NOTCOT Note: Lucky! Sub-Studio was invited to go see Chicago through the eyes of Volkswagen, specifically while cruising around in their new 2009 CC, while dining on molecular gastronomy goodness, and checking out the humble abode of Frank Lloyd Wright … and all we got is a post filled with pictures of Anna’s adventures! I’m so fascinated by the studio and foodie pics on the next page!

A few weeks ago, I made a trip out to Chicago to review and test drive the new Volkswagen 2009 CC. Along the way, we got to see Chicago, have a 20-course dinner at molecular gastronomy restaurant Moto, and visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in the Oak Park suburbs of the city. Check out my adventures through pictures on the next page!

Volkswagen’s 2009 CC was a collaboration between VW’s engineers and designers - and you can tell. From sleek exterior lines and the wraparound rear light arrays, to the super wide, almost frameless windshield and expansive sunroof, the CC is full of cool design details all meant to enhance the functionality and user experience of the car.

Performance-wise, the CC was a pleasure to drive - it had great acceleration (it was easy not to realize how fast you were going) and was a smooth and quiet ride. The dashboard was intuitive and the entertainment system was very handy - with CD/DVD capabilities, SIRIUS radio, and a nav system that had a bit of a learning curve but worked well once you figured it out (including a live traffic feed that could suggest up to three alternate routes to avoid traffic).

I appreciated minor details, such as how the car doors are actually frameless, with windows that automatically retract 1/4” when the door is opened or closed to get underneath a rubber seal - making for a nice and quiet ride. Other great features: the park distance control that flashes and beeps to warn you when you’re getting close to other cars (a common occurrence when getting out of our parking space - it’s been years since I last drove, living in NYC!), and the rearview backup camera which works with the nav/entertainment system to display a video feed of the rear of the car, providing backup paths that are based on the position of the steering wheel.

My favorite feature of the CC was the huge panoramic tilt sunroof - it really opened up the interior of the car and allowed lots of light in, and just enough air to provide ventilation without blowing a lot of wind around the cabin.

The interior is finished with chrome and leather, including an option for a 2-tone color leather interior (I wasn’t a big fan, preferring the monotone black leather interior), with a nice contrasting stitching detail.

All in all, the 2009 CC is a great entry-level luxury car. Green-wise, it’s on the lower end of fuel efficient cars, performance-wise, it is a fun car to drive, and design-wise it is well thought out, with a happy marriage between form and function.

Our trip to Chicago wasn’t all work and no play (if you can call driving a car work!) - Volkswagen also took us to Moto, the molecular gastronomy experiment of chef Homaro Cantu. Moto was super hush hush about their production techniques (obviously, I guess), which was a bit of a disappointment, as I think a lot of value would be added to the experience if you knew that it was cooked with lasers, frozen with liquid nitrogen and injected with helium (just guessing, folks!).

Moto made a special edible menu for VW - using a flat chip as a base, the menu was created with a standard inkjet printer, using edible paper and food-based inks.

The dinner was 20 courses long and delicious, with the occasional off-putting presentation (see the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Road Kill of Fowl below!). An interesting dish that I didn’t get a photo of: a shot of greek salad that arrived in the form of a transparent liquid, but tasted exactly like greek salad.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was served in the form of a half-smoked cigar on an ashtray. Not so pretty, but it tasted good. The CMC was accompanied by a seared “buffalo wing”, which was basically a piece of paper with the printed image of buffalo wings on it, seasoned on the back with a spicy powder. Not my favorite.

A virgin mint mojito served in a syringe was the palate cleanser for the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Roadkill of Fowl, while not exactly appetizing in its presentation, was one of the better dishes and one of the most fun conceptually - a brain-shaped mushroom creme, shredded duck in a bloody beet puree with crispy maggots to the side and marshmallow. Yum!

Oil Spill was a fairly literal commentary on the pollution we are causing to our oceans and included an edible packing peanut, an edible exxon logo, some tuna sashimi and squid ink that became the oil slick on your plate.

The Fajita with aromatic utensils was essentially a deconstructed fajita - and a very tasty one at that! The steak was accompanied by a cube of pepper and onions, and the coriander in the untensil was meant to be tasted by your nose, rather than by your mouth.

The dessert plate was styled in an under the sea presentation. My favorite was the white chocolate and peanut ball that had Pop Rocks embedded in the shell, and popcorn-flavored juice inside. Delicious…

Finally, VW took us to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio, where they gave us a presentation on the 2009 CC as well as a private tour of the house and a small architecture class. Ah, bringing back college memories…

FLW’s Oak Park house was one of his first, so he hadn’t developed his trademark prairie style yet. It was interesting to walk through the space and to see a working palate for his ideas - integration into the landscape, interior spatial transparency, roundabout circulation that forces the visitor to make architectural ‘discoveries’, dark colors and a lot of wood…

The exterior of his studio was ornamented and grand - there was no clear entrance in to the studio, forcing you to walk around to find a door, all the while contrasting his design style with that of the traditional houses across the street. You can see that the shape of the planter mimics the logo in the lower right corner of the cornerstone.

Views of the home exterior and the entrance to the studio. FLW’s work articulated strong datums and horizontal planes, even before he developed his prairie style.

Details of the ornamented windows. We unfortunately weren’t allowed to take any interior shots.

After the tour we took part in an architecture fantasy camp of sorts - the basics of drafting and design were explained to us, and we were given the framework of an empty apartment to design within. The architect in charge figured out quickly that Sean is a practicing architect and so asked him to come up with a non-obvious solution, to show everyone that there was more than one alternative to designing in a space. Sean drew up an apartment without any solid interior walls - using louvered walls and screens to divide up the space and provide privacy. It was a fun little exercise and a great end to an awesome trip…Thank you VW!

More photos of the Chicago trip can be found on our Flickr account.
Volkswagen 2009 CC
Moto
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park home and studio

Ahhhh, i couldn’t resist. Our friends at Hard Graft (previously known as Working Class Heroes) have done it again, this time launching new products themed around my favorite design feature… the brown leather pockets! Above are my two favorites i’m curious to get my hands on… the Key Too (keeps your car key and your scratchier keys separated) and the and the Pocket Wallet (literally a pocket! with a space for your cards and your cash!)… additionally there is a new laptop sleeve (ready with sizes for all our new macbooks too!) and a mouse pad/pouch ~ to appreciate all the details, see the pics on the next page!

Ok, this one is going to sound a bit weird, i probably should have looked things up on the internet before i scared myself at the Desert View Tower & Boulder Park… b/c now that i’ve had the time to sit and search i totally wish it hadn’t been super windy and SUPER creepy when i stopped by… to be fair, we’re cruising along the 8 in the middle of the desert, suddenly from sand dunes it turns to crazy mountains of boulders, and then i see a little castle tower, and we decide to pull off and go see what’s up… pulling off, we head up what we’re warned is a dead end (really early on!) but keep going to see what’s up there, pass a creepy abandonedish feeling rusty trailer park, with an underpass with giant scarecrow like branches (think giant blair witch twigs) with hoodies and clothes on them blocking the way… then we see a very desolate tower with a few pretty old cars in the lot. Really it all looked super spooky! But according to the internet its a fun place where kids run around on boulders…. Anyhow, now that i’ve done my research i kind of want to go back… but with a large group of friends, since the place really gave me the chills! Check out the pics from the place and a few other random roadtripping pictures from Tuscon to San Diego on the 8 yesterday!

So here’s the new info i just found about the park:

A review about what an awesome kid friendly place it is: Roadside America

from Detour Web Databases - which got quotes from the full history at Imperial County website…

“In 1920 Bert L. Vaughn started building his Desert View Tower as a monument to the early Western pioneers who crossed the desert. The thick-walled, circular three-storey tower was constructed of large blocks of local stone and completed in the Fifties by another builder, Dennis Newman.”

“M.T. Ratcliffe, a retired engineer, came to the area for health reasons in the Thirties. He set about carving faces and animals, real and mythical, into the huge boulders around the Tower.”

“Many of them, especially the powerful skull-like faces, follow the natural shapes and features of the rock, while the lions, snakes, and lizards blend easily with the desert landscape. The carvings and statues became known as Boulder Park Caves.”

To get to the tower take the In-Ko-Pah exit from Interstate 8, and travel east along the northern side of the highway for about half a mile.

Driving along…

Sand dunes!

Cruising through piles/mountains of boulders!

See, they are really everywhere!

… and HUGE!

… and go on forever…

Then we see this crazy castle thing…

Crazy view out over the Anza Borrego Desert…

Silly boulder turtle as you exit…

… and pretty typography on the signs, but i half expected the gates to be closed on the way out! I don’t know what it was, but the whole place was just eerily desolate…

Random windmills…

… and we found our way back into greener areas…

So, i know, i sound totally silly NOW for being spooked by the place, but really, we didn’t see a soul there when we went through!!! Someday, i’ll go back and climb some boulders… =)

Yay! Back in LA, after a quick drive to Tuscon via the 10 (ick) for the weekend, but came back along the 8 through the blisteringly hot, dry desert and into foggy, freezing La Jolla for incredibly delicious carne asada fries and meeting up with people before popping back up to LA. Nothing clears my head like a random road trip!

Anyhow, much catching up in the email realm, and some really goodies in there i’ve been dying to share… like these fascinating 4 Occhi ~ Aspesi 1910 glasses design by Giulio Iacchetti - “A pair of glasses with four lenses that could be customized according to one’s desires. 4occhi can be both glasses and sun glasses, glasses for near-sighted and far-sighted people. All the possibilities your imagination suggests you are possible. 4occhi allows you to have two pairs of glasses always with without the need to remember them or search for them!” While they definitely look a bit silly, but for those who always lose their second pair of glasses, it’s an interesting idea… and you can put any lenses in either one ~ so they don’t even have to be sunglasses and bifocals, etc… Check out the many pics on the next page, the photographer clearly had a good time shooting these!

foto 4occhi: Giovanna Silva
foto still life 4occhi: Studio Foto Iacchetti
Foto showroom: Santi Caleca

I’ve been doing a bit of catch up… as you saw, last week’s vacationing really became a bit busy again ~ hardest part of this “job” is its still so much fun, its hard to actually stop and take a breather, the business and pleasure sides are so inter-mingled! But i did basically take a break from the crazy amount of emails during that time! Anyhow, trying to roadtrip down to Arizona tomorrow, any suggestions of things that we must stop to see on the way back, or wander around to are always appreciated, we’ll probably be in tuscon most of the weekend, and see what happens next week ~ and as long as i have internet, you know i’ll be posting (actually, if you don’t hear from me for too long, get worried!).

Anyhow, its been a really fun week on .org ~ so here are some of the most popular the last few days! Also check out the NotCouture and Liqurious roundups on the next page too! You know the drill ~ click to find out more!

Android logo is so freaking cute! Ok that’s my first half awake impression coming back from the T-Mobile store with the HTC G1 ~ And physically, its a really nice piece of hardware, clean sleek and understated (unlike *some* phones) ~ full pics on the next page of everything from the store displays and my #42 card to a proper unboxing, showing you all the bits.

Being a commitment-phobe, i opted to start my own t-mobile family plan of one ~ family of blackberry curve and G1. Screen looks a bit prettier than the iphone, the bounce up screen action feels great, and i’m totally smitten by the way its nice matte finish feels in myhands… also that slight curvature… ahh the details. Ok so beyond the unboxing and close looks at the hardware, i’m only just starting to poke at all the UI details, maps/email/phone/camera/etc, so far it looks great, only a few random bugs encountered when playing with things like street view, but will see how it goes - so more to come on that, but i just wanted to get some pics up before i ran out to a meeting! For the super thorough UI breakdown, check out Boy Genus Report ~ and see my pics on the next page!

Isn’t that just adorable?

Oooh, on things i’m slightly kicking myself for now… i was just in Sephora today and gave in to one of those packaging influenced spontaneous splurges… Jurlique’s new Biodynamic line is GORGEOUS! The packaging is just beautiful ~ in that high quality bottles, beautiful curves, unique yet functional, frosted glass kind of way… and all of their inserts and boxes are 100% post-consumer recycled paper… the sampler kit of the new lines come in what appear to be egg cartons at first - which are also 100% recyclable…. not to mention their products are all natural, made from plants and flowers from their South Australian farms.

The part i’m kicking myself over? I knew it sounded familiar! A quick search through email reminded me that this is the exact line i missed a bbq launch event for in Hollywood at the infamous Hillhaven Lodge, which is the kind of place filled with hollywood legends - originally home to Ingrid Bergman - and currently home to Brett Ratner - who had the photography book Hilhaven Lodge: The Photo Booth Pictures showing pages of fun hollywood types in photo booth pics… (my excuse is that i got caught up in san diego!) Basically, i hate to admit that sometimes PR folks know exactly what types of products fit perfectly with my tastes before i do, because when i wandered through Sephora i couldn’t resist playing with every product in the Jurlique Biodynamic line, and ended up picking the sampler with all the adorable scaled down minis and the fabulous egg carton-esque packaging to photograph and share with you.

Also… while i’ve only just started trying it out, the all natural line feels incredibly refreshing and light, and i guess i’ll find out by morning how my skin responds to it! Take a look at the many pics on the next page, there’s something so nice about the shape of the glass bottles they’ve designed.

NOTCOT Note: SO, jealous that linhchi (shade elaine) had a chance to get into the California Academy of Sciences! But luckily she took some gorgeous pics to share her experience with us!

I’d been waiting for the new California Academy of Sciences to open in Golden Gate Park for over a year, and when opening weekend finally rolled around late in September, I wasn’t willing to combat the crowds. Luckily the company I work for was invited to a party there (hosted by AOL) this past Monday evening, and though we didn’t get to check out the entire place, it was awesome being able to wander around the rain forest dome (I missed the planetarium show!) and get a glimpse of the other parts without enormous amounts of people, and to get a unique view of the place at night! My favorite pic (you’ll see it after the jump) is from inside the rain forest dome looking up at the ceiling & lights. I’ll definitely have to go back and check out the entire place for real. See a lot more pics after the jump!

Approaching the Academy of Sciences




Outside




My favorite pic! I felt like I was about to be abducted by aliens and the mist shooting out from time to time just added to that odd sciencey feeling.














The African center that I was really bummed about not being able to go into




The tube that goes under the water inside the rainforest dome





Just some of the cute little frogs and geckos we saw

I was watching Chuck tonight - the one where the best buy (“buy more”) geek squad (“nerd herd”) like guy has all the nations secrets downloaded into his brain and he has to run around and have crazy adventures playing spy, as created by the OC guy (josh schwartz) - and while it was as amusing as usual (with bizarre special guests nicole richie and ben savage) - the interiors of Sarah’s apt/hotel room were terribly distracting! The wallpaper, the green chair, headboard, and door, the lamps, the side table, the punching bag hanging from the ceiling. So, i took some mediocre shots of the TV to post here before it drove me nuts trying to track down tonight’s episode online… maybe i’ll update it the screenshots when the online versions are ready. How gorgeous is that green?

UPDATEs: So i have swapped out all the pics of my tv screen for some better ones (and even more on the next page now too!) ~ and thanks to Andrea, we’ve figured out that its the Viceroy right down the street in santa monica! Wonder if they would ever let us go wander around and take pics of rooms… or now i feel like getting a room there just to see it (which seems silly living so near by) - So Sarah apparently lives in Room 832 of the Viceroy.

BACKYARD - Pancho Tolchinsky and Catalina Estrada is coming up on Oct 29th at Galeria Ras in Barcelona. Since i can’t make it out there ~ Cati was nice enough to send over a sneak preview of some of her collaborations for us to take a look at!

While her magical digital worlds have always mesmerized me, its incredible to see how well they layer on the backyard photographs of Pancho Tolchinsky. If you’re in Barcelona, please mark your calendar for the 29th, and don’t forget to grab your camera! See the works on the next page, with some close ups too!

The full description:
“Gardens, flowers and gnomes become small pieces of heaven constructed at human scale.
The photographer Pancho Tolchinsky takes us on a trip through his characteristic colors to visit small fragments of heaven in locations as disparate as Scotland, Venice Beach or Jerusalem. In line with his photography, Tolchinsky finds the way to connect reality with imagination, the material world of experience with the ideal world of our memories.

Backyard is the first exhibition in which Tolchinsky collaborates with hi wife, the excellent illustrator Catalina Estrada, known for creating magical worlds field with colors. This couple of artists propose a refine synergy between photography and illustration, creating an aesthetical trip that pulls the viewer from reality into wonderland”

First super pretty NOTCOT Video… in HD even! I’m sure you’ve heard about Banksy’s Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill by now ~ we haven’t been able to stop envying those who have seen it in person, and we have posted the best photosets we can find on .org… even been debating flying out just to go see it! For those catching up, Banksy (the subversive, cheeky, street artist known for stencil art, adding art to museums, pink elephants and more) branched out into animatronics with his Banksy’s Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

It has been so painful to see so many terrible youtube videos floating around, when i could only guess what the experience must be like in person. Since this is something that deserved to be well documented before it disappeared at the end of Oct, i commissioned filmmaker, Seth Brau, to capture the experience (especially the details!) for those of us too far to visit in the flesh… and when i got back from SF, seth had this incredible video (that i can’t stop watching!) waiting for me! He even found music that closely matched that which is playing in the actual store! Huge thanks to our friend, Daniel Holter of the Burst Collective for helping with the music.

After this incredible piece, i think we may have to see more of Seth’s work on NOTCOT soon… maybe we will have NOTCOT videos more regularly yet… and for comparison (and incase they disappear someday) on the next page you can see screenshots of the official Banksy’s Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill, as well as the Banksy vids (shot in cages/rooms other than the actual petstore).

Splash page for the official Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

Screenshot of the menu page…

Here’s a peek at the business cards in the store too!

So i’m sure by now you’ve seen some of the many Rachel’s Yogurt ads we’ve had running on the sites… this is going to sound bizarre, but initially i thought it was crazy that a yogurt company wanted to work with NOTCOT… i actually told them that maybe after seeing/tasting it i’d consider it… and then three boxes of yogurt showed up… yes, 36 little tubs of yogurt… that’s like a fridge full! Long story short, the packaging was gorgeous (handwriting on black? love the style)… i am actually still buying the Calm “Lavender Plum Honey” flavor… and as you can see the ads look so pretty and so NOTCOT!

On a really random sidetrack, when joking around with one of our FM sales guys about Rachel’s we were so amused that a yogurt company would have Cocktail recipes on their site (their Yogatini cracked me up!), and somehow it turned into a silly dare about how Liqurious should have yogurt inspired recipes… i passed the dare on to the amazing Anita Crotty (of Married with Dinner fame) ~ and low an behold, she came up with three delicious and beautiful drink recipes! Turns our Rachel’s legal team wasn’t ready to add our drinks to their site, and after all the fun we had, i’ve decided to share them with you anyhow! Anita takes the prettiest pictures of drinks, and the ingredients that go into them! So for today, i wanted to kick off Monday with Bee Cool. See more pics and the drink recipe on the next page!

On random inspiration ~ i was unpacking my bags from freshly getting back to LA ~ and realized being at a conference and sitting in talks was much like being back in school… flowing out of my bags come notebooks, pens, conference packets, scraps of paper, and more covered in scribbles and notes and doodles of an abundance of ideas!

On an even sillier note ~ i realized i’m totally obsessed with the DWR Tools for Living Press Kit that doubles as a super functional notebook that has nice stark white pages and fun super thick cardboard covers! And the Federated Media pen from the CM Summit has been great as well - both visually and functionally (so much, that i even stole dan’s). Both have been ending up in my purse repeatedly enough that i thought they warranted a random sunday post! And while i was showing you that… my “speaker’s gift” from FM was a nice and subtly branded Moleskine! Which is awesome, except playing with it during the summit, made me realize - i find a blank white piece of paper amazingly inspiring… but RULED PAPER, kind of freaks me out. I think there’s something about lined paper that is just too rigid for me - definitely a big fan of the free form. Take a look at closeups of them all on the next page!

Hi. So. I don’t even know where to start right now, in a nutshell ~ who was i kidding (maybe pretty much myself) that i would be able to work during an the all day FM Conversational Marketing Summit that our Federated Media family is putting on? I think i’ve been running around since early this morning - all day through the summit, getting to know the advertising/marketing world, meeting the people behind the campaigns we love and admire, then drinks… then dinner… then… well finally home to linhchi’s at like 12:30? Only to supposedly be up and do it again tomorrow? And be on a panel at 2?

Well you know me. I’m about to pass out (and sorry this post is a bit ramblier than usual, SO tired) ~ but i had to find SOMETHING to post and share with you! It just feels too wrong to be running around chatting with people who love our sites, and not post to do so! So, for anyone at the summit, yes, that was me… in the grass outside the cocktail reception, in that perfect sunset lighting, sprawled across the grass in a little black dress shooting pictures of our new macbook pro and macbook that dan and i might have ducked out of an afternoon session to run over to the marina to pick up. And while i am embarrassed to say that i have not actually booted either machine yet, and may not get to do the inaugural booting/transferring/notcot loading until AFTER tomorrow (how wrong is that?)… i did take a bunch of pics of the packaging and details in the grass in the presidio before getting back to “work” ~ meeting some incredibly insightful agency creatives, marketers, sales people that i’ve probably swapped far too much email with. So, take a peek at the pics on the next page, and more to come after i try to survive tomorrow…

For those at the CM Summit, come say hi at the 2pm panel i’m on? I’m so nervous! And for those not here ~ one of my biggest goals here as a publisher, is to get to know some of the people behind the ads and campaigns, and ultimately see what it will take to turn advertising on NOTCOT into as much fun as the content (really, we all know there’s no excuse for ugly, useless creative) ~ and how we can convince advertisers to support what the readers want to see more of! (On one thing i can leak… sounds like a really exciting competition with Adobe for CS4 is in the works, so get those creative juices flowing! And it just shipped today! I totally spaced on getting a copy while i was at the apple store…) As readers, any and all ideas you have on what you’d love to see more of ~ please leave a comment and i’ll do what i can to make it happen.

First time shooting, where i had lots of people running up to play with our new toys… but luckily we had two, so dan could let them poke at his, while i tried to quickly take more pics of details before i lost the sun, and had to go be “social”…

And Jackie got this funny behind the scenes shot (i didn’t even realize she took it! and then it popped up on facebook…):

Up in SF ~ wedding this weekend, tried to take a little break, now presentation thing today, conference next two days ~ agh! Basically running around a little too crazed at the moment, so wanted to give you a roundup of the best of the last week and a half over at NOTCOT.org! You know the drill, click whatever interests you to find out more up there!

Tokujin Yoshioka’s Venus - “Natural Crystal Chair” ~ is an incredible chair that is crystallized over time on a polyester elastomer skeleton (says Today and Tomorrow). “Second Nature” directed by Tokujin Yoshioka at 21_21 Design Sight fron Oct 17 - Jan 18. See more images on the next page!

On silly discoveries i was probably far too excited about today ~ IKEA now has minis of those giant blue bags! The big blue ones are still 59 cents, and perfect for everything from laundry, gardening, costco, moving and more… and these new mini totes also have the double straps (long shoulder length and short handles). These little ones are only 49 cents ~ and although they weren’t actually out with the other big blue ones, asking the check out woman, she had some in her station in a drawer! Unfortunately i didn’t have my big camera with me, but here are a few quick snapshots from the IKEA Emeryville store today, and a few more to give you some context about the size (its base is pretty much about the size of a dinner plate) ~ see the rest of the pics on the next page!

I have long been a fan of APAK, the husband and wife team of Aaron and Ayumi K. Piland. They create fantastic, colorful worlds in their work, filled with little forest creatures and quiet narratives. They live in Portland now and in Japan in the past and I imagine that their environments and cultural heritage very much influence their work. APAK’s artist statement: “They create artwork together as a way exploring the beauty, mystery, and magic of life as well as expressing their love for life and each other. They are known in particular for creating rich and colorful gouache/acrylic paintings on wood featuring the utopian lives and adventures of curious little beings living in lush fantastic environments surrounded by friendly little animals, the landscapes are familiar yet surreal, hinting at a fantastic narrative while suggesting truths about the real world at the same time.” Their work can be found here, and purchased here.

Incase Nylon Messenger Bag may be THE perfect messenger bag, their designers have figured out every tiny detail! I’ve gone through so many messenger bags (from Chrome, Timbuk2, Ordning & Reda, Tumi, a leather old J.Crew, Jack Spade, and more…) ~ but i’m totally impressed with how sleek, lightweight, and detailed this new Incase Nylon Messenger Bag is. As a 5’4” girl, it actually holds my 15” mcp and a lot of other stuff without making me look like a turtle (which is the case with my huge chrome one!) ~ the shoulder strap is sooo nicely cushioned, and brilliant detail to have the padded handle on the bag double as a key ring (good spare key stash?) ~ lots of pockets of varying depths and openings all around ~ and the biggest mystery to me when i first read about this… “plush faux fur” ~ turns out its a velvety soft lush black material to keep your iphone and laptop from being scratched! Nice that the stabilizer strap is completely detachable as well, and its a nice touch to have the large velcro pocket on the front, and that the clips on the main flap are sewn flat (not sure why that matters, but just a detail i really liked - aesthetically sleeker?). Anyhow, enough rambling from me, i took a bunch of pictures of the details for you to get a feel for it yourself on the next page!

It’s lined with their signature topographic pattern of course!

Here are those flat clips i mentioned earlier ~ and nice subtle logos…

“plush faux fur” ~ not nearly as creepy or frightening as it first sounded!

SO padded! Your back will thank you!

Here’s that secret key stash ~ i guess the handle could double as a valet key…

Quick release ~ big and plastic, and the other end is still securely locked down so your bag doesn’t go flying if someone releases and grabs it

Inside that front velcroed pouch ~ there is a detatchable keyring as well as a main divider, and two pockets - one lined with “plush faux fur” perfectly suited to your iPhone

Inside the main compartment there are two zips, one velcro, one open, and pen pockets

p.s.
sorry the lighting got a bit weird while i was shooting these quickly ~ sunset happens so fast now! Just wanted to make sure i got this up to share before i headed up to SF tomorrow!

Here’s another one from the plethora of pics that have been waiting to become posts ~ while traveling with Veuve Clicquot in Reims, we had a special tour in the VCP Maison de Patrimoine (think: amazing archives of the history of Veuve since the 1800’s in one room) by Fabienne Huttaux, the Historical Resource Manager. And amongst the many things she showed us (like the originals of the first shipment ever made, which was to Venice, and the first invoice to the USA, including some as movie props…) ~ i was most fascinated by the evolution of the labels! With full white glove treatment, we were shown this little book that housed every label variation since the beginning, long before the signature yellow label was even yellow… personally my favorites are the oldest ones, with elephants from the trading company logos distributing them. In addition to label imagery, you can also get a peek at the shelves and shelves of resources, as well as closer looks at some of the documents i mentioned, the typography not only on the documents but the spines of the archives were stunning, and make me wish we were still trained as thoroughly to have perfect cursive handwriting.

Remember those amazing photographs of nudibranchs David Doubilet shot for National Geographic where i couldn’t stop gushing about how amazing they were on pure white, like a model or product? Well in our ever shrinking world, i get an email from my globetrotting explorer of a dad, who happened to be in Manado at the Lembeh Strait on North Sulawesi, Indonesia at the Kungkungan Bay Resort scuba diving ~ with pictures of him holding the mini underwater studio setups David Doubilet used for those shoots! He even said that the resort folks were encouraging him to use them, but he decided they were too much of a hassle, but thankfully he took some pics to indulge my curiosity about the set up.

On the next page you can see more pics of the mini studio, as well as some of his scuba diving discoveries i loved ~ i’ve picked out my favorites of my dad’s nudibranchs and frog fish pics!

It is a total trip (for me) to open a magazine or website and see myself on it ~ i am definitely a behind the camera kind of girl? Remember that photoshoot i showed you back in august at A+R? Well the Lucky Magazine Nov 2008 issue is now out, and i’m in the Webpages section on page 54! Also on the main Lucky website and the Sites We Love section. Scans and screenshots on the next page for those who want to see! It’s awesome to be featured in a magazine i’ve actually read since inception, and has inevitably influenced NOTCOT throughout the years.

So in the post where we showed you all the new Swims City Slippers for heels ~ there was much talk about why they didn’t have some that covered the shoe fully, protecting your feet from splashing instead of just giving you more traction… well when reading our friends at Frizzi Frizzi, i noticed a post from a milan fair showing just that! So poking and prodding their PR for more information i’ve found out that those are actually only prototypes ~ and unfortunately they are not manufactured or available! I must say these remind me of dive booties in heel form ~ Perhaps with enough positive feedback we can help convince Swims to actually produce these!

Here is what Frizzi Frizzi spotted in milan!

While recollecting my thoughts and trying to take a bit of a break ~ i’ve also found myself cleaning up my computer, and while doing so, discovered a lot of posts in the making… that never quite made it! So here’s some more catch up. I spent most of yesterday running around LA (and the outskirts) hunting and researching for the house i’m working on (under construction! i get to move in soon!) ~ and in doing so, finding myself thinking about so many details i hadn’t paid such careful attention to before, and things that reminded me about the Manoir de Verzy ~ the Country House of Madame Veuve Clicquot that we visited, and i’m ashamed that i hadn’t gotten these pictures up for you sooner!

There were so many fascinating details to this house and its gardens and being able to visit the actual vineyards ~ consider this a photo essay of sorts taking you through some of my most memorable images while there. This house is where we learned about vintages (even tasting our birth years! mine was a delicious vintage in ‘82) and Dégorgement à la volée in the Vieux Pressoir with Cyril Brun, the wine communications head and wine maker ~ followed by aperitif and specially crafted, perfectly paired lunch with Stéphane Gerschel - International Communications Director, Andrea Crippa - International Marketing Director, Cyril Brun, Felix Bocquet - Quality and Environment Director, followed by a walk through the vineyards with the Veuve Clicquot Vineyards director, Christian Renard. (All before taking off to our surprise helicopter ride!). It was at this lunch that Andrea gave us that sneak peek of the Ice Cube and i showed you some of the tile i loved. Anyhow, so on house shopping, and all the little details that make a house a home, take a peek at some of the quarters where VIPs stay with Veuve Clicquot, and the beautifully inspiring views across the vineyard on the next page!

I love the patterns on the gate ~

My favorite tiles ~

A fascinating family tree of the descendants of Madame Clicquot

For some reason, i loved the Veuve patch on the jumpsuits of the vineyard worker ~and he totally humored me and let me take a picture… you can only imagine how wide his smile was as he laughed while i took this!

Lovely gardens…

Here are some grapes which go into La Grande Dame….

View down the stairs from the guest rooms…

There are beautiful clawfoot tubs in every rooms bathroom ~ and every room was unique as well! I ran around and peeked into each and every one of them…

The dining table awaits…

There were some intense patterns throughout this living room ~

Since it was raining they lent us these scrub like shoe coverings which we all looked quite silly in…

Of course i have to show you some grapes! Which were ready for harvest about a week after our trip..

These little doodads are chock full of caterpillar hormones ~ their way of dealing with caterpillars without using insecticide? If you draw all the males away, they will never find females to mate……

We ran around with a troop of yellow umbrellas as it rained on us in the vineyards…

A view of the mansion from the gardens in the back…

A view of the front from the driveway…

View alongside the vineyards

Neverending gardens ~

While wandering through IKEA today, i finally gave in and had to take pics and buy one of the adorable kids Spoka Lights. These little ghosty night lights come in three shapes/colors and are squishy silicon rubber ~ its cordless with a recharger ~ and you push its head to turn it on and off. Designed by Bodrul Khalique. What was unexpected when i saw them was the packaging, they come in cute graphic bags, and inside the bag there is even a small pocket stitched inside for the cord. Supposedly on a full charge it can last 4-6 hours and light diodes are not replaceable; diode life approx. 50,000 hours. See more pictures on the next page!

The internet is a buzz with rumors on the latest “viral” video of Dan Aykroyd showing us his new Crystal Head Vodka in a gorgeous glass skull. Rumors include this being a video for the new Ghostbusters or some Indiana Jones… but i guess lesson to be learned here is ~ just because it’s going viral, doesn’t mean it’s not real!

I actually bought a few bottles today ~ lots of pics on the next page! Not the smooooothest thing i’ve tasted, but it’s not bad, and i’m totally in love with the glass skull bottle made by Bruni Glass in Milan, Italy. Apparently it is made by Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Ltd, out of Newfoundland water triple crystal filtered through herkimer diamonds (aka double-terminated quartz crystals)! Really the story is just great though, and the video and bottle make the experience priceless ~ here are excerpts from the box: “In reverence of those enlightened after touching any of the thirteen crystal heads unearthed around our globe we offer this pure spirit”… “One of the most compelling archeological mysteries is the story of the 13 Crystal Heads. These heads are believed to be between 5,000 and 35,000 years old and were carved over a period of several hundred years but without any tool marks. In fact their very construction defies the laws of physics and common logic. They are believed to offer spiritual power to those who hold or possess them.”

See the pictures of the real thing and the video on the next page!

UPDATE: Dan did some crazy internet researching for us and here are some fun facts: Dan Aykroyd is not only an actor, but co-founder of the House of Blues, part owner of Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Ltd (which distributes Patron in Canada), and is building his own winery, Dan Aykroyd Wines (which uses 100% snob free grapes!). There is a great interview with him on delish before the vodka release where he exposes how serious he is about wine, Crystal Skulls, UFOs, and “pure spirit from Newfoundland glacial pool water, and peaches and cream corn mash”!

Here’s a quick copy of the video from youtube, but it looks best at Crystal Head Vodka.

Here’s a screenshot of the single page at Crystal Head Vodka.

Here are some of the highlights from the video!

Stunning 2009 Ferarri California. Actually rather impressed with their site, and the videos and content provided ~ the “HEAR” section is my favorite so far. Few official pics on the next page, also check out the gallery at AutoBlog - they just saw it in Paris!

Hi! So, here’s the deal, i’ve been slightly overworking lately, and have been getting ready for gift guide ideas, holiday season, new features, playing with new projects, and keeping up with the high speed stream of goodies at NOTCOT.org, NotCouture, and Liqurious… also off to a wedding next week up in Sonoma… and the Federated Media Conversational Marketing Summit (i was asked whether i wanted to do ticket giveaways, any of you interested in meeting me at the summit and chatting conversational marketing?) on the 15th-16th.

While running around someone has been poking me about how i haven’t taken a “real” break in about 3 years - but that’s what doing what you love and having it turn into your job means right? Apparently, wrong. So i’m going to try and take a breather for the next week, and have a quick favor to ask you… Help me out with a few questions? 1) When i take a break, and in general, would you rather have me hire writers to just run around the net showing you things here on NOTCOT.com? Versus having this be more of my personal blog? (I’m slightly biased, as it’s pained me to watch some of my favorites hire a ton of people and the content gets old and not nearly as fun, but there’s probably a way to find a balance?) 2) What stores for designer and fashion goodies can you not live without that we should take a look at while researching for gift guide? Which includes everything from scouring their stores for products, seeing if they’d be interested in discounts for readers, etc etc (ideas?)…

OH, and you know me, “break” can sometimes = more posts. I get excited, i post. But since i’ve been slowing down the pace the last few days here anyhow, thought i’d make it official. So i may still be posting, but consider this the heads up for the next week and a bit if i miss a day or two… but just check into NOTCOT.org to get your creative juices flowing! Here’s a quick roundup of some of my current faves over there…

Click the images to see more, as usual ~ and would you believe there’s something new going up there practically every few minutes?!?!?!

Swims gives us a first look at their latest innovation in the galoshes space to protect you (and your gorgeous shoes) from the rain and other messy, muddy places you wander through. Here’s a peek at the new Swims City Slippers ~ the best detail is definitely the maps of NY, Paris, and Tokyo on the soles ~ although i do wonder if it means with every step in dirt, you can leave maps for the lost? It’s flexible design is ready for heels of any thickness (but your wedges will have to wait for now), and its low cut so no bows or buckles get caught. The price is $95, they will be available on the site any day now and in stores within two weeks. They will be available in burgundy, black, pearl, red, purple and olive. I must say, i feel silly writing about rain products while i’m sitting in this LA heatwave, a nice cool rain and breeze would be quite nice right about now!

We’re big fans of the classic mens and women’s swims - as well as their push button open/close umbrellas after they saved both dan and i when running around NY for ICFF and into the woods of VT when only armed with dress shoes… so i can’t wait to try these out! See our past reviews/posts about swims here - and see more images of the new Swims City Slippers on the next page!

UPDATE: check out Frizzi Frizzi’s post with a hands on look at a few other new Swims designs!

DWR’s second Tools For Living store launches tomorrow, and i just popped into the Santa Monica store for a quick press preview… it is GORGEOUS. And in this heat wave, you won’t want to leave the lovely, spacious, air conditioned store filled with designer goodies that are fully functional in your everyday life!

While i can’t even imagine picking all of my favorites and temptations from the store quite yet (perhaps we’ll save that for the gift guide!) ~ i couldn’t help myself when taking pics, and ended up with about 30 on the next page to give you a feel for the store in person. There really is something so great about being able to spin around a store ooohing and ahhhhing about products i’ve only seen online, or have been unable to find in the US that i saw at foreign trade shows. So especially for those who aren’t close enough to pop into the DWR Tools For Living Santa Monica or SoHo stores, take a browse at the gallery on the next page! With holiday shopping around the corner, i can already tell this will be one of my new last minute gift stops…

How cool is this Neuton Battery-Powered Lawn Mower? My favorite detail is the lizard pattern the wheels leave….