Yo yo yo! Hope y’all had a nice weekend. Clouds crept in and threatened to ruin our plans, but then the sun came out. Yay! We spent Saturday with a really cute birthday girl, followed by yummy sandwiches for dinner. Sunday we caught the ferry out to Catalina so I could finally finish my open water scuba certification. I’m legit now! HOLLA!
Ready for the photo dump? Continue reading…
Hey there folks! Hope you had a great weekend. We’ll have a weekender post for you tomorrow. GBM Volume Thirteen is not in the place I want it to be, so here are a pair of little audio sketches in the form of two tasty EPs. Both of these mini mixes run about 30 minutes and have distinct moods illustrated by their album art and names. Both albums would loosely fall into the electronica spectrum, but have very different shades. Ephemera is airy and expansive while Promenade is beat driven with lots of 808s, experimental breaks and repetition.
Cop the tracklist and download link after the jump: Continue reading…
German industrial designer Dieter Rams’ work stands the test of time and I can’t get enough of it. His clean, minimalistic creations are a pillar of 20th-century design and are still an inspiration for many today, most notably Jonathan Ive – head designer at Apple and the man that brought us the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Continue reading…
Maybe I shouldn’t complain about my commute anymore. It seems L.A.’s got nothin’ on Beijing! A massive traffic jam on China’s Expressway 100 had cars backed up all the way to inner Mongolia. The jam started on August 14 because of an excess amount of cargo being trucked into Beijing, and the problem was exacerbated by a major road construction project that began a few days later. This is probably old news to anyone who watches any of the major news networks, but I was unaware of the situation until I heard about it on NPR this morning. Word on the street (no pun intended) is that the situation has greatly improved in the last 24 hours, but it could still take up to a week to get the flow of traffic back to normal.
- Jessica
Following up with another dude that’s doing what he loves, surf photographer Mickey Smith. As part of a competition put on by Relentless Energy drink (never heard of it), filmmakers from around the world were challenged to explore, reveal, celebrate and define “No Half Measures” (the energy drink’s tag line).
Smith Explains “I wanted to create something that would give insight into what it takes to grind out a living as a water-based photographer in the surfing industry to provide a short, experimental glimpse into life lived in the shadow of what is, for me, an obsessive pursuit.”
Smith worked with Allan Wilson (director of photography) from the Astray Collective to produce one heck of a film.
- Curt
P.S. Sorry I couldn’t get the video to scale down. I know it kinda looks janky on the homepage, but most of the RSS folks probably won’t even notice.
Shinya Kimura does what he loves. Kimura’s got passion, drive, and commitment to his craft: engineering custom handmade motorcycles. I wish I could be as fulfilled with my work, let alone any area of my life, as Kimura is about his bikes. My only question for him would be, why move from Japan to Azusa, CA? I get the move to the USA, it’s closer to the salt flats and wide open spaces, but Azusa? Ewwww.
This beautiful film was directed by Henrik Hansen and shot on the Canon 5D & 7D. The editing and quick cuts are just perfect. Be sure to check out his clip reels on his website; there’s some really great stuff on there.
- Curt
seen on Kitsune Noir
Let me be clear. I’m a fairly skilled baker. My cupcakes/cookies/pies/bars are consistently met with resounding praise at both my office and my husband’s.
But for some reason I just can’t crack the code of Red Velvet. And it’s supposed to be in my blood! My grandma is WAY more Southern than Paula Deen. She cooks with just as much butter, and she doesn’t have a fake tan. So there.
Anyway, I don’t get this. I used this recipe, and based on all the stellar reviews I thought I had found a winner. After limited success with other recipes in the past, I was pretty excited about this one. But I just took a bit of my finished product and… meh. What happened? Was it because I used 1% milk instead of whole? It was such a small amount, so it shouldn’t have made much of a difference. Maybe it was because it’s crazy hot in L.A. tonight and I could barely distinguish between the temperature in my kitchen and the internal temperature of my oven. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still pretty tasty. But that perfectly moist, chocolatey, deep red cupcake– true red velvet–eludes me. And I kinda sorta promised I would make red velvet cupcakes for a friend’s wedding. What was I thinking?!
So I need your help. If you’ve had success with a red velvet recipe, please share! I know someone out there has to have a good one. I have about a month to experiment.
Thanks y’all!!!
- Jessica
P.S. the cupcake pictured above is not one of mine. It’s actually from the kitchen sink blog, and Kristin used Chockylit’s recipe… which looks like it might be a contender. It’s backed by a lot of research! But I’ll wait to hear from you guys first…
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.
Totally random and weird but SO FUNNY!
Thanks, Corrie!
- Jessica
The teaser trailer for Casey Affleck’s documentary of Joaquin Phoenix came out today on Yahoo. Watch the trailer here. Regardless of whether this documentary proves that Joaquin truly has spiraled into madness or has prepared one of the greatest hoaxes of the modern era, I’m sure it will be a fascinating journey. The film is scheduled to be released on September 10th. The poster is also pretty sweet.
In case you didn’t know, Oscar nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix gave up acting in 2008 to pursue a career in hip-hop while simultaneously becoming one of the most eccentric and unpredictable people in hollywood.
- Curt
Weekender photo dump. We went to check out the new Santa Monica Place on Saturday and had a delish meal at Zengo. Sunday we cruised down to Huntington Beach for my second cousin’s church dedication, lunch and sweet treats. Continue reading…
