Thursday, July 31, 2008

Patience

This week Mr Tom Waits has been on repeat. I've waited 26 years to see Mr Waits live...and in anticipation of this finally happening tomorrow night; a reminder of beautiful his music is
(With love and thanks to Padre)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Fierce


Currently admiring the shoot that photographer Enrique Badulescu did for S magazine.
Vibrant,punchy colours and beautiful use of lighting.


To check out the full set: http://enriquebadulescu.com/

Monday, July 28, 2008

May i present...

Regardless of age i still find The Muppet Show hilarious!

G-Cans



This may look like something from Blade Runner or a film set but is actually a water management solution for the city of Saitama, Japan. It's called the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel aka G-Cans. Construction began on the water collecting system in 1992. The 6.3km subterranean channel runs from Showa to Kasukabe. The project works started in 1992 and is due to be finished in 2009.




The G-Cans consists of five concrete containment silos with a height of 65 m and a diameter of 32 m, connected by 6.4 km of tunnels, 50 m beneath the surface, as well as a large water tank with a height of 25.4m, with a length of 177m, with a width of 78m, and with 59 massive pillars connected to a number of 10 MW turbines that can pump up to 200 tons of water per second.





It's also possible to tour this mammoth structure, for more information follow the link


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Life and Death...

Mindpie is a collective of animators, editors, producers and artists that work together to create non-narrative art videos. This one is strangely mesmerising to watch.


Monday, July 21, 2008

Watchmen


About two years ago i was introduced to the world of Alan Moore by a long term, slightly obsessive fan of his work. At first glance i thought oh great yet another graphic novel/comic book. Was i mistaken? Very much so. It has taken these two years for me to fully appreciate how rich, complex and multi layered his work is. Often a few pages of his writing can go into just one or two frames on a page.

Watchmen was written/released in 1986-1987 and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Only after rereading it for the third time do i feel I'm finally getting to grips with it. Watchmen remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo award and was also featured as one of Time magazines 100 best english language novels.


Which is why i watched the following trailer with both trepidation and hope. Hollywood is currently attempting to translate this from the page to the big screen. I say attempting due to the fact that quite frankly every other Moore novel that has been made into a film has been butchered. Case in point: From Hell, The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen and V for Vendetta. Beautifully written and illustrated pieces that were lost in translation. Moore has spoken in the past about his dislike of the Hollywood versions of his work; that his novels/comics were never meant to be made into movies.

Watchmen has Zach Snyder at the helm and it's partly due to this that i watch hopefully. Synder was responsible for 300 and the remake of Dawn of the Dead; both of which i really enjoyed. The release date is set for June 2009









Sunday, July 20, 2008

On My Own

Currently on repeat and impossible to shake after a few listens:



TheCocknbullkid is the alter ego of 22-year-old Anita Blay. Blay hails from London and her music is a mishmash of electro, soul, grime, pop and r'n'b.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Uncle Bill

"General procedure: Read and learn all you can about problem. Look at problem from a point of zero preconception. Devise variations and alternative solutions. Check back to see if your solution has workable advantage over solutions previously arrived at...To carry the method a step further than solution of purely technical problem where purpose is implicit in the artifact: devising more efficient gun, tool, boat, signal system, medical or interrogation procedure"


William Burroughs


Jen Stark




Another example of turning something very simple into something intricate.Jen Stark creates these beautiful,vibrant pieces from construction paper and a X-Acto knife.Her work reminds me of fractal geometry.




Thursday, July 17, 2008

Fetish



Director David Lynch and shoe designer Christian Louboutin have collaborated on a piece called 'Fetish'. It displayed in Galerie du passage,Paris in late 2007. 'Fetish' Consists of five pairs of custom made shoes by Louboutin and photographs of said shoes by Lynch.

Louboutin has amalgamated his trademark red soles with almost unwearable shapes. They contort the foot as he wanted to push the notion of extreme fetish in his work; by creating shoes and then experimenting with their representation in two-dimensional form. He explained “I tried to keep an element of my drawings, to be faithful to the drawings, with no practicality, just pleasure, thinking of extreme fetish shoes. Usually when you go to the third dimension you lose something; then I wanted to photograph them - I find there’s more emotion with cinematic images. I wanted Lynch’s style and since we’d recently become friends it was natural for me to ask him”







Wednesday, July 16, 2008

My Drive Thru



Currently listening to:
My Drive Thru
Funky as fuck and created for the new Converse century campaign. Produced by Pharrell Williams.

Ice



Some beautiful pictures of a glacier i stumbled upon.They were taken by physicist Tony Travouillon,the shapes were formed by ice melting and refreezing over many years.



Tuesday, July 15, 2008

America

AMERICA
by Allen Ginsberg


America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good
looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial
for murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came
over from Russia.

I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious.
Movie producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

Asia is rising against me.
I haven't got a chinaman's chance.
I'd better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that jetplanes 1400 miles an hour
and twentyfive-thousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underprivileged who live
in my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic.

America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles
more so they're all different sexes.
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings
they sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and
the speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about
the workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing
the party was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real
mensch Mother Bloor the Silk-strikers' Ewig-Weibliche made me cry
I once saw the Yiddish orator Israel Amter plain. Everybody must
have been a spy.
America you don't really want to go to war.
America it's them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader's Digest. Her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him make Indians learn read. Him need big black
niggers. Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job.
It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

Berkeley, January 17, 1956

Friday, July 11, 2008

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Ani Difranco



Her music and words have been a huge part of my life for the past 12 or so years.People that know me well will have been bored senseless at some point by my ranting on how wonderful her music is!!It's been a large part of the soundtrack to my life thus far.




There are many reasons why she fascinates me, mainly:

*founded her own record label-Righteous Babe Records-when she could have so easily signed to a major or independent. She strove for self-sufficiency and refused to allow her art to be subsumed by commerce.Has used her label to promote and work with a number of other artists such as Hammell on Trial, Utah Philips and Andrew Bird.

*As a result of this autonomy: she writes and publishes her songs, produces her own recordings, creates the artwork. She employs local people in management and staff positions and supports local printers and manufacturers in her hometown. In the past few years she and Scot Fisher (her manager) launched a community-wide effort to save a 19th Century church in Buffalo that was destined for demolition. It resulted in the church being saved, restored and now houses RBR Headquarters, a concert hall, a record studio, an art gallery and bar/lounge.

*She has a voracious work ethic (19 albums and counting) and tours constantly.Through touring and word of mouth she has built an extremely loyal fan base.

*Her refusal to be muted by the mainstream media. She is extremely outspoken on her social and political views and makes no apologies for this.

*Her music. Her songs show uncanny insight into human nature and hyper awareness of the world around her. Her astute observations; Tackling everything from social, political and sexual issues to personal relationships. Her distinctive guitar style and increasingly complex lyrics have a way of weaving themselves around your mind. When listening to her music i always feel that she holds very little back; that what you hear-be it joy,anger,despair,hope,humour-is Ani distilled.





Jennifer Maestre


I have only recently discovered the art of Jennifer Maestre. Her work has a very tactile quality. The main media used in these pieces are simple everyday objects: Pencils. Almost frugal materials that take on a new life when used in her work.

Jennifer Maestre was born in Johannesburg, South Africa but is currently based in the US. She uses hundreds of pencils, cuts them into 1-inch sections, drills a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpens them and then sews them together.




Maestre explains "My sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion. The sections of pencils present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experiences.Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials. Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature. Pencils are common objects, here, these anonymous objects become the structure. There is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture."




Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Kinetic Sculpture by ART+COM




Located in the newly opened 5,000 square meter BMW museum in Munich, ART+COM have created a contemporary take on the original exhibition concept of "the road in converted space".

The mechatronic installation made up of 714 metal balls translates a virtual design process into the space around it. Seemingly weightless and guided solely by the power of the mind, the sculpture moves through a cycle of free abstractions and typical BMW vehicle forms.

It takes a few minutes to hit it's stride but it's captivating to watch.

Entoptic Phenomena






An American photographer called William Hundley has done a collection titled Entoptic Phenomena.Shots consisting of subjects cocooned in fabric and then captured in midair.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008


Click on the images below for Streaming options and track listing for each compilation.















SCADshorts



SCADshorts is a creative project developed by the Dandy Dwarves and commissioned by the Savannah College of Art and Design(SCAD). The Dandy Dwarves are a group of students (now alumni) who formed a video production company in 2002 while attending the school.

Most of the films are single concept commercials with quality production values and seamless visual effects for such low-budget projects. New work is released on a monthly basis and the website offers some very distinctive, entertaining and innovative work.





Nina Braun









An Introduction....

This will function as an online notebook/visual diary to keep track of thoughts,ideas,links,music and things that grab my attention.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
Scott Adams



Sunday, July 06, 2008

Who is 'Green of Eye, Sharp of Claw'?

Green eyed Irish woman living in Canada.
Lover of cake.
Imbiber of scotch.
Scribe of words.


Enthralled with the idea of making a difference in the world. Pursuer of stimulation and inspiration; whether it's in the form of art, films, literature, fashion, music, culture, people or places. My interests are numerous and constantly changing. I started An Cathach in July 2008 in an effort to stop driving my friends crazy with a constant slew of "you need to check this film/band/artist out" emails :)

Likes
Music, clear communication, sarcasm, making lists, stuffed olives, people, good food, gigs, photography, jaffa cakes, esoterica, whiskey, vinyl, lying in tall grass, baking, dipping my fingers into wax, reading in bed, chai tea, sleep, fire spinning/poi, vintage clothing, non violent communication(NVC), red lipstick, bikram yoga, arguing and debate, art, playing the piano and harp, talking to strange dogs on the street, tattoos, shoes, storms, strolling in the rain and mythology.

Dislikes
Dishonesty, greed, mind games, velvet, the item that passes for cheese in North America, people with expectations who issues demands rather than requests, parsnips and chewing with an open mouth.
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