Ronnie Rocket Blog: August 2008

Bunker77

David Bowie at Andy Warhol's Factory, September 14, 1971

Depeche Mode to perform in Israel

Depeche Mode scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv in May 2009 after earlier cancellations

After cancelling its scheduled performance in Israel two years ago due to the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, British band Depeche Mode will arrive in Israel in May 2009, Ynet has learned.

The people behind the gig are Israeli producer Shuki Weiss and German producer Marek Liberberg, who also functions as the band's impresario.

Sources close to the production have confirmed that if all goes well, the show will take place in the beginning of May at Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park. A search for sponsors to finance the show's expenses has begun and preliminary contact has been made with several cell phone companies.

In a recent interview, Liberberg told the band's German fan website that Depeche Mode will launch its new world tour in Israel in May and that the tour will arrive in Germany around June.

A mention is made in the same interview about the show that was cancelled in Israel two years ago. "We hope, for the sake of all of our fans in Israel, that this time fortune will smile upon them and they will finally get to see Depeche Mode perform in their homeland."

During a visit to Israel last year, Andrew Fletcher, the band's keyboard player, talked about the members' desire to perform in Israel and make it up for the fans in the upcoming tour.

In the beginning of August 2006, two days before they were scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv, the band cancelled the show. For the duration of the war, both the band and Liberberg insisted that the show would go on as scheduled and that the security situation would have no affect on the show.

However, during the last week leading up to the gig, problems arose with the technical crew refusing to travel to Israel, and this eventually affected the entire production and led to the cancellation of the show.

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Martin Gore @ Hiro Ballroom, New York City [Flickr album]

BBC web site re-designed

I really wanted to visit this web site, but...

Fuck Flash and the horse it rode it on.

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D-A-D Google Campaign

Misaki Kawai

Rejaw

I am now on Rejaw. Next big thing?

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MySpace and Facebook are so mainstream. Jaiku and Twitter services are down. Tumblr and Pownce are upcoming. Who will be the next big thing?

Jaiku is still down

Quench In Use

is excited about the documentary "Helvetica", a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture.

Apple in the summerhouse

Gary Glitter "I Love You Love Me Love" (1973 German TV Show)

Gary Glitter "I Love You Love Me Love" (1973 TV Show)

Gary Glitter "Rock'n Roll Part 2" (1972)

JIMMY PAGE Performs LED ZEPPELIN Classic At Olympics Closing

Ylang Ylang fashion show in Tokyo

Oops! Too many blogs...

Bang & Olufsen featured in "Dark Knight"

is reading about the "blog revolution" in the morning newspaper. I have been blogging since June 2001. I have almost 100 active blogs today.

Christine Ohuruogu gives Britain greatest tally of golds for a century

opened a new record store today. Videos posted here: www.realvj.com. Visit the shop: http://ping.fm/DRzJj

in the old days, people were either Mac or PC users. After Christmas it will be all about iPhone or Android (Google's "iPhone killer") users

Cycling gold rush continues for Great Britain

Bradley Wiggins won his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics after he and his fellow team pursuiters saw off Denmark in the final in world record time.

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Andy Warhol presents Trash

I don't understand the airline business model

How does this add up? How can you make a business on taxes and fuel surcharges alone?

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is putting finishing touches to revised web 2.0 "starfish graph", "conversation prism" and "social map" structures for the European markets.

Learn About the Rich History of Absinthe

Absinthe was outlawed in the US for nearly a century, and it's had a lively history in other countries as well. Take a look at its tumultuous past below.

1792 — The inventor of absinthe, Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, travels the French countryside on a horse named Rocket to sell the first commercial version of the drink.
Grape phylloxera destroys vineyards and aristocrats buy all the remaining wine. Absinthe is soon discovered, saving the proletariat from sobriety. Sales skyrocket.
New Orleans pharmacist Antoine Peychaud creates a home-brewed mixture of brandy, absinthe, and his "secret sauce." America's first cocktail is born.
1840s — Absinthe's popularity spreads when French troops fighting in Algeria mix it with wine. Referred to as "absinthe soup," clam chowder soon loses favor.
Sometime during the early 1800s, drinking neat absinthe (i.e. without water) becomes impolite and socially inappropriate.
Throughout the ages, absinthe cocktails have dazzled the palates of partygoers everywhere from the fabulous to the freaky.
1860 — Parisian cafés are full of men drinking absinthe, so much so that the time between 5 and 7p.m. becomes known as l'heure verte — "the green hour."
From the 1890s onward, almost all bars and cafés serve absinthe with a perforated spoon. Forks have had an inferiority complex ever since.
1891 — At the Moulin Rouge, a glass of absinthe costs between 50 and 65 centimes, about half the price of whiskey, and little more than draft beer.
Absinthe's artistic devotees include Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway.
By 1910, France has consumed 36,000,000 liters of absinthe. That's enough to fill 144 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
1912 — Absinthe is banned in America.

Isaac Hayes R.I.P.

A pecha-kucha presentation about signs

Japan wins first gold medal in Beijing!

Japan's Masato Uchishiba has won his second straight Olympic gold medal, pinning France's Benjamin Darbelet just seconds into their final match in the men's 66-kilogram division and bringing Japan its first judo gold of the Beijing Games.

Uchishiba exploded into Darbelet and threw him to the ground shortly after the bout began Sunday. Darbelet managed to twist enough to keep the fall from ending the match, but Uchishiba then grabbed an armlock and Darbelet had to concede.

Darbelet was still grimacing in pain as Uchishiba bowed in victory.

Taking the bronzes were Cuba's Yordanis Arencibia, who defeated Russia's Alim Gadanov on points, and North Korea's Pak Chol Min, who outscored Mirali Sharipov of Uzbekistan with a waza ari.

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White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6th and 9th, 1945, two atomic bombs vaporized 210,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those who survived are called "hibakusha"--people exposed to the bomb--and there are an estimated 200,000 living today. Today, with the threat of nuclear weapons of mass destruction frighteningly real- the world's arsenal capable of repeating the destruction at Hiroshima 400,000 times over, Oscar® award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki revisits the bombings and shares the stories of the only people to have survived a nuclear attack.

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Das Reichsorchester

In 2007 the Berlin Philharmonic celebrates its 125th anniversary. It has chosen to mark this anniversary year by highlighting a previously unknown chapter in its history -- the years from 1933 to 1945. Financed by the German Reich and answerable directly to the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Berlin Philharmonic was not only Germany's flagship orchestra it also became an ambassador for the National Socialist regime, particularly on foreign tours. In this new documentary by Enrique Sánchez Lansch (RHYTHM IS IT!) the spotlight is on the orchestra itself -- the musicians, the people, their individual destinies. Although its members were much less exposed than their principal conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, they, like him, moved in circles close to the powers that bestowed privilege and thereby encouraged people to shirk individual responsibility. The unique and microcosmic world of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra proves a fascinating subject for examination. First-hand accounts of life in and around the orchestra, delivered by contemporary witnesses still alive today, as well as a wealth of previously unevaluated archive material, provide a highly authentic glimpse into the period under the swastika. The film brings to life, in a manner as fascinating as it is sensitive, this chapter in the history of Germany and its capital Berlin, and explores the question: How does one tread the fine line between independence and individual responsibility?

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is researching the nextgen social media networks. Should they be ad-driven? Should they be subscription-driven? Maybe they should be co-ops?

An Old Rocker Gets Digital

Peter Gabriel, a founder of the rock group Genesis, is today an investor in Internet music delivery systems.

“In the early days, we’d go skiing together and Peter would have an idea every 30 seconds,” says the British entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group includes more than 200 companies. “We’d be sitting on the lift with me scribbling madly in my notebook, trying to get everything down. He’s worse than me.”

“I don’t believe in the death of the major record companies,” Mr. Gabriel says. “But as an artist, I’d love to see them reinvented as service companies.”

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Ai Fukuhara

Japan marks anniversary of Nagasaki atomic bombing

More than 5,000 people bowed their heads Saturday in the Peace Park in Nagasaki to mark the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japanese city.

At the commemorative ceremony, Magasak Mayor Tomihisa Taue read the Peace Declaration, calling on world's nuclear powers to completely abandon nuclear weapons.

The United States and Russia "must take the lead in striving to abolish nuclear weapons," as the two countries possess 95 percent of the world's nuclear warheads," said Taue, adding that other nuclear powers should also "fulfill their responsibility to reduce nuclear arms with sincerity."

"As a nation that has experienced nuclear devastation, Japan has a mission and a duty to take a leadership role in the elimination of nuclear weapons," he said.

In his speech at the ceremony, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who arrived here early Saturday morning after attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on Friday, reaffirmed Japan's three principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on its soil.

On August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima suffered the world's first atomic bombing. The attack, which occurred at 11:02 a.m., killed an estimated 74,000 people by the end of 1945, and many more later from radiation sickness.

Statistics showed that there were a total of 243,692 atomic-bomb survivors living in and outside of Japan by March 31 this year.

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Jeff Koons "Puppy Vase"

Puppy Vase, 1998
White glazed porcelain vase
17-1/2 x 17-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches
(44.5 x 44.5 x 26.7 cm)
Signed and numbered by the artist
Edition of 3000

This porcelain edition vase references the artist's original large Puppy (1992) sculpture, which included over seventeen thousand live flowers and was exhibited in Germany, Australia, Bilbao and Rockefeller Center. Known for blending Pop and Conceptual art with craft-making, Koons's Puppy Vase exemplifies the artist's unique iconography. The vase, as described by the artist, is "a symbol of love, warmth, and happiness."

$7,500.00

Now available for sale at www.gagosian.com.

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My friend is texting the Crown Prince of Denmark during the Olympic opening ceremony!

We were discussing how much the cost of the ceremony would amount to and he decided to text the Crown Prince, who was present at the stadium. Just as the TV zoomed in on him he received and/or answered the text. Priceless.

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