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Who ever said that public transportation couldn’t be enjoyable! In fact who ever said that you couldn’t get across town, tour the city, and get a light workout all while riding (make that driving) the public transportation system!  Well, in New Zealand that’s just what they have done with the worlds first aerodynamic human propelled monorail system called the Shweeb.

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Shweeb is world’s first human powered monorail racetrack. Located in New Zealand, it allows you to race against your friends and get the heart-pumping workout in complete safety.

The Shweeb is essentially an aerodynamic transparent bullet that allows the rider to propel themselves on seven different pedaling gears at up to 30 mph. Although the Shweeb follows the constructed steel track it does allow the rider to adjust speed, swing out sided to side on a 60-degree angle, and adjust the bearing according to your height and body size.

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Currently the Shweeb is only being developed as an thrill seeking entertainment ride. Allowing riders to race around a pre-constructed looped course against each other or against the clock. But you can already see the implication a monorail system could have on transportation relief in downtown metropolitan cities. The Shweeb comes with some impressive advantages, its one hundred percent environmentally friendly, and incredibly practical for riders as at any given speed your using around half the energy of a road bike or mountain bike.  Perhaps the Shweeb is just the solution we need to help alleviate our nations obesity epidemic, environmental woes, and mundane early morning commutes!

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The world is still reeling from the news of Michael Jackson’s death, but San Francisco fans commemorated the Gloved One’s passing in a way that would make him proud: They gathered for an impromptu dance party.

The San Francisco Michael Jackson flash mob took place at the Ferry Building and lasted well into the night, according to attendees. That it happened at all is proof of how Michael Jackson was able to connect with his fans and inspire them in incredible ways.    - Trendhunter

For all of us who have unashamedly played the air violin to The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony wishing you could play it for real, this is for you.  Industrial designer and slight genius Carlos Mendez has created an electric violin he calls the Squidolin.  You can connect the Squidolin to your television set and it will walk you through a series of tutorials based on mastering violin fundamentals. Now don’t be confused, this is by no means a Guitar Hero Rockband-esque violin façade. Squidolin is crafted with real Maplewood and can be connected to an amplifier and played like the genuine thing. And once you figure out what your doing I’ve heard the sound is really quite beautiful. Oh, and the Squidolin gets its name from its squid inspired body design fitted into the violin motif. I wonder if there’s anything in the works for an electric stand-up bass in the future! Check him out at Crmendez.com I leave you with a little Joshua Bell playing “Avia Maria.” Feel free to air violin your heart out!

Its 3 o’clock in the morning and I’m hanging out with a friend of mine in downtown Richmond. The streets are filled with the sounds of jubilant Richmonites wrapping up a night on the town. Off in the distance we can hear the faint sound of a sobbing woman. As we anxiously await her appearance we wince as her weeping crescendoes  into a sorrowful and rhythmic coo. Finally, the aggrieved young lady sauntered her way into our vision with tears streaming down her face. Carefully bracing herself along the freestanding trees as she gingerly tried to baby step her way down the street. What at first resembled a professional athlete suffering from a pulled muscle quickly came into focus as a woman enduring the agonizing pain of a night balancing on 6-inch heels.

Now these weren’t, my eyes are begging to water tears, these were tears of extreme pain. Excorticating, torturous, six inch, cute at all cost, pain is beauty, pain! It was as if every step she took was on a bed of needles and each one hurt exponentially more than the previous.

And even though it was completely her decision to bring upon herself such torture I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for the young women. That of course was until I realized that the real victim in this situation was her boyfriend who had been hopelessly trying to understand the conundrum of the female psyche. Sympathetic in his attempt to comfort her pain, confused in his attempts to understand the situation, frustrated in the fact that she won’t take the heels off, and annoyed in her persistence in taking baby steps, he did his best not to explode with frustration!

Of course, as a guy I arrived at the ingeniously simple solution of channeling your inner Tom Sawyer, and just going barefoot. After all, at this point who really cares if your still balancing on 6 inch stilts! But my friend quickly intervened, and informed me that

“A lady should never discard her heels, if you chose to wear them than you should wear them, no matter what! “

Now, I’m sure that’s probably an unwritten rule widely accepted among the classy and sophisticated women around the world but to the relief of husbands and boyfriends everywhere there is hope that this situation will soon become a distant memory thanks to two little companies by the name of Afterheel and Rollasole.  The concept is simple, their an emergency pair of ballet style flats that are capable of being rolled up into a small container that can be tucked inside of a women’s purse.  Made specifically for those occasions when women need to slip out of their heels after a long night of dancing.

Now, here is the genius, even if you ladies forget to bring your emergency stash of flats both companies have started testing vending machines that sell the shoes within select London nightclubs. So far both companies are reporting that the vending machines  have been widely accepted and that they potentially my be looking to expand the offering across the UK. Fellas, it seems for now we will have to envy our English counterparts until the two companies graciously make their way to the states. But just think one day a vending machine, a pair of flats, and eight bucks may save us all from ever having to enduring the Stiletto fury ever again!

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Despite last nights loss I’m confident the Lakers will roll their way into the NBA finals yet again!  There’s been a lot of talk lately about who has the momentum and who has all the confidence in this series. Well, I’ m not sure how big a role momentum, confidence, or home court advantage will matter in the presents of  Kobe’s Unstoppableness!  The latest installment of the Most Valuable Puppet series is a tribute to Kobe’s “Unstoppableness”  and perhaps a little Nike foreshadowing for the inevitable… Another Lakers Championship!

Just a couple of pics from the big day! Trust me this is just .00342 % of the total amount of pics we took this weekend. I’ll have the entire collection posted to my flicker account in a couple of days. ( Look for them on the side panel —-> )

In three hours I will walk across the stage and graduate from the VCU Brandcenter!

“Sustainability of this product is not superimposed, but in the very essence of it. The second life cycle creates new value for everybody involved, the sign maker, the producer, the retailer and the customer.” – Aleksi Hautamäki

Well it seems even Nike is starting to set the stage for the two MVP’s to meet in the finals. With the Cavaliers’ cake walk to the eastern conference finals and Kobe’s clear dominance in the west  I’m starting to think this might actually have the makings of  a “1980’s Lakers X Celtics”  type  rivalry. Either way, I’m sure we will all be “Witnesses ” to more of the Lebron and Kobe Most Valuable Puppets!

more about “Onwards – Directed by James Jarvis an…“, posted with vodpod

A friend sent me this video from designer and illustrator James Jarvis called “Onward”. Its a beautiful illustration of the sense of discovery, persistence, and therapy we get from a good run. It reminded me of a short piece I had written sometime ago while waiting in the Richmond Airport, just thought I’d post it.

Runners run because it is their therapy.

it is thier insanity.

it is their release.

They run because they are slaves to its will, submitting to its call for it governs their hearts.

For it is not a matter of will but of necessity .

It is a matter of their sanity.

They run for the hope of liberating their mind, and yet like a prisoner they relinquish their will and become subserviant to the call.

They run because they fend for the feeling of mid-mile exhaustion.

It summons for them like the nightingale does the morning.

Softly, yet persistently it calls.

And they answer to its call because they must for runners are but a paradox.

Running only to satisfy the insatiable craving of that of which they cherish… the need to run.

Running is therapy.

There is no doubt that the emergence of Youtube has given people an outlet to express themselves  and a stage in-which to display their creations. Recently it seems You-tube has given birth to the next evolution of audio video musical collaboration. One in-which the artist or creators don’t even have to be aware of what song their playing. In fact they don’t even have to be aware that their apart of the collaboration. The concept is simple, gather a bunch of video clips from you-tube and arrange them in a way that sounds somewhat like music. I’ll be honest, most of them are horrible attempts at emulating some of the more successful viral mash-ups but every-other day it seems a fairly decent one pops up. Here are a few of my favorites so far! Enjoy.

Thanks to the big homies, Kris and Akil, for putting me on to the  sounds of Francis And The Lights! His style is a little hard to describe but he has been referred to as a mixture between Phil Collins and Prince.  Definitely an unique flavor and vibe but  worth getting into. If your not up on his music yet you should definitely go download his album for free from his website: Francisandthelights.com Strawberries is definitely one of my favorites! Be sure to peep his music video and check my man’s foot work!

The 2009 playlist lin-up for the Austin City Limits festival as been released! Chances are I won’t be able to make it out to the three day shindig October 2nd-4th but I thought I would give it a post! If you didn’t get a chance to make it out to SXSW this year the ACL music festival is just as good.  There is three days worth of music, eight different stages and 130 bands ready to rock out. Some good people to look out for include: John Legend, Passion Pit, Mos Def,Girl Talk, Jonathan Tyler and the Northern lights, Beastie Boys, and the Rebirth Brass Band!

My wish list: Common, Francis and the Lights, N*E*R*D, Lupe, Estelle, Adele, and The hypnotic Brass Ensemble!

For millions of basketball fans across the United States mid-April signifies more than just the arrival of spring but rather it means were knee deep in the NBA playoffs. It’s just the beginning of the exhilarating journey of 40 games cram packed into 40 days. Its one of those times when closet sports junkies can celebrate the fact that sports have completely ransacked every aspect of their lives.  So from a media standpoint its no surprise that the ESPN home page has become one of the hottest and most sought after pieces of digital retail space. What you probably didn’t expect to see is an ingeniously placed Mac ad.

The placement appears to be just a other rich media banner ad along the top of the screen but as you click on the ad the two jocular characters engage in their normal PC bashing dialogue. Eventually, expanding their message to take-over the skyscrapers on the side of the page as well!

Now, if you backtrack and refresh the page to play the ad again you will discover that the skyscraper ads on the side of the page are actually fake. Their simplify used as a ploy to complete the apple take over effect. If your fast enough you can click on one of the skyscraper ads before the original banner ad expands and the link will simply takes you to the apple website.

Ok, so the copy isn’t anything phenomenal and the concept of expanding the rich media outside of its seemingly impenetrable boundaries isn’t necessarily groundbreaking but, the ad does seems to have a magnetic quality in the way it flawlessly interacts within the page. But I think the media planners really missed a prime opportunity to fully engage their target, the sports fan. The context in which they placed their ad, the ESPN homepage, should have played a much more significant role in their message. The media concept should have built on the strategic insight that these sports fans are looking for more than just scores; they’re looking for a simple outlet to become sports experts. So the question should have been how can Apple utilize this desire and enrich their experience on a Mac?

Instead of simply “wowing” fans with a cool media trick why not show them how a Mac can give them more of what they love most, sports information. For example, since this is play-off time why not tailor the message to highlight all the Apple exclusive widgets that are available on a Mac. Show all the PC users how a Mac can allow you to download or create sports specific widgets to enhance your sports viewing experience.

After all this is an Apple commercial and for faithful Mac users this level of intuitive consumer engagement is almost expected. If Apple could have crafted a message to coincide with the content on the ESPN homepage and then enhanced the content within the ad, I think they could have made believers out of both the PC and MAC faithful.

Here you can see the beginning of the ad with the top banner and fake side skyscrapers.

This is when the ad starts to expand through-out the page.

Finally, here is the completion of the ad with the new Mac ads reveled.

I just picked this pic up from some of my frat brothers who attended our annual “Kingdom Conference”  this past weekend back at Texas Tech! Check out our national blog at MOGFRAT.blogspot.com or follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/mogfrat.

You are looking at the $1500 Air Yeezys Gay Fish edition! I normally don’t get down on the Technicolor mash-ups but these seem to have a fresh hypnotic blend of  good design and unprecedented hype. So much for the rise of this so called new frugality!  For the clinically sane all we see is the RECESSION, Sneaker-heads on the other hand…. Recess – is – On !

I just saw Ray Allen hit one of the prettiest game winning, last second, three pointers of my life. Joakim Noah in his face contesting the shot… Doesn’t matter! He knocks down the shot with a sense of fundamental coolness as if it were pre-game warm-ups.  Ever since he found his way to bean town he has transformed into the must-have “Mr. Clutch” type player that every team needs. Now that I think about, I can’t even remember the last time one of his shots hit the rim! Although, Ben Gordon did exploit his defensive softness lighting Ray-Ray up for 42 points!  This is turning out to be on heck of a good series. My money is on the Baby Bulls taking the series in 6 games. D.Rose I see ya baby!

Its not often that I get to celebrate my home state of Texas so when I came across this collaboration between Supra, Spin Magazine, and Stubbs BBQ for the 2009 SXSW festival in Austin I knew I had to spotlight it. For those of you who don’t now about the SXSW festival it’s an annual celebration of music, film, innovation, and culture that’s hosted in downtown Austin. As history has shown and the recent election has reiterated Texas is a vibrant and proud Red state. But amidst the conservative nature of the state Austin lies as an oasis and melting pot of culture and acceptance.

So its no surprise that from this festival springs an eclectic brand collaboration that mixes fashion culture with culinary tradition topped with musical flair to produce the Stubb’s Skytop SXSW Edition. The Supra Skytop is designed as a special edition available in luscious BBQ brown. Along with the shoe comes a case of BBQ sauce from the legendary BBQ pit Stubb’s. A Texas tradition for good eats and good music! Finally the collection is completed with a fresh black tee that bears the symbol of the collaboration. In true Texas fashion the collection has been pretentiously packaged in an exquisite wooden crate and individually hand numbered. I’m not sure how many pairs of the kicks were produced but like the BBQ I’m sure they went fast!

I came across the Design21 “Power to the Pedal” design contest the other day and found some really interesting concepts. One of the best ideas I saw was called Contrail, a bike innovation geared toward developing biking communities. Here’s how it works: As you ride your bike, the Contail device attaches to the base of your seat and leaves behind a colorful chalk line on your rear tire, which then transforms the chalk to the pavement. The more people you find to ride the more colorful and intricate the patterns become and that’s were the genius of this idea comes into play.

First of all, the Contrail device does more than just paint the road. The brightly colored installations left by riders serve as a visual salute to pedestrians as well as future riders who find themselves along the same path. Acting as a subtle sign of solidarity among the anti-exhaust tribe within a hyper-motorized society. Now, the more people who embrace the Contail movement the more it encourages new riders to join-in and leave their own mark. And with this new wave of riders, they start to go over and reinforce lines created by cyclist before them. These lines become brighter and more defined allowing cyclist to distinguish a clear bike path on the road. Eventually what you have is an impromptu bike lane that’s created and reinforced by the cyclists themselves. Brilliant!

This may not be the best transition from the previous post but Nike has a knack for cultivating voracious desires  with their limited edition collections. I’m not quite a sneaker-head I just have a affection with the Nike dunk shoe and the special editions they produce. This pair is a recent collaboration in conjunction with Tim Burton’s  new movie Coraline .  The Wieden+ Kennedy 12 crew had a hand in the design and creation of the sneaker along with the film itself.  Unfortunately, The Coraline collaboration is not for sale and its rumored they only produced 1000 pairs so getting your hands on these bad boys at a reasonable price will be slim!

The majority of the fly kicks were distributed to exclusive fashion labels, concept stores, influential bloggers, and other people not named Jeff Fortune!  Although, they did set aside a small quantity  to be given away to fans as a promotion for the movie premiere. It seems the Nike Gods didn’t find me worthy.

P.S.-  Just for an extra dose of freshness the shoes are all hand stitched and the bottom sole glows in the dark!

I came across this the other day on All Day Buffet and thought I would pass it on.  If your like me, then the intricate analysis of economic strategist on CNN probably have you in an economic whirlwind. Not to worry, this ten minuet video should help to cut the Gordian knot!  The design element in the video is pretty nice as well. Enjoy!

There are two things in this world that I can say that I truly loath, coconut flavored anything and microeconomics. Both of which I personally wouldn’t mind eradicating from the face of the earth! But the latter  of the two I’ve come to at least  tolerate thanks to cleaver little website I discovered that illustrates life’s little happenings as humorous economic charts. I swore in undergrad that once I stumbled through my Microeconomics final exam I’d never draw one of those graphs again, but its been a couple a years  since then and these at least make sense!  Here’s a couple of graphs I thought up as a reflection of  my two years in gradschool.

Spring break is nearly upon us and that means graduation is right around the corner. And as we inch closer to freedom, professors urges us not to dwell on the dismal economic situation but to start thinking about which brands we would like to work with. Now, I’m a firm believer in the power of optimism but at this point I think a lot of us would gladly trade in our  ”Dream Job” ambitions for simply getting a job! But as I began to think about what brands I would really love to work for I came across one that seems to be an unfazed wrecking force regardless of the slumping recession. A brand that has erupted from television entartainment into print, radio, online and now into the poltical arena. All steaming from the charismatic personality of  the one we simply call OPHRA!

The simplest why to put it is that Oprah has become more than just a brand she has become an lifstyle. For millions of men and women she has become the authurity on premium blend culture and entertainment. Looking to her for guidence in everything from cooking to liturature, weightloss to parenting, she has become the cross stiching that mends together all these different layers of life. What other brand can recommend a book and instantly send it to the the New York best sellers list or through its clout behind a preseidential candidate and then watch them walk into the oval office. Oprah may have started her career as an tv personality but she has become an American Icon and a multi- million dollar brand , one of which I wouldn’t mind slipping my resume and portfolio!

Where exactly is the threshold from which someone’s personality ceases to be just an enduring quality and starts to become a monetised lifestyle brand. Marth and Racheal have somehow stumbled upon this holy grail but they haven’t been able to seep into every crevasse of life like Brand Oprah. Her brand has seemed to transcend even her as a person and taken on a life of its own. Ultimately, I think ” Oprah”  as a brand will transform itself from being just a purveyor of culture into a philosophy for living life and a way of thinking.