Dangerously Enthusiastic

Meet the Maker: Sullivan Walsh, Maker Of Gorgeous Beds

February 9, 2010 · 16 Comments

“Anyone could think up the designs and build these things, but we are the people who actually DID it.
It’s the people who DO things, and MAKE things, and bring their own wacky shit into the world that inspire me.”

Sullivan Walsh, Brooklyn metalworker and artisan

Salvaged gears for lamp and mirror bases

I recently met artisan Sullivan Walsh at a friend’s book signing at a new, cute boutique called Shag (Link NSFW). Walsh told me he was a metalworker who lived in Brooklyn. I love architecture, metalwork and woodwork, so we chatted for a minute and exchanged business cards. The next day he sent me an email and a link to his website. As soon as I clicked it, I was all “Wooooaaaaah, must go visit his studio and check out his stuff!”

I’m going to be highlighting more local businesses and cool people who make stuff on this site. I love Brooklyn and I’m constantly meeting the coolest, most talented people. Hopefully, you’ll dig my interviews with them and support these folks and their work/art. Walsh is someone who exemplifies what Seth Godin is writing about in his new book Linchpin, so I’m really happy he’s the first local artist I have the honor to introduce. Keep reading →

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Getting Excited and Making Things – January Post Recap

February 3, 2010 · 5 Comments

I’m not one for resolutions. I just needed to get back to writing more this year, so I have.

The name of this site (and my official mini-bio) is Dangerously Enthusiastic. That sums me up, as enthusiasm infuses everything I do. I got a new t-shirt with a motto that neatly summarizes what 2010 is all about for me. I am Getting Excited and Making Things.

That Would Be Me.

Here’s a quick list of what I dove into in January. Check out the posts you may have missed, give me the redux of what the posts you already read made you think of or inspired you to do, and let me know if you wrote anything in response that you want me to check out. Inspiring you to make stuff, see stuff in a new way and FEEL SOMETHING is the best work I can do. Keep reading →

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Killing the Ifs

February 1, 2010 · 12 Comments

Bleeker Street, 1.25.2010I was on the C Train, dressed up for a viewing party for the Oscars at a nice bar called Greenhouse. I was meeting a girlfriend of mine there.

I was reading something on my phone, then I looked up and electricity passed between my heart and his. You know that feeling. When you see someone in the crowd and your heart flip-flops. You get a chill that starts at the base of your spine, spreads to your stomach and ends with the hair standing up on back of your neck. You just know. I know within seconds if a person is going to be a real part of my life.

I looked back down at my phone. Tried to avoid his eyes. Looked back up, and he was straight up staring at me. He was gorgeous. A head of dark, thick curly hair and curious eyes. Tall. And still staring. Keep reading →

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Hate Me Now

January 30, 2010 · 14 Comments

I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback and encouragement recently in my personal life and in regards to my career and my writing.

I enjoy genuine compliments, but I’m much more interested right now in finding out who hates me. Somewhere, someone in the world thinks my ideas are stupid, thinks they can write better than me or thinks they can do what I do but better. I have silent haters, and that sucks. Not because they hate me, but because I can’t hear them.

People admire celebrities because they have so many devoted fans. I’m only jealous of celebrities because they have vocal haters. Fans buy their music, read their books, wear their clothes … but haters are the ones who help them take their game to the next level.

I can’t wait until the day when someone shows up here to hate on me. I’m trying to take what I do on this site and on Mouth Of The Border to a different level. I want to create content that’s valuable for you and make you feel as excited as I do about what I’m living and experiencing. Leave reading the things I share with you having learned something new or seeing a situation in a different light.

And when the day comes when haters start showing up in my comments and in my inbox, I hope that people let them hate. I want to be challenged, I want to provoke. Let them hate because I need to hear them to make the best possible writing I can.

It’s inevitable that at some point in my journey there will be people who hate me as much as other people love me. I can’t wait until that happens.

Music for the Haters (Click song title to listen)

Hate Me Now – Nas
“Best storyteller thug narrator my style’s greater
Model dater, big threat to a lot of you haters
Commentators ringside try watchin my paper”

Some People Hate – Jay-Z
“Raw rough and rugged, when addressin’ the mass public
My attitude is fuck it cause motherfuckers love it
Got a, chip on my shoulder the size of the Golden Nugget in Vegas
And fuck bein famous, I came to get the butters
I came from the gutter, my success in this game”

Know What I’m Sayin’ – Mike Jones
“So do me a favor, and recognize that you a hater that couldn’t see me if I was your neighbor…
Shiit, middle fingers up (haters down).
We ’bout that drama, so if you don’t want it bitch don’t bring us up…
(Know what I’m saying)”

Can’t Fuck With Queen Bee – Lil’ Kim
“I know you wishin’ that you wrote this song
But these same words comin’ from you, would be a joke
You better off takin’ heed from your boy Jada
I know you, hate dyin’ – but you gon’ die a hater
I got a vision, I think for the future baby pah
Y’all nearsighted, lotta y’all, can’t see that far Lil’ Kim”

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Give Me Tomatoes or Give Me Nail Polish: How American Apparel Missed a Handmade Opportunity

January 28, 2010 · 15 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a bottle of nail polish at American Apparel. I’d noticed how shiny and red my friend Sarah’s nails were while we were out to brunch that morning. She’d just bought that color along with a one of the grey hues from American Apparel. Given that we’re both design/branding nerds, we wound up talking about the controversial brand for a little bit.

Sarah told me the line of nail polish had just come out. It sounded unique because the colors were textile-based or had some other industrial influence, so people would see some shades in the line not typically found in other polish lines like OPI or Essie.

There happened to be an American Apparel in the neighborhood we were in, so after walking Sarah to her car, I headed over to check out the nail polish.

I picked up a color called Factory Grey. (I love the color grey.) It’s the second bottle from the right in the top row in the photo below. I snapped the shot with my phone and posted it to my microblog.

American Apparel Nail Polish In-Store Display, Jan. 18

Keep reading →

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