typed for your pleasure on 23 August 2006, at 7.15 pm
Sdtrk: ‘Do or die’ by the Human League
There are pretty much two styles of Sixties architecture that make me come over all frothy: there’s the utopian, futuristic style of a vintage Space age vision (Montreal’s Expo ’67, Villa Spies), and then there’s the grim dystopian style of what we were given instead (Trellick tower). I have to say that I love them both equally. If I were to compare them to films that I dig, on the one hand you have ‘Barbarella’, and on the other, you’ve got ‘Alphaville’. In fact, ‘Alphaville’ has a lot of rather ace buildings in it, but I’m certain finding particular names and backgrounds in English for any of them would be like looking for a needle placed gently somewhere on the dark side of the moon. However, it’s always a joy being able to present information about the buildings that I like — it’s a small victory, especially after sifting through all that Interweb. And you know I get easily distracted. So tonight, you get a fine example of dystopia, in the shape of the housing developments of Alexandra road, designed by Neave Brown in 1969.
A community center that includes a school, reception center, maintenance facilities and the heating plant mark the entrance to the site from London Road to the west and open to the park areas. The lower buildings contain maisonettes with shared access, terraces, and gardens. Maisonettes also occupy the top two levels of the large slab with entrance from a continuous gallery at the 7th floor.
Alexandra road is a pretty good example of the Brutalist style that was prevalent during the late Fifties and Sixties — you’ve got fab structures such as Brunswick centre, the Tricorn shopcentre, and Alton west estate, among several others. As stated, Alexandra road Housing is Brutalism’s take on the old Victorian era style of terraced housing; vast rows of homes that are built shoulder-to-shoulder, sharing adjacent walls. The apparent lack of space makes it look a wee bit grim on first glance, but there’s a certain romanticism about them — ever see ‘Coronation street’? Well, these apartments would be Coronation street 2099.
Still in use to this day, the clean and well-defined lines of this distinctive housing project only falls short in one respect — it failed to inspire more architects to repeat the style elsewhere. I suppose that makes Alexandra road Housing that much more special
typed for your pleasure on 23 August 2006, at 12.26 am
Sdtrk: ‘Secondo coro delle Lavandaie’ by Roberto de Simone
During a recent whirl on the Internuts, I typed ‘My living Doll DVD’ into Google as a bit of folly. Yeah, I know I’ve been trying to keep abreast of any and all news on that, but sometimes things slip under my radar. Like this new Giant Robo feature, for instance. But that’s another story altogether.
So one of the links leads me to a telly-series-on-DVD forum, where I found this thread — ‘My living Doll & My Favorite Martian‘ — which dates from the 16th of last month. The original poster, who claims to work with Jack Chertok Television, Inc. (Jack Chertok being the producer of both shows), starts out with
To all those fans of both shows here is some word on both,
My Living Doll, Starring Julie Newmar.. Most of the key film elements have now been located, the show is about to be restored and put on a non bootleg DVD for the first time.
and I’m thinking, ‘but I’d read the prints were destroyed in a fit of pique!’, which is pretty much what someone had posted, and the OP responds with
The truth is stranger than the fiction you have read all these years, fact one producer Jack Chertok NEVER threw out My Living Doll elements, they were miss placed, also due to the strange way many of the shows were registered back in the sixties many people thought it was PD, not so the rights are intact.
The show is a present being put back together element by element. to make perfect hi def masters.
Hmm. As long as this poster’s real name isn’t Lucifer, the Prince of Lies, this is fantastic news. I’ll believe it when those hallowed DVDs are in my sweaty hands, however..
Speaking of Synthetiks, you might want to give my YouTube page a look-in if you’re so inclined, as I’ve posted not one, but two new videos there. Happy 23rd!
typed for your pleasure on 21 August 2006, at 5.35 pm
Sdtrk: ‘Going south’ by Indian jewelry
So I’d done a post last year about Daisuke ‘Dice-K’ Enomoto, who would’ve been the first otaku in space. What d’ye mean, you don’t recall? (Actually, I was suprised myself that that was written almost a whole year ago..)
Well, turns out he can’t go. His mum wouldn’t sign his permission slip, the poor bastard.
I suppose he can blame this on the misfortune of his birth
A Japanese businessman hoping to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) has failed his medical test, according to Russian space agency officials.
Daisuke “Dice-K” Enomoto, 34, was hoping to become the fourth space tourist after being chosen to fly on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
He was due to accompany the 14th space station crew on a flight next month.
Previous private space explorers are Americans Dennis Tito and Greg Olsen and South African Mark Shuttleworth.
Russian Federal Space Agency spokesman Igor Panarin said that Enomoto was “deemed not ready to fly for exclusively medical reasons”.
He was due to begin the journey on 14 September with US commander Miguel Lopez-Alegria and Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin. the rest of the article is here
Medical reasons are the exact sort of thing that’ll probably end up keeping a lot of us trapped on earth, instead of being spacebound. I want to be a Newtype too, damnit!
As an aside, I love the illo that someone drew of him that he’s got on his website, as reprinted above. Of course, it’s a lot funnier if you’re a Gundam fan, but nevertheless
EDIT (23 Aug): Changed the news article links to the BBC News page. Why? Cos if you look at the photo they have of Dice-K, you’ll see a Zeon patch on the right shoulder of his flightsuit. Very savvy
typed for your pleasure on 20 August 2006, at 1.58 am
Sdtrk: ‘The kill’ by Joy division
At various points in our lives, my music-making mates and I would regularly vow that we would one day assemble a bucketful of contact microphones, for additional Noise-making weaponry. As you suspect, we never got round to it. But thanks to the Bay of e, now we don’t have to!
Contact Mic Noise Shaker. Masonna Merzbow Whitehouse
This is a noise maker! A shaker with a microphone inside. Plug it into a distortion pedal for a seering wall of noise. Similar to the noise shaker device used by Japanese noise artist Masonnna. Hand built in a sturdy aluminum canister.
‘HAY!’ I can hear you asking. ‘What the hell’s a contact microphone?’ Essentially, it’s a regular mic, only stripped down of its casing, so that all you have is the bit that picks up the sound. You then rewire it so that it plugs directly into whatever your lead is; again, like a regular mic, but since it’s considerably smaller without its housing, you’re free to do more anarchic things with it. You can tape one to the inside of a suitcase, fill it with Cd jewel cases, and shake it about!* You can place one in your mouth!** You can gaffer tape a couple to your bare chest, and have a friend beat the shit out of you!*** The possibilities are limited only by your imaginaaaation.
For a better grasp of a typical contact mic in use, here’s Maso Yamazaki (Masonna) himself, leaping like a spastic, posessed bunny on YouTube. About 1.22 into the video, you can briefly see him throttling it about in his left hand.
Very ace! Kinda makes me want to dust off my effects pedals and four-track again
*as done by Masonna
** I think Jojo Hiroshige of Hijokaidan did this once
***as done by Einstürzende Neubauten
typed for your pleasure on 16 August 2006, at 6.23 pm
Sdtrk: ‘Destination unknown’ by Missing persons
Remember how I’d mentioned that there was a lass — Caroline, by name — from the far-off land of the United Arab Emirates, that wanted to conduct an interview with yours truly? Well, I’d gotten an Email from her last month, which stated that although she dug my answers, she was waiting to hear from her magazine, as the social climate in Dubai is changing regarding being able to print things of a sexual nature. It had astounded me when Elena first mentioned that Caroline wanted to do this in the first place, as she’d mentioned that she was from the UAE, and I’d thought a RealDoll-related interview would probably go over there about as well as one being published in a Shaker magazine. Do Shakers even have magazines? There’s so much I don’t know.
On the obverse side of the coin, however, next week-end will find myself and Sidore-chan being filmed again, ths time by a Swedish film crew! Sofia, who is the ‘research praktik’ for a show in Sweden entitled ‘Outsiders’ for Titan Television, had originally asked at the same time the English film crew did a few months ago, and originally I’d responded ‘sorry, it’s too hot out’. Actually, I’d said that to both the English and the Swedes, but the English effectively bribed me first by offering to ship Shi-chan out to the RealDoll Doctor. Sofia wrote again on the first of August, saying ‘well, if we fly you out to Abyss Creations for a day of filming, as well as pay for your hotel stay, will you do this for us?’ My arm was therefore twisted. 🙂 So on 25 Aug, I’m jetting out to the factory to be filmed with Matt McMullen, and on the 26th, I fly home and will be filmed with Sweetie in someplace air-conditioned — either round at the hotel the Swedish film crew will be staying at, or at another location — and the wonderful Monti will be present for a number of questions, to provide the ‘friend of an iDollator’ perspective. Huh!
I’d like to mention that this interview for ‘Outsiders’ will be the eleventh media appearance my Synthetik wife and I have made; I’d tallied them up at work. The stakes for their bribery keep increasing with each interview, though, so at this rate, the next television/film crew might well have to purchase Sweetie a new body, hint hint…
typed for your pleasure on 14 August 2006, at 1.09 am
Sdtrk: ‘FRUiTS CLiPPER’ by Capsule
When I first saw this place, my mind immediately conjured up images from the film ‘Fantastic planet‘. I hated ‘Fantastic planet’. To be honest though, I’d like to see it again, but with subtitles instead of that hideous dubbing, as I think the dubbing was what really drove me away. Gods, that dubbing. But this building reminded me of ‘Fantastic planet’, and really, any sci-fi from out of Europe during the Sixties. This would be Palais Bulles (Bubble Palace), designed for fab fashion designer Pierre Cardin by Antti Lovag in 1970.
Lovag noticed that traditional habitations, like the cavern or the igloo, were round and reflected the way a human being moves in space. These houses were built “around” the human being and did not force him into rectangular spaces, like modern houses. Spheres and round surfaces reminded of the maternal uterus and avoiding any sharp edge they could prevent, according to Lovag’s theory, neurosis and violence. [..]
The interior is made of many round rooms, resembling foam bubbles, all furnished and decorated in a perfect ’70s style, no pictures on the walls, but big design lamps, coloured cushions and everywhere a deep, fluffy, wall-to-wall carpeting. Windows are big portholes with a round glass on them. The villa has also a conference room, a private cinema, a swimming pool and a tennis court. quoted from this article
It’s occurred to me just now that this residence could be considered the spiritual sibling to Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 — it’s a closely-knit cluster of simple shapes, but instead of being cubes, they’re more globular. Also, it’s a single home, not an apartment structure. Also, it’s located in Côte d’Azur, not Montréal. Also, Palais Bulles is rust-coloured, not putty-coloured. I could go on.
Don’t know if it’s someplace I’d want to live — those concave walls would make it difficult to hang my trevor brown silkscreen — but.. o, who am I kidding. Like I wouldn’t move there, given half the chance (and all the money). Nice one, Antti!
