I know… it sounds like a relic from the 70s or something, which it actually is. But obviously it’s one of those ideas that even gain relevance over time.

As we now hear Starbucks will be closing more than 600 stores in the US alone, which probably no one will even notice because they have more then 10,000 of them over here.

That said, I have to add that I really feel for the 1000 people losing their already underpaid jobs. But it also shows that there is not unlimited demand for ever the same products. I admit that it gereally makes sense to have chain stores in some respect. But it also makes traveling (and living) so not exciting at times, because it kills cultural particularities.

Her comes a sermon by Reverend Billy, founder of the Church of Stop Shopping, getting the word out to the masses on Fox Biz News:

“Capitalism isn’t necessarily the same as Freedom.”…eat this Sister Rebecca! Although my favorite part is when he says that their coffee “isn’t that great”. That’s a good one.

So you can argue if Rev. Billy is taking it all a bit too far, or if Rebecca Gomez has ever given anything she said a thought - at all. Yet, one thing is for sure: supporting independent businesses is a thing we could probably all agree on.

If you do, then you can start on Sunday by showing up in New York’s East Village:

AuH2O is not only local and independent - it’s fashion with an attitude. Kate Goldwater (hence the name: Au=gold H2O=water) is a feminist, a friend of the environment, a soccer player and a sweetheart. Learn more about her store, her fashion and herself on her new blog: blog.auh2odesigns.com and come out for fashion coffee and music this weekend. I’ll be there…

This is a double post also published on tapmag.

30 years ago New York City was a dangerous place. Especially Bushwick in Brooklyn, my neighborhood today, was one of the most poor and devastated places you could imagine. You can still see that in missing buildings, which were often burned down by their owners because they just wouldn’t sell.

Anyway, I just read a blog post on woot.com that has occasional reviews of funny used books. This one is called “Street Smart” and was written by Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and their lawyer Murray Schwartz.

In his blog entry Jason Toon highlights the funniest and most paranoid moments of the book (including Guardian Angels fashion) and wouldn’t miss the chance to spice them up with a handful of hilarious comments. My favorite excerpt from the book is probably this one:

Wow… I’m so glad my ass is here - safely in 2008!

I mean, what is this guy doing down there? How long did he have to wait under this car?
And most importantly: what happens now?

One of your white slippers you have just seen for the last time, buddy! But wait, this guy is stuck under your car. Maybe you just wait until he will crawl out of there? Or get in the car and move it just a little bit? If people really tried to rob others like that back in the 80ies, then it was probably the most brainless era in crime history.

So when I read this and the comments on the blog entry, I begin to understand: all the fears that my parents were (and still are) expressing about me moving to big cities are clearly relics from the 80ies:

Can I find an apartment in Berlin? Hell, yeah! Back in the 80ies? Maybe not so easy…
Isn’t it ridiculously dangerous in the big city? Not really. Maybe more than in a small town. But I’m not afraid of people shoving me off the subway platform. Which has - by the way - most interestingly taken place in Berlin recently.

But enough of that. I don’t wanna spoil the fun. Go and see the full blog entry here.

Have a nice day!

This is a double post also published on tapmag.

Today I went to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in the Javits Center in New York. I expected an insight in latest developments in design but in the end it was (not surprisingly) just a furniture fair. Anyway, I saw a few interesting things. If you want to go and see for yourself, tomorrow the fair will be open for the public.

My personal highlight comes with the quote of the day:
“Our computers are like SUVs - most of the energy they consume is used to propel themselves. Like the cars are so heavy they need all the energy to move themselves - not you!” so said Yves Béhar.

Yves Béhar is the founder of fuseproject and the dude who designed the Jawbone (a bluetooth headset that eliminates surrounding sounds while you speak) and the new NYC Condom dispenser:

With this quite plausible comparison (PCs = SUVs) he was referring to the One Laptop Per Child project started by Nicholas Negroponte. See this Video from the Design Miami 07 for a short wrap-up of the design side of the XO Laptop:

Yves Béhar is actually also one of the designers that contributed to the botanist series by orange22 that I stumbled upon later at ICFF. Orange22 claim that the pieces are sustainable and eco-friendly. I’m not too sure about that because the base material is aluminum. It is correct that aluminum can be recycled. But the amount of energy that is needed for the process is unreasonably high. No wonder the German green party has factually banned cans from the domestic beverage market. But anyway - I guess there are different shades of green, right? At least the look and feel makes me wanna have one (and you don’t throw benches away that often):

This one was designed by Yves Béhar but speaking of natural products you may also check out that one:

In fact they are all quite sleek.

Probably the complete opposite of it may be the chairs and benches that sixinch from Belgium put on display. They have really nice pieces in general. What they showed on ICFF was “classical” chairs covered with foam. Sorry, but that was just cheesy:

Again: check out their website as they have other stuff that I actually like.

Next thing that I want to point out is the Geneva Sound System. It has an iPod dock, radio and CD player while you can also close the top flap to make it look like a simple cubic speaker on a stand. This is (for me) one of the most advanced iPod based products that I have seen yet. As in the U.S. virtually everyone has one - why not?

If I will ever live and work in a loft, I’m sure I’ll go to M2L on 215 E 58th St in New York first thing in the morning to get one of these babies:

What you can’t really see on the picture is that you can flip the plate on the hemisphere in the front, which will serve as a table. It’s a great workspace when you just need a laptop and a phone to start working. And the look is so 60ies futuristic, it’s just beautiful.

M2L is represented as part of a Dutch collective at ICFF. Check this PDF out if you’re interested in more design from the Netherlands.

Other designers that I liked (but weren’t on the designboom market) where Takumi Shimamura and Isaac Arms(although his website sucks).

Last thing for today’s post is designboom.com which is a website/blog that covers art, design and architecture. They also organize design competitions, online classes, a web shop and so called ‘designboom marts‘ one of which is currently taking place at ICFF. The concept is to put 40 young professional designers in a flea market setting with products in a range of 10 - 100$. The designboom mart is really worth seeing and very different from the rest of the booths. What I really liked was the Milk Gone Bad lamps by Anatomic Factory:

Also quite nice the Block Night Light by 25togo:

They actually didn’t have that with them but sold their My Document laptop sleeves instead. But I like the lamps better.

These were my personal highlights of the ICFF 2008 in New York. I have to go…Good night!

This is a double post also published on tapmag.

Ja, das Leben ist hart in Brooklyn. Besonders dann, wenn man mit Euros in der Tasche aus Übersee einfliegt um hier die Gentrifizierung voranzutreiben.

Vom ironischen Ansatz dieses Videos mal abgesehen zeigt es meine Wohngegend (Bushwick), und den JMZ-Zug der mich nach Manhattan bringt. Viel Spaß beim anschauen!

This is (at once) the pretty much most amazing, hillarious and upsetting story that I’ve heard in a long time. To sum it up: Matthew Dear’s hard drive was stolen while he was playing music from it in a Brooklyn venue called Galapagos Art Space this weekend. Needles to say: this was when the party ended.

Who in the world would be brave and stupid enough to do something like this? If we ever find out it will probably be on www.brooklynvegan.com, where in the meantime we can have fun reading the blog post comments.

The irony in this is that I nearly went there this very night (which I didn’t because I was too lazy to leave Manhattan) but heard about the story from a friend in Germany. The world is constantly getting smaller guys. It really is!

Good luck getting your stuff back, Matthew!

Fellow Americans,

some of the best fun of my first stay in your country I probably had in your shopping facilities.

Example #1: Obviously the U.S. are a country of plenty. You got ‘em SUVs and huge buildings and fridges and you wouldn’t bother to switch off the lights when leaving your apartment. Also, a good dish is either deep-fried or comes with large amounts of cheese or butter. I grant you the grease, dear Americans but this is just too much:

I mean, who in the world needs butter on green salad? Is this too healthy without loads of fat? Anyway, here comes example #2: Hopefully not even Americans will try to eat this although it’s certainly greasy enough.

No offense. I guess Germans are - especially thanks to some Bavarians - not really known for their fat free cuisine and slight build. Some more on Bavarian cuisine can be found here.

This post is dedicated to the staff of CVS in Hoboken, New Jersey.
I still got no CVS card but I love you guys anyway and I miss seeing you every night!

Seit wir in New York sind gibt es immer wieder momente, in denen sich dieses typische ‘das ist Amerika wie ich es mir vorgstellt habe’-Gefühl einstellt. Dinge die man in zahllosen Filmen oder auf Bildern gesehen hat.

Dieses ist einer davon; irgendein Supermarkt in Brooklyn, NY oder genauer: Food Bazaar Broadway Ecke Manhattan Avenue.

http://www.semirsays.com/nyc