When Skater Grow Up

Jay Shapiro, a skateboarder and musician, and Claire Bigbie, an interior designer, turned a Victorian in San Francisco's Noe Valley into a skater’s dream house. The couple met 10 years ago at a skate park in Rhode Island; they bought their house for $1 million in 2005.

A dressing room has wallpaper by Tom Dixon, a plastic chandelier from Urban Outfitters and a taxidermy deer named Harry. Ms. Bigbie — who had been collecting furniture since she was 14 — has filled the house with vintage and contemporary pieces.

A bathroom designed to look like a pool, with depth marks and pool coping, reminds its owners of the skateboarder’s nirvana: an empty pool. A black laboratory sink Ms. Bigbie found at a salvage yard was fitted with customized faucets; that red is Million Dollar Red by Benjamin Moore.

The ground-floor studio has a rolling garage door that opens to a garden designed by Flora Grubb, with “a Palm Springs desert vibe,” Ms. Bigbie said, and succulents in big pots.

Artwork by Ms. Bigbie and Mr. Shapiro’s friends hangs in the kitchen; the paper on the wall at right is Angles, by Erica Wakerly. Ms. Bigbie painted the mantel in the bedroom Benjamin Moore’s Pool Party Blue; the bottles on it are by Sara Paloma. The Hella Jongerius vase on the floor is from Ikea.

Photos by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Red Stripe

Amy Cook & Refueled Magazine

Hung out with Amy Cook over the weekend in Austin. Refueled magazine photographer/writer Cheryl Schulke and I were there to shoot Amy for the next issue's cover story. Locations for the shoot included Hotel Saint Cecila and Amy's lake side trailer. While down by the water, we were given a very private acoustic performance of songs from Amy's upcoming album and were the first to hear her hypnotic tribute (video below) to Michael Jackson. Fucking brilliant.

Summer Solstice+Go Skateboarding Day

Today was the most perfect Father's Day for me. Spent the Summer Solstice with my two girls at the skatepark for "Go Skateboarding Day". The local boys were displaying some sick tricks while my nine year old, in background, was testing her new skills on the ramps.

Stash Couture Launches

Thus far these artisan messenger bags have only been sold in quiet back rooms. You know, the one down a dark alley, secret knock, a little adrenaline and you are in a brick warehouse sitting around a zinc-top table with a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling. They have been sent across the US and to far away lands like South Africa and Kuala Lumpur.

Stash Couture is owned and operated by Cheryl Schulke. When she's not designing bags and clothing (coming soon), you will probably find her behind the lens of a camera shooting for her freelance photography business or Refueled magazine. Check out Stash Studios blog, check out my fotos on Flickr or get an inside look at her adventures on Facebook.

Tell me about your bags:
We are located in the Houston area and we ship globally to qualified buyers. All pelts are new highest quality Brazilian, the same pelts used in modern upholstery and decor. Each bag is custom-crafted and hand-riveted by me in studio and will never be duplicated because of the variation in hides.

Tell me about about your business model:
When considering things to make, I always consider the impact. I try to live and work by the Woodrow T. Wilson quote:

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.

The idea of producing stuff just for sake of production has never appealed to me. I am committed to utilizing the highest quality materials to ensure longevity and whenever possible I source supplies from old stock and gently-used sources.

I don’t believe in sweatshop labor and if I ever find the need to outsource, my business model is to utilize a community where our involvement provides properly compensated creative labor opportunities for folks who need the work.

In the meantime, as I grow my business, I daily try to figure out ways to give back. We were recently inspired by the guy who started Tom's Shoes. So we decided to collect 3.5% per retail sale to donate to Heifer International. This seemed the best way to complete the circle of what we are creating.

Refueled+Stüssy

Yes, it's true. I will be interviewing surf/skate/streetwear giant Shawn Stüssy for the next issue of Refueled magazine. I've been a huge fan of Stüssy growing up, so it's rad that I will be able to sit down with him and talk about his newest venture S/Double, surfing, art and the current state of streetwear. Look for it this Fall.

Inspiring Me at the Moment.

Summer+Coke

Deformer

Eleven years in the making and compiling more than 30 years of material, Ed Templeton’s scrapbook of his upbringing in suburban Orange County California. Its photographs give a sun-drenched glimpse of what it might be like to be young and alive in the “suburban domestic incubator” of Orange County, conveyed in the idiom of Nan Goldin or Larry Clark (and with a sharp eye for the streets that recalls Garry Winogrand or Eugene Richards). For like his groundbreaking predecessors, Templeton is always a participant in the scenes he shoots. From the Alleged Press series curated by Aaron Rose, Deformer interweaves disciplinary letters from Templeton’s grandfather and religious notes from his mother with sketches, snapshots, telling images and the occasional brutal tale, laying out an unresolved narrative that plunges readers headlong into Templeton’s chaotic youth and his reliance on art and skateboarding to accommodate its stresses and joys.“ Skateboarding allowed me to travel the world, and that showed me that where I live is totally messed up,” he observes. “That perspective has fueled me and been a source for my art.” Through photographs, stories and ephemera of all sorts from his youth and teenage years, Templeton offers readers an intensely close and personal look at an artist’s coming of age.

S/Double Studio

Shawn Stussy has a new workplace, S/Double Studio in Santa Barbara, CA.

Refueled Magazine makes Creative List

Out for only three days, Refueled Magazine, issue 3, has made the "Most Popular" list this week at issuu.com. Download a copy today!

R.I.P. Jay Bennett

Now Available! Refueled Issue 3

Refueled magazine has a new issue and a new website. Refueled; the magazine that has been described as the underbelly of style+design can now be found at refueledmagazine.com. Look for a full blown, off the hook site in the coming weeks. Issue no. 3 takes a look at decor in the Hotel Saint Cecilia of Austin, in blogger Courtney Smith Barton’s Houston home, and in the Waxahachie-based museum/home of collectors Bruce and Julie Webb. There is a great Q&A with hotelier Liz Lambert, style from Cari Wayman & Olivia Bee, the "Highway to Swell" surf journal from Nathan Webster and photographer Dustin Humphrey and much more. What better way to start the summer than with a new issue of Refueled magazine? Take a look and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Ink Your Mom

In Honor of Mother's Day, Scott Campbell will be doing "Mom" tattoos for $100 each on a first come first served basis this sunday at The Smile (Saved Tattoo's second location in Manhattan). He will have a set of 5 designs to choose from that he drew up specifically for the occasion, and he will not tattoo these designs after sunday. He will start at 8am on, and will take as many people as he can until 6pm. The Shop is located at 26 Bond St, between Lafayette and bowery.

via Secret Forts

Monster Children Magazine

Monster Children magazine, now into it's 21st issue, has become one of my favorite publications in the surf, skate, photography & design arena. Perhaps it's the magazine-meets-book binding, or the rectangular long-page format. There has been a evolutionary leap from the mag's beginnings as an Aussie surf and skate rag, but they've managed the transition smoothly while still keeping that core content intact. Monster Children has consistently featured some of the finest guerilla surf photography, and their love of the wave is sincere and profound. As they've grown, that sense of the genuine has stayed with them, and it spills over into everything they do. The Beautiful Losers piece is witty and candid, a refreshingly unpretentious take on one of the most significant gatherings of Pervasive Art ever assembled. It's this ability to walk the line between art and accessibility of culture that sets Monster Children apart from the magazine-rack pack.

Loft Tour: Temporary Attic Abode

While renovating the ground floor of this factory, the owners took refuge in the attic. Using found materials like shopping carts and industrial lockers, they transformed the space into an innovative live/work home. Their two kids get to live every child’s dream: they sleep in a tent!

Lover's Land

So Nathan and Dustin were talking to one another...they both happened to be small time motorcycle enthusiasts, and they came up with the idea to do a motorcycle trip somewhere in Australia. After very little thought and even less planning, they grabbed a bearded third accomplice by name of Salsa, called in some favours from Deus, and set out from Sydney on three 650 Whips with no plan but to find good waves and hang with good people. Along the way they convensed friends, artist, kooks, pro surfers, grumpy old fucks, girls, moms, groms, hipsters, wankers, hippies, filmmakers and designers. Theirs was a voyage through the Lover's Land of Van Demons, on a highway to swell.

Covers

Six book jacket designs I'm digging at the moment.

Jim Houser

Jim Houser's paintings are the system by which he actively catalogs the images and noises that command his attention. His installations act to create a map of the contents of his head over the course of a particular period of time.

Jim has done graphic design work for Toy Machine, Designarium, and Nike. Gingko Press published a book cataloging his life in the arts, called BABEL, in 2005.

Black Owls - Ohio Sessions

The Black Owls, featuring my pal David Butler on drums and vocals, can be seen on Ohio Sessions. Ohio Sessions... live, intimate, acoustic recordings of musicians and bands filmed in unique environments in and around Ohio. It could be in a bedroom, at a small bar, around a campfire or on the street. It’s real, raw and genuine - like the Owls themselves. Check it out.

I'm Hooked.

LoftLife

"Feel a Change Comin' On"

At one point, a romantic-sounding electric guitar break, coupled with accordion, comes before a verse in which Dylan reveals: "I've been listening to Billy Joe Shaver / and I'm reading James Joyce / some people, they tell me / I've got the blood of the land in my voice."

Two Birds Fly

Two Birds Fly is a new company based in San Francisco. They specialize in hand carved surfboards and skateboards utilizing environmentally conscious materials. The company states that everything is hand made or drawn from a talented roster of artists that include Thomas Campbell, Nat Russell, Serena Mitnik-Miller and many others.

Ashes of American Flags - Wilco Live

Ashes of American Flags is a new film presenting Wilco live in concert during their 2008 tour. Culled from concerts in five quintessentially American venues - Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, The Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. – the film captures the energy, poignancy and musicality of a Wilco concert and tour. Directed and produced by Brendan Canty and Christoph Green (Sunken Treasure, Burn to Shine).

Check out the trailer HERE

Junk Luxe

On the road to the small Texas town of Warrenton for Antique Week. If you see me out in the cow pastures, stop and say hello.

Marfa Film Festival

For the intrepid, Far West Texas is an unforgettable place, far from the world, urging visitors back time and again to its awe-inspiring wildness and serenity. Particularly, there is Marfa, home to Marfa Film Festival, coming April 29 - May 3, 2009.

Marfa is a small town alone on a high plateau, a place defined by a history of separation, where life proceeds at its own distinct pace as a harmony of antithesis: cowboy culture and high-art. Designed as a gasp of fresh air, Marfa Film Festival is a retreat far away from the chaotic and competitive environments found on the festival circuit. It's a get-a-way that is truly WAY out there.

For five magical days there will be screenings of films that transcend time with indelible images and engaging storytelling, reminding us that the art of cinema can change our lives and renew the world.

Raygun

Raygun, the alternative music+style magazine first published in 1992, came along at a time when I was starting to experiment with my own design aesthetic. Although I hold deep admiration for original designer/art director David Carson, I feel the magazine's true style did not come into it's own until guys like Chris Ashworth, Robert Hales & Jerome Curchod stepped on board.

Hello

Proposed designs for the photo journal R.E.M. "Hello" by David Belisle. To see additional designs, see R.E.M.'s homepage at Chronicle Books.

Alex Kopps, Displacement

Displacement, We Have Come to Ruin Your Surfing, 2009

Across the Universe