If you have time to take away from all of your New Year's Eve preparations, there's a sweet piece in today's Sunday Times Magazine (devoted to remembering who we lost this year) about Adam Yauch.
Beastie Boys, "Something's Got to Give,"
from Check Your Head (Capitol, 1992)
Fight for Your Right (Revisited) (Dir. Adam Yauch, 2011)
I know this song has made its appearance on the blog before, so it's kind of lame to repost, I realize. But I'm getting ready for a move and this song is the perfect soundtrack. And I'd never seen the video. So.
The Weakerthans, "Sun in an Empty Room" (Reunion Tour, 2007)
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If you're in Seattle this Thursday night through the weekend, consider adding to your agenda the Northwest Film Forum's fashion film festival, curated by our homegirl Laura Cassidy, writer and style editor for Seattle Met magazine (and a contributor to the first issue of Pacific Standard Magazine).
Thursday night's 60s-themed opening night party will be at Kaleidoscope Vision on Capitol Hill (side note: if you haven't yet you need to check out the shop -- the KV ladies curate a mean selection of vintage gear; I snapped up a fantastic circa-1980 jumpsuit there last week). In addition to free food and drink, a selection of fashion shorts selected by yours truly will be screened throughout the night, and on Friday night Strath presents his selection for the festival, Purple Noon. Films by other Seattle creatives will be presented throughout the weekend.
I've taken a lot of style inspiration over the years from screen characters (if forced to describe my own personal style: Breakfast at Tiffany's meets Blade Runner). So I'm really excited to be a part and hope it's the beginning of a long tradition.
The opening party goes from 7-10 pm on Thursday night at Kaleidoscope Vision, 1419 10th Ave., between Pike and Union (RSVP to publicity@nwfilmforum.org). More information on the films (and tickets) can be found here.
The New York Timesreported below the fold this morning that – after beating out the Met – the Museum of Modern Art has permanently acquired Rauschenberg's combine (at the top of director Glenn Lowry's 10-most-wanted list when he took over the position 17 years ago – way to stick to a plan, dude).
If you like to nerd out over museums and the art market the Times' article is an interesting read.
I like the loose nerdiness of this campaign, and the way it references bookmarking and image-gathering. Seems very post-modern and suits the label well, I think.
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I thought it couldn't be done, but I've managed to find a
reality show that is even more of a fakey, ridiculous time-waste than The Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills: Made in Chelsea. It's great.
I realize that there are probably few things less appetizing than a big block of text to start the week, but it is a short week – and I can't resist sharing this great piece from the Sunday Review section of this weekend's Times about the price of irony (by Christy Wampole, a professor at Princeton). Highly recommended, if, like me, you are cranky and generally sick of bullshit these days. A few excerpts:
The ironic frame functions as a shield against criticism. The same goes
for ironic living. Irony is the most self-defensive mode, as it allows a
person to dodge responsibility for his or her choices, aesthetic and
otherwise. To live ironically is to hide in public. It is flagrantly
indirect, a form of subterfuge, which means etymologically to “secretly
flee” (subter + fuge). Somehow, directness has become unbearable to us.
...
While we have gained some skill sets (multitasking, technological
savvy), other skills have suffered: the art of conversation, the art of
looking at people, the art of being seen, the art of being present. Our
conduct is no longer governed by subtlety, finesse, grace and attention,
all qualities more esteemed in earlier decades. Inwardness and
narcissism now hold sway.
...
Where can we find [] examples of nonironic living? What does it look
like? Nonironic models include very young children, elderly people,
deeply religious people, people with severe mental or physical
disabilities, people who have suffered, and those from economically or
politically challenged places where seriousness is the governing state
of mind. My friend Robert Pogue Harrison put it this way in a recent
conversation: “Wherever the real imposes itself, it tends to dissipate
the fogs of irony.”
...
Moving away from the ironic involves saying what you mean, meaning what
you say and considering seriousness and forthrightness as expressive
possibilities, despite the inherent risks. It means undertaking the
cultivation of sincerity, humility and self-effacement, and demoting the
frivolous and the kitschy on our collective scale of values. It might
also consist of an honest self-inventory.
...
The ironic life is certainly a provisional answer to the problems of too
much comfort, too much history and too many choices, but ... this mode of living is not viable and conceals within it
many social and political risks. For such a large segment of the
population to forfeit its civic voice through the pattern of negation [] described is to siphon energy from the cultural reserves of the
community at large. People may choose to continue hiding behind the
ironic mantle, but this choice equals a surrender to commercial and
political entities more than happy to act as parents for a
self-infantilizing citizenry.
Read the whole piece here and then discuss over Thanksgiving dinner.
While we're on the topic:
Fran Lebowitz, Public Speaking (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
And, here, watch this again over Thanksgiving weekend too:
Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach, 1995)
p.s. Just for the record, the irony that I'm blogging about all of this does not escape me.
I'm missing my old town this week. I was there for the turn of the century, for 9/11, and for the Eastern Seaboard blackout in 2003. We had our going-away party in 2008 in the middle of Hurricane Hanna. I can't help but feel like I should have been there for this, too.
"Repton Boxing Club" by Alasdair McLellan for British heritage label Sunspel, featuring Ryan Pickard (2011)
Boxing is one of those old-school sports I feel like I should be repelled by -- just the thought of a broken nose makes me cringe -- but even knowing next to nothing about it I
find the whole enterprise totally fascinating and even romantic. (And
this is not because I watched Rocky as a kid, because I didn't.)
There's so much ritual to it, and so much reverence for the past. From an outsider's perspective it seems like it
requires a physical and mental discipline that verges on the religious. Maybe it's so ugly that it
comes full circle to beautiful.
While we're on the topic of beautiful destruction, another movie I want to see again:
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So much black and white lately. Must be the influence of all the gray winter weather we've been getting in Seattle.
Gordon Parks, Harlem Neighborhood, Harlem, New York, 1952.
If you happen to be in New York in the next two months: ICP's public installation to mark the 100-year anniversary of Parks's birth (on November 30) is up through January 18.
Anna Selezneva shot by Camilla Akrans for Plein Sud, F/W 2012. Anna is one of my favorite models of all time, and underrated, in my opinion. I wouldn't normally think twice about this label but she makes everything look good.
Pacific Standard issue no.1 covers: top, Abby Brothers by Michael Donovan; bottom, Alexis Schuster by Charlie Schuck. Select image above for more information.
