nooka spotting: britain's got talent!

andrew muir, a scottish plumber with a sexy accent is a current contestant on the UK's version of 'american idol' called 'britain's got talent', also hosted by simon cowell. last night, he sang 'last request' by paolo nutini wearing yellow shoes and a matching yellow nooka! sad to say, but the judges, especially cowell, spent more time badmouthing his shoes and watch than complimenting his singing! perhaps i should consider a libel/slander suit against him in the UK?

From the UK Press: You could have been mistaken for thinking that Paulo Nutini had dropped by, instead of the next act, as the Macca-lookalike singing plumber, Andrew Muir, delivered a great strong version of Last Request. Andrew was swamped by a smog of dry ice during his performance - but luckily he had on bright yellow show and a dayglo watch so that the judges could still see where he was on the stage! Then there was, well, a LOT of cheering!

"There were two problems for me - one you didn't tap dance and secondly, those shoes!" said Piers.

Ant choked: "Don't take style tips from Piers Morgan!"

But hopefully Piers is better at clairvoyancy. "I felt a bit of a Paul Potts moment. You were that good tonight.

Amanda said, "Great talent, great voice."

And Simon said, "I didn't think it was a great choice of song. The shoes and the watch are horrible but I think you've got a very good voice. I really like you."

this is all via my friend dan in brighton who was kind enough to send me the blow by blow via skype along with screen shots as britain's iTV doesn't allow viewers outside of the UK to watch the shows online. if you are in the uk, feel free to check it out here....as they say, all press is good press. UPDATE 5/30: internet video available worldwide here! thanks again dan!

thank you dan dumitriu for the heads-up. i also just found out that andrew bought the nooka on his own from street fusion!

the week of color, this time from boston

this time from a boston blog post of may 19th. original post here.

thanks to douglas of MOTLEY in boston for the heads-up.

cinnamon beaches

here is another installment of nooka color stories [let me translate into european for you: les nooka colour stories]. this one is from intern lesley griffith! she made the beach from brown sugar and sinnamon, you can almost taste the luxury! lesley is a recent graduate from carnegie mellon university in beautiful yet dull pittsburg PA. her portfolio website is here. nooka zub featured in this stunning photograph available here.

i should also add, the sky is from a super8 vacation film rear projected on the still life set. the chaise lounge was hand made for the shoot as well!

Cai Guo-Qiang at the goog

i went to see Cai Guo-Qiang at the guggenheim museum this past saturday – and what a mob scene it was. i ran into our swedish intern with his brother and sister in-law who were visiting the city for the week, and for me that was probably the highlight of the show. maybe i'm just biased against big shows at the goog as it's hard for me to imagine the work having any relevance outside their space, especially the cars suspended from the atrium – maybe they need to hire different writer/curators who can write believable/compelling stories to frame the pieces [paraphrased from memory: "stuffed wolves hitting a plexi wall: the plexi represents the berlin wall and the wolves represent man's tendency to repeat mistakes" was my favorite piece of garbage i read at this show], or maybe charging $18 to see a single exhibition [the permanent collection was closed] sets ones expectations too high?

i did LOVE the videos of his live fireworks performance/ethereal art projects. the rainbow in the east river and black rainbows were wonderful as it opens up the mind to think of the sky as a valid though ephemeral canvas for art. the black rainbows in particular are evocative of chinese and japanese sumi-e painting, but you can find these videos online for less money and bother:)

where are the beautiful people? they are all robots!

you may remember seeing super model agyness deyn wearing nooka zubs in an editorial in the fab british mag i-D last month...actually, it's in my blog here. well, it seems as if some evil scientist has turned her into an android, or more properly a replicant [depending on which scifi lingo one wants to use]. luckily i'm on quite a few robot/android/replicant mailing lists and was invited to their coming out ball last night in chelsea.

all of her male and female robot/android/replicant friends were there. i asked one of the agyness' why she wasn't wearing her nooka and she told me that the human one uses a different set of stylists than the robot/android/replicants – obviously!

mannequins actually by nyc's roostein mannequins, though the event reminded me a bit of black lizard, a cult film of the 60s from japan where a female jewel thief [played by a drag queen] kidnaps beautiful teenagers to turn into a living sculptures in her island hideout.

parsons graduation show

last night was the opening for the thesis/graduation show for the communication design and digital technology design department of the parsons school of design at the chelsea art museum [556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011]. it will be up for a week, so i recommend anyone in nyc to go have a look as there is a lot of great talent there. of course i went to see the work of students i've had in my class and also to catch up with other faculty – a fun time all-in-all.

photo caption left to right from top to bottom [not too much detail on the work, so you will need to visit the show. i will update this when i go back and take notes though]:
work, work, students elaine and nia with me.
renny jett [former student who i'm proud to see launch his own brand], work, work.
work, joan [pronounced jo-anne] with her work, work.

btw, nooka is also for sale at the chelsea art museum gift shop!

style wars follow up

my stint as a guest judge was fun once it got started. the stoli hotel was a fuckin joke though, the door was handled in such a way that anyone who should've been at the event left after poor treatment at the door – aside from my employees, none of my guestlist made it, which was unfortunate, as the event itself was a HOOT!. i was then asked to leave when i made a mild stink about the guestlist as the girl told her superior i was "harassing" her. when her manager found out i was indeed a sponsor AND a judge, the mood changed. really way too stressful for something so easy to do right. that said, i'd still do it again – roman and team put on a GREAT show!


Photo by Nikola Tamindzic: Judges, from left to right: author and publicist Sloane Crosley, Matthew Waldman of Nooka, and Riley John of Surface

from gawker.com. full post here!

noo nooka sighting on abc tv

this time on a spot on office dating, red zub zot in the opener.

view clip here.

i'm a dancer: NOOKA PEEPSHOW

i wanted to simply document all my over 200 t-shirts, and this is what it's become! thank you pop levi for the music, jonathan dubuque for the photography and andrew hamilton for the fly video edits!

the nooka blog ring

design notes did another post on nooka that illustrates how small and interconnected the design world is. design notes again

faris's blog entry on our matrix project is here.

STYLE WARS!

I have been selected to be a celebrity judge for house of diehl's style wars! this is the finale at the stoli hotel here in NYC this friday may 9th from 10:00 pm til 1:00 am. now all i have to come up with before then is a cool catch phrase...any ideas?

house of diehl here.

you can RSVP here.

toyota matrix the 5th door + nooka

its always a pleasure to work with other talented people in different fields, and especially with my friends at the brooklyn circus [ouigi is one of the 5 5th door collaborators for this project] – and our toyota matrix collab is turning out to be another pleasure!

here is the intro blurb from the site:
"nooka and Toyota have joined forces to create a unique line of timepieces that are the perfect companion to a truly unique vehicle, the 2009 Matrix.

with designs inspired by the underground urban lifestyles of five contributors to the 5th Door website, these limited edition watches are a must for any trendsetter"

check it out.
site design by berrymatch, yumi asai: art direction, osamu iizuka: interactive design.

the campaign is being spearheaded by burrell, an atlanta based ad agency and will be targeted to the "urban" market. these collab watches will be available in the US exclusively for the first few months of the campaign.

toyota, the 5th door and matrix are trademarks of the toyota motor company, all rights reserved.

nooka sightings: alicia keys!

alicia keys was on TRL [it's a show on MTV] yesterday sporting a shiny gold nooka watch! great pictures from and on this alicia keys website. she just looks better and better.

i always seem to find out about these kind of things after the fact, so feel free to send me your nooka sightings with pics for me to post.