07 August 2015

Baroque 1620-1800

Baroque
The Victoria and Albert Museum (London) held a major exhibition on Baroque art in 2009. The lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue, Baroque 1620-1800: Style In The Age Of Magnificence, was edited by Michael Snodin and Nigel Llewellyn.

The catalogue is organised thematically rather than chronologically or geographically, though co-editor Snodin's chapter on The Baroque Style provides a useful overview. Snodin argues that the Baroque was "the first style to appear in both world hemispheres and all the continents except for Australasia." The catalogue takes a suitably international approach, creating a comprehensive survey of Baroque decorative arts and architecture.

Baroque 1620-1800 is a companion to two earlier, equally comprehensive V&A; surveys: Art Nouveau 1890-1914 (published in 2000) and Art Deco 1910-1939 (published in 2003). These three books illustrate the gradual decline of decoration, from the unrestrained ornamentation of the Baroque to the modern, decorative Art Nouveau and the streamlined Art Deco.

28 July 2015

Craze Fest

Police pulled the plug on a concert at Wolf Lake Pavilion in Hammond, Indiana on Saturday night, during a performance by Chief Keef. Several arrest warrants have been issued for the singer in the neighboring state of Illinois, thus planned appearances in Chicago were cancelled, and his performance at Craze Fest was transmitted via hologram from Beverley Hills, California.

Chief Keef's set began with a pre-recorded introduction: "Everybody in Chicago. All the kids. If you got goals, achieve 'em. If you got dreams, believe 'em. Stop the violence. Stop the killing. Let the kids grow up. Now, Chicago, are you ready for a show? Let's go!" He then performed his debut single I Don't Like, though police cancelled the show a few minutes later.

25 July 2015

The Myanmar Herald

The former editor and deputy editor of The Myanmar Herald have been fined the equivalent of $850 after being convicted of defaming Burma's President Thein Sein. The editors were charged following an investigation by the Ministry of Information; nine other staff at the newspaper were acquitted.

The charge relates to an interview with opposition politician Myo Yan Naung Thein, in which he said: "The President is the head of the State but his words were gibberish, irrational, cheap and inconsistent... all his words were completely nonsensical, absurd and insane." The interview was published on 9th August last year.

23 July 2015

An Iranian Metamorphosis

An Iranian Metamorphosis
An Iranian Metamorphosis
In 2006, a cartoon for children by Mana Neyestani was published in the Iran-E-Jomee newspaper. The cartoon depicted a friendly cockroach, which seemed as benign as the insect that would later appear in Pixar's Wall-E, though it caused a riot in Iran.

The intense controversy surrounding the cartoon stemmed from a speech bubble which showed the cockroach saying the Azerbaijani word "Namana?" ('what?'); Azerbaijani Iranians were offended at their language being used by a cockroach, and the cartoon was misinterpreted as equating Azerbaijanis with cockroaches. As a result, the newspaper was shut down, and the cartoonist and newspaper editor were arrested.

Last year, Neyestani wrote a graphic novel describing the aftermath of the cartoon, his arrest, and his subsequent life in exile. The book, An Iranian Metamorphosis, is a Kafkaesque tale combining elements of The Metamorphosis (a fantasy in which the cartoonist himself becomes a cockroach) and The Trial (the state's persecution of the author regardless of his apparently trivial 'crime').

18 July 2015

The 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time
The 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time
The current issue (August) of Empire Australia includes the results of a readers' poll titled The 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time. Editor Daniel Murphy writes: "for the first time since 2013, we've polled you... on the movies that matter most to you". This is misleading, though, because the list was actually adapted from Empire UK's 301 Greatest Movies Ever Made (published last year), and is not based on a survey of Australian readers. It's also misleading to imply that Australian readers were surveyed in 2013, because the 2013 list (The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time!) was also adapted from an older Empire UK poll.

Several films from last year's Empire UK list have been replaced with recent releases or classic Australian films. Kingsman: The Secret Service (#299) replaces 28 Days Later, The Babadook (#287) replaces Prometheus, Edge Of Tomorrow (#286) replaces Man Of Steel, Avengers: Age Of Ultron (#267) replaces The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Paddington (#263) replaces Dead Man's Shoes, Wake In Fright (#255) replaces Transformers, Romper Stomper (#245) replaces Star Trek: Into Darkness, Gallipoli (#243) replaces The World's End, Interstellar (#224) replaces Star Wars III, Boyhood (#173) replaces 500 Days Of Summer, Guardians Of The Galaxy (#166) replaces The Hobbit II, Whiplash (#146) replaces Moulin Rouge!, The Castle (#145) replaces Hot Fuzz, Birdman (#90) replaces Serenity, and Mad Max: Fury Road (#72) replaces The Dark Knight Rises. The old list's 301st film, Bicycle Thieves, has been inserted into the new list at #285, replacing the film 300.

Empire Australia's only polls of its own readers were published in 2002 and 2007 (100 Greatest Movies Of All Time). Empire UK published readers' polls in 1996 (100 Favourite Films Of All Time), 1999 (Your 100 Greatest Films Ever!), 2001 (The 50 Best Films), 2004 (100 Greatest Movies Of All Time), 2006 (201 Greatest Movies Of All Time), and 2008 (The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time).

The 300 Greatest Films Of All Time are as follows:

300. Andrei Rublev
299. Kingsman: The Secret Service
298. Captain Phillips
297. A Nightmare On Elm Street
296. Love Actually
295. West Side Story
294. Back To The Future II
293. Local Hero
292. King Kong
291. Conan The Barbarian
290. Come & See
289. Battle Royale
288. Batman
287. The Babadook
286. Edge Of Tomorrow
285. Bicycle Thieves
284. The Bridge On The River Kwai
283. In The Mood For Love
282. The Grand Budapest Hotel
281. Persona
280. How To Train Your Dragon
279. Fantasia
278. BeetleJuice
277. Sideways
276. The Wicker Man
275. The Lost Boys
274. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
273. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
272. The Little Mermaid
271. Network
270. Blue Velvet
269. M
268. Dirty Harry
267. Avengers: Age Of Ultron
266. The English Patient
265. Rio Bravo
264. Labyrinth
263. Paddington
262. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
261. Mad Max II: The Road Warrior
260. Blazing Saddles
259. Atonement
258. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
257. South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
256. Eyes Wide Shut
255. Wake In Fright
254. The Wild Bunch
253. The Hunger Games
252. Scream
251. Metropolis
250. Home Alone
249. District Nine
248. The Red Shoes
247. The Graduate
246. The Warriors
245. Romper Stomper
244. Dumb & Dumber
243. Gallipoli
242. Iron Man III
241. The Crow
240. JFK
239. Iron Man
238. Moonrise Kingdom
237. The Rules Of The Game
236. Akira
235. Casino
234. All About Eve
233. Before Sunrise
232. Zodiac
231. Tokyo Story
230. The Untouchables
229. Grosse Point Blank
228. Finding Nemo
227. The Tree Of Life
226. Dances With Wolves
225. Black Swan
224. Interstellar
223. Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone
222. Brokeback Mountain
221. Goldfinger
220. The Maltese Falcon
219. The Sting
218. The Incredibles
217. On The Waterfront
216. My Neighbour Totoro
215. Suspiria
214. The Seventh Seal
213. Full Metal Jacket
212. Cool Hand Luke
211. Rushmore
210. Miller's Crossing
209. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
208. Moon
207. Life Is Beautiful
206. Planet Of The Apes
205. Let The Right One In
204. Les Miserables
203. Princess Mononoke
202. Little Miss Sunshine
201. Platoon
200. Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
199. The Lives Of Others
198. The Fountain
197. Synecdoche, New York
196. An American Werewolf In London
195. 8½
194. The Sound Of Music
193. Point Break
192. Grease
191. Field Of Dreams
190. Kick-Ass
189. Sunset Boulevard
188. Star Trek
187. City Lights
186. Top Gun
185. The Fifth Element
184. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
183. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
182. Sin City
181. The Great Escape
180. Silver Linings Playbook
179. Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom
178. Dazed & Confused
177. Downfall
176. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
175. Dr Strangelove
174. Braveheart
173. Boyhood
172. The Searchers
171. The Raid
170. Edward Scissorhands
169. Clerks
168. The Last Of The Mohicans
167. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
166. Guardians Of The Galaxy
165. The Deer Hunter
164. The Thin Red Line
163. Her
162. Shaun Of The Dead
161. A Matter Of Life & Death
160. Casino Royale
159. Frozen
158. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
157. Beauty & The Beast
156. American Psycho
155. Airplane!
154. American History X
153. Watchmen
152. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows II
151. When Harry Met Sally
150. Unforgiven
149. Cinema Paradiso
148. The Social Network
147. Toy Story III
146. Whiplash
145. The Castle
144. Children Of Men
143. Dawn Of The Dead
142. Zulu
141. The Goonies
140. Scarface
139. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
138. Batman Begins
137. Amadeus
136. The Exorcist
135. The Royal Tenenbaums
134. Wall-E
133. Halloween
132. To Kill A Mockingbird
131. Boogie Nights
130. In Bruges
129. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
128. Dirty Dancing
127. Breathless
126. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
125. Annie Hall
124. Robocop
123. The Wizard Of Oz
122. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
121. Superman: The Movie
120. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
119. Twelve Years A Slave
118. Chinatown
117. Good Will Hunting
116. Requiem For A Dream
115. The Princess Bride
114. Groundhog Day
113. The French Connection
112. Evil Dead II
111. Up
110. Avatar
109. The Green Mile
108. Predator
107. The Terminator
106. Brazil
105. The Master
104. The Apartment
103. The Truman Show
102. Once Upon A Time In America
101. Mulholland Drive
100. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
99. The Blues Brothers
98. No Country For Old Men
97. Almost Famous
96. Singin' In The Rain
95. Rocky
94. Kill Bill I
93. Fargo
92. Withnail & I
91. True Romance
90. Birdman
89. Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
88. City Of God
87. The 400 Blows
86. Django Unchained
85. The Wolf Of Wall Street
84. Donnie Darko
83. North By Northwest
82. Spirited Away
81. Inglourious Basterds
80. Some Like It Hot
79. LA Confidential
78. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
77. The Third Man
76. Saving Private Ryan
75. Reservoir Dogs
74. Stand By Me
73. Lost In Translation
72. Mad Max: Fury Road
71. Rear Window
70. Psycho
69. Raging Bull
68. Amelie
67. The Silence Of The Lambs
66. The Lion King
65. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
64. The Thing
63. Ghostbusters
62. Titanic
61. OldBoy
60. Trainspotting
59. Memento
58. Toy Story
57. Seven Samurai
56. Leon
55. The Departed
54. A Clockwork Orange
53. The Shining
52. Gone With The Wind
51. Twelve Angry Men
50. Pan's Labyrinth
49. Drive
48. Magnolia
47. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
46. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
45. Skyfall
44. Taxi Driver
43. Vertigo
42. Once Upon A Time In The West
41. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
40. It's A Wonderful Life
39. Die Hard
38. The Breakfast Club
37. Seven
36. Heat
35. Gravity
34. Forrest Gump
33. Citizen Kane
32. The Usual Suspects
31. Lawrence Of Arabia
30. American Beauty
29. There Will Be Blood
28. Terminator II: Judgment Day
27. Gladiator
26. Casablanca
25. Schindler's List
24. The Big Lebowski
23. The Matrix
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey
21. Alien
20. Apocalypse Now
19. Aliens
18. Jurassic Park
17. Back To The Future
16. The Avengers
15. The Godfather II
14. Fight Club
13. GoodFellas
12. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
11. Blade Runner
10. Inception
9. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
8. Jaws
7. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
6. Star Wars: IV: A New Hope
5. Pulp Fiction
4. The Shawshank Redemption
3. The Dark Knight
2. The Godfather
1. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

[Some films in the list share their titles with other films or remakes. Note that Some Like It Hot is the Billy Wilder film, Psycho is the original version, Titanic is the James Cameron version, Beauty & The Beast is the Disney version, Casino Royale is the Martin Campbell version, Scarface is the Brian de Palma version, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler version, The Avengers is the Joss Whedon version, Les Miserables is the Tom Hooper version, and The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version.]

11 July 2015

GQ

GQ
The British edition of GQ magazine is facing a potential fine for contempt of court, in relation to an article it published last April. The article, The Court Without A King by Michael Wolff, was an analysis of the trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who were both charged with phone-hacking.

Wolff, author of an excellent Rupert Murdoch biography, implicated Murdoch in phone-hacking and claimed that News International was funding the defendants' legal costs: "The more guilt that might be ascribed to him, the less for the defendants. That might logically have been a defence ploy: to make the defendants victims of the far-off monster... Also, not incidentally, Murdoch is paying for much of this grand defence, by some estimates the most costly in British legal history."

During the trial, the judge referred the article to the attorney general, who has now recommended that the magazine should be prosecuted for contempt of court. GQ has contested the charge, though it has deleted the article (and all references to it) from its digital archive.

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MoMA Masterpieces

MoMA Masterpieces
MoMA Masterpieces: Painting & Sculpture is a catalogue highlighting some of the most significant works from the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Each piece is illustrated in a full-page colour plate; there is a general introduction, though there is no individual analysis of the selected artworks. Author Ann Temkin has been MoMA's chief curator of painting and sculpture since 2008. MoMA Masterpieces, published in the UK by Thames & Hudson, is also available in a US edition published by MoMA itself, titled Painting And Sculpture At The Museum Of Modern Art.

MoMA is the world's greatest museum of modern art and design, home to masterpieces such as Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon and van Gogh's Starry Night. The Museum's first director, Alfred H Barr, designed a flowchart tracing the history of modern art; Barr and the Museum largely defined the narrative of Modernism in America, as Temkin discusses in her introduction: "the taste of Barr and his colleagues was often far ahead of the public's. The Museum was founded as an educational institution and took as its mission the conversion of skeptics into believers." This was achieved with comprehensive exhibitions such as The International Style, The Art Of Assemblage, and The History Of Photography.

09 July 2015

East Meets West

East Meets West
East Meets West
Yang Liu's series of pictograms, East Meets West, has been published by Taschen. Each pair of pictograms illustrates a difference between Eastern (specifically Chinese) and Western cultures, expressed as a binary opposite. 

East Meets West was first published in Germany, as Ost Trifft West; Taschen's bilingual edition contains text in both English and Chinese. The author's intention is to "help other people avoid some of the stumbling blocks to communication between cultures".

02 July 2015

Resizing Month

Jam
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Bangkok's Jam Cafe is hosting a Resizing season this month, as part of its regular Cult Movie Night event. The season features films in which characters change size, including the most famous example, The Incredible Shrinking Man. This existential exploitation film, directed by Jack Arnold, will be screened on 8th July.

The Incredible Shrinking Man is Jack Arnold's greatest film, a pulp masterpiece and a science-fiction classic. Arnold made a handful of other sci-fi films in the 1950s, including Creature From The Black Lagoon, Tarantula, and It Came From Outer Space. He also directed The Mouse That Roared, in which Peter Sellers played three different characters (as he would a few years later, in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove).

Jam Cafe organised a Banned Month season earlier this year. Their previous seasons have included Doppelganger Month, American Independent Month, Anime Month, 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.

01 July 2015

Zunar

One Funny Malaysia
Cartoon-O-Phobia
Ros In Kangkong Land
Perak Darul Kartun
Gedung Kartun
Isu Dalam Kartun
Komplot Penjarakan Anwar
Pirates Of The Carry-BN
Books and magazines by cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque (known as Zunar) are banned in Malaysia on a regular basis. On 28th January, police confiscated copies of his books Pirates Of The Carry-BN and Komplot Penjarakan Anwar. Most recently, copies of his book Ros In Kangkong Land were seized on Valentine's Day this year.

Copies of Cartoon-O-Phobia were seized in 2011. One Funny Malaysia and Perak Darul Kartun were banned in 2010, though the ban was overturned on appeal last year. Copies of Zunar's comic magazines Isu Dalam Kartun and Gedung Kartun were also banned in 2010.

25 June 2015

American Neo-Noir

American Neo-Noir
American Neo-Noir: The Movie Never Ends, by Alain Silver and James Ursini, is a survey of the neo-noir sub-genre, from the 1960s onwards. The term 'neo-noir' was first coined by Todd Erickson; he is credited in the acknowledgements, though there are no footnotes or bibliography. Interestingly, although Silver and Ursini classify film noir as a style, they regard neo-noir as a genre: "film noir was never a genre but an American film movement that was defined by style as much as content... neo-noir is more genre than movement, a mimicking of the style and content of the classic period".

More than 500 films are discussed (listed in a comprehensive filmography), though the analysis of each film (even classics such as Chinatown) is limited to one or two paragraphs. Some very recent films are included (even some of this year's releases), and this immediacy may account for some of the typos and errors in the text. Co-writer Alain Silver also designed the book's layout, though he's a much better writer than a designer.

Silver and Ursini's Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference To The American Style included an extensive essay on neo-noir, and a truncated version appears in Film Noir: The Encyclopedia. Silver and Ursini have also co-authored Film Noir (edited by Paul Duncan), the Film Noir Reader series, and The Noir Style. They contributed to Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites, and recorded DVD commentaries for Call Northside 777, Boomerang!, and Panic In The Streets.

09 June 2015

Studies in the Horror Film
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, edited by Danel Olson, is the latest book in the Studies in the Horror Film series. Some chapters are reprints of previous articles (Kubrick interviewed by Michel Ciment, a 2009 Jack Nicholson interview from Empire magazine, and an extract from John Baxter's Kubrick biography), though there are also new interviews with members of the cast and crew.

The interviews were conducted by Olson, Justin Bozung, and Catriona McAvoy. The most revealing interviewees are those such as Joe Turkel and Emilio D'Alessandro, who have the longest associations with Kubrick. (In contrast, there are some superfluous interviews with extras.) McAvoy (who wrote an essay on The Shining in Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives) interviewed screenwriter Diane Johnson, and the chapter is illustrated with material from Johnson's archive.

The book includes several previously unpublished production photographs, supplied by Leon Vitali and Greg MacGillivray. Toy Story II co-director Lee Unkrich, one of The Shining's biggest fans, wrote the introduction. At 700 pages, it's certainly an extensive anthology of material on the making of the film. In fact, it's arguably a bit too long: a section reproducing fan-made posters is absolutely un-necessary, and should have been replaced with the alternative posters sketched by Saul Bass. There is no index.

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives
Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives is an anthology of essays on Kubrick's films, edited by Peter Kramer (author of books on Dr Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey), Tatjana Ljujic, and Richard Daniels. Unlike previous Kubrick anthologies, such as Depth Of Field and Stanley Kubrick: Essays On His Films & Legacy, New Perspectives is illustrated with items from the Stanley Kubrick Archive.

There are individual chapters on all of Kubrick's films from Paths Of Glory to Eyes Wide Shut. Previous books (the Kubrick exhibition catalogue, The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Napoleon, The Making Of Stanley Kubrick's 2001, We'll Meet Again) have also included documents from the Kubrick Archive, though fortunately there is no duplication of this material in New Perspectives.

The book begins with essays on Kubrick's career as a photographer and director in New York. Philippe Mather (author of Stanley Kubrick At Look Magazine) discusses the stylistic influence of Kubrick's photography on his early films. Peter Kramer examines Kubrick's independent films and the Harris-Kubrick production partnership; his essay title quotes from Kubrick's 1964 contract stipulation: "I must have complete total final annihilating artistic control". An essay by Nathan Abrams on Kubrick's Jewish identity is less revealing, and it excludes Kubrick's proposed Holocaust film Aryan Papers.

The most successful chapters utilise script drafts and notes to construct production histories of the films in question. Fiona Radford shows that Kubrick's proposed revisions to Spartacus were not always to the film's advantage: "Although some might believe that Spartacus would have been a better film if Kubrick had been in charge, this is not necessarily the case." Karyn Stuckey reveals that Martin Russ contributed to the Lolita script, and that the film's prologue was written by Kubrick alone: "the entire sequence is written in Kubrick's hand". Catriona McAvoy's essay on The Shining benefits from her interviews with several of Kubrick's collaborators. Lucy Scholes and Richard Martin compare various drafts of the Eyes Wide Shut script.

There are also fascinating accounts of changes that Kubrick made after production was completed. Daniel Biltereyst analyses the censorship of Lolita, based on correspondence between Kubrick and John Trevelyan from the BBFC archive. Mick Broderick uses daily continuity reports from Dr Strangelove "to reconstitute filmed sequences that failed to make the final cut", providing a detailed guide to shots and dialogue from the cutting-room floor. (Broderick was one of the few researchers - the others being Jon Ronson and Bernd Eichhorn - to examine Kubrick's archives in situ at Childwickbury.)

Richard Daniels, who runs the Kubrick Archive, writes about the publicity campaign for Paths Of Glory, revealing that Kubrick was less involved than expected. He demonstrates that marketing decisions were made by James Harris rather than Kubrick, and that press releases did not highlight Kubrick's role in the film's production (in contrast to Kubrick's earlier films, which were largely self-promoted, as Peter Kramer notes in his first chapter).

Pratap Rughani discusses the ethics of war reportage with reference to Full Metal Jacket, noting Kubrick's concern that a Vietnamese perspective (however tokenistic) was missing from the film: "There should be a Vietnamese character to summarize the V. position. We totally lack a V. point of view." Karen A Ritzenhoff writes about the film's pre-production, reproducing a letter from Kubrick about Beckton Gas Works; Kubrick's annotations show his obsession with detail: "Indent 8 spaces... also the spaces between each line at present are not equal."

In other chapters, Robert Poole writes about the evolution of the 'Dawn of Man' sequence in 2001 (covered in more depth in Moonwatcher's Memoir by Dan Richter), Regina Peldszus discusses Kubrick's collaboration with NASA on 2001 (including his letter to Roger Caras), and Tatjana Ljujic examines the paintings that influenced Barry Lyndon. Peter Kramer writes a chapter on A Clockwork Orange (the subject of one of his previous books). Maria Pramaggiore's chapter on Barry Lyndon was adapted from her book Making Time In Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, though this is not indicated.

There are a couple of minor mistakes. A caption on page 115 refers to "Stanly Kubrick" [sic], and a line is missing from page 118. A letter is described on page 330 as "hand-written in ink", though it was clearly typed, as demonstrated by the illustration on the preceding page.

29 May 2015

“Police are investigating and preparing to take criminal action...”


Chosun Media

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be charged under the lèse-majesté law after he told a South Korean newspaper that privy councellors were behind the 2006 coup against him, and implied that they were also responsible for the 2014 coup against his sister, Yingluck. A short video clip from the interview was shared widely on social media this week. A lèse-majesté charge was filed against him today on behalf of army chief Udomdej Sitabutr, on the basis that privy councellors are advisors to the King, and that Thaksin was therefore implicating the monarch in politics.

Thaksin’s regular and diplomatic passports were both revoked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 27th May, in a preemptive decision pending a police investigation into lèse-majesté, defamation of the Privy Council, and violation of the Computer Crime Act. According to a statement from the ministry: “Police are investigating and preparing to take criminal action against him”. (Thaksin did not upload the video clip online himself, making a Computer Crime conviction unlikely.)

Thaksin’s comments to The Chosun Daily (조선일보) on 21st May were similar to previous interviews he has given. On 20th April 2009, he told the Financial Times that the Privy Council plotted the 2006 coup, and he said the same thing to Tom Plate in Conversations with Thaksin. He has also publicly accused Prem Tinsulanonda, Privy Council leader at the time, of being the mastermind behind the coup.

27 May 2015

Artforum

Artforum
The April issue of Artforum magazine includes The Innocence Of The Image, an article by Nasser Rabbat analysing historical depictions of Mohammed and the Islamic taboo against his representation. Several paintings of Mohammed are featured, in which his face is not veiled. "The most awe-inspiring image of an episode from the life of the Prophet", a manuscript illumination from 1436, is reproduced as a full-page image.

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20 May 2015

Googled

Googled
"The world has been Googled." Ken Auletta begins his analysis of Google and its influence with a long list of the company's operations: "Google's software initiatives encroach on every media industry, from telephone to television to advertising to newspapers to magazines to book publishers to Hollywood studios to digital companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, or eBay." Aueletta's book, Googled: The End Of The World As We Know It, was published in 2009, before other profiles of web companies such as The Everything Store (Amazon), The Facebook Effect, and Hatching Twitter. (The 2010 paperback edition includes a new afterword.)

Far more than a search engine, Google is arguably a more powerful software company than Microsoft. Auletta interviewed co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, though they took some persuading: "After months of my kicking at the door, they opened it." And Auletta remains ambivalent about the company's ultimate impact: "I came away from two and a half years of reporting on Google believing that its leaders genuinely want to make the world a better place. But they are in business to make money. Making money is not a dirty goal; nor is it a philanthropic activity. Any company with Google's power needs to be scrutinized."

The Search

The Search
The Search: How Google & Its Rivals Rewrote The Rules Of Business & Transformed Our Culture examines the search engines that were developed in the 1990s to navigate the world wide web, and how Google became effectively the last search engine standing. Author John Battelle, one of the co-founders of Wired magazine, interviewed Google's co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

The first big name in search was not Google, but AltaVista, which had the largest index of web pages at that time: "AltaVista was the Google of its era. In 1996, it was arguably the best and most-loved brand on the Web. It presaged many of the current innovations and opportunities in search, from automatic language translation to audio and video search".

The Search was published in 2005 (with an updated paperback edition in 2006), before YouTube, Android, or Chrome, though Battelle predicted Google's continued diversification: "Google as phone company? As cable provider? As university? As eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, and Yahoo all rolled into one? It is conceivable; and that, in the end, is what makes the company - and search, the application that spawned it - so fascinating."

18 May 2015

Michelangelo: Complete Works

Michelangelo: Complete Works
Michelangelo: Complete Works
Michelangelo: Complete Works, written by Frank Zollner, Thomas Popper, and Christof Thoenes, is a catalogue raisonne of Michelangelo's paintings, sculptures, architecture, and drawings (including drawings whose attribution is unclear). Like Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings & Drawings, it was published by Taschen in an extra-large format, and has now been reprinted as a slightly smaller folio in a slipcase (which folds into a book stand.)

The new edition (translated from Michelangelo: Das Vollstandige Werk) has several revised prefaces, and its colour reproduction has been enhanced. Michelangelo's paintings look particularly stunning, and there are several fold-out pages of panels from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The accompanying text is extremely thorough; there is a detailed bibliography, and "the full breadth of the extensive literature is referenced and analysed" in every chapter. As the book was reissued last year, it doesn't include the two bronze panther sculptures attributed to Michelangelo earlier this year. (The Torment of St Anthony, attributed to Michelangelo in 2009, is also missing.) "This is the definitive work about Michelangelo for generations to come", according to the blurb, and that claim is probably justified.

Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519:
The Complete Paintings & Drawings

Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings & Drawings
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519: The Complete Paintings & Drawings, written by Frank Zollner and Johannes Nathan, has been republished by Taschen in a single-volume folio edition with a slipcase (which folds into a book stand). It was originally published in a slightly larger format, and subsequently reissued in two smaller volumes (The Complete Paintings and The Graphic Work, the latter also available separately and with the alternate title Sketches & Drawings).

The book's title is misleading, as its collection of 663 Leonardo drawings is incomplete, though the selection is still impressive. (It was also released with the alternate title Paintings, Sketches, & Drawings.) Most of the drawings are from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. The book (translated from Leonardo da Vinci: Samtliche, Gemalde, & Zeichnungen) also includes a catalogue raisonne of Leonardo's paintings and a new chapter on his codices.

14 May 2015

The 2nd Silent Film Festival In Thailand

The 2nd Silent Film Festival In Thailand
Blackmail
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
Man With A Movie Camera
After the successful inaugural Silent Film Festival last year, the 2nd Silent Film Festival In Thailand will take place next month. The Festival will open on 10th June in Bangkok, and will close on 17th June.

Last year's event included several films by Alfred Hitchcock, and his first sound film, Blackmail, will be screened this year (on 12th and 14th June). Blackmail was intended as a silent film, though during production Hitchcock was given the opportunity to add spoken dialogue. Because of actress Anny Ondra's Czech accent, her dialogue was spoken by Joan Barry while Ondra mouthed the words, a situation that was later parodied in Singin' In The Rain.

This year's Festival includes two of the greatest silent films ever made: The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (10th and 15th June) and Man With A Movie Camera (13th and 16th June). The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari is the Festival's opening film; it will be shown at Lido, as will Man With A Movie Camera, Blackmail, and six other films. The closing film will be screened at Scala. All screenings will include live piano accompaniment. All films will be screened as DCPs, except Man With A Movie Camera, which will be shown on blu-ray.

The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari, directed by Robert Weine, was the first German Expressionist film, and one of the earliest examples of avant-garde cinema. Caligari's painted scenery and stylised performances create a distorted and appropriately hallucinatory atmosphere. Dziga Vertov's equally experimental Man With A Movie Camera is a 'city symphony' documentary about everyday life in Moscow, using techniques such as split-screen, double-exposure, trick editing, stop-motion, and freeze-frames to constantly remind the audience of the camera's presence.

09 May 2015

Muhammad Cartoon Contest

Muhammad Cartoon Contest
Today's edition of the International New York Times features an editorial cartoon by Patrick Chappatte, commenting on the recent attack on the Muhammad Art Exhibit in Florida. The cartoon depicts sketches of Mohammed being judged by Pamela Geller and other members of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

One of the sketches shows Mohammed as a stick figure, as in a 2010 episode of South Park. This is Chappatte's third Mohammed cartoon. He previously drew Mohammed in a 2006 cartoon, after the Jyllands-Posten controversy; and in a 2012 cartoon, he drew a miniature reproduction of Charlie Hebdo's Mohammed caricatures.

07 May 2015

ASTV Manager Daily

สุขุมพันธุ์ระดมสาวพรหมจรรย์ปักตะไคร้ไล่ฝน
สุขุมพันธุ์ระดมสาวพรหมจรรย์ปักตะไคร้ไล่ฝน
Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the Governor of Bangkok, has brought a libel action against the ASTV Manager Daily newspaper following an article it printed in yesterday's edition. One of Sukhumbhand's staff filed a complaint on his behalf at a police station in Bangkok today. The article in question is from Manager's satirical Pjkkuan section, which contains parodies and fictitious news stories.

Headlined สุขุมพันธุ์ระดมสาวพรหมจรรย์ปักตะไคร้ไล่ฝน, the article claimed that Sukhumbhand had instructed virgin Bangkok women to plant lemongrass herbs, as this could prevent rain according to a Thai superstition. (Sukhumbhand was criticised in 2011 after Bangkok was affected by severe floods, and earlier this year he joked that anyone who wanted to avoid further flooding should move to live on a mountain.)

Manager is owned by Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of the PAD who organised street protests against Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006, intentionally provoking the military into staging a coup. Thaksin successfully sued Manager for libel in 2009, following its series of unsubstantiated articles about a 'Finland Plot', and Sondhi has been convicted of libelling Thaksin and his lawyer.

Sondhi has mysteriously avoided jail despite numerous prosecutions and convictions. He led illegal occupations of Government House and Suvarnabhumi airport in 2008, yet the case against him is still pending. In 2013, he was found guilty of lèse-majesté and sentenced to two years in prison; uniquely in a lèse-majesté case, he was granted bail and was not jailed despite the guilty verdict. In 2012, he was convicted after pleading guilty to a ฿1 billion bank fraud; he received a twenty-year sentence, though he served only eighteen days in jail before being released on bail.

06 May 2015

Vangardist


Vangardist

This month, two magazines, Audio Kultur and Vangardist, have both been printed with blood. Audio Kultur, a Lebanese music magazine, commemorated the centenary of the Medz Yeghern genocide in Armenia by infusing its red ink with the blood of five donors.

Vangardist’s third issue has been printed with red ink mixed with the blood of three HIV+ donors, in an effort to destigmatise the AIDS virus. (The ratio is one part blood to twenty-eight parts ink.) The magazine is available in a limited edition of 2,500 copies; each one is sealed in a Mylar wrapper (like Madonna’s Sex book), and the blood has been sterilised to prevent infection. The cover declares: “THIS MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PRINTED WITH THE BLOOD OF HIV+ PEOPLE”.

The art installation Happy Hour (1998) by Fernando Arias also used HIV+ blood to destigmatise AIDS; Arias placed the infected blood in a sealed cocktail glass. Also, Geoffrey Robertson wrote in his memoir The Justice Game (1998) that, as a director of the ICA, he cancelled an appearance by “an HIV-positive performance artist whose idea of attaining empathy with his audience was to splatter them with infected blood (his own).”

Audio Kultur

Audio Kultur
Audio Kultur
This month, two magazines have both been printed with blood. Lebanese music magazine Audio Kultur and Austrian gay magazine Vangardist used red ink infused with blood to print their current issues. The blood used to print Vangardist came from three HIV+ donors, in an attempt to destigmatise the AIDS virus.

Audio Kultur has used ink mixed with the blood of five donors to print its twelfth issue, commemorating the centenary of the Medz Yeghern genocide in Armenia. The back page lists those who "gave their blood for the printing of this magazine... literally." Fifty posters promoting an event marking the anniversary were also printed using the same mixture of ink and blood. (In 1972, Artist Carolee Schneemann's book Parts of a Body House included a piece of tissue paper stained with her menstural blood, titled Blood Work.)

04 May 2015

Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest

Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest
Two gunmen have been killed at an exhibition of Mohammed pictures in North Garland, Texas. The two men opened fire outside the Curtis Culwell Center, though they were both shot dead by police. The attack took place at the venue of the Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest, an event organised by the anti-Islamic American Freedom Defense Initiative, which included a presentation by Fitna director Geert Wilders.

This is the third attack related to Mohammed images this year: there was a shooting at a cafe in Copenhagen in February, and a dozen people, including several Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, were killed in Paris in January. The Jyllands-Posten caricatures of Mohammed, and Charlie Hebdo's first Mohammed cover, were reprinted by the French magazine L'Obs on 16th April.

PDF

01 May 2015

Peace TV

Peace Special
NBTC
NBTC
NBTC
Peace TV, a television station operated by the red-shirt UDD, had its broadcasting licence revoked by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission on Monday, after the NBTC accused it of broadcasting material likely to cause political conflict. Its signal was cut last night, and now only colour bars are being transmitted. Peace TV's licence had already been suspended for seven days on 10th April. The following day, another red-shirt station, TV24, also had its licence suspended for a week.

On Wednesday night, a group of soldiers and police officers raided Peace TV's offices, ordering it to stop transmitting the discussion programme Peace Special featuring former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. The authorities were seemingly unaware that Peace Special was a repeat, and that it had already been broadcast live that morning. (The programme's title originally appeared on screen as "Peace Spacial" [sic], though this was corrected after the first thirty minutes.)

24 April 2015

Bangsaen Rama

Bangsaen Rama
Boundary
A screening of Nontawat Numbenchapol's documentary Boundary has been cancelled after military intervention. Students at Burapha University in Chonburi had planned to show it today, as part of their Bangsaen Rama film festival, though they were contacted by the military and told to withdraw the film as it was considered too politically sensitive.