Then again, I might be wrong

(Picture “WalLissitzkj” originally uploaded by albertocatellani.)

The sensation of the evening was the Violin Concerto, played by Nikolaj Znaider, who opened with great delicacy and refinement. It was the red breast pocket handkerchief which signaled his passionate approach to the work. He showed himself flexible within the phrase, occasionally bordering on lingering, but never breaking the line. Znaider was fully in command without a single tentative moment.

Nice - Ionarts seems rather impressed with conductor Colin Davis, the London Symphony Orchestra and Nikolaj Znaider in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto.

23 Album Covers that Changed Everything!
w/ extra duck - a set on Flickr
55 Free High Quality Icon Sets
JUNK: The Problem

(Links posted from Diigo and later edited in WordPress)

Howl, the Festival of East Village Arts will take place between September 5 through 11. One of the highlights: “Over 140 painters paint together on a giant canvas that stretches around the park.” To get a taste of what goes on, take a peak at a Dirty Martini performance, or have a look at a few pictures from last year. [Howl website]

Artists like Esperanza Spalding and Patti Smith will perform at the 25th Stockholm Jazz Festival (July 16-19).

This website is about subverting mainstream society; and also alternative society. Generally, we’re about subversion - laughing at, parodying and bringing into question those people who would have us believe they know what’s going on, when the truth is that they either don’t, or are deluded.

Whether it’s an elaborate in-joke mocking postmodernism or not, The Spaces Between is worth a visit.

Video art by William Lamson. The one called Emerge is my favourite.

“Dropclock is an aesthetically intriguing motion clock screensaver. Every minute of real time is numerically expressed with heavy Helvetica dropping into water in super slow-motion.” If your computer is powerful enough, have a go - this is probably one of the most stunning-looking screensavers around. [Dropclock]

Compared to the love-it-or-hate-it Puzzlefarter game I mentioned a while ago, Sunny Day Sky is a very easy Flash game that’s fun for the whole family - you’re mission is to help a little critter fly over cars using only an umbrella. The game is accompanied by some very pleasant music, making it a nice diversion from that dreary office work.

71 years ago today aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific, never to be found. Wired has an article about the unsolved mystery.

Apple has posted an “iPhone 3G: Guided Tour“. The video also demonstrates how to purchase and download applications from App Store.

AppleMatters writes about 10 Ways Professional Photographers Can Use the iPhone.

Speaking of the iPhone, AT&T has revealed how much it will cost in the States without contract - $599 to $699. Ouch. [Reuters]

“If we ever have only 4 minutes to save the world, I vote for this one over Madonna and JT…”

“A few minutes of this and my inner cynic shuts up for a good hour or two.”

“I’m pretty sure that is the best thing I’ve ever seen on the internet. Ever. How can something that goofy be that moving?”

“That was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. The scene at the DMZ in Korea took my breath away.”

All the quotes above were taken from reader comments over at Boing Boing regarding the Where the Hell is Matt video - it’s been quite hyped lately, and for a very good reason. Have a look, it’s absolutely wonderful:

Read the full, amazing story on Boing Boing.

Six months into the year, and I thought it was time for my very own Best of 2008 So Far-list:

Live Concert:
Radio Chamber Philharmonic in Ives’ The Unanswered Question (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam)
Mitsuko Uchida playing Bach’s Sarabande from French Suite no 5 (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam)
Paul Moravec playing Carter’s Retracing (Look&Listen Festival, New York)

Popular Music CD:
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
The Kills - Midnight Boom

Classical Music CD:
Bang On A Can - Music For Airports (Live)
Huelgas Ensemble - La Quinta Essentia
Pacifica Quartet - Carter: String Quartets Nos 1 and 5

Comedy Series:
30 Rock
Flight of the Conchords

1. Thou shalt not abuse Flash.
2. Thou shalt not hide content.
3. Thou shalt not clutter.
4. Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections.
5. Thou shalt not name your Web 2.0 company with an unnecessary surplus or dearth of vowels.
6. Thou shalt worship at the altar of typography.
7. Thou shalt create immersive experiences.
8. Thou shalt be social.
9. Thou shalt embrace proven technologies.
10. Thou shalt make content king.

A group of design experts contributed to a BusinessWeek survey on what web design is all about in 2008. Read the full article and do watch the slideshow of the best and worst of the web. [via swissmiss]

The Orb - The Dream (2008) has been criticised for having cheesy singing struggling to be catchy and for being awkward - admittedly it’s not a new Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, but on the whole enjoyable to listen to.

Cuong Vu - Come Play With Me (from 2001). Abstract avant garde jazz. It’ll come as no surprise that Vu has been compared to Miles Davis. Dreamy, profound, soulful.

Philip Jeck - Sand “…audio analogues to the forgotten life experiences that guide us from beyond the edge of consciousness” (from a review at Dusted). And from Amazon: “Jeck works with old records and record players salvaged from junk shops, turning them to his own purposes. He really does play them as musical instruments, creating an intensely personal language…”

Staier, Sepec, Queyras - Beethoven & Hummel: Piano Trios. An intense, expressive performance on period instruments. Another superb release from Harmonia Mundi.

SVT (Swedish Television) has started showing the offbeat and totally brilliant Flight of the Conchords on Friday nights. The album with music from the series is available on iTunes.

Josh Blue (who won the show Last Comic Standing in 2006) must be one of the funniest new comedians around.

I was stunned by the incredible, life-like animation in the HD trailer of Pixar’s Wall*E - now people are lining up to praise the movie as a true masterpiece over at IMDB. “A new plateau in animation”, “Brilliant storytelling and visualization”, “The return of movie magic” and “Nearly perfect in every way!”. Can’t wait to see it.

Yeay - Shaun of the Dead’s Queen Smackdown comes in as number 5 on this list of the Top 10 Music Moments in Movies at MuchMusic.

For the fifth time in the last 35 years, America will have a lefty in the White House. Obama and McCain are both left-handed. [NY Sun]

(Picture “Postcard no 5” from ‘gallery/exhibition’ 2006.)

I don’t trust people who don’t talk too much. You never know what they’re thinking.

Errol Morris in Wired, May 2008.

Almost 30 minutes of instrumental intro. Competent musicians. Erykah Badu enters, and an almost two hour long concert unfolds, almost dream-like, with whole songs and fragments of songs served in such a way that afterwards, it’s very difficult to remember how it was all done.

Erykah Badu is the epitome of cool. Decades from now, she will probably be regarded as the one who redefined cool in the early 21st century.

The Stockholm audience on the other hand will only be remembered (if at all) for its extremely short attention span, its lack of concentration and complete disregard for other people while having a highly developed need to communicate with others through text messages on the progress of the concert. Every thirty seconds.

Review in Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish) and Svenska Dagbladet (also in Swedish).

Apple’s nice collection of free web seminars has received a few additions, and one of the highlights is Podcast Producer - “In 12 Minutes and 31 Seconds You Can Start Podcasting”. No reason to postpone that podcast production anymore.

The biggest art project in New York since Christo’s “The Gates” - “The New York City Waterfalls” is a public art project of four man-made waterfalls rising from New York Harbor, some as high as the Statue of Liberty. The New York Times has a slide show, and more information about the project is available here and (in Swedish) here. Until October 13.

I’m quite fond of the cover for the upcoming Beck album Modern Guilt. At the moment three new songs are streamed on iLike.

Curbed has new renderings of what the High Line in New York will look like. Phase 1 (Gansevoort St. to 20th) and phase 2 (21st to 30th).

One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence. [via Tumblr]

Pheew - five posts in one day. A new record?!

(Picture Beck - Modern Guilt originally uploaded by em0rix.)

Picture of Eddie Murphy’s giant head on the interstate, taken by ahhhitshayley on February 10, 2008.

The new “must-haves” for billionaires? Works from the Italian Futurist movement, according to Sotheby’s. More Intelligent Life writes about Finding the Future in Futurism.

I wasn’t too impressed with the exhibition Eclipse - Art in a Dark Age at the Moderna. From Dana Schutz’s sad and hollow-looking people cutting each other up, to the really sick performances of McCarthy, it just managed to give the impression that some part of the art world desperately (and for some reason) wants to keep up with splatter films.

I did like the new work by Barbara Kruger that can be seen in the entrance hall.