If you have trouble reading this email, go to
www.dwell.com/mailings/874897.htmlDespite the build-up that surrounds its notorious eve, the new year often staggers in with more of a whimper than a bang. For most of us, holiday travel and post-party detox give the first few days of the new year a slight haze. So, in honor of the general dissipation that hovers over the first month of the year, we decided to dedicate January’s newsletter to the year that was. In no particular order, here is a list of what the Dwell staffers thought to be the nines of 2006.
1. We always prefer the real thing to an atavistic new design. George Nelson's swag leg group from Herman Miller was among our favorite reissues.
2. Despite popular belief, the iPod and its various accoutrements have not, in fact, supplanted the age-old stereo system. Case in point: Marcel Wanders’s sleek sound system and home theater.
www.he-marcelwanders.com/clip.swf
3.
D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton (Princeton Architectural Press). As the first sentence of the book states: “This book is for people from all walks of life who want to publish words, images, and ideas on paper, on T-shirts, on the Web, or anywhere else.”
4. If you experience butterflies and unbridled joy when a film begins with the Janus seal of approval, then you too must have had an aneurism when Criterion Collection released
Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films.
5. Though we’ve become well-accustomed to
YouTube, we still appreciate that element of surprise and wonder at discovering a beloved commercial from childhood or receiving a random forward from a friend. This year, when times were tough, we took solace in the musical stylings and manly maneuvers of our most
favorite Bollywood stud. (If anyone can find us a pair of gold booties similar to the ones sported in this clip, they will be handsomely rewarded).
6. While we like to think that we were on the green tip way before it was cool, we are incredibly happy to find more people jumping on the bandwagon, particularly those organizations that will really make an impact, such as the
US Green Building Council.
7. We always knew that Al Gore was a superior being. For starters, we are fairly confident that he can spell potato correctly. But he’s also largely responsible for opening many American eyes to their deleterious environmental impact with
An Inconvenient Truth.
8. If you can’t make the radio play your favorite songs, you might as well outfit it to your liking with
Tune 'n Radio.
9. Those Scandinavians usually (if not always) do it better.
The Aurland Lookout, made from locally harvested Norwegian wood (it is good!), is Dwell’s official “Rest Stop of the Year.”
10.
The Museé Quai Branly went green in another sort of way with its 193,750 square-foot living wall designed by Patrick Blanc, our herbivorous hero.
Until next time,
Amber Bravo
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