1. “My Bloody Underground,” Brian Jonestown Massacre
Is “My Bloody Underground” Anton Newcombe’s “White Album” … or as some critics are saying, his version of “Metal Machine Music”? These contradictions are what make “My Bloody Underground” so elusive and beguiling. If you’re looking for instant gratification from these songs – or even a hook or two [...]
2. Great White Beer, Lost Coast Brewery
Brewed with unmalted wheat barley and Liberty hops, Great White is one of the most tantalizing selections from the esteemed Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. Master brewer Barbara Groom patterned Great White on Belgian-style wheat beer. The result: an unfiltered brew with translucent, golden color that combines the light, [...]
3. Brad Downey
Downey is making a career out of subverting street signs, one of the most obvious and yet least-paid-attention-to element of any city. His work – such as a yellow warning sign that says, “Ignore This Sign” (displayed in Marietta, GA, for two weeks in 2004) – is simultaneously funny and arresting, a visual [...]
4. Sony MDR-AS50G Headphones
Music can add immensely to your workout, unless the sound fidelity is crummy or your earphones keep falling out. The new Sony MDR-AS50Gs offer a light, flexible shape that loops behind the ear to ensure a comfortable, secure fit. The modular cable is perfect for fitness as well as any other portable [...]
5. Camileon Heels
This forward-thinking shoe company is trying to change an aspect of human apparel that hasn’t been altered for centuries – and if their idea catches on in even the smallest way, they could rake in millions from the $45-billion-a-year US footwear industry. Camileon has developed a new kind of shoe form that allows [...]
6. Root Beer Floatini
If you’re the kind who likes to spike your root beer float with a few shots of liquor – or vice versa – here’s a better solution. Three Olives Vodka has introduced new root-beer-flavored vodka just in time for those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. To make your own root beer [...]
7. Playland-Not-at-the-Beach Museum
Listening to Laughing Sal laugh – a demonic cackle that has terrified generations of Bay Area kids – is a strange, freaky rush that’s not altogether unpleasant. After decades of silence, she now greets visitors to the new Playland-Not-at-the-Beach Museum in El Cerrito with the same maniacally sinister chortle. The red-haired, plaster icon [...]
8. EcoRowe Furniture
Rowe Furniture fell into bankruptcy in 2007 but has returned to business with a line of moderately priced green furniture that has created a buzz among environmental advocates and interior decorators alike. Based in Virginia, the company’s new EcoRowe line contains fabrics in natural fibers, cushions with renewable, plant-based materials, and wood from [...]
9. Marimekko Prints
When I was in college, I hung a cheerfully colored Marimekko print of a giant toucan in my room; despite its deceptive simplicity, over the years the print has taken on the iconographic impact of a Warhol Coke bottle. The Helsinki-based company that produces these striking fabrics – ranging from shower curtains to [...]
10. Folle 26 Stapler
If the sleek, stylish Folle 26 Stapler is good enough to be made part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, then it’s good enough for inclusion in the Top Ten. Designed by Henning Andreasen, the Folle 26 has won numerous design awards and is just as functional as [...]
