So the opening film for Sci-Fi July was important to me because it was in my formative teen-adult years, and it was at a time when net lingo was just beginning to gain awareness and usage in popular culture, or so my naive teen-adult memory recalls. But for the second installment of Sci-Fi July, I decided to turn back the dial, to 1971, to a time before time-as-I-knew-it, and screen a film with a much slower pace, virtually no plot, that was pre-Star Wars and thus before space opera – my hope was it was a movie wholly unfamiliar to the crowd (whereas Johnny Mnemonic was “known” from most peoples’ youth, but simply never seen because it was so bad). I was right, and I introduced the film with the following text (btw the screening took place inside the Flux gallery due to a consistent threat of rain – which did happen for about 5-8 minutes during the film, so I thank everyone for putting up with the humidity of the space – thus the fans!):

Welcome to the second installment of Sci-Fi July, an informal rooftop film series of the science fiction genre.

The movie you’re going to watch tonight has consistently returned a mixed bag of emotions and responses for nearly 30 years. Regarded by some as seminal influence, and by others as a complete flop, I would argue for the staying power of tonight’s film, Silent Running, and its pivot point in film history. It’s influences and its influence are far and wide.

It’s no 2001 A Space Odyssey, but it is directed and produced by Douglas Trumbull, whom some would recognize as a special effects supervisor on that 1968 blockbuster, and who would go on to supervise special effects for one of the truly greatest sci-fi films of all time, Blade Runner. However it would seem Trumbull’s trade was best put to use in the special effects department, and less in the director’s chair – nice try though.

Made on a budget nearly 1/10th of Kubrick’s space masterpiece, Trumbull did employ some genius techniques to achieve his desired shots, notably filming aboard a decommissioned NAVY aircraft carrier, the USS Valley Forge, which also happens to be the name of this film’s space freighter turned botany ark.

You heard me right, I said “botany ark”. The earth has been completely defolliated and the last remaining forests and plant life float in space inside geodesic domes while humans apparently debate over whether plant life is necessary or not for the continuation of the species. Domes whose design was influenced in part by the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Climatron, a Bucky Fuller-style facility in St. Louis housed not but a mile from where I grew up.

Oh and there’s robots! Or “drones” rather. Drones that wobble and never fall down, somehow. That’s because housed inside them were multiple amputee actors, again another genius Trumbull technique. Domes and drones which can easily be seen as influence on other sci-fi titles like 2007’s Sunshine or even Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

However the science falls short: are you seriously telling me you didn’t know light was needed to grow plants? and why are geodesic domes in orbit around Saturn anyhow – what’s wrong with an orbit around Earth? And not about science, but why is it called Silent Running anyhow? If someone from the audience figures this one out, please, enlighten us.

But do look out for some incredible sets, including vector waveform monitors, American Airlines freight containers, and a truly remarkable scene with a sort of microscopic integrated circuit soldering machine – wow!

and once again some great crowd shots by Astrid Bussink’s digital diarrhea photostream

the opening of Sci-Fi July, a weekly month-long rooftop film series for friends and friends of friends, was a resounding success! Around 23 people showed up for an unknown screening of Johnny Mnemonic.

I introduced the series, or the film more-specifically rather, with the following text:

The movie you’re about to watch is based on a short story by William Gibson, regarded by some as the father of cyberpunk, who coined the word “cyberspace”, and sought a “combination of lowlife and high tech” in his often dystopian novels.

This 1995 screenplay of Gibson’s 1981 short story stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny Mnemonic, post-Bill and Ted and pre-The Matrix, whose realization of his role lies somewhere between the “duuuude” and the “whoah” of those respective films.

Set in the year 2021, Johnny is a digital data courier who stores clients’ information in a cybernetic implant in his head. It holds a whopping 80 gigabytes – which is a laugh today given our phones hold nearly this much data, and we’ve easily achieved the multi-terabyte compression level.

Johnny’s “pride in profession” rests in the security of his data-envelope, which is protected by seemingly randomly generated images, yet also reminds one today of fffffound images, delicious gif streams, and image macros: I want room service!

I won’t sugar-coat it, this is an especially bad film! A special movie to a lot of cult sci-fi fans, yet IMDB rate it at 4.9 and I think that’s being generous. Keanu’s acting is horrendous. The editing is choppy. And at 1 hour 40 minutes it can appear to go on forever. But there are some special full-minute VR scenes, some incredibly geeky one-liners, oh and performances by Udo Kier, Takeshi Kitano, and none-other than rapper Ice-T as a tattooed & dreadlocked hacker, Black Flag’s front man Henry Rollins as a saviour doctor, and Dolph Lundgren as a street preaching Jesus freak-cybernaut.

Welcome to Sci-Fi July.

the remarkable crowd shot above was taken by current Flux Factory resident from the Low Countries, Astrid Bussink.

Sci-Fi July is an informal rooftop film series curated by moi, and will happen every Tuesday in July – you will not be told what movie will be screened, but they will all be of the sci-fi genre and they will all reward you in one way or another!

My latest excursion to St. Louis was probably bar none one of the worst trips I’ve ever been on. There I said it. The trip had a purpose, to move my parents after 32 years in one domicile. This wasn’t so much the burden, but the layers that got piled onto the project during the lead-up to the move made it exhausting and unrewarding. Who knows when I’ll next go back. I was only able to go out 4 nights over nearly 3 weeks; I had one brunch and one lunch with friends. Aside from that I was held hostage to not having a vehicle, and to spending countless hours migrating furniture and boxes across and around 4 floors of one of the best houses in the city. A quick after-thought count would suggest I walked up and down over 20,000 stairs to complete the job (it was 15 up and 15 down to the front door; and 31 up and 31 down inside the house; basement stairs were 17 up and down… do the math). Still, I’m all about hard work. I appreciate the physical exhaustion at times. But the exhaustion of family and other barriers shed light on how not to conduct a project like this in the future when it’s my turn.

While I was there my dad – the Dude – also had four stents put in his heart, which put an exclamation mark on the stresses of the project and daily life in Normalville. I wish I was there for the post-op but I barely escaped as it was. While I was there some good happened, but I really had to fight for it. Thanks to John and Octavia for their support; to Ash for his big biceps and stick shift super-powers; to ARRG for the awesome sport; to Leah for the brunch (I needed to get the FUCK outside!) and to everyone else who loaned an ear and listened.

* I worked on and off over two weeks boxing my own stuff up, rented a U-haul, and whisked it away…
* to my friend John’s basement! It looks quite good here. I would have liked to have skids on the floor, so fingers crossed there’s no floods ever. …
* Ash was a biiiiiiig help moving stuff – thanks to his dad’s truck – to my parents’ new digs. I rewarded him with Redbird memorabilia (below)
* Yes, I have THAT record on vinyl! Don’t make me RICK ROLL you!

When in St. Louis be sure to stop by the Royale on South Kingshighway for your fix of “food and spirits”. There are lots of great bars in St. Louis but the Royale really makes it a point to remind you you’re IN St. Louis. The fleur-de-lis painted on the building’s exterior is just a taste of what you’ll find indoors, including photos from years past, drawings of St. Louis imagined in the future, and maps aplenty, including one that I donated to the bar showing the layout of the city as it was built up around old forts. The proprietor Steven Smith also showed me a wall painting in the bar’s courtyard that showed the city from pre-Civil War years and depicted an Army Corp of Engineers project that was commissioned by none other than Robert E Lee – I never knew!

Old-school photos and new-school friends (and Juan-o): that’s me I guess from around age 15; Smarty McFly of the Stunt Devils derby team (who was quick to inform the table she won “Best Rack 2009″ – I didn’t see the competition, but sure!)(UPDATE: forgot to mention, she’s sporting my Dolabany otchkies); Juan-o and company playing a 2:40am game of “The Game of the House Located Upon the Top of the Hill” or something obtuse like that (Frankenmonster totally pulverized our asses with two punches!); and enjoying a brunch at the Benton Park Cafe with Leah – do go here, the food is delish, I had the veggie burger which is totally one of a kind!

It’s strange how some kids have “a thing”. And this little cutie’s thing is anything mask or head-wear! She’s game if it covers her face, goes on her head, tweaks her vision, or just generally looks awesome!

* BELLA BELLA BELLA!
* if you have a day, walk around Soulard in historic St. Louis – some wonderful pieces of architecture remain!
* I rewarded Ash for his contributions of truck-n-muscle with some St. Louis Cardinals ephemera I collected while going through literally tons of boxes full of crap.
* one of the few exciting things I was able to enjoy during my trip was the 1st anniversary of Binge & Purge on Cherokee Street

Of course an always-admired location to stop by, Vintage Vinyl in University City just west of the city limits. Still the largest and most-awesomestest music store I’ve ever been in, they have more vinyl than you could physically listen to in a calendar year! This place was a big part of my youth, and a large portion of my personal vinyl collection came from here.

and of course lastly a shout-out to APOP Records, also on Cherokee Street (two doors down from Binge & Purge, above). APOP are a record label and store, specializing in independent, punk, hardcore, gore films, counter-culture books, crust demo tapes, and unique LPs ranging from rock bands to Laurie Anderson. Stop in and say HI to Tiffany, tell her I sent you! Great store, great layout, and there’s always something I’ve never heard and quite like on the house speakers. Oh yeah, fucking rad cat too, that followed me around the store a couple times, acting like it’s looking at vinyl! loL!

I was having my double-fetus cake and eating it too!

Congratulations to JP and JP for making it to 30, they wasn’t supposed to make it past 25 but now the joke is on us because they’re still alive. And they know how to throw down! And a big thanks to Jack and Westrich for use of their space, that was really wonderful and was a perfect fit for the occasion. Thanks to Jeff for the Cubans, the Mad Titans for their near-2-hour solid set, everyone for their booze-n-food potluck, and of course Brenda for making this possible, after all these boys came out of her womb 30 years ago!

(complete set on my Flickr)

(click for larger image)

from this year’s Fluxgiving event (full Flickr set here)

ALSO! BEWARE this man. He could be a WEREWOLF!

FRIDAY:

pretty straightforward that. nice flyer. I think I know this Ryan too. Sarah says it’s one of her friends and I know a number of her Ryan friends, so I reckon I have an 88% chance of previous encounter. Which makes it all the more exciting for me, putting art-to-face.

SATURDAY:

Bedford Avenue Gallery is pleased to announce the Zach Bruder’s first solo show , opening August 1st.

Zach Bruder will show his Forecast series with several other works on paper. Working in the gap between history and figuration, Bruder appropriates both text and imagery ranging from Civil War generals to auction catalogs. These images, disembodied and stunted, join to make a strangely poignant body of work exploring mankind’s urge to commemorate itself.

Zach Bruder, born in 1984, lives and works in New York.

BEDFORD AVE. GALLERY
SAT. AUG 1ST (7PM – 9PM) and SUN. AUG 2ND (12PM – 7PM)
177 NORTH 10TH ST. SUITE G (BTWN BEDFORD AND DRIGGS)
BROOKLYN, NTY 11211
(917) 364-3809

bitchin skin art.

I admit Zac Braun – whom I’ve only known as Zac Attack for over 3 years – is a guy that I don’t really know terribly too much about but whenever we run into each other at parties I think we both go out of our way to say hello and have a pleasant chat. He’s incredibly nice so the vibe is always good. He always has a fine selection of hats unfortunately this one doesn’t have a name; his bicycle’s name is Lola however so he does have a propensity to Name the inanimate world around him. Him showing his tattoo came up in a discussion about someone else’s body art (an inside-lip tattoo) and after some questioning Zac is very fond of typewriters, and he works them into his art quite often.

This past weekend saw the goodbye party for friend and once long-term fellow roomie of the Flux Factory, the mad thinker and tinkerer the one and only Pirate Brian. It’s so hard to describe how cool Pirate Brian is. Let’s just say his geocities-era website is actually still hosted at geocities! He’s that friggin’ amazing!

Here’s another way to put it by Brian himself, quoted that evening as he talked with another Brian about fabricating a multi-purpose necklace-tool-doowhop:

It’s viciously hard to make an actual consumer product.

Viciously!

The going-away party was to celebrate his next-month move to Los Angeles with his lovely newlywed Evelyn. Requirements to attend the party including following one of three rules, your choice: bring booze (easy), bring a present (little difficult, if you know the honorable guests: Brian would rather make his own tools than have you buy one), or your last choice dress up as one of them! I would have loved to do the latter but since I’m currently living out of two duffel bags I don’t have much of a wardrobe to choose from (books and computer parts take up more than one full bag you see). Dressing like Brian would include apparel such as aviator goggles, tool belts of DIY design, necklace with a sharpie, headlamp, magnets, LED lights, foil-wrapped food pouches, etc. So I made up for my lack of appearance by documenting the evening and making sure the dance floor was always bumping (ask around me and Sarah kept it breaking when everybody else jumped ship – eventually they all came back once they saw our behinds beckoning).

A Brian lookalike inspecting the quality of rigging in the ceiling above, outfit complete with Periodic Table of Elements and mobile phone mount for hands-free communication.

Then suddenly out of nowhere the Hungry March Band leaked out of the woodwork and we had a brass band house party in an instant! Complete with first dance:

The trumpet rocked! The other trumpet rocked! The trombone rocked!

hosts Todd and Libby and the cat that loves guacamole

Evelyn dispensing vodka distilled inside a crystal skull from The Temple of Doom.

Say bye bye now.

I’ll always remember Brian for his lessons on safety in the woodshop like “Don’t chop your arm off” or his fascination with battery-powered devices or his instructional tutorials on how to lift, open and deploy a ladder. Yes, a ladder. What a pirate!

Terrible lighting but here’s a video of the Hungry March. the music matters more than the visuals anyway:

We docked just after 8am alongisde another cruise ship. In fact, we docked with two other cruise ships at port. But the one we parked alongside was from Italy and considerably larger than our own ship. It didn’t dawn on me until later that, like I said, this ship is from Italy. Italy, on the other side of the Atlantic. our ship left from New Orleans and still took 3+ days to get to Cozumel, crossing the Gulf. How long were these people at sea to get to Cozumel? Crikey that’s some leisure living.

Anyhow at the end of the pier Nico and Ian were waiting for us. This was actually the point of the trip. To see these two, and deliver Martina to them for transport en route to Australia.

Wow. The last time I saw Ian was early October when he departed from Queens, NY en route to California on a motorcycle tour. From there he made his way to Holbox and met up with Nico whose been waiting tables out there. The idea was to get Martina to them and flying was simply not an option – too expensive, too much hassle, and clearly nowhere near as much fun as we’ve had here. Holbox is located around the other side of the peninsula, closer to where we were in Progreso yesterday, but nonetheless they met us here. We rented a jeep, and quickly got out of town and went scoping for some waves.

We found some good strong waves, salty water, and fresh beach. We were pretty much all alone on the east side of the island. Granted the water was so strong that we couldn’t go too far out but we spent some time here, had some beers at a local stand, a picnic on the beach with some food that we brought from the ship, and then headed back into town to find some snorkeling equipment and a proper meal.

While heading back we stopped to inspect these two geysers that were spraying water a good 20 feet into the air. Near them were these pools of water that vibrated and filled with air-pressurized water every time the waves hit the rocks, a little bit of water finding its way through the rocks and to the surface. Amazing.

When in Cozumel, eat here! It away from the market area a little, and it’s a total dive restaurant, but it’s so good. The lady-owner cooks everything behind the counter and it’s all really fresh, I mean she doesn’t cut a tomato until you order it. Fresh! And cheap. We all ate bountifully for around $20! I recommend the coconut water!

Before Angie and I headed back to our home for the next 36 hours and we split ways with Martina, there’s another part to this story that lacks a visual counterpart. We went snorkeling! We had around 2 hours before we had to retrieve Martina’s bags from the ship, so we grabbed some gear and hit some beach just south of the ships. We found some access to the water where only 4 other people were scuba-diving. The water is amazing, the fish are amazing, the reef is incredible. Groupers, yellowtails, I think I saw a barracuda even. And this pool of really tiny yellow fish that were totally friendly and playful. Some people back on the boat reported seeing seahorse, 3′ wide starfish, and such. I’m not a skillful swimmer at sea so I wasn’t able to head too far out; any opportunity I get to go back I’d love to take a s.c.u.b.a. class, they sounded affordable and you don’t have to head too far out (just 150 feet from shore) to see some incredible sights.

Home for the next 36 hours. By the time we were headed back to the ship, another ship had docked at one of the other piers, for a total of four ships at Cozumel! Cozumel’s wikipedia entry currently says that there was a third pier before a hurricane in 2005 took it out; should they rebuild it, there could potentially be six cruise ships docked at any point, accounting for anywhere upwards of 20,000 people!

As for the cruise experience, it was something else. There was Maja in the dining hall; Ananais in the piano bar; Rob the Pianoman; and countless countless others that really made the experience worthwhile. Martina, Angie and I clearly had the advantage too, as we were always one step ahead of the pack, and went about things the unorthodox path in order to maximize our experience. Twice even we were asked by others on the boat, “Are you artists?” because it was clear we went about things a different way. We were the first ones off and the last ones back on.

We found out the ship had a crew of roughly 900 people, many of whom go unseen for days on end, and workers are committed to six month contracts. They work long hours and really commit their lives to making sure ours is taken care of. It’s an odd position to be placed in, but it’s people – you talk to them, hear their stories, and they really make it worthwhile. They come from all over – Bosnia, India, Phillipines, Russia, USA – and they’re all crammed into their own deck and at sea for months. It’s an incredibly weird construct that humans have come up with, the cruise ship. With advances in technology you can stay connected to the world via the Internet (for a pretty penny) and there’s now satellite television round the clock; some people ride these things continually, live on them for months out of the year. It’s a world unto itself.

The final day at sea flew by, as we zipped back across the Gulf doing nearly 24-26 knots (en route to Mexico we spent most of our time around 16 knots by comparison). Angie and I were a little silent without Martina and mostly spent the day on the pool deck reading and recovering before we arrived back in New Orleans the next morning, bright and early debarkation began at 7am! Whoop whoop.

Re-entering the Missisissippi delta at night. Some land can be seen intersecting the moonlight, with lights on the horizon from small towns or oil refineries or the like. Welcome home.

(Next: back in New Orleans, some Prospect 1 art, back to it)

We docked at Progreso and disembarked at 7am! Angie, Martina and I were on the first shuttle bus to the end of the pier:

there’s a reason why you need a shuttle bus to drive the pier. It’s over 4 miles long! That building on the horizon is the halfway point, and is where the pier terminated until about 30 years ago when they built it further out to accomodate the then-bourgeoning cruise industry. 4 mile pier!

We hit the town of Progreso a little after 8am and were on a mission. There were two “tours” of Progreso available, and we decided on the tour of Dzibilchaltun for it’s Mayan ruins and sinkhole, the Xlacah Cenote (oooooh yeah!). However on the boat they wanted $56 per person and grouped people on an actual tour bus with guideperson and didn’t promise much else other than you would see the sights. We paraded through the market where the pier touched the land and found guides there offering the same tour as the ones sponsored on the boat for $29/person – an alternative tour though that we needed to round up 8 people to fit into a van and didn’t depart for over 2 hours! This didn’t quite meet our desires. We decided to hit the beach and travel further away from the market merchants and see what we could find in terms of transport and offers.

As we were the first ones to hit the beach, we quickly met this guy Jean from Florida who has satisfying become “stuck” in Puerto Progreso, Mexico. We told him what we were looking for, a cheap, authentic guide to the Mayan ruins at Dzibilchaltun. He works a bar down the beach and gets punters to stop by for drinks but knew the locals and looked into the situation for us. He got us in touch with a friend of his, Kiko, and bam we had ourselves a soon-to-be college graduate driving us around the highways of Progreso at 9am!

It doesn’t get any better than this. Kiko offered to turn the a/c on and we were all replied “No no we’re fine!” We were a full hour ahead of those tour busses, and best of all we got the all-inclusive tour, guide, and ticket to the ruins for a bargain $25/head!

Quickly getting into it, the grounds at Dzibilchaltun are f*%^ing awesome!! Do you see that temple in the distance? (zoom in to see it if you can’t) That’s the Temple of the Seven Dolls (even though Martina counted eight!). And during the first equinox, the sun can be seen in the temple corridor, like an architectural calendar. Bloody amazing. A calendar and sense of time all dependent on celestial bodies, 2012 here we come!

But here’s the real reason why we came to Dzibilchaltun!:

Xlacah Cenote! A sinkhole (say cenote, kinda sounds like sinkhole) older than your grandma’s hairdo! Incredible. Crystal clear freshwater, complete with fishies that love to say hi, give a little nibble! The whole of the Yucatan has these underground waterways and sinkholes that stretch for miles, miles, miles. The whole of the Yucatan. The left side of the cenote in the image above is shallow, as in three inches shallow. There are many rocks which provide a natural path to the mid part of the pool which is entirely walkable at around 5′ depth. Then, up in the top-right the deep part of the pool is deeeeep. Around 140 feet deep! And leads to some tunnels that connect to other cenotes all over the Yucatan. This place is amazing man. And the water is a constant perfect temperature.

Now there’s an incredible part to this day and the entire journey that is missing a visual counterpart. Kiko drove us back to Progreso after we were done swimming (like I said, some of the “official” tour groups came along while we were in the water and they didn’t even get in – Loooosers!). We had just under 2 hours before the boat departed so we told him we’d like to grab some food. He told us there was a McDonald’s, “No don’t turn on the air conditioning! NO by food we don’t mean McDonald’s!” We explained that we wanted what he would eat! Yucatan snackery! He took us to this bar right on the beach near where Jean and he work, and introduced us to this Yucatan-branded form of siesta, where you purchase a beer or liquor and get these countless trays – nearly 20 between the four of us – of treats, snacks, appetizers. It was ridiculous, they kept bringing food! Salsa, habanero sauce, tortilla wrapped delights, and in particular these two appetizers, one made from a seed that had the same consistency as a deviled egg yolk stuck inside an avocado, but it was a single seed; and the other made from some tiny seed that Kiko couldn’t translate. The seed is converted into several foods, included a clumpy substance similar to dried out brown sugar; another that is ground up with oil and looks like a darker form of hummus. Whatever those two foods are I have to find out! But seriously we bought 8 beers – I tipped Kiko by buying his beers – and refueled on some authentic cuisines! Yessir!

So getting back onto the boat was the best part. We all sware that we weren’t the only ones on the last bus back down the 4 mile pier, and you can see other people in the background heading to the boat. However we were the last ones on the boat! And as we were meandering back down the pier people all over the boat started waving at us, signaling to hurry back to the boat. “C’mon you guys, we’re ready to go!” As we stepped back onto the boat they quickly slammed the door behind us and asked us what room we were in because they didn’t have time to look us up – they had to trust we were legit passengers – and informed us we had less than 2 minutes until they raised anchor and headed back out to sea!

Tomorrow: Cozumel, Nico, Ian, and beyond!

Oh Mm Gee. It got real once in the taxi driving to the pier and we could spot the tail-exhaust of the ship from about 3/4 mile away! The whole ‘cruise industry’ has this thing down to a science: the staff at the port greeted us and took our one check-in bag, it disappeared and was in our room by the time we got there! Angie, Martina and I got our ‘fun pass’ identification cards which guaranteed us to have fun… or else. Us 3 were bunking in a room that had a queen-sized bed and a bed that folded out of the wall. I remember walking into the room, quickly dropping our bags and Martina, upon spotting the nightlights that operated behind plexi contour art proclaiming “yeeeeeeaahhhhhh!!!!” and literally jumping up and down.

We exited, took a random path to start learning our home for the next several days and quickly found our way to the top:

Holy crap.

These things are humongous, and wild. And run like clockwork. Within our first hour they announced our life vest and life raft tutorial which sounds cumbersome but really wasn’t and is necessary, you never know. We did a 180 from the port and started heading downstream to the delta and out into the Gulf. Even considering the tutorial we had enough time to catch glimpses of the city on the horizon and even spotted the neighborhood Angie lives in from the boat:

Bywater area.

On the same token this following shot is of the Lower Ninth Ward. It’s hard to tell in this image but consider this is the same Lower Ninth pictured in my ‘on the Eve of Change‘ post:

leaving New Orleans parish. you can see the city in the background (view larger image on my Flickr to zoom in)

Now I’ve never been on a cruise before, I had no idea what to expect. In short these things are designed to pamper. It’s incredible, and pretty ridiculous, in an amazing way. Geez that doesn’t actually tell you anything does it! Okay, your bedroom is “turned down” twice a day – cleaned, changed, made anew; food is limitless, seriously you can eat your body weight daily if your intestines wouldn’t revolt; there’s round-the-clock entertainment in the form of musicians, gambling, bars, game rooms, stage performances, etc.; there’s a gym; multiple hot tubs and pools; there’s a sauna and spa for chrissake!; there’s even… an art gallery!

Clearly when I saw that I knew I was going to have some fun. is that Comic Sans? seriously? These ships were obviously designed in the early 90s! No but seriously there’s a real functioning art gallery on the ship, and yes we saw some people buying art, expensive art, like more expensive than all the expenses me and my party paid for the entire shebang. Times ten. People, are here to have fun, spend money, escape themselves, and be taken care of. and party.

The evening of the first full day on the ship, which we spent entirely at sea, there was a formal gathering and dinner which the captain emceed. Some people, “veteran cruisers” as they’re called, live for this. They came prepared. Not me, I packed two pairs of shorts, flip-flops and my boy scout belt! I didn’t even bring a towel, thinking it’d be so hot all the time I’d air dry when necessary (I forget the interior of places like these are always air-conditioned!); meanwhile these people packed jewelry and a pair of shoes for every day. Outclassed. Still, we had our fun:

Thanks – in part – to the performances, wisdom and hospitality of a one Rob the Pianoman.

If you take the Fantasy ship be sure to look this guy up. He plays at the Cleopatra Piano Bar (duh, he’s a Pianoman!). He made our night on several occassions. This Georgia boy will not disappoint, and his single-handed take on some classic songs (a la Dylan, Van Morrison, the Beatles) is not to be missed!

Next entry: Progreso, Dzibilchaltun, Mayan f*%^ing ruins!

so Shalin lives in a dollhouse, Angie lives in a dog shack, and Martina doesn’t actually live here and was the catalyst behind convincing me and Angie to take a boat trip to Mexico. All of which has nothing to do with the house pictured above, but at the same time that’s where they all live, but not really. New Orleans is weird. Yup, and these are my friends.

Getting to the house was difficult, which was expected. The driver of a city cab didn’t use the meter and charged me $12 for a journey that would have been difficult considering the weight of my backpack but wouldn’t have been untraverseable any other day on foot (I’ve since realized). He didn’t know how to locate the cross street given the address and suggested that having to drive to find the address might be too far for the fare. Welcome to New Orleans!

Once settled, the first order of business was food, so we set out for a walk in search of po-boys! While walking, it became clear that New Orleans architecture is obfuscated by the abundance of growth and green here. The city neighborhood’s landscapes are dominated by trees, plants, flowers, foliage and probably account for 30% of the density of the town:

As for dinner, I think I just about managed to capture everyone with their faces stuffed:

So service here is so slow and almost awkward, but is a journey in and of itself, you just have to roll with it. Then you’ll have a great time! Our waiter must have made at least four maybe five trips to the kitchen to actually figure out what they had in terms of deserts, but eventually landed us with exactly what we wanted:

Devoured, Gone. We Are Hungry.

As I arrived in the city in the mid-afternoon, by the time we finished with dinner the sun was set. Even having been here a week now I’m divided between seeing the city during the day and seeing it at night. It’s beautiful both ways:

The moon here is flipping bright. Bright, and low. And routinely about as big as I’ve ever seen it. Definitely as bright as I’ve ever seen it. So much light gets reflected here, which was more pronounced once we got out on the boat (will save that for the next post).

As for my first night in New Orleans I experienced something magical that I highly recommend to all if you want a flavor of New Orleans that you simply cannot find anywhere else. I journeyed – under Martina’s guide – to the Venue, a club up river where DJ Jubilee (a high school special educator during the day) and Katey Red (a transvestite rapper and teacher also) spin a distinct brand of music that is unlike anything else I’ve heard. Part hip-hop, part electronica, part bass, Bounce as it’s called has it’s own beat rhythm and vernacular that rivals Grime in the UK in its propensity to energy, but is contained to the shores of this fair city.

Music and club shots begin around minute 4. That mirrored wall… will live with me forever!

DJ Jubilee’s myspace page

Next installment: the boat, the cruise, the gulf. Mexico here we come!

As I mulled over this dilemma half-asleep last night, I simply concluded that it would be best for me to start a post, and then to add to it with sub-entries, rather than attempting to compile one single megapost which can’t actually be done as my experiences here are on-going and never cease. Day in and day out there’s something new. And I’m already over a week behind schedule.

So in unordered list and no particular arrangement:

My parents and stuff:

• my parents own, or possess rather, nearly if not more than 30 pairs of scissors. Nearly if not more… as in, while I’m sorting through their house and attempting to downsize their lives, I’ve really only penetrated and can account for the contents of two rooms. Add to that the other rooms (namely the computer room and my mom’s office areas) and in passing I’ve counted well over 20 pairs, and nearing 30. And I haven’t even spent time in the toolshop area. Could they own 50 scissors? Is this possible?

• In the light of the scissors complex, I went back and counted the number of staplers they own. Currently accounted for: 8.

e.g.:

many, many more to come!

STL corner architecture:
I’ve always had a fondness for corner buildings in St. Louis city. They’re always slightly more visually complex than the buildings surrounding them (which are usually domiciles, with the corner buildings operating commercial ventures); accented with architectural features and decorative elements; usually “wrap” the corner physically, and provide multiple entrances or window displays; and are usually more substantial – at times gargantuan – in comparison to the surrounding area. (I’ll add more examples as I take them) If one was to purchase or develop a property in the city for an arts center or housing co-op, this would be the way to go:

STL alley architecture:

Likewise I’ve always had a fondness for the alleys of St. Louis, and they’re an urban development feature that I’ve missed in larger cities I’ve lived in like London or NYC or which other cities I just don’t think employ the nature and uses of the alley as well as St. Louis city. In my earlier days I played basketball and stickball in them; used them to cut through neighborhoods while avoiding the car-traffic streets; and often used them as entrances to peoples’ homes through their back doors because the front door is so formal and proper, whereas the back door usually leads immediately into the kitchen which is where people congregate to eat and drink.

More recently I’ve found myself attracted to their narrow and sharp vantage points, especially at the moment when one rides past an alley quickly and is given a glimpse down the canyon of garages and sheds, trash cans, and debris. Those moments are quick as the alleys here are only 11 ft. wide or so. Wheres some neighboring streets can appear the same, the alleyways are always different and unique:

Delphi hats:

Word is this kid can’t get enough hats. Things on head in general:

Obama woz ere:

view image larger

Stumbling around the intertubes looking for STL entertainment, I came upon Bill Streeter’s website and flickr account, which included one of the more honest images shot from within the crowd for President Obama’s (not -elect, he’s my bloody President already damnit!) rally in St. Louis in mid-October. Most press images published from that record-turnout speech were wide shots from above or a press-box area (see scissor lifts) that overwhelmed the eye and whose composition was strategically designed to include the old courthouse in the background (again, for mass media). This shot however shows the back heads of the crowd as they face forward, cheering. That is Illinois in the background; also to the right of the white tent was a jumbotron television. I think Obama can be seen between the bleachers stand and the scissor lifts, in white.

I don’t know Bill but he seems like an all-right guy, his name being penned on some of the websites I’ve been perusing as I re-explore the city, including The Royale, one of the finer pubs in town that I’ve visited before and was trying to remember the name of, and thankfully came across their site. Bill codes with WordPress (the same software I employ), which is good to know open-source is running a fair portion of STL’s cultural production.

arts in town:

It’s as difficult as the original NES TMNT game to find art listings in this town however.

Jesus if you know of some openings, or one even, let me know. I found this blog: gallery openings in st. louis.

I was also introduced to this page at the Kemper Museum’s site which discreetely hides a map to STL non-profit visual art sites. Still, there must be more?

architecture blended:

Did they paint the building to blend in with the tree? Or did the tree chameleonize to blend in with the building?

zombie entertainment:

It’s a shame I just missed this (by a month). Subscribe to their feed for updates ahead of time.

More STL architecture:

I guess architecture, especially domiciles and housing structures, features prominently in this post because St. Louis has so much that is abandoned or not living up to its potential. It’s amazing, coming from New York City where realtors can and do literally sit on pieces of real estate, and end up not leasing them out figuring they can loose money now by not leasing a property in exchange for banking on that same property in a couple months or years even, when a specific neighborhood “blows up” and prices skyrocket. Yet here pieces of property sit abandoned for decades and there’s no assistance from the city to move people into them in exchange for fixing them up or developing a program (non-profit or otherwise) within the structure.

Here are some prime examples of abandoned or derelict or simply vapid structures:

a cutie two-part house thing. I don’t even know how to describe this place. It’s odd. It’s lovely. It has a No Trespassing No Loitering sign. It’s about 50ft. from the Antique Row area (Cherokee Street).

I didn’t walk over the hill but this building appeared partiallly – if not entirely – abandoned. Hard to tell. Still, it’s surrounded by land that at one point surely was loaded with other buildings and structures. Where did they all go? Who took the bricks?

Don’t remember the location. Great double garage door access, with ghost sign on side. All windows boarded up. Red plywood.

This one both confuses and upsets me. Such a beatiful structure, and the colorful rooftop facade is incomplete. Did the owner attempt to fix it up and then simply flee? the spraypaint on the road hoarding says “2900″ for the address.

My friend, former roomie, fellow artist and all-around geezer, Anthony Rhoads, has a 9-minute short “Without Your Permission” in the New Filmmaker’s screening this upcoming Wednesday, 26 November at Anthology Film Archives in NYC. His work will be in the animation festival and short film program, which consists of nearly all-new directors (all but one actually) who have never screened at AFA before (that’s 17 new directors!). So if you happen to be in town next week, aren’t traveling out (or as New Filmmakers put it Hate the Holidays) and are looking to see some film by unlikely directors, head down to AFA. It’s easy to remember their location: 32 2nd Avenue @ 2nd Street.

It’s between $5-$8 for admission, and starts promptly at 6pm.

And as someone who’s gotten a sneak preview of the piece Anthony will be screening, I can say that his work alone is worth the cost of admission. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, and find yourself shouting ‘replay!’

The beginning of a multi-month journey to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, with expected travels out of the city, to visit nearby (in the American sense of driving cross-country, nearby is within six hours!) friends and family; to venture to an abandoned family home; to assist my parents with their own health and hopefully enlighten them to alternative modes of living from those they’ve been repetitiously executing for decades.

My father recently had a “massive heart attack”, his first major malady, which I would say arrived quite early, before late-life has really begun, largely due to stress which unexpectedly struck his own family in the past year. His stubbornness (which I find cute) and unwillingness to discuss his personal ailments (sometimes not so cute), and my inability to do anything about his condition over the phone, has prompted me to uproot my own life, to disrupt my own patterns and repetitions, to assist my parents and in doing so better consider my own future age.

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My final days in New York City were both relaxed and feature-packed, and I’d like to take this moment to extremely thank Alison, Cassie, Richard, Mark, all the Stipanovic family, my sister and the various people I mingled with and met during my final days and hours which reminded me before I left of the reasons why I’m certain I’ll be returning and calling one of the outer boroughs “home” once more.

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After casting my ballot – and certain of the outcome – I proceeded to my friend Alison’s very homey home, the type of place after my eviction I found myself somewhat yearning for, and not at all typical of New York living. The type of home where days after Halloween, pumpkins are easily left on the front porch to collapse and continue looking beautiful! The type of home that will be an absolute delight in the dead of winter after a night fall of snow to wake up inside! The type of home where roommates actually yearn to do their dishes and keep the place looking spectacular! Homes, like these:

(see more domiciles of South Brooklyn on my Flickr)

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Walking the entire perimeter of Greenwood Cemetery with Alison’s roomy Mark included an excursion into the cemetery proper:

This place is amazing, and grand! Grand both in acreage and the monumentality of some of these tombs and gravestones. Mark and I toured a mere nugget of a corner on the map on this place, and were well-occupied for over an hour, our time spent scaling hills, finding hidden footpaths, creating our own genealogy of the dead, and inpsecting the overall superb craftsmanship of this place. Bonus: views of Red Hook – “there’s THE Ikea!” and Lower Manhattan are available.

Monk Parrots can also be found at the Cemetery’s north entrance and they’re an absolute delight to watch build their nests and listen to them communicate with one another, and in the overcast day their green feathers were darker than usual and had an almost metallic sheen to them. Really wonderful bird!

(see more photos from Greenwood Cemetery on my Flickr)

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I couldn’t leave without paying a visit to Olja, Robi, and Bartol himself, who debuted on this blog a month ago now. The image above was the eve of his 1 month anniversary. Did you know babies can grow 5cm and gain 2lbs. in that short a span of time? Isn’t that nuts? Merely from feeding on breast milk. I mean, HOW? The human body’s engineering at such a young age is truly astounding.

(more of Bartol the Big Boy)

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A visit to Hunter College’s MFA Open Studios introduced me to the work – and the man – of Darren Jones. While the above picture is a work that wasn’t on display at the event, it is from a series of similar works that forced me to engage in a conversation with Darren, albeit quickly, about his work. In the work I saw which was still in progress, Darren culled discarded balloons from seaside beaches. The balloons were weathered, worn and decrepit. Their once-humorous or cheerful slogans had turned into cracked skin which was flaking off. Bunches were tethered upside-down and hung from meat hooks, their collective form suggestive of the type of pitiful shape a cow or lamb might take after it’s throat has been slit and its body drained of blood, removed of all life and energy, before it is processed into meat for edible consumption.

Other than Darren though I must say I was quite disappointed with the open studios. Or rather not “disappointed” as much as not ultimately satisfied. Granted I didn’t have significant time or interest to engage everybody in a 60-second interview, but there wasn’t much in the way of developed work from the more-senior graduates, instead they were largely repeating tried and true techniques. Most graduates seemed to be trying to force their work to exist in their studios. Few merely let the work exist as it is.

And what I’ve always found odd about these engagements is how I seem to be more enthralled and captivated by places outside of the gallery, or in this case outside the studio:

This hallway area has always been an interesting area to engage, as it is noticeably large, usually unoccupied or at least sparsely filled, and yet always manages to achieve being more interesting in composition and arrangement from the junk left there than the work available in the many-numbered and expensive studio spaces occupied by fine art graduates. There was some sort of sound installation emitting from the lockers on the left, so I can’t say for certain that this wasn’t entirely devised, but I understood the sound work to be more of a site imposition rather than an element of a larger site specific work.

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After culturally digesting graduates’ art practices until the last minute, the following night, or morning of the next-next day, a 3am departure from NYC’s Penn Station took me to Washington DC’s Union Station, one of these monumental depots of yesteryear that managed to avoid being torn down and replaced with some “modern” atrocity.

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From DC I departed for the longest leg of my journey, a 24 hour and 25 minute train ride that cut through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana before its final termination in Chicago, Illinois. I took the Cardinal not the Capitol trip from DC, which should you ever take westbound I recommend sitting on the right side of the train. I made the mistake of choosing the left side, and the train was full so I couldn’t relocate, and wound up having sun in my face for a good 5 or 6 hours as well as missing all the good views. Still, there were moments to be enjoyed:

panning while traveling at 70mph is so much fun!

My arrival in Chicago was short, with a mere couple of hours to kill. I deposited my luggage in those wonderful new storage lockers in Chicago’s Union Station, proceeded to Daley Plaza (I lived in Chicago for a year so I know the downtown area quite well) to see the large Christmas tree that is being constructed from many many single pine trees before meeting up with Leslie (a Chicago native) whom I befriended on Halloween back in Brooklyn:

the eventual tree can be seen in the background, that “tree” is already constructed from about 8 single trees.

the significant guy-wires and steel framing (clever design) used to fabricate this sensation.

the future christmas tree trees!

Leslie and I met up for a quick drink, with the weather the way it was (Chicago-cold) meant a shot of whisky and a beer. Drink! Hurry! My train is about to depart! I arrived back at Union Station with literally “one minute” to spare, as the conductor told me and shoved the train doors closed behind me right after I boarded – before I was seated the train was moving!

the final leg of my journey took me through the heartland of America, with the train for some time traveling parallel to Route 66:

Route 66 is the paved road in the foreground there. And you can see the signage on the barn in the midground. All in all I’d have to say the train is a wonderful way to travel, and Amtrak conduct a brilliant service and strive to accommodate everyone accordingly. My only argument is the lack of wifi on the trains for us e-commuters, while the train crew itself have a locked WEP-encrypted network to access (via satellite no doubt). Otherwise if you have the time, it’s a wonderful way to travel, and extremely easy on the pocketbook I might add – cheap, like $3 above $100!

And now I find myself sitting in the room I spent a large portion of my early adult life in, having not been here for any extended time in over 7 years. Life in London followed by life in NYC has meant I haven’t had much time to get away from the demands I surrounded myself with. Of course I have goals I’ve set to achieve while here, both personally and professionally, and am looking forward to the time ahead. There’s a lot of work to do, and I’m certain a lot of fun to be had as well. But first, publish!

With the Flux Factory’s recent eviction, starting in early October, I completely boxed up my life and put everything I own into storage, in a shed at an undisclosed location in New Jersey. To be honest even I don’t know the location of said shed; but I would like to incredibly thank my friend Angie for her assistance with my upheaval. I haven’t produced a piece of art in over two months due to the eviction, and I’ve had to spend most of my time consolidating my life, including throwing away a fair number of tools, clothing, raw materials, incomplete artworks, etc. A fitting end to life at Flux Factory.

The month of October also saw me quit my job of 3 years, as I had to make a decision, to continue with life in NYC would require my income and creative control to move up or move on. I made my decision.

This decision was encouraged by some recent family health and grievance issues, which being in NYC I had no control over to either guide or invigorate. Also made problematic that my job didn’t give me much flexibility in terms of vacation, travel for health, time off, etc.

Knowing an eviction was imminent, and my employment would end concurrently, I’ve decided to go nomadic. I’m blogging from a cafe in Flatbush, Brooklyn, currently homeless and crashing on couches throughout the borough. At the end of this calendar week I’ll be travelling by train to my hometown of St. Louis, which I haven’t visited in over two years now (see this link).

But I’m by no means complaining. I’m loving these weeks, these moments with friends, the way in which one survives on coffee.

I’ll go back to about mid-October, when I took a trip upstate to the Farm, and spent some time with the frost, the leaves, and some new family including Pepper and some chickens Americano:

A sign of things to come, the end of Flux Factory’s residence-arm really began with Ian’s departure. He’s on a BMW motorcycle now, somewhere in Georgia or Florida (don’t worry he cast his absentee ballot!) en route out West:

With Ian’s departure, I also become the most-senior member at the Factory. This, I actually didn’t realize until nearly a week after Ian left and someone else pointed this out to me.

Even with an eviction pending, the Flux Factory staff continued to work hard, planning for our final ever party:

Chen works, sans desk, surrounded by boxes and piles of crap:

I love the doors ajar, the box that can’t close, the ad on the floor, the blue fork. Just throw it all away already!

Flux Factory knows how to make trash. We went from this:

To this, on numerous ocassions:

At the same time, we know how to turn a shitty DJ booth:

into a most-awesome DJ booth for one of the most-awesome parties ever:

The Flux Factory’s final party, the End of the End of the End (To Be Continued…) was definitely most-awesome. Props to Shalin for organizing over 50 performances for the evening. Although the true success of any party is when your six – yes, six – kegs run dry and you need a 2am beer run:

Me and Tyler at the Pathmark at 2am.

Flux Factory knows how to party:

White Limo gave a smashing closing performance:

are those Ironclad’s he’s wearing?

Unfortunately our partytude nearly made Seb cry:

and put Daupo to sleep:

it’s a shame I didn’t make a video, but the soundsystem was bumping at this moment.

And my costume, no doubt, was a hit:

me sitting on a couch-costume.

What will come of Flux Factory now? There’s a thought:

So starting this Sunday I’m on the road. Going to St. Louis via DC and Chicago on Amtrak. I’ll be in the Midwest by early next week for at least a month, if not two. My Flux Factory address is dead. Long live Flux Factory.

I’ll be around. My wifi is about to expire. Gotta press publish.

he’s a cutie right?

You know it’s funny, because you have this image in your head of what the baby would look like, given the features and characteristics of the parents, and then, and then, there’s the baby, and you’re like, “That’s exactly what I thought he would look like!” It’s uncanny really, this kid looks exactly the way he should (see for yourself). Beautiful!

Bartol with mommy Olja, whom some of you may remember from Croatia, summer of 2007.

(from Amelia’s facebook)

Amelia was a terribly smart individual, who on a personal level always managed to poke fun at me in a way few others could or would even dare! hah! Her intellect however was usurped by her inclination and ability to enjoy life and have fun, and she loved to have fun! It’s hard to find an image of Amelia on her own, as she was always giving – even in the photographic sense – to those around her. Unfortunately I don’t think I have any photos of Amelia myself. She always managed to elude me.

What’s worse is I had an offer to party with Amelia this past Wednesday evening, and passed because I had awoke at 5:30am that morning and traveled back to NYC from the Catskill Mountains, and was exhausted. Before then it was over a month since I’d seen her.

I intend to ghost bike her accident site.

Updates:

Amelia at 1:22am during the Everything Must Go closing party. Is there a photo of this girl not having fun? I very much doubt it.

AMELIA’S WAKE will take place at

Grammercy Park Memorial Chapel
353 2nd Ave
Btwn 21st and 22nd

google map link

Wed July 16th and Thurs July 17th
Showing times: 2pm-5pm and 7pm-9pm

note: this is going to be a traditional wake, there will be other opportunities to bring Amelia Memorabilia.

UPDATES:

Her family requests that everyone come THURS at 7pm. (There will be speaking and remembering of her life)

If you can’t make it Thursday come either day at anytime.

The family is planning Amelia’s Ghost Bike. I will post more details of that as they emerge, and do what I can to inform people of how to contribute.

Update:

Amelia’s ghostbike has been installed at 49th Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan. The bike has the baby seat Amelia used to ride on as a child. Feel free to stop by the site and leave a little something for Amelia.

via ghostbikes.org

UPDATE: here’s Amelia’s ghostbike, from July 2010:

gif of me with my mates Richard Zimmerman and Cassie Thornton, not only two of my favorite people in the whole wide world, but whom I both met while living in London – us few Americans enjoying time away from GWBushland – and now we each live in, around, and through NYC.

(seb introduced me to it)

(word is Phunquey is King of this Art. as you can see, he’s pretty effing good at it!)

(nice tongue Sarah!)

(Stefany jowling)

(Jean the Jowler)

(Oleg jowls while playing dominoes)

(and me jowling. and yes that’s my evening outfit!)

(more about jowling? click here!)

WE <3 U GIBSON!

Of course the first to arrive was from friend and fellow artist Elaine Arkell, featuring what I can only assume to be a depiction of the inner workings of her own aorta!

Moira Ricci sent me this YouTube card with a link to the video below:

not via the inbox, but real-world artists gifts included the following:

from Jason Eisner

a comics pack from my Aussie friend Alice Mrongovius

holiday CD tunes from Jessica Cannon

parallel language text from Lukasz Skapski:

merry christmas or season’s greetings
wesolych swiat lub pozdrowienia okolicznosciowe

and
no i

happy new year
szczesliwego nowego roku

lukasz

also
John Pitts in… uh outfit performing… uh a song that needs an outfit.

Even Google made sure to send everyone holiday wishes at their gmail login screen, with pun intended:

and after it all check out this image of a yule goat from Sweden I stumbled upon:

brilliant!
what? you want to see the goat live, right now? IT’S HERE!

this is me and my matey Richard Zimmerman drinking at Mama’s in LES at 4am, for his going away drinks before he leaves for Salt Lake City later this next week for what I suspect will be longer than expected. But after looking at this image I concluded that the reason Richard and I are so good together is we are complementary complements. Stature-speaking, I come up to around the middle of Richard’s rib cage. But size isn’t everything. Richard wears orange zip-up hoodie with green undershirt, both articles somewhat washed out, having been put through the washer on hot one too many times; I wear luscious blue hoodie with denser orange undershirt, both colors bright enough to direct traffic. We’re complementary complements!

Family. Lots of family. The Tofurky was delicious! (and my cheeseball was a big hit – all gone, all 4 pounds of it!)

Congratulations to my mates Olja and Robi on their union, wed last Friday at City Hall! They had a wonderful reception at Olja’s sister’s newly opened restaurant… Rest-au-rant! Located right near the 36 Ave N/W stop in Astoria. Great wine bar and Tina, the sister, introduced me to a self-concocted cocktail, the All Dave All Night. She made me the first one, the rest were prepared and served by none other than Dave himself!

The best to those two!

And congratulations to my matey Cassie who will be leaving in just under two weeks time for an arts residency in the south of Finland for three months! A house party to celebrate her departure included some home-made pizzas, including your standard margherita but also one whose base consisted of sweet potato and onion topped with zucchini and melted cheddar!

Scrumptuous!

(my feetsies in the boat, with north edge of Roosevelt Island off to the left)

anybody who lives in NYC must do this! You’re in a kayak, in the East River! How cool is that? And the water wasn’t all that cold either, so the splish splash and wet bum was actually quite pleasant. Anybody can do this, and it’s completely free! Did I mention it is FREE!? Visit licboathouse for details.

(view Flickr photos from our expedition)

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I spot some Location One residents dancing on the streets:

from left to right: Katia, Mafalda, Moira

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“How cool is that?” I thought, when I found out Barack Obama maintains a Flickr account.

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I got re-blogged by one of the best blogs around, Newsgrist, regarding galleries, museums, photography and social networks. I’ve always considered re-blogging as a type of acknowledgment, or a social networking type of homage, or simply a hat tip from one blogger to another. So thanks, Joy!

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attended an opening at Y Gallery, a new space in East Elmhurst, Queens.

whereas most people couldn’t fathom traveling this far out into Queens for a small opening, it reminded me that good art and even greater spaces are always possible outside the confines of Manhattan, and indeed in the coming years and decades this is where most of us, artists and curators and viewers alike, will be migrating to encounter art.

(view Flickr photos from the opening)

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I think I have become addicted to a song! Dethharmonic by Dethklok. I seem to find myself listening to it a dozen times a day!

listen to mp3

(Thunderhorse is an easy runner-up.)

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server upgrade was completely successful, and already worth the investment: the backend is extremely feature-rich, and I can’t recommend mediatemple enough for their great customer service and smooth operation (the upgrade was literally only 3 clicks and some patience).

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Fall has finally rolled in, and it’s sweater weather time. Me, I enjoy the cold. Fashion makes more sense in colder climates (after all what is there to wear really on the beach, in the sun?). Food not only seems to taste better but tastes more, especially hot food. And the tension of hot and cold when drinking a tea or coffee but standing outside in the cold, it’s soooooo satisfying!

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taking advantage of the server upgrade (which was already in the planning stages), because of my documenting the process of changing a Grand Theft Auto 4 billboard wall-painting in Canal Street/SoHo, NYC

(yes, I normally keep that many tabs open!)

I got picked up by some gaming blogs, and even got one of my images published on the frontpage of planetgta.com (owned by gamespy, which I’ve been a member of for well over 6 years), got dugg, and linked on gamekings which altogether made my stats absolutely shoot through the roof!

Gamers, dorks and geeks abound seem to have no problem leaving comments, and encouraging the documentation process. They seem to be less-reserved, and aware that this is just a ‘moment’. We’re all just living in the moment.

Robi Challenge (not Robi Johnson) is in town everybody! no wonder the sunset was so magnificent tonight – he brought it with him all the way from Pula, Croatia! I hear in his first day he’s already managed to squeeze in a couple full-nights’ rest. he must be saving his energy for something. we are meeting up this Friday I hope. I wonder what he has in store?

Robi is one of the most unique and jovial people on this planet! I mean, look at the car he drives! I know it had to hurt leaving that behind. I’m so glad he’s in NYC, for now for a while, hopefully for longer, forever.

Welcome home, as we call it, Robi!

it says it all really.

opening, tonight from 6-10pm, Box Social, at Secret Project Robot, located at 210 Kent (the old Flux Factory site), with works by underground comics artists and illustrators of various disciplines, including my matey Sarah Glidden.

I don’t really know what to expect, other than a lot of dorks which is great – not your standard Williamsburg hipster crowd hopefully. And as with every project/exhibition/space these days, there’s a blogspot blog with some info and further links.

so, there you go Seb! now, blow out those candles and dance:

well after Budapest the posting got a bit thin, so I guess that’s as good a place as any to start.

or first I should just say that Budapest was awesome. really incredible city. not like any place I’ve ever been before. It’s interesting now, thinking back on the trip, and comparing experiences with the cities and peoples of places like Budapest, Zagreb, Pula, London, and recognizing how distinct they all are, but that Budapest really is a place unlike any others. It has almost no relatives linguistically; it’s Central but borders the East, West and the Balkans; it’s materially very poor but adopting to a consumer society, but still people get by making something out of nothing (i.e. there is very little trash on the streets because they don’t have much to throw away!); the weather was brilliant, perfectly seasonal, and the hills of Buda I am sure have something to do with it!; best of all in the peak of summer I didn’t have any allergies, which means I could well-live there; and lastly, I’ll be back! It was that good.

to Zagreb

The train out of Keleti pu to Zagreb was great. Of course, I decided to travel on the day after the end of the Sziget festival, which meant the train was completely packed with punters from the festival, meaning a lot of noise and a lot of backpacks, and hippies! Thankfully I chose a car that was eventually occupied by a friendly group of Croatians (you’ll understand my distinction in a bit) including Mati and Valentino who along with a group of about 20 people were attending the festival; in Croatia they all help run a sort-of-not-for-profit type of organization called Moving Project, which was setup to give younger people a place to go for DJ parties, gatherings, forums, etc., since this type of place didn’t exist for people of their generation. As Mati noted, Croatians are fairly open-minded people, and very progressive. Their energies are a testament to their desire to enjoy life and experience as much as they can in their time.

Unfortunately they had to depart early, as they actually live outside of Zagreb in smaller villages. Mati’s, Valentino’s, and two other seats became empty, and filled in by this group of highly pretentious French kids. They were obviously annoyed by the presence of everyone else on the train, and furthermore by that they were 6 people, the car was 6 people, and the remaining two of us would not get up (and essentially have to stand the rest of the trip) for their party, their clique. It’s amazing how well they managed to reinforce cultural stereotypes! Upon entering the car, one bloke was annoyed that I wouldn’t allow the ovehead fluorescent to be turned on – it was past sundown now – because he really wanted to read his novel. Of course, reading for him actually meant skimming a page, then going back 20 pages and mumbling to himself, putting the book down to go out in the hallways for five minutes, come back in and go 60 pages forward in the book to act like he was reading, etc. He was a prat. They were all dressed in culturally hip tshirts and clothes sporting images of Jim Morrison and fractal patterns, who knew English but refused to communicate with anyone else on the train. Whereas Mati, Valentino and I exchanged food, liquor and talk, they passed food around us, never offered us anything nor introduced themselves at any point. They were headed to Vienna eventually, this train route also goes through Zagreb. Once getting to Glovni K. in Zagreb, they were packing their stuff into our car before myself and some Croatians had even managed to grab our bags from the overhead compartments. The Croatians were mad at them, I was mad at them. They reminded me why I didn’t plan to visit France on this trip.

I was in Croatia to visit my friend Olja Stipanovic, a Croatian artist who also lives near me in Queens, and whom I’ve gotten into an exhibition or two and befriended. Olja lives in Pula but has friends in Zagreb; I was picked up in Zagreb by her friend Sandra, whom I also met around five months ago at the Albatross opening at Socrates Sculpture Park. I camped with Sandra and her boyfriend Miro overnight at their place, we stayed up until nearly 4am drinking some Unicum that I brought with me from Budapest, and some Croatian drinks including biska, a type of brandy made from mistletoe and herbs!

the next morning we took their Alsatian hounds for a walk in this gorgeous park in Zagreb, over 200 years old it is an all-natural forest containing five lakes! If you get to Zagreb you must walk this park! After the park I offered to make them a breakfast omelette, which neither of them had eaten or seen before! But we decided instead on a Croatian egg-scramble called frita. Let me just say that food in this part of the world is delicious: from Budapest to Zagreb, I never had a disappointing meal. The food is entirely organic as far as I can tell, because they don’t have the massive farming industries that we have in the U.S., and all the pesticides and pasteurizing that come with it. Food, as it should, has so much more flavour.

Zagreb was great but Pula was the destination. A bus trip was in order. I was picked up by Olja and her boyfriend Robi Challenge and given a ride in Robi’s 1970s French car, which gets plenty of looks and has even been written up in the local newspaper! And you can see why:

We went for a dinner (I had gnocchi) on the banks of the Mediterranean before heading to see Robi’s football team, Hajduk Split play Sampdonia. Unfortunately Sampdonia won 1-0 but the Croatian fans always give it their best, even when they’re down:

Robi joined us after work

The next day Olja and I headed to the (rocky) beach. You find a flat part, lay your blanket and padding down, and make a day of it! We made a day of it! I didn’t bring a laptop, nor music, not even a magazine or book! A whole day doing nothing is something everybody should participate in at least once a year. Me, I got that intentional sunburn! That was my only plan!

Later that night we went to the annual Arts & Music Festival (after Sziget I swore I’d never see another band again, but here I was!) held inside this old Austrian fortress on top of one of the city’s seven hills. There is only one hill higher than this one, but from the top you can see to the city’s ancient ancient ancient Roman amphitheatre. Turn around and on the other side you can see into Uljanik, a huge shipyard and the focal point of the town not only in geography and driving (in that everywhere you go you run into Uljanik) but also with respect to the working class in that it employs many thousands of people who weld and build ships there. Pula is not just a tourist trap, they also build some massive ships there! A reason I’d like to go back to Pula, possibly to do some research and work with the Uljanik yard.

Pula departure

London journey

I flew from a warm and sparkly Pula to a cold damp and dreary London, where as the days I was there went on the weather only seemed to get worse and worse. A true English summer, few people were in short sleeves, while some had fur-capped jackets or rain coats and umbrellas were the norm. As my matey Ed remarked, at least the clouds give you something to look at!

A lot has changed in London. Throughout the city, the skyline is absolutely littered with building cranes. (see this post also) But the best example is the supposed new transportation hub being built somewhere near Liverpool Street Station. This thing is a monster:

There are very few vantage points in East London (E8, E9) where you CAN’T see this place. I’ve only been gone three years, but am told most of this development has been in the past two. It shows how fast capital can move, and change the face of not only a city but its people, as Ed and I attended the Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern (see my Flickr set) which examined several mega- or ‘hyper-cities’ around the world and suggested that in the next decade London would add over 600,000 residents, and since 1995 over 90% of those moving to London were born outside the UK – where will they all come from?

I didn’t do too much else in London (which was the point really, time off) except for seeing the Wellcome Collection with the Heart exhibition (see my Flickr set), before heading out to Whitstable, Kent to visit my mates Rachael and Jo.

Rachael (pink hair) with Cora, the baby of Sarah Andrews (standing, can’t see, but whom I was also on course with) and Jo (seated)

Rachael was one of the first people I met on course at Central St. Martin’s, and I participated in some of her early performance work. Her and Jo David were two of the best people I met while in London, and were gracious enough to offer me their then-new (and still going strong) alternative exhibition space, Space Station Sixty-Five, in South London, for what was then my first and is still my only solo exhibition.

One more night out was in order, so that I could return the phone I borrowed from my friend Noe and so that Olivia-jane Ransley would somehow get the opportunity to punch my face in:

I don’t remember how this transpired! Honestly!

And that’s pretty much it really. No, really, bugger off!

Related websites:
Budapest – tourism photos on Flickr
trip to Zagreb photos on Flickr
trip to Pula photos on Flickr
London trip photos on Flickr

pictured with momma Octavia

don’t roll with Pitts Inc.? click here for <3

Earlier this week I finally made it out to Yankee Stadium – The Stadium – for the first time, to see a tension-laden, one could even say downright aggressive, standoff between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Of course, when I say aggressive, I’m not talking about the teams – sure the Yankees were aggressive early on hitting two home runs off Wakefield in as many innings – but the crowd! My lordy! I’ve never felt so threatened for my personal space and my company’s security, while supposedly enjoying an American pastime sport, than this past Monday evening! And it wasn’t all New York fans, don’t get me wrong.

Because of the proximity and history of these two towns and teams, there’s a lot of banter from both sides. Well there’s banter and then there’s downright slander: “Fuck Boston!” Me, I’m a Cardinals fan! I went with my buddy Dan Mulcare and at one point he asked, but isn’t there a deep rivalry between the Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, don’t St. Louis fans act the same? No! Absolutely not! We cheer when the opposing team’s pitcher is pulled from the game after he pitches us 7 shutout innings! Because we recognize he’s that good! I like to see good baseball, and my definition of that is baseball that achieves some sophistication and amazement. “Boston Sucks” t-shirts are about as puerile as they come, and to be a middle-aged man wearing that to a public sporting event, well, need I say more? (However, I will add, the Mets are Pond Scum – that’s for you Josh!)

I saw a good dozen fights break out and my party reckon that somewhere between 60 to 100 people got ejected from the game that day. It was pure ruckus.

But back to the Stadium. Like I say this was my first time there and I’m starting to become interested in the presence of stadiums. Yankee Stadium from the outside feels trapped, condensed. There’s no open swathe of land surrounding it. There’s no way to really step back from it, to take it in. The train buzzes above and trees block lines of sight all around; shadows from nearby buildings cut the light and there’s no opening through/into the stadium to be seen from street level. Instead baseball-themed shops surround part of the Stadium. But once you get in the Stadium, that sense of density disappears and makes way for an incredible openness. The Stadium almost feels like it’s the only thing on the planet; you can barely see anything outside of the Stadium except for a small pack of mid-rise apartment complexes and the occasional train passing between a sliver of space out beyond right-center field. Suddenly you forget about anything but baseball. And once the sun sets, a capacity crowd of over 55,000 helps one focus their attention to the matters at hand.

And as you probably guessed from my telling of Wakefield’s early beating, unfortunately the Bosox lost, 6-2. Dan wasn’t too happy with the results.

(Meanwhile my team rebounded from a five-game loosing streak to sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates for three tonight back in the new Busch Stadium, which is great. After tonight Molina is hitting above .300 and Eckstein, Pujols and now Encarnacion upon his return are all starting to show signs of improved hitting. Bottom line is we’re hungry. A sweep of the Nationals starting tomorrow would really boost morale and if Chicago and Houston both loose their next couple games could put us in 2nd within a half-dozen games behind the Brewers.)

Meanwhile:
My first full beard finally met its match: spring is here!

Spring has been here for some time actually, but I was apprehensive to depart with something which took so long to acquire and was so attached to me – it’s on my face after all! Additionally, I have yet to see myself with a beardless face and my new otchkies, so that still makes me a little nervous!

Shaving off the long hair really brought out the red and white of the roots. It also makes me look a full decade younger, even though I’m not that old to begin with! Oddly, if I was to shave the stubble off now, I’d look another decade younger, something I’ve always been amazed with the ability of my face and its features to achieve. Truly… odd!

Nearby:

the Peter Fischli & David Weiss opening was at the Swiss Institute this past week, presenting ‘Books, Editions and the Like’ (i.e. posters & video). Some really great paper works are on view here, simple but amazing uses of prints, books, drawings, found images, etc. Got me thinking again – and excited for – about the possibility of basic paper-based work and how simple selection-processes can go a long way and actually form a cornerstone of one’s practice.

Elsewhere:

• Pandora redesigned their interface. Immediately much-more clean and fluid. Items placed in menus make more sense now – thanks!
• Banksy has been revealed
• Sammy reminds me of all that is strange and wonderful about the net
• Jeanne d’Arc et les Melons – premiered at and celebrating Kerry’s bye bye boobie party

Ahead:
I only just realized yesterday I’m not working this weekend, so I’m taking a quick trip out of town this weekend, to a farm upstate, ahead of a grudgingly looooooong work-week next week of around 50+ hours. They have a pool and two huge labradors and fresh chicken eggs and a newly-acquired Xbox 360. It will be a tough life for a few days. Point is I won’t be blogging for that time – I might be drafting things but you won’t see any activity around here for a good 3-4 days. Enjoy your weekend everybody – I’ll see ya when I see ya!

the event will be held at the performance art space Galapagos in Williamsburg (map), the first place in NYC I found to have Newcastle Brown on tap, so you know I’m looking forward to the party tomorrow! the door is operating on a sliding scale of $10-$50 (the more the merrier, it is a fundraiser after all). the tittytainment begins promptly at 10pm and will include acts by:

Marla Hooch
Chiara Issa
Stefany Anne Goldberg
DJ Sparber

Bring your dancing shoes… oh and your earplugs, because there’s likely to be a whole bunch of lesbians shouting ’show us your tits’ all night long.

it’s my friend Ashley Kesling’s birthday today. she sent a late-minute notice about drinks tonight. I can’t join but regardless happy birthday ashley!

Finally got to meet up with John Henry Blatter of Daily Constitutional acclaim. John is in town for the Scope NY art fair, where he has a sound piece installed. I have to make sure to get to the fair if for no other reason than to see his work. John is an immediately affable and completely lovable person, and his work with the Daily Constitutional from day 1 I have thought is just truly incredible. The format, the content, down to the aesthetic rub and feel of the zine, it re-coded things I previously knew and thought about artists zines. We didn’t get to talk for too long – we met up at an opening with lots of other people and noise – but hopefully I’ll be able to get John out to see some other sights while he’s in town, if not I’ll make it a priority to get down to Richmond, VA where he’s based, to check out their scene and remind myself of my affinity for Richmond: I told John that Richmond is unique in its balance between the last refuge of the east coast and the distinct south, and that space of balance I find intriguing; plus living is cheap, affordable, and the people there are wonderful (like John!).

In other news you can expect me back in the blogging routine soon. I have rough drafts and items to catch up with, but currently I’ve been a little *ahem* distracted.

another ‘four day’ stint without focused commitment to blogging and I found myself staring at the ‘post box’ as it’s called and wondering how to regain my momentum. and oddly enough it’s not a dilemma of not knowing what to say, it’s a dilemma of having too much and trying to remember where to begin again, of how to collect everything I should have said between then and now. i don’t want to ramble but i’m just too excited by it all so hopefully you’ll bear with me.

it was a crazy past-week for openings and shows. and it’s an even crazier week ahead. Don’t forget to sleep.

the 10th (has it really been that long?) was the Project 1981 opening. I did manage to put some photos up on my Flickr account (oh there I gone and done it now! I said my Flickr! egads!) but I never got around to the meat of the show. I got talking with a friend at the opening about the dilemma of openings themselves. I mentioned that somebody else said I missed completely one piece in the show: because of the crowd, I managed to walk around a vitrine – I later went back to view it once the crowd started to breathe a little bit, but the point is that at openings, depending on the size of the crowd and the size of the space, sometimes seeing the work is just not possible. Not seeing it with certain comforts that is, like space, time and the absence of noise. My friend elaborated: I was told that the opening for the show was basically the run of the show. The work might stay up for another few weeks but it would be by appointment only, not ‘open’ per se. I was unaware of this and commented that it’s difficult because you want as many people to gather at the openings as possible, but you also want to see the work (or in the case of one piece to hear it, impossible at openings because of the noise volume of the crowd). As it would turn out the show is up for a couple extra weeks (the website indeed says until the 28th, by appointment), but for shows that really do only last a week, or a couple of days even, the problem of having the space and time to see the work and maximizing attendance is impossible to solve. But now that I think on it that we were even having that conversation, while immersed in the crowd, is the interesting bit – unable to enjoy the work as it should be but still able to exchange ideas.

two days later I returned to work, still sick at the time, and we had less than two days to complete our installation. while the largest group show I have seen installed in our space, the process was pretty chill and most things were dealt with simply as they arose. and while the opening was a success, I still can’t help but reflect back to the process of these installations themselves, which are sometimes easily the most rewarding part of organizing and installing shows:

(and sometimes way cooler than the work you’re meant to be installing!)

moving ahead Thursday night was the ‘My Country’ opening at the Hungarian Cultural Center. The two artists – Andrea Dezso and Miwa Koizumi, both artists I have worked with on other projects before – are highly aesthetically driven. Miwa carried out a performance for the opening where she used paper-shredded ‘wishes’ written down by viewers to create these small geological-esque paper hill formations and other structures; Andrea’s main body of work on display were approximately 40 small embroideries that illustrated things her mother once told her, many of which manage to be simultaneously sinister and fantastical, touching on topics such as sex, semen, aliens, digestive tracts – you get the idea!

Somewhere in the midst of all this activity also, Manami Fujimori paid a visit out to Flux Factory. Manami is an absolute delight! She’s nothing but energy, completely excited to see work and the spaces of artistic production and life. She was writing about Flux Factory and the crossover of artists who also involve themselves within an arts organization. She’s full of interesting questions and I can’t wait to read her thoughts (it’ll also help kick me in the butt and remind me to finally develop a ‘press’ section in the blog already!).

Finally a 3-day weekend!

Saturday night was the Building Show opening at Exit Art. It’s been a while since I’ve managed to get to an Exit Art opening, but as always it was well-crowded and generally up-beat. I got into discussions with several people since the opening and found that some people are more put-off by Exit Art than I ever have been or even thought to be. Their argument was that too much of the work tends to be ‘redundant’ or copied, and they’re not convinced by the progression of shows over the years. On the contrary I look at the space (I’ve only ever been aware of their 10th Ave site) and I’m completely in awe. And I’m not simply talking about the physical space, but the whole package: the space, the work, the location, the crowd, it all works for me. When I consider how much of the rest of the city is clogged with tourist traps and shitty bars, of course I find haven in a place like Exit Art which has consistently made me think and wonder about it’s programme. Maybe it’s more-easy for others to come to finite conclusions about their opinions, but I like to keep my nerves on-end!

Continuing on, I managed to squeeze in a few house parties as well, including one hosted by Stacey Allan, an old acquaintance that I studied with in Chicago and recently ran into again (again again I should say). Twas good to see her and she had a great crowd, including some Canadian friends of hers that I got discussing with about ‘Artist-Run Centres‘, a phrase and organizational structure I was really only recently introduced to – was intriguing to have such a primary conversation conclude so well, and made me want to travel to Canada this year to view and exchange with some ARCs. And thanks to the President’s Day holiday I was able to enjoy a birthday party on Sunday night for Marcela Cussolin whom I recently befriended (oh who am I kidding holiday or not I would have gone and partiiiiieeed wooooo … ahem). Another great crowd, I told another friend of mine that it reminded me of parties in the Midwest, where people are generally warm, relaxed but enjoying themselves, where the kitchen is usually a focus area (after all that’s where the liquor is) and music is of good selection (speaking of one of the hosts, Chris, had one of the largest selections of ‘mash-ups’ I’ve seen, and was the first person I’ve ever seen to actually interface with Front Row on the Macintosh).

Marcela Cussolin with Andy and cake (NOTE the cake was effing delish!)

OHHHHHH otherwise it was the same-ol’ same-ol’. Yeah, right. In other news I finally got cracking on my upcoming lulu book, working from a newly acquired Epson V350 photo scanner. That thing is a beaut! Most-importantly for my own work, and it’s such a simple design feature that really goes far, is the lid can detach and fold back so you can get large items on the flatbed! Wonderful! The other thing heavily weighing on my mind these days is baseball. Spring training games are just about to begin, and I’m about to do something I’ve never done before, which is invest in a major league sport: I plan on purchasing the ‘premium’ package that allows you to listen to/view every game online. I thought of doing this last year but got deterred because of a couple of reasons; but this year I’m committed to it, I want to see specific pitchers pitch, certain batters hit, and follow more games and players. It’s a hefty investment but it’s not about a financial question, it’s a love for the game.

And the week ahead is nothing easy. Is February always this busy? this weekend initiates THE weekend of art fairs around the city, and for the first time I can say that I’m possibly not interested in them. Of course I’ll end up attending one or two, but I won’t be thinking if I don’t see them all then I’ve fallen short, the way I have in the past (oh the guilt!). Truth is there’s always more going on than one can achieve, so one can’t imagine to do it all. Okay okay, you could imagine, but like I’ve said being from the Midwest means practical living and if I can’t do it all then I’ll just do what I like and be happy with that.

See you next time, folks!

Related websites:
Flickr folder for Project1981 opening
Flickr folder for the Building Show opening at Exit Art
Flickr folder for Marcela Cussolin’s 26th Bday party

Mark and Geraldine have been staying at Flux Factory for around a month now, preparing for the imminent launch – or departure rather – of their work ‘The man who shot Liberty Valance’. They leave tomorrow morning for a near-one-month trip through twelve ‘Etats-Unis’ cities whose names engender allegorical aspirations: they will begin at Freedom – the ‘freedom’ indicative of the ‘open road’ culture of America – then pass through Joy, Comfort and Pride (among others), all the while moving towards Harmony, a fitting finale to a multiple-thousand-mile road trip through an immensely diverse landscape.

Here’s to all the best for Mark and Geraldine! See you soon!

5. I Wanna Rock

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

TURN IT DOWN YOU SAY,
WELL ALL I GOT TO SAY TO YOU IS TIME AND TIME AGAIN I SAY, “NO!”
NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!
TELL ME NOT TO PLAY
WELL, ALL I GOT TO SAY TO YOU WHEN YOU TELL ME NOT TO PLAY,
I SAY, “NO!”
NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!
SO, IF YOU ASK ME WHY I LIKE THE WAY I PLAY IT
THERE’S ONLY ONE THING I CAN SAY TO YOU

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

THERE’S A FEELIN’ THAT
I GET FROM NOTHIN’ ELSE AND THERE AIN’T NOTHIN’ IN THE WORLD
THAT MAKES ME GO!
GO! GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!
TURN THE POWER UP
I’VE WAITED FOR SO LONG SO I COULD HEAR MY FAVORITE SONG SO,
LET’S GO!
GO! GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!
WHEN IT’S LIKE THIS I FEEL THE MUSIC SHOOTIN’ THROUGH ME
THERE’S NOTHIN’ ELSE THAT I WOULD RATHER DO

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)
I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
ROCK (ROCK)
I WANNA ROCK

that’s it. that’s all there was. that’s all there needed to be!

feel free now to listen while you sing-song-along:

My friend and fellow artist Simo Alitalo wrote me this morning to inform me that Finland is without snow this winter. FINLAND… WITHOUT SNOW. I mean, cmon!! He writes:

Greetings from the darkness!

There is an old Finnish Christmas Carol where they sing that Christmas
is like a summer in the middle of winter.

The global warming is giving a new literal meaning to the song:
after the very warm year we are having extremely warm winter. No
snow, no ice, instead green grass and buds in bushes – and because
there is no snow the darkness is unbelievable!

The image up top was snapped from http://62.73.32.2/ , a URI Simo sent of a webcam pointed at a Finnish square. Look at how pitiful that Christmas tree near the middle looks. Just pitiful! Normally Finnish squares are a blanket of white!

Atticus Pitts IS Superman!!
from my mate John Pitts in St. Louis.

an exchange drawing by Aya Kakeda

collage… of something! by my mate Elaine Arkell in London!

the C-tree in motion, by Kako Ueda

photo by Lukasz Skapski of him and his partner

photo-collage by Naoko Kitamura

photo showing drawing by my mate Robin Footitt from London, in background

Update: missed one, here’s a photo from my mate Karen D’Amico in London

Either way, here’s a summation of goings ons in the arts the past two+ weeks, with an infusion from everyday life. Enjoy.

When I last left off from the ‘this week in arts’ series I mentioned that my work for the La Superette event got rejected; this is actually the second year in a row (and my second time applying) that my work has been rejected. The first time was, I believe, a mis-communication, because I was told my work was ‘too big’, while the work would have been perfectly suited to the installation and general arrangement (but then again, it’s not like it’s a curated exhibition); this time however I was pretty put off by the evaluation that my work was ‘not functional enough’. The event, a ‘DIY’ art-sale, called for things made by artists for sale, at cheap prices, for holiday gifts. The event was held at Eyebeam, a major ‘art and technology center’. The proposal form called for all submitted works to be delivered ‘in a box’ – I decided to take all of these things into account: the box, the context of geeks buying art gifts, the ‘DIY’ cliché, and present it for sale:

I knew that the notion of ‘function’ was a variable, but I also think that gift-giving shouldn’t always be so serious and that humor should also be a variable, so I set out to make all of my works suggestive of other objects that provide function, while stripping them of any real-world credibility; these objects, made facsimile, suggest function: the USB speakers to retrieve sound from a mini (audio) port; the zonet USB wireless adapter to communicate with WiFi networks; the games (one for PlayStation the other for PC) to provide entertainment; the joke security camera (a dummy already) to provide fake security; the battery to supply power; the ink cartridge to provide printing; the antenna to receive analog television signal; the laser-pointer pen for presentations, and of course the box to carry it all in, in the first place. I guess the organisers of La Superette just didn’t get the joke.

And honestly I probably wouldn’t have taken the rejection so harsh, except that I took nearly a whole day off work with lost-wages and lost lots of sleep over making sure to complete these works; but hey, in the end I got to keep them, which makes my gift-giving this season a heckuva lot easier!

Moving along, but still in early mid-December, I wanted to tell you all about the SVA BFA open studios. I actually didn’t even know of the event, until the evening (Sunday) before, when my friend Cassie Thornton told me about it, and we agreed to meet there at 7pm. She ended up not attending, but as it would turn out I know two people on the course; and I think I can safely say they were also the two best works/artists on display!

Naro Taruishi’s ‘EYE | EYE‘ work, part-sculptures, part-screen (LCD displays inside the viewing boxes), presented viewers with a split-screen animation of various forms – some abstract, some geometric, one that was stellar, like a rising moon – that skewed one’s vision. Inside the viewing boxes a piece of panel came right up to your nose, effectively disrupting your stereo vision. However through optical manipulation, what appeared on the left side also extended to your right eye, while the image on the right side remained in limbo, or provided articulation onto the extension of the image from the left side, creating a new stereo vision. One could only think of how the brain was interpreting this information in the first place; it reminded me of when I used to do medical guinea pig experiments for side-cash, and they sometimes fed split-screen images to study how the brain ’sees’ or determines left from right, and depth of field.

Another female working with split-screen technology, were Chen Yerushalmi’s playful and interactive sitting booths. Two participants each sit in one booth, with one camera in each booth. After some sophisticated layering and joining of these video signals, elsewhere on a projection screen a single collaged ‘face’ is displayed. How many features does one have in common with another; what about the joining of the young and the old – how do features age?; how do similar expressions vary from one person to the next; and the myriad psychological suggestions that arise from having a ‘two-face’ composite. Very intriguing work indeed.

The following afternoon Everett Kane came to talk to the residents of Location One about his practice, which of late is largely drawing-based, which he sees as the foundation of every practice, the gestures of the hand and the act of mark-making on paper; something which I’ve always attributed as having perhaps the most ‘potential’ of all artistic practices, because of its accessibility (pencil and paper is plenty) and therefore its democratic appeal (collage being perhaps the only other medium of this potential: any image, and any other image, or object, or surface, joined together, to create something else, also very accessible). Everett has to be one of the most-prolific artists I know, with the ability to crank out literally hundreds of drawings – all good – every week; don’t fool yourself if you think you make a lot of work because Everett will put you to shame!

Nearly halfway there now. Hey, I told you it’s been a demanding month!

Thursday the 14th was Secret Santa out at Flux Factory. not exactly ’secret’, because somehow the rules got re-written so that each person who received a gift, ended up giving their gift to their random (was that the ’secret’ part?) recipient, with a person chosen at random to start it off. I got a nice selection of ties (one of which I’m currently sporting) and some ‘herbal remedies for men’ (wink wink). The event included a farcical storytelling on ‘the Constitutionality of Christmas’ by the-then highly inebriated (I’m not sure I know him any other way, actually) Dan Mulcare (I believe my mate Sarah got it on camera, maybe someday it’ll show up on YouTube? Oi! Sarah! Get that video on YouTube already! You’ve had two weeks!).

On the final Saturday of the Tatlin exhibition at Flux Factory, Mister Resistor gave us a show.

Then there was that befefit for Hwy Rachel on the 20th which I mentioned earlier.

Skipping ahead right to the holidays, during the day of the 24th I went to the 10th Street Russian and Turkish baths. What an intense place! I never thought taking a dip into 50s-Fahrenheit-degree water then walking into a room designed to be a human oven (Radiant Heat!) could be so invigorating!

That evening I finally got to really sit down and test-out my newly acquired projector. It only seemed appropriate that one of the first sources I test be watching an episode of Futurama!

And how additionally appropriate that the completely random image I snapped off happens to be one of the animated cast watching a large-screen television (albeit receiving ‘interference’, if you know what I mean then you know what I mean! heh).

(Wanting to test the component video inputs on the projector, I also plugged in the house PlayStation2 and played Final Fantasy XII for a while; and within the same 24-hour span, I came across this videoblog post over on Alive in Baghdad, where the interviewee explains his fascination of FFXII – and I realized while we play in different regions of the world, we both play ‘to escape’.)

Into the wee hours of the morning Morgan, Daupo, Jean and myself played a few rounds of petanque in Phunquey’s large, carpeted and eerily empty ex-room, including a devastating first-game win by Morgan and me of 13-1!

Waking the next morning with little sleep, a group of us headed to Tatiana’s in Brighton Beach for a Russian dinner, and the first option to arrive out was an appetizer of Onion Loaf – literally a deep-fried batter of onions shaped into a loaf shape, which oddly sliced as easily as any bread loaf! My meal consisted of a tofu salad with blue cheese dressing, raspberries and blueberries, and a plate of home-fried potatoes with a selection of mushrooms; later, I felt bad that I didn’t share more of the potatoes with mushrooms, but when I was served I was immediately hit with multiple demands for my mushrooms, and went on the defensive! I was told to expect to pay $50 for the evening’s meal; this particular plate cost $27 and I wasn’t exactly offered anything in return, so it just felt like people wanted what I had without reciprocating the exchange!

The evening ended with more rounds of petanque:

(NOTE: just as Daupo throws the petanque, Kerry says, ‘Daupo can’t do anything’, then his petanque rolls right into a floor outlet, or dead-zone, effectively killing his throw! CLASSIC!)

I forget what made us laugh at this very moment but it was good, and Jamil got off a good snap.

(stolen from Sarah’s Flickr account)

and y’all should also check out Flickr’s integration with Yahoo-maps and all the goodies therein. Lots of interactivity involved, and in the right circumstances and employment is a more-interesting way to view a user’s photostream (now one can only imagine what other – i.e. curated, exhibited, etc. – applications such a feature could be used towards – something I tried to implement a few months ago during the Queens Blackout Division exhibition at Flux Factory, but which was never implemented because apparently some members of Flux Factory have an aversion to technology for understanding art!).

(click the image to see the photo-map!)

And this whole blog post has reminded me I need to start compiling my ‘RSS for artists’ post series. coming soon, promiz!

Another friend of mine is in a show, probably a short-lived show since they’re borrowing someone else’s studio to showcase their work in. I fear with ‘SinG’ in the title that some vocals may be involved, and knowing H.G. and Rob I wouldn’t put it past them. Regardless, here’s their… press… release?

Our show is this Saturday 11/11, from 6-9pm.
It would be great if you would come.

At Mamiko’s studio: 87 3rd Ave, btwn Bergen and Dean, BROOKLYN!

http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=87+3rd+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY

Subways:
A, C, G to Hoyt;
F to Bergen;
2, 3, 4, 5, M, N, Q, R, W, B, D to Atlantic
http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/?address=87+3rd+ave,+brooklyn,+NY

yours, ours

H.G. & Rob
–
Rob & H.G.

after work I first headed over to Deitch Projects with my friend Sarah Glidden to see the ‘exhibition of sculpture and creepy pathological little gifts’ for Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep. The latter part of that quote is accurate, some of the little gifts were indeed very creepy and definitely pathological! However not so much ’sculpture’, more like set-prop-cum-installation. My ongoing fascination with how some things are built for installations meant that at one point I became much more interested in the fabrication of the table on which Gondry’s cardboard construction tube-city sat, than the work itself. As I kneeled down to view the underside and see where some wires were emerging from, the gallery sitter laughed and complimented me, for being the first person to inspect the underside!

Afterwards Sarah and I walked towards Washington Square and met up with my mates Ashley and Josh. We all then arrived at the George Maciunas opening at the Maya Stendhal Gallery in Chelsea. While Maciunas is perhaps better-known for his more playful, object-oriented work, this was an exhibition of notes, maps, charts: analytical data, a little cold and conceptual; but the vitrines were nice and contained some materials that have been in recent conversations, such as an invoice for a flat on Mercer Street (recently discussed in a conversation about artists and gentrification, areas, etc.).

Still not over!

Moving along, Josh, Ashley and I made our way home to watch Onibaba on the roof, along with other people. The screening is the first in a new ‘microcinema’ to take place at Flux Factory every Thursday evening, being spearheaded by one of our newest flatmates, Mikey Barringer, who brings this event from Ann Arbor where he used to help run the Bluish Barn microcinema (next week the bill will be Project Grizzly – the inspiration for a future exhibition at Flux Factory).

We ended the evening playing video games.

Last night after work I went drinking with my friend Ashley at McSorley’s near Cooper Union. what a great place. I didn’t give Ashley the option, I just ordered round after round of the dark, though I reckon Ashley would have liked the light. Either way it was delicious. Josh Picker met up with us near our last round and afterwards we headed over to Pommes Frites for chips, a real New York outing.

Ashley helped me lay some ethernet cable before we spent the wee hours of the morning playing Resident Evil 4 on the PS2. woke up this morning to a communal breakfast, around 12 of us at the kitchen table, then we departed for the city. We all arrived at Location One where I’m invigilating the gallery today; they’ll parade around town before we (minus Amelie whose heading back to PA this evening) head back out to Flux Factory for the opening tonight. Tomorrow morning we plan on going to Martina Mrongovius‘ show at the Holocenter and then to Coney Island for the afternoon.

So let’s break it down!

I drove there with three of my friends, Kerry, Sarah and Jamil. We arrived technically late but apparently right on time; we were ahead of most people as it were, so when we started the crowds were thin. We were on foot, and as we reflected later in the evening ended up walking pretty much the entire town, which was exemplified to us when we took a shuttle bus from the western edge back to the HVCCA and even at 50-in-a-30-zone it still took over 10 minutes of driving! Man we walked a LOT that day!

We started at the HVCCA. Even before then, because as we approached the center we first stumbled upon an installation adjoined to the wall of the center, by Cassie Thornton, a good friend of mine. I love Cassie’s work, I even have some of it in my own collection. This piece was a haphazard construction, a 2″x4″ wood frame wrapped in clear plastic with a slanted roof; inside were maquettes of landscapes and buildings, photos of children and older people. Bricks surrounded the outside foundation, as if to keep everything stable. The piece was titled “Infinite Museum”; the only thing unclear (to me) about Cassie’s work was if the maquettes were her own creation or that of those present in the accompanying documentary photographs. Given the inclusion of ‘museum’ in the title, Cassie’s role is a little bit questionable: is she collector, curator, spokesperson? What saves the work for me is the physical construction and allocation of the work, and it’s play on the micro/macro: included in the Peekskill Project, but a Museum in itself, adjacent to the HVCCA but open all the time, on the street; and of course the scale of the models included in the work.

WHEW!

So we proceeded to the HVCCA, collected our maps, and moved on to the pasta factory across the street. Most of the work here was set in small display rooms, a sort-of gallery sort-of college studio display space, which at times conflicted with the work, but located it in prime real estate across the street from the HVCCA. The most interesting work in this space were the maps and accompanying works by Esther Kokmeijer, which lived well in this space: part archive, part display, locally referential.

We continued on to the city centre, getting a little lost and spending some time at the local flea market! Throughout the town centre, most of the works took on the form of window displays. Some were more critical than others of the context of the work residing in a public space, or mirrored these normal display methods while seeking to heighten them somehow (the watchmaker in the jewelry window is a good example). Meanwhile, some of our favorite displays probably weren’t ‘art’ at all, but we found them so surprising and enjoyable we couldn’t deny them!

Definitely one of the best works in show was Magda Fernandez’s video/banner/book portrait of Kathryn Lapolla, a lifelong resident of Peekskill. In the video, Kathryn details various modes of life in Peekskill (from the senior citizen center to the local library and beyond), an oral history of her experiences spanning many decades. Thank you Kathryn!

Equally as exciting was the placement of Magda’s work, the video and book works were all located inside Bruised Apple Books bookstore, perhaps the most exciting bookstore I’ve ever been inside. We actually had to leave quickly for fear of spending our entire savings accounts! Definitely visit this place if you’re ever in town… I mean city… err in Peekskill!

Quickly moving on, we migrated towards the water where we saw zombie cakes, a Freudian Ego service center, One Hundred Faces of Tom Delay (by Toby Barnes), and a car show that at times mirrored the forms of display especially present in this Project. We tried searching for Jessica Cannon’s work, but were unable to find it. Likewise the video work of Andrew Duggan and others on display near the water did not begin until dusk, and we were parading around during mid-afternoon, so we completely missed those works unfortunately.

We took the shuttle bus (mentioned earlier) back to the HVCCA where there was an opening for their newest show ‘reverence‘, which included many ‘heavy hitters’ as Kerry put it; but perhaps our favorite work was Thomas Hirschhorn’s permanent installation Laundrette (2001).

All in all an excellent day to see art in the public sphere. The weather was gorgeous, the beer was delicious, the drive was short but got us far enough outside of the city that we forgot where we were for the time being. Art operating as an avenue for escape. And a lovely town with lovely architecture and people. See you next year Peekskill.

Related websites:
HVCCA and Peekskill Project
HVCCA’s Peekskill page
Sarah Glidden’s entire Flickr photo set (91 images) of our trip

Aside: all of my images were taken on Sarah’s camera, some by me, most by her; I canNOT believe I forgot my own camera for this trip! Totally un-like me!

the weather was perfect, and as such the vicinity was fucking crawling with people. because of the abundance of people, inevitably there are a number of dealers and collectors abound; as such, galleries and i reckon even artists themselves, were attempting to sell some work right off the walls! strugglin’!!! i barely got to see any work but who cares, i was way more interested in hanging out with my Aussie Amazon sister-friends Alice and Martina.

After this show – the work has been blurred because it doesn’t really matter what we were looking at – we went for dinner on a Chelsea pier where Martina said she first ate six years ago and there were only 20 people there with a few staff. This time there were a couple hundred people and multiple food and drink kiosks. Then we went dancing until the wee hours. Of course I was late for work today.

They don’t know what they missed, because it was one of the best baseball games I have seen, ever.

Chris Duncan hit a first-pitch pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game 2-2 and began a four-run rally to put the Cardinals up 5-2! All four runs that inning were spectacularly played! And Duncan’s home run was a firecracker. The instant you heard the crack of the bat you knew it was out of the park!

But all the while, what was going through my head was how to organize my digital photos. Earlier in the day I was searching through google links for the means to better organize and tag photos. I use and am a very strong proponent of Picasa, a Google technology. But even Picasa has limitations. Such as the photos above-linked: do I put them in a ‘Friends’ folder for Josh and Ash; in a ‘Cardinals’ folder for the baseball game; or under the rubric ‘St. Louis Trip 2006′ for everything from this trip, and have to visually search for photos therein when I need to? Perhaps the latter makes the most sense now, but I’m not so sure of that even, especially if I wind up taking over 600 photos on this trip, which is looking very likely — how do I find that one photo of Ashley in the crowd of the baseball game?

So one of the first links I stumbled upon in my searches was this post over at the official Google Blog where they mention recently acquiring Neven Vision and their technology which is potentially capable of scanning images and extracting information for you, to heighten search functionality.

I thought, “That’s great” and found it ironic that Google was already pre-eminating this psychological concern among digital photo enthusiasts. But of course they were!! They’re Google!

But then I got wondering about Neven Vision, and who they actually are. My searches were quick and futile, and it shows how when Google acquires technology they really move fast:

last night I had dinner with my parents. The portions were big, too big even. a pile of leftovers was in order, i’ll probably attempt to finish that off tonight. After dinner I went out to visit my good mate John Pitts, his partner Octavia and John’s son Atticus. Atticus – Latin for ‘from Athens’ – is about the coolest kid I have ever met.

while I would find it very difficult to move back to a place like St. Louis, I love my people, my friends from this place, their attitudes, perspectives, outlooks, and most importantly their humor. It’s unique and genuine, and the world is a better place because of it.

Tomorrow I leave on a road trip to my hometown of St. Louis, MO. I’m driving back with Anne Simmons in her vehicle, and I don’t know when I’m returning to NYC, but likely during Labor Day weekend. I say to myself I don’t know how much time I’ll have to blog while on ‘vacation’, since I should be busy with family, friends and watching the St. Louis Cardinals, but it’s all work one way or another, and knowing how geekarific I am, I’ll manage to squeeze in a few blog posts.

Meanwhile, I figure it’s finally time to get this next piece online. I made this short video work over a month ago, but have just procrastinated on getting it online. No, it’s nothing super. It’s probably not even very good, but that’s if you judge it only within itself. It’s from a series of recent short video works – each exactly 30 seconds – of parts of my studio. I hold the camera with my hands, I record and grab exactly 30 seconds of footage. It is what it is, a cut of a space.

right-click ’save link as’ – AVI @ 2.8Mb

What I really like about Sarah’s work is the everyday-ness of it, the “I can relate” factor. Whether it’s about the pervasiveness of chewing gum or the incredulous amount of crap some of us carry around on our person, Sarah’s work is generally spot-on, and always a delight. Her blog is updated almost daily, so go have a gander.

note: Simo’s shirt to my left; Simo always had an excellent selection of button-up shirts!