Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Painted Veil
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
I'ts Lego!
It seems that quite a few things will benefit from a Scandinavian touch. Munchausen, a duo formed by Parisian designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosetti, took a bold approach with their own kitchen by venturing to IKEA for the basic kitchen island and then spending the next week covering it with more than 20,000 pieces by another Scandinavian brand, Lego.
The result is a one-of-a-kind creation that serves as an artistic centerpiece for the space, in addition to functioning as a kitchen counter. Pillard, who works with fashion house JC de Castelbajac, and Rosetti who works with Hugo Boss France Identity, formed Munchhausen in 2004.
Sophie's Choice
The year is 1947. Aspiring southern author Stingo (Peter MacNichol) heads to New York to seek his fortune. Moving into a dingy Brooklyn boarding house, Stingo strikes up a friendship with research chemist Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and Nathan's girlfriend, Polish refugee Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep). There is something unsettling about the relationship; Nathan is subject to violent mood swings, while Sophie seems to be harboring a horrible secret. Stingo soons learns that both Nathan and Sophie are strangers to truth; the audience is likewise led down several garden paths by a series of sepia-toned flashbacks, depicting Sophie's ordeal in a wartime concentration camp. The scene in which we discover the facts behind Sophie's "choice" is a gut-wrenching one; it might have been even more powerful had not the film taken so long to get there.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Back in Power
Dame Vera Lynn tops album chart
Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn has become the oldest living artist to top the UK album chart.
The 92-year-old, said she was "surprised" at going to number one, knocked last week's chart-toppers Arctic Monkeys into fourth place.
She achieved her success with her album, We'll Meet Again - The Very Best of Vera Lynn, which has been steadily climbing the chart in recent weeks.
Pixie Lott is top of this week's singles charts with Boys and Girls.
Her single has climbed a massive 72 places since last week.
Dame Vera, who kept up the spirits of millions of soldiers during World War II, first re-entered the charts at the end of August.
The veteran singer said she would "never have dreamt" that the album would have charted again - let alone go to number one.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Call Me a Fetishist
Natalia Birilli has managed to create a signature that is immediately identifiable with her blend of taking the every day and creating a finished product that appears as if dipped into leather. A laptop bag becomes a functional leather laptop case that has the keyboard carved out in the leather, a wallet has the credit cards and coins moulded onto the zip front cover, a pair of sunglasses are embossed into the leather sunglass case. At once quirky and humorous but undeniably cool and chic, the latest Men’s 09 Collection is no exception to this designers range and ability.
Portugal Pavilion- Expo 08
Held between June 14 and September 14, 2008, the International Exhibition Expo Zaragoza 2008 is already a distant memory but its effects still reverberate.
The 25 hectares along the river Ebro near Spain’s fifth-largest city, Zarazoga, hosted thematic pavilions and thematic squares plus the pavilions of more than 100 countries, all exploring the overall theme of the Expo, “Water and Sustainable Development.”
Some of our favourite Expo mementoes are these spectacular images from the Portuguese Pavilion. Theming the Portuguese participation in the watery event, Lisbon-based Bak Gordon Architects envisioned a river’s ever-changing flow from its trickling source to a river mouth by the sea.
BAK created the pavilion’s spaces as versatile, changeable and changing surroundings for audience participation at levels of each individual’s choosing. The three main areas – Alert, Consciousness and Change – explored water and sustainability and featured a red “river” of pavement that helped the visitors track the flow of the exhibit.
From an alarming tubular “jungle” of Alert, to Consciousness where Nuno Cera’s photography highlighted the three mighty rivers of Iberia – Guadiana, Tagus and Douro, the visitor ended up in the hopeful Change, where the promising movement of citizens was depicted, literally, with the movement of images and words spoken in various languages.
Fashion for Walls
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sarah Vaughan
(born March 27, 1924, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died April 3, 1990, Hidden Hills, Calif.) American jazz vocalist and pianist known for her rich voice, with an unusually wide range, and for the inventiveness and virtuosity of her improvisations.
Vaughan was the daughter of amateur musicians. She began studying piano and organ at age seven and sang in the church choir. After winning an amateur contest at Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre in 1942, she was hired as a singer and second pianist by the Earl Hines Orchestra. Vaughan's singing style was influenced by their instruments—“I always wanted to imitate the horns.” Gillespie, Parker, and Vaughan recorded “Lover Man” together in 1945.
By the mid-1940s, Vaughan began singing with John Kirby and appearing on television variety shows. During the 1950s her audience grew as she toured both the United States and Europe and she signed with Mercury Record Corporation and EmArcy, Mercury's jazz label, in 1953 to sing both pop and jazz. She also appeared in three movies in this period, Jazz Festival (1956), Disc Jockey (1951), and Basin Street Revue (1956).
A contralto with a range of three octaves, she came to be regarded as one of the greatest of all jazz singers. Among her best-known songs were “It's Magic,” “Make Yourself Comfortable,” “Broken-Hearted Melody,” “Misty,” and “Send in the Clowns.” Vaughan died in 1990, the same year in which she was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame.
Sarah Vaughan
in full Sarah Lois Vaughan , byname Sassy or the Divine One
Sarah Vaughan
in full Sarah Lois Vaughan , byname Sassy or the Divine One
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Your Fall Soundtrack
YACHT was formed in 2002 as Y.A.C.H.T., "Young Americans Challenging High Technology." The current incarnation began gestating in 2008, and at this point bears no resemblance, except biologically, to the previous versions. The YACHT of 2009 is the true form of YACHT.
The 2009 form of YACHT is highly indebted to the Mystery Lights of the Far West Texas desert, where most of the new YACHT album, SEE MYSTERY LIGHTS, was written and recorded.
Strictly speaking, YACHT does "perform music." YACHT provides inspiring Teachings of constantly changing elements: PowerPoint presentations, immersive audio, live audience audits, and shamanistic video environments. The YACHT Performance is expressly designed to provide groups of people with catharsis and purification.
YACHT is about group consciousness. YACHT is about the individual man or woman. If you believe these assertions to be contradictory, consider the Triangle: it is both a collection of points and a shape.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Homage to toilet paper
Metro Station Drassanes, Barcelona
An existing subway or metro station does not give much room to creativity. Drassanes is a metro station in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella district at the old docks of Port Vell.
The original station was built in 1968. Eduardo Gutiérrez Munné and Jordi Fernández Río, the 31-year-old partners of ON-A Arquitectura, had no other option but to accept the limitations of the constricted space and make the best of it by covering the old station with new surfaces. They decided that a subway car already has everything a passenger needs and proceeded to create a station that emulates the feel of subway cars. Light-weight, white glass-enforced concrete covers the vertical surfaces and a resin component helps make the white floors vibration-proof. 
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Pavilion
"floating aluminum, drifting freely between the trees like smoke."in Wallpaper, 'The Pavilion by Sanaa, Serpentine, London'
Available at: http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/the-pavilion-by-sanaa-at-the-serpentine-gallery/3553
Watch the video: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid9305148001?bctid=29566162001
