December 31, 2015
December 30, 2015
Marc Isaacs - Lift (2001)
"Filmmaker Marc Isaacs sets himself up in a London tower block lift. The residents come to trust him and reveal the things that matter to them creating a humorous and moving portrait of a vertical community."
December 29, 2015
Graham Norton S18E12
Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, David Beckham and Kylie Minogue.
December 28, 2015
December 27, 2015
Jacob Harmer - Nets
Jacob Harmer - Nets from White Lodge on Vimeo.
"Growing up in Hastings on Britain's south coast, English director Jacob Harmer would spend his summers diving off the harbor arm. It was here he first met Willy, the older of the two young fishermen whose tough but fiercely independent way of life he captures in Nets. Rekindling their friendship after many years, Harmer joined Willy and his crewmates out on the family boat to uncover the pleasures and the perils of working life onboard a trawler."
Piffaro - 21 Duo Seraphim
"Music from an Advent Vespers as it would have been experienced in early 17th c. Dresden."
December 26, 2015
Benjamin Millepied: Haut Vol
The Paris Opera Ballet takes flight above the French capital.
December 25, 2015
Have a creepy little Christmas
With these unsettling Victorian Christmas cards.
December 24, 2015
The Complaint of Christmas
“To conclude, I’ll tell you news that’s right, Christmas was killed at Naseby fight.”
December 23, 2015
‘Star Wars’ exerts Force on catwalk
"I would look out for (in no particular order, and in both men’s and women’s wear): the return of sand tones; the rise of the flight-suit variation of the jumpsuit; distressed leather; pleated drapery beyond Fortuny silks; and tailored kimono dressing."
Kim Wilde And Mel Smith - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Hat tip to Mr. Percifield.
December 22, 2015
Sci-fragettes
"It started with Uhura. Then came Leia, Ripley, Scully, Buffy, Cersei, Katniss (Everdeen), Furiosa and Jessica Jones. And with a female protagonist in the shape of Daisy Ridley’s Rey, and the gender-flipped casting of Gwendoline Christie as baddie Captain Phasma, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is looking to add to that list."
December 21, 2015
Nevarte
"Together, a fragrance legend and a horticultural pioneer have cultivated what could be the first new perfume rose in more than a century.
"The new rose created by the nose Francis Kurkdjian and the breeder Fabien Ducher. They spent six years ferreting out the ancestral chains of Damask and May roses to develop their hybrid, which they call Nevarte."
December 20, 2015
Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement
"Can movement tell a story? Sure, if you’re as gifted as Akira Kurosawa. More than any other filmmaker, he had an innate understanding of movement and how to capture it onscreen. Join me today in studying the master, possibly the greatest composer of motion in film history."
The Illustrated Dune
"I can envision no more perfect visual representation of my Dune world than John Schoenherr's careful and accurate illustrations." -Frank Herbert.
December 19, 2015
December 18, 2015
Jules-Adolphe Breton - The Song of the Lark (1884)
"Bill Murray shared a deeply personal account of how a painting literally saved his life while speaking to Russell from Red Carpet News TV at the London Press conference ahead of the UK premiere of new film The Monuments Men."
Halti as an anniversary gift
“The aim of the site is to see how many Norwegians are interested in giving Finland the peak of the Halti mountain, which is 20 metres within our borders, as an anniversary gift in 2017.”
December 17, 2015
J.J. Abrams discusses Star Wars:The Force Awakens (Aol BUILD Interview 30.11.2015)
"Join filmmaker J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Lost) as he discusses the most highly anticipated film of the year, 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.' Thirty years after defeating the Galactic Empire, Han Solo and his allies face a new threat from the evil Kylo Ren. Favorites like Solo, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and Leia join newcomers Rey, Finn and Maz Kanata for an intense galactic showdown."
Slavoj Žižek on Star Wars: Revenge of Global Finance
"Where, then, does this leave us? The ultimate postmodern irony is today’s strange exchange between the West and the East. At the very moment when, at the level of 'economic infrastructure,' Western technology and capitalism are triumphing worldwide, at the level of 'ideological superstructure,' the Judeo-Christian legacy is threatened in the West itself by the onslaught of New Age 'Asiatic' thought. Such Eastern wisdom, from 'Western Buddhism' to Taoism, is establishing itself as the hegemonic ideology of global capitalism. But while Western Buddhism presents itself as the remedy against the stress of capitalism’s dynamics–by allowing us to uncouple and retain some inner peace–it actually functions as the perfect ideological supplement."
December 16, 2015
Rembrandt vs Vermeer: The Titans of Dutch Painting
Filmed at the Royal Geographical Society on 15th October 2014.
"Rembrandt van Rijn is the best known of all the Dutch masters. His range was vast, from landscapes to portraits to Biblical scenes; he revolutionised every medium he handled, from oil paintings to etchings and drawings. His vision encompassed every element of life – the sleeping lion; the pissing baby; the lacerated soles of the returned prodigal son.
"Making the case for him in this debate will be Simon Schama. For him Rembrandt is humanity unedited: rough, raw, violent, manic, vain, greedy and manipulative. Formal beauty was the least of his concerns, argues Schama, yet he attains beauty through his understanding of the human condition, including to be sure, his own.
"But for novelist Tracy Chevalier it can all get a little exhausting. Rembrandt’s paintings, she believes – even those that are not his celebrated self-portraits – are all about himself. Championing Vermeer, she will claim that his charm lies in the very fact that he absents himself from his paintings. As a result they are less didactic and more magical than Rembrandt’s, giving the viewer room to breathe."
No brand
"Muji, founded in 1980 in Japan, offers what the company calls “no-brand quality goods”: unembellished household items, stationery, clothing and knickknacks. Each item is packaged minimally, priced reasonably and injected with a higher dose of design intelligence than you find at most mass retailers.
"There are boxes of wool to play with and potted plants purifying the air. The store soundtrack is weighted toward instrumental flute arrangements. It’s like Ikea on Klonopin."
December 15, 2015
Kristoffer Hellesmark - The Hitch (2014)
'The Hitch'- Christopher Hitchens documentary from Kristoffer Hellesmark on Vimeo.
Quite apart from the subject matter, one of the nest thought out, best put together, inspired and by turns inspirational works of documentary I've ever watched through at 2 in the morning.
December 14, 2015
Stephan's Six - Monsieur Guerlain
"When Monsieur Guerlain started his website back in 2006 it was because there was so little information available about the company. Apart from a few books there was no dedicated site. A lifelong fan, he started to pull together every piece of information that he could find, and his impartiality meant that he has become the unofficial authority on Guerlain."
Chase Holfelder & Kurt Hugo Schneider - All I want for Christmas is you
December 13, 2015
December 12, 2015
December 11, 2015
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong
Wall Street Journal: "Nothing really prepares you for it."
December 08, 2015
To whom it may concern; necessities
To whom it may concern; necessities (full film) from To whom it may concern. on Vimeo.
December 06, 2015
Text Santa Downton Abbey
Text Santa Downton Abbey from ITV Press Centre on Vimeo.
It’s all in the process
"A new show explores the work of Richard Meier."
December 05, 2015
All manner of madness ensued
"As the story goes, in 1965 a small group of Italian architects, frustrated by what they considered to be the ineffectiveness of postwar design, found themselves at the forefront of an innovative new movement which sought to use architecture as a tool for social change. The movement assumed the moniker Radical Design, and claimed the dancefloor as its arena; before long, clubs had become the ultimate spaces for multidisciplinary creative freedom, and an outlet for the collective's socio-political frustration."
December 04, 2015
Harry Harrison - The Lost Battleship (1960)
"It might seem a little careless to lose track of something as big as a battleship... but interstellar space is on a different scale of magnitude."
December 03, 2015
Karl Lagerfeld - Once and Forever (2015)
"Karl Lagerfeld's new film that goes behind the scenes of a biopic on Gabrielle Chanel, starring Kristen Stewart, Geraldine Chaplin, Jérémie Elkaïm, François Marthouret, Amanda Harlech, Jamie Bochert, Jake Davies, Baptiste Giabiconi and Laura Brown."
December 01, 2015
British Museum - Curators’ Corner: Irving Finkel
"Irving Finkel has possibly the coolest job in the world – he’s curator of cuneiform at the British Museum. Since 1979 he’s been trawling the Museum’s 130,000 clay tablets for clues about life in ancient Mesopotamia. In this film, he tells us about a particular tablet he found that contains the rules of a board game – a board game that he’s been obsessed with since childhood."
Message in a Bottle
Luca Turin reviews the Latest Comme des Garçons and Carolina Herrera Fragrances.