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Okayā¦ This one is sort of a secret but information should be freeāand good taste should be passed around like a bad flu. The catalog that accompanied the auction of the late interior designer Jim Walrod's personal collection is like a reference bible for brilliant style. Jim was discovered by Andy Warhol and worked at Fiorucci, and later opened his Form and Function gallery in 1998. He designed my friend Mel Ottenberg's apartment, and also did Mike D's from the Beastie Boys. He worked with Steven Meisel and Andre Balasz, consulted on the unforgettable interiors in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, and perhaps most famously was David Bowie's decorator. If I could steal anyone's eye, it would be Jim's. Favorite pieces I discovered through him include Lapo Binazzi's MGM Table Lamp, Antonio Locatelli and Pietro Salmoraghi's Centopiedi daybed, Nanda Vigo's Light Tree, and Ettore Sotsass's Attribution shelves. He was obsessed with Gaetano Pesce and had the absolutely jaw-dropping Nobody's Perfect cabinet in his possessionā¦ I love feeling jealous.
Mar 3, 2022
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Iāve seen these annual digests of the best in product innovation around forever but only started buying them recently. I grabbed one at a place in LA that had loads of dusty design books on the cheap. Not long after that, I went to a Housing Works on the UES because someone on TikTok said it had the best clothing selection. It didnāt, but they did have 2 of these for $10 each.Theyāre pure cheat code. Every good idea thatās being ripped off by contemporary artisans is in one of these - lamps bent into unnatural shapes, shelves that donāt look like they hold very much, dinnerware that youād never dare eat off of. The designs are Italian and Japanese, of course, but also Finnish, Canadian, Spanish, even American. Each edition has a different luminary as an editor: Arata Isozaki, Mario Bellini, Philippe Starck, freakinā Alessandro Mendini. Theyāre tidy, portable museums.
Aug 24, 2021
Current fave but the list is always changingā¦ I recently came across this cool ass book āvolta photoā about his studio shots from the late 60s - early 80s. he would have a bunch of friends come by/ wear sick outfits/ stand in front of vibey patterned backdropsā¦ Gucci def rips some of this in their best advertising. A must see.
Dec 11, 2024
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I always pull inspiration from these books. I love reading Andyās escapades and the graphic presentation of Babitz words in the original Fiorucci book.
Jul 5, 2023
Top Recs from @patrik-sandberg
Whenever I mention Night Flight Plus, no one knows what Iām talking about. Itās a streaming service named after (and featuring) the USA Network late-night cult series from the 1980s. It also includes a ton of films of the cult, horror, obscure music documentary, and exploitation variety. If youāre looking for Paul Morrissey, Troma Films, Vinegar Syndrome, or outdated TV specials about Minor Threat and Kate Bush, its curation is like a return to Kimās Videoā¦ or my favorite VHS store from San Francisco, Le Video. The other night I watched an English-language Italian fashion giallo from 1988 called Too Beautiful To Die. Itās a totally outrageous masterpiece. Itās my favorite subscription. Feast your eyes.
Feb 21, 2025
I was born in San Francisco and raised in Marin and Sonoma (specifically a town called Petaluma) and now that enough decades have past, I have a new appreciation for the beauty of the regionāparticularly as depicted by Hollywood's great genre filmmakers of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Of course, this includes great San Francisco movies like Vertigo (Hitchcock), Bullitt (Yates) and The Game (Fincher), but there are so many others that venture out to Monterey, Bodega Bay, and all the way up to Humboldt County. Some of my friends keep a running tally of "NorCal Noir" movies. Some favorites:
Salem's Lot (Miniseries, 1979), The Fog (1980), Play Misty For Me (1971), The Birds (1963), The Final Terror (1983), Firefox (1982), Dead and Buried (1981), Murder She Wrote (TV episodes, various), Cujo (1983), Point Blank (1967).
There are probably many others but between the midcentury architecture, west coast hippie/yuppie dialectic, atmospheric coastal fog, and rolling hills, it's a distinct vibe that always feels incredibly indulgent and tasteful even when it's lent in service of schlock.
Nov 24, 2024
My friend Aaron put me onto Badvril, the best band presently crawling out of San Franciscoāthe cesspool from whence we all came. And they sound like it, in all the most perfect, sludgy, narcotic, dreamy, total-eclipsing sort of ways. If you like shoegaze, Catherine Wheel, early Pumpkins, '90s alt revival, or melodic punk that pre-dates the Hot Topic era, you will die and go to heaven listening to their I AM GOD EP. that came out in February.
The desirous thing about becoming a fan before there is too much noise is that it's easy to catch up on their back catalogue. And then Becket becomes your Instagram friend and sends you the new unreleased album and it's the best music you've ever heard in your life. One wrong move and they could be too huge to handle. I wish them all the money in the world.
Dec 9, 2024