Online Museum that pays tribute to nine decades of design developments and innovations and commemorates the 90thth Anniversary of Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd).
Its a shame though that its built in flash and the site designers thought obscuring the bottom of the product shots with a shiny white bar was in some way cool. Still it's an interesting site to visit, if you enjoy gazing at retro innovations.
Sony has announced that "Rolly" will be available in selected European outlets this October. "Rolly" is Sony's unique palm-sized music entertainment player which spins and dances to the rhythm of music.
Toronto After Dark 2008 Festival Preview Trailer featuring scenes from the *first eight announced feature titles
* Repo! The Genetic Opera, Red , Let The Right One In , Idiots and Angels, Tokyo Gore Police, Mirageman, Trailer Park Of Terror , Who is KK Downey?
www.torontoafterdark.com
WOWBOW’s 'Mija' (Mee-Haa) is a range of stylish contemporary pet accessories. The beds are crafted from 10mm thick acrylic plus furnished with luxury faux suede cushions.
Created London-based designer plus dog owner Kim Bull got her design idea when she got sick of pooch beds emblazoned in predictable plaids otherwise tacky paw prints.
You can visit WowBow online at www.wowbow.co.uk and you can purchase the Mija range from the excellent www.pid.se
I love the vermicular undulating curves of this lounge chair by Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen for the Danish interior design company HAY.
Entitled “Blow”, the chair is made from polyurethan foam and is available in Grey, Army Green and Aubergine – one of my favourite colour palettes at the moment.
Available from PID
Troubled mathematical genius, Maximillian Cohen (Sean Gullette) is on the brink of what he believes could be a major discovery; a numerical key to formulate a pattern from seemingly random occurrences. His intention is to apply his findings to the stockmarket but some Jewish fanatics have other ideas.
Many people will by now be familiar with the work of talented director Darren Aronofsky via the stylised but honest drug film, Requiem for a Dream, which has gathered steady acclaim through word of mouth since its release in 2000. Less well known is his first feature length film, Pi, released 2 years earlier. Though less polished and well rounded than Requiem, Pi is an incredible first feature showing Aronofsky’s great talent for presenting an insular nightmare which is expanded to even greater effect in the later and better known film. At a mere 80 minutes and coming in on a borrowed budget of just $60,000, Pi won the Directors award at Sundance in the year of its release and heralded the move from promising student to world-renowned talent.
“When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so once when I was six I did.” So says Max as we see him unconscious on the floor with a bloody nose, the result of one of his frequent and debilitating migraines. It is unclear as to whether such brilliance was the cause of such brilliance but the relationship between nature and mathematics is one which fascinates our protagonist, believing as he does that everything in nature can be explained through numbers, that nothing is random.
Under the watchful supervision of mentor Sol (Mark Margolis) Max is on a mission to unlock a numerical key which he believes could help him crack the stockmarket. With an almost monstrous computer spread around the room, he obsessively eyes the figure of the market in line with his predictions. However, the content of his head is a much desired thing and he is pursued threateningly by Marcy Dawson (Pamela Hart) and not so threateningly, at least to begin with, by Lenny Meyer (Ben Shenkman,) each for their own ends. Marcy is similarly interested in the stockmarket angle but Lenny's need is devoutly based in his religious faith, Kabbalah.
Filmed in scratchy, grainy, high-contrast black and white with a drum and bass soundtrack and ominous score, Pi is audibly and visually like an intellectual nightmare, which is, in effect, just what it is. Though it has roots in the thriller genre as he is oppressively tracked by Marcy and increasingly so by Lenny, it is his inner turmoil, his agony and the weight of knowing something so huge that is really the subject of this film. It is his obsession with a 216 digit number which may ‘just be a number’ or may be the answer to literally everything; the stockmarket, computer ‘consciousness’ or, as Lenny believes, the name of God in numerical form. It is the latter which fuses perfectly the idea of nature and chaos as opposed to structured predictability as Max, a non-practicing Jew, is forced to reassess his ‘faith in chaos.’
With a fascinating and increasingly and frighteningly plausible plot, inspired and nightmarish visuals, Darren Aronofsky's glimpse into the psyche of a genious is both style and content.
A group of five criminals break into a warehouse at night and tie up the two watchmen so they can steal a truck load of laptop computers. Meanwhile the notorious head of an Albanian crime group is being transported to Strasburg on charges including the slavery and forced prostitution of young girls and women. When the security forces transporting him are ambushed and most are killed by members of his Albanian mob, the remaining members make a break for it and hold up in the same warehouse which is the scene of the heist. Surrounded by psychopathic gang members intent on freeing their boss those inside the warehouse must set aside their differences and unite if they are to have any chance at all of surviving the night.
The nest is the second feature film directed by Florent Emilio Siri who has since gone on to direct Bruce Willis in the Hollywood blockbuster Hostage. His first being Une minute de silence (Not a film I have seen) and he has also directed two of the video game series Splinter Cell based on Tom Clancy's characters. Making its French debut in 2002 hype has been slow building for this one, with the Internet playing as it often does a role in getting people to take notice. Thus it finally got its release in English speaking regions. Amongst the films ensemble cast the most recognisable face (To non French audiences anyway) is probably that of Samy Naceri who plays maniac behind the wheel Daniel in the highly successful Taxi series of movies and also stared in overlooked but enjoyable French gangster film La Mentale AKA The Code.
The French seem to have a knack for making these quality action films that match and in many cases surpass their Hollywood counterparts on a fraction of the budget. The Nest is basically an unofficial remake of John Carpenters Assault on Precinct 13 and before anyone starts I know that was a remake of Rio Bravo, but lets face it, Assault is the movie being remade / homaged / re-imagined or what ever the hell the current trendy phrase is for using some one else's ideas in your film. Now I have not seen the official Assault remake so I can’t really pass judgement although most people are of the opinion its crap (You can say crap when you’re just an Internet reviewer and not a paid scribe). Still I doubt the "Official" remake will touch this, as this is tonnes of fun something that seems to be lacking from mainstream Hollywood action films at the moment. The Nest looks great, is well lit, well edited, well shot and well directed. The actors all give top performances that suit this kind of flamboyant gun-play movie and nobody really hogs the limelight meaning this really works as an ensemble piece and not as is the current trend across the ocean as a star vehicle. Not a match in terms of cult grittiness for John Carpenters Assault on precinct 13, but then that was a film very much of it's time and budget, if this had been labelled as a remake it would however have been a worthy one. Different and fresh enough to be a great film in its own right but retaining some (not all) of the key elements that made that film such a classic.
The way the different characters interact is handled well as they try and put aside their differences to pursue the common goal of not being dead. The bonds between the criminals and the main three French security force members are well constructed with quick but well acted scenes highlighting certain friendships, which mean you believe they care about each other as the film progresses. At one point the two main male members of the heist gang hold hands and matching tattoos of north and south can be seen on there hands which a nice touch. The female roles are good here with actresses who while attractive do actually look as if they can kick some ass and so you are not asked to step outside of realty as some skinny bimbo beats down tough male opponents. The warehouse location for what is basically a siege movie is used to its full effect as the Albanians move ever closer the more claustrophobic the space becomes and the more foreboding it seems. The gang members all where light intensifying masks which give them the look of wasps (the film starts with a wasp documentary on TV). This is a great idea making them a faceless enemy that just like wasps attack without fear and in large numbers. The Albanian Boss is suitably played and is a convincing piece of work and in effect becomes the wasps queen which they seek to defend. The fact that the cops look at pictures of the women his organisation held as prostitutes who have numbers branded on their backs like cattle certainly adds to the menace of the main bad guy.
Packed with great scenes, excellent characters, big guns and wave after wave of deadly wasp looking Albanian mobsters to be gunned down The Nest is a great example of quality French action cinema.
The Waters Edge Development is set at the heart of the Cotswold water park. Each of the homes offer completely unobstructed views from the large decks built directly over the lake.
The houses take cues from continental modernism, something still rare in the UK, with its stringent planning regulations (which somehow stop innovation under the pretext of making things in-keeping with the area, but allow the larger developers to fill the country with horrific mock Tudor and Georgian pastiche, built from plans that have probably been lying around since the late 70's)
The Cotswold Water Park is Britain's largest wetland nature reserve (It is man-made however, the lakes being former quarries)
While I personally think it is slightly disheartening that these are "second" homes, it's great to see contemporary house design being deployed on a slightly larger scale in the UK. One would hope this will help the case for individuals, architects and developers looking to build contemporary homes for family residence throughout the nation.
You can visit the developments website online at www.watersedgecotswold.com
Bookmark: 
Subscribe: