tabula rosa at the moderna museet


i felt as if i should adhere to the current mentioning of sweden here at ts.  i recently read an article featuring a short q&a with daniel birnbaum, the moderna museet of stockholm’s newest curator (c. 2010).  daniel is a visionary of extraordinary lengths, who not only has vast experience in the art world, but spent most of his childhood in stockholm.  he wants to create a “tabula rasa” or clean slate for the museum, being able to envision “an experimental playground for contemporary artists”  this incorporates trying to transition the museum from a eurocentric institution, to a modular, globalized unit (where have I heard that before) …according to birnbaum, the secret of the art world is that, “nothing is hidden.”  perhaps this is an entity he will share with us in exhibitions to come. by sv

CATEGORIES: art

Naughty Men: Gerard Depardieu + Abel Ferrara + Dominique Strauss Kahn


talking about naughty politicians…. abel ferrara to direct a film about the sexual fiasco of the french presidential hopeful and head of the IMF, mister dominique strauss kahn. gerard depardieu will  simply play himself. while i’m not a fan of khan, and quite familiar with his past behaviors i am near certain the new york incident was a setup for an obvious trap. the film by ferrara will certainly tell such a story, let’s just hope it’s not over the top and obnoxious as abel can sometimes be. by dd

CATEGORIES: must be considered films

Mimi Beardsley: JFK’s affair with the then 19 year old white house intern

interning at roman polanski’s studio seems safer than interning at the white house!

it appears that bill clinton wasn’t the only one having fun on the job. it also appears that jfk had superior taste and judgement compared to mr. clinton. the then 19-year-old intern at the white house, mimi beardsley, apparently lost her virginity to the president in 1962, after she had been invited to swim at the white house pool, (where george bush choked on a pretzel). jfk’s affair went on to last 18 months and the relationship apparently continued even after mimi left washington, and she claims to have slept with kennedy just days before he was assassinated. all of this remained her secret until very recently. her book of memoirs “once upon a secret” is published by random house and will make for good reading if you like the vanity fair’s take on the tabloid stories. by dd

CATEGORIES: books, naughty stuff

cave of forgotten dreams: a look at the recently discovered Chauvet caves in the South of France by werner herzog

i finally got to see this, bit slow and boring but herzog’s amazingly gentle german voice makes anything charming to listen to. it’s worth seeing for sure if you are at all interested in the human psyche or fred astaire (just watch it and you’ll see) only herzog can put chauvet caves, albino alligators, nuclear power plants and cave painting into one film and shoot it all in 3d. i’m still puzzled at how they did the aerial shot through the arc? its not his best but its 100% herzog for any fan. by dd

CATEGORIES: clips, must be considered films

anti sweden: anti denim from the nors vikings


our norwegian friends at anti sweden denim are at it again. of course, this is not a serious “anti”… these are peace loving vikings from norway, the anti is a little jab at all the swedish brands that have taken over the world so successfully like cheap mondays, ACNE, nudie jeans, H&M, levi’s (is levi’s from sweden?) etc. … in any case, there is room for everyone if we all promise to share in the shopping, the jeans are not cheap but they are viking tough ; ) by kv

CATEGORIES: fashion mens

Album Covers: durutti column factory records

made of sand paper, and guaranteed to grind away the other crap albums in your record collection.

 

durutti column was actually one the few bands that came out of factory that was less pop driven, and is still quite listenable to today. the album covers as expected, were different. the fact 14 durutti column cover was made of sand paper, and limited to 2,000 initial copies. funny enough, the covers were hand assembled by joy division’s ian curtis.  who, at the time, needed the extra cash making for an even more special object. the design credit is generally given to peter saville and tony wilson, but apparently steve horsfall had a good thing or two to do with it. again, as all ideas go, who knows in this case whether the use of an abrasive sand paper is really the great idea for a band that was different enough to aim to grind away all your other crappy albums of the time. i personally love it and it’s one of my favorite covers of that time. by uh

CATEGORIES: album covers