Inside Japan (a bit like Berlin), there aren’t really serious art collectors. Inside Japan, people like Murakami and Nara make their money by doing corporate identity (Vuitton, Roppongi Hills) or mass-producing souvenirs… Art is collapsed into the mass market. Galleries are often in department stores, and often show what we’d think of as commercial work; [...]

In the late ’80s, Czechoslovakia became a democratic state, and in 1993 peacefully separated into two countries – the Czech Republic and Slovakia. With democracy came capitalism and advertising, and with capitalism and advertising came The Hypermarket. Hypermarkets are the world’s superstores, selling shoes and spinach, pipe wrenches and pumpkins, all you would [...]

Montreal artist Cesar Saez is creating a 300 meter banana, with a bamboo skeleton and helium bladders, which he intends to launch into geostationary orbit over Texas. It is launching from Baja, Mexico. It will appear in the sky 10-20% the size of the moon.
Just to be clear, 300 meters is over twice [...]

5 Pointz has been mentioned in lots of places this year, but that’s ok, it’s good people hear about it.
5 Pointz is a graffiti museum and legal painting space in Queens. The building is a many story warehouse covered on all sides, ground to roof, with art by graffiti artists. Artists live in [...]

I’ve been trying to learn Japanese this year. I’m making progress but it’s definitely slow. While I took Spanish in high school, my brain didn’t shift the way it is now. As I started to write and learn these brand new characters, I started noticing all the things I take for granted, [...]

Each scene rolls on quietly with poetic light and ambient sounds, with the few words spoken coming from the Iraqi people themselves. Each of the three parts of the film focus on one person, and simply shows what they see and hear, as their voices sparsely speak about their lives. The first person [...]

Tears of the Black Tiger combines the early Clint Eastwood Western with Hong Kong and Thai films of the 1950’s and 60’s. Though it sticks to plot and acting that retain high melodrama and graphic violence, it has fun with all of the genres that inspired it, with many hysterical scenes that border on [...]

Some of the best funk and psychedelic music ever written was created for Italian B-movies in the 1960s and 70s. This music was compiled and released by Plastic Records in Italy. I discovered them through Tower Records (of all places) who carried a single album from their catalogue – Vroommm: Funk Cinematique. [...]

The Producers and Hairspray both began as movies, became musicals, and then turned into movie musicals. I have little doubt the new musical Young Frankenstein will follow the same footsteps.
It’s still in previews and has its flaws, but mostly it’s a lot of fun. From some really funny moments to a giant Frankenstein [...]

International art collectors are warming up to a new breed of daring Japanese artists that are no longer beholden to Western styles.
Mentioned in the article is a Contemporary Arts Fund. I’m not sure how well known this is, but there are funds (like mutual funds) created by financial organizations that own artwork instead of [...]

A common view of people involved in meditation of any kind is that they’re wimpy. They live in the clouds and forests among birds and silence, stay in big quiet stone buildings and don’t do much that actually affects the world. They’re just not realistic. “That’s nice and everything, you’re not hurting [...]

Any decent rockstar by nature is sexual and rebellious in one way or another. By nature this flies in the face of people who, for example, own tv or internet companies, or are heads of government big and small, and want to keep things nice and normal and non-rebellious. There is a history [...]

Sarolta Zalatnay, sometimes known as Cini, is a Hungarian singer who sounds like Stereolab, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Abba or Blondie, depending on what song you’re listening to and what mood you’re in. Her fashions changed as much as her musical style, but both are always energetic and daring. All totaled, her best [...]

For the past few months, 12 7-Elevens in the United States were converted to real life Kwik-E-Marts, the very 7-Eleven-like stores featured in The Simpsons. The 12 stores have outsides changed to Kwik-E-Mart logos and colors, staff inside wears Kwik-E-Mart shirts, and the store sells Squishees, Buzz Cola, Krusty-O’s and pink doughnuts.
Before this actually [...]

Japanese artist Cornelius often performs in stadiums back in Japan. So I felt lucky to see him in a venue with only about 50 other people. When I first saw the show advertised, I thought it was a mistake because it was in such a small space. Cornelius has been called “The [...]