Saturday, March 26, 2011

Happy Birthday, Robert Frost

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Away!


Now I out walking
The world desert,
And my shoe and my stocking
Do me no hurt.

I leave behind
Good friends in town.
Let them get well-wined
And go lie down.

Don't think I leave
For the outer dark
Like Adam and Eve
Put out of the Park.

Forget the myth.
There is no one I
Am put out with
Or put out by.

Unless I'm wrong
I but obey
The urge of a song:
I'm—bound—away!

And I may return
If dissatisfied
With what I learn
From having died.

Friday, March 25, 2011

To the Cloud

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Cloud Nothings "Hey Cool Kid" (MP3)

Background info, courtesy of Old Flame Recordings:
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.

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.
Lest you think it's all just distortion and noise, here's an alternate version of "Hey Cool Kids."



In addition to that song, and some EPs and full-lengths that are all great, Cloud Nothings has a bunch of 7" singles worth checking out. This is the newest one, from True Panther Sounds:

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:

Image of the Day

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Isabeli Fontana shot by David Sims, with styling by Emmanuelle Alt, for what looks to be a phenomenal April issue of Vogue Paris.

Nature Time

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A contributing photographer for National Geographic magazine recounts his surprising experiences with a Leopard Seal in Antarctica.
(via TBTL)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Best Foot Forward

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In tan, s.v.p.



Lanvin Sandale Clous et Strass,
$1595 (in black) at Nordstrom.

Boom & Bust

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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."

Frequency


Real Estate "Out of Tune" from the 7" pictured above
(b/w "Reservoir," 2010,
True Panther Sounds)

I love how heavy and light this sounds at the same time – it satisfies my sometimes competing needs for a wall of sound and something quieter, possibly from Emily's parents' record collection.


Real Estate plays next Wednesday at Knitting Factory Brooklyn and hopefully mid-April in Seattle? In the mean time [Oops, I was wrong. The internet is so confusing.]
Download their four-song Daytrotter session from last Summer here.

( Another band I never knew courtesy of Charles Leo Gebhardt IV. More on him soon.)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor

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Elizabeth Taylor, 1964, photographed by Richard Avedon

Trees

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YSL SS2011 – model Arizona Muse shot in Marrakech by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, with music ("Mushrooms and Roses") by Janelle Monae

Keep On Doing Whatcha Do

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Sweet Bulbs "Kissing Clouds"
from Sweet Bulbs (2011,
Blackburn Recordings)

(photo: The Space Needle, February 2011)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Image of the Day

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One of my all-time favorite photos of Emily, in front of the Piet Blom-designed Cube Houses in Rotterdam.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Image of the Day

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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.

Mr. Littlejeans

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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.

Get Up Ninja, Do Something

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Umshini Wam, a 16-minute film by Harmony Korine starring Die Antwoord as "wheelchair-bound gangsters...in a tale of love and the struggle for survival."


via VBS.tv