If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Dogs As Seen By A Dutchman: Maarten Wetsema's Fab Photos

It was quite by accident that I came upon photographer Maarten Wetsema's site and I'm quite happy I did. As a huge dog lover and a furniture and photography fan, his work struck me on many levels.

With four collections of photographs; Daan and Jacob, Dogs in their Domestic Environments, Portraits of Dog and Dogshoots, he captures the canine at their goofiest, yet manages to maintain the dog's dignity and beauty.

Below are a few of my favorites from all the aforementioned collections.

Above: Maarten at work and below, the final shot

About the photographer:
Maarten Wetsema studied at the Art Academy of Arnhem. In 2004 he exhibited at Comme des Garçons in Tokyo. In 2005 he took part in Photo London and the KunstRai in Amsterdam, in 2006 his work was exhibited in both France and Miami, USA. In 2007, his work was shown at the Gallery Van Kranendonk in Miami, Paris and the Netherlands. His work is part of numerous national and international collections of private parties, companies and museums.

Maarten Wetsema's site.

He is represented by:
Gallery Van Kranendonk
Westeinde 29
2512 GS Den Haag NL
T. 0031 703 650 406

Contact info:
Maarten Wetsema
Rappardstraat 16
6822 CX Arnhem
The Netherlands
T. 0031 264 420 847
E. info@maartenwetsema.nl

If you love animals, these may be of interest to you:

• Jill Greenberg's Amazingly Expressive Photos of Monkeys, Dogs and Bears
• Erwan Fichou's Portraits of Owners In Clothes Made From Their Dog's Hair
• Fine Jewelry Goes To The Dogs (and Cats)
• Moira McLaughlin's Dog Gone Fun
• The 2007 Wurstminster Dog Show

Wildfires Inspire Hot Music Video For Death Cab For Cutie by Walter Robot

Inspired by vocalist/guitarist Ben Gibbard's up-close-and-personal encounter with the devastating 2007 California wildfires, Death Cab For Cutie's latest music video, Grapevine Fires, is directed by Walter Robot, also known as the team of multimedia artist Bill Barminski and writer Christopher Louie.

The song, Grapevine Fires, motivated Walter Robot to create an animated short film which brilliantly relays the sense of devastating tragedy and forced optimism caused by the fire's wrath.

The animated video is poignant, sweet, scary and sad all at once. A perfect accompaniment to the song that inspires the same emotions. Using a mix of naive, childlike illustration with animation, the video is at once both charming and powerful.

Here are some stills (the full video is at the end of this post)

It's a mutual love fest between animator Walter Robot and Death Cab for Cutie as you can see from the quotes below:

"I have been an admirer of the beautiful art of Walter Robot from afar for a while, " says Death Cab bassist Nick Harmer. "Working with them on this video is an amazing dream come true and I am in awe of the stunning video they have made for us."

"We're huge Death Cab fans," says Walter Robot. "We had also heard from other directors how great all the Death Cab guys are and how really open they are to the creative process, which they were. They were extremely supportive and sincere."

above: Death Cab for Cutie is: Ben Gibbard: guitars, keyboards, vocals, Chris Walla: guitars, keyboards, Nick Harmer: bass, Jason McGerr: drums

Death Cab For Cutie

Walter Robot

A Mattel Goldie Hawn Laugh-In Barbie? You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!

I swear, Mattel must be making many of their new dolls for people like myself, because I know that most of the New Millenials haven't even heard of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (which was a popular variety show that debuted in 1967) and know Kate Hudson better than her famous mother, Goldie Hawn.

You may or may not be familiar with Bond no.9. Recognizable by the unique bottle design, Bond no.9 makes 34 different fragrances inspired by the city of New York.

The name of this fragrance collection, Bond No. 9, is also the address of its headquarters boutique at 9 Bond Street, in NoHo. They explain their mission as a dual purpose one: To restore artistry to perfumery, and to mark every New York neighborhood with a scent of its own. Each fragrance represents a specific downtown, midtown, or uptown locale or a city-wide sensibility.

They just introduced their latest addition, Brooklyn, which comes in a fun graffiti scrawled bottle. But... in addition to that, Bond no. 9 is having a design competition right now to create the additional visuals for this scent. Unfortunately, there's only 2 weeks left (it's not very well publicized), so... get cracking!

Throughout March 2009, Bond No. 9 invites everyone—amateurs and artists alike—to join their Brooklyn Bottle Design Competition and create additional visuals for this contemporary male-oriented cardamom-cedarwood eau de parfum.

You get a template to download like the one shown below:

Ground Rules:
* Create your design to fit within the outline of the Bond No. 9 superstar flacon and to include our circular “token” logo. * Any style, figurative or abstract, is fine with us.

* Inspiration can come from anywhere in Brooklyn—DUMBO, Park Slope, Flatbush, Canarsie, Midwood, Bay Ridge, et al.—or from the very idea of Brooklyn.

* Any medium is okay: oil, acrylic, watercolor, house paint, pastel, crayon, Magic Marker, makeup—even a ballpoint pen or pencil will do.

* Completed designs should be submitted to contactus@bondno9.com or Bond No. 9, 9 Bond Street, New York, NY 10012 by March 31, 2009.

After the two winners are chosen in early April, they’ll put the victorious designs into production, with the winner’s names displayed on the bottles. Each winner will also receive one bottle of Brooklyn per month for a year.

Perhaps some of their more interestingly designed bottles or their special limited editions or will inspire you: