Murakami - Une courte biographie

Brookyn Museum exhibition

Born in Tokyo in 1962, Murakami is one of the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Asia in the late twentieth century, creating a wide-ranging body of work that consciously bridges fine art, design, animation, fashion, and popular culture. He received a Ph.D. from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he was trained in the school of traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga, a nineteenth-century mixture of Western and Eastern styles. However, the prevailing popularity of anime (animation) and manga (comic books) directed his interest toward the art of animation because, as he has said, “it was more representative of modern day Japanese life.” American popular culture in the form of animation, comics, and fashion are among the influences on his work, which includes painting, sculpture, installation, and animation, as well as a wide range of collectibles, multiples, and commercial products.

Liens pour le mémoire

Estimation des ventes pour le mois de février 2008
Dark Horse inks deal with Universal : Un lien de plus entre Hollywood et le monde du comics indépendant, preuve du besoin des compagnies de vendre leur license à un autre média pour trouver des fonds.

American Pimp - La prostitution aux Etats Unis

American Pimp : Un reportage sur les macros, leur histoire, leurs pratiques et qui ils sont.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

DKNY & Paul Pope

Strip search - Paul Pope
Paul Pope se lance dans le design de fringue (tee shirt et sweet shirt).

Interview Aesop Rock

Fecal face - Interview with Aesop Rock

It's no secret that Fecal Face is good friends with Mr. Jeremy Fish. We love him and the work he does. It's a good time for Mr. Fish. He's about to drop a nice healthy solo show at Fifty24SF. He's just completed a series of boards with Element. He just completed a short film directed by our buddy Mr. Irving and Eric Noren. AND he just completed a collaboration with acclamied MC Aesop Rock from Def Jux (images from the book down below). Below is an interview with him. We'd like to know more about this talented fellow. We know enough about those other dudes. Let's see what makes Aesop Rock... rock.

Decision juridique sur les droits de Superman

The Siegel Superman decision

After seventy years, Jerome Siegel’s heirs regain what he granted so long ago – the copyright in the Superman material that was published in Action Comics Vol. 1. What remains is an apportionment of profits, guided in some measure by the rulings contained in this Order, and a trial on whether to include the profits generated by DC Comics’ corporate sibling’s exploitation of the Superman copyright.

The dramatic sounding nature of the final paragraph of the opinion has to be put in context though. The opinion doesn’t cover Schuster’s interests, which are not subject to Section 304(c) termination, but rather a future 304(d) termination. Nor does the opinion reach the work for hire question for anything after the (justly famous and important) Action Comics Vol. 1 published on April 18, 1938 – the collateral estoppel applied on work for hire only covers Action Comics Vol. 1. Finally, there are very thorny issues of apportionment. All of these issues are likely to be the subject of subsequent motions and possibly trial.

Une faille de sécurité majeur sur la plupart des systèmes informatiques

Bruce Sterling - SANS says your computer back door is wide open

Hundreds of millions of devices are being placed on networks with built-in back doors. Printers, routers, computers, control systems, storage systems, medical devices, nearly every automated device has them.

The manufacturers of these systems never told you how vulnerable you are. One victim said "It's as if the people who are supposed to help me put a big sign on my door saying 'the key is under the mat by the back door,' and anyone can come in and violate me and my family." These vulnerable back doors were installed to allow remote management; they are fully functioning processors with network connections, operating systems, and memory. In addition to being able to disable the device, in many cases they provide remote back-door access to the main CPU and storage of the computer or other device. They may not be logged or monitored and therefore can be attacked repeatedly without fear of being caught.

[...]

Similar functions are provided on UNIX systems, and on printers and medical devices and other appliances but are often not called BMCs. This research project is designed to develop detailed technical procurement language that organizations can use to ensure these back doors are "closed and locked" when the devices are delivered. These back doors have already been implicated as attackers in successful denial of service tools and can be used to access and change the data being processed by the devices.

Les suicides dans le métro londonien

London - One unders

I once saw a woman throw herself under a train. I noticed her sitting on a bench at the platform. As a train approached and the wind picked up, she jumped down to the rails and ran towards the tunnel. People screamed and the train braked hard, but nothing could prevent two hundred tons of metal from mashing her into track pizza. Over 100 people die this way every year. Tube drivers refer to them as "one Unders.

"I don’t know if it’s bravado or what, but some tube drivers are like, 'Oh, I can’t wait until I get a one under,' because you can get sick leave for six months on full pay. These people aren’t fussed: There’s blood all over the front of the train, the person underneath is screaming, the police and ambulance are there, and the driver will just be sitting there reading the paper and eating their sandwiches. It doesn’t seem to have any affect.

[...]

"The worst one under story I’ve ever heard is not embellished, because I know the bloke who was on the train. He was an instructor—my instructor when I started actually—and was in the train, but he wasn’t driving it. He was just riding in the front. A lot of the time, if the trains are packed, you’ll ride in front with the driver. He said they were on the Northern Line, going quite fast, and he’s chatting to the driver. As they come into the platform there’s a woman, stark naked, standing in front of them in a crucifix pose. Obviously, they hit her and killed her. At the inquest it turned out she was a schizophrenic. She’d gone to the station, stripped off, folded up all her clothes really neatly, wandered into the tunnel, and just stood there, waiting.

"Another instructor I know said he was up in Northfields really early on a Saturday morning with no one on the platform. Suddenly there was this woman there. He looked at her because she was quite good-looking. As he got up close to her, she held her nose (like you do when you jump in the water) and jumped in front of him. He went right over her. Turns out she had mental health issues too.

[...]

"One of the things with one unders is, when people get hit, one would assume they'd die instantly, but about half the time they don’t. People sometimes mis-time their jumps and end up in that gap under the rails. Some folks call them suicide pits because the body falls in there, but other people say that’s complete rubbish and the gap is for waste paper and litter.

A couple of nights ago an instructor told me about a one under at Heathrow. It was packed with tourists and some bloke got down and lay across the rails. He wasn’t electrocuted because his clothing probably insulated him. As you can imagine, there was absolute pandemonium. Then the train came into the station, not particularly fast, and hit the bloke. The driver is really shook up. All of a sudden, he starts hearing noises coming from underneath and the bloke comes walking out. What had happened was the train had hit him and knocked him into the suicide pit. There’s not a mark on him. There’s always lots of police about at Heathrow and they asked him, “What are you doing?” He almost seemed embarrassed. “Oh, I’m really sorry. I’ll go home now.” They couldn’t believe it.

the Dillinger Escape Plan - On singing

Greg Pucciato at Metalsucks
Yeah. And it’s cool, ‘cause for me as a singer, screaming’s fun, but I don’t walk around the house screaming.
Greg Pucciato - the Dillinger Escape Plan

Kenji Miyazawa (poète japonais) 1896 - 1933

Les artistes professionnels doivent disparaître tout à fait. Tout un chacun doit donner libre cours à sa sensibilité artistique.

Kenji Miyazawa

Dasai fashion

Next, part of a 2-page spread on "what is wrong with your body and how much it will cost to fix it."

Le futur des sites de social networking

Appleseed : Social networking future

While building Appleseed, I realized just how simple it was to get two "nodes" to communicate. It became a matter of a simple behind-the-scenes request which returned a small XML file. It became apparent to me that the reason that we don't have communication between social networking sites had nothing to do with technological constrants, and was a purely economic decision on the part of existing sites. Almost all major social networking sites business models are centered on having the largest userbase possible, and user lock-in is a major part of that. By restricting your ability to interact with outside sites, they also restrict your ability to choose another site and still maintain your relationships and ability to contact your friends.

The whole situation we're in makes no sense in the context of the way the internet was meant to operate. Concentrating user bases into centralized locations and locking them in seems more like the early 90's and the way Compuserve, AOL, and the like attempted to use walled gardens to monopolize the internet. The natural evolution is an open, distributed standard. A sort of SMTP for social networking, which allows any node to fully connect to any other node. Would people put up with an email address at gmail.com which could only email other gmail.com users? Of course not, and the same standard should be applied to social networking.

Japon - Repression des night clubs pour éliminer la prostitution

Footloose revisited

Just as you can’t stamp out prostitution without eradicating poverty, you will never rid the world of drugs until you rid it first of boredom. The government should see drug use in nightclubs as the theoretical equivalent of its own fuzoku eigyoho— unstoppable, victimless crimes taking place in a contained area. Arresting someone with a tab of ecstasy at Womb isn’t going to halt the bushels of it coming in from North Korea, nor is closing down the club after the fact. Crack down at the harbors, crack down at the airports, crack down on the myriad dealers at work outside of Tokyo’s nightclubs, which, although bursting with drugs, are the safest of any city in the world.

These raids are not about morals, they’re about expulsion. If clubbers are scared away, clubs will shut down and be replaced with “respectable” establishments and their “respectable” clients, making Tokyo a more “respectable” city. If that is indeed the real goal, then expect these illogical laws and their arbitrary enforcement to continue. Add to this a governor who likely views the end of dancing as a surefire way to get rid of blacks, and you’re left with a ticking clock.

Système éducatif au Japon

The 30 percent solution

It’s simple. Higher standards will generate higher achievement. Currently, the standards at Japanese high schools are sickeningly low.

[...]

In order to get into most universities in Japan, students need a letter of recommendation, a pass on an entrance exam, or a successful interview. That’s it. While some universities have more stringent guidelines and need to see impressive grades from prospective students, most attach greater significance to one-time exams and letters of recommendation, which are granted not only too easily, but too early as well. Our recommendation letters were sent out in September, which means students have already gotten all they need from their schools with three months of classes left.

[...]

Japanese kids aren’t lazy. The work and dedication they put into their extracurricular activities—participating in “clubs,” running booths at open-campus events, learning moves for school-wide dance competitions—are incredible. Children of any age will put gallons of sweat into something if they are going to gain from it, so the connection between effort and benefit needs to be made tangible because at that age most kids will not see it on their own. Such lack of perspective will always be a cornerstone of youth. It should not be the hallmark of this country’s Education Ministry.

Vargr - Interview pour projet black metal

Pitchfork - Interview de Vargr (de Nordvargr et MZ412 entre autre)

Vargr is the Swedish musician Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk, maybe known best for his work in the blackened industrial band MZ.412, but also through Folkstorm, Toroidh, and various collaborations under his given name. Northern Black Supremacy is an iced, atmospheric, Charles Manson-sampling collection of creepy, noisy black metal: Think WOLD and Blut Aus Nord but via early snarling Darkthrone and Ildjarn. The album's slogan: "Worship. Kill. Die."

Pitchfork: I saw a discussion at Encyclopedia Metallum in which people were arguing whether or not what you do in Vargr is metal. Some saw it as noise. You've done recordings with Merzbow, and of course MZ.412 and other non-metal projects. Where do you see Vargr fitting into things genre-wise?

Nordvargr: I'd call it metal. Maybe a bit on the noisy side of things, but still some form of metal. It's not that important really; I find it amusing that people even debate it.

Pitchfork: Please explain the phrase "True Black Nekronoise Metal," which you use to describe your sound.

Nordvargr: Me and Lasse Marhaug coined that when we recorded our Marvargr album... I think it is a perfect description.

Pitchfork: Drakh [note: his MZ.412 collaborator] plays guest guitar on the record. Do you think you two will always collaborate?

Nordvargr: Probably. We are as close as you can get when it comes to creating music.

Pitchfork: Can you tell me a bit about the album title, Northern Black Supremacy? How do the intro and outro work? Is this a concept album? There's obviously an anti-Christian sentiment running through it. I'm interested in the stories behind "Three Days For The King Of Jews" and "Chris Deflowered". What's the concept behind these tracks? No mercy?

Nordvargr: Northern Black Supremacy is not really a concept album, but I have tried to tie the tracks together so when listening to the whole album, there are some calmer parts to allow you to catch your breath. The overall theme is anti-religious-- not exclusively anti-Christian (as someone else said "three weeds from the same root"). "Three days..." and "Christ deflowered" both deals with humiliation and disgust for christian morals.

Pitchfork: I'm also interested in "Bring Forth The Ways Of Old"-- How does the title connect to the damp swampy sounds? "Nature Defines Order Through War" has a march to it, which is more obvious.

Nordvargr: The title "Bring Forth The Ways Of Old" just came to me when recording it. To me it represents the urge of the blood, or blood memory, that is in all of us, the urge that evokes grand feelings that you just can't explain. If you have experienced it you know what I mean.

Pitchfork: Are you familiar with other noise-centered black metal bands like WOLD and Blut Aus Nord? Are you a fan? What do you listen to?

Nordvargr: I have heard both of the above, and WOLD is OK, but I really dont get B.A.N. Right now I am absorbed by the Blaze Birth Hall bands; Branikald, Nitberg and Forest. Other bands on frequent rotation right now are Tenebrous, Wolfnacht, V.A.C.K., Korgonthurus, and Akitsa.

Pitchfork: This new album seems to me to be more about textures and landscapes than grooves. How do you go about writing these songs? How carefully are they composed? How much improvisation is there?

Nordvargr: I really am not a good guitarist nor a great composer. I always improvise around some riffs/sounds and just record what comes out. That has always been my modus operandi. If it turns out bad I just delete it.

Pitchfork: You're in the tradition of the one-man black metal band. Why did you decide to record as a solo musician?

Nordvargr: In Sweden we say "Själv är bäste dräng", I guess I am my best friend and company. (With a few exceptions of course-- Drakh, Ulvtharm, Marhaug, etc etc etc...)

Pitchfork: Thoughts on Nifelheim? The Swedish scene in general?

Nordvargr: Nifelheim rocks. That's all I can say. Actually forgot to write them in the question above-- Envoy Of Lucifer is brilliant. I don't have much contact with any people from the scene nowadays, so I really can't comment. The most interesting scene for me right now is the Russian.

Pitchfork: So far you've had a really varied musical path. What are your next plans?

Nordvargr: Just finished the Nordvargr Helvete album (on Eternal Pride spring 2008), which features vocal appearances by Wrest/Leviathan among others. The follow-up to Northern Black Supremacy [note: Storm Of Northern Evil] is out on Total Holocaust Records. A split CD with Silva Nigra/Vargr will also be released by Ravenheart Productions. Also, [I] finished a collab with Drakh and Cordell Klier due for release on OEC mid 2008. Other plans for this year is to finish the Partikel trilogy with Merzbow, record another Goatvargr album, and wrap up the doom-ambient monster thing I am recording right now. That's about it. Not much really.

///

Northern Black Supremecy is out on 20 Buck Spin. For more info on Bjorkk, check out his MySpace, though he plans to discontinue it soon it seems, so also check here.

Starkweather et la France

France
Remi Resmini (Starkweather) fait le tour de ce qu'il aime dans le paysage musical français (et même un peu de porno à la fin).

Modification corporelle : comment je me suis coupé la main

One hand Jason

Let me be blunt — I staged an accident. Nobody’s doubting it, and my friends and family, so many folks, came together for me back then, raised a lotta money, prayed, and said such sweet, loving things. There’s no way I want enough details to get out there that they could connect up me with my ‘accident’, with the person you’re interviewing, who’s voluntary.

I don’t want to be hugely specific, but I used a very sharp power tool, after having tried out different methods of crushing and cutting. I know first aid so I was able to stop the bleeding with pressure, but I was worried that I could pass out and not call for help and lose too much blood. No worries, though, I guess I’m in good enough shape that I didn’t even feel dizzy.

My goal was to get the job done with no hope of reconstruction or re-attachment, and I wanted some method that I could actually bring myself to do. I did experiments with animal legs I got from a butcher. It’s lucky I thought of that, because some of my early attempts were total fuck ups and would have ended up with a damaged hand which might have had to undergo years of painful reconstruction, and worse yet, no amputation.

[...]

One real weird sensation was to run my fingertip from the top to the bottom of my stump, across the scar. It felt like I was running my fingertip right through my arm!

[...]

Yeah, it’s a biggie. For sure it’s not rational to want to cut off your arm or leg. There’s no argument you can make that life will be easier, or that you’ll be more capable doing anything. Even though a hook can do some things that a bare hand can’t, a hand holding a tool can always do everything a hook can, and so much more. Even though you can run in prosthetic legs that give you a mechanical advantage, you can’t compete with those.

Des voleurs en pont en République Tchèque et en Russie

Czech police wonder where bridge has gone ?

Police in the Czech republic are trying to find out who stole a 4 tonne railway bridge from the border town of Cheb.

[...]

Of course, it's not the first time some light-fingered bridge enthusiast has made off with a bridge. At least two bridges have been nicked in Russia in the past six months, and a pair of bridge thieves appropriated two Macedonian bridges last February.

Preuve de l'existence de pouvoir psychique ?

Has the military found proof that we are all psychic ?

Startling as it may seem, the results of Dr Roe’s experiments suggest that it is indeed possible to project your “mind’s eye” to a distant location and observe what is going on - even if that place is hundreds of miles away.

In fact, Dr Roe’s results suggest that up to 85 percent of people possess the psychic power of clairvoyance – or the ability to remote view in technical parlance. They provide the strongest evidence yet for such psychic powers and may help explain the skills shown by mediums and account for such phenomena as ESP and déjà vu. And it would appear that we can all sharpen our psychic skills with only a modicum of training.

Such results follow on from the release of formerly top secret military papers revealing that the armies of several countries have used clairvoyants – or remote viewers - to gather intelligence.

[...]


The remote viewers used a deceptively simple method based on what is known as the Ganzfeld technique. They induced an altered state of consciousness by seating themselves in a sound proof room and wearing earphones playing white noise. Ping pong balls sliced in half were placed over their eyes to obscure vision. The whole room was then bathed in soft red light.

The map coordinates of the ‘target’ would be written on a piece of paper, placed in an envelope and handed to the viewer. He would be allowed to touch the envelope but forbidden to open it. Alternatively, pictures of the target location would be sealed in the envelope. The remote viewers would then slip into a light meditative trance and their “minds eye” would be drawn to the target location. Pictures, feelings and impressions would then drift into their minds from the target, which might be located thousands of miles away.

To an outsider, this approach might appear to produce only hopelessly vague results that were no better than guesswork. But the scientists investigating remote viewing found them to be surprisingly accurate and the military found them useful too.

[...]

Word of America’s experiments with the paranormal spread to the UK and the Metropolitan Police were one of the first to informally use remote viewers to tackle crime. One of their most useful informants was Nella Jones, who first came to their attention when she located the stolen Vermeer painting The Guitar Player in 1974.

Nella was ironing some clothes and idly watching the television when her mind suddenly focused on the whereabouts of the painting. She hurriedly sketched it out and took it to the police who were understandably sceptical. Having nothing else to go on they decided to follow her leads. The painting was eventually recovered as a result of the information she gave them.

It would be easy to dismiss Nella’s guidance to the police as just blind luck. Easy, that is, if she hadn’t spent the following 20 years helping them ensnare murderers and other serious offenders.

Information trouvé sur Newsmonster, un site spécialisé dans le paranormal

William Faulkner à propos de l'écriture

On writing, Faulkner remarked, "Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him"