BAND-MAID / REAL EXISTENCE

“What happens when people open their hearts?"

"They get better.” 

― Haruki Murakami

Masterspiece Theatre

“Only the gentle are ever really strong.” 

― James Dean

“The Keeper” at the New Museum Pays Homage to Objects and Obsessions

23 JULY 2016       VOGUE       JULIA FELSENTHAL

NEW YORK, NY (Vogue) -- In this age of ghoulish hoarder reality shows and the canonization of Marie Kondo, an era in which we’ve made a virtue of minimalism and simplicity, of culling for culling’s sake, of organizing and curating (by which we really just mean paring down), “The Keeper,” the sprawling just-opened exhibition at New York City’s New Museum goes very much against the grain (though, it should be noted, very much with the grain of Vogue’s own Lynn Yaeger.

“This exhibition is about individuals who have carried out unreasonable acts of iconophilia,” curator Massimiliano Gioni said earlier this week at a press preview of the exhibition, which assembles projects and personal collections from artists and non-artists alike. It’s a show about “hoarding, counting, ordering,” he explained, one that explores what it means to hold on versus to lose. 

His words took shape as I wandered through the four floors of exhibits, which together comprise tens of thousands of objects accumulated and created by dozens of individuals for whom holding on was very much a priority. 

And that’s among the only things these iconoclastic keepers share in common. To highlight just a few examples: there’s the Swiss photographer Mario Del Curto’s black and white photographs of Richard Greaves’s salvaged junk assemblages, teepees and birdhouses, shotgun shacks and carcosa-like shrines that recall the work of Noah Purifoy, though Greaves built his—meticulously, the wall text assures—not in the warmth of the southern Californian desert, but in the harsh climes of southeastern Quebec; the 19th-century American Civil War vet and whittler Levi Fisher Ames’s miniature sculptures of animals, some realistic, some comically absurd, some utterly fantastical, which he toured around the Midwest for decades in a circus-like tent show; the early-20th-century Catholic priest and pomologist Korbinian Aigner’s painting studies of the apple and pear varietals he spent his life cultivating, even while imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp; the portraits of Ye Jinglu, a Chinese man who went annually to a studio to be photographed for more than six decades; and Vermont photographer Wilson Bentley’s early-20th-century photographs of magnified snowflakes, a project that gave rise to the aphorism, “no two snowflakes are alike.” Read More

The Best Fashion Instagrams of the Week: Kendall Jenner Dresses Down for T Time!

23 JULY 2016       VOGUE       MARJON CARLOS

eaHistorically teatime has demanded white gloves and a much more buttoned-up dress code, but as Kendall Jenner spread out over an antique couch this week in a satin blush robe for a good ol’ “T” session, it would seem the supermodel was taking a more relaxed approach. Gossiping it up on the phone, Jenner kicked up her legs in delight while she kept herself hydrated. Bella Hadid was off sipping on something a little stronger with singer Jesse Jo Stark. Peering over their martini glasses, the two vacationing besties sported matching cat-eye sunglasses—a glamorous choice to deflect the tropical sun. Speaking of statement eyewear, Pharrell slipped his pearl-encrusted Chanel shades on while sunning it up on the beach this week. They weren’t the only summertime accessory he chose for the outing, though. Catching some rays in a sweatshirt and baseball hat, the producer was putting his own cool remix on beachwear.

Gucci’s Alessandro Michele literally blended into his surroundings, the designer perfectly complementing his monogrammed slippers with an embroidered rug, while Fig & Viper’s Alisa Ueno coordinated with a swarm of Pokémon. Read More

"The Keeper"|Dentaduras |Arthur Bispo do Rosario

Freestyling Directive

Periscopic Transparency

"My steadfast rule of not repeating anything in dance that I've done before" -- Fred Astaire

Here's the Fashion Power Broker That Can Get You Your Birkin Bag

13 July 2016 (VIEWED)       PURSUITIST       KATE MICHAEL

If it’s rare, superfine, or one of a kind, and you want it, we know who can get it for you.

Alexis Clarbour is Executive Director of Portero, fashion fiends’ go-to place for hard to find pre-owned luxury items like authentic handbags and accessories.  (They’re also the largest suppliers of The Birkin!)  It’s a multi-million dollar business you may never have even heard of, but the idea behind these investments is flourishing in a major way. 

Since 2004, Portero has pioneered the secondary luxury online marketplace.  Here, Pursuitist catches up with Clarbour to get some firsthand dish on its ultimate shopping experience: 

Pursuitist: Tell us a little bit about the types of ladies (and gents!) using your service.  Why does having these pieces mean so much to them? 

Alexis Clarbour: Our clientele treasures the notion that they are buying something that has value, whether its providing them a discount off the retail price or access to something not easily found in the marketplace.  Our clientele is very astute and has done their homework.  Portero’s customers are intensely loyal because we have continuously exceeded their expectations through quality of product and unparalleled service. Portero 100% guarantees the authenticity and condition of all merchandise, or your money back. The Portero Promise serves to relieve consumers’ trepidations. Committed to the highest standards of excellence in products and service, Portero has a singular focus: to build life-long relationships with our clientele. Trust and consistency go a long way – especially online. 

P: How did you get into this business?  And for you, is it the thrill of the chase? Or does it stress you out sometimes, too? 

AC: I have been in the business of luxury goods for a long time, but I actually started as a NASDAQ trader.  There are more commonalities in both industries than one might think.  Portero is the perfect vehicle for my comprehensive understanding of the luxury market. I recognize the expectations our discerning clientele. Coupled with my financial acumen, it’s an ideal fit. Of course we all have some stressful days, but the pay-off of procuring that one distinctive bag for a special client and earning their repeat business is well worth it! 

P: The question everyone wants to know… How do you get these hard to procure pieces?  What’s the secret?  

AC: As Portero has been in the business the longest of our peers, we have cultivated a team of only the best talent.  I really think it comes down to karma.  If we were offering a lot of the mass-produced brands, countless people would naturally come to us to sell their items.  However, being that Portero mostly sells prestige brands – such as Hermès, Chanel and Rolex – that is what people come to Portero to sell.  They know our clientele is only interested in the finest, so we are the ideal destination for them to consign rare luxury pieces. Read More

"when your lyrics are on the bottle 😛" 

-- @selenagomez 

Selena Gomez for Coca-Cola

Iris Van Herpen | Haute Couture Fall Winter 2016/17 by Iris Van Herpen

Phantom Sage - Holystone

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

"The Island." 

(DreamWorks Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures)

In Norway, Kisses, Not Dances, With Wolves

"WolfLodge is rented per night, with a private chef, if desired... the head wolf trainer, spoke to us about the upcoming potential encounter."

7 JULY 2016       PURSUITIST       SUSAN KIME

TROMSO, NORWAY (Pursuitist) -- ... As we observed and took pictures of this encounter, I thought about a great essayist, and Cultural Anthropologist, Loren Eiseley. He had written a profound essay called The Angry Winter, in his book, The Unexpected Universe. Part of this essay dealt was a story about his dog, Wolf, a German Shepherd. One night when Eiseley was working at his desk, he absentmindedly placed a 10,000 year old Bison thigh bone from his desk to the floor. Then, Wolf, his domesticated pet of many years, picked it up, growled, and wouldn’t let it go.

Eiseley imagined Wolf telling him that, essentially no matter how much of a house pet he was, there was still a wildness in him that transcends the civilized life of pets, and that bone reminded him of it, of his place in nature, and of Eiseley’s. Those of us who own dogs, and even cats, understand this: no matter how loving, and tame, there is an instinctive degree of caution we must always exercise. 

This was, surely, the unspoken reason my colleague and I stayed behind — that somehow Stig the trainer had this sense of caution also, and understood, that on the periphery of the wolf’s mild kisses, lies a wildness of 100 centuries. 

Eiseley once commented in a lecture, “ One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human.” As I observed my colleagues happily crouching and kneeling, on eye level with the wolves, I sensed the wolves thinking, “Now we can look into your eyes, and though you smell a little different, you are on our level, and seem more like us than we thought. How about a kiss?” Read More

The Best Casa Noble Tequila

"... [O]ne of the small-volume craft Tequila producers helping to raise Tequila’s image beyond the margarita is Casa Noble, a brand whose history dates back to the 1700s."

7 JULY 2016       PURSUITIST       ROGER SCOBLE

Casa Noble, which produces about 150,000 litters of Tequila of different ages each year, produces from a holding of about 3,000 acres of blue agave, about one-tenth that of Tequila giant Jose Cuervo (curve also buys blue agave from other growers). And Casa Noble’s blue agave fields are mostly on slopes and hillsides, which stresses the plant, and the company believes produces a more complex tasting agave plant.

Another difference in Casa Noble’s process to set it apart is the three distillations to which it subjects its spirit–traditionally, Tequila is distilled twice. 

If the taste of Casa Noble’s Tequilas seems deeper and slightly more complex than other brands, one of the reasons, says owner Jose “Pepe” Hermosillo, is the slow cooking of the blue agave “pineapples” before the juice is extracted. Some larger scale Tequila producers cook the agave in just six to eight hours in an autoclave, which works like a pressure cooker. Hermosillo compares the 36 hours or so of slow cooking in stone ovens to slow-cooking beans overnight in an iron pot versus using a pressure cooker. “Anyone can tell you the slow-cook method imparts a deeper, slightly smoky and sweet flavor that you can’t achieve in fast cooking.” 

The majority of all reposado (aged Tequila) is aged in second-fill American Bourbon barrels. But Hermosillo says the charcoal on the inside of Bourbon barrels is too much for the flavor profile he is going for. Casa Noble uses new French oak barrels with a very light char on the inside. The distillery’s Anejo Tequila spends two years in the barrel before bottling. Casa Noble Black spends five years in oak. 

Tequila that is to become Anejo (minimum 1 year aging) goes into new casks. The Reposado (2 months to 1 year aging) goes into refilled casks. (More often at other distilleries, they will use newer casks for Reposado Tequilas and older ones for Anejo so that the wood affects the spirit more in a shorter time for the Reposado.) They refill the casks for Reposado 7 to 8 times. 

It’s important to remember that one year of aging in the Jalisco region of Mexico where all legitimate Tequila comes, is like five years of aging in Scotland because of the much warmer climate in Mexico. Indeed, most distillers say more than nine years of aging, unless it is done in hyper-controlled temperatures, sends the Tequila over the edge with too much wood in the flavor profile and mouth feel. Read More

Ferrari takes the top off the LaFerrari

7 JULY 2016       PURSUITIST       HARVEY BRIGGS

Ferrari again is teasing us mere mortals by showing us something we can’t have. Yesterday they revealed the first photographs of a limited-edition convertible based on the LaFerrari.

The new Ferrari convertible is available with both a removable carbon fiber hard top and a soft top. It is built on the same platform and uses the same powertrain and mechanicals as the original LaFerrari. This droptop will be the king of convertibles when it comes to acceleration, handling and top speed. The 48-valve 6.3-liter V-12 makes 789 horsepower and is combined with an AC permanent magnet synchronous electric motor that produces 161 hp for a total of 950 horsepower. That’ll take you from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds and to 100 in under 5! 

... Ferrari has not released the price nor the name for the new convertible, we’ll have to wait for the Paris International Motor show for that. It hardly matters, however, because the entire production run has already been sold out to existing Ferrari owners who were given a special preview. Proving once again that the best way to get a new Ferrari is to already own a Ferrari. Read More

The 1,600-year-old skeleton of an upper-class woman found near Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan wore a prosthetic lower tooth made of a green stone known as serpentine (AFP; INAH/AFP / HO)

JABBAWOCKEEZ at NBA Finals 2016

Master Tea

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”  

― Albert Einstein

NASA spaceship barrels toward Jupiter, 'planet on steroids'

"Water is key"

3 JULY 2016       AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE       ROBYN BECK

Juno, an unmanned NASA spacecraft, is barrelling toward Jupiter on a $1.1 billion mission to circle the biggest planet in the solar system and shed new light on the origin of our planetary neighborhood.

On July 4 and 5, the solar-powered vehicle -- about the size of a professional basketball court -- should plunge into Jupiter's poisonous atmosphere to begin orbiting for a period of almost two years. 

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. Its atmosphere is made up of hydrogen and helium and packed with so much radiation that it would be more than 1,000 times the lethal level for a human. 

The gas giant is also shrouded in the strongest magnetic field in the solar system. 

"Jupiter is a planet on steroids," said Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "Everything about it is extreme." Read More

French artist brings the world of Studio Ghibli to life with vibrant series of watercolour prints

The characters come to life beautifully in vivid colour.

3 JULY 2016       ROCKETNEWS24       OONA MCGEE

The heartfelt storylines and enchanting animated characters from Studio Ghibli continue to inspire people around the world, including one talented artist from France, 25 year-old Louise Terrier, who’s put brush to paper and created a series of amazing scenes... Read More

Rihanna - Sledgehammer (From The Motion Picture "Star Trek Beyond")