toy box

ACE HOTEL

If you are looking for hotel experience fueled with creativity in Portland, Palm Springs, New York or Seattle, ACE HOTEL might be your choice. Each room has a unique art work and ambiance curated. I was recommended by my co-worker to stay the one in Seattle if there is a chance (and was also warned that the room might be booked since it has gained quite popularity.)

Bicycle tube bag

This looks great for a day of urban exploration! It's made of inner bicycle tubes and waterproof. Designed by balkan tango in Hungary! You can get them at Supermarket.

"I am open for everything" trash can

documented in Hamburg, August 23rd 2008.

Paris guide books

It was a short stay in Paris so I wanted something small and light weight. Paris made easy written by Andy Herbach (Thank you so much, Corey) and Paris were very complimentary to each other. Paris made easy had a great personal reviews about both popular and "hidden yet cool" sites to visit. Really appreciated the walking tours which took me to places where I would never able to find by just being there for three days. (Though I would start the walking tour as suggested, totally detoured... and ended up somewhere on the other side of the city... still it was good to have a general guideline where to stroll.) His writing is very interesting as well. On the other hand, the guidebook Paris was more useful as a map tool (both for streets and metros) instead of providing much of cultural information. So glad I had both...

Peugeot Show Room

Peugeot Show room on Ave. Des Champs-Elysees. Who wouldn't drive these cars through the city of Paris? (background music: Gwen Stefani)

  

Public space fully utilized

Hello from Hamburg. I was in Paris for a few days and now in Hamburg, Germany. I will be reporting from this side of the world till the end of this month. 

So Paris! My favorite hang out place in the city was this spot. On the river bank, a stretch of one mile or so turned into a casual "beach" like setting both catered toward tourists and locals. I think they execute the idea of "public space" really well. Everywhere I went, there were parks and squares with comfortable chairs to lounge nearby beautiful old gardens. Those settings makes it almost effortless to let the time pass by. (unlike Los Angeles where public space almost feels hostile.) I wonder what are the ingredients in creating a space like this... Beach chair alone can not be the only reason. People are definitely relaxed and always ready to jump into spontaneous activities (let that be singing and dancing along with piano, tasting gelato...) I think it is an atmosphere that is created by a combination of people, environment and pop-up inserts (piano, chairs, umbrella, magic show...) without becoming too cheesy. (I think some summer festivals in America miss the sweet spot by making it too theme oriented)  So where can I find a place with this kind of quality to live? 

   

Aerospace (almost) commercialized

Our friend eecue (Dave Bullock) has written an article about Virgin Galactive that was unveiled yesterday in Mojave desert, CA.  At its peak two sets of tourist can be sent to space each day... costing each tourist $200,000+. We've thinking of what's next for that uber luxury consumer trends which has been around for a long time.This service certainly will fit into the next generation of the highly eco-conscious luxury consumers who are looking for extremely adventurous one of the kind services that provide experiences that are both exclusive and near impossible.
photo taken by eecue. You can check out some of his other amazing photos here).

How often do you talk about this topic recently? The high gas price is definitely starting to drive our decision making process.

Chicago from pedestrian point of view

Chicago from pedestrian point of view... is like this:

Peru: Pulpo

For our friends' wedding, we stayed in Pulpo (30km south of Lima) beach front house.
sunset on the beach. Haven't quite seen color like this before.
Looking out into the ocean.

Multi-level layered beach house. The one in blue is where we were staying. Every morning we saw a gardener of each house raking the beach in front of them.