GOURMET’s DU JOUR

Luca Benini, the man behind SlamJam, took some time off to talk about his personal
history and his company SlamJam. Chek it out on:

- Buscemi

Presenting the Resort (Holiday 08) footwear range.  The small collection consists of 2 pieces, the Due and the Quattro.

The Due comes in full grain calf suede, braided laces,  double sided zipper closure and memory foam insoles.

Colors: Black and Bone.

The QUATTRO.  Full grain tumbled calf nubuck with braided laces and memory foam insoles as well.

Colors: Dark Chocolate and Black

At a finer footwear retailer near you, December 08.

- Buscemi

For over 20, the Bernardini shop in Milan has been a reference point for those looking to buy, sell, and repair antique jewelry and wristwatches. For generations, the family business has focused on researching, selecting and restoring rare and precious pieces, with an almost obsessive interest in the materials and craftsmanship of the pre-WWII era. Together with Franco, his father and company founder, Max Bernardini has recently taken the business in a new direction: il vintage di lusso: luxury vintage.

Get there.

- Buscemi

We can not let this happen people.  Sarah Palin is a Christian Zionist that is praying for the end of the world in her lifetime and think shes gonna get it.  This vid is her at her church.  Watch it and realize you need to go out and vote for Barack.  And also do what the Palin’s do grab your gun because it might get ugly.

- Buscemi

Thanks Garrett.  This is by far the best single piece of marketing I have ever been witnessed to.  Completely amazing.

- Buscemi

Obikà (pronounced Oh-bee-KA), from the word obiccà, means “Here it is,” in Neapolitan. And here it is, indeed. Nestled away in Midtown’s IBM Building, Rome’s newest innovation is your perfect lunch date. Minimalist and modern, the Obikà kiosk closely resembles a sushi bar. Ginsu-sharp lines, transparent glass, and a black and butcher-block color scheme all lend to a sense of sumptuous simplicity.

Then there’s the cheese. Perfect, ivory orbs sit behind glass panes, like pieces of jewelry. Fresh from the farms of the Paestum and Agro Pontino regions, the prizes are the hand-crafted Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP. Choose from four varieties, ranging from the delicate tasting Paestem to the sweet and creamy Stracciatella di Burrata. This is like the Matsuhisa of Muhtzz.

Obikà Mozzarella Bar
Inside the IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue (at 56th Street)
Tel: (212) 355-2217
obika.it

- Buscemi/ E. Giraldi

After many years of increasing borrowing and at least thirteen months of evidence of an impending catastrophe, American financial institutions faced the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression. “The world,” explained Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “no longer has the capacity to absorb fake U.S. dollars.”  Global stock markets lost $3.1 trillion in four days, and AIG, the world’s biggest insurance company and a leader in the $62 trillion credit-default swap market, was nearly bankrupted. “The private market has screwed itself up,” said  Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), “and they need the government to come help them unscrew it.” The Federal Reserve loaned AIG $85 billion at 11 percent interest and took control of the company, which was founded in China in 1919 and driven out thirty years later by Mao. AIG was replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by Kraft, the makers of Cheez Whiz.  Central banks poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the market, and the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned the short-selling of 799 financial-institution stocks. The Bush Administration announced that it had a plan.  “My first instinct,” said President Bush, “was to let the market work, until I realized, being briefed by experts… It turns out that there’s a lot of interlinks through the financial system.” The Bush Administrations three-page draft bill would permit the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion—$2,000 per American—in bad, mortgage-related debt, and would exempt the Treasury from administrative supervision, from legal challenges by any court, and from rules pertaining to government contracts.  Finance industry lobbyists tried to stop lawmakers from limiting executive salaries at bailed-out companies, and fought to get their companies hired to control the assets that the Treasury will oversee.  Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the two remaining major U.S. investment banks, transformed themselves into traditional commercial banks, and a Lehman Brothers Fire Safety Team trucker hat sold on eBay for $84. “Lehman,” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, “rest in peace.”

The Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, was destroyed by a huge truck bomb, killing at least 53 people and wounding at least 266.  Two car bombs near the U.S. embassy in Sana, Yemen, killed 17 people, including Susan Elbaneh, a high school senior from Lackawanna, N.Y., who had a cousin allegedly in Al Queda. Elbaneh had recently entered into an arranged marriage with a Yemeni man, who was also killed in the attack.  Oil facilities and pipelines in Nigeria were attacked by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which declared that it would “continue to nibble every day at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reach zero.”  A truck carrying 20 tons of money from the Philadelphia Mint to the U.S. Treasury in Miami crashed, killing one passenger and spilling 3.7 million nickels onto I-95. “It’s shiny,” said Florida Highway Patrol trooper Kim Miller.

The presidential candidates scrambled to blame each other for the financial crisis and to clarify their positions on the proposed recovery plan; John McCain said that if he were president, he’d fire the chairman of the SEC, who is not technically under presidential jurisdiction.  The wife of international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild endorsed McCain for president because she finds Barack Obama to be an elitist.  Reporters traveling on McCain’s Straight Talk Air, who had not had time with the candidate for over a month, staged a protest. “Bring Mac back!” they chanted, in the coach cabin of the plane. “Bring Mac back!”  At a Ford Factory in Macomb County, Michigan, Senator Joe Biden jumped in a red Mustang convertible and revved the engine. “I like muscle cars,” he said, as factory workers whooped. ”I tell you, man, this is nice.”  Former Justice Department terrorism prosecutor Ed O’Callaghan tried to stall a pending ethics inquiry into Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan and Vice President Dick Cheney watched a reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga, the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War, in which his great-great-grandfather fought for the losing Union side.  In parts of Texas shit by Hurricane Ike, an estimated 20,000 cows and horses roamed free. Four thousand cows had been found dead, and officials thought that many more would never be found. “They’re being eaten,” said Texas AgriLife Extension Service spokeswoman Kathleen Phillips, “by alligators.”

The Weekly Review.  Get there….

- Buscemi

Dao and Max do such a great job on this brand.  To capture that NYC bad guy, 70’s Brooklyn/Queens smack dealer look is not easy.  I remember when my boy Greg from L.I. was doing I.C.R./Deth Killers, a bit more on the biker side,  a few years back and that was dope. Public School got that fly guy under tone that I love….Also the photography by D.Nice for there current lookbook really translates, love the leafless trees coming out of the NYC concrete, makes me homesick.

Available at Fred Segal Man in Santa Monica.

- Buscemi

In the face……

- Buscemi/ J$

And now, the best movie theme song of all time……

- Buscemi