Escaping Everything

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The New York Times and others are reporting that artist Dash Snow has died of a drug overdose. There has been and will be a lot of bad things said about Dash Snow. He was a friend of friends, but I never actually met him and don't have much of an opinion about him on a personal level. He was mostly known for his polaroids, the photographic evidence of a way of living that in itself could have been some kind of performance piece – but I most identify with and continue to be inspired by his collages and collage-like installations, which to some may seem shallow or purely driven by aesthetics, but which to me display a fascinating singular viewpoint and hint at a spacious inner life. Here's a small selection from the great shows he had at Rivington Arms several years back.

Rest in peace, Dash Snow...we hardly knew yeh.

All artwork courtesy Rivington Arms.

This language of laugh

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My old buddy Mike Sacks – a research editor at Vanity Fair who you may also know from such blogs as Photos of TV and other work for The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Vice, GQ, and Esquire...and Women's Health – has done a bunch of interviews with comedy writers over the years and collected them in a new book. And Here's the Kicker… Conversations with Top Humor Writers About Their Craft features in-depth discussions with Buck Henry, Stephen Merchant, Paul Feig, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel, David Sedaris, Al Jaffee, Allison Silverman, Harold Ramis, Mitch Hurwitz, Jack Handey, Dave Barry, Roz Chast and many more, with an introduction by Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, awesome).

Check out some excerpts and more info here, and then go pick it up at the bookstore that is nearest to your house.
I also recommend Mike's interview with Tim & Eric (pictured at left) for The Believer, and you can explore more of his writing at mikesacks.com.

Happy Bastille Day!

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Bastille Day at the Statue of Liberty on July 14, 1936
[New York Public Library archives]

Perfect Union

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We had the great pleasure of attending the most beautiful wedding yesterday in Carnation.

Congratulations to Spencer and Coco!

Photos via Cave Singing (click for more).

Demon Jelly

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A small selection of hilarious and creepy
old-time advertisements.
[via Design Observer]

More evidence that crows are brilliant:

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[via SLOG]

Also:

Drive By

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Man traveling southeast on U.S. Route 101 at approximately 71 mph somewhere around Camarillo, California, on a summer evening in 1994

More cars, this time from Andrew Bush, whose book Drive and recent shows at the Yossi Milo and Julie Saul galleries feature photographs capturing the relationships between Americans and their cars. Bush uses a high powered flash and medium format film camera mounted on the door of his car to snap the photos.

Woman rolling to a stoplight at Wilshire Boulevard and Lafayette Park Place in Hollywood at 2:38 2:39 p.m. on January 18, 1997

Man driving west at 23 mph down a yet-to-be-named dirt road, around lunchtime, during a construction boom in Las Vegas in June of 1989

High school students facing north at 0 mph on Sepulveda Blvd in Westwood, California, at 3:01 p.m. on a Saturday in February 1997

Visit Design Observer for some interesting analysis and a slideshow.

The New Standard of the World in Majesty

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“Fire Jet” racing car, about 1955.

The Japan Society, one of the more beautiful and overlooked museums in New York, currently features an exhibition of 70 rare Japanese tin toys manufactured in former munitions factories in the decades following World War II. From the NYT:

The details were all based on the latest Detroit fashions, which Japanese designers copied from photos or magazine clippings. “The American car represented glamour, wealth and victory” to war-devastated Japan, said Joe Earle, the director of the gallery. Japanese manufacturers, he added, “were extraordinary at organizing suppliers, staying flexible and making significant profits while mass-producing a constantly changing variety of cars.”

Chrysler New Yorker Four-Door Sedan, 1957.

Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner Two-Door Convertible with retractable hardtop, 1959; with battery-powered motor and remote control.

General Motors Oldsmobile Two-Door Sedan, 1955; with trailer.

The exhibition also features much of the original packaging for the toys, "depicting Caucasian families driving through landscapes that combine American desert scenery and a few Japanese cherry trees."

Click here [and scroll down] to read about it at The New York Times and here for more info and images at the Japan Society.

All images from the Yoku Tanaka collection.
Photos Tadaki Nakagawa/The Japan Society.

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

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An oldy for you... Jeans braving the cold Brooklyn winter. And because we skipped last Friday's, here's a bonus – click to enlarge:

If Littlejeans lived in the North Cascades he would be an energetic pika and he would squeak and bleat. Either that or he would eat all the energetic pikas, demand a heating pad from the nearest human, and go to sleep.

And, finally, via Chad, a gem from the new blog fuckyeahanimalswithcasts:

Beacon Hill throwback

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Classic Beacon Hill movie set-type scene. Some streets in our new neighborhood feel like a total time warp. The bike store with the window behind the car is called Hello Bicycle. More pics of the neighborhood to come, as long as I remember to bring the camera along when we walk the dogs.

Northwest Living

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Some pics from our weekend camping in the North Cascades...which was beyond beautiful, just totally mind-blowing. Other than when I had to go over and yell at the French Canadians who set up camp extremely loudly in the middle of the night right next to us, or when we had an awkward encounter with some creepy middle-aged people from New York who saw our NY plates and wanted us to hang out with them, or getting back to find that my computer had completely fried, it was a perfect weekend – I'm looking forward to going up there again some time soon.

Get ready to live

Marblemount, WA

A roadside plaque about Jack Kerouac et al's time up up there in Desolation Lookout.

A one-lane road runs across Diablo Dam (by the way, Diablo is pronounced Die-ab-low, with ab being pronounced the Suzanne Somers way).

Ross Lake

You said it sister
On the Fourth of July we hiked up to Heather Pass in Okanagan National Forest. We didn't make it to the top because the path was still covered in snow and we lost the way.

Also, there was a massive grizzly bear eating his way through the meadow below us.

Sunday we hiked up to Thornton Lake and Trapper Mountain.

There was still a lot of snow but the trail was more clear.

It was however one of the tougher hikes I've ever done – it was 9 miles roundtrip and listed as "moderately strenuous" but there was nothing moderate about it. We got to the top and pretty much collapsed.

It was insane though – the view was totally worth it. It still bugs me out that this is only a couple hours outside of Seattle.

click to enlarge

My kind of reading list

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I'm no Kanye West ("I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph.") but it is safe to say that I don't expend nearly enough effort tackling the ever-growing list of books on my reading list. So it is with great excitement that I learned of a new article at The Second Pass listing ten books that we're allowed to skip.

Below is a list of ten books that will be pressed into your hands by ardent fans. Resist these people. Life may not be too short (I’m only in my mid-30s, and already pretty bored), but it’s not endless.

On William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom : "I mean, all readers have to swim through a little tar now and then, but goddamn." On One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez: "Magical realism wasn’t much of a trick to begin with." On The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence: "We’d like to read another book. Or maybe fix a sandwich and see who’s on Conan."

Check out the list here, and add your own selections and comments at The Second Pass blog.

The Illustrious Jackie O

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Wright recently auctioned off several 1961 illustrations by Jacqueline Kennedy.

The wonders never cease. More here.

Math Rock with Flute

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Still, I can't get enough of this song, it's been in my head for a week.



Cursive "I Couldn't Love You" from Mama, I'm Swollen [buy]

Crystallized

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Nicolai Ouroussoff has an engaging article in today's New York Times about the Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa, a member of the Japanese Metabolism movement. The tower was built in 1972 and is now threatened by developers, disrepair and demolition. Here is an excerpt from the piece:

"..for many of us who believe that the way we treat our cultural patrimony is a fair measure of how enlightened we are as a society, the building’s demolition would be a bitter loss. The Capsule Tower is not only gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the crystallization of a far-reaching cultural ideal. Its existence also stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of values."

Hopefully they find some way to preserve the building. Here are some images of the tower, the first showing the built-ins which include a tape deck mounted into the wall.

Click here for the article and more images.

It's All in the Details

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Christian Dior Fall 2009 Couture

The Fall 2009 Couture shows started yesterday in Paris. The spectacle runs through July 9; more to come.

Newcomer Alexis Mabille shows what he's made of.
(More at style.com, here.)

Below, Riccardo Tisci talks to New York's Harriet Mays Powell about his Spring 2009 Couture collection for Givenchy.


Courtesy the Cut

Now Pacific Standard is closed because my computer is fried and I'll be at the Mac store for the indefinite future.

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Please stay tuned for more exciting developments



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