HANNE'S ART AND CULTURE BLOG

Wow! This video is going to give you the goosebumps!

Some additional material:

I'm not going to say anything about this, since we already have this guy to explain it so beautifully:

Whistle Voice FAQ - Watch a funny movie here

I think that whistling is the new autotune.

In 1991, Esther Mahlangu was the first female artist to paint a BMW art car. The model she painted was a 525i. Visit Esther's website! She also has an art school.

Born on November 11th, 1935, in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, Esther Mahlangu learned the skill of mural painting from her mother and grandmother, descendants of the Ndebele people. In their society, women competed by decorating their homes with pigments fashioned from different coloured clays, ash, and cow dung.

Mahlangu has become known for her signature razorblade design, and she has incorporated many objects and aspects of modern life into her work. So far, Mahlangu’s designs have appeared on everything from greeting cards to a BMW 525i and the tailfins of British Airways Boeing.

Esther Mahlangu was the very first person to transfer Ndebele mural designs onto canvas, making her art portable, and giving people in galleries all over the world the chance to enjoy this vibrant art style first hand. She was ‘discovered’ in 1989 by a travelling art researcher, and invited to participate in a living art exhibition in the Pompidou Centre, Paris.

If you have not visited this exhibition yet, you should. It's on at the Museum of Art and Design in New York until January 31 2010. What a great idea for an art show! And there is a book too, entitled Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box, which can be bought from Amazon.

The first major museum exhibition of jewelry from the personal collection of Madeleine Albright will premiere at the Museum of Arts and Design on September 30 and will remain on view through January 31, 2010. Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection features more than 200 pins, many of which Secretary Albright wore to communicate a message or a mood during her diplomatic tenure. The exhibition examines the collection for its historic significance as well as the expressive power of jewelry and its ability to communicate through a style and language of its own. The exhibition will be presented in the Museum's Tiffany & Co. Gallery, dedicated to the study and presentation of contemporary jewelry from around the world.

In 1997, Albright was named the first female Secretary of State and became, at that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. While serving under President Bill Clinton, first as U.S ambassador to the United Nations, and then as Secretary of State, Albright became known for wearing brooches that purposefully conveyed her views about the situation at hand. "I found that jewelry had become part of my personal diplomatic arsenal," Secretary Albright has said. "While President George H.W. Bush had been known for saying 'Read my lips,' I began urging colleagues and reporters to 'Read my pins.'"

For more information, go to the Museum of Art and Design website.

Apparently this is the whole definition of a successful hockey game. The more fighting the better. As the old hockey joke goes: "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out". Russian Superleague. Kazan. Tatneft-Arena. Ak Bars vs. Traktor. Jan 08, 2008. The "dirtiest game in Russian ice hockey history", started after AK Bars Kazan scored a late goal to the displeasure of the opposing Chelyabinsk. A "delicious mass brawl" ensued.

So I finally watched Twilight. It's ok. Mostly because of Rob Pattinson and his good looks. Yes, I finally get the hype. The best part though is the genius line "You better hold on tight, spider monkey", by Rob the vampire right before he's about to climb the trees, crazy vampire style, with Bella on his back. The line already has cult status, so I guess I'm really late with this one, but still. Explanation from the writer below.

HELLO, WELCOME TO MY INTRODUCTION

There are many reasons why you might be reading this sentence. You're obviously curious about me, or you wouldn't even be holding this book. That's cool with me, I'm happy about that, Mr. or Mrs. Whoever You Are. If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that curiosity might kill cats, but it doesn't kill people. Unless you're curious about doing things like bungee jumping high on crack to see if you really need that harness, curiosity will not kill you! I tell you what will kill you—people will. We've got a long way to go to change that around, but I hope we do. For now, I can say this and I know it's true: Curiosity makes you smarter. Don't fight it! Learn to learn, learn to ask questions. Clearly, you've got questions about me. In this book you'll find some answers.

I have a pretty diverse audience, and that makes me happy—laughter is universal, and I don't differentiate between people at all. Why should I? People are people. There's no reason why one person can't relate to any other person on this planet in some way or another. That's something I didn't have to be taught—I believed that as a kid, and leading the crazy life I've led has done nothing but prove me right to myself. I have friends who are black, white, purple, gay, straight, Martian, yellow, old, and young. I have friends who are animals and a few who I believe to be robots. All of them are people to me. In my mind it's not about what you look like or what you do, it's about who you are inside.

I hope whoever you are inside likes surprises, because I've got a few in store for you here. I'm not a child star, but you could say that I've grown up on TV. I went from being an unknown, down-and-out comic from Brooklyn and the Bronx to being a regular character on a major network comedy called Martin. From there I went on to become the most notable black comic on Saturday Night Live since Eddie Murphy. Then I had my own show, The Tracy Morgan Show, and now I'm on 30 Rock. I definitely went from a boy to a man on TV, all on NBC—what up, Lorne Michaels! But here's what you don't know: I was already a man of the streets. I had to be to survive my upbringing.

The version of me you see on TV now and in my feature films is a pretty happy guy, isn't he? Finally, in my personal life, that much is true too—or it's getting there. Happiness, contentment, security—that's all new for me. I've reached my forties and I can finally say that no one except me can take my house away from me. No one but me can put me on the street. But it wasn't always like that. My life growing up was a twisted Bronx version of The Color Purple. It had a much different soundtrack and no trees, but that desperation was the same. At this point in my life I plan for the future. Back then I planned how to get through one day at a time.

Read more here.