Monday, April 26, 2010

Kid Klimax

I was really looking forward to seeing Atlas Sound this Thursday, especially because their show at the The Bell House in Brooklyn was sold out this past February. However, Cox was touring in Europe and his flight was cancelled due to the millions of tons of ash from a volcano in Iceland that resulted in 63,000 European flights being cancelled. Thank you Eyjafjallajokull volcano!

sigh

The Kids Are Up Late Dreaming

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon came out with The Noise Paintings. Gordon used paint, lyrics, and personal catch phrases to "create a collision of the verbal and the visual, and the discovery of something quite other." The exhibit is being shown at the John McWhinnie Gallery in New York City through May 8th and pieces were sold as part of Rodarte's exhibition at Parisian boutique Colette.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

I Always Liked Strange Characters

I just stumbled across photos from a Harper's Bazaar spread in their October 2009 issue. This Tim Burton (my favorite) inspired spread was shot by Tim Walker (also amazing) and is just incredible in all its Gothic glory.






Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Land Of The Rose & Sunshine

Yesterday YACHT released their EP The Afterlife with remixes from The XX, Andrew WK, and DAT Politics, to name a few. I like the original song off their album See Mystery Lights on DFA Records but I really like the XX version too. Here's the video for "The Afterlife" and below is the XX remix. Which version do you like better?



The Afterlife (The XX Remix)-YACHT

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Alley Ways & Pay Phone Calls

I love love love these photographs taken by Michael Eastman. Eastman is a self-taught photographer who has been working for the past 30 years. He never uses artificial light and simply waits for long exposures so the room can fill up with natural light. These photos are so simplistic but the composition is amazing.




Friday, April 16, 2010

VILF

I'm so excited for Season 3 of True Blood on HBO, which premieres June 13th. Loving the new ads.



Thursday, April 15, 2010

I Would Name Her Rock'n'Roll

Tonight I'm seeing Best Coast perform and am super excited. I also just bought my ticket to see The Roots play in Cleveland this Saturday night! Life is good.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Stuck In A Mason Jar

Lately I've been listening to The Morning Bender's latest album Big Echo on Rough Trades Records. The album was co-produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and the new album has a light California breeze to it. There are some '50s vibes cruising through the tracks and the whole album is just easy on the ears. Big Echo is much more cohesive than their first album, Talking Through Tin Cans, which came out two years ago. I'm really digging the album and hopefully you guys will enjoy it too.




I Wanna Be Sedated

I just discovered Irish photographer Niall O'Brien. I love his work. His photographs really encapsulate punk culture and adolescent desire. The photographs seems so raw and are very captivating.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I Feel Better

The new video for Hot Chip's "I Feel Better" is hysterical and bizarre. Their new album One Life Stand had mixed reviews and while I do agree it's not their best album, there are some pretty good tracks on it.

Enjoy the video, love the band's periodic cameos that start around the 2:41 mark.




Sunday, April 11, 2010

Party Like It's 1920

Cheers to the good ol' days of prohibition, ha ha. Nothing like flappers running wild, some Charleston dancing, and jamming out to Duke Ellington.




Saturday, April 10, 2010

Sweet Transvestite

Last night I went to the midnight screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Apollo Theatre. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The audience was decked out in fantastic costumes, the Cleveland cast was there and looked fabulous, and my friends and I dressed in drag. Seeing the cult classic at midnight has been on my to-do list and I think everyone should experience it once. However, I think I do prefer watching the movie without all the noise and extraneous commentary from the audience. It was Operahausen, a new word I've created for "I'm really glad I went but I didn't love it".

Charley became Charlotte
Sam became Samantha


Drown

I recently finished the book Drown by Junot Diaz. Diaz's collection of short stories talk about adjusting to life from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey, abandonment, and sexual desire. I don't think it's as good as his other book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but it was still an enjoyable read. Diaz is known as being a Dominican-American writer and teachers creative writing at MIT. I heard him speak when he came to Oberlin in the fall and I remember this joke he made when he was addressing the fact that he is known as a Dominican-American writer. He said something along the lines of the fact that his students are always asking him "where did you get your inspiration from/who is your favorite Dominican/Hispanic author?" Diaz replied "well who is your favorite white author?" I thought that was really amusing and clever.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Creepy or Genius?

Lately photographer Terry Richardson has been in the press after some accusations arose from models involving Terry's sexual misconduct on shoots. His photographs are quite risque so I probably would believe it. His website has a section where one can apply to be photographed by Terry himself, the catch is you have to be willing to be nude... His photographs have been known to be provocative, controversial, and even demeaning to women. However, photography is an art and I really do believe that Terry is a creative photographer. Richardson is clearly not afraid of defying social norms in fashion and photography. Terry's creativeness and ability to push boundaries is very important in the art world and despite all the negative light being shed on him now, I still think some of his work is great.

There's a duality to Richardson's work, his high profile celebrity portraits and fashion photography, and then his side projects, a little, I mean a lot, more raunchy and lewd photographs. Yes, his photographs can be a little perverted, yes he looks like a creep, and he does have a reputation for sleeping around with the girls he photographs. I'm not making a character judgement, I'm not defending his actions, and being a woman I don't feel that it's wrong to still like his photography and think that he is creative. We'll have to stay tuned to see what happens to Mr. Richardson.




Thursday, April 8, 2010

R.I.P. Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain was found in his Lake Washington home on this day, April 8th, after committing suicide on April 5th, 1994. He was truly truly talented and Nirvana really did make music history. He was sexy, gifted, and made great music.



Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Paris