Top New Travel Videos: “Expedition Everest” – National Geographic 360
Embark on this virtual reality experience with an international coalition of biologists, geologists, glaciologists, meteorologists, and geographers as they study the effects of climate change in one of the most extreme environments on Earth. The National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition begins at 17,300 feet at Base Camp and ends above 27,000 feet, near the summit of Mt. Everest. Join the team as they collect ice cores, place the world’s highest weather station, and gather hundreds of samples along the way.
Innovation: “QuenchSea” – Portable Seawater Desalination Device
QuenchSea is an innovative technology that combines a hydraulic system, triple pre-filtration and a small reverse osmosis membrane to desalinate seawater into freshwater using manual human power. At sea or on the coast, convert seawater into clean fresh drinking water instantly.
Top Topics Monday: Covid-19 Accelerates Cashless Society Push (Podcast)
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated our cashless society and deepened the divide between those who depend on it and those who now live mostly without it.
Guests: Axios’ Jennifer Kingson, Mike Allen and Kendall Baker.
World News Podcast: The Next Catastrophe, Israel & The Wirecard Scandal
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the next catastrophe and how to survive it; (9:40) the risks of annexation for Israel; (21:50) and the Wirecard scandal.
Top New Travel Videos: “Timelapse Showreel 4K” By Martien Janssen (2020)
Filmed and Edited by: Martien Janssen
A 60 second compilation of some of my favourite timelapse footage shot during my travels in Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Visit my Travel Imagez website for all related blogposts, travel guides, free ebooks, photos & videos.
Art History Videos: Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger – 1955” (Christie’s)
Between 13 December 1954 and 14 February 1955, Picasso painted a series of fifteen canvases based on Eugène Delacroix’s masterwork Les femmes d’Alger, each of which he assigned an identifying letter from A to O. Together, these paintings constitute Picasso’s single greatest achievement in the decades following the end of the Second World War. They represent his first comprehensive appropriation and thoroughgoing exploration of an important painting by an earlier artist, as well as the most focused analysis he had done since the war years of the female figure set within a specific spatial environment.
Picasso painted the present Femmes d’Alger, Version F on 17 January 1955, around the halfway point in the cycle. It is the culminating, most fully resolved canvas from the first phase of the series, when Picasso favored medium-sized formats for his protean explorations.
Future Homes: “Modular Water Dwellings” By Grimshaw Architects
The Water Dwellings use minimal energy, with well-insulated and shaded lower pontoons and upper stories, and energy provided by solar roof panels and heat exchangers built into base boxes below the waterline. By developing a communal energy supply, the Water Dwellings’ environmental efficiency has the potential to achieve near zero energy use.
Global design practice Grimshaw and Dutch manufacturing specialists Concrete Valley have developed an innovative design for Modular Water Dwellings, in response to the growing risks of climate change and the challenges of increasing urbanisation.
The Modular Water Dwellings incorporate standardised components that provide efficiency in manufacturing, while still allowing a variety of internal layouts for occupants’ individual requirements. The Dwellings can be orientated and spaced in different ways, responding to varying site contexts, local conditions, light sources and primary views. They also maximise the use of durable and non-corroding materials, such as concrete and glass, ensuring a long design life that anticipates multiple occupants.
Podcast Interviews: Alexander Vreeland On His Fashion Journalist Grandmother “Diana”
Alexander Vreeland, grandson of fashion journalist Diana Vreeland, tells us about his new book, ‘Bon Mots: Words of Wisdom from the Empress of Fashion’.
Diana Vreeland’s insightful edicts and evocative aphorisms remain her strongest legacy. She looked at life as a romantic and lived through dreams and imagination. Showing leadership, vision, and timeless wit, this book celebrates her visionary words that not only transformed the world of fashion, but also gave us sage advice to live by.
Sourced and edited by her grandson Alexander, Diana Vreeland: Bon Mots covers Vreeland’s incisive views of subjects such as allure, fashion, and style (“I mean, a new dress doesn’t get you anywhere; it’s the life you’re living in the dress”); beauty (“The neck is the beginning and end of looking like anybody”); age (“The quickest way to show your age is to try to look young”); color (“Black is the hardest color to get right–except for gray”); and her powerfully creative way of thinking (“I’m looking for the suggestion of something I’ve never seen”) Brought to life by illustrator Luke Edward Hall, Bon Mots vividly displays Mrs. Vreeland’s original thought and speech, which is equally as inspiring and relevant now as it was then.
About the Author
Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) joined Harper’s Bazaar as fashion editor in 1936; was the editor in chief of Vogue from 1962 to 1971; and later oversaw the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alexander Vreeland has had an extensive career in fashion and beauty and is the president of the Diana Vreeland Estate and the author of Diana Vreeland Memos (Rizzoli, 2013) and Diana Vreeland: The Modern Woman (Rizzoli, 2015). Luke Edward Hall is a London-based artist and designer.
Art Profiles: 99-Year Old American Painter Wayne Thiebaud’s “Classic Pop”
From Christie’s (June 27, 2020):
One of the largest canvases from Thiebaud’s groundbreaking early period, it depicts a row of arcade machines, decorated in a vibrant mix of oranges and yellows…With their foreshortened bodies, the machines press towards the picture plane like the cakes and hot dogs in Thiebaud’s other works, inviting the viewer to reach in and taste.
It’s a classic of Pop art, a masterful reflection of the post-war boom in consumerism.
In November 2020, Wayne Thiebaud — the American artist best-known for his still lifes of pies, pastries and other tempting treats — turns 100.
Thiebaud also had a lot of fun with the backglasses: instead of cartoons and flashing lights, he decorated them with the ghostly, geometric forms of Frank Stella’s Concentric Squares, Jasper Johns’ Targets and Ellsworth Kelly’s Colors for a Large Wall.
Boomers Daily 