ICFF Weekend

Headed to NYC this weekend to meet up with my friends for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair [ ICFF]. Eric is in the middle of a class - so I was solo for the weekend.









We hitup a couple of showrooms Friday afternoon, including the Domus Store.

The store was having a sale special for the weekend - buy one white leather couch.....
- get a scruffy Chilean for free.

The sign said this one was named "Cristian" and
that he was fully house-trained.









The show itself was great this year. Some noteworthy items included the DutchTub. Looking a little out of PlaySkool or FisherPrice - this hottub included an external heating coil that you build a fire in. I thought it was pretty neat.







Also I spotted the Bocci display. I first spotted this guys in MocoLoCo. Thier chandeliers are awesome. I took a few pictures.





























We left the show to head over to Brooklyn for an open house at 14townhouses This is a new modernist take on the traditional city brownstone/row house.









The unit we toured was HUGE. I really liked the whole concept. My pictures really do not capture it fully. I was a bit taken aback at the prices [ $2 million and up ]









I do not believe the structures themselves were worth that. [ Some aspects of the construction were actually a little sloppy and cheap IMO] Maybe the land is the key.
















When we finished the tour and headed outside, we intercepted a protest parade of people in the neighborhood. As it turns out, they were trying to bring awareness that the state and local funds and attention were being used for some very high end development that did nothing for the current residents. Our $2million townhouse tour was a perfect example. While not a resident myself, I had to remind myself that this development was completely out of my financial reach as well.


I tried to take a picture of the parade marchers walking past the billboard for the development.








Heading back to Lower Manhattan, we stopped in on a few ICFF reception parties. Included of course was the Ingo Maurer showroom. I first saw his work in Berlin years ago and have always liked his flair for technology and whimsy. This picture is of a "blanket" of circuit boards and LED's overhead changing color and pattern. Someday I plan to accost him at a reception to figure out how to get started as a lighting designer.

Flux Capacitor


Everyone needs a flux capacitor in their house right? Or at least a Warp Core. I just finished up the Utility Room Project my roommate and i started back in November. The room was never really finished and looked pretty shoddy. My attempts at home networking and video did not help matters whatsoever.






Walking into the room - you were greeted by a giant mess of wires hanging from the gaping holes in the ceiling. Not Good.





phone and video wiring








I picked out a vanity cabinet from IKEA that I thought could serve as a home network panel. I figured I would route all the phone, Ethernet and video through the cabinet in some layout that did not look so bad. The ceiling was a mess from all the HVAC ducting and the likes - so i planned to put in a drop ceiling to conceal most of it and add some fluorescent lighting while i was at it.



The glass door on the network cabinet begged for something interesting inside it. I noticed that you could sorta see the indicator lights of the components inside when the lights were turned off. SO - always to make things a little more complicated... I got the idea for the Flux Capacitor. I figured that it was the most boring room in the house..




These are disposable LED blinkers we used in ballons this summer. I could not bear to throw them away.





I spent a day soldering them together with my new battery powered solder gun. It did not work well - so i ended up dragging out my 100 watt soldering iron to finish the job.




I wired two strings of the LED's up to a 3 volt bus i made from the old phone patch panel. One side of the bus is switched to the open/close of the network panel




Details of the door switch.











I strung the longer string above the translucent drop ceiling







The shorter string was placed in the back of the network panel









I eventually plan to put some rechargeable flashlights and hangers for them on the side of the cabinet along with a charger for all my rechargable batteries.



I have the final product as an AVi file [ 3.2 mb] You can download it by right clicking here The random shaking in the film is not seismic.. my Roommate had the hiccups if you listen carefully... *note to self - no Sangria before filming.

Almost Time...



The warm weather is coming and Chilipepper wants out of the garage! I am always tempted to get the van out early - but as usual it is in need of some maintenance. Some day i would like to go to EveryBus in North Carolina. But it is always just a little early of the warm weather up here in the North. After some consultation with my Vanagon people - it appears the van suffered from "Vanagon Syndrome". The fix is not difficult, I am just not sure if it is the sole ailment. So I will start poking around the engine warm up mechanisms as well. Oh yeah - the front wheel bearing started squeaking too.. so the big front end brake project I have been procrastinating on will also need to be done. Rotors, calipers, pads, hoses and bearings. I am ordering the parts now for my Memorial Day Maintenance weekend. Soon to be on the road again.. [ hopefully..]