30 June 2010

TUNES FOR A GOLDEN AFTERNOON

A friend in Amsterdam recently gave me a ton of new music, here are a few of my favorites so far from Turkey, Ethiopia, and Brazil.

Erkin Koray, Mesafeler
 
Alemu Aga, Abatatchen Hoy Peter Noster
 
Milton Nascimento, Um Gosto de Sol
 

A WEDNESDAY GEM

My friend Phil just posted this album cover, and I love its simplicity. Created in 1981 for Scottish band Altered Images.

EVERYBODY

Surprisingly, this is from the Fall '10 Levi's campaign from Wieden + Kennedy. Apparently it was first an installation shown in a gallery in New York, and now in San Francisco where this photo was taken, they've turned a storefront into a 6-month pop-up print shop. Interesting that they brought the vandalized wooden construction wall inside and are using it as an art installation. I wouldn't put it past W+K to have embellished the wall a bit themselves in addition to the locals. Anyway, I like the sentiment of the sign and of course, everybody loves neon. Photo by friend Michele Janezic.

24 June 2010

ELAD LASSRY

LA-based conceptual artist Elad Lassry

HERE SOMETIMES


I think I can honestly say that I'll always like Blonde Redhead. Sometimes I forget about them, then they resurface at just the right time. 


New: Here Sometimes

AUTHENTICITY VS. KITCH





Recently Thinking for a Living blog posted The Ultimate Toy for Boys, featuring 24 carat gold miniature soldier figurines by Partners & Spade in collaboration with Chandelier Creative (side note: Chandelier's use of video as background for their site is not something I see around very often, however the content, which opens with three models in jeans walking away from the camera, is incredibly cheesy). I'd heard of Partners & Spade but never looked into it, and in light of the ridiculous 24 carat soldiers (what kind of statement does this make?) I thought I'd better check out their website. Despite the logo looking like Prada's engraver's font, I could immediately see where the soldiers came from -- P&S have this Holden Caulfield aesthetic down pat and of course, in the 50s, soldiers had an entirely different meaning than they do today.

Most surprisingly, their blog, curated as an inspiration board, is actually quite good. Images they've found from top, include imagery from Socialite Inept, artist Hollis Brown Thronton, and photographer Phyllis Galembo. They also publish books of collections of everyday objects and observations (à la J & L books or Daniel Eatock) which I was happy to find, in that I imagined P&S had much more commercial aims given they are mainly a branding firm

I almost wish there were more of a separation between their conceptual and commercial work, but then again the combination is sort of what saves them. Even if it's well executed, the obsessive and ultra-stylized throwback gender aesthetic used in their commercial work (see also: Kate Spade) isn't interesting at all unless looked at as purely kitch, so mixing other works highlighting the mundane lends authenticity to their practice. It's as if they dissected a Wes Anderson movie, putting kitch on one side and authenticity on the other -- but it's all still very considered. Is the mundane by nature authentic in the first place? Below, images from their books published in-house and by Harper Collins








22 June 2010

13 June 2010

SUNDAY TUNES



More tunes, this time from San Francisco friends the Sic Alps.


Love is Strange

Who Has Time to Protest

03 June 2010

SUMMER

Is here. Have a listen and see what I mean.

Arch M, 21st Union

01 June 2010

DENNIS HOPPER



Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) began taking photographs in 1955. Above, portrait of Andy Warhol from his monograph Dennis Hopper: Photographs, 1961-1967 published in 2009 by Taschen. More photos can be found here