Art&Culture

The inspiration for our name comes from Paul Klee. His work, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine), from 1929 captivated me the first time I saw it at the Museum of Modern Art as a child. And it continues to do so.

In modern times, it used to be the case that the only way to buy made-in-America Levi’s made from American-made denim was to buy them overseas. All of the Levi’s sold in the US of A were made in places like Mexico and even the […]

Soap Bubbles and the Forces Which Mould Them by C.V. Boys first published in 1896 caused quit a stir. In fact, its ripples of influence spread to writers and artists far and wide and helped tip the scales of the rational toward the absurdist. Amen.

I didn’t know about Notations when I found it in the Rare Book Room at the Strand Book Store. That said, I didn’t discover Notations any more than a hiker discovers Versailles. But that didn’t stop me from feeling a deep sense of discovery (I’m […]

Thaddeus Cahill was born 1867 in Oberlin, Ohio and by the age of 14 he’d built his first telephone receiver to play with and read Helmholtz’s On the Sensation of Tone, which set his fertile imagination on fire. He became an attorney and moved to […]

I graduated from Bennington College in 1985 and at that time MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) was but a rumor (at least as far as I knew). The abandoned factories that lined the Hoosic River in North Adams, MA sat in wait, like […]

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is what it says—a place for the safekeeping of over 890,000 seed samples from nearly every country in the world. Why do we need it? Global food security.

I made this ‘print’ some years ago. The image is based on alchemy text updated for our hifi hobby. The print was a limited edition as it was printed on ancient paper (from one of my childhood sketchbooks).

Four members of Pussy Riot, the Russian protest-art collective, dressed in Russian police uniforms interrupted play 52 minutes into the World Cup final at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow when they took to the pitch. The group’s Twitter page explained the reason:

Wright Auctions is auctioning off the JF Chen Collection of Dieter Rams & Co. on July 12, 2018. There are over 130 works available and prices start at $50.00 (it costs nothing to look and enjoy).

Marcel Duchamp published his 6 double-sided Rotoreliefs, he referred to them as optical entertainment, in 1935. These discs were meant to be ‘played’ on a turntable at 33 1/3.

The Acid Room, Hollywood Hospital, New Westminster, Canada I know a place, a place where, for a price, you can take LSD and be guided on your trip by the “Johnny Appleseed of LSD” while listening to Bach on thehifi and staring at Salvatore Dali.

It started innocently enough—I’d responded to an odious email from an angry and obnoxious reader who was responding to my Stereophile AWSI but asked JA and Stephen to give it quick read-through before I hit send to make sure I was being clear. I have […]