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Suspended Glass Display Bowls From Mono Can Hold Live Fish or Fruit.




Mono Pendants in Duo, Trio or Quartet offer a unique way to display living things, be them goldfish or succulents. The suspended displays are made in Germany of stainless steel and glass and come in three variations.


above: close up of stainless steel hanging cords and shelf with glass bowl insert bowl

Fill the glass bowls with colorful stones, colored water, sweets, floating candles, cactuses, beta fish or small plants. Or use the glass containers to store of fruit, vegetables or herbs in the kitchen.



The hanging Mono pendants are available in the "trio" with 3 glass inserts (64 centimetres wide), the "duo" with 2 glass inserts (40 centimetres), as or the "quartet" with 4 glass inserts (99 centimeres).





Designed by Mono of Germany and available either directly from them here or you can purchase them here at Connox

Forget Pitching to Hollywood. Zach Braff Raises $1.9 Million in 2 Days on Kickstarter.




Actor-director Zach Braff is killing it on Kickstarter. He has forgone traditional ways of getting Hollywood backing and has raised $1.9 million (and counting) in two days on the crowdsourcing platform, for "Wish I Was Here," his follow-up to "Garden State." His goal was to reach $2 million in funding in a month.



above: Zach wrote the move with his brother Adam last summer.

His pitch on Kickstarter launched two days ago, April 24th and as of 7:30pm April 26th (Pacific Time) he has raised $1,916,889 from 27,135 backers. He still has 27 days to reach his $2,000,000 goal, which he obviously will surpass.

His earnest and likeable video pitch on Kickstarter has appearances by Jim Parsons, Donald Faison and Chris Hardwick:


Cinematographer Larry Sher, who shot Zach's first film, Garden State, as well as the hangover franchise, has agreed to shoot "Wish I Was Here":


Here is a drawing of the film's characters by Colin Fix (the film in NOT animated):


To get all the details about the film or to become a supporter and see what goodies various pledges will get you, visit Zach's Kickstarter project.

Better Late Than Never. The New 100$ Bill And Its High Tech Security Features Explained.




The Federal Reserve Board announced on Wednesday that the redesigned $100 note will finally begin circulating on October 8, 2013. This note, which incorporates new security features such as a blue, 3-D security ribbon, will be easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.

The new design for the $100 note was unveiled in 2010, but its introduction was postponed following an unexpected production delay. (It was supposed to start circulating in February of 2011).

The new $100 as seen in regular light:


The new $100 as seen when backlit:


The new $100 as seen in UV or Black light:


To ensure a smooth transition to the redesigned note when it begins circulating in October, the U.S. Currency Education Program is reaching out to businesses and consumers around the world to raise awareness about the new design and inform them about how to use its security features.

I had already done that in this post back in 2010, so here it is again for you:

Officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the United States Secret Service recently unveiled the new design for the $100 note. Complete with advanced technology to combat counterfeiting, the new design for the $100 note retains the traditional look of U.S. currency.



There are a number of security features in the redesigned $100 note, including two new features, the 3-D Security Ribbon and the Bell in the Inkwell. These security features are easy for consumers and merchants to use to authenticate their currency.



The blue 3-D Security Ribbon on the front of the new $100 note contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as you tilt the note. The Bell in the Inkwell on the front of the note is another new security feature. The bell changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it seem to appear and disappear within the copper inkwell.

The new $100 note also displays American symbols of freedom, including phrases from the Declaration of Independence and the quill the Founding Fathers used to sign this historic document. Both are located to the right of the portrait on the front of the note.

The back of the note has a new vignette of Independence Hall featuring the rear, rather than the front, of the building. Both the vignette on the back of the note and the portrait on the front have been enlarged, and the oval that previously appeared around both images has been removed.

Although less than 1/100th of one percent of the value of all U.S. currency in circulation is reported counterfeit, the $100 note is the most widely circulated and most often counterfeited denomination outside the U.S.

The New Security Features
Below is a close-up look at the new features to help you learn how to identify the real thing and use the two advanced security features: the 3-D Security Ribbon and the Bell in the Inkwell.



1. Portrait Watermark
Hold the note to light and look for a faint image of Benjamin Franklin in the blank space to the right of the portrait.

3. Color-Shifting 100
Tilt the note to see the numeral 100 in the lower right corner of the front of the note shift from copper to green.



2. Security Thread
Hold the note to light to see an embedded thread running vertically to the left of the portrait. The thread is imprinted with the letters USA and the numeral 100 in an alternating pattern and is visible from both sides of the note. The thread glows pink when illuminated by ultraviolet light.

4. Raised Printing
Move your finger up and down Benjamin Franklin’s shoulder on the left side of the note. It should feel rough to the touch, a result of the enhanced intaglio printing process used to create the image. Traditional raised printing can be felt throughout the $100 note, and gives genuine U.S. currency its distinctive texture.

6. Microprinting
Look carefully to see the small printed words which appear on Benjamin Franklin’s jacket collar, around the blank space containing the portrait watermark, along the golden quill, and in the note borders.



5. Gold 100
Look for a large gold numeral 100 on the back of the note. It helps those with visual impairments distinguish the denomination.

FW Indicator (not shown here)
The redesigned $100 notes printed in Fort Worth, Texas, will have a small FW in the top left corner on the front of the note to the right of the numeral 100. If a note does not have an FW indicator, it was printed in Washington, D.C.

All U.S. currency remains legal tender, regardless of when it was issued. Visit www.newmoney.gov where you can watch an animated video and click through an interactive note.

More information about the new design $100 note, as well as training and educational materials, can be found at www.newmoney.gov. For media inquiries, call 202-452-2955

Damien Lewis + Lana Del Rey + Action = DESIRE, A Short Film For Jaguar and A Look Behind The Scenes.




To promote the new Jaguar F-TYPE, sexy ginger Golden Globe winning actor Damian Lewis joins Shannyn Sossamon in this new action-packed 13 minute short film, DESIRE, a collaboration with Ridley Scott Associates and featuring music from Lana Del Rey.




'Desire,' directed by Adam Smith in a five day shoot in Chile's Atacama Desert, is a 13 minute tongue-in-cheek James Bond-esque story in which Lewis plays Clark, a man who encounters difficulties in his attempts to deliver a Jaguar F-TYPE to a rather shady man who's at odds with a mysterious young woman played by Shannyn Sossamon.


above: "It sort of fell into my lap," the London-born actor tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I've never done anything for the online market before, and I just thought it was cool to work with Ridley Scott and [director] Adam Smith. I thought the script had a kind of nod to the Americana that you find in the Coen brothers' movies."

Now, a look at the 13 minute branded content and the making of it.

DESIRE:


"The Making Of" in 3 parts:
Join Ridley Scott Associates and director Adam Smith in Chile's Atacama Desert, as the crew begin to bring the action-packed F-TYPE Desire film to life in a look behind the scenes


Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:




Interested in the new F-Type? you can download the e-brochure here

The Classic Rock Ballad 'Beth' by KISS From Her Point of View (And The True Story).




Anyone who grew up during the 70s and 80s is familiar with the song "Beth" which was written by guitarist Stan Penridge and sung by KISS original drummer, Peter Criss. The song, to which many of my peers slow-danced in school gyms, has been featured or sung on GLEE, American Idol and in numerous movies. We often speculated as to who this "Beth" actually was - and apparently we were not the only ones.


above: at the risk of simultaneously dating myself and freaking out my readers, I actually still have my original single of Beth.

This legendary KISS ballad gets lampooned in this four and a half minute short film directed by Brian Billow of Anonymous Content, shown below. The fictitious story of the song’s inspiration came from the mind of Bob Winter, executive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami. The Peter Criss character's dialogue stays true to the song's lyrics and the video is perfectly art directed to capture the era. Only flaw? Peter Criss was actually the only KISS member in the studio when the song was recorded for the 1976 album Destroyer*.

As Winter told Adweek previously, "I was thinking that it might be fun to create a series that's like the made-up stories behind real songs."



The truth is not far off. According to Songfacts, Criss and Penridge came up with a song called "Beck," which was about the wife/girlfriend of their guitarist Mike Brand (they were in a band named Chelsea at the time), whose name was Becky. It's rumored she was a hypochondriac and was constantly interrupting their band practices with phone calls asking when Mike was coming home, and the song was a joke directed at him.

In 1976, after Criss joined Kiss, he and Penridge revived the song and with the help of producer Bob Ezrin, they changed the title to "Beth" and made it more sentimental, changing the end of the first verse from: "I know you love complaining, but Beck what can I do?" to "I think I hear them callin', Oh, Beth what can I do?"

Get the whole story behind the Bob Winter and Brian Billow version  here at Adweek.

CREDITS
Director: Brian Billow
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Senior Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Executive Producer, Production: SueEllen Clair
Producer: Paul Ure
Writer: Bob Winter
Director of Photography: Darran Tiernan
Editor: John Dingfield, Beast Editorial
Actors:
Beth: Lilli Birdsell
Peter: Steven Olson
Kid #1: Michael Hamilton
Kid #2: Robert Hamilton
Ace: Roy Green
Paul: Alec Paul Cartinian
Gene: Rocco Fonzarelli
Roadie: Jason Lee Beckwith
Performer, Beth Piano Intro: Coleman Zurkowski

*source: wikipedia

The Winner (And All 29 Finalists) of The Heineken Future Bottle ‘Remix’ Challenge




Heineken has announced the winner of their 2012/13 Your Future Bottle Design Challenge. The winning design (shown below) was created by Fernando Degrossi, who is a graphic designer from Sao Paolo, Brazil.

The Winning Design:


Fernando submitted several designs, a few others of which were finalists and shown later in this post.

To celebrate its 140th year, Heineken put its design elements online and challenged creatives everywhere to ‘remix’ these assets into an iconic bottle, designed for the future. The remix theme gave designers total freedom to delve into Heineken’s past and play with the brand's DNA to create a cool new design. The winning approach remixes five circular Heineken logos from five different decades, and incorporates the red star, Heineken’s famous trademark.

The video invitation to the design challenge:


The winning design and the finalists were selected at a live judging event at Heineken’s space in the heart of the creative community at Milan Design Week, which has been visited by more than 10,000 design fans since opening on Tuesday. Fernando’s design beat almost 2,000 entries and becomes the second Limited Edition bottle that will be produced. It will go on sale around the world in early 2014.

The Top 5 Finalists:
Anna Ptasinka:

Andy Audsley:

Tomasz Wagner:

Fernando Degrossi:

Bartek Bak:


The Other 24 Finalists (in no particular order):
Balazs Kaczper:

Davide Colombo:

Elina Presniakova:

Fernanda Ochoa:

Fernando Degrossi:

Fernando Degrossi:

Ji Yeon Kim:

Johan Bl:

Joris Blomjous:

Milos Dostanic:

Nemanja Djordjevic:

Nicolas Vicario:

Nivedita Sivaprakash:

Paolo Tonon:

Pat Corrigan:

Thijs Mensink:

Victor Correa:

Dominique Hernandez:

Leondios Tsiobanelis:

Marco Bellarosa Architects:

Marco Bellarosa Architects:

A Serbian designer whose name I do not have the characters to type (I'm so sorry) so I pasted his name above his design:


Sergey Rizhov:

Sergey Rizhov:


The judging panel consisted of designer Joshua Davis; Evan Orensten of Cool Hunting; Mark Dytham of PechaKucha and Heineken’s global head of design Mark van Iterson.

Mark van Iterson, Global Head of Design at Heineken, said "This is the completion of a five month process; a contest that has attracted over 2,000 high quality entries. The use of our heritage in this winning design is really clever and results in a very contemporary iconic bottle. It was a bold step to put our brand history into the hands of emerging designers, but Heineken is a progressive brand and this contest has proved again that opening up in the search for creativity pays off.”

Heineken

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