“Emilio Portaluppi was an Italian artist who changed his travel plans to join the Titanic at the last minute. He traveled as a second class passenger, according to new archival research into the elusive Titanic survivor. And though he may not have had the charms of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster movie, Portaluppi was a romantic with first class tastes.”
Month: April 2012
France – That Hotbed Of Ultra-Contemporary Art, Right?
“‘There are fantastic French artists out there,’ said Allegra Pesenti, curator of the Hammer Museum’s Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts. For Pesenti, the only problem has been finding them. ‘The thing that’s always surprised me is that there are great galleries in Paris, and yet they show so few French artists.'”
Blame The 1950s For Stilettos (And Injection Molding For These Knee-Crippling Shoes)
Who designed stilettos? Basically, it all comes down to WWII, and the world’s recovery from that time period. Then things got crazy. “As heel tips shrank to the size of tacks, the stiletto, named for an Italian shiv from the 1700s, became an emblem of the Jet Age and French haute couture.”
How To Define (And Evaluate) 21st Century Music
New music shares a few broad characteristics – and it’s possible to look at the music now, rather than waiting, to see what’s worthwhile.
Censoring The London Book Fair To Please China – What A Terrible Idea For Britain
The London Book Fair has invited Chinese authors specifically sanctioned by the state – and that’s far from enough, especially when the event takes public funding. “If British publishing goes along with this grubby stitch-up, it will indeed dishonour not just its best traditions but the best traditions of this country, which we – silly, complacent people that we are – do too little to defend.”
Let’s Not Put On These Google Glasses
“Today, social media are hailed for empowering dissidents and undercutting tyrannies around the world. Yet it’s hard not to watch the Google video and agree with Forbes’s Kashmir Hill when she suggests that such a technology could ultimately ‘accelerate the arrival of the persistent and pervasive citizen surveillance state,’ in which everything you see and do can be recorded, reported, subpoenaed … you name it.”
Having A Hard Time Getting Off The Sofa? Grab A Good (Audio)Book
“It is we amateur runners who are likeliest to turn to audiobooks as a training accompaniment, I suspect. Far from wanting to ‘listen to our breathing’ to achieve an optimum split time, we’d rather drown it out with something more interesting that will distract our minds from the miles of unrun road ahead. As I found with The Fear Index, a cliffhanging chapter ending will force the most reluctant runner into his or her trainers again, not for the fun of training but simply to find out what happens next.”
Sarajevo Museums Under (Budgetary) Siege
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s major cultural institutions, including the National Gallery and the National Museum, which are both in the capital Sarajevo, are in danger of closing indefinitely due to a lack of funding and government support.” The staff work without pay or heat, and are desperately trying to get some attention to the museums’ plight.
How Can Artists Make Environmentally Ethical Art?
It’s tough. “The visual arts do not always produce the prettiest of pictures. There are lashings of toxic pigments, solvents, petrochemicals, formaldehyde and other ecologically destructive preservatives thrown into the mix of a working studio.”
The Prime Minister May Try To Kill Libraries, But They Refuse To Die
“Trestle tables are strewn with everything from well-thumbed copies of Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize winner, to a pristine biography of Sigmund Freud. Children sit on the grass listening to storytellers. William Orbit plays from a portable sound system. An upright coffin with the words ‘RIP Barnet Libraries’ on the side leans against the tent. Here, on a patch of green in an entirely unassuming part of north London, the ‘People’s Library’ is in full swing.”