Boyd Baker House, a 50’s Modern Home for Rent

The Robin Boyd Baker House has been called one of the most important post war Australian residential buildings by Melbourne University’s Professor of Architecture, Phillip Goad. Often seen as the leader of the International Modern Movement in Australia, Boyd was based in Victoria in the 1950’s, he led a highly creative and prolific life as an architect, teacher and writer.

Boyd Baker and Dower House, Victoria, Australia, Starting from $1,500 AUD per a week, designed by Robin Boyd.

Reservations: http://www.boydbakerhouse.com.au/

Design Art London

An international fair dedicated to modern and contemporary design.

DesignArt London, the City’s premier design art fair, will return this year for its 2008 edition from October 15 to 19, with a panoramic offering of the classics of 20th century design to the most avant-garde of contemporary creations

This year, DesignArt London, is proud to count within its ranks, some 40 international exhibitors, doubling last year’s participation. This innovative and eclectic new edition will serve as an elegant showcase for some of the world’s most reputable and sought-after galleries of design and fine arts, in a strikingly beautiful setting bringing together the talents of decorators like India Mahdavi, Maria Pergay, and Jean de Piépape.

A rendez-vous not to be missed in London, at the heart of one of the most dynamic art centers of the world, at a time when the city will be the hub for the best of design and contemporary art, for the collective pleasure of the most discerning art connoisseurs.

A highly anticipated groundbreaking 2nd edition DesignArt London’s second edition will once again overlap with Frieze Art Fair and London’s Contemporary Art Week, emphasizing by that choice, the symbiotic relationship between design and contemporary art.

This year, DesignArt London expects 30,000 visitors, twice as many as last year. For this reason, DesignArt London has selected a larger venue in the center of London's fashionable Berkeley Square, behind the chic area of Bond St., down the street from Stella McCartney's boutique and a short hop from Bentley Motors’ outpost and the legendary Annabel's Club.

Art and design collectors will not miss, in the selection of unique vintage classics by Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, and the contemporary sculptural creations of today’s superstars like Marc Newson and Zaha Hadid, the carefully curated theme of this year’s edition: the vanishing line between industrial design and artistic creation.

While DesignArt London’s international participants will dazzle you with their diversity, each shares the same kindred spirit in their passion for design creation and their dedication to the highest quality.

The vocation of DesignArt London’s organizers, Patrick Perrin, Stéphane Custot and their dedicated team at SOC, is to breath life into their concept of a 21st century “Design Salon” akin to an “ideal museum” where long-established dealers can display their wares alongside those of a younger generation of promising talents.

A feast for the eyes!

Beijing: CCTV Tower

See picture of new CCTV building in Beijing. Sublime. Almost completed.

Apologies for the limited number of posts of late. I am on a three week grand global tour - Beijing, Paris, London, Southern Spain, and Tokyo. Ideas for future posts are percolating.

Cheap Thrills - Another DiddyWah Muxtape

Visit for tunes http://www.cheapthrills.muxtape.com/

Enjoy!!!

The 9 Variables – Sun Tzu

A general should know the importance of "The Variables" in order to win the battle:

(1) An inaccessible area is not an ideal place to set up camp.
(2) Route to neighboring country from the camp must be easily accessible.
(3) Avoid remote terrain.
(4) Beware of area surrounded by mountains in case of sudden attack.
(5) If surrounded, employ various tactics to fight.
(6) In a hopeless situation, fight with all strength.
(7) Change route to confuse enemy.
(8) Ignore small skirmishes but concentrate on gathering all the army at the main battleground.
(9) Refrain from attacking minor places, but advance to the major strategic center in order to gain a speedy victory.

Diddy Wah's pre-soul rhythm blues muxtape

Diddy Wah's Muxtape

mp3: Frank Frost - My Back Scratcher
mp3: Big Joe Turner - Shake Rattle And Roll
mp3: Slim Harpo - Shake Your Hips
mp3: Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
mp3: Gary Spider Webb - Drum City Part 1 & 2
mp3: The Sonics - Walking The Dog
mp3: Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business
mp3: Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - Shout, Sister, Shout
mp3: Arthur Alexander - Black Night
mp3: Bobby Bland - St. James Infirmary
mp3: Benny Spellman - Fortune Teller
mp3: Rene Touzet - El Loco Cha Cha

Courtesy of Diddy Wah’s ever jiving blog - http://diddywah.blogspot.com/

Heaven Is An Amusement Park That Never Closes

“Heaven is a place,” sang the Talking Heads, “where nothing ever happens.” Not so in this version of the Afterlife. This is what Heaven might have looked like in the Divina Commedia had Dante not been a medieval Italian intellectual, but a contemporary Californian comic artist, like Malachi Ward, who drew this map. In Ward’s vision, Heaven is a place very similar to your local amusement park. Only better: it never closes, you don’t ever have to leave!

Beyond the Pearly Gates (emblazoned with the slogan You Did It!) is a Nu-Body Machine (1), instantly providing everybody with the body they’ve been trying to shape into while still alive. Catholics are welcome to Heaven, but are confined to a small section next to the entrance (2) where they can indulge their semi-idolatrous tendencies at the Throne of Mary (3). Others can try their hand (and their wings) at Angel Boot Camp (4), which is “great for Pentecostals and Charismatics.”

Those less inclined towards spiritual war could go for the snack bar (5), the marital coitus castle (6), the go carts (7), the dinosaur petting zoo (8) or Joab’s candy shop (9). Joab, a nephew of King David and eventually killed at his behest, was mainly known for his martial exploits, not for his sweet tooth.

Evil is not completely out of view in this Heaven: in fact, the Damned Viewer (10) allows you to visually check up on “Adolf Hitler, your philandering boss, the smug atheist next door and all the vile people you hate” get their comeuppance in the ‘other’, decidedly less amusing place. Maybe in Hell there’s a similar viewer, showing the Throne of God and Jesus (11) and the place where people can line up to sit, as if he were a giant Santa, on God’s lap.

And there’s more. Go to Family Land to chew the fat with pre-deceased loved ones (but wouldn’t you eventually bump into them anyway elsewhere in the park?). Visit the Arena of Answers, where the Illuminatron will tell you who really shot JFK, RFK and MLK. Go to Memory Land to relive your own finest moments or, if your existence was less than extraordinary, to Fantasy Land to relive somebody else’s. In the Hall of Heroes, visit with Abraham Lincoln, Moses and Princess Diana (among others). Visit America Land, where it’s always Memorial or Veterans’ Day.

Many thanks to the ever wonderful http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/. Visit website to see an enlarged and detailed map.

Moso Pendant Lamp

The Moso pendant lamp creates an inviting warm glow with its bamboo veneer shade panels. This innovative design combines sustainable materials with an energy-efficient light source. The shade panels pop into a bamboo frame without the use of fasteners or glue. This permits the lamp to be shipped flat to minimize packaging. The Moso pendants are expertly crafted in the US. The bamboo is produced by Smith & Fong Plyboo® from sustainably managed bamboo forests in China.

Schmitt Design

Brian Schmitt also produces a line of lovely mobiles crafted from cherry veneers -Adrift Mobiles

Finnish Summer Houses

Nobody appreciates the summer more than Scandinavians. After seven months of winter they savor the brief spell of long days and temperate climates like a precious resource. Many residents—particularly those from Finland—choose to spend this period communing with nature, often in private summer homes. Finnish architects are no different. Their secondary homes are used as blank slates where they can construct their personalized visions and experiment with more daring design concepts.

Documenting these distinctive houses was the task of Jari and Sirkkaliisa Jetsonen, an artist and architect, respectively. Their book, "Finnish Summer Houses", details them, employing original artist sketches and archival photographs, along with contemporary shots. The 20 villas, cottages and cabins selected highlight summer houses dating from 1895 to the present. Featured homes are the products of architects like Alvar Aalto (pictured above on book cover), Juhani Pallasmaa and Bertel Saarnio (pictured at right). Common design themes include a focus on recreational comfort and an intimate incorporation of natural surroundings. Many also employ uniquely Finnish cultural features, like the inclusion of traditional saunas.

A particularly good read for the coming months, "Finnish Summer Houses" will appeal to fans of Scandinavian design and rustic architecture in general. It's available from Princeton Architectural Press and Amazon.

by Doug Black, 5 June 2008

http://www.coolhunting.com/

AntiVj

AntiVJ is a visual label from crustea on Vimeo.

Berlin Sessions @ Future Classic - 21 June Sydney

SolidState Los Angeles - Fine Lines - Edits

It has been a while since I last posted a SolidStateLA session on the blog......too long. Listen to the last mix Fine Lines - Edit Edition (and others). Soul, boogie, party classics, and some disco to boot:

http://www.solidstatela.podomatic.com/

Liquid Liquid - "Cavern" 1983

Florida Drive By - The SunShine State Mix

1. There is a Good Earth Out Tonight, Mystic Moods Orchestra.

2. Your Place or Mine, Mystic Moods.

3. Angola Louisana, Gil Scott Heron.

4. Summertime, James Last.

5. Any Way You Want It, Mystic Moods.

6. Evolution, Magnum.

7. Ego Tripping, Nikki Giovanni.

8. Give It Up, The Artistic Sounds.

9. Na Baixa Do Sapateiro, Meireles e Sua Orquestra.

10. Planet of the Apes, The London Philharmonic Orchestra with the Galactic Symphony and Synthesizers.

11. Do Whatever Sets You Free, Ramsey Lewis.

12. Evil, Upchurch/Tennyson.

13. Janitzio, Savage.

14. Bang, Bang, Nuevo Bugaloos.

Enjoy the SunShine State Mix

Apes' Shuffle - The Jeff Wayne Space Suffle

Departure lounge to nowhere

IF the Jetsons had flown Trans World Airlines, they would have felt at home in its terminal at Kennedy Airport, a swooping, birdlike concrete building, designed by the architect Eero Saarinen, that fed its passengers out to their gates through dreamlike, windowless white tubes. The departure lounges were similarly futuristic: glassy flared cabins, outfitted with curving banquettes, padded sectional tables, and a rounded desk for the gate attendant.

Last week, however, jacked up on timbers and amputated from its concourse in an out-of-the-way section of the old T.W.A. tarmac, the last remaining Saarinen departure lounge had little of that Jet Age glamour. In fact, it looked like nothing so much as the bow of a rusting beige ship.

The story of how the lounge got there is an odd tale of airport diplomacy. JetBlue Airways is constructing a large, crescent-shaped terminal just behind the 46-year-old T.W.A. building, which has been shuttered since 2001. To make way for its new structure, the airline planned to demolish Saarinen’s original concourses and departure lounges, while preserving the far better known terminal and its connector tubes, which the Port Authority, the airport’s operator, will refurbish and reopen.
But last April, to placate preservationists, the Port Authority agreed to spare a single Saarinen lounge. It spent $895,000 to saw the 700-ton structure off the concourse and haul it 1,500 feet out of the way. That feat was so gargantuan that a crew from the History Channel showed up to record it for a show called “Mega Movers.” There the lounge has sat for almost a year, while everyone ponders its future.

Among those doing the pondering is Bill Hooper, an architect retained by JetBlue. “It’s like having an anvil sitting on a bunch of soda straws,” Mr. Hooper said the other day as he surveyed the lounge.

The Municipal Art Society, a preservation group, argues that the lounge should be incorporated into JetBlue’s new terminal.

“The lounge is a piece of DNA,” said Frank Sanchis, the society’s senior vice president. “With it, if someone ever wanted to restore the Saarinen building for use by smaller aircraft, they could see the foundations, how it was supported, the configuration of the glass, the slabs, the tiling. To throw away that opportunity is a tremendous waste.”

But JetBlue has long maintained that it would be prohibitively expensive to restore the lounge, and difficult to put the structure to use. The Port Authority has come to agree, concluding that money available for restoration would be better used for the Saarinen terminal, known as the head house. Last month, with the approval of the state’s Historic Preservation Office, the authority gave JetBlue permission to demolish the lounge.

At this point, even some preservationists approve. “We support this plan,” said Peg Breen, president of the Landmarks Conservancy. “Given that JetBlue doesn’t think it works with the design of the terminal, and that the money for restoring it could otherwise be used for the head house, we think that’s a more appropriate use.”

New York Times 16 March 2008 Alex Mindlin

Cachao, The Father of Mambo Passes Away at 89

Sat March 22nd 2008, Israel “Cachao” López, better known as Cachao passed away at a Coral Gables hospital in Miami at age 89. The Cuban born bassist was considered by fans, music critics and historians to be one of the leading figures in Latin popular music. His recent accomplishments include working with Gloria Estefan’s best selling album “90 Millas,” performing alongside actor Andy Garcia and appearing in a new upcoming documentary “Cachao: Una Más” to be premiered next month in San Francisco.

Along with Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, Cachao’s music influenced generations of musicians and shaped the way Latin rhythms were played around the world. Over the years, his popularity grew as new generations of artists discovered his dazzling body of work and jovial personality.

Cachao’s career began when he was still a child in Havana; his talent were unmistakable and quickly recognized, leading him to join the prestigious Havana Symphony. Over the course his stint with the symphony, Cachao played with legendary classical music icons such as Igor Stravinsky.

Credited by Tito Puente as one of the fathers of the “Mambo,” Cachao, along with his brother Orestes orchestrated music for the band Arcaño y Sus Maravillas. The band was influential in popularizing the charanga, a music style that would be feature in Fania releases from Johnny Pacheco in the early sixties.

The next big delopment in Cachao’s career came in 1957, when he introduced—almost by accident—the Descarga. "It was a spur-of-the-moment thing," Cachao said to the San Francisco Chronicle. "We were all working in nightclubs and had to wait until 4 a.m. to do the session. I believe the freedom of the improvisation allowed us to investigate our thoughts and souls with respect to the music. I suggested ideas, but everybody did their own thing."

Those Descargas went on to influence generations of Latin music superstars. Today it’s almost impossible to envision a salsa concert without a Descarga (Free Jam Session) and top players such as Ray Barretto, Celia Cruz and Héctor Lavoe. Supergroups like the celebrated Fania All Stars used the Descargas as the centerpiece of their popular concerts.

During the sixties Cachao—like many of his compatriots—sought exile outside of Cuban soil. This led him to spend a decade in Europe, where he played his music to enthusiastic audiences. Still, it wasn’t until the seventies when Cachao moved to the US, to the city of Las Vegas. Cachao played all the top hotels of the era and earned a solid reputation as one the best musicians in town.

Even so, it wasn’t until his relocation to Miami—a city steeped in Latin lore—where Cachao’s famed would experience a renaissance. Once in Miami, Cachao reenergized the city’s Latin music scene, participating in recordings with Andy Garcia and becoming a staple at festivals, such as Calle Ocho—were he was the Carnival King if 2007. He also won a Grammy for the album Master Sessions Vol 1 in 1995.

Described by his colleagues, friends and fans as a kind man, Cachao leaves us with a rich legacy, unparalleled in the history of Latin music.

AntiVJ, Projection on a Building

AntiVJ is made up of:

Yannick Jacquet (legoman)
Joanie Lemercier (crustea)
Olivier Ratsi (Emovie)
Romain Tardy (Aalto)

www.antivj.com

Sister Nancy, Bam Bam

Curtis Knight, How Would You Feel with Jimi Hendrix

Langton Hughes Library, Clinton, Tennessee

The Children's Defense Fund now owns the former Alex Haley Farm and uses it as a headquarters and conference center. Maya Lin was commissioned to remodel a barn on the property to accommodate a 5000-volume reference library on civil rights and children's advocacy and a small book store."The idea was to maintain the integrity and character of the old barn yet introduce a new inner layer. The integration of old and new allowed me to leave exposed and untouched the main body of the building yet build the library within the existing structure." (Lin, Maya Ying, Boundaries, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2000, p.10:24)

Our Latin Thing. 1971

Dizzie Gillespie, Cal Tjader, Monterrey Jazz Fest. 1975

Finding The Stuff Of Art In the Gutter

WALKING on the Lower East Side of Manhattan six years ago, Tom Fruin noticed a yellow plastic drug baggie. Curious, he picked it up, thinking that as an artist he could do something with it.

He did. Over the next 18 months, Mr. Fruin, 27, who lives in Brooklyn, collected almost 3,000 drug bags from around the city. They were plastic or glassine, some clear, others solid-colored or patterned, and they ranged from pinkie-nail-size crack bags to credit-card-size marijuana packets. He sewed them together into a quilt that sold for $20,000.

These days, collectors are snapping up Mr. Fruin's works faster than he can make them. His first solo show, at the Stefan Stux Gallery in Chelsea last year, sold out. Almost all of the 19 quilts in his second solo exhibit, ''Cultural Narcotics: The Straight Dope,'' were already sold when the show opened at Stux on March 30. The buyers included the actor Willem Dafoe, who paid $30,000 for a piece.

Asked about the Dafoe purchase, Mr. Fruin looked abashed. ''I guess these things are sort of prestigious,'' he said. ''But that's not an indicator of success for me.''

Mr. Fruin had a graphic design career in mind when he moved to New York in 1996, after receiving a degree in studio art from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Instead, he spends his days bicycling around parks and housing projects, storing his findings in Ziploc bags and scribbling notes (''extreme corner light blue bags 5'') for later reference.

Over the years, random collecting revealed patterns: a cluster of colorful heroin bags had been opened the same way, presumably by the same user; bags from the same drug batches were decorated with dinosaurs, dollar signs or logos like ''Dirty Urine'' and ''R.I.P.''

Mr. Fruin hangs his quilts from metal rods extending out from the wall, creating a stained-glass effect. ''For me it's not so much about the imagery as what it actually is,'' he said. ''The light going through completes it for me -- it's sort of an ephemeral, nonexistent residue of itself.''

Equal parts anthropology and art, Mr. Fruin's pieces are usually composed according to geography or chronology. One quilt maps out a housing project, with lighter bags representing buildings and darker ones the surrounding grassy areas. Another, replicating the American flag, contains baggies and documents -- a scrap of a tax return, a name tag -- found under the floorboards of an apartment in Manhattan's meatpacking district.

Collecting bags is occasionally hazardous -- Mr. Fruin has had boiling water and diapers thrown at him and has had run-ins with the police -- and usually solitary. With little information about the bags' origins, he spins his own tales. Finding bags with cocaine straws inside, he imagines a user tossing evidence out a window. Most bags are empty, but they sometimes contain seeds and on a rare occasion are filled with drugs (which hasn't caused legal problems in galleries so far).

''I like to think that's sort of a rich addict,'' Mr. Fruin said, laughing. ''Maybe they're just doing it in the dark.''

By Deborah Bach New York Times April 14, 2002

Record Store Day April 19 - Ameoba Music