210 pages & articles in English
__________________________________________________________________________________

Founded by Nadia Russ: April 11, 2007

NeoPopRealism Journal and Wonderpedia,

Today's Featured Article La Maison Unique Longchamp Longchamp is a French brand in America... "La Maison Unique Longchamp," the brand new flagship, opened in May 2006. Located at 132 Spring Street in New York's fashionable SoHo, it is the new mooring for the brand in the USA. From the recent success of their collaboration with such renowned artist as Tracey Emin or their new venture with avant-guard designer Jeremy Scott to the recent collaboration with supermodel Kate Moss in a print campaign shot by Mario Sorrenti, the internationally known luxury accessories house continues to be a family-run, fashion-forward brand. Established in Paris, France, in 1948 as a maker of fine leather products, the Longchamp brand has been in US since 1993. Longchamp opened its 1st USA store on Madison Avenue in 1999 & has subsequently opened stores in San-Francisco, Boston, Coral Gables, Las Vegas & Short Hills. Longchamp was immediately struck by the sheer volume of this 1936 building, ideally located in the heart of SoHo on the corner of Spring & Greene Street & entrusted its architectural design to the creative eye of London designer Thomas Heatherwick. This up & coming persona in architecture and design, whose style embraces sculpture as much as it does architecture, has united technical challenges with unconventional shapes. The boutique's exceptional corner location allows for the perimend capturing a plethora of natural light that spreads throughout the entire space. The volume of the space is brilliantly and innovatively characterized with touches of humour here and there and is perfect harmony with the key brand values of Longchamp: chic, creativity, pleasure, appealingly fresh. The connection to the 2nd floor, made by an installation described as a "landscape", is made of steel ribbon strips which provide a stunning grand entrance to the boutique. This installation of ribbon-like forms which cascade down through the core, dividing and converging, make a topography of walkways, landing and steps that connect the street level to the main store on the 2nd floor. This landscape is comprised of 55 tons of hot-rolled steel... The Trend POP and Legende bags are Longchamp's new collections which are reinterpreted. These bags, with a nod to the Arty trend, will not remain unnoticed. Geometrical figures, compound fabrics and contrasts or leather… The Folk spirit from the 1960s is back. This season, Longchamp goes bold with natural tone fabrics and touches of bright blue, a soft trend embodied with a hint of fantasy. A combination of pale and flashy colors highlighted by a glossy effect! That’s Pop spirit. Bloomsbury USA The Shining City by Seth Greenland first published by Bloomsbury USA in 2008. Greenland returns with his trademark razor-sharp wit to take on middle class malaise & skewer American culture in his new novel... Marcus Ripps is just an average guy who is trying to make enough money to pay his mortgages & keep his wife happy. Desperation sets in when he finds himself out of work. The bills keep piling up, sending him upwards of $80,000 in debt. When his brother dies and leaves him a dry cleaner, Marcus is mystified as to why his estranged sibling would make such a gesture. Soon he discovers that the business is a front for a very lucrative West Hollywood escort service... Seth Greenland moved from NYC to LA, where he lives now. He has sold the film rights to Shining City to Warner Brothers in a million dollar deal. THE GUM THIEF - BOXED SET By Douglas Coupland first published by Bloomsbury in 2007. The first and only story of love and looming apocalypse set in the aisles of an office supply superstore. We meet Roger, a 43-year-old divorced father of 2 who embraces failure head on by taking the most mind numbing and soul crushing job the suburb have to offer: “aisles associate” at Staples. We also meet Roger’s co-worker Bethany, in her early twenties and at the end of her Goth phase. She is looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6. One day, Bethany discovers Roger’s notebook in the staff room. When she opens it up, she found out that this old guy she’s never considered as quite nice is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her:and, spookily, he is getting her right. These two retail people strike up an super-extraordinary epistolary relationship. Through a complex layering of narratives, The Gum Thief reveals the comedy, loneliness, and strange comforts of our life. HOW TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS YOU HAVEN'T READ by Pierre Bayard first published by Bloomsbury in 2007. The New York Times named this book “a survivor’s guide to life in the chattering classes.” If people are expected to have read all works of literature, & thousands published every year, what're we supposed to do in those funny situations in which we’re forced to talk about books we haven’t read? This book is witty, a huge hit in France that has drawn huge attention from worldwide critics. A literature professor and psychoanalyst Bayard argues that it’s more important to know a book’s role in a ccollective library than its details. Using examples from Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and the movie Groundhog Day, Bayard describes the varieties of “non-reading” & the sticky situations that might confront us. He offers his advice on what to do. His advices are ppractical, funny, thought-provoking. How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them He starts his book with Oscar Wilde quotation: "I never read a book I must review; It prejudice you so." Continue...

In The News Art & Tech Community Champions Craigslist Founder As Paragon Of Public Service & Net Freedom Craig Newmark has been honored at Eyebeam's annual benefit May 6, 2008. "Freedom & Creativity" fundraiser included Comedy Central comedian John Mulaney, The Walkmen & an after-party by NYC revelers The Misshapes. Eyebeam Executive Director Amanda McDonald crowley described Craig Newmark as a natural choice for Eyebeam stating "his commitment to democratic ideals & networked communities is tremendous, & serves as a model for many of us here at Eyebeam." Craigslist began as an email list in 1995 & has today become a widespread & largely free community resource available in as many as 567 cities in 50 countries worldwide, & which receives more than 10 billion hits per month.. Contemporary Indian Art – An Explosive Market In the mid 1990s, strong economic growth in India flushed out a new generation of collectors looking to invest in the art of fellow Indians. Today, demand is global and rising, fuelled by a very speculative environment with tempting opportunities for quick in and out trading. The new stars of Indian art are sought after in Hong-Kong and Dubai, London and New York, New Delhi and Paris. Galvanised by specialist auctions, contemporary Indian art has made spectacular gains: in January 2008, the sector’s price index was up by 830% over the decade! Flagship auctions of Indian art never fail to feature established names like Francis Newton Souza, Tyeb Mehta and Sayed Haider Raza. All born in the 1920s, they traced a path to contemporary art with erudite but uninhibited work that was stamped with Indian culture while owing much to Western art. The international success of this artistic generation opened a breach. And the young Indian scene, artists born between the 1950s and 1970s, swept through it. At the top of the list, apart from media stars like Anish Kapoor and Sudodh Gupta, there are Atul Dodiya, Ravinder REDDY, Chintan UPADHYAY, Shibu Natesan or Santosh TV… all have made over six figure sums at auction. Anish Kapoor, born in 1954, is a perfect illustration of soaring prices for contemporary Indian art. Consider, for example, his sculpture Mother as a ship: a motherly form of more than 2 metres, draped in a blue pigment that calls up infinite stretches of sea and sky. It is a work of meditation that typifies Kapoor’s work. It was put up for auction three times between 1998 et 2007, first at Christie’s London where it fetched GBP42,000, or USD 72,000. In May 2007, also at Christie’s, it went for USD 650,000 in New York. Kapoor was introduced to the secondary market twenty years ago and enjoys an international audience. He is unquestionably the most expensive contemporary Indian artist today. His rise accelerated in November 2006 when Sotheby’s auctioned the Vanthournout collection. The alabaster sculpture on sale went under the hammer at USD 2m, five times its estimate. Since then, Kapoor has made 5 other sales over the million dollar mark with the maximum, USD 2.5m, for another alabaster sculpture (14 November 2007, Sotheby’s NY). Nevertheless, not all his works are prohibitively expensive: small sculptures produced in limited series, go for between EUR 3,000 and 10,000. In the last two years, speculative overbidding for a few elected contemporary artists has been confirmed. In 2005 for example, Atul Dodiya broke through the USD 100,000 level for the first time (The Mocking, Sotheby’s NY, 20 September 2005). Two years later, his painting Lodging in Somnath, bought for the equivalent of USD 5,000 in 1995 (GBP 3,200, Christie’s London) was sold for HKD 3m, i.e. more than USD 385,800! Unlike Atul Dodiya, Sudodh Gupta, 44, was unknown in international auction houses three years before. Today, he is so famous that he is considered as the Indian Damien Hirst! In 2005, Sotheby’s sold his painting Fisherman for USD 13,000. By 2007, his paintings had easily risen ten times in price and were selling for between EUR 130,000 and 280,000 on average. He is enjoying global success and is sought after in Hong Kong, London or New York, and also in France. In fact, his new record was made in Paris, at Artcurial on 3 April 2008, for Vehicle for the seven Seas… The installation, which transforms a trolley and suitcases into precious objects, was sold for EUR 425,000, more than three times its estimate. Fund For Public Schools The Fund for Public Schools is dedicated to improve New York City's public schools by attracting private investment in school reform & encouraging greater involvement by all New Yorkers in the educational of children. The Fund plays a pivotal role in improving public education in NYC by strengthening for critical education reform initiatives, helping businesses to create partnerships & programs that support city schools, & raising public awareness about the public schools. The Fund for Public Schools & the Madison Avenue BID are charitable 501c3 organizations announced the Madison Gallery Walk Silent Auction Saturday, May 10, 2008. All proceeds will benefit The Fund for Public Schools. Sterling Publishing: Biographies Sterling' biography series packed with unique images and information ranging from rare documentary and artwork to personal artifacts and maps. Sterling Biographies assist readers in their introduction to history's most fascinating figures such as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Perle, Richard The Lionheart and others. The Abraham Lincoln by E. B. Phillips describes in all details Lincoln's fascinating life. This book published in 2008. Reared in poverty on the Illinois frontier, Abraham Lincoln worked from the age of eight - as a laborer. He educated himself. He taught himself grammar & became a talented orator. He thought himself geometry and became a skilled surveyor... At the end he became a wise leader -perhaps America's greatest president. Continue...