Design: Curing Disease Through Design in Haiti

First Place: (Above Anselmo Canfora (architect); Richard Guerrant (medical doctor); Ewan Smith (engineer); Galen Staengl (engineer); Michael Stoneking (architect); Aja Bull-Richards, Sara Harper, Sally Lee, Nathan Parker, Chase Sparling-Beckley, Lauren Thompson (architecture students) )

Yesterday, Architecture for Health in Vulnerable Environments (ARCHIVE), unveiled the winners of their competition to design housing that help stop the spread of infectious diseases in Haiti. Above see the design that won first place. See below for the rest of the winning designs.

Second Place: Lilian Sherrard and Brook K. Sherrard (architects)

Third Place: Marco Ferri (engineer); Giorgio Giannattasio (physician & immunologist); Sara Parlato, Roberto Pennachio, Andrea Tulisi (architects)

For more on the finalists and honorable mentions check out the slideshow at ARCHIVE. For more on the competition, check out the ARCHIVE website and this article from Architectural Record.

For more on anything functional, creative and contemporary visit my site, Culturalblahblah.com at http://www.culturalblahblah.com

Fashion: Lebron8v2

Not only court worthy but street savvy as well! This new version Of the Lebron 8 called the 8 V2. is lighter and has a better ventilation system. I think the styling is very Marty McFly! In my opinion his best sneaker to date. With a price tag of around 160$ and Quantities very limited this will be around about as long as Justin Bieber's virginity!

Music: Baby H.A.M. (Baby Disses Jay Z)

Ok Hip-Hop heads Jay Z and Kanye West released their first single H.A.M. (Hard As A Motha f@#Ka). This is off their upcoming collaboration album, Watch The Throne. In my opinion this is a bone they threw out to see what the people are responding to. I think this particular track is not gonna be among their better work off the album. Kanye West did not bring his A game, however Jay Z does what he always does - what Jay Z Do, kill sh*t! He never slacks in is craft. This song dosen't work for me too much, because in order for a collaboration song to work, each artist must compliment each other, they have to feed off one another. After Jay spit you didn't even remember Kanye's verse. I would like to point out a verse by Jay Z "I'm like really half a billi n@*ga really you got baby money keep it real with n@*gas n@*gas a'int got my lady's money". I recall Baby from cash money once said "Lil Wayne was a better lyricist and Lil Wayne has more money than Jay Z" - could Jay Z just be saying that "n@*gas have baby money, small doe, little to no doe, flash now money but still owe doe" Don't Know you tell me. Jay-Z responded to baby before once before.

Music: H.A.M.

FULL SONG

Music: Melky Jean "Better"

[be sure to watch this video in 720p - change the setting - it is available in HD]

Purse & Pulse's VERY FIRST video Pulse on none other than Melky Jean! Look out for her new music video for "Better" premiering this Wednesday January 12th. video Pulse written & produced by Maureen Aladin

Food: What Not to Eat In The Hood

Ok, I took a field trip to a local corner store in Washington DC, just to show you'll what a FOOD DESERT is!

As I walked into the store, all I hear is "pass me the jar of PICKLED PIGS FEET" I almost fell out!

I looked up and WOW, really! A real live bottle of PICKED PIGS FEET!

FAST FOOD, FAST PROFITS

Design: FINALLY MADE

going back to about 07 i met this dude named prince. prince was a college student in arizona, and i met him through his cousin from germany. she used to always say how she had a cousin that was tryin to start a clothing line up and that i should connect with him. so we eventually connect via the wonders of the internet and he shows me the pieces he was working on @ the time....i gotta tell you, i was like are you SERIOUS?! the pieces didn't look like anything @ all, and weren't strong enough to hold him down the way he would have liked them to. dude had all kinds of drive and a HELL of alot of heart, he knew what he had wasn't much but it was the best he could do with what he had to work with. i respect that hardbody so i offered to help dude rebrand and redirect. within a month or so dude took the designs i did for him, got em printed up and was really pushing them. he eventually hooked up with another designer who was able to help him get a little closer to his dream of havin his own spot and pushin his own line. fast forward to 2011 and dude now has a dope ass spot selling not only his own line, but doin his numbers with the clips clothing line play cloths, benny gold, better off dead, alife, the hundreds, super and g shock to name a few. if you're ever in phoenix, AZ you should look him up, tell him rez sent you. i really respect this dudes hustle and it feels good to see him makin it happen. i'm glad i was able to be a part of your journey my dude. lookin forward to seein you rock with the big dogs :) PROPS TO MY NUKKA PRINCE!!!

http://www.finallymade.com/blog/

Design: Kaws...Graffiti Artist Turned Pop Culture Icon

I love re-discovering an artist. I always knew about Kaws but never really paid him the attention he deserved until I saw a retrospective of his work last month at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Now he's one of my favorite artists.

New Jersey native now based in good old BK, Kaws is a graffiti artist turned visual artist/designer/pop culture icon. In the beginning he gained a lot of attention for his subverted advertisements (pictured above), but now he is especially popular for his product design including apparel and limited edition vinyl toys (up top). Below see a vid of an installation he recently did in Hong Kong.

Skira/Rizzoli recently published his book. Get a copy at Amazon.

http://www.culturalblahblah.com

Fashion: COMME des GARCONS

Not the Newest but still is the freshest Shirt to own! Not many people is up on this but Peep Kanye & Drake and of course Me!!! Rocking Comme Des Garcons Play Tee!!

Comme des Garçons, French for "like boys", is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, who is also its sole owner. Comme des Garçons has a dozen boutiques and approximately 200 vendors around the world, with flagship stores in Aoyama, Tokyo's high fashion district, as well as Place Vendôme in Paris. Each year, the company grosses in the neighborhood of $150 million.

Film 101: Dawn of the Neo-Indie digi-movie

I have seen the future of indie film and I’d like to say we are experiencing the “dawn of the neo-indie digi-movie”. What does that mean exactly? Think a little about my posts last year on Italian neo-realism and early indie film before you ask…First, if you have ‘Hollywood’ or popular TV actors in your movie it’s not really indie, though Sundance, Tribeca and Cannes might say it is indeed ‘indie’. If it’s directed by a Hollywood actor, but stars “no-name’ actors, it’s not really an indie film because of that actor’s attachment to the film (it’s easier for them to acquire talent and resources, etc…). Any Hollywood attachment, whatsoever, disqualifies a film as being ‘indie’ if you ask me--that also goes for indie divisions of Hollywood studios. Hardly anyone is shooting with actual 'film stock' anymore either (everyone’s gone digital), so we’re not really watching films anymore anyway—they are digital movies. So, therefore, the dawn of the neo-indie digi-movie has arrived—shot on digital video, transferred to film for theaters (if you are lucky), but most likely going straight to a digital file on the internet, on-Demand and/or maybe DVD or Blue-ray. I guess the closest we’ve come to this, commercially, is with Paranormal Activity—low budget, shot digitally with ‘no name’ actors and crew but still released, widely in theaters by being transferred to film (then back to digital for DVD, internet etc...). Historically, the horror genre seems to be the only genre to easily transcend this issue whether film, video or digi-movie (think also--Friday 13^th, Blair Witch). Recently, the first widely released, dramatic neo-indie digi-movie (shot on a Canon 7D and transferred to film for theaters, but starring no-name actors and crew), dropped and it is called TINY FURNITURE. More about TF, how it was shot and it’s writer/actor/director next time…