LIP France Watch Reissue

Things I appreciate in design include geometry, playfulness, utility, simplicity. The Mach 2000 watch from LIP France combines them all:




Mach 2000 DarkMaster Chronograph, 1973

The designer is Roger Tallon (b. 1929). At his height, his designs blend the French aesthetic and 1970s retro futurism.

Here are some of his other designs.

The Teleavia line of TV sets


War of the Worlds inspired?

The TGV high-speed train


Paris to Lausanne at 180km/h

Spots Erco lamp (1973)



International Symbols:



Flatware and picnic sets:



More retro futurism

Others include the Solomon SPX ski boot of the 1980s and a spiral staircase added to the collection at the MOMA.


MOMA Modular

Meetup is not free

While browsing the list of Meetup groups in Philadelphia, I started to build my own meetup group. When the next screen asked for $12/mo to start up, I stopped.

Journey Across America By Bike...With The Kids

Just heard this story about a family of 4, two parents and two kids age 10 and 11 who have just successfully completed a bike trip from US coast to coast. They used tandem bikes to make their way from the Pacific to the Atlantic, covering many miles and learning some great things. Health, open minds, new experiences. This is the kind of thing to plan for.

I'm stoked, because I've considered a similar excursion. Lauri and I want to go on a sailing expedition in the footsteps (water wake?) of her nautical uncle. Seeing as children are a prospect in our near future, we may look into taking a family sailing trip sometime. The NPR report I speak of vindicates such ideas, promoting family bonding and new experiences through a family adventure.

Read up on their blog, posted along the way.

Penny power

Once I loved pennies and would sift for hours after the elusive wheat penny.

Now I hate pennies.

Do you keep pennies? Or do you throw them into the street?

When will the mint finally stop minting them?

A reason to strip mine resources is only a reason. Nothing more.

Zinc and copper mongers force us to pocket zinc and copper.

Two-thousand-oh-Obama. Change. Pennies will be changing again soon.

Bet on it!

A Story of Revenge

I'm bored by most movies and am a fairly stern critic. There is a common thread to the ones I like though. They usually portray characters in a state of intense anguish. Movies like The Fisher King or Dancer in the Dark combine psychology and despair in a way that makes the characters' actions believable.

I just saw Red and am adding it to the list. It's a modern-day revenge drama by a Scandinavian director with an all-star cast. Above all, the performance by Brian Cox is shattering. You have to pick yourself up off the floor when he's done. His range of emotions, from tenderness and despair to duty and controlled rage are something to see.

Red, highly recommended. Here's a well-considered review to read AFTER seeing it. I liked it better than the reviewer btw.

Have you heard Viva Radio? It's great!

If you like your music tiger fang sharp and cotton candy sweet, let me introduce you to a playlist-based web radio station called Viva Radio.

In case you're not acquainted, Viva radio is one of perhaps a googol streaming web stations dotting the net. What's different about it - and this comes from a true partisan of improbable, euphoric and uncommon sounds - is the mix. The mix is tight, holmes.

For the sake of comparison, take everything that radio leftofthedial-ism has to offer, all your WFMUs, your AM golds, the cream of college radio, meager as it is, all of Austin's KOOP, where I DJed for 5 years, take all of these sources and consider their finest moments. Viva's diverse and focused offerings, as they currently stand, approximate such a metric.

Also, disregard the collective lump of the predictive music engine movement, your Pandoras, Last FMs and Rhapsodys withstanding. Opinions of these services shed no light on what Viva does. Months of wringing the most out of Last FM in particular has led me to a waning appreciation of on-demand radio in favor of simple tune and turn up radio.

Essentially, the station is a NYC-based webstreaming server. The highest caliber of DJs, music nerds, recluses and hipsters offer the casual listener their carefully-crafted playlists. Rather than programming their sets live, DJs submit in some form or another their chosen tracks culled from an unstoried assemblage of vinyl, CD, Napster and iPod resources, providing an ever-unguessable cascade of music.

The DJs I speak of are people like this hunching guy:

And this french cyborg with the shades:



And the selections are terrific due not to the DJs party throwing skills, which must be formidable, but to the incredible breadth and unique je ne sais quois of the music presented on Viva Radio.

Listening to this station, you will hear not only song after song - mind you, there are very few prerecorded spoken ads or statements to punctuate the shuffle - you will hear ideas in this music. You will experience the selected cartography of a scarcely-known or fringe revered genre or subcultural style of music articulated so methodically that it can stun.

Hearing an hour of the most obscure and delightful Cahiers du Cinema soundtrack next to an Asha Bohsle Bollywood theme continuing with a France Gall B-side will transport you. Keep in mind, the playlists change regularly, so let it play a while. It's great, and if you're like me, you'll get a kick out of it.

Vashti Bunyan, Just Another Diamond Day

Just Another Diamond Day is the debut album by United Kingdom singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan.

In the mid to late 1960s, Bunyan was under contract to Andrew Oldham, which saw her release two singles. However, Bunyan found the experience frustrating, and decided to head for the Scottish islands in search of an artistic commune supposedly established by Donovan. She travelled around the countryside with her partner Robert, in a horse-drawn wagon. It was during these travels that she wrote the songs which would later appear on Just Another Diamond Day.

Bunyan returned to London where she was urged by producer Joe Boyd to record her songs while they were still fresh. The recording session took place throughout December 1969 at Sound Techniques in London. Song arrangements were performed by Robert Kirby, who also worked with Nick Drake. Members of Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band contributed to some tracks. The album was initially released in 1970 but was a commercial failure and Bunyan retired from music for many years.

Viva-radio

This radio website is pretty bugging spot on. I'm digging on "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne. Just the right time on a Fri night for this song.

Have a listen to the Baby Fall mix on viva-radio too. I found it from a link on igetrvng.com, based here in Philly. The mix reminds me of Tejas and places not typical.

And now Pepper Box by The Peppers (still listening to viva-radio). Gotta say, computer dj is tight tonight. Much better than the predictive qualities of Last FM and pretty much like the best full aural rubdown you could hope for.

Shutting down now.

Get Closer

This is undoubtedly an all-time great album cover of the mid 1970s. 1976 to be specific.

Seals and Crofts are portrayed as mystics of subculture (er, didn't they call it counterculture?).

Seals is the mad prophet, Crofts an id-propelled cannonball.

But what really smacks here is the marketing position, the message. Just what every music buyer wants. Membership to the safe far edge of decency. A chance to wade in the deep end of a well-cholrinated swimming pool.  

It's effective. It penetrates. Fans of James Iovine take note. This is an Interscope precursor.

prefab home dreaming

Prefab homes are a category of new homes that come from a factory pre-assembled to some degree. They can come in flat packs, appearing like an Ikea home purchase. (and ikea is making a home community in the UK). They can be brought on trucks and hoisted down pre-assembled from a tall crane.

What all prefabs share is the spirit of DIY construction, including the ability to work and expand your new home as you like. Many are highly customizable, like legos, into configurations of multiple stories, cantilevered sections or l-shaped courtyards.

The Katrina Cottage is one such new prefab. Built for hurricane refugees, it is now available at Lowe's and has been configured in many styles and floorplans. This is a flatpack style of prefab, so there is a joining and aligning process early in the construction.

The Katrina cottage sports a quaint southern style of design that belies it's modern underpinnings. It's also a refreshing alternative to the modern direction of most prefabs. There is a whole collection of panelized construction homes, of which the Katrina is just one.