Sandwiches

ROADRUNNER SHOEFITI

We spent a little time over the past couple days casting these mini-Roadrunners in preparation for a wee bit of global street art. We'll tie pairs of the chairs together and lean on the expansive Tillman clan (relatives of Darnell and Clovis of Horsehead Crating) to chuck them over wires in cities around the world. Sure, they're not shoes but they are made of rubber.

HORSEHEAD CRATING INTERVIEW: CLOVIS TILLMAN

After we officially teamed up with the Horsehead boys last week we realized we didn't know much about them. How they started the crating company, why the puzzling growth into graphic design, photography and interactive, where they grew up, what else they've done with their lives. So we thought we'd sit down for a formal-ish interview with the brothers, one at a time, to get some answers and piece together the back story. We started with Clovis, the older of the Tillman boys (at least of the two we've met) and after an hour chat and most of a bottle of whiskey, we're not much closer to any real understanding.

DoubleButter: So, what's the deal with Horsehead Crating Company?
Clovis Tillman: That's your idea of a good opening question? (Mocking tone) "What's the deal with Horsehead Crating Company?"
DB: Give us a break. We've never done this before.
CT: I don't see how that's my problem. You want a good answer, ask a good question.
DB: Alright, jackass, how's this: who are the fellas in the black and white photo you gave us for this story?
CT: Still a stupid question since you already know the answer.
DB: Yeah, but the people reading this won't know unless we tell them.
CT: Like anyone is ever going to read anything you morons write. (For the record, the men in the photo are his uncle and his father, though we're not sure if one guy is his father and the other his uncle or if one of the two guys is both his father and his uncle. This being the Tillmans after all.)
DB: What's with the attitude and what's with the drinking?
CT: No attitude and as far as the drinking goes, just trying to level the playing field.
DB: Nice. Classy. Anyway, moving on. Where was that photo of you taken? (We're asking about the photo above at left.)
CT: I was standing in front of my car.
DB: Hilarious. You're a real laugh-riot.
CT: Is there a question in that?
DB: Alright, how about this: we first met you and Darnell because someone told us you were the guys for crate building. No one ever mentioned you also did graphic design and web design, or that you took nice photos. Why did you guys decide to diversify in such unexpected ways?
CT: Unexpected for you maybe since you have a tiny imagination. But not so for us. We look at crates as ways to package and deliver products, in this case your sweet furniture. We look at the photography and the website as virtual crates. Still packaging your shit, still delivering it. And think of the graphic design, as you say, as a way to do the same thing with your identity. Crate it up and get it to the people who need it.
DB: Well said, brother. And what about the product testing video? What the hell is that?
CT: Look, man. The furniture world is stiff. Self-important bullshit. All these Euro-douches with their carefully distressed hair-dos and designer eyewear and conceptual crap that looks like hell up close and won't last the first year you got it. Stupid. Your shit is the bomb. Hey, don't get too full of yourselves. But if it's the bomb and it's fun and it's actually made by two jerks in a run-down yard, why not blow it up? Party on it. Chuck it. Hack it. The shit can take it. You wanted the site all clean and pretty so you could appeal to the stuffy yuppies who might buy it. We gave you that. The video just swings it back toward the truth.
DB: You're throwing rocks tonight. Alright, last one for you for now: what's next?
CT: I'm gonna finish this bottle and you're gonna get the fuck out of here.

CARBONE'S SAUSAGE HOUSE

So, at last a Sandwich post about sandwiches, specifically sandwiches from Carbone's Sausage Market and Deli. Mortadella, soprasetta, prosciutto, provolone, mozzarella, sausage, meatballs: you best like to eat beast products. And with a name like DoubleButter, we admit to a certain weakness (though we're fans of the peppers and onions too). Old-school interior, family business, Denver staple. At 1221 West 38th, with barely enough room to stand behind the counter and wait your turn with the other drooling carnivores. We went with the Italian combination #2 and the Italian sausage—with the works on both. Tasty. Sure, we're a couple steps closer to the grave but with a belly full of goodness who really cares?

DOUBLEBUTTER SAY WHAT?

DoubleButter Say What? from DoubleButter on Vimeo.

Prisencolinensinainciusol, the name of the track playing over this stop-motion video, is, in an incredible coincidence, the cockney term for Armadillo Product Testing. Or at least that's what Darnell told us and if you've met him you'd admit that does seem like the sort of thing he'd know. Fittingly, the Horsehead Crating crew (DoubleButter's in-house strangeness group) orchestrated some product tests on our Armadillo coffee table to accompany the song. The table shown is a prototype square version (the casters are just there to help it roll for the towing segments), and it's the same table in every scene. We performed the tests (with the help of a few friends) while the Tillmans worked the cameras (Clovis, Darnell, and, in her DB debut with the HH crew, Hollah Jean). The results: if the table can handle a Molotov cocktail we're sure it can handle your wussy mojito.

JAPANTHER

Japanther crashed at the DB pad while in Denver on their tour and since we're not total idiots we took in their show last night at the Marquis. Totally fucking brilliant. If you can get behind what they're doing even a little bit, get out and catch the live show. They completely bring it and if you're breathing you'll be yanked up out of whatever you need to be yanked up out of. They're in Omaha tonight and we wish we were too.

DB ACQUIRES HORSEHEAD CRATING COMPANY FOR TWO BOTTLES OF WHISKEY

Well, it's done, at last. We brought the Tillman brothers on board, or at least we acquired their company, Horsehead Crating. Turns out their business was worth exactly two bottles of Stranahan's, one for each of the boys. Seems fitting since Stranahan's is moving their operation into the neighborhood. Happily for us the deal for Horsehead includes their live/work shacks (pictured above), Depression-era sheds clad in barrel lids, just a stone's throw from our digs in Baker. Darnell and Clovis had a still of their own in one of the buildings but had to dismantle it to raise cash and to make room for a new arrival: Hollah Jean Tillman, a sister or cousin or wife (who knows with that clan) who recently reappeared on the scene. The boys are officially on the payroll now, so we expect a decidedly strange turn in the direction of our work.

EAMES EROS

Clovis woke up in the alley between Fox and Galapago this morning and spotted an Eames tag on the dumpster he crashed behind, happy to see that at last Charles and Ray had developed some street cred (long overdue and well earned). He found a couple more tags and begged some chairs off of us for a quick photo shoot, passing the shots along for a mid-week post. We're sitting in the pair of shell chairs as we type, wondering as we often do if there's any point in ever designing another chair, they so completely nailed it.

NICOLA FROM BERN

Until now, we've dedicated this blog to our own work or that of our friends at Horsehead Crating. But there's a lot of good work out there that we want to call out (and frankly there's only so much original content a couple guys who really should be filling orders can produce . . .). So here's the first non-DB, non-HHCC post: Nicola From Bern. The work is by Nicola Enrico Stäubli from, yes, Bern, and it's smart, fresh and fun. Among the pieces shown on the site are (from left to right above) a powder-coated flat-pack coat hook, a trestle table base of powder-coated bent rod and tie-down straps, free downloadable plans for folded cardboard furniture, and a plywood and fiberglass-reinforced plastic bed with a telescoping base. And there's more, including a cable-stayed sail cloth wardrobe. Check the link, it's worth your time. What else are you doing on a Friday afternoon?