Category Archives: Reviews

Collectors Books: “Watches – A Guide by Hodinkee” (Assouline)

Watches A Guide by Hodinkee Assouline book December 2019For our debut, we wanted to do something that would appeal to anyone and everyone who has the slightest interest in watches. Whether you are new to the game or have been scouring flea markets since you could walk, we want you to be able to pick up this book and gain a greater understanding of watches and all they have to offer.

So we broke it down into nine chapters: “A Brief History of Time,” “Chronographs,” “The Dive Watch,” “Travel Time,” “Military Watches,” “High Complications,” “Women and Watches,” “Dress Watches,” and “Icons.” Each chapter was written by one of our editors: Benjamin Clymer, Cara Barrett, Cole Pennington, Jack Forster, James Stacey, Jason Heaton, Jonathan Bues, and Stephen Pulvirent, with a foreword by Mr. Joe Thompson.

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Classic Movies: “M*A*S*H” Celebrates 50 Years Since Release In January 1970

MASH (stylized on-screen as M*A*S*H) is a 1970 American black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner Jr., based on Richard MASH Movie Poster Release Date January 1970Hooker’s novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The picture is the only theatrically released feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise, and it became one of the biggest films of the early 1970s for 20th Century Fox.

The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. It stars Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, and Elliott Gould, with Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and in his film debut, professional football player Fred Williamson. Although the Korean War is the film’s storyline setting, the subtext is the Vietnam War — a current event at the time the film was made.[1]

The film won Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, later named Palme d’Or, at 1970 Cannes Film Festival. The film went on to receive five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay. MASH was deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The Academy Film Archive preserved MASH in 2000.[2] The film inspired the television series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to 1983.

From Wikipedia

New Books: “The Making Of Poetry – Coleridge, The Wordsworths And Their Year Of Marvels”

The Making of Poetry Coleridge, The Wordsworth and Their Year of Marvels Adam Nicolson 2020 US ReleaseIn The Making of Poetry, Adam Nicolson embeds himself in the reality of this unique moment, exploring the idea that these poems came from this particular place and time, and that only by experiencing the physical circumstances of the year, in all weathers and all seasons, at night and at dawn, in sunlit reverie and moonlit walks, can the genesis of the poetry start to be understood.

June 1797 to September 1798 is the most famous year in English poetry. Out of it came Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and “Kubla Khan,” as well as his unmatched hymns to friendship and fatherhood, and William Wordsworth’s revolutionary songs in Lyrical Ballads along with “Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth’s paean to the unity of soul and cosmos, love and understanding.

Excerpt from The Prelude by Wordsworth and Coleridge

The poetry Wordsworth and Coleridge made was not from settled conclusions but from the adventure on which they embarked, thinking of poetry as a challenge to all received ideas, stripping away the dead matter, looking to shed consciousness and so change the world. What emerges is a portrait of these great figures seen not as literary monuments but as young men, troubled, ambitious, dreaming of a vision of wholeness, knowing they had greatness in them but still in urgent search of the paths toward it.

The artist Tom Hammick accompanied Nicolson for much of the year, making woodcuts from the fallen timber in the park at Alfoxden where the Wordsworths lived. Interspersed throughout the book, his images bridge the centuries, depicting lives at the source of our modern sensibility: a psychic landscape of doubt and possibility, full of beauty and thick with desire for a kind of connectedness that seems permanently at hand and yet always out of reach.

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Profiles: The Minimalist Aesthetic Of London Architect John Pawson

From a The Modern House online article:

“Simplicity in architecture can sometimes only be achieved by the most complex of means.”

John Pawson Anatomy of Minimum PHAIDON Publishing 2019British architectural designer John Pawson has, in a career spanning over three decades, created an inimitable body of work characterized by its distillment of the fundamental ingredients of architecture into their most elemental, elegant expressions.

His design practice, which began primarily with residential commissions, now extends to churches, museums, ballet sets, textiles, kitchenware and furniture. Despite his minimalistArchitect John Pawson approach, Pawson is sensitive to the intimate rituals of daily life and his buildings are far from austere: instead, they elegantly make the case for the clarity and freedom to be found in the act of reduction.

In a new book published by Phaidon, writer Alison Morris explores Pawson’s most recent projects, shedding light on his working process and influences accompanied by stunning photographs, drawings and imagery from his personal journal.

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Fine Art: Magic Realism In The Work Of Dutch Painter Carel Willink

Sotheby's LogoCarel Willink was a pioneer of Magic Realism, an avant-garde movement of Dutch modernism closely associated with Surrealism. In this episode of Anatomy of an Artwork, discover how a visit to Italy’s Bomarzo Gardens following the death of his wife inspired a series of paintings featuring monsters, see how Willink drew further inspiration from dream-like images and illusions, and learn how his near-photographic style exudes a sense of mystery and enchantment.

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Camper Trends: “Beauer X-Van” Telescopes To Larger Size With Push Of A Button

From a New Atlas online article:

French company Beauer has earned a lot of attention over the years for telescoping teardrop caravans that grow double or triple their size at the push of a button. Now the company’s bringing its tech to van life, launching a plug-and-play module that grows to create a large camper at camp and a smaller, nimbler van on the road. The X-Van installs in 10 minutes and extends the length of the van to add comfy sleeping quarters for two, giving a mid-size van the length of a full-size model.

2020-Beauer-X-van-00

After popping the tailgate, the owner merely hits a button on the pillar next to the driver seat and watches as the electrically actuated module sets up within a minute’s time. The only thing left to do is pop the expansion panels on the module’s sides to increase elbow room inside. The 25-mm sandwich construction keeps the temperature comfy inside.

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Air Travel History: Pan Am Celebrates 50 Years Since First 747 Flight (Jan 1970)

On January 15, 1970, First Lady of the United States Pat Nixon christened Pan Am’s first 747, at Dulles International Airport (later Washington Dulles International Airport) in the presence of Pan Am chairman Najeeb Halaby. Instead of champagne, red, white, and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft. 

The 747 entered service on January 22, 1970, on Pan Am’s New York–London route; the flight had been planned for the evening of January 21, but engineoverheating made the original aircraft unusable. Finding a substitute delayed the flight by more than six hours to the following day when Clipper Victor was used.

Pan Am History Website

Pan Am 747 First Flights January 1970

From Wikipedia

 

American Classics: “1949 Cadillac Series 62”

1949 Cadillac Series 62 Interior Classic DriverThe Cadillac Series 62 is a series of cars which was produced by Cadillac from 1940 through 1964. Originally designed to replace the entry level Series 65, it became the Cadillac Series 6200 in 1959, and remained that until it was renamed to Cadillac Calais for the 1965 model year. The Series 62 was also marketed as the Sixty-Two  and the Series Sixty-Two.

The Cadillac Series 62 Coupe de Ville was introduced late in the 1949 model year. Along with the Buick Roadmaster Riviera, and the Oldsmobile 98 Holiday, it was among the first pillarless hardtop coupes ever produced.mAt $3,496 it was only a dollar less than the Series 62 convertible, and like the convertible, it came with power windows standard. It was luxuriously trimmed, with leather upholstery and chrome ‘bows’ in the headliner to simulate the ribs of a convertible top.

55,643 Series 62 Cadillacs were produced in 1949 out of a total volume of 92,554 vehicles.

From Wikipedia

View photos at Classic Driver

New Museum Exhibitions: “Van Eyck – An Optical Revolution” At MSK Ghent

Worldwide, only approximately twenty works by Van Eyck have been preserved. Quite exceptionally, over half of these will travel to Ghent in 2020 for the exhibition ‘Van Eyck. An optical revolution’ at the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK). In what promises to be an unmissable, tour de force of an exhibition, the world of Van Eyck and his revolutionary gaze will be brought to life like never before.

Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon, c. 1428-30 (Muzeul National Brukenthal, Sibiu, Romania)
Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon, c. 1428-30 (Muzeul National Brukenthal, Sibiu, Romania)

The pinnacle of Late Medieval art
Van Eyck distinguished himself from his peers and triggered an optical revolution. With his matchless technique, scientific knowledge and unrivalled observational skills, he elevated oil painting to unprecedented heights and determined the future course of Western art. Never before had a painter made reality so tangible: all that seems to be missing from his portraits is his subjects’ breath, while his landscapes reveal the world in all its facets. Van Eyck trained his eye on the tiniest details before casting it wide again to create unforgettable panoramas.

His masterpiece, ‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ (1432, St Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent), bears witness to all three of these qualities. The restoration of the outer wings of the altarpiece will play a central role in the exhibition. Undertaken by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK), the project commenced at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent in 2012. Visitors will have the opportunity to get close to the work and admire the spectacular results.

 

MSK Kent LogoIn dialogue with Van Eyck’s contemporaries
In order to contextualise Van Eyck’s optical revolution, his paintings will be shown alongside works by his most talented contemporaries from Germany, France, Italy and Spain. These artists also moved in exalted circles and received prestigious commissions. The exhibition focuses on the artistic similarities and differences between their works, thus delving deeper into the historical context in which they were created.

‘Van Eyck. An optical revolution’ unravels the myths about the artist and considers his technique, his oeuvre and his influence from a fresh perspective. This exhibition will awaken a sense of wonder among visitors, comparable to that which people would have felt when they saw his works for the first time: a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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Italian Cars: “1952 Siata Daina Farina Cabriolet”

1952 Siata Daina Farina Cabriolet Classic DriverThe Siata Daina is an Italian car produced by Siata from 1950-1958. The Daina was available as a coupé or a convertible and had custom bodies by Stabilimenti Farina, Bertone and other coach builders.

From 1950 to 1958 there were approximately 50 Daina Series cars produced. However, only a few of the Series were produced after 1953. About 20 Daina Sport (coupes) are thought to have been built, only six are known to exist today. A cabriolet version called the Gran Sport comprised most of the Daina Series cars. The Gran Sport had a steel body with an aluminum hood designed by Stabilimenti Farina (3 all aluminum bodied Gran Sports 1952 Siata Daina Farina Cabriolet trunk Classic Driverwere made as well) but when they closed in 1953, Bertone took over production with a coupe model of their own design called the “Sport”.

The most well known Dainas were the Gran Sport (convertible) versions used in racing, with many calling it the “little Ferrari”. The car was built to take part in the International Grand Prix and the Mille Miglia. The Daina’s most notable finish was at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1952 when Dick Irish and Bob Fergus piloted a 1,500 cc Daina Gran Sport to first in class and third overall.

Read more at Wikipedia