Ambiescentjunk

My site, Ambiescent, is due for a redesign soon. Hold on.

Here’s the version I’m not going to use, which has some work that’ll go on the new version. The new version looks much much better, but for now, this’ll do

—R

May potpourri

(The image above is by me—the rest of the images below are lifted from here and there. Oh and try doing a right click → Save target as, it’s a widescreen wallpaper.)

Hay, guise. Long time no post. Anyway, enough about me for awhile: here’s a potpourri of things that I found and like recently.

Absolut Metropolis

Absolut (not-so-)recently had a campaign where they took 11 random designers from the “urban youth” of Tokyo and had each of them do an Absolut ad. I couldn’t care less about Absolut’s involvement in it. But the project just overflows with foreign style and personality — I think that makes it look-worthy, forget about Absolut’s reputation for genius marketing!

Here’s what I think is the star of the series. Such a shame that the integration of the compulsory Absolut bottle seemed like a slapped-on afterthought (as with rest of the series), instead of being the centerpiece (as with Absolut’s tradition). I like the whole doll doppelgänger thing, though, I guess that makes up for it a little.

Image at fashion.at/foto, Absolut campaign site at absolut.com/metropolis.

Shelly Poole

She’s half of the now-defunct duo Alisha’s Attic, the voice behind Michael Gray’s “Borderline,” and now a solo artist with a great style.

Check out the video for her song “Totally Underwater” on YouTube. Seriously, with a logotype as gorgeous as that, how can you resist giving her a listen?

Satoshi Tomiie

Renaissance just released a new double-disc mix (okay, 2 months old now) — and this time from Satoshi Tomiie! Now, Tomiie has always been on my “to watch for” list since his progressive house days, and even now that he’s gotten into the whole electro-house trend he still ain’t half bad.

His new mix Renaissance The Masters Series Part 9 sways from electro-inspired progressive house (most of disc 1) to influences of minimal techno (on disc 2), keeping mostly a warmup-style atmosphere throughout — no smashing floor-fillers here. Disc 2 is my favorite: it kicks off with some trippy minimal beats which just get better and better as the mix goes.

Read more about it on ResidentAdvisor, or check out one of it’s standout tracks:

Planet Funk: “It’s Your Time” (Different Gear Mix) [mp3]

Open/closed

This would be, uh, Schrodinger’s Restaurant: neither open nor closed. (Or, the restaurant is <blink>not</blink> open.)

Of course I’m just playing smartass here: it probably means that they accept Equitable cards, but they’re closed for the night, but it’s amusing to laugh at the confusion it creates.

Mug

I’ve been looking around possible gifts to give people when I came across this simple tumbler at National Bookstore. (I’m due to give a bunch of people gifts!) The first shot shows how it works: the lid goes on the black cup, which goes inside the clear case where you can slip your own decal in. So I threw together a quick, low-res, inkjet-printed pastiche to try it out

The design isn’t exactly a well-directed effort. But the design aside, the tumbler still looks like shit! It feels like the cheap, flimsy, mass-manufactured piece of plastic that it is. Boo-fucking-hoo!