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.