i heart holmegaard.

...and so the question arises, when assembling a collection of colourful objects, how do you group them all? does the art deco stuff go with other art deco stuff, or does the silver go with other silver stuff, even though they are vastly different in style, shape and technique?
do you group all the blue objects together, but then what happens with the different shades of blue? does italian glass go on one shelf and danish glass on another shelf, and where does all the assorted stuff you bought from driade go?
Or is it a constant labour of love that gets rearranged every few weeks depending on your mood? This week, mine is a mixture of all of the above!

ribbon chair

i had the esteemed luxury last week of being able to sit in pierre paulin's "ribbon" chair, designed in 1966 (though the fabric wasn't quite so garish as this!), and normally the vast majority of fabulous designer chairs are particularly awkward and uncomfortable to sit in, with the final look of the finished piece being more important than the actual ergonomics of the chair. but "ribbon" was so comfortable i practically melted into it! (i was almost in tears when i found out the price though.) the replica is made by artifort, and distributed in oz by kezu.
will be adding this one to the chair collection when the time comes.

visions of heaven

more coffee table books again, (i think i'm going to need a bigger coffee table) and while i'm not a religious person in the slightest, i've always been fascinated by the architecture, symbolism and theory behind some of the church's greatest buildings. if ever you go travelling through europe, you will notice all these ancient tiny little villages and towns scattered over the countryside that all have these amazing cathedrals that dwarf any other structure around. and one can only imagine how many more of these would still be around had it not been for the destructive bombings of world war ii. in particular, i am mesmerised by gazing up at the domed/vaulted structure and defintion that adorns the ceilings of these ancient giants. and while i always attempted to capture for myself some of these brilliant visions, i never quite had the photographic skills required to depict what i was seeing in all its glory. the autistic in me is fascinated by the complex mathematical geometry and abstract pattern involved in the construction, the vast majority of which were built using the primitive technologies of years gone by.
which is where david stephenson's book"visions of heaven" comes in handy. tasmanian photographer stephenson has kindly taken the liberty of saving me a sore neck, snapping over 120 of the most amazing images you will ever see. check out more of his images here

we get requests...

oscar peterson's "we get requests" from 1964, accompanied in this trio by ray brown on bass and ed thigpen on drums, is often criticised for being full of popular songs of the era, the type that crowds would walk up to the stage and "request", but i happen to be a big fan of a lot of different jazz genres, and there is always an album for every sort of listening occasion, and this incredible little session is absolutely perfect as nice soft relaxing background music. simple, yet perfect in every way.
as much as i hate bossa-nova, i am actually a huge fan of oscar p's version of opening track "corcovado (quiet nights of quiet stars)", beginining with his soft "strum" of the piano strings, before swinging it with his subtle rhythmic undertones while at the same time highlighting his piano virtuosity, combining with the solid rhythmic blend of brown and thigpen.
also keep an ear out for standout closing track "goodbye, j.d.", an o.p. original. the man can swing it at any speed.

Hey little bird, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children are alone

right this minute i'm watching jim jarmusch's 1986 film "down by law", which tells the story of 3 strangers thrust into a prison cell together for crimes they didn't commit. zack (tom waits) and jack (john lurie) come to blows and refuse to talk to each other, bob (roberto benigni) in his limited, broken english, convinces his other two cellmates to escape through the swamplands surrounding the prison. hopelessly lost and with zack and jack's hatred for each other growing, the trio stumble across a house in the woods owned by nicoletta, with whom bob instantly falls in love.

the music of both lead actors feature heavily in the soundtrack - the score was written by john lurie, saxophonist of the avant-garde jazz act "lounge lizards", and two fantastic songs, "jockey full of bourbon" and "tango til they're sore" (from one of my favourite albums ever, waits' "rain dogs") both feature prominently.

tadashi kawamata

another massive influence from my art-studying days, japanese artist tadashi kawamata's site-specific installations recreate often unseen and unknown connections between the past present and future, between the internal and the external, the actual and the potential - they reveal another identity to the spaces they are installed in, highlighting the mostly invisible elements of their cultural, historical and social dimensions.
his installations trace the urban chaos that goes unnoticed behind such large, seemingly organised facades, kawamata's complicated amorphous timber growths' spilling out of every available door, window or crack in the ceiling to parasitically attach itself to the neighbouring
structures.

"without light i am not only invisible, but formless as well"

in previous discussions of hero worship, i mentioned art that references other artists, or songs as a homage to other musicians. here is another great example of hero worship, this time art referencing literature -jeff wall's "after ralph ellison (the invisible man)" 2000
ralph ellison's timeless piece of black literature, from 1952, opens with the novel's anti-hero/protaganist/narrator falling down a manhole after fleeing tormentors during a new york riot, and deciding to take up a life underground, covering the ceiling of his subterannean home with 1,369 illegally connected light bulbs, spending his time listening to recordings of louis armstrong's "what did i do to be so black and blue".

more images of bridge of aspiration

the bridge of aspiration

i have had an image of this bridge on my bedroom wall for the last 4 years, after i made a stealthy mission into the offices at work and defaced a coworkers calendar to steal the picture!
located in floral street, covent garden (london), engineer buro happold's "bridge of aspiration" spans the gap between the royal ballet school and the royal opera society. i first noticed this incredible, twisting, glass footbridge one evening when it was all lit up and looking incredible, despite having walked past the site numerous times before.
i wish i knew how to upload more than one image to blog entries, but do a google image search of "bridge of aspiration" and you will see some amazing images taken from all different viewpoints, including a few taken from INSIDE the bridge!

standing in the shadows of motown

it's always such a shame that the great career of a musician as talented as this goes so largely overlooked, forever in the shadows of the "better known" bop trumpeters named dizzy and miles. but kenny dorham's undeniable talent is highlighted in this intimate little live double-set " 'round about midnight live at the cafe bohemia", which is perhaps a little more pallatable an introduction to this genre for non-jazz fans than some of the hard-bop being produced by his counterparts around the same time (1956).

i have a particular fondness for musicians who cover monk songs, and dorham's ballad interpretation of the title track, "round about midnight" is one of the album standouts. i'm also particularly fond of the dizzy cover of "a night in tunisia", and the dorham-penned bop track "mexico city" (which sounds a lot like a reinterpretation of bud powell's "tempus fugue-it", though have yet to find a jazz critic who is willing to back up my claims). also keep an ear out for guitarist kenny burrell, who only one day prior to these live recordings had just finished recording his blue note debut, "introducing kenny burrell"

also check out the art blakey + jazz messengers "live at the cafe bohemia" recordings to hear a bit more of dorham at his best...