The album version of "I Am The Changer" reminds me a little bit of the Biscuit Davis song I posted awhile back. Biscuit Davis. Cotton Jones. Wildcat. Wild...Cat.
Select spreads from Freedom Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art 1965-83, a new book by Gilles Peterson & Stuart Baker, available at Turntable Lab (click for more images and info).
A little audio while you browse – Chad, Coolhands and I found a bunch of these 45s in a basement in Poughkeepsie several years ago:
LA [Man at Drive In Diner], 1964, from Five Decades, an exhibition of photographs by Bruce Davidson on view today through December 19th at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York. The show is running simultaneously with another Bruce Davidson exhibition, at Howard Greenberg.
Today is first Thursday, and I'll leave it to/the/experts to provide surveys of what's going up in galleries around Seattle tonight – other than to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing the new show at Vermillion.
Ryan Mollenkamp The Flood – reminds me of the Skagit Valley
Trevor Johnson Cloud Carving 
Sharon Arnold BPM (detail)
A client of mine recently told me about a music blog called Latin Vinyl Junkie. The cover images alone are great and the guy who runs it includes sound clips from every album.
There are so many records in the world.
Couple by Jukebox in Social Club, 1966 – a photograph by Bruce Davidson, from his East 100th Street series. In 1967 and '68, Davidson extensively photographed the residents and environs of one particular block of Spanish Harlem which had a reputation for being one of the worst in the city, but was actively being improved by the block's residents. The photographs were exhibited in 1970 at the Museum of Modern Art in a groundbreaking show; curator John Szarkowski wrote that Davidson had "shown us true and specific people, photographed in these private moments of suspended action in which the complexity and ambiguity of individual lives triumph over abstraction." Davidson gave prints of his photographs to hundreds of residents of the block, and many of them attended the opening at MoMA.
Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art is giving away a label sampler featuring The Moondoggies, Talbot Tagora, Pica Beats, and much much more. Also in Sub Pop news: the recently reincarnated 7" Singles Club ended its somewhat limited run last month with a Dutchess & the Duke record. All in all this Singles Club was not as exciting as the original Singles Club but there were a few good singles. Some of the aforementioned singles are featured on the Hardly Art comp. Click here to download it for zero dollars.
More friend stuff – Brian Molloy, who I worked with for a few years at V Magazine, styled model Nicola Haffmans in this story for the November issue of the French fashion magazine Numéro, shot at the Brooklyn Navy Yard by photographer Greg Kadel. Beautiful styling, beautiful color, beautiful Brooklyn Navy Yard.
More here.
Remember Bella Foster? Well it seems Kate Spade is also a big fan of hers, as they've asked Bella to collaborate with them on several projects, including a calendar and some really beautiful handbags.
We think that's really cool, despite the fact that they use the word "whimsical" on their website. Check it all out at katespade.info and see more of Bella's recent work at Here, There, And Them.
Bow Wow Wow, 1981. Photograph by Andy Earl, from
CCC Firefighters in Washington State, 1937Someone approached the economist John Maynard Keynes and asked him, 'Have we ever seen anything like this before?' And he said: 'Yes, we have. It was called the Dark Ages. It lasted 400 years.So – we don't have it as bad as they did, and there are some signs that things are looking up, but I was saying to someone the other day that it seems like every other person I meet lately is out of work. I firmly believe that we need a jobs program in this country today and I think if Obama initiated it, it would change a lot of the haters' minds. It feels good to work and earn money, and when that's taken away, it can break a person, and break a country. In my mind, it's the most important thing to fix as we try to dig out from this financial crisis.
Doe Avedon at the Gare du Nord, Paris, August 1947.
I posted about the ICP exhibition here and here, and Emily and I had a chance to see it last time we were in New York, right before it closed. Actually, we scheduled our trip with that in mind – we were really looking forward to seeing it, and I'm glad to say that the show did not disappoint in the least.
Looking at photography online and in books is great, no doubt, but seeing printed work in person can be a very moving experience. Visiting ICP is almost always first on my list of things to do with free time in New York.
The current show is Dress Codes, ICP's third triennial of contemporary photography and video, running through January 17, 2010. Visit icp.org for more info.
Me and my brother, I'm guessing 1982?
The five-ton ball of rubber bands groaned and swayed as the crane lifted it from the driveway. A small frog hopped out from underneath.Read the rest of it at nytimes.com.“Let’s cross our fingers and hope we don’t see if it bounces,” said Edward Meyer, who bought the ball for an undisclosed sum for Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Then he called to Joel Waul, the ball’s creator [pictured above]. “Pretty exciting, right?” Mr. Meyer said.
“Yeah,” said Mr. Waul, 28, the soft-spoken son of a surgical administrator and Jamaican musician. “Cool.”
Tom Marioni Free Beer – an installation made from the detritus of his beer party salon as it was exhibited/hosted at SFMOMA in 1979, under the title The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends is the Highest Form of Art. 
Since I'm finishing up design work on a record her parents made in the '60s, I thought I'd post something about the upcoming Charlotte Gainsbourg album, produced by Beck. You can download the title song "IRM" for free by visiting her website and entering your email address. It's short and sweet with a Liquid Liquid kind of feel to it that I really like, and quite different from the stuff on her previous record (also very good), produced by Air, Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), and Nigel Godrich. Here Gainsbourg talks a little about the making of IRM:
Brooklyn-born icon of modern landscape architecture Lawrence Halprin died this past Sunday at the age of 93. Halprin co-designed Seattle's Freeway Park (pictured above), among many other well-known projects. From the New York Times' obituary:“He almost single-handedly reclaimed the city as the purview of the landscape architect,” said Charles Birnbaum, founder and president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation.... He claimed little interest in decoration or prettiness, but cared deeply how people would move through a created space.Halprin had a really interesting life – read about it here.
[Much more about Freeway Park in a future post.]
Chili, jalapeño cornbread... camouflaged Hi-Life... ladies and gentleman, it's fall
Bison Chili
Put the following things in a big pot in order, over medium-to-high heat, and let each thing you mix in sit for maybe 3-5 minutes before adding the next thing.
Approx 2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
1 medium yellow onion and 1 medium red onion, diced
1 pound ground bison (chop into smallish chunks)
Approx 8 oz. champagne of beers
Approx 3 tbsp chili powder
Approx 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
Approx 1/2 tbsp black pepper
Several dashes cumin
[Mix everything you've put in so far really well]
28 oz. diced tomatoes [mix together everything and let it sit for 5-10 minutes]
2 cans pinto beans, preferably Goya brand, liquid drained
1 can small read beans, ditto
[Mix everything together really thoroughly. After 5 minutes, reduce heat to low. Put the lid on it and let it go for 45 minutes or an hour, stirring occasionally just so it doesn't stick to the bottom.]
While it's cooking, dice 3 large tomatoes and a bunch of scallions, and grate some cheddy.
[When the chili's done, turn off the stove and take the lid off. Mix it up.]
Add half the tomatoes or so and mix them in.
Put half the scallions on top, don't mix them in.
Serve the rest along with the cheese on the side.
Put some sour cream on it if you want.
If you like your chili lazerbeam hot, I think you know what to add.
Find a football game on TV and wait for spring.
