RIP Rude Boy

Desmond Dekker, living legend of reggae, ska and rocksteady, died of a heart attack in London on Wednesday night. Dekker was 64 years old. Born Desmond Adolphus Dacres in Kingston, on July 16, 1941, Dekker and his backing group the Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), had the first international Jamaican hit with Israelites. Other hits include 007 (Shanty Town), from 1967, and It Mek (1969).
Orphaned as a teenager, Dekker began working as a welder, singing around his workplace while his coworkers encouraged him.
Until 1967, Dekker's songs, including Parents, Get Up Edina, This Woman and Mount Zion. were polite and conveyed mainstream messages. In that year, however, he appeared on Morgan's Tougher Than Tough, which marked the beginning of the rude boy craze. Dekker's own songs did not go to the extremes of many other popular tunes, though he did introduce lyrics which resonated with the rude boys, starting with the aforementioned 007 (Shanty Town). The song established Dekker as a rude boy icon, and helped him become a leading figure in the British mod scene.

Dekker continued with songs in the same vein, such as Rude Boy Train and Rudie Got Soul, as well as continuing with his previous themes of religion and morality in songs like It's a Shame, Wise Man, Unity, It Pays, and Sabotage. His Pretty Africa is among the earliest popular songs to promote repatriation. »

He had been due to perform at the Respect Festival in Prague on 2 June, and numerous dates across Europe during the summer.
His last concert was at Leeds Metropolitan University on 11 May.

I saw him on stage two times during the eighties and he was among the most impressive live acts I ever saw.

He will be missed.

Pedres i píxels • Stones and pixels Wolf Kahlen



The title in Catalan rudely just promises materials. Hot stuff rather than neutral words. Its an exhibition on the basics of art from the Stone Age till today. Trying to picture and proof the rather synthetical than analytical character of perception: One ‘single’ , ‘atomic’, ‘pixeled’, sensual fact added to second other or third, and all at the same time, shapes a third reality. Of course we know that synesthetic trick, but trap into it again and again, and often with pleasure.

In Wolf Kahlen’s NetWorks images or sounds, words of the classical poets in world languages or the European anthem dissolve by the clicking interactivity of the user. And return cyclecally in a second part of the piece, pixel by pixel, the same way they disappeared.
Life and death of images and sound compositions: The triptych of the reknowned piece (of the year 2000) called SELBST-LOS/Self-less , or WOLKEN-LOS and the recent GEDANKEN-LOS, and others like EUROPA ON THE FLY or VERZEIHUNG HERR VON GOETHE, SORRY MISTER JOYCE ...
In analogy then the single found and unchanged stones and ‘young rocks’ (a title of an 1969 video sculpture of Kahlen using a floating stone) , no more than atomic or pixeled parts of their environment, but joined together to groups of two or three, they may be looking like letters or archaic sculptures. May take over associations of any kind, though they are born out of chance and play, like the NetWorks.
Which are as site specific as the stone works, since they happen only at the site of the user at instant and never repeat, though they can be printed out, signed and numbered, as globally distributed parts of a piece, which knowbody owns, but many thousands so far have only details of.
The momentary associations, their potential of temporaily changes, this is the connection between the stones and the pixels. The exhibition is an homage to the stones of Formentera, therefore it starts there and travels across the Balearic Islands first. The catalogue in Catalan, Spanish, partly in English and German seems to promise further locations.
Peter P. Kajzar

Fundaciò SA NOSTRA Formentera / Baleares / Spanien
till may 27th 2006

Fundaciò SA NOSTRA Ibiza / Baleares / Spanien
june 7th - 28th 2006

Fundaciò SA NOSTRA Palma de Mallorca / Baleares / Spanien
january/february 2007

related: some notes about SELBST-LOS/Self-less at rhizome

the real placeboKatz

This one flies out to the enchanting Bibi
who kindly added me to her list of blogs.
I am flattered and cajoled.

porcelain installations by Jennifer Prichard



Jennifer Prichard creates space-transforming installations of porcelain, works of amazing beauty and grace.
via

Downloadable Camera

Nifty: Linatree invite you to download, print, cut and build your own pinhole camera.
A pinhole is a camera that uses a very small hole, as if made by a pin instead of a lens, for light to enter and form an image on the film or other light-sensitive medium. You can use any 35 mm film with this camera.
Download it here (pdf)
You can also watch an animated guide in 3D that help you through the building process.
via

Vintage Airigami



I recently pointed to the art of making sculpures from balloons.

Now, Martin Klash linked to some amazing photographies from the early 30thies, secured by Swapatorium displaying impressions from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

I start looking in the boxes of stuff in the driveway and John asks the lady if she still has any photos left. She says yes...........
Have you ever been somewhere so great that you feel like you are in a dream and can’t quite believe your eyes? This was that place for me.

I would feel the same

NEEDIES like rain on a sunshine day

This might be old news for some, but till today I wasn´t aware that I need a Needie.
Needies are interactive plush dolls inspired by codependent, high-maintenance relationships.

Totally attention-starved, they compete with each other for human affection -- or, getting touch, as they like to say.

When you give Needies touch (by hugging and squeezing them), they will return your kindness with songs and shameless flattery.

But remember that Needies always know when other Needies are getting touch! If one Needie is getting touch while others are neglected, the unloved Needies will conspire to take its place.







Soon the unhugged Needies will start to complain.

"Is it my turn yet?" one might sullenly whine.

"Me! Me! Me!" another may shriek.

"Throw him," a particularly desperate Needie might even command. "THROW HIM!"

Each Needie, you see, has a microcontroller hidden inside his soft, stuffed belly that not only registers when he is touched but also broadcasts that information to the other dolls. As long as you spread your love evenly among the three Needies (named Brettie, Dannie and Mossie after their designers), they remain more or less content. But the minute one Needie perceives an imbalance of attention, he'll start to give you an earful.

"Dannie's getting touched!" whines Mossie. "Oh, filthy."

"Shut up, Mossie," Dannie snaps back.

Needies are created by Amos Bloomberg, Daniel Perlin, and Brett Schultz. They are all recent graduates of New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

merci beaucoup Régine for pointing me to these charming critters.