Friday, February 26, 2010

Power Lines

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Magdalena Frackowiak shot by Greg Kadel and styled by the homeboy Brian Molloy for Numero 111.

More images here but I recommend buying the issue – a great one all around (though oddly not my favorite cover shot... but what do I know).

Photo Finish

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Robert Rauschenberg Japanese Sky I from the Bleacher Series (Unique large-format Polapan print)

Polaroid is being forced by a Minnesota bankruptcy court to sell off hundreds of photographs collected by its co-founder/inventor, Edwin H. Land, including those shown above and below by Robert Rauschenberg and Ansel Adams. The auction will be held this coming June at Sotheby's, and the New York Times' excellent photography blog Lens has a great slideshow of available prints by Chuck Close, Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, Andy Warhol, and many others. Click here to check it out, and read more about the auction here.

Ansel Adams Aspens, Northern New Mexico (Mural-sized gelatin silver print)

Image of the Day

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Strathcona Variations, the latest release from Vancouver- based producer Scott Morgan, aka Loscil – performing tonight at the Seattle Art Museum. Morgan also plays drums with Dan Bejar's ongoing project Destroyer, highly esteemed around here. Also tonight: El Perro Del Mar and Taken By Trees at the Triple Door.

Also tonight: me, on cold medicine, and Vitamin R.


Here's my favorite Loscil cut, from his 2004 LP First Narrows. It's dying for a real video but this will have to suffice:



Perfect iPod music for gray days in the great Northwest.

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

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Happiness is a warm power adapter...at least for Jeans.

I'm not trying to brag about our cat or something but sometimes, like right now when I'm stuck working in my office in the middle of the night, I look back on all the weekly Mr. Littlejeans and I think: what a majestic little guy.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Robbed

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There are not many Olympic sports I care about – or that many sports I care about in general – but I have followed World Cup skiing for as long as I can remember and I'm super pissed about what happened to Julia Mancuso in the GS. Yes, things happen, and yes, safety first, but that being the case, the fog should have stopped the first race long before either Vonn or Mancuso even hit the course. I only hope that Mancuso's two silver medals inspire her to victory on the World Cup... enough of these damn Olympics.

No Names or Lines

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The Moment recently ran a great interview with Ute Mahler, a prominent photographer in East Germany before the wall came down. Sameer Reddy writes that Mahler's fashion photos "portrayed women as strong individuals, concerned more with style than with the latest fashions (which weren’t available anyway to citizens of the G.D.R)."

Mahler says of her work for the state-sponsored fashion magazine Sybille that "you couldn’t easily get the clothing, so it was just about inspiration. The most important thing was to give the women who read the magazine their own style and to encourage them to dream.... There were no names or lines."

Somehow that idea seems very refreshing and current right now.

Click here to read the rest of the interview, and visit the Galerie für Moderne Fotografie in Berlin, where Mahler's work is on display through March 10th.

See also: Dossier Journal, where photographer Skye Parrott posted about the OstKreuz Agency, a group of photographers from the former East Germany (including Ute Mahler).

Image of the Day

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Detail from the Sarah Frost piece Qwerty, 2009 (Approximately 60,000 discarded keyboard keys, 8' x 10' x 6 1/2' room) – on display at P•P•O•W Gallery in Chelsea, along with work by Portia Munson and Aurora Robson, in an upcoming exhibition called Debris. "Each artist will contribute a major installation consisting entirely of mass-produced plastic refuse transformed into fantastical art environments."
More info here.

I've Actually Did One Novel

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Emily Bobrow at The Second Pass:
In his third novel, John Wray tells the story of William, a 16-year-old paranoid schizophrenic off his meds and on the loose in New York City. Lowboy is the nickname of our addled hero (“Because I get moody . . . Also because I like trains”).... The novel features some satisfying suspense, and Wray occasionally crafts sentences so lovely that they demand to be reread.... But on balance this novel is an underwhelming showcase of Wray’s talents. Readers drawn by the seductive cover and sensational subject will hopefully consider his backlist; the rest of us will wait patiently for his next one."


Charles Bock at The New York Times:
"Wray’s third novel, Lowboy, is uncompromising, often gripping and generally excellent."

More info: johnwray.net

[video via SLOG ]


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Magma

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Brought to you by Hollow Earth Radio , Magma 2010 features, among many others, The Thrown-Ups, (described by festival organizers as "the band that Mark Arm and Steve Turner were in before Mudhoney... Leighton [Beezer] started it in the '80s with the premise that he form a band that never practiced and never had any songs"); Bruce Pavitt on the 1+2's; the legendary Tom Price and friends; and Butts, who play "songs about alcohol, marijunana* and not wanting to take the bus. I fucking love this band."

*[sic], and sick. Seems like an extremely enjoyable evening.

In preparation, let's review:



Another small point: The Thrown-Ups' "You Lost It" (featured on the 1988 compilation Sub Pop 200), has a minor but measurable musical congruity with "Norway" by Beach House (2009, also on Sub Pop). Just saying. Try it out and see what you think.

More info on Magma 2010 at Hollow Earth Radio.

Image of the Day

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Record grooves as seen through an electron microscope.

[ via
LineOut ]

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Image of the Day

.I like these plastic backdrops at Patrik Ervell's show.

[via
Jak & Jil – click for more]

Monday, February 22, 2010

At Rest

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Yesterday Emily and I took a full day off, something neither of us has done done since that trip to Port Townsend in early January. It was so nice in Seattle. We went to Alki and took a walk, went to Ray's for a late lunch, and ended up at Captain Blacks with some favorite cohorts, where we got to watch Bode win the combined, along with the ceaseless wonder that is ice dancing. It was magical and surreal (the day off – the ice dancing not so much).

This post is not about anything, it's just me checking in 'cause it feels like it's been awhile.
Here are some pictures I've taken over the last month.

Shabazz Palaces at Neumo's.

One should never disagree with a bear.

There's a band called Ocelot Omelet.

Cold Lake at the Comet. They play the Crocodile this Thursday night – highly recommended.

I remember someone coming back to New York and saying that one of the things they missed was all the walls of ads pasted up around the city. At the time I thought that was ridiculous.

Seattle does have some nice paste-up artwork around though. I admired this skull on the way to work for a few days until the rain washed it off.

Stang and a couch. What else is there.

I don't know, seemed photo-worthy. Nice colors.

I'm looking for a new office. One with a big window.

There's a venue in Seattle called the Pet Seminary. ("Where dogs go to become priests.")

Classy.

"Go to hell." "You first." (Is that a line from The Quick and the Dead? I think it is. Surprisingly underrated movie despite the presence of that little girl DiCaprio. He's kind of a kid in that movie anyway so it's okay...Arnie Grape with a six-shooter.)

Past Lives at Black Lodge on Saturday. Go buy their new record and see 'em live (Brooklyn: April 20th). They have never sounded better. Same goes for Triumph of Lethargy, who opened. They have a new album on the way which I'm very much looking forward to.

After the show we walked out to our Jeep to find that it was all muddy and the front fender was crushed. We became quite agitated. And then we realized that our Jeep – the exact same model, year and color, with the exact same rack on the roof and everything – was parked two cars in front of this one, and was 100% unscathed. It was a little embarrassing.

If anything like that ever happened to this dude he would just finish his Raindog, find a crooked little stick in the gutter and wave it in the air, and an unusually sturdy and majestic shetland pony would appear to whisk him away...or maybe a dune buggy. He seems like he knows some secret that I don't know, and I wish I knew it.

I Think It Looks Wonderful

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I told Em we need to train Littlejeans and Inez to use powertools and remodel our apartment.

Click here for another one.

[ via SLOG ]

Odessa File

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Caribou "Odessa" by Video Marsh

Download the song here and get more Caribou info here (new album out April 20th).