Pop Quiz: Who's the moustached singer in the white suit?

Smokin', Wolf-grinnin' Ronnie by Karina Von D'Ahe

Jayne Mansfield as a cover star

Jørgen Angel @ Studenterhuset

Silverio, Mexico City

Ulrik Crone "Law And Disorder"

 

Warholizer: Turn digital photos of you and your friends into pop art!

This toy was inspired by Andy Warhol's famous paintings of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol created the paintings using silkscreens to create a kind of "assembly line" art. This toy attempts to simulate the false color and silkscreen effect on photographs from your digital camera but really it's a thing all its own. The name "Warholizer" is more of a tribute than anything else. [Illustration: my treatment of the British actress, Susan George, ed.]

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The Format Wars

By Ronnie Rocket

While the movie industry is still fighting it out on (the last) physical media (newsflash: Blu-Ray won), the struggling music industry now has an interesting new front being fought in the US.

I am a faithful subscriber to the Rhino newsletter (Do you rock out to Led Zeppelin? Do you cry when you listen to Joy Division? Do you secretly enjoy the songs of Barry Manilow? I think you do.) and this morning it contained a Bee Gees promotion.

"Bee Gees Go Digital", it says. As you may know, some of popular music's biggest names have yet to surface in digital formats - The Beatles apparently had a problem with putting their catalogue for sale on iTunes, while still fighting about the rights for the Apple trademark name - but recently powerhouses like Led Zeppelin have released their attractive catalogues digitally. Now is the time for another monster act. You may not know this, but it has been estimated that the Bee Gees' record sales total more than 220 million, easily making them one of the best-selling music artists of all-time. Read again: more than 220 million records.

Re-issue specialist Rhino - a record label co founded by Richard Foos and Harold Bronson in 1978. beginning with novelty records, since 1998 a part of Warner Music Group - is putting out the entire Bee Gees catalogue in digital formats. What is interesting about this, besides the availability of the pop goldmine ("How Deep Is Your Love", "More Than A Woman", the list is endless), is the choice of formats. In the newsletter, there are deep links to iTunes and to Internet commerce first mover Amazon.com, who is now selling music as MP3's (so far, only in the U.S.). This is the new front: iTunes' 'closed' AAC format vs. Amazon's 'open' MP3 format. It will be interesting to follow this battle in 2008.

Of course you can mix these formats in most players, but it is a messy affair. You can't create mixed iMixes and the experience is just not as streamlined as it should be.

Which format do you prefer? Leave a comment, please. [Sorry. You have to have a Google account to do so, but an OpenID will do the job soon].

Oh, and while the hardware industry and the entertainment companies are fooling around with the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, DivX is really taking off as the de facto digital standard for movie playbacks. Read: make sure your playback system can handle this format of the future. And always remember: the future is now.

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Will Ferrell wins James Joyce award

Will Ferrell has received the James Joyce award — but concedes he's no literary expert.

"As I perused my leatherbound volumes of `Ulysses,' `Finnegans Wake,' `Dubliners,' `Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,' standing in my mahogany library, a lot of feelings ran across my mind. Like: `Damn, I should have read these books'," Ferrell deadpanned in front of more than 1,000 University College Dublin students Wednesday night.

Ferrell, 40, has just spent two weeks traveling throughout Ireland goofing around with his dad, Lee, and brother Patrick.

They spent time tracing family roots in the ancestral County Longford of the Ferrells — much more commonly spelled "Farrell" in Ireland — and his deepening sense of Irishness was evident as he arrived at the university clad in a snug-fitting Irish rugby jersey, shorts and cap.

"I'm so committed to my Irish roots that I intend to continue wearing this outfit upon my return to the United States," Ferrell told his audience. "I will also continue to drive on the left-hand side of the road. Will it be dangerous? Yes. Is it illegal? Highly. But that's just how committed I am."

Ferrell offered observations on pub life and Ireland's national beer during a 40-minute monologue.

"I love the taste of Guinness on the back of your throat, when it repeats on you the next morning," he said. "I love sitting in a cozy pub talking with a local, whose accent is so thick it sounds like he's gargling phlegm."

The Joyce award, run by the university's Literary and Historical Society, has been bestowed on a wide range of politicians and celebrities, including U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, former South African President F.W. de Klerk and former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.

Ferrell joked that he hadn't been surprised to receive the honor, because he's close friends with Blix, who intimated recently that Ferrell was a shoo-in.

And he suggested a certain affinity with Joyce, the Dublin-born author who graduated from the university, then wrote his masterworks as an exile in Italy, Switzerland and France.

"James Joyce spent a lot of his life living outside of Ireland. I too have spent a lot of time living outside of Ireland," Ferrell said.

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Imagine a Flashback

TMZ.COM: Sean Lennon, 32, was spotted in New York -- looking so much like John Lennon (or a Yeshiva student) -- it was eerie!

Sean was walking with a fiercely hatted woman in SoHo on Wednesday, where temperatures were near freezing. John and Yoko were snapped in Paris in 1969 -- when John was 29.

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Signal Digital 2.0 beta sneak preview

Signal Digital web producer and interim COO, Jacob Friis, is working on the new Signal Digital web site. Here is a sneak peak. Click to enlarge.

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Uploaded 104%?

Final Lars Ravn print for the collection this time around :-)

The Boom Bag!

The Boom Bags are first and foremost, quality luggage! In addition to many other features designed by veteran travelers, they all have an integrated stereo amplifier and speakers with subwoofer. The sound system is mounted between the rails of the handle so it has almost no impact on the packing space in the bag. You can simply replace one or more of your present bags with a Boom Bag and you will have terrific home-quality sound everywhere you go. Replace your carry on computer bag with our 18" Rolling Office, or a Encore Backpack or 20" Carry on. They are all terrific computer oriented bags, with great travel features. Or, if you prefer, replace one of your suitcases, with a Boom Bag. We make all the popular sizes so just pick the one that fits your style, and you'll add music to your travel experience.

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Ultralight Lenovo X300 Series Thinkpad

It appears that Lenovo have themselves a new ultralight X300 series Thinkpad—and outside of the price and release date, we have all of the specs that you need to know. At a glance, some of the major features include: a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen, an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor, and Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ), a 64 GB SSD, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, and 4 hours of battery life.

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BANKSY - ORIGINAL on Portobello Road, London

Four new Sibirian Tigers in Aalborg Zoo :-)

Yet another Lars Ravn print added to the collection

Seung-hyun Kang of Korea poses after winning the Ford Models Supermodel of the World Contest in New York

LinkedIn founder has golden touch

Few Internet entrepreneurs practice what they preach as devoutly as LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman, whose business revolves around his belief that good fortune flows from good relationships.
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Hoffman, 40, has put that principle to work by mining his own vast network of Silicon Valley connections to rake in one Internet jackpot after another.

A college friendship led Hoffman to PayPal and his first windfall when eBay Inc. bought the online payment service for $1.5 billion in 2002. Since then, he has become even wealthier by investing in other Internet startups he discovered through friends and former colleagues.

Along the way, Hoffman also used some of his PayPal proceeds to help start LinkedIn, an online business-networking service that helps professionals like him realize the value of their contacts from the past and present.

With more than 1 million people joining each month and projected 2008 revenue of $75 million to $100 million, LinkedIn Corp. seems likely to deliver another big payoff for Hoffman.

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Charlie Haden Film

Daikan Day (January 20)

Another Lars Ravn print added to the collection

Ryuichi Sakamoto "1996"

Is Amazon The Original Social Network?

Nyhedsavisen

DSCF4057
Originally uploaded by fru_green

Flickr v Google Access Request (Real Web 2.0)

Lars Ravn print added to the collection

Onsen Ryokans

“If you were a young Japanese in your 20’s, wouldn’t you rather do your blogging sitting out in the woods by a hot spring than in your cramped little apartment in Nishi-Shinjuku?” said Mr. Grilli, the Japan Society president.

WHERE TO STAY

Otaru Ryotei Kuramure (81-134-51-5151; www.kuramure.com/english) charges 36,750 yen a person, double occupancy, with dinner and breakfast included. A 150 yen bathing tax also applies.

Rooms at Hoshinoya (81-267-45-6000, www.hoshinoya.com/en) start at 13,000 yen a person, double occupancy. Meals at the three restaurants are extra; dinner entrees at the best start at 12,600 yen, but at 1,200 yen at the most casual one.

The ancient Shiroganeya ryokan (81-761-77-0025; www.shiroganeya.co.jp) offers rooms from 28,000 yen a person, double occupancy, in its classic wing, and from 32,000 yen in its modern wing.

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Takeshi Kitano

Haruki Murakami

Original photograph of John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon signed by John Lennon on the back

Original photograph of John Lennon, Yoko Ono and her daughter Kyoko. Signed With love John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the back. Stamp by the Danish photographer Preben Tolstoy Jacobsen on the back. With cracks and small holes in the corners.

The photograph is one of the last photographs taken of Lennon with long hair.

[Update! I just bought this very photo yesterday (Feb. 5, 2008) at an auction.]

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Michael Kvium work added to the collection today

William Skotte Olsen works added to the collection today

MacBook Air