PKB

Sonyon: weird, melancholy, awesome Korean toys.

“We were trying to imagine a boy in the future,” says founder Kim Bo-min, “and all the things that boy would hold in his imagination.”

“People who dream would most enjoy the brand,” adds Lee Joo-eun, Kim’s business partner.

“You could say Sonyon is analogous to Peter Pan.” But without the Disney-fied sheen of eternal happiness; Sonyon is still, after all, Korean. “When you walk around Seoul, you experience both happiness and sadness in the things you come across. Likewise, Sonyon lives somewhere between a happy place and a sad one.”

Via Theme Magazine.

I’ve been an unabashed Oakland booster for at least the past ten years (after having relocated here from Palo Alto about fifteen years ago).

All the same I tend to be skeptical of glossy magazine covers that talk about the “new” anything - mostly I think it is new people discovering something that was already pulsing along on its own merry way.

Still this month’s San Francisco magazine had a ton of writeups on some of the grassroots cultural scene that is on the rise here in Oakland, and it was great to read. (Don’t mind the irony of this being reported in - ahem - San Francisco magazine)

Check out the lead article; there are other pieces on the Art Murmur*, newish restaurants and nightlife. The print edition’s got some ace photography in it as well.

Onward Oakland!

* I can confirm firsthand the Art Murmur is a tricksy little fiesta.

A couple of folks here at Mozilla in Mountain View mentioned hearing some enthusiastic recommendations for Firefox this morning on KQED radio’s Forum show.

Here’s the show archive; the segment is a talk about the Web 2.0 Summit and the clip about Firefox starts at 45:30. The guests are journalists Sarah Lacy and Brad Stone. Sarah mentions the Firefox crop circle and the efforts by thousands of people everywhere to help Firefox gain momentum.

Tip of the hat to John and Chris.