KIOSK HELLO

We were in Lund, Sweden and this man passed us with his Safety Wing flying high, I had to take a photo. We proceeded to trail him for blocks as I was horrible with the camera… as Marco put it, I could never be a PI. Side-note: Marco and I have often fantasized about opening a PI firm together, he actually placed a free ad in the local paper when he was 11 with a friend stating the two of them were starting an agency and looking for partners. This was Sweden in the 80’s; do you have any idea how many people called in response? A LOT! His mother was not so happy. Myself, I love the idea of a trench coat and investigation, one day searching for objects the next for an adulteress. Awesome…. Anyway, here is our Safety Wing (a KIOSK ongoing product).

Safety Wing

Bowl found at a tag sale in Massachusetts, does anyone know what kind of pottery this is? Help would be appreciated! Looking to find a maker of such in MA for the exhibition! Thanks!

To quickly share with you two nice blog posts about Jason’s upcoming Mini-Exhibition, thanks to all!
Hope to see you here, all bags are welcome!

Metropolis POV & The Moment @ NYT

One of my favorite things in the world is smoked shrimp, have you eaten this? Sounds a bit odd no? We were in Sweden recently for a wedding and I was able to pick some up. Although I eat less and less things from the sea I had to make an allowance and go for it. I wonder where you can find smoked shrimp in this country? Odd I have not seen them in the states. I have the smoker from Finland and I wonder what the process is, could I do it myself when visiting my father at the Cape? The thing is they are smokey and a bit oily, also, Swedish (Scandinavian) shrimp is really another thing than what we have here. Often from the North Sea, they are not at all chewy and good ones have quite a bit of a salty taste (the smoked ones loose the salt taste and have a deep smokey flavor), often delivered in the shell, the roe can be with the shrimp, I found this a bit odd at first. Smoked shrimp are full of flavor, you get the shrimp taste and a smokey smell and taste at the same moment. By smokey of course I mean the smokey like smoked fish, not a cigarette. We most often eat them with a saffron aioli and some Knäkebröd and butter, the best way is to eat them in the park or at home; they really know how to prepare seafood in Sweden. I have yet to see smoked shrimp outside of Scandinavia. Perhaps you can find them on the West Coast of the US? If anyone knows, please drop a note. Otherwise be sure to try some if you are in Scandinavia. Some days I think it would be great to have a smoke house, although it must be hard to get the smell out of your hair. But picture a smoke house by the sea and jumping in the cold water at the end of the day. I’d definitely have smoked tofu and other vegetarian options as well as fish and shrimp…Yum, gotta go make breakfast…

MINI-EXHIBITION #2!

hi there, hope you can join us to participate in mini-exhibition #2, everyone has a bag in the closet after all…

JASON ROSENBERG “PLASTIC BAG HAPPENING” AT KIOSK
JUNE 27 – JULY 1
HOW OFTEN DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE PLASTIC BAGS IN THE WORLD? WHY NOT TURN A NEGATIVE AROUND INTO A POSITIVE?

PLASTIC BAG HAPPENING IS A PLASTIC BAG EXCHANGE, IN WHICH YOU ARE INVITED TO COME WITH A PLASTIC BAG AND LEAVE WITH A DIFFERENT ONE. THE TIME IN BETWEEN THESE TWO ACTIONS HAS MANY POSSIBILITIES ALSO.

PLASTIC BAG HAPPENING IS A CELEBRATION OF PLASTIC BAGS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, SO PLEASE BRING ONE IN AND PARTICIPATE IN THE EXCHANGE AND CROSS-POLLINATION OF TEXTURES, COLORS, AND IDEAS.

DO YOU HAVE A GREAT PLASTIC BAG LYING AROUND, UNDER-APPRECIATED? DOES YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SHOP HAVE A PLASTIC BAG THAT DESERVES RECOGNITION? OR JUST BRING IN A PLAIN OLD BODEGA BAG AND WE CAN SPRUCE IT UP!

PLASTIC BAG HAPPENING WILL TAKE PLACE AT KIOSK, 95 SPRING STREET, NYC, JUNE 27 – JULY 1, 1 TO 7 PM.

EACH DAY FROM 3 TO 7PM JASON WILL BE ON HAND WITH A SEWING MACHINE TO CREATE OTHER RELATED FUNCTIONAL ITEMS FROM THE BAGS BROUGHT IN… A BAG FROM A BAG, A RAIN HAT FROM A BAG! ALSO PLEASE JOIN US FOR A PARTY ON TUESDAY JULY 1, 6-10 PM.

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT KIOSK!

We visited Hancock Shaker Village as a contrast dose to The Mount. The barn is considered to be one of the most impressive structures in America, so I knew I needed to see it. And it is an incredible construction, a real Tatlin Tower on the inside. But I was really impressed and surprised to find out about the amount of color the Shakers used in their bedrooms, I had imagined a life far more austere. If you are interested in Shaker life, this is the place to go. I really enjoyed it but Marco found he was depressed as he felt life among the Shakers was a fairly repressed and structured world. Dunno, was it? Human’s are human’s after all! We do what we do! Something to contemplate. I was very happy we visited.

When we travel we are as into looking for objects as much as visiting cultural landmarks, museums, trying local food, checking out the nature, meeting all types of people, etc etc. If we didn’t do these things I think out experience would be half of what it is and I’d be bored anyway. On our first day in the state we visited The Mount, designed and built by Edith Wharton. It was her home during a particularly prolific moment in her career. In researching MA I was impressed by all of the significant female icons who resided in/ hailed from the state: Edith Wharton, Emily Dickinson, Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony to name a few. Cool. The house was impressive… as is typical for us we both found the unrenovated area more inspiring. We had a KIOSK find there as well! We came across this excellent safety ladder which is made in Massachusetts, I am hoping to bring it into the collection. According to a recent AP wire The Mount needs to raise $6 million by Oct. 31 to avoid foreclosure. I guess the rich in our country aren’t so interested in preserving homages to the rich of the past. Gilded Age #1 meet Gilded Age #2, we are back here again! It is interesting to note that during the last Gilded Age there were quite close contests between Republicans and Democrats. Are we perhaps at a significant breaking point now? From Wikipedia: “The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression. The depression lasted until 1897 and marked a major political realignment in the election of 1896.” We have been in a recession for a few years now after all and history repeats itself in many different forms.

Hi There!

We are back from MA for sometime but now I am finally getting down to it! The trip began in the Berkshires (west side of the state). We arrived late in the day to Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, close to the CT border, and ate at their restaurant The Stagecoach Tavern. Great sleep! A down to earth establishment, super food, local ingredients! Nice hosts! Intelligent too! Semi-communal living in the dining hang-out area, late night reading and tea. No TV or phone in the rooms! It was the perfect home for two nights. Good location to have as a base. Both days we hiked in the morning along Race Brook stream to the Falls(out the backdoor of the lodge), the second day going further up the trail we found the lower falls and wound up hopping in the pool at the bottom, cold! Fresh! The view across the valley from the lower falls was incredible. Race Brook Lodge requires a repeat performance: www.rblodge.com, better than the website. As they describe themselves, a chintz-free environment! That’s right!

Doing something in the United States is more difficult then I imagined, it’s a depressing experience…maybe we have 5 items in the collection and then move back over to Asia.
read on…

From a local cheese maker in northern MA:
Hi, We really don’t have any cheese to sell you and we are two busy for a visit, (we are not open to the public).
have fun, Carolyn

My reply:
Hi there

I just got off the phone with the people at west county cider and we were both speaking in such good terms about your product

what a shame, I am not sure what to say to you actually, every american producer has more or less responded to me about our project with either skepticism (what do I get out of this? what does it cost me?) or a response like yours (I don’t have the time) It’s nonsense.

funny, so many small producers complain to me again and again and again and again how hard it is (it is hard for us too, no salary to speak of for almost 3 years) and we want to support the american producers and guess what! none of them have the time to meet! or the interest! Pretty different from when we did Hong Kong! I think I cam coming to understand more clearly why the United States is in the state we are in, truly depressing but something to learn from it, here we are a small american company trying to support other small american companies and they could care less

at least this starts a dialog of a sort…

thanks very much for your time,

Alisa

Hey there!

The RBW show is extended until May 31st since we like it so much. (see photo here of the party) Stop by if you can. We are off to Massachusetts on Saturday am, wish us some luck. We hope to do some posts along the way. I need some advice on how to post more often, any advice? Hope all is well! Alisa