D7

In Holland you can buy the new issue of Destroyer here

The 120 days of Kannon

"A tossing and tumbling about mass of shouting boys, naked safe their loin-cloth, fight for the possession of two holy sticks, who have been thrown in their midst by a priest . This old ritual in the honorary of the Buddhist goddess Kannon takes place in January in the temple of Saidaiji. They say that the possession of such a stick brings you good luck."

Parool/Life series of countries, Japan. (1962) picture by Takahiro Ono, click to enlarge

The snake in your bookshelf

Craig a COLOURlovers member & book lover sent this picture of his bookshelf to the colourslovers blog. “We organized our bookshelves in honor of the Rainbow Snake of Australian mythology. The book spine spectrum zig-zags from left to right, then right to left, and so forth.” says Craig.

I used to arange my modest collection of books in colour scheme back in 1997. In an article on design observer about arranging books by colour Luke Bulmann from Tumb gives a few possible motivations why people colour code their own bookshelves. The way he interacts with books is already through the coloured spines, the colours working as a siren (to keep in the mythological phrasing of Craig) that guide your eye immediately to your favourite books. Another reason is the discovery of finding books rubbing shoulders with their new colour-mate on the shelf that gives unexpected combinations for the reader. You can see for instance on my old analogue shelfari (pictured below) Momus' collection of lyrics Lust of a moron next to a "Guide to Vitamine pills", while Kafka meets the naughty nineties decadents of the Yellow Book. You can even walk from Walter Benjamin's Arcades straight into A. A. Milne's Hundred Acre Wood.



Neither Craig's nor mine can compete though with bookshops like San Francisco's Adobe Bookshop of 20.000 books that were re-shelved by artist Chris Cobb in 2004. As they probably say in San Francisco: Awesome, dude!






Lady: Excuse me, but I'm looking for a book.
Store chick: And?
Lady: I don't remember the title or author, but the cover is purple.
Store chick: Our purple books are downstairs.
Lady: They sent me up here.
Store chick: We're sold out of purple books. You want something in a yellow?

--Barnes & Noble, Brooklyn Heights

Petit Paradis, the musical

The original 7' record (graced with a wonderful Sound of Music-like image) by Miharu Koshi from 1980 that gave me the title for my series of drawings and the Petit Paradis website that was launched in 2000. The English adaptation of the song, that is featured on the flipside, was done by Dutch artist Fay Lovsky, of whom the song also reminded me the most.

Fashion youth: Danny Cremers

Last week a friend of mine told me that beloved Danny Cremers is accepted at St. Martins College in London, after graduating successfully at the Arnhem Fashion Institute with (as he described it after watching his show) a Chanel-meets-Dynasty collection. NRC newspaper reported: "That graduating is a precious matter, saw Danny Cremers too, who impressed with sculpturale devises as angular standing jackets and mini-skirts made of meters of gold-coloured ribbons. To gleaming lace ribbon he spend a thousand euros only". While De Volkskrant wrote about: "...the short, rigid white and golden, slightly ironical, but far from funny coats-and-skirts of Danny Cremers with square bulges on chest, belly and buttocks, some decorated with a lot of strings of pearls".



Congrats, Danny Coco Alexis!

I am the English Master

I'm in the stuffy class-room
And i'm the teacher there
But now the seats are empty
Like nests made by a mare

Sometimes - I think - I'm doing
Not quite so very bad
All masters after all are
Just a trifle mad

I teach - so it will happen-
More than I know myself
The dictionary helps me
Two volumes on a shelf

I am the English Master
- Which proves this poem best -
I spice my lessons sometimes
With condescending jest

I am a quiet nightmare
Not frightful - only sad
I am the English Master
And only slightly mad

Jan Hanlo, 1947

(picture of an English Master at a Roman-Catholic school in Almelo from the Volkskrant yesterday)

a is a whale

drawing by marije mooren