Jancis Robinson Viewpoint

The AltaTech Viticulture business model was interesting. It's an intriguing story: turning California dirt into dollars via wine. Thanks Jancis.

Useful links:
www.jancisrobinson.com
www.altatechviticulture.com

Voice-Color Project

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's (Levels of Nothingness) interactive installation will allow people to speak into a microphone connected to a computer that can match their voices' traits, such as pitch and tone, to certain colors. It's on September 16, 2009 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Don't miss.

Useful links:
www.guggenheim.org
www.lozano-hemmer.com

Cirque du Soleil

Kelly Nestruck's viewpoints on the spectacular rise of Cirque du Soleil was interesting. In my view, they are simply innovative, period.

Useful link:
www.cirquedusoleil.com

Pestival

Two experts talk about the art and mystery of tiny creatures. It was really inspiring and educational.

Useful link:
http://pestival.org

Jewelry Market

Souren Milikian's opinion piece in the New York Times made a brilliant point. The sheer pleasure taken in gazing at beautiful stones is the secret weapon that allows the jewelry market to triumph at every level. And the fact that so many buyers find it possible up and down the financial ladder to succumb to the attraction without going bankrupt suggests that the recession, devastating though it is to some, leaves essentially intact countless private fortunes, from very large to relatively small. When the glitter of a jewel makes it hard to resist temptation, money suddenly becomes available. There might be a lesson here for those who are in charge of the broader economy. So true! Thanks Souren.

Heard On The Street

Gem business is very much a people business. I need to touch and smell and feel what’s going on.

New Consumerism

I found Timothy de Waal Malefyt's (Director of cultural discoveries, BBDO) research on new consumerism in urban America intriguing. It's really amazing how new oral stories develop during recession. People are the same everywhere.

Useful links:
www.aaanet.org
www.bbdo.com/worldwide
http://www.epic2009.com/files/proceedings/EPIC2009%20DRAFT%20proceedings.pdf

Art News Update

Ann Landi's article on Van Gogh’s ear, the rise to theories, pranks, merchandise, and a host of references in culture high and low was interesting. I think Van Gogh has been in spotlight so long the so-called inspiring pranks won't go away.

Either way, in the decades since van Gogh’s suicide, in 1890, that ear has taken on a life of its own—from the lowbrow to the literary—inspiring pranks, merchandise, movies, music, album covers, stories, plays, and even YouTube videos. A Google search of “Vincent van Gogh ear” pulled up a staggering 96,900 references, ranging from a restaurant in Union, New Jersey, called Van Gogh’s Ear Café to New York Times columnist Deborah Solomon’s discovery of what she called, in 2000, “a mass-produced souvenir of artistic torment: a curvy, pinkish rubber objet described with typical eBay poetry as ‘Van Gogh’s Ear—squish it, squeeze it!’

Useful link:
www.vangoghmuseum.nl