Local favorite Golden Road Brewing has been slowly rolling out new packaging for their canned retail beers, focusing first on their flagship beers, the Point the Way IPA + their Hefeweizen. Formerly sold in boxes of traditional corrugated cardboard with designs printed directly on the surface, the new material’s a slicker, white stock that allows the designs to show through in more detail. The move’s an effort to both show off the photo-based layouts more effectively and let buyers know what they’re getting.

Co-owner, Meg Gill told Brewbound: ““Our original idea was to have a wrap-around image and show off the photography. But in a dark bar, nobody could see the name on our cans. It’s why we’ve decided to put it all up front and just tell consumers where the brand comes from.”

We like the original, raw feel of the old boxes (you can see one in the write-up we did of their excellent seasonal 2020 IPA), but we totally get where she’s coming from—we only realized after the switch to the new boxes that the Hefeweizen features the nearby + beloved Shakespeare Bridge (built in 1926).

And for anyone who hasn’t already tried it, the brewery’s Hefeweizen really is exceptional. I’m not usually much of a fan of that style of beer, but I was lucky enough to sample it right out of the vat on a brewed tour and loved its crisp, lemony taste. Definitely a winner to hold me over this summer as I wait for the Burning Bush to return.

That sounded dirty, didn’t it?

Happy weekend, all!

It can be a tough world out their for the discerning womenswear shopper, be you buying for yourself, or, say, buying a gift for another. I’m in the latter category more often than not, for the record.

But, for us, the whole vegan thing has roots in a larger effort to do less harm to others, be them animal or human. So we’ve done our best over the years to seek out and support designers and stores with similar goals in mind; ones that abide by some set of ethics with regards to sustainable production and fair pay. One such designer we’ve long been fans of is San-Francisco-based, Curator, an independent womenswear design company started in 2001 by long-time best friends, Stacy Rodgers + Deirdre Nagayama. The line focuses on simple, elegant-yet-durable clothing that’s made in environmentally sustainable ways, employing organic fabrics whenever possible. That’s Katie down below and to the right, modeling their excellent Mabel dress and enjoying some wine in Sonoma.

We took some time to catch up with Deirdre (below, right, laughing) to get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to start up a a company like Curator, what it’s like working with your best friend, and how the industry’s changed over the years.

raven + crow: Alright, first off, how did Curator start? You + Stacy are long-time friends, right?

Deirdre Nagayama: Stacy and i have been friends since age 16. We met in high school and became really close when we went to College in San Diego together. We were huge vintage shoppers at the time (sometimes scheduling our classes around the sales at our favorite thrift store tag sales). We started silkscreening in our apartment in 2000, selling tshirts outside of concerts, to stores and our friends.

Nice. Did you all have backgrounds in fashion or were you coming from elsewhere?

Stacy is a graphic designer—we could not do this without these skills—and a Jane of all trades. My degree is in English and I have a masters in counseling psychology. I usually deal with the business relationships and she deals with the specs. Fashion degrees definitely would have helped but maybe it was good we went in not knowing all of the ways its supposed to be.

I hear you—we try to look at my Geology degree as an advantage rather than a hindrance in running a design company. Is it tough working with your best friend? Are you ever like ‘I love you, but you DO NOT know how to keep to a realistic buying budget!’?

Stacy and I never fight, and we never put money in front of each other. We sometimes freak each other out with how much we’re on the same page about things. Our friendship comes first, after all these are just clothes.

I think many would call you lucky to have ended up together. What’s the idea behind Curator—what’s its spirit animal?

Picking a name is SOOO hard, we thought so very long and hard. Right now I feel like the label means the person wearing the clothes is the curator. There you are out there in life with so many amazing choices of things to purchase, you have access to so much more than before and therefore we’re all curators. Dressing like a curator means you want to look good but you may need to climb up on a ladder and adjust that picture yourself. Or climb up on the cutting table.

Workwear for the working mind. I like it. I think we were introduced to you all through Kate at Kaight in NYC way back when. Knowing your clothes and watching you over the years, it does seem like two important aspects of the work and common threads through the designs are environmental sustainability + durability. Why are those things important to you two?

Kaight has been a solid supporter of our line and for this we’re grateful. I for one am very hard on my things and I need things that i don’t have to be delicate with. Especially after becoming a mom, I’m basically in warrior mode all day long and I need clothes that can stand up to this challenge. We hope our clothes will become vintage someday. Since we’re a small company we can make decisions to buy organic cotton. We convinced one of our biggest mills to feature an organic fleece option back in ’05 and it’s now a best seller for them.

Creatively, what kind of things inspire your designs?

We’re inspired by simplicity, and we’ve learned the hard way that simple designs are not simple to create. Since we have this long relationship, we’ve discussed so many different styles; when one comes back into our brains—like a kaftan—it becomes something we have to make to get it out of our system.

Right. So, I feel like the big question—HOW do you not only stay afloat but succeed as an independent designer these days? Having lived in New York for the past ten plus years, we just saw so many of our designer friends struggling after the economic downturn. The playing field seems so much more…uneven than it used to be; it all seems so fucking difficult.

It is really fucking difficult, it is not an easy line of work. One of the hardest things is that twice a year it feels like we have to make a new company , with new designs and a new set of risks and we put ourselves out there . The recession brings to mind the “neccesity is the mother of invention” quote. We really battened down the hatches, we quit our sales rep and paired down wholesale. We opened a small retail location and focused on online sales. It put us at risk to depend on the stores too heavily in case they closed down. And many many stores did close down which would have left us holding the bag. Our biggest challenge now is not to try to do to much; creatively we want to use all these different fabrics and take risks but the smart thing is to tweak the successful items we have into new beasts. Becoming really “big” is not always the answer in this business—you want to be small enough so that you can feel the changes and adjust accordingly.

Well-put and all so true. Any predictions for the future of fashion commerce or independent designs? And don’t tell me we’re all going to be wearing those weird-collared shirts from Her.

I try not to make predictions…because I think fashion is about finding your own style and things that make you comfortable. But I do think simplicity with reign for a while….

Normcore! You + I first started talking right before Fashion Week in NYC—how was that? Insane?

We did not do Fashion Week and honestly it’s not really even on my radar. We did a show in NY called Designers and Agents where we were selling our Fall 2014 line six months ahead. In January we signed up with a showroom called True Collaborative Fashion who handled the whole thing for us. We cut our teeth on the trade shows from 2005-2010 and, as a small company, it’s not efficient for us to physically go to the shows. We’re excited to partner with them and expand the wholesale business now that the economy seems to be a whole lot better—fingers, toes, and everything else crossed. We picked up 80 new stores and will start shipping in July.

Aw, congrats. That’s awesome. Alright, hit me—why is SF awesome?

We both grew up in San Francisco and, while it’s not really known as a place to raise kids, it was the backdrop for a fantastic childhood for both of us. We rode public transportation, experienced all kinds of people—the city I knew had a deep range of income levels. You could go over to someones house that was in the projects, apartment, house, basement-in-law apt, and whatever it was you were like let’s play. One of my best friends lived on Haight Street. I would just wade past the people and ring her doorbell. The range of income levels…things definitely seem to be changing. It feels like everything is for sale now and I don’t think that supports the soul of the city. Right now, if you lose your apartment in the city you cannot get back in if you’re not seriously balling. That’s a scary climate for art and interesting people whose sole motivation is not money (like us). Of course it’s always been a fight to live in SF. In all my memories when we had to rent a new place as a kid we were panicked. This somehow does feel different now.

That’s interesting. I seriously love your city, but all we hear about it recently is how expensive it’s gotten to live there. I mean, rent’s higher than in New York. That’s just CRAZY. A friend recently told me ‘not to bother’ going to the Mission any more, that it was essentially a Disneyland of shopping for the nouveau rich…but that can’t be totally true, can it?

The Mission will always have things to see and experience but maybe drift more down to Mission street rather than Valencia? It’s def. changed a ton, but it’s still sunny and people are doing interesting things in the food fields down there.

That’s good to hear, at least. You all opened up a storefront in the Upper Noe in 2009—congrats! How is it transitioning from ethereal, space-time Interweb existence to having a real world location too?

Having a store has been a fantastic adventure for us. We’ve been learning on the fly, like we both like to do. We both learn by doing. The store is tiny—320 square feet—but it has been rad to meet our customers; to watch them try on clothes, to talk to them about what they can’t find and to have real life fits happen in the store.

Yeah, cool to have the excuse, kind of, to open things up in terms of what you offer your customers too. What are some of the non-Curator products that you all sell that you like a lot?

We carry a few other clothing pieces in the store depending on the season—UZI, Modaspia, Micaela Greg. We love apothecary products and manage to balance some food stuff in the store too, like fancy salt and Dick Taylor chocolate bars. Basically, if we like it we will try to sell it to you.

Sign me up! I don’t think I know that neighborhood at all—it’s cool?

We love our neighborhood—they have been so supportive of us. We have an old school butcher, drycleaner (where we offers free alterations on our styles), Michelin star restaurants…and most of all, a supportive community who pops in. There is a dog park around the corner from us and we put a water dog bowl out for the pooches.

Nice, we’ll have to swing by our next time through. Any spots—besides your store, of course—that we should hit up next time we are in town?

I love Flora Grubb—it’s a whole world. Henry Hunan or Thai Regent in our neighborhood. Needles and Pens on 16th.

What are some of your favorite independent shopping spots in LA?

You tell me!!!

Ahhhh, the tables have turned. We’re still finding our shopping legs, as it were, after moving from New York. I just keep ending up at NYC outposts in LA. I’ve got to do some groundwork, especially on the men’s clothing front.

Well, I really like Taylor Stitch. I don’t know a ton about menswear, but I’ve bought my husband a few pieces here and I know he’ll have them forever. They are super sweet in store as well, no attitude. We sew at many of the same factories. The other company that is sewn in the same factory as us is GUSTIN—it’s cutting out wholesale which is genius.

Oh, awesome. Thanks for the recommendations—I’ll look into them. So, I’m sure it’s like choosing a favorite child, but, what are some of your favorite Curator pieces right now?

I am constantly rotating the Shana Cardigan, Izzy Top, Larkin Pants, Ezra Top, and Camilla Tank.

Excellent. Take that, other kids. So, what’s to come in the near future for Curator? What’s got you excited?

For our fall line, we added some space dye knits and vertically integrated stripe. We’re working on Spring 2015. We really expanded distribution so these four hands are full.

Awesome. Thanks much, Deirdre.

You can shop Curator’s current line on their Web site, where you can also find a list of stores who stock their clothing. San Franciscans—be sure to stop by the store Sunday, noon to 3PM for Lip + Sip, an in-store party featuring bubbly and lipsticks + glosses from Elizabeth Street Cosmetics. Details here.

Below, shots of the Church Street store, courtesy of Curator. PS—I spy the talented Wild Unknown in one of those shots.

Thinking of the late, great Maya Angelou this afternoon at the studio, an author whose writing was formative to us both, as it was—thankfully—for so many people in the world she touched with her words.

From her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:

“Caged Bird”

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Below, an excerpt from NPR’s “The Takeaway” with fellow revolutionary author, Nikki Giovanni, on the death of her friend.

Superb NYC-based duo MS MR has been doing their part to promote fellow independent musicians ever since their success with last year’s debut full-length, Secondhand Rapture.

Since 2013, singer Lizzy Plapinger + producer Max Hershenow have been regularly releasing digital mix tapes that feature bands they’ve played with on tour and songs that keep them going during their seemingly non-stop touring around the world. Obviously, being in an active touring band is a great way to be exposed to music you might otherwise never hear, but it helps too that Plapinger co-founded Neon Gold Records, a boutique label with a history of tapping future pop geniuses like Passion Pit, Gotye, Magic Man, Ellie Goulding, and Mr. Little Jeans, to name a few.

Indeed, there are many a band that this writer’d previously never heard of before that I now count among some of my favorite independent musicians.

So what better way to start off your summer than with MS MR’s most recent mix tape, Track Addict Vol. IV. Stream the whole thing below; head to the band’s site for free download. You can find previous Track Addict editions there too.

Original art by Cornwall-based artist, Laurie McCall.

Bon week-end to you all.

Enjoy the holiday, spend some quality time with nature, tell someone you love them, and take a little time to remember the veterans in your lives, those with us still + those not.

We’re not huge app users when it comes to games. Sure, we dabbled in sudoku back in the day and inevitably dipped our toe in the world of those Angry Birds initially, but most of them just don’t hold our attention. Oh. Except for Words with Friends. I’m playing that as I type, actually.

Every now and then though, a game comes along that seems to buck the system, proving that elegant, innovative design can exist in the app world. Case in point—last year’s spookily brilliant Year Walk from Simogo games. We wrote that up when it came on the scene and it absolutely blew us away with its eerily inventive design.

Now another game’s come along in the same vein, marrying beautifully rendered artwork with refreshingly original ideas. Monument Valley is created by digital user interface design studio, ustwo, based in New York, London, and Malmö. The game has you guiding your avatar, Ida, through a geometrically impossible world reminiscent of MC Escher’s work and filled with strange crow-like figures that are oddly reminiscent of goth kids hanging out by the Orange Julius at the mall. From ustwo:

“In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world. Monument Valley is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, unfolding optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People.”

The game is truly stunning in its look and the controls are to it are intuitively sophisticated, pretty much covering all the bases with a tutorial at the onset of the game that lasts all of five seconds. The oddly placed stairwells and impossible geometry of the game is clearly the most notable aspect of it and central to the user’s navigation, but one of the most enjoyable aspects to the game for me was the overall aesthetic. Bright colors, well-thought-out patterns and geometric shapes, beautifully done titles, and chime-like, soothing music in the background paired with in-game sound effects all pull you in and provide a relaxingly fun experience for players.

Overall, I really loved this game and highly recommend it. It’s not the deepest—I probably got through the entire thing in a total of a couple hours—but the quality of the experience makes it well worth the $3.99 price. Monument valley is available for iOS users via iTunes and, as of last week, can be bought for Android via Google Play.

You can see a game trailer from ustwo along with some of our in-game screenshots below.

New York—get thee to the Domino Sugar refinery!

New Yorkers know the iconic building well by site but few beyond aspiring mobsters or graffiti artists have ever actually had reason to visit the long-abandoned factory. Now, renowned visual artist and most excellent namer of projects, Kara Walker, has made the site home to her first ever large scale art installation, entitled “A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant”.

Walker—best known for her early paper cuts that use elegant lines to tell the far-from-elegant story of exploitation of black saves in the antebellum South (below)—employs the refinery to tap into the social ramifications of the sugar industry through history and tell a story all too easily forgotten or little heard by us most. From Kara Walker + instigators of innovative art, NYC’s Creative Time:

“Creative Time is thrilled to announce that it will present the first large-scale public project by the internationally renowned Kara Walker, one of the most important artists of our era. Sited in the sprawling industrial relics of Brooklyn’s legendary Domino Sugar Factory, Walker’s physically and conceptually expansive work will respond to both the building and its history, exploring a radical range of subject matter and marking a major departure from her practice to date. The exhibition opens on May 10, 2014, and promises to be an eye-opening experience for both those who are familiar with Walker’s work and those who are new to it.”

The centerpiece of the show—the Sugar Baby, a gigantic, bright white, sphinx-like form—towers 35 feet above visitors as eerily wrought sculptures of children, made from dark, raw sugar, dot the floor around the huge ‘subtlety’ (the terms used to describe sugar sculptures in medieval times).

All in all, this sounds like a show not to be missed. “A Subtlety” is free and open to the public from 4-8PM Fridays and noon-6PM on weekends until the show closes, July 6.Walker will be in conversation with Radiolab‘s Had Abumrad at the New York Public Library at 7PM tomorrow night. The event’s sold out, but can be live-streamed via NYPL’s Web site. Read more about Walker’s work and the new installation in last week’s New York Times article and listen to a great piece on “A Subtlety” from NPR’s Audie Cornish.

Photo above, courtesy of NPR; all other photos, courtesy of The New York Times. Below, the Sugar Baby mid-construction; the refinery floor, pooled with molasses, which still leaks from the factory walls over a decade after it was shuttered; Walker’s paper cuts; and the artist with one of her sugar sculptures.

Picking up and moving your life across the country is clearly a large undertaking. But, aside from the obvious hurdles like rebuilding your social network, finding a home, and physically getting the massive amount of things you’ve collected over the years from one coast to another, there’s a wealth of tiny challenges that tend to add up too—what’s my new go-to happy hour spot; where do I buy my exotic spices; how do I drive a car, again; where do I get my hair cut now?

On the latter challenge, at least, I was lucky enough to arrive in LA with a name in-hand—go straight to Brian Girgus, owner of The New California in Echo Park, do not pass Go, do not visit the Hair Cuttery. The shop puts a no frills spin on high-quality haircuts for men, occupying a light-filled, well-designed space just down from Mohawk Bend and across the street from the LA PETA headquarters.

We got a chance to catch up with Brian recently—pictured above with his dog, Shelly Long—to talk about the inspiration behind barbershop, leaving the indie music world to open it, and cutting Lou Barlow’s hair.

raven + crow: So, first off, tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you’re local-ish, but you haven’t been in LA your whole life, right?

Brian Girgus: Local-ish…. I was born and raised out in the desert, the Coachella Valley; mostly Palm Desert and Indio. I grew up playing in bands and going to shows in LA, so I was here a lot. I moved to SF in 1996 and stayed there for 15 years. I lived in New York a couple times, once when I was a little kid and once right after I left SF and before I came back to California to live in LA. I definitely always felt a familiar sense of home in LA. My mom grew up here, so maybe I always felt it was my destiny to really live here at some point in my life….

What made you get into the world of hair cutting…or grooming in general? You guys do shaves too, after all.

It was a practical choice in some ways but I also felt it was something tangible and creative that I could do for money.  So far, it’s one of the few things modern technology has managed to not be able to outsource to the robots. I’ve always been a haircutter, whether it was my own or with some friends, but the harsh realization that I was about to work in retail for my whole life unless things changed was the instigator for me to go to barber school and learn the trade. It’s a good and social trade that I enjoyed as much as I expected to, so it’s become a very natural and enjoyable thing for me to do…and I get paid.

Nice. Wait, did you really find $6000 in a used coat you bought and use that to go to barber school? I heard that from someone, but that seems too good to be true.

Yep, that story is totally true. Just dumb luck. I paid the tuition in cash. It kept me out of debt and there isn’t much better than that in life.

Ah, awesome. So, what’s the idea behind The New California, generally speaking? Like, if you had to sum it up in a nice, succinct package…

The idea is that we kind of have to re-invent ourselves if we wanna go forward. Whether it’s me or the people, the state, the government…whatever. We have to look close and be what makes us special in the first place. Maybe we have to go all the way back to the beginning—we’ve dug ourselves a deep fucking hole. There is no emphasis on quality anywhere and when there is you have to call it “artisan” and pay a lot for it and it becomes marketed and cliché.  I just wanna do it well, keep it simple, and be true to myself. It’s a unique way of thinking, yet it’s so classic and traditional.

Yeah, I’m glad you’re not cutting my hair in suspenders + bow tie + extravagant mustache, man. And there definitely is a pretty laid-back vibe at the shop—did you opt out of offerings appointments just to give a more relaxed atmosphere?

Yeah, it keeps the line moving. People are always running late and I can’t sit around waiting for someone who is “gonna be here in ten minutes.” We wanna’ work. This way we don’t have to keep a schedule book or pay for some salon scheduling software. We keep it real simple. It’s for the best.

Nice. Where does the name come from—what’s the ‘old’ California that’s not this place?

There was a barbershop I worked at in San Francisco that was called the New Chicago #3. The place was a fucking pit. Just filthy and so poorly run. The name is the reminder of traditional standards of quality but actually executed, not just just paying it lip service. Plus, it sounded fucking cool.

So many years of naming bands paid off. I love your aesthetic in there—all of it—logotype, site look, and interior design. Who set all of that up for you?

Hahahaha…a commonly asked question. I paid an interior design and business marketing firm called Girgus, Girgus, & Girgus…. No, I DID IT ALL!!!!!! I am a fucking tyrant like that. A tyrant with a good eye.

Well it works. I especially love the porthole-winodws. Very nautical. Did you have any of that in-mind before you started things up? Like, did you have a ‘feel’ you wanted to put out there on first look?

I had a million ideas. It’s my blessing and curse. But you can have a million ideas and that’s nice, but a room will tell you exactly how it’s gonna be arranged. If you find one or two special things, those things will tell you exactly what other things will look awesome. I definitely wanted it to reflect my curiosities and interests. It all just laid it self out—I was the conduit.

Well-put. So, what made you leave San Francisco and set up shop here in LA in the first place?

The weather…and the price.

Fair. Okay, be totally honest here, man—I always feel like I’m walking a fine line between making conversation and just shutting the fuck up and letting a guy do his job—what do you think best etiquette is for those of us getting our hair cut? Let the barber take the lead and speak when spoken to? Fuck all and ask what you want to ask, personal questions included? Or maybe I’m being too New York about all of this and over-thinking it….

I always seem to appreciate people who can just be themselves. If you’re talkative, talk. If you’re the quiet type, well, be quiet. Generally that’s a little awkward though, so I try and talk to people. Maybe get them to relax a little bit. Somehow getting haircuts brings out something very interesting in almost everyone. It’s my job to roll with it so you just be yourself and we’ll find something that works…. Oh yeah, and keep your fingers outta the way and your head still.

Got it. Best place you’ve ever gotten a cut and/or shave? New California excluded, of course.

There was a guy named Dave in San Francisco that I liked. He taught me how to be damn near perfect when it came to cutting hair. I’ll say him, but i’ve gotten some good ones…my friend Joe at Barbershop in New York…my co-worker Lizzy is really the best though, now that I think of it. And I mean that….

Oh, yeah, she’s great. I know you all generally focus on simple short/guy’s cuts—where would you recommend someone go for more-involved-yet-still-cool ladies’ dos?

Sunday Morning in Eagle Rock. Courtney is fucking great.

Ah! No shit—Courtney cuts Katie’s hair! She’s awesome. While we’re on the small world subject, though, we know each other loosely through friends in the whole indie music scene. Are you still doing music at all?

I am but I just don’t really put it first and foremost like I always did. I just recorded a new song of my own at a studio in burbank last week and I recently played drums with Love as Laughter and The Luxembourg Signal but I don’t have a band anymore…. I guess I got sick of having major commitments to mediocre music and bands so I figured “What’s the point? I’ll just do something else for awhile.”

Yeah, I guess you just do what you love, if you’re lucky, and that changes, whether it’s music or cutting hair or design or…I don’t know, watching Full House repeats. Back on music, what’s the story behind the video of you de-shagging Lou Barlow (below)?

I’ve known Lou for years. My first band, lowercase, toured with Sebadoh a few times, so we became friends. It’s the first installment of the “____ gets a haircut” series. (Comedian) Neil Hamburger is next.  I just put it up on the site.

Oh, awesome. You know, Questlove’s fro’s been looking a little out-of-sorts lately, to be honest.

I could definitely handle that dude’s fro.

Do it. Finally, any professional tips for straight razor shaves at home? Katie bought me one a ways back but I kind of fell out of the habit of using it. I loved it, but I always had a hard time keeping it sharp enough consistently to work well on my annoying combination of thin skin + dark hair. …or should I leave it to the professionals?

LEAVE IT TO THE PROFESSIONALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The New California is located at 2203 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park and open 11AM-7PM Monday-Saturday; 11AM-5PM Sunday. Find out more and watch the hair cutting series videos mentioned above below and on TNC’s site.

Just back from time in the Virgin Islands spent with family, an inordinate amount of rainbows, and a wealth of tropical fauna and feeling wholly, creatively rejuvenated from the trip.

Plus this premature summer weather we’ve returned to in LA has us wanting to dive into the memory of that water up there.

Click the panorama below to see a full-screen version of the shot of Maho Bay, where Katie + I spent our honeymoon so long ago. Still shocked that such a dreamily beautiful place exists in the world.

Who’s got my back on this one—the new Godzilla movie is going to be awesome.

Not only does it star Bryan Cranston + Elizabeth Olsen…and a giant fire-breathing monster, it also boasts a pretty stellar print ad campaign, orchestrated by LA-based Ignition Creative. In addition to the traditional campaign based on movie stills + art, they’ve thrown together some really impressive retro ones that touch on multiple eras and design styles.

We shot these these the other day, posted at the corner of La Brea + Melrose.