It's 2010, over three years since my old buddy Greg Foley, the creative director for Visionaire and V/V Man began his incredibly sweet, awesome series of children's books with Thank You, Bear.
And so it should be the most normal thing in the world now to see that Visionaire 59 is actually a stack of children's books, fairytales as told and illustrated by artists, musicians, and fashion folks in Visionaire's orbit: folks like Kirsten Dunst and Karen Kilimnik; John Baldessari [!]; Viktor & Rolf; James Franco [?!] & Carter; Ugo Rondinone; Bjork and a couple of Icelandic collaborators with names filled with characters my keyboard's never seen.
And then why wouldn't a portion of the sales from Visionaire Fairytale go to support needs-based scholarships at The Blue School, the idealistic, independent school founded by the Blue Man Group, who found out that having to charge $30,000/year for kindergarten is going to inevitably turn your school an elite, affluent enclave, no matter how idealistic and egalitarian-creative you set out to be?
It all makes perfect sense. In theory. And yet it kind of blows my mind. I will investigate further when I'm a little less unsettled.
Meanwhile, Bjork is storytell-singing full blast with no mute button in sight on the Visionaire website, so you may want to turn your speakers down before you click over and place your order.
Visionaire 59 Fairytale, $195, while supplies last [visionaireworld.com]
As elitist as I'd like think myself to be, it takes a certain brand of mental illness to pay $30K for a year of kindergarten. And I ain't got it.
For all of those who REALLY want their kindern to be Wunderkindern, consider a parent staying home with your kobolds, and actually speaking to THEM about what is going on rather than spending your day on the phone while your little ones thrash wildly at their Little Einstein mobiles.
We once had some of the first release of Visionaires and it was fun,but it's true that parents should stay and have quality time with their kids than just giving them something to kill the time.
uh-huh, fun is one of the last words I can think of to describe Visionaire. Just as "not-spam" is one of the last phrases I can think of to describe your amazon-goosing juicer links.