The latest design trends
Hugo Franca = www.hugofranca.com
Josef Blersch/Mander Liefting = www.notcot.org
Tord Boontje = www.tordboontje.com
Jasper Morrison = www.jaspermorrison.com
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Jazz Century
An Inspired Riff on 'The Jazz Century'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123809641615350821.html
Useful link:
www.quaibranly.fr
It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing. Duke was spot on. Thank you Craig.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123809641615350821.html
Useful link:
www.quaibranly.fr
It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing. Duke was spot on. Thank you Craig.
Mozambique Cuprian Tourmalines
The Complicated History of Mozambique Cuprian 'Paraiba-like' Tourmalines
http://www.agta.org/pressroom/images/200903nf2mozambiquetourmalines.pdf
Useful links:
www.maryjohnsonconsulting.com
www.agta.org
Interesting comments.
http://www.agta.org/pressroom/images/200903nf2mozambiquetourmalines.pdf
Useful links:
www.maryjohnsonconsulting.com
www.agta.org
Interesting comments.
Independent Games Festival Awards 2009
Indie game awards showcase future
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7962983.stm
The world is catching on. Game journalists, industry and yes players are beginning to appreciate indie games. The game playing public is beginning to understand that a tiny team with a brilliant vision can make better games than people with a corporate mandate and millions of dollars to spend. The world is realising that as much as they love big budget shooters, they are hungry for new types of experiences.
- Steve Swink
www.flashbangstudios.com
Useful link:
www.igf.com
Great review.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7962983.stm
The world is catching on. Game journalists, industry and yes players are beginning to appreciate indie games. The game playing public is beginning to understand that a tiny team with a brilliant vision can make better games than people with a corporate mandate and millions of dollars to spend. The world is realising that as much as they love big budget shooters, they are hungry for new types of experiences.
- Steve Swink
www.flashbangstudios.com
Useful link:
www.igf.com
Great review.
Guide To Fine Gems
The Penny Pincher’s Guide to Fine Gems Between $400 and $900 Retail
http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/mar09/penny-pincher2.cfm
Useful links:
www.johndyergems.com
www.colorfirst.com
www.stuller.com
Great collection of colored stones + the fancy cuts very stunningly beautiful, really.
http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/mar09/penny-pincher2.cfm
Useful links:
www.johndyergems.com
www.colorfirst.com
www.stuller.com
Great collection of colored stones + the fancy cuts very stunningly beautiful, really.
Chaim Even-Zohar Viewpoint
Financial Kit Bag Questions
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Useful link:
www.diamondintelligence.com
www.dtc.com
Spot on. The current economic tsunami is global and the diamond industry has taken its toll. Companies that lack resources, leadership, and vision to manage through this crisis will go away one way or another.
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Useful link:
www.diamondintelligence.com
www.dtc.com
Spot on. The current economic tsunami is global and the diamond industry has taken its toll. Companies that lack resources, leadership, and vision to manage through this crisis will go away one way or another.
Skoll World Forum 2009
The 2009 Skoll World Forum will be held at the Said Business School, Oxford, from March 25 - 27, 2009. Check out the link www.skollworldforum.com/forum-2009
Useful link:
www.skollfoundation.org
Useful link:
www.skollfoundation.org
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Gary Hamel Viewpoint
The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500
Useful links:
www.garyhamel.com
www.managementlab.org
Spot on. Excellent post. This is a breath of fresh air.
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500
Useful links:
www.garyhamel.com
www.managementlab.org
Spot on. Excellent post. This is a breath of fresh air.
Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft's 'VB65' attempts to force spectators to see Africans differently
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/25/arts/beecroft.php
I wanted to force the Milanese bourgeoisie to enter a private space regulated by the statutes of art, that is the museum, and observe people widely seen as the violators of privacy, people that are seen as different. You need to put something crude on show to provoke a reaction in the public.
- Vanessa Beecroft
Useful links:
www.vanessabeecroft.com
www.pac-milano.org
www.miart.it
What a show!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/25/arts/beecroft.php
I wanted to force the Milanese bourgeoisie to enter a private space regulated by the statutes of art, that is the museum, and observe people widely seen as the violators of privacy, people that are seen as different. You need to put something crude on show to provoke a reaction in the public.
- Vanessa Beecroft
Useful links:
www.vanessabeecroft.com
www.pac-milano.org
www.miart.it
What a show!
Jewelry Market Update
US Jewellery Superstore sells at 40-80% discount
http://www.commodityonline.com/goldnews/US-Jewellery-Superstore-sells-at-40-80-discount-2009-03-25-16319-3-1.html
The U.S. jewellery sector is contracting along with the economy, and national and regional chains alike are struggling to stay afloat. The good news for price-conscious consumers is that this trend is creating once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunities. The Henricks Jewelers sale is a perfect example.
- Gary Jorgensen
Useful link:
www.buxbaumgroup.com
We are seeing similar trend in Asia as well.
http://www.commodityonline.com/goldnews/US-Jewellery-Superstore-sells-at-40-80-discount-2009-03-25-16319-3-1.html
The U.S. jewellery sector is contracting along with the economy, and national and regional chains alike are struggling to stay afloat. The good news for price-conscious consumers is that this trend is creating once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunities. The Henricks Jewelers sale is a perfect example.
- Gary Jorgensen
Useful link:
www.buxbaumgroup.com
We are seeing similar trend in Asia as well.
Sustainable Luxury: New Delhi 2009
Sustainable Luxury: New Delhi 2009
http://www.iht.com/indexes/special/luxury2009/index.php
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/these-changing-times-iht-sustainable-luxury-conference-2009/?hpw
Interesting perspective. It echoes a number of issues. I hope they do the right thing.
http://www.iht.com/indexes/special/luxury2009/index.php
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/these-changing-times-iht-sustainable-luxury-conference-2009/?hpw
Interesting perspective. It echoes a number of issues. I hope they do the right thing.
New Amber Collection
Meet Marcin Wesolowski + the company's new buff top amber stones.
www.nac.pl
Stunningly beautiful, really. I liked it.
www.nac.pl
Stunningly beautiful, really. I liked it.
Pricing HTHP-Treated Diamonds
Identifying and Pricing HTHP-Treated Diamonds
http://www.gemguide.com/news/AGTAMar09HTTP.htm
Natural diamonds may be treated to improve their colorless appearance or to produce a variety of colors. The most common method used today is the High Temperature, High Pressure method, or HTHP. Other methods include irradiation, annealing, and combinations of treatment methods. Because of this, the identification of treated diamonds poses the greatest challenge to the gem labs today.
- Richard B. Drucker
Useful links:
www.gemguide.com
www.agta.org
Great review.
http://www.gemguide.com/news/AGTAMar09HTTP.htm
Natural diamonds may be treated to improve their colorless appearance or to produce a variety of colors. The most common method used today is the High Temperature, High Pressure method, or HTHP. Other methods include irradiation, annealing, and combinations of treatment methods. Because of this, the identification of treated diamonds poses the greatest challenge to the gem labs today.
- Richard B. Drucker
Useful links:
www.gemguide.com
www.agta.org
Great review.
Blue Fluorescent Diamonds
Final Filtration and LEDS: A Four-Prong Solutionto Overgrading Blue Fluorescent Diamonds
http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/mar09/fluorescent-diamonds.cfm
Here are the conclusions Michael Cowing reached on ending the chronic problem of overgrading blue fluorescent diamonds. His study demonstrates that the 'true body color' of a diamond can be easily and accurately graded against master diamonds at normal wearing distance from daylight fluorescent overhead illumination (3 to 4 feet distant) where neither the UV nor 'visible violet' is strong enough to influence the color grade. He offers a four-prong inexpensive combination of solutions involving present and future grading illuminations:
1. The desired grade for a blue fluorescent diamond should be reaffirmed as its 'true body color' defined historically in the diamond trade as that color seen in typical artificial lighting where fluorescence is not stimulated. This color is correctly seen at typical viewing distances from fluorescent and incandescent ceiling lighting—usually covered with some kind of plastic diffuser.
2. Since lab grading is done from about 2 to 10 inches from fluorescent tubes (rather than 3 to 4 feet away where UV has significantly decreased), Cowing recommends the use of a polycarbonate plastic like Lexan as an effective and inexpensive filter to remove UV from 400nm down—without affecting perception of the visible spectrum.
3. To solve the fluorescence whitening caused by 'visible violet' Cowing recommends use of flat-white plastic diffusers which attenuate violet and all visible wavelengths equally, so that fluorescence is not stimulated nor is the diamond’s color altered. Such white diffusers have the added bonus of reducing spectral reflections and glare.
4. In concert with the movement to the 'green' technology of LED lighting, use of white LED lighting such as the investigation’s Dazor LED desk lamp, not only provides inherently, UV-free grading light, but is dimmable without change in color temperature down to 2000-4000lux, so as not to stimulate fluorescence from the visible-violet.
- Michael D. Cowing
An interesting viewpoint on blue fluorescent diamonds. It makes sense.
http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/mar09/fluorescent-diamonds.cfm
Here are the conclusions Michael Cowing reached on ending the chronic problem of overgrading blue fluorescent diamonds. His study demonstrates that the 'true body color' of a diamond can be easily and accurately graded against master diamonds at normal wearing distance from daylight fluorescent overhead illumination (3 to 4 feet distant) where neither the UV nor 'visible violet' is strong enough to influence the color grade. He offers a four-prong inexpensive combination of solutions involving present and future grading illuminations:
1. The desired grade for a blue fluorescent diamond should be reaffirmed as its 'true body color' defined historically in the diamond trade as that color seen in typical artificial lighting where fluorescence is not stimulated. This color is correctly seen at typical viewing distances from fluorescent and incandescent ceiling lighting—usually covered with some kind of plastic diffuser.
2. Since lab grading is done from about 2 to 10 inches from fluorescent tubes (rather than 3 to 4 feet away where UV has significantly decreased), Cowing recommends the use of a polycarbonate plastic like Lexan as an effective and inexpensive filter to remove UV from 400nm down—without affecting perception of the visible spectrum.
3. To solve the fluorescence whitening caused by 'visible violet' Cowing recommends use of flat-white plastic diffusers which attenuate violet and all visible wavelengths equally, so that fluorescence is not stimulated nor is the diamond’s color altered. Such white diffusers have the added bonus of reducing spectral reflections and glare.
4. In concert with the movement to the 'green' technology of LED lighting, use of white LED lighting such as the investigation’s Dazor LED desk lamp, not only provides inherently, UV-free grading light, but is dimmable without change in color temperature down to 2000-4000lux, so as not to stimulate fluorescence from the visible-violet.
- Michael D. Cowing
An interesting viewpoint on blue fluorescent diamonds. It makes sense.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thomas Harth Ames
One of the finest opals of any time on public display is a slice of Oregon contra luz engraved by master carver Thomas Harth Ames of Arvada, Colorado. The opal bears the likeness of Mount Hood illuminated by the aurora borealis. It is on display in the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Oregon. Check out the link www.ricenwmuseum.org
Beauty Of Color
The Violent Beauty of Color
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123793427020031141.html
Useful links:
www.metmuseum.org
www.moma.org
Great review.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123793427020031141.html
Useful links:
www.metmuseum.org
www.moma.org
Great review.
Maldive Effect
Wisdom of the smallUseful links:
-
Great idea. I hope it's a do-able project. On a side note, to me Maldives, which is a chain of small coral islands, looked like liquid/crystal inclusions in blue sapphires, really.
Ancient Rock Art
Ancient rock art from around the world
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29844547?pg=1#Tech_8RockArt
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29844547?pg=1#Tech_8RockArt
God Of Carnage
A fearless approach to funny drama
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/23/arts/carnage.php
Useful links:
www.godofcarnage.com
www.shubertorganization.com
A very interesting play.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/23/arts/carnage.php
Useful links:
www.godofcarnage.com
www.shubertorganization.com
A very interesting play.
Deeper Luxury Report
Deeper Luxury Report by Jem Bendell and Anthony Kleanthous
http://www.wwf.org.uk/deeperluxury/report.html
Useful link:
www.wwf.org.uk/deeperluxury
A must read.
http://www.wwf.org.uk/deeperluxury/report.html
Useful link:
www.wwf.org.uk/deeperluxury
A must read.
Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages
Akiyoshi Kitaoka's Illusion Pages
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html
Stunningly Brilliant!
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html
Stunningly Brilliant!
New Ventures India
New Ventures India = Sustainable, socially responsible and environmentally beneficial enterprises
Useful link:
www.newventuresindia.org
Useful link:
www.newventuresindia.org
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
HeadStart Foundation
HeadStart Foundation = Not-for-profit network of technology entrepreneurs
http://headstart.in
I found the start-up survey in India via LiveMint interesting. Check out the links http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/23214643/Startup-survey-raises-questio.html?h=B
http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/23214643/5060930E-1385-4E93-ADDA-48910B18075EArtVPF.pdf
http://headstart.in
I found the start-up survey in India via LiveMint interesting. Check out the links http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/23214643/Startup-survey-raises-questio.html?h=B
http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/23214643/5060930E-1385-4E93-ADDA-48910B18075EArtVPF.pdf
Aleksander Gliwiñski
Meet Aleksander Gliwiñski + his approach to amber jewelry design/life.
www.aleksandergliwinski.pl
www.aleksandergliwinski.pl
Pearl Commission Viewpoint
The CIBJO Pearl Commission has unanimously voted against the use of the term 'cultured' to describe synthetic diamonds. Check out the link www.cibjo.org
The Differentiated Workforce
The Differentiated Workforce: Transforming Talent into Strategic Impact by Brian E. Becker, Mark A. Huselid, Richard W. Beatty is an interesting book on the idea of human capital + its impact + how to plan for/use talent effectively. A must read.Useful link:
Synthetic Art
The Medium Is the Message
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123784613601418261.html
Useful link:
www.whitney.org
Great review. To me synthetic art = synthetic materials.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123784613601418261.html
Useful link:
www.whitney.org
Great review. To me synthetic art = synthetic materials.
Sweatshops
Why Sweatshops Flourish
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6126.html
A big chunk of marketing is around the issue of how we consume to express our identity. Diamonds have no intrinsic value, but they have such great symbolic and cultural value that demand has created environmental destruction and wars.
- Neeru Paharia
I completely agree. A very timely and informative study.
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6126.html
A big chunk of marketing is around the issue of how we consume to express our identity. Diamonds have no intrinsic value, but they have such great symbolic and cultural value that demand has created environmental destruction and wars.
- Neeru Paharia
I completely agree. A very timely and informative study.
Kuniyoshi Project
Utagawa Kuniyoshi at the Royal Academy: Manga master of the 19th century
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/mar/23/art-exhibition?picture=344945122
Useful links:
www.kuniyoshiproject.com
www.royalacademy.org.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/mar/23/art-exhibition?picture=344945122
Useful links:
www.kuniyoshiproject.com
www.royalacademy.org.uk
Random Thoughts
It's a beautiful example of a sustainable style. I think saris are also subject to trends — very subtle trends, probably. But it's beautiful because it's so authentic and it's very much part of the country. We would hate for a country like India, with its emerging economy, to all of a sudden switch to jeans, T-shirts and high heels — God forbid!
- Viktor Horsting + Rolf Snoeren
www.viktor-rolf.com
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/23/style/fdelhi.php
Spot on.
- Viktor Horsting + Rolf Snoeren
www.viktor-rolf.com
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/23/style/fdelhi.php
Spot on.
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Essence Of The Entrepreneur 2009
The Essence of the Entrepreneur 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=5617394&&offset=0&§ionName=BusinessEntrepreneur
Useful link:
www.essenceoftheentrepreneur.co.uk
Inspiring.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=5617394&&offset=0&§ionName=BusinessEntrepreneur
Useful link:
www.essenceoftheentrepreneur.co.uk
Inspiring.
The Ralph Esmerian Story
Diamonds are a banker's worst friend
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/18/magazines/fortune/kapner_jewelry.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009031812
Merrill Lynch didn't understand what they were getting into. But I didn't understand what I was getting into either. In my business, if you're late making a payment it's no big deal.
- Ralph Esmerian
Useful link:
www.fredleighton.com
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently (Warren Buffett).
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/18/magazines/fortune/kapner_jewelry.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009031812
Merrill Lynch didn't understand what they were getting into. But I didn't understand what I was getting into either. In my business, if you're late making a payment it's no big deal.
- Ralph Esmerian
Useful link:
www.fredleighton.com
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently (Warren Buffett).
Diamond Beauty
Let There Be Light: A Consumer Guide To The New Diamond Beauty
http://www.modernjeweler.com/print/Modern-Jeweler/Let-There-Be-Light--A-CONSUMER-GUIDE-TO-THE-NEW-DIAMOND-BEAUTY-/1$9
Useful links:
www.modernjeweler.com
www.heartsandarrows.com
www.americangemsociety.org
www.acagemlab.com
Thank you Dave for your brilliantly written 'Let There Be Light' to the Modern Jeweler. It was educational and insightful.
http://www.modernjeweler.com/print/Modern-Jeweler/Let-There-Be-Light--A-CONSUMER-GUIDE-TO-THE-NEW-DIAMOND-BEAUTY-/1$9
Useful links:
www.modernjeweler.com
www.heartsandarrows.com
www.americangemsociety.org
www.acagemlab.com
Thank you Dave for your brilliantly written 'Let There Be Light' to the Modern Jeweler. It was educational and insightful.
Random Thoughts
If one will but analyze the fundamental causes of speculative failure, he will discover that the chief blame lies not in the character of the stock market, not in the fact that the game is loaded against the average speculator, but in weaknesses inherent in human nature. It is not the stock market which beats speculators. It is their own unreasoning instincts and inborn tendencies which they cannot master, and which given free rein lead on to ruin.
- R.W. McNeel
Beating the Stock Market (Chapter 25, Reason vs Instinct)
http://books.google.co.th/books?id=ed6Tw3TCG4AC&dq=R.W.+McNeel&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=S2SbO2kH1a&sig=mYe7I1csaZ5YdBSRYRFDnD6XMyE&hl=en&ei=HdrGSfGtMpCw6wPzscnIBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA2,M1
Spot on.
- R.W. McNeel
Beating the Stock Market (Chapter 25, Reason vs Instinct)
http://books.google.co.th/books?id=ed6Tw3TCG4AC&dq=R.W.+McNeel&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=S2SbO2kH1a&sig=mYe7I1csaZ5YdBSRYRFDnD6XMyE&hl=en&ei=HdrGSfGtMpCw6wPzscnIBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA2,M1
Spot on.
Art Market Update
Sticky fingers
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13351372
Useful links:
www.sothebys.com
www.artloss.com
www.versace.com
This is indeed an interesting story.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13351372
Useful links:
www.sothebys.com
www.artloss.com
www.versace.com
This is indeed an interesting story.
Market Music
In my view, Philip Glass's 'Metamorphosis IV' is the perfect market music because of its unique tone, intensity, color and clarity. Check out the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il4VDf-ugPI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwKFBeZr5Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e44WWY6gm1Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgjby9F_Zjk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLvNULJDpo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf2YGbTjAGc&feature=related
Useful link:
www.philipglass.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il4VDf-ugPI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwKFBeZr5Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e44WWY6gm1Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgjby9F_Zjk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLvNULJDpo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf2YGbTjAGc&feature=related
Useful link:
www.philipglass.com
Open Source Cinema
Film fans urged to 'remix' movie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7952905.stm
http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/rip-a-remix-manifesto
Useful links:
www.opensourcecinema.org
www.etherworks.ca
I loved it. It's creative and a new form of art, really.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7952905.stm
http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/rip-a-remix-manifesto
Useful links:
www.opensourcecinema.org
www.etherworks.ca
I loved it. It's creative and a new form of art, really.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Funded
The Funded Serial Entrepreneur/ Research/ Reviews
www.thefunded.com
www.adeoressi.com
http://thenextweb.com/2008/05/22/video-adeo-ressi-thefundedcom-at-the-next-web-conference-2008
http://2009.thenextweb.com
Priceless advice, really.
www.thefunded.com
www.adeoressi.com
http://thenextweb.com/2008/05/22/video-adeo-ressi-thefundedcom-at-the-next-web-conference-2008
http://2009.thenextweb.com
Priceless advice, really.
Random Thoughts
There is no security on this earth, only opportunity.
- Douglas MacArthur
www.macarthurmemorial.org
Spot on. Inspiring.
- Douglas MacArthur
www.macarthurmemorial.org
Spot on. Inspiring.
The Game
The Game by Ken Dryden is an insightful book about hockey + life. A very special book, indeed. Useful link:
Project Entropia
Online game gets banking licence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7954629.stm
We will be in a position to offer real bank services to the inhabitants of our virtual universe.
- Jan Welter Timkrans
Useful links:
www.entropiauniverse.com
www.fi.se
www.mindark.com
Great idea. I liked it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7954629.stm
We will be in a position to offer real bank services to the inhabitants of our virtual universe.
- Jan Welter Timkrans
Useful links:
www.entropiauniverse.com
www.fi.se
www.mindark.com
Great idea. I liked it.
Brit Insurance Design Award 2009
Obama named 2009's best design
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7952567.stm
Useful links:
www.designsoftheyear.com
http://obeygiant.com
Great review.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7952567.stm
Useful links:
www.designsoftheyear.com
http://obeygiant.com
Great review.
Bill Cunningham Viewpoint
On the Street A Show of Legs in Paris
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/20/fashion/20090322-street-feature/index.html#
Highly educated sense of style. Absolutely dazzling.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/20/fashion/20090322-street-feature/index.html#
Highly educated sense of style. Absolutely dazzling.
Gold Jewelry Market Analysis
Credit crunch impact bodes ill for ‘09 industrialised world jewellery consumption
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=80570&sn=Detail
Useful links:
www.gfms.co.uk
www.gold.org
Interesting perspective. So when will this down-market end? What will turn it around? How much lower can we go? Hard to tell.
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=80570&sn=Detail
Useful links:
www.gfms.co.uk
www.gold.org
Interesting perspective. So when will this down-market end? What will turn it around? How much lower can we go? Hard to tell.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The World's Largest Atlas
The world's largest atlas has been published by Millennium House in English. Check out the link www.millenniumhouse.com.au
Jimmy Choo
Sandals = Gemstones Shoes inspired by jewelry
www.jimmychoo.com/pws/ProductDetails.ice?ProductID=80048&fromPage=collection
Useful link:
www.jimmychoo.com
Matching/stunning, but are the shoes functional?
www.jimmychoo.com/pws/ProductDetails.ice?ProductID=80048&fromPage=collection
Useful link:
www.jimmychoo.com
Matching/stunning, but are the shoes functional?
Proper Cloth
Proper Cloth = Allows customers mix/match colors/fabrics + computer-generated tailoring for the right fit + uses social media tools (Twitter/Facebook/Blog) for marketing purposes. I liked the concept.
Useful link:
www.propercloth.com
Useful link:
www.propercloth.com
Stirring It Up
Gary Hirshberg: Green—Not Greed—Is Good
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29790656
http://www.stonyfield.com/Aboutus/OurMainMoovers.cfm
Useful link:
www.stonyfield.com
Great advice.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29790656
http://www.stonyfield.com/Aboutus/OurMainMoovers.cfm
Useful link:
www.stonyfield.com
Great advice.
Handel’s Work
Georgian splendour
http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13315607
Useful links:
www.bbc.co.uk/composers/handel
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
www.handelhouse.org
www.handel.cswebsites.org
www.haendelfestspiele.halle.de
www.haendel-festspiele.de
A great modest composer, really.
http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13315607
Useful links:
www.bbc.co.uk/composers/handel
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
www.handelhouse.org
www.handel.cswebsites.org
www.haendelfestspiele.halle.de
www.haendel-festspiele.de
A great modest composer, really.
Art Market Update
The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying binge
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/20/arts/melik21.php
Maastricht could have been on another planet where no one had heard of the subprime crisis.
- Souren Melikian
Useful link:
www.tefaf.com
Spot on.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/20/arts/melik21.php
Maastricht could have been on another planet where no one had heard of the subprime crisis.
- Souren Melikian
Useful link:
www.tefaf.com
Spot on.
Ambermoda
Baltic Amber + Artistic Jewelry Designing = Ambermoda
www.ambermoda.com
It is stunningly beautiful, really.
www.ambermoda.com
It is stunningly beautiful, really.
Chaim Even-Zohar Viewpoint
Gangster Viciously Implicates Antwerp Diamond Dealers
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Useful links:
www.diamondintelligence.com
www.mine2mistress.com
Spot on. An old story/scam + a possible movie in the making.
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Useful links:
www.diamondintelligence.com
www.mine2mistress.com
Spot on. An old story/scam + a possible movie in the making.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Film Workshop
The New Wave, Still Rolling
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123743224562381071.html
Useful links:
www.filmworkshop.net
www.hkiff.org.hk
www.asianfilmawards.org
Make good movies.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123743224562381071.html
Useful links:
www.filmworkshop.net
www.hkiff.org.hk
www.asianfilmawards.org
Make good movies.
Solar Fashion
Solar Fashion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/mar/13/solar-power-fashion?picture=344668192
Useful links:
www.konarka.com
www.indarradtx.com
www.zegna.com
www.voltaicsystems.com
http://noonsolar.com
www.rewarestore.com
http://andrewjs.com
www.elenacorchero.com
Great ideas. Technology meets tradition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/mar/13/solar-power-fashion?picture=344668192
Useful links:
www.konarka.com
www.indarradtx.com
www.zegna.com
www.voltaicsystems.com
http://noonsolar.com
www.rewarestore.com
http://andrewjs.com
www.elenacorchero.com
Great ideas. Technology meets tradition.
The Orchid King
In the Concrete Jungle The Orchid King
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/in-the-concrete-jungle-the-orchid-king
Useful links:
www.raymondjungles.com
www.nybg.org
www.burlemarx.com.br
Don't miss the Orchid show. It's open until April 12, 2009.
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/in-the-concrete-jungle-the-orchid-king
Useful links:
www.raymondjungles.com
www.nybg.org
www.burlemarx.com.br
Don't miss the Orchid show. It's open until April 12, 2009.
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison Talks Brainy Comics, Sexy Apocalypse
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/mid-life-crisis.html
Useful links:
www.grant-morrison.com
www.comic-con.org
Great interview.
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/mid-life-crisis.html
Useful links:
www.grant-morrison.com
www.comic-con.org
Great interview.
Max’s
Andy Warhol was born in Philadelphia in 1928 and came to New York in the fifties. He became famous in the next decade as an artist, film-maker and promoter of all manner of new and provocative things. In those days he frequented Max’s Kansas City, a restaurant and bar and second-home for many of the era’s famous and infamous.
In September we started going regularly to a two-story bar/restaurant on Park Avenue South off Union Square that Mickey Ruskin had opened in late ’65. It was called Max’s Kansas City and it became the ultimate hangout. Max’s was the farthest uptown of any of the restaurants Mickey had ever operated. He’d had a place on East 7th Street called Deux Mégots that later became the Paradox, and then he’d had the Ninth Circle, a Village bar with a format similar to what Max’s would have, and then an Avenue B bar called the Annex. Mickey had always been attracted to the downtown art atmosphere—at Deux Mégots, he’d held poetry readings—and now painters and poets were starting to drift into Max’s. The art heavies would group around the bar and the kids would be in the back room, basically.
Max’s Kansas City was the exact place where Pop Art and pop life came together in New York in the sixties—teeny boppers and sculptors, rock stars and poets from St. Mark’s Place, Hollywood actors checking out what the underground actors were all about, boutique owners and models, modern dancers and go-go dancers—everybody went to Max’s and everything got homogenized there.
Larry Rivers once said to me, ‘I’ve often asked myself,’ ‘What is a bar?’ It’s a space that has liquor that’s usually fairly dark, where you go for a certain kind of social interaction. It’s not a dinner party. It’s not a dance. It’s not an opening. You move in a certain way through this space, over a period of time, and you begin to recognize faces that begin to recognize you. And you may have had experiences with some of these people before which you kind of pick up on in another way in this space.’
I started going to Max’s, lit by Dan Flavin’s red light piece, was where everybody wound up every night. After all the parties were over and all the bars and all the discotheques closed up, you’d go on to Max’s and meet up with everybody—and it was like going home, only better.
Max’s became the showcase for all the fashion changes that had been taking place at the art openings and shows: now people weren’t going to art openings to show off their new looks—they just skipped all the preliminaries and went straight to Max’s. Fashion wasn’t what you wore someplace anymore; it was the whole reason for going. The event itself was optional—the way Max’s functioned as a fashion gallery proved that. Kids would crowd around the security mirror over the night deposit slot in the bank next door (‘Last mirror before Max’s) to check themselves out for the long walk from the front door, pass the bar, past all the fringe tables in the middle, and finally into the club room in the back.
Max’s is where I started meeting the really young kids who had dropped out of school and been running around the streets for a couple of years—hard-looking, beautiful little girls with perfect makeup and fabulous clothes, and you’d find out later they were fifteen and already had a baby. These kids really knew how to dress, they had just the right fashion instincts, somehow. They were a type of kid I hadn’t been around much before. Although they weren’t educated like the Boston crowd or the San Remo crowd, they were very sharp in a comical sort of way—I mean, they certainly knew how to put each other down, standing on chairs and screaming insults. Like, if Gerard walked in with his fashion look really together and had that very serious Roman god-like expression on his face that people get when they think they’re looking good, one of the little girls at Max’s (the Twin-Twats, they were called) would jump up on the table and swoon, ‘Oh my God, it’s Apollo! Oh, Apollo, will you sit with us tonight?’
I couldn’t decide if these kids were intelligent but crazy, or just plain pea-brained with a flair for comedy and clothes. It was impossible to tell whether their problem was lack of intelligence or lack of sanity.
Brilliant. I loved it. It reminded me of Mick Jagger's Golden Globe-winning song 'Old Habits Die Hard', an old favorite of mine.
I thought I shook myself free
You see I bounce back quicker than most
But I'm half delirious, is too mysterious
You walk through my walls like a ghost
And I take everyday at a time
I'm as proud as a Lion in his Lair
Now there's no denying it, a note to crying it
Your all tangled up in my head
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain
We haven't spoken in months
You see I've been counting the days
I dream of such humanities, such insanities
I'm lost like a kid and I'm late
But I've never taken your coats
Haven't no block on my phone
I act like an addict, I just got to have it
I can never just leave it alone
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain
And I can't give you up
Can't leave you alone
And its so hard, so hard
And hard enough to feel the pain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain
In September we started going regularly to a two-story bar/restaurant on Park Avenue South off Union Square that Mickey Ruskin had opened in late ’65. It was called Max’s Kansas City and it became the ultimate hangout. Max’s was the farthest uptown of any of the restaurants Mickey had ever operated. He’d had a place on East 7th Street called Deux Mégots that later became the Paradox, and then he’d had the Ninth Circle, a Village bar with a format similar to what Max’s would have, and then an Avenue B bar called the Annex. Mickey had always been attracted to the downtown art atmosphere—at Deux Mégots, he’d held poetry readings—and now painters and poets were starting to drift into Max’s. The art heavies would group around the bar and the kids would be in the back room, basically.
Max’s Kansas City was the exact place where Pop Art and pop life came together in New York in the sixties—teeny boppers and sculptors, rock stars and poets from St. Mark’s Place, Hollywood actors checking out what the underground actors were all about, boutique owners and models, modern dancers and go-go dancers—everybody went to Max’s and everything got homogenized there.
Larry Rivers once said to me, ‘I’ve often asked myself,’ ‘What is a bar?’ It’s a space that has liquor that’s usually fairly dark, where you go for a certain kind of social interaction. It’s not a dinner party. It’s not a dance. It’s not an opening. You move in a certain way through this space, over a period of time, and you begin to recognize faces that begin to recognize you. And you may have had experiences with some of these people before which you kind of pick up on in another way in this space.’
I started going to Max’s, lit by Dan Flavin’s red light piece, was where everybody wound up every night. After all the parties were over and all the bars and all the discotheques closed up, you’d go on to Max’s and meet up with everybody—and it was like going home, only better.
Max’s became the showcase for all the fashion changes that had been taking place at the art openings and shows: now people weren’t going to art openings to show off their new looks—they just skipped all the preliminaries and went straight to Max’s. Fashion wasn’t what you wore someplace anymore; it was the whole reason for going. The event itself was optional—the way Max’s functioned as a fashion gallery proved that. Kids would crowd around the security mirror over the night deposit slot in the bank next door (‘Last mirror before Max’s) to check themselves out for the long walk from the front door, pass the bar, past all the fringe tables in the middle, and finally into the club room in the back.
Max’s is where I started meeting the really young kids who had dropped out of school and been running around the streets for a couple of years—hard-looking, beautiful little girls with perfect makeup and fabulous clothes, and you’d find out later they were fifteen and already had a baby. These kids really knew how to dress, they had just the right fashion instincts, somehow. They were a type of kid I hadn’t been around much before. Although they weren’t educated like the Boston crowd or the San Remo crowd, they were very sharp in a comical sort of way—I mean, they certainly knew how to put each other down, standing on chairs and screaming insults. Like, if Gerard walked in with his fashion look really together and had that very serious Roman god-like expression on his face that people get when they think they’re looking good, one of the little girls at Max’s (the Twin-Twats, they were called) would jump up on the table and swoon, ‘Oh my God, it’s Apollo! Oh, Apollo, will you sit with us tonight?’
I couldn’t decide if these kids were intelligent but crazy, or just plain pea-brained with a flair for comedy and clothes. It was impossible to tell whether their problem was lack of intelligence or lack of sanity.
Brilliant. I loved it. It reminded me of Mick Jagger's Golden Globe-winning song 'Old Habits Die Hard', an old favorite of mine.
I thought I shook myself free
You see I bounce back quicker than most
But I'm half delirious, is too mysterious
You walk through my walls like a ghost
And I take everyday at a time
I'm as proud as a Lion in his Lair
Now there's no denying it, a note to crying it
Your all tangled up in my head
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain
We haven't spoken in months
You see I've been counting the days
I dream of such humanities, such insanities
I'm lost like a kid and I'm late
But I've never taken your coats
Haven't no block on my phone
I act like an addict, I just got to have it
I can never just leave it alone
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain
And I can't give you up
Can't leave you alone
And its so hard, so hard
And hard enough to feel the pain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain
Burmese Gem Mines
Burma's gem mines face closure
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7947914.stm
As precious stones are Burma's third biggest export, the collapse in demand is having a serious effect on the economy. They are usually sold, often via the black market, to China and Thailand - where they are treated, polished and then sold. 'A viss (approximately 1.63kg) of jade stones, whether good or bad, usually fetched a little over £1000 ($1440). Now we are unable to sell them at a tenth of that,' one gem trader told the BBC.
The business is down, indeed. What will be the real impact from the slowdown? Hard to tell. Burma is full of surprises.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7947914.stm
As precious stones are Burma's third biggest export, the collapse in demand is having a serious effect on the economy. They are usually sold, often via the black market, to China and Thailand - where they are treated, polished and then sold. 'A viss (approximately 1.63kg) of jade stones, whether good or bad, usually fetched a little over £1000 ($1440). Now we are unable to sell them at a tenth of that,' one gem trader told the BBC.
The business is down, indeed. What will be the real impact from the slowdown? Hard to tell. Burma is full of surprises.
Jade Buddha
Jade Buddha for Universal Peace
http://www.jadebuddha.org.au/en/Jade_Buddha_Brochure_English.pdf
http://www.jademine.com/jade_blog/2008/04/polar-pride-boulder.html
Useful links:
www.jadebuddha.org.au
www.stupa.org.au
A unique piece of jade, indeed.
http://www.jadebuddha.org.au/en/Jade_Buddha_Brochure_English.pdf
http://www.jademine.com/jade_blog/2008/04/polar-pride-boulder.html
Useful links:
www.jadebuddha.org.au
www.stupa.org.au
A unique piece of jade, indeed.
The Heartless Stone
The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire by Tom Zoellner is an insightful book about the good, bad and ugly world of diamonds. A must read.Useful link:
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Spectacular Opals
American Museum of Natural History displays spectacular Opals
http://www.amnh.org/science/papers/opals.php
The photo gallery of opals were stunningly beautiful.
http://www.amnh.org/science/papers/opals.php
The photo gallery of opals were stunningly beautiful.
Paul Graham Archive
Stories Found in the Streets
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123741363211177025.html
Useful links:
www.paulgrahamarchive.com
www.moma.org
Natural. Live. They are our stories, really.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123741363211177025.html
Useful links:
www.paulgrahamarchive.com
www.moma.org
Natural. Live. They are our stories, really.
Gold Update
Is Gold Really the Safest Investment?
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1885217,00.html
Useful links:
www.spdrgoldshares.com
www.gold.org
Spot on. Gold has value only because we believe it is valuable.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1885217,00.html
Useful links:
www.spdrgoldshares.com
www.gold.org
Spot on. Gold has value only because we believe it is valuable.
Pricing Clarity Enhanced Diamonds
Identifying and Pricing Clarity Enhanced Diamonds
http://www.gemguide.com/news/AGTAMar2009-2.htm
Useful link:
www.gemguide.com
First, full disclosure. Secondly, pricing becomes fairly easier.
http://www.gemguide.com/news/AGTAMar2009-2.htm
Useful link:
www.gemguide.com
First, full disclosure. Secondly, pricing becomes fairly easier.
Andy Warhol + Paris Exhibition
Hidden depths: Paris exhibition aims to paint Warhol as a modern master
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/18/andy-warhol-grand-palais-paris
Useful links:
www.grandpalais.fr
www.warholfoundation.org
www.warhol.org
Rereading of Warhol art = Parable-retelling. Dont miss it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/18/andy-warhol-grand-palais-paris
Useful links:
www.grandpalais.fr
www.warholfoundation.org
www.warhol.org
Rereading of Warhol art = Parable-retelling. Dont miss it.
BMW Art Cars
These Canvases Need Oil and a Good Driver
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/automobiles/collectibles/15artcars.html?_r=1
Useful links:
www.bmwdrives.com/bmw-artcars.php
www.louvre.fr
www.calder.org
www.guggenheim.org
www.olafureliasson.net
www.gerhard-richter.com
www.sfmoma.org
I think it was a brilliant idea. They should reimagine colors and designs for this century.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/automobiles/collectibles/15artcars.html?_r=1
Useful links:
www.bmwdrives.com/bmw-artcars.php
www.louvre.fr
www.calder.org
www.guggenheim.org
www.olafureliasson.net
www.gerhard-richter.com
www.sfmoma.org
I think it was a brilliant idea. They should reimagine colors and designs for this century.
Shepard Fairey Update
Can a Rebel Stay a Rebel Without the Claws?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/design/18fair.html?_r=1&8dpc
Useful links:
http://obeygiant.com
www.icaboston.org
Shepard Fairey is a unique artist. Most of his works, from the Andre the Giant stickers of last decade to the Obama Hope poster display phenomenal effects. Definitely a must visit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/design/18fair.html?_r=1&8dpc
Useful links:
http://obeygiant.com
www.icaboston.org
Shepard Fairey is a unique artist. Most of his works, from the Andre the Giant stickers of last decade to the Obama Hope poster display phenomenal effects. Definitely a must visit.
Uranium
Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner is a brilliant book about the rock for a general audience. A must read.Useful links:
www.world-nuclear.org
www.iaea.org
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Chris Anderson's Free = Free
SXSWi: Chris Anderson's Free Will Be Free
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/anderson-kawasa.html
Converting users of a free version of a product to a paid version is the key to making money on a free product. The sweet spot is 5 percent.
- Chris Anderson
Useful links:
www.thelongtail.com
www.guykawasaki.com
http://sxsw.com/interactive
I agree with Chris. The word 'Free' has double meaning in English. Thank you for the insight.
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/anderson-kawasa.html
Converting users of a free version of a product to a paid version is the key to making money on a free product. The sweet spot is 5 percent.
- Chris Anderson
Useful links:
www.thelongtail.com
www.guykawasaki.com
http://sxsw.com/interactive
I agree with Chris. The word 'Free' has double meaning in English. Thank you for the insight.
Asian Film Awards 2009
Asian Film Awards 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638486847658215.html#articleTabs_interactive%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive
Useful link:
www.asianfilmawards.org
Great review.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638486847658215.html#articleTabs_interactive%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive
Useful link:
www.asianfilmawards.org
Great review.
We Tell Stories
Win for UK story-telling website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7947729.stm
Useful links:
www.sixtostart.com
http://wetellstories.co.uk
www.sxsw.com
www.argn.com
Technology + Fantastic experiences = Alternate reality games (ARG). ARG is a great way of telling stories. Hats off to Dan/Adrian.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7947729.stm
Useful links:
www.sixtostart.com
http://wetellstories.co.uk
www.sxsw.com
www.argn.com
Technology + Fantastic experiences = Alternate reality games (ARG). ARG is a great way of telling stories. Hats off to Dan/Adrian.
CIBJO Update
CIBJO has launched a dedicated website for the 2009 CIBJO Congress, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey from May 3 - 5, 2009. Check out the link http://congress2009.cibjo.org
Diamond Definition
Responsible Jewellery Council amends Diamond Definition
http://www.responsiblejewellery.com/downloads/RJC_Amends_Diamond_Definition.pdf
Useful links:
www.responsiblejewellery.com
www.unglobalcompact.org
http://www.responsiblejewellery.com/downloads/RJC_Amends_Diamond_Definition.pdf
Useful links:
www.responsiblejewellery.com
www.unglobalcompact.org
In The New York Statue Of Liberty
Melech Ravitch, born in Eastern Europe in 1893, emigrated to the New World at the beginning of the century. On his way to Ellis Island, where new immigrants disembarked, he passed the Statue of Liberty. Years later, he composed this poem about its meaning and promise.
In the New York Statue of Liberty
I am a man of blood, flesh and bone.
My soul is love, laughter and tears.
And you? Woman, hollow, steel giant
With the torch in your right hand high,
You are a golden woman, with a tinny skin
Taut over a steel skeleton.
Your tin lips have never kissed bread.
Your iron ribs have never cradled a man in bed.
And…..I love you with your young love, flaming and tender.
Thirty years of my youth, and manhood I yearned,
For your first glance pined.
I am a poet and a wanderer and a Jew.
The steps to my soul are trembling strophes of my verse.
And to yours—which is only one of millions of heads—
To your head and thought, hundreds of stairs of iron.
Empty is your soul: winter—cold, summer—hot, as in any edifice of tin.
And yet this is so enormous and so wonderful
In your soul, with hundreds of others on stairs to wander and tire
And sing in oneself a glowing, warmly human love song
To you! That in your veins of wire and of steel
Flow electric lights, instead of living blood
While you are golem only, monument of Liberty, symbol…
And while you are golem, symbol, Liberty’s monument.
I’m writing this song in love and youthful excitement. My hand trembles,
Sparkle the eyes, burns the blood.
Believe me, lady, when I pressed my lips to your tin walls
And to the walls of your proud neck and—hidden—secretly kissed them,
That no one should see and say maybe, a poet insane perhaps.
This was the love of purest spirit.
Like a love song—this pitifully sincere song;
While never did I so love,
Never, any woman so
As the Liberty that to you once and for all
Was granted the right the symbol to be.
Your torch is directed
To New York, but your light burns
To all the ends of the world.
One blesses and one curses you,
One honors and another hates,
One is earnest, another frivolous.
And I have purely love and faith
For curse and hatred are wind, sawdust.
Oh, is it true, you woman, you freedom, you’re today a fallen woman,
And perhaps—perhaps because of that is my love for you so tender and so deep.
In your tin belly, you tin symbol,
Are you pregnant with the new savior of the worlds.
They may laugh at you, they may curse you—
You, only you, will bear him in light and in faith.
On your hands will you him—your son—
Like the torch above, raise high over all mankind.
And laugh will he who now weeps.
And weep he who curses.
Now.
United.
Led by a child.
Liberty, beloved, yours, only yours, only your son
Will be the savior of the world.
A son of the spirit of all in love with you!
Oh, also shall the breath of this love song, in love to you conceived,
Be then a part of the spirit that impregnated you.
I loved this poem.
In the New York Statue of Liberty
I am a man of blood, flesh and bone.
My soul is love, laughter and tears.
And you? Woman, hollow, steel giant
With the torch in your right hand high,
You are a golden woman, with a tinny skin
Taut over a steel skeleton.
Your tin lips have never kissed bread.
Your iron ribs have never cradled a man in bed.
And…..I love you with your young love, flaming and tender.
Thirty years of my youth, and manhood I yearned,
For your first glance pined.
I am a poet and a wanderer and a Jew.
The steps to my soul are trembling strophes of my verse.
And to yours—which is only one of millions of heads—
To your head and thought, hundreds of stairs of iron.
Empty is your soul: winter—cold, summer—hot, as in any edifice of tin.
And yet this is so enormous and so wonderful
In your soul, with hundreds of others on stairs to wander and tire
And sing in oneself a glowing, warmly human love song
To you! That in your veins of wire and of steel
Flow electric lights, instead of living blood
While you are golem only, monument of Liberty, symbol…
And while you are golem, symbol, Liberty’s monument.
I’m writing this song in love and youthful excitement. My hand trembles,
Sparkle the eyes, burns the blood.
Believe me, lady, when I pressed my lips to your tin walls
And to the walls of your proud neck and—hidden—secretly kissed them,
That no one should see and say maybe, a poet insane perhaps.
This was the love of purest spirit.
Like a love song—this pitifully sincere song;
While never did I so love,
Never, any woman so
As the Liberty that to you once and for all
Was granted the right the symbol to be.
Your torch is directed
To New York, but your light burns
To all the ends of the world.
One blesses and one curses you,
One honors and another hates,
One is earnest, another frivolous.
And I have purely love and faith
For curse and hatred are wind, sawdust.
Oh, is it true, you woman, you freedom, you’re today a fallen woman,
And perhaps—perhaps because of that is my love for you so tender and so deep.
In your tin belly, you tin symbol,
Are you pregnant with the new savior of the worlds.
They may laugh at you, they may curse you—
You, only you, will bear him in light and in faith.
On your hands will you him—your son—
Like the torch above, raise high over all mankind.
And laugh will he who now weeps.
And weep he who curses.
Now.
United.
Led by a child.
Liberty, beloved, yours, only yours, only your son
Will be the savior of the world.
A son of the spirit of all in love with you!
Oh, also shall the breath of this love song, in love to you conceived,
Be then a part of the spirit that impregnated you.
I loved this poem.
Sam Palka And David Vishkover
Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.
6
Sam Palka winked and laughed. He puffed once on his extinguished cigar and threw it in the ashtray. He lit another and said, ‘You may call me a charlatan, but I have never been to tell her the truth. She loved David Vishkover, the poor man, the victim of a false wife, not Sam Palka, the landlord, the millionaire, the woman chaser, the gambler. Everything had to stay the same. I still visit on Blake Avenue. It has become almost completely black. It makes no difference to Channah Basha. ‘Here I have lived,’ she says, ‘and here I want to die.’ I come to her in the morning, spend the day with her—we take a walk and go to bed right after supper. I’m known there. The blacks and the Puerto Ricans say, ‘Hi Mr Vishkower.’ We still eat burned-flour grits, noodles with beans, kasha with milk, and we talk about the old country as though we had stepped off the ship just yesterday. It’s no longer a game. To her, Bessie is still alive, making me miserable. She thinks that I sustain myself on a small annuity from the insurance company and my Social Security. The buttons keep falling off the jacket and pants I wear, and Channah Basha continues to sew on others. She begs me to bring my shirts; she wants to wash them. She begs me bring her my shirts; she wants to wash them. She darns my socks. A pair of my pajamas that are twenty years old hang in her bathroom. Every time I come, I have to report about Bessie. Is she still so wicked? Haven’t the years softened her? I tell her that age doesn’t change character—once bad, always bad. Channah Basha asked me to buy a plot in the cemetery of the Wysoka landsleit so that when we die we can lie side by side. I did so, even though another plot awaits for me next to Bessie’s grave. I will have to die twice. When I die Channah Basha is going to be surprised by my legacy to her. I have made her the beneficiary of an insurance policy for fifty thousand dollars. The house on Blake Avenue will also be hers. But what will she do with it? There comes a day when money is useless. We are both on diets. She now cooks with vegetable oil instead of butter. I am afraid to eat a piece of babka—cholesterol.
One day I was sitting with Channah Basha and we were talking about olden days—how they used to bake matzo, send gifts on Purim, decorate the windowpanes for Shevuot—and suddenly she asked, ‘What is the matter with your wife? Will her end never come? I answered, ‘Weeds are hardy.’ Channah Basha said, ‘I would still like to be your wife before God and the people, even if only for one year.’
‘When I heard these words I was beside myself. I wanted to cry out,’ Channah Basha, my darling, no one stands in our way any more. Come with me to City Hall and we will get the license’. But this meant killing David Vishkower. Don’t laugh—he is a real person to me. I have lived with him so long that he is closer to me than Sam Palka. Who is Sam Palka? An old lecher who has made a fortune and doesn’t know what to do with it. David Vishkover is a man like my father, peace be with him. Well—and what would happen to Channah Basha if she should hear the truth? Instead of becoming Sam Palka’s wife, she would become David Vishkover’s widow.’
I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.
6
Sam Palka winked and laughed. He puffed once on his extinguished cigar and threw it in the ashtray. He lit another and said, ‘You may call me a charlatan, but I have never been to tell her the truth. She loved David Vishkover, the poor man, the victim of a false wife, not Sam Palka, the landlord, the millionaire, the woman chaser, the gambler. Everything had to stay the same. I still visit on Blake Avenue. It has become almost completely black. It makes no difference to Channah Basha. ‘Here I have lived,’ she says, ‘and here I want to die.’ I come to her in the morning, spend the day with her—we take a walk and go to bed right after supper. I’m known there. The blacks and the Puerto Ricans say, ‘Hi Mr Vishkower.’ We still eat burned-flour grits, noodles with beans, kasha with milk, and we talk about the old country as though we had stepped off the ship just yesterday. It’s no longer a game. To her, Bessie is still alive, making me miserable. She thinks that I sustain myself on a small annuity from the insurance company and my Social Security. The buttons keep falling off the jacket and pants I wear, and Channah Basha continues to sew on others. She begs me to bring my shirts; she wants to wash them. She begs me bring her my shirts; she wants to wash them. She darns my socks. A pair of my pajamas that are twenty years old hang in her bathroom. Every time I come, I have to report about Bessie. Is she still so wicked? Haven’t the years softened her? I tell her that age doesn’t change character—once bad, always bad. Channah Basha asked me to buy a plot in the cemetery of the Wysoka landsleit so that when we die we can lie side by side. I did so, even though another plot awaits for me next to Bessie’s grave. I will have to die twice. When I die Channah Basha is going to be surprised by my legacy to her. I have made her the beneficiary of an insurance policy for fifty thousand dollars. The house on Blake Avenue will also be hers. But what will she do with it? There comes a day when money is useless. We are both on diets. She now cooks with vegetable oil instead of butter. I am afraid to eat a piece of babka—cholesterol.
One day I was sitting with Channah Basha and we were talking about olden days—how they used to bake matzo, send gifts on Purim, decorate the windowpanes for Shevuot—and suddenly she asked, ‘What is the matter with your wife? Will her end never come? I answered, ‘Weeds are hardy.’ Channah Basha said, ‘I would still like to be your wife before God and the people, even if only for one year.’
‘When I heard these words I was beside myself. I wanted to cry out,’ Channah Basha, my darling, no one stands in our way any more. Come with me to City Hall and we will get the license’. But this meant killing David Vishkower. Don’t laugh—he is a real person to me. I have lived with him so long that he is closer to me than Sam Palka. Who is Sam Palka? An old lecher who has made a fortune and doesn’t know what to do with it. David Vishkover is a man like my father, peace be with him. Well—and what would happen to Channah Basha if she should hear the truth? Instead of becoming Sam Palka’s wife, she would become David Vishkover’s widow.’
I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Michael Dyber
Gemstone Carvings by Michael Dyber
www.dyber.net
Michael's unique lapidary techniques are one-of-a-kind work of art. They are stunningly beautiful and a marvel to watch.
www.dyber.net
Michael's unique lapidary techniques are one-of-a-kind work of art. They are stunningly beautiful and a marvel to watch.
Fair Trade
A Fair Wind for Fair Trade
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_business.shtml
Useful links:
www.maxhavelaar.ch
www.fairtrade.org.uk
www.wto.org
www.tropicalwholefoods.co.uk
www.nasfam.org
www.cafedirect.co.uk
www.divinechocolate.com
Great program. I enjoyed it. Thank you Peter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_business.shtml
Useful links:
www.maxhavelaar.ch
www.fairtrade.org.uk
www.wto.org
www.tropicalwholefoods.co.uk
www.nasfam.org
www.cafedirect.co.uk
www.divinechocolate.com
Great program. I enjoyed it. Thank you Peter.
Lensless Microscope
The $10 Microscope
http://www.forbes.com/global/2009/0316/020_microscope.html
Useful link:
http://www.biophot.caltech.edu/people/yang.html
Can this stunningly simple design work in gemological applications?
http://www.forbes.com/global/2009/0316/020_microscope.html
Useful link:
http://www.biophot.caltech.edu/people/yang.html
Can this stunningly simple design work in gemological applications?
Disznókó
The wines at Disznókó (largest single-estate Tokaj producer), Hungary
www.disznoko.hu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaji
A must visit.
www.disznoko.hu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaji
A must visit.
Objectified
SXSW: Objectified Teaches Us 'You Are What You Own'
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/sxsw-objectif-1.html
Useful links:
www.objectifiedfilm.com
www.helveticafilm.com
Great review. I enjoyed it.
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/sxsw-objectif-1.html
Useful links:
www.objectifiedfilm.com
www.helveticafilm.com
Great review. I enjoyed it.
The Pearl Carpet Of Baroda
Pearl Carpet worth US$20m
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090316/FOREIGN/796075951/1135
http://sothebys.com/app/paddleReg/paddlereg.do?dispatch=eventDetails&event_id=29507
Useful link:
www.sothebys.com
I think Qatar is the ideal place for the sale since the Basra pearls came from the waters of the Arabian Gulf. I am sure there will be intense bidding at the auction for the pearl carpet.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090316/FOREIGN/796075951/1135
http://sothebys.com/app/paddleReg/paddlereg.do?dispatch=eventDetails&event_id=29507
Useful link:
www.sothebys.com
I think Qatar is the ideal place for the sale since the Basra pearls came from the waters of the Arabian Gulf. I am sure there will be intense bidding at the auction for the pearl carpet.
Sam Palka And David Vishkover
Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.
5
‘Would you believe it? In all this time Channah Basha never visited Manhattan. The subway terrified her with its din and noise. There was a Yiddish theater on Hopkinson Avenue, and once in a while I took her there. Sometimes they showed a Yiddish movie. There were moments when I thought I ought to put an end to this false game I was playing. Why shouldn’t she enjoy my riches? In the summer I wanted to rent a cottage in the Catskill for her. I offered her a trip with me to California. But she wouldn’t hear of it. Air conditioning did not exist then, and I wanted to buy her a fan. She refused it. She had a deathly fear of machines. She wouldn’t allow me to install a telephone. The one thing she accepted was a radio; it took her a long time to learn how to turn on the Yiddish stations. This is Channah Basha—so will she be until her last day.
‘My dear friend, I promised to make it short and I will keep my word. Bessie died. She had a quarrel with her gigolo—the pimp—and she went alone to Hong Kong. What she was looking for there I will never know. One day she collapsed in a restaurant and died. It was 1937. In all the years I had been coming to Channah Basha, we promised ourselves that if something happened to Bessie we would get married. But somehow I postponed telling her. There could be no thought of living with Channah Basha in the ruins of Blake Avenue. It was just as impossible to take her to my ten-room apartment on Park Avenue. My neighbors were all snooty rich. I had a Negro maid and an Irish housekeeper. I went to parties and I gave parties. No one spoke a word of Yiddish in my crowd. How could I bring Channah Basha into this Gentile-like world? With whom would she be able to talk? Besides, to find out that I had been lying to her all these years might be a shock that would tear our love apart like a spider web. I began to plan to go with her to Palestine, maybe to settle somewhere in Jerusalem or at Rachel’s grave, but Hitler was already baring his teeth. At a time like that it was good to be in America, not wandering around in faraway countries.
‘I put things off from day to day, from month to month. Why deny it—I wasn’t completely faithful to her during all those years. As long as I didn’t have true love I spat on frivolous women, but now that I had a true love it suited me to play around with others too. When women know that a man is alone they offer themselves by the dozen. I became a real Don Juan. I frequented nightclubs and restaurants where you meet the big shots. My name was even mentioned in the gossip columns. But these phony loves were enjoyable only because in Brownsville on Blake Avenue a real love waited. Who said it? One ounce of truth has more weight than ten tons of lies. I figured one way, then another, and meanwhile the war broke out. There was no place for us to flee to any more—unless, perhaps, Mexico or South America. But what would we two do there?
‘My dear man, nothing has changed up today, except that I have become an old man and Channah Basha is in her fifties. But you should see her; her hair is still gold and her face is that of young girl. It is said that this comes from pure conscience. Now that there was a war and she heard how Jews were tortured in Europe, she began to cry; she went on crying for years. She fasted and recited prayers, like God-fearing matrons in my village. Some organization advertised that they mailed packages to Russia, and every cent that I gave her Channah Basha sent there. She was so upset that she forgot I was a poor insurance agent and she took large sums of money from me I was supposed to have been saving for my old age. If she hadn’t been Channah Basha she would have recognized that something was wrong. But suspicion was not in her nature. She hardly knew the value of money—especially when it was in checks. I knew that the shrewd people in charge of those packages swindled her right and left, but I also knew that if even one dollar out of hundred served its purpose the deed was good. Besides, if I had told Channah Basha that people with beards and sidelocks stole money from refugees, she could have suffered a heart attack. Finally, I gave her so much that I had to tell her I was connected with a relief organization and they provided me with funds. She questioned nothing. Later, when Palestine became a Jewish state and the troubles with the Arab began, she again tried to help. Believe it or not, I am still getting money from those non-existent committees.’
(continued)
I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.
5
‘Would you believe it? In all this time Channah Basha never visited Manhattan. The subway terrified her with its din and noise. There was a Yiddish theater on Hopkinson Avenue, and once in a while I took her there. Sometimes they showed a Yiddish movie. There were moments when I thought I ought to put an end to this false game I was playing. Why shouldn’t she enjoy my riches? In the summer I wanted to rent a cottage in the Catskill for her. I offered her a trip with me to California. But she wouldn’t hear of it. Air conditioning did not exist then, and I wanted to buy her a fan. She refused it. She had a deathly fear of machines. She wouldn’t allow me to install a telephone. The one thing she accepted was a radio; it took her a long time to learn how to turn on the Yiddish stations. This is Channah Basha—so will she be until her last day.
‘My dear friend, I promised to make it short and I will keep my word. Bessie died. She had a quarrel with her gigolo—the pimp—and she went alone to Hong Kong. What she was looking for there I will never know. One day she collapsed in a restaurant and died. It was 1937. In all the years I had been coming to Channah Basha, we promised ourselves that if something happened to Bessie we would get married. But somehow I postponed telling her. There could be no thought of living with Channah Basha in the ruins of Blake Avenue. It was just as impossible to take her to my ten-room apartment on Park Avenue. My neighbors were all snooty rich. I had a Negro maid and an Irish housekeeper. I went to parties and I gave parties. No one spoke a word of Yiddish in my crowd. How could I bring Channah Basha into this Gentile-like world? With whom would she be able to talk? Besides, to find out that I had been lying to her all these years might be a shock that would tear our love apart like a spider web. I began to plan to go with her to Palestine, maybe to settle somewhere in Jerusalem or at Rachel’s grave, but Hitler was already baring his teeth. At a time like that it was good to be in America, not wandering around in faraway countries.
‘I put things off from day to day, from month to month. Why deny it—I wasn’t completely faithful to her during all those years. As long as I didn’t have true love I spat on frivolous women, but now that I had a true love it suited me to play around with others too. When women know that a man is alone they offer themselves by the dozen. I became a real Don Juan. I frequented nightclubs and restaurants where you meet the big shots. My name was even mentioned in the gossip columns. But these phony loves were enjoyable only because in Brownsville on Blake Avenue a real love waited. Who said it? One ounce of truth has more weight than ten tons of lies. I figured one way, then another, and meanwhile the war broke out. There was no place for us to flee to any more—unless, perhaps, Mexico or South America. But what would we two do there?
‘My dear man, nothing has changed up today, except that I have become an old man and Channah Basha is in her fifties. But you should see her; her hair is still gold and her face is that of young girl. It is said that this comes from pure conscience. Now that there was a war and she heard how Jews were tortured in Europe, she began to cry; she went on crying for years. She fasted and recited prayers, like God-fearing matrons in my village. Some organization advertised that they mailed packages to Russia, and every cent that I gave her Channah Basha sent there. She was so upset that she forgot I was a poor insurance agent and she took large sums of money from me I was supposed to have been saving for my old age. If she hadn’t been Channah Basha she would have recognized that something was wrong. But suspicion was not in her nature. She hardly knew the value of money—especially when it was in checks. I knew that the shrewd people in charge of those packages swindled her right and left, but I also knew that if even one dollar out of hundred served its purpose the deed was good. Besides, if I had told Channah Basha that people with beards and sidelocks stole money from refugees, she could have suffered a heart attack. Finally, I gave her so much that I had to tell her I was connected with a relief organization and they provided me with funds. She questioned nothing. Later, when Palestine became a Jewish state and the troubles with the Arab began, she again tried to help. Believe it or not, I am still getting money from those non-existent committees.’
(continued)
I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.
Thomas Friedman Viewpoint
The Next Really Cool Thing
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15friedman.html?_r=1&em
Useful links:
https://lasers.llnl.gov
www.llnl.gov
Great essay. I hope they can pull this off. It's clean renewal energy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15friedman.html?_r=1&em
Useful links:
https://lasers.llnl.gov
www.llnl.gov
Great essay. I hope they can pull this off. It's clean renewal energy.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Short-Course Volumes
Current research on gemstone formation has been published via a series of short-course volumes by the Mineralogical Association of Canada. It is highly recommended.
Useful link:
www.mineralogicalassociation.ca/index.php?p=25
Useful link:
www.mineralogicalassociation.ca/index.php?p=25
Artists Rooms
ARTIST ROOMS
www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms
Anthony d'Offay's greatest act of cultural philanthropy, in living memory, really.
www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms
Anthony d'Offay's greatest act of cultural philanthropy, in living memory, really.
Indebted Diamond Sector
Indebted diamond sector set for shakeout as demand collapses
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page37?oid=79840&sn=Detail
Some players may not be around. Some big players may not be as strong. The market will be smaller and debt will have to fall.
- Victor van der Kwast
Useful links:
www.abnamro.com
www.diamonds.net
www.rosyblue.com
www.bvgd.be
www.awdc.be
Sign of the times, really. Everyone is cautious about diamond business today. No one knows what will happen.
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page37?oid=79840&sn=Detail
Some players may not be around. Some big players may not be as strong. The market will be smaller and debt will have to fall.
- Victor van der Kwast
Useful links:
www.abnamro.com
www.diamonds.net
www.rosyblue.com
www.bvgd.be
www.awdc.be
Sign of the times, really. Everyone is cautious about diamond business today. No one knows what will happen.
Opera's Greatest Moments
TIME Covers Opera
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1884118_1854652,00.html
Useful link:
www.metoperafamily.org/metopera
Brilliantly said!
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1884118_1854652,00.html
Useful link:
www.metoperafamily.org/metopera
Brilliantly said!
Alice Rawsthorn Viewpoint
Tripping back to the world of psychedelia
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/13/arts/design16.php
Useful link:
www.alicerawsthorn.com
www.denverartmuseum.org
Great review. I loved it.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/13/arts/design16.php
Useful link:
www.alicerawsthorn.com
www.denverartmuseum.org
Great review. I loved it.
Art Market Update
Spring sprung
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13308450
If there is a crisis, it must be somewhere else.
- Conrad Bernheimer
Useful links:
www.suebond.co.uk
www.tefaf.com
www.colnaghi.co.uk
The European Fine Art Fair in the old Dutch city of Maastricht is the collectors universe. The lucky ones will find rare and beautiful art works and you will find yourself returning again.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13308450
If there is a crisis, it must be somewhere else.
- Conrad Bernheimer
Useful links:
www.suebond.co.uk
www.tefaf.com
www.colnaghi.co.uk
The European Fine Art Fair in the old Dutch city of Maastricht is the collectors universe. The lucky ones will find rare and beautiful art works and you will find yourself returning again.
Superman Comic
First Superman fetches $317,200
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7943376.stm
Useful links:
www.comicconnect.com
www.supermanhomepage.com
Great news.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7943376.stm
Useful links:
www.comicconnect.com
www.supermanhomepage.com
Great news.
Sam Palka And David Vishkover
Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.
4
‘Why go on? There grew up a great love between us. I saw to it that the house remained untouched. I visited her each week, and some weeks I took the Canarsie line to Brownsville two or three times. Whenever I went there, I wore a shabby suit and an old hat. I brought her presents of the kind that a sewing-machine salesman might bring: a pound of farmer cheese, a basket of fruit, a box of tea. The neighbors knew me and they wanted to buy sewing machines on the installment plan. I soon realized that if I sold them such bargains all of Brownsville would run after me, and I told Channah Basha that I had changed to the insurance business. I have forgotten the main thing: I called myself by another name—David Vishkover. It wasn’t invented; I had a cousin of that name.
‘For some time I managed to avoid her father, the beadle. As for Channah Basha, she fell in love with me with such passion that no words can describe it. One day I was a stranger and four weeks later her whole life hung on me. She knitted sweaters for me and cooked for me every dish I like. Whenever I tried to give her a few dollars she gave the money back and I had to beg her to accept it. I was a virtual millionaire, but on Blake Avenue I became a poor insurance agent, starving schlemiel whose wife bled him of his last penny. I know what you want to ask; yes, Channah Basha and I became like husband and wife. She was a pure virgin. How a girl like that could be talked into an affair is a story in itself. I know a little Jewish law, I persuaded her that according to the Torah a man is permitted to have two wives. As far as she was concerned, since she was unmarried she was not committing adultery. If I had told her to stand on her head, she could have done that too.
‘As long as Channah Basha’s father did not learn what was going on, everything went smoothly. We lived like two pigeons. But how long can such an affair remain a secret? When he found out that a married man was visiting his daughter and she had accepted him like a bridegroom, all hell broke loose. I assured him that the moment my vixen of a wife divorced me I would stand under the wedding canopy with his daughter.
‘Just as Channah Basha was beautiful, her father was ugly, sick, a broken shard. He warned me that I would be excommunicated. As time went on he grew more violent; he even hinted that he might have me thrown into prison. I was frightened, all right. One shouldn’t say it, but luck was on my side. He became mortally sick. He had bad kidneys and God knows what else. I sent him to doctors, took him to the hospital, paid for nurses, and I pretended that he was getting all this care for nothing. He lingered a few months and then he died. I erected a tombstone for him that cost fifteen hundred dollars and I made his daughter believe that it came form the landsleit of Wysoka. One lie leads to another. How is it written in the Talmud?
‘One sin drags another after it,’ I said.
‘Right.
‘After her father’s death, Channah Basha became even more childish than before. She mourned him as I never saw a daughter mourn her father. She hired a man to recite the Kaddish for him. She lighted candles in the synagogue. Every second week she visited his grave. I told her that my business was going well and I tried to give her more money. But no matter how little it was, she insisted is was too much. All she needed, she said, was a loaf of bread, a few potatoes, and once in a while a pound of stripe. Years passed and she still wore her same shabby dresses from the old country. I wanted to giver her an apartment on Ocean Avenue and furnish it. She refused to move. She kept on dusting and polishing her old junk. She read the Yiddish papers, and once she found my picture there. I had become the president of an old-age home and it was written up. She said, ‘See here, that Sam Palka looks just like you. Is he a relative or something?’ I said, ‘I wish he was a relative. In my family were all paupers.’ If I had told her that I was Sam Palka, our love would have been finished. She needed a poor man to look after, not a rich one to pamper her. Every time I left her to go home she offered me a bag of food so that I wouldn’t starve on my wife’s rations. Funny, isn’t it?
‘The years passed and I scarcely knew where they went. One day I had dark hair and it seemed that I turned gray. Channah Basha too was no longer a spring chicken. But her thoughts stayed those of a child. The house on Blake Avenue became so ramshackle I worried that the walls might cave in. I had to bribe the inspectors not to condemn it. The storybooks that Channah Basha brought from Wysoka had finally fallen apart, and she now read the books of the Yiddish writers in America. There was no lack of that merchandise in my house! Every time I went to Brownsville I brought her a stack, and she admired them all no matter how bad they were. She loved everyone except my wife. On her she poured sulphur and fire. She never tired of hearing about the troubles Bessie made for me, and I had plenty to tell. She had gotten herself a gigolo, a faker, and she traveled all over Europe with him. My children gave me no joy either. My son didn’t even graduate from high school. I have three daughters and none of them married happily. Their mother planted hatred of me in them. I was good for only one thing—to write checks. Still I had a great happiness: Channah Basha. She was always the same. In all those years she learned only a few words of English. Most of the Jewish tenants had moved out of the house and Puerto Ricans had moved in. Only two old women—widows—stayed, and Channah Basha watched over them. One had cataracts and later became blind. The other one had dropsy. Channah Basha took care of them like the best nurse.
(continued)
I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.
4
‘Why go on? There grew up a great love between us. I saw to it that the house remained untouched. I visited her each week, and some weeks I took the Canarsie line to Brownsville two or three times. Whenever I went there, I wore a shabby suit and an old hat. I brought her presents of the kind that a sewing-machine salesman might bring: a pound of farmer cheese, a basket of fruit, a box of tea. The neighbors knew me and they wanted to buy sewing machines on the installment plan. I soon realized that if I sold them such bargains all of Brownsville would run after me, and I told Channah Basha that I had changed to the insurance business. I have forgotten the main thing: I called myself by another name—David Vishkover. It wasn’t invented; I had a cousin of that name.
‘For some time I managed to avoid her father, the beadle. As for Channah Basha, she fell in love with me with such passion that no words can describe it. One day I was a stranger and four weeks later her whole life hung on me. She knitted sweaters for me and cooked for me every dish I like. Whenever I tried to give her a few dollars she gave the money back and I had to beg her to accept it. I was a virtual millionaire, but on Blake Avenue I became a poor insurance agent, starving schlemiel whose wife bled him of his last penny. I know what you want to ask; yes, Channah Basha and I became like husband and wife. She was a pure virgin. How a girl like that could be talked into an affair is a story in itself. I know a little Jewish law, I persuaded her that according to the Torah a man is permitted to have two wives. As far as she was concerned, since she was unmarried she was not committing adultery. If I had told her to stand on her head, she could have done that too.
‘As long as Channah Basha’s father did not learn what was going on, everything went smoothly. We lived like two pigeons. But how long can such an affair remain a secret? When he found out that a married man was visiting his daughter and she had accepted him like a bridegroom, all hell broke loose. I assured him that the moment my vixen of a wife divorced me I would stand under the wedding canopy with his daughter.
‘Just as Channah Basha was beautiful, her father was ugly, sick, a broken shard. He warned me that I would be excommunicated. As time went on he grew more violent; he even hinted that he might have me thrown into prison. I was frightened, all right. One shouldn’t say it, but luck was on my side. He became mortally sick. He had bad kidneys and God knows what else. I sent him to doctors, took him to the hospital, paid for nurses, and I pretended that he was getting all this care for nothing. He lingered a few months and then he died. I erected a tombstone for him that cost fifteen hundred dollars and I made his daughter believe that it came form the landsleit of Wysoka. One lie leads to another. How is it written in the Talmud?
‘One sin drags another after it,’ I said.
‘Right.
‘After her father’s death, Channah Basha became even more childish than before. She mourned him as I never saw a daughter mourn her father. She hired a man to recite the Kaddish for him. She lighted candles in the synagogue. Every second week she visited his grave. I told her that my business was going well and I tried to give her more money. But no matter how little it was, she insisted is was too much. All she needed, she said, was a loaf of bread, a few potatoes, and once in a while a pound of stripe. Years passed and she still wore her same shabby dresses from the old country. I wanted to giver her an apartment on Ocean Avenue and furnish it. She refused to move. She kept on dusting and polishing her old junk. She read the Yiddish papers, and once she found my picture there. I had become the president of an old-age home and it was written up. She said, ‘See here, that Sam Palka looks just like you. Is he a relative or something?’ I said, ‘I wish he was a relative. In my family were all paupers.’ If I had told her that I was Sam Palka, our love would have been finished. She needed a poor man to look after, not a rich one to pamper her. Every time I left her to go home she offered me a bag of food so that I wouldn’t starve on my wife’s rations. Funny, isn’t it?
‘The years passed and I scarcely knew where they went. One day I had dark hair and it seemed that I turned gray. Channah Basha too was no longer a spring chicken. But her thoughts stayed those of a child. The house on Blake Avenue became so ramshackle I worried that the walls might cave in. I had to bribe the inspectors not to condemn it. The storybooks that Channah Basha brought from Wysoka had finally fallen apart, and she now read the books of the Yiddish writers in America. There was no lack of that merchandise in my house! Every time I went to Brownsville I brought her a stack, and she admired them all no matter how bad they were. She loved everyone except my wife. On her she poured sulphur and fire. She never tired of hearing about the troubles Bessie made for me, and I had plenty to tell. She had gotten herself a gigolo, a faker, and she traveled all over Europe with him. My children gave me no joy either. My son didn’t even graduate from high school. I have three daughters and none of them married happily. Their mother planted hatred of me in them. I was good for only one thing—to write checks. Still I had a great happiness: Channah Basha. She was always the same. In all those years she learned only a few words of English. Most of the Jewish tenants had moved out of the house and Puerto Ricans had moved in. Only two old women—widows—stayed, and Channah Basha watched over them. One had cataracts and later became blind. The other one had dropsy. Channah Basha took care of them like the best nurse.
(continued)
I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Cross-Cultural Solutions
Love on the Fly: Volunteer Vacations
http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,1885136,00.html
Useful links:
www.crossculturalsolutions.org
www.earthwatch.org
www.freethechildren.com
Great essay. The benefits = priceless immersive cultural experiences. Give it a try.
http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,1885136,00.html
Useful links:
www.crossculturalsolutions.org
www.earthwatch.org
www.freethechildren.com
Great essay. The benefits = priceless immersive cultural experiences. Give it a try.
The Age Of Stupid
The Age of Stupid = Environmental docudrama (about climate change set in the future)
Useful links:
www.ageofstupid.net
www.spannerfilms.net
Useful links:
www.ageofstupid.net
www.spannerfilms.net
Tom Binns
Sandra’s Sources Tom Binns Megastore
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/sandras-sources-tom-binns-megastore
Useful link:
www.tombinnsdesign.com
The Anti-Luxxx items were brilliant.
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/sandras-sources-tom-binns-megastore
Useful link:
www.tombinnsdesign.com
The Anti-Luxxx items were brilliant.
Coating That Self-Heal
Coatings that 'self-heal' in sun
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7939776.stm
Useful links:
www.usm.edu/polymer
www.sciencemag.org
I wonder if this technolgy could be applied in gemstone treatments/enhancements.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7939776.stm
Useful links:
www.usm.edu/polymer
www.sciencemag.org
I wonder if this technolgy could be applied in gemstone treatments/enhancements.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)