This is one of several proposed designs for sustainable, affordable housing to be built in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. The designs were submitted to the “Make It Right Project”–founded by actor Brad Pitt– by 14 national and international architectural firms. Make It Right plans to build 150 multi-family homes in the Lower 9th, each designed to help reduce high energy costs and have low impact on the environment. Pictured above is a design by the Philadelphia based firm, KieranTimberlake Associates. You can peep the full lineup here. Lots of odd and interesting picks in the bunch.

[via Dezeen/MIR]

For recording artists that absolutely insist on having all the luxuries of home right there in the studio with them, and vice versa, there is Global Studios. Open to both local and international recording artists, Global Studios combines luxury apartments and a state of the art recording studio (complete with 24 hour, on-call producers and engineers) all within one facility.

Our 24 hour a day on call engineers, producers and staff are located 5 minutes away to cater to your every need while staying in our beautiful city. All clients who stay with us fall under our discretion law. Meaning your stay at our facilities will be in total secrecy, a service that we pride ourselves on.

As one of our clients you will also receive unlimited access to our heated indoor pool, fitness area and saunas.

For our international clients, we also offer additional accommodations in the form of two guest apartments for their Management entourages and security.

Peep.

Here’s a pretty fresh ad spot for the Nike Air Force 1 that I stumbled across earlier this week. It’s directed by Christopher Riggert for Radical Media, and the visual effects are very well done! Peep.

[via Fubiz]

FWMJ, of the website Rappers I Know, has teamed up with 9th Wonder and Jean Grae to produce this dope set of album covers for their upcoming release, “Jeanius”. The covers, each directly based on classic hip-hop albums, will be separately released across several different markets (U.S., International, and digital formats) when the album officially drops. You can peep the original cover art –which I’m sure some of you have already been able to guess by now–after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Some Four huge announcements out of San Francisco today as Steve jobs delivered his annual keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo. Sadly, there’s still no word on an official IM client for the iPhone, however, 3rd party apps should be coming soon –software developer kits are set for release in February. Now, let’s take a look at today’s announcements:

#1 - Macbook Air:

Apple today introduced the world’s thinnest notebook: MacBook Air. It measures an unprecedented 0.16 inches at its thinnest point while its maximum height of 0.76 inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks. In addition to a stunning 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, MacBook Air offers a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support, letting users pinch, rotate and swipe. The new notebook is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and it includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1. Starting at just $1,799, MacBook Air begins shipping in two weeks.

#2 - Time Capsule

A backup appliance that works seamlessly with Time Machine to automatically and wirelessly back up everything on one or more Macs running Mac OS X Leopard, Time Capsule combines an 802.11n base station with a server grade hard disk in one small package. “Bring Time Capsule home, plug it in, click a few buttons on your Macs and voilà—all the Macs in your house are being backed up automatically, every hour of every day,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. When it ships in February, Time Capsule will be available in models featuring 500GB and 1TB hard drives for $299 and $499, respectively.

#3 - iTunes Movie Rentals

Available today with the free download of iTunes 7.6, iTunes Movie Rentals allows customers to rent movies for as little as $2.99 and watch them on their Macs or PCs, all current generation iPods, iPhone and Apple TV. Featuring movies from all the major movie studios—20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema—iTunes Movie Rentals is expected to offer more than 1,000 movie titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles featuring stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. Movies can be rented directly from a widescreen TV using Apple TV.

#4 - iPhone/iPod Touch Updates

iPhone Software Update 1.1.3, a free software update available today via iTunes 7.5 or later, brings significant new features to iPhone. After installing the update, iPhone customers will be able to automatically find their location using the redesigned Maps application; text message multiple people in one message; create Web Clips for their favorite websites; customize their home screen; and watch movies rented from the new iTunes Movie Rentals right on their iPhone.

With the installation of this major software upgrade, the best iPod becomes even more: the world’s best Wi-Fi mobile device. The upgrade—available from iTunes for just $19.99—adds five more great mobile applications to iPod touch: Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes. It also includes such new features as Web Clips, a customizable home screen, and the ability to watch iTunes Movie Rentals on iPod touch.

Genoco has developed this cool but anti-social App for the iPhone that basically allows you to order and purchase your favorite Starbucks drinks without having deal with the line or its employees. Not sure about how I feel about this just yet. All I can say is the future is NOW. Here’s their write up:

“Get your coffee fix, fast!” iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows the users to purchase their favorite Starbucks drink without waiting in line. This application also includes QuickPay, a swipe transaction system using semacode technology.

Read the rest of this entry »

In this “age of collaborations” that we now seem to live in, it’s very seldom that I find myself caught off guard, or completely captivated by many of the collaborative projects that constantly emerge onto/from the “hypester” scene. Denim collabs are definitely an exception, however. In what may seem like an unusual pairing to some, Adidas and Diesel have teamed up to produce a men’s and women’s collection of denim (due out sometime this spring). Is this their answer to a similar project by Puma and Evisu? I wouldn’t rule out the possibility. Whatever the case, I like what I see so far, and it should be pretty interesting to see how Adidas and Diesel make out with this. You can see more shots of the collection here.

[via HS]

Nearly four years old, and “Accordion” still holds up as one of my favorite tracks to come off of the MF Doom-Madlib album, Madvillainy. Unfortunately, its accompanying video has never seen the light of day until now. Stones Throw Records will be releasing the video, along with an assortment of videos and bonus features, on its upcoming DVD “In Living the True Gods”.

For much of 2007 it was next to impossible to visit a hip-hop blog or message board and not see the name Jay Electronica mentioned at least once during your visit. No joke. Hell, it’s still that way even now. Electronica, a New Orleans native, and the first act signed to Erykah Badu’s Control Freaq recording label, has been hailed as the future of hip-hop within most music circles, and continues to create a buzz for himself online as his tracks flood the ears and inboxes of hungry hip-hop heads. Despite all of this, Jay still remains relatively unknown to a lot of folks on the outside—outside of this internet hype bubble that we all live in, that is. So for all of them, as well as those few on the inside still working with limited knowledge of Jay’s work, here’s an in-depth interview/listening session conducted by Gilles Peterson that should help bring folks up to speed:

Gilles Peterson Worldwide - Vol.01, No.16 - Gilles Peterson speaks to Erykah Badu’s first signing Jay Electronica

Shouts to A. Cole for the linkage!

[originally heard @ Rappers I Know / photo via CDR]

The term “pay as you go” just took on a whole new meaning in New York City, well, sort of. The city has unveiled the first of 20, pay per use, sidewalk restrooms that will be located throughout downtown Manhattan. The stalls, which will cost a mere 25 cents per use, allow visitors up to 15 minutes of “go time”, and best of all, they clean themselves after each individual use. If this pay as you go method means cleaner public restrooms, then I’m for all it! You can peep the full article here.

[photo via Pentagram]