Bespectled San Francisco eyes will be on open source social effort the Workbook Project this weekend as they bring their audience-selected film festival and conference to the city. First, on Friday, August 15, filmgoers are invited to use their mobile phones to select which of 22 films will be screened in the evening at Mint Plaza (a video description is available here).
During the day on Sunday, the DIY Days summit at bar/gallery 111 Minna will tackle the ever-increasing difficulty of independent film finance and distribution. Webby Awards creator and local filmmaker extraordinaire Tiffany Shlain will be presenting and a variety of program directors, content acquisitions gurus, and producers will be in attendance (although only one self-described Mega Professional Amateur Comic Artist has signed up so far). The August 17 program will be gratis thanks to distribution festival From Here to Awesome and Current TV. Of particular interest to Bay Area content creators are daytime panels on audience building and the blanket “craft of cross-media.”
Husband-wife design team Vivian Cheng and Eric Jean-Louis (Blend Creations) were reading about the fate of children in war-torn countries when they hit upon a question many of us in the arts often ponder: “How do I save the world with a really great piece of jewelry or an illustration?” In reply, the duo have launched Metal for Monsters, a jewelry collaboration with a handful of illustrators and toy designers. S.britt, Stefan G. Bucher, Jon Burgerman, Anna Chambers, Justin Hillgrove, Adam Koford, John Martz, Jay Stephens and Brian Taylor have all supplied Blend Creations with really cool monster art to be made into pendants. Each laser-etched, stainless steel pendant features an illustration on the front with the artist’s signature and number (out of 100) on the back. For each pendant purchased, $16 will be donated to UNICEF. Vivian and Eric are currently working out the details of production and preparing for a launch date.
In case you still haven’t figured it out, vampires are going to be all the rage this fall. Between two new TV shows and the film Twilight, everyone’s going to be talking about bloodsuckers. In celebration, the Spanish Tolky Monky has added the vampire rabbit Moneja to a lineup that feels like a cross between Joe Ledbetter’s illustrations and the wacky personalities inside Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. She’s not available yet on their new line of polo shirts, but if you’re a lady — or just want to dress like one — you can snag a pink, black, or purple fitted tee that sports her image.
Once again, Tokyo Art Beat is twisting bright pinks and blues to bring you two new T-shirts every two months. This is the fourth year in a row that TAB is putting out these flashy bichromatics, and in our opinion, this year’s first pair looks more promising than ever. Ko-zou put together the symetrical man-with-insane-headpiece design and Tada Reiko is behind the more playful pajama pattern print. Check out the new releases as well as collections from previous years on their site.
Being able to fit a book in your back pocket is a dream for urban dwellers. The problem is that that book is probably either a cheesy guidebook or a moleskin. The Cupboard is taking the pocket-size book market very seriously, by inviting an author to write a collection of very short stories that fit in very thin books. We were ecstatic to see they invited Jesse Ball to complete their first edition. We first discovered Jesse Ball in the Paris Review years ago, after which he received much deserved acclaim for his books March Book and Vera & Linus. The stories are one or two pages, which is perfect when you have five minutes to kill. And the literature is good enough for multiple reads.
Go to FUSSHop now. Aside from the Si Scott print we just blogged, MHI has a new line of clothing with a little help from Maharishi, London’s premier Japanese fashion house (and the designers of my passport cover). Maharishi has come up a few times in the past for their camo infused clothes, this time around there isn’t as much Army inspiration (maybe they got the message from our first Big Ticket Tuesday). Their street wear takes a twist by getting its cues from nature and its relationship with machines — as noted by the title of the collection Deus Ex Machina. Have a quick look at the new collection and don’t forget last season is on sale. Then do yourself a favor and bookmark the FUSShop, because they aren’t going to stop coming out with amazing art, clothes and books.
Husband-wife design team Vivian Cheng and Eric Jean-Louis (
Being able to fit a book in your back pocket is a dream for urban dwellers. The problem is that that book is probably either a cheesy guidebook or a moleskin. 
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