Teargarden by Kaleidyscope: A Smashing Pumpkins 44-track [Free] Album

Billy Corgan has finally announced on 16 September 2009 new updates and plans for the upcoming album to be called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope “…beginning around Halloween of this year…” | [late Nov-early Dec 2009, PHI time]

The best thing about this announcement — besides a box set with accompanying glorious artwork (as usual) — is:

Each song will be made available absolutely for free, to anyone anywhere. There will be no strings attached. Free will mean free, which means you won’t have to sign up for anything, give an email address, or jump through a hoop. You will be able to go and take the song or songs as you wish, as many times as you wish.

Not only is this offer a generous one, it comes directly from a band which knows how the Internet works in the most equitable way that fans can enjoy its music.

The full announcement and SP’s blog can be read in one the web’s most visually satisfying sites here.

And so it’s great that a boxed set will available, and I am hoping to get a hold of it, too. It would make a fine match to my other SP set that’s been in the collection by its lonesome for some time now.

Also, read Billy Corgan’s new personal site everythingfromheretothere.com

~/K

with heads up from /tribeofnoise a great follow for things music. | tribeofnoise.com

House of Cats (by Courtland Lomax for Swarovski)

An animated short to promote Swarovski’s crystal line by Mr. Court Productions.

I also love the illustrations of Brigette Barager. “Camille”, “Theo”, “Pierre” and “Marie” are like my cats. 🙂
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Credits
Directed by Courtland Lomax
Music by Brian Young
Compositing by Ethan Metzger
Backgrounds and Designs by Brigette Barrager
Layouts by Sean Jimenez

Animation:
Adam Muto
Jules Soto
Shiyoon Kim
Bert Youn
Matthais Bauer
Eric Fountain
Courtland Lomax
Leo Matsuda
Matt Pugnetti
Jennifer Hager
David Nam

Cleanup:
Sean Jimenez
Esther Shin
Jinyoung Park
Juliana Park
Kelli Kuest
Matt Pugnetti

Old school greetings from Singapore

My mailbox in the past 5 years or so had been mainly of gallery invites and greeting cards, neighborhood flyers and some bills, or legal notices that find its way to our side of the compound which obliges me to sign forms on behalf of their intended recipients.

I’m talking of the slits on our gate facades to the street, not the free web space that has virtually all but wiped out the mailman from oblivion; the one that receives envelopes with words that match our identities.

Anyway, there were very few occasions when the mailbox springs surprises since people stopped trooping to post offices but never tired of forwarding chain upon chain of jokes, gossip and email what-have-you’s.

One late morning, in the early days of June, came two postcards from Singapore. These were, however, not in the mailbox, but were inserted in between the ornamental iron grillwork of our gate that sat just above it.

The postcards were from Kate, fellow Mac user and Mac forum member, online friend and who, like myself, is an animal lover. A kindred soul, Kate, a former PAWS volunteer, was now giving her design services to a company based in Singapore and who, she once posted online, while more than ready to jump into the OFW bandwagon, was torn about being apart from her dear Nugget.

Kate chanced upon two vintage-looking postcards in Singapore she said reminded her of me because of the coffee drawings and the word “kaffee”, my online nick, prominent on one of them.

I was more than happy to be notified by Kate about her sending me these. When they finally arrived at my doorstep, practically, I was joyous because it brightened my dreary June morning.

Handwritten mail is always special and not just because I love collecting postcards; I value what’s written on them more than anything. It was those rare days when the mailman’s knock was more than welcome.

Hey, Kate, here they are, happy among my set of special ones from family and friends. Thanks!

……………
PS. See that one on the upper left-hand corner? That’s PiCATso, from Paris 🙂

Evelien Lohbeck’s Noteboek magic

A project worth echoing in a web full of echoes. Evelien Lohbeck‘s experimental short.

Awarded

Jury prize for best online film NOFF
Playgrounds Award Best Student 2008
De ijzeren haring 2008 Leids film festival
Award for best online film HAFFTube

eye-witnessing altered states

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“…images can bear witness to what is not put into words.”

~ peter burke, eyewitnessing: the uses of images as historical evidence

(ithaca: cornell university press, 2001)

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Peter Burke’s quote above is not in any way part of an exhibit catalogue or review. I lifted it to describe the intricate works and what look like historico-visual investigations of Brian Dettmer.

 

Brian Dettmer started his Book Autopsies in 2003, cutting through the z-axis of old books — some supposed to be very old (early 20th century*) — of esoteric subjects as engineering, the applied medical sciences, maps and atlases, and revealing their secrets, putting each in a new light.

 

 

There is something addictive in looking at Brian Dettmer’s works online. When I first saw the web reproductions of his works, mostly frontal photos, some isometric, they looked like 3-D collages; the precision of each cut-away quite unbelievable.

 

 

 

I own a few old books myself, acquired from various sources around the Metro, from some people’s yard sales, from some out-of-town acquaintances, flea markets or other serendipitous circumstances, of no particular theme or subject matter. These books are discards of others and they can be had for a song, practically (or a lot of bargaining, if prodding won’t do). I collect old books and other publications for many reasons: for the quality and process of binding, the illustrations, historical value. Sometimes, an old book may be calling out from a pile to be bought, and I heed it. Sometimes, too, I get lucky when quality, historical value and personal interest are all in one book, but luck seems to be more of a reward than mission.

 

I have also been involved in book publishing and production, and hold the serious book craftsmen — printers, strippers, binders and press operators and the authors themselves  — in high regard.

 

Brian Dettmer’s works, therefore, offer other ways of seeing, as it were. I find his works to have deconstructed the out-of-the-box concept and makes the popular definition of book arts sound exotic. At the same time, his works make for some kind of tactile time travel, a repurposing of the printed word and re-examination of spaces fused in bound pages. His works are reviewed as harking of Dada sentimentality. He certainly aims to tease and provoke perceptions but perhaps stops short of anything heavily political as to draw up a social manifesto.

 

 It is always inspiring to know and read about the concretization of someone’s passion. I hope one day to be able personally see a Dettmer exhibit and meet the artist.

 

 

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References and related links:

• 2006 Review by Michelle Gonzalez Valdez
• Brian Dettmer Exhibit, 2006
• Image source and a blog comment entry by Brian Dettmer, 2007: Centripetalnotion
• Exhibit in action, SF
• A reference on book arts
• A [note]book art site, by the way

 

 

View Brian Dettmer’s Flickr site.