lo-fi: 1991-2005

The Abject Romance of Low Resolution, David Humphrey (full text offline):

The way an image copied or magnified many times breaks down into chaotic nonsense resembles the relation of figure and ground that Clement Greenberg saw as the structural grammar of Modernist painting. This relation could be considered a symbolic elaboration of the process of primary ego-differentiation. The struggle between a desire to lose one's boundaries and fearfulness of this loss, the promise of fulfillment and threat of dissolution, is the painter's romance of a return to origins, as well as the drama of degrading reproduction.

Static, Cheryl Edwards:

As the corporate entertainment world introduces greater levels of "virtuality" into films (Toy Story, Jurassic Park) and computer games (Myst, Tomb Raider II), many artists are headed in the opposite direction, toward a kind of a sublime indeterminacy. Blurred transmissions, imperfect copies, and other waste products of electronic and digital media are the model for this new aesthetic, which is both symbiotic to and aloof from the global information network.

Static, Alexander Ross:

The advent of the compact disc in all its sterile flawlessness brought about the realization that technological defects such as tape hiss, amp buzz, record groove ticks, and ultimately the computerized glitches sometimes heard on the CD itself were now interesting sounds never before utilized in conjunction with music. This, combined with the inexpensive home recording boom, coalesced into what became known as LO-FI.

"George Elliot re: Art on TV", Sally McKay quoting George Elliott, 1953:

Color of course, is the first element to be sacrificed if painting is put in front of the television camera. Can you imagine a Goodridge Roberts landscape without Roberts' very private blues and greens? Binning's subtleties of color are an important part of his charm. Varley's disturbing palette of piercing greens, blues, cold pinks and earth are essential to the uniqueness of Varley.
[...]
A painting needs an intellectual presence before it can work its magic. Placing anything between the viewer and the painting kills the viewer.

delirious Beijing

burned Koolhaas

From Curbed, a photo of the Rem Koolhaas just-constructed Beijing hotel that recently burned after some, yes, "illegal fireworks" touched off a building-wide blaze.

This edifice burned top to bottom, inside and out. Yet it is still structurally intact, as you can see. This is what happens when modern skyscrapers burn. Usually.

Coraline

Recommended: Coraline, and in particular Bruno Coulais' soundtrack.
This blog likes pretty much everything director/stop-motion animator Henry Selick has done, from Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions to Nightmare Before Christmas to the unfairly-derided Monkeybone.
It appears digital 3D puppets are how Hollywood plans to keep luring the preteen set to theatres in the current slump, with parents in tow, natch. Previewed several bad-looking ones before the movie started.
Selick's film has some CGI but he is that rare duck who crafts actual physical models, moves, and photographs them, thus mostly avoiding the horrible rubbery Shrek look.
Coraline has gorgeous sets and some spectacular trippy sequences, such as the "blooming of the night garden."
Coulais' sweet, sad music recalls a mix of Carl Orff and the famous Bulgarian Radio Choir recordings, with a slightly Middle Eastern flavor (the composer's mother is Iraqi). Several children's choirs are used on the soundtrack.
Pricy, because you have to shell out extra for 3D glasses to watch it in the theatre, but worth it. The score also merits a download.

Confiding in Google

This is funny but I'm annoyed that the divine Google now trumps my own computer’s remembered searches with their mediocre Everyman bull.
But I was also annoyed that amazon made suggestions for books I’d like based on other books I’d bought, back in the ’90s.
You can’t stop “progress.”