Now I am not sure if everyone has seen this so I am gonna post it anyway. There hasn’t been a piece of information like this that continually pops up in my head month after month especially when internet companies continue to make headlines . Since we’re so internet here at THE BRILLIANCE this is a must have link on our site. I was reminded about this piece because the other week I read somewhere that the publisher of the New York Times doubts they will be printing the physical edition in 5 years….crazy, huh. Basically this short flash video titled Epic 2014 by Robin Sloan that debuted at the Museum of Media History is a timeline of the internet from the recent past to how it will evolve in the near future. Check it out.
Hmm…a job posting or solicitation of our readers? I usually wouldn’t do this, but I am looking for some good web programmers & designer/developer types…and at this point, I think it would be easier to find some sort of hidden pirate treasure or explain the 4th dimension. Come on, where are all the talented code hustlers?! So with that being said – I am looking for and ASP.net developer, and even a good web designer that has a grip on all his web 2.0 stuff: AJAX, etc. I got all sorts of projects cooking, that need help here or there so it wouldn’t necessarily be a full time gig, but it could be. So yeah, I am really looking for a hustler/jack-of-all-trades programmer – someone that ‘gets’ THE BRILLIANCE and has some vision, you know? Is that too much ask? It’d also be really cool if you were in our general area. Shoot me an email, hello@thebrilliance, if you this sounds like fun. I promise I’m fun to work with over 50% of the time…ha.
Seriously…seriously. I mean…seriously. So they sold out of their first 100 $90k+ Tesla Roadsters in 3 weeks – and now they have announced the WhiteStar sports sedan project. A 4-door sports sedan that sits 5 people, will hit for about $44k, will be built right here in America (New Mexico)…and it doesn’t use gas, suckers. I love this company to death. And I honestly think I’ll be buying one of these WhiteStars provided it doesn’t look terrible…even if it looks like my first car, 1976 Ford Maverick, I might still buy it. I mean, how can GM or any of these other monolithic, dinosaur companies even fathom competing? This is iPod vs. Zune here, and we are the generation that will kiss pistons in cars good-bye – after them being the mainstay for a millennium (way to innovate guys!). You can just feel a great company in the making…congrats to them, on so many different levels. They are even doing a Technical Center here in Michigan! I seriously can’t wait to see the first renderings of this car…or to drive one.
Good times…always. So it was a blow-out last night, Pistons stepped on them – we left in the 4th when there was a 30 point spread, ouch. Anyway, its about a 2 hour drive to the Piston’s Palace from downtown GR, not too bad…if you don’t take the entirely wrong highway like we did on the way there. The funny thing about sporting events is how little of the actual event you watch – you spend most of the time trying to find the spot with the biggest beer for the buck (pink lemonade for Chuck), people watching, messing with your Blackberry/Treo, goofing around with your friends, making fun of people who get too into it, etc…I probably only caught like 20 minutes of the game. I also got schooled on the art of aggressive parking lot driving practices by the infamous Josh of Premier Skateboarding…hilarious. He taught me how to not let a single car merge into line in front of you – he has such a thorough method. Seriously funny, I’m surprised no one ‘road raged’ us. And then you’ve got all the random conversations that happen late at night driving back home – like how we all think pirate/swashbuckling inspired clothing is the next step in this crazy streetwear scene…think lots of horizontal red and white striped tops and teeth-decaying kits. Keeping it real random. All this and more from a Pistons game…ha.
For one, I am really interested in commercial architecture, mainly fashion brands because they go above and beyond when building out their retail spaces. Since Marc Jacobs just announced he’s opening up a shop around the corner from my apartment I thought it would be cool to highlight his right hand architect, Stephan Jaklitsch. He’s got a cool boutique firm that specializes in retails spaces all over the world. Just like the Marc Jacobs aesthetic, the retail design is simple and more often than not, on point. Peek around and get hip.
Julie Mehretu is an incredible artist. Originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and now living and working in NYC, her paintings are some of the most detailed and fascinating I’ve really ever seen. In short, they are a crazy mash-up of architectural drawings, organic and abstract forms, historical references, graffiti, and from what I can tell, comic book linework. You really have to take a look at her paintings yourself to see and understand all the influences I just mentioned. What blows me away though, as an artist myself, is the level of detail she achieves while still maintaining structure and good composition. It almost feels like a more planned out, purposeful version of Jackson Pollock’s work sometimes to me. Anyways, Julie has a new monograph out called Black City that shows a lot of her work and goes into good detail about it….definitely do yourself a favor and check it out…link below…
Good morning everyone…it’s freezing cold outside here in Grand Rapids, but perhaps our interview with Ricardo Campa from sunny, beautiful both in culture and landscape will work you up. Ha, that intro was very PBS or maybe even National Geogrpahic…ha. Anyway, yeah…great new interview up, good stuff…posts as always, the Flickr page, etc. Ah, THE BRILLIANCE…so much fun. We’ve been quite a busy trio of creatives ourselves here (Chuck, Virgil & myself) working on our projects, lives, vacations, etc…maybe we should interview ourselves again, that was pretty fun the first round. Alright, well I’m off to get a cinnamon roll and a diet coke from the Beanery – have a good day everyone.
This is a slightly random post…and for whatever reason I’ve been doing a lot of music posts lately. In fact, I should get into the music biz, hmm…I just can’t keep a beat though…I’ll figure something out. Anyway, I was talking with Chuck earlier today about this, and I figured it was worth a mention here. I was getting ready for a meeting this morning – and I wanted some new driving music as the client was about a 30 minute drive. I needed something different, something with an elegant or distinguished mood to it – something to make my life feel like a movie, right? A soundtrack. Ocean’s 12 – full of that type of music. For today’s ride I had the track ‘Crepuscolo Sul Mare’ by Piero Umiliani on repeat while I drove way, way to fast to my meeting…love that song, it’s just beautiful. Songs like that, or ‘Girl From Ipanema’, or whatever that one song is from Gold Finger when he is driving in Switzerland…great stuff. I swear, for me at least, it makes everything you do that much more…important feeling. Weird post, THE BRILLIANCE.
Still stuck on finding an alternative to music while trapped on the computer I recommend getting into these streaming lectures on Red Bull Music Academy’s site. I first heard of this academy Red Bull put on annually from one of those flyers strewn about the floors of some record shop. I read it and couldn’t believe it was true. Basically it is a international music retreat in a random place anywhere in the world with the most innovative producers of the time. All on Red Bull dime and all you have to do is fill out an application to go. Even if you don’t get in anyone still get a glimpse into what goes down with their vast archived lecture section. In honor of J. Dilla I’ll recommend this bugged out Madlib one. But I guarantee everyone of our readers loves on of these artist on the main link. So scroll thru and find your favorite producer, Dj, or musician and get in tune with their story.
When your hotel is on the cover of Caribbean T&L with the tag line ‘The most exciting new hotel in the world’ you are most certainly doing something right. This place is honestly nuts. I recommend you grab the latest issue of Caribbean T&L (or ‘read-steal-it’ ha) for a more thorough review with amazing pictures…but I’ll give you a quick-and-short here. First off, its on the beautiful, although somewhat beachless, Caribbean island of St. Lucia – with its amazing Pitons in full view via personal infinity pools in each room…wow. It’s not just a ‘wow-that’s-really-luxurious-and-expensive’ hotel…it really has some amazing architecture, beautifully modern yet warm interior design, an amazing translucent multi-colored glass tile bottom infinity pool that (my favorite part) is half inside your room and half outside…with no fourth wall. Just a plain open view of the Pitons and the Caribbean waters. Seriously beautiful stuff. Of course it’s not cheap – but they have some great packages and I honestly think this one would be worth the money spent. Compared to what $1000 a night gets you in NYC…this place wins without question. Flights to St. Lucia are not terribly expensive either, abut $600 on average from my research. So yeah…another wild island destination vouched for by the brilliance gang.
