Thursday, May 24, 2007
Floating Canvases
"My intention is to create work that asks questions about the implications of urban sprawl and its impact on the environment. I am interested in creating psychological narratives set in closed systems that express the behavior of and the interaction between humans and animals. The dystopian model creates a dynamic playing field where I can experiment with these ideas and forms."
The stunning, isometrically-inclined work of Josh Keyes.
"My intention is to create work that asks questions about the implications of urban sprawl and its impact on the environment. I am interested in creating psychological narratives set in closed systems that express the behavior of and the interaction between humans and animals. The dystopian model creates a dynamic playing field where I can experiment with these ideas and forms."
The stunning, isometrically-inclined work of Josh Keyes.
Labels: Art, Edge of Chaos
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
A Field Guide to Military Urbanism
A current favourite online visit, Bryan Finoki's Subtopia is a discourse on military urbanism, the architecture of occupation and oppression, and the overarching question of why we, as humans, have it in our nature to build walls between ourselves.
To give you an idea of the subject matter, a recent entry features Jonathan Olley's stark, haunting photos of Northern Ireland's police stations, barracks and watchtowers; structures from a troubled past that are quickly disappearing to progress; to be too readily forgotten rather than stand as a reminder/memorial of how very wrong the world can sometimes turn.
Finoki writes:
"While [these] photos are evidence of a distinctly terrorized Irish landscape the more frightening truth about them for me is that they could almost be, in so many regards, the filmic traces of any number of places around the world today.
If we were just to focus on the brutish walls and violent features of defensive accouterment, it wouldn't be that inconceivable to mistake N. Ireland for, say, parts of Jerusalem or Gaza, or even Johannesburg, maybe downtown Manilla for that matter - possibly a neighborhood in central Egypt or Lebanon; conflicted places which are facing some of their own most cruel histories with political walls and entangled battle urbanism still today."
A current favourite online visit, Bryan Finoki's Subtopia is a discourse on military urbanism, the architecture of occupation and oppression, and the overarching question of why we, as humans, have it in our nature to build walls between ourselves.
To give you an idea of the subject matter, a recent entry features Jonathan Olley's stark, haunting photos of Northern Ireland's police stations, barracks and watchtowers; structures from a troubled past that are quickly disappearing to progress; to be too readily forgotten rather than stand as a reminder/memorial of how very wrong the world can sometimes turn.
Finoki writes:
"While [these] photos are evidence of a distinctly terrorized Irish landscape the more frightening truth about them for me is that they could almost be, in so many regards, the filmic traces of any number of places around the world today.
If we were just to focus on the brutish walls and violent features of defensive accouterment, it wouldn't be that inconceivable to mistake N. Ireland for, say, parts of Jerusalem or Gaza, or even Johannesburg, maybe downtown Manilla for that matter - possibly a neighborhood in central Egypt or Lebanon; conflicted places which are facing some of their own most cruel histories with political walls and entangled battle urbanism still today."
Labels: Architecture, Photography, World at Large
Monday, May 21, 2007
Talkin' 'Bout The Old Style Too
Below is a link to the video of Dawn Landes’ beautiful bluegrass cover of Peter Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks.” Dawn recorded the song with WST (We Sorta Tried) Bluegrass Band from Austin, TX. Kind of ironic as apparently, the youngest “folk” in WST is 67.
More on Dawn Landes: She hails from Kentucky but she lives in NY, performing and recording with the musicians from Hem and The Earlies. She’s supported José Gonzalez, Suzanne Vega, Shannon Wright, Feist, Le Tigre and Andrew Bird and she has worked as a sound engineer with the likes of Philip Glass, Ryan Adams and Joseph Arthur.
Watch Dawn Landes with WST Bluegrass Band covering “Young Folks” on YouTube.
Here’s the mp3.
Below is a link to the video of Dawn Landes’ beautiful bluegrass cover of Peter Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks.” Dawn recorded the song with WST (We Sorta Tried) Bluegrass Band from Austin, TX. Kind of ironic as apparently, the youngest “folk” in WST is 67.
More on Dawn Landes: She hails from Kentucky but she lives in NY, performing and recording with the musicians from Hem and The Earlies. She’s supported José Gonzalez, Suzanne Vega, Shannon Wright, Feist, Le Tigre and Andrew Bird and she has worked as a sound engineer with the likes of Philip Glass, Ryan Adams and Joseph Arthur.
Watch Dawn Landes with WST Bluegrass Band covering “Young Folks” on YouTube.
Here’s the mp3.
Labels: Music, The Payola Chronicles
Friday, May 18, 2007
Great Counterculture Logos - Part 8
My friend West keenly observes that it is a rare case to see a street kid downtown that doesn't bare some form of the Misfits skull, which is how the logo came to be the 8th addition in our ongoing series Great Counterculture Logos. As for its own origins, the image was adapted by Glenn Danzig from The Crimson Ghost, a 1946 movie serial about a cloaked villain's attempts to obtain a counter atomic device known as Cyclotrode X.
My friend West keenly observes that it is a rare case to see a street kid downtown that doesn't bare some form of the Misfits skull, which is how the logo came to be the 8th addition in our ongoing series Great Counterculture Logos. As for its own origins, the image was adapted by Glenn Danzig from The Crimson Ghost, a 1946 movie serial about a cloaked villain's attempts to obtain a counter atomic device known as Cyclotrode X.
Labels: Design, Great Counterculture Logos
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday Night at the Commodore
It is still early. The shades at the Commodore have been drawn to hide out the May late evening light. The opening band, Photo Atlas, pours its heart out on stage to a dozen or so kids swaying back and forth on the dance floor while others bide their time sipping cocktails in the shadows of the surrounding booths. It is the first night of the tour. Headliners, the Bravery have a new album coming out in a week's time, so in the interrim it is all about gaining momentum and honing one's chops. Vancouver serves as a testing ground; a litmus paper. There are bigger, brighter times ahead for these bands. As Photo Atlas' singer, Alan Andrews would tell me later on in the evening, "I can't wait to get to New York!"
Which is right fair. This is a solid lineup which will no doubt evolve even more in the weeks to come. The second act, Test Your Reflex, falls within the expected nu-rock dance band roll out but puts on a decent show in the process, pushing their recently released debut The Burning Hour, and seeming sincerely grateful to be on stage and a part of it all. By the time the Bravery comes on, the club has filled up and the crowd seems resolved on making the most of a Monday night. While the set remains thickly padded with tracks from their first album, there are new efforts, such as the first song off the album, Believe, that play out well and seem to promise a far more interesting sophomore effort than their first single "Time Won't Let Me Go" might suggest. Overall, they are tight as hell, and for the same reasons that the music critics love to tear them apart -- for writing easy to like, formulaic dance rock -- their set is instantly accessible and ceases to lag through to the encore.
With the final chords carpeting my inner ear, we step back out onto Granville Street. It has been a hell of a week, one that played out at both ends of life's extremes; of death and new life and the stirrings of greater challenges on the horizon. I had found myself getting caught up in all of this throughout the course of the evening; the music pulling me into the moment, reminding me inevitably that I am here and that nothing should ever be for granted.
On the way home I find a king of diamonds playing card on the sidewalk. I throw it off the Cambie Bridge and watch it slowly twirl down into the dark abyss of the waters below until it is swallowed completely.
For James Lee.
It is still early. The shades at the Commodore have been drawn to hide out the May late evening light. The opening band, Photo Atlas, pours its heart out on stage to a dozen or so kids swaying back and forth on the dance floor while others bide their time sipping cocktails in the shadows of the surrounding booths. It is the first night of the tour. Headliners, the Bravery have a new album coming out in a week's time, so in the interrim it is all about gaining momentum and honing one's chops. Vancouver serves as a testing ground; a litmus paper. There are bigger, brighter times ahead for these bands. As Photo Atlas' singer, Alan Andrews would tell me later on in the evening, "I can't wait to get to New York!"
Which is right fair. This is a solid lineup which will no doubt evolve even more in the weeks to come. The second act, Test Your Reflex, falls within the expected nu-rock dance band roll out but puts on a decent show in the process, pushing their recently released debut The Burning Hour, and seeming sincerely grateful to be on stage and a part of it all. By the time the Bravery comes on, the club has filled up and the crowd seems resolved on making the most of a Monday night. While the set remains thickly padded with tracks from their first album, there are new efforts, such as the first song off the album, Believe, that play out well and seem to promise a far more interesting sophomore effort than their first single "Time Won't Let Me Go" might suggest. Overall, they are tight as hell, and for the same reasons that the music critics love to tear them apart -- for writing easy to like, formulaic dance rock -- their set is instantly accessible and ceases to lag through to the encore.
With the final chords carpeting my inner ear, we step back out onto Granville Street. It has been a hell of a week, one that played out at both ends of life's extremes; of death and new life and the stirrings of greater challenges on the horizon. I had found myself getting caught up in all of this throughout the course of the evening; the music pulling me into the moment, reminding me inevitably that I am here and that nothing should ever be for granted.
On the way home I find a king of diamonds playing card on the sidewalk. I throw it off the Cambie Bridge and watch it slowly twirl down into the dark abyss of the waters below until it is swallowed completely.
For James Lee.
Labels: Music, The Payola Chronicles
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
"Art I Pass By" Gets Geotagged
One of graffiti's most dependable traits is its temporal nature. Disgruntled property owners will inevitably get around to hiring someone to rid their walls of what is, from their perspective, pure vandalism and defacement of property. That is partly why I started the "Art I Pass By On My Way To Work" series in the first place, to capture the moment however fleeting and provide the work with a more permanent exhibit.
Anyway, the collection finally has a Flickr Set which I will continue to add to and – this is cool – has been Geotagged as further record of where these pieces can be found – assuming, of course, that they still exist.
One of graffiti's most dependable traits is its temporal nature. Disgruntled property owners will inevitably get around to hiring someone to rid their walls of what is, from their perspective, pure vandalism and defacement of property. That is partly why I started the "Art I Pass By On My Way To Work" series in the first place, to capture the moment however fleeting and provide the work with a more permanent exhibit.
Anyway, the collection finally has a Flickr Set which I will continue to add to and – this is cool – has been Geotagged as further record of where these pieces can be found – assuming, of course, that they still exist.
Labels: Art-I-Pass-By
Monday, May 07, 2007
The Bravery and The Photo Atlas @ the Commodore, Monday May 14th
New York rockers, The Bravery are going to be at the Commodore in Vancouver this coming Monday toting their yet-to-be-released sophomore effort, The Sun and the Moon (in stores May 22nd). Chances are if you were deep into the "nu-rock" wave that washed through a couple of years back with the Icarus-like rise of Franz Ferdinand, The Stills and The Killers, then you may have picked up The Bravery's self-titled first album in the process. It was a listenable collection of tracks, with high points arising typically when the song sounded like someone else's, but good for padding out that skinny tie playlist for that special hipster sweetheart nonetheless.
More interesting, in my opinion, is the opening band in next Monday's lineup: The Photo Atlas. At this point I know little more than what is offered on their mySpace site and the 30 second sound bites off iTunes but I like what I've heard so far. Their sound is fresh, angst-laced dance-rock with roots which, to their credit, seem to dip into the coffers of Fugazi and Gang of Four. I can only hope that the energy that boils over their album No, Not Me, Never is fully channelled into their live performance.
Tickets for the show can be had at Ticketmaster.
New York rockers, The Bravery are going to be at the Commodore in Vancouver this coming Monday toting their yet-to-be-released sophomore effort, The Sun and the Moon (in stores May 22nd). Chances are if you were deep into the "nu-rock" wave that washed through a couple of years back with the Icarus-like rise of Franz Ferdinand, The Stills and The Killers, then you may have picked up The Bravery's self-titled first album in the process. It was a listenable collection of tracks, with high points arising typically when the song sounded like someone else's, but good for padding out that skinny tie playlist for that special hipster sweetheart nonetheless.
More interesting, in my opinion, is the opening band in next Monday's lineup: The Photo Atlas. At this point I know little more than what is offered on their mySpace site and the 30 second sound bites off iTunes but I like what I've heard so far. Their sound is fresh, angst-laced dance-rock with roots which, to their credit, seem to dip into the coffers of Fugazi and Gang of Four. I can only hope that the energy that boils over their album No, Not Me, Never is fully channelled into their live performance.
Tickets for the show can be had at Ticketmaster.
Labels: Music, The Payola Chronicles
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Art I Pass By On My Way To Work - #5
Thursday, May 03, 2007
An Intolerable Beauty
Chris Jordan's photographic essays seem to always be preoccupied with uncovering beauty in the spoils of our society. Discarded circuit boards take on a patchwork air, while a rack of waterlogged dresses hints at a rainbow in the otherwise twisted wake of a post-Katrina New Orleans. In his series Running the Numbers, he uses statistics as his subject, producing compelling large scale photographic collages that serve as visual representations of societal numbers that are often too collosally abstract to even try to comprehend.
As Jordan states: "I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity."
Chris Jordan's photographic essays seem to always be preoccupied with uncovering beauty in the spoils of our society. Discarded circuit boards take on a patchwork air, while a rack of waterlogged dresses hints at a rainbow in the otherwise twisted wake of a post-Katrina New Orleans. In his series Running the Numbers, he uses statistics as his subject, producing compelling large scale photographic collages that serve as visual representations of societal numbers that are often too collosally abstract to even try to comprehend.
As Jordan states: "I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity."
Labels: Art, Disasters, Edge of Chaos, Photography
