Community Profiles
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Individual Profile:
Michael Mertz
New Zealand
(Designer)
Fav URL(s):
http://www.thecoolhunter.net, http://www.dezeen.com, http://Lovemarks:
LEGO, Audi, Eames Chair, Camper, Giorgio Armani, Barcelona, Spain, Arne Jacobsen, Moto Guzzi, Barcelona chair, Lost, Artemide, Italo Calvino. -
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The first stop
Barker's
21 May 2004
You drive from Christchurch to Queenstown, New Zealand, and the first stop is at the little town of Geraldine to buy the most delicious fruit preserves and spicy plum or apricot sauces, and in winter the best blackcurrant cordial...mmmmmmmm.
Every one is a classic
Eames Chair
21 May 2004
Which one are we talking about here? It would have to be the leather and rosewood deep buttoned swivel base armchair with matching ottoman stool. Charles and Ray desgned a wide range of furniture and almost every one is a classic but the one we love is the armchair.
Transcendental radio
Prairie Home Companion
02 June 2004
Somehow the understated humour of this lovely radio show trancends national boundaries, age and music categories. I hear it on holiday at the bach, and it makes me smile for the whole day... now how often can you say that?
Freedom of the new world
Moto Guzzi
08 July 2004
Being motorbikes, these are cool already, but more than this they are made in a small Italian village by families of craftsmen, they hark back to a fine racing heritage yet they are made to contemporary standards of reliability. The iconic model is the California, full of the old world's yearning for the freedom of the new world, and crossing the divides of geography, language and culture with the universal love of the singular journey; one man rides his motorcycle. Think Fellini and Wilder, Calvino and Steinbeck, Marconi and Oracle, Ponti and Eames...on two wheels
Daring perfection
Barcelona chair
13 August 2004
The King and Queen of Spain may have wanted to sit when opening the Barcelona exposition of 1929, so Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed this chair to furnish his German pavilion, and it is the most beautiful piece of furniture ever since. Hand stitched leather and hand machined chrome plated steel, structurally daring, complex to build, simple to understand, it is perfect.
How it is they speak so much?
Talking Heads
06 October 2004
How is it that the words stop making sense but they speak so much? I'm just an animal looking for a home, share the same space for a minute or two, and I love you till my heart stops...
Pop songs for grown-ups
Neil and Tim Finn
15 December 2004
Like the Gershwins and John & Paul and only very few others, the Finn lads create pop songs for grown-ups. Lovely, lovely songs that just go straight to the heart of the matter. We went to see them in San Francisco and they clearly really enjoy playing their songs together.
The architecture on Tracy Island is still great
Thunderbirds
07 November 2006
These guys always have such cool adventures, positive responses to people in need. And the architecture on Tracy Island is still great; you never get bored with the roll away swiming pool. But my favourite was Thunderbird 3 launching through the middle of the circular building...kinda Freudian when you think about it.
So what's it all about you ask?
Lost
19 March 2007
So what’s it all about you ask? The best explanation I have is - the island is purgatory. That old fashioned notion that we have to atone for our sins in this life before we can go on to what is our due in the next. That’s it in Catholic terms, but it also works in buddhist thinking; our next stage is determined by our merit gained or lost in the previous one. The children have had fewer years so they leave the island sooner. As each charachter resolves the issues from his earlier life, he disappears from the island.
Enjoy your second life
Second Life
20 March 2007
Come home, relax, go on holiday for an hour or so...where everyone is buffed and beautiful, furry and polite, adventurous and sexy...do what you want to do, meet people from everywhere, enjoy your second life.
Style all the way
Vueling
04 September 2007
Cool contemporary style doesn’t have to be costly, and of course Barcelona’s airline has style to burn. We flew them Amsterdam-Barcelona-Dublin, booked online, so easy, and style all the way.
Speaks beyond words
Italo Calvino
30 April 2008
If "On a Winter's Night A Traveler" is the book for book lovers, the joy of becoming involved in the story, in holding the book, turning the pages..."Invisible Cities" is the book for architects and designers and artists, about discovery and dislocation, about distant places and the city that is home, how people speak beyond words.