That's My Partner

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Way back on February 12, 2008, in my very first post, I mentioned that my brilliant and beautiful wife Emily, pictured above at the Louvre, would sometimes be posting on Pacific Standard along with me.

Emily in Mojacar, Spain.

Though she hasn't posted…not even once, I often feel the blog is our group project anyway – she is trained as a lawyer, but she knows a ton about art, fashion, and design, and is at least as qualified to be an art director as I am.

Emily in Westsound, Orcas Island…brainstorming.

I learn new things from Emily constantly; I run projects and creative thoughts by her to get her take before anyone else sees them, and it always leads to new ideas.

Emily at some Visionaire party. Photo Patrick McMullen.

So…I am ecstatic to report the following:

1. Emily is going to help me set up a Seattle studio. As business director she will handle development and management for Pacific Standard, which will allow me to focus more closely on creative direction.

Emily reading a map in Montmartre. The map is upside down because it's France.

2. We just signed a lease for a small office space at Pike & Broadway and are moving in on March 1st. It's been a long time coming – I've been freelancing since April 2007 but have always worked at home; I'm excited to branch out, and especially with a uniquely qualified business director at my side.

(This is not the office.)

3. Emily is going to start posting on the blog, occasionally, for real this time, starting with the post you see below.

That is all.


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It's That Time of Year

Some early fashion week favorites – more to follow from the later shows.

Alexander Wang, Elise Øverland

Yigal Azrouël

Y-3

Ohne Titel

Peter Som, Jason Wu, Abaeté

Preen

Cushnie et Ochs, BCBG Max Azria, Cushnie et Ochs

Boy by Band of Outsiders, Hervé Léger by Max Azria

Adam, Adam, Prabal Gurung, Prabal Gurung, Karen Walker

Acne

More at style.com

The Name of the Thing One Sees

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We saw a bunch of gallery shows when we were in New York last week, but my favorites by far were Robert Irwin at Pace Wildenstein (above) and Fred Sandback at David Zwirner.

These massive Robert Irwin pieces at Pace were totally overwhelming. The fluorescent lighting patterns immediately called to mind letterforms and swastikas – symbols that convey meaning, whether they are letters put together to form words, or a swastika, which has a ton of meaning certainly in the twentieth century, but also as the oldest known symbol. So I found that, staring into these harsh lights, I was almost urgently trying to pull meaning out of the patterns, but realizing that ultimately they are just formations that in and of themselves had no meaning. If that makes sense.

Fred Sandback's show at David Zwirner was also really intense. These "panels" you see in the photo (see more here) are actually just pieces of string attached to the ceiling and the floor and pulled extremely tight at 90º angles. You could walk right through them if you wanted – but when you're standing next to them, it feels eerie, like if you did walk through them you might enter another world or slam against a forcefield, like a kid running through a screendoor. I found myself thinking about walls and doorways a little differently as we walked around Chelsea for the rest of the afternoon.

There were other bright spots (I liked this photograph by Carolee Schneeman at the Carolina Nitsch Project Room, for example) but overall it was a bit lackluster. No matter, those first two shows were so memorable, it was worth the time.

We also had time for a quick run through Soho one morning. We saw this show at Team Gallery featuring the work of Gardar Eide Einarsson, Davis Rhodes, and Stanley Whitney

…which reminded me of the more geometric elements of Bas Louter's current show at Ambach & Rice (formerly OKOK Gallery, pictured above) in Ballard.

And we tried to see the Stephen Sprouse show at Deitch Projects, but were a little too early and they weren't open (click here to see some images from the show, though judging from a peek through the window, that doesn't really do it justice). It's sort of a bummer to miss things on a quick trip like this, because it's not like we can just go back over there and see it tomorrow or something – but it was great to cruise through our old haunts and see what we saw.

Something Else / The Mind is a Muscle

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So, in addition to doing our taxes, Emily and I had a chance to race around town and see a bunch of different cool things in New York last week. One day we had lunch at The Modern (pictured above, one of my favorite spots in the whole city), and then spent the entire afternoon wandering around MoMA.

I never found out who the artist is, but this massive felt and fabric panel on the front of the museum reminded me a little of Coco Howard and Spencer Moody's show What We Do Is Also Secret, at VAIN gallery. (Not that they are that much alike, but the layers upon layers of textiles brought it to mind. The more I've thought about What We Do Is Also Secret – the installation part upstairs – the more mind-blowing it is. It's up through February 28th if you haven't seen it yet.)

Yvonne Rainier Trio A (The Mind is a Muscle, Part 1), Choreographed 1966 and performed 1978

There are a bunch of good shows up right now at MoMA. I mentioned Marlene Dumas and Vik Muniz previously, and this time around I was glad to spend some more time with the survey Here Is Every: Four Decades of Contemporary Art. Here are some pics, click to enlarge:

Detail from Bruce Nauman Cones Cojones 1973

Various books by Ed Ruscha

Annette Messager My Vows 1988–91

Detail from Annette Messager My Vows

Christopher Wool Untitled 1990

I have seen that last piece many times, but the violence it exudes – conveyed not only by the phrase itself but supported by the typography, composition, large size, and stark lack of color – never fails to shock.

More later.

Spirits in the Material World

Tin types from the 7th Ave flea market in Brooklyn on Sunday morning, $6 each. (Click to enlarge.)

Dark Night

So, completely unbeknownst to me, that Ben Gibbard & Feist song I posted last week is from a new Red Hot compilation, in stores today, called Dark Was The Night. (Thanks to fellow Seattle-based design blogger Still Dottie for the tip.) More audio samples:



The list of artists involved is so outstanding, you have to see it for yourself – visit 4AD to acquire a pretty serious sense of urgency about going out and finding this record. More info at darkwasthenight.com.

Here's a favorite track from a 1996 Red Hot comp, America Is Dying Slowly: Organized Konfusion Decisions mp3

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P.S. – For anyone who gives a crap, I posted a little addendum to the Neko Case post from last week...scroll down.
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Paragraph, President

Pacific Standard the blog is closed for President's Day, i.e., I am just back from NYC and playing catch-up. Great trip, loads to report, tons of pictures…all starting tomorrow. Also, some interesting changes and developments for Pacific Standard the studio. And it's fashion week.
So look out – stuff is about to get real interesting up in here.

Above, maybe my all-time favorite photo of Abraham Lincoln (click to enlarge). The photo was taken by famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady at Antietam, Maryland, on or shortly after September 17th, 1862 – the first major battle fought on Northern soil and the bloodiest single day of the entire war, with over 23,000 casualties. Pictured with Lincoln are General J.A. McClernand and "Major" Allen Pinkerton, the head of Union Intelligence (which would become the Secret Service) and of the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

Jeans in his study.

Usually It's Nothing

We're in NYC right now on a quick trip to do our taxes--we have a crack team of accountants in Queens, it's worth the trip--but I wanted to note that today is the one-year anniversary of this here blog. Thank you for reading, I hope I have provided you with some enjoyment. I like blogging and I'm going to keep doing it.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

S words

Hmmm... I'm not sure about this album cover.

I like the various elements (color, type, car, styling...even the sword is okay), but something about the light-gray background bothers me. Looking forward to the album though – it's in stores March 3rd.

Neko Case People Got A Lotta Nerve mp3 (via Anti-)

More info here.

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An addendum:
I highly recommend reading this great piece on Neko Case in The New York Times Magazine. It's an incredibly morbid thing to note, but just about anyone who grew up in the Northwest around the same time as me will identify with her comments on the inspiration for one of the new songs:

“It’s based on the Green River killer,” she says. “When I was a kid in Tacoma, we were all scared all the time. I actually carried a knife to school with me. The ‘you’ in the song is one of his victims. They were all prostitutes, but we didn’t know that. They could have been anybody; they could have been us.”

Man, I remember that feeling – I was scared too as a little kid, even knowing that the victims were all women. Such a strange thing to grow up with. I wonder if the sword on the album cover references the knife she carried. Anyway, it all makes me look forward to hearing the rest of the record.

Train of Thought

While we're on the subject...

Red Gay & Jack Wellman Flat Wheel Train Blues mp3
courtesy Mr. Bussard
Feist & Ben Gibbard Train Song mp3
buy their stuff everywhere
José Gonzalez Untitled (Train) mp3
from Visionaire 53 SOUND (buy it)
Don Thomas Train Keep Moving mp3
(extension courtesy Hugswon)
Reflection Eternal Train of Thought mp3

Photo: near The Dalles, Oregon, May 2007

Blue Train

Emily knows me really well. For our January Xmas, as I mentioned before, she got me a set of maps for finding all the ghost towns of Washington State, and she also got me the beautifully packaged Criterion DVD Two-Lane Blacktop. But I think the coolest thing she came up with was this first paperback edition of Paul Fusco's self-published book RFK Funeral Train.

Fusco, a staff photographer for Look magazine, traveled with Robert F. Kennedy's body as it made its way from New York to D.C. in 1968. Fusco documented the journey with pictures of the people who stood at the side of the tracks to pay their respects. (Click to enlarge.)

Aperture published a new version of the book last year, including many previously unpublished photos – you can get it at aperture.org for $35.


Check out this New York Times Magazine article for more info and a slideshow.

Stuff we forgot we owned, Part 3

When I was a kid I ordered a list from the back of a comic book that had all these free things you could send away for. I don't remember what else I got, maybe some stamps and stuff, but I was pretty psyched about this trucker dictionary.

Comin' out the Woodwork

A lot of telephone poles around Seattle have this cool-looking typography chunked into them.

Unrelated: Hobo Junction Woodwork mp3

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

Fun with record boxes…



…and then, of course, back to sleep.

I live my life like there's no tomorrow

Oh yeah? Really?
Well prepare to have the next 7 minutes of it completely wasted.

Cool your jets:
Van Halen Runnin' with the Devil (isolated vocal track) mp3