Saturday, May 22, 2010

Image of the Day

. A photograph by Nicole Bengiveno of bison wandering out of Yellowstone National Park, from this article in today's New York Times. [I don't know enough about the issues discussed to have an opinion, but it's an interesting read.]

No Matter Who You Are, Everyone's Gonna Say One Sentence About You

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Alec Soth made a name for himself by photographing people and places up and down the banks of the Mississippi. He's now experimenting with different formats and ways of telling stories with his work, which he discusses in this short feature.

See more of Soth's work at his website.

[via the excellent photography blog 1000 Words ]

Friday, May 21, 2010

Chat Debout

A drawing by a multi-talented friend of the blog,
Valéry Lorenzo.

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

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Jeans has a love/hate relationship with Em's shoes, because on the one hand they're good to lean on, use as a pillow, or play with – but on the other hand, when they're out on the floor like this, it usually means that everyone's going to leave the house soon, which is boring.

Law Don't Go 'Round Here, Law Dog

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One of our current obsessions. Highly recommended (thanks, Elmore Leonard):



Justified airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX. You can watch clips and full episodes on the show's website.

Need vs. Want

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Need. With prices for this collection from $29–39, they're practically paying you. Pair with flats and plan for brunch tomorrow afternoon.

Costello Tagliapietra for Uniqlo.
The collection hit the stores yesterday;
lookbook at
Refinery 29.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Tennis, Anyone?

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Whiting Tennis, White Knight, 2010 (cast plaster)

Walleyed, a show of new work by Seattle artist Whiting Tennis, opens tonight at Greg Kucera. Tennis's work doesn't translate extremely well from a distance but I'm excited to see the show in person. Over at best of, D.W. Burnam shares his thoughts about Tennis (he has a "propensity for cataloging objects rendered soft by neglect and disuse" and "engineers a kind of dilapidated-baroque").

Tractor, 2010 (acrylic on canvas)

Fridge, 2010 (found masonite and plywood)

The opening is from 6-8 pm (better hurry). Or, if you're planning to be downtown on Saturday the 22nd, consider stopping by the gallery at noon to hear the artist talk.

We are Pinocchio over and over again

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Patti Smith. Photography Robert Mapplethorpe

Patti Smith was back in her (and our) old neighborhood in Brooklyn the other day, giving a commencement address to the graduating class at Pratt. It's not "I have a dream" or "Ask not" or even "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" – but because I'm pretty much a fan of everything Patti Smith does or says, and on some level find her very existence inspiring, here it is in full:

Well, I've been thinking of you all for the past few weeks. I've been thinking about what I'd like to talk about: Moby Dick, the slaves of Michelangelo, Hans Hoffman, My Bloody Valentine...but now that I'm here, my greatest urge is speak to you of dental care. My generation had a rough go, dentally. Our dentists were the army dentists who came back from World War II, and believed that the dental office was a battleground. You have a better chance at dental health, and I say this because you want at night to be pacing the floor because your muse is burning inside of you, because you want to do your work, because you want to finish that canvas, because you want to make that design, because you want to help your fellow man. You don't want to be pacing because you need a damn root canal.

Image of the Day

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William Merritt Chase, Peonies, 1897 (pastel on paper)

Best Foot Forward

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Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte, $2195 at Mona Moore.
(Ladies, get on their mailing list if you're not already.

Regular prices are outlandish but they have amazing sales.
If you're into this kind of thing, that is.)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Process & Skills

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Photography Hijacked Trailer from Jack Pam on Vimeo.
Photography Hijacked, a documentary film by Jack Pam, is a journey through the processes, techniques and outcomes of 12 unique photographers from Australia and America. The idea that individuality of process is what underwrites and makes possible all interesting artwork is explored with each new artist in the film representing a new way of looking at the contemporary medium of photography.
More info, screening dates, etc. at photographyhijacked.com

Image of the Day

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Strude #17, 2008 (Chromogenic Print, 23" x 23"), by Danish artist Trine Søndergaard – from her show Strude, on view at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York through June 26.
The strude is the name of the mask-like garment that was worn by women on the Danish island of Fanø to cover their faces from the wind, sun and sand. This style of dress, now considered a traditional costume, is worn only for an annual fête day. For three years, Søndergaard visited the island for this celebration and photographed the women by a window in a small attic as they dressed for the festivities, focusing on the strude headdress.
Click here for more images and info.

9:08 AM

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Chad VanGaalen "Clinically Dead"
from
Infiniheart (2005, Sub Pop)
see also

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Image of the Day

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Daybed (2010) by designer Rick Owens, part of the current exhibition, "Pavane for a Dead Princess," at Salon 94 in NYC. For the show (Owens' first presentation of furniture on this side of the Atlantic), the designer turned the gallery into a bedroom based on his Paris abode. The exhibition title is taken from a piece by French composer Maurice Ravel. More photos here.


Maurice Ravel, "Pavane pour une infante défunte" (1899), performed by Philippe Entremont in NYC, 2008. Nice on a rainy Seattle day.

Mount St. Helens erupted 30 years ago today.

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This is a great documentary short made not long after the eruption
in 1980 – if you're from the Northwest it will make you proud.

In other news, I am old.

...
See also: The Big Picture

Monday, May 17, 2010

Feeling Good was Good Enough for Me

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One of the coolest projects I've had the pleasure of working on (ever) was released last week: Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968–72 collects a whole bunch of the earliest, unreleased Kris Kristofferson tunes, including the first-ever recording of "Me and Bobby McGee."

A little background: When he began his career, Kristofferson had already been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and a decorated Airborne Ranger in the Army; he volunteered to go to Vietnam, but was instead assigned to teach English at West Point. Soon after, he picked up and headed south, landing a job as a janitor in the Columbia recording studio in Nashville, where Bob Dylan was recording Blonde On Blonde (Kristofferson didn't speak to him for fear of being fired). In the off-hours, he wrote and recorded a slew of pared-down, quiet demos, featured for the first time in this new collection. A 60-page booklet goes with it, and includes liner notes by Dennis Hopper, Merle Haggard, Kinky Friedman, and Michael Simmons, as well as a bunch of weird old passports and other documents and stuff that Kris and his wife Lisa sent up here to be scanned.

Of all the enjoyable things about working on this project, I think my favorite was when Lisa said "Kris will check over the lyrics when he's done mowing." I found that very relaxing and reassuring.

There have been some nice reviews over the past week since the record came out (The New York Times, NPR, Vice, etc.), which is cool because Light In The Attic has been putting this project together for SIX YEARS. If you purchase the CD – or even better, pre-order the vinyl – directly from them, they'll send you an autographed photo, until they run out (it's also available from just about any other record store). For more info, sound clips, etc., visit lightintheattic.net.

Image of the Day

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Jacques Henri Charles au Lartigue Bibi in London, 1929 –
a photograph that caught my eye in the catalog of the Heritage Signature Fine Art Photography Auction, open for bidding through June 9th. (This particular gelatin silver print, from the corporate art collection of 7-11, is signed and blind-stamped by Lartigue, and is estimated at $2–3000 in value.) Click here to browse.

6:56 AM

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Hanne Hukkelberg "Cast Anchor"
from
Little Things (2005) more info

Photos
, from Numero: Catherine McNeil, by the excellent/underappreciated photographer Horst Diekgerdes, who seems to be fond of using boats in his photos.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

You Know, It's That Thing, of When Like

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Let's recap. Bill Hader is way too good at this.

Pretty Please

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Chanel Resort 2011.
See the whole show (70s nostalgia ahead)
here.