MONDAY TUNES

Huggy Bear: Code Fucker
 
Huggy Bear: Steppin On Bugs 



A treasure trove of HB songs can be found here.

BRANDO

LIKEY

New Typefaces from Conqueror. Found on CR Blog.

A LITTLE SOMETHING

WEDNESDAY

Cover, 1961. Some poems here.

SUNDAY

Artwork by Balcomb Greene, (1904-1990)

SWEET NOTHINGS

 
Bon Weekend.

VALERIA PICERNO

Photos by New York-based photographer Valeria Picerno, found on her flickr page. 

POSTER

I'm really into this poster for Sofia Coppola's new movie. The title and actor's names perfectly frame the "place" in question. Kind of brilliant. Anyone know who designed it?

ALEX STEINWEISS

Before graphic designer Alex Steinweiss, records came in brown sleeves.

IN THE WOODS

COLORS AND SHAPES

Works by Suzy Poling.

TODAY

Top: Virginia Woolf by artist Roger Fry. Bottom, image found on Old Chum.

QUI?

MIA

I'm here right now.

AROUND THE HOUSE

Happy Sunday.

STREET LEVEL

Originally a city of merchants, what seems to remain in Amsterdam is a culture of storefronts. As was pointed out to me on a recent visit there, many people living in Amsterdam make their homes street-level. In the 17th century flat glass was difficult to make and very expensive, so one can only assume the luxuriously large windows were afforded by trade wealth. Interestingly today these windows are not always covered, allowing one's life to be lived in the open, visible to any passerby. By extension, this openness could be what underpins the storefront prostitute -- women standing comfortably out of the elements yet still visible from the street. Photos: storefront houses built in the 17th century. I didn't intentionally try to include bikes in every photo btw, they're just everywhere.

FIRST EDITIONS

Vanessa Bell, sister to Virginia Woolf, designed all her first edition dust jackets for Hogarth Press. More can be found here. 

WEDNESDAY TUNES

A little Donovan for a hazy summer morning.


Sunny Goodge Street

Bert's Blues

Wear Your Love Like Heaven

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.

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. 

OXFORD

SUNDAY TUNES

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

Love is Strange

Who Has Time to Protest

SUMMER

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

Arch M, 21st Union

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.