Joseph Szabo: Untitled, from Szabo's Teenage series – on view in Art of Attraction, the current show at F.L.O.A.T. Gallery in New York. More info at floatgallery.com and see a slideshow of more images from the show at Wallpaper*.Dum Dum Girls "He Gets Me High"
Causing a stir at the corner of Houston & Lafayette:
Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011) with some of her "closed form" works.Early in her career [Takaezu] made traditional vessels but in the late 1950s, strongly influenced by the Finnish ceramist Maija Grotell, she embraced the notion of ceramic pieces as artworks meant to be seen rather than used. She closed off the top of her vessels, leaving a vestigial nipple-like opening and creating, in effect, a clay canvas for glazing of all kinds: brushing, dripping, pouring and dipping.(More here.) Here's a 2010 interview with Takaezu in her home/studio:
She became known for the squat balls she called moon pots; the vertical “closed forms,” which grew sharply in height in the 1990s; and thin ceramic trunks inspired by the scorched trees she had seen along the Devastation Trail in Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park. At times Ms. Takaezu exhibited the moon pots in hammocks, an allusion to her method of drying the pots in nets. She also cast bronze bells and wove rugs.
Strongly influenced by her study of Zen Buddhism, she regarded her ceramic work as an outgrowth of nature and seamlessly interconnected with the rest of her life. “I see no difference between making pots, cooking and growing vegetables,” she was fond of saying. Indeed, she often used her kilns to bake chicken in clay, and dry mushrooms, apples and zucchinis.
Ed Ruscha: La Brea, Sunset, Orange, De Longpre, 1999 (Acrylic on canvas, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Heinz Family Fund) on view in the exhibition Ed Ruscha: Road Tested at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, through April 17.
This month at Complex magazine, Chairman Jefferson Mao counts down the thirty greatest hip-hop demos of all time – including dustily sparkling gems from Lord Finesse, Jay-Z, Tha Alkaholiks (formerly known as ESP: Everyday Street Poets), Hieroglyphics, Eminem, Big L, Brand Nubian, O.C., Mobb Deep (f/k/a Poetical Prophets) Ras Kass, DJ Shadow, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and Organized Konfusion (f/k/a Simply Too Positive), Nas, and Public Enemy. The list includes sound clips and Mao's ridiculously well-informed commentary – a must-read for fans of '90s hip-hop. Click here to check it out.
Selection from Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum, on view at said venue through October 11th. You might not know it, but Pacific Standard is huge fans of the quilt as an art form (in fact, my final typography project at Parsons was a quilt incorporating a Marshall McLuhan quote, which maybe I will post another time).
Artist unidentified, possibly New York State, 1880–1900 (Silks, including satin, 75 3/4 x 64 inches. American Folk Art Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alan Weinstein, 2007.15.7) 
Artist unidentified, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1910–1925 (Wool, 78 x 78 inches. American Folk Art Museum, gift of Freyda Rothstein, 1998.8.2)
Quilt by Jessie B. Telfair (1913–1986). Parrott, Georgia, Dated 1983 (Cotton with pencil, 74 x 68 inches. American Folk Art Museum, gift of Judith Alexander in loving memory of her sister, Rebecca Alexander, 2004.9.1) 
In the fall of 2009, Dylan Baldi was an 18-year-old college student studying saxophone and sound recording at a small college near Cleveland, OH. He had played in bands around town since he was old enough to hold a guitar, but recently he’d been putting his solo music on record through the magic of home recordings. He titled the solo project “Cloud Nothings,” made a myspace page, friended some bands he liked, and sat back to wait.Lest you think it's all just distortion and noise, here's an alternate version of "Hey Cool Kids."
That’s when a certain NYC show promoter known for putting on shows in unorthodox venues emailed asking if Cloud Nothings wanted to play with buzz bands Real Estate and Woods at the Market Hotel. This happened to be the same date that Dylan had to play a mandatory performance with his college band or end up failing the class, which put him in the awkward position of having to decide if it was worthwhile to drop out of college to play a very first show with a non-existent band that had only been written about on a couple blogs and heard by a few people. We are most grateful for his decision.
Cloud Nothings play the Crocodile this Sunday, opening for Toro y Moi. More info on Cloud Nothings here. Check out a couple more songs after the jump:
Isabeli Fontana shot by David Sims, with styling by Emmanuelle Alt, for what looks to be a phenomenal April issue of Vogue Paris.
Forty years ago today Congress cancelled government funding for the Boeing 2707 (aka the SST – Supersonic Transport).
The company almost immediately laid off more than 50% of its workforce, temporarily crippling the economy of the Pacific Northwest (though I know it didn't feel temporary). Real estate agents Bob McDonald and Jim Youngren erected this sign near the aiport on Highway 99 and it became a Seattle icon:
KUOW aired an interesting show on the Boeing Bust this morning – click here to listen – and click here to watch a Braniff promotional video promoting supersonic travel: "You don't have to carry a passport, because a friendly computer already knows more about you than you do."
One of my all-time favorite photos of Emily, in front of the Piet Blom-designed Cube Houses in Rotterdam. 
Uta Barth. Untitled (05.3), 2005 (Chromogenic color prints. Henry Art Gallery, gift of Burt and Jane Berman, 2009.38 A) from a selection of Barth's photos curated by Sara Krajewski at the Henry through May 8th. Info at henryart.org.
March 21 is Mr. Littlejeans' birthday. It has been almost four months since we lost him and we still miss him every day. In December I commissioned Seattle artist Shannon Perry to paint this portrait of Jeans. We had picked the box up from a Chinese restaurant on Smith Street in Brooklyn (SMILE FACE 12 + 7 x 23 = we had to have it) and he immediately adopted it as his own – like, the second we put it on the floor. The painting now hangs in our bedroom, under a photo and invitation from our wedding. Littlejeans had a great life and packed more personality and experience into it than most of the higher mammals I have known. We will love you forever, little buddy.
Well, two of them, both Polaroids by Helmut Newton: Untitled (Girl Smoking a Cigar), and Blumarine Fashion, 1993 – from Helmut Newton: Selected Works, on display at Hamiltons Gallery in London through May 15th. Click here for more.
John Wood, Gun in Landscape: Daisies, 1965 (Collage mounted to board, 5 x 5 3/4 inches) via Bruce Silverstein Gallery, exhibiting at the AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) show at the Armory in New York, March 17–20.
Lemons on my windowsill, sent from sunny Los Angeles California by my friend and client Matt Sullivan of Light in the Attic Records.
Jonah Samson: Elizabeth's mother warned her not to befriend the crows, but she didn't see any danger in it, 2010 (Gouache on vintage photograph, framed, 6.5 x 4.25 inches), from the show Jonah Samson: Paintings from the Archives of the Pleasantville Historical Society at G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, through April 16. Definitely one of my favorite Seattle gallery shows in recent memory. Click here for more.
