October 31, 2015
Secrets of Althorp - The Spencers (2013)
"Althorp, childhood home and final resting place of Princess Diana, is currently the home of Diana’s brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer. Nineteen generations of Spencers have presided over this grand estate for more than 500 years. The Spencer dynasty has produced politicians, military heroes, dukes and duchesses and will one day furnish Britain with a king: Diana’s son, Prince William."
Fizz and Sparkle: The Effervescent Life of Deborah, The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire
October 29, 2015
Donatella Versace Interview | In The Studio | The New York Times
"Donatella Versace, who became chief designer after the murder of her brother Gianni, chats with Vanessa Friedman about how her Milan office reflects her pain and inspires her to keep Versace relevant."
October 28, 2015
October 27, 2015
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird (1910)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, conducting.
"The Firebird (French: L'Oiseau de feu; Russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa) is a ballet by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, with choreography by Michel Fokine. The scenario by Alexandre Benois and Michel Fokine is based on Russian fairy tales of the magical glowing bird that can be both a blessing and a curse to its owner. At the premiere on 25 June 1910 in Paris, the work was an instant success with both audience and critics."
The Spirit Of Travel from Louis Vuitton
"A quest for freedom and adventure, introducing the new Spirit of Travel Campaign from Louis Vuitton starring Michelle Williams and Alicia Vikander."
October 26, 2015
October 25, 2015
Golden Leaves, a tribute to Gordon Lightfoot
"On a crisp autumn day with his hit The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald playing in the background, a humble Gordon Lightfoot reflected on his roots in Orillia, Ont., as a lakefront sculpture of the singer-songwriter was unveiled before hundreds of fans."
"The sculpture depicts Lightfoot as he would have appeared on the cover of the 1975 greatest-hits compilation, Gord's Gold. Lightfoot is seen sitting cross-legged, playing an acoustic guitar underneath a massive arch of maple leaves. The leaves feature scenes representing the songs on Gord's Gold, including Summer Side of Life, Carefree Highway and If You Could Read My Mind.
"The interpretive scenes were included so figurative artist Timothy Schmalz could craft a work of art that would create curiosity about Lightfoot and his work as the years wore on, rather than putting together a piece simply showing Lightfoot playing a guitar. He listened to the songs depicted on the leaves over and over again to get each one right. Sometimes the inspiration struck right away; other times, it changed frequently."
"Thanks to Christopher Bratty of the Remington Group, Lightfoot will be part of Orillia, and this beautiful spot in the heart of Canada, forever."
"Schmalz's work won universal praise at the ceremony; among others, Bratty called it 'magnificent.' But perhaps none of the accolades were as important as from the subject himself, who the sculptor called Canada's answer to William Shakespeare."
With thanks to two of Canada's greatest artists, Gordon Lightfoot and Timothy Schmalz, the generosity, hospitality and grace of the people of Orillia and Christopher Bratty and the Rudolph P. Bratty Family Foundation, and everyone at Jesson + Company Communications.
"Life is an increment of moments." - Sharyn Thomas-Counce
All images © 2015 Nicholas Packwood. For full size images, contact information is in the sidebar.
October 24, 2015
W. H. Auden - Tell Me The Truth About Love
"Documentary film looking at the poetry of W H Auden, revealing how it came not just from inspiration but from a rigorous scientific analysis of love itself. When he died in 1973, he left behind some of the greatest love poems of the 20th century. Most of his unpublished material was destroyed, apart from two short journals and a series of jottings, containing diagrams and notes about the nature of love."
October 22, 2015
It's good to see other melted people
"The most breathtaking moment in the new trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” trailer doesn’t involve explosions or lightsabers or ominous references to the Dark Side. It’s an eyeblink-long shot of Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, in the embrace of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo. It’s a moment of a weary-looking woman with graying hair and lines on her face. Holy science fiction, Hollywood — somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away, a grown woman has been given permission to look like a grown woman."
One to a customer
"Kaufmann Mercantile wants each thing you buy to be the last of its kind you will ever need."
October 21, 2015
October 20, 2015
Introducing The Burberry Scarf Bar
"From raw cashmere to the finished design, discover the craftsmanship behind our iconic Burberry cashmere scarves. Made in Scotland at two distinguished mills by expert craftsmen, over 30 colours, check and prints are available as part of The Scarf Bar."
Introducing Scarf Styling from Burberry
Burberry Scarf Styling Tutorial - The Bandana.
Usonia revisited
"Having been transplanted - in trucks full of carefully catalogued pieces - some 1,250 miles from its original site in Millstone, New Jersey and meticulously reconstructed in Bentonville, Wright's Bachman-Wilson house has started a second life nearly sixty years after it was first built."
October 19, 2015
October 18, 2015
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Gergiev · Vienna Philharmonic · Salzburg Festival 2005
October 17, 2015
Smoke without fire
"Now, all fragrance is an illusion. But to create smokiness, perfumers use a range of materials (both synthetic and natural): isobutyl quinolone, cade oil (also known as ‘juniper tar’, birch tar (leathery, rich), resins such as labdanum (from the cistus plant) and opoponax. It’s done with such deftness that some smoky perfumes can almost trigger a fight-or-flight response, when you catch a whiff unexpectedly."
Short story dispensers
“The idea came to us in front of a vending machine containing chocolate bars and drinks. We said to ourselves that we could do the same thing with good quality popular literature to occupy these little unproductive moments.”
Ignaz Joseph Pleyel - Symphony in F major
The symphony is set in 4 movements:
1. Allegro assai (0:00)
2. Andante grazioso con sordini (7:22)
3. Minuetto: Allegretto (11:13)
4. Rondo (14:08)
Composed by Ignaz Pleyel in 1786 and published in Paris in 1787. A copy at the Stams Monastery attributes it to Mozart.
Performers: Philharmonie Györ, conducted by Paul Weigold.
October 16, 2015
Plum: A portrait of P.G. Wodehouse (1989)
"P.G. Wodehouse , perhaps best known and best loved of English comic novelists, is still something of a mystery. Affable and accessible to journalists, he was cripplingly shy and remained inscrutable about his private life. Bookmark traces his career, from an Edwardian middle class family to his experiences in a German internment camp, with the help of Tom Sharpe , Barrie Pitt , Lady Frances Donaldson , Sir Edward Cazalet and Lt Col Norman Murphy , a Wodehouse scholar who claims to have discovered the origins of Blandings "
The Laughing Philosopher
"To be taken seriously is an accolade for the thinker. But from Nietzsche to Derrida, big ideas have been expressed through irony, satire and jest. Might comedy be the best and perhaps only way to convey some truths, or is truth never a laughing matter?"
October 15, 2015
October 13, 2015
October 12, 2015
In depth: Astute
The nuclear submarine that can remain underwater for 25 years.
"They've got a crew of five to seven, we've got 97 or so," he says. "They go out for a couple of weeks, we go out for 90 days. They typically went on 100 missions, we've got 25 years to operate. In terms of environment, they're 200 miles up, we're hundreds of metres beneath the sea. It's very benign up there, because there's no pressure or corrosion, whereas it's very high pressure and very corrosive under the sea."
October 11, 2015
Objects of burden
"Alisa Siegel's profile of Montrealer Raphaëlle de Groot, who creates art from other peoples' burdens: objects they no longer want that are full of meaning."
October 09, 2015
October 08, 2015
October 07, 2015
Tage Hervén & Hjalmar Ekström - The Egg (2012)
The Egg from Lampray on Vimeo.
"The Egg is a funny short film about religion & existence when a young man meets god.
The film is directed by Tage Hervén & Hjalmar Ekström and is based on a text by Andy Wier.
Starring Johan Holmberg & Samuel Haus"
Formation - Young Ones
Formation perform Young Ones at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Norwich 2015.
October 06, 2015
Cameron: Cinderella of the Wastelands
The uncensored story of Marjorie Cameron.
October 05, 2015
Glenn Gould and the case for moral rights in sound recordings
"The secret of Gould’s success was arguably very simple: it lay in the quality of his recordings. Gould approached recording as no artist had previously done. For him, the goal of recording was not to reproduce his own live performance; rather, it was to create a new, unique work, one that could only have been born in the studio. Live performances were one-off affairs and, if something went wrong, if anything were different from what the artist truly desired, nothing could be done. The failure was complete – a fatality. He called it the “non-take-twoness” of performance. In contrast, the recording studio represented control – supreme, undeniable, artistic control – the ability not so much to excise and avert mistakes (not an issue for Gould) but to re-think and re-conceptualize every instant of a musical interpretation, to exercise creative control over nearly every dimension of the final musical form."
Hat tip to Mr. Tarantino.
October 04, 2015
Balade Sauvage by François Demachy
"You don’t create a fragrance in a laboratory ». Follow François Demachy’s trail of inspiration, in an olfactory road movie."