There was a need to create and build a different library that would be capable of containing the more than ten thousand artbooks that belong to ArtDaily.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
The First Art Newspaper on the Net
There was a need to create and build a different library that would be capable of containing the more than ten thousand artbooks that belong to ArtDaily.
Artist's heavenly painting of Jolie draws notice
This photo provided by Chelsea Galleria shows a painting "Blessed Art Thou," by North Carolina artist Kate Kretz that features actress Angelina Jolie and her three children hovering in the heavens above a Wal-Mart. Kretz says she's intrigued by the public fascination with celebrities. The painting will be shown at Art Miami, an arts show. (AP Photo/Chelsea Galleria, Kate Kretz)
Brits in a Snit
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A painting featured at an art exhibition in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, paints the British royal family in a negative light. The painting has angered royal supporters for its portrayal of the Prince of Wales as a Nazi and the late Princess Diana as Jesus Christ, the Sun reported. "This seems to be a pathetic and tasteless attempt at art by a man with no talent," said David Ruffley, a member of the British Parliament. "People on the continent are just jealous of our royal family and the queen being a beacon of decency for the Western world."
"It is demeaning of the royal family. Some of the images are just awful," said Arthur Edwards, a photographer for the newspaper. Gallery the 3rd owner Maarten de Vlieger support the painting's artistic merit and suggested it might go on display in Britain.
Thunderbird Totem Poles and American Indian Legends
The Thunderbird's name comes from that common supposition that the beating of its enormous wings causes thunder and stirs the wind. The Lakota name for the Thunderbird is "Wakinyan," a word formed from "kinyan," meaning "winged," and "wakan," "sacred." The Kwakiutl called him "Jojo," and the Nootka called him "Kw-Uhnx-Wa." The Ojibwa word for a thunderbird that is closely associated with thunder is "animikii", while large thunderous birds are "binesi." It is described as being two canoe-lengths from wingtip to wingtip, and it creates storms as it flies. Clouds are pulled together by its wingbeats, the sound of thunder is its wings clapping, sheet lightning is the light flashing from its eyes when it blinks, and individual lightning bolts are glowing snakes that it carries with it. In masks, it is depicted as many-colored, with two curling horns, and sometimes with teeth within its beak. (Image is by John Jerney -john@jerney.com)
Rock Climbing in Patagonia
"With climbing you let your body flow, you feel gravity, you break all your patterns and you feel your body and mind. This dancing sensation in the vertical emptiness demands a special mental involvement and engagement"(Of course, I wouldn't know anything about all this, but it's exciting.)
Snowman Draws Abominable Horde
Snowzilla may be a smash hit with shutterbugs, but some neighbors of the two-story-high snowman in Anchorage say they're fed up with the hordes of gawkers clogging their street. Billy Powers supervised construction of the original Snowzilla last year. At 22 feet, his new Snowzilla is 6 feet taller.
The Comings and Goings of New Concepts
General Motors envisions the Chevrolet Volt as a competitively priced, high-volume model.
General Motors' Hy-Wire concept car, a hydrogen-fueled, electricty-producing car that the company demonstrated in February. It has a high grille and no hood because it has no conventional engine up front.
Toyota’s FT-HS “parallel hybrid” concept uses a V-6 gasoline engine and a battery-powered electric motor.
Ford’s Airstream uses a hydrogen fuel cell to power its electric motor. It awaits a hydrogen fuel distribution system.
The Shimmering Beauty of the Walt Disney Concert Hall
LANDMARK: Walt Disney Concert Hall, shown on opening night, Oct. 23, 2003, was built on land provided by Los Angeles County. The county contributes $10 million a year toward its operating costs.(Al Seib / LAT)
Franklin Expedition of 1845
In the 1800's many explorers sought a water passage from Europe to Asia around the islands of northern Canada and through the Arctic Sea. Artist Thomas Smith captured the tragedy of one of the more famous attempts, the Franklin expedition of 1845, where all hands were lost to the ice.(Vancouver Maritime Museum)
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Celine Dion is Creating Her Own Legend
You could fit the full list of cities for this Canadian's 2006 North American tour on a crop top. It encompassed precisely one: Las Vegas. But with 147 performances at Caesar's Palace, and an average ticket of $135.33 helping generate $78.1 million in tickets, who needs to travel? Dion ranked number seven on the list of revenue producers for 2006. Of course, I don't know how she does it. She performs on a stage the size of a football field and even though there is a large supporting cast, she's on stage just about every minute of each performance.
The curtain is coming down on Celine Dion's Las Vegas show — but don't worry, there is still plenty of time to get tickets.Celine Dion's concert extravaganza at Caesars Palace will close on Dec. 15 after a nearly five-year run. Producers say nearly 2.5 million people have seen Dion's show since it opened in the Colosseum, a $95-million theater built and designed for the production. The final year of the show will include new costumes and new numbers. In late January, "A New Day" will be filmed for a TV special and DVD, producers said.
Streisand: The Legend Continues
Barbra Streisand may not have been the hardest worker in show business last year but she doesn't have to. She was the sixth highest revenue producer in 2006. Thanks to an average ticket price of $298.36, with just 20 concerts last year she took in $92.5 million, just shy of $5 million per show — not bad for a night's work.
For more wonderful images like these click on the link below.
He's Been Called "Geraldo of Arabia"
In November of 1988, the Geraldo daytime talk show achieved its highest ratings ever in over thirteen million homes. Young Hate Mongers featured John Metzger of the Aryan Youth Movement, and Robert Heick of the National Front (both white), Roy Innis of the Congress of Racial Equality (black), rabbi A. Bruce Goldman (Jewish), and a New Jersey couple who claimed they'd been attacked and terrorized by skinheads. Sitting in the audience was an army of neo-Nazi skinheads representing National Resistance. 
Throughout the program, young white supremacists were taunted and goaded, being called "a bunch of young clowns." Rivera warned them not to push him too hard. Calling his guests "hate mongers," and using cockroach metaphors was Rivera's rhetorical strategy, and it certainly resulted in a brawl. Geraldo stood back and watched the violence ensue, until a chair flew across the room and collided with his face. Geraldo stepped into the ring and fought back well, throwing some terrific punches.
This is what Geraldo looked like after the incident described above, which prompted Joan Rivers to say something like: Geraldo, the next time you're looking for a "nose job," see a professional.
Museum Unveils Thomas Eakins' "The Gross Clinic"
Thomas Eakins' masterpiece, "The Gross Clinic," which almost left the city until an intense fundraising drive raised about $30 million to keep it, went on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday. The iconic 1875 painting will remain at the museum until early spring, when it moves across the city to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation's oldest arts institution. The two institutions will share equally in its ownership.
Thomas Jefferson University announced Nov. 11 the planned sale of the painting for $68 million to a partnership of Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The university set a Dec. 26 deadline for a counteroffer.
About half that sum has been raised, and the fundraising continues, officials said. Bank loans will make up the difference.
Shakespeare Meets Sondheim
Sondheim, composer of such landmark musicals as "Sweeney Todd," "Follies" and "Company," will share the revival's music credit with Michael Starobin, best known in the theater as an orchestrator. Starobin has done the orchestrations for more than a dozen Broadway shows, including Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park With George." "King Lear," which will be directed by James Lapine, opens March 7 at the Public. Sondheim and Lapine are pictured above.
Rose Bowl Shower
USC players celebrate by dousing USC coach Pete Carroll at the end of the Rose Bowl game.(Lori Shepler / LAT)
Friday, January 05, 2007
Jack London and Redondo Beach Honor A South Bay Legend
In 1907, legendary author Jack London traveled to Hawaii and gazed out into the ocean to marvel at what would one day become a common sight in Redondo Beach. In an article published in the Ladies Home Journal that year he explained the encounter with the enchanting description that follows: 
“Where but the moment before was only the wide desolation and invincible roar, is now a man, erect, full statured, not struggling frantically in that wild movement, not buried and crushed and buffeted by those mighty monsters, but standing above them all, calm and superb, poised on the giddy summit, his feet buried in the churning foam, the salt smoke rising to his knees, and all the rest of him in the free air and flashing sunlight, and he is flying through the air, flying forward, flying fast as the surge on which he stands. He is a Mercury - a brown Mercury. His heels are winged, and in them is the swiftness of the sea,” wrote London.The man, the “brown Mercury,” London was writing about was Redondo Beach legend George Freeth.
This year marks the centennial anniversary of the sport of surfing brought to the area by Freeth, and the Redondo Beach City Council is looking to commemorate the city's place in this legacy by renaming a street “George Freeth Way.” At its first meeting of the year on Tuesday, the council unanimously agreed to pursue the idea, but referred the project to staff to flesh out the specifics of what manner and where it would be located.
“He made his home in Redondo Beach and he made his name in Redondo Beach,” said Arthur Verge, an El Camino Community College professor and Freeth biographer. “He (surfed) in Venice, and he did it in Santa Monica, but his home was Redondo.”
Above we see the bust of George Freeth which is on display at the Redondo Beach Pier.
Josephine Baker Exhibit Shines With Stardust
The History of Jazz Galleries at The Sheldon Art Galleries will be the setting for a major exhibition celebrating the life and career of Josephine Baker from April 28 to August 26, 2006. An opening reception free to the public will be held Friday, April 28 from 5 – 7 p.m.Through vintage photographs, posters, drawings, prints, paintings and ephemera, the exhibition Josephine Baker: Image and Icon will trace the entertainer's important and innovative contributions to the Jazz Age. Mounted in the spring of 2006 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Baker's birth, the exhibition will be drawn from a variety of important public and private collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D. C., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, the Davis Museum at Wellesley University and others. It will trace the development of her image, first as the exotic "other" in a Paris infatuated by all things African, then as glamorous cabaret star who sustained a long career well into her late 60s.
The exhibition will contain sections on Josephine Baker's early years with Sissle and Blake and other African-American productions, her years as a star in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, and her later participation in the French resistance during World War II and her important contributions to the civil rights movement in America. Listening and video stations will highlight her music, dance and film contributions. Tandem exhibitions of painting, sculpture, decorative arts, architecture and photography from the 1920s and 30s in the Bellwether Gallery, the Gallery of Photography and the Bernoudy Gallery of Architecture will provide a visual arts context that fueled the Jazz Age and the remarkable life and career of Josephine Baker. In conjunction with the exhibition, The Sheldon will present concerts of early jazz and French cabaret and theatrical productions about Josephine in the adjoining Sheldon Concert Hall.
For more information click Link below.
The Getty will be Doing an Exhibition of Jean-Baptiste Oudry's Painted Menagerie
The Getty's May 1 through Sept. 2 exhibition of Jean-Baptiste Oudry's Painted Menagerie," will include "Rhinoceros" and "Lion" (out of circulation for 150 years and being restored by the Getty), and nine other Oudry animal paintings, among them an antelope, leopards and exotic fowl, as well as more than 20 animal drawings.
For more information click Link below.
Rubik's Cube is Making a Comeback
The Magic Cube was invented in 1974 by Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture with an interest in geometry and the study of three-dimensional forms.Over one hundred million Cubes were sold in the period from 1980 to 1982. It won the BATR Toy of the Year award in 1980 and again in 1981. Many similar puzzles were released shortly after the Rubik's Cube, both from Rubik himself and from other sources, including the Rubik's Revenge, a 4×4×4 version of the Rubik's Cube. There are also 2×2×2 and 5×5×5 Cubes (known as the Pocket Cube and the Rubik's Professor, respectively) and puzzles in other shapes, such as the Pyraminx, a tetrahedron.
In May 2005, the Greek Panagiotis Verdes constructed a 6×6×6 Rubik's Cube. and on May 23 2006, Frank Morris, a world champion Rubik's Cube solver, tested this version. He had previously solved the 3×3×3 in 15 seconds, the 4×4×4 in 1 minute and 10 seconds, and the 5×5×5 in 2 minutes. The 6×6×6 took him 5 minutes and 37 seconds to solve. Morris himself thanked the inventor for making it and purportedly stated that the bigger the Cube is, the greater the pleasure. In July 2006, Mr. Verdes successfully constructed the 7x7x7 cube, and on October 27 2006, a video of Frank Morris testing the cube was released. Videos of these tests can be viewed at: http://www.olympicube.com.
In 1981, Patrick Bossert, a twelve-year-old schoolboy from England, published his own solution in a book called You Can Do the Cube. The book sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide in seventeen editions and became the number one book on both The Times and the New York Times bestseller lists for that year.
At the height of the puzzle's popularity, separate sheets of colored stickers were sold so that frustrated or impatient Cube owners could restore their puzzle to its original appearance.
It has been suggested that the international appeal and export achievement of the Cube became one of the contributing factors in the reform and liberalization of the Hungarian economy between 1981 and 1985, which finally led to the move from communism to capitalism. Financially, the Cube was so successful that Rubik became the first self-made elite in a communist country.
The Last Leading Nazi Still Believed to Be On the Loose
SS Hauptsturmführer Alois Brunner - the last leading Nazi still believed to be on the loose and Eichmann's second in command - was a key figure in the planning and execution of the Final Solution, the murder of 6 million Jews during World War II. He actively participated in the mass murder and was often sent by Eichmann as a trouble shooter to areas such as France to expedite the killings.Alois Brunner bears direct responsibility for the deportation to Nazi death camps of 128,500 Jewish men, women and children from Austria, Greece, France, and Slovakia.
The arrest and conviction of Alois Brunner remains the top priority of leading Nazi hunters and war investigators but Brunner has successfully eluded justice. During his many years hiding out reportedly in an apartment on Haddad Street in the Syrian capital of Damascus, he openly assisted the Syrians in establishing their own secret police.
The Syrian authorities have covered and continue to cover Alois Brunner and he may never pay for his crimes. Germany, Austria, Slovakia, France and Poland currently seek his extradition, but the Syrians have been totally uncooperative in response to all these requests.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
La Barqueta Bridge in Seville, Spain
One of the symbols of the International Exhibition of 1992 in Seville, Barqueta constitutes an original design for a bowstring steel bridge, including a flying central arch rising from the vertex of two lateral triangular frames. The 168 meters span over the Guadalquivir river rests in four vertical supports spaced 30 meters in the transverse direction.
The Abominable Snowman -- Will It Always Remain a Mystery ??
The Yeti, sometimes referred to as the Abominable Snowman, is a humanoid cryptid associated with the Himalaya. The names Yeti or Meh-Teh are commonly used by people indigenous to the Himalaya, and are part of their history and mythology.Most mainstream scientists, explorers and writers with experience of the area, consider current evidence of the Yeti's existence to be weak and better explained as hoax, legend, or misidentification of known species. Nevertheless, the Yeti remains one of the most famous creatures of cryptozoology.
The Origin of the "Abominable Snowman"
The appellation "Abominable Snowman" did not come into existence until 1921, in that year Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury lead the Royal Geographical Society's "Everest Reconnaissance Expedition" from which he authored "Mount Everest The Reconnaissance, 1921" in his book he wrote, amongst the details of the expedition, of an account, whilst crossing the "Lhakpa-la" at 21,000 feet where, he later wrote, he found footprints in the snow. Howard-Bury stated that these tracks "were probably caused by a large 'loping' grey wolf, which in the soft snow formed double tracks rather like a those of a barefooted man". However Howard-Bury also stated that "our coolies at once volunteered that the tracks must be that of "The Wild Man of the Snows", to which they gave the name "metoh-kangmi". "Metoh" translates as "man bear" and "Kang-mi" translates as "snowman."
Confusion exists between Howard-Bury's use of "metoh-kangmi", the words his Boatia Sherpa's had used and recited in his book and the account provided in H.W. Tilman's book "Mount Everest, 1938" where Tilman had used the words "metch" (it has been suggested that "metch" does not exist in Tibetan and "kangmi" when relating the details of and the eventual creation of the term "Abominable Snowman". Further weight is added to the notion that "metch" is a misnomer, is provided by Prof. David Snellgrove from London School of Oriental Studies and a recognised authority on the Tibetan language (1956), dismissed the word "metch" stating that it was impossible to conjoin the consonants "t c h" in Tibetan." Documentation does seem to suggest that there are very few examples of the term "metch-kangmi", the term seems to stem from just the one source in 1921. It has been suggested that "metch" is a misspelling of "metoh".
The involvement of Mr. Henry Newman, who contributed for many years to "The Statesman" in Calcutta using the pen-name "Kim," spoke with the porters of the "Everest Reconnaisance experdition" on return to Darjeeling, and for whatever reason Newman either by artistic license or a mistranslation of "Metoh" as "filthy" or "dirty", which as has been demonstrated it does not mean, created the term "Abominable". Some credence to the suggestion that Newman's artistic predilection played a role is the statement made by H.W. Tilman in his book, that "As he (Newman) wrote long after in a letter to The Times: The whole story seemed such a joyous creation I sent it to one or two newpapers'"
"Whatever effect Mr. Newman intended, from 1921 onwards the Yeti-or whatever various native populations choose to call it- became saddled with the description "Abominable Snowman," an appellation which can only appeal to the music-hall mind than to mammalogists, a fact which has seriously handicapped earnest seekers of the truth."
"It cannot be denied however that Mr. Newman put the Yeti "on the map". During the twenties and thirties sightings of both of prints and of the animal itself occurred right across the Himalaya from the Burmese frontier to the Karakoram, not all of them by credulous witnesses."
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Here's How to Enhance Your Day When You Visit the South Bay
Pancho's is famous for its unique and beautiful atmosphere with the warmth and hospitality of an elegant hacienda where Gourmet Mexican dishes are prepared fresh daily and entertainment is offered in the Cantina. A visit to Pancho's is an unforgettable dining experience. My favorite is the Pollo Asado, a boneless breast of chicken marinated with achiote, garlic and special Mexican herbs. Broiled to perfection Yucatan-style and served with an enchilada, Mexican-style rice and beans, and complemented with guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, and flour tortillas. It's brought to your table in a hot skillet and it's enough food to last you a week. In my opinion, it's to die for. Ask for a table downstairs so that you can enjoy the fountain and the spectacular lush garden that has Fiddle Leaf Figs growing twenty feet tall. Pancho's was voted Best Mexican Restaurant in the South Bay and they have the best Margaritas too. For a complete listing of their menu items click on the link below.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Flying High with the Red Baron
In this World War I film the famous German ace Manfred von Richthofen struggles with enemy aces in excellent aerial sequences. Actors: John Phillip Law, Don Stroud. Directed by Roger Corman (1971).
"A Group of Architectural Works" by Ruth Asawa
"A Group of Architectural Works" 1955-1965,
copper and brass wire,
dimensions variable,
collection of the artist
Like the Alps, But in Iowa
NEW HEIGHTS: Tom Robertson scales an icy silo in Cedar Falls. Said another climber: “You’ve got to be creative when you live in vertically challenged areas.”Cedar Falls, Iowa — SURROUNDED by cornfields that stretch to the horizon, in a place where molehills pass for mesas, avid outdoorsman Don Briggs has long dreamed of climbing a mountain. So he decided to build one.
Briggs spends most winter nights hosing down a quartet of grain silos on a friend's farm — and relies on the Corn Belt's frigid temperatures to transform the water into frozen walls of ice that tower nearly 70 feet straight up. By the time he's done, the ice encasing the outside of the silos is 4 feet thick in spots — and ready for the onslaught of ice climbers drawn to this strange marriage of farming and extreme sports.
"The word 'lunatic' was bandied about quite a bit. Even my wife thought I was insane when I first told her I wanted to do this," said Briggs, 57, a physical education instructor at the University of Northern Iowa. "To me, it made perfect sense. The highest point in Iowa is going to be on top of a silo."
Photos by Matthew Putney
New Over Old
The Hearst Corporation used their 1920's International Magazine Building as the base for their Norman Foster Tower in New York City.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)