My friend Aaron G. took apart and remade the Mies masterpiece. The steel mass that makes the cantilever possible is full of 300lbs lead shot. It turned out quite nice.

My friend Lance made a couple of banjos and I shot them yesterday afternoon. Lovely.

Continuing the theme today: Mr. Banham was a lifetime rider of these most interesting folding bicycles. He apparently rode them through the streets of London and throughout his tenure at UC Santa Cruz. Made in the UK, they present an odd space frame structure in the center that contributes to their suspension. The company was sold to Raleigh Bicycles for a while which seems to have coincided with a decline in the brand. However, in the early ’80s the company was purchased back and made a new (reminds me of the Harley Davidson / AMF debacle). Now they are back to their old form, a part of the permanent collection at MoMA, and mad expensive. Hats off to Mr Banham for being todays inspiration and the source of much future reading here.

[1] image of Moulton in MoMA

Every year (except last) I produce a mixtape of my favorite songs for the holidays. This is the fourth edition and by far the most laborious and exciting. All of the original artwork is from NASA or Illustrator, printed on high res paper with an ink jet. It is late but hopefully awesome. The tracklist follows:

1. 4/28/67 part 2 – Skipp Coon
2. You – Gold Panda
3. Not In Love – Crystal Castles (ft. R. Smith)
4. Helicopter – Deerhunter
5. Chinatown – Wild Nothing
6. Marathon – Tennis
7. Wilderness – Active Child
8. Lucidity – Tame Impala
9. 10 Miles – Beach House
10. 32 Leaves dipped – Shabazz Palaces
11. Carolina – Girls
12. Excuses (Yours Truly) – Morning Benders

My favorite song of the year is definitely Not In Love. The albums I listened to most (according to iTunes) were Active Child and Wild Nothing, but the Black Keys’ album was not far behind. Such a good year, for me, my growing family, and music. Cheers!

Poler, a Portland camping gear startup, looks like they have the right idea and design thinking going on. They make these rad little air activated heating packs called Heat Bags. And they are releasing a full line at SIA next week. “It’s for people that look at most outsdoorsy stuff and wonder why everyone is trying to pretend they are going to do first ascents on alpine peaks instead of celebrating the fact that they are having adventures that are awesome in their own way.” Sign me up.

French children and design from before yesterday. All media devices should have plungers that remind children of TNT igniters. And has there been a kid since Rockit that didn’t try to scratch on any record player within arms length? My mom collects odd vintage kitchen utensils and always had good fun asking us what we thought each one was for. We looked a lot like these children I think. Via core77.

Nice photo collection of vintage military designs over at A Time to Get. Particularly like the collection of radios and how it shows the homogeneity of military device design. I have designed a couple of these artifacts and the complexity of requirements is paramount. The aesthetics of a weatherproof, radiation proof, dust proof, ruggedized object has a certain appeal. The U.S. military loves a good black box.

Our kerfing project was selected for GSD Studioworks / Platform. Hooray!

The Palimpost project from MIT was added to work. We are now working on submitting it to the CHI ’11 conference. A great team that one.