Another big Display and Want a Netgear Digital Entertainer (probably not)?

And another big display too

Well I've been going on about the use of LEDs and big displays, here's one I'd quite like to have some photo's on..( I spotted it first around Christmas time) it's in Ealing Broadway Centre which is having some move abounds and new tenants.

It looked a bit red and I'm not sure it'll be used sparingly (isn't it terrible when you go to the Pub and end up just staring at the telly?)

It's been there for some time but first time I've seen it on

Freebie

Still clearing out, thought I'd got rid of this on ebay (but I haven't).

So  if anyone wants this (Netgear DVE 2000), it works but superseded as far as I'm concerned  I think  - it's up for grabs and if you've got a reason to have it I'll even post it to you

Mail me with your story

Another technology product from yesteryear - all complete 

My own personal Ship of Theseus and 'How things get better '

Trigger's Broom or The Ship of Theseus is great Philosophical tool  and is brought to mind by my replacement of some and cheap and cheerful garden lights with newer brighter and more efficient illumination.

New LED light -A Superior Product

It probably dates back via attempted house break-ins to when I was a teenager in Wethersfield (Essex) where one of our neighbours went a bot over the top on their garden lights - well I like slightly 'naff' garden lights.

Plastic perishes, filament bulbs are discontinued  and one by one I'm replacing the lights in our (small) back garden with super bright efficient LED units.

I like to think I'm repairing and this is a set of lights I've had for 10+ years truth of the matter is the transformers replaced too and some of the wiring - it's another version of Trigger's Broom.

Amazing how LEDs are producing a product so far superior to the old filament lights which served so well in many devices  for over 100 years.


And it's not just the back garden that's part of the LED revolution , look at car headlights and mighty billboards too.

The amazing new Billboards at Piccadilly Circus use LED technology 

RadioLab

is my current radio recommendation -it's out of the USA and artfully produced to inform on things you didn't think you cared about.

I learned about the Scientist who saved the world (by developing chemical fertilizers) and subsequently wipe out many (with Gas in World War I)  - oddly as a Austrian/German Jew Fritz Haber's science led to  the chemical gas that wiped out many of his own race in Nazi Death Camps -  RadioLab can be accessed in the UK here.

As Einstein (perhaps tongue in cheek) described the irony it's 'unrequited Love'.

Dali, Duchamp and Hope at the RA

Two giants who were friends

The other smashing exhibition at the RA was one that centred on the friendship between Dali and Duchamp.

The Double 'D's'

Dali is the more famed public figure but it can be argued that Duchamp is the more significant in terms of the Art world.







There were some amazing things to see like Hamilton's  restoration of  Marcel Duchamps 'The Bride Stripped Bare..'
I was also interested to see a work by Dali (Sistine Madonna)  which used dots in much the same way as Robert Lichenstein did later on.


There was quite a bit of work by Duchamp including (of course) another copy of the 'Fountain', the other readymade 'bottle rack' was there too .

Useful RA notes

For me the elephant in the room was the lack of 'etant donnes' which is in Philadelphia and doesn't travel.


The exhibition sort of ties into the Jasper Johns exhibition which is also currently hosted by the RA.

Bob Hope and Dali

It's quite easy to assume that the artist as a celebrity is a new phenomena but Dali was prominent in Hollywood and  worked  with Alfred Hitchcock  on a dream sequence for Hitchcock's  Spellbound film - here's a clip of Bob Hope as guest at one of Dalis' Surreal Bashes.

Real Fun with Flags (at the RA)

RA the place to see Jasper

There's a TV 'internet feature' within TV's Big Bang called 'Fun with Flags' - well yesterday I visited London's RA and was tremendously excited to see Iconic paintings from Jasper Johns famed for his 'Flags' (and other things).


It feels odd in some ways but there was real excitement for me in seeing the pictures on show - I'm going to have to make a second visit after doing some research into Johns.

[The first part which was looking at this from Andy Warhol on YouTube]


Johns was from an Art family, was raised mainly by his Grandparents.  The lack of family influence in his artistic development did not seem to limit him in his later work (and perhaps even had the

opposite effect).

Jasper Johns -He's still alive

Johns was perhaps more of an expert in Collage than a straightforward painter.

Well known amongst the Pop artists a friend of Robert Rauschenberg - his work is hugely influential and part of the antidote to the abstractions of artists like Jack the Dripper, Mark Rothko and Barnet Newman  that 'Pop' swept away

Johns experiments are brave and often work - his 'Painting with Two Balls' remains surprising and humorous.

The artist is famed for the way his paintings are both about things and the things they are about (like his flags, numbers and maps)
.
Nice intro for the exhibition here.


My personal favourites were work about Seasons which include several of the same items and silhouettes through Summer, Spring  Fall and Winter also intrigued by the more recent 'Nothing at all Richard Dadd (1992)' - Dadd was a British artist who spent much of his life incarcerated having killed his own father.

For me there's a strong presence of George Braque in much of John's work.

More on my RA  visit soon, I saw another exhibition there which featured an artist who was of one of Jasper John's big inspirations -Marcel Duchamp.

Bye Fats

As for  Jasper Johns (above) - I was under the mistaken impression that Fats Domino was no longer with us - well that's the case now he died recently at the age of 89, a private man with a sense of humour and family, lauded by Elvis Presley, a star of the Best Sound-tracked Rock & Roll Film (The Girl Can't Help It) and his cover of the Beatles Domino inspired Rocker  Lady Madonna that rare thing a Beatles cover that exceeds the original  - here it is ..

Dangers of Carbon Monoxide

A few visits from British Gas over the last couple of weeks and in the end I've gone and got  a Carbon Monoxide detector - fairly easy to fit and the advantage is it also tells us the temperature in the kitchen.

Looks alarming?

Downside bit big and ugly - still we'll be safe.

That EU thing - come on, a Posh boy Feud is no good reason to leave the EU

Well I've not been going on about the EU Brexit process but recent conversations and e-mails have meant that it's back

Let's think again-it was a false premise 

 on my mind.


The point is that it does seem that the UK population has been sold a 'pup' (clear to me at least).


David Cameron who as leader of the Tories and UK and NI Prime-Minister  was sufficiently arrogant to think that he could swing his party and the country behind a remain vote got  it wrong. One of the miscalculations he seems to have made is that his fellow old Etonian, Boris Johnson  could not stomach voting with Cameron (or so the Mail newspaper reported).

We've now got a scared looking PM who looks increasingly to be a hostage to the real  'extremists' people like Iain Duncan-Smith MP (now looks like he made a tactical exit from the DWP), strident Bernard Jenkin MP and the cartoon-ish MP for the 19th Century Jacob Rees Mogg

So the sad position we're in is (perhaps) largely down to a Schoolboy feud between two posh boys - the mislead voters in the poorest parts of the country will be hit hardest and the fictional £350m per week for the NHS will never materialise.

What has been brought to my attention is that plenty of 'informed' people have a hope that things can be turned around, my view is that this won't happen with the Tories - where right wingers far more doctrinaire than the Labour left will not be happy with any result  and will continue to try to take the UK to a place where 'Johnny Foreigner' is subservient to the British Upper classes.

We can not make progress in the UK with Conservatives in the driving seat with their deep-rooted prejudices and ill considered  economic analysis of the Global economy.

Boris - His head on a stick 

Speaking with friends I find many are irritated some who  might be characterised as typical  'leavers' are from this , some are very irritated at what she felt were the 'lies' pedalled in the campaign.


They wonder why areas like Wales in receipt of EU grants and East Anglia, reliant on EU labour should vote in such numbers for the detrimental effect it's likely to have on their own local economies.


Many see Boris and Nigel Farage  being in the same boat as far as  misleading us about the benefits of the world beyond EU borders.


Enlightened observers  feel for people in UK who arrived from other countries and are now made to feel unwelcome.


A good friend of mine from my days working in France left London for retirement to Germany last week - he very unhappy with direction of UK's travel too  -so unless enough Tories show backbone, and  remain true to their beliefs we're in for a rough ride.

Enough for a while!

Back in Kingston and Recuva (-ring)

It's a little while since we've been to Kingston (Upon Thames) glad to report that Typo's now opened (but it seems to be aimed at teenage girls).

Outsize Pen & Ink

And this is 'Sharp'

Tiger becomes Flying Tiger in Kingston on Thames

And now their branch of Tiger has a new name 'Flying Tiger Copenhagen' - otherwise still seems to be doing well- we went to Carluccio's (inside Bentall's) for lunch, forgotten how nice the food is and the team serving were v.good too.

Lovely Pasta and a nice glass of Wine

Recovering Jpegs

I don't know if you've made an error on importing files and 'thought' you'd lost the lot - well I did that and happily found there's a way to rewind and get back those 'priceless pictures' it's called
 Recuva -and the personal  version is free- check-it -out

Here's one of the files I brought back from the dead

With Recuva - We can recover from beyond the grave (local Uxbridge Road restaurant  Chianti)  

Whitechapel

Great to go out again to the Whitechapel Gallery - it's a nice sized place and has a great history.


Reason for my visit was to see some of the work of  German born photographer Thomas Ruff (it's perhaps worth noting that Germany has produced some great contemporary photographers like Wolfgang Tillmans for example) .

 Can you see the ID vibe ?

What I liked about Ruff's work was the breadth of subject matter from the amusing interiors made while he studied to the 'Cosmic' pictures derived from data supplied by the ESO.


Ruff also produces portraits but these are not typical and use something of the Police Identification style.



Some of the pictures on show used the artefacts from jpeg (digitally compressed files ) to show something of the modern communication/media process.

Using Jpeg images of twin towers

There were other things to see at the Gallery including ISelf -End of Love  - which included some rather sad wedding photo's taken Akram Zaatari in the Lebanon and unusual 'installation' work by Portuguese born Leonor Antunes.

Iself - varied

Iself exhibition 

Spatial work by Leonor  Antunes - The Frisson of Togetherness, strangely evocative

Who Was Henry Wellcome?

Earlier in the week I got around to visiting the Welcome Collection in London's Euston Road - adverts for 'Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? had intrigued me.


Previously I'd thought that Welcome was some 'grey' part of 'Big Pharma' but in fact the story of Henry Welcome is more interesting and the Philanthropy he demonstrated something to celebrate.

Samaritans Campaign 

And in fact Graphic Design can Save your Life (perhaps) - nice to see Samaritans recent campaign  included - the jury is probably still out on the Smoking adverts versus health warnings (or is it?) but the subject was well covered - with Silk Cut adverts deconstructed with the help of Semiotics (and quotes from David Lodge).

It was good to see too the AIDS and Samaritans' campaigns  on show.

Earthly Delights 

William Price- He was a bit of  an Eccentric

I also took the opportunity to look at the Art displays and was much taken with traditional work in the Wellcome history  I liked the Painting of William Price of Llantrisant (by  A C Hemming) - Price was a pioneer in promoting cremation.

Also good to see  'the Garden  of Earthly Delights' an  Oil painting after Hieronymus Bosch.

But biggest buzz was to discover Eat 22 by Ellie Harrison - this shows commitment and book and video both great

Reminded me of my 365 project but wow

Here it is

Indian Photgraphy and Samuel Bourne

Until March 2018 at Science Museum

London's Science Museum somewhat (perhaps) unexpectedly has a fantastic (and arty) exhibition showing 160 years of Indian Photography - from early Colonial pictures to modern documentary work what I found really illuminating was the way the Indian indigenous agency fed into work with hand colouring making a fascinating hybrid.

Also noticed that one of the early British Photographers  was a 'Samuel Bourne' who spent about 7 years in India from 1863.

Also on at the Museum are examples of Indian Technology  and science from Tuk-Tuks to brilliant mathematicians.

Bose - Brilliant at Maths

A typical Indian Tuk-Tuk

Week 4 looking at Paintings - National Gallery again

National Gallery -A Gallery that's hard to fault or imagine better

Back with the excellent Julia Musgrave who is leading the CityLit looking at Paintings course yesterday and again the National Gallery.

Portraits this week and I reckon they're great -although in the hierarchy of paintings we see Portraits below History (in the Hierarchy of Genres) - this  seems to me to be pretty arbitrary anyway.


Something we didn't really unpick was when a picture becomes a portrait - is it just a single figure, looking at Portrait definitions it seems that head and upper body should dominate. 



The power plays involved in portraiture were very evident in our tour, our first painting was Portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael (of which there are several versions)  and the fact that it was commissioned by the sitter who was probably the most powerful man in Europe means that it is his message that is at the forefront - what I loved here was finding out about how the work at one stage had a blue background - this made it almost like a Pop Art picture (to me anyway).

Julia also highlighted some of the other detail which reflected Julius's family and his extravagance (the rings on his fingers).

Nonnius a clever Doctor 

Looking at the painting of Christina of Denmark by Hans Holbein (the Younger) we were educated to the fact that Holbein had been dispatched to capture a likeness of the young widow so that Henry VIII could weigh up the possibility of her being his next wife (she was luckily spared this fate) - the court Painter was being used as a sort of dating app (a primitive Tinder).


The painting of Ludovicus Nonnius by Rubens  reveals another function of earlier portraits, here the items placed around the sitter show his standing - he was accomplished and intellectual, a doctor and in the painting we can see his learning (the books)  and the bust of Hippocrates (showing the medical associations) -  The artist shows his skill (perhaps a little showily) with the foreshortened book.


Klimt's portrait of Hermine Gallia was another highlight and reflects changes to portraiture that were apparent with the introduction of photography - the subject was an important figure in Austrian society prior to the period of Nazi rule.

Not the bling sometimes associated with Klimt

Women are (as so often) the subject more often than the painter but some subjects were influential - like Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame (by Francois Hubert Drouais (1727-1775) - here we see a painting of a clever woman with many interests.

There was a painting that stood out - it was a Self Portrait of an assured woman - smiling, this was Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by  Elisabeth Vigee le Brun.

 Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame

An early 'Selfie'

For me seeing a portrait now I am interested to know about  who commissioned the work and what other indicators are included in the work to help us understand the message being made by the work - perhaps odd that we didn't visit the National Portrait Gallery next door for this week 4?

And lovely biscuits

On the subject of Art - I really like the lovely Gaufrette biscuits from Beniko not too sure on what Hokusai connection is..

Lovely biscuits

News from the Broadcasting World

Earlier in the week at Savoy Place - it's a year since the last IBC review (I nearly booked in with my 2016 ticket) and as always the news is exciting and frightening.

The eye candy (for the women) was supplied by Nick \Lodge

First thing to note is that women are in the ascendency - the event was produced by the redoubtable Terry Marsh (a woman) and of the 5 people on stage only one was a man (Nick Lodge formerly at ITC) - this is not the usual situation at IET events as far as I can recall.

Savoy Place - Just a Short walk from Embankment 

When the RTS are hosted by IET it's very civilised the Savoy Place (the first London home to the BBC I think) there's snacks and drinks -- I got chatting to a woman from INMARSAT who was telling me about developments aimed at delivering services to inflight travellers (which I'd not realised was practical).


What you always get from things like this is an idea where an industry is heading and the acronym that I noted down was FAMGA which reflects the growth of the Facebook/Amazon/Google Hegemony.


Having said that the exciting technological advances are coming from startups - the one that I was really knocked out by was mentioned by Muki Kulhan (who has been around social media in the broadcast space for something like 20 years) was the 'City Producer' app which is pretty much a studio in a 'phone'  - I recall a similar phenomenon with a studio/Post production platform based on a PC known as a Toaster but this didn't do the Acquisition.


Of course Facebook was on the hot issues list with it's Live Facebook 360 but I can't help feeling we've been here before and that TV is something it's very easy to get wrong - Apple have certainly been plugging away at it for quite a few years.


Something that did slightly bring the stage enthusiasts back to earth was an audience question on mmonetization - not too much intelligence on how it might be achieved but I was reminded of when I was at Discovery how it's a challenge to be able to find a way to sell direct to viewers when the rights have already been sold to platform owners.

Week 3 of Looking at Paintings - History Part II

St Luke at work

Well In some ways I suppose weeks 1 and 2 were a build up to week 3 (which I is kind of inevitable)  but what I'm saying is that London's National Gallery is seriously impressive.

Having spent some time at the Gallery it did cross my mind that the visit could feel repetitive but the truth of the matter is that there's an awful lot of pictures there and even if you so look at some more than once the subsequent time spent looking at them can bring fresh insights.

The chance to be in the National Gallery also means I get to notice other paintings as I move around - like these two, Salome is very confrontational  and the colour (particularly the flesh of Salome) striking - It was painted from the biblical story  of the delivery of the head of St. John the Baptist.
The painting is from about 500 years ago by the painter Sebastiano del Piombo.

We were aging looking at Narrative in paintings and also looked at some works that were originally frescoes but had been removed from the walls the were painted on (like Penelope With Suitors by Pintoricchio -from about 1509).

The second painting around the same time (1520) was not credited to a specific artist but the idea of a 'painting about a painting' I find rather curious - it's called 'Saint Luke Painting the Virgin and Child' -

and the studio was Workshop of Quinten Massys- Massys is an important figure in the Flemish art world.
(St Luke is traditionally the saint associated with painters.)

The Group looks at Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone

 We also looked at paintings from Titian's Workshop and The Death of Actaeon from Titian but the picture I was most thrilled with was Luca Giordano's Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone, this is a later painting (from the 1680s) and is ostensibly of a theatrical production - but shows much more.

Salome (1510)  by Sebastiano del Piombo

Week 2 Looking at Paintings (At Tate Britian)

Tate Britain

Tate Britain was the location for the second session of the CityLit run 'Looking at Paintings' course.

Susanna and the elders

Topic this week was 'History' and it's a big one (it's split across two weeks it's that big), we kicked off by looking at 'Susanna and the Elders' by Peter Lely.


The fact that Peter Lely's work is shown in Tate Britain is a  lesson in itself, work in Tate Britain is largely intended to be 'British art' Lely was Dutch by birth (and training) but spent most of his working life.

At the time of this work many works were drawn from Biblical stories as was Susanna and the Elders, this particular story has also a sexual element  which allows  some titillation - the subject was used more than once by a variety of artists, and there are more titillating versions.

It was also pointed out that the statue shown in the painting was that of the Manneken Pis which far from biblical was pretty much contemporaneous  with the work (this a common practice when travel to exotic places was less accessible was to transfer Biblical story settings in this way).

Strangely the animal in the background was intended to be a camel (many would not have seen this animal either). 

What I got from the 'lesson' was a greater involvement with paintings that I wasn't initially drawn too - this was certainly the case of  Joseph Highmore's sequence of paintings inspired by Pamela (by Samuel Richardson) .

As was the case from my earlier City Lit courses visiting galleries  with Leslie Primo  and James  Mansfield I'm realising that it's not about the number of works covered on visits but actively getting involved and looking.

The highlights of the works we looked at for me were the pre-Raphaelites particularly Christ in the House of his Parents by Sir John Everett Millais .

A Highlight for me

Finding my religion and camera use

Probably more than minutes though 

One of the things I have had in mind since before the start of 2017 is around religion - it's something that is questionable for me but important and I'm hoping that Marcus Weeks's book which I recently received will act as a starting off point for my consideration much as an earlier book on Philosophy by him did.

Keep an eye out here and I'll be reflecting on what I get from the book weekly.

Photography and The Canon G7 X

Almost SLR ability to give sharp focus and depth

Enjoyed watching the part 3 of 'Britain in Focus' with Eamon McCabbe on BBC catch-up - I suppose the fact that Martin Parr was a large part of it helped (loved the insight on the influence that  a photographer called John Hinde's Postwar holiday postcards had on him).

Background Focus &

'Throwing' Focus

I'm adjusting to my new camera - it's surprising to me that it feels so different (in terms of the pictures I get) from the G 16 - really do like the different picture ration that I'm using and impressed by its capabilities at low light.




Not so sure about not having an optical viewfinder and not being able to access an 'electronic zoom' but think depth of focus is worth having - also intrigued to find that exposure (to me) tends towards underexposed but detail in 'the blacks' is there to be accessed if wanted - am hoping to find that I can take advantage of this when I start to learn a bit about Adobe Photoshop at RACC later in the week.

G7 x- Good at low levels of available light