Archive for July, 2012

Fiat (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin) released the 131 to little fanfare in 1974. It was aimed at the family demographic, offering sedan, avant, and coupe layout. They were modestly powered and featured nothing truly ground breaking. So why bother featuring it? In all honesty, I think the 131 was one of the better looking economy cars of the day. It nearly stole the 3-series’ thunder, with a very evolved and elegant design for a mid-seventies car. Its proportions are pleasing, it has geometric, minimal shapes between the pillars, and anything with fog lights framed in a boxy fascia, I’m a fanb0i of.

While a lot of the cars I feature in my posts have some sort of tie-in with rally racing, I’m more a fan of european car design from the 70’s and 80’s in general, and in those days the WRC was a cost effective way for carmakers to achieve a global presence in motorsport. BMW has M Sport, Mercedes-Daimlers has AMG, Nissan has NISMO; Fiat’s tuning division was called Abarth. And in 1976, Abarth turned this mellow grocery-getter into one of the last great carbureted, rear-wheel driven rally cars. It took the World Rally Championship 3 times in ’77, ’78, and after a 2 year drought again in 1980, with a total of 18 victories over 5 years.

As good as the road-going model was, the Abarth 131 is truly a work of purpose-built art, everything from the bespoke brake ducts and flared wheel wells to the subtle spoiler lip added to the boot lid puts this particular variant in my top 10 list of best looking cars ever produced. Whenever I look at an E30 M3, I can’t help but think it looks a little sterile compared to the Abarth.

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Really beautiful pixelated looking vases from Phil Cuttance. Now based in London, the New Zealander’s FACETURE series consists of vases, side tables and lightshades, all handmade using his custom FACETURE machine and molds. The reusable molds are made from an extremely thin polypropylene sheet, which when handled, allow him to reshape the form due to the malleability created by his “live hinge” system. The results are that no two objects cast are the same.

In the era of stereo lithography and other 3D printing methods, Phil’s analog workflow is inspiring, and the process seems just as important as the results, which are impressive to say the least. Head over to his site for a more in depth look at the process.

Posted by Rob Fissmer

If you think you’re having a rough start to the week, flip through the portfolio of photojournalist Lynsey Addario. The images Addario captures may not inspire you directly per se but, at least you’re not one of the victims in some of her photos. What she is doing is completely mind blowing to me. As a photographer, I live to capture moments as intense and raw as these but at what cost? It looks that Addario really puts her life on the line to capture images and stories that she can share with the rest of the world. Here’s a snippet of who Lynsey Addario is taken from her website’s bio:

Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist based in New Delhi, India, where she photographs for The New York Times, National Geographic, and Time Magazine.

Lynsey began photographing professionally in 1996-with no professional photographic training or studies-and started photographing conflict and humanitarian issues. In 2000, she traveled to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to document life and oppression under the Taliban. She has since covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur, and Congo, and shoots features across the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

Addario’s work is NSFW. I selected images that would compliment this blog’s style. But be warned, there is a lot of gruesome photos. I honestly can’t put her work into words. It’s an experience that made my heart drop, eyes widen with jaw on the floor.

View the rest of Lynsey Addario’s work at her website.

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This is one of the more straight forward tracks i’ve heard from The Revenge, sounds like Superpitcher at times.

I’ve been waiting for new Active Child, i’ll take a remix but I wish there was a harp and his own voice in all honesty though. I’m sure Pat hasn’t had a moment to record since he’s been on tour for over a year I think.

Russia is a vast land with tons of electronic producers, I wonder if its because of those crazy MP3 digital retailers that sell songs for $0.03 per track is the reason why there are soo many musicians. Lapti has a sound thats hard to nail down, I went thru some of his other tracks and it wasn’t the sound but a similar feel, this track grabbed me mainly because of the second half, its like if Holy Other wore all white and made something a bit more uplifting.

Cuppcave I found via Laurel Halo, I can’t find much out about the project but I do love it a whole lot. Its like a irrelevant machine thats found a sound to repeat in the middle of nowhere, it has no business being there just to loop something its made on accident…that sounds like a good storyboard for a music video, might use that.

If I was a right out of university for graphic design my first projects for myself before working on my own would be grabbing up a project like this for exercise. The olympics have a great history for amazing posters and branding and fine color scheme to work with so why not see what you could do and test out your skills. I personally like the empty pool swimming ones but the font couldn’t be any smaller which pretty much knocks it out of the running to be a real poster for the public.

via kathykavan

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Concentration and noting the repetition aren’t the key points to listening to a song like this by Steve Roach. It honestly takes exercise for most people on this planet to enjoy it. Some people like body music, familiar structure and others don’t, the fans of this style aren’t synth connoisseurs like others think, for me its like my brain has taste buds and someone pouring maple syrup on my brain, no drugs involved. This kind of music is the closest you can get to an actually exhilarating journey without moving and its made by a person that cares about quality thru and thru, I truly believe if there was a study this kind of sound is addictive.

Shed releases his hybrid genre LP today, there’s actually a few songs I wanted to share but this one stuck with me, probably not the best representation of what the rest of the album sounds like but it spoke to me, full on glide mode. If you’re looking for the LP, its here.

One sound(the smashing kick with the claps) I don’t agree on with Supreme Cuts just because the unethical use of them in rave music that wasn’t good in the least bit but thats only 5% of the time. But this might the most humble and well done outro i’ve heard in a while, give the listener what they are use to hearing at the end while it fades out, sequence wise i’m impressed and I really like the song as a whole.

Throwing Snow keeps making best music at the highest bpm that is head noddy but never screaming for my attention.

I’ve been a fan of the work of London based motion studio Man Vs. Machine for a while. They always seem to create colorful and slightly other worldly work. Assembled is a selection of my favorite work, especially the new 4 Idents.

Also, they have an incredible name.

Stunning coloring on these illustrations from the 1930’s, making what some people find mondane very eye catching in my opinion.

“Scans from The function of colour in factories, schools & hospitals; 1930”

via Present & Correct

The Tame Impala record is quickly becoming the BIG indie rock record of the year in my eyes, the way they are rolling of the previews have been great. Check out the new single “Elephant”

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Its mid week and I need that hint of ambient music that I can always rely on: Markus Guentner. First of all he’s my biggest influence for my Heathered Pearls production and beyond that he just makes some of the most attractive ambience, clear yet the setting is gloomy yet I always get this uplifting feel from the material. He isn’t about just making experiments, he composes beautiful work.

A lot of the time 4/4 tracks aren’t about being dance music, it just conforms into a ground floor for a song, giving it this heartbeat without asking you to get up. Sam Willis isn’t doing dub or house he’s just giving us a great song that grows and eventually fades and that 8 minutes was just about sharing a mood, I hope to hear more from him.

Take Phil Gerus advise, make 2:21 hooky songs, make people search for you and want more.

School Of Seven Bells cover Lil Wayne, I had a feeling this would happen one day, they have good taste in Pop artists. I’m into it, iTunes tells me i’ve listened to it 8 times, its simple and really shows off Alley’s beautiful voice, so why not have fun and cover a song you enjoy if you have the skills?