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From the Political Pittbull
From the Times
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After years of being the hottest MP3 player on the market apple's popular Ipod may have a run for its money...Yesterday Microsoft, a fierce Apple rival, announced that it was launching its own MP3 player which looks very much like its rival and will be priced just the same. It only has two differences: 1 - it will work with Microsoft's own MP3 service and 2 - it will include WIFI for document transfer!
For more check out:
Microsoft's 'Zune' to spark war of the iPods with Apple
Also check out Microsoft's teaser site:
https://www.comingzune.com/

http://men.style.com/news/going_out/092706

Wallpaper*, one of the world's best and most important magazines for Design and Architecture and Phaidon, a leader in the world of publishing of Architecture and Design books have joined forces to bring you Wallpaper* City guides. This collection of 20 guides include: Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Istanbul, London, Loas Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney and Tokyo
Here is what Phaidon has to say about their guides: Wallpaper* City Guides present a tightly edited, discreetly packaged list of the best a location has to offer the design-conscious traveller. Here is a precise, informative, insider's checklist of all you need to know about the world's most intoxicating cities. Whether you are staying for 48 hours or five days, visiting for business or vacation, we've done the hard work for you, from finding the best restaurants, bars and hotels (including which rooms to request) to the most extraordinary stores and sites, and the most enticing architecture and design. Wallpaper* City Guides enable you to come away from your trip, however brief, with a real taste of the city's landscape and the satisfaction you've seen all that you should. Wallpaper* City Guides are compiled by the magazine's travel experts, both by in-house editors and correspondents who actually live in the highlighted cities, providing up-to-the-minute information. They are published on the occasion of the magazine's 10th anniversary and highlight its mission to present the best in new design and sophisticated travel. For more information go to www.phaidon.com/travel

NYT: Inside the Museum, Dylan’s Youth Goes on Display
NYT: The Frick as a Place for a Small Reunion
NYT: Boston Museum Returns 13 Ancient Works to Italy
NYT: New York Film Festival Quietly Demands Attention
NYT: Steve Reich, Sunny? Well, It Is His Birthday
NYS: Beauty in the Bronx
NYS: ‘Mad About Music' Celebrates Five Years on the Air
IHT: First, inject formaldehyde; then, restore an artwork

NYT: And the Orchestra Plays on, Echoing Iraq’s Struggles
NYT: The City Changes. Its Museum Will, Too.
NYS: Stone Faces, Expressive at the Met
NYS: A Truly Grand Opera

Have a look at these two blogs - interesting stuff!
www.contessanally.blogspot.com
www.venicesuperblog.net

NYT: New Ideals for Building in the Face of Modernism
NYT: New Look at ‘Mona Lisa’ Yields Some New Secrets
NYT: Tate and Scottish Museums Plan to Share a Trove of Contemporary Art
NYT: Berlin’s Post-Wall Master Builder Retires
NYT: At Long Last, a Shostakovich Premiere
IHT: When a picture says everything
IHT: Revealing the essence of Hong Kong

NYT: Met Opera Brings a Little Punch to Its Puccini
NYT: Glimpses of a Genius Who Blazed His Paper Trail
NYS: A Little Sun Goes a Long Way
NYS: A Birthday Bash That's Anything but Minimal
NYS: Arias on Canvas

Have a look at this website that lexus put together for the launch of their new sedan - great expose on eco friendly designers. Also takes you on Hybrid Living tours of three cities: NY, LA and SF. http://www.articulate-sf.com/Lexus/

NYT: One Extraordinary Night, Annotated by Its Architect
IHT: Jean Prouvé: A 'factory man' who became '90s auction star
NYT: A World-Famous Architect Goes Home to Cornell
NYT: An Oracle of Modernism in Ancient Rome
NYS: The Rise And Fall of A Modernist Gem
IHT: A great hunting ground for avid consumers
NYS: A Delightful, Resourceful ‘Figaro'
IHT: Peering into the private world of Warhol
For those traveling a guide to arts exhibits from the IHT

Check out this interesting piece of design for anyone bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party or on a picnic - they even make bags for baby gear! builtny.com

“Pick me up – Stuff you need to know” is about nothing and everything all in the same time. Published as DK’s first information book for young adults it was written in order for teenagers to be able to discover the history, nature, science and geography of the world around them. It contains loads of fun facts ranging from everything about Japan to a section called “Where does God Live?” which explains how many of the world’s religions interpret their existence of God. In DK’s own words the creation and design of the book was “inspired by the internet, styled like a video game and informed by pop culture.” Sure to be a great read for young adults! Pick one up in the Children’s section of your local bookstore starting October 2006. For more information: http://us.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780756621599,00.html#

The Musée du Quai Branly, recently designed by architect Jean Nouvel, houses an amazing selection of arts and artifacts of civilizations from Africa, Asia, the Americas and more. The building itself does what in today’s world can be described as an unusually terrific job in housing the collection. By this I mean that most museums today are architecturally beautiful from the outside but in the inside all you see is white walls and a stale atmosphere. Take for example the Moma in New York or the Centre Pompidou in Paris, both museums with extremely interesting exteriors housing beautiful collections but with no story to tell. When entering Nouvel’s building you get the sense that every detail was thought out and designed by the architect, everything from the colors of the exteriors to the glass column in the center of the main part of the museum that holds a part of the museum’s collection of ancient instruments for everyone to see and that goes through every floor of the building. I would also like to point out that the museum also houses a very beautiful library that is worth the visit. As mentioned before many of today’s museums are built without the actual works in mind. They are designed by architects to make a statement in an architectural language but not tell a story. Jean Nouvel did an amazing job of creating a building that would come together with the work it houses and tells the story that it’s meant to tell. I highly recommend visiting the Musée du Quai Branly even if you are a novice in this specific art world like myself. For more information: http://www.quaibranly.fr