too young to go: dash snow dies July 13th age 27

‘don’t cry for me’ by dash snow, 1981-july 13 2009, joining others who have passed at that crossover age of 27. even though i didn’t know him personally, he has left his mark of revitalized raw energy that found its way off the street into such institutions as the Whitney and the Saatchi Gallery. he leaves his ex-wife agathe snow, girlfriend (and mother of his daugher) jade berreau, and daughter secret magic nico. by kl

CATEGORIES: art

beck X tom waits


irrelevant topics is a new section of beck’s website featuring conversations between beck himself and musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction. for the first in this series of conversations, the legendary musician and performer, tom waits agreed to lend an hour of his time to talk about anything and nothing in particular. great!!! on beck’s website (here) photos:hedi slimane / russ flat by pp’

CATEGORIES: music

1961 the 250 GTO


1961 – the ferrari 250 GTO. almost as nice as raquel’s thoroughbred Arabian horse. now it doesn’t take too long to figure out that the most desired ferrari turns out to also be the most expensive. in the early 1990s, when prices for rare and classic cars were at a fevered pitch, a specimen sold for $15,000,000. now that “sanity” has returned to the market, a GTO was recently bid to just under $8million at an auction and went unsold!

part of the lure of the GTO is its exclusivity; only 39 were built. in theory at least 100 should have been built, as this was the number required to qualify the car at the time for international sports car racing. In fact the letters “GTO” stand for “gran turismo omologato” which translates into “your mother wears pajamas” or ore likely “grand touring homologated” or “approval” for racing. it was either enzo ferrari’s name, his inscrutable charm, or the head of raquel zimmermann’s horse, that enabled the rule makers to let the technicality slip by.

the price for a new GTO at the time of launch was about $23,000 (now go buy some more stock) which may seem ludicrous now but was a lot in 1962; so much that it probably was the limiting factor when it came to production quantity. by dd

CATEGORIES: cars, perfect gift

HAKKIN SAKE

the other night i was given a bottle of hakkin sake, designed by kenya hara, and i’m very excited about finally tasting it. this sake, available for approx 10,500 yen (equal to roughly 120USD), is currently unavailable in the US and it is made the traditional way which is seldom the case these days.

hakkin is brewed the traditional way in wooden oke barrels, a labor-intensive process brought back at masuichi after a half century absence. hakkin is a historic sake which ranked highly in the all japan sake rankings at the start of the meiji period becoming an icon of a name.

specs: rice / kinmon nishiki
polishing rate / 59%
density / +10
alcohol / 16.4%
storage / keep in a dark place at 18 or below and serve within one month.
750ml, 1800ml

the best way to keep the HAKKIN SAKE is refrigerated. expiration date is 1 to 2 month after the manufacturing date. the manufacturing date is printed on the label. but after 1-2month the hakkin sake will only deteriorate in flavor. it will still be drinkable. by dd

CATEGORIES: perfect gift, what to drink

Kenzo/Hakkin: what do you know?



the new perfume from kenzo, i discovered, was designed by japanese designer kenya hara.  hara indeed used a bottle he had previously designed for hakkin sake as a basis for this. he describes the process of designing the bottle, and i must say i relate to so much of what he says:

“i designed a very simple bottle for sake called hakkin. and i realized what i was expected to do here. what i had in my mind may have been an image of design for 720ml. by changing the size, the liquor bottle can become that of perfume or vice versa without altering the shape or design.

“the bottle was beginning to form its shape but we then needed to work on the package. perfume is usually displayed on the shelf in accumulated manner so the boxes needed some creativity without over doing them. after consideration, we decided to make the box with a slight angle of inclination toward the top. by doing so, there creates some space for lights to come in from above when the boxes are displayed together. this very minor change created a tremendous effect to the box and the display, i persuaded strongly to use this idea for the box. It actually turned out to be a bit difficult to make this box with inclination but it came out nicely at the end thanks to the package manufacturer’s efforts. the package may look simply plain, but we carefully planned every detail such as paper which was chosen by its touch and texture. for the paper, we decided to use something with special features which i created in the past. this paper is unique in a way that letters become dented and semitransparent after printing. we wanted to use this paper for the box and found something of similarity in european market.”

“kenzo is a brand of colors, but i only use colors when necessary because i am a designer of “emptiness”. of course i use colors as communication method such as using red for fire extinguisher or for essential buttons on machines, but i minimize the usage as much as possible for other purposes such as design. if i am to use metal, i will use its original metallic color. when using the glass, paper or whatever the material would be, i will use their original colors. upon printing words on the product, t will use black prints without any question. as I am always piling up simple ideas as such for my designs, the design that i presented for this project too was not colorful.” by dd

CATEGORIES: design, what to drink