Monday, June 30, 2008
BMW: Forward Thinking
The first truly interesting design innovation to come along in the auto industry in decades.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Jeff Bark
Jeff Bank (born 1963) lives and works in New York and I'm a big fan of his. His photography is painstaking; he constructs all of his environments in his studio, including the swamp in his Woodpecker series (example above).
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Funeral Parade of Roses
Funeral Parade of Roses is one of the most hauntingly bizarre films I've ever come across. I have not been able to finish watching it as yet. It was released in 1969 and is a loose take on Oedipus Rex, set in the underground counterculture of late 60's Tokyo. I was told that it was a major influence on A Clockwork Orange, but I assure you, compared to this film, A Clockwork Orange appears as disturbing as an episode of Scooby-Doo.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Time Travel, Teleports, Deathstars, Etc.
By and large I try to avoid bringing attention to the fact that I am a pretty big science dork. It's generally easy since topics like the 4th dimension don't often come up in casual conversation. Areas of particular interest are astronomy, biology and theoretical physics, because that is where the keys to explaining everything lie.
Enter Dr. Michio Kaku, fixture on all Discovery Channel programs concerning space exploration, etc. He is an accomplished theoretical physicist and one of the top authorities on String Theory (think dimensions). Not surprisingly, he is a big science fiction nerd as well, and has written a non-fiction work titled: Physics of the Unexplained. In the book he attempts to explain in lay terms the theoretical mechanics of common themes found in sci-fi (travel faster than the speed of light, and so forth), typcially deemed impossible by most sensible people. What is surprising, aside from how approachable and entertaining his writing is, is how little may actually be impossible. It probably won't win you many 'cool points' with your friends (unless they're dorks as well), but we're so accustomed to reading about current events and the past, for a change it's nice to read about things to come.
Word Of The Day
Tourbillon: \tur-'bil-yən\ Date: 15th Century n. 1. a vortex especially of a whirlwind or whirlpool 2. A rotating frame, containing the escapement of a clock or watch, that attempts to compensate for the effects of gravity.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
To: NY With Love, Frank O'Hara
RHAPSODY
515 Madison Avenue
door to heaven? portal
stopped realities and eternal licentiousness
or at least the jungle of impossible eagerness
your marble is bronze and your lianas elevator cables
swinging from the myth of ascending
I would join
or declining the challenge of racial attractions
they zing on (into the lynch, dear friends)
while everywhere love is breathing draftily
like a doorway linking 53rd with 54th
the east-bound with the west-bound traffic by 8,000,000s
o midtown tunnels and the tunnels, too, of Holland
where is the summit where all aims are clear
the pin-point light upon a fear of lust
as agony's needlework grows up around the unicorn
and fences him for milk- and yoghurt-work
when I see Gianni I know he's thinking of John Ericson
playing the Rachmaninoff 2nd or Elizabeth Taylor
taking sleeping-pills and Jane thinks of Manderley
and Irkutsk while I coug lightly in the smog of desire
and my eyes water achingly imitating the true blue
a sight of Manahatta in the towering needle
multi-faceted insight of the fly in the stringless
labyrinth
Canada plans a higher place than the
Empire State Building
I am getting into a cab at 9th Street and 1st Avenue
and the Negro driver tells me about a $120 apartment
"where you can't walk across the floor after 10 at night
not even to pee, cause it keeps them awake downstairs"
no, I don't like that "well, I didn't take it"
perfect in the hot humid morning on my way to work
a little supper-club conversation for the mill of the gods
your were there always and you know all about these
things
as indifferent as an encylcopedia with your
calm brown eyes
it isn't enough to smile when you run the gauntlet
you've got to spit like Niagara Falls on everybody or
Victoria Falls or at least the beautiful urban fountains
of Madrid
as the Niger joins the Gulf of Guinea near the
Menemsha Bar
that is what you learn in the early morning passing
Madison Avenue
where you've never spent any time and stores
eat up light
I have always wanted to be near it
though the day is long (and I don't mean Madison
Avenue)
lying in a hammock on St. Mark's Place sorting
my poems
in the rancid nourishment of this mountainous island
they are coming and we holy ones must go
is Tibet historically a part of China? as I historically
belong to the enormous bliss of American death
1959
I like that one.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
KUDU
I got into this band the way many people do with independent artists: a friend who refused to stop telling me how great they were unless I submitted to going to a concert. Now I have become that friend because they are really that good.
They are based in Brooklyn, and have some of the best dancing music to come along in years. Go to their MySpace page for more info. As a band should be, they are even better live.
Upcoming Events:
JUNE 14TH, NYC
EYEBEAM GALLERY (NYC) -
KUDU w/BiLLLL$ and THE COLLECTION AGENCY
KUDU SHOWTIME @ 11PM SHARP
JUNE 21ST, NYC:
THE 2008 CONEY ISLAND MERMAID PARADE BALL
**Parade Begins at 2 PM / The Mermaid Parade Ball 5:30pm-11:30pm @ Childs Restaurant
(W. 21st Street and Coney Island Boardwalk, Brooklyn) / KUDU SHOWTIME @ 7PM.
JULY 13TH NYC
THE 4TH ANNUAL AFRO-PUNK MUSIC & FILM FESTIVAL CLOSING NIGHT BLOCK PARTY ON CLINTON AVE. (FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN). KUDU with JDAVEY, THE CARPS, THE THIRST and THE CAESARZ.
Friday, June 13, 2008
"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg
First lines of Ginsberg's most famous poem, written on a door at the Bowery Poetry Club, one of several spots frequented by him & his contemporaries.
1956
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Ode To New York
Living in & around New York City my entire life, I have come to have a love for it so deep, that is only matched by my contempt for it. I came across this well written essay in the most recent Uniqlo Paper (Issue 4) & thought, how many people do I know, myself included, feel exactly like the author Jonathan Lethem? He happens to his point very eloquently, & I thought I would share it. Click on the pages to view a readable size.
Playboy After Dark
The majority of us were not alive long enough to know that Hugh Heffner was actually cool once upon a time. That time being the ten or so years following the latter half of the 1960's. During this time Helmut Newton shot for the magazine and Heffner hosted a syndicated variety show called Playboy After Dark, and such musical acts as James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, & Iron Butterfly. Heff also interviewed the likes of a young Roman Polanski with his soon to be infamous girlfriend Sharon Tate; all while smoking & drinking martinis.
A far cry from The Girls Next Door.
Dali @ the MOMA
Dalí: Painting and Film
June 29–September 15, 2008
Who does not love this man? In a few weeks there will be an exhibit opening with over 120 paintings, photos & films by Dali. Complementing the 6th floor exhibition there will be screenings of his beautifully bizarre films, along with others that inspired him.
Dali on What's My Line
While on the subject of Dali, here's a clip of him from the 50's gameshow What's My Line?.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Leffot NYC
I was very pleased to hear that there is finally a boutique selling the Corthay brand (alongside other reputable brands) in the U.S. In my opinion they have the most flattering shoe last of any brand.
Leffot, 10 Christopher St (between Gay St and Greenwich Ave), 212-989-4577
http://www.leffot.com, http://www.corthay.fr
Refinery 29
A beautiful story was posted on the website Refinery29.com this week regarding the Fall Collection.
History Boys: Claude Grant Channels the Beats
In the 1950s, Americans took many brave, wide steps in the ongoing expansion of the national waistline (i.e. tuna casserole, fast food, TV dinners). Even as girdles yawned and warped, the strides forward in men's fashion were small in comparison to the processed foods revolution. Love "Mad Men" as we do, the real innovations in men's dress aesthetics were left to the unkempt, dropout, noise-making beatniks that populated the step-down coffee shops of Bleecker Street.
This fall, novice designer Claude Grant translates the original hipster style for today with his namesake men's collection. By tweaking traditional proportions and embracing the true waist and the pleat, Grant's foray into menswear injects a much-needed history lesson into casual sportswear. "It's a little quirky and enigmatic but made to very traditional tailor standards," Grant says. "I want to make clothes that work in various occasions; clothes that will kind of fit in [but still] kind of stand out." Currently, the NY-State-bread, F.I.T.-trained designer is only offering his work through scheduled fittings at his West-Village studio. However, a positive reception at several trade shows this season has Grant thinking about retail possibilities. In the meantime, our favorite piece from the collection, which will be sold exclusively bespoke this fall, is a gray tailored deep V-neck work suit. Perfect for abstract painting on the Seine or bongoing your hands off at The Bitter End.
Thanks fellas.
Click below to view the actual article.
http://pipeline.refinery29.com/on_the_verge/claude_grant.php
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Ode to Frank O'Hara
There's something about the summer in NY that makes me love poems by Frank O'Hara, or is it the other way around? I will post several during the course of the summer.
A STEP AWAY FROM THEM
It's my lunch hour, so I go
for a walk among the hum-colored
cabs. First, down the sidewalk
where laborers feed their dirty
glistening torsos sandwiches
and Coca-Cola, with yellow helmets
on. They protect them from
falling bricks, I guess. Then onto the
avenue where skirts are flipping
above heels and blow up over
grates. The sun is hot, but the
cabs stir up the air. I look
at bargains in wristwatches. There
are cats playing in sawdust.
On
to Times Square, where the sign
blows smoke over my head, and higher
the waterfall pours lightly. A
Negro stands in a doorway with a
toothpick, languorously agitating.
A blonde chorus girl clicks: he
smiles and rubs his chin. Everything
suddenly honks: it is 12:40 of
a Thursday.
Neon in daylight is a
great pleasure, as Edwin Derby would
write, as are light bulbs in daylight.
I stop for a cheeseburger at JULIET'S
Corner. Giulietta Masina, wife of
Federico Fellini, e bell' attrice.
And chocolate malted. A lady in
foxes on such a day puts her poodle
in a cab.
There are several Puerto
Ricans on the avenue today, which
makes it beautiful and warm. First
Bunny died, then John Latouche,
then Jackson Pollock. But is the
earth as full as life was full, of them?
And one has eaten and one walks,
past the magazines with nudes
and the posters for BULLFIGHT and
the Manhattan Storage Warehouse,
which they'll soon tear down. I
used to think they had the Armory
Show there.
A glass of papaya juice
and back to work. My heart is in my
pocket. It is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.
1956
So What - Miles Davis
What style! Any friend of mine knows the tremendous amount of respect I have for Miles. This man lived life at full throttle (admittedly a little too fast at times). John Coltrane on sax is nothing to scoff at, but Miles will always be Number One with me.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Christopher Wallace
1990
While on the subject of NY poets. Listening to his freestyle battle at 17 years old leaves no doubt this young man was destined to become a star.
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