Category Archives: Reviews

Top New Camper Vans: “2020 Storyteller Overland Mode 4X4”

The all new MODE 4×4™ is built on the rugged Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 144 4×4 platform. Authentically designed with daily drivers, weekend warriors, full time vanlifers, and long-range overlanders in mind… with an infinitely adaptive floor plan.

The MODE 4×4™ is equipped with a forward thinking, user friendly feature set that includes the industry first LiveFree™ OTG sustainable, automotive grade energy management system (powered by Volta).

With this 12kw clean energy lithium battery system you will have all the power you need to enjoy life on the road and off the grid without the noise, inconvenience, and fumes that accompany the fossil fuel generator setups of traditional RVs.

Website

Future Of Housing: Kajstaden Tall Timber Building In Sweden By C.F. Møller Architects (2019)

Kajstaden Tall Timber Building C.F. Møller Architects 2019The Tall Timber Building residence has become a landmark and, during construction, became Sweden’s tallest solid wooden building in the new district of Kajstaden at Lake Mälaren in Västerås. All parts of the building consist of cross-laminated wood, which includes the walls, joists and balconies as well as the lift and stairwell shafts.

Kajstaden – Tall Timber Building is an important landmark for sustainable construction and a reference project that shows that conversion to climate conscious architecture is possible. Through research projects and several active wood projects, C.F. Møller Architects has focused on innovation as well as developing and implementing multi-storey buildings with solid wood frames. In Kajstaden, an active decision was made to prioritise industrial timber techniques for the building material to influence and take responsibility for the impact of the construction industry on the environment and climate change. A crucial advantage of wood, unlike other building materials, is that the production chain for the material produces a limited amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, it is part of a closed cycle, where carbon is retained in the frame of the building.

Kajstaden Tall Timber Building C.F. Møller Architects Diagram 2019

Research also shows that buildings with a wooden frame make a positive contribution to human health and well-being- thanks to better air quality and acoustic qualities.

Website

New Champagne Bars: “The Riddler” In New York City

The Riddler Champagne Bar Outside New York CityA restaurant funded solely by female investors, The Riddler is a New York City champagne bar from owner Jen Pelka.

The Riddler is a Champagne bar with locations in the heart of New York’s West Village and San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. We have over 150 Champagnes by the bottle and dozens of sparkling wines by the glass to choose from: old and new, traditional classics and unusual discoveries, by the glass and by the bottle (or magnum or 9L). At the center of each space is an old wooden backbar that we’ve lined with a collection of vintage Champagne buckets and glassware that we’ve picked up at flea markets and estate sales over the last decade.

We’re a women-led team: 100% of our investors are women and most of our management team happens to be led by a crew of women. We love serious wines but don’t take ourselves too seriously: we pair our Champagne with French-inspired seasonal comforts, serve our caviar with potato chips, and offer free popcorn all day and all night.

Website

Classic Cars: The “1970 Iso Grifo” – Italian Styling And Chevrolet Engine

1970 Iso Grifo Interior Classic DriverThe Iso Grifo is a limited production grand tourer automobile manufactured by Italian Iso Autoveicoli S.p.A. between 1965 and 1974. Intended to compete with Ferrari and Maserati GTs, it utilized a series of American power trains and components supplied by Chevrolet and Ford to ensure performance and maximize reliability. Styling was done by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone, while the mechanicals were the work of Giotto Bizzarrini.

The first production GL models appeared in 1965 and were powered by American Chevrolet Corvette small-block 327 (5.4-litre) V8s fitted to American supplied Borg-Warner 4-speed manual transmissions. The 5.4-litre engine developed 300 hp (220 kW) in its standard form and could reach 110 km/h (68 mph) in first gear.

Classic Driver logoIn 1970, a styling change was made to the nose section of the car for the Grifo Series II, It got a sleeker look and hide-away headlights. In the IR-9 “Can Am” version the engine was switched from the 427 engines to the newer even more powerful Chevrolet 454 7.4 litre engine.

From Wikipedia

Health Studies: High Milk & Dairy Consumption Not Related To Lower Heart Disease, Diabetes (NEJM)

From the New England Journal of Medicine (February 13, 2020):

Milk and Dairy Product Health NEJMIn our opinion, the current recommendation to greatly increase consumption of dairy foods to 3 or more servings per day does not appear to be justified…When consumption of milk is low, the two nutrients of primary concern, calcium and vitamin D (which is of particular concern at higher latitudes), be obtained from other foods or supplements without the potential negative consequences of dairy foods.

For calcium, alternative dietary sources include kale, broccoli, tofu, nuts, beans, and fortified orange juice for vitamin D, supplements can provide adequate intake at far lower cost than fortified milk. Pending additional research, guidelines for milk and equivalent dairy foods ideally should designate an acceptable intake (such as 0 to 2 servings per day for adults), deemphasize reduced-fat milk as preferable to whole milk, and discourage consumption of sugar-sweetened dairy foods in populations with high rates of overweight and obesity.

For adults, the overall evidence does not support high dairy consumption for reduction of fractures, which has been a primary justification for current U.S. recommendations. Moreover, total dairy consumption has not been clearly related to weight control or to risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. High consumption of dairy foods is likely to increase the risks of prostate cancer and possibly endometrial cancer but reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

Read full article

Top Upcoming Movies: “The French Dispatch” Directed By Wes Anderson (Jul 2020)

From a New Yorker online review (February 11, 2020):

The French Dispatch Movie PosterWes Anderson’s new movie, “The French Dispatch,” which will open this summer, is about the doings of a fictional weekly magazine that looks an awful lot like—and was, in fact, inspired by—The New Yorker. The editor and writers of this fictional magazine, and the stories it publishes—three of which are dramatized in the film—are also loosely inspired by The New Yorker. Anderson has been a New Yorker devotee since he was a teen-ager, and has even amassed a vast collection of bound volumes of the magazine, going back to the nineteen-forties. That he has placed his fictional magazine in a made-up French metropolis (it’s called Ennui-sur-Blasé), at some point midway through the last century, only makes connecting the dots between “The French Dispatch” and The New Yorker that much more delightful.

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun Movie Scenes From the New Yorker February 11 2020

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Screenplay by: Wes Anderson

Produced by: Wes Anderson, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson

Cast: Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson

Read more

New Exhibits: “Peter Saul – Crime And Punishment” At The New Museum NYC

Peter Saul Ronald Reagan in Grenada 1984Beginning in the early 1960s, Peter Saul began to incorporate imagery borrowed from a range of pop-cultural sources into his exuberant, brightly colored paintings, adopting a style that has proven to be far ahead of its time. His work developed independently from concurrent art historical movements like Pop art, with which it shares some superficially similar concerns. Instead of the cool detachment of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, however, Saul crafted his own unique blend of Surrealism, history painting, vernacular illustration, and the real-life shock and horror of current events.

Marking the artist’s first New York museum survey, this exhibition will bring together approximately sixty paintings from across his long career.

Saul’s earliest paintings, which he created in Paris, demonstrate a loose, gestural style of abstraction, yet he began to incorporate text, recognizable characters, and consumer products into his works as early as 1960. Around this time, he plucked figures like Donald Duck and Superman from the pages of comic books and deposited them into chaotic scenes representative of the avarice and violence of America. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Saul created some of his most shocking and indelible works in response to the Vietnam War, with a series that captured the conflict’s grotesque brutality, racism, and destruction. A later group of paintings, which examines the chaotic sociopolitical fabric of urban life in California, reflects the dissolution of 1960s counterculture and the corruption, racism, and greed of US politics.

Saul extended his interrogation of American history in his portraits of infamous criminals like John Wayne Gacy, archetypes like cowboys and businessmen, and US presidents such as Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, whom Saul depicts with disdain and condemnation. He has also looked further back to reimagine supposedly triumphant scenes from America’s past—including Columbus’s arrival in America, Washington crossing the Delaware, and Custer’s Last Stand—as moments of comical failure or disgrace. With a caustic sense of humor, Saul has continuously skewered America’s leaders, rendering their stretched, distorted bodies in Day-Glo colors. His disparate influences range from MAD magazine comics to Surrealist fantasies and American social realist painting from the 1930s.

Peter Saul is an American painter. His work has connections with Pop Art, Surrealism, and Expressionism. His early use of pop culture cartoon references in the late 1950s and very early 1960s situates him as one of the fathers of the Pop Art movement. He realised about 800 paintings during his career.

Website

American Classic Cars: “1955 Hudson Italia”

1955 Hudson Italia Interior RM Sotheby'sThe Hudson Italia is an automobile styling study and a limited production two-door compact coupé that was produced by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, in cooperation with Carrozzeria Touring of Italy, and subsequently marketed by American Motors Corporation during the 1954 and 1955 model years. Designed by Frank Spring with input from Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni of Carrozzeria Touring, and introduced 14 January 1954,[3] the Italia was based on the Hudson Jet platform and running gear, but with a unique body and interior.

Lacking sufficient capital to develop a new model, Hudson reached an agreement for a prototype to be built in Milan by Carrozzeria Touring. A complete Hudson Jet was shipped to Italy. A new body design, based on sketches by Frank Spring, was formed over a steel tubular frame. This unibody system of aluminum panels was known as superleggera (equivalent to “very lightweight” in Italian), and “was expensive and fairly revolutionary in its day.” The work done by Carrozzeria Touring was under the supervision of Spring and Hudson’s vice-president, Stuart Baits.[12] The Italia (coupes and one four-door prototype) was the only project that Carrozzeria Touring undertook for a U.S. automaker.

More photos from RM Sotheby’s

From Wikipedia

 

New Art Books: “Cherry Blossoms – Sakura Collections From The Library Of Congress”

Cherry Blossoms Sakura Collections from the Library of Congress book February 11 2020“Cherry Blossoms” reflects on the long tradition of flower viewing in Japanese culture with vivid color woodblock prints by ukiyo-e master artists, photographs, color lithographic posters and Kōkichi Tsunoi’s exquisite watercolor drawings from 1921. The book highlights the rich connections between Japan’s centuries-old traditions and contemporary counterparts. The American public’s affection for the blossoms is revealed in vintage and contemporary photographs of the Tidal Basin, collections related to the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the Cherry Blossom Princess Program, as well as decades’ worth of creatively designed festival posters.

Vibrant springtime traditions of cherry blossom viewing in Japan and Washington, D.C., are explored in the new book “Cherry Blossoms: Sakura Collections from the Library of Congress,” published today by Smithsonian Books, in association with the Library of Congress.

Visual art, including prints, drawings and photographs from the Library’s collections, provide a fresh look at the tradition of cherry blossom celebrations that originated more than 1,200 years ago. Japan shared the tradition with the United States when they presented the nation’s capital with 3,020 cherry trees in 1912. Ever since, D.C. residents and visitors have been mesmerized by the trees and have joined in the festivities of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which draws more than 1.5 million visitors each year.

Fascinating Facts about Cherry Blossom Traditions:

  • It started over 1,200 years ago…with plum blossoms! The Japanese custom of flower viewing, or hanami, is thousands of years old. Beginning in the 9th century, saplings and trees were brought down from the mountains to grace the gardens of the aristocracy. The practice was first associated with plum (ume) blossoms before it became linked almost exclusively with cherry blossoms during the Heian period (794-1185).
  • A feudal warlord threw some of the most lavish parties. Before it became popular with people at all levels of society, cherry blossom viewing in Japan was reserved for the elite. Legendary feudal warlord and samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-98) sponsored some of history’s most lavish cherry blossom-viewing events. His 1594 celebration at Mount Yoshino included a poetry party, a nō play, and a hanami party with 5,000 guests. In 1598, he built hillside teahouses to accommodate guests for his party at Kyoto’s Daigoji temple and transplanted 700 cherry trees to the site.
  • Blossoms Symbolize Fleeting Delights in Life. Cherry blossoms are heralds of spring, but their short blooming period also evokes the ephemeral beauty of life. Edo period (1603-1868) hanami celebrations featured the pleasure of food and drink, poetry and music – tinged with wistful appreciation of the fleeting beauty of both blossoms and earthly delights. This tradition continues. The transitory beauty of life becomes vivid when gusty spring winds end the blooming season with showers of drifting petals, an effect the Japanese call hanafubuki (cherry blossom blizzard).
  • A “Field of Cherries” in Potomac Park? It took the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers three decades to transform the low-lying area known as Potomac Flats into Potomac Park. A 1914 sightseer map of Washington features the new park and labels the road around the west end of the Tidal Basin as the “Speedway.” U.S. Department of Agriculture botanist David Fairchild and cherry tree advocate Eliza Scidmore promoted the site as an ideal place for a “field of cherries.”
  • Not all cherry blossoms are pink. Cherry blossoms varieties include multiple colors: white, pink, yellow – even green. Twelve different varieties of cherry blossom trees were sent from the city of Tokyo to Washington D.C. in 1912. While most were the white-pink Somei Yoshino, there were also 10 different varieties of double-flowered (or manifold) trees, one variety with green blossoms, called Gyoikō, and some varieties with fragrance. The trees around today’s Tidal Basin are limited primarily to Somei Yoshino and Kwan-Zan.

Authors Mari Nakahara and Katherine Blood, both curators in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division, present a comprehensive view of the history of this annual celebration, illustrated by prints, posters, photographs and artifacts from the Library’s rich collections.

Website