Floating Cinema

FLOATING CINEMA 2013

Plans for our brand new Floating Cinema for 2013 are well underway and four shortlisted architect teams have been invited to take their designs to the next stage of the competition. Congratulations go to: Nilsson Pflugfelder  (Berlin/London) vPPR (London) OBRA  (New York/Beijing) Duggan Morris  (London) The winning design will be announced in September – so watch this space!  Our Floating Cinema Architecture Competition is produced in partnership with the Architecture Foundation. The new Floating Cinema is commissioned by the Legacy List and sponsored by Bloomberg.

FLOATING CINEMA: NOT THE OPENING CEREMONY 27 JULY

Abbey Gardens, Newham. Image: Nina Pope

Don't forget we are hosting Not the Opening Ceremony on Friday 27th July at Floating Cinema artists Somewhere’s community garden; Abbey Gardens located next to the Olympic Park in Stratford. We hope you will join us for food, music, film and quite possibly a glimpse of fireworks from the larger event taking place next door!  We hope to see you there – for more info see the Floating Cinema website.

HIT SATIRICAL PODCAST ‘THE BUGLE’ REACHES ITS 200TH EPISODE

The US and UK hit satirical comedy podcast The Bugle, hosted by JOHN OLIVER (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and ANDY ZALTZMAN (7 Day Sunday on BBC Radio 5 Live) will celebrate its monumental 200^th episode this Friday 13^th July.

Fans will be able to download the 200th episode, featuring JOHN and ANDY in their respective home cities of New York and London, via iTunes or www.soundcloud.com/the-bugle, and the show’s website, www.thebuglepodcast.com.

The Bugle 200 will see JOHN and ANDY reunite to cast their unique perspective over the week’s major news stories and protagonists.  On the agenda for this week will be the general state of the world, the banking crisis, Berlusconi’s comeback, the Olympics and how the 200th Bugle is unquestionably the showbiz event of the post-palaeolithic era.

Last year, the podcast had an average of over 2 million downloads per month.  It has regularly featured in the official iTunes podcast top 10 in both the USA and UK, with a five star rating from iTunes users. The Bugle was voted as one of the top ten podcasts of 2011 by The A.V. Club.

Since its birth in October 2007, JOHN and ANDY have dispensed their weekly doses of satire to an estimated potential global audience of 7 billion people. They have left no political hot potato unbuttered, and have presided over, and/or caused, and/or commented on (delete according to preference) the downfall of several of the world’s least desirable despots and dinner companions.

The numerous topics the show has covered include: the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the 2010 U.K. general election, the global economic crisis, the Arab Spring, the crackpot antics of the world’s various despots and lunatics, the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and Lou Reed’s epoch-defining 2010 concert for dogs.  The Bugle has left no satirical hot potato unbuttered.

Spy, fly and record

 with Red5.co.uk’s Spy Hawk

…It films, it records, it flies…

RED5.co.uk, the ultimate gadget shop, today announces the Spy Hawk plane featuring a 5 megapixel video camera with live feedback to the 3.5” LCD screen on the transmitter, a 600m range and state of the art stabilisation technology.  Available today on pre-order from www.RED5.co.uk for £245.95.

The Spy Hawk is a 3 channel glider with a built in FPV (first person view) video system that sends a high quality, 5 megapixel live stream to the 3.5” LCD screen on the transmitter. It features an advanced stabilisation system that makes it super easier to fly, even for first time pilots with little or no practice at all. Simply switch on the ‘autopilot’ and the built in gyro will kick-in, keeping the plane at the correct altitude. With the plane actively giving you a helping hand, you get to concentrate on the fun side of flying.

The Sky Hawk has a range of up to 600 metres with an average flight time of  20 to 30 minutes from a single 7.4v lithium-ion polymer battery.  The Spy Hawk is made from EPO crash resistant foam,  so in the unlikely event that it will allow you to crash it, it is strong enough to resist a bumpy landing.  Thanks to its reasonable size, it’s easy to carry around, and is perfect for a trip to the park or anywhere else you’d like to get a great bird’s eye view.

The Intelligent automatic control and video signal binding, enable you to fly more than one Spy Hawk glider at the same time, so you can chase your friend’s plane around and record the dog fight with high quality video and sound. Press the enter button on your rubberised remote and the camera will start to record your progress through the sky and save the video to a 4GB SD card. It even features a sunlight screen guard for the remote that allows you to see the screen in the unlikely event the sun is shining! 

Quite simply it’s the most fun you can have with an RC Plane and when your flight is over you can watch it all back again!

See a flight from Spy Hawk’s point of view here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3KsgawNOlc&feature=youtu.be

Specifications

• First person view  glider with built in 5 megapixel camera
• Made from EPO crash proof material
• C1404 brushless motor KV3000
• ESC: 6A
• Transmitter: 2.4GHz 4 channels vs 3.5” LCD monitor plus 5.8GHz video transmission
• Live video distance: 400 metres
• Auto-pilot module
• Video recording module
• 7.4V battery 450mAh
• Wing span measures approx. 84cm
• Overall length measures approx. 62cm
• Weighs approx. 180g
• Flying time approx. 20 – 30 minutes
• Charge time approx. 40 minutes

Historic Marilyn Monroe ''Red Velvet'' Photographic Color Separations Offered for Sale

A Las Vegas art collector and owner of the original, one-of-a-kind color separations used to produce the iconic "Golden Dreams" calendars from the famous 1949 Marilyn Monroe "Red Velvet" photo shoot, is offering them for sale. These color separations were originally created and owned by the John Baumgarth Company and were discovered as part of a corporate art collection in 2010. The collection is in pristine condition and archivally preserved and presented.

The most glamorous icon of the 20th Century was captured for all time in a moment of youthful, exuberant sensuality - an unforgettable image that, more than 60 years later, communicates freshness. To reproduce the refined features, supple texture and luxurious tones that were so totally Marilyn, print artisans painstakingly created and corrected the many layers of film needed for the full color printing process to make the original Chromalin color proof - a masterpiece of printer's art.

The Kodachrome photograph and twenty-one large format color separations (16'' x 33'') offered for sale were used by Baumgarth to create the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe featured in the first "Golden Dreams" calendar produced in 1951, before the identity of the blonde bombshell posing for the photos was known (the model wasn't identified as Marilyn until 1952), and which went on to sell over eight million copies worldwide, making Marilyn the best-selling calendar girl of all time.

The collection also includes the "Lure of Lace" and "Entrancing" images that featured Marilyn wearing negligees in order to comply with U.S. postal regulations banning the transport of nude images.

The Kodachrome photograph is framed and the color separations are mounted and protected in OP3 museum-quality acrylic frames so that they may be appreciated, when artfully suspended, from both sides. These are the original separations used to produce the large format calendars and the only known surviving examples, which are documented to have changed hands through a series of corporate acquisitions spanning several decades.

When Marilyn showed up to do the calendar shoot at Tom Kelley's studio on Friday, May 27, 1949, her need was dire and immediate; her contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia had not been renewed and she was out of work.  The photo shoot was commissioned by Baumgarth, who paid Kelley $500 for the publication rights.

It has been reported that Marilyn received $50, which was exactly what she needed to get back her car that had been impounded. Marilyn only agreed to do the shoot if Kelley's wife Natalie was present.

Only two of the 24 images taken during the shoot, entitled by Baumgarth "A New Wrinkle" and "Golden Dreams," survived and made it to print, with the others mysteriously stolen from Kelley's studio. "A New Wrinkle" graced one Baumgarth calendar, but the picture that captured a nation's imagination was "Golden Dreams."

Neither the photographer nor the 22-year-old blonde actress and model could have realized what an historic moment they were creating. In her contract with Kelley, the starlet signed under the pseudonym Mona Monroe (right). When her movie studio, 20th Century-Fox, first learned that the nude pinup hanging in gas stations from coast to coast was none other than its rising star, it was something of a scandal. The press assailed her with questions. Was it true she had posed with "nothing on"?

The studio's initial reaction was to deny everything.  Studios such as 20th Century-Fox had stringent moral clauses in their contracts that were designed to intimidate actors and actresses. No celebrity had ever posed nude and then had the pictures distributed to a startled nation. Biographers agree that Marilyn was instrumental in persuading the studio that their natural inclination to deny the whole thing was the wrong way to go. Instead, Marilyn used an upcoming interview with Aline Mosby, a reporter with United Press International, to break the story on March 13, 1952:

"A photograph of a beautiful nude blonde on a 1952 calendar is hanging in garages and barbershops all over the nation today.  Marilyn Monroe admitted today that the beauty is she. She posed, stretched out on rumpled red velvet for the artistic photo 3 years ago because "I was broke and needed the money. Oh, the calendar's hanging in garages all over town," said Marilyn.  "Why deny it? You can get one any place.  Besides, I'm not ashamed of it.  I've done nothing wrong."

The story ended up being picked up by every wire service and circulated around the world. The reaction was swift and immediate national forgiveness. Not only that, but the sensation of the pictures, her interview and all of the related controversy made Marilyn an even bigger star.

In December 1953, an astute young publisher named Hugh Hefner bought the rights from Baumgarth to reproduce the "Golden Dreams" image as the first "Sweetheart of the Month," in the now historic inaugural issue of Playboy magazine. The success of that first issue enabled Hefner to continue producing the magazine and ultimately build his Playboy Empire.

In addition to the Red Velvet Collection, many of the original paintings in the Messenger Art Collection are being offered for sale. Visit the website www.messengerartcollection.com and click on Masterpieces for Sale.