From our friend Lew.
Archive for August, 2009
Memory Cassette
Published August 18, 2009 by Dallas
If anyone out there can explain the ins and outs of Memory Cassette/Memory Tapes to us. We’re all ears.
Tomi Ungerer
Published August 17, 2009 by Molly
It sounds like the beginning of a bildungsroman. Alsace-born illustrator Tomi Ungerer–a longtime friend of Maurice Sendak!–arrived in New York 53 years ago with a $60 in his pocket and a suitcase full of drawings. Thanks to the startling originality of his work, Ungerer became an instant success and released his first children’s book, “The Mellops Go Flying,” to reverent reviews in 1957. “Tomi influenced everyone,” Maurice Sendak has said. The illustrator went on to publish 80 books throughout the following decade.
But then Ungerer left America for good, and somehow his work drifted into obscurity (though the books still show up on websites selling for a mint.) Therefore it seems both long overdue and exquisitely fortuitous that Phaidon, the British publisher, is issuing new editions of Ungerer classics, including “Moon Man”, which Maurice Sendak described at the time of its original release as “easily one of the best picture books in recent years.”
Like Sendak, Ungerer has a mind for the absurd and the humorous, as well as an allergic reaction to sentimentality. He’s not afraid to dabble in darkness, and he takes the thoughts and fears of children quite seriously. His illustrations, too, are both timeless and totally unlike anything else. Here’s to the rebirth of a Sendak kindred spirit.
Sleigh Bells
Published August 17, 2009 by Molly
When you’re in elementary school it’s always hard to imagine that teachers are three-dimensional humans with outside lives. Now imagine if your teacher was Alexis Krauss, the vocalist for Brooklyn-based duo Sleigh Bells, pictured above right. Krauss, a fifth-grade public school teacher, met bandmate Derek Miller at a restaurant one evening during the summer, and in short time the two had decided to kickstart a musical project.
“A/B Machines” is a danceable tune with a beat that sounds like the footsteps of an approaching ogre. Krauss’s voice is the kind that you could listen to for a long time: versatile and flexible and distinct at the same time, lending itself especially well to riding the solid beats and sonic fuzziness of Sleigh Bells’ unusual pop songs. Thanks to Miller’s production and musical skills, the songs are sticky and perfect for heavy late-summer rotation. Sample the playlist at the band’s MySpace.
Monster Maker & Rail Rider: Swampdonkey
Published August 17, 2009 by Graham
Oakland artist Swampdonkey is best known for his charming illustrations of wooly glass-eyed beasts boasting snarling tusks and jagged teeth. But those unshakable images, tagged on the walls of abandoned buildings and scrawled across yellowed paperback pages represent only one side of Swampy’s creative output. He’s also an extremely talented photographer, documenting his thrilling train-hopping travels through frantically captured breathtaking vistas and sublime portraits of crusty characters.
Perhaps most remarkable about Swampdonkey’s multidisciplinary body of work is just how comfortably his photographic aesthetic fits in with his illustrated one. Flipping through the images on his Flickr page, you get the impression that, while we know little about the man behind the moniker, he has an intimate understanding of himself, depicting his world with whatever tools are handy but always leaving an unmistakable signature of passionate autonomy.
Bob Basset
Published August 17, 2009 by Molly
Roar your terrible roars and gnash your terrible teeth and roll your terrible eyes if you must, but be sure to do so in the proper garments. Ukrainian artist Bob Basset’s website, “Bob Basset’s World of You Can’t Even Imagine Things”, is a lively mishmash of English, Cyrillic, airship pirate steampunk masks, leather breastplates and leather shoes that resemble paws (complete with foot pads).
If you had endless funds and wanted to turn yourself into a walking monster, this would be a good place to stock the wardrobe. The wares are impeccably crafted and frightening– if David Lynch co-designed a clothing line with Hussein Chalayan and a medieval costume scholar, something like Basset’s work would be the result.
Living Paintings
Published August 14, 2009 by Dallas
Michelle from McSweeney’s passed this one along to us. Living Paintings is an organization which has spent the past 20 years perfecting the art of bringing pictures to life for partially sighted and blind people. The process itself is really quite astounding. The above still is from a near-complete Where The Wild Things Are interpretation which involves the voice talents of Ethan Hawke. Check it out in the coming weeks!
Unitxt’s Numerical Assault
Published August 14, 2009 by Graham
Did you know this is just a normal vending machine in Japan? They’re that fancy, now.
Music video for the Unitxt song “U_08-1,” directed by scientific sculptor Carsten Nicolai. Also, the numbers that comprise the lyrics have some kind of connection to the Golden Ratio. Any mathemagicians out there care to explain?
Jesse Spears’ So Many Walls
Published August 14, 2009 by Graham
When you think of Warped Tour, the first thing that comes to mind usually isn’t “rad art!” Well that’s all about to change, thanks to outta-this-world artist Jesse Spears. At each leg of this summer’s tour, Jesse’s been creating unique wall-sized canvases for the aesthetically inclined fans of NOFX and Less Than Jake to leave their mark upon, and documenting it all for the blog So Many Walls.
The result has been a plethora of peace signs, hearts, and anarchy symbols, to be sure– but the mere concept of creating D.I.Y. art at a punk show has got to be expanding life’s possibilities for the youth of Charlotte, North Carolina and Camden, New Jersey. Jesse is all about encouraging kids to participate and be creative for the pure enjoyment of it, ditching insecurities and judgements at the door. Don’t take my word for it– watch her philosophy in action in this clip (made by the Beautiful Losers crew) about a workshop in which Jesse helped high school students express themselves with paint, cardboard, and pom poms.
Adventures of Power
Published August 14, 2009 by Molly
Indie filmmaker Ari Gold wrote and directed Adventures of Power, a comedy about a New Mexico mine-worker named Power whose passion for drums and subpar musical abilities designate him the “town air-drummer”. Displaying his (questionable) skills at a bar owned by his aunt, Power is thrown into a whirlwind of adventure when his union-leader father calls a strike at the copper mine, leading Power to discover a subculture of air-drummers dedicated to battling an evil opponent.
If this all sounds weird, it’s for good reason: the movie is a love-it-or-despise-it deal, having gotten hot and cold reviews all over the place since premiering at Sundance and winning awards at various film festivals. The overall consensus is that it’s funny, charming and a wee bit Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Curious sidenote: “Adventures of Power” also stars Ari Gold’s longtime buddy and band-mate Adrian Grenier playing against his Entourage persona––thank god!–– as a real drummer with a hidden love for air drumming.
Subscribe to RSS