domingo, 2 de mayo de 2010

ANDY WARHOL





Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art.He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame." In his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Andy Warhol Museum exists in memory of his life and artwork.
Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.His parents were working-class immigrants from Mikó (now called Miková), in northeastern Slovakia, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1960s
It was during the 1960s that Warhol began to make paintings of iconic American products such as Campbell's Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles, as well as paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Troy Donahue, Muhammad Ali and Elizabeth Taylor. He founded "The Factory", his studio during these years, and gathered around himself a wide range of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities. He began producing prints using the silkscreen method. His work became popular and controversial.

"The Factory", Warhol's aluminum foil-and-silver-paint-lined studio on 47th Street (later moved to Broadway). Other members of Warhol's Factory crowd included Freddie Herko, Ondine, Ronald Tavel, Mary Woronov, Billy Name, and Brigid Berlin (from whom he apparently got the idea to tape-record his phone conversations).[12]

During the '60s, Warhol also groomed a retinue of bohemian eccentrics upon whom he bestowed the designation "Superstars", including Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Ultra Violet, and Candy Darling. These people all participated in the Factory films, and some – like Berlin – remained friends with Warhol until his death. Important figures in the New York underground art/cinema world, such as writer John Giorno and film-maker Jack Smith, also appear in Warhol films of the 1960s, revealing Warhol's connections to a diverse range of artistic scenes during this time.


Edie Sedgwick

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971) was an American actress, socialite, model, and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's Muses. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Andy Warhol's short films, in the 1960s.[1] Dubbed an "It Girl",[2] Vogue magazine also named her a "Youthquaker".

domingo, 28 de marzo de 2010

PUERTO ESCONDIDO, OAXACA






Puerto Escondido (English: "Hidden Port") is a small port and tourist center in the municipality of San Pedro Mixtepec Distrito 22 in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Prior to the 1930s, there was no real town here. The bay had been used as a port to ship coffee intermittently, but there was no permanent settlement here due to the lack of potable water. The name Puerto Escondido has roots in a legend of a woman who escaped her captives and hid here. The Nahuatl word for this area was Zicatela, meaning “place of large thorns.[1] Today, it refers to the area’s most famous beach.[2]

Today Puerto Escondido is one of the most important tourist attractions on the Oaxaca coast. It caters to a more downscale and eclectic clientele than neighboring Huatulco, mostly surfers, backpackers and Mexican families.[3] The main attraction is the beaches, from Zicatela Beach, which hosts major surfing competitions to beaches with gentle waves.[4] Just south of the town is a large lagoon area popular for fishing and birdwatching.

ZICATELA BEACH

Puerto Escondido became famous due to surfing competitions held at Zicatela Beach every year in November. This beach is considered to be the second best place in the world to practice the sport due to its high waves. The competition brings competitors from various countries.[2] The languid pipeline that breaks on Zicatela Beach draws an international crowd of surfers, boarders and their entourages. Mid- to late summer is low season for tourists, but prime time for waves and international tournaments. A number of international competitions such as the ESPN X Games, the MexPipe Challege have taken place here.[13] This beach is separated from the other beaches by a rocky outcropping called "El Morro". The beach is forty to fifty meters wide and a couple of km long with large waves that reach up to six meters.[6] Lifeguards are stationed at this high-risk beach as well as Marinero and La Punta. About half of these are professional and the other half volunteers.[12] Zicatela is still a surfers beach, with the strong undertow making the area unsuitable for swimming.[4] The Zicatela Beach business district this mostly caters to a surfer clientele with specials on surfboard rentals and even Bible studies for surfers.[13] However, the area is slowly being developed. The beach now has a promenade of paving stones, landscaped with flowers and scrubs. Along here are restaurants and hotels, many recently established.[4]

lunes, 1 de marzo de 2010

FRANK GEHRY





Frank Owen Gehry was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, his parents were Polish Jews. A creative child, he was encouraged by his grandmother, Caplan, with whom he would build little cities out of scraps of wood.[2] His use of corrugated steel, chain link fencing, and other materials was partly inspired by spending Saturday mornings at his grandfather's hardware store. He would spend time drawing with his father and his mother introduced him to the world of art. "So the creative genes were there," Gehry says. "But my father thought I was a dreamer, I wasn't gonna amount to anything. It was my mother who thought I was just reticent to do things. She would push me."

Much of Gehry's work falls within the style of Deconstructivism. Deconstructivism, also known as DeCon Architecture, is often referred to as post-structuralist in nature for its ability to go beyond current modalities of structural definition. In architecture, its application tends to depart from modernism in its inherent criticism of culturally inherited givens such as societal goals and functional necessity. Because of this, unlike early modernist structures, DeCon structures are not required to reflect specific social or universal ideas, such as speed or universality of form, and they do not reflect a belief that form follows function. Gehry's own Santa Monica residence is a commonly cited example of deconstructivist architecture, as it was so drastically divorced from its original context, and, in such a manner, as to subvert its original spatial intention.

miércoles, 10 de febrero de 2010

Hamburg meine Perle


Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany (after Berlin) and the eighth-largest city in the European Union. The city is home to approximately 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighboring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 4.3 million inhabitants. The port of Hamburg is the second-largest port in Europe (after that of Rotterdam), and the ninth-largest in the world.

Hamburg's official name is the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg). It makes reference to Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and also to the fact that Hamburg is a city-state and one of the sixteen States of Germany.

Hamburg is a major transportation hub in Northern Germany. It has become a media and industrial center, with factories such as Airbus, Blohm + Voss and Aurubis. The radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers such as Gruner + Jahr and Spiegel-Verlag represent the important media industry in Hamburg. In total there are more than 120,000 enterprises. The city is a major tourist destination both for domestic and overseas visitors, receiving about 7.7 million overnight stays in 2008.

REEPERBAHN

Many visitors take a walk in the evening around the area of Reeperbahn in the quarter St. Pauli, considered Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars and nightclubs. The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St. Pauli, providing in the 1940s the neighborhood's unofficial anthem, "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um Halb Eins." The song explains in a polite way how a sailor enjoys his last day with a trollop before going aboard. It was in the Reeperbahn that The Beatles began their career with a 48-night residency at the Indra Club, followed by another 58 nights at the Kaiserkeller, in 1960; the Top Ten Club (1961); and the Star-Club (1962). Others prefer the laidback neighborhood Schanze with its street cafés or a barbecue on one of the beaches along the river Elbe. Hamburg's famous zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, was founded in 1907 by Carl Hagenbeck as the first zoo with moated, barless enclosures.[40]

People may visit Hamburg because of a specific interest, notably one of the musicals, a sports event, a congress or fair. In 2005 the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg.