Vancouver is a fantastic city to explore and discover new restaurants – especially if you like seafood as much as I do. The access to quality ingredients would make any food connoisseur drool. It certainly had me blissed the whole week I was there.

I didn't need to go far from my hotel for my first big dinner, and the experience at Yew Restaurant was certainly worth celebrating. After undergoing a massive renovation in the lobby of The Four Seasons ($4 million Canadian dollars for the restaurant alone, I'm told), a dramatic space was born, seating more than 128 guests. You're dazzled in this gorgeous space by its massive 40 foot ceilings, a floor to ceiling fireplace, and a communal table formed from a single piece of western maple.

The Executive Chef, Oliver Beckert launched a dinner menu he calls No Passport Required, a way to lead his guests on an enticing culinary journey to far away destinations — all without the need to leave their comfortable downtown Vancouver seats. April was “Japan” month (my favorite, of course) so I gave up the reins and went for it.

My Japanese adventure started with King Crab Soup, a Sake based broth with Daikon and Shiso. Very simple, light, and tasty. Large chunks of King Crab which tasted like they’d been lifted out of the sea a few hours earlier. Soup was followed by a Miso-Marinated Black Cod served with Asparagus, Edamame and a Kombu Broth — a classic. Dessert was a Pink Grapefruit Parfait with Ginger and Vanilla Consomme and Almond Milk Caviar.

My guest loved his dish from the daily menu– the fresh wild Salmon, miso-broiled with Chinese Broccoli, Baby Shiitake Mushrooms, Squash and a Plum Puree. If you're not up for food from the sea, they offer Wild Boar, Venison, or a pasta dish for the vegetarians.

There's also an impressive wine selection with more than 150 bottles available by the glass– (yes, one hundred and fifty) and they'll open nearly any selection you might want to sample.

Our Parfait was an ideal ending for us, but if you’re feeling especially brave, finish off with a selection of their Homemade Ice Cream and Sorbet's – Nutella, Carmel Honeycomb, S'more Ice Cream — and then call the cardiologist! Delicious.

“It all started with a simple thank you email to our friend Luke Ramsey, co-founder of Islands Fold, for designing Poketo's sweet Animal Mugs,” begins the tale behind today’s Islands in L.A. extravaganza. Kicking off at 3 p.m. at Poketo HQ in Southern California, the public is invited to watch artists Travis Millard, Marco Zamora, Derek Albeck, Joel Speasmaker, James Gulliver Hancock and Islands Fold’s Ramsey and Angela Conley showing off their artistic prowess on handmade zines, which will be put on sale a few hours later, along with a special tee made from the collaborative effort (Islands Fold is a neat little indie publisher, in case you’re looking for some more reading material). Poketo’s promising an island-theme photo booth plus food and drinks from Urth Cafe to help mark this great partnership. They don’t promise tans, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for umbrellas in our drinks. The event runs one day only and ends at 9 p.m., so make it your happy hour spot tonight if you’re around.

Recently, photographer Chris Hornbecker celebrated the one-year anniversary of the start of his personal project: 1 Millimeter a Day. For every day of 2008, this professional photographer — whose work you’ve seen in ads for Nike, W+K, and EA — shot an image with a focal length that was one millimeter longer than the one he shot the day before. Most of Hornbecker’s photographs, which began at 14mm, within this project were taken outdoors and play with light and perspective. One of our favorites is a sensual, layered, black-and-white image or the rain. Hornbecker will finish his project when his lens reaches its maximum adjustment at 400mm on the 22nd. We’re eager to find out what he’s got planned next.

The university that brought an idyllic vision for peace and love will be helping host The Conversation, a series of sessions about visual storytelling and distribution this Friday and Saturday. Filmmaker Tiffany Schlain and CinemaTech blogger Scott Kirsner have partnered with the good people at Berkeley’s Center of New Media to discuss the future of independent film, TV, and online video. Efe Cakarel, from the cinematic fan club The Auteurs, will be presenting on “Media Shifts from Push to Pull, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Facebook” if the social web is more up your alley than green screen and video puppetry presentations. Drinks to follow at local pub Beckett’s with independent film finance network IndieGoGo.

As an attendee and devotee of TED I was admittedly a little skeptical and thought SNAP was going to simply be a miniaturized version. Guess what … it is! But that’s not all bad actually. In fact, it’s a compliment. Mix, in a veritable who’s who of the “Organic Mafia”, a dash of some brilliant creative folks, a collection of academic thought leaders, a pinch of mainstream brand voyeurs who are diving deeper into Green-land, a teaspoon of “new economy investment bankers,” and finally some marketing agency peeps like myself and you have the makings of an interesting collection of people. I found myself inspired by Daniel Pink (always fun), Paul Stamet’s hypothesis that mushrooms could help save the world resulting in the biggest standing ovation of the day, Daniel Pinchbeck’s psychedelic discoveries and enlightened ‘neosphere’ thinking, Vanessa German’s poetic brilliance and more. So far Steve Demos’s vision of putting together a cultural elite gathering is paying off and inspiring some great conversations which went well past closing time last night at the St. Julien Hotel’s buffet. Hopefully today will deliver more of the same.

You may not be the world’s biggest hip-hop star or mega-earning athlete, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to possess the most pimped out ride we’ve seen in quite some time. Becker Automotive Design and STRUT have collaborated on a vehicle that will surely be mentioned in the same breath as “ultimate in automotive luxury.” Their take on the Cadillac Escalade ESV displays an exterior brandishing a finely crafted collection of weather-resistant, stainless steel jewelry, and interior seating resembling that of a private jet. The inside is also chock full of entertainment amenities such as an iPod ready sound system, satellite HDTV, DVD, and digital surround sound. We recommend hiring a driver so you can just enjoy the ride.

Brazilian design studio BrainBox Design Estrategico just won a bronze in the 5th Annual Festival of the Creation Club of Paraná for their fun brand identity package. Using recycled materials from a specialized paper company called Hörlle, the business cards are sturdy and beckon a DIY feel. The company’s cute but effective icon is an open head container of pencils to emphasize BrainBox’s belief that despite our technological age, the best ideas still start — you guessed it — the old-school way. Refreshingly true.

Photo from Aletp.com

Over the years, millions of Football (in America, read: Soccer) fans around the world have worshiped at the altars of players like Beckham, Ronaldinho, and Zidane. AC Milan, Real Madrid, and Manchester United aren’t just teams — they’re religions. It’s this “sacralization” of sport that served as the inspiration behind “Holygame” from our good friends, the talented Swiss Designers at +41. Their installation, a part of the Nike 1/1 project, made up of Football shoes laced to each other and surrounding a soccer ball comes off as a remarkable religious prayer monument of sorts that might even prompt those immersed in the fanaticism of the football cult to bow and pay homage to that sport which they hold most dear. If you’d like to kneel before the soccer gods, this monumental installation will next be on display during the Art Basel fair in Switzerland early this June.

Jeremy Andrew, a.k.a. Jeremyville, covers a bit more ground than your typical designer-slash-artist. Perhaps we should rephrase that, for while it is correct to refer to what Jeremy covers as “ground” (being that he darts around the world with a fearsome frequency), the bare truth is that what Jeremy really covers is stuff. A ton of it. Television screens, snowboards, books, bags, hundreds upon hundreds of t-shirts; Jeremyville is, in many ways, the king of self-branding. An affinity for creation, done at a somewhat obsessive frequency, has allowed him the opportunity to pair with hundreds of entities.

From Rossignol to MTV, Jeremy's ongoing series of collaborations has resulted in a lineup that would make even the editors of Hypebeast blush. Read on to find out what it is that keeps Jeremyville humming along so steadily.

Joshspear.com: You went to school to become an architect, became a cartoonist rather inadvertently, and then continued on to become “Jeremyville.” Was this series of events a result of following your dreams, or something more fate-driven?

Jeremyville: I’d say Jeremyville is the result of a million considered decisions, some erroneous in hindsight, some okay!

Jeremyville has evolved quite a bit; it's now best described as a project-based concept. Any idea or project that interests or excites me, I bring in to the Jeremyville story. A book. A collab. An animation. A t-shirt. A toy. A new character. Anything that adds something to the overall Jeremyville landscape, and that intrigues the viewer.

I mostly call myself Jeremyville these days, as I'm the sum of these parts – these projects are my babies and have so much of me invested in them. I'm proud to be really personal in my work, and universal at the same time. I'm striving for some sort of ‘universal intimacy', by which I mean I want both a kid in Paris and a 60 year old in The Midwest US to get something from my work, like from one of my comic stories. This might sound a bit esoteric, but I really do think about such things daily! And no, I don't read self help books!

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Some people find steel cold and impersonal when it comes to interior design. I, for one, find it to be quite the opposite — instead it screams chic, confident and strong. I like furniture that makes no apologies, and that’s exactly the kind of furniture that John Beck creates. His website showcases his bedroom, bathroom, living and dining room pieces, desks, mirrors and fireplace surrounds, and he’s recently added lighting to his already expansive and impressive portfolio with Light One (pictured above), which incorporates steel and vintage wire cloth to create a fixture that is decidedly warm and modern, not frigid and impervious. John welcomes commissions with open arms — check out the New & Special section of his site to get some inspiration for your very own custom piece.

The creative team behind Italy’s Pig Magazine — a.k.a Sean Beolchini and the Beckerman brothers — recently created a line of stellar sunglasses. Dubbed Retrosuperfuture, these new sunnies are pretty radical, and what makes them even radder is their handmade production process, which takes place in one of Italy’s most well respected sunglass-production facilities. The Super Retro, the line’s first and (currently) only style, incorporates Zeiss lenses, buckets of love, and a very manageable price tag into one lustable set of lenses. They’re available in a rainbow-rific selection of colors which is a perk that personally stresses me out a little, so watch out if you have decision making problems. Caliroots received a very limited quantity of these a few days ago, so if you’re looking for some summer sunshine blockers, get over there soon, because I don’t think you’ll have much luck trying to find these elsewhere.

A friend of mine had a date last week (no, this isn’t where I say it was a friend when it was actually me) and despite every factor that made it one of those horribly awkward first dates, namely them simulteneously realizing that he had dated her best friend’s sister during college, she’s going out with him again. Seems that first impressions really do stick — although her being a stylist and him being a tad obsessed with clothes probably helped — and I kid you not, she wouldn’t stop talking about his tie. “You should have seen it,” she gushed, “it had all of these little beetles crawling up it.” Turns out they weren’t actual beetles, but beetles printed on silk by the guys at Sovereign Beck, a Brooklyn-based design outfit. Both RISD graduates, Ryan Sovereign and William Beck started their line of neckware in 2005, which blends classic prints and themes with modern irreverence and defiance, which is more than evident in the episode of Cool Hunting Video they did earlier last month. Go pick up one up for yourself…who knows, it may be the saving grace on your next painfully uncomfortable date.

You’ll have to excuse the light posting for today, as I’m heading back to ICFF momentarily. Before I do, though, I wanted to share some of the highlights of my filled trip on Saturday. Josh had warned me there would be a lot of “garbage” at the Javits Center (and indeed, there is) but I guess you can chalk my kid-in-a-candy store excitement up to first-timer enthusiasm. After the jump is a just a snippet of some of my favorite things from Saturday’s field trip, and I’ll be back later this evening and tomorrow with a veritable boatload of photos and stories.

If there’s someone there you think I should check out, hit me up on my Blackberry and I’ll swing by.
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You have a little under two days (1d 23h 34m to be exact) to submit ebay bids for some great art produced to raise money for Billabong’s Design for Humanity initiative. Each piece is on 18″ x 18″wood panels, and rest assured that each was produced exclusively for this fundraiser. Proceeds are going to SurfAid International (the non-profit humanitarian aid organization) to support their efforts to improve the health of people in isolated places that are connected to surfing. Some of the involved artists include: Beck(y), Kelly D. Williams , Damion Silver, Kevin Peterson, and Shiny Toy Guns. Place your bids here! And also take a look at the three-part video series they’ve posted to explain this charitable endeavor.

Remember the Sketchel Project? How could you forget those awesome, limited-edition artist series satchels with art by more than 300 of the freshest and most talented artists in the world today? Music-marketing genius Beck just introduced a bag designed by French artist Genevieve Gauckler (who also contributed art to Beck’s album sleeve) as a promotion for his upcoming tour in Japan in April. We’ve got good news though, you don’t have to fly all the way to Tokyo to get one, they’re available in a very limited quantity online for $90.