November 2, 2010
Creepers or brothel creepers are a type of shoe. They found their beginnings in the years following World War II, as soldiers based in the deserts in North Africa wore suede boots with hardwearing crepe soles because of the climate and environment. Having left the army, many of these ex-soldiers found their way to the nightspots of London wearing the same crepe soled shoes. Those became known as Brothel Creepers.
In the late 1950s, these shoes were appropriated by the Teddy Boys subculture in the UK along with drainpipe trousers, draped jackets, bolo ties, quiff and pompadour haircuts, and velvet or electric blue clothes. The shoe has since been adopted by other subcultures such as ska, punk, new wavers, psychobilly, greasers, goth, and Japanese Visual Kei.
Posted in Art |
Leave a Comment »
November 2, 2010
Moai [moh-aye] are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island’s perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors.
The 887 statues’ production and transportation is considered a remarkable creative and physical feat. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 75 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.
Posted in Art, World |
Leave a Comment »
November 2, 2010
Luxottica is the world’s largest eyewear company. Its best known brands include Ray-Ban, Oliver Peoples, Revo, and Oakley. It also makes sunglasses and prescription frames for a multitude of designer brands such as Chanel and Prada, whose designs and trademarks are used under license. Leonardo Del Vecchio started the company in 1961, in Agordo north of Venice, Italy; today the company is headquartered in Milan. Its prime competitor is Safilo, which was founded in 1939 also in northern Italy. Del Vecchio began his career as the apprentice to a tool and die maker in Milan, but decided to turn his metalworking skills to making spectacle parts. So in 1961 he moved to Agordo in the province of Belluno, which is home to most of the Italian eyewear industry.
In 1967 he started selling complete eyeglass frames under the Luxottica brand. Convinced of the need for vertical integration, in 1974 he acquired Scarrone, a distribution company. The company listed in New York in 1990, and in Milan in December 2000, joining the MIB-30 (now S&P/MIB) index in September 2003. The listing enhanced the company’s ability to acquire other brands, starting with Italian brand Vogue in 1990, Persol and US Shoe Corporation (LensCrafters) in 1995, Ray-Ban in 1999 and Sunglass Hut, Inc. in 2001. They went looking for more retail companies, acquiring Sydney-based OPSM in 2003, Pearle Vision in 2004, Surfeyes in 2006, and Cole National in 2004. Most recently, it acquired Oakley in a US$2.1bn deal in November 2007.
Posted in Art, Money, World |
Leave a Comment »
October 28, 2010
Dub FX (real name Benjamin Stanford) is a worldwide street performer and studio recording artist from Australia. His trademark is creating live music using only his own voice, Live looping, and effects pedals.
His music is based on hip hop, reggae and drum and bass rhythms. Stanford travels and performs with his fiancée, Flower Fairy (real name Shoshana Sadia).
Posted in Art, Money, Technology |
2 Comments »
October 28, 2010
Funky Forest: The First Contact, also known as Naisu no mori is a 2005 Japanese movie written and directed by Katsuhito Ishii, Hajimine Ishimine and Shunichiro Miki. The movie is a collection of several surreal, non-sequitur shorts. Dance numbers, pillow fights, animation, comedy, and science fiction all combine to create a unique and disorienting viewing experience featuring such highlights as an absurdist tribute to David Cronenberg, an ass-television, and a girl who fires lasers from her forehead in order to battle a floating space blob which emits spinning, spherical projectiles.
Posted in Art, Humor, World |
Leave a Comment »
October 28, 2010
Garfield Minus Garfield is a webcomic created by Dan Walsh. Each strip consists of a reprint of a past episode from the comic strip Garfield, from which the character of Garfield himself has been removed through photo manipulation. Though Walsh admits that he was not the first to come up with this idea, he was the first to popularize it. The resulting strips thus consist mostly of Garfield’s owner, Jon Arbuckle, interacting with himself, rather than with his pet cat.
The strip’s website characterizes this result as ‘a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.’ Garfield artist Jim Davis has commented on the webcomic, stating that he is an occasional reader and finds it ‘fascinating’ and an ‘inspired thing to do.’
Posted in Art, Humor |
1 Comment »
October 28, 2010
Plunderphonics is a term coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay ‘Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative.’ It has since been applied to any music made by taking one or more existing audio recordings and altering them in some way to make a new composition. Plunderphonic music is known for heavy sampling of educational films of the 1950s, news reports, radio shows, or anything with trained vocal announcers.
The process of sampling other sources is found in various genres (notably hip-hop), but in plunderphonic works the sampled material is often the only sound used. These samples are usually uncleared, and sometimes result in legal action being taken due to copyright infringement. Some plunderphonic artists use their work to protest what they consider to be overly-restrictive copyright laws. Many plunderphonic artists claim their use of other artists’ materials falls under the fair use doctrine.
Posted in Art, Money, Technology |
Leave a Comment »
October 27, 2010
Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk. While yarn installations – called yarn bombs or yarnstorms – may last for years, they are considered non-permanent, and, unlike graffiti, can be easily removed if necessary.
The practice is believed to have originated in the U.S. with Texas knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide. While other forms of graffiti may be expressive, decorative, territorial, socio-political commentary, advertising or vandalism, yarn bombing is almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places.
Posted in Art, Games, Humor |
Leave a Comment »
October 26, 2010
Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem is the name of a Muppet rock band. Dr. Teeth was designed by Jim Henson, while the rest of the original band members were designed by Michael K. Frith. The band consists of Dr. Teeth on vocals and keyboards, Janice on guitar, Sgt. Floyd Pepper on bass guitar, Zoot on saxophone, and Animal on drums. In season five of ‘The Muppet Show,’ Lips joined the band on trumpet. The original pilot episode featured ‘Jim,’ a Muppet caricature of Jim Henson on banjo.
read more »
Posted in Art, Humor |
Leave a Comment »
October 26, 2010
Lukasz Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke, is an American songwriter, record producer, and remixer. Luke performed with the Saturday Night Live Band band for ten seasons until 2007. He has co-written and co-produced a string of commercially successful songs including Taio Cruz’s ‘Dynamite,’ Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone,’ Pink’s ‘U + Ur Hand,’ Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend,’ Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ Britney Spears’ ‘Circus,’ Miley Cyrus’s ‘Party in the U.S.A.,’ and Ke$ha’s ‘Tik Tok.’
He was named one of the top ten producers of the decade by Billboard in 2009 and the Songwriter of the Year at the 2010 ASCAP Pop Music Awards. He is a frequent collaborator with Swedish music producer and songwriter Martin Karl Sandberg, aka Max Martin.
Posted in Art, Money |
Leave a Comment »
October 26, 2010
The Hood Internet is a Chicago-based duo specializing in mashups of hip-hop (from the mainstream to the underground) with indie rock. They also run a blog of the same name through which they release their music, a venture that helped them earn notability as a minor internet phenomenon. The Hood Internet is composed of Aaron Brink (aka ABX) and Steve Reidell (aka STV SLV).
Posted in Art |
Leave a Comment »
October 22, 2010
Teardrop tattoos originated as a prison tattoo that was forced on some inmates by their ‘Sugar Daddy’ to signify sexual ownership and to permanently mark that person as a ‘sissy.’ The tattoo was later appropriated in the Chicano gangs of California by members who had killed another person, particularly while in prison. The tattoo can also mean that a family member, close friend or fellow gang member has died, frequently in a gang related incident.
In the United Kingdom, the tear tattoo can indicate someone that has spent time in a young offenders prison. In the U.S., A fully inked in teardrop can mean that a murder was committed. If the teardrop is clear in the middle, it can indicate an attempted murder, or that a loved one was murdered. A tear drop that is empty at the the top and inked at the bottom can indicate that a loved one was murdered and the killer was himself murdered by the tattoo wearer.
Posted in Art, Death, World |
Leave a Comment »
