If you live in New York chances are that at some point in winter you have noticed bright ads advertising “5000 Years of Civilization reborn” - the Shen Yun Ballet (there are also ads for it all around the world, but I have not seen it). This year planning my cultural program for the spring, I found the booklet of notorious ballet in my postbox and decided to finally give into marketing, proposing a friend to join me. In the hindsight, I feel extremely gullible, that I have not even googled the premise of the performance. My friend responded with an article from The New Yorker and the words “Falun Dafa” and “cult”. I would highly recommend reading this article, as I would never look the same at the poppy blue yellow advertising in the subway.
In 1876, Japan presented the United States with kudzu, Pueraria lobatam to celebrate the country’s 100th anniversary. The plant was admired for its fantastic vitality, fertility and beautiful flowers; however, admiration eventually turned into terrifying dismay as the plant rapidly spread across American South with the help of people planting along the roads and railways to prevent erosion in the 1930’s. Like a terrorist wildfire, the plant is capable of spreading at a rate of 12 inches in 24 hours. Originally a well-intended gift, today the kudzu is considered to be one of the most invasive species in the world.
In recent years, the world has acquired many more spectacular architectural marvels dedicated to hosting art - most of them financed by private individuals (More reading on the rise of the private art museums in the report by Hyperallergic: “Crunching the Numbers Behind the Boom in Private Art Museums” ). This year New York has been bestowed with a new (for-profit) museum dedicated to photography- Fotographiska. Four floors are showcasing living contemporary photographers is a nice addition to the city’s “museum-ing scene”.
“Conversation with a Lobster” by Ellen von Unwerth
The weekly discovery for me were the photographs of Tawny Chatmot. A unique combination of a photograph-painting, resembling Gustav Klimt’s paintings from the far make us rethink history from the race perspective in a stunningly -nuanced way.
Tawny Chatmon
The first week of January in the tech world is always filled with industry gossip about CES. This year, besides the regular parade of bigger screens and less private home devices, I was surprised to hear a lot about unique electric cars…. made in China. Publicity waves were made by Byton M-Byte - a car with a huge one panel LCD screen on the dashboard. A few other names of Chinese manufacturers that are good to know are: * Fisker Automotive with a very affordable (relative to other electric vehicles) electric SUV Ocean
* BYD Auto BYD, which built the battery in your ’90s cellphone, now produces more EVs than anyone
* and NIO with it’s Formula E Team
… along with about another hundred of other up-and-comers.