There was a point of time when there is nothing cool about bath mats. Bath mats were things middle age women purchase and seem to have no specific function at home for men (which man cares if a little water splatter, right?). However, in comes Gallery1950 and everything changes. Suddenly, these little rugs for the bathroom are legitimate additions to any balchelor pad, especially if you managed to get your hands on their cool collaborative pieces with labels such as OriginalFake.

There is something about New York City which attracts writers and producers everywhere to imagine stories and projects around the magical apple. One click onto IMDB and there would be a flood of titles both on the silver screen and on TV that is set in New York, that is about New York, that tries to be New York. One sitcom that is quite undeniably New York, though shot mainly in Los Angeles, is the long-running cult favorite, Seinfield. Larry David and Jerry Seinfield created the show which aired in 1989, with the latter playing a fictionalized character of himself and David being represented by the ever egotistical, atavistic and grouchy George. After Seinfield ending its nine-season run in 1998 and moved on to go on re-runs over and over, a spinoff, Curb Your Enthusiasm, inspired by an one-hour mockumentary on HBO, aired and lived on for seven seasons. As one of the longest running series on HBO, Curb Your Enthusiasm is about the live of Larry David, who is now a retired millionaire, coping with life in Los Angeles.

As season seven had just wrapped in November 2009, and HBO announced that the show will be back for an 8th season to air in 2011, Dazed Digital had sat down with Larry David to chat a little bit about him, the dramatized version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and how his children are neither fans of his show nor him in general. Enjoy the interview, and read it in its entirety on Dazed Digital.

Like some of the 2010 FIFA World Cup advertisements have been preaching, all it really takes, is one moment, or even one second, to make a man into a legend, or push him down into the abyss of nothingness (or perhaps, with Rooney’s imagined desolate future in Nike’s Write The Future campaign, end up in a caravan). June 12th, was such a moment. It was a moment we held our breaths simultaneously, as we watched the adidas Jabulani skidded off Clint “Clintinho” Dempsey’s foot and rolled quite ungracefully into the goal, followed by a even more ungraceful saving attempt by England’s goalkeeper, Robert Green. That was also the moment, when the adidas Jabulani controversy has officially been lifted from news pieces, reviews and blog coverages that only soccer fanatics seem to care about, and turned into something everyone can chime in on. Why? Because, many have attributed to the uncharacteristic loss to the ball instead of the player. After that fateful game, even the U.S. keeper Tim Howard expressed sympathy for Green and said that “[the ball] is doing really silly things,”. Howard is not the only goalkeeper to speak out against the ball, prior to the tournament, many goalkeepers have mentioned that the ball is difficult to handle and worked against goalkeepers because it is unpredictable.

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup well underway, promising action, surprises (Japan who was thought to be the weakest of its group had risen to the occasion and triumphed over Cameroon; meanwhile, reigning champion Italy was rather disappointing in tying the game with Paraguay), and everything one loves about kicking a little round ball about the field, the biggest question is often not, who to support, but where to watch the game. For the folks in London, Nike Stadiums and Selfridges are offering an elegant solution (perhaps more so perfect than elegant) to the game-viewing dilemma. Nike Stadiums will be coming to the beloved shopping spot, Selfridges, and setting up shop in the lower ground floor’s ULTRALOUNGE by providing a wholesome retail and game-viewing experience.

New York City billed itself as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, city in the world. With that mindset, New Yorkers take pride in having the best of everything, everything except a superstar athlete on the starting lineup of the New York Knicks basketball team. That drought might be over soon as July 1st draws near; the day LeBron James becomes a free agent. To coerce “King James”, New York City created a media blitzkrieg which disseminate through radio, television, billboard, printed matters, Internet, and everything is between. Dubbed C’MON LEBRON and lead by the media savvy NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg (who made billions by revolutionize the dissemination of business news), the campaign urges James to come to New York. The massive effort includes a dedicated Facebook page, a Twitter keyword, a downloadable “toolkit” filled with Facebook avatars, print logos, and more. There is a YouTube video with celebrity chef Mario Batali offering James free dinner, for James and 19 of his guests, every 2 weeks at his restaurant. There are also rumors that Dwyane Wade maybe in the running as well….

> C’MON LEBRON
> C’MON LEBRON Facebook Page

Apparently here is the formula to a successful guerrilla marketing campaign that may single-handedly carry America’s crippled economy out of the slums (Perhaps an exaggeration, perhaps a bold prophecy)– primitive inane competitive spirit ingrained in mankind, especially of the male species + indulgent vice + copious amount of alcohol. Yes, we are talking about the viral drinking game which is sweeping the nation, suspected to be started by vodka distillery, Smirnoff, in an attempt to boost the sales of Smirnoff Ice– the company’s “girly” vodka based concoction.

In these heady days of information overload, its quite easy to loose sight of the more important news. So on the day of the most important Apple announcement in 2010 thus far, Freshness wanted to honor Tobias Wong, who passed away last Monday, May 30th, at the age of 35. Remembered by the like of Bill McMullen and John Lee of Theme Magazine, Tobias Wong, affectionately known as Tobi by his friends, was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. After a brief stint in University of Toronto, Wong continued his educational pursue at the prestigious Cooper Union in New York. Though trained as a sculptor, Wong started to hone his skills as an industrial designer, and in time, created one-off products that were also conceptual art forms. It was his provocations and pranks, however, that earned him the title “l’enfant terrible”, “attention monger”, to even worst labels by the design community. An equal opportunity offender, Wong gained the wrath of Karim Rashid when he re-created Rashid’s book, I Want to Change the World, in the form of a gun-shape cutout. Fast food giant McDonald’s wasn’t please either when Wong dipped its coffee stirrer in gold, for his Ju$t Another Rich Kid exhibit. Continued on with his satirical musing, Wong built a factitious storefront in Chelsea neighborhood. Called the Wrong Store, the retail space was filled with exclusive design goods, included a rare KAWS x Medicom Toy BE@RBRICK. With so many desirable products on display, there was one catch, the store was never meant to open. In fact, the sign at the door said it all, , “Come In, We’re Closed.”

These days, as long as one is selling an intellectual commodity which vaguely resembled making something new, one can be dubbed as creative. However, for one to actually live up to the grueling standards of “creative”, it is another story entirely. East London’s creative agency, ILoveDust, is one of the few companies whose work have continued to refresh and wow the crowd, and have people exclaim “That’s creative!” without feeling like they are abusing the English language. After an extremely well received, high-octane collaboration with Nike Sister One to create the Nike Chase animation, ILoveDust is now back in the sports world and has worked with the Jordan Brand to create a series of murals for the label.

Ingenious engineering, child’s play or simply too much time to spare? For the maker of this LEGO printer, it might be a combination of all three plus a load of imagination. The dorkier ones among us would remember that LEGO has once made a line of toys called “Mindstorm”, which combines both computer programming with LEGO’s meticulously crafted building blocks to allow players to build their own robots with specific routines. However, this is not built from one of those sets. The printer, constructed from analog motor electronics, sensors, printer driver, USB interface, felt-tip coloring pen (in place of printer ink cartridges) and paper, is hooked up to an Apple Mac to actually print things off the computer. As amusing as it is watching the little LEGO characters slave their way printing a random graphic, watching the process in real time is quite excrutiating. The entertainment value and ingenuity of this project though, is quite unparalleled.

2009 didn’t seem like such a good year for talents, as we said goodbye to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, amongst many others. While many embarked on this year hoping things might be better, early in spring, the world lost its punk pioneer and original agent provocateur, Malcolm McLaren. On Apr 8, Malcolm McLaren lost his battle against Mesothelioma (skin cancer), left us with memories and a significant legacy.

Since this video appeared online, featuring the N*E*R*D crew in some fresh BBC/Ice Cream get up (and sometimes none at all), many blogs have been deducing that this must be the photo shoot for the group’s upcoming “Nothing” album. However, according to our friends at BBC/Ice Cream, the “Nothing” album is actually shot by Terry Richardson, and this behind the scenes video is for a photo shoot N*E*R*D is doing for fashion photographer Mark Abrahams’ upcoming book. Regardless, of the mix up, the boys seem to be having a ball at the photo shoot and the behind-the-scenes video is set to a pretty addicting track. So, click on and enjoy! via: BBC/Ice Cream

Not just a center for sports, Nike Stadium is the center for culture, art, and everything about passion. And in view that the 2010 FIFA World Cup is coming up really soon on Jun 11, nothing describes passion quite as well as the fanatical fury soccer fans have for the sport. In rallying for the most anticipated sports fanfare for the year, Nike has been opening up its Nike Stadium venture in major cities around the world, including Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, London, and now, Amsterdam. For the Amsterdam Stadium, Nike has teamed up with local retailer, Precinct 5, to temporarily transform its KUUB designed space into a World Cup and soccer inspired gallery.