This site would not be what it is today without the contributions from our fantastic and eclectic team.
Current Contributors
Past Contributors
Behind the Scene
Ari Bendersky
Ari Bendersky is addicted to music-- most of his friends have never heard of the bands he talks about. He worked for Rolling Stone's online edition, carries his iPod everywhere and still refuses to get rid of all his CDs and their jewel cases (collection hovers somewhere around 1000-- and growing). Over the last year, Ari has interviewed dozens of musicians including Melissa Etheridge, Michael Stipe, Scissor Sisters, Avril Lavigne, Enrique Iglesias, the Darkness, Futureheads, Jet, Phoenix, Radio 4, the Rapture and Howard Dean-- before he flipped out (ok, so he has nothing to do with music; it's still pretty great that he interviewed him. Did you?). He also thinks Chicago is going through a musical renaissance-- watch out for the Redwalls and the Changes.
Currently, Ari lives in Chicago and freelances full time, writing for the Chicago Tribune, Out magazine, the Associated Press, DailyCandy and a variety of ad agencies, where he's done copywriting for Butterfinger, Gatorade, Clif Bar, Texas Instruments and more. He loves his dog, Emma, and his partner, Drew, spicy shrimp tempura rolls, skim vanilla lattes, a respectable Turkey Club, biking, San Francisco (his former home) and a great bottle of red wine, preferably a spicy Zin or jammy Pinot. Oh yeah, and he thinks Scrabble rocks-- even though Drew will never play with him. Some day he'll get off his ass and write a book or two.
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Damien C C Brachet
Indonesian Hakka / Parisian, marketing dilettante, from film and fashion in Singapore, to tv promos in Hong Kong, to media in Taipei. Occidental tourist, oriental master of ceremony, West-East impresario, noctambule filibuster, blurry conspirator, and intoxicating art director on impressionable minds. Wish I could freely roam my Malacca Straits as an (occasionally cannibal) counterfeits-smuggling pirate justicier.
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Ted Cahill
Ted is a New York-based professional wordsmith-actor-musician and full-time renaissance flâneur in search of ephemeral transcendence and the ideal chocolate-chip peanut butter cookie.
Originally a classical pianist from the coast of southern Maine, Ted spent three years as a macro-political analyst at a leading Wall Street/Capitol Hill policy intelligence advisor. As an actor and singer he has appeared across Europe and the United States and was most recently seen on The History Channel and Off-Broadway. When not performing or researching Ted spends his time working on a novel that follows the journey of a Sub-Saharan, Nepali child who escapes the Idi Amin regime of the 1970s in order to pursue artistic dreams in America.
Ted holds a B.A. in French Literature from Tufts University, a B.M. from the New England Conservatory, and a certificate in 19th Century French Literature from the Université de Paris - Sorbonne Nouvelle.
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Carol T Chung
A bubble tea addict and anime lover, Carol grew up on the east coast in
Philadelphia. She has a fondness for technology, video games, art, design, and
orchids. She received a BBA in the field of Design & Management from Parsons
School of Design in New York City. Snowboarding and soccer are the only sports
she partakes in. Her caffeine intake of choice is earl grey tea, preferably
loose and a tad heavy on the bergamot. She currently lives in the San Francisco
Bay Area and works in the video game industry.
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Wendy Dembo
Wendy Dembo is a trend and strategic marketing consultant based in NYC. She a co-curator of the next Tylenol "Ouch" zine, which is based on the spiritual, mental and physical experience of getting a tattoo. She is a member of the NPR listening, yoga practicing, New Yorker reading, organic food eating demographic.
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Ranjani Gopalarathinam
Ranjani is a freelance writer and producer living in Brooklyn. Her work on culture and fashion has appeared in V and Fader magazines, and she recently published an insider's look at the New York city marketplace for Rizzoli USA called New York's 50 Best Little Shops (May 2005). She loves food, music, offbeat media and travel.
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Parker Hutchinson
An unlikely cosmopolite from the swamps of South Louisiana, Parker writes with
one ear to the ground and with eyes pointed heavenward. This twentysomething's
frequent refusals to live within his means often lead to spectacular weekends
and harrowing credit card bills. Parker's demeanor is a curious mix of
irrational exuberance and glorious blandness, a mergence best described as
"cozy refinement." His fiercest interests include politics, music, conspicuous
consumption and general goodwill towards humankind, and his dream is to become a
presidential speechwriter with a subsequent future as a highly employable
freelancer in the private sector. In the meantime, Parker joins the Cool Hunting
staff with the sole aim of spreading the gospel of consumption as a truly
transcendent experience.
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Ami Kealoha
Ami is Williamsburg based, a Cheetos fan, commune raised (see name), snobbish, a raisin hater, a poor whistler, and in search of the perfect snack. She's also a contributor to ReadyMade and MetrobloggingNYC, a freelance writer, and co-owner of a little Chocolate Nipple business with her sister.
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Ari Kushnir
Colombian native Ari Kuschnir is a mindfully enthusiastic creative producer. At 24, Ari has challenged himself repeatedly to sharpen his skill at whatever happens to be inspiring him at the moment. The result has created a nascent artist who can find the perfect song on vinyl, shoot the music video, coordinate the behind the scenes documentary, manage the egos, light the scene, develop the print, edit the footage, package it up, sell it, and suggest the best wine, beer, food and venue for the after party where you will find him controlling the selection and amplitude of music that you’ve probably never heard before. You can catch Ari somewhere between producing innovative projects with [m ss ng p eces] business partner Scott Thrift in New York, editing music videos for MVJET Productions or spinning records at local [Miami] high profile venues and also at 88.9 FM WDNA in his new time slot Saturdays from 4 to 6pm.
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Lost At E Minor
Lost At E Minor is a free weekly email newsletter that showcases the hottest
new talent across all creative mediums from Australia and beyond. It's put
together by two Sydney-based brothers - Zac and Zolton Zavos - with an ear
to the ground for who to watch in the fields of illustration, photography
and music. People can sign up to receive the newsletter direct into their
inbox via the website.
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Brian Maniere
Brian is an artist, programmer, dj, and sound designer - and those are just some of the things he does for fun. He arrived in New York ten years ago to become a cinematographer, spent years as a photographer, and when he was strapped for cash landed a job as a computer consultant. That led to nearly 5 years of professional experience in application development, web publishing content management, internet implementation project management, and enterprise internet engagement management. He caught on the internet bubble like a surfer at sea. Still standing after the wave crashed to shore, he left for art school, and has been reprioritizing his memory ever since.
He earned BA's in English Lit and Art History from UPenn and a Master's from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. He grew up in small town Michigan and suburban Detroit, still has a fondness for Philadelphia, and isn't sure how he hasn't yet managed to end up somewhere with better weather. He is a producer, not a consumer. He has performed and exhibited at a few galleries; hopefully more. He looks younger than his age and often acts like it too.
Joel Niedfeldt
Let's just say he's crazy. No, really crazy.
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Evan Orensten
Evan is a brand strategist, marketing expert and a principal of Josh Rubin Inc.
At Rockwell Group Evan led brand strategy for a range of clients in the retail, consumer goods and services industries, and managed operations for Studio Red. Evan was one of the early principals at Razorfish, the digital design and consulting firm, where he held many executive positions over five years, including EVP of Corporate Development and EVP of Marketing and Communications. As Vice President and Senior Strategist of Siegel & Gale’s Interactive Media group he helped create and manage its successful growth and worked on some of the earliest corporate websites. He has also worked at Interbrand, BDDP Paris and Esprit.
Evan holds a B.A. in Asian studies from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, where he majored in international business and marketing. He lives and works in New York City.
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Mike Reger
Mike Reger is a senior graphic designer at R/GA, where he has spent the past year on the Nike account testing the limits of broadband and nursing a full blown addiction to quick strike sneakers. Mike is also a graduate student at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he hopes to reinvent the wheel and sell it to Google before having to pay back his school loans. Mike originally moved to New York from Washington, DC in 2004 to amp up his musical career, hearing somewhere that New York was the town for that sort of thing. Though slightly pre-occupied by his great job and academic pursuits, Mike still finds time to hunt for the perfect beat, report on it, DJ it out, and even release an original record now and then. A music producer whose past credits include a stint on Thievery Corporation's record label (ESL Music), remixes for artists as diverse as King Tubby and Stereolab, and commercial soundtracks for the likes of Audi, Discovery Channel and Nike, Mike currently records for Citrona Records as De Rigueur. Mike's shoe size is 9-US. He prefers pre-shrunk, 100% cotton, medium-sized tees. His favorite color and fruit is orange.
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Jacob Resneck
Jacob Resneck likes to write and has an opinion on everything, hence his draw to journalism. When not riding freight trains and on the bum, he works as a small-town newspaper reporter in a town you've never heard of until it gets written up in Outside magazine.
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Josh Rubin
Josh has been a designer and strategist for over 10 years, creating mobile device interfaces, web applications, embedded software, kiosks, installations and a few t-shirts. When the internet boom peaked he was at Razorfish working as the Director of Mobile Solutions. He oversaw the user experience for projects delivered to Vodafone, Citibank and Adobe, among others. He then went to Motorola to be a Lead User Interface Designer and was in charge of two new software platforms-- one currently on handsets in the Asian market and the other to debut sometime this year. More recently he was the VP of Product Development at Upoc Networks, a software company that develops mobile messaging applications.
In November 2004 he set out on his own to build a publishing and consulting business focused on design strategy, trend analysis and mobile marketing for select clients.
Josh holds a BA in Communications and Cognitive Science from Hampshire College and a Master's in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. He lives in New York City, drives a Mini Cooper, and obsesses over his 2 Sealyham Terriers-- Otis and Logan.
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Richard Schatzberger
Richard is an experience designer currently exploring the boundaries of mobile phones at Motorola. Design became his passion and calling at 4 years old when his dad gave him a sheet of A4 paper, a pencil and asked him to help design a logo for client. While all the other kids were out playing footie, Richard was helping out on photo shoots, refilling the set off spray and creating layouts with Letraset, since then he has moved on to create solutions for some of the most exciting emerging markets from interactive TV to mobile applications and services. “Thanks Dad”. He now lives in Chicago, 4000 miles away from his two homes, London and Paris. His favorite colour is light red (pink) and his favorite number is 928.
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Josh Spear
Josh Spear is 22 years young. He grew up in northwest Connecticut, close to NYC, but spent a lot of time on the road. He went to three high schools in three different states (without getting kicked out of a single one). One of them was in Colorado Springs, CO where he trained for competitive rock climbing and was internationally ranked. That's when he fell in love with Boulder, where he currently resides. He loves the view of the Rocky Mountains out of his window, and the busy crowds on Pearl Street. He is a part time student at University of Colorado at Boulder but has a very hard time staying still. He plans on moving somewhere new and exciting soon...London? Tokyo? No doubt both eventually. He's a climber, writer, designer, trend spotter, a DJ, and he also curates his own site, joshspear.com. He offers a young and fresh perspective on everything from design to gadgets, furniture to music. You get all that? There will be a quiz soon.
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SummerSeventySix
Summer is a British journalist living and working in London, U.K. While not particularly patriotic, he does like the sharp tailoring of Kilgour and sharp humour of Holy Moly, buys most things Paul Smith comes up with and appreciates good quality socks. He also watches obscure documentaries and will never refer to football as 'soccer'. Currently he hankers after Yrjö Kukkapuro's Karuselli chair, and an Anticon hoodi— but his girlfriend won't let him get one. Like Churchill, eventually he hopes to be known for polishing off a bottle of his favourite champagne every day.
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