Ivory, Eggshell, Chalk, Cream

"The dinosaurs over at Vanity Fair must not watch very many movies other than Twilight, Dear John, and An Education. Shame!"

--Veronicahhh

To Inform and Delight

Here, Milton Glaser-designer of the I ♥ New York logo and co-founder of New York Magazine-speaks at the 1998 TED Conference. This one holds up well.



Further viewing: To Inform and Delight

For the love of sushi

There was a point last year where I stopped eating sushi. I'd never been one to turn down raw fish before - ceviche, poke, carpaccio, sashimi: yes, please. Still, after chowing down on a rice-less roll at Sushiyama, I felt sort of sick to my stomach. From then on, the thought of uncooked fish summoned the gag reflex. I had reached the mythical sushi-saturation point.

A few months later, I started having sushi again. Dynamite and BC rolls eased me into finally digging into raw fish. And in the past little while, I have been a loud advocate of the saba-bien roll--heavenly salty, fatty mackerel on rice, delicately topped with scallions, which add some mild bite--at Zipang Sushi, definitely the best little Japanese joint in Vancouver.

Still, I think twice every time I take a bite of that delicious concoction. I wonder if I'm threatening the delicate ocean ecosystem. It's no secret that the world's governments have enabled fishermen to overfish the sea's stocks. We may run out of fish in the next 40 years, say the makers of the hot documentary, The End of the Line:

Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.

The End of the Line chronicles how demand for cod off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1990s led to the decimation of the most abundant cod population in the world, how hi-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.

The film lays the responsibility squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.

The film's trailer says, "Lay off the Filet-o-Fishes," rather well, I think:



Earlier this week New York Magazine published a guide to ethical eating which placed eating seafood at the pinnacle in the hierarchy of earth-ruining foods. I felt so sad reading it, thinking I should just eat flax and spelt for the rest of my life.

But I was liberated from my gastronomic prison when I discovered that Japanese school children were eating dolphin for lunch. HA, suckers! My greedy consumption of super-drugged salmon paled in comparison to these kids who dined on Flipper regularly.

OK, actually it was a free lunch program and the kids had no idea where their school lunches came from or what they were, for that matter. Furthermore, they were forced to clean the mercury-laden meat off of their plates. In Taiji, a sleepy seaside town in Japan, dolphins are captured for export to aquariums around the world. Others are slaughtered for meat.

But no one's blaming the Japanese. Most have had the wool pulled over their eyes regarding what filmmakers of the exposé documentary The Cove call "a systematic cover-up of mercury and dolphin hunting issues in Japan." In a piece by Brian D. Johnson at Macleans, director Louie Psihoyos links the secret industry to government corruption and the yazuka--Japan's mafia.

See the shocking level of secrecy and unscrupulousness in The Cove's harrowing trailer. It chills the blood:



Right now, I'm trying to reconcile my disdain for places like Whole Foods (yoga pants, Jack Johnson soundtracks, and $10 boxes of crackers make me grumpy) with my genuine desire to reform my habits of consumption. But curbing my gluttony is a no-brainer though; now that delicious saba-bien roll comes with a side of Green Movement shame.

For dessert: Food, Inc.



Full disclosure: I had McDonalds last night. Filet-o-fish went down.

More Fox News

Here's the trailer for Wes Anderson's first animated film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, featuring the voices of the usual Anderson posse (Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Angelica Huston, Owen Wilson, et al), and starring Meryl Streep and George Clooney. Mario Batali also lends his voice talents (hmmmm).

Thank you, Andy!

The Last Emperor

"Compared to us, the rest are making rags."
--Karl Lagerfeld to Valentino Garavani after his 45-year anniversary celebration haute couture show

To escape the heat this afternoon, I scurried into a theatre to watch Valentino: The Last Emperor.

After listening to director Matt Tyrnauer on Q and reading the August 2004 Vanity Fair article that sparked the filmmaker's interest in Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti, I had to see this film, and it was the perfect little treat on such a hot day.

I already know that it will be a better movie than the hotly anticipated documentary September Issue, an ingenious vehicle to boost up slumping sales for Vogue and its ad pages. It is reported that Anna Wintour will be doing the film premiere circuit in August to help kick off the film.

And while Wintour has a vested interest in the success of the film, Valentino--who retired in 2007--has absolutely none in The Last Emperor, which makes his involvement and support in the project all the more surprising.

This film is not remarkable for its style or technique. It is simply a joy to watch because it channels a kind of beauty and glamour that disappeared from fashion a long time ago. Predictably, the film laments the force of mega-conglomerate holding groups in the industry but I think this film offers so much more.

Tyrnauer spoke to the incredible love between Valentino and Giammetti on Q but it's missing from the Vanity Fair article. The film, however, conveys it loud and clear. Throughout the film, people remark on the unique quality of their enduring relationship. Valentino is every bit the caricature he made himself to be in photographs and interviews. He is temperamental, passionate, and hyperbolic. Giammetti, the younger and more prudent part of the duo, is remarkable to watch and listen to. His patience, restraint, and enduring loyalty is love. He is the star of the movie, and Valentino is the spectacle.

And besides the love story, there is eye candy and dirt for fans of fashion. Valentino made few suits and never designed accessories. It was all about the dresses and there are many and all of them are perfect. The title sequence shows a 2007 haute couture collection and the drama and glamour in that show is enough to take your breath away. And yes, if you liked that video of making Chanel haute couture from New York magazine, this is like watching 90 minutes of that video, enhanced by the colourful personalities of the seamstresses and the designer. Plus, there are all the beautiful (and rich) women who wear the dresses so well.

This is very good escapism. Entering this world is like paying a visit to another time. It's easy to see why the designer lasted longer than any other. Reverence for his work and his person come from so many famous fashion including Andre Leon Talley, Giorgio Armani, and Jeanne Beker. The Last Emperor is a valentine to Valentino.


Trailer

* Maybe you can help me with something if you've seen the movie too. Who is the writer who interviews Valentino very enthusiastically, leaning in ever so close? She is a front-row staple ... can't remember her name and it's driving me crazy.

!!!!

I am absolutely flabbergasted by concept art and character portraits released yesterday from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Only 269 more sleeps!

Top to Bottom: Alice, Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen of Hearts, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.




AND THERE'S MORE! Film stills via USA Today

Quoted: from the Director of "Old School"

"Yeah, I describe it as Memento for retarded guys."
– Director Todd Phillips on his newest film, The Hangover

via INTERVIEW, "Hung Up"

Lisztomania, meet the 80s brat pack montage

That's right, I just saw Adventureland

Here's some music to set the mood... Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes

I'm working for HBO too

So, because of the lack of commentary due to general brain-mushiness at this time of year, this space is inadvertently becoming a series of press releases for things I am interested in seeing and reading (whoops).

Accordingly, here's a little promo for the Criterion Collection and HBO. The first is a trailer for Grey Gardens, the 1975 documentary by the Maysle brothers about Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie, cousins of Jackie Kennedy. The Beales are cult figures, known for their eccentric style, and for the controversy surrounding their mansion, Grey Gardens. The Beales neglected the estate until it fell into a state of squalor so severe, they were evicted.

Just below are sneak peaks at the 2009 HBO TV movie about the Beales, also called Grey Gardens, including reenactments of moments from the 1975 documentary. Drew Barrymore is lovely, don't you think?

Adaptation

Herb and Dorothy

This time of year, you'll find me quite scattered. I'm finding it hard to put together any meaty posts but sometimes when I'm driving home and listening to the radio, I hear something fantastic that I just have to share. Tonight it was the story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel:

Herbert and Dorothy Vogel are an ordinary couple of modest means who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history. Herb was a postal clerk and Dorothy, a librarian.

"In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to buy art, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists. Their circle includes: Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert and Sylvia Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi and Lawrence Weiner.

Thirty years on, the Vogels had managed to accumulate over 4,000 pieces, filling every corner of their living space from the bathroom to the kitchen. Their apartment was near collapse, holding way over its limit - something had to be done.

In 1992, the Vogels made headlines that shocked the art world: their entire collection was moved to the National Gallery of Art, the vast majority of it as an outright gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired at modest prices appreciated so significantly that their collection became worth several million dollars, yet the Vogels never sold a single piece to breakdown the collection.

The Vogels' discerning taste and magnanimity changed the face of contemporary art collecting. In 2007, James Stourton, the chairman of Sotheby's UK, included the Vogels in his acclaimed book, Great Collectors of Our Time: Art Collecting Since 1945. Stourton placed Herb and Dorothy among the top art collectors in the world, alongside Getty, Rockefeller and Mellon."

I want to write more about Herb and Dorothy Vogel because their story is so inspiring. But for now, here's the trailer to a documentary about the Vogels by Megumi Sasaki called Herb and Dorothy.



And of course, some links if you want to read ahead:
* Herb and Dorothy Documentary
* Vogel 50/50 (National Gallery of Art)
* Meet the Vogels (The Moment, NYTimes)

"Konichiwa, Daniel Radcliffe des"

Harii Pottaa!


Excuse the flurry of posts. There's just so much work to put off.
NB: This is a different trailer than the American version found here.

I think you will love this: Kermit | Bale

and there's more! See these sites
I Heart Photograph
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