FAB GEAR The countdown has begun! September 9th will see the release of The Beatles catalog remastered and the new Rock Band game (and some speculate there may be an iTunes announcement coming soon). Spy Vibers looking for a source of clothing and accessories in the British Invasion mode can find a number of fab outfits and more at BeatleSuits.Working from original clothes, they've managed to make pitch-perfect reproductions of iconic suits worn by The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, in A Hard Days Night, and at the Shea and Budokan concerts. One of my fave designs sported by the group was the Pierre Cardin-inspired collarless jackets worn for stage and television appearances through late-1963. Spy Vibe suggests wearing your fab gear for a night out at the cinema and club, or for a night in as one of the Fabs in Rock Band. More information about Beatles artifacts and history at The Liverpool Museum (see photo above).
BEATLES ANIMATION Absolutely fantastic animation made in promotion for the new Beatles Rock Band game. I wish they would make a Beatles feature in this style.
DISCOTHEQUE DANCING A Spy Vibe treat to get your weekend hopping- from ESL Music and Chris Joss. The video's room design at the start may seem familiar to readers. You saw it posted way back in the Spy Set Countdown, which included information about designer Verner Panton.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN CONNERY A quick Spy Vibe note in celebration. Although he left the role of James Bond and returned- twice- Sean Connery will always be seen by many as the quintessential 007. He had everything working for him: Handsome and charming, deadly and physical, and importantly, he had the era of the 1960s -making his films iconic time-capsules of 1962-1967 culture. This was the era of the space race, the sexual revolution, youth-targeted fashion and consumerism, Swinging London, and despite his famous quip in Goldfinger, the era of The Beatles (prior to psychedelia). The earliest films were produced during Ian Fleming's lifetime. Bond was the original blockbuster adventure (each new film release was "The Biggest Bond Yet!"), inspiring the Spy Boom in entertainment in the mid-1960s. For any Spy Viber who has enjoyed the imitators (Eurospy movies, etc), fun though they are, none can hold a candle to 007, nor, especially, to Connery as leading man -not even his brother Neil/Operation Kid Brother. Connery fit those suits and walked like a panther, brawled with a true sense of animal frenzy and danger, and delivered lines with his iconic Scottish lilt and soft S's. On two personal notes, when I first played with a programmable computerized voice in the early 198Os, I programmed it to deliver dialog from Goldfinger in Sean's accent (the scene when he catches the baddie cheating and confronts him over the radio)! And I have the photo below framed with an autograph in my office, something I envisioned for my adult life back when I was a lad. We love Connery for his Bond, and of course, for his long and continuing career as a fine actor. Essential Connery for me also includes Marnie, The Hill, Robin and Marian, Zardoz, Outland, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Rising Sun. Read more about Connery's career and birthday wishes on The Commander Bond Network.
SAINT'S VOLVO P1800 RIDES AGAIN Thanks to a heads up from COBRAS agent Armstrong Sabian, we have a new design gem to drool over. Spy Vibers will surely remember Roger's Moore's sleek little Volvo P1800 from The Saint. From Autoblog:
Mattias Vöcks is at it again. Back in 2006, the Swedish-born designer who normally spends his days hand-assembling supercars for Koenigsegg used the SEMA to debut his show-stopping custom 1967 Volvo Amazon that was once voted "Sweden's Hottest Volvo." That title may soon go out to another of Vöcks' stunning creations, this time based on the classic Volvo P1800 made famous in part as the car driven by Roger Moore in the British television series The Saint from the 1960s. With help from Bo Zolland from Swedish design firm Vizualtech, Vöcks has added a few modifications to bring the shapely Swedish beauty to modern standards. Aerodynamics are improved by a rear diffuser, flat underbody tray and a front fascia that's been smoothed out and lengthened by 70mm. Powering the beast is a 4.4-liter V8 borrowed from a Volvo XC90 SUV that's been force-fed by a turbocharger and routes its 600 horses through a six-speed manual transmission to the rear wheels. According to a report by Auto Express, this custom Swede is slated to enter small-scale production at some unspecified date in the future. We can hardly wait.
Read more about the classic P1800 from The Saint on The Saint website.
FUTURE FASHION: URSULA ANDRESS For keeping those cosmic rays out, nothing says Space-Age Futurism like a plastic visor! One of my favorite costumes from The 10th Victim with Ursula Andress (recently re-released on DVD), has a slight Gaultier-Fifth Element feel with its minimalist approach to using strips of cloth. In my research on cold war anxiety and fashion, I've seen many visors/helmets, but none capture my imagination and design-love like the one that Andress wears briefly in one scene in the film as she de-planes in Rome. The white strip over her head echoes the overall theme of the outfit with strips connecting her gloves and arm, and strips fastened around her ankles. It gives her a wonderful cartoony look in contrast to the alternating white and black stripes on her companions' sleeves. Add spy-fi Italian soundtrack music and a story that involves international assassins and you can see why The 10th Victim is one of the only films that I look to as a collector of stills and posters. For more on futuristic fashions (including video), also visit the Mods to Moongirls and Fear and Fashion articles on Spy Vibe. Movie stills and posters are available at Movie Goods.
RICHARD SALA'S CAT BURGLAR BLACK Out of my collection of original drawings by Ashley Wood, Ben Templesmith, Hector Casanova, Dik Brown, Mort Walker, Johnny Hart, Matt Kindt, and others, the first and prominently framed piece on my wall is a page from the Chuckling Whatsit by Richard Sala. Sala weaves wonderfully textured pages filled with the elements Spy Vibers love to see: disguised mystery baddies, evil lairs, trap doors, secret societies, revolving bookcases, shots in the dark, gruesome henchmen, Calagari-like streets, mystery solving, and sometimes, strong female heroes in Mrs Peel-like jumpsuits :) Sala is back with a new book due out on September first called Cat Burglar Black. I think he probably got your attention at "Cat Burglar?" Once you start reading, his hypnotically macabre style and humor will draw you back again and again.
When K. Westree arrives at Bellsong Academy, she thinks she's left her cat-burgling past behind her. But K. soon discovers the school has a mystery of its own, a hidden treasure left behind by its founder, and she's the only one who has a hope of finding it. As she resumes her cat-burgling in an attempt to discover the school's secrets, K. begins to question if a normal life is really what she wants. Order here on Amazon.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT ENDS 8/23 For Spy Vibers interested in architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright, a reminder that the Guggenheim exhibit ends on August 23rd. The image below, and the interior of Roux Library on the museum's site reminds me a lot of Ken Adam and his use of contrasting spherical ceilings and triangular, sloping walls in his James Bond and Dr. Strangelove sets (influenced by his work on bomb shelters early on). From the Guggenheim: Fifty years after the realization of Frank Lloyd Wright’s renowned design, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrates the golden anniversary of its landmark building with the exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. On view from May 15 through August 23, 2009, the 50th anniversary exhibition brings together sixty-four projects designed by one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, including privately commissioned residences, civic and government buildings, religious and performance spaces, as well as unrealized urban mega-structures. Presented on the spiral ramps of Wright's museum through a range of mediums -including more than 200 original Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, many of which are on view to the public for the first time, as well as newly commissioned models and digital animations -Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward illuminates Wright’s pioneering concepts of space and reveals the architect's continuing relevance to contemporary design.
BLU-RAY FOR AUDIOPHILES From Blu-ray: High-end audio specialists McIntosh have announced that they will release their MVP881BR, a universal Blu-ray Disc player, in October. In addition to Blu-rays, the player will be able to playback SACD, DVD-A, DVD, and CD media. The player will be Profile v2.0 (BD-Live) and support all Blu-ray audio and video codecs.
According to Charlie Randall, president of McIntosh and Snell, McIntosh held off releasing a Blu-ray player until it could provide a universal player because they wanted it to represent a "true McIntosh audio experience." Price has not been announced at this time.
CALDER EXHIBIT A very special exhibit for Spy Vibers and Modernism enthusiasts in the Bay area: The San Jose Museum of Art is currently showing work by Alexander Calder through December 13th. Calder (trained as an engineer) challenged the long-held notion that sculpture was static and monumental. His inventive, colorful, animated “mobiles” epitomize the innovative, optimistic spirit of early-twentieth century modernism. In all of Calder’s mobiles, his objective was not to represent or refer to nature, but to capture its dynamic actions and unpredictable, living systems. This exhibition will include mobiles, jewelry, and works on paper drawn from Bay Area collections, including the holdings of several of the Museum’s founders and longtime supporters.
On a personal note and shout to my Putney School tribe out there, I enjoyed meals and working under a fabulous Calder mobile for years in the school's dining hall (the "KDU"). The Putney School, located in southern Vermont, has had a long relationship with the Calder family, including two of my schoolmates who are well-remembered for dry wit as much as for their upper-classman inspiration to me as a young photographer. A generation later, I had the joy of having one of their sons as my student. The Calder mobile was donated to the school and, after a long stint in the KDU, is now spinning beautifully in the school's recently completed performing arts center. I can't wait to see the exhibit in San Jose. Hopefully, I can even bring some of my students from San Francisco. The red shapes on the Calder piece below suddenly take on new meaning when I think about the passing of time and of the many relationships and bonds one experiences as a student, and eventually, as a teacher.
IAN FLEMING REPRINTS I just picked up the first paperback edition of Ian Fleming's The Diamond Smugglers and am already hooked. It's the true story about a master spy-chaser who was brought to Africa to dry up an illicit diamond pipeline. For Spy Vibers who haven't been watching the Commander Bond Network, Ian Fleming Productions have recently reprinted Fleming's two non-Bond books, The Diamond Smugglers and Thrilling Cities. Orders can be made directly from their website.
YELLOW SUB SAILS AGAIN Variety reports that Robert Zemeckis is brokering a deal with Disney and Apple to remake Yellow Submarine with 3D motion capture technology, and that Disney is working on "a complicated rights deal" that would clear 16 Beatles tunes for use in the film. Zemeckis made the Beatles-related film I Wanna Hold Your Hand in 1978 (which I loved as a thirteen year old Beatles fan). The storyline of the original Yellow Submarine, directed by George Dunning, was set in Pepperland, an undersea paradise protected by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When the band is captured by the music-hating Blue Meanies, a soldier is sent to Liverpool to fetch the Fab Four, who hop in the submarine and sail to the rescue. The film traces their odessey to strange places (the Sea of Holes, the Sea of Time, etc), where they meet fantastic characters and monsters. Kind of like a Fab Dirty Dozen, they eventually infiltrate Pepperland, steal instruments from the center of the Blue Meanie's encampment - like a Resistance group might raid a munitions depot - and save the day with music and love. It's a great message in a cool 1960s, surreal setting. I would be weary of a re-envisioning of the film, but something along the lines of the 3D Nightmare Before Christmas project could be quite fun to see.
In a related article from Time (July 23, 2009), Richard Lacayo pays tribute to designer Heinz Edelmann: Heinz Edelmann, the German graphic artist who was art director of the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine, died this week in Stuttgart at 75. Oddly it was only a few weeks ago, while I was writing about the James Ensor show at MoMA, that I had been thinking about that movie and the whole question of how pop culture influences travel back in forth in art.
In his graphic work and in some of his paintings, Ensor like to draw on cartoonish illustration styles of the late 19th century. That helps to account for the manic draughtmanship of his masterpiece, Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889. It's a painting that has always made me think about the mad street riots that break out on South Park every so often, all those jerkily gesticulating townfolk. I wondered if the South Park guys ever consciously drew on it, or if for them it was just one more part of the primordial ooze of imagery we all have in our heads.
Which brought me back to Yellow Submarine. One thing that struck me when I first encountered it as a teenager in 1968 was the way it had absorbed and blended a whole range of artists and graphic styles I was only just discovering — Aubrey Beardsley prints, the little monsters in Hieronymous Bosch, the French illustrators who created that Victorian high tech look for Jules Verne's novels, Tenniel's illustrations for the Alice books. It was a lot to look at and it made me realize how historic styles could have a lot of juice in them.
It's often said that Edelmann became a big influence on Terry Gilliam's animations for Monty Python. What he didn't do was a spend a lifetime turning out Yellow Submarine imitations, and so avoided the Peter Max formula trap. It may be that he only produced one truly lasting work, but it's a doozy.
SPY- FI CHANNEL PROJECT Comic writer Christopher Mills has cooked up something special! From Spy Fi Channel: A while back, I posted some artwork from my as-yet-unrealized spy-fi comic, Knight & Gale. At the time, I mentioned that I was developing another genre comics project. This bit of art is from that aforementioned project. It's called Skorpion, and is inspired by such Eurocomix characters (and movie stars) as Diabolik and Kriminal. Read more here.
iPHONE PHOTO SERIES I have launched a new page on jasonwhiton.com for iPhone series projects. Included in the first draft collection are Godzilla, Gigantor, Lost in Space Robot, and many others (and my dog Tango, too!). You can see the web gallery here.
MODERNISM GUIDE I came across this new book yesterday that might be of interest to Spy Vibers who collect Mid-Century Modern or might need a visual reference for projects (or to ID production design in your fave 60s Spy Films!). It's a richly illustrated identification and price guide for modern furniture and home design. From Amazon: The cool designs, sleek lines and fashion-forward forms of the open and optimistic feel of the modernism furniture and design is as reflective of attitude as it is ingenuity. The enthusiasm and boundless hope of post-War 1950s America, not unlike our country’s current eagerness for a shot of optimism, is represented in the pages of this beautifully illustrated, inspiring, and informative book. Warman’s Modernism Furniture & Accessories features the furniture and designs that emerged during the prime of the movement, between 1945 and 1985. The collection of 1,000 rich and robust color photos, real-world auction prices and extensive descriptions make this a fundamental reference for anyone with an interest in modernism furniture.
NICOLA CONTE/SUPER FURRY ANIMALSTwo very cool shows at the Highland Ballroom in NYC on Sept 4th: Nicola Conte (mentioned during the first annual Spy Vibe Penthouse Party) at 8PM and the Super Furry Animals at 9PM. You can learn more about Highland shows on their blog and at their website.
PLASTIC ONO BAND For Spy Vibers with a taste for experimental grooves and 60s artists working today, there is a new album coming out on Sept 21st by the new Plastic Ono Band, which includes Yoko and Sean, Yuka Honda, and Cornelius. I gather that they formed, as is the tradition with this band, for a group of recent shows and an interesting batch of recordings were the result. You can hear a sample on Yoko's Imagine Peace website, where you can also learn about her Smiling Face Film project, exhibits, and other news. Regardless of whether Yoko is your cup of tea as an artist (and there is great debate among people), she is undeniably a fascinating and creative force whose Buddhist-like subtle conceptions and offerings should not go unnoticed behind the media and hype that follows her. If you would like to look into her artwork further, I suggest the book Y E S, and the upcoming book Yoko Ono (Modern Artists Series). Here is the album cover- great photograph! In youtube footage of the concerts, Yoko was stylishly Mod in a jersey with striped sleeves and short-brimmed white cap. She's industrious and, in her own eccentric way, very cool. All the best wishes to Yoko, Sean, Yuka, and the band from Jason at Spy Vibe.
JACQUES TATI PLAYTIME In the Criterion Collection’s new efforts to bring masterpiece films to Blu-ray, one particular release this week should be on the radar of fellow Spy Vibers who love modern design- Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967). As he had done in his previous film, Mon Oncle (1958), Tati uses his alter ego Monsieur Hulot to examine and poke fun at the mid-century fascination with all-things Modern. Tati studied the architecture of airports, offices, supermarkets, and other public institutions during his promotional trips for Mon Oncle, making observations that became his next project. In this outing, Hulot enters an architectural labyrinth, like a modern-day Thesius, and makes his way through a variety of humorous situations. The 70mm photography of Paris buildings and interiors alone is worth the price of admission, especially knowing that Tati's crew built the sets (and actual buildings!) from glass, plastic, wood, and concrete over a production period between 1964 and 1967. The set was dubbed Tativille. They constructed beautifully modern spaces, vast with long hallways, glass walls, cubicals, escalators, and decorated the sets with minimal furniture and props that often became the source of his humor. To trim the budget, Tati used cutout extras for crowd shots who stood in the background to "interact" with live extras.
In one of my favorite scenes (see video below), Hulot accompanies a friend home where he lives with his family in a kind of department store window. We watch from outside as they sit, chat, watch TV, and people pass by on the sidewalk. Soon their actions appear to interact with the neighbors (in a facing shop window). It is a wonderful, quirky comedy play on consumerism and the isolation of modern lifestyles- not to mention a foreshadowing of the voyeuristic nature of contemporary reality show entertainment and the films, The Truman Show (Peter Weir/1998) and The Model Couple (William Klein/1977).
Tati's films are mostly without dialog and the humor is quite charming. If you saw the fabulous animated film The Triplets of Belleville (a tribute to Tati), then you will know a bit what to expect. Much of Tati's humor in Playtime is based on sounds- the sounds of people moving within and interacting with modern spaces and technologies. There is a fantastic essay on this over at Spectacular Attractions. If you read French, check out the Tati exhibit of sets, sketches, models, props, fashion and more at the Cinematheque Francaise.
DVD Beaver: Jacques Tati, the choreographer of the charming, comical ballet that is Playtime, casts the endearingly clumsy Monsieur Hulot as the principal character wandering through modernist Paris. Amid the babble of English, French and German tourists, Hulot tries to reconcile the old-fashioned ways with the confusion of the encroaching age of technology. Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the endearingly clumsy, resolutely old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modernist Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion. [See also the Blu-ray review.]
SHAG INTERVIEW Josh Agle (Shag) has captured our imaginations and retro-lovin' hearts by mining elements of the Spy Vibe form of 50s-60s culture in his paintings. His universe is filled with evil lairs, bachelor pads, femme fatales, cocktail lounges, Tiki and Mid-Century Modern, and Vespa-riding hipsters. Read more about his influences, career, and more over at Mod Culture, and a cool nod over at My Design Fix.
SPY VIBE in VEGAS 2 Part Two of new Photographs made with my iPhone especially for Spy Vibe during our trip to Vegas to see The Beatles Cirque du Soleil show. As I'm currently writing new articles about the influence of the Space Race and Cold War anxieties on fashion and costume design, my eye was immediately drawn to this add for Barneys that juxtaposes the model with an astronaut. See? The 1960s Spy Vibe of futuristic style is still in orbit! The second image for today is an interior study of the Fin restaurant in The Mirage. I loved how they mixed exposed flagstone-style with glass-lit walls and hanging, metalic spheres.
FAB GEAR 
