Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson will be in Auckland for Semi-Permanent in August. I will be there.
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein was born in the Bronx on November 19, 1942, the son of Jewish immigrants from Hungary. As a young child, he hung around his father's grocery store in Harlem.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Breaking up with Facebook
But we will remain as friends. We will see each other but not as often as we used to when we were "In a relationship". It is complicated. I still visit Facebook, occasionally having a chat, but I won't be updating my status every hours of the day, I will not be consumed by social media. I will spend more time offline, concentrating on books, drawing, and eating healthy food.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
The young Yves Saint Laurent and Gus Fisher
There is something about black and white photographs that attract my attention. I guess because of the history, something about the past, I should really be focusing on the present and looking into the future. This picture was taken from a magazine of Yves Saint Laurent and Gus Fisher.
Negroni
Equal parts gin, sweet Vermouth and Campari garnished with an orange twist to deliver bittersweet complexity.
Pim Pom
Two parts Pimm's and three pomegranate juice, served in a highball glass garnished with cucumber, orange, strawberry and mint.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
What's the word?
Though the name of Mao Zedong still has resonance around the world, the man who has inherited the mantle of Chinese hero is Deng Xiaoping. While Mao is now mainly associated with the idea of revolutionary excess and periods of colossal suffering, Deng has come to be linked to China's astonishing economic development, and to the steering of China away from its Leninist and Maoist organizational straitjacket into a wider world of technological growth and international trade. When we think of Deng, it tends to be within a context where Mao's revolutionary legacy is seen as irrelevant. As Mao shrinks in the historical balance, Deng rises; it is Deng who is hailed as the pragmatist, as the man who introduced a new economic dynamism with his striking phrase that it did not matter whether a cat was black or white as long as it could catch mice.resonance (n): the ability evoke or suggest images, memories, and emotions.
mantle (n): an important role or responsibility that passes from one person to another
Deng is now thought of, both within China and in the world at large, as having been in some measure heroic. That is due almost entirely to the stances he adopted, and the policies he helped propel into motion, after he had survived two purges and was called back to power in 1977, at the age of 73. What Deng had the intelligence to see was that China would have to break out of its Maoist mold of state control—that the nation's long-dormant entrepreneurial spirit had to be encouraged, not inhibited, and that the capitalist nature of some of the needed changes had to be openly accepted, whatever the political fallout.-
Yet Deng did not just focus on the economy. He identified other areas where changes had to be made for China to become a world power: there was the need to revamp the educational system, especially universities and research institutes; the military had to be streamlined and professionalized; lawyers had to be trained in the intricacies of commercial and corporate law, and be able to have cases heard in a viable and expanded judicial system; more Chinese had to be permitted to study overseas, and foreign students and tourists to come to China. As a complementary move, Deng ordered far-reaching reviews of the cases of hundreds of thousands of intellectuals, students and professionals who had been sent into internal exile in impoverished rural areas after the Hundred Flowers Movement in 1957, and later during the Cultural Revolution; under Deng, many were allowed to return to their homes and families.-
Taking a broad view of the intellectual and creative worlds that had essentially been banned in the radical Maoist years, Deng authorized the loosening of controls over filmmaking, fashion, music and the visual arts. Investigative journalists were encouraged to lay bare local abuses, even if they might implicate members of the Communist Party. In late 1978 a stretch of blank wall not far from the headquarters of the Party was opened for the airing of political and cultural views in the form of written posters and poems; swiftly dubbed Democracy Wall, it became a focal point for tough-minded criticism of local and national government, a critique from which not even Deng or Mao were spared.-
When Deng is described in heroic terms, it is largely because of the long-range effects of this remarkable torrent of change that he set in motion. Leading China down the capitalist path, Deng relaxed all manner of economic controls and launched Special Economic Zones—free-trade enclaves that demonstrated the prosperous potential of a liberalized economy. These initiatives helped transport millions of Chinese out of poverty in the space of just a few decades, a feat unprecedented in history; transformed China into the global manufacturing behemoth that it now is; and heralded the country's arrival on the world stage as a major geopolitical and financial player.torrent (n): a strong and fast-moving stream of water or other liquid.
enclave (n): a place or group that is different in character from those surrounding it.
But the reforms Deng activated should not be allowed to expunge the ongoing effects of the changes he abandoned or chose not to make. Democracy Wall, for example, was closed down as a protest site early in 1979, and several of the most strident protestors were convicted of crimes against the state and given lengthy prison sentences. Many of the underground journals were banned, and the poets were silenced. Even as Deng visited the U.S. in 1979, a journey in which he charmed Americans with his apparently folksy ways and made major deals with Boeing and Coca-Cola, Chinese troops invaded Vietnam in an attempt to undercut Russian power in the region. University leaders were removed if their demands for new freedoms were deemed to be too strenuous, and Deng purged his own protégé Hu Yaobang on the grounds that he was pursuing too much change too fast.expunge (v): erase or remove completely
folksy (adj): having the characteristics of traditional culture and customs, esp in a contrived or artificial way.
The intolerance reflected by the suppression of the Democracy Wall movement resurfaced during the massive demonstrations that began at Tiananmen Square in April 1989 with Hu's funeral and were so bloodily put down in June that year. In his use of the deadly force of the People's Liberation Army to clear Tiananmen Square, Deng showed how deep was his mingled contempt for and fear of the student and other leaders who, he believed, threatened to spread chaos across the country in the name of democracy. The Party's verdict on the Tiananmen protests—that they amounted to a counterrevolutionary act—was never reversed by Deng, and is also an indissoluble part of his legacy.indissoluble (adj): unable to be destroy, lasting.
If Deng's actions were often cautious or even negative, it was because he had fought and lived a revolution for over 60 years, and he could not summon up the conviction that those years had been in vain. Deng could never forget that it was a Maoist vision, however flawed and ruthless, that had helped unite China after its decades of fragmentation. Mao might have pulled the nation together, but it was Deng who pushed it toward prosperity and modernity, and a future as one of the world's great powers.
Source: Deng Xiaopeng by Jonathan Spence
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Jameson Irish Whiskey
Fill a short glass with ice, pour in 30mls of Jameson Irish Whiskey, top with ginger ale and squeeze in a wedge of lime.
Friday, July 2, 2010
How many ways can you fold?
Roll Fold
A piece of paper folded that has two or more parallel folds that fold in on each other. It may fold in from the left or right. To allow proper nesting of panels that fold in, inside panels are usually incrementally smaller than outer panels with the inside end panel being the smallest.
Concertina Fold Typically simple zig-zag folds with 6-panels and two parallel folds that go in opposite directions. Each panel of the concertina fold is about the same size.
Closed Gate Fold There are three parallel folds. The left and right edges of the paper fold in towards the middle, without overlapping, and then the document folds again at the centre fold. The outer panels are usually 2mm to 4mm smaller than the inner panels to allow for proper folding and nesting. This might be used in the middle of a magazine for a fold-out centre spread.
Open Gate Fold
There are two parallel folds. The left and right edges of the paper fold and meet in the middle, without overlapping, along a centre fold. The outer panels are usually 2 mm to 4 mm smaller than the inner panels to allow for proper folding and nesting.
Map Fold
The piece of paper is firstly folded in half along the short edge. This folded sheet is then concertina folded and finally folded in half. The map is then small enough to be carried easily and still be available for use without having to unfold them entirely.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Parking Lot 002
Some more photoshop tutorials to check out when I have time.
Parking Lot 001
I am sure one day I will need to do this for a project, so parking this in my Parking Lot. Restoring old photos.
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