'Cause Times Have Changed and Life is Strange

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Can't get this out of my head today.



Wu-Tang Clan, "Can It Be All So Simple"

from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), 1993

Pitch-Perfect

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A.L.C. Spring 2012

via style.com

Best Foot Forward

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A couple for the holidays, specially selected in honor of Strath's new job.*

For a punk rock New Year.
Dolce & Gabbana Stars platform pump,
$474.90 (originally $795).

(A good vamp on a pointed-toe pump
cannot be overrated.)


Jimmy Choo Cosmic suede platform pump
in "regal purple," $414.90 (originally $695).
This silhouette is pretty much perfection, IMHO.

*both available at nordstrom.com.

Changing

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Sharon Van Etten "Serpents" from Tramp (2012, Jagjaguwar), which features collaborations with The National, Beirut, Julianna Barwick, and Wye Oak, among others.

Life Is Only On Earth...and The Skin I Live In

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Trailer for Lars von Trier's Melancholia – seeing it tonight.

Comments on YouTube, reading of which is a little like staring directly into the sun, include the following:
-can sum1 plz explain the movie 2 me.....lol
-looks pretty fuckin stupid just from the trailer
-I laughed, I cried, I fapped. Great film.

Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing it.

...
UPDATE!
The Harvard Exit theater canceled the screening of Melancholia that we were planning to see, so instead we saw Pedro Almodóvar's latest, The Skin I Live In:



Picky typography complaint: why, when the title of the film at the end of the trailer is nicely styled Futura...


...would they use compressed Arial or whatever this is for the typography in the middle of the trailer?:


Actually, I hate to say this but it might be Akzidenz, which I love – uncompressed of course. [UGH, here we go, type nerd-out and I'm not even a type nerd.] I think they didn't use Futura because it would have seemed too kitschy for what they wanted to convey with these titles. But then maybe they should have thought about not using it for the final title. Or they could have used Akzidenz (uncompressed) for these, and then use something entirely different for the final title, like Didot. Okay, you know what? They should have used Optima for everything – it would have made at least plausible conceptual sense with the movie and would have looked nicer. Case closed.

Anyway. Nowhere close to Almodóvar's best, but an entertaining diversion, I still love the Harvard Exit, and the company was top notch.

Image of the Day

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A spread from photographer Christian Patterson's book Redheaded Peckerwood. Patterson self-published 10 copies of the book last year and a newly expanded edition is now available from MACK.

Christian Patterson's Redheaded Peckerwood retraces the steps of 19 year old Charles Starkweather and 14 year old Caril Ann Fugate who murdered ten people, including Fugate's family, during a three day killing spree across the mid-West in 1958. The true crime story was the basis for Terrance Mallick's masterpiece "Badlands" which had a profound aesthetic influence on Patterson as he matured as a photographer.

Beginning ominously with the tragic handwritten confession by Chuck and Caril, Patterson revisits the locations of the crimes and retraces their flight across Nebraska and Wyoming. By incorporating forensic photography, artifacts and press photos from the period with landscapes and still-lifes of his own Patterson weaves an enigmatic narrative deliberately mixing fact and fiction, past and present, myth and reality.

The book is presented as a sort of vintage crime dossier, including three documents found in the wallet of one of the victims that have been reconstructed and bound in. They serve as further evidence of the senselessness of the crimes and the rich mythology that has evolved from these random artifacts.

If you're in New York, stop by Dashwood Books tomorrow from 6–8PM to pick up a signed copy of Redheaded Peckerwood.

Looking Up

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Mount Eerie "Distorted Cymbals"
from a forthcoming 12" on K Records.

(photo: Thorp, WA, November 2011)

Image of the Day

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Banks Violette: Untitled, 2011 (Painted steel, 65 x 290 x 65 inches), from Team Gallery's installation at Collins Park, outside of the Bass Museum of Art, for Art Basel Miami.

A Pattern Yet To Be Matched

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Björk "Pagan Poetry" from Vespertine (2001, One Little Indian). Video by Nick Knight. When I was in design school I had this album (along with several others...Blur, White Stripes, Outkast) on repeat, and for whatever reason I've been into it again lately. I don't love everything Björk does but I respect her and Vespertine is genius, in my humble opinion.

Thanksgiving Walk

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I went to my parents' farm in Northern Idaho for Thanksgiving weekend.

Late fall colors and low sky.

Frozen pond.

1981 Toyota.

Old Ford.

Bluebird house.

New shingles and a stoop for the old cabin.

Color palette.

Herd of elk behind the house.

Cold sunset.

Dusk.

Afterwards, pie.

Image of the Day

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John Nordstrom in front of the original Wallin & Nordstrom shoe store, Seattle, 1901. A Swedish immigrant, Nordstrom went West and founded the store with money made from a gold claim in the Yukon.

Today I'm starting a new job as a Creative Director at Nordstrom! I'm proud to be working for a company with such a legendary history in the Northwest beyond, and I'm excited about Nordstrom's potential as it continues to grow. That's all I will say for now but stay tuned for updates and I'll continue posting as always.

Every Morn and Every Night

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David Axelrod "Holy Thursday" from Song of Innocence (1968, Capitol)


David Axelrod "A Divine Image" from Songs of Experience (1969, Capitol)

Both albums were inspired by the work of William Blake, who was born on this day in 1757. While we're at it:

Sunday Morning

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New series on Pacific Standard: one record every Sunday morning. First up, some cuts from The Emotions' heavily sampled second album for Volt Records, Untouched (1971), produced by David Porter and Isaac Hayes, among others.


The Emotions "Blind Alley"


The Emotions "If You Think It (You May As Well Do It)"


The Emotions "Show Me How"