openers january

t took a while for the editor to get this up, but here is my 'most played music 2008 list'. i had a similar albeit shorter blog post on 2008 music here on nooka style around new years time. if you can read japanese, enjoy my fragmented writing style brushed up-to-snuff by yu yamada of nooka japan. article here.

support musical artists and buy music on itunes or other legal online purveyors.

if u were looking for nooka accessories, click here.

just wanted to share this news from 1981

noo territories: romania

i have written before on the subject of social networks and also a separate post on the different ways communications get to me [via nooka.com, matthewwaldman.com, linked-in, facebook, PR company etc.]

well here is a poster-child for linked-in, the business online community as andreea is someone who initially contacted me there. this turned into a sample order for her online store which then turned into a full-fledged business relationship with her becoming the distributor for nooka in romania!

my fondness for romania goes way back to an early childhood obsession with vampires, and was only strengthened with my professional relationships and moreover, friendship with graphic designer extraordinaire, dan dumitriu in london. i was since told that romanians do not like being referred to as vampires, and in actuality, there are no vampires there – it's like a christian child being told there is no santa claus!

already, andreea has garnered an AMAZING amount of press for nooka in her beautiful country, a sample of which is here. i hope to see nooka grow with the new economies of eastern europe, and really want to go skiing in romania some time soon.

andreea's company is called clockwise, and their site is here. pretty amazing to have a 2 different products featured in a single edition of ELLE magazine, especially for a small brand like mine.

not in romania? nookas always available here.

noo music: miho hatori and towa tei

Towa Tei Featuring Miho Hatori - Mind Wall
Uploaded by HK119

last week, towa tei released the first single from his upcoming album on itunes, mind wall featuring the vocals of miho hatori. the video is really cute and i love the song.

i had brunch with miho on sunday in bed-stuy brooklyn to discuss each others' projects and we always get into profound discussions on creative process, influences, and life – my respect for her deepens each time we meet. but please don't think i'm pushing this because she's a friend – because i don't do that often. you simply must try and catch a live performance of her's. the purity and natural depth of her singing is only hinted at in recorded form.

anyway, miho hatori and tei towa, a fun musical match. support the arts, buy the single on itunes!

if you're looking for a nooka, they're available here.

nooka sightings: lil wayne 2

does the love from lil wayne ever stop? thank you lil wayne!
thank you kanye universecity for staying on top of all things rad! original post here.

yellow zub he's wearing always available here.

i love dust in barcelona

i love i love dust. they are my favorite art collective in the UK and they do bitchin work all over this great world of ours. there will be one-of-a-kind limited nooka watches on display along with toys by kidrobot and of course, original art by i love dust!

nookas always available here.

me encanta i love dust. ellos son mi colectivo de arte favorito en el Reino Unido y hacen un trabajo cojonudo sobre nuestro fantástico mundo. habrá reloj nooka de edición limitada junto con los juguetes de kidrobot y, por supuesto, arte original de i love dust!

nookas siempre disponible aquí.


inauguración el 19 de febrero en
opens february 19th at
VALLERY
Calabria, 85
08015 Barcelona
Spain
+34935396430

sundance 2009 round-up

sundance was full of firsts for me: first time spending time in salt lake city, first time in park city, and first time eating a taco bell bacon cheddar gordita crunch [wow!]. our party had some setbacks though – jared gold and his clothes were a no-show due to a production over-run in germany for america's next top model! the venue and management were able to pull in some local designers for the runway show. the designs were not an ideal stylistic fit for nooka, but it was really one of those "on with the show" kinda situations. the models rocked the nookas and the colors worked well with both collections presented. so... with the dj skills of michna and kate simko, the hospitality of pierpont place and all the wonderful talent in salt lake, a wonderful party was enjoyed by all who came.

and now, let's talk about salt lake city: what good looking people! they were so warm and receptive to me and to nooka. i met so many wonderful people – i will definitely go back to spend some more time there again.

also, the nooka image video and signage really branded the whole affair as a "nooka" event. thanks again to my in-house design team for all their hard work and the peeps at pierpont place for getting the signage produced locally in such short-order.

great music, yummy UV brand vodka, good people = fun for all.

now the real work is to get some exposure for the professional photos from the event [not my crappy ones posted here and on facebook].

thanks again sam, missy, adrian and kate of ghostly!

nookas always available here.

report from utah

(return of the diary-format blog entry!)

i arrived in salt lake city on wednesday night as flights later in the week were booked. i shared a hotel room with adrian michna where we talked music, mostly about the new york no-wave and club scene of the early 80s. the next morning we waited for everyone elses flights to come in – kate simko and her boyfriend brian from chicago, and susan from itunes [san francisco] before we all head up with missy and sam of ghostly records to a rented cabin east of park city.

we stopped at the largest walmart i've ever been to for provisions before heading up to find that the cabin has no internet, no ATT signal and the house fones blocks outgoing calls! missy's laptop is the only one that can pull an intermittent wifi signal [yet another reason NOT to buy a macair]. the house does have a great over chlorinated hot tub though. we all cooked together and are having a great time, so no complaints.

thursday we celebrated missy's 30th birthday, played rockband on the nintendo wii they brought.

friday we spent in park city, but like i feared, no celebs this year at sundance as everyone seems to be off to DC for the momentous obama inauguration on tuesday. missy is still confident our party today in SLC will get a good mix of locals, visiting celebs and MEDIA because of the combined PR of the ghostly, nooka and jared gold PR teams. the defjam party was fun, got a free 10 minute massage and drank liquor-sponsored cocktails. we then moved onto the new media installation, and after dinner, their opening party. tried to get into the defjam mariah party after that, but the line was a bit rediculous.

i haven't spotted any nooka watches yet, so on one hand i can see why these kind of events and sponsorships can help...on the other, i can also see why we shouldn't. moot point as the big sponsorships are still a bit out of reach financially. it's all very educational though.

note: my Y-3 snow boots are not only incredibly functional for all the snow [we had to push 2 cars out of snow the 2nd day!) but getting compliments where-ever i go!

don't forget, if you're in salt lake city or park city, come to our party tonight at the pierpont.

nookas always available here.

studio visit: carlos santos

mtv's carlos santos stopped by the nooka studio today and we hooked him up with some gear to spread the word. i learned that he does stand-up comedy in addition to his duties with voice-overs, narration and hosting/vj-ing for mtv. great guy and even cuter in person – though i think i got a good essence from my digi-snaps. i think he's a rising star to keep an eye on.

contact ramblings and designer identity issues

i find it interesting how people who want to reach me go about doing so. some people just find the phone number for nooka and call, others email from nooka.com [the fastest way to get a response], some comment on a blog post in email format [somehow they know i won't post to the blog if it contains too much information], some find my desperate-need-of-updating matthewwaldman.com and email from there [worst way, i always forget to check that email!], some people go via our press agent [as a rule of thumb or via the confusion that we're both named 'matthew'], and others find me on either linkedin or facebook [a perfectly fine way to communicate!].

i find each of the avenues that bring a first contact to me fascinating. especially since it is easier and easier to find people, the route a person chooses is an expression of their impression of me as well as of their personality [or simply the rank order of their web search!]. it also helps to identify an issue i've been obsessing over again – public perception of me versus nooka, berrymatch or other activities.

without getting into an analysis of all of the above, all of this obsessing has made it clear that i have not done a good job defining my persona beyond this blog [and other blogs] so 2009 will be the year to put more PR energy into the matthew waldman brand – so keep your eyes here the next couple of months for updates.

also, here's wishing everyone a great 2009!

nooka at sundance

For 3 years, Pierpont Place has been a preferred venue of the Sundance Film festival and has provided the community an opportunity to get involved to enjoy great talent and music in conjunction to the festival. The event will be a combination of networking, runway fashion, great music and dancing. Anticipated attendance will be 300-500 guests including local business an festival audience, media, dignitaries, film and festival industry goers.

This year, Pierpont Place has partnered with Ghostly International to provide “top caliber” DJ talent from Chicago and New York. Webb Audio and Visual is to provide state of the art equipment and Full Nelson is to provide The Fashion Delirium Tour du Jour which is a traveling runway party that showcases cutting-edge designers and their newest fashions featuring Jared Gold designer of Black Chandelier and Baskit Underwear. Jared Gold is expected to make an announcement of a new Television project. Along with Jared’s amazing fashions we will incorporate NOOKA watches as an official brand to be included in the show. Nooka is a perfect fit for this exclusive event. This amazing collaboration of brands, fashion, decor and music talent will definitely mark the calendar as the Sundance event to not be missed!

Event details:
Saturday 17th January
Ghostly Talent Includes:
Michna, Kate Simko & SV4
“The fashion Delirium Du Jour”
A New Collection show by Jared Gold
& Showcase of Nooka Watches
Pierpont Place
163 Pierpont Ave. SLC
8pm

nooka people: yu yamada

i am so happy to work with such wonderful people – it's part of nooka's success. mr. yu yamada is our guy on the ground running our tokyo office, and i've always thought he was amazing...well apparently so do the people at design mag, brain! in addition to nooka he is a key member of tokyo's design tide every year amongst his other side projects.

if you can, check out the february 2009 issue on stands now to see the 4 pages of coverage he's gotten.

nookas always available here.

nooka sightings: carlos santos MYV Tr3

christen here in the nooka studio was watching mtv this weekend where she saw a sage zub nooka on a vj. after some research, we saw that carlos santos seems to own quite a wide range of nookas! he coordinates them like i do – super duper flattering! muchas gracias carlos! you can read about his latest show in english and in español here, or google him for more info.

you can purchase the camo nooka, and various colored zubs at a store near you, and if not, here.

Christen aquí en el estudio Nooka estaba viendo mtv este fin de semana donde vio un sage zub nooka en un vj. después de algunas investigaciones, vimos que Carlos Santos dispone de una amplia gama de nookas! Y los combina como yo - Super halagador! muchas gracias Carlos! Puede leer acerca de su último espectáculo en Inglés y en español aquí o busquenlo en Google para más información.

puede comprar el camo nooka, y varios colores zubs en una tienda cercana a usted, y si no, aquí.

note: i do not speak spanish, not well, but i do have an intern in the studio from barcelona – gracias edgar!

studio visit: me at ryan mcginness

i had the pleasure of visiting ryan at his studio on december 30th [the camera date is 31 because it was on tokyo-time!]. i know ryan for over 10 years – actually since he graduated and came to new york – so it was nice catching up after not having a real conversation for a number of years! i was excited to see the new work en-process and even more excited that he loves the grey leather nooka watch i gave him.

i'm planning on doing some serious artist collaborations in 2009-2010 and ryan is definitely on my list.

learn more about ryan mcginness on wikipedia/google and here.

grey leather nookas at fine stores and here.

my t-shirt by supremebeing UK.

january 5th 2008

very busy first full day back at the office. we had a meeting with the lovely missy of ghostly records and super musician adrian michna. nooka is co-sponsoring a dj event for sundance this year with ghostly records and fashion designer jared gold. also represented will be baskit underwear. i think it will be fun and i will blog with more details by the end of the week as the event is on saturday january 17th in salt lake city. check out michna on itunes or your local cd shop and on the ghostly website here.

the black zub michna loves is available at fine stores and here.

¡viva con pasión!

¡nooka spotted on the pages of GLAMOUR españa!
watch featured can be bought in many fine stores in spain or on our online shop here.

the next nooka sample sale

check out the next nooka sample sale...last one of the season!