London
memo.tv
I like drinking water, especially when I’m really thirsty.
Sometimes I like to pretend to be an Olenellus fremonti evolving into an Olenellus mohavensis, simply for the creative stimulation - although I usually cant walk for days afterwards.
I’ve recently taken up an interest in amateur brain surgery, although i find it so hard to find volunteers.
I enjoy socializing; but am equally happy with my own company; and can easily keep myself entertained for hours, both mentally and sexually.
I’m fascinated by space, the universe, cosmology, quantum mechanics, string theory etc. and would love to go to space and see all the planets and stars and pulsars and supernova - I mean for real, not when I’m on mushrooms.
I like to touch people, in their most private places, and make them giggle or cry.
I like pretty things.
The person is, or was, Zhao Xiangyuan. She was born in China in 1938 and died in Beijing in January. For nearly 60 years she lived in the city with her husband and two children in a tiny house crammed with domestic odds and ends — clothes, books, kitchen utensils, toiletries, school supplies, shopping bags, rice bowls, dolls — which were used, then recycled, then indiscriminately hoarded. Now the entire cache, every odd button and ballpoint pen, is at MoMA, along with Ms. Zhao’s fridge and bed.
How did it get here? Ms. Zhao was the mother of the artist Song Dong, one of the most inventive figures in contemporary Chinese art. He is often referred to as a Conceptualist, meaning an artist who trades as much in ideas as in materials. And it was he who had the idea of turning the contents of his mother’s home, which was also his childhood home, into the installation titled “Waste Not.” It is at once a record of a life, a history of a half-century of Chinese vernacular culture and a symbolic archive of impermanence.
Although new Chinese art has a reputation for brash iconoclasm, loss is really its big subject. Political Pop painting may be big at auctions, but much of the most interesting new work is less about attacking the powers that be than about regretting the diminishment of the powers that were, or might have been: familial cohesion, social stability and spiritual certainty. In this respect, China’s new art is very much on a continuum with its old art, specifically with the tradition of landscape painting with reiterated motifs of changing seasons, parting friends and dreams of a golden age.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/arts/design/15song.html?hpw
IN April, President Obama pledged to seek peace and security in a world without nuclear weapons. He called for not simply a reduction, but elimination. His words awakened something buried deeply within me, something about which I have until now been reluctant to discuss.
I realized that I have, perhaps now more than ever, a personal and moral responsibility to speak out as one who survived what Mr. Obama called the “flash of light.”
On Aug. 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on my hometown, Hiroshima. I was there, and only 7 years old. When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape — I remember it all. Within three years, my mother died from radiation exposure.
I have never chosen to share my memories or thoughts of that day. I have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to put them behind me, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy. I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.
I tried never to be defined by my past. I did not want to be labeled “the designer who survived the atomic bomb,” and therefore I have always avoided questions about Hiroshima. They made me uncomfortable.
But now I realize it is a subject that must be discussed if we are ever to rid the world of nuclear weapons. There is a movement in Hiroshima to invite Mr. Obama to Universal Peace Day on Aug. 6 — the annual commemoration of that fateful day. I hope he will accept. My wish is motivated by a desire not to dwell on the past, but rather to give a sign to the world that the American president’s goal is to work to eliminate nuclear wars in the future.
Last week, Russia and the United States signed an agreement to reduce nuclear arms. This was an important event. However, we are not naïve: no one person or country can stop nuclear warfare. In Japan, we live with the constant threat from our nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea. There are reports of other countries acquiring nuclear technology, too. For there to be any hope of peace, people around the world must add their voices to President Obama’s.
If Mr. Obama could walk across the Peace Bridge in Hiroshima — whose balustrades were designed by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi as a reminder both of his ties to East and West and of what humans do to one another out of hatred — it would be both a real and a symbolic step toward creating a world that knows no fear of nuclear threat. Every step taken is another step closer to world peace.
On July 12th, at 5pm, a bunch of fans gathered at People’s Square on Xizang Lu and Nanjing Lu to “complete MJ’s unfinished dance” in one minute. So for a total of 60 seconds, a crowd of people jamoned and moonwalked and crotch grabbed and acted completely crazy! 
…uses design as a perspective, designed objects as evidence of larger systems, and designers as researchers.
…will be published once a year as a collection of thematic explorations and reports on topics of interest to our readers.
…is hard to describe as anything but “in flux.”
…is a labor of love (/hate).
A website dedicated to creators of crochet-made, counterfeit designer handbags. Participants troll the internet and choose a design that they particularly covet, working off of low-resolution jpgs which they download. The final results may or may not bear resemblance to the originals, which is an interesting part of the “translation.”
Some western media blamed the government and security forces for the violence, without even mentioning the brutal killings by those rioters, netizens said. The CNN report, “Unrest among Uyghur residents in China” (July 7, 2009), mainly used one anonymous witness and a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress as the news source, portraying the event as a bloody crackdown over the peaceful protestors.Somehow, the reports are more concerned with the rights of these rioters/terrorists than the crimes against the innocents citizens get caught in the scene! How irresponsible it is for these reporting agencies to show this biased news! ” he said.
”Naturally, the audience would think that those people died because of police action. But this is not the case. They were actually killed by the rioters. This way of editing video footages is politically charged and will make many Westerns confused. It only enforces the misunderstanding of China’s ethnic minority policy,” the post said.
The AFP report also starts the report with sentences like “China poured troops into the restive city of Urumqi”, immediately restraining people’s attention to the dramatic scenario of crackdown, the netizens said.
”Media has its own way of operation and you can’t expect the Western media to be objective and balanced,” a netizen said on sina.com.cn.
”All they desperately need is people’s attention, and that’s why the toy factory conflict is framed as ‘ethnic cleansing’. These concepts sell well in the Western world.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/09/content_11678783.htm
The Firefox add-on China Channel offers internet user outside China to surf the web as if they were in China. Take an unforgetable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (supported by western companies). It’s open source, free and easy.
The installation has been on show at the group exhibition “SECOND LIFE” at Videtage Hong Kong 6.10.-4.11.2008Web 2.0 is a gallery installation consisting of two internet enabled computers, a hacked mouse and keyboard, and a custom plugin for the popular (and free) Firefox web browser. Two computers are connected to a single keyboard and mouse allowing visitors to control both identical machines at the same time while using just a single input device. The only difference between the two internet terminals is their network connection; one machine is connected to the less restricted internet in Hong Kong, while the other is connected to the internet through a connection point in the mainland of China.Unlike many tools which enable Chinese people to freely surf the web via connections to computers outside of China, this plugin routes all internet traffic to computers on the inside of the Chinese firewall, allowing web surfers to experience an Internet identical to that of Chinese.
Following last weekend’s deadly riots
in its western region of Xinjiang, China’s central government has taken all the usual steps to block citizens from accessing foreign web services: aside from crippling Internet service in general, the authorities have blocked Twitter, removed unapproved references to the violence from search engines and has now apparently moved to bar its citizens from accessing Facebook from most parts of Mainland China just now. Two weeks ago, the government had already blocked just about every Google service, including communication tools like Gmail, Google Apps and Google Talk.Web2Asia’s George Godula writes:
“As of today 8pm Chinese time Facebook seems not to be accessible from most parts of China Mainland anymore. On the China Telecom connection of our Shanghai office the service vanished at around 7:45pm. Friends in Hong Kong are reporting that they can still access the website.”
A quick test on WebsitePulse confirms the blocking of Twitter and YouTube (which have been restricted for a while) and now Facebook too, at least in some parts of the country.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/china-blocks-access-to-twitter-facebook-after-riots/
http://www.web2asia.com/2009/07/07/first-twitter-now-facebook-banned-in-china/
Greensboro, Alabama has just over 17,000 residents. It boasts a historical neighborhood teeming with antebellum mansions and examples of Greek Revival architecture; a stately Main Street with 70% of its buildings unoccupied (including a few burnt-out shells); a dramatic block-to-block residential shift between races; two somewhat racially-segregated grocery stores; a legally-integrated high school with no white students (white students go en masse to a nearby private school that looks just like a public school, but costs each kid $300 per month); the Safe House Museum, once used to shelter Martin Luther King Jr. from the Ku Klux Klan during a 1960’s meeting; the best restaurant in town is El Tenampa Mexican Restaurant; a former Opera House, the focus of a recent $200,000 restoration fundraiser; numerous Auburn University Rural Studio architectural projects; and the headquarters of H.E.R.O. (Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization).
Greensboro is a city of contrasts, and a place where new design thinking is revealing itself in a surprising number of ways.
In 1999, Young-hae Chang, A Korean artist with a Ph.D. in aesthetics and Marc Voge, an american poet based in Seoul, particpated in a Net art workshop organized by Multimedia Art Asia Pacific, in Brisbane Australia. They focused on Flash, a powerful web animation tool that can take years to master. By the second day, they had learned two of this tool’s basic features: how to make text appear on the screen and how to set an animation to music.
This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.
In our discussion about the value of a master’s degree, we received hundreds of comments from readers who spent time and money pursuing a graduate degree. Many said earning an advanced degree was a wasted effort that did not enhance their skills or make them more attractive to employers. Others, though, said the point of getting a master’s degree was to pursue an intellectual interest, not pad a resumé. Here are excerpts from their comments.
All you have to do is check Facebook statuses to know what a master’s degree is worth. I just received a Master’s in Higher Education in early May. It is now July, and despite applying for upwards of 50-100 positions, no one is calling back. The market is flooded with master’s degree holders hammering for a job at the same time thousands of higher education professionals have been laid off (and likewise are now fighting to land a position). While I believe my master’s education was excellent, it is very sad to see so many of us getting nowhere with it so far.
Whether it’s getting deeper into debt by piling up massive credit card debts, moving back in with the parents, or simply praying a job will coming calling, we’re all fairly scared. Even when we apply for temporary employment at places like Target we are turned away for being over qualified. Clearly it seems we are both over-qualified and under-qualified for the jobs we desperately need. In layman’s terms we are in a pickle.
— RTChttp://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/my-ma-a-source-of-pride-and-regret/
Burger King’s (BKC) increasingly obnoxious attempts to lure young dopes to its horrible food may have gone too far this time. Some (likely slightly older) dopes have come up with a print ad shamelessly evoking oral sex to peddle the “BK Super Seven Incher” in Singapore.
I can’t help but imagine a fellow in a backward ball cap and cargo shorts, his pockets full of roofies, writing this copy for the oblong sandwich:
IT’LL BLOW YOUR MIND AWAY. Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick and Hearty Steak Sauce.
They got two “blows” in there. Nice. The sandwich (by itself an obscenity), slathered in unnaturally ultra-white mayonnaise, is floating in the air directly across from the disturbingly pale profile of a young, gape-mouthed woman who looks frightened to death of the manly meat. Sexy!
http://www.reuters.com/article/bigMoney/idUS383377696120090624
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/26/singapore-infamous-burger-king-ad/
I love paper and I write thank you cards, but you know? I could care less about receiving them. I know the act of thanking someone for goods/services/effort is important but…it seems silly to keep thank you notes, but then you feel terrible about throwing them away! And whether the paper is handmade, $300, or something ripped out of a tablet pad, I feel the same about it…what do I do with this now? yikes!
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/garden/02papers.html
