the perfect weekend

i love spending holiday weekends in nyc – there's no traffic on the street [making bike riding even more of a pleasure], and i can get tables at trendy restaurants without a wait. well, this labor day was no exception plus we had the most perfect summer weather everyday, not a cloud in the sky, warm and dry.

i started friday with my boyfriend at la esquina on the lower east side. i discovered last week that they have quesadilla de huitlecoche [corn smut in english]. huitlecoche is by far one of my favorite fungi and i've craved it since my first trip to mexico over 10 years ago. unfortunately, it is rarely on the menu in nyc, and when it is, usually from a can. it is fresh fresh at la equina and i've been there twice last week just to eat it!

saturday i had brunch in brooklyn with some designer/architect friends to discuss their product design ideas on their beautiful outdoor deck. i brought vietnamese sandwiches from atlantic avenue – DELISH. later, frank and i went to mr. blacks, a club that was once in the east village but is now in the flatiron district. it was a lot of fun, really reminded me of the days when nyc was fun to go out at night [then again, i was a go go boy when i was a club kid, but times have changed. a skinny hairy guy would never get work as a go go boy now]. the dj was good and the crowd diverse.

sunday i caught up with some friends and took my friend's kids swimming. sunday afternoon was the highlight of the weekend at the ghostly records party high atop THOR [the hotel on rivington]. as usual, missy and sam threw a fantastic party [see fotos]. it was a super duper friendly crowd matched only by the tremendous amount of young talent in one space. the boys were gorgeous as were the girls. the party could only have been better if everyone were naked. it was an early party and i had an amazing meal after in tribeca with my friend lisa [duck ravioli a souce of butter and olives + seared foi gras].

went for a bike ride monday in central park and had another amazing dinner, this time at bottega. ran into my friend marco and hiroki on the way home on 7th avenue, talking for 30 minutes on a busy street corner – totally new york and the perfect end to a perfect long weekend.

photos:
1. missy and sam of ghostly, 2. the beautiful danny of ghostly, photographer derrick gómez and film maker phil van, 3. the penthouse suite at THOR, 4. sunset, 5. the adorable english film maker matt tucker, über talented photographer timothy saccenti, and tim's girlfriend h.j [we chatted in japanese], 6. 2 of the 3 members of school of seven bells, a band i adore!, 7. me with the lovely jen of modular records [you know them, the presets and cut copy are on that label!], and 8. night view of manhattan....pretty huh?

i met other cool people but i can only blog about so much. i will add more in subsequent blogs. i love staycations.

musings on NOOISMO™

i am often asked to define the nooka customer in terms of demographics, which is difficult for me as the nooka customer spans many different age, economic, and cultural groups. i am able to describe one part of their personality to which i coined the term "nooismo™" – a person who appreciates new developments in technology, art, design and culture. people who exhibit signs of nooismo are sometimes the trend-setters themselves, well-versed in the visual language of context in pop culture and able to see when something truly is 'noo' and fresh.

for example: courreges was a ground breaking fashion designer in the 1960s. he was one of the first to pioneer the use of industrial synthetics in fashion and his looks presented a utopian vision of the future. he is one of the grandfathers of 'nooismo'. the iphone is also a product that has nooismo appeal [and it would have even more without ATT!].

music is a good place to find an emotional connection to nooismo. at the moment, the label modular records is the finest example of a music company that successfully presents noo and fun bands [fun is an important component of nooismo]. if you're interested in bands in the past who exhibited the ultimate in nooismo for their time, i recommend this blog by Dave Renard – it's amazing, he digs up long forgotten and hidden gems.

other random past nooismos: inline skates were hailed as an innovation over traditional roller skates, but actually, their design predates the truck design that was popular for most of the 20th century. luckily someone found a way to reinvigorate their nooismo in the 1980s! fuel cell technology is another old innovation [invented in the 1800s] that will hopefully be noo again big time!

NOOKA MYOOZIK

i can't believe i'm being so consistent with my blog, but i guess it's thanks to google analytics -- seeing what pages are getting viewed after press items and other blog mentions is actually quite engrossing. i could write only about nooka stuff [unfortunately, a lot of the stuff is now on a PR calendar --im told when i can blog about product releases:)] but that would give you guys a very narrow view of the the matthew waldman nooka experience!

aside from fine design, i am actually a bit of a music geek. and much like nooka, my musical tastes are not mainstream. music is always playing in my design studio, and luckily, we all tend to have similar tastes. i also like to think that nooka is the watch of the alternative/electronic music scene as we do see them popping up in photos of musicians at festivals [jenny wilson, mika, kanye west and many others!]. if you are a musician who owns a nooka, please send us a little bio with a photo of you wearing the nooka and we can post it in our press section online or just here.

what music got heavy rotation at the nooka studio in 2007?
our ill wills by the shout out louds,
brooklyn's own: glass candy,
smoke by white williams,
FABRICLIVE.36 by James Murphy and Pat Mahoney,
Leave Them All Behind 2 by MODULAR records,
sarolta zalatnay's greatest hits,
BIG SCIENCE by Laurie Anderson.

i'm too lazy to post links for all of the above, but if you don't own them, you do need them right now!