More + More

.

[ click images to enlarge / click here to view all ]

Floating World

.
Photographer Camilla Åkrans shot the cover story for T Magazine's Winter 2009 Travel issue, a supplement to the New York Times this coming Sunday. Åkrans has been around for quite awhile – I think I first became a fan through seeing her work in Wallpaper* magazine – but this kind of intense/muted color she is known for is really experiencing its moment right now. See more of her work here.

Tonight & Tomorrow Night:

[ more info ]

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

.

[ i'll mouse you – you in my hut now ]

Oh Brother Squirrel

.
It has come to my attention that not everyone has experienced the excellence that is mullet haiku. Here are a few favorites:

Oh brother squirrel,
Your tail, my hair. We are one.
Yet I must eat you.

I liked that foreign
legion movie so much, I
grew me one them hats.
Click here for more

“If you’re into anything good, you’ll love this.”

.
Sorry, mullet haikus, this is now the funniest thing on the entire internet: Overheard at the Record Store

Visual Record

.
London Schoolboys looking at stereo equipment on Tottenham Court Road, 1980. Chris Steele-Perkins / Magnum Photos

In a recent edition of Today's Pictures, Magnum Photos looked back "at the days when going to the record shop and playing a vinyl album or compact disc were physical, not virtual, activities."

Marilyn Monroe, 1952. Philippe Halsman / Magnum Photos

James Dean, 1955. Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos

Muhammad Ali, 1966. Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos

Kind of makes me wonder what they were each listening to... any guesses? More here.

Image of the Day

.

An image by Polish photographer Irek Kielczyk, whose work is featured in the new issue of I Want You magazine.

Off the Rez

.
The Exiles, Kent Mackenzie's 1961 documentary on American Indians living in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles, got released this week on DVD for the first time.



The film was rescued from obscurity by Charles Burnett and Sherman Alexie, with distribution by Milestone, who championed the release of Burnett's own vintage document on Los Angeles, Killer of Sheep.

The Exiles is an absolutely stunning film as it is, so it's no matter that it doesn't really delve into the politics of the time, but for historical context it may be interesting to know something about the Indian Relocation Act, in full effect at the time the film was made. Under Relocation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs actively recruited young Indians to leave their reservations for promises of job training and assistance in seven big cities (Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dallas). That might not sound so bad on the surface, but in actuality it was part of the much wider Termination Policy through which the US government sought to decrease funding to and ultimately dissolve reservations – under Termination, the U.S. government broke treaties by ending its recognition of over 100 tribes as sovereign nations. Some of the people in The Exiles came to Los Angeles under Relocation. Again, no matter for the film, which is basically perfect as it is, but if you're interested in wider context, that's part of it.

Oh, also: in addition to being visually beautiful, The Exiles features some great music, such as this huge surf cut:

The Revels Revellion WAV

More info the film and director Kent Mackenzie at exilesfilm.com
Read a 2008 article about The Exiles at LAweekly.com

Where Am I

.

Lordy Rodriguez Westward

Leo Saul Berk was on KUOW's Weekday this morning with a few other art peeps, talking about maps. As a lover of maps who probably only did not become a cartographer because I'm really bad at math and frightened of science, I found this delightful.

Joyce Kozloff Walk-In Globe (the maps inside are Kozloff's paintings of places the USA has bombed)

Click here to download the podcast.
Warning: if you don't love maps, you will think it's boring.

Image of the Day

.

Barnaby Furnas John Brown, 2005 (Urethane and dye on linen. 72 x 60 inches), featured in the Frye Art Museum's phenomenal current exhibition, The Old Weird America. Furnas will speak about his vivid, variegated, violent, sometimes vast work tonight at 7pm – click for details.

More Barnaby Furnas at Marianne Boesky Gallery.

Dark Side of the Sun

. I've heard Larry Mizell Jr. play various cuts by local hip-hop outfit Dark Time Sunshine a few times on KEXP and it catches my ear each time. The beat on this one is especially solid:

Dark Time Sunshine The Wrong Kids mp3

The rest of their densely layered debut album, Believeyoume, falls somewhere between Company Flow and left of there (I can't give specifics, my eyes glaze over when people mention stuff like Aesop Rock and Jedi Mind Tricks) but it has that certain I-don't-know-what that makes it a good album. Download the whole thing (plus coveted instrumentals) for free at fakefourinc.com.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying

.

My friend Janice reminded me of this title sequence. So classic – I love the different ways the handwritten titles are stacked.

De Pas, D'Urbino and Lomazzi

.
If you have to ask, one thing I really want for Christmas this year is the Joe chair, designed by De Pas, Durbino and Lomazzi for Poltronova in the late 1960's. These guys were a cool-ass design team with incredible originality. Back in their heyday they made design seem full of possibilities, crazy and serious at the same time. Among their designs, spanning 40 years with almost as many companies, they are responsible for the Sciangai coat rack (also on my list), the Milano sofa (oh man, also on my list...maybe this post should have been about the sofa...), and various other classics of Italian design. Some of their work has landed in MoMA's permanent collection and they are still going, despite the passing of De Pas in 1991.

Back to the Joe. I do not want it in the plastic, outdoor, Heller version, which, despite my respect for Heller as a strong American design brand, is not a correct representation of what this chair is about. I do not want the Vitra miniature.

I want the soft, brown, leather, full-size chair. Imagine how good it gets as it wears in like a true glove.

My wife will never go for it.

Here is a bonus pic of the Milano sofa
(understand, it has down cushions and is probably the softest man-made thing you will ever sit on.)

Image of the Day

.
A cover of The Enemy Magazine, 1927, by Wyndham Lewis – one of many interesting specimens shown by Steven Heller in a recent presentation at SVA on the history of modern typography. Click here to check it out.

Outta Here

.
Another dream car of mine – the Porsche 912. I know I'm repeating myself but the 912 is so fresh it deserves that. It's such a simple-looking car, it's just perfect: you wouldn't add anything to it, and you wouldn't take anything away. On that note, I saw an old black and chrome Chevy Nova on 12th the other day that was so beautiful and simple.
I'm dying for a roadtrip.

Miller Time

.

[ via SwissMiss ]

Give

.
Local coffee roaster Caffé Vita, recently named by GQ as one of the best in the country, is releasing a new compilation of Seattle music today, with 100% of the profits benefiting Art Corps and neighborhood food banks. The line-up is impressive – Fleet Foxes, The Long Winters, Visqueen, The Cave Singers, Ben Gibbard, Grand Archives, Sera Cahoone, Fresh Espresso, Mad Rad, Champagne Champagne, Fences, D. Black, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Throw Me the Statue, Arthur & Yu, Pica Beats, Kinski, Moondoggies, and more contributed a total of 25 songs – and at only $7, Give is not much more than you give for the average triple tall 2% espresso macchiato. Get Give and more info at giveseattle.org or Caffé Vita.

Image of the Day

.

Camouflage artist Liu Bolin. More here

Need vs. Want

.
This has already been decided for me – want, obviously– because (a) it's been sold, (b) I don't have an extra $65k burning a hole in my pocket, and (c) when I buy a Land Rover, it is highly unlikely it will be from Orvis (with all due respect to Orvis...I have some Orvis wool pants that I acquired from the downtown Detroit Salvation Army for $2, and they are quite fantastic). Still, this 1962 specimen is particularly noteworthy, having traveled rigorously, survived a hurricane, and been meticulously restored by Lanny Clark Rovers of Colchester, Vermont.

Built in 1962 and then customized by Martin Walter Ltd. for extended travel, this Series IIA 109 traveled the world in the early part of its life, from Great Britain through Europe into Asia and Africa, leaving its tracks in 22 countries. It traveled through Europe and the Balkans to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India and then returned by way of the Middle East and North Africa to Morocco, across the Straits of Gibralter and into Spain. It survived hurricanes and the ravages of time and eventually ended up in the hands of Lanny Clark, a man who devotes himself full-time to the restoration of these timeless vehicles on his farm in Vermont.

The feature about this on the Orvis website is worth a quick look for info and detail shots.

Check out orvis.com/landrover, and if you're really inspired, contact Lanny Clark Rovers at 802-872-5710. Of course in these parts we have the British Northwest Land Rover Company of Olympia, Wash., but we can save that for another post.

American Apparel

.
At The Sound of Young America this week, Jesse Thorn interviews possibly the most popular blogger on the planet, and certainly the most-followed fashion blogger: Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist.

Schuman's street style blog has been so successful because he knows where to go and when, he has a good eye, and he connects with his subjects very quickly; his pictures are visually interesting not only because of the clothes but because of the personalities they capture.

Increasingly many of the photos on The Sartorialist are from commissions of one kind or another, and Schuman seems to take himself much more seriously than he did when he started out; I suppose on some level that is only natural when a hobby becomes a job. Still, I remain a big fan of the blog, so it's interesting to hear him discuss the motivations and interactions behind it. Click to listen:



More:
The Sartorialist blog
The Sartorialist, a book of Schuman's photos published earlier this year
The Sound of Young America podcast

Image of the Day

.
An image from Nomadic Furniture, a 1973 book by Victor Papanek and Jim Hennessey, a friend of my uncle's who lives on Orcas Island. Order it up from Amazon or Abe.