From the rainbow-colored lights on the palm trees to the delicious Korean bbq served at the Kogi truck, this was an amazing festival experience! A place where guys in penguin suits dance with ladies with flowers in their hair and neon paint on their skin.

Here is what I learned this past weekend. Some suggestions of how to properly coachella, if you will:

1. Don't go in too soon! Hang out during the day and relax. The bands you really want to see won't be on until the late afternoon anyway. You will be worn out by the time the headliners go on if you spend all day stomping around the festival area in the burning heat!

2. Bring suntan lotion and a blanket! You are in the desert, after all! It's pretty effing hot during the day and really cold once the sun sets. And while you are at it, pack a bandana too. While I was still laughing at all the bandana-faced festival goers at first I really wished I had brought something to cover my face with when that sand storm hit on day three.

3. Find a meeting point. There is no way your group of 10 friends won't split up at some point and it is like back in 1999 out here, when nobody had a cell phone because service sucks.

Highlights? Well, R.kelly performing with phoenix, obviously! Band of horses, major lazer and a pair of heart shaped glasses that I was gifted at the Guess party on day two.

One of my favorite performers of the weekend was Alllen Stone! Check out  "Unaware" from his self-titled debut album.

Allen Stone, Live From His Mother\'s Living Room

See ya next year, Coachella… we will be back!

When I met Timmey about 2 years ago he was working the bar at a Zurich rock club. He gave out some of the club's signature Mexicano shots that night and I remember noticing the tattoos in his face. An anchor on his left check and a big lightning bolt under his right eye. Little did I know that this kid is a seriously talented skater. At this point I have to admit that I don't know a whole lot about skating. Well, besides a profound long-lasting love for boys on skateboards which started in my early teenage years, that is. But other than that I am relying on the word on the street. And word on the street is that Timmey Krauer (pardon my French) is the shit. "He's a shredder" someone said about him when we watched him skate last summer. This obviously didn't go unnoticed so OBEY Clothing Switzerland and Doodah teamed up recently to support Timmey's first video: Enjoy the good times

It's time to dream everybody...please use the wormhole provided on your bedroom floor to escape through space & time and travel to a better place. Once you have arrived at your destination of choice please sit back, relax and take a minute to admire how this rug really ties the room together! And all there is really left to say now is: Holy universe, there is a galaxy on my apartment floor!!

SCHÖNSTAUB — which literally translates to "beautiful dust" — was founded in 2010 by young Swiss creative duo Nadja Stäubli and David Schönen. This is their debut collection of high-quality designer carpets which combine Swiss precision craft with innovative design. All of the rugs are woven in Switzerland on high tech carpet weaving machines by Schönherr/ Stäubli which is one of the leading supplier of carpet weaving machines worldwide.

For more info and pictures check out their facebook: Facebook/schoenstaub or contact Schoenstaub at: info@schoenstaub.com

This month, Collateral opened its doors in Zurich, Switzerland. The new boutique-cum-art gallery space showcases products from brands that represent culture in various forms — music, skateboarding, graffiti, design, art and photography. At the same time, Collateral promotes local and international artists by displaying a new art show every month. I was asked to be the first featured artist for the store's official opening on Saturday, September 1st. It was a great night with a cool mix of people. And yes, even my grandmother made an appearance!

For this show, I worked on creating systems to process the overflow of information we absorb daily without having time to interpret and process everything we see. Images, typography and symbols morph into pattern-like drawings and, together, create new meaning. Exhibited are 3 large and 12 small drawings, all of them in either black or white ink.

I was so honored to be chosen for this great opportunity — my very first solo show. I'll stop talking now and let the photos speak for themselves.

Much love,

Blanda

Freckles. Photographer Reto Caduff has always had an affinity for them — even dated a few freckle-faced girls — and noticed how the spots would often get covered up with make up or be retouched in post-production. Caduff decided to react and "celebrate freckles instead of erasing them". He started shooting girls covered in the beauty marks that "make a face unique" and found that the models posing for him were excited about showing off their natural faces. Most of the girls shared similar stories with Caduff of how they were made fun of at school and had to learn to love their freckles. "I think for girls it must be especially hard since there is so much pressure as to what is beautiful and what not" the photographer tells me but "there are a few models who really are proud of them now." As they should be. Some of my closest girl friends have freckles, one of which was photographed for this very book and I agree with Reto: Freckles really are beautiful!

Reto Caduff is a multi disciplinary artist who has successfully dabbled in areas ranging from graphic design and typography over journalism and radio to film making and photography. But first and foremost he is a story teller. Over the past two years he shot about 100 girls, half of which made it into the resulting coffee-table book entitled "FRECKLES", a beautiful collection of black and white portraits. It is a labor of love, financed and produced by the photographer himself. It is available at selected photo book stores as well as through amazon.com as a numbered edition of 500.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984820205

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/beauty-marks-reto-caduffs-freckles/

I say: get a copy while they last..

Love,
Blanda

I met Nianga Niang and Naleye Junior a few years ago at a café in New York and was instantly drawn to their energy. Besides their obvious good looks, these kids are seriously talented, doing all the things other people just talk about: merging music, performance, fashion and art. Hanging out with them is always a trip. I stopped by Nianga's cute 5th floor walk-up in Soho the other day and she showed me some ideas for the Illuminati jewelry collection she is currently working on. Naleye was busy going through boxes of new T-shirts he had just printed up with their iconic bold logo while their latest Lighterman remix was blasting through the apartment.

The two of them make one half of the Amsterdam-based producer and DJ collective, Illuminati AMS. The remaining members are DJ Jaziah and Demikey, and together they are planning to enchant the world with eclectic and mysterious beats.

If you are in New York this Thursday you should stop by Southside, where Illuminati AMS will be playing from 11pm to 4am. Details are below:

For a little taste listen to the lastest Mix TRANGA:

http://www.beatport.com/track/tranga-club-mix/3594346

What I am trying to say is: keep your ears peeled, you will be hearing a lot more from these guys. And in the meantime stay updated via their blog, twitter and soundcloud:

Packing for a springtime journey to Switzerland always requires some creativity. This time around I packed a bikini AND a winter coat, and both came in handy. A day of wakesurfing on Lake Zurich was quickly followed by a hapless hail storm the next day! Yikes! One good thing about the rotating weather, though, is that it provides a good excuse for a barbecue any time a ray of light breaks through the clouds. And that looks something like this:

Nom nom nom

I met a Rolling Stone last Thursday! Pretty epic. Namely Ronnie Wood who was in town for his art show opening in SoHo. The exhibit presented by Symbolic London is entitled “Faces, Time and Places" and features around 50 paintings, prints and sketches.

But see for yourselves:

The man himself

New York based artist Mike Damski

Diane, director of PR for Coburn Projects

Mick Rock with his daughter Natalie

Love,

Blanda

Well, after catching up on about a week's worth of sleep I feel more human again and less hobo (even though that line was very much blurred in Austin, where the bums looked like Brooklyn hipsters). Anyways, I am back on track and ready to tell you about my SXSW adventures in one of the weirdest cities I have ever been to, Austin, Texas.

We arrived last Tuesday and began our day with coffee and tacos which turned out to become a daily ritual for the week. We did a lot of walking and dancing and saw a ton of good shows, ran into some old friends and made some really cool new ones.

This is our little travel group on day 1 with me on the far right. I have a talent for talking to people while they are taking pictures I am in.

Of course I hung out with CMRTYZ who sold their awesome shirts and threw some wild parties

Pretty sweet eh?

Portals. We ate A LOT of hot dogs.

and also, this. When in Texas...

This is us sitting on the curb outside Spin, thinking about why we weren't cool enough to get into the Fiona Apple show.

One of us got a free tattoo at the Sailor Jerry's trailer with the band members of The Growlers (don't worry Alex, I won't say who)

For a minute we were teleported back to the 80's when our friend showed up with this bumble bee. Yes, that happened.

I also noticed a bit of a shirt an hat trend down there!

And then I met this kid, whose name is OBEY.

This is it for now, will be back soon.

Kthanksbye

-Blanda