I coundn’t find much information on Italian disco group La Bionda, except for that the musical duo was formed by brothers Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda and they make me smile. La Bionda, are considered among the inventors of the disco Italiana.
Wonderful short documentary about Barbara Hulanicki, founder of the legendary London department store, Biba.
In its 1970s heyday, the legendary Biba fashion emporium saw more than 100,000 customers a week parade through its fabulous art deco premises on London’s ?ɬ
Alongside my Dangerous Minds colleagues, I had the pleasure of attending last spring’s Kenneth Anger lecture at L.A.‘s Hammer museum. Although he was reluctant to take questions from the audience, the night certainly found Ken in good spirits and receptive company. Subjects touched upon? Well, everything from Aleister Crowley, to, why not, Agnes. B. KA was there per the request of artist Francesca Gabbiani, who, at the time, was curating her sorcery-themed Hammer exhibit, Houseguest.
NewTeeVee is one of the best “future of media” blogs out there. The reporters at NewTeeVee are all super smart and authoritatively know their space COLD. It’s one of my daily info stops and has been for some time.
Here’s a real showstopper of a post about the Pirate Bay, written by Janko Roettgers:
Much has been written in recent weeks about the future of The Pirate Bay, as well as about BitTorrent piracy in general. The sale of the site spooked some, while others are hoping to transform the new Pirate Bay into a legitimate, multimillion-dollar business. One aspect that has been largely overlooked is that the current Pirate Bay, due to the nature of P2P, is actually a relatively small and cost-efficient operation. The site?
Ian Johnson designed this jaw-dropping series of skateboards for Western Edition. The skateboards depict the 1959 lineup of the Miles Davis Quintet, the group who played on the classic album “Kind of Blue.”
Update: Dangerous Minds reader Greg says, “Hi, just thought I’d let you know that this product and description are a bit wrong: The group that played with Miles Davis on the 1959 album ‘Kind of Blue’ was a sextet. You have missed out Cannonball Adderley. Also, on one of the tracks (Freddie Freeloader) Wynton Kelly played piano not Bill Evans. Just thought you’d like to know, Greg”
(via Nerdcore)
“Powers of Ten” is a 1977 film made by the Charles and Ray Eames about scale in the universe. “A Film Dealing With the Relative Size of Things in the Universe… And the Effect of Adding Another Zero” is how they described it. The music was composed by Elmer Bernstein and the narration is by Philip Morrison. It was made for IBM and has been parodied on “The Simpsons” several times.
Powers of 10 official website
Thank you Mister Mark Jordan of London. England!
Dutch artist Desiree Palman has done some interesting work with various camouflage painting techniques that see her blend into her environment in the finished product.
Her work reminds me of the distinctive artform of iconic supermodel Veruschka:
Camouflage Photography by Desiree Halman
Jon Rawlinson, producer, cameraman and editor based in Vancouver, Canada, shot this beautiful piece of video at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. Jon says:
The main tank called the “Kuroshio Sea” holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.
Japanese fangirl interviews Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Tokyomango says:
A popular variety TV show called Sanma no Karakuri TV had a contest where 10,000 Japanese Harry Potter fans competed for a chance to fly to the UK, visit the set of the HP movies, and interview Ron and Harry. The winner was a high school girl named Kana Matsuda. Here’s a hilarious clip of her interviewing Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley. Watch it! It has subtitles. I’m personally a bigger fan of Ron than Harry, but if you want to watch the video of her interviewing Daniel Radcliffe, it’s here.
Quirky French film director Michel Gondry was taking commissions for $20 portraits but apparently the response was so great that he has put a temporary hold on taking new orders. As soon as I read this on Gothamist, I immediately went to his website, made my order and emailed him the above photo. That was in April and last Friday our portrait arrived. We love it! Best $20 I have ever spent!
(I think from the way he drew me, he could tell I was stoned, what do you think?)
Michel Gondry’s Flickr archive of his $20 portraits:
Highsnobiety wrote a fascinating article on Viktor and Rolf’s enormous dollhouse exhibit dedicated to the spectacular designs of Paris catwalk shows. Highsnobiety says:
To write about this has been on my agenda too long. Just saw the images on my machine again and had to post this now. Beginning of this year we went to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht to visit the biggest overview exhibition of Viktor and Rolf ever shown in Holland. In retrospective the highlights of 15 years of their work was presented. The influence of this duo has been huge and we?
Konformist editor Robert Sterling turned me on to the writing of Joe Bageant in early 2005. I spent an entire snowed-in weekend in Northern, NJ reading the various essays on his blog, laughing my ass off and nodding my head in total agreement. Writing about working class issues from more or less a Marxist bent—a huge plus in my book—and with wonderful wit and trenchant analysis, has gained Joe Baegent quite a following. You’d have to have seen life from many different angles and traveled a lot to have such a wise perspective on things. The guy is just brilliant, a national treasure. He’s also the author of a book, “Deer Hunting with Jesus.”
This weekend I read Joe’s article, “Look Out, Are You About to Join the White Underclass?” on the always great Alternet blog and I was thrilled that someone said this out loud:
More than 45 percent of U.S. single mothers are poor, compared five percent in Sweden and Finland, where no stigma is attached and substantial public resources are applied to child health and development. But research done in Europe shows that even if U.S. women had a zero rate of single motherhood, poverty among American women would still be higher than in European and other socially advanced nations.
Armchair sociologist that I am, I have a theory about this: Millions of American women are in poverty because they are paid poverty wages. I could be wrong, I often am, but there seems to be a connection between poverty and money. I started developing this theory when I was in a Melbourne, Australia hotel and learned from a single mother hotel housekeeper there that she made $19 an hour, had government assisted childcare and was going to college at night toward becoming a medical technician. Hmmm. Over here we tell single mothers, “Get a six dollar an hour job or get married bitch! Workfare, baby, workfare.”
I grew up in a union family in West Virginia back when the unions really meant something in the lives of the members’ families. We had great health care and I was able to have special glasses and contact lenses to correct my astigmatism. My sister got low cost braces for her teeth. That hardly happens anymore for American families.
The lives of working people in his country have become so degraded that there is a real anger rising in the American people. People are sick of being shit on by the elites. Not everyone who is poor is so dumb that they vote a straight Republican party ticket, wave tea bags around and think Sarah Palin is terrific. A lot has changed in the past decade or so with almost everyone having access to the Internet and being able to read political views outside of what they’d hear about in their local church or get on Fox News. People are educating themselves. They’re starting to figure out why they are being ground down by life —and by whom—and they’re getting really pissed off. It’s about time.
“Look Out, Are You About to Join the White Underclass?” by Joe Bageant
Joe Bageant website
Meet Marit Fujiwara, a textile design graduate of the Chelsea College of Art and Design. Marit’s work is simply stunning. In the past few years - especially with the economy tanking - I haven’t given fashion much thought (I’m a former Los Angeles based stylist). But her work is so inspired and creative that I really wanted to share it with you. Marit says:
To create a sculptural fabric, I am experimenting with the printing technique of marbling,in combination with embroidery,bonding and pleating. Applying these fabrics into fashion creates unusual and intricate fashion garments.
