Friday, November 30, 2012

Music | Female singer-songwriters №3: Ana Tijoux

from MundoGiras®
“Anamaría Merino Tijoux (born 1977), commonly known by her stage name Ana Tijoux or Anita Tijoux, is a French-Chilean musician. She became famous in Latin America as the female MC of hip-hop group Makiza during the late 1990s. In 2006, she crossed over to the mainstream of Latin pop after her collaboration with Mexican songstress Julieta Venegas in the radio hit "Eres para mí". Tijoux has often been praised for "exploring sensitive matters devoid of violence." She gained more widespread recoginition following her second solo album, 1977. Tijoux is the daughter of Chilean parents living in political exile in France during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship of Chile.” – from Wikipedia

Read also: Los Angeles Times “Ana Tijoux: the political and the personal
Get the album at iTunes

Music | Le Petit Soldat under Mao’s Moon

“The Gift” illustration and design by 
“Le Petit Soldat” posters by … let me know
I am OK with Jean-Luc Godard, but I like the music on John Zorn’s “The Gift” better. Still, “Mao’s Moon” from “The Gift” has the cinematic wistfulness that suits a B&W French movie from early 1960s and certain notions a movie like that can arouse if not actually watched – that is why a mash up of the two strikes the right note of around-five-minute-cool – cool jazz and snippets of La Nouvelle Vague. Except that “Le Petit Soldat” was not nostalgic. It was very current. It was, and still is, idealistically rebellious and young and willing to stand up for its convictions. After all, it dealt with darker themes – Algerian War and torture.
     Ah, the duality of art! Sean Westergaard wrote at allmusic by rovì about John Zorn’s “The Gift” that “despite the undeniable beauty of the music, underneath the pretty pink wrapping and bows of the outer slipcase, Zorn has included several paintings of young girls in the cover art that some people might find slightly disturbing, as if to underscore the idea that beauty itself is highly subjective” (and the girl with a gun is not the worst of it; sadly). So it’s a match! Both packages, the movie and the album, mess with us! Poke at us!
     Since I find the artwork for “The Gift” more than “slightly disturbing”, having part of its music enveloped in Godard’s – albeit dissociated – cool works for the times when one feels pragmatically compliant.
     Hear the album. See the movie.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

At Home | SoCal Modern Beach Digs by Richard Meier and Michael Palladino

Between a highway and the Pacific Ocean stands a white house. All 4,280 square feet / 398 square meters of it. Richard Meier & Partners Architects worked on this house for about two years, and made sure it is open to the vistas around it and inside, except for some living areas which are hidden, for privacy. I suppose taking the shower in the full view of north bound traffic is a thing for only a few… hey, there is the ocean on the other side to plunge into if the urge takes. It’s right there across the beach… 


Friday, November 23, 2012

Movies | Well, that’s just one fine educational piece



This is reasonably thorough and quite diverse, I say.
There is a piece for every occasion. Everyday.
Oh goodie!


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Random | dolce far niente

Dolce far niente / Sweet nothings
Oil on canvas; Private collection
dol·ce far nien·te – noun\’dōl-chē-,fär-nē-‘en-tē\
sweet doing nothing ~ pleasantly doing nothing ~ pleasant idleness ~ carefree idleness ~ pleasant relaxation in carefree idleness ~ delightful idleness ~ yes ~ “In Praise of Idleness” by Bertrand Russell (1932)




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