1969 Alpine A220. 1500 lbs. 310hp. @ Circuit La Sarthe.
one word: WICKED.
Category Archives: art
jagwar ma.
Anyone who knows my musical history knows my own music as well as what influenced was DEEPLY entrenched in Madchester and the baggy sounds of the early 90s. Jagwar Ma have recently brought back some of that bagginess with their debut album “Howlin”. Well worth a listen and a purchase, in my opinion.
Jagwar Ma play Glasslands in Brooklyn on October 2nd. I will be there. Come say hello.
“The Throw”
“Come Save Me”
i8.
There are very few automobiles which capture my attention, new or old, these days. My interest in automobiles has faded aside from a few select cars which i’m always chasing. i am, however, BLOWN AWAY by this car. the fact that it is a production car that looks like a concept. The fact that is totally a current car embedded with current technologies capturing the spirit of ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ without copying anything else before it. The fact that it’s the first hybrid sports car that is somewhat attainable (still expensive though…at $135k USA price). But most of all I love this car because it pushes and opens an envelope into the current times. No retro here. No celebration of the past. The BMW i8 is a celebration of the future.
If i had the money…i’d order this and drive it every day!!
Forget 0-60 times (4.4 seconds here), forget curb weight (3200+ pounds here), forget cost for a second, forget the badge, forget the insane aero design features— this car is a pioneer and a real innovation in this realm. It’s rare in these generic modern times of automotive engineering that we see a true beginning, but i have a feeling the i8 is the first of many coming in this realm.
(I don’t count cars like the Porsche 918, because of price and uber-exclusivity)
Live photos from Frankfurt (courtesy of greenCarReports)
promo photos from BMW in Black:
Videos:
crashingWaves.
I have never been to Iceland, but i would like to go. It doesn’t get much better than cold, oceans, ice, and snow. This series of photos makes me feel like i’m standing right there. Beautiful simplicity. No material object could ever match it.
photos by Jan Erik Waider
streetArt.
I got my introduction to ‘street art’, as many people did, from Banksy and his extravagant street installations of art work—however it is important to remember that he is merely one of thousands of brilliant street artists across the world. He happened to become famous, however street art is one of the newest and most exciting forms of art around.
I think what makes street art most fascinating is that it doesn’t exist in isolation (e.g. in a picture frame hanging from the wall). It takes the best aspects of installations and art, and inserts them into a live setting where it can interact with its own surroundings and create something contextual, yet still enlightening. I am a fan of learning how to see things differently; street art shows an alternative version of reality in the mundane, the every day, and the structures we take for granted.
To those into street art, some of these photos may be more ‘popular’ works seen, but i found them to be nicely compiled at this page on Memolition
meditations.
For the past few years—my favourite bands have all come from Sweden. This week i’ve been listening to a lot of Holograms. Their new record, “Forever”, was released this week. Their 1st album was sort of a simple, straight forward affair—while the new album is darker, more complex, and dare i say Broder Daniel-influenced? (Broder Daniel is one of my favourite bands of all time). They even titled the album “Forever”, just like Broder Daniel titled one of their records “Forever”. Hmm.
Holograms are playing 285 Kent Ave. on December 6th in Brooklyn. you will find me there, lurking in a dark corner.
The Monocle Guide To Better Living
Just received this Monocle book entitled “The Monocle Guide To Better Living”. If you’ve never read the magazine Monocle, then i would strongly advise you to pick up a copy. For people such as me with an imagination that finds itself wondering about different places, ideas, people, and ways of living—Monocle is sort of like the ‘ultimate’ magazine of sorts. It focuses on culture and society—but not in a way you would pick up from the news or from regular every day information outlets. It focuses on the small details of things that really captivate and interest people such as myself.
Monocle as a magazine is a challenging, but captivating read. I have spent a few breezy minutes flipping through this book thus far and my only description would be to say that the book continues where the magazine leaves off—but with a more concrete and themed presentation. Beautiful old-school yellow cover and binding and lovely matte pages. 400 pages. Wonderful for my bookshelf. Highly recommended.
“Exit Through The Gift Shop”
I watched this a while ago, but was for some reason reminded of it today when i saw an article about Banksy. Most people have seen Banksy’s work somewhere at some time either in person or online or on a record cover…and didn’t even know it. Whatever you think of him, he is definitely iconic! This documentary is less about Banksy, and more about the scene around him and prominently the french guy who tried to make a documentary about Banksy! ha.
90 minutes well spent watching this though! HIGHLY recommended!
if i owned a Renault 5 Turbo…
or an Alpine—–I would definitely want this entourage of hyperactive french mechanics following me around, waiting for something to happen!
(this is sort of like a ‘foto of the day’ as IEDEI used to do…..but is just not arsed to do anymore! ha)
Wilderness.
Been listening to this all week….can never get enough Joy Division.
M4.
This new BMW M4 Concept is the business. A beautiful colour named ‘Aurum Dust’ (what a name!) and some of the most aggressive styling i’ve seen out of a german car in recent memory. Thank you BMW—–for keeping the insanity. I am loving some of the details here…
(photos courtesy of BMWblog)
a couple of videos:
‘The” icon.
Should the word “the” have an icon? The same way “and” has an icon (&)? Fascinating proposal by Australian Paul Mathis. What do you think? Here is his proposal for the icon (i think it’s lovely):
src: huh
Watch Le Mans 2013! (updated)
Need a place to watch Le Mans 2013?? Every year I put up the links I am using to watch Le Mans. The greatest race in the world is back……on one side of my mind, I have an Audi Sport flag waving and on the other side I have a blue Alpine flag waving for LMP2. Either way….this is the motor racing event of the year and definitely worth watching.
Here are some links to watch, listen, and follow (these will be updated throughout the next 24 hours). Please feel free to make any suggestions to other good sources.
EUROSPORT <——- superb link, British Eurosport in with English commentary
EUROSPORT #2 (also British Eurosport, thank you Ricardo for the link!)
Listen to fantastically detailed commenting at Radio Le Mans
LIVE TIMING via WEC! the best way to follow what’s going on with the positions, as well as interviews and videos
Audi Sport, onboard the R18s with Radio Le Mans commentary
My suggestion? find a video feed you like—and turn on Radio Le Mans and mute the video.
Go Alpine! Go Audi!
A210.
Le Mans weekend is here! Links will be up tomorrow about where to watch the race.
After watching 21 hours last year and suffering a near-nervous-breakdown—i have decided I will only follow what happens with the Alpine A450 and the Audi R18s this year. The Audis will most likely win as they usually do…but the A450 is starting 8th in the grid for LMP2. Here’s hoping for a strong showing!
Here’s a beautiful photo of the Alpine A210 during its time at the Le Mans Classic this year.
src of photo: octane
murmur: a dialogue between a human and a wall.
This is spectacularly cool. Using technology, an interface has been made for people’s voice to be made into a physical entity and interact with a dynamic graphics display on the facing well. What results is something I would really like to try. A collaboration between multiple studios including Chevalvert, 2Roqs, Polygraphik, and Splank. More details at Design Boom and make sure you watch the video at the bottom of this post to understand what this is all about!
Video:
unnamed soundsculpture.
This is beautiful and fascinating.
by Daniel Franke and Cedric Kiefer:
The basic idea of the project is built upon the consideration of creating
a moving sculpture from the recorded motion data of a real person. For
our work we asked a dancer to visualize a musical piece (Kreukeltape by
Machinenfabriek) as closely as possible by movements of her body. She was
recorded by three depth cameras (Kinect), in which the intersection of the
images was later put together to a three-dimensional volume (3d point cloud),
so we were able to use the collected data throughout the further process.
The three-dimensional image allowed us a completely free handling of the
digital camera, without limitations of the perspective. The camera also reacts
to the sound and supports the physical imitation of the musical piece by the
performer. She moves to a noise field, where a simple modification of the
random seed can consistently create new versions of the video, each offering
a different composition of the recorded performance. The multi-dimensionality
of the sound sculpture is already contained in every movement of the dancer,
as the camera footage allows any imaginable perspective.
Studio Zimoun.
These days i’ve been really appreciating installations. As I enter my 2nd wave of minimalism (my original minimalism phase was back in 2000-2002 where i literally lived with nearly no possessions), the idea of specific isolation seems more important than absolute reduction. These installations by Studio Zimoun are fascinating for the detail they transfer when a specific object is placed in an organized manner in a limited space.
src: minimalissimo
history of typography.
I am in love with fonts. In a different life, i would sit in a studio all day designing fonts. I am perpetually looking at fonts: on signs, on websites, in films, on cars, on badging, on artwork, in books, in magazines, old, new, ugly, beautiful—they just fascinate me!
Here’s a wicked and creative video flashing the history of typography in 5 minutes, by Ben Barrett-Forest:
src: huh
1995 TT concept in B&W.
The MK1 TT is quite simply the most beautiful German car design in…what…the last 50 years….since the original Porsche 911, in my humblest opinion. The 80s and early 90s were pretty dark and depressing times for German car design which entered a comfort zone of drab, unimaginative, uncreative designs (except Porsche, who were always putting together interesting cars)..and the TT put an end to those dark ages. Timeless, ageless, and pure…..and with rumours of the next-generation MK3 TT being heavily influenced by the original, the MK1 TT’s legend will continue to grow.
Here’s the original 1995 MK1 TT Concept….the automotive design equivalent of punk rock in 1995! I have turned the original manufacturer photos in B&W to fully appreciate the geometry and design pornography!
It is astounding to me that the MK1 TT Coupe that sits in my garage (for the last 10+ years) is virtually identical to this concept, barring a few select details.
TR6 and dog.
Came across this fantastic photo taken by Mark Thomas of a Triumph TR6 and a big dog….
Screengrab.
This is SUCH a cool video!
IEDEI 