Architecture Highlights

Top: Trojan House - Melbourne
From the street, this Edwardian house might seem unassuming, undeserving of a second glance. From the back, however, the addition to the Trojan House by Jackson Clements Burrows, where three children’s bedrooms are cantilevered above a large living space, is anything but ordinary.

Next: Summer Cabins
Stockholm-based Sommarnöjen (Summer Enjoyment – or Entertainment - in English) has just unveiled the designs for five new beautiful 15-square-meter second houses. Sommarnöjen houses are designed by Sweden’s top-tier architectural offices Kjellander + Sjöberg Arkitektkontor, Sandellsandberg Arkitekter and Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter.

Last: Panama House, Sao Paulo, Brazil
In the past few years, the award-winning, Brazilian-born architect’s Studio MK27 has produced a steady stream of low-rise, boxy work all with an uncanny intimacy, yet without any of the usual stuffy treatments that supposedly create intimacy.

I hate to admit it but these are pretty cool

STONE TOWERS, CAIRO BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
The Stone Towers by Zaha Hadid Architects for Rooya Group of Egypt is located in the Stone Park district of
Cairo. Providing office and retail facilities to a rapidly expanding Cairo, the unique 525,000sqm Stone Towers
development also includes a five-star business hotel with serviced apartments, retail with food and beverage
facilities and sunken landscaped gardens and plaza called the 'Delta'.
Client: Rooya Group
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Structural Engineer: Adams Kara Taylor
Gross Building Area: 525,000 m2
Site Area: 170,000 m2

This is Where I Want to Be: "Pretty Beach House" - Sydney

Toilet Couture

2009 Gullwing-America 300 SL Panamericana

Monday, 04 May 2009 "Another iconic vehicle is about to be reborn and brought into the 21st century. This time it is the Mercedes-Benz 300SL that is getting the make-over treatment (that’s the car with the batman-esque doors to you and me, or Gull-wings as they are known in the car business). This beautiful badboy, first introduced to the roads in 1954, is to be modified by Arturo Alonso and his company, Gullwing America. This time round it will be much more powerful, easier to handle and of course, it will feature all the mod-cons that one has come to expect from a vehicle of its caliber.Alonso is perhaps the best man to complete this task, being no stranger to the exotic car sector. He raced for years in a Mercedes 300SE, and he is also the engineer behind the Bentley S3 E concept from last year.With an aluminum body constructed with aircraft composite technology and chassis made of powder coated steel, the car will be powered by Mercedes’ M-133-55 engine, wired to raise the horsepower to 370. The new model will also feature striking red leather interior and an old-school instrument panel. The only hard thing left to do is to decide if you want the white one or the black one." - Brendan McKnight
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/

Adam and Eve's Wedding website:

http://www.adamandeveswedding.com/

Illustration Art making a strong comeback

blogger image uploader is malfunctioning. Check back later...

!snow!

More than 1000 species discovered in Mekong delta

Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday.
A rat thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago and a cyanide-laced, shocking pink millipede were among creatures found in what the group called a "biological treasure trove".
The species were all found in the rainforests and wetlands along the Mekong River, which flows through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.
"It doesn't get any better than this," Stuart Chapman, director of WWF's Greater Mekong Programme, was quoted as saying in a statement by the group.

From BBC: Dragon millipede (Image: Somsar Panha)
The "dragon millipede" (Desmoxytes purpurosea) was first described in 2007 by scientists in Thailand. Researchers suggest the bright colouring acts as a warning to would-be predators, as the millipede has glands that produce cyanide as a defence mechanism.
Conservation group WWF says that more than 1,000 species new to science have been recorded in South-East Asia's Greater Mekong region over the past decade. These include 22 snake species, including this green pitviper (Trimeresurus gumprechti).
The Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) was first recorded by scientists at a food market in Laos. Remarkably, researchers say this species is the sole survivor of an ancient group of rodents understood to have died out 11 million years ago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/15/gumbrechts-green-pit-vipe_n_151114.html

Saying Hello To London Through The Telectroscope in New York

If you are in New York, go to the Fulton Ferry Landing by the Brooklyn Bridge and peer at London with a monstrous telectroscope. If you are lucky, your buddies in London happen to be on the South Bank by the Tower Bridge where a similar telectroscope stands. And guess what you will see? Each other! Why would that be in any way interesting, considering that we can webcam with anyone any time?This prehistoric-looking getup is ART created by London artist Paul St. George. And he, apparently, is only fulfilling the dream of his great-grandfather, Alexander Stanhope St. George. The elder St. George dreamt of burrowing a tunnel across the ocean, setting a magnifying telectroscope at each end so that people could see each other.If the fake tale isn’t enticing enough, the gizmo itself is worth the trek. It took two days and nights for the massive contraption to grow from the river mud and morph from a six-foot, revolving, metallic drill bit to the final tower of a 37-foot-long telescope. It will be there until June 15. To set up a viewing date with your buddies at the other end, go to telectroscope.net. By Tuija Seipell

Times are tough: National Academy Sells Two Hudson River School Paintings to Bolster Its Finances

By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: December 5, 2008
(image: Frederic Edwin Church’s “Scene on the Magdalene” (1854), an oil on canvas)
The National Academy, the venerable artist-governed museum and school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, has quietly sold two Hudson River School paintings from its collection to shore up its finances and enable it to show more of its holdings on a consistent basis, the academy’s officials said on Friday.

The sale of the paintings, Frederic Edwin Church’s “Scene on the Magdalene” from 1854 and Sanford Robinson Gifford’s “Mount Mansfield, Vermont” from 1859, was sharply criticized by the Association of Art Museum Directors, which has a longstanding policy of strongly discouraging museums from deaccessioning artworks unless the money is being used to acquire other works and to enhance a collection — not to raise operating funds.
The association asked its members to cease lending artworks to the academy and collaborating with it on exhibitions....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/arts/design/06acad.html

"Thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico. The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters. Gliding silently beneath the waves they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula . Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks. She said: 'It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind."

Too good to be true?

For full stats go to: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Vote NO on prop 8 because it's the right thing to do

Solid gold Kate Moss statue revealed at the British Museum, London. Yuck.

For a world class museum with an unparalleled collection of antiquities including Roman, Greek, Etruscan, Egyptian, African, and recently, collections from North America and Mexico, to display something so tasteless calls to question the integrity of the institution. This is a museum which showcases such works as the Rosetta Stone, The colossal Bust of Ramesses II, the Head of Amenhotep III, intricate pages of papyrus from the Book of Dead of Hurefer, and an extensive collection of mummies, including an inner coffin made of gold for Henutmehyt among so many other historic and priceless pieces.

I don't mind the extravagance of making a statue out of solid gold during these harsh times, (I suppose Britons are one of the few with the financial security to burn money, with the exception of fuel poverty of course) or that it's of an idealized female, which might have suggested a nod to other classic Greek or Roman sculptures, which would have made the venue seem like a logical choice, but the juxtaposition of her body can only be described as vulgar. I have a hard time just looking at the picture. Can you imagine meandering through the lovely Greek galleries and coming across this? Perhaps showing with artists such as Damien Hirst makes one nervous and desperate enough to "shock" viewers? Whatever the reasoning, I can honestly say that Saddam Hussein’s solid gold toilet is more beautiful and contemporary. I say melt it down, and feed a small country. --Eve

A 50kg solid gold statue of model Kate Moss has been unveiled at the British Museum, in London. The £1.5m sculpture, entitled Siren, is by artist Marc Quinn and is one of several contemporary sculptures in the exhibition Statuephilia. Each work has been sited in a different gallery within the museum, placed with items from its permanent collection. Quinn's sculpture is said to be the largest gold statue created since the time of Ancient Egypt.
'Ideal beauty' Described by the museum as an "Aphrodite of our times", it sits in the Museum's Nereid Gallery,alongside its statues of famous Greek beauties. Quinn, whose most famous work was Alison Lapper Pregnant, has said of using Moss as a subject: "I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment.
The museum hopes it will remind visitors of its diverse collection"But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image."
Other artists in the exhibition include Damien Hirst and Antony Gormley. Hirst has addressed his fascination with death by filling the historic wall cases of the Enlightenment Gallery with 200 specially created skulls...

(Thanks Daniel in D.C.!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7647947.stm

More lofts to drool over

In Love with Loft Living...(three times fast)

Eve's Gimme list

Roberto Cavalli "Cleopatra" dress
Herve Leger Women's Ombre Dress
Fall 2008 Gucci horsebit-side eyewear in Ocean
Concrete Drop Earrings by Konzuk
Ebony Hips Wood + Leather Handbags by TIVI (also in Zebrawood)
Cork Cuff by Studio 1AM
No.2 Stainless Steel + Wood Bracelet/Cuff by TIVI
Cairo Resin + Aluminum Bracelet by TIVI
The UM Tote by Josh Jakus
Seesaw Wall Flats by Inhabit

9/16/08

Busy week: Alaska, Japan, Indonesia plate ripple.

Protons and Champagne Mix as New Particle Collider Is Revved Up (yep, he's actually wearing a robe!)

BATAVIA, Ill. — Science rode a beam of subatomic particles and a river of Champagne into the future on Wednesday.
(Image: The entrance to the CERN laboratory near Geneva. After 14 years of labor, scientists activated their new particle collider.)
Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times
"Some scientists at the Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., showed up in pajamas on Wednesday for the activation of the collider near Geneva.

After 14 years of labor, scientists at the CERN laboratory.

outside Gene

va

successfully activated the

Large The Hadron Collider, the world’s largest, most powerful particle collider and, at $8 billion, the most expensive scientific experiment to date.

At 4:28 a.m., Eastern time, the scientists announced that a beam of protons had

complete

d it

s fi

rst c

ircuit around the collider’s 17-mile-long racetrack, 300 feet underneath the Swi

ss-French border. They then sent the beam around several more times...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/sci

ence/11collider.html?ref=science

Holy Sheist!

"In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer.
The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/business/15lehman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Oh come on, moderation is overrated...

“There’s a new planet in the solar system and it’s called Luxury. Actually, it is here on earth, on a little-known island called Nurai, located northeast of Abu Dhabi city.The 130,000-square-meter island is about to be transformed into an achingly glamorous and luxurious resort and exclusive private residential estate, comprised of one boutique luxury hotel resort with 60 suites, 31 beachfront estates and 36 water villas. The mammoth project is a collaboration between New York based Studio Dror, led by Dror Benshetrit, that has designed the residences, and the Paris-based firm AW2 are responsible for the design of the hotel.The sheer scale of the project is awe-inspiring. The incredible multi-storey water villas alone will span 515 square meters each, and comprise three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a private rooftop garden with spa pool, private infinity pool, multiple decks, outdoor barbeque area, gourmet kitchen and concealed service quarters. No doubt, Tom & Katie are making their reservations already.As for the private Seaside residences (which are sure to be snapped up by Saudi Princes and oil sheiks because they will probably be the only ones who can afford them), the five-bedroom, six bathroom estates span between 3,000 and 6,050 square meters. Each Seaside estate will include a private beach and garden, rooftop garden with spa pool, infinity swimming pool, indoor reflecting pools, concealed service quarters, entertainment patios, outdoor dining areas, chef and show kitchens, and outdoor showers.The resort is due to open in 2010 and the prices for the residences start at €20 million.”

By Lisa Evans @ The Cool Hunter

J'adore Livingstones!

smarindesign Livingstones
Les Coussins Galets

http://www.livingstones.fr/index.php?page=home&lang=en

http://design-milk.com/comfy/

Linda Evnagelista for Barneys by Steven Meisel (eternally classic)

Ad Campaigns: Prada
Collection: Fall Winter 2008/09.
Photography by Steven Meisel
Website: www.prada.com

"The campaign for Barneys 1991/92 (bottom three images) adverts, just by the amount of work they had together Linda seems to be one of all time favorite Steven Meisels models, the male actor/model (and husband) Kyle Maclachlan, currently staring in Desperate Housewives as Orson. Its been almost 18 years now, Linda is back, Naomi and Kate are here too, and supermodels rule the world? Click on the images above to enlarge, and thanks to XO london for finding these."
Thanks to designscene for images and material

Crushes/Things I love for $1000

Kate Moss AND Burberry (and those hot British men with their accents I suppose)

Oliver Peoples "Skyla" sunglasses

Diane Von Furstenburg "Simone" jacket

Elie Tahari shift dress with flip pockets (per Oscar de la Renta)

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti One to One Program

F***ing Brilliant Designs Concepts, part 2

Duh, why did it take so long to figure this out? This is the ultimate solution to space and efficiency when it comes to parking. Instead of going to your car, it comes to you. There is less space needed for driving and way-finding which leaves more space for cars to be stored. Bloody Brilliant. --Eve

Hmmmm, maybe I can caravan!

Congratulations Josh! Can't wait to check it out!

(Images: some of the many posters around town advertising the show; close up of Josh's name; Jess, is that you?; sidewalk art)

http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=7118

For your visual enjoyment (not in the mood to write)

F***ing Brilliant Design Concepts, part 1

HIYAA!!! (Karate kick)

The Sound of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash
of A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.
Fools said i,you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whisperd in the sounds of silence.

-Simon and Garfunkel

I hate Bluetooths

Okay, I know it's "the law" to drive with a hands-free headset of some sort, but from a design perspective, I'm boycotting until conditions improve. I refuse to purchase something that is not only incredibly ugly and awkward, but emits substandard sound quality.

According to CNET's reviews online, they rate the top new Bluetooth’s on the market.

First, we have the Aliph Jawbone 2 ($120) that received a 8.7 out of 10 and boasts a "fashionable" design, and excellent sound quality. The fashionable design looks like a bad inner-lobe earring from 1985 with an industrial imprint and gaudy metallic colors (silver, gold) and in reading some chat room discussions, the sound quality isn't that great either.

Next we have the BlueAnt Z9i (where the fuck to they get these names?) which received a 8.3 out of 10 ($70) and boasts being stylish, comfortable, easy to use and affordable. Since I have not personally tried using this product, I can't speak for the ease of use or comfort level, but I can easily say it is not stylish. It's large and chunky and the inexpensive black plastic does nothing for inspiring sleekness or style and the buttons are too large and overstated. This looks like a large old-fashioned hearing aid for people with varying degrees of autism and/or giant hands.

Third, we have the Jabra BT8040 which received an 8.3 out of 10 ($80) and claims to be small, offers lots of features, has good sound quality and is affordable. Blah, blah, blah, I'm not even going to review something that looks like my old Nokia cell phone hanging from the side of your face.

Basically, I have yet to see a truly well-designed Bluetooth, so I'm holding out. They all resemble either jumbo hearing aids, ground control headsets or 1-800 dentist contraptions. A small part of me wants to rebel by wearing a large Bose headset with a giant boom microphone just to make a statement. Or I'm going to go all out with Hernan Diaz Alonzo’s version from the Xefirotarch exhibition, which covers half your face like a skin like some villain in a batman movie. However, I have every confidence that Yves Behar or David Kelley will come up with something brilliant soon to inspire me to go the extra mile and actually comply with the law (sigh...) --Eve

Green design gone literal: I dig it!

Ann Demelmeester's store in the Gangham district of Seoul, South Korea is one of four concept stores showcasing the fashions of the Flemish designer. How exciting is this? Great design meets fashion!

As if one needs another reason to love the vertical gardening movement--this buildings facade is entirely covered in living, breathing green matter. Even one of the indoor stairways is entirely lined with moss. The building is so spectacular; I wonder whether it overshadows the clothes that are on sale inside.

The space, a "synthetic organism", took four months to design, and another six to construct. Seoul architecture firm Mass Studies headed up the project, led by Minsuk Cho (whose ‘Heyri Dalki Theme Park’ was exhibited at the 2004 Venice Biennale). Although obvious considerations to environmentally-conscience design choices are evident, it is unclear exactly how "green" and efficient the building actually is. For example, how much water does it take to keep the building looking that green, inside and out?

The outside building material is primarily a geotextile planted with a herbaceous perennial to form a living façade, while the other three sides that face bamboo borders are clad in steel sheets are finished with propylene resin.

"Mass Studies was founded in 2003 by Minsuk Cho in Seoul, Korea, as a critical investigation of architecture in the context of mass production, intensely over-populated urban conditions, and other emergent cultural niches that define contemporary society. Amid the many frictions defining spatial conditions in the twenty-first century, namely past vs. future, local vs. global, utopia vs. reality, and individual vs. collective, Mass Studies focuses on the operative complexity of these multiple conditions instead of striving for a singular, unified perspective."
--Marcus Fairs dezeen, design magazine.

Series: This is Where I Want to Be, Eze

Eze, France. One of the many charming and enchanting villages that dot the Cote d’Azur.

One of the oldest fortresses on the Mediterranean, the town of Eze and its’ inhabitants go back to the Neolithic era, towards 2000 BC on the Mount Bastide built high on the top of a rocky cliff overlooking the sea. It's small and rife with saccharin charm and expensive hotels and restaurants, but the view is breathtaking.

Along with it's unique history, it also boasts the history of luring artists and painters alike, who in search for optimal light and a break from the rapid and robust early 20th century Parisian pace; Picasso, Matisse, Dora Marr, Francoise Gilot, Man Ray, Stieglitz, Lee Miller and many more were often seen romping around the narrow alley ways and lounging on the beaches sipping pastis.
Ideally situated, you are located between Cannes and Monte Carlo (near enough to the yacht and helicopter in case you need to jet off in a hurry) You are also within driving distance to the town of Grass, where one can have a custom fragrance made to order at one of the many exclusive and renowned perfumeries in the region.

You can also visit some of the smaller and charming villages in the Luberon (a la Peter Mayle) and you Burgundy lovers can take in more than your fair share of wine tasting in the AOC of the Southern Rhône region of Chateauneuf du Pape that is currently enjoying a bit of popularity in the U.S. (it takes the Americans a bit longer to catch on.)

All in all, it's an ideal vacation spot; sun, water, leisure, antiquity and history, fine dining and wine tasting, unique gifts, (Eve's picks: custom made fragrances or an excellent bottle of

2001 or 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape) and a sensory escapade for all of your 5 senses. --Eve

Eve feeling blue (Thanks LC)

Series: This is Where I Want to Be, Marin County California

I apologize for the delayed post, but I was so busy enjoying Marin County all weekend that I didn’t have the chance.

Marin County is incredibly diverse and majestic. We have gorgeous wild beaches, grand old growth redwood groves, a huge regal mountain, rivers and streams, meadows and marshes, and hiking and biking trails galore, among so many other things.
I feel so lucky to live right here; there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not grateful that I get to live somewhere so beautiful and yet so close to a big city that affords me the luxury to do what I love.

So after feeling under the weather all last week, I had a new found respect for my heath and finally felt inspired to start a new exercise regime. So, at 8:30 am on Saturday morning, I was already showered and walking into a new fitness studio for my first class of The Bar Method, which is a combination of yoga, pilates and ballet. I’ve heard horror stories about the intensity of these classes, but being that I do yoga regularly and feel I’m in pretty good shape, I thought I’d give it a try.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. It was tough, no doubt, and you work completely different muscles than you do with yoga or swimming. What I like the most, is that the movements are so minor, so refined, that the elongated and cut muscles come from precision and repetition.
After the class and still on an adrenaline high, I signed up for a month of unlimited classes (which must be why you pay at the end, coincidence? I think not) and I look forward to some fast results from taking 2 classes a week in addition to my once a week yoga.

After the class, I stopped by one of my favorite café’s for breakfast, The Half Day Café, which is usually insanely crowded, but at 9:30 am is pleasantly sleepy. I read the paper front to back, sipped a soy latte and reveled in my workout glow. Then I went into one of my favorite little family owned bookshops next door, First Street Books and bought “The Audacity of Hope.”
On the way home, I decided to stop into REI to get a new swim cap and ended up walking out with a new mountain bike that I’d been eyeing online for a few weeks.

Still high from the class, I got home and took my new bike for a spin (for 3 hours) up into Ross. It was the most gorgeous day. Mount Tam never looked more beautiful, evergreen and lush; the town of Larkspur smelled like wildflowers and clover. I rode as hard as I could up into the mountains and then found a patch of grass in the shade to collapse onto. I laid there on my back, breathing hard with my eyes closed. The smell of freshly cut and damp grass was intoxicating, humid and sweet. I listened hard for a moment, to the sound of a buzzing bee somewhere near my head, the distant shouts of kids in the park, of an occasional car in the distance, a gust of wind here and there, and the pounding of my heart and I felt very much at home. --Eve

Series: This is Where I Want to Be, Maldives

The sexy and sensual Maldives. It seems that the islands are already monopolized by eager and greedy developers and one island has already been claimed by the "W" hotel chain, called the "W Retreat and Spa, Maldives" with rooms starting at $735 a night.

Another Island/Hotel is Huvafen Fushi with a celebrity roster and rooms starting at $880 a night.

Apparently, these luxurious digs not only offer paradise, but they offer fantastic restaurants, high speed internet, flat screen TV's, table tennis, table soccer, billiards, nightclubs with hot DJ's, a deluxe spa including fitness and yoga, kayaking, snorkeling, windsurfing, parasailing, scuba diving, jet skiing and the list goes on and on.

After a while, it just sounds like spring-break for so-called "adults." Whatever happened to reading, swimming, exploring and spending time with the person you love? Does it always have to resemble spring break?

There's something going on with my generation. I like to call it the "mentally 25 forever" syndrome. When people say, "yeah, I don't think I ever want to grow up." Well, there's a big difference between wanting to stay young and hip and wanting to perpetually stunt your mental development. The same people I partied with in College, are still doing the same thing, and acting the same way and somehow trying to find a way to drag it along with them into adulthood without anyone thinking it's odd. It's as if they are trying to do something that no one else has tried before.

But inevitably, you end up looking over at your friend shit-faced at the bar who's 36 and red in the face screaming "more shots!" and attempting to grind with a girl of the same age. There's a natural progression in life for a reason.


Not that I'm saying one shouldn't take advantage of great food and yoga, but as my generation ages, they seem to be the one's putting off having kids so that they can party longer, as if dragging it out, will somehow keep their hairlines from thinning and graying and the wrinkles at bay. Hmmm, very odd indeed...

But honestly (and back to the topic at hand), I think that waking up and looking out and seeing nothing but turquoise water before you and feeling a warm breeze waft through your bedroom is something that one should experience at least once in your lifetime. --Eve

Series: This is Where I Want to Be, Santorini

Starting this week, I'll be posting new images daily that reflect where I would rather be than sitting at my desk in foggy-arctic San Francisco during the summer months. Today's post is the Grecian Island of Santorini in the Ionian Sea.

There's a mysticism (or μυστικός) about the Ionian. Its dark and mirrored waters hold ancient secrets; secrets of great civilizations, brutal battles, unknown cities and countless lost treasures. The air is sweet and dry, soft to the touch, the soil is ancient, volcanic and mineral rich due to a history of seismic activity that have produced great mythological stories and legends.

I still have, frozen in my mind, a time in 1999 on the Greek Island of Corfu, during a summer when I traveled through Europe for a few months. It was a pleasant warm day. I rented a scooter and spent the day driving all over the island. Although I had a map, navigating through the unmarked roads and odd language did nothing for directing my path. So, I ditched the map, knowing the island was rather small and that if I stayed on the main outside road, I would be back to the motel within 2 hours.

You know in life, there are certain moments that slow down and you become hypersensitive to your surroundings? This day was one of those. I'll never forget winding around the dry hilly mountains on my scooter behind old cars from the 1950's, feeling very much like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Passing donkeys lead by old men with no teeth, selling vibrant flowers off their backs, a woman selling melons along the side of the road. Driving by, all I could hear was the hum of my scooter and an occasional spit, and for a brief moment in passing, the sweetness of ripe melons in the sun.

Then, coming around a corner on a downgrade, the sudden clearing of Cyprus and olive trees revealed turquoise waters far below and a vast dark blue ocean for as far as the eye's could see. It was truly breathtaking. At that point I was so anxious to dive into the cool waters; my scooter simply couldn’t get me there fast enough. Finally I parked my moto on the side of the road and ran across the street, found a hot and prickly black volcanic rock to dive from and dove in head first. It was cold, invigorating and truly unbelievable. The water seamed to have a healing, nurturing feel to it that made you not want to get out. After a long while of floating in the salty and buoyant waters, I swam through the small fish that tickled my ankles and laid out on a rock to dry, feeling euphoric. I mounted my moto and continued on towards the hotel (who boasts the pinkest ouzo you've ever seen!)

About 20 minutes from the hotel, I realized I was starving and started to look for a place to pull off and grab a bite. I found the perfect place, just what I had hoped for. They didn't speak much English but gestured towards the balcony. Walking out, I was shocked, I had no idea this little hole in the wall had the best view of Gordios. I sat on a suspended patio surrounded by hills dotted with Cyprus and Olive trees that rolled down to the sea and the great rock of Gordios.

They had traditional Greek music playing a slow, meditative melody not unlike the Italian version of the theme song to The Godfather. I sat and ordered a whole bunch of food being that I was so hungry. When the platter arrived, I melted, the most gorgeous and amazing food I think I've ever had; local lemons the size of grapefruits, horiatiki salad (Greek salad) with homemade feta, fresh sardeles (salted sardines), pork and lamb souvlakia with fresh satziki, fresh kalamari and octopus and homemade baklava that was to die for! All in all, the whole meal was less than seven dollars.

Part way through the meal, I stopped and looked up, thinking the view before me looked like a faux backdrop; the sound of the music, the smell of the food, the soft warm breeze on my face and suddenly the hilarious and very loud squeal and hee-haw of a donkey nearby. "Wow", I thought, "what year is it and will I always remember this moment?" --Eve

Thoughts on Half Life of a Dream

(image: one from the series by Yang Shao Bins’ “Untitled" but not the one in the Half Life show, which I do not have permission to show)

7/11/08 exhibition, Half Life of a Dream
Jeff Kelley, Guest Curator, Writer, and Contemporary Chinese Art Historian

The exhibition carries an underlying and repetitive history of the psychological landscape in post-Maoist China. Marxist and totalitarian, socialist-realism was forcibly taught in Chinese art schools during the rein of Mao. Today the tradition of realism is still taught in the classical sense, but many choose to abstract within but mostly outside of China.

Bullshit theorists might argue that these abstractions represent a rebellion of tradition, structure, and oppression. However, although these contemporary works lack the political propaganda, they still leave deep scares of social oppression and fear induced prowess. A prowess that is aesthetically undeniable, but somehow overcompensates for a lack of emotional freedom where contemporary natives still feel the reverberations of a nation lacking individuality and political autonomy.

This disillusionment of a suppressed nation and society is a preeminent theme from which derives such raw and powerful works, many of which are a hybrid of two-dimensional works incapable of being contained as seen in Li Songsongs’ “Someday My Prince Will Come.” This large scale impasto oil painting is over an inch in thickness, and a diptych of different canvas depths, where it becomes inevitably three dimensional.

One of the most poignant and powerful pieces is a large scale painting by superstar artist Yang Shao Bins’ “Untitled.” The work depicts infants, self portraits of the artist, which although abstracted still evoke violence; a tearing of the self to pieces, of phantoms and apparitions, innocence and nightmares and ultimately, beauty.

The show is a reminder of what was, and still is today. A Half-Life, or state of semi-consciousness; a world between accepting a depressive fate and dreaming of a different and perhaps an idealized society.

Although eerie and odd, there are pieces that amuse, that amaze, and that inspire. However, they all seem to have an undeniable sense of sadness to them, of muted insecurity and fear. –Eve

The Rose Captain

This part's for my love of old
How the rose in your heart you hold

Still all the water in your wells won't make it grow

Oh the call of the nightingale

How I love beneath the ghostly sails

We move like gypsies 'neath the mist and beneath the gloom

Oh how the river flows

Under the ice and snow

The keeper of the flame

The rose captain knows my name

This perfume breath I breathed

For you my dear, my love will never leave

This part's for my love of new

How the bulbs in my heart are true

They send the shoots through my fingers into your bones

Oh the call of the collared dove

How I long to be your one true love

We'll move like gypsies 'neath the stars and beneath the moon

Oh how the river flows

Under the ice and snow

The keeper of the flame

The rose captain knows our names

This perfume breath we breathed

For you my dear, my love will never leave

Oh the rose captain knows, knows our names

Oh the rose captain knows, he knows our names

Sea Wolf "The Rose Captain"

Thoughts on pain

In the glorious and meticulous order of M. Proust by Eve Wickman.

If unconscious, pain presents itself as a mere mortal thought, an idea lacking comfort and logic until fully recognized, diagnosed and understood. Most prefer to experience pain in the full primal and unexplored sense that lacks all anatomical merit which lends itself to a completely acceptable fate, often difficult to embrace. Pain in this state is imaginative, exploratory and infinite.

Therefore, in its most primal of states, pain is luxury. A knocking on the door of mortality and fragility, of dire consciousness. Pain: inescapable, relentless, unforgiving, indiscriminate and licentious.

If conscience, we are forced to embrace our physical body as being connected to the consciousness in our head, our mind. It closes the gap between whom we see in the mirror and who we think we are. And in this glorious finality, awareness is heightened and either accepted or rejected. --Eve

soma

Crimson Sun

crimson sun

pale orange light

pierces and echoes

spreads like a virus

I'm surrounded

wrapped in color

rose tinted air

encapsulating and engulfing

hazy sky
surrounds faux landscapes

fires rage far beyond

reach my eyes and burn

I can hear myself breathing

I close the window to breath

I hide to breathe the air inside

nature no longer safe

I escape

I lay down and watch the red crawl along the wall until the walls return to white

it falls below the great mountain and into the sea

it dies a slow death and returns each morning to crawl along my walls

Hannes Broecker - Drink Away The Art

Hannes Broecker has brilliantly invited the cultural elite to grab a glass at an exhibition in Dresden, Germany, and drink away the art. Broecker has aroused our sense of taste by hanging flat, glass containers with a variety of cocktails in the exhibition space. As the night progressed, the levels of the multi-coloured infusions diminished. By the end of the event, the art, itself, ran dry, and empty drinking glasses were returned to where they were originally placed.
By Andrew J Wiener (spotted by CH reader, Chris Bothge)
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/art/

Oscar, you will be infinitely missed

Oscar Wickman
Rescued: November, 26 2001
Passed: June 15, 2008

Masaru Tatsuki’s Decotora Photo Op

Cold neon signs in a dark cityscape... It's a "Decotora," one of the decorated trucks that light up Japan's highways in a vivid amusement park style. From Masaru Tatsuki's photo book "Decotora, 1998-2007 Japanese Art Truck Scene" published by Little More. © Masaru Tatsuki
http://pingmag.jp/2008/01/31/decotora/http://pingmag.jp/2008/01/31/decotora/http://pingmag.jp/2008/01/31/decotora/

New iPhone, not all that...

What's missing?
Unfortunately, we hoped for an even larger bundle of features in this round. Apple still leaves multimedia messaging out of the mix along with voice dialing and video recording. We still don't understand why Apple can't include these basic features, many found in even the cheapest and simplest cell phones. We were also hoping for a landscape keyboard, the capability to cut and paste, Flash support for the Safari Web browser, expanded memory, and additional Bluetooth profiles. Apple, you left us hanging in a big way. It's also disappointing to hear that the dock is now sold separately for $49, but we suppose that helped cut the price. No, you don't need the dock, but it's nice to have. Even the power adapter and the SIM card removal tool that now come in the box won't make up for its loss.

Should you buy it?
If you're an iPhone fence-sitter, now's the time. The addition of 3G and GPS, the affordable price tag, and extra features from the iPhone 2.0 software update make the iPhone 3G a worthy prospect. Unlike the previous iPhone, which we liked and recommended with reservations, we're much happier with what this new handset has to offer. iPhone 3G isn't perfect, but there's a lot to like here and we approach the device with much anticipation. We'll update this page with a full, rated review once we get our hands on the hardware.



User opinions:
1/10 Abysmal June 10, 2008 by
"Lol 3G iphone outdated even before release"
4/10 Mediocre June 10, 2008
by akiraazn15 (see profile)
"apple's second epic FAIL"
9/10 Spectacular June 10, 2008
by SpringCleric (see profile)
"Advancements can only be better"

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/apple-iphone-3g-8gb/4505-6452_7-33064709.html

test

Dark Matter in a Galaxy Supercluster

The Violent Lives of Galaxies: Caught in the Cosmic Dark Matter Web.

Published as a NASA news release in January, 2008.

Dark Matter Map: Astronomers assembled this photo by combining a visible-light image of the Abell 901/902 supercluster taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile, with a dark matter map derived from observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The magenta-tinted clumps represent a map of the dark matter in the cluster. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the universe's mass. The image shows that the supercluster galaxies lie within the clumps of dark matter.Hubble cannot see the dark matter directly. Astronomers inferred its location by analyzing the effect of so-called weak gravitational lensing, where light from more than 60,000 galaxies behind Abell 901/902 is distorted by intervening matter within the cluster. Researchers used the observed, subtle distortion of the galaxies' shapes to reconstruct the dark matter distribution in the supercluster....

http://geology.com/nasa/dark-matter-in-a-galaxy-supercluster.shtml

Ultra Mod Marimekko heels!!! Gimme!

Mars Lander Is Poised to Begin Digging for Ice

Mars Lander Is Poised to Begin Digging for Ice

By KENNETH CHANG
Published: June 3, 2008
The scoop on the Phoenix’s 7.7-foot-long robotic arm will dig three trenches side by side and carry the dirt samples to instruments on the lander. The first analysis will be done by an instrument called the thermal and evolved gas analyzer, or TEGA, which heats and vaporizes the soil and then identifies the vapors....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/science/space/03ice.html?ref=science

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Senator Barack Obama on Saturday

Above: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at a rally in New York on Tuesday.
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY
Published: June 5, 2008
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Senator Barack Obama on Saturday, bringing a close to her 17-month campaign for the White House, aides said. Her decision came after Democrats urged her Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around Mr. Obama....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/us/politics/05dems.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination (with the help of 26 year old genius speach writer, Favreau)

By MICHAEL LUO and JEFF ZELENY Published: June 5, 2008 With Senator Barack Obama crossing the threshold of delegates he needed to claim the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday evening, party leaders began to move on Wednesday to bring their lengthy primary battle to a close and unite the party, even as questions swirled about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s next move.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/us/politics/04cnd-campaign.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Mr. Favreau, the campaign’s 26-year-old head speechwriter, found himself in the hotel lounge with less than three hours to revise what was to have been a victory speech. What made it particularly strange was that his words were being challenged. Mrs. Clinton had helped turn her campaign around by discounting Mr. Obama’s elegant oratory, saying, “You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/fashion/20speechwriter.html?ref=fashion

The coveted Frankfurt peace prize goes to Anselm Kiefer

June 4, 2008
Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle
The coveted peace prize of the German Booksellers' Association will go to German artist Anselm Kiefer this year, the organization announced on Wednesday, June 4. The Frankfurt peace prize, which comes with 25,000 euros ($38,600), was first awarded in 1950 and usually goes to novelists, and sometimes to scholars, whose writings are deemed to improve understanding between rival nations and ethnic groups. Recent winners include historian Saul Friedlaender, sociologist Wolf Lepenies and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.
Kiefer, who lives in Paris, will receive the prize at a ceremony on Oct. 19, which takes place during the Frankfurt Book Fair.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3388067,00.html?maca=en-aa-cul-865-rdf
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=234

Worldwide Earthquake update: predictions check

My Predictions from May 23: "My predictions for upcoming activity are: Northern India region, in and off the coast of Japan, continued activity off the south-east China border, and off the coast of Oregon and Washington"

Result: Mild activity in Northern India, excessive activity in and off the coast of Japan, continued but moderate activity in south-east China, mild activity off the coast of Oregon and Washington, and excessive activity in/off coast of Alaska. Basically, I was only partially correct...further observations needed.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

Arrrr! Warships vs. Somali Pirates

Somalia: Puntland Authorities Laud UN Resolution Against Pirates
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
4 June 2008
Posted to the web 4 June 2008

Regional autonomy of Puntland has welcomed the decision of United Nations Security Council to send foreign warships to fight against Somali pirates in Somalia waters. Puntland Fishing and Marine Resources Minister Ahmad Said Aw Nur has said that the Puntland administration greatly welcomes the decision, adding that Puntland territory is the mostly affected area by pirates who hijack commercial and food aid vessels....
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806040737.html

Share music without hacking...I know, not as fun...

"Here at The Cool Hunter we are always on the look out for innovative gadgets that as well as being aesthetically pleasing, are also practical and can be used in real world situations. miShare is such a product. One of the biggest problems that people have with iPods is that unless you have a diploma in hacking, it is extremely difficult to share your tunes, especially without getting a computer involved. That is of course until now. Want the latest album from your friends' iPod? Simply connect both iPods to the miShare unit, press the button and away you go. It's kind of like swapping football cards in the playground, although much cooler...."

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/gadgets/

Shit...RPT-Apple iPhone encore expected next week

By Scott Hillis
"SAN FRANCISCO, June 3 (Reuters)
June has arrived and for Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) fans and investors that means just one thing -- a new iPhone.
The encore to the original iPhone, which launched nearly a year ago amid unprecedented industry buzz, is widely expected to be the main attraction when Chief Executive Steve Jobs takes the stage at Apple's developers' conference next Monday..."
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0231900820080603

Jansen's "Strandbeests"

Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move -- and even survive -- on their own.
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist who builds walking kinetic sculptures that he calls a new form of life. His "Strandbeests" walk the coastline of Holland, feeding on wind and fleeing from water.
"We approached BMW because of their passion for technology and design (BMW Group Design Chief Chris Bangle spoke at TED2002) and because they had a strong history of supporting innovative media (BMW Films are a case in point). They came on board when TEDTalks was just an idea -- and a risky one at that. In June 2006, we launched the groundbreaking podcast series TEDTalks with BMW as our exclusive sponsor."

(Image below: Test driving the Hydrogen 7; Dr. Frank Ochmann, BMW's VP of Clean Energy, discusses hydrogen at a special lunch; The Hydrogen 7 in the conference's
Simulcast Lounge)

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/162
http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/127

Merci Marc

Today's worldwide earthquake activity and China's aftershocks (here you go Brendan)

After the 7.9 earthquake in China on May 12, China has been experiencing numerous aftershocks in the Sichuan-Gansu border region, approximately 17 since May 16.
May 16, 5.0; May 18, 4.5 and 4.4; May 19, 5.2, 5.1, 4.9; May 20, 4.5; May21, 4.6, 4.3; May 22, 4.4.
The recent activity in China has sparked activity on the Eurasian, Australian and Philippine plates in the areas of Malasia and Indonesia as well as the upper North American and Gorda plates off of Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, which was to be expected. My predictions for upcoming activity are: Northern India region, in and off the coast of Japan, continued activity off the south-east China border, and off the coast of Oregon and Washington. --Eve
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

Infectious launches into an untapped market (Thanks Adam)

"New startup Infectious wants to satisfy that urge that we all undoubtedly have to spice up our car a little. Make it unique. Express our personality. Etc. Founder Tim Roberts, who was part of the founding Twitter team, says that your car is the most visible social product you own, but it is also the least expressive...."

Website:infectious.com
Location:San Francisco, California, United States
Founded:2007
Funding:$750k

Although not my cup of tea, kudos to Tim Roberts for tapping into a niche market and opening the doors to more creative innovations --Eve

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/22/infectious-to-bring-custom-car-art-to-the-masses/

Artist Robert Rauschenberg, American Master of Mixed Media, Dies at 82

By Laurence Arnold
May 13 (Bloomberg)
Robert Rauschenberg, the U.S. painter and sculptor who led 20th-century art across the boundaries that traditionally separated different forms of expression, has died. He was 82...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.4.zehXUrcQ&refer=us

Arts Update

Victor Christ-Janer, Modernist Architect, Dies at 92
...Victor F. Christ-Janer, a member of a group of influential architects who built Modernist homes and offices in New Canaan, Conn., died on March 24 at the home he designed for himself there. He was 92. Like the far-better-known Marcel Breuer and Philip Johnson , Mr. Christ-Janer helped transform the town from a haven of traditional Colonial-style homes into an incubator for distinctive Modernist dwellings as well....

Record Price for Monet at Auction
...An 1873 canvas by Monet of a riverbank landscape with two trains atop a railway bridge sold for $41.4 million Tuesday night at Christie’s. It was a record price for the artist...

An Auction of New Chinese Art Leaves Disjointed Noses in Its Wake
...SHANGHAI — Sotheby’s auction house called it the “most important collection of contemporary Chinese art to ever come to market” — some 200 works by some of China’s hottest names.
And when the first half of the trove, called the Estella Collection, went on the block in April in Hong Kong, it brought in $18 million and set some record prices for artists, like $6 million for a canvas by the Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang.But the sale of the works has stirred indignation among many of the artists and their dealers and some curators....

Serra’s Monumental Vision, Vertical Edition
...PARIS — France is making a fuss this week over Richard Serra, the 68-year-old American bantamweight who fashions elegant, gargantuan art out of steel.On Wednesday Mr. Serra opens the annual solo show called Monumenta in the echoing Grand Palais; the city of Paris has restored one of his earlier works to its proper place in the garden of the Tuileries...

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/design/index.html

7.9 Quake Kills Thousands in Western China

...The 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit in Sichuan Province on Monday afternoon, and the death toll steadily increased throughout the evening, raising concerns that the number could go far higher...
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/asia/13china.html

Day dreaming, part deux

Arthur Casas – House in Iporanga

www.thecoolhunter.net

Day dreaming...

Casey Brown Architecture – James-Robertson House

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture/

I have nothing to say right now...

San Francisco Film Festival screening "1000 Journals"

1000 Journals Film Intro (still)

Ruth and Someguy

Ruth with writer, producer, and director, Andrea Kreuzhage

Someguy

1000journalsfilm.com

Thoughts on Human Superiority and Cruelty...

I am re-posting my friends recent blog in regards to rescuing three newborn kittens in Perpignan, France. I too often find myself in peculiar situations saving animals, of which I have saved dozens. Friends often say that I go looking for these situations, but I do not. Like Margot, perhaps we are more acutely aware to seeing and hearing things that others do not see or don't want to see. I'm grateful to Margot for her endless love and devotion to making a difference in this world, one creature at a time (or in this case, three)...--Eve
---------------------------------
"I'm sorry in advance for the following words, but I really need to spit them out.People really are cowardly jerks sometimes. I was at my mother's today, we were sitting in the garden when we heard a painful, desperate and very little "meow". I went to search in the little natural "gutter" behind the house and found a plastic bag containing three one-week old kittens, completely wet because the bag had been filled with water that - thank God - flowed away through a tiny hole in it.They were scared, cold and underfed.I brought them home and gave them special kitten milk, it's one o-clock now and they're sleeping with their bellies full of five two hour appart feedings...I honestly don't get : how can you do something like that?If one really wants to get rid of them, at least do it correctly, in a fast way, not this barbarous treatment...I hope I will be able to get them through it all.Being a foster mum really seems to be something I'll have to get used to..." --Margot

http://margot-pandorasbox.blogspot.com/

http://everglades.fiu.edu/fiu/idh4007/burleson.html

David Martin, killed by a shark in the waters off Solana Beach, California

By Jamie Reno Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 29, 2008 Updated: 12:44 p.m. ET Apr 29, 2008

"...Just how rare are shark attacks off the Pacific Coast of the United States?

Very rare. From 1900 to the present we've had total of 147 shark attacks along the Pacific Coast of North America, including California, Oregon and Washington, and there have been 11 fatalities confirmed, including this latest one."

"David Martin's son and his family, who grew up in and around these local waters, went surfing again in the spot where Martin was killed just days after the attack. What was your reaction when you heard this?

My thoughts and prayers go out to Dr. Martin's family. I think that going back out there is a very intelligent thing to do. If you've grown up in a family that has enjoyed the water your whole life, if this is part of your life, you should not close that off because of this tragic event. Frankly, you are at greater risk driving from your home to the beach than you are in the water....."

--Ralph Collier, shark attack expert and founder of the Shark Research Council and author of "Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century: From the Pacific Coast of North America."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134709

The Library Loft: adventures in design efficiency

AT Europe: Paris Close-Up - The Library Loft Véronique has exceptionally high ceilings in her house in the 15th arrondissement. So she and her husband decided to take advantage and go vertical, building a suspended library high in the sky above their spacious living room. Now what would have been dead space is a book loft, accessible by ladder, high up enough so that it doesn't loom. If you have the ceilings, it's a smart solution for housing a substantial collection of books without visual clutter on the ground. For the full house tour, go to the link. Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. She can be reached at kristinh@apartmenttherapy.com
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/at-europe/at-europe-paris-closeup-the-library-loft-048060

Gregory Crewdson: Jeff Wall meets David Lynch

Walking

To my college Philosophy professor who encouraged us to push back against the heavy doors of society, and who invited us to his cabin in the woods to read Thoreau around a bonfire and to find the rhythm of his verse in hand drums, and to Charley Epperson, wherever he is, who had the courage to live permanently off the grid. --Eve

..."We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return-- prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again--if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man--then you are ready for a walk...."
--Henry David Thoreau

"I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil--to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that. I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks--who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering...."
http://www.readprint.com/work-1430/Henry-David-Thoreau
http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/M162/M162_TheCultofChrisMcCandless.html

Annie Leibovitz at the Legion

Going into the show I knew I would have reservations about her work, but I tried to go in with an open mind and an artistic perspective, and not see her strictly as a commercial photographer, which I have to admit was very difficult. The most compelling photographs were those personal moments in the hospital with Susan Sontag, at Susan's burial, the photos of her family and of the rocks and shells that Susan collected. No doubt, Leibovitz is able to capture an intensity that other commercial photographers lack, which is in part due likely to her rapid and young success with Rolling Stone (whose work was sadly absent), as well as a talent and vision for the dramatic.
The celebrity photographs were so contrived and over-structured; their outrageous opulence was repulsive and I often wondered if Leibovitz herself exaggerated this in an insubordinate and defiant way, as to secretly mock and ridicule her subjects in their own narcissism. The photograph of Susan in Jordan walking between the canyons to Petra show Leibovitz’s talent for using natural light in highly contrasting ways, and her affection for Japanese perspectives in nature, placing her subjects in baffling and devouring environments. I’m still digesting the show and I still have revelations of things that I saw in her work and I wonder how intentional they were. She is either a genius or someone with a good eye and a better publicist. --Eve

http://www.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?exhibitionkey=818

Wine Lovers Paradise: Spruce Restaurant and Bar

Last Saturday night I was fortunate enough to be escorted to Spruce, a new hot spot on Sacramento Street by my favorite metro-sexual friend who understands the subtle complexities of mineral content, humidity levels and clay based soil in the cultivation of wine; and ultimately, the scrupulous and sometimes tedious task of impressing me with a wine list in San Francisco.
Upon arrival, not only was I impressed with the facade of Spruce, but the entire interior design was everything delightful. It was designed by Stephen Brady for Owner Tim Stannard. From the soft amber lighting, the warm mahogany wood and chocolate mohair walls to the cool marble bar, the design was polished and appropriate. Although we debated intensely on whether the large format impasto oil paintings, by contemporary Japanese artist Shiraga could in any way be inspired by Franz Klein or not (I say not!) and whether the photograph in the dining room is the third triptych by Annie Liebovitz of Architect Philip Johnson, is still up for debate.

The wine list is so impressive I found myself unable to finish perusing it without completely neglecting my friend and my glass of 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, which would be a shame indeed. German Rieslings from Kabinetts, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese to a huge selection of Spanish reds including an entire page devoted exclusively to Rioja's. They have 15 different Barolo's, several Chataeuneaf du Pape's (ranging from $68-$700 a bottle), and a whole section of Oregon Pinot Noir's as well as Pinot Noir's from New Zealand and South Africa.

I love the lists of Red and White "bottles under $50" of which I recommend, the Cote de Brouilly, Chateau Thivin, 2006 for $38 (what a steal!), Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2006 for $50, or the Chinon, Les Granges, 2006 for $50. They even have a rare 1989 Chateau Mouton Rothschild for the bargain price of $722, and if things couldn't get any more exciting, they offer a bottle of 1955 Ferreira port for $660 to compliment their beignets (with sugar granules, not powdered sugar) avec crème anglaise and orange compote, which we happily devoured along with an ultra dark Costa Rican coffee from their extensive coffee selection.
Although my friend had a Sazarac, which complimented the bartenders black and white suit and his 1930's slicked back hair and the tasteful selection of jazz swinging through the bar, I couldn't imagine coming to this place and having anything but wine. It's so rare to find a wine list of this delicate compilation and magnitude, it would be a disservice to not partake in its splendor. --Eve

Spruce Restaurant and Bar
3640 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
info@sprucesf.com
415.931.5100
http://www.sprucesf.com/menus/Spruce-Wine-List.pdf

Valley of the Moon, Chile

Can Great White Sharks express emotion?

SAN FRANCISCO Art Institute halts exhibition showing killing of animals

Although I am vehemently against all unnecessary pain and fear in the killing of animals for consumption, I do believe that community dialogues and public forums for discussion are absolutely essential in not only the artistic and contemporary art field, but more importantly, in the support of complete and absolute academic freedom of expression. Unfortunately, the exhibition is currently being deinstalled, however I have requested permission to view the exhibition by appointment and to support a letter to Mayor Gavin Newsom as well as joining other academic and museum institutions in providing a future venue for a safe symposium for the community to express themselves. I am shocked and appalled that some of the protesting groups have resorted to sexual and physical threats on staff and students, which is not only irrational, but ironical and degrading to the group and their mission. --Eve

SAN FRANCISCO Art Institute halts exhibition showing killing of animals
Workers threatened; video unclear about why deaths filmed
Ilana DeBare, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, March 30, 2008

"Citing threats of violence by animal rights activists, the San Francisco Art Institute said Saturday that it is canceling a controversial exhibition that included video clips of animals being bludgeoned to death, as well as a public forum it had scheduled to address the controversy.
"We've gotten dozens of threatening phone calls that targeted specific staff people with death threats, threats of violence and threats of sexual assaults," said Art Institute President Chris Bratton. "We remain committed to freedom of speech as fundamental to this institution, but we have to take people's safety very seriously."
The exhibit that sparked the controversy was a one-person show by Paris artist Adel Abdessemed called "Don't Trust Me," which opened March 19.
Along with a variety of other elements, the show included a series of video loops of animals being bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer in front of a brick wall. The animals killed included a pig, goat, deer, ox, horse and sheep...."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/29/BAGNVSRME.DTL
Artist Adel Abdessemed: http://www.artnet.com/artist/424893688/adel-abdessemed.html

Microtubles and Motor Proteins have never looked so cool!

http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html

Spike Jonze's Fully Flared opening sequence fucking rocks!

Directed by Spike Jonze for Lakia's Fully Flared intro, its pretty amazing.
Apparently from this interview the explosions are real.
"the most dangerous part of the introduction was Mike Mo Capaldi's switch flip, which was followed by a staircase being blown up with napalm" -Brandon Bieble
Music: M83 – Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun
Interview: http://www.certifiedrandom.com/node/1559

To Watch Intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHX8jezNBTk

The Nerd Handbook (thanks Ruth!)

Tech Life An annoyingly efficient relevancy engine
The Nerd Handbook
A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.
It’s unlikely that this project is a nerd’s day job because his opinion regarding his job is, “Been there, done that”. We’ll explore the consequences of this seemingly short attention span in a bit, but for now this project is the other big thing your nerd is building and I’ve no idea what is, but you should...

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html

Milan Fashion Week: Exquisite, Exquisite, Exquisite...

Minimalism Is Back: At Jil Sander, designer Raf Simons applied his complicated cutting technique to a long, simple evening gown. (black gown)

In The Cut: As far as technique is concerned, few designers can cut clothing with the kind of precision that Jil Sander designer Raf Simons applied to coats and dresses for fall. (cream dress)

English Accents: Christopher Bailey's Burberry collection takes it's cue from the streets of London and his silhouette for fall, a swingy coat over stovepipe skinny pants, is taken straight from the streets of Soho. (beige outfit)

Minoans in Manhattan! This is SO exciting!

Minoans in Manhattan
March 13, 2008
Text by Mark Rose

Photos courtesy Onassis Public Benefit Foundation
A new exhibition offers a rare opportunity to appreciate the achievements of Crete's Bronze Age civilization.
An important new exhibition, From the Land of the Labyrinth: Minoan Crete, 3000-1100 B.C., has just opened at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York. It brings more than 280 artifacts from Crete--from a miniature gold double-ax to a four-foot-tall storage jar, from wall paintings to carbonized figs--most of which have never been shown abroad before and some being displayed for the first time ever. On loan from the archaeological museums of Herakleion, Khania, Rethymnon, Haghios Nikolaos, Ierapetra, Siteia, and Kissamos in Crete, the artifacts are arranged in 11 thematic sections intended "to reveal aspects of daily life in the Minoan civilization--including social structure, communications, bureaucratic organization, religion and technology--during the third and second millennia B.C." The first solely Minoan exhibition in the United States, From the Land of the Labyrinth is a great overview of the civilization and its achievements....

Images:

(Top) Miniature gold double-ax votiveArkalochori cave, Middle Minoan IIIB (ca. 1650-1600 B.C.)(Courtesy Onassis Public Benefit Foundation)

(Middle) Carved chlorite bull's head with (restored) gilded hornsZakros, end of Late Minoan IB (ca. 1450 B.C.)(Courtesy Onassis Public Benefit Foundation)

(Bottom) Heavily mended and restored wall painting ("The Partridge Fresco")Knossos, Middle Minoan III-Late Minoan IA (ca. 1700-1525/1500 B.C.)(Courtesy Onassis Public Benefit Foundation)

http://www.archaeology.org/online/reviews/minoans/jpegs/index.php?start=2

Residential goes LEED-H Platinum

"LivingHomes Founder Steve Glenn has knocked the socks off the eco-conscious world with his modern homes that emphasize beauty + environment. As I've been thinking about how I want to blog about this company, I've noticed a flurry of posts and press releases regarding this Ray Kappe-designed abode that was just awarded LEED-H Platinum.
This story has gone wild...as it should.This is the first residential building to receive the USGBC's Platinum LEED-H rating and it's raising the bar for residential construction: zero energy, zero water, zero waste, zero carbon, and zero emissions. LivingHomes received a total of 91 out of a total possible 109 points, to barely skirt past the 90 point threshold required to obtain a Platinum rating. It will be 80% more efficient than similar sized home and was constructed with 75% less waste than a traditional one..."
http://jetsongreen.typepad.com/jetson_green/2006/08/livinghomes_gon.html
http://www.usgbc.org/

Steven Ehrlich's Helal New Moon Residence, Dubai

http://www.s-ehrlich.com/

Does anyone else find this highly ironic? Ah, "The Grand Tradition of Contradiction in Catholicism"

March 10, 2008, 3:01 pm
Seven More Sins, Thanks to Vatican
By Mike Nizza
(painting: "The Papacy Crowning themselves Kings")
Lust, gluttony, greed and the rest of the seven deadly sins gathered in the 6th century will have
to get used to a modern companion. A Vatican official has articulated seven new categories of sin “due to the phenomenon of globalization.”
“While sin used to concern mostly the individual, today it has mainly a social resonance,” Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti told L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican City’s local paper. Bloomberg News parsed his remarks into a clip-n-savable list:
1. “Bioethical” violations such as birth control

2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research

3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

Is it just me or is this a joke? Being that historically, the Catholic church not only actively directly and indirectly participated in #1, #3, #5, #6 and #7 (and probably #4 as well...) on their new list of sins, but often boasted, reveled and proudly exhibited most of these characteristics.

#1: It is known that the bearing of countless bastard children, and encouraging their mistresses to end their unwanted pregnancies often resulting in the "silencing" of certain mistresses that refused to do so, was commonplace . ("How many papal mistresses have been known in history? How many literary works -- Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose comes to mind -- and scholarly histories through the centuries have described priestly sexual liaisons and priest-produced pregnancies? "http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0426-06.htm)

And having a history as being the single most wealthy country and government in the world with the largest physical monetary holding makes #6 and certainly #5 ludicrous. ("Bankers' best guesses about the Vatican's wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market. The Vatican has big investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833509,00.html)

There is a somewhat endless well of evidentiary support in the art world; mostly pictorially immortalized in paintings and frescos, in addition to other written evidence that has been found, and no doubt destroyed or safely guarded deep within the Vatican archives.

"The Roman Catholic Church tried to kill off all remnants of this dynasty and their guardians, the Cathars and the Templars, in order to maintain power through the apostolic succession of Peter, instead of the hereditary succession of Mary Magdalene."

Resources:

"L’Or de Rennes" (Le Trésor Maudit) by Gérard de Sède and Pierre Plantard

"Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.

"The Messianic Legacy" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.

The Jesus Scroll, written by Australian Donovan Joyce

Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum

The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception

Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, L’Or de Rennes, mise au point (La Garenne-Colombes, 35 bis, Bd de la République, 92250; Bibliotheque Nationale, Depot Legal 02-03-1979, 4° Z Piece 1182).
Jean-Luc Chaumeil, Rennes-le-Château – Gisors – Le Testament du Prieuré de Sion (Le Crépuscule d’une Ténébreuse Affaire) Editions Pégase, 2006
The Times, 18 January 1982.
The Real Da Vinci Code, Channel Four Television, presented by Tony Robinson, transmitted on 3 February 2005.
Bill Putnam, John Edwin Wood, The Treasure of Rennes-le-Château, A Mystery Solved (Sutton Publishers, 2003).
Pierre Jarnac, Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château, Tome I, p.197-198 (Editions Bélisane, 1987)
Jean-Luc Chaumeil, La Table d'Isis ou Le Secret de la Lumière, p. 121-124. (Editions Guy Trédaniel, 1994, ISBN 2-85-707-622-3)
Massimo Introvigne, Gli Illuminati e il Priorato di Sion (Piemme, Milano 2005).
Bernardo Sanchez Da Motta, Do Enigma de Rennes-le-Château ao Priorado de Siao - Historia de um Mito Moderno(Esquilo, 2005).
Jean-Jacques Bedu, Les sources secrètes du Da Vinci Code (Éditions du Rocher, 2005).
Franck Marie, Rennes-le-Château, Etude Critique (SRES, 1978)

Pierre Jarnac, Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château (Editions Belisane, 1985).

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/seven-more-sins-thanks-to-vatican/index.html?hp

New Acropolis Museum due to open in September: but will they win back the Elgin marbles?

Posted (3/5/2008 5:04 AM); 8h 14m ago By Thanassis Stavrakis
A woman walks past copies of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon frieze sculptures in the New Acropolis Museum in Athens. Museum officials oversaw a three-month operation to transfer more than 300 sculptures from an old museum on the Acropolis, some 400 meters away. The new glass and concrete museum, designed by architect Bernard Tschumi, is expected to open by the end of this year...

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-03-05-new-athens-museum_N.htm

For more about architect Bernard Tschumi: http://www.tschumi.com/home.asp?flashver=9&res=800x600&color=32

Robbie Williams CDs will be used to pave roads in China...Awesome

EMI has announced that "unsold copies" of Rudebox, by British pop star Robbie Williams, "will soon be used to resurface Chinese roads." More than a million copies of the CD "will be crushed and sent to the country to be recycled," we read, where they "will be used in street lighting and road surfacing projects."This reminds me of a house I visited back in September, in Chicago – about which I wrote a short article for the March 2008 issue of Dwell – wherein the owners had pulverized boxes of old vinyl records, added them to a glass aggregate, and used that to surface the floor of their master bathroom. You could actually see tiny, vaguely recognizable pieces of crushed 45s catching sunlight near the toilet... National Geographic also covered the house....

giving credit where credit is due: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/robbie-williams-cds-will-be-used-to.html

Britain Acquires Major Modern Art Collection

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: February 28, 2008
A collection of 725 works of modern art valued at $250 million has been bought for Britain for $52 million and will tour the country under the ownership and management of the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, the museums said on Wednesday. Described as one of the most important holdings of postwar and contemporary international art in private hands, the collection, featuring names like Diane Arbus, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mapplethorpe (whose portrait of Patti Smith is shown above), Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol...

(pictures: Damian Hirst's “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.”)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/arts/28arts-BRITAINACQUI_BRF.html?ref=artsts/28arts-BRITAINACQUI_BRF.html?ref=arts

Balenciaga...the new Prada turban...?

WHENEVER Nicolas Ghesquiere, the designer of Balenciaga, presents a collection, fashion writers and buyers always seem to fall into a swoon — myself included. It has happened three or four times in the last few years that a new language was born. Or so we declared in so many words. People left the little showroom on the Rue Cassette — on Tuesday morning a light rain fell — feeling they had again witnessed his history..."

I love fashion, and I have become more and more accepting of haute couture designs as works of art and less as actual clothing. Therefore I'm in awe with Ghesquiere's collecion for Balenciaga. I'm a big fan of Balenciaga and am wearing a B skirt right now. Unity within the collection is subtle. Top left is mysterious and conservative, top center is flamboyant, asymetrical and organic and above right is elegant, mostly symetrical and very conservative and more inline with B's history of design. I'm confused with the whole-head-wrap. Is this the new Prada turban? I hated that trend and was thrilled to see it go, now I have another ridiculous head-wrap to see trickle down the lader of retail outlets selling knock-offs. I wonder what Gaps version will look like, maybe it will be made of denim or khaki? Yuck! --Eve

I remember the sky...I remember everything...

Stolen Art on Display in a Search for Owners

By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: February 20, 2008
JERUSALEM — In a remarkable feat of cooperation between France and Israel, requiring intensive negotiations and the passage of a law by the Israeli Parliament, the Israel Museum here has opened an exhibition of important art looted by the Nazis from France and then returned after the war. Some of it was never reclaimed, presumably because the owners were killed in the Holocaust....

(Paintings by Cézanne, left, and Degas are part of the exhibition “Looking for Owners.”)http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/arts/design/20muse.html

Dramatic rescue for Indian tiger

Last Updated: Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 14:35 GMT

Forest guards in India have carried out the dramatic rescue of a pregnant tigress who had hidden in a palm tree after being chased away by villagers. They tranquilised and then caught the Royal Bengal tigress that had strayed into a village near the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve in eastern India. The animal was released back into the wild after receiving treatment for minor injuries, officials say. Tigers have been slowly disappearing from India, mostly because of poaching....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7254904.stm

Pentagon Says It’s "Confident" Missile Hit Satellite Tank...Fantastic!!!

Wow, I'm sure relieved to know that NASA and the US Government are hard at work ensuring that the billions of dollars spent to research, produce and test scientific expeditions to ensure that they are not only safe but are well designed specimens is going so well. With all of that education, testosterone and ego pulsing through the Pentagon you would think that at least one of them might have asked "how will this effect the environment or future expeditions? Nope, not a chance. –Eve

"...General Cartwright said debris from the strike, with individual pieces no larger than a football, already had begun to re-enter the atmosphere. Most, he said, was predicted to fall into the ocean....The 5,000-pound satellite, roughly the size of a school bus, was managed by the National Reconnaissance Office and went dead shortly after it was launched in December 2006....
...The FEMA document notes, “Any debris should be considered potentially hazardous, and first responders should not attempt to pick it up or move it....”
...The Chinese test produced 1,600 pieces of debris that are expected to orbit the Earth for years, preventing other spacecraft from using the same or similar orbits...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21cnd-satellite.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

This one's for you Margot "Grey wolf 'no longer endangered"

Last Updated: Thursday, 21 February 2008, 18:20 GMT
"Some 1,500 grey wolves now roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming(Image: WWF-Canon/Chris Martin Bahr)Grey wolves in the Northern Rockies of the United States have been removed from the endangered species list, the US Department of the Interior has said. They became a protected species in the US after they were nearly hunted to extinction. The removal of protection means they can be hunted again. Environmental groups have said they will sue the federal government to keep the animal listed...."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7257465.stm

Stanford Set to Raise Aid for Students in Middle...Sure, NOW it's free...

By JONATHAN D. GLATER
Published: February 21, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Stanford University on Wednesday became the latest prominent university to expand financial aid well into the middle class. It announced that students from families earning less than $100,000 a year would not be charged tuition. Under the new system, which takes effect in the fall, families earning less than $60,000 would not pay for room and board. Tuition next year is $36,030. Room and board add $11,182....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/education/21tuition.html

Olfactory obsessions...Teint de Neige by Lorenzo Villoresi

February 14th, 2008 1:58 PM
Scent Notes Teint de Neige by Lorenzo Villoresi
By Chandler Burr
In 1981, a Florentine doctoral student studying ancient philosophy took a trip to the Middle East and visited a local market. There he discovered highly-scented spices and perfume essences, which he brought home with him. He began mixing them to create fragrances. Then he began studying perfumery. In 1990, he began his namesake perfume house. Lorenzo Villoresi operates out of his family’s 15th century palazzo at Via de Bardi, 14 in Florence....

The first he called his “monothematics,” fragrances, which were interpretations of specific perfume raw materials, precise olfactory concepts. Sandalo, for example (“Sandalwood”), and Incensi (“Incense”), which smelled, as precisely as possible, of sandalwood and incense. The other collection he called “fantasy” perfumes, highly abstract works of olfactory art....

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/scent-notes-teint-de-neige-by-lorenzo-villoresi/

Update: Police confirm 2 of 4 paintings were recovered from heist

February 19, 2008, 10:03 am
Paintings’ Street Sojourn: From Museum to Sedan’s Backseat

By Mike Nizza
Update, 11:59 a.m. Police confirm two paintings were recovered.
If Swiss reports on the recovery of paintings stolen in a brazen daylight heist in Zurich turn out to be true, art lovers around the world will surely rejoice. The good news, if confirmed later by the police, would come with a slight insult — and possibly worse if there is any damage.
Last Monday, $163 million in paintings from Cézanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet were pulled off the walls at a 19th-century villa housing the the E. G. Bührle Collection and unceremoniously stuffed into a white sedan....

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/paintings-street-sojourn-from-museum-to-sedans-backseat/index.html?hp

“Poppies near Vétheuil” (1879), by Claude Monet, was one of the four paintings stolen from a from the Buehrle Foundation museum in Zurich on Sunday. (Photo: Agence France Presse—Getty Images)

Castro Stepping Down as Cuba’s Leader...whatever...next

HAVANA — Fidel Castro announced Tuesday morning that he would step down as the president of Cuba after a long illness. The announcement was made in a letter to the nation under Mr. Castro’s name, which was read on radio and television programs that many Cubans heard as they headed to work.
There seemed to be little if any outward reaction to the news, which many Cubans had been expecting for months.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/americas/20cuba.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Love

'love is when you take away
the feeling,
the passion,
and the romance
in a relationship
and find out that you still care for that person'

(Unknown author, painting by Mark Rothko)

More DNA Evidence for World Migration Theory

Settlement of Americas a 3-Act Play by Charles Q. Choi

Special to LiveScience LiveScience.com

Tue Feb 12, 9:55 PM ET
The epic journey by which the Americas were first settled has been a great mystery for centuries. Did it happen by land or by sea? Did it happen one dozen or so millennia ago or three dozen? The answer might be "yes." New findings reveal the settling of the New World did not come in a single burst, as is suggested by most theories, but was, in a way, a play with three acts, each separated by thousands of generations.
The first stage of this voyage involved a gradual migration of people from Asia through Siberia starting about 40,000 years ago into Beringia, a once-habitable grassland....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080213/sc_livescience/settlementofamericasa3actplay

Baby Wooly Mammoth found: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.farnorthscience.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/mammoth1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.farnorthscience.com/2007/07/25/news-from-alaska/baby-mammoth-undergoes-tests/&h=315&w=420&sz=68&hl=en&start=24&tbnid=p0VZlg05NqLESM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmammoth%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

I Feel It All

I feel it all, I feel it all
I feel it all, I feel it all
The wings are wide, the wings are wide
Wild card inside, wild card inside
Oh I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll be the one to hold the gun
I know more than I knew before
I know more than I knew before
I didn't rest, I didn't stop
Did we fight or did we talk
Oh I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll be the one to hold the gun
I loved you more, I loved you more
I don't know what I knew before
But now I know I'm wanna win the war
No one likes to take a test
Sometimes you know more is less
Put your weight against the door
Kick drum on the basement floor
Stranded in a fog of words
Loved him like a winter bird
On my head the water pours
Gulf stream through the open door
Fly away
Fly away to what you want to make
I feel it all, I feel it all
I feel it all, I feel it all
The wings are wide, the wings are wide
Wild card inside, wild card inside
Oh I'll be the one to break my heart
I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll end it though you started it
The truth lies
The truth lied
And lies divide
Lies divide

Feist, I Feel It All from The Reminder Album (Painting by Mark Rothko)

Black Market Soars, "4 Masterworks Are Stolen in Zurich"

By UTA HARNISCHFEGER and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: February 12, 2008
ZURICH — Armed robbers stole four important paintings by van Gogh, Monet, Degas and Cézanne from a museum in Zurich, the Swiss authorities announced Monday, in what they said might have been the largest art theft in Europe.
Three thieves, wearing dark clothes and ski masks, walked into the Emile Bührle Foundation, a private collection housed a couple of miles outside of Zurich’s city center on the shore of Lake Zurich, around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, a short while before the museum was due to close. The collection is considered to be one of the biggest privately owned collections of French impressionists in the world...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/world/europe/12swiss.html?_r=1&ex=1360472400&en=2a55df5efaddf690&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

(Top Left) "Count Lepic and his Daughters" (1871), by Edgar Degas.
(No Image) "Poppies near Vetheuil" (1879), by Claude Monet, was one of the four paintings stolen from a from the Buehrle Foundation museum in Zurich on Sunday.
(Center Left) "Boy in the Red Waistcoat" (1888), by Paul Cezanne.
(Below Left) "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" (1890), by Vincent van Gogh

Picasso paintings stolen in Paris
(Far Bottom Left) Maya with Doll is a portrait of Picasso's daughter
Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 13:43 GMT
At least two Picasso paintings with a combined value of 50m euros (£33.7m) have been stolen from his granddaughter's home in Paris.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6403837

Thoughts on drinking Absinthe

Kids, don't try this at home (Heath Ledger...) Okay, maybe it was the glass of '06 Sonoma Pinot that I had right before, or maybe it was the interaction with certain prescription medications that pushed me over the edge, but truth be told, after just one glass of Absinthe, I was seriously high. And I say high and not drunk, because I honestly didn't feel drunk, I felt high. I didn't even realize how much so until the following morning, in trying to recall the prior evening’s events in a hazy slow-motion David Lynch-Twin-Peaks-like reel in my aching head. I know the Absinthe that is now legally available in the U.S. (as of May 2007) is no doubt a seriously watered down version that Picasso would probably use to brush his teeth with as compared to the famously green belle-epoch liquid which was pictorially and historically immortalized by Picasso, Van Gogh, Lautrec and Degas in 19th century Paris. I can't imagine what the Absinthe of those days must have been like-except perhaps to hypothesize that it may have been similar to dropping acid, injecting heroin or smoking Opium (BTW, my favorite T.V. line of late "Liz: You are my heroine, and by heroine I mean lady hero; I don’t want to inject you and listen to jazz." --Tina Fey, from the show '30 Rock').
As I watched the icy water drip intravenously from the spout onto the clump of sugar traditionally suspended over the glass on a silver contraption and into the 124-proof liqueur; a strong aromatic, and almost medicinal smell wafted through the bar. Black-licorice (anise) in flavor, yes, but very different from the strong, thick and syrupy Sambuca; Absinthe is much cleaner, a lot more aromatic, herbal and again medicinal in flavor. With each sip, the essence seems to swell around in your sinus's and feels like it's coming out of your nose and ears as the warm sensation steams it's way down your throat and to your stomach. Long blamed for driving one who drinks it insane, legend is that Van Gogh cut off his ear after drinking just a couple of glasses of the green liquid. Bottom line, enjoy but beware. A bottle of Lucid, which is promoted as “the first true, Grande Wormwood-based Absinthe of its type available since before prohibition”, uses 19th-century distilling and will set you back $62.99. --Eve
(left: Viktor Oliva's Absinthe Drinker, below: Pablo Picasso's The Absinth Drinker 1901, bottom: Edgar Degas's L'Absinthe from 1876)
Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/05/MNQJTO9FM.DTL&tsp=1
History: http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/history.html; http://www.absinthebuyersguide.com/history.html

Updates: Saving Whales, Dolphins, Sharks and Tigers

BOYCOTT THE REOPENING OF THE TIGER EXHIBIT AT SF ZOO!!!

Boycott animals in captivity! Animal slavery for money NOT OKAY!

Mauling survivor said he yelled at tiger
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the two survivors of the San Francisco Zoo tiger attack that left a 17-year-old dead told the victim's father that the three had yelled and waved at the animal while standing atop the railing of the tiger's exhibit, police said in court documents filed Thursday. Paul Dhaliwal, 19, denied throwing anything into the enclosure or otherwise antagonizing the animal, according to an account contained in police investigators' request for a search warrant in connection with the Christmas Day attack that killed Carlos Sousa Jr. of San Jose....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/01/18/MNEIUH4B9.DTL
----------------------------------------

Judge to Navy: no pinging near the whales

by Josh Loposer, Filed under: News, Activism

Times are a changin'. Resulting from a court case between the US Navy and the Natural Resources Defense Council, a federal judge has ordered the Navy to respect sea animals when running their sonar training exercises off the coast of Southern California. To the benefit of whales and dolphins, the Navy is restricted from using their medium-range sonar within 12 miles of the coast. Not only that, but if whales or porpoises are spotted within 2,200 yards of the sonar vessels, exercises must undergo a mandatory shutdown....

http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/14/judge-to-navy-no-pinging-near-the-whales

----------------------------------------

Back home: Great white shark released
Male is tagged with tracking device to see what happens next
Randy Wilder
A male great white shark is released into the ocean Tuesday off California.
SAN FRANCISCO - A California aquarium is tracking a great white shark after it was released into the ocean Tuesday — only the second of the predators to be released back to the wild after surviving months of captivity....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16670852/

"The Grand Tradition of Plundering and Massacre", "War Sucks On So Many Levels" and "I Hope You Fu**ing Voted"

Standing Tall Again: Fewer than half of 14,000 looted museum pieces have been located so far
By Larry Kaplow and Cathleen McGuigan NEWSWEEK
Feb 11, 2008 Issue
In the renovated Assyrian gallery of Baghdad's Iraq Museum, archeologist Amira Edan al-Dahab was doing what she likes best: explaining the priceless treasures in her care. Stately 3,000-year-old statues of royalty—a couple lost their heads during the museum's looting in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion—have been restored and are presiding over the vast space. Ancient stone reliefs line the walls, with intricate carving depicting the rituals of early civilization. In one panel, an Assyrian and a Babylonian king are posed shaking hands to seal a treaty, not unlike a diplomatic photo op today. But in another relief, victorious soldiers are piling up their enemies' severed heads as a tribute to a monarch in a chariot. Al-Dahab, the museum's temporary director, shakes her head. "You can see the violence all through history," she says. "This one was always ugly to me, but now it's even more so.".......
http://www.newsweek.com/id/107570

Election: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 Last Update: 12:47 PM ET

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton (Purple)
845
Barack Obama (Green)
765

Republicans:
John McCain (Orange)
613
Mitt Romney (Pink)
269
Mike Huckabee (Brown)
190

Round Two: New York Fashion Week | Jonathan Saunders

February 4th, 2008 2:36 PM
London designer Jonathan Saunders packed them in, including Anna Wintour and Franca Sozzani, editor-in chief of Italian Vogue. Again, I'm thrilled with the resurrection of classic styles and clean lines. I love the 1940's-inspired fan-pleated kick-skirt (right) (which I'd hoped to see paired with seamed stockings and foot boots) it’s nice to see the hemlines longer and more sophisticated. The satin collar is great, but somehow the asymmetrical top is thrown off by the boldly symmetrical front lines on the skirt. I would have loved to see this in a dress version and not a two piece.
(Left) Saunders shows off his talent for detail, modern lines and exquisite finish with an elegant long dress with satin details, more fan-pleating and an open back. Tres Chic! This is both sexy and classy, which most have a hard time pulling off. The army color might not be flattering for all skin types, but looks good here! --Eve

A Mutant Obsession by Olivia Judson

The New York Times, Opinion Section

February 5, 2008, 9:14 pm

This week I’m introducing the first article in what will be an occasional series about mutation. And yes, I admit it: I’m obsessed with mutation (which is why I’ve already alluded to it in a couple of earlier articles). The reason is that mutations to DNA form the raw material for evolution. It’s wondrous to think that mutations, accumulated over billions of years through the action of natural selection and the other forces of evolution, have produced such diverse life forms as vampire squid, coconut palms, death cap mushrooms, giant Gippsland earthworms, Etruscan pygmy shrews, E. coli — and us.....

http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/

Search for Rwanda quake survivors

Last Updated: Monday, 4 February 2008, 10:40 GMT
Some of the survivors have been air-lifted to Rwanda's capital, KigaliMany people remain trapped under rubble in Rwanda after a series of earthquakes hit the Great Lakes region, police say.
They fear more people will die. At least 40 were killed in Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo after Sunday's quakes.
Many people spent Sunday night sleeping in the open in the DR Congo town of Bukavu in case of further tremors.
At least 10 people were killed in Rwanda's western Rusizi district when a church collapsed during Sunday mass.
Bukavu mayor Guillaume Bonga told the AFP news agency that there were several aftershocks overnight but he said there were no new victims.
More than 300 people were injured by the most powerful earthquakes, which had magnitudes of 6.0 and 5.0. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7225896.stm

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

Round One at New Yorks' Fashion Week

Fashion is finally going classic again, thank God! If I saw one more jewel-colored Prada turban, I was going to hang myself with a metallic microbelt. The pallets in general are 80's vivid or pale fleshtones. I am absolutely in love with Dior's (right) silk organza Audrey-style-color-block-pattern dresses which would not be complete without the definitive pill box hat. Definitely top of my list. Lacroix (above) went with a dark blue embroidered coatdress with a deep plunging neckline, plume sleeves and a feather topper hat. Although obviously 1940's-inspired, the embroidery takes a nod from Scandinavia and the long neckline from the 1920's, however somehow it works, albeit not my style. Cheers to Lacroix for diversity and boldness!

(Above) Gautier from the Givenchy show displayed a pale pallet; the chiffon dress is delicious in both form and fluidity and although too sci-fi for my taste, the others showed strong structure and balance. Valentino put up a good fight, sticking to what they do best, gowns (right, above). This champagne colored satin gown with Greek crossing at the bustline and a contrasting inset of chiffon is a knock-out. However, Valentino finished his show with a boring display of 20 models wearing floor-length red dresses in various materials; suddenly I didn't know which year it was, 1970? 1980? 1990? Is this a Robert Palmer video? Big yawn...

(Above) The Chanel line by Karl Lagerfeld reiterated a pale pallet of tulle and pleated chiffon and tiny feathers. I know I'll go to hell for saying this but I was (deep breathe...) deeply disappointed with Chanel. I hope they find someone, dare I say a bit younger and edgier sometime soon. The collection is looking sleepy. I'm bored. -Eve

Early Winter

You, you know how to get me so low
My heart had a crash when we spoke
I can't fix what you broke
You, you always have a reason
Again & again this feelin'
Why do I give in?
& I always was, always was one for crying
I always was one for tears
The sun's getting cold, It's snowing
Looks like an Early Winter for us
An Early Winter
It's sad
& I always was, always was one for crying
I always was one for tears
No, I never was, never was one for lying
You lied to me all of these years
The sun's getting cold, It's snowing
Looks like an Early Winter for us
An Early Winter
Why? Why do you act so stupid?
Why? You know that I'm always right
It hurts & I can't remember sunlight
The leaves are changing colour for us
& it gets too much, yeah it gets so much
Starting over & over & over again
It looks like an Early Winter for us

Exerpt from Early Winter by Gwen Stefani

“Michelangelo, Vasari and Their Contemporaries: Drawings From the Uffizi”

By HOLLAND COTTER
Published: February 1, 2008, The New York Times
“Michelangelo, Vasari and Their Contemporaries: Drawings From the Uffizi” at the Morgan Library & Museum. "That sketch is just one of 79 16th-century Florentine works, shaped into a thematic exhibition. Of the three figures, the woman is the most vivid and polished. With her chiseled features bordering on masculine, her breast-baring gown and horned helmet of braids, she blends Renaissance neo-Classicism with proto-Mannerist fantasy. She looks completely at home in the mannerist phase of our own postmodernism, and was hugely influential in her time. Everyone wanted to make art this good and this strange."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/arts/design/01uffi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Photo: Uffizi

California vending machines to dispense medicinal highs

Dan Glaister Tuesday January 29, 2008

The Guardian
They are green machines, but not that sort of green machine. Two automated vending machines have been installed in the Los Angeles area, ready to dispense OG Kush and Grandaddy Purps.
If you don't know what that means, you're probably not a potential customer of the Herbal Nutrition Centre, a legal marijuana dispensary. The centre is one of two in Los Angeles to have installed the green painted vending machines for its registered customers, offering them a safe way to get their merchandise outside of dispensary hours......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2248565,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick, Video

Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick
Don't you just hate when some upstart comes along and threatens your best-laid plans? We were struck by how well one of Reese Witherspoon's monologues from the film Election fits the narrative of Campaign 2008.

http://slatev.com/player.html?id=1377935786

Sex in the City

January 27, 2008
Style
Sex in the City
By SUSAN MORGAN; Photographs by DWIGHT ESCHLIMAN
‘As an art dealer, I’ve always liked to be involved in big productions,” says the curator and gallerist Emi Fontana. “I’m not particularly good at selling small things that end up in the living room.” Fontana’s current big production, “Women in the City,” which goes up Feb. 9, is the debut of West of Rome, her newly founded nonprofit arts organization based in Los Angeles.
On view in more than 50 locations — ranging from video billboards along Sunset Strip to the Huntington Library’s botanical gardens — “Women in the City,” with support from the Broad Art Foundation and the François Pinault Foundation, presents breakthrough work by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler and Cindy Sherman......

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/magazine/27style-hollywood-t.html?ref=design

Huge Blow for the Clinton Campaign

[When Bill Clinton was president, he and his wife sailed with the Kennedys off Cape Cod. In this 1997 outing, the former president is at the helm, Hillary Rodham Clinton is second from left and Senator Edward M. Kennedy is to her right.]

By JEFF ZELENY and CARL HULSE
Published: January 28, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, rejecting entreaties from the Clintons and their supporters, is set to endorse Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid on Monday as part of an effort to lend Kennedy charisma and connections before the 22-state Feb. 5 showdown for the Democratic nomination.
Both the Clintons and their allies had pressed Mr. Kennedy for weeks to remain neutral in the Democratic race, but Mr. Kennedy had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides said. He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/us/politics/28kennedy.html?em&ex=1201669200&en=e799ff05bbf92f47&ei=5087%0A

Update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2248768,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Wickman's Wick Dipper

Use Wickman's Wick Dipper to extinguish candles without the wick smoking. Dip candle wick into molten wax, lift and center. This process of quenching the wick eliminates wick smoldering and adds fuel to the wick for relighting. Each wick dipper is packaged in a black gift box.
Rated "Best of Los Angeles 2007" by LA Magazine Price: $6.95
http://www.candledelirium.com/Candle-Accessories/Wickman-Wick-Dipper/

Authorities Raid California Museums

By GREG RISLING – 21 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal agents raided several Southern California museums on Thursday in search of Southeast Asian antiquities believed to have been illegally obtained, smuggled into the U.S. and donated so collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.
Agents also investigated American Indian artifacts at one museum.
Search warrants were executed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities said no arrests had been made and no charges had been filed.
Court documents portray a five-year scheme in which the owner of a Los Angeles art gallery worked with a smuggler to bring in artifacts from Thailand and China, offered them as charitable contributions and then tried to claim the donations as tax write-offs by boosting their value. In some cases, museum officials initially questioned how the artifacts were obtained but eventually accepted them, according to affidavits filed in support of the search.
The investigation is the latest public relations debacle for museums in the United States that have been accused by foreign governments of housing treasures stolen from their countries. Italy has been negotiating with various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to have various statues, vases and other items from Roman and Greek times returned.....

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilPjvHo7GZlGVfk7_kQnz3_4s0TgD8UCKTKO0

Update: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/arts/design/26muse.html?ref=design

Opinions: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-childs29jan29,0,1918168.story

Retreat House by Sarah Rich

It's easy to understand why Rich's "Retreat House" was chosen as one of the Top 10 prefabs by Inhabitat. Its compact design is fuctional, warm, affordable and has low environmental impact. What isn't clear, is why mainstream consumers continue to feed the demand for generic, expensive and environmentally disastrous housing. When prefabs first hit the market, they had their issues, but with the multitute of design companies now producing them, there are more options, different price ranges and competition seems to be keeping the cost affordable for now. So why is it taking so long to catch on? -Eve

New Zealand Joins Great White Shark Fan Club

New Zealand Joins Great White Shark Fan Club
March 13, 2006
Release from: The Age (Australia) New Zealand is moving to protect great white sharks in its waters, Conservation Minister Chris Carter said today. Carter released a public discussion paper outlining options for New Zealand giving what he called "the celebrity predators of the ocean" the formal protection specified in the International Convention on Migratory Species. He said great whites were protected in Australia, South Africa and the United States. "They are an object of fear and fascination, but sadly there is growing evidence that this magnificent and rare species is in trouble internationally," Carter said. "Like many other top predators, populations of great whites tend to be small and lack the elasticity to withstand external pressures, such as fishing and environmental change. "The government believes it is time we thought seriously about playing our part in what is a global conservation issue," Carter said. The discussion paper suggests imposing fines of up to $NZ250,000 ($A220,000) for killing one of the man-eating great whites, which featured in the film Jaws.

http://www.cafepress.com/stickem.20925300

Mummies from Graeco Roman period in Fayyoum

Monday, January 21, 2008
The Egyptian antiquities mission has discovered several well preserved mummies covered with cartonage in Fayyoum that date back to the Greco-Roman period. One of the caskets contained a badly decayed mummy with a golden face mask, Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Sunday. Some of the mummies were covered with eight layers of linen and tied with rope, he said. The mission also unearthed three caskets, dating back to the Ptolemaic Age and adorned with funereal paintings from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The mission also discovered necklaces, other jewellery and cloth painted with an anchor and key motif.

1400 Pound Kansas Meteorite

Friday, November 11, 2005
Steve Arnold discovered a 1400 pound oriented pallasite meteorite in a Kansas field near the town of Haviland. Read about the Kansas Meteorite at Kansas.com