Bongo Design: Steel Fox Head (via designboom)
I’m somewhat addicted to flash sale sites, these are websites that offer deals on goods or services only available to their members. I just learned about Everlane this morning and I’m extremely curious about their product offering. The concept is luxury basics offered at below luxury prices, i.e. under $100 a pop. This could be a good price depending on the product and I’ve been browsing the Tumblelog of someone who works at the company and seems to have good taste.
Currently I am still waiting for access because one has to persuade five others to sign up, or wait for access, before gaining entry to the site. So please, if you are curious like me, sign up for Everlane via my link and I’ll let you know what I see when I get there ;).
Since my birthday is coming next week I’ve been going heavy on the wish list items. I’m thinking this is going to be my gift to myself this year.
We're cutting out a bit early for the long weekend; meet you back here on Tuesday. Enjoy yourselves, LA!
Image via @katfam
DOWNTOWN: Downtown Twitterer katfam noticed that green fences are up and workers have been spotted at Broadway's United Artists Theatre building, aka the future home of LA's first Ace Hotel. According to the Downtown News, the hotel is going to have 180 rooms, a pool, restaurant, and bar (in addition to the renovated theater), but no opening date has been announced yet. [Twitter]
SKID ROW: The LA Poverty Department is having a massive three-day celebration of Skid Row, with parades and performances through the neighborhood all long weekend. Walk the Talk will travel three different routes, led by a brass band (you're encouraged to bring your kazoo or cowbell to join in) and wind by performances that "pay tribute to neighborhood initiatives and 36 men and women whose contributions to the community call for a big, blaring celebration." (Street artist Mr. Brainwash has also created portraits of the honorees.) All the times and places are listed here. [Curbed Inbox]
YouTube user ExpoLineFan has moved his affections onto the planned Purple Line subway extension and posted this video "showing a flyover of the future Westside Subway Extension using Google Maps and animation," writes The Source. The train was just approved from Western Avenue to the West LA VA yesterday, including the part of the alignment that takes it under Beverly Hills High School. Which, in case you haven't heard, many Beverly Hills officials are freaking the fuck out about--they'll probably be suing any day now. The Source also notes that this is a rough approximation of the alignment "and is not completely accurate, particularly in the western Beverly Hills to Westwood section." It also takes the subway all the way to Santa Monica (sigh!), although it's only currently funded to Westwood.
· Westside Subway Extension flyover video! [The Source]
· 90210's Way or the Highway Archives [Curbed LA]
All Renters Week long we'll be looking at some of the most happening rental neighborhoods in Los Angeles. We've checked out Echo Park and Venice so far. Today: Downtown's Historic Core.
The Historic Core is riding high on a decade-long gentrification that began with developer Tom Gilmore's Old Bank District project, which converted several early twentieth century buildings into yuppie-ready apartments and condos. The long, thin neighborhood is still moving up in the world, with bike lanes and a park (and parklets) arriving soon. Here's what renters can expect:
Rental units: Loft apartments in adaptively-reused old buildings. Parking can be a bit tough to come by; some buildings share lots or go without.
Rent range: about $1,100 for a 600 square foot apartment to about $3,500 for a 2,000 square foot apartment.
Who lives there: Hipsters who are too old for Echo Park, yuppie couples and singles, FIDM girls, rich USC kids, John Stamos. Johnny Depp's so cool he's already moved on.
Neighborhood highlights: Food is the big draw in the Historic Core. Brunch fave Pete's was an early pioneer in the latest gentrification, but (contested) French Dip king Cole's, classic kitschy cafeteria Clifton's (currently closed for a hipster makeover), and the Grand Central Market were there back in the day (1908, 1935, and 1917, respectively). More recently you can get vegan baked goods, Scottish-Jewish food, and fancy cocktails. The HC also has Gallery Row and the huge monthly Downtown Art Walk; plus all the lovely old theaters of Broadway (in varying states of disrepair or abandonment); Angels Flight, the shortest railway in the world; and the 1893 Bradbury Building, made famous in Blade Runner. The neighborhood is also smack in the middle of Downtown LA, so it's got that going for it.
On Craigslist, sometimes mistaken for: Bunker Hill, Skid Row
On Craigslist, sometimes referred to as: Historic Core--listers tend to get it right on this one.
If you want to spend a little more, try: buying
If you want to spend a little less, try: the Arts District
Sample rentals:
-- A one bathroom unit on the seventh floor of the Barlett Building with a dishwasher, washer/dryer, and parking starting at $120 per month. Rent is $1,500.
-- A one bathroom unit in the Douglas Building Lofts with dishwasher, washer/dryer, and one parking space. Rent is $3,000.
-- A tenth floor unit in the Rowan Lofts with a washer/dryer and a parking space. Rent is $1,975.
-- A parking spot on Eighth St. between Broadway and Spring. Rent is $90.
-- A one and a half bathroom unit in SB Spring, which has a pool, gym, and sauna. Rent is $1,850.
· A Renter's Guide to Echo Park [Curbed LA]
· A Renter's Guide to Venice Beach [Curbed LA]
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This is long but whooo so exciting! If filmmaking was always this fun I would probably try start applying for positions now.
Here’s a new bit of awesome for all you Tolkienites out there. This one is all about how Peter Jackson is shooting the two Hobbit films in 3D, which I’m not super stoked about, but if anyone can do the story justice in the format, it’ll be Jackson.
-Kanderson wants to live in Middle Earth but with TWITTER as well.
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Sexxxy.
Image via Studio City Patch
Every neighborhood deals with sidewalk dog poop differently. Silver Lake gets alternately entrepreneurial and creatively threatening about it. Studio City gets Big Brother on it. Studio City Patch has stumbled on this sign, attached to a light pole on Woodbridge St., east of Tujunga Ave., "with multiple layers of transparent packing tape." The sign has the heading "The Dog Doo Wall of Shame" and several blurry stills of people leaving their dogs' leavings on the grass.
Below is this message: "All of these inconsiderate jerks think it is okay to leave dog turds where you can step on them and for others to clean. They have been caught brown-handed on CCTV. The only recourse is to publicly humiliate them. Pick up after your dog or you will join them on the Dog Doo Wall of Shame!" The signmaker is a nearby property owner who has the camera for security. He put the sign up about two weeks ago and says it's already scared off one of the worst offenders.
· Caught 'Brown-Handed': A Local Property Owner Takes Back the Street with Dog Doo Wall of Shame [SC Patch]
· Silver Lakers Can Pay Someone to Clean Dog Poop Off Their Lawns [Curbed LA]
In an episode of The Simpsons, nuclear power plant owner Mr. Burns tries to justify the existence of Blinky, a three-eyed fish caught in the local river, by saying it is the next step in evolution and not a horrible mutation. Strangely though, he refuses to eat Blinky when it is served to him — we’re not surprised. But while Blinky is the product of a fictional cartoon, this three-eyed fish caught nearby a nuclear facility in Argentina, is not.
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Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have successfully created artificial, oxygen-carrying red blood cells that they believe could go into human medical trials in as little as two years. The cells aren’t synthetic, they are created using human stem cells, but they can be manufactured, and the researchers are currently working out a way to mass-produce them safely. If successful their findings would eliminate the need for the current mass amounts of energy and electricicity that are needed to gather, transport and store blood for transfusions. Plus, now we have something more than garlic to throw at vampires when they come knocking on Monday evening!
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The remodel of the FIGat7th shopping center, which includes an urban Target store concept, is rolling right along; blogger Brigham Yen got a hardhat tour from owner Brookfield Office Properties and shares some pictures and video. The store will be known as City Target, one of only a handful of such stores in the nation. While compact and pedestrian-friendly by Target standards, shoppers won't exactly be fighting for space like at the Silver Lake Trader Joe's--there will be 100,000 square feet of discount shopping. Brookfield told Yen that freight elevators were just installed and Target will take over construction in March, for an anticipated Fall 2012 opening. Also: as part of the renovations, the shopping center will get a new bottom-level food court with mainly LA-based eateries.
· City Target Construction Update [Brigham Yen]
· Target Archives [Curbed LA]
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No EFFING way!
If the Zeppelin were given an eco upgrade and brought into the 21st century, it might look something like Tiago Barros’ Passing Cloud. Created from strong yet flexible balloons, the Passing Cloud is a futuristic concept for green air transportation. The incredible zero waste, cloud-like machine is powered by the wind and lets visitors experience travel as never before: instead of staring out the window at the clouds, you are the clouds. Barros recently submitted the out-of-the-box design to the Van Alen Institute’s Life at the Speed of Rail competition, and while the Passing Cloud probably won’t win, that isn’t stopping us from imagining a sky-high trip on its sloping surface.
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Imagine a water fountain marrying a printer, a monitor display, with a brief fling with a digital display clock and the offspring might very well look something like this wondrous waterfall fountain display in Osaka Station City.
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Man, I loved watching The Abyss when I was a kid. This is pretty cool.
I stumbled on these photos of the ginormous sets from James Cameron's 1989 film, The Abyss, which were left derelict in the North South Carolina abandoned nuclear power plant where they were filmed. In stark contrast to Cameron's most recent film, Avatar, which is almost entirely CGI, The Abyss was almost entirely filmed in real-scale with real sets.
In most cases, the lifetime of movie sets is extremely brief. Entire cities and vehicles are used for a matter of mere months before being torn down to make way for the next movie production. However, as is apparent in this case, the left-behind sets became a sort of surreal architecture wherein a real version of a fake structure becomes real over time. I suppose this would be like building a life-sized model of a skyscraper that wouldn't actually house anyone inside.
An absolutely fantastic and candid making-of documentary shows a lot of the set construction that went into the filming of The Abyss:
(more...)
Via viewfromaloft
· Rosemead's 9/11 memorial with WTC beam [LAT]
· Eric Owen Moss wins Brit architecture prize Jencks Award [A/N Blog]
· Remembering the Ambassador Hotel with its 93 year old former publicist [SCP]
· Lake Tahoe residents shaming businesses with bear-vulnerable dumpsters [SacBee]
· Checking in on Virgin Galactic's under-construction spaceport in Las Cruces [Space.com]
· ConstructionWatching Torrance's big medical tower [DB]
· Literary mural-map of Los Angeles debuts at the Hammer [KCET]
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I am getting so excited about this right now. Follow the links and get this: Use code BESPOKEME to enjoy 50% off (valid until 9/1). Still at least $50 but considerably less pricey than http://www.philipperoucou-eshop.com/category.php?id_category=9
If you’re into the whole caravan trend but still don’t consider yourself outdoorsy enough to actually rough it by staying in one surrounded by night noises, then perhaps you should try camping indoors at the Huettenpalast hotel in Berlin developed by Silke Lorenzen and Sarah Vollmer. The concept itself is so genius, you could really do a lot with this idea. Instead of checking into a hotel and disappearing, you can socialize with others outside of your camper while still being indoors. Ha! So cool. Check out these great rooms within rooms… There are cottages too!
Instead of your standard hotel room, Huettenpalast recycles camper trailers and refurbishes and fits them to an indoor space for 40-60 Euros a night! If you’re a social traveler who wants to meet new friends and enjoy the great indoors, then this just may be the hotel for you.
Would you stay at Huettenpalast? Thoughts?
(images: huettenpalast)
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Impressive!
My friends tease me for this, but I will go on record as saying that I think the bathroom should definitely receive the most love and consideration when renovating a home. I’ve seen scores of inspirational bathrooms, but this extensive renovation by graphic designer and illustrator Anile Prakash comes close to my vision of a dream bathroom. Heavy on the clean and fresh tile with minimalist white fixtures and rustic, warm wood accents — yep, pretty dreamy. Beautiful job, Anile! — Kate
Have a Before & After you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here! (Low res, under 500k per image, please.)
See more of Anile’s gorgeous bathroom makeover after the jump!