CITY OF GOD

Even if this editorial was publish a while ago (V magazine Issue 67) I think "City of God" by Mario Sorrenti needs to be acknowledged. Is a beautiful homage to Alejandro Jodorowsky's work.
And my favorite element Surrealism.

• Director: Mario Sorrenti
• Stylist: Jane How
• Model: Natasha Poly
• Make Up: Aaron de Mey
• Hair: Recine
• Set Designer: Philipp Haemmerle

And here is the video:

CITY OF GOD from V Magazine on Vimeo.

THE FUNCTIONAL PSYCHOPATH

I read a while ago Kevin Dutton's "The Wisdom of Psychopaths" and really liked to understand more about the features of their personalities. There are people who have psychopathic tendencies and yet don't commit crimes, these "sociopaths" manage to scale the success ladder because of their lack of emotional engagement, their ruthlessness, focus and tenacity.

I think every one could benefit with his study and this is why I selected the book's best ideas on how to translate psychopathy into "Functional Psychopathy":

-The triumvirate of personality traits: the stratospheric self-esteem of narcissism; the fearlessness, ruthlessness, impulsivity and thrill-seeking, the deceitfulness and exploitativeness of Machiavelianism – can actually do pretty well for themselves 
-Narcissism is associated with self-promotion and ostentatious displays of success; and Machiavelianism, with being socially manipulative.
-Creativity, good strategic thinking and excellent communication skills
-The problem with a lot of people is that what they think is a virtue is actually a vice in disguise. It’s much easier to convince yourself that you’re reasonable and civilized, than soft and weak, isn’t it?
-Ninety-nine percent of things people worry about never happen. So what’s the point? “I think the problem is that people spend so much time worrying about what might happen, what might go wrong, that they completely lose sight of the present. They completely overlook the fact that, actually, right now, everything’s perfectly fine.”

-Next time you’re in a situation where you’re scared, just think: “Imagine I didn’t feel this way, What would I do then?” And then just do it anyway. Good advice – if you’ve got the balls to take it.

-You cannot allow any members of your brain’s emotional executive committee to knock on the door of the decision-making boardroom, let alone take the seat at the table. Ruthlessly, remorselessly, relentlessly, you have to stay in the present.

-YOU CAN’T LET WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY AFFECT WHAT HAPPENS TODAY. IF YOU DO, YOU’LL GO UNDER IN NO TIME.

-Focus on the job in hand and when that job is finished, just walk away and forget it ever happened

-Psychopaths never procrastinate

JOIE DE VIVRE PHOTOGRAPHY

Jacques-Henri Lartigue was a photographer that knew how to capture the sensual parisian feeling and was famous for his parisian women from the turn of the century - Thought of himself as a painter and only at his 60's was fully considered a photographer. That is definitely something to think about when we feel such pressure about becoming successful in this world. Everything goes so fast and we want our carriers to go faster, however experiences take time.

INTO SPACE

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating 
in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blueAnd there's nothing I can do 

Space travel is a lot different now than when David Bowie released Space Oddity. It was 1969 and the man had just landed on the moon and here on earth people didn't know much about the Hows and Whys but it was all very marvellous. 

Now we have developed technology and the internet at a point that everything in this world is at a close reach to us and even out of space.

Canadian Space Agency have their super charismatic astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield at the International Space Station (ISS) and had this brilliant idea of recording youtube videos of their day-to-day lives and how they manage to do ordinary things with NO gravity.

Its super interesting to learn how exactly it is to be an astronaut in space and really share the experience with them, Chris Hadfield speaks from space to a conference at the Canadian Space Agency and answers questions from the select audience. Other than that he records the hows to things like sleeping in space, shaving, excersizing, wringing out water from a clothes and even crying! It is a great ideas to make people get curious about science.

Here are some videos that definitely need to be shared!

AN INSPIRATION

Tim Flach is certainly an amazing photographer, not only for the quality of his images or how amazingly detailed they are, but for how he show us the animals he shots.
His latest published work is "More Than Human" which gave me a new view on these animals, a more profound understanding and I could really see how much more than humans they are.

Tim Flach gave them a voice but without sound or words, in these images they are like us ... It made me wonder how we can possibly not respect them.

"More Than Human"

Cheers!

IDEAS I LIKE

Doesn't matter if is on trend or past trend or some designer already used it. Long boots are awesome and Waders are in that category.

Here are some examples of awesomeness and people exploring the idea of waders.

WHY NOT?

DAVID BOWIE IS...

I had the pleasure to go to the "David Bowie Is..." exhibition and was really delighted.  I guess, initially, I thought that everyone was going there to find inspiration from him, in a kind of way, to study David Bowie's history on visual creativity (as I expected to get inspired the same way).

However I learned something else - I saw what inspired him and how he reacted to what happens in the world around him. He is indeed a big visual sponge but he transformed, evolved. 

Summarising: It was refreshing to see him get influenced! 

"David Bowie Is..."  

Up until 11th August 2013, at the Victoria & Albert Museum. London.

Cheers!