Miss Muffet's Tuffet

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― Giacomo Casanova

Boston mobster 'Whitey' Bulger's possessions fetch $100,000 at auction

25 JUNE 2016       REUTERS       JOSEPH AX

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS (Reuters) -- Former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger's personal possessions - including a pen holder designed to look like a rat and a three-carat, heart-shaped diamond ring - fetched more than $100,000 at an auction in Boston on Saturday.

Law enforcement officials sold off hundreds of items seized when federal agents captured the fugitive mobster in an apartment in Santa Monica, California, in 2011. 

Bulger, 86, ruled Boston's criminal underworld for a quarter-century before going on the lam after a corrupt FBI agent alerted him that he was about to be arrested. He survived 16 years on the run before he was finally caught with $800,000 in cash and a cache of weapons. 

The items sold on Saturday ranged from the mundane to the unique. Three pairs of sneakers, along with a pair of black slippers and a pair of sandals, went for $210; a punching bag shaped like a man drew $4,900; and an enormous collection of books, many of them focused on World War II and the Holocaust and containing Bulger's handwritten notes, sold for thousands of dollars in all. 

The white bucket hat Bulger was wearing at the time of his capture went for $6,400. 

The auction ended around 2 p.m., with the final sale a floor safe for $525.

The proceeds of the auction will go to his victims, according to the U.S Marshals Service, which is overseeing the auction. 

Bulger was convicted in 2013 of either committing or ordering 11 murders, among other crimes, and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He is in federal prison in Sumter, Florida. 

His longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, who lived in hiding with Bulger and who owned a number of the items up for auction on Saturday, was sentenced to eight years for harboring a fugitive. In April, she received an additional 21 months after refusing to answer questions as to whether anyone helped the couple while in hiding. 

Bulger's rise to power and eventual flight were chronicled in the book "Black Mass," which was adapted into a 2015 film starring Johnny Depp as the mobster. Read More

Kamiel Rongen creates Sea of Decay for Julien Mier music video

25 JUNE 2016       DEZEEN       ALICE MORBY

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (Dezeen) -- Musician and director Kamiel Rongen mixed water and oil with paint, sugar, and even an air freshener to create a series of misty surreal landscapes for this music video.

Rongen created the visuals to accompany Dutch musician Julien Mier's Sea of Decay track, which was inspired by the colours used in a film by Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli. 

"I was inspired by the film Nausicaä by Ghibli, where they are talking about the sea of decay, the garbage of the human on this planet, and loved the colours in it," Mier told Dezeen. "Kamiel was really open to put his stamp on it." 

The pair first met at a Dutch music festival in 2011, and when Mier moved to Amsterdam in 2015, they felt it was the best time to eventually collaborate.

"A few weeks after the festival in 2011 I said to Julien, 'whenever you need a music video I would love to make it'," said Rongen, who previously created trippy visuals for his own track. "Although I'm not looking to make videos for other artists, I'm in love with Julien's compositions." 

Although no set brief was provided, Rongen looked to the hues used in the Ghibli film for reference. To recreate them, he mixed different liquids within a large tank of water to form a series of mystical landscapes. Read More