Salvage Love

Check out the salvage love behind Blake Dollahite's Austin home in the September issue of Dwell magazine. All of the doors were salvaged or bought cheaply at a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore; much of the flooring was made by milling old roof decking; he made his own light fixtures; and during breaks he surfed eBay. For the sharply peaked ceiling of his bedroom, Dollahite chose raw corrugated metal. The reflective surface brightens up the space and elongates the room. Using a beat-up white credenza he’d had in storage for years, Dollahite created an antique-inspired vanity for his bathroom, which he fitted with a robin’s-egg-blue sink. With an aged mirror and small light fixtures, the compact space resembles a country doctor’s office.



Photos by Misty Keasler

Music+Art

MUSIC+ART THAT IS INSPIRING ME AT THE MOMENT.

Nick Jaina has painted faces at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, hung posters in Greenwich Village, toured all of Canada, has been rescued on a farm outside Indianapolis, has been stuck in the El Paso Greyhound station, propositioned while hitch hiking the hill country of Texas, and has been broke in San Francisco. He has written many songs and plays them on the piano, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, accordion, organ or what-have-you. He has played drums with the Be Good Tanyas, synthesizers in the Menomena side project Lackthereof, produced the Kitchen Syncopators, played lead guitar in Myshkin's Ruby Warblers, played in an experimental electronic band at the opening of a Dollar Tree, played trumpet with the Maybe Happening, held the hand of the devil and shot God out of the sky. His songs are rich with faith and despair.

Listen to "Maybe Cocaine" here.




Western Fifth's "Stand Like A Thief" & Pumpkineater Records compilation - CD Packages from Metro Fader Studios.

Weekend Soundtrack

Friend Ani DiFranco sent a advance copy of her new cd "Red Letter Year" for me to give a spin. Due to drop Sept. 30th, Ani's 20th album since 1990 ranks as one of the folk singer's cheeriest, funkiest and most collaborative to date.

Welcome to Blogland

Detourdesign: graphic design, photography, furniture design, architecture, found object collection, musical masterpiece, or some other aesthetic creation.

The Mantra Trailer

Parked at the intersection of imagination, evangelism and propaganda, The Mantra Trailer is a traveling mediation space, recording studio and site of mysterious broadcast in the form of a 1972 breadbox trailer. The Mantra Trailer invites us to contemplate, chant, voice and explore our prayers, aspirations, desires, frustrations and petitions for the transformation of self and society, or whatever resonates within us, even the nonsensical. By-passers drawn to the Mantra Trailer are invited inside one at a time to contemplate and record their mantras in privacy. Meanwhile dialogue is initiated on the outside as people encounter the exterior spectacle of the trailer.

Home with 'Beautiful Losers' director Aaron Rose

Aaron Rose, 39, a collector and painter of street-inspired contemporary art, lives like a Soho bohemian in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Rose made his debut as a filmmaker with the release of “Beautiful Losers,” a documentary about a loose-knit group of outside artists in New York in the 1990s. The film is screening Aug. 29 to Sept. 4 at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles.




Photos: Stefano Paltera for L.A. Times

Tattoo Talk

Of course, I have to ask you about your tattoos.
The black-and-gray one is a hand-poke Japanese tattoo, and the other one is a mix of traditional Japanese and American styles.

Hand-poke? Sounds painful.
It’s a long pole that the tattoo artist uses, by hand, to apply the tattoo. It takes a lot longer but doesn’t really hurt more than getting an electric tattoo.

Do people approach you about them a lot?
Unfortunately, yes. They draw a lot of attention. I work at the Mandarin Oriental, and it’s pretty conservative, so none of my clients ever sees the tattoos. It’s my little secret.

How about on the street?
I attract the crazy people. Also, people expose themselves to me.

Really.
I was at a fashion show in Bryant Park, and this woman—I don’t want to say her name, but she’s a pretty big fashion editor— she basically pulled her pants down and showed me one on her ass cheek.

Are you drawn to other people with tattoos?
Yes. My boyfriend is a tattoo artist. He’s pretty much covered in them.

Has he given you one?
He refuses to. He says he doesn’t want to take his work home with him.

Photo: Spencer Heyfron - Interview: Emma Rosenblum for New York Magazine

Hand Drawn

Beautiful hand drawn type from the New Zealand design firm Shine. See more here.

List for Week.

1. Redesign/redecorate house. Use mix of mid-century, industrial and     alt-country.
2. Eat a lot of sushi.
3. Listen to Uncle Tupelo, Bob Dylan and the Handsome Family.
4. Edit photos for the “style” issue of REFUELED magazine.
5. Make arrangements for the Warrenton, Texas Fall antique show.

Americana Playpens

Vintage photo booths are popping up everywhere. In homes, at parties, and in quirky shops. There to document a moment in time on tiny strips of paper. I really dig the folks who are taking not only current photos but also vintage ones from family albums and attic boxes and enlarging and displaying them in groups.

Fashion Toast

If you want sexy, adventurous and a touch of urban prairie, click over to Fashion Toast. Rumi is dishing it out in a heavy dose. I must score her for a REFUELED mag shoot.

Nightwood

Nightwood is a Brooklyn based home décor business specializing in its own reconstructed furniture and textiles. With a down to earth yet airy aesthetic and sensibility, Nightwood conveys a modern rusticity that emphasizes hand-crafted one-of-a-kind products.

Crackheads Unite

Collection by fashion designer Judi Rosen, New York.

Photo: Todd Selby

Arthropod Aesthetic

Bugs & insects housed in glass at Vagabond.

Weekend Soundtrack

Jakob Dylan "Seeing Things"

Devoted Wallflowers fans have long sensed that Jakob Dylan had an album of this sort in him. What’s surprising, however, is the finesse with which he’s pulled it off. Pared for the most part to voice and acoustic guitar, the songs on "Seeing Things" bring to mind similar work by the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Alejandro Escovedo and Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen.

Odd & Beautiful

Urban Prairie friends Mike Miller & Karen Linder of Lo and Behold Antiques always finds the best vintage, odd and beautiful signage around. One of the oddest has to be the one that reads "Skunk fat on sale here. Also traps." Now if that doesn't reflect the deep gothic south, I don't know what does. Most have already sold on their site, but the visit is still worth a look.

REFUELED Magazine "Style" Issue

The second issue of REFUELED magazine will feature Eisley’s Sherri Dupree. REFUELED no.2, the “style issue” gets an insight into Dupree’s songwriting, sense of style and her photography. Look for Chris Brown’s interview and Sherri’s self portraits in the magazines November release.

Found Typography Lovers

FounDesign is an ongoing collection of photographic images and compositions of Found Typography and Found Design. A must visit for any typography lover like myself.

Getting Refueled at 50 - Chris at CNN.com

To read Chris's take on turning 50, jump over to CNN.com's ireport. Also look for Chris's iReport used in CNN's broadcast news coverage.