snow to shovel

Two snow storms and over a foot of snow. I think that it is time for Evo to invest in a new shovel.

Christmas gift idea #18

One day of shopping left and for most guys that means head to the mall and sprint around with a bunch of other zombified dudes who would seem to be hoping for divine gift-giving intervention. I love it. I think that it is one of the best places to see the best of the "holiday spirit" which to me means a horde of people thinking about other people and trying desperately to get something that makes someone else happy. This mood is at its apex on Christmas Eve in any mall in America so check it out in person but then when you get home sign up for Etrade and get your loved one or friend or whomever a few shares of stock. You can transfer them after the holiday and with the market down as it is there are MANY great buys. I suggest Apple, Nintendo, Starwoods and Sealed Air...but I hear it is the thought that counts not the ROI.

Merry Christmas from Oblagon

I just got this ecard in the mail from the legendary Syd Mead and Roger Servick. Probably the coolest holiday greeting of the season.

Christmas gift idea #17

Not a lot of time left and while gift cards are always nice I have found that nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a crisp $100 bill.

christmas gift idea #16

If someone on your list has a beach trip planned for 2009 you might want to consider www.microkitten.com. But, you might want to make sure you take a look while you are at home. It is not a site that has office shoppers in mind.

christmas gift idea #15

I may be getting to swayed by the holiday spirit but I think that this Faux tree is working. Sure it is a little toilet brush like but I think that is what is making it cool. If the local tree lot is all sold out perhaps Unicahome can you one of these via FedEX?

christmas gift idea #14

By now I know that the W hotel is hardly new news to anyone but a gift certificate for a weekend at any of their properties still makes a damn good Christmas or New Years gift. I am staying at the one in the French Quarter in early January and it is sure to be a good time. The one in SF is especially fun due to the expert concierge, Meagan Rounds.

Christmas gift idea #13

I am not sure if you can even purchase them anywhere but this Nerf launcher would make a great Christmas gift. Although it is a little large.

christmas gift idea #12

Available at the online store just in time for christmas the 100% recycled Preserve measuring cups. Designed by the team here at Evo. Just go to www.recycline.com.

Christmas gift idea #11

This Porcelain Clock by Kanae Tsukamoto is sold at MoMa's online store. The wall clock is made in Japan and looks better in person than in the pictures. The hour marks are indents and the surface changes are really smooth. The hands are a nice matte silver.

yikes

These guys make a lot of nice things. No doubt about it. But at almost $300 this seems clunky, heavy handed and a little cheap. the only thing left to admire is that at least they kept it simple.

christmas gift idea #10

These made it from last years list as they are still a good idea. www.mimoco.com

christmas gift idea #9

The mug form itself is a little lame but overall I think this still deserves to make the list. Iron Mike DiTullo recommended it so you will have to ask him where to get it.

JDF

Here is a picture of the award ceremony from the JDF chairman and the Asia Design Conference. I hope that we will have an opportunity to do even better next year.

christmas gift idea #8

If you are looking to give a gift that is a little less plastic and perhaps a little longer lasting maybe a charity is the way to go. I enjoy charitybuzz.com but I also like to give a little something to the general fund at my college, CCAD. Why give money to a college? Although I personally think teachers have it pretty easy, I donate because of the impressive level of change that is underway at the school and because I think that they teach the right balance of creative thinking and discipline. I think it is the kind of institution that is large enough to be stable and have a lasting impact but small enough to be nimble and fresh. I think they have the potential to produce the kind of people that make the world better for everyone. Also, they accept almost any denomination with sincere appreciation.

christmas gift idea #7

Magazine rack available in oak, birch and walnut on hive.com

christmas gift idea #6

This folded paper center piece is about $25 at the Moma store.

christmas gift idea #5

For under $25 these olive oil vessels are an excellent idea and are available on unicahome.com. But order them today because Unica's shipping is a little sluggish sometimes.

christmas gift idea #4

The Colorsplash camera will re-cast your world in a gorgeous riot of color. Its patented colorwheel system puts several tinted flash filters at your finger tips for instant selection; with an additional 9 filters included to exchange. Long exposure capability creates dreamy streaked backgrounds behind crisp, color-flashed foregrounds. It uses 35mm film and is available on hive.com for around $80.

Christmas gift idea #3

I know it is not new to the market this year so you probably won't get to fight to buy one but the iphone is still worth every penny. It does take some getting used to because it is so much more than just a phone but once you have had it for two weeks you will never go back.

Christmas gift idea #2

Wii and Lego Star Wars. The only down side to the game and system is the endless arguing over players not waiting for each other and the battery requirements of the controllers.

Christmas gift idea #1

MONOPOLY. On a recent trip to Grandma's here is Edison and cousin Dylan after a tight game of monopoly (here and now addition).

Thanksgiving at Evo

Hallmark

Every year I get a Hallmark Keepsake series ornament for each of the boys. Edison gets the Star Wars series and Ian gets the snow globe. Unfortunately the geniuses at Hallmark discontinued the snow globe series so now I am looking for a new series to switch him onto. Maybe the classic muscle car series? I think that they should never cancel a series (especially after only 6 years) once they get you started it seems weird to switch. Anyway, I went to the local Hallmark store to confirm the cancellation and I highly recommend their new line of holiday wrapping papers. The prices have come way down and the patterns are great. I got two big rolls of paper, three cloth bows and a bunch of gift tags for $11.00.

Electric Vehicle for Christmas?

One more for you HC: I just read an article on Sustainablog.org about the Gateway Electric Vehicle Club. This image shows retired college professor Charlton Jones and his retrofitted ‘74 Porsche 914 (purchased on Ebay) which he spent $19,000 to convert to an electric vehicle.

Flat Screen

A good friend recently asked about flat screens. Here is the thing, as far as I am concerned the only way to go is the 42" Bravia by Sony. Oh sure the LG looks sexier and has sweet finishes but do not be swayed by the gimmicks and don't waste your time reading consumer reports. I think they are on the take anyway. Also, please do not even think about Panasonic. To answer your next question, No. 42" is not too big. It may seem too big but believe me it is just right. Could it be too small? Yes! If you sit more than 12' from the TV get a larger size.

Michal Glogowski (2007 winner)

I recently had the privelage of receiving a bronze medal at the Japanese Design Foundation's annual competition. It is probably the most professionally run competition I have ever been a part of and all of the board members and jury were impressively coordinated. Unfortunately, being one of three westerners at a conference where the theme is "The power of Asian design" was a bit uncomfortable. Although I know it was not the intention. There is much I could say about the conference, the award process and my experience of Osaka but I think that it is probably not appropriate for the blog. Of course, I might feel differently if I had won, as Michal did in 2007.

Kunihiro Tsuji

The details could use some refinement but the idea of this speaker design by Kunihiro Tsuji is intriguing.

A Good Year

A very enjoyable, sweet and uplifting movie starring the normally annoying Russell Crowe. A good day is set in France and is the story of A British investment broker who inherits his uncle's chateau and vineyard, where he spent much of his childhood. He discovers a new laid-back lifestyle as he tries to renovate the estate to be sold.

Ovetto

According to Eco-Centric

Ovetto is a stunning Italian architect designed recycling bin made from recycled plastic and is a future design classic.
Contains three compartments and a central bottle and can crusher to compress your waste. The design rotates round its central axis so you can give your Ovetto pride of place, or put it in the corner of a room and still have access to all the bins.
Each compartment has a door for bag removal and a small opening with a cover for waste deposit. The covers close tightly so that bad odours cannot escape. 30 litre bags or standard supermarket shopping bags can be inserted into each of the compartments. The White and Coloured Ovetto bins are made from a minimum of 40% and a maximum of 70% recycled plastic.

decoration

Check out unicahome for cool decorations. They need to think about redoing the figure here but the reindeer is cool.

Ben, Heather, Andrew, Charles, Luke and John

SEE THIS MOVIE: Kung Fu Hustle

Vase

Websters says a vase is: an open jar of glass or porcelain used as an ornament or to hold flowers.

JDF Jury

Really looking forward to the upcoming trip to Osaka. Here is the jury for the JDF competition. Previous winners are very impressive. Wish me luck.

Rovema

They say "Forming, filling, closing, and final packaging to market requirements can only be realized by suppliers with a complete knowledge of integrating individual machine modules into a customer specific process. ROVEMA offers the complete package from a single source, including project management, manufacture, installation and commissioning at the customer's site together with comprehensive after sales service." But what does that really mean.

watch

Also from audiocubes.com

The real thing

This works a little better but it hardly says comfort. I think it is called the AirBoard and you can get them on Audiocubes.

Adidas

I know it has been done by others but i think that this texture still holds up. They seem to be back in the groove over there...for a while it seemed like they forgot to make things wearable.

Wood grain

The evolution of consumers perception of wood grain is fascinating. I am just finishing reading the book "Wood" and the author talks about the pursuit of shiny object being a rejection of the natural or unrefined. (I wonder what he would say about the sundance catalog?). Anyway this is an interesting place to see it still holding on...high-end audio?

headphones

The high-end headphone market seems to have been taken over by the snowboarding industry. I guess that is appropriate given the large demographic but at $900 I wonder if maybe they are missing it a little. Still, it is a great category to work in given that so little form work is being done and there is a decent COG. this one looks a little too Ekara for the price point.

graphic

Shnitzel

From the cartoon Chowder, this is Shinitzel the rock monster. His creator is C. H. Greenblatt is a former artist on SpongeBob SquarePants and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.

The title character is a child named Chowder who is an apprentice to a chef named Mung Daal, who owns a catering company in Marzipan City. Shnitzel is a professional chef who works at the Catering Company usually getting the tedious jobs. His vocabulary consists almost entirely of something that sounds like "rubba-rubba". According to Wikipedia Shnitzel is the "straight man" to the other more excitable characters, and he is frequently agitated. The style and technique of the animation are excellent although the storylines are a bit syrupy. The boys love it.

Chowder

This patterning reminds me of the cartoon Chowder.

Cider

This is better. Maybe I should take that Android down.

Android

The phone bites and is nothing but a rip off of the great iphone but, the logo is kind of cool. I doubt it will have a lot of longevity given that the urban vinyl thing seems to have very little edge left. Once they hit TRU it was bound to be played and the people at Tmobile should know that.

Red Octane

Activision has been at it for a long time and seems like an interesting company. Their Stock (symbol: ATVI) is trading well below where it should be. I think that they are going to be one of the few companies to have a really good holiday. Now is a good time to buy. Cool logo too.

Gola

A classic runner from Gola as seen on Piperlime, which I believe is owned by Gap.

senseo

I know that this is old news but I see this on my Amazon recommendations page from time to time and always think that it looks good. The design has held up really well.

Nanci Griffith

I took the boys to see Nanci Griffith at the Berklee Center in Boston this weekend. The show was great and although the boys both fell asleep in the middle of the show they said they liked it anyway. Weird thing is that the smallish venue was only about half full. The acoustics were great so I do not thing it was an audi issue. In the past I have seen her in NorthHampton, MA and she stuffed a much larger place to max capacity there so it was not Nanci. If it is the economy that sucks because people missed a hell of a good show. Even the warm up performer was great. It could be that part of the problem was that no one knows where the Berklee Center is...our dumbass concierge sent us to the Berkley Center.

Aloft

Starwoods has finally launched their new Aloft hotel concept. I am looking forward to trying it out. It looks like a young contemporary version of the W hotel concept. Actually it looks a lot like a W but with more color and more affordable prices but I will wait for the actual visit before the full review.

Craftsmen Hammerhead

The part breaks and finishes on this look great as do the overall proportions. It is great to see Craftsmen doing something after years of milking it. The hammerhead is unnecessary though.