Art Videos: Vincent Van Gogh’s Route Crossing Europe (1853-1890)

Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam logoVincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is one of the world’s most loved artists. His paintings, drawings and letters inspire people of all ages. His work can be admired in numerous museums around the world. Many places where the artist lived and worked can be visited, from the Netherlands to the South of France. About 25 organisations and museums in the Netherlands, Belgium and France have joined forces under the name Van Gogh Europe. Together they are actively engaged in maintaining and promoting Van Gogh’s heritage.

Van Gogh Museum

Photography & Art: “Surrealist Lee Miller” Was “Caustically Brilliant”

Surrealist Lee Miller by Antony Penrose Lee Miller Archives Farley House and Gallery Publisher 2020The Surrealist eye informed everything Miller did, and her work presents the world in a way that encourages us to view it in a different manner. Written and collected by her son Antony, Surrealist Lee Miller amasses more than one hundred full-page images from throughout the artist’s life as an attestation to her wonderful way of seeing.

A Surrealist before she even knew of the movement, Lee Miller was one of the most original photographic artists of the twentieth century. David E. Scherman, LIFE photographer and Miller’s close friend, described her as “caustically brilliant, yet totally loyal, unpretentious, human and intolerant of sham.

She was a consummate artist and a consummate clown; at once an upstate New York hick and cosmopolitan grande dame; a cold, soignée fashion model and a hoyden. . . . She was the nearest thing I knew to a mid-20th century renaissance woman.”

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New American Cars: “2020 Corvette C8”, Mid-Engine With Retractable Hardtop

From a New York Times online article:

The 2020 Corvette Stingray has moved its engine behind the driver and passenger, adopting the physics-approved layout that brought Ferdinand Porsche his first racing successes in the 1930s. Today, this approach is associated with money-torching supercars from Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren.

The long-awaited “mid-engine” Corvette easily outruns its formidable predecessor, as I learned during a time-warping desert drive near Tortilla Flat, Ariz. The eighth-generation “C8” Corvette is earning rapturous reviews and dominating industry awards, as a car that can take on European exotics that cost $200,000 and more, but at a $59,995 base price that reads like a misprint.

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Top New Art Books: “Wayne Thiebaud – Mountains 1965 – 2019” (Rizolli)

Wayne Thiebaud Mountains 1965 - 2019 Rizolli Book January 2020In the 2000s, California-based painter Wayne Thiebaud began focusing on a series of mountain paintings, a subject he had first addressed in the 1960s and 1970s. Rendered in his signature confectionary palette, these colorful works combine memories of mountains he had seen in childhood and observations of the summits of the Sierra Nevada Range in Yosemite. With their heroic, exaggerated proportions and unusual perspectives, these paintings seem to combine fiction and reality. Conveying a sense of the sublime and the vast magnitude of our surroundings, they draw upon the history of landscape painting of the American West.

About The Author

Michael M. Thomas is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and former investment partner of Lehman Brothers. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Margaretta Lovell is professor of American Art at UC Berkeley.

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Travel & Food: “Bellevue” Area Of Zurich Is Home Of Legendary “Kronenhalle Restaurant” (Podcast)

In 1924, Hulda and Gottlieb Zumsteg took over the erstwhile “Hôtel de la Couronne” on Rämistrasse 4, at the corner of Bellevue in Zurich. They reopened as the Restaurant Kronenhalle. Under the skilled management of restaurateur Hulda Zumsteg it soon became the meeting point of writers and artists.

Restaurant Kronenhalle Zurch MenuThe restaurant became popular with the local establishment and names such as Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, James Joyce, Richard Strauss, Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt also graced the guest list. The Kronenhalle owes as much to its renowned guests as to Gustav Zumsteg, Hulda’s son, who followed in his mother’s footsteps, while putting his own inimitable stamp on it. His passion for art contributed to the Kronenhalle’s considerable prominence. Since 2005, his estate is being administered by the Hulda und Gustav Zumsteg foundation according to his last will.

Kronenhalle website

Urban Trends: “Avant2Go” Electric Car Sharing In Slovenia (Podcast)

From the Avant2Go.com website:

Monocle 24 The Urbanist Podcast logoAvant2Go car sharing is an effective way to cut and manage your mobility expenses. Find an available car and reserve it using the Avant2Go mobile app. The first reservation (15 min) is free. Use the app to end your rental and settle the final cost. The rental price includes car registration, insurance, fuel*, running costs, vignette, loss of value, free parking at Avant2Go spots and more.

 

  •   Pay only for when you actually use the vehicle.Avant2Go Electric Car Sharing Slovenia
  •    Electricity and insurance are already included.
  •    In your neighbourhood and city, driving to the airport …
  •    State-of-the-art electric vehicles for any rental period.
  •    No vehicle ownership or running costs.
  •    A mobile app for using the service.

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New Studies: Beneficial Effects Of “18-Hour Intermittent Fasting” On Health And Aging (NEJM)

From a New England Journal of Medicine online release:

In humans, intermittent-fasting interventions ameliorate obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and inflammation. Intermittent fasting seems to confer health benefits to a greater extent than can be attributed just to a reduction in caloric intake.

Evidence is accumulating that eating in a 6-hour period and fasting for 18 hours can trigger a metabolic switch from glucose-based to ketone-based energy, with increased stress resistance, increased longevity, and a decreased incidence of diseases, including cancer and obesity.

The New England Journal of Medicine Logo

Preclinical studies and clinical trials have shown that intermittent fasting has broad-spectrum benefits for many health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and neurologic disorders. Animal models show that intermittent fasting improves health throughout the life span, whereas clinical studies have mainly involved relatively short-term interventions, over a period of months.

Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease New England Journal of Medicine December 26 2019

BOOMERS-DAILY.COM “18-HOUR INTERMITTENT FASTING DIET” STUDY

How much of the benefit of intermittent fasting is due to metabolic switching and how much is due to weight loss? Many studies have indicated that several of the benefits of intermittent fasting are dissociated from its effects on weight loss. These benefits include improvements in glucose regulation, blood pressure, and heart rate; the efficacy of endurance training; and abdominal fat loss.

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Health Research: Type 2 Diabetes Caused By “Overflow Of Fat” From Liver To Pancreas

From a Newcastle University news release:

“When fat cannot be safely stored under the skin, it is then stored inside the liver, and over-spills to the rest of the body including the pancreas. This ‘clogs up’ the pancreas, switching off the genes which direct how insulin should effectively be produced, and this causes Type 2 diabetes.”

Newcastle Clinical ResearchThis latest paper builds on previous Newcastle studies supported by Diabetes UK showing exactly why Type 2 diabetes can be reversed back to normal glucose control. Those studies led to the large DiRECT trial which showed that Primary Care staff can achieve remission of Type 2 diabetes by using a low calorie diet with support to maintain the weight loss.

A quarter of participants achieved a staggering 15 kg or more weight loss, and of these, almost nine out of 10 people put their Type 2 diabetes into remission. After two years, more than one third of the group had been free of diabetes and off all diabetes medication for at least two years.

In 2020, this approach to management of short duration Type 2 diabetes is to be piloted in the NHS in up to 5,000 people across England, and a similar programme is being rolled out in Scotland.

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Classic Cars: “1965 Corvette L76 Stingray”

From Wikipedia:

1965 Chevrolet Corvette L76 Stingray interiorFor its third season, the 1965 Corvette Sting Ray further cleaned up style-wise and was muscled up with the addition of an all-new braking system and larger powerplants. 1965 styling alterations were subtle, confined to a smoothed-out hood now devoid of scoop indentations, a trio of working vertical exhaust vents in the front fenders that replaced the previous nonfunctional horizontal “speedlines,” restyled wheel covers and rocker-panel moldings, and minor interior trim revisions. The 1965 Corvette Sting Ray became ferocious with the mid-year debut of the “Big-Block” 396 cu in (6,490 cc) engine producing 425 hp (317 kW).

Ultimately, this spelled the end for the Rochester fuel injection system, as the carbureted 396ci/425hp option cost $292.70 to the fuel injected 327ci/375hp’s $538.00. Few buyers could justify $245 more for 50 hp (37 kW) less, even if the FI cars offered optional bigger brakes not available on carbureted models.[18] After only 771 fuel injected cars were built in 1965, Chevrolet discontinued the option. It would be 18 years until it returned.

Classic Driver logo1965 also added another 350 hp small block engine (Option L79) which used hydraulic rather than solid lifters, a milder camshaft and a modestly redesigned smaller oil pan.[19] Otherwise, the 350 hp engine was cosmetically and mechanically identical to the 365 hp engine (Option L76) solid lifter engine. The smaller oil pan allowed this high output small block 350hp engine to be ordered with optional Power Steering for the first time amongst the optional stable of higher output small block engines. Power steering was previously only available with the lower 250 hp and 300 hp engines.

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