Inside the Solarist

pickledelephant: Solaris (1972) by Andrei Tarkovsky

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:26:40 -0500

Solaris (1972) by Andrei Tarkovsky

Chemex

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:31:00 -0500

I have a minor love affair with Chemex coffeemakers. Truth is, though, I have never lived with one for any reasonable length of time. Sure, we’ve had our flings, our weekend rendezvous in the Berkshires. I would wake up early, the snow bright white and crisp outside, and run warm water down her mouth… but it never lasted.

Soon, I will take the ultimate step and invite Chemex to move in with me. The danger is I don’t know which kind I want yet. Do I want to tie myself to the rustic Classic, with its jacket of wood and leather? The sleek, supple, and natural Handblown? Or the geometrically resplendent Handled version? Do I want her small, medium, large? Oh, so many questions.

The NY Times’ Oliver Strand had this to say about Chemex:

Often, a pedigree like this speaks to form more than function – plenty of gorgeous, impractical things are found at MoMA. But the Chemex really works, a cult object within the world of coffee. I know a few professionals who will start the day by flipping on an espresso machine that costs about the same as a BMW 5-Series just off the lease and, while it warms up, make coffee for themselves on a Chemex that retails for less than $40.

The appeal is simple. It’s for purists.

- Oliver Strand, “Ristretto - Chemex” (The NY Times Magazine, April 22, 2010)

Be sure to check out Chemex on their website. The company also sells a drop-dead beautiful handblown glass kettle.

Also, be sure to read the Gourmet Magazine article on the Chemex’s creator, Peter Schlumbohm, which has this to say on the man:

“He loved to drink and he loved to eat,” says Roy Doty, a cartoonist who was a friend of the late inventor, “so going out for dinner with Dr. Schlumbohm was a horrifying experience.” Guests were treated to epic all-night food crawls in his huge Cadillac Coupe De Ville, which he pimped out with built-in shades and a solid-gold Chemex coffee maker bolted to the driver’s door.

- Tejal Rao, “Dr. Chemex” (Gourmet Magazine, June 10, 2008)

Death of Niemeyer

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:50:43 -0500

Floating Spiral Staircase at Itamaraty Palace, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry Building, in Brasília

Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian Modernist Architect, is dead at 104.

“The languorous sensuality of Mr. Niemeyer’s designs are underscored in early sketches for Brasília. They often depict naked young women sunbathing on a vast empty plaza as his buildings recede in the background. It’s an image of romantic alienation that has more in common with the films of Michelangelo Antonioni than with the utopian aspirations of early Modernism.”

- Nicolai Ouroussoff, “Oscar Niemeyer, Architect Who Gave Brasília Its Flair, Dies at 104” (New York Times, December 5, 2012)

Photo

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:20:13 -0500

Rick Schaefer, Picnic (after Vesalius), 1995, image size...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:20:19 -0500

Rick Schaefer, Picnic (after Vesalius), 1995, image size 9.5”x11.5”, paper size 15”x18”

snowce: Josep Closa, Train Station

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:34:21 -0500

snowce:

Josep Closa, Train Station

: 7.25.2148 // i remember you well, your eyes as they would finally...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:23:00 -0500

: 7.25.2148 // i remember you well, your eyes as they would finally...:

putay:

7.25.2148 // i remember you well, your eyes as they would finally open. and reopen. the hum of the machines fading off into the background, i would listen against your chest to the life inside of you and weep. and with the times before, again out into the woods, i would gaze up above the treetops. i would see the stars above us, and hear the rolling thunder, and power throughout the universe displayed. if only then i knew what power we had wrought of this life, even now as i fade back into those woods. it is done.

"One of my girls loves the pink Legos. The other prefers the classic stuff. But they’re both sitting..."

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:06:15 -0500

“One of my girls loves the pink Legos. The other prefers the classic stuff. But they’re both sitting in there on the floor building and whispering stories to themselves, and that’s scarcely destructive to their childhoods.”

- KJ Dell’Antonia, “‘Worst Toy Awards’ Target Lego Friends” (New York Times, November 29, 2012)

thekhooll: Beaded Skull Beaded skulls created by Our Exquisite...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:21:30 -0500

thekhooll:

Beaded Skull

Beaded skulls created by Our Exquisite Corpse in collaboration with the Huichol people of Mexico.

sosuperawesome: Extreme close-ups of human eyes by Suren...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:23:28 -0500

sosuperawesome:

Extreme close-ups of human eyes by Suren Manvelyan

likeafieldmouse: Vincent Fournier - Space Project (2007) -...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:46:57 -0500

likeafieldmouse:

Vincent Fournier - Space Project (2007) - space stations from around the world

Muito beleza! Amo VW!!!

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:53:31 -0500

Muito beleza! Amo VW!!!

Sinister and alluring… so many questions… so many...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:13:26 -0500

Sinister and alluring… so many questions… so many stories…

lee-enfant-terrible: ‘Black Celebration’: Karen Elson in...

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:03:42 -0500

lee-enfant-terrible:

‘Black Celebration’: Karen Elson in Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 2004; photographed by Steven Klein for V #30, July 2004

This car is mind-bogglingly amazing! centralfiat: Isn’t the...

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:24:30 -0500

This car is mind-bogglingly amazing!

centralfiat:

Isn’t the past a beautiful thing. It’s exciting to see what the future holds when we look at our past!

karfavour:

1952 Abarth 1500 Biposto BAT 1 #Explored#☺ by Gordon Calder on Flickr.

Makeup and Vanity Set

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:21:00 -0500

This is a promotional video teasing Makeup and Vanity Set’s score for the sci-fi/horror short, 88:88. (If you are curious about the film, enjoy a good short film, or are a fan of sci-fi or horror, you’ll want to click this link to watch the movie on YouTube (it is around 13 minutes long)).

The featured composition from 88:88, titled “A Glowing Light, A Promise,” is a great introduction to Makeup and Vanity Set’s (or MAVS’) oeuvre. We experience a shaky, hand-held, blurry and color-distorted VHS videocam recording of a highway, the ambient rush of the passing cars lulls us. We become aware of a triangle of lights in the sky… soon they begin to pulse and dance with color, in time to the music we hear. What or who are these apparitions in the sky?

This short clip captures several distinct aspects of MAVS’ electronic music’s aesthetic: the decreased/warped fidelity of older technology, the inability to trust what our senses at first perceive to be true, the darkness (in an intuitive sense) and mystery of the night, the retro future (even as it becomes the present), and exacting, orderly sequencing and arpeggiation.

Makeup and Vanity Set’s website has an array of links to his various social media and commercial presences. Be sure to check out the Nashville musician’s Bandcamp page and download some of his shiny, dingy, and blazingly evocative music today. You will be transported into the diegesis of a 1980s horror film, you will cry out as visitors from an unknowable world trespass in your house, and, finally, you will scream as a psychopath crosses the threshold of your doorway. I particularly love his album Never Let Go.

If you like your music on a universally accessible cloud, I suggest you buy Makeup and Vanity Set’s music on Amazon.

We walk the streets at night We go where eagles dare They pick...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:04:40 -0500

We walk the streets at night

We go where eagles dare

They pick up every movement

They pick up every loser

With jaded eyes and features

You think they really care?

Loving me some post Halloween horrorcore. Also, big into Salem, White Ring, and oOoOO right now.

horrorshit:

Glenn Fuckin’ Danzig

This happened in September… maybe a better October...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:22:31 -0500

This happened in September… maybe a better October show?

Follow the link to get other images from the Morbid Anatomy-curated event at Viktor Wynd Fine Art in London, England. I particularly love the display cabinets.

amoelbarroco:

Morbid Anatomy meets Viktor Wind’s Fine Art

My God, how I’d love to attend all these events!

piousbird: Jo Gordon, Kiss of Death, 1994

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:27:14 -0500

piousbird:

Jo Gordon, Kiss of Death, 1994

1981 Greenwood Daytona Street Car, Lime Rock Historic Car...

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:04:27 -0400

1981 Greenwood Daytona Street Car

1981 Greenwood Daytona Street Car

1981 Greenwood Daytona Street Car

1981 Greenwood Daytona Street Car, Lime Rock Historic Car Festival 2012-09-02