At the top of this entry is a pic of a seventeen Moscovite teenager, called Andrey Ternovskiy; he is the creator of Chatroulette. Andrey, who decided to make his identity public following pressure from the media, said that he created the application in three days because he was bored of always having the same videoconferences with the same friends on Skype. What was born out of a small social network, has multiplied its number of users on a daily basis until becoming a world phenomenon. It has managed to capture the attention not only of curious users but also of all kinds of academics interested in social media.

Despite statistics indicating that 15% of users are sexual voyeurs and another 15% are people who do artistic performances, don’t worry. The great majority of users are young people who want to spend time doing something fun. I’d like to dedicate a few moments to the 15% of creative users, with the recent performance of Eva y Franco Mattes, members of the artistic association 0100101110101101.ORG.

These people used the Chatroulette to carry out an act somewhere in between a not-very-funny joke and a sociological experiment. They simulated a suicide, keeping a body hanging from a swinging rope for hours, to record users’ reactions. The most surprising thing was that out of the thousands of people that witnessed the supposed suicide, only one rang the police! The rest pointed at the body laughing, took photos with their mobiles, insulted it, or as can be seen from the video, one person even took the opportunity to fulfil their darkest desires.

Another of the artistic episodes that has received a huge amount of attention and Youtube hits is more of the old-school type, consisting of long speed-painting sessions. An anonymous and extremely talented person does a surprisingly quick portrait of every Internet user they encounter.

Without a doubt, however, my own personal favourite is Merton, the Chatroulette pianist. Merton uses his amazing talent and finds inspiration in the users he meets on Chatroulette. He then improvises songs on the piano, which he dedicates to them. In the following video you can see one of Merton’s great moments, improvising a song based on the ‘affair’ that Bill Clinton had with Monica Lewinsky:

I’m not lying when I tell you that after discovering Merton I have connected to  Chatroulette with the single aim of being one of his muses, even at the risk of finding him alone with his piano.

Mauricia Blanquerna / YProductions

Update: New Chatroulette on the wild. Have you tried yet?

This is the deal:

The first 100 people, who arrive at our two New York City stores, wearing just their underwear, will walk out in a two-piece Desigual outfit. For Free!

When the doors open and the first 100 are admitted, this shopping spree will take on a festive atmosphere. You will have the store to yourselves for 1 hour to snap up your Desigual goodies. All apparel on the racks will be up for grabs — including the now-arriving fall/winter collection!

You ashamed to wear your skivvies in public? Nonsense!

Take a look a the pictures of the Undie Parties we did in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. These guys were not embarassed – at all. So be confident, bring your friends, and join the Undie Party!

* One top piece and one bottom piece per person from Desigual Fall -Winter Collection 2010. Any. You choose.

Dates, locations, details:

And, all people in line, on their underwear, after the first 100 will receive a 50% discount on same-day purchases. Because we’re good like that.

Iron your undies now! Be prepared for the first NYC Desigual Undie Party!

It’s a sign that the public has finally understood what La Mala is all about: she’s the contradiction between classic and modern; between social protest and good fashion taste; between the aggressiveness in most of her lyrics and the tenderness in others. She is one of the few Spanish female artists that talks about injustice, but at the same time, thanks her favourite clothing brands that she works with on her album credits. She dreams of creating her own brand, a company that respects workers’ rights, but meanwhile she knows who to call when she wants to look fabulous in her promotional photos.

Everything she touches is worthy of international singers like Beyoncé, both aesthetically and musically. Bored of flat “drum-box-sampling” hip-hop, as she calls it, she went to Atlanta to record this new album together with Focus, son of a Chic member (one of the most influential black music groups of the 70s), to give her songs a richer, sharper, R&B production without neglecting the pop side.

The best example is the single ‘No pidas perdón’. If her mix between DJ flamenco and rap was already almost unique in the world (were Las Grecas foregoers to La Mala?), now with her new American urban sound, inspired by the work of people like Timbaland or The Neptunes, the result is even more explosive.

María herself chose this single as her first because it was the most “nonconformist and different” to what she had done before, but her album ‘Dirty bailarina‘ also includes other more loyal successors like ‘Galaxias cercanas‘, ‘Yo no mato el tiempo‘ or ‘Prima‘, some composed with Griffi in Spain. ‘Prima’ is another one of her protests, in this case to get women to stop fighting over men or their careers and to centre on themselves. Although if we talk about declarations of her intentions, mention must be made to ‘Por eso mato‘, a complete non-single with a lovely, kind background in which she cannot leak more bile, more foul drool or irony through her mouth.

Like the Good or La Mala?

*Literally, the Good or the Bad.

by Sebas / Je ne sais pop.

Now you can enjoy Desigual from wherever you are, with the maximum confort, 24 hours a day and you’ll get your order in your house in about 5- 7 days, UPS guaranteed.

An online Desigual store where you can buy our Woman, Man and Accessories collections in a very Desigual environment. We’ll add Kids collection later this year.

The shop will open virtual gates at the end of September and you can pay with credit card. And if you don’t like your order or the size isn’t correct, of course, you can return it, as you like, by mail or by dropping on a nearby Desigual Store.

Our online store will be available from Spain, France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

All the Amig@ Card lucky holders will have a 20% discount in the first order. The Desigual Amig@s will receive an email, a couple of days after the store opens, with the promo code for using exclusively in our online store. Dont’ you have yet an Amig@ card? What are you waiting for?

Don’t miss the chance!

From the craftsmanship production model to the assembly line, the manufacture of musical instruments has not been the exception to this modern industrial development. The convergence of this industrial development with the boom in mass culture associated with musical consumption, at the end of the 1950s, encouraged the emergence of a powerful industry dedicated to the mass production of instruments. These affordable instruments would be placed on the market for a good number of people, who yearned to imitate their idols of the moment, artists like Elvis, Johnny Cash or later the Beatles.

However, throughout the 20th century and well into the 21st century, a countless number of craftsmanship projects have flourished, which invent and build musical instruments outside the usual paradigm, with wildly different functions, aesthetics, sounds and mechanisms.

Mecànics, craftsmanship of the third millennium

A modern-day example can be seen in the penultimate edition of SONAR, as part of the SonarMàtica. The expo Mecànics, commissioned by the Barcelona musician Oscar Abril Ascaso, presented a series of peculiar handcrafted musical instruments moored to the “do-it-yourself” maxim. Unique instruments that made this exhibition runway a kind of interactive forum in which visitors could participate by activating or deactivating some of the curious sound artefacts, or even compose their own piece of music.

In this forest of Martian-like toys that seemed to be crossover dreams from Jules Verne and Brian Eno, we found artists like Yuri Suzuki and his “The Physical Value of Sound”, a series of instruments that invite spectators to reflect on the physical qualities of music, taking a vinyl disc as a starting point and its main vehicle.

One of the most acclaimed instruments of the exhibition has come from the academic  workshop of the Music Technology Group (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Bcn), headed by Sergi Jordà. We’re talking about the already well-known “ReacTable”, incorporated by eminent artists like Björk and awarded Golden Nica for Digital Musics of the Prix Ars Electronica (2008) and the City of Barcelona Prize (2007), among others. The ReacTable is a new electronic instrument with a simple, intuitive design that enables musicians to experiment with sound and be creative in a direct, unprecedented way. The ReacTable uses a tactile interface that allows the musician interact by moving tangible objects around.

Among the other instruments found in the exhibition, mention should also be made to “L’Orquesta dels Luthiers drapaires”, a project that sprouts from the multiple branches of the Catalan group Telenoika. “L’Orquestra dels Luthiers Drapaires” is a collection of instruments that are the fruit of a process that recycles technological waste. After collecting devices and materials from tips, skips and dumpsters or from the street, they take electronic or mechanical components to build musical instruments like the one shown in this video.

Have you ever tried to make a guitar from a biscuit box? Or a tin-can tambourine? Or a xylophone out of glasses?

If you know of other homemade instruments or interesting music-technology initiatives, feel free to spread the word in your comments!

By Julie Forqué / Producciones Doradas

I’m talking about the figure of Elmyr de Hory, an art forger who deceived dozens of collectors, selling them works by Picasso, Modigliani and Matisse, among many others. All his life, Elmyr gave the impression of being a moneyed tycoon, the owner of a large collection of masterpieces. What nobody ever suspected was that this stylish Bulgarian, always suited with his Cartier wristwatch and monocle, was in fact the painter of his own collection. Elmyr’s technique was so good, it is rumoured Picasso himself certified the authenticity of one of his forgeries. The comic twist in Elmyr’s career is that he was so notorious that once his (false) works were uncovered, they continued to fetch a high market price. The forger ended up a prestigious painter; what made him authentic, and gave him recognition, was his talent for forgery.

¿Una obra de Elmyr de Hory o de Picasso?

Orson Welles raises lots of intriguing questions in his film. These include: what makes certain things authentic? Does the concept of ‘originality’ really exist or is it the experts who dictate what is authentic and what isn’t? Time and time again, art has played with the limits of originality and truth, using copy as an ironic statement on artistic authenticity.

Una obra de Cattelan titulada ‘Homeless’. Donde parece haber un vagabundo sólo hay cojines y mantas.

There may be thousands of examples but I am going to use one of my favourite contemporary artists: Maurizio Cattelan. This Italian artist –as he himself admits – has looked to clowns for inspiration, rather than other artists. He is one of the most ironic and audacious sculptors that the world of art has come across. His work features different copies or reproductions of works by other artists, but the most outrageous occasion was a sculpture that he did in 1996 at an art fair in Switzerland.
At this fair, each artist had a small area and Cattelan was put next to John Armleder, one of the most recognised Swiss artists at that time. Armleder’s work was formed out of pieces of wood, with mirrors and broken drawers – what could be classed as a modern sculpture. Cattelan copied it piece for piece.

The final result was grotesque; two identical pieces by different artists, one right next to the other. When the press arrived at the sculptures, they asked Cattelan why he had copied Armleder’s sculpture, and he answered, in a humorous tone: “I ran out of ideas and I thought that if I copied a recognised Swiss artist the people here would respect me”.

Another artist that has taken the idea of copying to bold extremes – treading on issues of legality – is Eric Doeringer. His ‘Bootlegs’ series reproduces different copies of paintings, photos and sculptures in small format by recognised contemporary artists. Doeringer usually sells this artwork at museum entrances or on the street. He positions himself on the limits of carrying out a commonplace poster that reproduces the original work and an audacious copy signed by Doeringer himself. Popular art or fraud? Artist or forger? Fake art or genuine art? What do you think?

Mauricia Blanquerna / YProductions

Lovely raincoat, isn’t?

Do you want to protect your kids from rain with style?

Drop by any Desigual Store, make a minimum purchase* on the Kids Collection and the raincoat is yours!

The raincoat is served in two sizes: S, for kids from 5 to 8 years and L, for kids from 9 to 12 years.

*This promotion is valid for purchases over 69 euros in Spain and Portugal, 89 euros in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, £ 79 in UK, USD 99 in USA, SGD 149 in Singapore, CAD 99 in Canada.

This promotion may not be combined with other promotions.

Only valid for Desigual Kids purchases.

Valid from August 27th (18th in USA) to September 18th or until stocks last.

Valid in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, USA and Canada.

Valid in Desigual stores, and Desigual in El Corte Inglés, Galeries Lafayette in France, Galeries Lafayette Berlin und Breuninger in Germany, V&D, The Bay/La Baie in Canada, Takashimaya in Singapore.

The most known Spanish one, the Festival de Benicàssim, sells as an iconic image an ad with a beach, sun and perfect weather. In this year’s poster they even placed the main stage in the middle of the beach. Not so true. FIB Heineken is placed more than two miles into a sandy and dusty territory. In peak hour, it takes more than 3 or 4 hours to reach the place from the village, unless you try to go walking, with more than 40 Celsius degrees and nowhere to hide from the sun. OK, we should admit once you get there comfort and services are one among the best into the European festival family..

Two of most recent and ambitious Spanish Festivals, Sonisphere and Bilbao BBK Live, will need to reconsider their proposal if they seriously aim to keep taking thousands of people to their territory. The former, an European franchise born in the UK, used a new location this year, a waste ground  open air industrial area, a few miles outside Madrid. No shadows anywhere and comfortless mountains of dust and saharian windy whirls were the main companion for those who wanted to watch in first line the comeback of Faith No More or German loudness from Rammstein. Something similar proposes Bilbao Live’s location: an ugly, rough and sharp mountain in the outskirts of Bilbao which looks like coming from Mordor landscapes and with a camping inside always missing minimum services.

Last but not least, the two most important appointments in Barcelona, Sónar and Primavera Sound, although within an urban context, also hide some unpleasant surprises for beginners. Primavera Sound is one of most comfy Fests around, true. But it lays just above of a big sewage treatment plant, which offers some uncomfortable moments to visitors, combining the hypes of the year with a penetrating smell of waste and sewage waters all around the zone. Sonar combines an excellent Sonar Dia, located in the very center of the city, with first rank electronic sessions, with what’s called Sonar Noche, which takes place in the middle of nowhere, in an exhibition site, with unbearable heat and horrible sound.

Definitely, not everything is as good as it seems in the world of summer festivals. Ok, even bearing in mind all of the above, there is something inside the soul of these events that every new year, even knowing what is ahead waiting for us, we just can’t wait the summer to come to choose which will be our fav Fest of the year.

Well, they have more mud in Glastonbury

Por Marcos Arenas | Mondo Sonoro

Have you had any horror story about Summer Festivals? Share it with us!

This summer Desigual is hosting the Kisstour throughout Europe, the big kisses party! and we’ll be in Berlín on Thursday, 23th September.

Desigual is encouraging the berliners to send a giant kiss from BERLIN to the rest of the world.

Join us in the biggest KISS PARTY imaginable and take part in a non-stop kissing fest. The Berlin Kiss Party is a FREE kissing party for you, for everybody, just for the kisses. Kiss anyone and however you like. With an open mind. Because kisses are energetics and warmly. Kiss whoever you like, with your own style and with an open mind. Pecks, French kisses, with or without tongue, ordinary and extraordinary, playful, spontaneous!

The Kiss Party will be a completely FREE event open to all who are willing to come and kiss with us.

How can I join the Berlin KISS Party?

Drop by the Desigual Store in Tauentzienstrasse, 14 and ask for your free voucher (no purchase necessary). You’ll be able to exchange the voucher for a T-shirt in the event. Don’t need anything more, just come!

The Kiss Party will be thursday 23, september, 18h in Berlín, Playground 2010, Invalidenstrasse 10557.

Starting from 6 o’clock, Palina Rojinsky will be our guest and DJ Schowi will animate the event with a special DJ set. Our guest host will present the event and get us all kissing.

Manhattan Cosmetics will give away free lipsticks on the Kiss event so you can also give colourful kisses.

The Kiss tour was born in Barcelona, where we wanted to create a unique, social event bringing together everyone willing to enjoy an evening of fun, celebration and amorous side to life.

Since the first ‘Kiss Party’, Desigual has also brought the event to Madrid, which drew over 10,000 visitors and now they will not only be revisiting Madrid but also hitting London, Paris and of course Berlin.

More info in: www.desigualkisstour.com

Come ‘n’Kiss!

BERLINKISSPARTY
 THU 23 SEP. 18:00H
 PLAYGROUND 2010
 INVALIDENSTRAßE
 10557 BERLÍN

Price played a fundamental role on both albums. For the Scissor Sisters, he was the force able to free the band from the writers’ block that was threatening to delay the release of the album. According to the artists, they were stuck with a bunch of half-written songs that just weren’t cutting the mustard. In Kylie’s case, he brought back her signature sound, after her rather bland ‘X’ album that, despite some good ideas, wasn’t hitting the right spots. Both parties’ works come together in the new single by the Sisters, “Any Which Way’, where Minogue sings backing vocals.

You may barely be able to hear the backing vocals on this track, but there is no doubt that she has left her mark on the song, and this year’s Glastonbury saw her representing on stage with them, and later on her Australian tour, they sang a country version of her new single ‘All the Lovers’ together, just like the Scissor Sisters had done previously on their tour. You can tell that these guys go back a long way. On Kylie’s new album ‘Aphrodite’, the track ‘Too Much’ is written by the Sisters, and ‘Better Than Today’ is clearly an homage to their unforgettable disco sound.

The band also wrote the as yet unreleased track on the 2003 “Ultimate Kylie’ compilation ‘I believe in You’ and in the following years, several nods and winks went to and fro between the two. On the Showgirl tour, Kylie sang the song ‘White Diamond‘, written by the Scissor Sisters, even though the song was never to be released on a studio album. However, the song appeared in the documentary about the singer which also lent its name. She also sang ‘The Blues‘ which later the Scissor Sisters kept for their second album ‘Ta Dah’ and renamed it ‘Ooh’, as well as ‘(Everything) I Know‘, (still as yet, unreleased).

And so, here we are in 2010, with “Aphrodite’ already dominating the charts with its first single ‘All the Lovers’ (Top ten already in Spain and the UK) soon to be followed by ‘Get Outta My Way’. Meanwhile the Scissor Sisters are a wee bit behind with this album compared to past triumphs, but there is no question of its hit quality. The album ‘Nightwork’, despite lacking a clear first single such as ‘Comfortably Numb’ once was, is armed with dozens of cracking third and fourth singles. We have ‘Invisible Light’, ‘Something Like This’, ‘Sex and Violence’, ‘Whole New Way’ and the list goes on…

You’re telling me you’re going to let this one pass you by? Fool.

Sebas / Je ne sais pop.