Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is quite a twist on an old tale. Listening to The Essential Chieftains, a greatest hits CD of the Celtic group, I saw this video clip: Expedition 27 Flight Engineer Catherine Coleman delivers a St. Patrick's Day message from the International Space Station.

Prendergast in Italy

Matthews, N., & Kennedy, E. (2009). Prendergast in Italy. City: Merrell.

Came across this book whilst working on RFID in the the 709 oversize section. Immediately something clicked; perhaps I'd seen this before? Turns out that a year and a half back I read an article (and posted a blog entry) about Prendergast.

Clapton’s Magic, for Sale

Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency - Some of the guitars owned by musician Eric Clapton that are part of an auction to be held at Bonham’s in New York


Why would someone create a replica of Eric Clapton's beloved Fender Stratocaster, named Blackie, complete with every single nick and scratch, including the wear pattern from Mr. Clapton's belt buckle and the burn mark from his cigarettes? And why is that replica expected to fetch at least $20,000 at auction, probably much more?

Coz they got no life? And money to burn?

Fortunately, social scientists have been hard at work on the answers. After conducting experiments and interviewing guitar players and collectors, they have just published papers analyzing “celebrity contagion” and “imitative magic,” not to mention “a dynamic cyclical model of fetishization appropriate to an age of mass-production.” 

If Clapton touched it, the guitar has magic. If it resembles what Clapton touched, it also has a certain sort of magic.

Some bidders might rationalize their purchases as good investments, or as objects that are worth having just because they provide pleasant memories and mental associations of someone they admire. But those do not seem to be the chief reasons for buying celebrity memorabilia, according to a team of psychologists at Yale.

Slim museum

The world's richest man Carlos Slim inaugurated a massive museum in Mexico City on Tuesday to house his eclectic collection of art ranging from pre-Hispanic pieces to sculptures by French masters. Located in the heart of one of the capital's poshest residential areas, the Soumaya museum -- named after Slim's late wife -- will host some 60,000 pieces in six exhibit rooms, making it one of the biggest in Latin America. The museum will be home to one of the world's most important collections of Auguste Rodin's sculptures and also prominently displays works by Mexican muralists Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera. Slim plans to build a huge development anchored by the museum that will include offices, apartments and shops with a price tag of $750 million for the first phase of construction.

Quite a fascinating story. Carlos Slim is reported to have a greater wealth than Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, though of course that is all dependent on market value, which is volatile. Nonetheless, he's rich, very rich. And this is a development that surprises me: I did not see him having this interest. I recall reading a story several years ago, in which he complained of his children running up a $500 monthly phone bill, which struck as a bunch of mierda. He is a ruthless businessman who has magnificent connections, and has exploited such to gain a foothold in key industries; he bought Telmex for centavos on the peso, and rode that wave to fabulous wealth.


Nonetheless, for him to open up this museum is impressive. Sure, it's a public relations stunt. Still, his museum will not be charging admission. Two weekends ago we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the admission charge was $20 a person.