HotSpot: February 2010

Window phone

Window Phone is a concept phone by Seunghan Song. It makes accurate predictions and even changes its display to reflect the climatic conditions outdoors.

HER name was Rachael, she said. She was blond and wore a disarming, gleaming-white smile. Her smile, however, was about the only thing she was wearing, with the exception of a few chrysanthemums affixed to her underwear and banana leaves carefully positioned along the length of her body.

Rachael was a human sushi platter for the evening, the centerpiece of an opening party last month for Hadaka Sushi on the Sunset Strip. Taking gentle breaths, she kept as still as possible so as not to disturb the clusters of oil-infused sushi rolls, sashimi and other pieces of raw fish artfully arranged on the banana leaves in a style known as nyotaimori.

Nyotaimori is a Japanese term that translates as “female body arrangement.” It is also known as body sushi.

Hadaka’s executive chef and owner, Edward Brik, said he designed Hadaka to compete against not just other sushi purveyors in Los Angeles but also the other offerings on Sunset Boulevard. “Sex sells, especially on the Strip,” Mr. Brik said.

Nyotaimori is associated, in legend at least, with Japanese organized crime, but solid facts on its origins are extraordinarily difficult to pin down. Several representatives of Japanese cultural societies and Japanese-American trade groups as well as East Asian scholars said they had heard of nyotaimori but knew almost nothing specific about it.

William Marotti, who teaches modern Japanese history at U.C.L.A., speculated that its peak in popularity might have been during Japan’s bubble economy in the late 1980s, “when the Japanese were trying to find new ways to spend all of their money.”

While Hadaka may be the first Los Angeles restaurant to offer nyotaimori, it is not the first in the country. A “gentlemen’s club” in Midtown Manhattan plans to introduce nyotaimori this month, but establishments in other cities have ended the practice because of protests or waning interest. Bonzai nightclub in Seattle became a target of feminist groups when it started promoting body sushi nights in 2003.

Rachael — her full name is Rachael Biggs, a publicist said — seemed to enjoy the evening as much as anyone could while lying supine and being poked by chopsticks. To an onlooker, the most disturbing aspect of her job might be Hadaka’s rule that forbids a model to eat the sushi that rests inches away from her mouth.

So far, Hadaka Sushi has had just two takers for its nyotaimori presentation. (The cost is $1,100 for the model; the food is extra.) A restaurant spokeswoman said several servers were eager to be assigned work as sushi platters. Customers have also requested male models, and the restaurant is trying to oblige.

Paper-cut art work

Peter Callesen is artist born in Denmark who works with white paper in different objects, paper cuts, installations and performances. Most of his works are made from A4 paper sheets. He makes various sculptures from white paper.

His precision transforms ordinary piece of paper into a masterpiece. His sculptures are sold for about $4.000.

Resurrection

White Hand

Little Erected Ruin

Half Way Through

On The Other Side

Walking Snail

The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow

Cradle

Wedding Dress Without Bride

Dead Bird

Distant Wish

Looking back

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Butterflies Trying to Escape Their Shadow

“By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning. The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works.”, says Peter Callesen who creates paper sculptures by cutting them out of paper with scalpel.

Tucson's International Wildlife Museum

The International Wildlife Museum is designed and built as a castle.

Past the initial exhibit---a fairly amazing insect collection---we came across this snake skeleton. Quite a beauty, eh?

Farther in, the girls delighted in the display of different sized bird eggs.

Here and there (rather ragged looking) lions stalked the static halls of the museum.

A typical diorama: small room with natural habitat, painted background, and stuffed animals, as with these rhinos.

The Hall of Horns (or whatever this wood-paneled great room is) featured a stunning array of animals and bodiless but horned and antlered heads. Here, the girls admire the zebras below the head of an African elephant before walking beneath a giraffe.

Large cats stalk the room from their eternal center; rows and rows of antelope heads along the back wall.

At the center of the museum, literally and perhaps figuratively, is a "mountain" of sheep and mountain goats from around the world.

Surrounding the mountain are other dioramas of cold climates, including this Alaskan view.

One of my favorite exhibits was "Arizona at Night," near the end. This is the entrance.

Inside, blue lights shined mysteriously, and beautifully, on the varied species of the desert night.

Baja California Sur, Mexico

Loreto Bay is one very cool (if not very expensive) new development; look for an UnSprawl case study on the new community in Terrain.org's next issue. Just as wonderful is the town of Loreto, and indeed the entire area, from mountains to islands to the Sea of Cortez.

Loreto Bay development's main office, in Loreto, in the shadow of Baja's oldest mission.

The Inn at Loreto Bay, foregrounded by an estuary and mangrove nursery.

The full Loreto Bay development, which currently has 350 completed houses, plus some commercial, but will have 6,000 houses, plus commercial, in distinct neighborhoods.