Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy artwork by George Hardie

Technical Ecstasy continued the band's separation from its signature doom and darkness that had been such a trademark of the band's early career. While the album's lyrics dealt with topics such as drug dealers, prostitution, and transvestites, the music itself was seldom dark, and tracks like "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" and "It's Alright" (the latter sung by drummer Bill Ward—a decision supported by Ozzy Osbourne), were very different from Black Sabbath's earlier recordings. Also, the band continued experimenting with keyboards and synthesizers more so than previous albums. The track "She's Gone" features orchestrations.

Osbourne left the band briefly following the release of the album. He would eventually rejoin for the follow-up album, Never Say Die!.

The cover art is designed by Hipgnosis and is meant to represent two robots having sex. Osbourne once described it as "two robots screwing on an escalator."^[1]

The UK release had a two-sided lyric/credit-insert.

"Gypsy", "Dirty Women", "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" and (briefly) "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)" were played live on the supporting tour.

"It's Alright" was often covered live by Guns N' Roses, and included in their Live Era: '87–'93 album.

It was certified Gold on June 19, 1997^[2] and peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Pop Album chart.^[3]

found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_Ecstasy

Sebastian Brajkovic

Sebastian Brajkovic is an unusual artist who has managed to blur the lines between graphics, sculpture and furniture creating an unusual and exciting artform that is all his own. I am sure you have seen the above image out there floating in the blogosphere but if you have yet to look at his work it is well worth a gander.

Pictures of Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was an Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. As one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art, he is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica (1937).

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

Invisible Mirror Treehouse by Tham & Videgard Han

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.10.09 Design & Architecture

It is an old architectural trick used since the invention of mirrored glass: covering buildings with the reflective material and declaring that they blend in with the surroundings. Most architects use it to convince wary citizens that it is OK if their building is tall because it will reflect the sky and nature. The rendering always makes the building disappear, and the reality is always a big clunky mirrored box. But a mirrored box can be elegant, too, such as this treehouse by Swedish firm Tham & Videgard Hansson Arkitekter. TreeHugger loves treehouses (see our roundup of them here) when they are designed to minimize impact on the surrounding landscape. And in this case, it looks like the architects have pulled it off successfully.

Found Here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/swedish-mirrored-treehouse.php

Leah Tinari Paintings

ARTIST STATEMENT

I work in acrylic and gouache on both paper and canvas.

Personal photographs taken with a 35mm camera inspire the imagery in each piece. The photographs that interest me most are the ones that someone else would rip up or erase from their digital camera shortly after they are taken. Not knowing what to expect from the film is exciting to me and many times leads to happy accidents like corrupt composition, disheveled hair, flushed cheeks and red eye. I am also intrigued with the space in a photograph. I often eliminate objects and elements to create location-less expanses, allowing the figures to exist in voids and allow for multiple narratives.

The content and formal elements in my paintings combine to offer an always personal, occasionally caricature-like narrative, addressing and encompassing both the awkwardness and the complexity of the human condition. Although the work is a documentation of my personal experiences, I hope that the images will evoke familiar feelings or create a sense of voyeurism - as if the viewer is peeking into a still from someone else’s life that is utterly foreign to them. My paintings are snippets of time that capture moments and function as a visual diary to create my social realism, a documentation of 30-something contemporary lifestyle and behavior.

My work is a celebration of life. I strive to make paintings of my life, the people and the world around me. I want to create a wonderful and vital dialog between people and art, and between art and life.

Found Here: http://www.leahtinari.com

Another "vision" of history | Maurillo Manara (Milo Manara)

Another "vision" of history

Raúlo En: Raul: Dibujo Drawing Arte Arts Sociedad Society Actualidad Today Historia de la Humanidad History of Humanity Cultura Culture

El dibujo y la historia Drawing and story

Una curiosa guía visual de la evolución de la humanidad a través del tiempo historico del gran maestro italiano Maurillo Manara (Milo Manara) . A strange visual guide to the evolution of humanity through time of great historical Italian master Maurillo Manara (Milo Manara). Es uno de los dibujantes más famosos del panorama erótico mundial. It is one of the most famous cartoonists picture erotic world. Las mujeres de Manara son esculturas en sí mismas y sus historietas son clásicos entre los clásicos del género. Women of Manara are sculptures in themselves and their stories are classics among classics of the genre.
Su primer título, Genius , lo publicó en 1969. His first title, Genius, published in 1969. El sexo y la aventura ya despuntaron como ingredientes fundamentales de su obra. Sex and adventure and emerged as key ingredients of his work.
Con " HP y Giusseppe Bergman" se situó entre los mejores autores de cómic de autor. With HP and Giuseppe Bergman "was among the finest comic authors of the author. A partir de ahí Manara creció con un género que poco a poco se hizo suyo. "El Clic" fue un gran éxito de ventas y crítica. From there Manara a genre that grew gradually became his. "Click" was a huge critical and sales success. Luego vendrían "Verano Indio" (con guión de Hugo Pratt), "El Perfume del Invisible" y las sagas de "HP y Giusseppe Bergman" y "El Clic". Fue estrecho colaborador del maestro del cine Federico Fellini. Then came "Indian Summer" (with script by Hugo Pratt), "The Perfume of the Invisible" and the saga of "HP and Giuseppe Bergman" and "Click." It was a close associate of the maestro Federico Fellini film.

La "evolución", segun Milo... The "evolution", according to Milo ...

Otra de sus historias más famosas es:"City Hunters" explora a fondo el mundo de la seducción a través de la historia de un maestro y un aprendiz en el arte de la conquista femenina. Another of his most famous stories is "City Hunters" explores in depth the world of seduction through the story of a master and an apprentice in the art of female conquest.

"City Hunters" gira en torno a Axel, un joven melancólico quien ha sido abandonado por su novia y al Dr. Lynch, un viejo bon vivant, quién en los años ´70s fue un maestro creador de fragancias masculinas y playboy. "City Hunters" around Axel, a melancholy young man who was abandoned by his girlfriend and Dr. Lynch, an old bon vivant, who in the'70s was a master creator of fragrances and male playboy.
Según presume, Lynch es miembro y actual guardián de la Logia X, una agrupación ultra-secreta que desde hace más de 2 mil años, se dedica a investigar a la mujer y todo lo relacionado con el misterioso mundo del arte de la seducción. According presumed Lynch is a member and current custodian of the Lodge X, an ultra-secret group that for more than 2 thousand years, is dedicated to research on women and everything about the mysterious world of the art of seduction.
En un accidente, Lynch conoce a Axel y súbitamente detecta en él un fuego sagrado, un verdadero diamante en bruto y comienza a considerar que tal vez sea Axel el indicado para transmitir los secretos de la logia a la próxima generación. In a crash, Lynch met Axel and suddenly find it a sacred fire, a real diamond in the rough and begins to consider that perhaps Axel suitable for transmitting the secrets of the lodge to the next generation. Antes, Axel deberá convertirse en un "Seductor Absolutis": un hombre capaz de conquistar a cada una de las distintas tipologías de mujer que existen. Earlier, Axel should become a "Seductive Absolutis": a man capable of conquering each of the different types of women that exist. ( este comics fue la base para la campaña de Axe ,si el desodorante!!) RG. (This comic was the basis for the campaign Ax, if the deodorant!) RG.

Calma aka Stephan Doitschinoff

Calma creates street art which is the antithesis of anything obvious and urban. His murals and canvases are covered with graphic images that are an unusual fusion of Brazilian folk art, religious and gothic imagery and a subtle touch of Sao Paolo’s graffiti heritage. As his first monograph published by Die Gestalten Verlag shows, Calma is a dark original.

Dazed Digital: How does Brazilian folk art and engravings influence what you do?
Stephan Doitschinoff: I grew up in Sao Paulo and as a child I spent a lot of time with my grandparents in Bananal, a small village in the Paraiba Valey country side near Rio de Janeiro. Even though most of my family were working class, my grandfather is an educated man and had a nice collection of woodcut prints and a few originals by names like Anita Malfati, Caribé and Volpi. I find really interesting to look at Brazilian folk art today and learn how Christian art was brought with the Portoguese and Spanish conquers in the 16th and 17th centuries and ended up getting so influenced by Afro and Native Brazilian culture. Today you can see the syncretism present in folklore and religion. You will find churches that have altars with Christian saints mixed with Afro and Native Brazilian deities such as Preto Velho, Iemanja and Boi Bumba.

DD: What do you paint with?
SD: I use acrylics when I’m painting canvasses but when it comes to paint murals I use anything, mainly cheap house paint but also any latex, gesso, acrylics, spray, whatever I have. In Lençóis the only paint they used to sell at the local shop was so bad and watery that you would need 2 coats of black to cover other colours. Sometimes you have to improvise. I have used big chunks of bbq charcoal to sketch the murals.

DD: You've been living and working in Bahia. What do you find interesting about the place?
SD: I have been living there for more than 2 years but I have been travelling the countryside of Bahia for almost a decade. Most of these secluded places are so hard to get to that the local culture - their traditions and festivities - are still not suffocated by the internationalized culture and globalization. It is still possible to find craftsman working the way they learned from their grandparents. Afro-Brazilian culture there is so rich. In the slavery times they use to captured whole tribes from Africa and bring them to work in plantations or diamond mines, so there are quite a few African traditions that you wont find in Africa anymore but you do find it in small villages out in Bahia.

DD: What do you like about making street and outdoor work?
SD: Getting people to interact with the work. I have had some strong response in small cities especially. I painted this mural in Alto da Estrela called ‘Daniel’s Prophecy’, that depicts the image on the angel of death condemning the false churches of Satan. It happens that in the same street there was an Evangelical church. A couple weeks after I finished painting I passed through that same street and noticed the mural was all dilapidated and saw chunks of the wall and rocks on the floor. A neighbour described me how kids would come out the church and with bibles and stones in hand and would stone the mural while spitting and yelling things like “For the Blood of Christ” or “Out of my way Behemoth from Hell”. It has happened with a couple more of my murals in the same area.

DD: What draws you to religious imagery?
SD: I guess I was always close to it. My grandmother was a practicing spiritualist.
My dad was a Minister in an Evangelical Church any my mother worked there as well. I basically grew up in the church. I personally see the church as an archaic institution that always aimed to control the masses. I think it is an appropriate symbol for the corrupt modern institutions - like the big corporations, media chanels and governments.

Calma: The Art of Stephan Doitschinoff with text by Tristan Manco and Carlo McCormick is out now

Found Here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/view/default.aspx?Category=22&ArticleID=1639&PageNum=1

Algorithmic Abstracts | Patrick Gunderson

These are Actionscript 3 generated compositions. Color samples are taken from a base image then drawn using a pseudo-random line drawing algorithm in concert with a particle system.

The Man from Utopia - Frank Zappa | Artwork by Tanino Liberatore

The Man from Utopia is a 1983 album by Frank Zappa. It is a more song-driven, and less conceptual work than many others in Zappa's oeuvre. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou".[1]

The sleeve art features the work of RanXerox artist Tanino Liberatore. It portrays Zappa on stage trying to kill mosquitos. The back cover shows the audience as seen from the stage. Chaos prevails, and the cover is meant to show the events at a disastrous concert in Palermo, Italy, July 14, 1982. At that concert, fans kept trying to rush the stage, and the local security force began firing tear-gas canisters into the crowd. Zappa and his band continued to perform, but were forced to flee when the gas became unbearable, and live ammunition (presumably from the audience) was fired. Backstage footage can be found on The Dub Room Special. The album was the second of two to credit Steve Vai with "impossible guitar parts" (the first being Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch).

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Utopia

Porsche Museum, Stuttgart

The Porsche Museum is a museum in the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart, Germany on the site of carmaker Porsche.

The new Porsche museum stands on a conspicuous junction just outside Porsche Headquarters in Zuffenhausen. The display area covers 5600 square meters featuring around 80 exhibits, many rare cars and a variety of historical models.

The musuem (official opening: 31 January 2009) is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 6pm. Entrance price: 8 euros (4 euros for concessions, children 14 years and under get in for free when accompanied by an adult).

The museum was designed by the architects Delugan Meissl. The design concept is based on a model by HG Merz who was also involved in the building of the award winning Mercedes Benz museum.^[1]

[edit] Construction

The original Porsche museum opened in 1976 in a side-road near the Porsche factory. It was a relatively small works museum with little parking space and it was only big enough to hold around 20 exhibits (in rotation).

Porsche built the museum as a kind of "rolling museum" with rotating exhibits from a stock of 300 restored cars, many in pristine condition and still in full driving order. Originally there was discussion that the new museum would be built alongside a new Mercedes-Benz museum on former trade fair grounds in the Killesberg area of Stuttgart.^[1]. After the new Mercedes-Benz Museum opened in the east of Stuttgart in 2006, Porsche went ahead with plans to upgrade and extend its museum in the northern district of Zuffenhausen next to the company headquarters. Originally costs were set at 60 million euros but days before the official opening ceremony on 29 January 2009, it was confirmed that the actual costs hit 100 million euros^[2].

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_Museum,_Stuttgart

Collection of Landscapes

Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual or jointly by a group of individuals. An owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer and exchange his or her property.^[1][2][3] Important types of property include real property (land), personal property (other physical possessions), and arguably^[4] intellectual property (rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc.). A title, or a right of ownership, is associated with property that establishes the relation between the goods/services and other individuals or groups, assuring the owner the right to dispense with the property in a manner he or she sees fit. Some philosophers assert that property rights arise from social convention. Others find origins for them in morality or natural law (e.g. Saint Irenaeus).

There exist many theories. Perhaps one of the most popular was the natural rights definition of property rights as advanced by John Locke. Locke advanced the theory that when one mixes one’s labor with nature, one gains ownership of that part of nature with which the labor is mixed, subject to the limitation that there should be "enough, and as good, left in common for others" [2].

From the RERUM NOVARUM, Pope Leo XIII wrote "It is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his very own."

Anthropology studies the diverse systems of ownership, rights of use and transfer, and possession^[6] under the term "theories of property". Western legal theory is based, as mentioned, on the owner of property being a legal individual. However, not all property systems are founded on this basis.

In every culture studied ownership and possession are the subject of custom and regulation, and "law" where the term can meaningfully be applied. Many tribal cultures balance individual ownership with the laws of collective groups: tribes, families, associations and nations. For example the 1839 Cherokee Constitution frames the issue in these terms:

Sec. 2. The lands of the Cherokee Nation shall remain common property; but the improvements made thereon, and in the possession of the citizens respectively who made, or may rightfully be in possession of them: Provided, that the citizens of the Nation possessing exclusive and indefeasible right to their improvements, as expressed in this article, shall possess no right or power to dispose of their improvements, in any manner whatever, to the United States, individual States, or to individual citizens thereof; and that, whenever any citizen shall remove with his effects out of the limits of this Nation, and become a citizen of any other government, all his rights and privileges as a citizen of this Nation shall cease: Provided, nevertheless, That the National Council shall have power to re-admit, by law, to all the rights of citizenship, any such person or persons who may, at any time, desire to return to the Nation, on memorializing the National Council for such readmission.

Communal property systems describe ownership as belonging to the entire social and political unit, while corporate systems describe ownership as being attached to an identifiable group with an identifiable responsible individual. The Roman property law was based on such a corporate system.

Different societies may have different theories of property for differing types of ownership. Pauline Peters argued that property systems are not isolable from the social fabric, and notions of property may not be stated as such, but instead may be framed in negative terms: for example the taboo system among Polynesian peoples. [3]