I Want My OLED TV

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: There’s a new TV on the block, and its picture is so amazing, it makes plasma and L.C.D. look like cave drawings.

It’s called organic light emitting diode, or O.L.E.D. This technology has been happily lighting up the screens of certain cellphone and music-player models for a couple of years now, but Sony is the first company to offer it in a TV screen. It’s called the XEL-1, and it’s available only from SonyStyle stores. Its picture is so incredible, Sony should include a jaw cushion.

At a cooperative Best Buy store, I did a little test. I set the XEL-1 up next to state-of-the-art plasmas and L.C.D. sets — all hooked up to the same video signal for easy comparison — and recorded the reactions of shoppers and employees. Their adjectives for this picture included “astonishing,” “astounding,” “incredible” (twice) and “amazing” (five times).

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Bought this TAL R woodcut today...

Passeig de Gracia

Took this snapshot with my old, but trustworthy, Sony Ericsson mobile phone on my way home to the hotel from the Spanish Grand Prix in Montmelo.

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Didot logotype for my upcoming gallery by designer Jens Kruse

Gameboy Shoes

I bought this artwork today -- 1989 :-)

Gavin Bryars "Hommages" (2008 Remastered & Bonus Tracks)

Originally released in November 1981 on Les Disques du Crepuscule, Hommages was recorded in Leicester in February 1981 and produced by noted Belgian composer Wim Mertens. The album was conceived as a series of diverse homages to other composers, including Bill Evans, Ferruccio Busoni, Gustav Holst and Percy Grainger. Featured musicians included Andrew Bilham, Ronald Reah, Andrew Renshaw, Nigel Shipway, Dave Smith, John White and Marie Wilson, as well as Gavin Bryars himself on piano and vibraphone. The album documents the important period between Bryars' early experimental music and later works from Medea onwards, as well as his enthusiasm for small composer/performer ensembles. This 63 minute digital remaster now includes two bonus tracks composed and recorded by Bryars during the same period, Danse Dieppoise and Out of Zaleski's Gazebo. The booklet features extensive notes by Gavin Bryars on the origin and performance of all six pieces, and preserves the original album cover artwork by Marc Borgers. Full tracklist: My First Homage, The English Mail-Coach, The Vespertine Park, Hi Tremolo, Danse Dieppoise, Out of Zaleski's Gazebo. CD Info / iTunes Link.

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Vinyl is back! (in Copenhagen)

 

Yellow Magic Orchestra "Cue" (1982)

Yes, it is Sakamoto on drums. Amazing stage set-up. Looks like 2012, not 1982.

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Akira Ifukube

Herbert Tobias @ Berlinische Galerie

Herbert Tobias ranks among the most important German photographers of the post-war period. In the Fifties and Sixties he became known in Paris and Berlin for his unconventional fashion photographs. Today he is famous for his atmospheric views of the city, subtle portraits, and erotic pictures of men. Tobias’ works are full of poetry, sensuality, and suggestive power. The upcoming exhibition illustrates his life’s work with about 200 photographs for the very first time.

Exhibition: May 16 to August 25, 2008

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The last heartthrob from Hollywood's Golden Age

The Subways new album cover art revealed today

The Stranger: 30th Anniversary [Limited Edition] (Deluxe Boxed Set - 3 CDs + 1 DVD)

DSL

Artur Rubinstein playing Manuel De Falla's "Ritual Fire Dance"

Charlie Haden + Carla Bley

Amazon Web Services + Twitter = Web 2.0

Sean Lennon

Furtwaengler - and Hitler! - conducts Beethoven from Sokurov's "Moloch"

Alexander Laner @ Galleri Tom Christoffersen

MIT LEICHTEM GEPÄCK at Galleri Tom Christoffersen is the first solo exhibition in Denmark by German sculptor Alexander Laner. On show is contemporary sculpture with a twist of noise and humour. Presented are previous works such as Für Elise; a grand piano made of pre-fab materials and build without the precise knowledge of how to do it but with an imagination of how it could be, and La Traviata; a modified racing bicycle, which functions as a record player and plays a single, the overture of the Italian opera La Traviata. These are juxtaposed with eye catching new sculptures such as Viva Las Vegas; a rotating light sculpture revolving 75 times per minute.

Most works demonstrates a fascinating disproportion between effort and outcome, which in general imbues Alexander Laner’s works with a cheerful yet distressing character. In all his works, improvisation is an important formal element, so that they often take on the charming ease of the unpredictable and chance. During the opening a trained pianist will play (or at least try to play) the sculpture Für Elise.

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Solntse

The predictably unreliable Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov has shot this wonderfully eccentric and fascinating film about the last days of Emperor Hirohito's reign as if it were a science-fiction film. And indeed, the otherworldly Hirohito (Issey Ogata) certainly does suggest a somewhat less cuddlesome E. T., both in his alienation from the quotidian world (the coddled emperor can barely dress himself) and in his relationship with his nominally more human protector, in this case General MacArthur (Robert Dawson). Shot in 35 millimeter in the filmmaker's preferred brackish tones, "The Sun" traces Hirohito as he wanders about his compound engaged in meaningless rituals and surrounded by minders who are as much his guards as his servants. In one of the most revelatory scenes, Hirohito, an amateur scientist, dons a white lab coat to examine the pickled remains of a hermit crab. As he waxes poetic about this pathetic pale specimen, there can be no doubt that the emperor - an all-too-human man raised as a god - is effectively staring into a mirror. Mr. Ogata, whose mouth incessantly opens and shuts as if the emperor were nothing more than a very costly pet carp, is mesmerizing. This is the third in a trilogy of films about dictators by Mr. Sokurov, who remains best known here for the technological marvel "Russian Ark." More approachable and certainly far more enjoyable than the first films in the trilogy, "Moloch" (about Hitler) and "Taurus" (Lenin), "The Sun" envisions Hirohito as somewhat of a victim of history without ever suggesting that the emperor should be excused for the role he played in the tragedy of war. This take may not sit well with historians or the literal-minded, but as a portrait of pathology — that of Japan and of Hirohito both — it's terrific. — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

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Ron Arad Rover Chair

A pair of 'Rover' easy chairs with black-lacquered curved steel frame, seat and back upholstered in original black leather. Designed in 1981. Produced and stamped by One Off Ltd., London. Normal signs of wear. The 'Rover' chair was the first furniture piece that Ron Arad designed and comprises a used car seat from a Rover 2000 mounted on a steel frame. Literature: Charlotte & Peter Fiell, '1000 chairs', reproduced and discussed p. 562.

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New Recyclable Cardboard Chair Kit-Creativity for Kids Meets Sustainable Design

A concept derived of an architecture school project becomes the Elia Mini Chair, the latest trend in creativity for kids. Architect/Engineer/Dad, Michael Gross has scaled down his cardboard chair into a version for children. This new, environmentally friendly, cardboard chair is easy to assemble and fun to decorate. The ELIA mini chair is perfect for birthdays, rainy days or any day creative inspiration is needed. ELIA products fuse functionality with creative forms to entertain and engage children ages 4 and up. The chair pieces are reversible, providing two surfaces to decorate with paint, markers, crayons or the included stickers.

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Unseen Elvis photos surface in N.Y.

Elvis Presley performs at Madison Square Garden in these June 1972 photos provided by George Kalinsky. Kalinsky, who has been the official Garden photographer for more than 40 years, came across the never-before-seen photos while looking for images for a publicity campaign called 'Great Moments in New York.'

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Edward Weston, Nude on Sand, Oceano, 1936 (Estimate: $70,000 - $90,000)

Edward Weston, Nude, 1934, gelatin silver print

"Amish Market", Hell's Kitchen, New York City

Crispin Glover in "Willard"

Sakiko Nomura

Portishead "Machine Gun" [iTunes Link]

Portishead have revealed the first track to be taken from their high anticipated new album ‘Third’ will be 'Machine Gun'. ‘Machine Gun’ will be released on April 14, with ‘Third’ set to follow on April 28. Portishead kicked off a European Tour in Portugal on March 26.

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Pawel Jaszczuk

Pawel Jaszczuk is a Polish photographer based in Tokyo, Japan. For his series, Behind Tokyo’s Door, Pawel documented the going ons and romps in underground fetish parties in Tokyo. His other series, Shibari (rope bondage), is also worth a look. [Warning: NSFW!]

Pawel managed to secure access to his subjects through hard work and perseverance; despite being in a closed society that does not welcome gaijin/foreigners. He started this body of work in 2006, by talking to people and making connections at the seediest places.

See other works in his online portfolio here.

Photo: Japan / Tokyo / A transvestite is posing for a picture at the undergraund fetish party "Tokyo Decadence" at Stylish club in Roppongi. Tokyo sexual underground having been in business for many years and become a prominent feature of the Japanese culture. It is gaining popularity. More people exploring the possibilities of underground fetish parties, more are becoming less shy to talk about it.

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I Shot the Maestro

An S.F. photographer decided he’d never seen a good photo of an orchestra conductor. So he spent six years taking them his way.

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Death By Blogging

They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

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Stanley Kubrick

Paul Schrader

Nobuyoshi Araki - Araki Gold

Roger Wright plays Rzewski's Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

Intel v Web 2.0