Image of the Day

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Serge and Jane. Photograph by Tony Frank.

Histoire de Serge

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Trailer for Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

Comic book artist Joann Sfar interprets the life of ’60s pop star Serge Gainsbourg (née Lucien Ginsburg to Russian- Jewish parents),1928–1991, beginning with his childhood years in Nazi-occupied Paris, through his early years as a painter and jazz musician (brushing shoulders with Boris Vian), to his life as a wildly popular singer-songwriter, notorious bon vivant, and lover of some of the world’s most glamorous women. Gainsbourg’s two-sided personality (narcissistic and self-loathing) and his over-the-top antics with Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon), and beatnik icon Juliette Gréco (Anna Mouglalis) share the screen with a giant puppet alter-ego: a scary, libidinous bad-boy who personifies all of Gainsbourg’s worst proclivities. Featuring many of the musician’s greatest hits, with Eric Elmosnino as Gainsbourg and, in a cameo, Claude Chabrol as his record producer. Never have so many Gauloises been smoked to such great effect.

If you're in New York, it's showing for two weeks starting tonight at Film Forum. It comes to Seattle in October, and other cities can find their dates here.

Di Doo Dah

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Light in the Attic is on a roll. Their latest release (with design by yours truly) is a re-issue of Jane Birkin's extremely rare 1973 debut solo album, Di Doo Dah. Written entirely by Serge Gainsbourg with arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier, it reads like a sequel to "Je T'Aime...Moi, Non Plus" but, in my humble opinion, delves into deeper and more subtle territory musically. Visit lightintheattic.net to hear sound clips and order on gatefold LP or CD.

Serge & Jane

Re-issue projects take a long time – I've been working on this one with Light in the Attic Records for several months and it's finally in stores today!

Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg's self-titled 1969 album features the smoldering cut "Je T'Aime...Moi, Non Plus" among many others.

As a bonus, the LP version comes with this re-issue of an extremely rare 45 featuring the title cut from the equally smoldering film Slogan.


Visit lightintheattic.net to listen and buy Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg on CD or hand-numberd, limited gatefold LP.

Is Photography Over?

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Alright alright, I've been meaning to mention this too and didn't get to it in time, but since most of us don't live in San Francisco we wouldn't have been able to go anyway:

Unknown, Untitled (Man Reflected in Mirror). Photograph, undated. Collection of SFMOMA

As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, yesterday the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art kicked off a major forum on photography, wherein guests such as Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Peter Galassi, Vince Aletti, Jennifer Blessing, and other experts in the field weigh in with answers to the question "Is Photography Over?" Here's part of diCorcia's answer, which I enjoyed:

William James said, "Wisdom is learning what to overlook". We now look at everything, including the invisible. Photography, a mechanical form of looking, is intrinsically limited in what it can show. There lies the wisdom. The current crisis is partially caused by attempts to extend Photography's capability. Maybe it will succeed and show us something new we don't really need to see, or maybe it will fail and be the wiser for it.

Read the rest, and everyone else's initial responses to the question, here – and follow SFMOMA's blog throughout the month for more on the topic.



Serge Gainsbourg "Negative Blues"

For the Record

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For the past several months I've been working with Seattle's Light in the Attic Records on a bunch of different projects (including a forthcoming re-design of their website). One of the most fun things I've had the pleasure of designing for the label is this zine, a free promo produced for International Record Store Day, which is tomorrow. The zine is 7.25" square, like a 45 record jacket, and b&w newsprint with a color cover. Inside there are a variety of features on artists that Light in the Attic works with, such as Serge Gainsbourg, Betty Davis, Karen Dalton, Monks, Rodriguez, Doug Randle, Stephen John Kalinich, The Mighty Pope, Kearney Barton and all the artists involved in Wheedle's Groove, the Seattle funk & soul compilations. There are interviews with the label heads and KEXP's Greg Vandy wrote a great piece about re-issues and radio. The cover, above, was illustrated by the very talented Drew Christie. Here are some of the inside spreads:

Karen Dalton (with an article by Lenny Kaye)

Monks (with an article faxed in by Jello Biafra).

Wheedle's Groove (Seattle funk and soul)

Serge Gainsbourg. Actually the bottom two spreads, of Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin during the making of Histoire de Melody Nelson, which Light in the Attic just re-issued, didn't make it into the final zine because of rights issues…oh well.

Rodriguez. I love those photos of him hanging out with kids in Detroit.

Betty Davis, with an article by Jeff Chang. That bottom photo looks like it could be by Scavullo but I'm not sure who took it. I'm also working on two upcoming Betty Davis releases – one with artwork by the famous fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez. More on that later.

TOC/masthead featuring Betty Davis

The back cover features Drew's illustration of Light in the Attic world HQ, which is in an old hotel on Seattle's beautiful/infamous Aurora Avenue. Label founder Matt Sullivan even has a pool and jacuzzi attached to his office through a sliding door – it's pretty fly.

Anyway, there it is – visit your favorite local record store tomorrow and snap it up.

A History Of Lovers

Today sees the first-ever American issue of Serge Gainsbourg's best record, the classic Histoire de Melody Nelson – a must-have if it's not in your collection already. Light in the Attic has really gone the distance to make this one the definitive re-release, with a 40-page CD booklet, full lyrics, an extended 1971 interview with Gainsbourg, and, of course, re-mastered sound from the original tapes. Vinyl is limited to 2000 copies and I'm sure it will go quickly.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the original several years ago, but one should never pass up an opportunity to celebrate Serge and Jane, so last Friday night Emily and I popped Slogan into the DVD player and subsequently had our minds blown. Birkin and Gainsbourg met and fell in love during the filming of the movie in 1969, and their chemistry onscreen is irrepressible. The styling and color are things of great beauty; the music is, to borrow a word from James Lipton, sublime. Have a look:



The soundtrack is now firmly implanted at the top of my want list, and a smartly re-issued DVD is available immediately from Cinema Retro.