WEJETSET GIVES.

One of our favorite aspects of wejetset is our Gives Campaign. Each season we donate a portion of our profits to an important social cause. This season we chose Literacy. Over the past decade, Mt. Carmel YET Center has diligently worked to deliver top notch after school programming to elementary students in West Philadelphia. Lead by Ms. Viola Winston and Mr. Vincent Coles, their free program provides literacy support to young students in a very challenged area of the city. It’s really exciting work.

I had the personal honor of working with Mt. Carmel YET Center for years and saw their commitment to the community first hand. So it’s with great pleasure that we made a financial contribution to their program. Our donation will be used to expand their reading libraries and support teaching staff. Congratulations Mt. Carmel, you’re an inspiration to us all.

If you would like to donate books to Mt. Carmel YET Center please contact us at the following email:

gives@wejetset.com

WEJETSET X BAGGU GIVEAWAY

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PLACES TO EAT.

Good Mexican food is hard to find in NYC, that’s why eating at Tres Hermanos is an event worth celebrating. I am originally from Los Angeles, and growing up Mexican food was not only comfort food but a daily part of life. Sure there are a lot of positives to living in the incredible New York City, but one major void in my life is great Mexican food.

Almost two years ago when I first was looking for apartments, I found myself straddling the border between Williamsburg and Queens with no luck except for stumbling upon a tortilla factory called Tres Hermanos. Now at this point in time, Tres Hermanos was still in fact an active tortilla factory that had a small door on the left hand side, to a couple of white folding tables in the middle of the floor. Next to them were two Mexican women, a makeshift stove and some stacks of paper plates. From the outside, we knew that whatever they were serving must be good. So without hesitation we sat ourselves down, ordered 2 chicken tacos in broken Spanish and barely stopped to breathe before we were done. For the duration of those tacos I felt like I was back in Los Angeles eating off a taco truck in East LA. Click Read More for additional information and photos. Written by Brittany Kleinman

The reason I go into such depth about my first experience with Tres Hermanos is because it wouldn’t be for another year and a half until those tacos graced my stomach once more. Don’t get me wrong; I tried to go back. Several times. But to my dismay, they were either under-construction or not open. So despite the fact that it was 10:30am on a Friday (when I should have been at work) and I wasn’t hungry, nothing could stop me from running over the “OPEN” sign in Tres Hermanos. I promptly realized that they had completely re-done the interior and instead of two folding tables, it was a full on legitimate hole in the wall. Nevertheless, I ordered 2 chicken tacos off the crisp paper menu and once again got to indulge in the deliciousness that is Tres Hermanos.

Taste it for yourself at the Jefferson stop off the “L” train:

Tortilleria Mexicana Tres Hermanos
271 Starr Street
(Between Wyckoff Ave & St Nicholas Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11237
(718) 456-3422

YOU’LL NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST SNOG
NOMIYA PARIS FRANCE
PORTLAND’S PING

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PRINTED MATTER EXHIBIT.

Last Friday’s trip to NYC kicked off a fantastic weekend. The unseasonably warm evening played host to a new exhibit at Printed Matter, one of the city’s best bookstores. Megawords Magazine partnered with the well known shop for a show entitled, Hi, We Made A Magazine for You. Good friends and great atmosphere blended seamlessly with the Magazine’s authentically inspiring ephemera which was layered on walls, stacked in piles and captured in glass displays. We’re long time fans of the publication and highly recommend visiting the exhibit if you’re in NYC.

As Megawords describes: “Our mission is simple: to document our surroundings, experience, to have a voice free from the noise of commercialization and competing novelties, and to create an open and active dialogue between Megawords and the community at large. We have self-published twelve free issues, broadcast a weekly internet radio show, and organized multiple events and performances under the banner of Megawords. With time came positive feedback from a diverse audience and a strong realization that this project had a profound impact.” Click Read More for additional information, photos and video.

Check out Megawords at Printed Matter – on display until April 3, 2010.

Location Details

Printed Matter
195 10th Ave
New York, NY 10011

Credits

Shot & Edited by Taj Reid
Music by MF DOOM

MEGAWORDS MAGAZINE
PRINTED MATTER

INFECTING THE CITY
TIM BURTON AT MOMA NYC
INSITU

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VINTAGE SHOPPING.

Artist and designer Ebony Bizys captured our attention with her post about Shimokitazawa a suburb in Japan and must-visit destination for lovers of vintage shopping, cozy cafes and general cuteness. She describes it as “packed with teeny tiny six-seater bars, adorable cafes, loads of cheap and cheerful restaurants, vintage and retro clothing stores, live music venues, secondhand record stores, homewares and vintage stores…Come here if you fancy an afternoon wondering around people spotting, stay until sundown, have a G+T at Mois cafe, and try some delicious okonomiyaki.”

In addition to Mois, a relaxing cafe set in an old two story home, Bizys highlights several shops and thrift stores in the suburb. One is Sou, a crafty clothing and homewares store that makes a custom calendar just for customers. Commune is another shop, with a tiny gallery, that sells zines, art and other handmade items.

Bizys is in the midst of covering other Tokyo suburbs at her blog, Hello Sandwich, and plans to put together a Tokyo travel guide. Head over there to check it out.

EBONY BIZYS
SOU
COMMUNEE

BARCELO TEMPORARY MARKET
GRAND OPENING’S TRADE SCHOOL
LONDON’S BLACK DOG BOOKS

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ARCHITECTURE.

At the 2006 Venice Biennale, MAD Architects envisioned the future of Beijing with three proposals. One of their visions was the “Future of Hutongs,” a plan for metallic bubble structures that would pop up in hutongs, or narrow alleys, in the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Now, the first of these bubbles has made its debut in a modest, residential courtyard.

Rapid development in Beijing in recent years has been hard for the city to keep up with, and standards of living in older neighborhoods have suffered. MAD’s hutong bubbles address these conditions as small-scale, adaptable interventions that can grow with the fabric of the city and provide new, positive opportunities in struggling areas.

MAD writes: “The hutong bubbles…function like magnets, attracting new people, activities, and resources to reactivate entire neighborhoods… Fueled by the energy they helped to renew, the bubbles multiply and morph to provide for the community’s various needs, thereby allowing local residents to continue living in these old neighborhoods. In time, these interventions will become part of Beijing’s long history, newly formed membranes within the city’s living tissue.”

The first hutong bubble contains a toilet and staircase that connects it to the roof terrace of a newly renovated courtyard house. The design was recently nominated for the Brit Insurance Architecture Award by The Design Museum of London.

ARCH DAILY ON BEIJING BUBBLES
MAD ARCHITECTS
DESIGNS OF THE YEAR

NENDO MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC TOKYO
RECYCLED BIKE RACKS
GREEN WALLS GROW IN PORTLAND

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INTERNATIONAL AUTO.

This Thursday kicks off the International Auto Show in Geneva. There’s plenty of excitement surrounding the event. We’re looking forward to seeing new hybrids, exotic super cars and daring four door hatchbacks. Sure we’ve all seen the extra glossy cgi’d concepts, but it’ll be great to see the actual vehicles. One of our favorite bloggers from the Honeyee Mag line-up, Mai Ikuzawa, provides an early glimpse of the show. Click Read More for additional photos and information.

HONEYEE MAG’S MAI IKUZAWA
GENEVA AUTO SHOW

WINDING ROADS
MINI COMMITS ITS LOVE OF ART TO PRINT
PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOS: DUBAI’S NEW RAIL SYSTEM

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ARCHITECTURE.

Fans of Vitra’s Home Collection will appreciate their new showroom in Weil Am Rhein, Germany. Designed by Jacques Herzon and Pierre de Meuron, the stacked structure beams eccentricity and quirky modernism.

Design Boom got a first look and discusses the concept: “The concept of the ‘Vitrahaus’ connects two themes which are occurring in the architectural practice of Herzog & De Meuron: the theme of the archetypal house and that of stacked volumes. the five-story structure is comprised of 12 ‘houses’ – five houses are set at the base in which seven other houses are stacked upon one another. Each of the structural volumes appear as if they have been shaped by an extrusion press and are cantilevered up to 15 metres in some places. The floor slabs intersect the underlying gables, resulting in a three-dimensional assemblage or ‘pile of houses’.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

COOLHUNTER ON VITRAHAUS
COOLHUNTING ON VITRAHAUS
DESIGN BOOM ON VITRAHAUS

LIGHTS AT BRIGHTON WEST PIER
MVRDV’S WATER CUBE
ISTANBUL’S BESIKTAS FISH MARKET

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ART & CULTURE.

The exhibition space at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, New York appears customary when you first arrive. The main level of the former industrial building is a traditional gallery with white walls, high ceilings and rotating exhibitions of contemporary sculpture and installation. But walk to the back of the gallery, and a narrow set of stairs descends to a basement where you will find artworks staked out in underground tunnels, nestled beside brick walls and projected onto stone alcoves.

Leopards in the Temple, an exhibition that opened in January and runs through March 30, 2010, utilizes both floors of the Center. Among the artists featured on the more cavernous level is Philadelphia-based artist Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, who answered a few of our questions about the show, the Center and the curious locale of Long Island City. Click Read More for the full interview and photos.

Leopards in The Temple is based on a Kafka quote. What does it mean to you, and how do you see your work fitting into the idea?

The parable is about a process of becoming permanent through a repetition that becomes ritualistic. The work in the show re-situates a formal language that grew out of modernism. It also allows a space for poetics to be reexamined and opened up, to possibly expose a new potential. I see my work doing both of these things.

Tell us more about your work.

I have a background as a choreographer and visual artist, and now I’m in a sculpture program [MFA at Tyler School of Art]. I’ve adopted a lot of choreographic philosophies into the way that I make installations. They very much mimic stages, or tableaus, where there’s an arrangement of things that speak to an event that has happened, or is about to happen. Sometimes they mimic the way that things are arranged in an interior space, or on a stage, or in an office. [It’s] kind of a conflation of stage and gallery.

What do you know about SculptureCenter, specifically about its history of using the basement as an exhibition space?

SculptureCenter is like a project space, almost. A lot of important, established artists show there, and also people who are emerging. They always give an opportunity for emerging artists with In Practice projects. The basement space allows for another way for artists to be inspired by a space, or just reconsider how work is shown in different environments. It’s an opportunity to show in a space that’s unique and not just stark, white gallery walls.

Explain In Practice. That’s how you came to be in this show, right?

Once a year, SculptureCenter takes proposals for installations that will happen in their basement space. Anyone can apply; they just ask that you submit a project that is site specific in some way. After I applied, the curator got in contact with me and told me, basically, that he was bored with the format of the In Practice show, and wanted to try something different. He ended up taking a few people who applied to In Practice and curating us into this show, Leopards in the Temple.

What is your impression of Long Island City?

It feels like a place that’s been a little bit neglected and abandoned, but not in a destructive way. It’s a strange mix of really tall buildings, and smaller townhouses and rowhouses. It doesn’t commit to a demographic or a community like other parts of Queens. It’s this in-between space—almost like they’re waiting to build a lot of things there, but it’s never gonna happen. It’s vague. But there are also really interesting art museums and stuff there: SculptureCenter, Socrates Sculpture Park, which is an outdoor sculpture park where work is commissioned. It’s free to the public, and right on the East River. And then there’s PS1. The basement at SculptureCenter is similar to the Boiler Room at PS1. They have a basement level that has some finished gallery space, but also has this one room where they do a similar thing. I think you can apply to show there, and it’s cement basement walls, and a weird, small space with different rooms and nooks and stuff like that.

How do you feel about living in Philadelphia as an artist?

It’s nice being an artist in Philadelphia because you’re kind of removed from the gut of all that drama of ‘the artist’ in New York, but you’re really close to New York, so if you have an opportunity there it’s easy enough to commute. As far as my relationship to the arts community in Philadelphia, there’s not so much I can say about that. Being in school, you’re removed from the greater dynamics of the city you’re in. It’s partly my fault, but at the same time, school is a restriction.

You come from rural Maine, and moved to Philly from a small town in Western Massachusetts. Do you feel like living in an urban space influences how you make art, or how you are inspired?

I think there’s a little more motivation because there’s more opportunity [in a city]. But at the same time, when you’re in a rural area there’s this other drive to be productive, or make work, because everything around you is so slow moving; you feel like you have to be stimulated somehow.

I know you take the bus back and forth between Philly and New York a lot. Do you have any travel tips?

If you take the Chinatown bus, get off in Tribeca, not Chinatown because it takes an extra half an hour to get from the Tribeca stop to the actual stop in Chinatown.

OK. Now, do you have one that’s funny?

Well… Make sure you look better in New York than you do in Philly.

el fin.

Details

Leopards in the Temple
View until March 30, 2010
Sculpture Center
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City, New York 11101

SCULPTURE CENTER
LEOPARDS IN THE TEMPLE
STRAUSS BOURQUE-LAFRANCE

TRACKING TRANSCIENCE
WALES’ POST SECRET
NEW YORK ELEVATOR ART LIFTS SPIRITS

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GLOBAL NEWS.

This week’s global outlook reports on Central California’s unique source for energy; JFK Airport’s major runway closings; Chile’s difficult rescue among wrecked roads and bridges; Russia’s Silicon Valley; and China’s chosen Tibetan Leader. Click Read More for the full report.

The Weekly Outlook is an editorial briefing for wejetset’s online magazine. Each week we scan international news and aggregate the stories that will likely impact their respective region and possibly the world. From economic issues to politics, we strive to deliver news links that will be useful to our readers as they navigate their local and global spaces.

“Central California is home to nearly 1.6 million dairy cows and their manure—up to 192 million pounds per day. It’s a mountain of waste and a potential environmental hazard. But for dairyman John Fiscalini, the dung on his farm is renewable gold: He’s converting it into electricity…”

READ FULL ARTICLE

“New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport isn’t exactly the poster child for on-time departures and things may get worse before they get better for travelers using the airport this spring. Starting Monday, JFK’s busiest runway will close for four months for reconstruction…”

READ FULL ARTICLE

“Rescue workers and government troops struggled Monday to reach earthquake-ravaged corners of Chile still cut off by crumbled roads, fallen bridges and downed telephone lines. Meanwhile, the Chilean government asked the United Nations for emergency assistance to cope with the widespread devastation wrought by one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history…”

READ FULL ARTICLE

“The Kremlin wants to engineer its own Silicon Valley. In a plan that was revealed in February, the Russian high-tech haven will come complete with new-wave architecture and all the comforts of a resort, a place for Russian geniuses to get together and invent the biggest thing since, well, the Internet. That’s the hope, anyway…”

READ FULL ARTICLE

“China’s handpicked Panchen Lama, the teenage religious figure whose legitimacy is a matter of dispute among many Tibetan Buddhists, has been appointed to the country’s top advisory body, the state media have announced…”

READ FULL ARTICLE

GLOBAL OUTLOOK 2.22
GLOBAL OUTLOOK 2.25
GLOBAL OUTLOOK 2.08

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LOCAL CULTURE.

People out in Rotterdam last Friday night who spotted a glowing, poppy-colored umbrella dome on the street couldn’t resist stopping in for a spontaneous party. The temporary structure housed a full bar and DJ, and over 300 visitors gathered there until 2 am when the police shut things down. Titled the Bucky Bar, the dome was part of a series of unsolicited positive proposals for the future of the city of Rotterdam by DUS Architects and Studio for Unsolicited Architecture.

From the architect/party planners: “The title refers to the great American inventor, Buckminster Fuller, who demonstrated how minimal energy geodesic domes could open a way to a more environmentally sustainable future. Could an umbrella dome lead the way to a more socially sustainable future? The Bucky Bar is a full-scale model of such a future. It shows the power of space for spontaneous gathering, for improvised shelters to host conversations, debates, games or even parties.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

SPOTTED VIA DEZEEN
DUS ARCHITECTS
UNSOLICITED ARCHITECTURE

SHANGHAI’S OLD & NEW
A FROZEN COMMUTE
TOKYO CABS

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CITY INNOVATIONS.

Perhaps this is an argument for Travel Health Insurance. Though we generally try to avoid ending up in mental health institutions, Nendo’s recently completed clinic in Japan might be worth feigning maladies to secure a visit. The Japanese firm’s design aims to express the clinic’s philosophy of treatment in its architecture. It transforms a patient’s stay into an entirely encompassing experience.

From Design Boom: “The doors that line the walls of the clinic do not open, and ‘ordinary’ parts of the walls open up into new spaces. The consultation rooms are entered by sliding the bookshelves sideways. The door at the end of the hallway opens onto a window; the amount of light in the hallway is controlled by opening and closing the door.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

The guiding principal behind the design is that by experiencing space in new ways, patients will develop new perspectives and avoid remaining trapped by previous, unhealthy patterns.

DESIGN BOOM ON NENDO
NENDO

RECYCLED BIKE RACKS
GREEN WALLS GROW IN PORTLAND
STOP YELLOW WASTE

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PLACES TO SEE.

How do you take something old, decrepit and forgotten and make people pay attention? Lasers, apparently, are one solution. Mid-February, French lighting studio Creatmosphere set up high-powered lasers along Brighton, England’s skeletal West Pier, and brought new recognition to a struggling local landmark.

According to Fast Company: “Brighton, England’s 1,115-foot-long West Pier has had a tough run lately. Built in 1866, it closed in 1975 and was burned to a crisp by a series of fires in 2003 (arson, say the experts). Plans to rebuild it have been batted around for years, but they’ve always been too expensive.”

The installation was called A Pier/Appears and was commissioned by Tiger Beer for a campaign celebrating the Chinese New Year as it transitions to the Year of the Tiger. The night-long light show stopped traffic and drew a crowd. It also beamed through a momentary blizzard to nice effect.

PHOTO CREDIT

CREATIVE REVIEW ON PIER
FAST COMPANY ON PIER CREATMOSPHERE

MVRDV’S WATER CUBE
ISTANBUL’S BESIKTAS FISH MARKET
AN UNLIKELY TIME CAPSULE

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TRAVEL INSPIRATION.

NEW. YORK. CITY. Love it or hate it you can’t deny its intoxicating spirit. We personally love the place. Whenever we’re short on inspiration we take a quick trip, visit friends and absorb as much of the city’s momentum as possible. It’s hard to explain. That’s why we appreciate the work of Sam O’Hare and his time-lapse film The Sandpit. Using a method called tilt-shift, he visually shrinks the city to provide a compelling overview of New York’s energy. Click Read More to view the video and additional photos.

SPOTTED VIA GOTHAMIST
SAM O’HARE

IMAGES FROM BERLIN
DREAMS OF AN EMPTY AIRPORT
DUBAI

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ART & CULTURE.

On view now at SITE art space in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hasan Elahi’s Tracking Transience is a painstaking study in self-surveillance. It is also a response to, and provocation of, the politics of privacy and government oversight. Elahi, a Bangladesh-born American, developed the piece after being falsely accused as a 9/11 terrorist accomplice in 2002. He documents every detail of his life in photos: meals before he eats them, toilets before he uses them, and monitors his location with a GPS tracker. The artist has said: “I’ve decided that if the government wants to monitor me that’s fine. But I could do a much better job monitoring myself than anyone else.”

The piece is part of a group show, and will be up through May 9, 2010.

LOCATION DETAILS

SITE Santa Fe
1606 Paseo De Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501-3724

COOL HUNTING ON TRACKING TRANSCIENCE
CBS ON TRACKING TRANSCIENCE
WIRED ON TRACKING TRANSCIENCE

WALES’ POST SECRET
NEW YORK ELEVATOR ART LIFTS SPIRITS
DETROIT’S ICE HOUSE

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PLACES TO SEE.

Just outside the suburbs about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, lies an intricate map of deteriorating streets etched lightly in the dirt. The area is called California City, and is all that remains of a late 1950s plan for suburban extension that was never completed. BLDGBLOG describes the under-realized and deteriorating grid as, a suburb abandoned in advance of itself, and, an abstract geoglyph—unintentional land art visible from airplanes. The blog has teamed up with Atlas Obscura for their event Obscura Day: An International Celebration of Curious Places, and is organizing an excursion into the halted development on March 20, 2010. Head over to BLDGBLOG to learn more about California City, and for details on how to participate.

BLDGBLOG
ATLAS OBSCURA
OBSCURA DAY: AN INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION OF CURIOUS PLACES

MVRDV’S WATER CUBE
ISTANBUL’S BESIKTAS FISH MARKET
AN UNLIKELY TIME CAPSULE

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