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Bali Buzz: Mangovision Ripens

A posse of Bali creatives and media folk have banded together to make a television content package for high-end hotels, with fresh, locally-grown features, info and advertising. Mangovision is broadcasting in several top hotel and villa resorts on the island, with more joining all the time. The focus is decidedly … Continue reading

Best Weather Watching Site for Bali

The weather in Bali has been very disappointing lately. Lie on the beach and you’re more likely to rust than to tan. So, how to predict what’s ahead weather-wise? Ask the surfers. The surf world watches wind, waves, and barometric pressure intently, and their monitoring and predictions are spot on. … Continue reading

SACM Show Exposes Origins of Museum Booty

It’s a fun theme for an exhibition, “Hunters & Collectors.” And an interesting opportunity to consider the history of collecting itself as an anthropological phenomenon. The age of plundering in the jungles is over, and attitudes toward cultural property and buccaneerism have shifted 180 degrees. Still, you can relive the … Continue reading

Bali High Season: Oazia Opening Party

It was a full moon, with a partial eclipse, and it was also my birthday. July 7. Auspicious, indeed. A well-chosen day for the grand opening of Oazia Spa Villas, a most unusual newcomer on the Bali spa and rental villas scene. The party was themed “white,” although it felt … Continue reading

Housing Art by David Howell

When we made our own house here in Bali, housing art was a primary part of the design program. This priority makes specific demands that call for intelligent solutions, and when they are achieved, the result is far greater than the sum of the parts. The house, the art, and … Continue reading

Making Modernism Rich

What is called “modernism” in architecture can be a bit barren and over-blank. The term colloquially refers to almost anything that’s rigorously rectilinear and mostly unornamented. But it doesn’t have to mean aesthetic impoverishment. Frank Llloyd Wright understood this perfectly.  Case in point, the Bachman-Wilson House (1954) which has been … Continue reading

No Recent Posts on Architecture: wHY?

This blog has been entirely bereft of architecture posts for months. Why the dry spell? I haven’t seen much worth mentioning. The endless insensitive regurgitation of 20th century modernism doesn’t do it. Nor does the egomania of international celebrity architects who rode the wave of wacky overspending that brought us … Continue reading

Arts of Ancient Viet Nam Coming to Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Asia Society, New York, offer an unprecedented exhibition of art from ancient Viet Nam—the first U.S. exhibition to address in depth the historical, geographic and cultural contexts of precolonial Vietnamese art. Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea will expose … Continue reading

Custom Furniture: 90% Perspiration

Last week was spent with two designers from Douglas Durkin Design, Greg Elich and Andrew Horn. They were in Bali to work on a collection of extraordinary custom furniture for a residence in Hawaii. For those of you who might imagine that creating high-end custom furniture is pure glamour, just … Continue reading

Fine Friends: Tribal Art Meets Modern at the Beyeler

A truly outstanding exhibition at a truly outstanding institution. The Beyeler Foundation in Basel offers “Visual Encounters — Africa, Oceania and Modern Art,” through 24 May 2009. The show juxtaposes masterpieces of tribal sculpture with important canvasses of modern masters; van Gogh, Cézanne, Braque, Matisse, Léger, Picasso, Rothko. The result … Continue reading

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