Theo Jansen, kinetic sculptor

BBC report


Kinetic sculptor, using wind, motion, pvc, wings, Theo Jansen uses his creative power, his combining skills to make animal like creatures. Majestic.
Hours of labors, trial and error, he does what it takes to keep his work alive.
Arabs of talent, use your time to create!

Deconstructed Stairways to heaven - Vincent Dubourg

The '3 Storey Staircase' private commission by Vincent Dubourg,
represented at Carpenters Workshop Gallery
by a to-scale maquette. Photograph by David Brook

Wallpaper magazine displayed a photo of this staircase designed by the artist Vincent Dubourg, commissioned for a home in London by an Arab lady. As a discreet art patron, no name appears in the article. Vincent Dubourg talks about his experience in the project: how he was set free from guidelines and could work as an artist to produce the stairways as he wished. Sprouting from the wooden floor and reaching to the top as an organic element it looks like the staircase has lived there before the house was built. Although the tree feeling is quite vivid, the material used as steel and metal gives a dissonance in the biological alive sensation; but pulls out a futuristic and robotic effect. Impressive.


Wallpaper article (link)
Vincent Dubourg website (link)

Edimburgh jazz festival

The beauty of jazz festival or any other festival style is the choice: on a given day, let's say wednesday 27th july 2011, you're in Edinburgh and you plan to do what the locals do.
Angela King, a jazz singer (link)
Hidden orchestra / red snapper (link)
Hypnotic brass ensemble (link)
some others scattered in town.
The choice was to listen to Evan Christopher, clarinet player who knows about history of jazz. He plays "Django a la creole" with guitarists David Blenkhorn and Dave Kelbie, and bassist Sebastien Girardot. He talks about Django  Reinhardt and how the mix of clarinet, manouch, gypsy and creole music in the jazz tunes started when Django joined the Ellington band. The concert was light, pleasant and entertaining. With the sound of his clarinet, Christopher creates a jazzy mood, soothing! Nothing like live performance.

Lucien Freud passed away

autoportrait

Lucien freud passed away at the age of 88 and left many of his works to the Arts. In the contemporary world of concepts, installations, abstract, Freud painted reality in human flesh and bodies; he took the time to express himself to the fullest. Not looking at the plastic superficial perception of human bodies, he said:" I paint what I see not what you want me to see"; searching for a truth beyond the explicit.

The giant bookstore "Borders" shuts down

With store in the UAE or Oman, Borders shutting down by the end of september will have its own effect in the Arab world.
For reasons of profitability and return on investment, the US giant bookstore that had in stock more than thousands of books in each of its 400 stores, has to close down. The shift of clients behavior towards reading is a silent revolution, but predictability is another unknown factor: will the small neighbourhood bookstore resurface? will the internet take over any buying of books? will reading on electronic devises wipe out the paper format forever?
Fnac (another giant in France) is rethinking its strategy to keep some of its market shares. They plan to concentrate their efforts on the customer rather than the product, which could make the event of visiting the store an experience by itself.
Will Amazon be our only source of books?
In the Arab world, before contemplating a bookstore's financial results, we still have to work on the books productions and accessibility: censorship and repression on ideas and thoughts are slowly cracking up through different countries, but it has barely gone beyond twitter and facebook. Reading or writing books require a deeper and longer thought process than the 140 symbols message.

Souad Massi at the Democratic Republic of Music in Beirut

Democratic Republic of Music is the new concert/bar/restaurant in Hamra. They were looking for the perfect sound; so they tailored everything around it. "We built a box in a box with special materials so that the sound is crystal clear with minimum reverberation. DRM is a concert hall that was conceived from this perspective: the perspective of music producers and musicians." they say in their website.
And they have added the experience: food, drinks, service, friendliness.

Tonight Souad Massi on the microphone. The algerian singer shared her passion with her voice, with her heart.
A great performance in a magical place.


Democratic Republic of Music link