Starck, raving madness

In the world of design, few people inspire and entertain me as much as Philippe Starck. Though he may not be a household name across the great expanse of the US, smart people on the coasts are well aware of him and at the end of the day that's all that matters, right? Hah!

Starck first appeared on my radar in 1990 when I came across his "Juicy Salif" citrus press for Alessi, the Italian "design factory" that has been systematically elevating the art value of everyday objects since the 1930s. That now-iconic piece of cast aluminum inspires me still.

Anyhow, I just read today that the BBC is casting for a reality show to be aired in the UK that's a design competition presided over by none other than Philippe Starck himself. I'm assuming that it will have a similar format to Bravo's Project Runway and the grand prize is a six month internship with Starck's offices in Paris. Man, the idea of that gives me a thrill and it's something I'd love to see when it finally airs. BBC America, are you listening?

Choo Choo Charlie envy

Here's one for the books and an interesting housing option I never considered. I came upon the story on Dwell Magazine's website this morning and it has my wheels turning to say the least. An artist in Oregon had a Pullman car renovated and in leaving it on the tracks rather than decommissioning it, it's not real estate; it's considered to be "rolling stock." Ergo no real estate taxes. The car's really well done --it's an attractive living space. It plugs into an auxiliary power source the way a boat at a marina does and it uses an incinerator toilet so it doesn't need to be hooked up to a sewer line. It costs the current owner $150 to keep it parked in a rail yard and that's it. Bravo clever artist guy in Portland for a brilliant execution of a sustainable housing idea. Check it out:

I love this furniture!

What's a man to do when he has Suessian visions of what life and furniture should look like but still has a life to lead? I mean, I have stuff to store and books to shelve and unmentionables to put away. Over the years, my love of camp and cartoon have been repeatedly slammed against the stone wall of reality and I've abandoned a lot of my ideas about wild colors for their own sake and fun furniture that was cool to have even though it didn't function very well. Along the way too, I've developed a much keener appreciation for fine things that are built well and that will last. I want the things I buy for myself to be fun and clever and at the same time I want to buy things I never need to replace. Oh what to do and where to go?

Well, enter Gallery Dust. Gallery Dust is the Valpariso, Indiana-based brainchild off furniture makers Vincent and Jessie Leman. They take traditional, American, wood furniture and twist and turn it into their beautiful and dare I say whimsical creations. I love this stuff, really. Bravo Vincent and Jessie, thanks for making beautifully clever and cleverly beautiful furniture.

And then a light went off...

Meet the Geobulb. The Geobulb is an LED light that is intended to replace a 60 watt incandescent bulb. The current wave of compact fluorescent bulbs are but a stop along the way to a world illuminated by LEDs. LED stands for light-emitting diode. An LED is a super-efficient method of light generation that features no breakable parts like the tungsten filament in a standard incandescent bulb. What's more, there's no mercury in it, unlike compact fluorescent bulbs. This lowly bulb produces the equivalent light of a 60 watt incandescent bulb (800 lumens) while using only 8 watts of electricity. Pretty cool. What's even cooler is that it's available in three color temperatures: cool daylight, warm white and soft white. Although the price on these things is just starting to drop (this Geobulb will set you back $120 and that's if you can find one), their long life puts even a CFL to shame. The expected lifetime of this Geobulb is 30,000 hours. What that means in the real world is that if your turned this thing on for 12 hours a day every day, you could continue to do so for the next seven years before you'd need to start thinking about replacing it. The Geobulb is available through C. Crane.

Modern, prehistoric chic

This is an ammonite, an extinct marine cephalopod. The last of the ammonites went extinct some 65 million years ago, at the close of the Cretaceous Period.




And this is an ammonite-shaped concrete sink by HiTech Design from Germany. If it's possible to fall in love with a bathroom sink, I think I have.