Vitro Nasu

R.I.P Maurice Jarre – who was 84. (Father of Jean Michel Jarre)

His breakthrough came in 1962 when provided the soundtrack for the epic Lawrence of Arabia, for which he was awarded an Oscar. He went on to compose music for more than 150 films.

Here are some figure skaters who won their gold with his film scores.

One key element to great skating is to watch how the skaters use their arms. (Most skaters are quite happy to frail their arms chasing after points like a cash machine – not good. Yagudin, Sasha Cohen, Johnny Weir, John Curry, Matt Savoie, and Buttle take their time and avoid this trap. )

Watch Johnny Weir’s Dr Zhivago
Johnny Weir did not compete this year. He got sick in Korea – here is Johnny talking about his friendship with Yu Na Kim. (Great jacket. Weir’s other passion is fashion. Johnny seems happy even though his rival won gold this year. Evan’s a bit over the top emotionally)

Most of youtube figure skating clips are in Korean these days – the whole country has gone crazy for Yu Na Kim.
Her rival Mao Asada, last year’s world champion did not medal this year. The silver went to Canada’s Joannie Rochette and the bronze to Japan’s Miki Ando. We usually see unhappy or disappointed silver and bronze winners, not this year the two seemed very happy to stand next to magnificent Queen Yu Na.

Yu Na Kim animation video is here.

Canadian Patrick Chan, who is only 18, won Silver. . here
This Frenchman who defected to Italy skates in a Macaroni Western.
Long legged Carolina Kostner had a disaster performance, but no matter, she can win for having the best costume. Carolina won siver here at European Championship.

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Happy Birthday Yayoi Kusama! (via)
She is 80 years old. (Two dates for her birthday, March 29 or March 22)

See more Yayoi Kusuma – David Zwirner Gallery

Kusama and Joseph Cornell

In 1972, American assemblage and collage artist Joseph Cornell died. Twenty-six years her senior, Cornell had been Kusama’s closest friend. New York was by this time home to a community of Japanese artists, but Kusama had avoided the associations many of her compatriots formed with groups such as the anti-art happening bunch in the neo-Dada group Fluxus.
“I had gone to New York to be independent,” she says, “Not to join a group.”
Cornell’s death left Kusama dangerously isolated, and her mental condition began to deteriorate. She experienced frequent hallucinations and bouts of severe depression and developed heart problems. Heeding her parents entreatments, Kusama returned to Japan. Her father died two years later, and despite out-patient psychiatric treatment, Kusama’s anxiety neurosis was now unmanageable. In 1977 she entered the psychiatric institution.
Kusama has lived in the same hospital for over 20 years. There is no furniture, save a bed. Her 12 square-meter room has a big, French-style bay window that looks out onto a small garden. Kusama sometimes watches people playing tennis in a court that lies behind the garden.
Every morning after breakfast, Kusama walks five minutes up Gaien Higashi street to her studio to paint. She walks back to the room for lunch, then returns to her studio and works through the afternoon. Kusama takes her dinner at the hospital before retiring each evening.
“It’s very comfortable, very private” says Kusama, “And very simple, I like it.”

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Christopher DeLaurenti has two new (and free) albums:
– Found Soundscape: C-SPAN Presidential Inauguration (and/OAR)
– Wallingford Food Bank (Public Record)

He has three performances coming up in Seattle.
For details (price, time, location) and links, see his homepage.

Sample his music at myspace chris delaurenti.

Friday, March 27
Seattle Phonographers Union – a benefit for Hollow Earth Radio – live
improvisation with unprocessed field recordings. Bring a pillow and
blankets!

Wednesday April 1
Subtext Reading Series – DeLaurenti performs and premiere text/sound pieces
including “500 Icons” in this reading with Danny Snelson.

Wednesday April 8
DeLaurenti Plays Ravel – performance of “Bolero” on the flap-o-phone
(I’m opening for Gust Burns and Swiss sound artist Jason Kahn).

Jason Kahn and Jeff Henderson live at Happy, Wellington, New Zealand 2007
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More on Christopher DeLaurenti here and here.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day (via)

Let’s hear it for women in technology
Today we celebrate the memory of Ada Lovelace, widely recognized as the world’s first computer programmer

Ada Lovelace

Why today (March 24) – it is not her birthday? Why did this subject come up? We are happy to celebrate anyway.

Furtherfield Ada Lovelace Project.

Finding Ada -(Bringing women in technology to the fore)

There is also Marie Curie of course, blog around or twitter around to find more great women scientists.

Flash Ada <> <> <> <> <> Twitter Ada and cartoon Ada (below)

Peforming Ada Lovelace

In this article Ada appended a set of notes detailing a plan for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the Engine. Historians now recognize this plan as the world’s first computer program.
Performance Excerpt:
Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.

Commentary on Conceiving Ada – Tilda Swinton as Ada in a film adapted by Lynn Hershman-Leeson
Michael Mattis did not like the film – Repurposing Ada (salon)

Lord Byron was her father, here is a long postscript about the programming language named in her honor (scroll down – for programmers only).

Patty Hearst (Embroidery by Ruby Khan – the Village people)

Ruby’s cross-stitch was inspired by and adapted from Craig Robinson‘s Minipop drawings on flipflopflyin.com.
Looking at Flavin’s neon wall sculpture (Repost)

Craig has added more minipops, check his Obama family <> <> Dalai Lama
<> <> <> Miles Davis <> <> <> Gilbert and George <> <>

Smokin’Bob Marley <> <> and Jean Michel Jarre

Craig Robinson’s Bueller animation here

From Invisible Heroes – a sample of youtube drawing below.

Youtube drawings part 2

Note: Patty hearst image is dedicated to late and tragic Natasha Richardson.
Patty Hearst was directed by Paul Schrader

Capsule by Hal Lum

20 Going On 21: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Looking to the Future–An Exhibition of Hawaii Artists will open at The Contemporary Museum’s Makiki Heights galleries March 19 and remain on view through June 21, 2009.

Centre- by Hal Lum

See works by seven other Hawaii artists from here.

Hal has photographed the shoebox sculptures for another exhibition.
Thinking Inside the Box

The triennial Shoebox event marks its 10th exhibition March 1 through April 9 at the University of Hawaiʻi Art Gallery before going on the road.
The idea of presenting three-dimensional art in such a small format was the brainchild of Department of Art and Art History Professors Fred Roster and Mamoru Sato in collaboration with then gallery Director Tom Klobe.

Flicker <><>by Bernice Akamine, Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi

In Her Shoes by Yuriko Matsuda, Japan
Above photos by Hal Lum and Paul Kodama, courtesy of the University of Hawaiʻi Art Gallery.

And since you cover so much little known artlit territory, you should know I have just published my complete translation from the French of Malcolm de Chazal, Sens-Plastique, (Green Integer 2008), foreword by WH Auden. Andre Breton claimed Chazal as surrealist and Braque told him his aphorisms were really images and he should paint (which he took up on).

(via email Irving Weiss)

Malcolm de Chazal and painter

Chazal’s aphorisms are considered by literary critics to express the most remarkable correspondence between words and things, between language and nature, ever attempted. Chazal’s paintings celebrate the magical island spendor of Mauritian sunlight, flora, fauna that inspired his observations.

Malcolm de Chazal was discovered by Surrealists but had nothing to do with Surrealism, according to James Geary.
How can aphorisms change your life? (Video of James Geary on the Aphorisms of Malcolm de Chazal via irvingweiss.com)
Hight light from the video reading,

(Malcolm is Charlie Kaufman of nature, more positive, embracing and wise.)

Achilles and Tortoise “E” (Otolith)

Irving Weiss is still putting the ox back into the aleph in word for/word, the lyre, hot metal, and other sources of vispo shaking and making. His 2-vol. translation of Chazal’s Sens-Plastique (5 years on Amazon) was supposedly due out March 10.

Gloss Twombly by Irving Weiss (see and read more here)

Cy Twombly (Previous post)

6 policemen <>

Two police cars

Zoom to 6 cops<>

We had no idea what they were doing in the desert.
They are making our dogs very nervous. Our dogs take their job of patrolling seriously.

Chipmunk on the bricks

We spotted Wendy’s ballon floating in the mountains or a chatty cowboy riding backward talking stories last year. Recently we had cops and police cars visiting the desert mountains disturbing the quails, snakes, chipmunks, rabbits and roadrunners living in the desert.
Viewing from here

The convicts were here one day to work in the desert mountains.
The image was turn into a little fantasy piece.

(repost 4th times due to imagined popular demand)

Take heart, Obama administration may reconsider joining the court.

Lastly read this story,

Tennessee’s ‘Little Houdini’ revives the outlaw legend
Supporters say Chris Gay is a modern Robin Hood. Lawmen call him “a little thief, a little con.”

Mr. Gay’s much-publicized prison-break in 2007 to reach his dying mama‘s side failed, but only after he led authorities on a five-state, five-day chase that ended with him being arrested driving the country singer Crystal Gayle’s stolen tour bus in Florida.

Introducing Catinca Untaru from the film The Fall

Read Catinca‘s bio, an amazing child actress from Romania.

As the shooting took place in more than 20 locations around the world, Catinca was most impressed with India. Upon her return in Romania, she said, “India is like a beautiful woman whose eyes you can’t see.”

Additional links for “The Fall’, a film directed by Tarsem Singh
Gorgeous title sequence of the Fall on youtube (this film was rescued by David Fincher and Spike Jonz)

Today is March 3rd Hinamatsuri – a day to celebrate all girls in Japan.

The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (雛流し, lit. “doll floating”), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them.

Takeshi Kitano’s Dolls still image <> <> Puppet “Dolls” on youtube <> <> Hinamatsuri Sushi

Meet Jesse, a California girl.

Jesse at Venice Beach California August, 2008. Jesse is a photographer and a performance artist.

Kaitlyn at Kiwanis Park

Kaitlyn likes books.