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2006, Feb 28; 20:05 ::: Ma Mere (2004) - Christophe HonoréFinally out on DVD in UK and USA
Ma Mere (2004) - Christophe Honoré [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Product Description
Challengingly stylish and original, Ma Mère is the story of Hélène (Isabelle Huppert), cool and in charge, her husband, and her teenage son Pierre (Louis Garrel), a pious Catholic boy back from boarding school. As Hélène confesses to her son about his father's infidelity, they hear he has been tragically killed in a car crash. This news sets in motion a wild series of parties involving drugs, alcohol and sex-filled nights out with Hélène and her female lover. Inexplicably, she pulls her son into her sordid lifestyle. When she mysteriously goes away, her son is left in the care of her mistress Ra (Joana Preiss) and Hansi (Emma de Caunes), an icy blonde sadist with whom he falls in love. --Amazon.comSee also: Isabelle Huppert - mother - Ma Mère (2004) - French cinema - 2004 - Georges Bataille
2006, Feb 28; 20:05 ::: ¡Átame!/ Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) - Pedro Almodóvar
¡Átame!/ Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) - Pedro Almodóvar[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Plot Synopsis: Ricky is released from a mental hospital, and knows exactly what he wants to do. He hunts down Marina, a porn film star he once had sex with, and tries to convince here to be his wife. She is a bit reluctant, so he ties her up... Will this approach endear him to her ?
See also: Stockholm syndrome - Pedro Almodóvar - film - 1990 - Atame / Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
2006, Feb 28; 20:05 ::: Noah's Ark (2005) - CocoRosie
Noah's Ark (2005) - CocoRosie [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Amazon.com
A unicorn, a rainbow spitting zebra and what looks to be a horse sprouting a third eye are engaged in group sex on the illustrated cover of CocoRosie's second album. If that leads you to expect something playful and magical but also starkly screwed-up from the recording inside, you are on the right path. With assistance from Antony and Devendra, Ark is easily one of the most rewarding releases of 2005. The core of the music is made by singers/multi-instrumentalists Sierra and Bianca Cassidy, formerly estranged sisters who bonded over music and made their magical debut in a Paris flat. Their music has a lunatic music box feel that ought to appeal to fans of Bjork and Joanna Newsom, while the lyrics mine transgressive territory more often found in a book by JT LeRoy than a pop song. The true stars of the album are the singers' lovely, ethereal voices, which refract a '30s jazz-blues idiom through a strangely deadened, forever-sad delivery. It's the vocal equivalent of the toymaker's creations from Blade Runner and it is simply beautiful! -Mike McGonigalCocoRosie are an American duet that formed in 2003. Stylistically they may be assigned to the indie rock, psych folk genres, and are sometimes associated with the New Weird America movement. Sierra plays the guitar, the flute, and leads vocals. Bianca is a percussionist and also beatboxes. They were active for most of 2004, playing dates across the U.S. and making several trips to Europe for tours playing with TV on the Radio, Bright Eyes, Devendra Banhart and others. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CocoRosie [Feb 2006]
See also: New Weird - music - 2005 - American music
2006, Feb 28; 20:05 ::: I am a Bird Now (2005) - Antony and the JohnsonsOne day I ll grow up, I ll be a beautiful woman
One day I ll grow up, I ll be a beautiful girl
One day I ll grow up, I ll be a beautiful woman
One day I ll grow up, I ll be a beautiful girlBut for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boyfrom "For Today I Am A Boy"
I am a Bird Now (2005) - Antony and the Johnsons [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
A photograph by Peter Hujar of Candy Darling on her deathbed is on the cover of I Am a Bird NowIt’s not often that an album released in January gets called one of the best of the year in near-unison, but the second full length by Antony and the Johnsons is so startlingly beautiful that it simply has to be. Like his friend and compatriot Devendra Banhart, Antony is a super-talented singer-songwriter with a flair for dramatic artsong. But the cherubic Antony is so original he must get mistaken for an alien quite often; he sings like a bluesy opera singer and switches timbre from masculine to feminine in the space of a breath. The only vocal comparison that comes close is Nina Simone. Antony’s honest lyrics deal with deep wounds and troubled desires with matter of fact poetry and subtle humor, as in a short story by JT LeRoy. Aided and abetted by a versatile band that’s often closer to chamber orchestra than rock act, Antony delivers a visionary album with I Am A Bird Now. Oh yeah: Rufus Wainwright, Devendra, Lou Reed and Boy George all appear on here, too. --Mike McGonigal for Amazon.com
Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons are an award-winning music act from New York City.The band is essentially the vehicle for singer Antony, whose full name is Antony Hegarty. Born in Chichester, West Sussex, England in 1971, Antony moved to Amsterdam in 1977 for 18 months before settling in California in 1981. As a teenager he was enthused by the British synth pop of the time — in particular emotive torch singers such as Marc Almond and Boy George. In 1990 he moved to Manhattan and founded the performance collective Blacklips with creative partner Johanna Constantine.
Antony's voice seems to channel Nina Simone and Bryan Ferry, and he has many celebrity admirers such as Philip Glass, Marc Almond, Lou Reed and the guest vocalists on I Am a Bird Now, Boy George, Rufus Wainwright and Devendra Banhart. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_and_the_Johnsons [Feb 2006]
Candy Darling
Candy Darling (24 November 1944 - 21 March 1974) was a Warhol superstar who starred in Andy Warhol's films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Darling [Feb 2006]See also: androgyny - outsider - music - 2005 - American music
2006, Feb 28; 16:05 ::: 59February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 306 days remaining, 307 in leap years. In a common year it is the last day of February. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_28 [Feb 2006]
See also: time - day - February
2006, Feb 28; 16:05 ::: Oscar Wilde's Guide to Modern Living (1996) - Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde's Guide to Modern Living (1996) - Oscar Wilde [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The plays, novels, essays, letters, and bons mots of Oscar Wilde form one of the most extraordinary bodies of work in the English language--brilliant, witty, full of wicked insight and dazzling turns of phrase. Oscar Wilde's Guide to Modern Living gathers hundreds of the writer's pithiest utterances and epigrams in a collection of late nineteenth-century wisdom that has an uncanny relevance to the late twentieth. Whether holding forth on morality ("Simply the attitude we adopt towards persons we dislike"), education ("Nothing worth knowing can be taught"), criticism ("The highest form of autobiography"), or the Pope ("I was deeply impressed, and my walking stick showed signs of budding"), Wilde's voice rings with the unique imagination and keen intelligence that continued to his death bed ("It's the wallpaper or me. One of us has to go") and sounds amazingly fresh and current today.
See also: Oscar Wilde - modern - life - British literature
2006, Feb 28; 15:05 ::: Octavia Butler (1947 - 2006)Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947-February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction writer, one of very few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards, and was the first science fiction writer ever to be a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant". --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler [Feb 2006]
Lilith's Brood (1987-1989) - Octavia E. Butler [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Xenogenesis is a science fiction trilogy written by Octavia Butler. It is also known as Lilith's Brood.
The first novel in the trilogy, Dawn, appeared in 1987. Set on a devasted Earth following the near-extinction of humanity, the plot follows the resurrection of a human woman as part of an alien plan to colonize the earth with alien-human hybrids. The book introduces the alien species, known as Oankali, who come in three sexes--male, female and ooloi, a gender that mixes and manipulates the genetic material produced by the other two.
In the trilogy's second book, Adulthood Rites (1988), an alien-human hybrid child is abducted by sterile human resisters.
In the final book of the series, Imago (1989), an ooloi human comes of age and integrates human and alien societies.
The three volumes of this series are also collected into two omnibus editions, Xenogenesis (out of print) and Lilith's Brood. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenogenesis [Feb 2006]
Pregnancy in science fiction
Numerous science fiction, utopian and dystopian novels revolve around sexual reproduction, pregnancy and infertility. Some examples:[...]
Among themes regularly encountered in science fiction are inter-species reproduction (see Star Trek), artificial wombs, and male pregnancy. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy_in_science_fiction [Feb 2006]
See also: Lilith - pregnancy - black science fiction - American literature
2006, Feb 28; 14:05 ::: Tropical Deco : The Architecture and Design of Old Miami Beach (1981) - Laura CerwinskeIn search of seafoam green, powder blue and salmon pink.
Tropical Deco : The Architecture and Design of Old Miami Beach (1981) - Laura Cerwinske [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Born out of fantasy and speculation, designed for fun and profit, Miami Beach has been, from its inception, a city of mythical composition. Its famed Art Deco District was designated a Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and today the area is basking in a revival of interest and attention. Nevertheless, while fashion photographers and entrepreneurs, artists, developers, restaurateurs and club owners flock to the neighborhood, it is still struggling, after years of deterioration and neglect, to recreate itself out of its own forgotten glamour. Despite a new palette of confectionery colors and the renovation of numerous buildings, the Art Deco District remains in need of urban cultivation, of a reinterpretation that transcends its original resort identity. Author Laura Cerwinske introduces Tropical Deco: The Architecture and Design of Old Miami Beach by discussing both the area's past and its future. Throughout her comprehensive exploration of the most concentrated neighborhood of Art Deco buildings in the world, she details the style's evolution and examines its design.
Tropical Deco: The Architecture and Design of Old Miami Beach treats its readers to a delightful view of a unique adaption of a historic architectural style. For, while Miami Beach's Art Deco architecture derives its stylistic roots from the streamlined and electric visions of the cosmopolitan North, Tropical Deco design is much softer and more temperately seductive. These are buildings whose narrative and evocative nature is at once sophisticated, naive and filled with humor.
About the Author
Laura Cerwinske's commentaries on architecture, interior design, garden design and fine art appear regularly in numerous publications. Her parents met on Miami Beach, and she considers its imagery a part of her creative heritage.David Kaminsky, also a Miami native, is a freelance architectural photographer. He spent a year photographing the Miami Beach Art Deco District. Product Details
See also: architecture - design - Miami - Art Deco
2006, Feb 28; 09:05 ::: The Greystone (1939) - Hohauser
The Greystone (1939) - Hohauser
Image sourced here.The postwar craving for futuristic became evident in Miami Beach, Florida, where during the 1950s and 1960s, a wildly inventive mode of architectural design emerged to satiate the requirements of the prosperous new vacationing middle-class. Resort area architects attempted to realize through their buildings what we of a more cynical age now concede to be science fiction. These architects created a unique futuristic look in Miami Beach that became known as "Miami Modern," or "MiMO," a term coined by Miami Beach resident Randall C. Robinson and interior designer Teri D'Amico.
Prime examples of MiMO architecture include the Fontainebleau, Eden Roc, Seacoast Towers, Deauville, and Di Lido hotels by famed architect Morris Lapidus, and Norman Giller's Carillon Hotel, which was voted Miami Beach's "Hotel of the Year" in 1959. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Modern_Architecture [Feb 2006]
Collins Avenue
The main traffic artery of Miami Beach is Collins Avenue, known as the Strip, which is also flanked by handsome Art Deco buildings. Among them are: Tiffany's (801 Collins Avenue; by L. Murray Dixon, 1939), the Franklin (860 Collins Avenue; by V. H. Nellenbogen, 1934), Fairmont (1000 Collins Avenue; by L. Murray Dixon, 1939), with a famous cafeG terrace, Essex House (1001 Collins Avenue; by Henry Hohauser, 1938), one of Hohauser's most interesting buildings in the style known as Nautical Modernism, the former Hoffman's Cafeteria (1450 Collins Avenue; by Hohauser, 1939), which became the Club Ovo and China Club, Haddon Hall (1500 Collins Avenue; by L. Murray Dixon, 1941), the St Moritz tower block (1565 Collins Avenue; by Roy F. France, 1939), the Surfcomber apartment block (1717 Collins Avenue; by MacKay and Gibbs, 1948) and Greystone (1926 Collins Avenue; by Hohauser, 1939). Also on Collins Avenue are three of the largest Art Deco hotels, built in the forties, the National, the Delano and the Ritz Plaza. The streamlined structures and architectural detail are designed to recall 20th century means of transport - rockets, submarines, aircraft. --http://www.planetware.com/miami-beach/collins-avenue-us-fl-collins.htm [Feb 2006]See also: 1939 - Miami - Art Deco
2006, Feb 27; 17:05 ::: Qui in "in", qui est "out" (1966) - Serge GainsbourgTelevision clip of Qui in "in", qui est "out" (1966) - Serge Gainsbourg
Gainsbourg is considered one of the first music pop artists of the late 1960s. While artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein explored modern iconographic consumer culture through painting, Gainsbourg explored similar territory in music with songs such as "Comic Strip," "Ford Mustang," "Qui est In Qui est Out," and "Teenie Weenie Boppie."
Inspired by Phinn via here.
One of my favourite Gainsbourg tracks. Who is "in?" Who is "out?"
See also: trendy - 1966 - French music - Andy Warhol - Roy Lichtenstein - Serge Gainsbourg
2006, Feb 27; 17:05 ::: High Tension (2003) - Alexandre Aja
High Tension (2003) - Alexandre Aja [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Haute Tension, also referred to as Switchblade Romance in the UK and High Tension in the USA, is a French slasher film originally released in France during 2003, later released during 2004 in the UK and 2005 in the USA. The film, directed by Alexandre Aja, stars Cécile De France, Maïwenn Le Besco, and Philippe Nahon.
High Tension was picked up by independent distributor Lions Gate Films following a successful screening at the "Midnight Madness" section of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. Originally rated NC-17 in the USA, a few minor shots were cut from the final version of the US release to get it down to the R rating: this included a blow-job decapitation scene and the aftermath of a bookcase decapitation.
Perhaps the most startling aspect of this film is its incredibly visceral nature. Eschewing the current fad for computer generation, all of the effects are created by renowned horror make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi, a favourite of late director Lucio Fulci, whose work serves to enhance the disturbing nature of the film.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute Tension [Feb 2006]
See also: French film - horror film - Haute Tension (2003)
2006, Feb 27; 17:05 ::: Bent Ply (2003) - Dung Ngo, Eric Pfeiffer
Bent Ply (2003) - Dung Ngo, Eric Pfeiffer [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
"In the spring of 1999 an Eames plywood sculpture sold for $130,000, which at the time was the highest amount paid at auction for an..." (more)
Book Description
Plywood is arguably the most modern design artifact: it is a material born of natural wood and formed by vigorous industrial processes that can assume the most organic of shapes through bending, laminating, and molding. plywood truly fulfills that most modern of dreams: bridging the gap between technology and nature. Bent Ply is the first book devoted to plywood in modern design. The book consists of two parts: the first, an illustrated history of plywood (tracing its origins to ancient Egypt, circa 2900 BC); the second, an annotated journal of the making of a piece of bent plywood furniture, from the forest to the showroom.Bent Ply contains numerous illustrations of the classics of bent ply design, including furniture from Alvar Aalto, Michael Thonet, and Charles and Ray Eames, and examples of its appropriation by the military: John F. Kennedy’s PT109 boat and the DeHavilland “Mosquito” were both fabricated from plywood.
Anyone interested in furniture design, woodworking, or materials will be fascinated by Bent Ply.
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plywood [Feb 2006]
See also: modern design
2006, Feb 27; 17:05 ::: History of Modern Design (2003) - David Raizman, Laurence Pu King
History of Modern Design (2003) - David Raizman, Laurence Pu King [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
The first book of its kind, Raizman’s History of Modern Design offers a gorgeously illustrated survey of the applied arts and industrial design from the eighteenth century to present day, covering furniture, metal, glass, ceramics, fashion, appliances, transportation, and advertising.Chair on cover by Arne Jacobsen; (February 11, 1902 – March 24, 1971) was a Danish Jewish architect and designer, exemplar of the "Danish Modern" style. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Jacobsen [Feb 2006]
See also: modern design
2006, Feb 27; 17:05 ::: Frank Lloyd Wright : The Masterworks (1993) - Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, David Larkin
Frank Lloyd Wright : The Masterworks (1993) - Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, David Larkin [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: modern architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright - USA
2006, Feb 27; 15:05 ::: Wainwright Building (1891) - Louis Sullivan
The 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis (often credited as the world's first skyscraper)
Louis Henry (Henri) Sullivan (September 3, 1856–April 14, 1924) was an American architect, called the "father of modernism". He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, and was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis Sullivan [Feb 2006]
The Wainwright Building is a 10-story red-brick landmark office building in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Built in 1891 and designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, it is among the first skyscrapers in the world. Sullivan used a steel frame and applied his intricate terra cotta ornament in vertical bands to emphasize the height of the building. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wainwright_Building [Feb 2006]
See also: modern architecture - 1891 - USA
2006, Feb 27; 15:05 ::: Form follows function or does it?: Modernist design theory and the history of art (1984) - H. W Janson
Form follows function or does it?: Modernist design theory and the history of art (1984) - H. W Janson [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The dictum form follows function has been seen, by partisans and critics alike, as the gist of the functionalist philosophy of design. The aim of this essay is to shed light on this still enigmatic precept, and, at the same time, on the nature of modernism in architecture and design. The key question pertaining to the dictum is simple: has the dictum been really feasible as a design precept? Or, to put it differently: can the modernist architecture and design as we know it be said to be the result of this design principle? The answer of the exponents of modernism was a victorious and unequivocal 'yes'. They claimed that this new architecture and design were not a result of stylistic intentions, but of the new anti-formalist precept. This claim has posed a problem, however. If we happen to accept such understanding, our discussions and our writing regarding modernist architecture and design will almost unavoidably be reduced to repeating, or at best embellishing upon, what modernists have said about their pursuits. If we, on the other hand, suspect, that their design precept was not feasible, our reading of their architecture and design will be necessarily very different. --The modernist notion of function as a carte blanche, Jan MICHL via http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2360/jm-eng.fff-hai.html [Feb 2006]
Also from that site/article:
MOTTO: "Dear Theo, Will life never treat me decently? I am wracked by despair! My head is pounding! Mrs. Sol Schwimmer is suing me because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her ridiculous mouth! That's right! I can't work to order like a common tradesman! I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing, with wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like fire! Now she is upset because it won't fit in her mouth! She is so bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her! I tried forcing the false plate in but it sticks out like a star burst chandelier. Still, I find it beautiful. She claims she can't chew! What do I care whether she can chew or not! Theo, I can't go on like this much longer! (...) - Vincent" -- From Woody Allen's “If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists: A fantasy exploring the transposition of temperament."See also: form - function - design
2006, Feb 27; 15:05 ::: Karl Friedrich Schinkel (2000) - Helmut Borsch-Supan
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (2000) - Helmut Borsch-Supan [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Synopsis
When Kari Friedrich Schinkel finally realized his long-held wish to design stage sets in 1815 under the new director general of the Royal Theatres in Berlin, Karl Count of Bruhl, this introduced a new epoch in the field of stage design. It opened with the twelve sets for Mozart's Magic Flute. These are still living masterpieces in which two geniuses who are related by nature meet. The aim of Schinkel's efforts was to create a comprehensively educational Gesamtkunstwerk. The designs for Mozart's opera were followed by settings from stage works by Gluck, Schiller and Kleist, and also some by authors who are now less well known or forgotten. Schinkel's success created a desire for reproductions of his most beautiful designs. They appeared as coloured aquatint etchings by excellent Berlin engravers from 1819 to 1824 in five volumes, a total of 30 sheets, to which two more were added in a second edition produced from 1847 to 1849. Two further editions were produced in 1861 and in 1874, which proves the continuing popularity of the works. One consequence of the reproductions was that Schinkel's ideas spread beyond the confines of Berlin. The textual commentary examines Schinkel's relationship with the stage, which changed in the course of his life, the history of the emergence of the reproduced works and the strategies pursued by his publisher Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich. Count Bruhl's prefaces to the first and last volumes are important documents in Berlin's theatrical history. A catalogue provides explanations about how the designs were used, on contemporary judgements of them and on their artistic significance.Karl Friedrich Schinkel (March 13, 1781 - October 9, 1841) German architect and painter. Schinkel was the most prominent architect of neoclassicism in Prussia. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Friedrich_Schinkel [Feb 2006]
See also: architecture - neoclassicism - Germany
2006, Feb 27; 15:05 ::: Sinuous vs geometricIn the late 1920s, a new streamlined design aesthetic dubbed Moderne (now known as Art Deco) combined Cubism’s geometric base with sinuous embellishments. Once again, textile patterns and fashion design echoed the trend. Shiny fabrics only enhanced the connection with the "speed" of modern life–and art. --http://tirocchi.stg.brown.edu/514/story/fashion_art.html [Feb 2006]Art Nouveau features sinuous lines.
Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, Machine Age design feature geometric lines.
sinuous Google gallery vs geometric Google gallery.
Art Nouveau Google gallery vs Art Deco Google gallery.
See also: Art Deco - Art Nouveau
2006, Feb 26; 23:05 ::: Feminist Visual Culture (2001) - Fiona Carson and Claire Pajaczkowska
Feminist Visual Culture (2001) - Fiona Carson and Claire Pajaczkowska [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Visual culture is all around us: television, dance, film, fashion, painting, sculpture, installation and fine art are only a few of its many faces. Feminist Visual Culture looks at feminist theory, the role of women, and the contribution of women artists to the world of visual culture. This substantial introduction provides an overview of visual culture and of the origins of feminist practice. In the volume's three sections--Fine Art, Design, and Mass Media--the authors discuss the visual media specific to that area, incorporating wider issues such as class, culture, and ethnicity. Each chapter is written by a woman working in a different field of visual culture. A topical and comprehensive introduction, Feminist Visual Culture will be a valuable tool for readers and students in women's studies, visual studies, and media studies.
About the Author
Fiona Carson is an artist and Senior Lecturer in Women's Studies and Art History at the University of East London. Claire Pajaczkowska Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture at Middlesex University. Her most recent book is Perversion.See also: feminism - feminist film theory - visual culture - Claire Pajaczkowska
2006, Feb 26; 23:05 ::: Flapper girl
1922 magazine cover with "flapper girl"
See also: 1922 - feminism - New Woman - flapper girl
2006, Feb 26; 23:05 ::: Ann Veronica (1909) - H. G. Wells
Ann Veronica (1909) - H. G. Wells [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Ann Veronica is a novel by H.G. Wells first published in 1909. The book deals with contemporary political issues of the time, concentrating specifically on feminist issues. In the course of the action the heroine matures from an innocent and naïve girl to a representative of the New Woman.
Ann Veronica created a sensation when published, due both to the feminist sensibilities of the heroine, and to the similarity of her name to that of Amber Reeve, a woman with whom Wells was rumored to be having an affair. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann Veronica [Feb 2006]
See also: feminism - New Woman - 1909 - H. G. Wells
2006, Feb 26; 22:05 ::: Eileen Gray : Architect/Designer (2000) - Peter Adam
Eileen Gray : Architect/Designer (2000) - Peter Adam [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Eileen Gray (1878-1976) was one of the most innovative architect/designers of the 20th century. Her pioneering tables, mirrors, lamps, and lacquer screens have become modern classics, coveted by museums and collectors, and some of the designs are still reproduced today. First published in 1987 and hailed as a "splendid book, gripping and unpretentious" (Arts Review), this "informative and affectionate" portrait (New York Times) by documentary filmmaker and author Peter Adam, a longstanding friend, is the first full-scale biography of this remarkable woman.
Adam draws upon his exclusive access to Gray's personal archives as he re-creates her life and architectural projects. Two houses she designed in the South of France are now considered architectural landmarks of the 20th century. In addition to more than 300 photographs, designs, and architectural plans, the new edition of the book provides a revised catalogue raisonn of Gray's furniture, architecture, and drawings-an indispensable reference source for collectors and students of one of the leaders of 20th-century design.
PETER ADAM is a prize-winning documentary filmmaker and writer. He is the author of Abrams' Art of the Third Reich and has written books on David Hockney, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Andr Kertesz. He lives in London and the South of France.
Eileen Gray (August 9, 1878 – October 31, 1976) was an Irish lacquer artist, furniture designer, and architect now well-known for incorporating luxurious lacquer work into the stark International Style aesthetic. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen Gray [Feb 2006]
See also: Art Deco - Modernism - architecture - modern architecture - design
2006, Feb 26; 22:05 ::: The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design (1968|1985) - Nikolaus PevsnerThe difference between architecture and building is a subject matter that has engaged the attention of many. According to Nikolaus Pevsner, European historian of the early twentieth century, "A bicycle shed is a building, Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture."
The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design (1968|1985) - Nikolaus Pevsner [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner CBE (January 30, 1902 – August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_Pevsner [Feb 2006]
See also: architecture - modern architecture - design - Modernism
2006, Feb 26; 21:05 ::: Gilles Peterson Digs America: Brownswood U.S.A. (2005) - Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson Digs America: Brownswood U.S.A. (2005) - Gilles Peterson [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: Gilles Peterson - American music - compilation
2006, Feb 26; 20:05 ::: Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (1986) - Adrian Forty
Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (1986) - Adrian Forty [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: object - desire - consumerism
2006, Feb 26; 20:05 ::: As Long As It's Pink : The Sexual Politics of Taste (1995) - Penny Sparke
As Long As It's Pink : The Sexual Politics of Taste (1995) - Penny Sparke [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: Penny Sparke - design - pink - gender - taste
2006, Feb 26; 19:05 ::: Ceramic totem (1967) - Sottsass
Ceramic totem (1967) - Sottsass
See also: 1967 - Ettore Sottsass - Italian design
2006, Feb 26; 17:05 ::: Gio Ponti espresso machine
Gio Ponti's 1949 espresso machine for Pavoni
Gio Ponti (1996) - Ugo La Pietra [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: 1949 - Gio Ponti - design - Italian design
2006, Feb 26; 18:05 ::: Rosemary's Baby (1968) - Roman Polanski
Rosemary's Baby (1968) - Roman Polanski [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Rosemary's Baby is a 1967 horror novel by Ira Levin. The novel was a best-seller, and was adapted as a 1968 feature film directed by Roman Pola?ski and starring Mia Farrow as the wife, John Cassavetes as the husband, and Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer as the neighbors. Gordon won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film. There is a popular rumor that Anton LaVey appears in the film as Satan, but he had no involvement with the production.
This film was Robert Evans' first big hit running Paramount Pictures. He was closely involved in the production, and numerous times had to deal with Mia Farrow's precarious relationship with then-husband Frank Sinatra. Farrow and Sinatra divorced soon after the film was completed.
A sequel titled Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby aired as a made-for-TV movie in 1976. Another sequel, called Son Of Rosemary written also by Ira Levin was published in 1997. There were rumours that they would shoot this novel too, but it never came to happen, though the book did appear to have been specifically written with the possibility of turning it into a film, in that Cassavetes, Gordon and Blackmer's characters did not appear. (All three actors were deceased by at the time of the book's publication.) Levin dedicated this book to Mia Farrow.
The story follows a young woman and her husband after moving into a New York City apartment next door to enthusiastic, oversolicitous neighbors. The couple want to have a baby; one night the woman has a vision that she is being raped by some demonic presence, and later she finds out that she is pregnant. The woman begins to lose weight instead of gaining it, and comes to suspect that her neighbors are part of a Satanic cult with designs on her as-yet-unborn child, and that her husband is working with them.
An increasingly disturbed and unstable Rosemary becomes convinced that she's carrying an unholy presence, and the efforts of her husband and neighbors to help her are in vain; until the end, where she's revealed to have been exactly right. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary's Baby [Feb 2006]
See also: 1968 - Roman Polanski - horror film - pregnancy
2006, Feb 26; 16:05 ::: Thelma and Louise (1991) - Ridley Scott
Thelma and Louise (1991) - Ridley Scott [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Thelma and Louise is a road movie from 1991 conceived and written by Callie Khouri, co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Geena Davis as Thelma, Susan Sarandon as Louise, and Harvey Keitel as a sympathetic detective trying to solve crimes that the two women find easier and easier to commit. Michael Madsen plays Louise's boyfriend and Christopher McDonald plays Thelma's controlling husband. Brad Pitt (in his first significant role in a major Hollywood film) plays a robber on parole who befriends Thelma on the road. The film was released on May 24, 1991.
The film follows the women as they head out in Louise's green 1966 Thunderbird convertible for a two-day adventure which starts horribly but then sees them change from victims of circumstance into icons of feminism.
The film shares plot line and visual elements with other road movies, particularly the 1979 movie Messidor by Alain Tanner. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_and_Louise [Feb 2006]
The term women's cinema usually refers to the work of women film directors. It can also designate the work of other women behind the camera such as cinematographers and screenwriters. Although the participation of women film editor, costume designers, and production designers is usually not considered to be decisive enough to justify the term "women's cinema", it does have a large influence on the visual impression of any movie. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_cinema [Feb 2006]
The term chick flick is slang, sometimes slightly derisive, for a movie which is designed or considered to appeal mainly to women, and generally focusing more on romance or relationships. Many romantic comedies or films with many female characters are likely to be put in this category. Critics of the term have pointed out that movies aimed specifically at men are not labeled so derisively. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick flick [Feb 2006]
See also: 1991 - feminism - road movie - American cinema - suicide
2006, Feb 26; 16:05 ::: Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America 1925-1939 (2001) - Jeffrey Meikle
Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America 1925-1939 (2001) - Jeffrey Meikle [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
In the late 1920s, "streamlined" became the term businessmen used to described new models that were easier to produce as well as those that met with less sales resistance than older products. Illustrating this concept with streamlined objects from soup cans to the Chrysler building, Jeffrey Meikle's classic book, Twentieth Century Limited, celebrates the birth of the industrial design profession from 1925-1939. This second edition includes a new preface and improved photographic reproduction.Commercial artists who answered the call of business—Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, and Raymond Loewy the best known among them—were pioneers who envisioned a coherent machine-age environment in which life would be clean, efficient, and harmonious. Working with new materials—chrome, stainless steel, Bakelite plastic—they created a streamlined expressionist style which reflected the desire of the Depression-era public for a frictionless, static society.
Appliances such as Loewy's Coldspot refrigerator "set a new standard" (according to the advertisements), and its usefulness extended to the way it improved the middle-class consumer's taste for sleek new products.
Profusely illustrated with 150 photographs, Twentieth Century Limited pays tribute to the industrial designers and the way they transformed American culture; a generation after its initial publication, this book remains the best introduction to the subject. The new edition will fascinate anyone interested in art, architecture, technology, and American culture of the 1930s.
See also: 1900s - Modernism - streamline - Machine Age - industrial design - design - USA
2006, Feb 26; 16:05 ::: Industrial Design (1989) - Raymond Loewy
Industrial Design (1989) - Raymond Loewy [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Publishers Weekly
Industrial designer Loewy has, according to PW , " put his stamp on the contours of our modern environment." The Lucky Strike pack, the Shell and Exxon logos and the Greyhound bus are but a few of his contributions. This picture album is comprised of some 700 illustrations, sketches and photos. --Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.Book Description
If there is a designer whose name is synonymous with industrial design it is Raymond Loewy (1893-1986). What Charles and Ray Eames are to furniture design, Raymond Loewy is to industrial design--the modern master. Among the literally thousands of his well-known forms, shapes, and designs are the Coca-Cola bottle, the Studebaker, the U.S. Post Office logo, streamlined trains and ocean liners, the Shell and Exxon logos, and the Lucky Strike package. In Industrial Design the pioneering half-century of Loewy's career is offered in a stunning visual presentation of his most famous design achievements together with his personal account of a life in design. With mid-century modern design experiencing an incredible resurgence, this book is a key reference for that look.Raymond Loewy (November 5, 1893 - July 14, 1986) is one of the best known industrial designers of the 20th Century. Born in France, Loewy spent most of his professional career in the United States, where he influenced countless aspects of American life.
Loewy married Jean Thomson in 1931; the marriage would last until 1945. He became a U.S. citizen in 1938. His second marriage, to Viola Erickson, took place in 1948. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy [Feb 2006]
See also: Raymond Loewy - Modernism - architecture - industrial design - design - USA