Dana Zemack, head of Zemack PR & Communications, is one of the many public relations people that has tipped me off to some of the greatness that's happening in Boston's design scene. I found out recently, through Facebook of all places, that she is also a chocolate aficionado, and even has her own blog on the subject.

On The Tasty Show (how appropriately named!), Dana features "tasting notes, recipes, tips, and lots of other stuff about the vast world of chocolate." After looking it over for, well, longer than I should have, I am in the mood for some seriously rich chocolate!

BTW, if you're on Facebook, look me up!

Last year, I told you about e²: the economies of being environmentally conscious. The series is back for its second season, and will feature two sections: e²: design and e²: energy.

e²: design will again be hosted by Brad Pitt. It will feature such figures in the world's eco-conscious design world as Thom Mayne, architect of the San Francisco Federal Building; Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia; and Adriaan Geuze, lead architect of the Borneo Sporenburg development in Amsterdam.

e²: energy will be hosted by Morgan Freeman, and will feature Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank; Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute; and Dr. José Goldemberg, Brazil's former secretary for the environment.

You can view a webcast of each episode for a week before it airs on PBS. The first episode was put on the e² website today and will run through the show's airing next Friday. I can't find when WGBH will air it, so the webcasts may be the best bet.

You can also watch trailers, podcasts and more on YouTube.

There are probably a few people in Boston that aren't interested in watching the Red Sox playoff game tonight. Would you maybe prefer something a little more artistic? If so, Gallery Anthony Curtis is where you want to be.

Tonight, from 5:00 to 8:00, Gallery Anthony Curtis is having a reception for two new concurrent solo exhibitions: Andrew Tavarelli: Floating Worlds; and Katherine D. Crone: Boxed Memeory.

From the press release:

Peripatetic by nature, Andrew Tavarelli's work is linked to his global travels and his fascination with foreign lands and cultures. In his current Floating Worlds series, Tavarelli creates an unexpected meeting place for two pop art forms belonging to different cultures and eras: ukiyo-e woodblock prints of 18th and 19th century Japan and Art Deco designs of 20th century Europe and America. Both idealized art forms promoted attitudes and life styles deemed desirable and sophisticated and were saturated with social politics. On his canvas, Tavarelli also seamlessly mixed in imagery from medieval heraldry, Mexican street signs, and Spanish Civil War and Cuban travel posters to create bedazzling visual wonders. Through these powerful images, Tavarelli celebrates and questions the ideas of beauty and masculinity, explores the complexity of gender and social relations in our time, contrast the eastern and western ideals and, above all, pursues his own ideas of visual power and beauty. In his words: "I believe that, in our attempts to make sense of things that are not of our culture, we are forced to look more deeply into our own and into ourselves. Our appreciation for the new and different refreshes our view of the familiar and opens up avenues for exploration."

New York artist Katherine D. Crone creates 3D works that are abstract visual journals. Her approach combines digital photography, the art of book-binding and fiber sculpturing together to capture a fleeting moment in life. The ephemeral images are preserved in book forms and rendered in photographs with a sculptural dimension. Her subject matter is quotidian: light and shadows, water and reflections, architectural detail and panoramic landscapes, images found in her native Long Island and places she encountered during her travels in Japan. Influenced by her academic training in fiber art at Yale, a vigorous Bauhaus design philosophy, and her strong interest in Japanese art, Katherine’s work is minimal and modern, yet it possess a quality that is nostalgic, meditative and transcending. In her word: "Even though each piece may have a personal "back story" for me, the viewer's reaction is what validates my intent."

The exhibitions run through November 3.

Gallery Anthony Curtis
186 South Street
Boston, MA 02111
617.988.8119

"Would you like to supersize that? No, but I will invest in knockoffs".

At least that is what furniture producer Fritz Hansen is alleging that worldwide fast food giant McDonald's has done.

"Arne Jacobsen chairs, including The Egg, The Seven and The Swan are seen as timeless, elegant pieces of Scandinavian modernist design, and are an integral part of the McDonald's strategy to give its fast-food restaurants a facelift and revamp dull decor with upmarket designer fittings."

"However, Fritz Hansen has accused the company of installing "pirate" copies of the furniture in a number of stores. It said it was stopping deliveries to McDonald's immediately, even though it would cost the company "millions in lost sales"."The fact that McDonald's has chosen to use pirated copies is even more surprising since the company itself is legendary across the world in pursuing trademark and copyright suits to safeguard its product and name," stated a representative for Fritz Hansen.

Checkout the rest of the press release here.

Now...who's hungry?

The Big Dig House, a 4,000 sq. ft. home in Lexington built from recycled remains of the Big Dig, is for sale. According to the Boston Business Journal, the house is listed at $2.1M.

The house is quite impressive, and, as with anything related to the world's largest transportation construction project, it's big: "The home weighs nearly one million pounds or three times the weight of an average home and features 26-foot ceilings in the living room, a 1,000 square foot combined great room, kitchen and dining room and floor-to-ceiling windows."

The house is sustainable beyond its reclaimed materials. "Green features in the eco-friendly home include a seven-zone radiant heating controlled by a state-of-the-art computer system and a 600-gallon cistern below the garage floor which waters the rooftop garden."

"The Big Dig home won two international design awards as well as a residential architecture award from the Boston Society of Architects in 2006. It has also been featured on several television shows and is scheduled to be filmed next month for a show set to air on the Discovery Channel."

The home is being sold by William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance.