Happy Birthday de LaB!

de Lab (design east of La Brea), an informal drinking circle of creative Eastsiders in LA who live, work, and play on the 'right' side of town, turned ONE this month!  Founded initially because a bunch of us resented always having to drive to the west side for 'designy' events, de LaB has certainly evolved over the past year and we've all had a lot of fun along the way.  From a fashion show at MAKE, to a design walkabout in Hollywood with Spacecraft, to a successful fundraiser for the neutraVDL, to the first-ever Out of Your Gourd Pumpkin design competition at Lettuce, to inside peeks at LA Mill, Rubbish Interiors, and M&A - we've been busily invading creative labs all over the eastside.

To mark the one year anniversary and round the year out with a reflective note, Alissa put together an outstanding cast of readers for our first-ever City Listening event at GOOD Magazine; an event that - judging by the full crowd, busy bar, and happy chattering people before and afterwards - was a huge success.  We'll definitely have to do this again in 2009 so hopefully people will be inspired to pen and share their thoughts.  

Here's to another great year in 2009!

Brian Joins the Blogosphere

So Brian has officially joined the blogosphere this week with Aural.Audacity, an audio insider's insight on game audio in general.  Borne from eighteen months of grueling hard work, sleepless nights, and blood, sweat and at times tears, his new blog is part industry obligation and part therapy.  He and his team put a lot of work into stitching together a vibrant aural tapestry, which I will probably never appreciate since I don't play war games, so the blog is a great way to get a peek inside his head without getting mine shot off by a DP28.  Check it out if you like sound, video games, techy stuff, or the sounds of war.  With that, we're off to attend Treyarch's much-deserved wrap party celebrating Quantum of Solace and Call of Duty 5: World At War being released.  Yay for Sin City!

Be Benevolent This Year

My friend, the inimitable Ms. wRight, and her partners from Mozaic Media and Communications are celebrating their one-year anniversary in true cosmopolitan style with a much-deserved, much-needed, and (best of all) guilt-free par-tay that will benefit the Weingart Center (which is also celebrating an important anniversary - their 25th!).  Join the festivities on December 17th from 6pm to 9pm at the lovely O Hotel downtown.  For a paltry $20, you'll get to imbibe, nosh, and even hobnob. KCRW's velvety voiced, DJ extraordinaire Garth Trinidad will be spinning the evening away.  Have fun and do your small part to break the cycle of homelessness downtown.  

Guilt-Free Holiday Shopping

Inhabitat just released the 2008 Green Gift Guide.  Whether you're a light green, bright green, or dark green, the new gift guide offers tons of great ideas that will surely please your friends and family.  Curated according to different themes, Inhabitat sent out its intrepid writers to cover all the green shopping bases.  From For Him and For Her to Handmade, DIY, and Under $20, this guide practically does the shopping for you.  I researched the Under $50 category and would gladly accept anything on any of these lists from anyone (hint, hint - j/k).

COD 5: World At War

Ok.  It's time for a shameless plug.  I'm proud to announce my handsome husband Brian's sound directorial debut with the launch of Call of Duty: World At War.  While I missed him dearly during the eight months that he was holed up at work - recreating the sounds of war, blowing stuff up, shooting guns, recording Kiefer Sutherland + Gary Oldman, cutting watermelons, etc. -  I'm proud of him for working on what is being largely hailed as a fun-@ss game.  I, personally, have a love-hate relationship with video games.  I love them when they're fun.  I hate them when they steal Brian away for months at a time.  However, when South Park (see episode: The Ungroundable) actually spoofed the game, I gained a new respect for the craft.  I just wish I could actually play this game.  Unfortunately, World at War is way too advanced, stressful and realistic for my gaming abilities.  Give me Shen Mu 2 and some virtual noodle shops any day! But DAMN it sounds good.  Kudos to Brian and his amazing team at TreyArch. Go forth and play the new game and let us know what you think!

  

Solar Vertical Lamp

I just wrote a post on Inhabitat about these solar vertical lamps that we found on Yanko Design.  They're essentially vertical blinds with mini photovoltaics that gather solar energy while you're away at work.  When you get home, you just close the blinds to light your space with these LED pixels in the shape of table lamps, floor lamps, or chandeliers.  You save tons of money on your energy bill, and they're definitely a conversation piece.  The only bad thing is that you'd have to have vertical blinds in every single window....and vertical blinds are just so ugly.  Still, a brilliantly simple idea.

REDCAT's Rooftop Bash

I ventured out this week to REDCAT's Rooftop Bash at the Standard downtown where I learned how to spot the Artsie hipster (as opposed to the Natural, the Dilettante, the Newbie, etc.).  We got there just in time to snag a pod and catch the tail end of the underwater live art installation (which looked to my art-ignorant eye like the drowning of a woman wearing a feather head dress projected onto a neighboring building).   At least the cocktails were delicious and free.  Never a dull night in Los Angeles.