Whether you like vodka or not, you’ll be asking for the bottle. Last month Absolut unveiled their newest limited edition vodka in their city series to celebrate Brooklyn. When deciding how to best represent Brooklyn on their bottle, it’s no wonder why the people at Absolut teamed up with native Spike Lee. Besides the illustration of a brownstone stoop like the one Spike Lee grew up on, the design is topped off with a “slight” alteration of Absolut’s founder, Lars Olsson Smith.
It’s not the first limited edition bottle meant to celebrate a city, even though Brooklyn’s technically not a city (it’s actually one of the five New York boroughs). Other cities turned refreshments include LA, New Orleans, Boston, and Vancouver.
Although the design of a vodka bottle is usually secondary to its contents, the Brooklyn limited edition definitely deserves a conversation piece, especially if you were invited to its launch party.
I’m not an art buff, but I do like a nice-looking painting. I remember going into the Plaza Gallery in Whistler and stopped at the amazing paintings by Ron Parker. I’ve never actually stopped to look at a piece of art before and get pulled in like I did with his artwork.
Many people know Ron Parker as a Robert Bateman style painter, known for his high degree of detail and realism. But Mr. Parker has recently moved away from wildlife realism to a distinctly different, and refreshing style. What could be called his stylized vision of landscapes, Ron takes landscapes and tries to represent their shapes and colours on a simplistic level. It may look simplistic, but it feels more complex than his more detailed works.
Many people, including myself, see a resemblance between Ron’s painting style and some animated design created in programs like Illustrator. Some people might therefore tag his art as naiveté or plain childish, but I think it represents pure imagination. Many times with landscape artwork from the west coast there is a great deal of detail involved, and many examples are also photographs. A lot of the reason for this attempt to represent the landscape and wildlife so accurately is to try to convey a sense of grandeur. But like native artists, Ron Parker conveys a more imaginative and human perspective of the beautiful landscapes of British Columbia and the west coast.
Ron Parker talks about his artistic development and meaning behind his paintings. The last minute shows his works.
Over the years we’ve watched the geeky electric car transform itself. First with the Tesla, turning the electric car from geeky to jock. Now with the Citroen Survolt, it seems like it’s gone from geeky to punk, but an angry punk. Revealed at the Geneva Auto Show, the Survolt is, after all, just a concept. But with a 268 bhp electric motor, low centre of gravity, and an evenly distributed weight, the Survolt could become a well-respected limited production car. Citroen might be holding back the specs on the car, but enthusiasts remain hopeful. Joining the Tesla in the ranks of innovative electrics, the Survolt might come to symbolize the change in attention for electric supercars.
If you have been following the protests in Toronto, you no doubt have seen the images of police cruisers set on fire, with protesters encroaching on the security fences that were supposed to be far from where protesters were allowed. News reporters and security analysts seemed confused as to the security plan as the police watch multiple police cars set on fire, with fire trucks arriving late on the scene.
The Black Bloc protest, responsible for more of the heavy protests, started off peacefully at the Ontario legislature and three hours later became more violent, with the only escalation by police being arrests. Store windows across the downtown core of Toronto have been smashed in addition to the fires burning in the streets.
So why did the police let the protests escalate from peaceful to fiery? Many might cite the public irritability to police overreactions. Although that might be true in part, there might be another reason. Security for the G8/G20 weekend, tagged over $1 billion, has become by far the most expensive security operation in Canadian history. Public outcries for overspending and a wrongful choice of venue have been circulating for weeks before the weekend.
With such an enormous, controversial budget for security, having police cars on fire and protesters so close to dignitaries may seem to further tarnish the government’s budget decisions for the event. However, the pictures of burning cars and escalated protests may actually prove to play well into the government’s high security plans. When politicians are asked after the conference if they could justify the costs of security, many will now be able to say, “Look what happened with our high security plans. If we decided to cut costs, imagine the damage protesters would have done. There would definitely be bigger problems than burning cars.”
Allowing the escalation of protests by holding back police intervention gives a sense of escalated danger. And the images of angry protestors and burning cars act as an image representative of that danger. Where critics of the budget for the weekend might have previously argued overspending on security, those outcries may now be quieter. When faced with imminent danger of any sort, budgets seem to go out the window. What politician involved in approving the G20 budget wouldn’t like that.
Barack Obama used marijuana and in his words, “maybe a little blow” too. He would’ve tried heroin but he didn’t like the pusher that was selling. He still smokes often, cigarettes of course.
Jacob Zuma, South African President, never received formal education, went to jail with Nelson Mandela, has three current wives and two previous, has been previously charged (but dropped) with rape and coruption, and has twenty children.
Nicholas Sarkozy, French President, is only a quarter French. He’s also Hungarian and Sephardic Jew.
Stephen Harper was a major player in the pro-western Canada party the Reform Party of Canada.
David Cameron, British Prime Minister, is a member of the ancient Scottish Cameron clan and is a direct descendant of King William IV.
Lula Luiz Inácio da Silva, President of Brazil, never finished school past the fourth grade and didn’t learn to read until he was ten.
Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, is a judo master, a former KGB officer, a skilled equestrian, dived into the world’s deepest lake in a mini-sub, and saved a TV crew by shooting a tiger that was coming after them. Of course, with a tranquilizer dart.
Kevin Rudd, now former Australian Prime Minister, is of convict heritage and is completely fluent in Mandarin. Check him speaking Chinese in the video below.
Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister, owns half of the Italian media, is Italy’s third richest man, had involvement in the mafia, had relations with a young girl who called him Papi, is accused of having paid escorts to spend the night with him, and said that “Communists used to eat children”, not to mention trying to play hide-and-seek with the German Chancellor, greeting her with a “coo coo”. Man that’s a list!
Kevin Rudd speaking Chinese to an audience at Tsinghua University.
The recent conference regarding whaling that is being held in Morocco has perpetuated the great divide between the overwhelming majority of countries who oppose whaling and the few who insist on it. Japan with a backing from Norway, Iceland, and Denmark fiercely opposed ending their whaling operations and would not come to a compromise. For years Japan has been taking advantage of a loophole to hunt whales in Antarctic waters by claiming it is scientific research. Although there is supposed to be a hunting moratorium, whales are continuing to make profitable ventures in countries like Iceland and Norway. Amidst the status quo, citizens around the world are growning evermore frustrated, with global activist groups like Avaaz successfully getting a petition signed by over 1.2 million people.
This failed agreement and continued loose regulations overemphasize the importance in having stringent international laws and regulations over common property resources. It’s apparent that a consensus cannot be reached for nearly any resource that is rivalrous and non-excludable in that regular, capitalistic approaches will not prove viable in the long term.
With the conference in Morocco nearing its end, the only positive result seems to be a growing global pressure for resource management change as more and more countries realize its the key to their long-term economic viability and independence.
Whether you like vodka or not, you’ll be asking for the bottle. Last month Absolut unveiled their newest limited edition vodka in their city series to celebrate Brooklyn. When deciding how to best represent Brooklyn on their bottle, it’s no wonder why the people at Absolut teamed up with native Spike Lee. Besides the illustration of a brownstone stoop like the one Spike Lee grew up on, the design is topped off with a “slight” alteration of Absolut’s founder, Lars Olsson Smith. 
Peak Your Interest 
