On my virtual bar hopping tour, I now take you back home to Chicago where the sound drives your soul at this trendy bar.  Sonotheque features a state-of-the-art sound system in a nice modern lounge.  This venue is also a “platform for local and international DJ’s and a superlative showcase for artistic musical and visual collaboration”.  Depending on your style of music, this bar will take your experience to the next level.  More about Sonotheque...

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Not an actual count of caps, but I am sure it’s way up there.  On my visit to San Francisco, I came across this hip bar (Impala) that had their DJ booth faceted with bottle caps.  An interesting concept; reminded me of those Pseudoisochromatic tests but with style!  Very neat after many cocktails. 

Well we arrived in London and have spent most of the past day in one of two activities… sleeping or exploring our new neighborhood. It’s a interesting experience to drop into a new life and place to call home for an extended period of time… so I’ll try to share some of that experience here as we make it thru the next month in London.

it’s always fun to find something unique and in this case the “Bridge of Aspiration” is just that… steps from our front door this beautiful piece of modern architecture links the classic structures of Royal Opera House on the left to the Royal Ballet across the street.

...And you KNOW you’re bathroom is really about you!  Featured at ICFF (one of my favorite booths), Lacava debuts beautiful bathroom collections that make the statement.  Experience “luxurious elegance in your bathroom” with this Chicago based company of Italian origin (they are also GREEN at heart).  As you can see pictured below, the Double Reflection Washbasin Vanity is crafted from brushed stainless.  With a sink this beautiful, you’d be obsessive on maintaining this sink’s beauty and luster by washing your face or hands elsewhere!  If a mountain inspired this designer, then the sky is the limit for your bathroom design!

See more pictures below

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Industrial designer/architect Giovanni Pagnotta’s bold creations capture the benefits of the ultimate lightweight material carbon fiber in his furnishings.  His prototype line of carbon fiber furniture demonstrates what can happen when a material is taken to extreme limits of its strengh-to-weight ratio. His products are layered in plies of carbon fiber to create an extremely thin profile. The Z5 chair for example (chaise pictured below) weighs a mere 14 pounds, with a maximum thickness of half an inch, yet can carry 3,000 pounds with no indication of impending structural failure.  For the price, that chair better see a lot of a*s!

The Intel Shell was imploded this morning at 7.30am in Austin

If you follow the real estate development market - you know that Austin TX is the bright spot of the country—so much so it was featured in the NY Times just a week ago… as cranes dot the skyline in about 8 hrs from now this building - known as the Intel Shell will come down… Intel started and left abandoned the building shell and all the city tax incentives in 2001 when tech boom turned to tech bust and they cut their losses. Now the site will become the new federal courthouse. I know, I know why do we need a new courthouse - well the existing one is outdated and overburdened - and our greed obsessed city council couldn’t find a way to stop the courthouse and get another highrise condo development on the site (like the 3 on the surrounding adjacent blocks...) Those condos are much better cranking out the revenue than a few judges, white collar criminals and the suburban lawyers who defend them.

So tomorrow at 7am, I my friends and neighbors and a couple of those judges, a few senators, a bunch (i.e. hundreds) of local who’s who and an army of media will watch from a nearby rooftop as this building implodes… it should make for great video - so give me a little time to get home with the camera to get it posted…

Wallternatives, the makers of totally cool wallcoverings is now.... WALLTERIORS… check out their new website at wallteriors.com.