Saturday morning kicked off the last day of the conference with a mini-concert by They Might Be Giants– it was definitely the earliest rock concert I’ve ever seen in my life, and surely the earliest these guys have ever been awake. They played a set with 15-20 second snippets of dozens of their most famous songs as a little taster. I was a little underwhelmed by them but it was still great to have them in attendance, they’re clearly musical explorers.

Richard Branson’s session was a bit different, Chris Anderson (the TED curator) interviewed him on stage. It was clear that Anderson wasn’t a professional interviewer but i thought he still did a pretty decent job. Branson came across as soft spoken, humble, and surprisingly honest. He spoke a bit about how he dropped out of school, some of his adventures and what drives him. He was elevated to ‘hero’ status for me for nothing more than the undeniable fact that he just rolled up his sleeves and did it.

Bill Stone is both a cave explorer and space explorer– he does multi-day trips into the center of the earth, into caves miles below the surface of the earth. The slides of his expeditions were very fascinating. He also spoke a lot about space exploration and how he feels nobody has really pushed the boundaries in space travel because everyone is concerned about getting home. He says the ideal party would go to space with just enough to get there and would find fuel in space to return, if at all. He showed slides of where he’s convinced fossil fuel exists on the moon, etc. He announced at TED that in the next few years he’ll be leading that mission– the first to ever travel to space without enough fuel to come back.

Zahah Hadid was unfortunately an no-show for some reason, no word on why but that was disappointing.

The real gem of the last day was story teller Ben Dunlap– fascinating guy and extraordinary story teller.

Keep your eyes peeled for this years TEDTalks available online, this was an unbelievable and life-changing conference. The amount of information, passion and inspiration is still just sinking into my brain, and heart. I’m already counting down the days until TED 2008, even though it’s sold out a year in advance, I hope to see some of you there next time!

The folks behind Riott, which is a network geared toward the urban lifestyle (online music festivals, street fashion, urban sports, etc) are conducting a skate video contest. Aptly named ‘High Five’, they’re encouraging people to submit 2-5 minute clips; starting March 26th, they’ll pick a winner every week for five weeks. They’ll give out cash and sponsor prizes to the winners, as well as award a ‘guest deck’ as the grand prize. With seemingly dozens of new social networks popping up every month, it looks like sites like Riott are getting creative to entice potential members to join– that’s why they’ll hook you with an itunes song credit when you join, and 5 credits when you get 10 of your friends to join. And of course, registration on the site is a condition of entry into the High Five contest. Who knows? Maybe this is the social network for you. Josh– any update on that social network aggregator at the Community 2.0 conference? My bookmarks bar is filling up quickly.

Design minds Cole Gerst and crew at Option-G in L.A. are continuing their quest with a new release of 17 mostly enviro-angled t-shirt designs for their Spring/Summer 2007 line. We’ve been impressed with their designs for some time now, and Option-G is continuing to progress. In other news: they recently did two Animations for Scion (1, 2), have continued to design some pretty great music posters, and have been commissioned by Vans to be part of their charitable 2007 Sky Gallery artist series– as part of their involvement, Option G will be collaborating on a billboard in L.A. with 6 other chosen artists, will be designing a pair of custom shoes, and will be featured in a group show in November. Supposedly, a line of wallpaper is also in the works for Option-G– can’t wait for that idea to come to fruition! And as always, I’ve been getting a kick out of Cole’s ‘LALA Land‘ comic strip.

I understood that skateboard decks play host to some amazing design work, but the decks I’ve seen that are going to be showcased in RefillSeven’s Laser Deck Skateboard Show are making me drool. The show consists of deck designs from over 60 artists from around the globe; but these aren’t your ordinary decks– they’re created with a Twenty-Twenty laser cutting machine that cuts away layers of wood with ridiculous levels of detail. See for yourself on their Flickr page, where they’ve amassed a ton of example images. The first show will be in Sydney on March 29th at the MTV Gallery. From there, the show’s going global– to New York, L.A., Japan, and then to Europe later in the year. For a lot of artists, the idea of removing material from a blank ‘canvas’ to create art was a new one, and it’s interesting to see how the various artists interpreted the exercise. Word is that each artist design will be cut into 50 decks, so this is surely a limited edition run. I don’t think you’d want to strap trucks and wheels on these babies, but they’ll make for a great decor option for those of you out there who are lucky enough to get your hands on one. Stay tuned to RefillSeven’s news feed for updated tour info.

Via Lifelounge

Designer Luis Antonio has been crafting some pretty unique clothes for L.A. based GRNappletree– they make a broad range of gear, including t-shirts, hoodies (’Maze’ and ‘Tangerine’ shown here), bags, hats, and denim. According to the brand, their roots are firmly planted in quality and intend that their graphics attract intellectually conscious people so that the seed they have planted– an inspired quest to improve the arts, humanities, and natural beauty of everyday life– continues to grow. From what I’ve seen, they utilize some great fabrics to create the type of distinctive look that I watch out for in a clothing label. I know I could probably find this line in numerous So Cal boutiques… but does anyone know if they’ve made their way to Colorado?

Our buddy and Spear Collectiver Tom Judd is at it again over the pond in the U.K. This time he has joined up with a group of other talented illustrators and Scott Lockhart to publish Plinth Issue 2 (The Hate Issue). In all, 20 artists have come together to produce 32 pages of “draw-rings.” Tom has a few illustrations inside, but also is responsible for the front cover (shown here). The money from the sales of these nicely wrapped, sealed, and numbered Plinth issues is going straight to what promises to be a bad ass Summer Show. Don’t wait though– they only printed 40 copies– super duper limited edition!

At the beginning of this Budweiser commercial, you may think that it’s going to be the sequel to the Axe commercial we saw a few months ago. But instead of thousand bikini-clad women running through the jungle toward a guy spraying Axe all over himself, this time we get the Budweiser Genie. A hapless female stumbles along a beach and accidentally frees a big blue genie from his bottle, at which point she makes her three wishes. The result? Well, you’ll just have to watch for yourself– but I’ll tell you this… her wish definitely comes true, and you’ll surely “dig” her by the end of the commercial. Anonymous Content shot the spot in Malibu; what better place to find Barbie for your beer commercial? They say “sex sells”– and I love the twist they put on that saying in this spot.

I recently had a chance to check out some of the work of Purchase Brothers– they’re a boutique film studio out of Toronto that appear to do great stuff in the fields of event videography, video editing, color correction/grading, 2D and 3D title design, and motion graphics. After watching their demo reel (which gave me a good feel for the breadth of their skills), I took a look at “The 5th Rangers” clip. They did a great job bringing out the feeling of of a WWII battle– reminded me a lot of “Band of Brothers” film work. Head over and check PB out if you have an event you want them to help you with, or even if you don’t, the clips are fun to watch.

About seven years ago, a man by the name of Chip Wilson got pissed off at the current state of yoga clothing. In those days, things were breezy, cottony, and perfect for a few mellow sun salutations, but as soon as the aspiring yogi started to sweat, the situation turned sticky. No one was making yoga threads that were appropriate for the more strenuous power yoga that was gaining in popularity, and classes were packed with people desperately wishing to be naked. Thankfully, Chip decided to remedy the situation in a classic yogi manner (solve the problem through positive change) and opened the first lululemon athletica store in Vancouver in November of 2000. Boulder was recently blessed with our own lululemon, and I can not get enough of the line which has now expanded to include athletic wear for all kinds of endeavors. From what I can tell, the secrets to lululemon’s incredible fit and feel are some exclusive fabric blends and a pre-wash that ensures what you buy will looks the same way after plenty of use. A flat-seam on everything makes for super-comfortable extended workouts (I run half marathons in this stuff; it’s awesome), and the dedicated staff seems to know everything about everything, making finding exactly what you need a breeze (online descriptions are right on too). Other perks include pants that make for an incredible rear view and amazing relaxation wear.