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