cool site a day (12.21.2004)

Hello friends,

Happy holidays!
I'll be in Japan until January 10th, so I'm sending out a last cool site for
the 2004.
I won't be able to access this email until when I come back, but will be
updating my blog and checking my personal mail at fumi@alkemidesign.com.
http://www.alkemidesign.com/blog

Speaking of Japan, a concept by Naoto Fukazawa for a brick pack fruit juice
(Japanese site). The banana and tofu (ok, not a fruit) pack has rubber
coating, kiwi has hairy texture on the surface. Yummy!
http://nd.nikkeibp.co.jp/nd/news/contents/402.html

At Tokyo University, a scanner in the form of a bendable sheet was
developed.
http://nikkeibp.jp/wcs/leaf/CID/onair/jp/flash/348783
(sorry, a Japanese site again)

For all who love dutch design, reluct is the place to be.
http://www.reluct.com/
Make sure you stop by the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show!
http://www.reluct.com/reports/designacademy_2004.html

You can read some of the contents from the latest Metropolis magazine, as
well as some web exclusive contents.
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/magazine.php

More magazines, more eames: 50 years of Interni
http://www.internimagazine.it/s013001000121/s013001000123/d013001000522/d013
001000522.htm
(okay, if you still aren't satisfied, go to the wallpaper.com.)

Sensory impact report the emerging furniture designers competition called
"Modern + Design + Function." by TENbyTEN magazine and DWR Chicago.
http://sensoryimpact.com/2004/12/seek-and-ye-shall-fin
You can see all the other works here, although I'm not sure they intended
you to see it? (oh well)
http://www.tenbyten.net/winners/

A-matter studies and analyzes various forms of parasitic architectures.
http://www.a-matter.com/eng/positions/po035/Parasitic-architecture-po035-01-
w.asp

For you interactive designers: You can either confess or wash away other
people's confession at Method's comeclean site.
http://www.comeclean.com/

experimental: an identity guideline (I need some of that).
http://www.leifparsons.com/signifiers/identity/identity.htm

A lovely Apartment for your styling needs.
http://www.theapt.com/

Enjoy, and have a happy new year!

*fumi

crave

it must be all the Japanese restaurant website I've been viewing last night.
I went to the fisherman's terminal and bought a live crab (2Lb), cooked it, and ate the whole thing all by myself.

sunday night @ dan & roberta's

I've never seen so many original art in one person's house until last night.
Dan smith has some amazing collection of paintings, sculptures, photos, drawings. inluding his own beautiful/scary collages.
and what a beautiful house with antiques and dead scorpions (and toads) and jesus statues everywhere. nobody can pull off such an original form of bosch meets nightmare-before-christmas theme as well as dan. and the eggnog was excellent.
I admire his style so much!

g5-2

except it makes me feel like I'm still at work.
hmm.

I spent (almost) entire sunday geeking out in my bedroom.

g5

we got the g5 imac! yeeeey!
:) :)

mike d

so many choices, not enough time in one evening.
so I prioritized and went to mike dimitre's holiday get-together. him and his twin brother are unreachable normally, except by catching them on the house phone when they happen to be hanging out. there was no way I was going to miss them tonight, since who knows when we'll run into each other at some random club nights. it was super nice to visit mike & tina's pad, complete with DJ booth (in the closet) and buddha shrine in the bath tub.
when we rolled in around 11pm, the living room floor was covered with baby powder (thought it was some kind of smoke out at first glance) and the whole apartment smelled like it. michael jackson was moonwalking on TV. mike was wearing a killer red suit from 60s.
and I always thought mike and anthony's father looks like robert de niro.

party party party

There's been so many holiday parties, I feel like it's Friday every day.
Thursday was an especially hot one, with one housewarming in FreLard, one girly party and stacey's snoflake party (the smartest holiday party idea ever).
I had to leave the housewarming after a brief walk-through, since I've decided to make the girly party (my first commitment) as the party for the night: it's only Thursday, and I really shouldn't be hopping yet.
Girly party was hosted by regular girls night members at anna's apt. it was lovely. We exchanged and stole gifts and drunk wine, ooh-ing at each others' presents in the so-girly way.
When I left the girly get together around 11pm, I decided that I must join stacey's snoflake party making (I had a few glasses of wine), and headed over there. The snoflake room was as beautiful as I remembered last year, with creative flakes hanging from all over the ceiling. Alan was busting out all the sexy paper cutouts from ordinary origami paper (magic!), reminiscent of last year's mudflap-girl snoflakes.
We ended up dancing to marta's hungarian techno until way too late, talking about astrology and landscaping art.
way worth hopping, even for thursday.

krismas karaoke

the annual karaoke party was hosted by two lovely ladies Holly and Michelle from hearmusic at Bush Garden in i-d.
I always considered Bush Garden as one of the sketchiest looking place in i-d. It has a black, massive architecture, oversized wooden doors, fake indoor japanese garden, sushi bar, karaoke stage, complete with a karaoke-master kenny and super sweet bartender susie. I never step my foot into it until Dan Smith's annual birthday karaoke, mostly because I thought it must be a mafia hangout. But actually, despite the appearance, Bush Garden has a damn good sushi and Izakaya menu.
Krismas karaoke was so much fun! sure, it's not like glitzy and miniature Japanese karaoke box that I frequented in my highschool days, but I liked it. We even took pictures on the lap of a santa with an eye patch and a clutch. (my first santa pic)

Good times!

SF

a weekend in San Francisco.
Friday afternoon, I visited beautiful South Park for Fuseproject and met with Yves, Mitch, Angie, and super cool Fuse crew. Their work is amazing... I really appreciated their warm welcome at 5:30pm on Friday. (my flight was late...)
it was super inspiring to see their workplace, filled with talented people and good, creative and collaborative vibe. the best part was that everybody seems to be having so much fun.
what Fuse does is so close to what I've always wanted to do: smart design solution that comes from the core of what the object, function, or the interaction can be. that's what the alkemidesign was named after. it was also interesting to share my quest for the lifepath, since it's so far from being fulfilled.
after talking about design and packaging, we met up with Scott, went out to grab a bite at a Thai restaurant, and joined a fabulous birthday party on Potrero hill.
and made my friend Josh Michels stay up forever to meet up with me at 1am. (thank you josh!)

Saturday was dedicated to modern design. we saw so many design that I felt drunk. josh and I started the day with SFMoMA's Glamour show, and made rounds to the design stores and book stores in town. it's so nice to have friends with passion for design! we ended up talking about design and music until way past midnight.
I love SF. it was nice to feel the sun on my face for the first time since summer, too!

Sunday was more design, falling in love with a pair of boots (again), and flying back. I'll definitely visit SF again soon... hopefully in a couple of month, since it's only 2 hours away anyways.

FILTER holiday

last night was a FILTER's holiday party at chapel. haven't been there for a while, but the party was awesome. met a few friends I haven't seen in a while, including rinaldi.
and some beloved yummy drinks, whatever it was called. (one too many for fumi!)

polyrhythm&onset

so I haven't gone out dancing for a while.
jeff, a2, lara, julie, and two of a2's friends from philly met up at aristocrats around 11pm.
I grew to love the run down basement feel of the venue. it's a rare club who does the all ages show well. the music was awesome! good times.

the event

polyrhythm recordings

cool site a day (12.03.2004)

Hi friends!

Hope you are staying warm and cozy! here are some more cool sites for your weekend viewing...

NY Times has an article on design for
kids...

The 8th Annual BW/AR Awards announces the
winning architectures.

Mathematical poetry by Lavitated. Truly beautiful! the opensource section is equally fascinating, but the top page is the best!

Speaking of mathematical, there are some sweet video on the PBS site about the elegant universe. If you are super bored this weekend, you can check out the whole 3 hours. (I didn't have the time, but I'm working on it)
For some of you who I shared my passion for the 4+th dimension, you'd understand!

Webzine Lex has some fun reads.

Droogdesign and fuseproject are both featured in its mini-articles.

And for an amazing zooming experience, check out the zoomquilt! (thank you Eric!) just click and zooooooooom....

For flash design friends, Say It Loud is fun to look at. Very Florida. (beware of the music!)

And for illustrator friends, unvisible has some nice colors...


Enjoy!
*fumi

blog

last time I had my blog was the year 2000. I closed down my site after 5 years, and moved on to other stuff.
but I guess it's time to fire it back up again.