CASA MALAPARTE [2]

In a recent article of Italian magazine Domus, there were some interesting pictures of the Casa Malaparte I would like to share. I never get enough of it... In this blog there is another article on this villa. Look for Malaparte.

First a link [and thanks to] the Domus link

GURUTUBE

Gurutube will point you out why you don't get done what you would like to.



Watch out for your monkey mind..... Look it up on YouTube...

IMPORTANT ARTEFACTS AND PERSONAL PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF LEONORE DOOLAN AND HAROLD MORRIS, INCLUDING BOOKS, STREET FASHION, AND JEWELLERY

The rise and fall of a love affair described in terms of an auction catalog: this is 'important artifacts ... et cetera'. Few people will have a conception of this book. And that is all too understandable, because Key artifacts ... is a book that is unique in its kind.


Important artifacts ... is the description of 1332 lots that once belonged to the (fictional) Lenore Doolan, culinary editor at The New York Times, and Harold Morris, much sought after commercial photographer. These gifts they each have given, clothes they wore, the books they read [together], CDs, knickknacks, theater programs, menus, photographs, letters and printouts of e-mails they each sent when Harold visited a distant corner of the world again for a job. In short, all the costumes and props from the drama of their love life.


Because it is a tragedy. In the description of all these objects draws slowly the story of love between Lenore and Harold, how they each have experienced how their relationship intensified and when and where the first cracks showe. How their relationship slowly but inevitably had to break down, with dire results as the 'sale' of everything to remember their love, and still on 14 February 2009, Valentines Day, auctioned at Strachan & Quinn.

< The page about the stuffed squirrel

Link to the author: Leanne Shapton

COGGLES

Some time ago I came across Coggles, a delightful digital dept. store. It has 'I want' written all over it.

The shop, was apparently named after the secretary of the former husband of founder Victoria Bage. The explanation for the name of the shop: Victoria's husband was caught having an affair with this secretary. Victoria divorced him and took revenge by the naming the shop to change the name of the secretary, Sarah Coggles. A strong reminder of the creativity rage can arouse.

Founded in 1974 in downtown York, it is now an online store with great content.

 

To visit this shop PRESS

PARIS - LE MONSTRE DE MORETTI

Good news: The Monster of Moretti is back to visit.


The 'Monstre' is located in the bowels of La Defense, it is a sculpture and installation by Raymond Moretti. he built it in the studio that he lives in the brand new architectural 'monster' La Defense, possessed.
Les Journées du Patrimoine [guardian of the Parisian heritage] reopened the workshop and living space by Raymond Moretti, abandoned since 2005, the year of the death of its creator.

Right the chimney of the 'Monster'

Before 2005, the installation was open to the public every day

Moretti stond bekend om als ontwerper van posters

The installation seen from the balcony
(for security reasons you can not descend)
The shadows on the walls are painted

Parts are scattered on the ground

A walk in a theatrical setting

Subscribe to a visit of the machinery

Pictures made by the visitors, who to their surprise were guided as a group of six, by an expert on the history of the business district, offering everything some very passionate commentary.
More information in the blog article Condition Venus.

GARDENING [4] WIRTZ

The Belgian landscape architects Jacques and his sons Martin and Peter have designed some of the most beautiful gardens in Europe. I love their dramatic command of space and strong sculptural forms, their work combines a modernist aesthetic with a respect for tradition and the spirit of place. At the family home in Schoten, near Antwerp, a former gardener's cottage attached to an eighteenth-century estate, they have created in their private garden a laboratory for experiment on an intimate scale. 

I came across them because of the work they did for the gardens of the Louvre around the Arc Du Petit Carrousel. The use of hedges and the playfull walks you can make, enjoying the height differences and views, make it worth a visit. Well everybody visiting passes through anyway.

It's hard to find good photos of what I'm talking about. Behind the Maillols you can see the garden, but you cannot look inside. But once you are there you should walk through. 


A cute film on the Maillol statues, with more Wirtz in the background


Finally the Wirtz website

GARDENING [7] MARQUEYSSAC DORDOGNE

The Château de Marqueyssac is a 17th century chateau and gardens located at Vézac, in the Dordogne Department of France. The chateau was built at the end of the 17th century by Bertrand Vernet de Marqueyssac, Counselor to Louis XIV, on cliffs overlooking the Dordogne Valley. The original garden à la française was attributed to a pupil of André Le Nôtre, and featured terraces, alleys, and a kitchen garden surrounding the chateau.

To see the website press here it starts with a cute film...

A cute YouTube from Gardeners World

To get there, press here

A FLIGHT WITH HARALD VLUGT

Harald Vlugt makes a huge collage for an ocean liner...

Probably finished by now, this film is of 2011... But I had it in store and wanted to post it.

Harald Vlugt - "Nieuw-Amsterdam" - a clip by Ger Poppelaars 

AS DANDY DOES 1

What's the dandy's doing nowadays? 2 centuries in the picture, how, why?

The dandy, he's always just back, on the wane, history or has always been there. The dandy, edgy masculinity and viewed by his audience with some skepticism [all in the game] but always finding his audience somewhere. 
Anyone can show dandy-like traits, not everyone can be dandy. The dandy is the leader of "the club" and a club has rules. The rules are set by the members to distinguish them against the "others", the "not dandies".

Those rules can be boring and rigid ...  
Rule number one of 'The Manifesto of The Chap' says: THOU SHALT ALWAYS WEAR TWEED. No other fabric says so defiantly: I am a man of panache, savoir-faire and devil-may-care, and I will not be served Continental lager beer under any circumstances.

In short tickling materials and no Heineken.


What makes dandyism so interesting is the believe to live according to an idea, a concept. As in the above example, the material [Tweed] is the message.

Men with their "lifestyle" convey messages of all time, singers like David Bowie, Boy George, David Sylvian. The multi-talented Dickon Edwards and dandy diarist Sebastian Horsley.

All fed by great nineteenth century examples, Beau Brummell, Oscar Wilde? 
Or closer by in time, Louis Couperus, Gabrielle d'Annunzio, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil Beaton?

Also, but not necessarily, there's the deep desire for secession by wanting, 'to hide in the spotlight, coûte que coûte!

The dandy is a person, not a group. Like somewhere in 2002 the metrosexual was invented, with figurehead David Beckham.  
Unfortunately without style, nor quirks, well ...

Listen to genius Wilde: "The dandy is the future".

The dandy is not only well dressed but also a leader in modern society. In itself a work of art: impassive, unapproachable and, if nessesary, inedible. Like Oscar Wilde's dandyism showed at the end of the 19th century in his plays and novels.

According to Alice Ciolini's book, "The New English Dandy", the dandy "again" has a future. It is a search for the successor of the metrosexual and the subsequent übersexual [George Clooney, sic.].
Looking for that new dandy, she distinguishes; the Neo-Modernist, the Terrace Casual, the Celebrity Tailor, the East End Flaneur, the Gentleman and the New Briton. An interesting survey...


Added july 18. 2012 [title links]

Introduction: The Literary Dandy (A Special Issue)

Posted on 11 July 2012

When was man first freed from the drudgery of earning his income? And who was the first to dedicate himself to the art of living well? At what point in history did an entire leisure class of hedonistic egoists first appear? And what is dandyism after all? It is merely an excessive delight in clothes and fashionable living?

There is a long and colorful history of dandyism. Such men have always appeared, it seems, during eras of luxury and excess, whether during the Days of the Caesars, or the Age of the Virgin Queen. They have gone by many names. During the Restoration of King Charles the Second, they were “bucks” or “beaus” or “exquisites” or, more meanly, “fops.” During the Regency, they were “rakes” and “blades.” Throughout La Belle Epoque, they were “aesthetes” and “dandies.” This last name has become their common name—and a term used as both description and reproach.

The dandy has always inspired mixed feelings among his fellow citizens. According to Baudelaire, the dandy has a “burning need to create for himself a personal originality.” Such characters incite envy or contempt among their fellow man: it is a “burning desire” which strikes others as too ambitious or arrogant. The dandy has always been unmoved by such resentment; the pursuit of “idle perfection” is not done for applause. As Robert de Montesquiou once said (and his indifference to criticism could be called archetypal):  “It is better to be hated than to be unknown.”

We will not concern ourselves with dandies who wrote little of consequence –great though they were in their manner of life – such as Alcibiades or Beau Brummell. It is too much off the point to entertain the anecdotes that surround such figures, not to mention their peers such as the Duke of Buckingham, or Ludwig the Second (the Swan King of Bavaria), or the Counts Boni de Castellane or d’Orsay. Examples are too abundant. As one author reminds us:

MOLLINO

tabletop

Domus had a wonderfull article on Carlo Mollino's Casa Miller. I'm not going to cite, but to invite: Have a look HERE.

No idea who Carlo Mollino is? Well an intriguing Italian designer. A bit dark, very elegant, something of an erotic photographer, independant. I guess much looked at and, no worry,  inimmitable.

Ok then, some examples:

table

living room