Calling the Tapster

(Heineken-Krups BeerTender, $400 coming to William-Sonoma)

     Sometimes, I don't need anything fancy to wear. Sometimes, I just need a cold beer. As much as I love the Germans and their love for beer of all temperatures, I don't think I could abide by anything in my house other than cold beer. And no, I don't count calories. So no, I drink beer whenever I damn well please. Enter, this beauty of a machine culled from (obviously) the brightest minds that Heineken and Krups could bring together in one room.

     A 5-liter capacity and LCD temperature read-out means that I can have my beer exactly the way I like: cold and copious. Blame my renewal of love of beer on Anthony Bourdain (whose life I obviously wish to steal and/or emulate). Now, $400 is plenty to shill out for what is, in essence, a glorified refrigerator that can really do nothing more than dispense liquid. But—aha—the operative word here is "glorified". Of course it's ridiculous. What about beer, aside from its centuries of history and tradition, isn't ridiculous about beer? It's delicious, intoxicating, and perhaps the most important thing you can possibly have with cheese. (Before you start bitching at me that the proper thing to drink with cheese is wine, I suggest you go out, find yourself a nice chocolate stout—Guinness being the most easily accessible—and have yourself some nice hard cheeses with it. Then try to tell to my face that beer and cheese don't belong together.)

     Honestly, a cold beer, a good book, and maybe some latkes from Saul's. What else could I possibly desire on this whole, wide world?

  (From left to right, the Kingsgate, Aquamac, and Fairmount, $1,468, $538, and $880, respectively @ Aquascutum)      Who am I kidding? Of course I can't do without fancy things to wear. Aquascutum's been perfecting the trench since they...well...perfected the trench. The company's name, Latin for "water shield", comes from the patented waterproof textile that founder John Emary developed in 1853. With roots in both warfare (these puppies protected many an honorable Allied soldier from the harsh winters on campaign) and tailoring, Aquascutum pretty much explains why folks who lived through World War II are such bad-asses.
     Now, these don't come cheap and I am certainly in no position to just pick up one. The Kingsgate and Fairmount are both classic trenches, but the Aquamac is one ruggedly classic mackintosh. But if you're looking for something stylish, has some heritage to it, and practical, don't just impulsively reach for Burberry. Although I do admit that Christopher Bailey's done a fantastic job turning the brand around and retooling it into one cool-as-fuck brand, there's just a certain je ne sais quoi about these coats.

     And come on. Michael Caine has worn Aquascutum. Michael Caine. You don't get much more bad-ass than that.

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Resist Wrist

(Michael Young PXR-5 EL wristwatch, $90 pre-sale at Charles & Marie)

     Honestly, the Internet does not help make me less broke (except for menial writing assignments and endless searches for magazine internships that have yet to appear) and the folks at Charles & Marie are obviously in cahoots with other awesome websites that are hungrily lapping up every stray dollar I have. One of my big obsessions is watches of all shapes and sizes, but I find I have difficulty actually wearing them, due to complications arising from a thin (and slightly limp) wrist and a distaste for anything remotely shiny that looks like it belongs on a banker's wrist, not mine.

     This delicious number from Michael Young—a hard-to-Google designer whose own website does little to explain who is or what he does—comes in both brushed and polished steel (I have a soft spot for the brushed one, shown above), as well as more exotic (and expensive) black and gold versions with an adjustable wrist strap that comes in a variety of colors. Hell, you can even buy a pack of them for variety! What I love about Young's design is that it's design-conscious but blissfully unpretentious. The combination of stainless steel with a synthetic fabric strap creates a delicious tension between something utterly polished and something utterly utilitarian.

     While I could blather on and on about this baby, I'd really rather save my time scrounging for spare cash so I could get one for myself.

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Design for Information

I have got to say that there are some deliriously inventive ways people expand the Wikipedia project and the inclusion of graphic art is a definitely a big plus.

The WikiProject WikiWorld is a collaborative effort of several editors along with artist Greg Williams to utilize his different illustrations and infographic designs to briefly summarize Wikipedia articles. The variety of Williams technique, including the depth of his humor and the fluidity of his style, creates an interesting way to look at how art, technology, and information combine in the modern world.

More than anything else, this is an affirmation that we aren't descending into the deepest trenches of cultural decline. Instead, it seems like our general culture is learning to absorb more information and to do it in both aesthetically pleasing and aesthetically interesting ways. In centuries past, design was meant for luxury, for symbolism, for artistic greatest. Only nowadays would we ever have need design for information.

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Mother Nature's Sun

From the front, the Logan from Noon Solar looks like a pretty standard messenger bag: 3 interior zipped pockets, leather zipper pulls, Bavarian vegetable tanned and dyed leather. And at $412 it's a pricey, but not necessarily putting it into the stratosphere in terms of price point. But when you turn it around:

A weather-proofed solar cell connected to a lithium-ion battery allows for iPod and cell phone charging on the go. And it works even if it's turned towards you. I'm rarely on board with a lot of the modern fusions of fashion and technology (Zegna comes close to earning my approval, but some of the looks are still a bit too spaced out), but this seems like just such a smart idea. 

According to the makers, a 6 to 8 hour sit in the sun will provide a full battery to juice up your music or your calls. So whether you're actually out in the sun or just propping it next to a window, you'll always have a little extra battery for your electronics on hand.

And I have been on the lookout for a new bag...

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