Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Jeffrey Becom: Santos y Almas

Santos y Almas Jeffrey Becom: Santos y Almas. A gallery of photographs. From Works by Jeffrey Becom at VERVE Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, NM. "...Jeff Becom is a painter, formally trained as an architect, who, in a very logical progression, became a phototgrapher in order to document painted architecture. He grew up five miles outside of a small Indiana farm town in a house surrounded by corn fields. As a boy he remembers wondering why all the nearby barns were painted red. He enjoyed drawing and painting from an early age. Unfortunately, there were no bookstores, no art galleries, and certainly no artists earning a living in Shelbyville. So when it came time for college, Jeff decided on architecture in an effort to reassure his parents that he wouldn't end up starving in a garret somewhere."

Do You Love Me

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers... Do You Love Me (.mp3 audio 02:15). From the album L.A.M.F. The Lost '77 Mixes (1994, U.K., Jungle FREUD CD044).

Works by David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt... At Kevin Kwanele’s Takwaito Barber, Lansdowne Road. Khayelitsha, Cape Town in the time of AIDS (2007, Archival pigment ink digitally printed on cotton rag paper, Edition of 10). From Works by David Goldblatt at Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, SA. "...Born in Randfontein in 1930, Goldblatt has been documenting the changing political landscape of South Africa for more than five decades. His retrospective exhibition, David Goldblatt 51 Years, was seen in New York, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Oxford, Brussels, Munich and Johannesburg. His photographic essay South Africa: the Structure of Things Then was shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1998. He was included on Documenta 11 in 2002 and Documenta 12 in 2007, and on the travelling mega-exhibition Africa Remix (2004-2007)."

Monday, November 26, 2007

Sansho Dayu

Trailer (QuickTime Video) for Sansho Dayu (1954, directed by Kenji Mizuguchi). "...Based on an ancient legend, as recounted by celebrated author Mori Ogai (in his short story of the same name, written in 1915), and adapted by Japanese director Mizoguchi Kenji, Sansho Dayu is both distinctively Japanese and as deeply affecting as a Greek tragedy. Described in its opening title as 'one of the oldest and most tragic in Japan’s history,' Mizoguchi depicts an unforgettably sad story of social injustice, family love, personal sacrifice, and fateful tragedy."

Photographs of General Motors Cars and Trucks, 1902-1938

1937 Pontiac Straight Eight Sport Coupe. From Photographs of General Motors Cars and Trucks, 1902-1938 at the NYPL Digital Gallery. "...Over the years, General Motors Corporation donated photographs and related materials as a public service to contemporary and future researchers, and to create an ongoing record of the company's output. The Library, in turn, mounted these photographs and texts in albums. General Motors was one of several transportation corporations that donated public relations materials to the Library department that is now the Science, Industry and Business Library. The General Motors holding is particularly comprehensive."

Heavy Metal

Trailer (Flash Video) for Heavy Metal - The Photography of Alex Fakso. More Works by Alex Fakso at his personal site.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

André Kertész: Elizabeth and Me

Shadow Self Portrait André Kertész... Shadow Self Portrait (1927, Gelatin silver print, New York ferrotyped print. Titled, dated with annotations and artist stamp on print verso). From the exhibition André Kertész: Elizabeth and Me at Stephen Daiter Gallery. "...Taken in Kertész's apartment just north of New York's Washington Square, many of these photographs were shot either from his window or in the windowsill. We see a fertile mind at work, combining personal objects into striking still lifes set against cityscape backgrounds, reflected and transformed in glass surfaces. These photographs are a testament to the genious of the photographer's eye as manifested in the simple Polaroid."

David Plowden: Vanishing Point

David Plowden: Vanishing Point at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, IL. "...David Plowden is regarded as one of the most dedicated photographers of vanishing America – the man-made American of small towns, family owned farms, mom n' pop stores, steam railroads, ships and majestic viaducts and bridges. Journeying along the back roads and highways of the United States, Plowden photographs details often overlooked by the common traveler, stopping to admire a vast field of wheat, a window pane on the side of a rural church, the ragged edge of a wind-torn barn and the silence of small towns. Along the way, he introduces us to people who live in the heart of America, including the proprietor of a local general store in Iowa, a mechanic working on a steam locomotive, a child riding his bicycle along Main street and a steel worker slagging ingots in an Indiana steel mill."

Wijnanda Deroo: Interiors

Wijnanda Deroo: Interiors at Robert Mann Gallery. "...Interiors features 16 new photographs by Dutch artist Wijnanda Deroo. An international traveler with a camera as her companion rather than a guide book, Wijnanda Deroo explores the shared humanity imprinted upon the environments we inhabit. Her photographs, although from geographically disparate locales, including Indonesia, Berlin, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, and Sharon Springs, New York are unified by their sumptuous colors, formal geometries, and quotidian subject matter. More so than the locations of the sites depicted, the motif or palette have defined Deroo's work across her career. What has often been termed commonplace in the photographs, may in fact be better called common places of repose. Deroo's camera settles on bedrooms, foyers, cafés and waiting rooms, familiar tableaux in which hours are passed with routine nonchalance." More Works by Wijnanda Deroo at her personal site.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Why Baby Why

George Jones... Why Baby Why (1955, Starday 45-202 .mp3 audio 02:18).

TONK

Been there, done that (2005). From TONK - Works by Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs.

Grande Prêmio Brasil de Skate Slalom

Grande Prêmio Brasil de Skate Slalom. Photographs by Louise Chin and Ignácio Aronovich at Lost Art.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Get Out Of The Bathroom

Oil Tasters The Oil Tasters... Get Out Of The Bathroom (1982, Thermidor Records .mp3 audio 02:19). Play this very loud.

© MURAKAMI

© MURAKAMI. Works by Takashi Murakami at MOCA - The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. "...Featuring more than 90 works in various media spanning the early 1990s to the present, this international traveling retrospective is an unprecedented opportunity to survey the depth and breadth of Takashi Murakami's entire career."

Fake Plastic Love

Fake Plastic Love - works by Stuart Semple.

Dirk McDonnell: As Light Fell

Dirk McDonnell: As Light Fell - photographs by Dirk McDonnell at Throckmorton Fine Art in New York, NY. "...McDonnell’s photographs are at once lyrical and elliptical. Most were taken with a large format, 4 x 5 field camera, allowing the artist to explore the idiosyncratic effects that a wracking of the front standard of the view camera can have on photographic space. The work has clarity, emotional depth and edge; it has an intensity that pushes the images toward the boundaries of the medium." More Works by Dirk McDonnell at his personal site.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Misaki Kawai: Fuzzy Love

Misaki Kawai: Fuzzy Love at Loyal Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden. "...For this exhibition Kawai further explores her distinctive painting-collage style in a new group of large canvases. Kawai composes simple, allegorical scenes, relating the often convoluted subtleties of human interactions. Intentionally naive and humorous, Kawai paints people as fluorescent action-figures and cute, colorful animals doing everyday things together. Her intuitive compositions reveal Kawai’s complexity as she recognizes and interprets universal innuendoes, conveying plenty of feeling in the simple tableaus."

Telstar

Seksu Roba... Telstar (.mp3 audio 04:12). Totally wigged-out theremin version of the Tornados/Joe Meek classic.

Blue Jeans And A Boys Shirt

Glen Glenn... Blue Jeans And A Boys Shirt (1958, ERA 45-1086 .mp3 audio 02:14).

Works by Donald Baechler

Works by Catalina Estrada

Works by Catalina Estrada at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. "...Fascinating illusive worlds full of color, enchanting characters and nature burst from Catalina Estrada’s art, graphic design and illustration. Born and raised in Colombia and living in Barcelona since 1999, Estrada brings together the colors and power of Latin-American folklore and refines them with a subtle touch of European sophistication. Touted as a fresh, new design talent by both Communication Arts and Computer Arts Magazines, Estrada’s work has been utilized in advertising, merchandise, apparel, textiles, posters and packaging."

Minidoka On My Mind

Roger Shimomura... Classmates #1 (2007, Acrylic on canvas). From the exhibition Minidoka On My Mind - works by Roger Shimomura at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, WA. "...In a group of 30 paintings, Roger Shimomura's exhibition, 'Minidoka on My Mind,' will explore the artist's family's internment during World War II, including some works suggesting his personal memories. The show's title refers to Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho where he and his family were detained from the spring of 1942 until the summer of 1944. Previous work by Shimomura, has examined the relationship of Japanese Americans to the larger cultural context of the United States. In particular, here, Shimomura explores the racial conflicts of the 1940s war years and the unjust imprisonment of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans, 60% of whom were U.S. citizens."

Sunday, November 18, 2007

The Park - Kohei Yoshiyuki

Tofu Magazine... The Park - Kohei Yoshiyuki. "...During the 1970s Kohei Yoshiyuki was a young commercial photographer in Tokyo. One night when he walked through Chuo Park in Shinjuku he noticed a couple on the ground, and then spectators lurking in the bushes who watched the scene. 'I had my camera, but it was dark,' he told Nobuyoshi Araki in a 1979 interview. Researching the technology in the era before infrared flash units, he found that Kodak made infrared flashbulbs. Mr. Yoshiyuki returned to the park, and also to Yoyogi, and Aoyama parks. Through the '70s he photographed heterosexual and homosexual couples engaged in sexual activity and the peeping toms who stalked them."

Eugene Von Bruenchehein: Our Night Of Life

Eugene Von Bruenchehein: Our Night Of Life Eugene Von Bruenchehein: Our Night Of Life - Paintings, Sculpture, Photography, Poetry, Philosophy - November 16 to December 29, 2007 at Carl Hammer Gallery. Wisconsin's greatest outsider artist, IMHO. "...Born in the year that Halley’s comet passed by our planet, Von Bruenchenhein spent much of his life exploring the unseen and unexplained relationships inherent in living things – human, cosmic, and everything in between. He sought and provided answers to the largest of questions. 'Why is there no wall beyond the fringe of Universe? Because something always lies beyond a wall, And because no Universe can be contained.' Our Night of Life celebrates this extraordinary vision, through which nature is infinitely fluid, continually revealing new aspects of itself.
It is now twenty-four years since Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s works came into public light, and since that time our examination of his work still has not had the time to fully comprehend the many facets of his artistic vision, within the many mediums in which he worked. The works themselves are journeys into their meanings, but the artist’s writings – less well know than the paintings, sculptures, and photos – add yet another dimension to his world."

Susie Q

Chet Atkins... Susie Q (.mp3 audio 02:20). From the album Teen Scene (1963, RCA Victor LSP-2719).

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Crawl

The Fabulous Thunderbirds... The Crawl (.mp3 audio 02:12).

Hobbies

Jennifer Moss... Hobbies (1963, Columbia DB 7063, produced by Joe Meek .mp3 audio 02:07). From Mod-fified Music.

David Dupuis: Lost on the Frontiers of Heaven and Hell

Inevitable David Dupuis... Inevitable (2007, color pencil and graphite on paper). From the exhibition David Dupuis: Lost on the Frontiers of Heaven and Hell at Derek Eller Gallery in New York.

Richard Prince: Spiritual America

Richard Prince: Spiritual America at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. "...This critical overview of Richard Prince's career is the most comprehensive examination of the celebrated American artist's work to date. The exhibition highlights Prince's contributions to the development of contemporary art, bringing together key examples of his photographs, paintings, sculptures, and works on paper in an installation that integrates the various series comprising his oeuvre."

Fresh Kill

Gordon Matta-Clark... Fresh Kill (1972, 12:56 min, color, sound, 16 mm film). "...This film records the complete process of the destruction of Matta-Clark's truck (which he called 'Herman Meydag') by a bulldozer in a rubbish dump. Part of 98.5, a compilation of films by Ed Baynard, George Schneemar and Charles Simons, this piece was shown in Documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany. Camera: Burt Spielvogel, Rudy Burkhardt. Producer: Holly Solomon, Burt Spielvogel." From Four Films by Gordon Matta-Clark at UBUWEB Film & Video.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A Prayer For You

New works by Sto A Prayer For You. New works by Sto at Cinders Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

Hootchy Cootchy Girl

Yolanda and the Charmanes... Hootchy Cootchy Girl (1962, Smash 1777 .mp3 audio 02:18). The sax break will pin you to the wall.

In My Solitude

Jens Semjan... Vietnam The Movie (2004, C-Print on Alu-Dibond). From the exhibition In My Solitude at Aeroplastics Contemporary in Brussels.

Block Prints of the Chinese Revolution

Block Prints of the Chinese Revolution at Princeton University Library Digital Collections. "...A collection of 30 poster-like block prints of the 1911 Chinese Revolution given to Princeton University East Asian Library by Donald Roberts, class of 1909. The collection is useful for investigations into the visual portrayal of the struggle of Han Chinese versus the Manchus during the 1911 overthrow of the Qing Empire. Issues of 'modernity' and 'nation' are easily visible in the prints."

Jamie

Happy Birthday to my son Jamie - 12 years old today.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

T'en vas pas comme ça

Nancy Holloway... T'en vas pas comme ça (1963 DECCA 70917, France .mp3 audio 02:55).

Paul McDonough: New York City, 1968-1972

Paul McDonough: New York City, 1968-1972 Paul McDonough: New York City, 1968-1972 at Sasha Wolf Gallery in Tribeca. "...Paul McDonough arrived in New York City in 1967 with a 35mm camera and an entrée, through childhood friend Tod Papageorge, into the photography workshops and social networks of street photographer Garry Winogrand. Emerging from an early career as a studio easel painter, McDonough found photographing on the streets of New York liberating: 'it satisfied my sketching impulses... I learned to carry a camera everywhere, all the time, loaded with 400-speed film.'"

Monday, November 12, 2007

Native American Moccasin Collection

The Wisconsin Historical Museum proudly presents an online tour of its Native American Moccasin Collection. "...The collection includes more than 150 examples from various Native American tribes including the Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and tribes from the Great Lakes and Plains regions. The museum has been collecting moccasins for more than a century and currently has examples dating from the late 1800s to the late 1900s."

Mark Fox: The Peacock Flesh

Mark Fox: The Peacock Flesh at Larissa Goldston Gallery. "...This exhibition features new constructions created from thousands of intricate ink and watercolor drawings, each meticulously cut from their paper ground and rejoined into lyrical sculptures. These works continue Fox’s exploration of the strange narratives that emerge from his juxtaposition of painted or drawn fragments with diverse subject matter. On view are two sculptures from Fox’s new series, Four Sawhorsemen of the Apocalypse, which consist of elegant, cloudlike forms extending from roughly hewn sawhorses. The exhibition also includes two large-scale paper constructions set against mirrored backgrounds."

Radio Scratch - Leo Graham

Radio Scratch - Leo Graham (September 2007 .mp3 audio 57:54). Brilliant collection of Lee 'Scratch' Perry productions featuring Jamaican vocalist Leo Graham - first as a member of The Bleechers and later as a solo artist. 'News Flash' and its version 'Flashing Echo' are killer!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Stone Age Rock

Fred Flintstone & His Bedrock Beaters... Stone Age Rock (1961, Epic 9475, wr. W. Hanna, J. Barbera & W. Ramal .mp3 audio 02:08). From Probe is Turning-on the People!

Intimate Enemy: Images and Voices of the Rwandan Genocide

Lens Culture... Intimate Enemy: Images and Voices of the Rwandan Genocide - photographs by Robert Lyons, introduction and text by Scott Strauss. "...the 'idea' of the spontaneous hundred-day mass genocide is impossible to envision with any sense of clarity. But this unforgettable and important book puts us face to face with many of the killers, the collaborators, and victims who survived. Each is photographed alone, with complete cooperation, and presented in a series of powerful portraits with no captions at all. Are we looking at a killer or a survivor, a leader or a follower? Surely this young child would not have been caught up in the madness and started to kill, would he?"

Angela Grossmann: Swagger

Angela Grossmann: Swagger at Diane Farris Gallery. "...Wielding boxing gloves and posing with bravado, Grossmann’s young men gaze at the viewer assuredly. Their soft features, wide eyes and mischievous grins belie their awkwardness. Grossmann’s expressive, gestural strokes infuse her paintings with a playfulness that gently draws us in, but simultaneously make it clear that overt displays of charm mixed with aggression are learned – learned and celebrated in an increasingly aggressive society that demarcates male characteristics as powerful, strong and unabashedly fierce."

The Gaze of 45 Mexican Photographers

The Gaze of 45 Mexican Photographers - curated by Francisco Mata and Pedro Meyer at Zone Zero. "...The 45 great contemporary Mexican photographers bring their most representative works to China, and show the Chinese audiences a rich view of contemporary Mexican photography. These photographers, with the abundant resources of unique Mexican philosophy, history, culture and art in their heart, direct their gaze to Mexico and China as well. Through their gaze, one can see that the photographers have been thinking seriously on questions as the religions, local customs, social development, and urbanization constructed by the historical heritage and contemporary context, the locality and global quality weaving together. At the same time, they take the situation in Mexico as an example to cause the audiences to concern and to explore the various problems in each culture."

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

6 Paintings by Sergey Rimashevsky

6 Paintings by Sergey Rimashevsky 6 Paintings by Sergey Rimashevsky. From the impressive Art Collection of Zhiltsov in Belarus. More works by Rimashevsky (Rimoshevski) at Galerie Lilja Zakirova.

Jim Goldberg: The New Europeans

Jim Goldberg: The New Europeans at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. "...The New Europeans is a large and multi-layered body of work consisting of photographs and oral histories – handwritings on Polaroids in different languages, video recordings, written text, and ephemera. Wirtz Gallery’s exhibition will present a portion of work from the series, concentrating on a four-year period when Goldberg was in the countries of Greece and Ukraine. The project documents immigrant populations who reside in compromised living situations, often on the margins of society. Photographs that are difficult and often disturbing are combined in the exhibition with more conventionally beautiful, enigmatic images of landscape and portraiture, challenging accepted notions of beauty and the abject."

Oskar Korsár: No Wind Can Blow Us Down

Oskar Korsár: No Wind Can Blow Us Down at Yossi Milo Gallery. "...In his recent ink drawings, Oskar Korsár creates unique worlds of fantasy and melancholy. The artist begins by creating a series of cross-hatchings on multiple sheets of paper, which he then combines to create large-scale renderings of adolescent female figures in commonplace settings. The young women, with overly long arms and legs, awkwardly stand in the silent interiors of their bedrooms or camp out in mysterious forest graveyards. Typically solitary, the figures are engaged in mundane activities, while the narratives of the scenes are guided by a set of fixations and totems prevalent throughout the drawings."

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Cool Cool Baby

Lafayette Yarborough... Cool Cool Baby (1958, BART 7 G 25/6 .mp3 audio 02:31).

From Water to Power: The Prairie du Sac Dam

From Water to Power: The Prairie du Sac Dam From Water to Power: The Prairie du Sac Dam. "...The Prairie du Sac Dam on the Wisconsin River has been powering communities in the area since 1914. The idea of constructing a hydroelectric power plant to harness the power of the river came from Norwegian immigrant, engineer and inventor Magnus Swenson. Although it took a little more than a decade for the dam to prove profitable, Swenson was ultimately proven correct and the surrounding areas of Sauk and Columbia counties have benefited from the dam's electric power production as well as the creation of Lake Wisconsin behind the dam. Images of the dam and power plant's construction, taken by local photographer Frank S. Eberhart, are the subject of this month's featured gallery from Wisconsin Historical Images, the Society's online image collection."

Ursula Sokolowska

Ursula Sokolowska... Untitled #22 (2006). From Works by Ursula Sokolowska at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, IL. Also... Photographs by Ursula Sokolowska at her personal site.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Heartbeat Reggae Podcast

Heartbeat Reggae Podcast. "...The Heartbeat Reggae Podcast is indeed associated with Heartbeat Records, a record label based in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. Our podcast delivers some of the finest Jamaican music ever recorded, and keeps you updated on Heartbeat’s activities." Thank you, DMc.

Mary Lou

Ted Daigle And The Tremolos... Mary Lou (1959, RODEO 45-RO.219 .mp3 audio 02:37). Get some!

Magazines & War 1936-1939: Spanish Civil War Print Culture

Magazines & War 1936-1939: Spanish Civil War Print Culture Magazines & War 1936-1939: Spanish Civil War Print Culture. Brilliant! Also... Other Weapons: Photography and Print Culture During the Spanish Civil War at the ICP in New York. "...The posters of the Spanish Civil War have become the emblematic visual sign of a national conflict that became international from 1936-1939. Described as "shouts from the wall," the vibrancy of the color and design of the posters, and the messages they sent, signaled for many the powerful role that propaganda played in creating an image of war that was used in Spain and exported actively. Along with the wall-papering of the posters, was the publication in Spain of hundreds of magazines. Considering their impact at the time, it is surprising that they have been virtually unexamined by art historians."

Voodoo by Les Stone

Voodoo by Les Stone (Digital Journalist, November 2007). "...The ceremony begins with a Roman Catholic prayer. Then three drummers begin to play syncopated rhythms. The attendees begin to dance around a tree in the center of the yard, moving faster and harder with the rising pulse of the beat. The priest draws sacred symbols in the dust with cornmeal and rum poured on the ground to honor the spirits.
One woman falls to the ground, convulsing for a moment before she is helped back to her feet. She resumes the dance, moving differently now, and continues dancing for hours. It is perhaps no longer she who is dancing. She is in a trance, apparently possessed by Erzusle, the great mother spirit. It is an honor to be entered and "ridden" by a Loa, or spirit. In Haiti these rituals are commonplace. Voodoo is the dominant religion. More Works by Les Stone at his personal site.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Rinko Kawauchi

Untitled Rinko Kawauchi... Untitled (2007, c-print). From Works by Rinko Kawauchi at Cohan and Leslie Gallery in New York. "...15 new photographs by Rinko Kawauchi, which are a preview of her upcoming publication Utatane II. The first volume of Utatane was Kawauchi’s first publication (2001), and was something of an art publishing phenomenon, it has since sold 30,000 copies worldwide. The images in Utatane II continue to capture ephemeral and fleeting moments, whether found or staged by the artist. She has a particular interest in fragility and impermanence, communicated through images of short lived insects, transitory bubbles or an x-ray of her own broken ribs."

Milton Rogovin: Buffalo

Milton Rogovin: Buffalo at Danziger Projects. "...Focusing on his three decade long series of portraits of Buffalo's Lower West Side, Danziger Projects' exhibition looks at Rogovin not just as the social documentarian he defines himself as, but as a photographer of profound vision and individuality. While Rogovin occasionally traveled, the cornerstone of his work lay in the streets of his hometown of Buffalo, New York, where for over three decades he not only took portraits, but recorded the changing lives of many of his subjects. The Buffalo work in its totality – from his early exploration of black storefront churches to his later domestic and street portraits - remains the heart and soul of his oeuvre."

All Souls: The Frida Kahlo Cult

All Souls: The Frida Kahlo Cult by Peter Schjeldahl (The New Yorker, November 5, 2007). "...There are so many ways to be interested in Frida Kahlo, who was born a hundred years ago and died forty-seven years later, in 1954, that simply to look at and judge her paintings, as paintings, may seem narrow-minded. No one need appreciate art to justify being a Kahlo fan or even a Kahlo cultist. (Why not? The world will have cults, and who better merits one?) In Mexico, Kahlo’s ubiquitous image has become the counter-Guadalupe, complementing the numinous Virgin as a deathless icon of Mexicanidad. Kahlo’s ascension, since the late nineteen-seventies, to feminist sainthood is ineluctable, though a mite strained. (Kahlo struggled not in common cause with women but, single-handedly, for herself.) And her pansexual charisma, shadowed by tales of ghastly physical and emotional suffering, makes her an avatar of liberty and guts. However, Kahlo’s eminence wobbles unless her work holds up. A retrospective at the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, proves that it does, and then some." Also... Frida Kahlo at the Walker Art Center.

Diva

Trailer (QuickTime Video) for Rialto Picture's re-release of Diva - a film by Jean-Jacques Beineix. "...In the spring of 1981, Jean-Jacques Beineix unveiled his debut film in Paris: a brash, snazzy thriller about the infatuation of a sullen young deliveryman (Frédéric Andrei) with a reclusive opera Diva (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez), the high-quality bootleg he makes at one of her performances, and the dizzy dilemmas that ensue. Conspicuously clever and shamelessly glam, Diva contrived a neo-new-wave sensibility with a post-Pop gloss that came to be known as 'cinéma du look,' a Franglais label for the micro-movement of super-stylish, unabashedly romantic pictures made throughout the '80s by a clique of bright young things including Beineix, Luc Besson, and Leos Carax."

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Boogie

Boogie Boogie at Higher Pictures. "...Boogie (Vladimir Milivojevich) was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and moved to the United States in 1998. Self-taught and an outsider, Boogie finds inspiration and energy in the grit and hustle of the street. Boogie doesn't feel superficial shock, and he is not searching for philosophical truths beyond a crack-whore twitching with delight from the inhale of a glass stem. Focusing on his subjects' humanity, without judgment or concern, distance or privilege, Boogie combines an intuitive wit with a matter-of-fact approach. The photographs’ attraction is the haunting empathy one feels when seeing the images. Their appeal is their combination of insensitivity and intense intimacy.

Psycho

Teddy Thompson... Psycho (.mp3 audio 04:27).

Lettermade

FILE Magazine... Lettermade. "...Lettermade is a project by designer and photographer Bradley Dicharry that features a wide range of found typography. Bradley explains that his project, started in 1998 is 'an ongoing project aimed at documenting, appreciating, and recontextualizing vernacular letterforms and typography. The bulk of these photographs, taken on a 16,000 mile road trip in 2002, encourage the viewer to examine weathered typography and foundation lettering on a level beyond that of pure information.'"

Nightmare Detective

Review of Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective at Midnight Eye. "...In Nightmare Detective, a series of gruesome and mysterious apparent suicides prompts a female detective (Hitomi) to investigate. She discovers that the common denominator in all cases was the fact that the victim's had dialed Zero on their phones before they died. All signs from the investigation indicates that something supernatural is occurring and when the detective suspects it has something to do with the nightmare world, she convinces a young social outcast (Matsuda) with the ability to enter dreams to aid in her investigation. What he discovers in the gray, seemingly permanently solar eclipsed nightmare world is a negative reality where metaphor can be a deadly weapon. This is the home of Zero (Shinya Tsukamoto), a merchant of death who feasts on the death and misery of the living."