BROOKLYN GOES ABSOLUTE in calloboration with SPIKE LEE

VODKA brings you back to the “718″ with the launch of its fourth limited-edition, city-inspired flavour ABSOLUT BROOKLYN. From Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill to Bed-Stuy and Bensonhurst, ABSOLUT BROOKLYN honors everything great about our beloved borough. We hope you’ll be part of the summer-long celebration – dubbed stoop life – and enjoy the blend of red apple and ginger replete in a specially designed bottle reminiscent of “Brooklyn Stoop Life.” We are even helping to build stoops this summer through our philanthropic partnership with Habitat for Humanity – New York City. ABSOLUT will donate $50,000 of the profits of ABSOLUT BROOKLYN to help build quality homes for families in need. The funds will be dedicated to Habitat’s newest affordable housing project in Bedford-Stuyvesant, scheduled to be completed in 2011.

Polama Faith continues…

We featured Polama Faith on our site last year, she is back running the classic soul of Billie Holiday and Etta James through a kaleidoscopic-carnival filter, British singer Paloma Faith’s debut album asks, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?

Faith’s combination of ’40s jazz conceits with modern pop has earned her comparisons to fellow Brits Amy Winehouse and Duffy, but her sense of spectacle and grandeur puts her more in line with the more elegant likes of the long-standing Angela McCluskey.

The above us  the first myth buster: Paloma Faith is not Amy Winehouse nor is she Duffy; she is also not a hybrid of the two. Paloma Faith is a raider of several music genres rendering her a “child of our age” (her words); someone who does not have an allegiance to any particular style. However, the 1940s rhythm ‘n’ blues, and soul/blues that she’s fond of listening to is evident in her vocal style.

HOUSE AWAY FROM HOME…

content and images provided by design week

Creative collective House is to take over 1 Berwick Street in London’s Soho to host its first-ever event Pop Up House during the London Design Festival.

House was set at the beginning of the year by a cross-disciplinery team who met at the Central Saint Martins Immersion Programme. Co-founder Theo Bridge, a design researcher, was one of the founders of the New Deal of the Mind programme, while other House members include fashion designer Dilini Nanayakkara and set designer Joe Morris.

Bridge says the group ‘had a similar set of ideals’, and wanted to look at ‘how to make your way in the creative industries during a recession’.

Bridge says one of the aims of House is to set up as an agency covering a number of different disciplines, which could respond to multi-faceted briefs. The Pop Up House initiative, as well as hosting events such as fashion shows and lectures, will also act as a physical base and working space for House.

Highlights of the LDF Pop Up House installation, which will be in place from 18-26 September, include a D&AD Sharp’ner event and a talk from Seymour Powell associate director Paula Zuccotti, which will look at the role of ethnography and user-research in design.

It is all about Pop Up Stores…

Liberty of London, NYC

Gucci, London

Nike Sportswear – Write the Future, Tokyo

The rising of trendy Istanbul…

Istanbul has officially become the 2010 European Capital of Culture…..

Istanbul Contrast exhibition of work by Dice Kayek

Istanbul’s ’Istancool’ cultural festival

Istanbul’s Ultra Chic Nisantasi District

B.Nice Cream…

According to Wallpaper Magazine B.Nice Cream is a very 21st-century enterprise. A cottage industry of cookie, cupcake, muffin, sorbet and ice cream making, it began when Rio-based Nina Bellotto, an assistant film-director and lifelong lover of home-baked treats, decided to boost holiday funds by baking a batch of cookies to sell at the ‘Mercado da Lapa’ farmer’s market.

THE HANDMADE ISSUE!

Wallpaper, for their August issue  gave their readers the chance to play art director for the day and create their own Wallpaper* cover. Creative luminaries James Joyce, Nigel Robinson, Hort, Anthony Burrill and Kam Tang contributed a wide selection of images, graphics and patterns to the online cover application, for readers to assemble any way they wanted.

Leni Riefenstahl – Africa

Life with the Nuba

Leni Riefenstahl’s remarkable Africa oeuvre

“If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure.” -Kevin Brownlow, from the introduction

When she was in her early sixties, Leni Riefenstahl began traveling frequently to the African continent, where she has worked on various film and photography projects over the last half century. Her favorite destination was in Sudan, where she lived with and photographed the Nuba tribespeople, learning their language and becoming their friend. The Nuba were a loving and peaceful people who welcomed Riefenstahl as one of their own. Her images of the Nuba, as well as of the Dinka, Shilluk, Masai, and other tribes, are gathered in this monumental book. Riefenstahl remembers her experiences in Africa as the happiest moments in her life. Her beautiful, skilled photographs represent a landmark in the extraordinary career of the 20th century’s most unforgettable artistic pioneer.

TRESPASS: A HISTORY OF UNCOMMISSIONED URBAN ART

The last outlaw of visual disciplines

Graffiti and unsanctioned art—from local origins to global phenomenon

In recent years street art has grown bolder, more ornate, more sophisticated and—in many cases—more acceptable. Yet unsanctioned public art remains the problem child of cultural expression, the last outlaw of visual disciplines. It has also become a global phenomenon of the 21st century.

Made in collaboration with featured artists, Trespass examines the rise and global reach of graffiti and urban art, tracing key figures, events and movements of self-expression in the city’s social space, and the history of urban reclamation, protest, and illicit performance. The first book to present the full historical sweep, global reach and technical developments of the street art movement, Trespass features key works by 150 artists, and connects four generations of visionary outlaws including Jean Tinguely, Spencer Tunick,Keith Haring, Os Gemeos, Jenny Holzer, Barry McGee, Gordon Matta-Clark, Shepard Fairey, Blu, Billboard Liberation Front, Guerrilla Girls and Banksy, among others. It also includes dozens of previously unpublished photographs of long-lost works and legendary, ephemeral urban artworks.

26 SUNSET AVENUE, CAPE TOWN

This 5 star, ultra-luxurious and exclusive coastal Sole Use Villa nestles on the slopes of the Atlantic Seaboard next to the Sandy Bay Nature Reserve. This luxury villa offers accommodation with service, elegance and style in the prestigious residential suburb of Llandudno in Cape Town, SA. Awake each day to spectacular sea and mountain views from each of the 6 identical suites. Be over whelmed with a distinct feel for the finer and up market things in life.

Come and experience, Barefoot Luxury – on Sunset Rocks