American Apparel Makes Most Boring Men's Clothes That I've Ever Seen

American Apparel stores have been popping up around Seattle. You know, those vertically-integrated L.A. manufacturers of clothing, made in the U.S.A. and and all? So I tried to give them a couple of honest chances. But after my second visit to the store this weekend, I'm convinced: their men's clothes just blow.

When you wade through the ads, the mission statements, and the half-naked women on their billboards, American Apparel's design tenets are simplicity, solid colors, and a bit of retro 80's thrown in to the mix. Their mannequins often feature tall socks with a solid stripe near the cuff, solid shorts, tanks, armbands, and other clothing befitting a young John McEnroe. Walk through their entire men's collection, however, and you see a lot of common things:

• Solid colors everywhere. Take a design, like a shirt, and make 30 solid versions of it, each with a different color.
• Thin, thin cotton. As in practically see-through T-shirts. Do we in the U.S.A. have inferior cotton or something?
  
• Uninventive patterns. The entire men's line that I perused contained nothing that caught my eye as interesting or different. Standard-issue-looking T-shirts, shorts, pullovers, sweats, and the like is all they have for guys.
  
• Price. For a friggin thin T-Shirt, solid color, no print, $20 is excessive.

I soon felt like I was in a life-size, overpriced Lego outfitter. Hey, here's a red solid T. Over here, a bright yellow coat. Wow, a neon green cap! Let's go a climb in that toy bulldozer and dig up some Lego dirt!

I feel bad calling American Apparel boring. Their whole "made in the USA" shtick seems genuine, and I don't want to slam those who aren't outsourcing their manufacturing to sweatshops. But, come on AA, can you get crackin' on some more interesting designs? Right now Target and K-Mart have you beat in that department, sad to say.

For Those Too Lazy To Fill Their Ice Cube Trays

Don't have time to fill your ice cube trays with water? Scared that your water contains a flurry of dangerous viruses? Well, just for you, there's Ice Rocks! From the Web site:

ICE ROCKS® are secured ice cubes made from spring water and ready to be frozen. These cubes, to be consumed within two (2) years, are hermetically packaged in disposable, recyclable containers, providing the user with a complete guarantee with regard to hygiene and safety, while respecting the environment. ICE ROCKS® uses a patented technology, providing a container of refreshing ice cubes that are pure and hygienic.

I had to blink a few times to believe what I was reading:

• They're taking spring water
• They're putting it in trays
• They're sealing the trays
• They're selling them to people, so that those people can unseal them and put them in the freezer.

Pretty silly, right? I think the folks at Ice Rocks thought about that, so they put up some scare tactics on their Web site, claiming that water in some nations is contaminated with disease and such. OK, reality check:

• Nearly all of the water in the Western world is safe to drink, from the perspective of not containing disease like hepatitis, malaria, and cholera.
• If and when people travel to Third World nations, chances are places that have ice cubes are drawing the water from a purified source (say, bottled water). Think hotel and resort here.
• And, if you are in a Third World country and you're not sitting beside some pool inside some walled-up resort within reach of some bottled water for your ice cubes, what in the hell are you doing looking for some ice cubes for your Scotch?

I'm really hoping this is a joke. I'm waiting for the clown to jump out from behind the curtain and honk his horn and dance. I fear I'm wrong.

Pug Puppies Are The Cutest

And here is proof:

Project Runway Season 3

So the next season of Project Runway has begun.

Hold on, you're probably wondering why I'm blogging about a reality TV show, given I've waxed poetic in the past about how awful reality TV is. Well, in general, it still is. But every statement has an exception, right?

Project Runway is interesting to me for two reasons:

• It's about designing and making clothes, which is something I have absolutely no experience in and is something that I'm amazed that people can do. Under time pressures and with artificial constraints, even.
• It's got fun characters and drama to it. Yes, of course these are characters. The people behind them are real and have personalities, but like any reality TV show, the producers want to have characters and conflicts and such and guide the show, the people, and the editors to follow suit.

So, anyway, the next season of Project Runway has begun. What's different and new about this season? By the first show's accounts, not too much (at least not yet). I'm a bit sad there's no clear Santino Rice equivalent, which essentially means there's no crazy character whose designs are usually out on a limb and tick off most of the judges. On the plus side, there's a guy from Atlanta who most of us in the group that watch every Wednesday are rooting for (since, well...a lot of us are from Atlanta).

Seattle is apparently Project Runway's biggest market. We'll see how the third season holds our interest.

The Internet Is Made Of Tubes!

What I learned from Ted Stevens, Senator from Alaska, regarding the Internet:

1. It's made from a series of tubes.
2. You can send "an internet" to people.
3. It's not a truck.

In all seriousness, this goes to show you that explaining how technology works isn't always easy. Too bad this difficulty had to be seen in a public forum, and too bad Ted didn't do a little research on how the Internet actually works beforehand.

Chez Gaudy Is A Great Place To Have A Birthday

So yes, last Saturday was indeed my birthday (and no, you don't have to shower me with belated wishes). To celebrate the occasion, we decided to organize a group to go out and celebrate.

My first idea was to go to a Greek place. "Hey, I'm Greek," I thought, "so I should celebrate at a Greek restaurant." So we called Vios, but unfortunately they were booked up for a private party. Then, I started to think more open-mindedly. "What's a good place that has good food and drinks, and can hold a 12-top (and is in the neighborhood)? After a few more brainstorms we landed on Chez Gaudy. And, as you're about to see, we're really glad that we did.

We've been to Chez a couple of times, and liked our experience there each time we went. Chez is a relatively new offshoot of Bleu Bistro up on Broadway, with a bit more Italian bent to the food, and more of an antique-wood look to their interior (not to mention more space for more seating). Chez has a lot of similar drinks as Bleu Bistro does, and an atmosphere of quirky friendliness pervades both establishments.

So we made reservations for Saturday night at 7:00pm. Our guest list was varying in size a bit, but the folks at Chez were very forgiving. "Your table can seat about twelve, and it's fine if you have fewer than that."

We start trickling in at 7 and sitting at a large table right near the entrance. Once most of us have arrived, we start ordering drinks (Black Velvet, Gin Fizz, a bottle of Moltepulciano wine, and so on). Our waitress, Erika, was very attentive and casual at the same time. No worries of people arriving in waves and the like. She made good drink recommendations for those who hadn't been to Chez before, and most everyone was pleased with the results.

Soon after, we order a cheese plate appetizer. This thing was amazing; it housed about 6 different types of cheeses, and had some cheddar I've ever eaten (it was flavored with horseradish). Plus, the bread included several rounds of strawberry butter.

Then, it was on to the entrees. The popular choices included veggie meatballs and a cheesy baked ravioli plate. As you can imagine with my circle of friends, the vegetable meatballs were the humor highlight of the evening (in other words, insert ball joke here). A flamed cheese dish was also ordered, which included a lighting right at the table (and, when you light cheese on fire in front of a Greek, you're going to get an "Opa!" in return).

As we were rounding up our meals, someone said "Hey, George is Greek - you should bring him some ouzo!". Erika checked and they didn't have ouzo, but they brought me a birthday drink on the house, comprised of coffee, Frangelico, and some cinnamon. It was quite tasty! After that, the entire table got a round of birthday shots. The exact contents were a mystery, courtesy of the bartender, but chocolate and coffee tastes were paramount. My glass was larger and contain whipped cream above the drink, given I was the birthday boy and all.

Finally, as if that wasn't enough, the folks at Chez brought out an entire trifle for dessert, also flamed at the table. This was also on the house! Everyone got a healthy helping of the creamy, cakey trifle to round out the meal.

Overall we stayed at Chez for about three to four hours and had a terrific time. Plates were broken (by Erika, not us!), things were set on fire, lots of drinks and food were had, and a great dessert topped off the evening. Thanks to Erika and the whole staff at Chez Gaudy on Saturday night for a memorable night. You all went above and beyond to ensure we had a great time, and did so with flair and ease.

Technology

Here's a post that will link to posts I've written than have to do with technology. I'll link to it from the home page, and update it as I write more.

• Seattle Fire Department Ignores Web Accessibility
• How We Ship Office And Windows
• Always Documenting, Never Reading
• MySpace: Where HTML Finds Its (Questionable) Roots
• Bad Usability: Brookstone Bedroom Clock

Review: Evil Aliens (SIFF 2006)

Evil Aliens is gross. Not in a vomity sort of way. Rather, lots of fake-ish splattery gore that many "bad" horror movies include in their offering. If you're into the genre, though, the film won't disappoint.

Evil Aliens is a camp-horror-comedy where some Welsh farmers, a UFO geek, and a camera crew face of with a bunch of scary-looking and aggressive aliens. The aliens are set out to conquer and abuse, and the humans are out to defend themselves (sometimes with bats, sometimes with tractors). Honestly, that's really all you need to know to decide whether you want to see this movie or not. Like a Junior High dance, I think you've now divided yourselves against two sides of the room: either hell-bent to see it, or very sure to avoid it.

The best part of Evil Aliens is its references to other horror/thriller and action movies, such as Aliens, Predator, and Evil Dead. Movie junkies will probably get the most fun out of trying to catch all of these reference while watching the gore fly.

Overall rating: 7.0 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 93m
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English

Review: Blood Rain (SIFF 2006)

Blood Rain is a period detective/crime/mystery movie set on a remote island in early 19th-century Korea. The film begins by showing a fire on one of the ships at the island destined to carry a paper tithe to the King. An investigator is sent to the island to figure out the cause of this fire. While there, the investigator is asked to help solve a series of mysterious deaths.

We quickly learn of a dark past on the island: a man was wrongly executed a long time ago, and now, the locals believe the spirit of this man is killing the informants who wrongly accused him. The investigator witnesses informant after informant dying a gruesome and unexplainable death, and is ever-pressed to figure out who or what is murdering these people.

Blood Rain takes a little while to start up, as you adjust to the period of the film and learn about the setting and the main characters (there are several, with similar-sounding Korean names to my Western ears). But once it does, it keeps your interest like any good murder-mystery does.

Along with the puzzle element of the movie, I enjoyed a glimpse into the societal pressures alternately guiding and forcing the investigator in his quest to solve the mystery, such as one's honor and "place" in society. I can't vouch for how accurate a depiction of 19th-century Korea Blood Rain really is, but the depiction of the characters and their role on this island was nevertheless a nice addition to the mystery element.

Overall rating: 7.5 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 119m
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean

New Restaurant "Fork" Closing Its Doors

We went to Fork recently to celebrate a birthday, and thought it was a great mix of gourmet food and unpretentious atmosphere. Today I read that, because of the chef/owner Scott Simpson's health problems, Fork is closing.

Very sad, but understandable. I hope Scott is able to return to his trade soon, in whatever capacity he can.

Bad Usability: Brookstone Bedroom Clock

When you spend time designing things, it's easy to become a Critique Monster(tm). That is to say, everything non-natural becomes an object of scrutiny, as one critiques why a particular design is (or isn't) so. While I try to keep this to a minimum, sometimes design and usability issues are so blatant that I can't help myself.

Enter the Brookstone 5-in-1 Sensor Clock. It's an attractive little clock/calendar/alarm/thermometer/timer that we've been using the past few days for its alarm feature. The front of the clock is all display and housing. The back of the clock offers the following:

• Mode Lock (on/off) - slider switch
• Sensor (on/off) - slider switch
• Mode - pushbutton
• Set - pushbutton
• Up arrow - pushbutton
• Down arrow - pushbutton

A "mode" is effectively one of the five features of the clock. The sensor allows you to switch modes by waving your hand over the device, as does the Mode button. The Set button, along with the up and down arrow buttons, allows you to set things like the time.

So, we flipped to the Alarm mode, pressed Set, set the hours, pressed Set, set the minutes, and finally pressed Set again. The alarm was set, and a little alarm clock icon appeared in the upper-left of the display to indicate that the alarm was enabled.

Now, after a few days, we noticed that the alarm was recurring each day at the preset time. Makes sense, especially given that the little alarm clock icon was still there. So, we set out to disable the alarm.

Now, the question: how do you do it?

We tried the following, all to no avail:

• Cycled through "Set" while in the Alarm mode
• Set the hours and the minutes again on the Alarm
• Pressed and held Set
• Pressed and held Set and Mode together
• Pressed the up arrow while in Alarm mode
• Pressed the down arrow while in Alarm mode
• Tried the above with the Mode switch and the Sensor switch set to both positions.

So, what's the answer? A quick flip to the manual for the clock revealed it. You have to press and hold the up arrow while in Alarm mode to enable the alarm, and press and hold the down arrow while in Alarm mode to disable the alarm. Setting the alarm automatically enables the alarm.

What's wrong with this picture? There was absolutely no UI, message, indicator, report, sound, warning, or other method of communicating this information to the user. And we're not talking lack of UI for an edge-case scenario here. Enabling and disabling the alarm is probably one of the most common operations for a little portable clock like this one. To solve the mystery, I had to access Brookstone's web site and browse the manual. If Brookstone didn't have the manual online, I would probably still be stuck.

How did this mistake slip through? In my opinion, I believe the designers here mistakenly assumed that people would read and memorize the manual, to remember this tidbit of information. In reality, most people throw away the manual, throw the clock in the luggage, and go on their way. I bet there's an army of little 5-in-1 Brookstone clocks out there that people are resetting by pulling the batteries out or by inserting a paper clip in the Reset switch, because of this mistake.

This clock served as a reminder to me for one of the most basic design tenets: stay firmly anchored to the users and scenarios you're designing for, and keep prototypes of your design in front of real users' eyes to get honest feedback.

Fremont Fair 2006

We had a lot of fun today at the Fremont Fair. What appeared to be a cool and cloudy day slowly became a sunny, warm one. The parade was (as usual) festive, musical, loud, and naked (painted, nude bike riders, that is).

Some pictures from the parade:


The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were out in full force today.


More than one papier-mache version of George W. Bush was on display.


Go, marching band!


The Brazilian band and dancers were quite good.


This was supposed to be about spying. Looks more like a large Scream-masked individual to me.


Statue of Liberty.


Dancing, feathered people.

Post-Dinner Cupcake Royale

Nothing like a tasty box of cupcakes to bring home after a tasty dinner in Ballard.

As you can tell, they were busy tonight.


But, we scored a box nonetheless.


Yes, new camera phones are fun.

Cheap Copper River Salmon At The Seattle Costco

The Seattle Costco has fresh, wild, sockeye Copper River Salmon filets for sale. The price? $9.99 a pound.

To compare, I saw some filets at Whole Foods for sale last week at around $30 a pound. Ack!

Review: Black Gold (SIFF 2006)

Look down at your cup of coffee. Where was the coffee grown? How many hands touched the beans between field and barista? How much did the farmer get for those beans? What about the other food you eat; how does it measure up?

These are the questions Black Gold posits. While focused on the fair trade movement and its effects in a burgeoning Ethiopean coffee growers co-op, the theme resonates beyond coffee and forces you to question how and where the products we eat and buy come from, and how much the growers versus the middle men are earning for these products.

Black Gold reviews the efforts of Tadesse Meskela, the General Manager of the Oromo Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union. Tadesse's main focus is to remove the middle men between the coffee farmer and coffee roaster, and return more money to the farmer's pocket.

So, what's the problem with conventional coffee? In a sentence, the global price is set in commodities markets in New York and London, and no consideration is given to the local cost of living for a given farmer and his family. Currently, Ethiopian farmers get about $0.24 a kilo. A living wage for them would be about $2.00. That's still a very small price to pay to the grower given the cost of a pound of beans or an espresso drink here in the States, yet prices are kept low and farmers have to make do with a tenth of what they need. Furthermore, World Trade Organization talks in the past few years have failed to negotiate a fair price for coffee and other commodities for the Third World.

The result is that coffee, one of Ethiopia's most abundant natural resources, is sold for very little money. Farmers as a result don't have clean water, enough food, or good schools to send their children. Ironically, the film shows the amount of aid we give to countries like Ethiopia, and contrasts it with the little money we purchase their resources with. It also shows how a very small boost in the GDP of these countries would overshadow the amount of aid that we currently give them.

As a film, Black Gold is very well made. Excellent camerawork, editing, and a comfortable pace, combined with moving images of farmers and their families struggling to survive, make for a great documentary. Add to that the overall message and the information the documentary provides, and Black Gold becomes a movie most any Western consumer should watch.

Overall rating: 9.0 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 82m
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English, Ethiopian, Italian

Cat 1, Bear 0

Who says you need a dog to protect you and your property? It turns out a cat can do just fine.

Greece #1

The folks over at Idea Grove decided to put together a whimsical Top 10 Countries list. Looking through it I agree with about 50-60% of it, except for one glaring (and easy to guess) opinion:

Greece should be #1 on the list.

I know, I know, it comes as expected from a Greek, right? But this list puts heavy weight on seminal and past achievements. So many of the countries on the list had big empires at one time or another, and thus had influence on the world (including Greece).

But Greece gave so many creations and inventions and ideas to the world that I do wonder why it's not above, say, the U.S. on the list. Sure, the U.S. is powerful, but it's a young country and hasn't had nearly enough time to provide the world with the same core value that countries like Italy or Egypt or China have had.

Oh well, I guess I'm biased, huh?

Review: Huldufolk 102 (SIFF 2006)

Huldufolk 102 is a captivating documentary about the superstitions that permeate Icelandic culture. The movie involves interviews with several people from various ages and walks of life, and offers slices of opinions, personal histories, and stories of the "hidden people" that abound in Iceland.

Who are the hidden people? Think fairies, elves, trolls, leprechauns, and other little people who are typically unseen but often talked about. They can be good and they can be mischievous. They live in rocks, but you can't see their homes in the rocks unless you're young or you have a gift of "seeing".

Seemingly everyone has an opinion about hidden people. The documentary does a good job drawing from various walks of life in interviewing locals about the Huldufolk. Both Christian and Pagan religious leaders are represented, as are farmers, teachers, scientists, political representatives, and villagers. They each have their own stories to tell and opinions to share.

Do people in modern Iceland believe in these people? Here's the interesting bit: while most people don't say they believe in them outright, at the same time they don't deny their existence. The reason? Many people have stories of unexplained phenomena, which drives the belief forward. For example, there are stories of people being cured of illness after asking for help, road equipment breaking down while trying to move large rocks to make way for asphalt, things disappearing only to reappear days later, and people seen running across a road only later to be seen in dreams.

One of the most gripping facets of the documentary is its depiction of the natural environment of rural Iceland. Rocks abound in valleys, jutting out here and there like miniature mountains. Mist is common in the mornings, adding a translucent light to the air. In one scene, an apparently real-time rolling of fog over a meadow is captured (which was shot in the glow of a midnight sun, we later found out from the directory).

The documentary doesn't set out to answer any of the questions posited regarding the existence of these little people, but does an excellent job immersing the viewer in the folklore and natural beauty of Iceland.

Overall rating: 8.5 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 80m
Country: Iceland, USA
Language: English, Icelandic

Lameness Alert #2: One Thousand Paintings

Soon after I posted about BuyMyDesktop.com, another lame site hits my radar. This one is admittedly SLIGHTLY less lame, but at the same time more infuriating.

The site: One Thousand Paintings. The product: One thousand blank canvases, painted with a blue number (1-1000, ascending). The price: Variable, starting at $40, with current prices in the several hundreds.

So, why is this lame? Sure, numbers are cool. But this artist is putting stenciled numbers on canvas and selling them for several hundreds of dollars.

• The art is not original (numbers, letters, words, and shapes have appeared alone on canvas before).
• It's impersonal (what part of the artist is in these paintings?).
• It's extremely reproducible (give me a stencil, some blue paint, and some canvas and I'll make you one in 3 minutes).
• It's very overpriced.
• And, to my eyes at least, it's a shallow contrived way of getting lots of cash for not lots of work. Great for the capitalist in you, but where's the art in that?

I'm not one to decide what is and isn't art. But I'm also one to share my opinions of said art with anyone who cares to listen. And by golly I tell you this is just crap. But hey, hats off to the capitalist nature of this artist. I'm sure a pretty penny will be had for this unoriginal drivel.

That said, given copying is a form of flattery, I now announce: One Thousand Sticky Notes. I have 1000 of these babies with a number written on them. By me, personally! Stickiness not guaranteed. Each one's $10 plus shipping (none of this escalating price "because it's an experiment of art and mathematics" crap). Contact me if you want one. Here are some awesome pics of them.

Jourgensen To Retire 'Ministry', Start Label

Ministry, one of the first and longest-lived industrial bands, will soon produce their final album, followed by frontman Al Jourgensen moving on to managing his new record label.

OK, so he has been at it for 25 years or so. I suppose it's OK to move on to new and different things.

Just so long as you stay in the biz, OK Al?