a gem a day

In the princedom by the sea

2012-02-14T23:07:00.000+01:00

Every prose is a narrative, and good prose will make you search for the narrator.

The images above are of Humbert Humbert, not only a literary character from, but also the narrator of, Vladimir Nabokov's 'Lolita'. The first image was created using law enforcement composite sketch software and descriptions of literary characters. Go here, if you are interested in following this project. The second image is of James Mason, who portrayed Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film.

Humbert Humbert was always more real to me than Nabokov. To this day, I have no idea what Nabokov looked like. But I'd instantly recognize the 'boyishly manly' Humbert Humbert and his 'gloomy good looks'. "I was and still am, despite mes malheurs," Humbert Humbert explains, "an exceptionally handsome male; slow-moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanor."

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style."

Thus begins Humbert Humbert's narrative. He readily attests that he is one of the "unhappy, mild, dog-eyed gentlemen, sufficiently well integrated to control their urge in the presence of adults, but ready to give years and years of life for one chance to touch a nymphet." Dolores, his landlady's daughter of twelve, is one of such chosen creatures, one of such maidens between the age of nine and fourteen... not human, but nymphic, one of such feline and slender beings who causes bubbles of hot poison in his loins and super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in his subtle spine.

Who is a better match: the law enforcement sketch or James Mason? The sketch is more literal. It is limited to the descriptions of the physique. James Mason is far closer in depicting the kind of man who would describe himself the way he did.

Humbert Humbert repulses and fascinates us. His dark humour and intelligence unnerve us, because we feel we should dislike everything about Humbert Humbert. We don't understand his love, but we recognize it as love nonetheless.

"I knew that I had fallen in love with Lolita forever;

but I also knew she would not forever be Lolita."

Not only is this eternal love all wrong, it is also impossible. Lolita has to grow up, and we know that Humbert Humbert only lusts for nymphets.

"...and when by the means of pitiful ardent, naively lascivious caresses, she of the noble nipple and massive thighs prepared me for the performance of my nightly duty," he wrote about his having sex with Dolores' mother, "it was still a nymphet’s scent that in despair I tried to pick up, as I bayed through the undergrowth of dark decaying forests…”

The end was always near and it never had any alternatives.

"Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!"

Combat Christmas chill

2011-12-21T14:59:00.000+01:00

Gift ideas that come to mind as best fitted to combat the Christmas chill with: blankets from Iceland (by Vík Prjónsdóttir), matches and fairy tales.

Snow Blanket
Shield of Wings (below)

Bernadette's doubtful comforts

2011-12-20T17:15:00.000+01:00

These two videos were both directed by the Berlin-based studio A Nice Idea Every Day. The first one is the official music video for 'Bernadette', a song of IAMX (album 'Volatile Times', 2011). The second one is the official music video for 'Doubtful Comforts', a song of Blue Roses (album 'Blue Roses', 2009).

IKEA hacks

2011-12-19T17:14:00.002+01:00

Apparently, roughly one tenth of Europeans has been conceived in an IKEA bed.

The mere fact that IKEA is so incredibly accessible to a regular joe, helped build a widely shared perception that an IKEA household appears generic and impersonal. It does, too: were you to purchase all your furniture, objects and accessories from Droog, your household would look impersonal and, yes, generic.

All above photographs showcase IKEA households, in ourdesire to inspire. You haven't seen those lovely elements in your catalogue,you say? That's because you haven't. The images above are of IKEA hacks: uniqueobjects derived from the mass product. The key is to realize that an IKEAproduct can also be used as material (especially considering its price): it's aLEGO block of sorts. The mass product is there for you to personalize andrepurpose: in the words of IKEA Hackers, you can »break into the IKEA code offurniture assembly.« If so, the sky's the limit where your IKEA household isconcerned.

We're not all natural-born IKEA hackers with hammer and nailalways at the ready. In the meantime, IKEA has become such a constant in ourlives that a whole myriad of satellite businesses has developed in its orbitspecializing in just that: creating options for you to personalize your IKEA furniture.A few suggestions:

Bemz is a Swedish company making custom designed fabric slipcovers forIKEA sofas, armchairs and other furniture. I recommend dressing up this sofa,and this bed.

Mykea is a Dutch companymaking custom designed stickers for IKEA furniture.

The possiblities are endless.There are even furniture makers offering to add custom-made doors to your IKEAcabinets (see REDO).

Christmas songlist for the laid-back, pagan and kinky

2011-12-18T20:16:00.001+01:00

Gem's selection of Christmas croons:

Santa Baby, by Eartha Kitt

Baby, It's Cold Outside, by Sammy Davis Jr and Carmen McRae

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, by Annie Lennox

O Come O Come Emmanuel, by Belle & Sebastian

Winter Wonderland, by Radiohead
(you may want to move a minute ahead with this one)

In order to see the 25 best Christmas songs of all time as ranked by the professional musicians themselves, press here: as it turns out, the best Christmas song is, perhaps unsurprisingly, exactly the one that always scored the highest among the anti-Christmas anthems.

2012 feature: Champagne

2011-12-14T11:36:00.014+01:00

Who knew I'd ever fall for Dutch champagne? Head over heals, even. Zarb is a completely new champagne brand developed but a year ago by THEY (see at theyhaveawebsite.com). 'Zarb' means bizarre in French slang and Zarb is exactly how I want to travel to 2012.
I welcome any concept that makes champagne 'an everyday tradition, like brushing your teeth or losing your car keys'. The website kindly reassures us that Zarb champagne is best served everywhere, anywhere, here, now: may it be at our ex-partner's wedding, at confession or while riding a mermaid.
Napoleon said it all: in victory you deserve champagne, in defeat, you need it.
The two bottles featured above are from Zarb's special art edition: the latter was designed by Tjep. and the former by La Bolleur. [Press here in order to see the other inspiring bottles from this edition.]
If interested in buying, you are best advised to do so on Thursdays. That is when Ivan is working, Zarb's 'employee of the month and fastest bottle picker'.

Tjep.

2011-12-14T10:44:00.006+01:00

The 'Lucky Building' in New York City: "[a]nd who would want to crash a plane into such a friendly looking building...," indeed.
New York City skyline received this makeover from Tjep., a Dutch design studio formed by Frank Tjepkema.
(A while ago, Gem featured another Tjep.'s project.)
Note that dot: not 'Tjep', but Tjep. is the name of this studio with a dot on elegance, technology and poetry.

Training table manners

2011-12-12T10:22:00.007+01:00

De Tafelwip (loosely translated: 'the courtesy table') is a playful, if slightly scornful Dutch design by Marleen Jansen. If you are going to be so rude as to leave the table before everyone has finished dinner, you will cause the other diner to crash down.

Bookshelf porn

2011-12-11T16:57:00.009+01:00

You may be acquainted with individuals who read ebooks. You may even have befriended one or two such ereaders. Chances are that you yourself are such an ereader. We, however, still indulge in books in a trashy way.

We frequent libraries and bookstores, and we carefully plan our interiors to accomodate the beloved books. Over the years, we moved from one to another jurisdiction, house, job, lover. Old LPs, casettes, magazines, letters, dear gifts were more often than not lost along our way. Usually, it is only the books that make it. Each a story in its own right, they link us to our past.

And so it can hardly come as a surprise that our bookshelves are something between a shrine and a peep-show. Our books may seem accidental to an innocent bystander, but we who selected them know better. We indulge in scanning the libraries of people we know to get to know these people better.

We may have entered the sexy boudoirs of those who persuaded us to come up for a nightcap, but we hastily departed when we found their poor books or, even, no books at all. I know a man who fell under a spell of his (now) girlfriend, when he saw her bookshelves: she pins little green curtains on each individual shelf to keep books safe. How could one possibly resist that?
Photographs featured are all taken from Bookshelf Porn, a photo-blog showcasing only the best photographs of bookshelves: the ones that are nothing less than 'porn for book lovers'. Highly recommended. In the coming days, we will select and feature bookshelves we crave for.

Variations on normal

2011-12-11T14:38:00.017+01:00

Foam sculptures

Nosing the smartphone while having a bath (featuring Wilcox himself)

A chair swing (featuring Wilcox being swung by his dad)

Honesty stamps

A measure-tape diary

There's a big chance that you've already come accross Dominic Wilcox. His war bowls are by now a classic on design blogs. He is, however, more an innovator than a designer. Wilcox's amazing blog, Variations on normal, is really a little factory of innovations. In his own words: his blog is "a place for the sketchbook thoughts, ideas, and inventions of me, Dominic Wilcox." It is hard to believe that this is a one-man factory: there seem to be no Oompa-Loompas there cheerfully slaving away.
For those of you that could honestly make use of that honesty stamp, it comes in eight variations:
I sincerely apologise for all the trouble I've caused.
In all my life I've never met anyone as beautiful as you.
All I ask for is one last chance.
I know in the past I've found it difficult to say these words but I LOVE YOU.
What do you mean I'm always too busy?
I swear on my mother's grave I'll never do that again.
You are by far the most talented person I know.
You're right, the key to a strong relationship is communication.
Very handy.

While some of his sketchbook innovations made it in the real world (see Wilcox's webshop), others may never come about. Unfortunately, because it is exactly the latter that are amusing to no end. We're shamelessly applying a handful of his sketchbook ideas in our daily routine.

Job

2011-12-09T13:15:00.001+01:00

Herbert A. Millington
Chair – Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen

Jazz noir

2011-12-06T13:33:00.010+01:00

Amidst all the Britnies and Justins we have forgotten all about it. What makes for really good music? It's quite simple, really. A really good singer and a really good song.
But then there's a whole different brand of music. Which secret ingredient sets such music appart from really good music? We don't know. We only know how to recognise it: we find it irresistable. Play it again, Sam... A person dear to me finds 'Back It Up' to be such irresistable music.
Indeed, the song and the singer fit the bill. Caro Emerald, a Dutch conservatory trained jazz vocalist, is a really good singer. And the song, written by David Schreurs and Vince Degiorgio, is a really good song.
There is that rare chemistry there between the singer and the song, too: apparently, it took only one take. The song even has a cinematic quality to it. As you listen, Humphrey Bogarts are hiding at every corner.
And as for the secret ingredient... Ever since the single came out in 2009, the listeners do exactly as the song instructs: they back it up and do it again. Even the lyrics read as a manual for manic listeners:

Gimme some of that funky
The kind that the Duke used to play
And make it more swingy
Heyey

And then give me some hornay
You know the bub-pu-pa bub-pu-pa-bay
Come on, give it to me
Hmmm hmmm

Slam that bass and make it sing
Give those strings that rip 'n zing
You know zactly what I came here for
Back it up and do it again

I believe this song is one of the most cleverly crafted songs I've come accross.
As one reviewer has put it: Caro finds her charm in a fairly obvious way; she takes the heart-pounding, smoky-lounged, crowd-whistling side of jazz and makes that the backbone of her music. In other words, Caro gave center stage to jazz I call 'jazz noir', vocal jazz from the movies that always feels like guilty pleasure... Hollywood jazz forever associated with bar noise, smoking, femme fatalles and men with hats. Hats off to Caro.

Designtellers

2011-12-04T00:49:00.008+01:00

A cloud umbrella

Pillows blanket

Back-to-nature speakers

A sea-wave sound chair, a rocking chair...

... giving out the sound of waves and providing you with the illusion of a beach...

All above featured products were designed by Studio Joon&Jung from Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The designers, Joonsoo Kim, Jungyou Choi and Hyunwook Lee, are originally Korean and graduates from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Their unique blend of Dutch and Korean approaches to design makes up for a delightfully unexpected portfolio. It is becoming more apparent by the day that also in design Asia is the new frontier.

Dillard and Fullerton's Traveling Circus

2011-11-29T23:14:00.014+01:00

A tune that might just as well have been from the 1920s. It isn't, though. 'Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn' was created a year ago by Evelyn Evelyn.
Evelyn Evelyn is a cirque-cum-cabaret band of two twin sisters, who were conjoined at birth. They make original compositions on piano, ukulele, guitar and accordion. Prior to forming Evelyn Evelyn, they traveled with the Dillard & Fullerton's Illusive Traveling Show.

Have you seen my sister Evelyn?
Dang she's gone and wandered off again.
I've been looking high and low,
Where oh where'd my sister go?

Now relax and put all those recurring Fellini images to rest. You will be relieved to learn that beneath the smoke and mirrors the twins are not real. They are fictional characters acted out by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley.

Is my floozy sister with the doctor,
Or the drummer,
Or the dentist or the handyman?
Did that ho-bag quit her job and run off
with that dickhead Mike,
To Indio, Guantanamo,
Or Panama or Disneyland.
Is she studying Kabbalah?
Did she win a million dollars?
Or is she dead in a ditch somewhere?

The endearing music video was directed by Hoku Uchiyama (lead animation by Adam Bolt). Betty Boop era cartoon characters are finger-drawn onto the frosted store window: the entire animation is running on frost. Sort of an animated 'Harold and His Purple Crayon': only much, much crazier.

Who framed Willy Moon

2011-11-29T10:23:00.009+01:00

baby girl who's playing seek
all them things that you do to me

what I got to oh so near
things you do to send me there

"What the hell was that?" were my precise thoughts as I finished watching this video. For the performer, the song and the music video each appear other-wordly. Is it because the song, delivered on 21st century keyboards and urban beats, at the same time resonates with early 1950s Motown? Or is it due to the rockabilly singer who arrives onto the stage more a Toon than a man?
I'm referring here to the cartoon characters generally (and Jessica Rabbit specifically) starring alongside Bob Hoskins in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. (If you are not familiar with the velvety stage performance by Jessica Rabbit, press here.)
Note how the performer comes up and departs as in a cartoon. Watch him being shot at by the instruments at 1:11. "Hit me now," he invites and the shooting ensues. "Enough," he commands moments later, and the shooting ceases.
Around this time, the song and the lyrics intensify, bringing before you the blue velvet stages of David Lynch. 'Dance music dark enough to block the sun at high noon", as some reviewers described it.

hey pretty baby it's me and you
I'll be your house and only you (...)

hey when the people comes around
just kick me down in a hole in the ground

The moonish 'toonish performer is Willy Moon (21), an indie songwriter and singer from New Zealand, who bought a one-way ticket to London when 18. Part in Berlin and part in London is where he wrote and recorded 'I Wanna Be Your Man', his debut single.
“It took a long time to record because I’m doing it all on my own and I had to work out how to use the recording software,” he explained.
Made on a budget of £150, this minimalistic music video stands out: it's simple, inventive, playful (if a bit eerie), surprising and completely blended with the style of the performer and the mood of the song.
And it's nice and short, just like they used to make 'em.
An unexpected pleasure, this find.

Be God

2011-11-28T21:22:00.011+01:00

Dance, dance where the saints all come to play
And the angels dyed their feathers cool, cool decay
And if you're judging by the shoes you'll think God is gay

Saul Williams is an American poet turned hip hop artist. The track here featured is 'Dance' from Williams' latest album (Volcanic Sunlight, 2011).
The music video was directed by Cédric Blaisbois.
This is disco inferno at its best. Abba gone all macabre on you.
Lyrics matter here: this song is also a poem. It is being narrated to you by the one who's inviting you for a dance.

Dance, dance where the streets are paved with gold
And the angels and the gods do what they're told
Hey, hey, everybody, come and dance with me
Leave your fears at the door carved from the tree

You must know by now which tree he's referring to.

You wanna kiss
You wanna get into
What the preachers and the teachers
Told you not to do
If only for tonight, sweetheart
Be God

You must know by now who you're dancing with, too.

Distractions

2011-11-27T10:56:00.009+01:00

'A Handy Tip for the Easily Distracted', a vignette created by Miranda July that didn't make it in the final cut of The Future (which premiered at Sundance 2011). Now go and take your hostages for tomorrow: for distractions are on the attack more on Mondays than on any other days in the week.
For those of you who are not familiar with Miranda July: Gem has featured her a few times before. Our radar has also caught her in a recent UK performance. We would have loved to outbid the audience.

House

2011-11-26T18:58:00.005+01:00

You will be amazed to learn that this music short was made on a tiny budget of £160 in an abandoned house in East London. The eerie track is 'House', by Cool Fun. Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, a lady macabre from Wales.
Deliciously eerie: a gem and a personal favourite.

Other Lives

2011-11-17T19:08:00.004+01:00

The official music videos for 'Tamer Animals' and 'For 12', by an American indie band Other Lives. In order to watch 'For 12' in a higher resolution and interactively, try here.
The word is that 'Other Lives' will tour with Radiohead.

Cottage Town

2011-11-04T23:06:00.006+01:00

'Cottage Town' by Ontwerpduo: a mini village in your potplant. "Ordinary plants," is written by Ontwerpduo, "will be turned into huge trees or fields."
The constructions are also water resistant.

writtenafterwards

2011-10-27T16:17:00.008+02:00

A bed is a book. Open at twilight. Cover yourself with the page. Read yourself into sleep. Write yourself out.
This 'writtenafterwards' futon book bed was designed by Yusuke Suzuki.
writtenafterwards is a Japanese fashion and culture label.

Napoleon

2011-10-13T13:46:00.004+02:00

"While Waterloo was no doubt Napoleon’s most crushing defeat, it was not his most embarrassing.

In 1807, Napoleon was in high spirits having signed the Peace of Tilsit, a landmark treaty between France, Russia, and Prussia. To celebrate, he suggested that the Imperial Court should enjoy an afternoon’s rabbit shooting.

It was organised by his trusted chief of staff, Alexandre Berthier, who was so keen to impress Napoleon that he bought thousands of rabbits to ensure that the Imperial Court had plenty of game to keep them occupied.

The party arrived, the shoot commenced, and the game-keepers released the quarry. But disaster struck. Berthier had bought tame, not wild, rabbits, who mistakenly thought they were about to be fed rather than killed.

Rather than fleeing for their life, they spotted a tiny little man in a big hat and mistook him for their keeper bringing them food. The hungry rabbits stormed towards Napoleon at their top speed of 35 mph.

The shooting party – now in shambolic disarray – could do nothing to stop them. Napoleon was left with no other option but to run, beating the starving animals off with his bare hands. But the rabbits did not relent and drove the Emperor back to his carriage while his underlings thrashed vainly at them with horsewhips.

According to contemporary accounts of the fiasco, the Emperor of France sped off in his coach, comprehensively beaten and covered in shame."

(Source: The Book of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson)

F. Try Harder.

2011-10-13T09:32:00.012+02:00

This is from a little bookie of test solutions that had to be (solutions, not the bookie), regrettably, awarded with an F. These F students may be low on accuracy, but they are high on creativity and humour (at times, admittedly, unintentionally).
F in Exams: The Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers, by Richard Benson.

Some of my favourites:

Q: What was Sir Isaac Newton famous for?
A: He invented gravity.
(The answer comes even with a hand-drawn apple nicely fallen to the floor, for the first time ever.)

Q: Define enzyme.
A: Superhero of the cell.
Q: Now coenzyme.
A: Enzyme's sidekick.
(No drawings, regrettably.)

There are many other F tests on the web (like the two below).

A-tests may earn better, but them F-tests... they break a leg... They make it to the stage. I only wish I had kept some of mine...

Luggage

2011-10-07T11:54:00.005+02:00

Our language, our souls' only treasure,
We stuffed in the suitcase
Next to the family album,
And off we went to tilt it at the windmills
Beating the chilly Dutch air.

(Ferida Duraković)

Jobs

2011-10-06T11:05:00.002+02:00

Hope to meet him at least when I cross over, though one can never be sure what we'll cross over to now that he's gone there.

Home

2011-09-03T12:28:00.004+02:00

1. What was the name of the country in the south of Europe that fell apart in 1991?
a) Yugoslovakia,
b) Yugoslavia,
c) Slovenakia.

2. What was the name of the inhabitants of that country?
a) The Yugoslavs,
b) the Mungoslavs,
c) the Slavoyugs.

3. Where do these people, whose country has disappeared, live now?
a) They are no longer alive,
b) They are barely alive,
c) They have moved to another country.

4. What should people who have moved to another country do?
a) They should integrate,
b) They should disintegrate,
c) They should move to yet another country.

Transylvania

2011-08-09T23:08:00.008+02:00

At the lake Bâlea, atop the Făgăraș Mountains
Carpatians, Romania

A leave taking

2011-08-08T12:00:00.008+02:00

A video announcing A leave taking, the debut solo album by Bill Ryder-Jones (2011). The forthcoming album was inspired by Italo Calvino's novel 'If On A Winter Night A Traveller'.
In order to listen to 'A Leave Taking Soundrack', press here.
The above video is directed by the very same young photographer/video artist whom Gem showcased here a year or so ago: Adeline Mai.

A soundtrack to a weekend

2011-08-08T11:20:00.003+02:00

A music video for 'A Thing For Me' by Metronomy: the band from Devonshire (UK) behind the Mercury Prize nominated album 'The English Riviera' of this year.
The song above is from 'Night Out', Metronomy's preceding album described by the band as 'a soundtrack to a tumulous weekend' (2008).

Li Lately

2011-07-26T17:38:00.005+02:00

This is the latest in the series of videos by Lykke Li.
The song, Sadness is a Blessing, is from her recent 'Wounded Rhymes' album.
The man appearing in the video is Stellan Skarsgård, an well known Swedish actor.
Directed by Tarik Saleh.

Songsmiths

2011-06-23T00:32:00.004+02:00

Tu Fawning's 'Heart on Holds'(2010) is a project album by two Portlanders: Joe Haege of the '31 knots' and Corrina Repp. The song here featured is 'I know you now'.

Juffrouw Jo

2011-06-15T12:58:00.010+02:00

On a lucky day, you may come accross Miss Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse on her stroll through Amsterdam. It is easy enough to spot her. Always and everywhere, she wears period clothing from the 1930s and 1940s (see for yourself in her photostream).
Juffrouw Jo is not alone: there are 80 members and counting in her Club Interbellum.
Jo's years long passion for this historical period eventually led her to invent a dream job for herself. For 10 years already, Jo has been advising clients - film producers, theatres, museums, schools... - on how to visually and otherwise correctly recreate this historical period.
The above photographs feature the interior of Jo's Advising Buro 30-45 that can be found in Amsterdam (Oost) at Tweede Boerhaavenstraat 71-2. The buro also doubles as a WW2 apartment (still in the works): before it is finished, it can be rented as a film location at a reduced fee. The Amsterdamse School furniture originates from the 1920s, the radio from the 1930s, and the magazines from the 1940s.
In the apartment, it is still war.
The year is 1943.

De Batavier outdoor library

2011-06-14T08:58:00.018+02:00

This library of 250 ceramic books in the facade of De Batavier was created by Sanja Medić, an artist resident in Amsterdam. It was commissioned by the housing organisation De Alliantie and HVDN Architects in the process of developing a new residential building in Lootsstraat in Amsterdam.
The streets in this neighbourhood in Oud West are named after the Dutch poets and writers, and the titles on the spines of the books are taken from the works of these same authors.

Oerol

2011-06-09T13:53:00.006+02:00

We are now a mere week away from Oerol. During Oerol, the entire Frisian island of Terschelling is turned into an off-Broadway stage with a circus atmosphere. Nomadic old-fashioned caravans of art troupes, and an odd art installation here and there, are scattered amidst the grazing sheep and horses. You will find actors on the beach, in the dunes and even in your room or tent.
Act normally. People may otherwise mistake you for an act. They might sit down in a circle around you and wait for your next move.
Bring a hat.

Balkan summer

2011-06-08T17:40:00.015+02:00

To camp once again in the ruins... the old forgotten ruins predating the last war, and the one before that...

To jump aboard the shaking shackle boat led by a solitary boatman... heading for a lovely lonely island counting seven heads, and not a head more...

To find once more the opening into the rocks, leading to a dimly lit cave, and further to an underground beach...

To enter the old white house that has curtains for doors, at the place where storytelling is more commom than books... and ohhhh, to welcome the evening breeze while playing an ancient card game with the hosts...

At 7 a.m. to head for the island tavern where you can listen to the news told on the radio...

To return to the day when the seventh donkey of the seventh man died... To the moment when the seventh man interrupted our breakfast to summon help for the burial at sea...

News travel over the seas in bottles, and so they tell me that now, since a year or so ago, also the seventh man is dead... and buried at sea...

All photographs are taken from the website of Cocomat's furniture and accessories.

On my way

2011-06-01T00:04:00.008+02:00

Any time now, I won't have to hack my way to you any longer

Vanished Amsterdam

2011-05-18T20:17:00.025+02:00

Jodenbreestraat in the 1940s, with the Rembrandt's house at the right corner

You can stroll through the old center of Amsterdam this very evening, and realise somewhere along the way that you might just as well be strolling through 17th or 18th century Amsterdam. Unless you are strolling through the area of the old Jewish district, that is: on Waterlooplein, in the Jodenbreestraat or on Nieuwmarkt.
Let's say you are.
The year is 1930. The old Jewish district has over centuries past developed a special and distinct atmosphere. The inhabitants are extremely poor here, but the street life is all the more colourful for that. Jews are everywhere. They represent about 13 per cent of the Amsterdam population, and many of them live in this very area. By now, Jews have been living in Amsterdam for over 400 years and as much as 90 per cent of the population in this area are Jewish. The wealthy Jews live along the nearby canals and in the Plantage neighbourhood, but they are really all over the city. After all, half of the stalls on the Albert Cuypmarkt are Jewish. As are all the big department stores: the Bijenkorf, Metz & Co, Maison De Bonneterie..., and the atmospheric Tuschinski movie theatre.
You are therefore strolling through the heart of Mokum: for the year is 1930 and the city is still Jewish. This is the Jerusalem of the West. It is here that the main European synagogues were built. And above all, this is where there has always been a large open-air market with stalls. That's why you are here, and you are here every weekend. You know that in the old days the fish market was held along the Houtgracht canal, the vegetable market beside the Mozes and Aaron Church, and the hay market along the Leprozengracht: the canal of the lepers.

Leprozengracht canal with view of the Mozes and Aaron Church, prior to the creation of the Waterlooplein square

In 1882, however, both canals were filled up and turned into a huge windy Waterlooplein square. At the time of your stroll, there is no opera house on the square yet. It's just a large, open square full of stalls. You were also strolling here two days ago, on Friday morning, when the stalls were only being prepared. It really looked exactly like Sani van Bossum vividly described:
“Friday morning in the wee small hours, people are putting up stalls… there’s so much to be done. The boards must be laid out across the packing cases, and the baskets must be lined with clean newspaper, the fruit must be arranged attractively, so that the oranges whose scent wafting towards you makes your heart lift, stand out among the luxuriant bunches of grapes and the soft blushing peaches. Glory be, what a display! It’s a work of art! The passers-by have to stop and gaze and their shopping baskets open of their own accord and their mouths begin to water and out comes their money. Then they buy this and that and the stallholders have a blessed Friday with enough money earned by the end of the day to make a good Shabbat!”

2011 Exhibition on Waterlooplein of the former Jewish market at Waterlooplein

Now let's go back to 2011. Where in 1930 there was a huge Jewish bazaar, there is now no bazaar and there are no Jews. Even the large market square is gone.
“I see my shadow dancing on the stalls,” Ed Hoornik, a Dutch poet, prophetically wrote in 1938. “The train to Berlin only takes ten hours.”
Only four years later, the train with number 11537 began regularly transporting Jews to Westerbork, from where they were taken on to the extermination camps. Abram Icek Tuschinski was one of them.

The demarcation of the Jewish Ghetto in Amsterdam in the 1940s, at Nieuwmarkt

This regular train line was cancelled in September 1943. It was no longer needed.
For nearly a year, the old Jewish district lay dormant and silent, a ghostly city within a city. Finally, in the hungry and cold winter of 1944/45, Amsterdammers looted the district in droves and destroyed even what little there was left of it.
So the 5,000 surviving Jewish Amsterdammers (out of 80,000), in 1945, had no home whatsoever to return to.
In the absence of Jews who co-created this city over the centuries, their shadows are everywhere. Many streets still bear Jewish names. The particular slang of Amsterdammers still uses Yiddish words. Amsterdammers still refer to Amsterdam as Mokum. Mokum... the Yiddish name that was lovingly given to the city by the Jewish Amsterdammers: 'the place'.

Gallows

2011-05-17T01:30:00.005+02:00

Gallows, eerily sung by CocoRosie. CocoRosie is an indie 'freak folk' act by sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady. The name of the band, apparently, is an amalgam of their mother's nickname for each of them. Bianca is Coco. Sierra is Rosie.
Coco and Rosie like to play with the sound: they are known to have borrowed sounds from a snake charmer's flute, squeaky forgotten wind-up toys and kittens (mewling).
The song 'Gallows' is taken from the CocoRosie's forth album ('Grey Oceans', 2010). The video, all gothic, was directed by one Emma Freeman. Freeman also directed CocoRosie's video for 'Lemonade'.

D-Dance

2011-05-16T01:58:00.007+02:00

Russian and German soldiers celebrating the truce on the eastern front (1918).
Photographer unknown.

Admiral Benbow Inn

2011-05-15T23:55:00.008+02:00

In ‘t Aepjen is a remnant of the time when Zeedijk was a sea wall, protecting Amsterdam from the Zuiderzee. The sea is now long gone, but the old sailors’ tavern survived where even sea couldn’t.

Upon entering, one cannot help but scan the inn for Long John Silver and his parrot…
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Everywhere, there are references to monkeys (aepjen is an old Dutch word for 'a monkey'). In its sea-faring days, the tavern was swarming with monkeys that the sailors brought from their voyages. Monkeys were the seamen's currency: this is how seamen, when down on their luck, paid the inn-keeper for the lodgings.

And seamen certainly were down on their luck. To enlist on the ship headed for the East Indies was tentamount to suicide. “The recruiting of hands for the Dutch East India Company’s (VOC) ships,” writes Geert Mak, “was usually carried out by so-called zielverkopers or ‘soul merchants’. These plucked men off the streets and provided them with food and shelter until such time as the VOC made it known, amid much drumming and trumpeting, that it needed men. The soul merchants then put down the names of their ‘guests’ as crew and pocketed most of the premium as payment for their lodging.” Between 1700 and 1800, a total of 671,000 men set sail for East Indies. Of these, only 266,000 returned.

In ‘t Aepjen is one of precious few reminders left to us of that old, sea-faring Amsterdam. At Zeedijk number 1, this is the first inn that the seamen would stumble against, on their way from the harbour. Every single one of them, ever since 1560, must have walked in for a drink at least once.

On the odd Saturday, old sea chanties are still being sung here. An adventurous soul can still take up lodgings in the rooms above (via the Barbizon). If traveling with monkeys, please contact the inn-keeper for the exchange rate.

Aemstelredamme

2011-05-11T21:38:00.010+02:00

Amstelredamum, Nobile Inferioris Germaniae Oppidum
Map Maker: Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (1572, Cologne)

A view of Amsterdam from IJ, drawn by Pieter van der Keere (1618)

Crane booms, drawn by J.C. Greive Jr. (1850-1860)

EVEN AS LATE AS 1880, a traveler would enter Amsterdam through a harbour. The harbour stretched out over some three kilometres exactly where the Centraal Station now stands. Alongside this slowly curving bay, in the words of Geert Mak, a complete waterscape with a forest of masts, flags, towers and big wooden wharfs (for constructing ships) had come into being, subdivided by pontoons.

“This waterscape,” explains Mak, “had a structure of its own, and there were even a number of buildings on stilts seemingly lost amid the ships: shipping offices, a platform on which there were two wooden cranes, guardhouses, dredging mills, the “tree bell” which was sounded each evening when the booms were lowered to close the city’s access to the sea […] and finally a special inn, a substantial wooden building catering to those foreigners who were not permitted to enter the city.”

If the traveler was permitted to enter the city, he would continue to sail or row himself into Damrak. The cargo was rowed ashore from the larger vessels, while smaller ships took their cargo and passengers on to the Dam. Damrak canal that ran through the spot where the National Monument stands was, too, full of ships.

River Amstel flowing through Damrak (cca 1690)

This is how you should start exploring Amsterdam. Draw in your mind the contours of the city walls and erase the Centraal Station. Imagine you are sailing into the city from the IJ. As you walk along the streets, fill them up in your mind with water and let your imagination sail you along the narrow streets that were once much wider canals. Start at Zeedijk number 1, where In 't Aepjen - an old sailors’ tavern, one of only two remaining timber houses - still stands at your service with a bottle of whisky and a lodging room. Then sail on and pass those windows with red lights… only imagine the ladies dressed, and holding a red lantern... luring you on, into a narrower, darker canal… Their teeth sizzling white in the glow of the red lantern, against the absolute pitch darkness of the nights in the Amsterdam of old.

Secret Cinema

2011-05-10T18:33:00.017+02:00

An old secret by now, 'Secret Cinema' (launched by Future Shorts) is a series of secret monthly film screenings. Where and when is only disclosed to the subscribers, and even then only on the very morning of the screening.
Subscribers receive elaborate instructions that include more or less clear clues for appropriate attire (read: costume). You will likely be led from the meeting point to a further undisclosed venue.
As for the film shown: you need to wait until you are brought to the screening location. In the concrete event posted about above, the subscribers were met by the Utopia Skyways staff who would fly them to a new colony.
The 'cinema' location will probably already give the secret film away, as you will be met there by a hundred or so actors in tell-tale costumes reenacting scenes from the still undisclosed film along your way.
"Screens pulsed, neon sizzled, strange men approached me carrying snakes (real) and eyeballs (probably fake)," reported the spectators. "There were bars, live music, strippers, huge video screens, food stalls, robots and replicants."
To get a feel of the impressive visuals and the elaborated interactive programme surrounding the screening, read this review.
Oh, may the next one be the '73 'Wicker Man'!

North sea

2011-05-02T23:39:00.006+02:00

'Ine and the children at the beach', a photograph by Kors van Bennekom (1959, from the 'De familie Van Bennekom' series).

A mini quote

2011-04-28T17:59:00.002+02:00

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
-Kurt Vonnegut

Gem Guide to Amsterdam

2011-04-21T16:11:00.018+02:00

A new feature is to be added to Gem: a guide to the gems hidden in Amsterdam. We still need to figure out the best way to work the Gem Guide feature into the blog's interface. Until then, you will be able to find the posts logged under this feature by searching this blog for 'Gem Guide to Amsterdam'.
By way of announcement: we begin with...
RUTGER HAUER!
The photos above were taken amidst a lazy stroll through Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam (in September of 2009). It wasn't me personally who took the pictures: I was standing next to the photographer. When these pictures were taken I was roughly in the state of a wooden sculpture. Blade Runner has always been larger than life for me, and Rutger Hauer an icon that simply could not be imagined roaming among us. At first, he got distracted by the sounds of our camera, and then he rested his gaze on me.
(Oh bloody wow)
Not a muscle moved in response.
Hence that smile.
Later that evening, we went for dinner at Rainarai - a restaurant at the edge of the Westergasfabriek area dedicated to the 'nomadic kitchen from Algeria'.
"Just imagine..." teased the man who dared to photograph Rutger Hauer. "Imagine that... this... Floris guy... what's his name again... imagine that he comes here... If he would, I'd ask him to sing for you."

Rutger Hauer as Floris van Rosemondt

The dialogue went on, but this is the last bit I remember. Because only a little while later I indeed spotted Rutger Hauer smoking in the front yard of the restaurant.

The front yard, as photographed earlier that same day

My date did not believe it until Rutger Hauer walked through the door. If until this moment the Dutch people spoke of anything unusual, they stopped and started speaking of everyday things instead. This probably serves as a Dutch courtesy and a sign of respect.
How could anyone blend in with THAT?
Not only did he eat in Rainarai, he also sat at the neighbouring table, AND behind me. Twice, he went out for a smoke, and each time he apologized to me for walking accross my table.
Yes, you read that right.
Rutger Hauer stood on top of my table.

Bricks are... bricks...

2011-04-21T15:55:00.006+02:00

... or what?
See Udronotto's photostream.

Mini lego replica of Brooklyn

2011-04-21T11:11:00.007+02:00

A mini LEGO replica of Brooklyn, in the setting of one's living room.
By Johnathan Lopes.

Sculptures in passing

2011-04-18T14:34:00.002+02:00

An anonymous sculpture honouring workers in Russia.

Blend in

2011-04-18T01:21:00.010+02:00

Yet again, she found herself completely, utterly and irrepairably embarassed... "Why don't I just blend in with this dreary wall paper behind me?" she murmured to herself.
The unfortunate dialogue took place during a business meeting at a renowned law firm. While making notes, she felt they lacked colour.
I should ask them nicely to fetch those magic markers, she thought to herself.
"Would it be possible to get one of those magic mushrooms?" she said.
After several moments of silence, the most senior partner of the three politely replied: "Would you care for it right now, or after the meeting?"
The venue was Amsterdam. The woman was me.
The photographs featured above are taken from the 'Hiding in the City' series by Liu Bolin, an artist from China.

Restless, lately

2011-04-18T00:37:00.004+02:00

Moving house and venturing into an indie start-up. In the past weeks, too little was left of me by the end of the day to spin themes on gem. This unfortunate state of affairs may continue for a short while more, but I shall return, and then with a vengeance.

Cashback NSFW

2011-04-13T12:14:00.005+02:00

NSFW
'Cashback' is an awarded short film directed by Sean Ellis (2004). Ellis later developed it into a feature film of the same title (2006).
Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff) works three nights a week at the local Sainsbury's to be able to pay for his art classes. While his fellow employees perfect their individual ways of killing time, Ben finds the fundamentals of still life in every corner of the supermarket. Boredom, too, is a state of mind.

Storm

2011-04-09T12:17:00.004+02:00

'Storm' is a 9-minute beat poem by Tim Minchin, an award-winning Australian musician, actor, comedian and writer. It is Minchin himself who performs it here. The animation (released a week or so ago) is by DC Turner. Highly amusing.

Of cats and dames

2011-03-29T21:59:00.008+02:00

The still is from 'Cat People' (the original movie from 1942 directed by Jacques Tourneur).
The song is 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' as here performed by Sammy Davis Jr and Carmen McRae (1957). The original score was created by Frank Loesser.
Go here to deciper the lyrics. For these lyrics are a gem. Constructed as (an overlapping) dialogue between a seductive predator and an indecisive dame, they will amuse you to no end.
Enjoy.

Left and forgotten

2011-03-29T16:53:00.006+02:00

Letterpress prints by Sapling Press (from the 'Dear Blank' line). We also like some of the others. Like this one, for example. For more, check here.

Real Live Flesh

2011-03-25T22:49:00.004+01:00

'Real Live Flesh', by tUnE-yArDs aka Merril Garbus (a bonus track from her debut album 'Bird Brains', 2009).
There is also an official video of this track (see here).

Opulence, I has it

2011-03-25T10:41:00.005+01:00

Note that petite lap giraffe, exclusively bred at the Sokoblovsky Farm. "Petite Lap Giraffes are very funny animal that require special care," is stated on the breeders' webiste. "They need lots of love. Hugs and kisses every day. Otherwise they make tears."
Now think again: amidst all that opulence, have you noticed those poker playing dogs?

Little spooks

2011-03-24T09:48:00.006+01:00

'Dress games for kids, and older!' screamed the vendor as little Jimmy hurried past him that awful Sunday.

Amsterdam

2011-03-24T00:41:00.005+01:00

'Dans Le Port d'Amsterdam' by Jacques Brel... a little Belgian gem stolen from the past. A somewhat better translation can be found here.

Motifs

2011-03-21T09:52:00.003+01:00

From the 'Motifs' photo series by Juha Nenonen, a Finnish photographer.

Feeling pagan, yet again

2011-03-18T10:16:00.004+01:00

'When I Grow Up', a macabre nursery rhyme by Fever Ray (2009). The video was directed by Martin de Thurrah. Fever Ray is the alias for the elusive Miss Karin Dreijer Andersson, the lead vocalist of The Knife.

Ark

2011-03-15T10:48:00.007+01:00

This stunning archaic 'Ark House' - to be beached on a mountainside of the Montana Plains - is developed by the Axis Mundi architects.
The residence takes up only one half of this structure: note the giant observation deck (of nearly 4800 square feet).
A sailing vessel on the dunes of wrath.
Breathtaking.

Ikea Heights

2011-02-18T10:41:00.007+01:00

'Ikea Heights' is a soap opera shot on the set of the Burbank California Ikea Store, during store hours without Ikea (or its staff) knowing. This was essentially guerilla filming in the ready-made bedrooms, kitchens, offices and walkways of Ikea. Above, the pilot episode is featured.
After seven 5-minute episodes, this web series was cancelled. This despite the fact that Pastorek (from Entertainment Weekly) described it as ‘so brilliant and awesome that its glories can really only be diminished by additional words.’
Yet, the cancellation could be expected. Projects that start off as mere gags tend to run out its course pretty fast. Yet, why were they satisfied with a mere impro gag?
But be it as it may, the idea still rocks. And for guerilla filming, the result is still quite impressive.
On to the needles and pins of 'Ikea Heights': a seedy place that the characters refer to as ‘the land of convenience and murder’...
The crew managed to act out murders, arrests, on-spot adulteries and funerals within Ikea, with nobody in the know. Only at times, the crew is busted by the Ikea staff (usually asking actors and camera men for filming permits), but for the most part the actors and the crew manage to go unnoticed. Impressively, they even manage to create a musical/music video.
In addition, the innocent shoppers and members of the staff are directly cast as unsuspecting extras. For example: in one of the later episodes, the lead character, whose wife just got murdered, in his attempt to overcome grief tries to ask the shopping ladies out on a date. Another such example is when the detective Mathis follows up on the ‘wall of knobs and handles” clue by asking the helpful Ikea staff for directions.
The entire web series was directed by Dave Seger for Channel 101.

Woman

2011-02-16T16:31:00.006+01:00

Jamie Thraves, a film director that shot the short film featured in our last post, created some of the best music videos out there. This is one of them.
The track is 'Woman' by Neneh Cherry, taken from her 'Man' album (1996). Obviously, this is a female take on 'It's a Man's Man's World', originally sung by James Brown (1966). If Brown's man patronises women, Cherry's woman is ancient: she predates men.
I've died so many times
I'm only just coming to life
And my blood flows
through every man
in this godless land
that delivered me...
So mind the lyrics, as well as those truly imaginary guns the two boys pull out of thin air to shoot with.
There are two interwoven story lines: one told through the music video and the other told in words and rhymes. Taken together, the two story lines make one aware of the narrator; and wary.

Peacock's roar

2011-02-16T12:18:00.007+01:00

'I Just Want To Kiss You', a short Brit film by Jamie Thraves starring Martin Freeman and Harry Peacock (1989).
Two lads sittin' on the dock of the day...
wasting time...
An endearing hommage to, apparently, Truffaut. Though I find it more leaning toward Godard.
Whatever you do, don't miss Peacock's roar at 3:09.
And at the very end of it all, do look at the title again. Who, and whom?

A friend to grow

2011-02-11T00:13:00.009+01:00

'Killing Time at Home', a 3-minute short animation film that delivers a punch. Written and directed by Neil Coslett (United Kingdom, 2003).
No dialogue is used to carry the narrative: a music score, camera movements, face expressions, body language - and an impressive amount of carefully chosen details. The EKO banks credit card (with a red smiley logo) and the letters delivered through GOD POST will show you that the unkempt gentleman with a child-like demeanor is in fact Mr R. Rillkrr. His room at 24 Carbon Close in Choccrington (C20 7B82H) is effectively hidden from the dangers of the outside world by a havily bolted door and a heavy curtain that we are more accustumed to see in theatres.
'The New Affliction Quarterly' headlines ('New SCA 3000 gas mask reviewed', 'Celebrities discuss their favourite diseases', 'Why the oxygen is dirty' etc) delivered to Mr Rillkrr together with #247 Zinc Dude offer some clues as to why Mr R. Rillkrr lives a life protected from the state of affairs governing the outdoors.
Other clues about the society Mr Rillkrr lives in come from the stickers on his home medicine and related "fluffy stuff in a box":
personality pills,
an inflatable doctor in a jar,
celebrity licked throat pills,
glow in the dark eye-drops,
an android toilet cleaner,
a speech enhancer (please note that throughout his daily routine Mr Rillkrr is significantly silent).
We are further puzzled by the evidence that Mr Rillkrr shops at 'Bitterfoods' where, apparently, bitter food is tolerated since it comes in cans that can double as remote control cars, and with an add-on helmet.
The dark room Mr R. Rillkrr lives in contains, insofar as the camera lets us see, a computer and a microwave (for Micro Meat). The computer monitor appears to be the sole source of light in the room. There are no chairs or tables. There also seems to be neither a sofa nor a bed. You may conclude from marked plugged-in cables that the room must accomodate at least an air purifier, a relaxation tank and an anti-radiation equipment besides the computer and the microwave.
In order to fully understand about #247 Zinc Dude, do read the caveat emptor small print from www.disposablefriends.com at 0:31 (especially the 'vital information' on habitat and behaviour). Note the logo of the webpage, the price of the 'friend' (15 df) and read the instructions carefully. The 'friend' should climb out voluntarily. Apparently, he does, too.

A Case Of You

2011-02-10T13:43:00.004+01:00

A music video for 'The Wilhelm Scream' from the just released debut and self-titled album of James Blake (2011).
The Wilhelm scream is a sound effect: a scream you hear when one of the characters in a Hollywood movie is shot. It was first used in the film 'Distant Drums' (1951).
Press here in order to hear the notorious scream.
Back to the artist in question. On BBC Radio 1, recently, a more accessible song by James Blake was aired: a cover of Joni Mitchell's 'A Case Of You'. We like that one better.

City Paradise

2011-02-09T19:44:00.003+01:00

'City Paradise',

a quirky short animation directed and written by Gaëlle Denis (2004).

Heron

2011-02-09T01:03:00.007+01:00

Long ago the clock washed midnight away
Bringing the dawn

A rugged no-nonsense street poetry by Gil Scott-Heron, ‘the black Bob Dylon’.
What got to me is not so much the poetry (Langston Hughes and Charles Bukowski came early and took their toll). I marvel at the seemless flow of poetry and music in that rugged voice... It's that voice, in a limbo between reciting and singing, salty and matured...
The posted video poems are 'Where Did The Night Go' and 'I'm New Here', the tracks being taken from Gil Scott-Heron's last - and long overdue - 'I'm New Here' album (2010).

Let the England Shake

2011-02-06T11:47:00.009+01:00

Behold, Polly Jean maketh an eerie ode to England.

God damn, Europeans!
Take me back to beautiful England
And the grey damp filthiness of ages
And battered books

And fog rolling down behind the mountains
On the graveyards and dead sea-captains
Let me walk through the stinking alleys
To the music of drunken beatings

Past the Thames river glistening
Like gold hastily sold
For nothing... NOTHING

The above musical shorts offer the first glimpses into P. J. Harvey's forthcoming album 'Let England Shake', to be released on 14 February.
Both musical shorts are directed by Seamus Murphy, a documentary photographer enlisted by Polly Jean to tour around England and to shoot stills and moving images documenting England and the English - for each of the 12 album tracks.
The musical shorts are not shot as the music videos we are used to, but rather as a classical photographic reportage.
We are eagerly awaiting the remaining ten.

7:35 in the morning

2011-02-04T01:01:00.003+01:00

‘7:35 de la Mañana’ is an awarded short film – a masterpiece in a tiny format really – written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo (Spain, 2003). Vigalondo also appeared in the film, as Tipo (the male lead).
I will keep my silence on this one. It would be a shame to reveal anything about it. Ignorance is bliss.
Be sure to set the English subtitles in caption. Then: enjoy.
A personal favourite.

It is a bright, bright day

2011-02-03T12:20:00.004+01:00

»An image is not some idea as expressed by the director, but an entire world reflected in a drop of water. In a single drop of water!«
(Andrej Arsenjevic Tarkovskij)

Andrej Arsenjevic Tarkovskij received his polaroid camera in the 1970s from Antonioni: another master of moving image and stills. From that moment on, Tarkovskij began documenting his intimate life set in his family dacha. What came out of it is a trove of frozen time-gems collected for his son (Andrej), who would only many decades later be able to take leave from the stills by allowing them published in 'Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids' and in 'Bright, bright day'.
»It is not easy for me to talk dispassionately about the photographs in this book,« wrote Tarkovskij's son, »let alone discuss their historical or artistic merit. Each time I look at them, I feel these pictures have an amazing, unique, inner energy; I am drawn as by a magnet back into my past, into the forgotten, distant world of my childhood, which all of a sudden springs up vividly all around me.«

The father - Tarkovskij the filmmaker - kept a little trove of his own time-gems in 'a cardboard box that once held tins of food'.
»I go into the house,« he wrote, »this house where I used to live and which I grew out of like a teenager growing out of his clothes, the house in the road next to Arsenev Road, and I am convinced that it’s called by that name in honour of my father who lives two blocks away from Arsenev Road. Anyhow there’s no other explanation for the name, and I’m sure that if it weren’t for my father the road would be nameless.
Mother is not here, and I wait for her in the cramped rooms of my childhood, which will never be repeated and can only fade in my memory like embers in a dying fire. The house and its two rooms barely reach to my elbows and knees, the air is stuffy and there isn’t enough, there is very little left after those fifteen years of use.
I wait for Mother and soon she arrives. She has had a short holiday and is slightly tanned, and I am glad, because I want to see her young, even though I have never in my life done anything about it and have merely dreamed like an idiot of some miracle that might make my Mother young.
We open a cardboard box that once held tins of food, and I freeze over it, as if on the edge of a precipice: in it are time, my childhood, my Mother’s and Father’s youth. The box contains photographs.«

The father – the father of the filmmaker - was the famous Russian poet Arsenij Aleksandrovic Tarkovskij. Longing for his own childhood days, this is how he sculpted into words a particularly dear image from his own past:

By the jasmine lies a stone,
Beneath the stone lies treasure.
On the path stands father.
It is a bright, bright day.

Fallulah

2011-02-02T18:05:00.004+01:00

This is 'Give Us A Little Love', a song track by a Danish singer Fallulah (taken from her 'The Black Cat Neighbourhood' album, 2010).

Try it smiling

2011-02-01T11:21:00.006+01:00

'On S'Embrasse?' (transl. Shall we hug?) is a short film by Pierre-Olivier Mornas featuring an aspiring actress, a looming audition, a refuge bar and a teenie-weenie story waiting to crush you (France, 2001).

Black pots and magic

2011-01-30T12:52:00.008+01:00

If there is such a thing as radical design, Ineke Hans would fit the bill. This brutally beautiful black porcelain coffee pot is from her 'Black Gold Modular' series (2002): it's all pipes and poetry.

Ineke Hans is a Dutch designer that countinues to stretched the boundaries of (industrial) design. Black porcelain held her gaze because it's difficult to produce: it behaves awkwardly during the firing process. Black is also the primeval (lack of) colour: it undefines objects and fades them out, so that they appear as mere silhouettes.
"I feel more like a magician," informs us Ineke Hans.
And a rug, she adds, can be a boat.

Portraits

2011-01-27T23:23:00.010+01:00

These are intriguingly formal portraits of children the likes of which you will normally find among paintings. This is one of the reasons why these photo portraits will take you by surprise. Another reason is in the appraising gaze of the children portrayed: making a direct and conscious contact with the future viewer, the children reveal their pensive inner selves, far removed from their childhood play and naiveté. Finally, the photographs seem to hold no indicators of the day and age in which they were shot.
Nelli Palomäki, a Finnish fine art photographer, carefully constructed the photographs in order to lend timelessness to these portraits. Attention was paid to both costumes and hairstyles of children (all aged between 4 and 11).
"One hundred years ago it was something really special to be in the portrait," sighs the photographer, "I want to believe that it still is!"
The portraits featured are taken from the 'Elsa and Viola' series by Nelli Palomäki. In order of appearance, the portraits are titled: Dora (at 7), Julia (at 4), Julia (at 5), Elsa (at 10) and Viola (at 11).

Silence is easy

2011-01-25T01:01:00.004+01:00

'Silence Is Easy' by Starsailor, an indie band from Britain (this is the title track from their second album, 2003). This is one of the last songs produced by Phil Spector, before he was sentenced to 19 years to life.

Stories at High Tea, And More

2011-01-24T14:36:00.013+01:00

Jorine Oosterhoff is one of those almost-fairy sort who looked through the looking glass. Her designs are playful: she admits herself that her little porcelain pieces (like the set 'mad hatters' above) are meant to come alive on your table, ‘like soldiers in a little nation’.

Sugary soldier & Milky major

“I like to create series,” muses Jorine, “put more products together like a family. This gives me more opportunities to create...

... a story.” They really do look as if they are going to attack you, don't they?
"En garde!"

Good morning, Monday

2011-01-24T10:04:00.007+01:00

Monday's pleasure: a pompous cupuccino!
'Café Pompose' - a coffee set consisting of
a cappuccino cup: a fat lady,
an expresso cup: a stately gentleman,
a ristretto cup: their little child.
These intriguing morning porcelain and coffee stories are by Jorine Oosterhoff,
a Dutch designer from Arnhem.

Cowboys, art films and emotional landscapes

2011-01-23T12:02:00.006+01:00

'World Cinema' is a short film about art films and cowboys by Joel and Ethan Coen (2007).
A film of three minutes commissioned by the Cannes Film Festival, 'World Cinema' for some reason fails to appear on the Chacun Son Cinéma (transl. 'to each his own cinema') anthology.
Dan (Josh Brolin) enters an art cinema that is clearly off his beaten track, or anybody else's for that matter. Forced to choose between two foreign movies, Dan enlists help from the young man selling tickets. The dialogue between Dan and the young man is curious and amusing; the true beauty of this short, however, lies in the window that lands a momentary view, for seconds only, into the emotional landscapes that Dan inhabits under his cowboy exterior.
A gem.

Los Angeles, we need to talk

2011-01-20T21:18:00.011+01:00

After he decided to move to New York City, Jonathan Jackson decided not to string L.A. along. He decided to 'firmly break it off' with L.A. through a graphic billboard series posted on the famous streets of his first love... letting it know:
"Jonathan Jackson is no longer in relationship with Los Angeles."
More endearing even than the billboards were the reactions of the L.A. inhabitants who chanced to come accross these visual declarations of love gone awry.
"I think it's negative. I don't support it," declared one of the locals, "I think we should not need to see other cities. Whatever I see in L.A. is everywhere, in every city that I have gone to. In part of L.A., there is East Africa. There are mountains. There is New York in L.A., there are tall buildings. So going to other cities is just stupid."
If interested to see more about this visual goodbye to a city, or the man behind it, go here and dig on.

Narrator: Luis

2011-01-20T18:26:00.006+01:00

This is 'Luis', the second stop-motion film in the 'Lucia, Luis & El Lobo' series created and directed by Cristóbal León, Niles Atallah and Joaquín Cociña (2008, produced by the Diluvio Gallery, Chile).
Currently in development is the third (feature) film in the series, 'La Casa Lobo', transl. The Wolf House. According to the synopsis of the project, the last film in the series will feature Bella, a young woman waking-up inside a strange house she doesn't recognise. The house, strangely alive, shall behave as if Bella has lived in it for ages. The house will hold Bella captive, and during her futile attempts to leave Bella shall encounter, and develop complex feelings for, the Beast. According to the authors themselves, 'La Casa Lobo' is a 'confused and perverted fairytale' about the Beauty and the Beast locked in a no-escape house. The fable will be narrated by Bella, a 'compulsive liar, a protagonist who has serious deficiencies in her memory.'
Beautiful? Creepy? Mad? Sad?
Animation and fairy tales are forever removed from that feeling of safety they once invoked in us... Can you imagine that this is what you would run to at 7 p.m. when you and your friends turned from your games in haste to catch the cartoon for the day? When all you worried about was that they would show something like Tom & Jerry and nothing like La Linea?

Narrator: Lucia

2011-01-19T12:13:00.006+01:00

This is 'Lucia', an awarded short stop-motion animation film (a part of the 'Lucia, Luis & El Lobo' series) created and directed by Cristóbal León as the animator, Niles Atallah as the art director and Joaquín Cociña as the writer (2007, produced by the Diluvio Gallery, Chile).
In a unique merge of illustration and stop-motion animation, we see a sequence of digital stills with animation, charcoal drawings, puppets and other props. The film is shot frame by frame with a digital camera. Every visual element comes to life as it self-constructs, hides, re-appears, self-destructs ...
The narrative is whispered by the charcoal Lucia, appearing and vanishing from the frame. We soon realise that the narrator is not reliable, the real story is hidden behind the whispered distortions and changing frames: we may never be in position to reconstruct it.
The authors themselves describe the series as stories "of a physical and mental world that falls apart, destroys itself and reconstructs itself time and again." As the narrator changes, the space and story repeatedly dismantle and reassemble to mirror those changes.
"What makes this such an exciting project for us," the authors conclude, "is the idea of making a feature film like one creates a painting or sculpture: a film made of cardboard, charcoal and waste."

A moment out of time

2011-01-18T12:06:00.008+01:00

'Pass This On' is an old single by a mysterious Swedish duo of siblings: The Knife (the track later appeared in the 'Deep Cuts' album, 2003). The video of the track, in its fomat, is rather a short film than a music video. Directed by Bo Johan Renck, this is a tiny masterpiece in its own right.
A slow party for a local football club. It appears from the melancholic mood that the team just lost a game. Or is it just a regular hangout for the football guys? The setting appears to be a pre-Ikea Scandinavian cottage that probably acts as a hunters hangout on Wednesdays and as a venue for birthday parties on Fridays. In this particular moment, out of time, the entertainment in the venue is a drag show provided to football players by a lipsynching travestite. The tune is catchy, remeniscent of disco hits, and yet... there is this lingering feeling that something is off... It makes you feel uncomfortable. The performer, seductive and alluring, moves to that very element of the song that is off... The audience feels it, too. You can almost hear their thoughts as the camera zooms on them.
"This feels all wrong, this feels all wrong, but... Do I actually like this...?"
The viewers don't communicate among eachother. The song seems to leave no room for mobs or couplings. Once lured to dance, each spectator dances alone, toward rather than with the performer... the caster of the spell... the pied piper...
What will happen once the tune dissapears?
And why is only the girl bewildered? She seems the only person to have escaped the allure...
The bewildered girl is Karin Dreijer Andersson, the actual singer: the most we were allowed, to date, to see of this duet. The Knife hardly ever appears in public, and then wearing beaks (!) and masked.
The song of whispers, the video of spells and the band of fairies: a fairy tale.

Actor

2011-01-05T00:13:00.004+01:00

'Actor Out Of Work' by Annie Erin Clark (off-stage) aka St Vincent (on stage). The track is from her second album 'Actor' (2009). Lovely, if a bit creepy.

Weary of Winter

2011-01-03T00:14:00.002+01:00

Ella Doran's clever designs to help us get through the winter.

Ministry of Stories

2010-12-29T15:03:00.006+01:00

The monster shop I posted about yesterday has a secret entrance.
What lies beyond the secret door is an official task force dedicated to their story-bound cause and going about their storytelling business.
I speak of the so-called Ministry of Stories: the official provider of children storytellers.
Otherwise known as
an official inspiration
for the nation
Aim: to lure children into storytelling.
It is the job of the Ministers to help children put their imagination into action: as a story, a song lyrics, a play script, a screenplay, a report for a newspaper, a blog post, a game, a poem, a graphic novel…
The foundation of the Ministry of Stories was initiated by Nick Hornby, inspired by the success of Dave Eggers’ 826 centres in the United States.
826 centres were a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, indeed. I’ve come across the Brooklyn Superhero Supply a few years ago. Still, I much prefer the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies. The humour and the mood of the Ministry of Stories is decidedly harrypottery: and I love it all the more for that. The Ministry is fun, as there are
the Minister of Chalk and Brushes (responsible for the liason with schools);
the Minister of Monster Relations (responsible for the monster shop);
the Minister of the Street Over There (responsible for the liason with the communities);
the Minister of Twirly Lightbulbs and Furry Rugs (responsible for interior design of the Ministry);
the Minister of Lay-Bys and Rest Stops (responsible for directions and drawing of maps);
the Minister of Party Popper (responsible for events at the Ministry);
the Minister of Coins and Stamps (responsible for donations and sponsors);
the Minister 3:0 (responsible for online matters)
Are you interested to help? The Ministers seem very eager to lead the way.
And the children will surprise you. For even when they hate reading, they will come up with awsome and fantastic ideas for stories. If you can also give them the storytelling skill, you’ve got yourself a storytelling little monster.

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

2010-12-27T23:59:00.010+01:00

On 159 Hoxton Street in London there is a 'Hoxton Street Monster Supplies" store. The store has been there since 1818 and its loyal customers – the living, dead and undead - have continued to frequent it already for nearly 200 years.

According to the latest news, the store introduced new additions to the existing range of their Tinned Fears. Pursuant to the Monster Retail Act of 1827 (specifically Clause 14, Subsection 5, Revision (b)) the vendors are for the time being still prohibited from selling Fears in any other way than tinned. In total, there are now five Tinned Fears on offer: the Collywobbles, the Heebie Jeebies, the Vague Sense of Unease, Escalating Panic and Mortal Terror. Each has been tested and is guaranteed to enhance your mood according to the specification. Already the middle range, the 'Vague Sense of Unease', effectively destroys all feelings of ease, creating a rising yet uncertain sense of disquiet.

Please check the photographs below to find some of the other products on offer:

We were only dissapointed to find that the store refuses to accept not only credit cards and pre-decimal pound sterling, but also human sacrifice.

London

2010-12-27T15:04:00.001+01:00

Intro: my London trip of last week.

Buzz

2010-12-27T14:21:00.003+01:00

A music video for 'Bloodbuzz Ohio', by The National. The song is from the 'High Violet' album, which is certainly among the very best albums of 2010.
Best track from this album: Conversation 16.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

2010-12-25T18:13:00.006+01:00

On September 21, 1897 an editorial 'Is There a Santa Claus' was published in The Sun of New York.
Virginia wrote:
"Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says: "If you see it in THE SUN, it's so." Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"
The Sun gave the following response:
"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. [...] Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. [...] Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!"
Now back to you. Have you been tracking Santa through North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) yesterday night?
To all of you out there celebrating the birth of the sun, and to all of you out there celebrating the birth of the son:
ho bloody ho

[The photograph - 'Black Christmas' - is by Janne Lehtinen (2006)]

Greenland

2010-12-23T23:48:00.006+01:00

These are from the series of photographs set in Greenland by Tiina Itkonen, a Finnish photographer.
"There are no roads that I could take to get away," said Tiina Itkonen.
"I follow my own paths. There are no trees: I can see the horizon far off in all directions. I am incapable of judging distances. I am not used to seeing this far."

Death of a samurai

2010-12-23T00:07:00.003+01:00

A mesmerizing music video for Lovely Bloodflow, a song by Baths (from 'Cerulean', its debut album, 2010).

Snow-wench (Snezena baba)

2010-12-17T21:50:00.004+01:00

My morning flight to London was cancelled today. I should have known it would from the moment I woke up. Why? Because it snowed. And when it snows, your Dutchmen get very flustered. As soon as the snowflakes appear, a national emergency alarm sets over Holland.
Free drinks are offered at major train stations.
Traffic is completely halted.

Citizen stand in lines at stores to get as many provisions as they can afford to sustain them until the - thing - melts.
In the meantime, my fully paid hotel room in Kensington awaits me, empty...

What to do with all this snow? What do Russians do with all this snow?

They make snow-wenches (orig. снежная баба). What else?
(Note: All snow creations featured in this post are from Russia)

Mixtape

2010-12-17T01:10:00.003+01:00

Remember those mixtapes? "I made a mixtape for you," he'd whisper, and then he'd run away in haste. This is about one of those. 'Mixtape', a cute short film by Luke Snellin (2009).

The nest of 100 worries

2010-12-15T01:01:00.006+01:00

An energetic video for 'Le Nid Des 100 Soucis' by Madjo, a classically trained French-Senegalese singeress and violinist (the song is from 'Trapdoor', her debut album, 2010).

Stay In My Memory

2010-12-14T21:21:00.003+01:00

Music is by Bim: 'Stay In My Memory' (from the 'Scatterheart' album, 2010).
Animation is by Katy Davis.

Happy pagan holidays

2010-12-13T17:02:00.004+01:00

Annie Lennox came back to us this year for Christmas with this pagan rendition of 'God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen'. The song appears in her newest album, A Christmas Cornucopia. Very wicca. We approve.

Boot

2010-12-10T19:50:00.005+01:00

A photo of our planet taken from a distance the commander of the International Space Station. If only we could also hear the captain's log...
If you haven't recognised the shape: it's Italy.
The commander, Mr Douglas Wheelock, shares more of his photos on Twitpic.

Brigitte

2010-12-09T13:27:00.006+01:00

This is a video of the seducive track 'Ma Benz' as performed by Brigitte.
Brigitte is a French duet formed in 2008 by Sylvie Hoarau and Aurélie Maggiori with an interesting blend of retro and folk. Sylvie Hoarau used to be the lead singer of Vendetta, one of the more interesting French bands.
The song is in fact a cover of 'Ma Benz' by NMT, which is all the more suprising if you actually know the original.

Bad cover version

2010-12-08T17:06:00.004+01:00

Bad Cover Version @ Yahoo! Video

You're about to watch one of the most interesting videos there are. The song is 'Bad Cover Version' and the band is Pulp (2001). The video is clearly modelled on 'Do they know it's Christmas', a notorious studio session of jamming celebrities reaching out to us to give Christmas to Africa.
The difference is that this video here appears to be an endearing, if ironic tribute to Pulp and against all odds it features no stars. The singers - albeit honestly cooing their hearts out - are all fake. It's all rather like some strange pop stars maskenball.
Where does one find so many of these people? See if you can spot Robbie Williams, Liam Gallagher, Kylie Minogue, David Bowie, George Michael, Bono, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Jennifer Lopez, Paul McCartney, Craig David, Tom Jones, Björk, Kurt Cobain, Rod Stewart, Meat Loaf, Cher, Jason Kay, Jarvis Cocker, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Missy Elliott, Bob Geldof...