Writing, reviews, interviews, photography.

Posts by A. Frankel

The Standard Relay: Wilco, Pencils, and MS & Co. revisited

Posted on August 15, 2011

Good morning. This is the start of a weekly amalgamation featuring collected articles from around the web. 

 

MS & Co. Revisited -

A while back we took a look at the MS & Co. Selvedge Denim Sleeve for the iPhone. While we were aware of the other products they had available at the time, all sleeves for various gadgets or glasses, they now have a line of shoe bags using interesting materials. It’s worth a look and they garnered themselves a writeup in the Free/Man blog.

 

Wilco "The Whole Love" 

Releasing September 27th, 2011 – The Wilco camp dropped this video a few days ago to promote the new album, “The Whole Love”. The new sound can be described as “interesting“. Let the cacophony ensue and watch the video.

 

1950's British Synthesizer Found in Barn - 

Making a long story short, Daphne Oram created a synthesizer in the 50’s that involved painting readable notes for the machine to transcribe into music onto 35mm  film strips that were fed into the synthesizer itself. The thing was lost for many years and has been discovered sitting in a barn in rural England. Check out the well-shot and hauntingly soundtracked video. (via Engadget).

 

How Pencils Are Made - 

A seriously boring topic made pretty dang interesting. Staedler makes incredible writing instruments and this video depicts just how the process happens with their simple pencils. (via Cool Hunter).

 

After Hours Update:

I wanted to point out that our friends over at Hammarhead Industries, whom we wrote about last week, got a nice writeup on Cool Hunting after this post was published this morning. You should give it a look by clicking here.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2011

Posted on August 11, 2011

Well folks, it’s getting to be the end of summer and it’s time to start thinking about your fall plans. For those of you on the East Coast who enjoy cycling, here’s an interesting event for you. Philadelphia’s Bilenky Bikes is hosting the Philadelphia Bike Expo for another year in Center City Philly and this year it’s at the 23rd Street Armory, just around the corner from Rittenhouse Square and the Mutter Museum on October 29th and 30th, 2011.

Bikes are back and it’s no new news. Bilenky has been championing beautiful bicycle frames in Philadelphia for many years which is why it’s appropriate that they would curate such an amalgamation of bicycle brands. Some particularly interesting companies in attendance will be Brooks England (classic leather saddles), Rene Herse (custom bicycles), and Rapha (cycling-wear company particularly cool for their collaboration with Paul Smith). We were able to catch Bina Bilenky for a few questions about the upcoming event. Here’s what we discussed. Click below to read the interview.

Grubby Fingers

Posted on August 8, 2011

We’ve been getting our hands dirty over here at The A.C. working with letterpresses, lining up some great things for the fall, and doing some serious field research in Los Angeles, CA. while temporarily located here until early September. There are some cool interviews, write-ups, and articles coming very soon as well as plenty of groundwork being laid for things back home in Philadelphia. We’re super excited for what’s to come and ready to get back to the Cheesesteak City come September.

I’d also like to open things up to our readers; this is an open call for anyone who’s got something they would like reviewed. We’re looking specifically for products or services that fit within our general parameters of style. If you think you fit this mold, please get in touch via the standard methods. We’re also looking to fill a spot in The A.C. shop for when it launches. There are only five spots available and it’s likely that three of them have already been spoken for. Secure yours while you still can! Thanks for reading and for all of your support.

Hammarhead Industries | “Gasoline & Caffeine Tour: East Meets West”

Posted on August 4, 2011

Hammarhead Industries on Vimeo.

James Hammarhead has been the talk of the modern motorcycle world for a little while now. If you’re into the art and you haven’t heard of Hammarhead Industries, you’ve probably been living under a rock. The company’s based out of Philadelphia and has been creating some excellent classic bikes that have been getting a ridiculous amount of press attention.

Above is the promo video for their current tour (that’s about to wrap up) of the West Coast concluding with a 3 day build of one of their bikes in San Francisco, a process that usually takes 90 days or longer. The feat taking place at the Dogpatch store of Triple Aught Design (address listed after the jump) starting TODAY and ending August 6th. The video’s pretty small so if you really want to get excited about this, open it in Vimeo or just fullscreen it. The music is pretty rad, too.

For further viewing pleasure, I’ve attached some images by my friend Steve Streisguth taken for Hammarhead. Click below for more.

Cruising Carmageddon

Posted on July 26, 2011

Things have been pretty quiet around these parts these days. We’re working on lining up some cool things for the end of summer and beginning of fall as the site shifts from Los Angeles mode to Philadelphia mode. Pictured above is the interior of a 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air, restored to mint condition. I spent my Carmageddon weekend cruising around Palm Desert in the backseat of this beautiful automobile. Hope your Carmageddon was as relaxing, to all you L.A. readers out there.