkers for the holidays that are coming and also to encourage the spirit of shopping for tourists but I did some research and found out that the snowflake actually has a much deeper meaning.



It is actually the UNICEF Snowflake
There are actually two of them one in New York City and one on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills,CA

The snowflake actually symbolizes the world's most vulnerable children.
It is a reminder of UNICEF’s commitment to reach a day when zero children die from preventable causes.

The crystals in the snowflake represent an inspired community who will forever take care of the world's children.



Louis Vuitton store had quite cosmetic look for this season.



Stopped by the Fifth floor and checked out 3 private collections







Not sure what this seamless Dunk was, but someone just told me on Sneakerplaythat these came out earlier this year and are called the Nike Dunk High Supreme - Olympic Octodot Pack and supposedly they released some through Bodega and possibly at the Rivington Club.

I found this image on this artist's site which I thought was incredible because this reminded me of this remix done by UNKLE Rabbit in your headlights (Radiohead)

One of my favorite videos of all time.

The award winning video directed by Jonathan Glazer stars Denis Lavant as a 'parka clad' mummbling madman walking in a busy tunnel of cars.

1-2-1 with Jeff Staple featuring Marc Ecko

Check out Jeff Staple's second installment of his editorial piece for URB called 1-2-1. This episode delves a little into the mind of Marc Ecko.

a new movement by knit taggers

I have't seen one yet but hopefully they have already hit a city near you, look out for the Artland Truck.

You can see more here:



You can see more Guerilla Knitting (below), Yarn bombing and knitted landscapes.

The Wellness Skull in Vienna

“The Wellness Skull is an impressive large skull seen above and below displayed by the brainchild of Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout. Just like wellness centers that you have been to, it has a few places believe it or not to relax. In the head of the Skull contains a sauna. The neck of the skull is a small bath. Although the skull was built to be fully functional, visitors won't be able to try it out or witness steam emanating from its eye sockets, something that only happens when the sauna, which fits eight people, is in use.

Visitors will be able to go inside every first Saturday of the month or by appointment through March 15 at Vienna, Austria.





While you’re there be sure to check out some of the other fantastic places to visit like Bar Rectum (”While Bar Rectum is anatomically correct, the last part of the large intestine has been inflated to a humongous size to hold as many drinking customers at the bar as possible”), and the Wombhouse ”One ovary contains the minibar; the other the toilet”.

a true musical instrument for the iphone

( These scores use an easy-to-follow system that requires no past musical training, Each score is presented using a simple 4-hole diagram, where the filled-in blue hole means you should press and hold your finger on that hole while you blow. There are 16 possible different finger-combinations available for you to play within each mode, and we display them in our scores like this)

I thought this application Ocarina was pretty innovative. It has a very cool mapping/listening mode and Midomi that is Shazam-like but over and above listening to a playing song, it lets you sing a snippet, announce the name of the song or type it to then get a screen showing you artist info, youtube and itunes links and the amusing plus of listening to other users singing snippets.

Skyzoo

Skyzoo is destined to be heard.

Already having worked with the likes of DJ Premier and banging out the album, Cloud 9: The 3 Day High with 9th Wonder, in evidently three days of hard core production

This Brooklynite last mixtape, Cornerstore Classic, clearly defines the title with memorable hits such as our boy the great "Illmind" produced “The Paper” and tracks produced by Blackmilk and the great DJ Premier.



To hear for yourself, here’s a hot track called, “The Necessary Evils,” which has Skyzoo teaming up with Serius Jone's producer Khari (Needlz) Cain.

Or even peep out Ghetto Celebrity: The Mixtape Check out the track "Lost and Found."

Iphone apps - fake or real

So which one of these do you think actually is real or fake?

The Handphone Grip Charger:



Check out the time? I'm still not sure if its real or fake folks.

Here is the Iphone used as a numeric key pad.
First you will have to install the Balmuda’s Numberkey Connect software on your Mac, and then download the Numberkey app [iTunes Link] from the App Store.



The Iphone bacon case:




The Iphone cup speakers:
Made out of 2 cups, 2 toothpicks and a set of earplugs by Zagga.

Mick Boogie Presents Cynicus -The 10th Wonder mixtape

Cynicus teams up with Mick Boogie to bring you The 10th Wonder Mixtape. Real Street-Hop. All beats by 9th Wonder.

You can download here and the mixtape here.

I spoke to Rey and here is what he had to say about this collaboration:



Rey: "These are all unreleased 9th Wonder beats. Which is real hip-hop but I bring that street-hop element to it. I reached to Mick Boogie cause we're both from the Cleveland area so I reached out to him to jump on my 1st mixtape. With all this bullshit in the game at this moment, I wanted my 1st time impression to be straight hip-hop/street-hop. Thats what I grew up on and influenced by... Im here to display real skills, talent and real hard work.."



Rey: "I'm from Lorain, Ohio which is 30 minutes west of Cleveland. But in Cleveland is where we do our shows, networking and work at. I been doing this rap thing since 03' but in the hip-hop culture since I can remember... Put it like this, "Shell Toe Adidas, Beat Street and a Michael Jackson Jacket".. lol.. Straight Up! I dropped my debut in 2005 and that got me in the game for people to take me serious and fuck with me."


Rey: "3 years later, now I got my own pro tools studio and a series of mixtapes ready to unload. I just completed my second Mixtape entitled Out On Bail cause Im really out on bail. I got Big Mike hosting that and thats gonna be a trilogy. Crazy thing is, is that Out On Bail aint drop yet and I already got an untitled mixtape done. So now Im already working on Out On Bail 2 and halfway done."

Rey: "Plus Im bout to leak the track I did with Max-B. and the other one I did with 40 Cal. Im really here now and I aint going nowhere.. The 10th Wonder Pt.2(coming soon) & Out On Bail: The Prequel(coming soon)"

Keep a look out for Cynicus. He's got a bunch of projects in the coming year.

Meet the Energuy

A Canadian company I believe based in Quebec launched a really innovative site for users to learn about saving energy for their own homes.

Check it out and don't forget its all in the hands of the Energuy.
Learn how to save energy at home just a click away..

42 good things

Last week FWA featured 42goodthings and I was checking out the site and one of the more interactive websites I've encountered. Check it out, they have 42 short videos on the dedicated website which I know whos going to go through all of them but see for yourself.

It's Samsung advertising their new phone - Omnia but I feel its a bit too late since now you have the Apple Iphone.

LEGO fashion show

JCDC Versus LEGO from Four H on Vimeo.

Quite amusing I must say for this season Jean Charles de Castelbajac has decided to unveil his Spring/Summer 2009 collection with an animated LEGO-populated fashion show video.

Motrin's new ad campaign

I thought this was quite an interesting ad that I saw recently by Motrin. It seemed like it was a bit too aggressive for the moms and babies? Motrin, the maker of pain relief meds, and sub Johnson & Johnson, has just made a major stink regarding this ad they put on their site, I tried clicking on it today and was not able to get to their site.

Motrin were trying to target the “baby wearing” demographic. Twitter moms were outraged by the campaign and felt it completely missed the mark. By the time Motrin caught wind of the situation, the situation had spiraled into a PRdisaster. However, Motrin made an effort to connect with the community and quickly apologized.

Well here was a response from Kathy Widmer, VP of Marketing at McNeil has issued this statement:

I am the Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare. I have responsibility for the Motrin Brand, and am responding to concerns about recent advertising on our website. I am, myself, a mom of 3 daughters.

We certainly did not mean to offend moms through our advertising. Instead, we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies. We believe deeply that moms know best and we sincerely apologize for disappointing you. Please know that we take your feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad. We are in process of removing it from our website. It will take longer, unfortunately, for it to be removed from magazine print as it is currently on newstands and in distribution.

Got 99 Problems....

a bit of fry and jay z from defyingdarwin on Vimeo.

PETA's new ad campaign

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) recently had a different campaign ads which shown are from all over the world...Asia to the UK.

Furisdead is another site to check out and you can see Zappos just went fur free on their websites along with a few others that would not sell it on their website.

What time is it?

Word Clock for Mac, PC, iPhone from Simon Heys on Vimeo.

Elephant Painting...what next?

This elephant was rescued from abusive treatment in the country of Burma.
You'll be amazed at how her talent unfolds as she carefully completes each stroke. Her mahout talks to her throughout the process as his gentle touch gives her confidence. She focuses on her work and seems to enjoy the approval of the audience and, of course, the sugar cane and banana treats. All of her training has been reward based.

Check it out.

New York Times Special Edition - Iraq War Ends

New York Times Special Edition Video News Release - Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million
papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged
pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass
them out on the street.

Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the
establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate
lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the
war.

The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes
International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as
editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a
recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a
timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of
progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama's
"Yes we REALLY can" speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)

"It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever,"
said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper's writers. "We've got to
make sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to
do. After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start
imagining heaven."

Not all readers reacted favorably. "The thing I disagree with is how
they did it," said Stuart Carlyle, who received a paper in Grand
Central Station while commuting to his Wall Street brokerage. "I'm all
for freedom of speech, but they should have started their own paper."


B-roll of fake New York Times Distribution, November 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

Be Creative....whats stopping you?

I just met Darren and Jonlin last week about this innovative idea the are in the process of coming up with which I will explain later but Darren sent this to me which I thought was quite creative and I can see why this student now is working for them. It's all about thinking outside the box in this day and age and coming up with something organic and original. Here's a great example of one student who took that extra step by putting out in the world without even speaking.

Earlier this year, this student presented this video (above) during a one hour interview with IDEO. Beau Bergeron eventually got hired as a CD.

In honor to those lost in combat defending for our freedom

In honor of Veterans Day:

"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." ~José Narosky