little red fish little fish red

dran at p.o.w. // food. :)

2010-11-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

via art of the state (where there are a TON more fantastic images from this show).

french street artist dran is featured in the new pictures on walls shop show, "marks and stencils." let's just say that i keep coming back to this website for all things amazing, and when i get to london, one of my first stops is going to be p.o.w.

dran is great. his attention to detail is immaculate, and his sense of humor and wit is sharp as a knife. art of the state shows a few pieces in which he repurposed cardboard boxes and played with their printed labels and warnings. i think this "marks and stencils" show would be well worth the stop.

and just for the heckuvit, my aunt karen's delicious vegetable pan at thanksgiving. potatoes, onions, zucchini, carrots, garlic, and so on. thanksgiving dinner this year was spectacular as usual -- bigger than usual, even. but who EVER complains about a thanksgiving meal that is MORE grandiose than last?

...another thing i like? avoiding the shopping hoards on black friday. ! hooray.

beaton in the sixties // you've got mail // thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

i'm going to expound on yet another bookstore find: beaton in the sixties (link to amazon) with introduction by hugo vickers (knopf, 2004). i've been on a rad mid-century art kick lately. and woe is me, i had never really considered cecil beaton worth reading about until he was mentioned -- very briefly -- in the book pop: the genius of andy warhol by tony scherman and david dalton (my entry here). the mention? one of warhol's factoryites kicked beaton out of one of their parties because she didn't recognize him. ha!

beaton is one of those names i've always heard, but never really learned much about. he was an extremely prolific photographer, artist, and designer, and he wrote the greatest diaries! he did the most spectacular portraits of socialites, celebrities, an royalty at the time. one of my favorites is a photograph of pablo picasso with some of his work in 1965. like most artists, his personality is that of someone who wanted so much to become famous. those people are sometimes the most fun, because their ambitions are so large.

and, for the girl in me...

enough said. every year i watch this at some point. i've finally gotten my hands on my own copy. maybe what makes it so brilliant is that it's sleepless in seattle, but a few years later, with AOL. not that AOL actually exists like it did then, with dial-up and the whole shebang. there's something nostalgic about it -- nostalgia! for the internet! -- something about that short wait to get online, to see if the mailbox opens, to see if anyone wants to AIM. ;) not to mention it's the best rom-com duo in the world, plus their wonderful director, nora ephron. can i say enough good things about nora ephron? no. and parker posey! and dave chappelle! and greg kinnear!

this movie is corny. but it's hilarious. and most of all, it's sentimental EXACTLY the way i want it to be sentimental. this is the only movie of its kind where i've ever really really REALLY wanted to be the protagonist. i work in a bookstore; maybe twelve years after this movie was released, i'm unwittingly trying to become kathleen kelly. this is the movie that made me want to go to new york city for the first time; new york is magical for me in this movie. i don't care; it's because i was 14 years old when i first saw it and in you've got mail, love is perfect, and life is magical. and vice versa.

it might be just another silly rom-com to most people. but this is the singular movie that on the worst day of my life, could make me smile -- through the entire thing.

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happy thanksgiving! full of family and friends, and a drive to southern wisconsin this year. oh, the food. you bet i will have plenty to report on the food. :)

french press coffee // great british editorial // mr.frivolous

2010-11-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

i feel that to start the day off right, a a photo of my cup of coffee this morning is in order. and not just any cup of coffee. for those who have never tried coffee from a french press, you don't know what you're missing. i worked at a coffee shop for two years, and live above one now that my sister owns. i'll always be a coffee freak, i think. while having a full-service coffee house practically in my living room usually leads to more decadent beverage choices such as my typical 20oz. triple soy extra-hot toffee nut latte (...), there is a point where a good, fresh cup of made-at-home coffee is just the way to go.

i do not own a coffeemaker, however. my normal french press is a bright blue plastic thing that's something of a modern take on the classic, although i do have the minature copper one from starbucks, pictured above next to my captain planet vhs tape. :)

so, that's the part of the post where i rediscover something i have loved.

onto great british editorial:

i stumbled across this book at work. yes, the bookstore was a total treasure trove a couple of weeks ago! i left one night with a bag that hurt my shoulder to carry, and a ten-inch stack in my arms. way to go! amongst others, i found written on the city by albin and kamler [a collection of graffiti messages from around the world], jeremyville sessions [a collection of jeremyville work and collaborations], news by peripheriques architects [a compendium of their work in a splendid street-savvy little catalog], and 100 years of magazine covers by steve taylor [it is what it is]. a couple of these i'm going to elaborate on later, but as for great british editorial...

i've only just become really fascinated with graphic design. don't ask me why; i know i've studied fine art and my degree is in art history. i've studied graphic design work historically, but i've never practiced it, and in school it was always kept separate from "fine art." it was "commercial art." and pff, no. i was going to be a fine artist if anything at all, so don't give me that graphic design crap.

well. i was missing out. great british editorial is pretty much what it sounds like. it's a fat book that showcases amazing british layouts, mostly of magazines. spectacular photographs, amazing work -- some of which i've seen myself when i flipped through the magazines myself [how refreshing!] -- it's so well done. published by indexbook, it includes work from FL@SS, hat-trick, EI8HT magazine, AD architectural magazine and more. SO GREAT. so fun. inspiring, really. the talent is immense. and while looking through magazines for me has become such a treat due to their design, having the best of the best of british design grouped together in one cardboard-coated volume is basically awesome.

great british editorial on amazon.com

and lastly.

mr.frivolous. "don't draw at 1:07am."

via mr.frivolous

aaand finally. this i stumbled across on facebook today, of all places. one of those little ads that pops up on the right side of the site. yes, i clicked on it! yes, i think it's cool! so... to share. mr.frivolous, a london artist who uses mostly felt-tip markers and does some pretty spot-on portraits of people you may recognize.. his work has a spontaneous, almost anxious feel to it that i like. check it out; it's pretty cool to see what markers can do on paper. and he also has a blog, frivolously tasty.

a bit of catch-up.

2010-11-10T18:58:00.000-08:00

so, first, i should start by admitting that i've been a total SLACKER in the blog department. but -- i'll at least attempt to amend that situation with a couple of totally killer things i've stumbled across recently. all worth a glance. some of which i'm excited to visit in person over the next few months!

first, and maybe most exciting to me: the underbelly project. the site is apparently not totally up and running yet, but to sate our street art appetite (or mine, at least!) there are a few blogs that show images of the work. what is it? some pretty well-known street artists ("rockstars," even, if you like that term. i don't, but just to clarify) have done up some fantaaastic walls of a disused train station in new york city. i don't personally identify the subway system in new york with its abandoned stations -- the ones in london have taken on something of a cult status over the years. but the underbelly project has enlisted some talented folks to paint an underground street art gallery. it's not open all the time, and hosts pieces most of us will never see. but artists like roa, and the london police are all in there -- i've raved about these two before here, and here -- doing up the place, in some cases in collaboration with others, to make some really astounding work that's mostly hidden.

some amazing photographs via lunapark on flickr here.

that's one thing i would kill to see.
but onto another...

via contemporist

this is probably the greatest small home i've seen in a long time. it's so simple. fluid, open, absolutely made of windows. that's what i like. i like windows. lots and lots of them! everywhere! you get the idea. toronto-based GH3 designed this house for an obviously amazing landscape. i remember rock like that when i was "survival camping" in ontario several years ago -- the way that the house looks like its jutting out of the stone is so awesome. not to mention it's the minimal hyper-modern style that i lalalove. i want to spend MY weekends here. clear out!

one of the galleries on my list to check out in london, in the spring? concrete hermit. currently showing kid acne, i can't wait to see what's on when i'm there in 2011. alternative contemporary art space -- and shop!! woo!! looks like my kind of place.

and last but DEFINITELY not least: POP: the genius of andy warhol by tony scherman and david dalton. if i had to recommend one book that i've read this year, it would be this one. hands down. if you have even the most vague, fleeting interest in andy warhol, not to mention a dying urge to know absolutely everything about him (ahem, me?) this book is absolutely worth the read. because, well, it's highly readable. it's a wild ride. he was an outrageous person who did outrageous things and surrounded himself with outrageous people. one might argue that those people were what made him outrageous to begin with. there are a lot of other names to swallow in andy's world -- he surrounded himself with a huge slew of people. but all of these characters are worth knowing.

the book isn't a comprehensive b-to-d bio. it's the 1960s; it's the decade that andy warhol established himself as possibly the most famous and prolific artist in the world. at least of the 20th century. the fact that one can find warhol's images or words stamped on anything from jeans and record album covers to drink coasters and necklaces is sort of self-explanatory. it's basically warhol's dream. this book is a joy. it's entertaining -- how can his life not be entertaining? it examines his lifestyle and how it related to his work. even though i personally wouldn't mind, it doesn't go into a bunch of technical this-means-that and that-is-like-that-because sort of art historical jargon. if anything, it dispels the notion the warhol's works "mean" much of anything at all. it's objective. and it's colorful without being gaudy.

anyway. READ IT. read it. readittttt. (paperback is out 11/23/2010!)

marcio kogan i love you.

2010-10-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

via contemporist

ahh, another marcio kogan (the website is rad) house. again with the love. just had to share. i've got a burgeoning love for these contemporary brazilian architects.

love of books and coffee.

2010-10-09T07:24:00.001-07:00

via contemporist

two of my loves come together in one place: books and coffee. this is the new interior of d'espresso's madison avenue location in nyc by nema workshop. they took the idea of a library and turned it on its side. at first i had a shot of vertigo or something like it, but the more i looked at it, the more i wanted not only to go there and get some coffee, but feel purposely disoriented. nothing like being in a sideways room to wake you up in the morning! who needs caffeine? next time i'm in nyc, i'd like to scope this place out.

london house extensions.

2010-09-17T19:57:00.001-07:00

via contemporist

this is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that i have stumbled across a wickedly cool addition to the back of a london home. you know, the georgian, or in this case edwardian townhouses in london that are usually two or three stories high with a reasonable number of bedrooms, connected to others in rows of townhouses that all look relatively the same. they have amazingly quaint little back yard spaces, usually, which i find the grey brick really complements (i've studied plenty of these houses from railroad tracks -- let me tell you!).

what i love is when, in these conservation areas (meaning things need to be maintained or usually built to look like they did during the time period they were established in the first place -- so in this case, all the houses -- i'm assuming at street view -- need to look edwardian) when the back yard is the place for an extra modern twist. this is an addition, not even just a remodel in the kitchen or something. it's by paul mcaneary architects (when you go to the page, this addition is the first image you see!), and is located in hammersmith, london. the light is splendid, and i love the way it really reaches out into the back garden space, bringing nature up close and personal with the room.

it's perfectly quaint and gorgeous. and not just because it's in england! ;)

afar magazine.

2010-09-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

i just discovered afar magazine, a relatively new magazine (premier issue pictured above) by founders greg sullivan and joe diaz. my dad had the first anniversary (september/october 2010) copy that he let me peruse, and let's just say it tapped into my wanderlust a little. i really love how the concept is to travel "experientially." is that even a word? ;)

there really is something to that idea -- it's so easy to travel very far from home and feel altogether as if you've only driven down the street. the same restaurants pock the corners, the same cars zoom past on the roads. english pervades almost every metropolitan area.

i'll be the first to admit that in my little bit of traveling -- mostly around the states and a couple times to western europe -- i've not gotten much out of the "americanized" western world. the closest i got was a trip to greece. athens was one thing. that was the first time i ever felt like i might be getting out of my element. the point is, that's just the tip of the iceberg. there is sooo much more to see, but it's so easy to get stuck on the well-beaten path. traveling is hard work. it's tempting to want to stick to the tried-and-true.

what i like about afar is that it's travel stories with a twist. the september/october issue includes articles on nigeria's film industry (nollywood!), and istanbul through the architectural lens of royal architect sinan.

it's good stuff. like i said -- wanderlust. :)

graffiti as residential ornament.

2010-08-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

via contemporist

this house is alright -- picture below. i like it. i don't love it on the whole. but that being said, i do love that they incorporated graffiti into the exterior design. understandably, they're trying to make an artistic statement. even the name of the house is the "open air sculpture house" by marek rytych architekt in poland. it's a pretty luxurious modern space, chock full -- i'm sure -- of a pretty extensive art collection. but this doesn't matter.

what does matter is the graffiti, which is the only reason i thought this house was really worth posting about. i love that there's a "framed" section for graffiti on the outside, complete with lights. so it doesn't look like some kid with a spraycan came and just did whatever the hell he felt like -- it has a place, and it's lit like a framed piece of art in any other display -- except this is the back yard or something. i would totally love a designated place for graffiti on my house -- something that works with the design, looks like an outdoor artwork. because it is. it's great! smart thinking.

door county.

2010-08-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

occasionally i just need to get the hell out of dodge. today was one of those days. it was (still is) gorgeous outside, and sitting in my apartment all day didn't sound too fantastic.

i've been cooped up without a car lately, since about three weeks ago i got into a pretty lame car accident. the saab was rear-ended and the back shoved in nicely, and it is no longer drivable. so i've been hitching rides with whoever is willing to give one, and also riding my bike around a lot. but today i just needed to get out-out... not just ten miles to the other side of appleton.

i decided to take my camera with me, northeast. it was either door county, or up north along the lakeshore -- but door county won out. not a huge surprise. i love it up there. and on fantastically sunny late-august fridays, it's particularly welcoming.

on my way up to green bay, i passed a convoy of corvettes -- the fox valley corvette club was clearly out for a ride. there had to have been at least twenty, if not closer to thirty ... i was a little bit disappointed there weren't any oldies in with the mix. and i don't even like corvettes.

up in door county itself, it took me one attempt at a photo at cave point county park (the free alternative to whitefish bay state park, although i'm going to check that out someday) to realize the camera battery was all but dead. so there went that idea (the photo above was taken with my mobile phone).

lake michigan is really something, especially on days like this when there's a wind. if it smelled like salt in the air, we might as well have been on the ocean; i was moved enough by this feeling of having gone really, really far to get to this place that i sat down on the edge of a bluff and sun-soaked for a minute, imagining that i was in big sur or somewhere. it's really hard to imagine the smell of salt, though, when all you can smell is fish and lake.

anyway. it was gorgeous. drove up the eastern side of the peninsula, meandering around country roads and trying to avoid hitting the numerous cyclists out enjoying the day.

the northernmost point i reached was ellison bay, where i tried my luck at another county park, only to find that it ended in a gravel road and woods -- which would have been wonderful if only i had brought some decent walking-in-the-woods sort of shoes. on my drive back down the road, though, i happened upon a brand new contemporary home and was architecturally enamored. lots of modular shapes and glass -- something straight out of dwell magazine, and not the typical sort of home up in door county at all. i'm still kind of dribbly about it.

struck gold at an ellison bay used bookshop called wm. caxton ltd. which apparently is also a local publisher. i found a damien hirst book for $25, which was a very good deal -- unfortunately the binding is almost ready to totally give, but this chick does not care. i was super pumped to find that book, and the bookstore -- it was amazing. all of the sections were huge, the shelves suuuuper high, and wayyyy too much material to casually browse in less than a few hours.

made my way back down the busier west side of the peninsula and returned home around 2pm. a short day trip, but well worth it. day trips are definitely ace.

trichterfeld bei dontrien, von leuchtkugeln erhellt

2010-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

i've had a re-discovery. i first saw this print at uw madison's chazen art museum. madison has a spectacular collection of 20th century german and austrian prints, and since i took a couple of 20th century art courses there under a professor who's written books on max beckmann--a prominent german expressionist--i was bound to see these prints at some point.

this particular one was laid out on the table in the chazen's print room, along with some other ones that i barely remember. there was a striking emil nolde, and a paul klee. but more than those, even though i studied them intensely, and even wrote a paper on the klee... the otto dix print, trichterfelt bei dontrien, von leuchtkugeln erhellt (craterfield near dontrien, lit up by flares), 1924, part of the der krieg (war) cycle has stuck with me.

i'm not sure what it is about seeing a piece of art in person. even if it is just a print. there's something about the texture of the paper, the ink, the penciled-in numbered edition, and signature in the corner. it's one-of-a-kind, even in a cycle that may have printed fifty or a hundred of the same image. someone took a block or a stone and they pressed it down on that paper and made an image out of a scratched surface, ink, and paper. these simple things together, done well, can bring a hand to one's heart.

it's nearly abstract. it's so simple, and yet the emotional and even physical implications of a crater field in world war I france are massive. it could be the surface of the moon; one might even guess that it is if it wasn't within the context of the rest of the cycle. it stands out to me, also, because it differs greatly from the rest of the works into the series. the national gallery of australia has a good article on this series, along with some other images from it.

i'm not sure why it has stuck with me so much more than other prints from this era. i have a fondness for german expressionist prints and woodcuts, so it's no surprise that one would remain engrained over time. it must be the emotion of such a simple, seemingly empty image.

dix is not necessarily my favorite german expressionist. his work is amazing. but it is also disconcerting. it's that disturbance factor that makes me love it and loathe it simultaneously. his art came from a deep, dark place, rooted in the misery of death and war in early 20th century europe. that, of course, is what makes it as fascinating as it is.

below, just because it's arguably his most famous painting, and because it's awesome (and yet, in its own way, still disturbing) dix's portrait of the journalist sylvia von harden, 1926:

ode to saab. "the black peril" r.i.p. 1990-2010.

2010-08-10T13:49:00.001-07:00

i thought the cover for this 1985 saab spg was cool, even though mine is/was a 1990. a sad thing occurred yesterday. i was rear-ended on my typical drive to work. luckily no one was injured, but my car bore the brunt of most of the damage, getting the rear passenger side shoved in quite badly. some other odd damage was done as a result, but i'll try not to dwell on it. it is a loss.

i know it sounds weirdly sentimental to want to pay tribute to a car, but i. love. this. car. i found it online on one of those big auto sale websites, through a dealership in new york state. i paid an extra $1000 to have it shipped to me on one of those snazzy car-carrier trucks, and picked it up at 5:30am one morning in a piggly wiggly parking lot. crazy, yes. but i don't think i have ever been happier to be driving a car.

the saab 900 spg is seriously my dream car. it was. it still is wayyy high on my list of coolest cars ever made. it is the second 900 i've owned -- the first was a 1985 super basic, cream-colored 900. the 1990 spg was a serious upgrade -- sunroof, turbo, cruise control, power locks, spoiler, leather interior... it was just a nicer car, period. and it really didn't give me too much trouble, considering how old it was, and i had no service records on it whatsoever.

i've had it for a little shy of 4 years. after a ford f-150 pulled out in front of me mid-winter last year and i banged up the front end, things started going gradually downhill. the clutch went out, the wiring is bad (infamous saab electrical mysteries), the engine probably needed some serious work. but i didn't care! it got me from a to b -- and in style! serious style. i felt like queen of the road in that thing, and i don't care what anyone else thinks.

saabs are awesome because:

1. their shape is bizarre. i love how weird they look. they're like nothing else out there.

2. the ignition is in the center console! so every time you drive, it's like starting up a go-kart. the only part where this becomes an issue is if you're drinking a latte and spill it in between the seats.. if it gets in the ignition, you're fucked.

3. the turbos are zippy. it feels like you're driving tank, but they are still fast. a saab can be both.

4. the body kit and hubs on the spg are hot.

5. they're made in SWEDEN! hello!!

saabs -- when they were owned by saab, made by saab and not general motors (who cares about new saabs? not me.) -- are the coolest cars out there. i have a serious european auto bias, okay, i'll cop to that. and it might be that because all i've ever driven were saabs, i'm hopelessly in favor of them. but they really are the coolest-looking cars on the road.

the photos below are of a diagram of the 1985 spg body kit (what makes it awesome), and the final photo is of my own car, post-trauma, sitting in the towing storage lot. you can't see it behind mine, but there was a brand new saab that had a front end looking three times as bad as mine and full of mud. i think there may have been some high speed and a ditch involved there. :(

anyway. this is an ode to the coolest cars ever made. r.i.p. saabie.

dream houses.

2010-08-04T16:59:00.001-07:00

OH MY GOD. DO YOU SEE THAT KITCHEN!?? cory buckner architects. i am being absolutely serious when i say that if i owned a 1950s tract house, and i had a million dollars, i would hire these people to do it the f--- up! i found the korman residence on contemporist, but then i went to the website and looked at all their other projects -- mostly the VERY 50s-in-tact home remodels, and i'm telling you, it is impossible to determine if it's a house remodel that i want (for my nonexistent house), or if i should just build a time machine and go back to 1954.

is it weird to get this excited over residential remodels? ;)

the two photographs on top are from the riley residence. the two below are the korman residence.

all i have left to say: cory buckner, two thumbs up while dancing.

brelli! -- the biodegradable umbrella.

2010-07-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

via abitare (italian) and brelli

i just think this is the coolest. it is just an umbrella, and a biodegradable umbrella, why? because umbrellas break and get weak and we get rid of them probably more frequently than we imagine. i think it's great. not to mention they have rain and sun umbrellas. :) love it.

the cookery.

2010-07-22T15:15:00.001-07:00

via the cookery

this thursday kicked off the 36th annual door county antique show in fish creek, wi. my mom, my grandmother, my sister, and i all went to check it out. and it was a fine little show -- full of fine things that only fine people can really drop any serious cash on. a lot of other dealers, i imagine, dealing to dealers. i mean, i can't afford vintage chanel jewelry, maxfield parrish prints, or a $1500 stoneware rolling pin -- can you? but it was still a lot of fun to look around. i could have spent more time there had i been convinced i could afford any one single thing. our modest purchases included a postcard of marshfield, wi, and a an art deco-esque (bakelite?) button.

but then it was onto what i always consider the highlight of any daytrip -- lunch. we decided on the cookery in fish creek, which has recently been rebuilt after a devastating fire that ruined the existing building. it is now modern and refurbished, and is quite nice -- although it was busy lunchtime there when we were there. the food was excellent! i had the grilled wild salmon filet sandwich off of their lunch menu. i wish the mayonnaise had been a little zestier, but it was still quite a lot of yum.

more importantly, though, and believe me, i stressed about this for a little bit when we first arrived -- they have a very sustainable/green attitude toward their business. not to mention local and organic! i was THRILLED to see the list of producers and suppliers from wisconsin that they used for their food. i did not choose a local fish sandwich, of course, being salmon. but i guess i put faith in the fact that they're making a concerted effort to be sustainable and healthy, and hoped that the salmon was considered likewise...

it was very good. thumbs up; i would recommend it.

presidential "hoodie art", and, of course, a house.

2010-07-21T18:32:00.000-07:00

via the daily mail

a few weeks ago i happened to be totally enamored with ben eine's store shutter alphabet paintings in london (see them at art of the state), and it turns out that a ben eine painting has been gifted to the obamas from england's new prime minister, david cameron. supposedly his wife has experience in luxury goods, and ben eine -- a street artist! who has been arrested a few times! -- was the creator of the chosen work, entitled 'twenty-first century city". eine himself declared that he wouldn't have allowed the painting to have been given to bush, though. ;) very cool. not something one would expect, but i love it.

and then of course, i'm starting to feel as though no little red fish blog entry would be complete with some new residential architecture that i find fascinating for one reason or another, so here it is:

via contemporist

i found a renovation that just thrills me, too! i love renovations and makeovers -- who doesn't? but this one is intense, and super, super awesome. the finished product is above -- more pictures at the contemporist link. the iowa city home renovation was done by substance architecture, which i think boasts a pretty serious portfolio... the original house was built in the 1940s and though quaint, definitely was bettered tenfold by the redo. i have to say i was actually quite shocked to see what it looked like before -- i half expected it to have been a remodeled barn, but i was obviously wrong. the covered walkway/quasi-wrap-around porch they added is GENIUS! i love it. the house wouldn't be complete without it. it's so much larger; it looks as though they did add some on, but even then, the covered walkway adds a new dimension, giving it the illusion of even larger size without seeming bulky or overdone. the lighting is spectacular inside and out of the house. it looks like such a fun place -- mysterious and yet bright, modern and yet rustic. i want to see it in person. i want to stand under those skylights. :)

the go team: thunder, lightning, strike

2010-07-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

i got my hands on a few records the other day.. a couple were some old gary numan albums, another was a double-vinyl compilation called low country, and finally, the go! team's 2004 release, thunder, lightning, strike. i had never paid much attention to the brighton, u.k. band before, but here was this lovely record for the purchasing, and i couldn't pass it up. i can officially say im a fan of the go! team now. :)

the go! team mashes up samples -- things like double-dutch chants, hip hop, and 1970s soundtracks -- and then adds live instrumentation. there are a couple great horn sections in the sampling on side a of this record that really get the whole album off to a fun start. it's a happy album, which is always the first kind i'll put on.

and they use every instrument known to man... it's a sextet so they've got the hands. there are two drummers, and then members play the harmonica, banjo, tambourine, glockenspiel, and other various instruments other than the typical guitar and bass. and then there's all the samples and synthesized greatness which adds a sort of schizophrenic feeling to some of it. it's hard to pass up double-dutch chants with a hip hop beat and horns!

so now, i have to go check out their more recent album, proof of youth, from 2007.

prefabulous.

2010-07-18T07:49:00.001-07:00

via inhabitat and anderson anderson architecture

my primary architectural interest lies in residential architecture. i love historical residences, but what really excites me is new, contemporary design. further than that, i love small houses. the bigger they are, the more ostentatious they feel -- and less like a home than a show piece. i don't like show pieces, i like houses. furthermore, prefabricated houses are basically the coolest idea ever. from shipping containers to jay shafer at tumbleweed tiny house company (which i first heard about when my dad met up with him in california and talked with him about these houses -- i suppose maybe some of my enthusiasm for this sort of architecture came from my dad) ...prefab is absolutely the way to go. if it's not the way i end up building my own house, the only other way i'll do it is from salvaged material and from scratch.

when one thinks of prefabricated homes, it's easy for the mind to fall straight into "trailer territory," which is exactly what i thought when i first considered the idea. who actually WANTS one of those trailers? you know, the oblong, weirdly-shaped, always 1970s-looking kind that they place around curving drives in what might otherwise be a campground off of a highway? no offense to anyone who actually lives in a trailer park, but aesthetically speaking... let's just not go there.

i'm speaking absolutely of aesthetics. prefab has come a long, long way. inhabitat is a site i follow regularly in their quest to share green and sustainable design. the house pictured below, in new mexico, popped up and i fell in love with it. it's site-specific, resident-specific (they built it with special animal sections so their pets could inhabit the house safely without danger of predators in the desert), and it's absolutely awesome. i love a metal house. i know that might sound strange -- i was raised in a wood-sided, wood-interior old victorian that's about 125 years old. but it might be that very difference that draws me to the variety of materials that are used in today's modern-style construction.

anderson anderson architecture is based out of san francisco -- no real surprise there. it's a hub of prefabulousness. both of the houses i've pictured here are by them. the one below, like i mentioned, is in new mexico. the one at the top of this post is in washington, about fifty miles from seattle.

i'm in love with them both. i love the modular style, the clean metal exterior, the large windows that take in the views, but also the natural daylight. and the one in washington, that hangs over the cliff? yes, please!

ricardo AKN, raul zito, and rodrigo branco

2010-07-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

via unurth

i couldn't resist one more post tonight -- i've overwhelmed with awesome street art discoveries lately, but i had to share this one specifically because it taps into my adoration of collage. i'm new to the artists ricardo AKN, raul zito, and rodrigo branco -- but i also haven't followed any brazilian street art. i know i should, though -- there's a lot in sao paulo that seems to crop up, and not only in street art. the contemporary architecture is outrageously amazing in brazil. but i'll try not to get ahead of myself.

i was really intrigued when i saw this wall. i wish that i could get a better look at it, or more information. but it looks like a combination of brush, stencil and paste-up, with a little bit of spray. regardless of how it went on, it looks amazing. the colors are really great, and it's elaborate without being overwhelming. it's three distinctive artists with a work that becomes one congruent piece at the finish. it's fantastic, i think. and i'm determined to find out more about these artists.

pride and prejudice // lego kitchen.

2010-07-15T19:00:00.001-07:00

oh. mr. darcy!

okay. srsly forlz. for years now (since i was probably about 14), i've been absolutely in LURVE with the BBC/A&E presentation of pride & prejudice with jennifer ehle and colin firth. COLIN FIRTH! before or since, there has been no better interpretation of this book, as far as my opinion goes. i thought the kiera knightly/matthew macfadyen version paled in comparison. i've just about finished reading the book for the first time ever, which i have to say is kind of a tedious read, but considering i've memorized much of the dialogue between all of the movies i've seen... it's quicker than it would have been otherwise.

one major reason i'm so into this particular movie is a) it's best, and b) it turned me on to all of the british literary adaptations that the BBC does, which led to all of the other jane austen miniseries, the bronte stories, middlemarch, the tenant of wildfell hall, north & south, and a ton more -- of which i'm still scoping out as many as possible and obsessing over them all. it's the anglophile in me, i know, but there's just something absolutely, girlishly awesome about all of these classic love stories that the BBC manages to put on film in just such a way to make me love them. not to mention that miniseries are like watching really long movies, so they're wayyyy better. ;)

does this make me sound giddy? ;)

not to mention, on a very, very cool note: my little sister is going to england to study abroad in london for a semester in spring! and guess who's going to go visit!

but onto less girly things...

via the cool hunter

let it be said that one is never too old to play with legos. i stumbled across this through one of my numerous architecture/design twitter/facebook feeds, which keep me endlessly tracking down all of the most awesome everything! but this was too rad to pass up sharing. i think the design is pretty great, and the details in the patterns are wonderful, nearly artistic. meticulously done, it must have been, but inspiring! i wonder if i might be able to do something similar with fewer colors... hm..

heffernan button voss house in oz.

2010-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

via contemporist.

(better late than never.)

it's been a while since i've seen a recent house that's really ignited any sort of genuine interest. one thing worth noting is that i've got a clear lean in the direction of australian and european (mostly british and irish) contemporary architecture. i'm not sure what it is exactly -- it's really hard to put my finger on, except for the fact that their traditional architecture is based in the same place -- the british isles, and therefore become branches from the same tree trunk, if you will. this house seems to sort of fit that category. it has a very crisp, clean look with the off-white tones, the concrete, and metal roof. the shape of half the house (not the opening-box part) is reminiscent of old cottages.

i love everything about this home. the more i look at the photos, the more i appreciate it. it's simple, yet there are elements that give it detail so it isn't too minimal. the juxtaposition of the wood with the concrete is awesome -- it's got both an industrial and a rustic feel to it, especially in its location on a bay.

i think a major reason i love this house is because it actually could be a home. so many houses i've seen lately have been gigantic millionaire estate sort of contemporary properties -- not something i can relate to, or necessarily even want to relate to. they get so big that they become monsters, piling all of this state-of-the-art crap together to make something that just looks like crap. this is pared-down, simple, just absolutely beautiful residential architecture. i love it.

heffernan button voss. (i wish there was a portfolio, but there's not. not yet, at least.)

the shepherd's dog.

2010-04-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

yesterday was my birthday, so i decided to treat myself to a few of my favorite albums on vinyl, courtesy of the local independent record store, the exclusive company of appleton (there's one in green bay and another in oshkosh as far as this area is concerned).

it's opened a really huge can of worms. now vinyl records are all i want!

i was on the hunt for iron & wine's the shepherd's dog (sub pop, 2007) on vinyl, and was mostly looking online. i was hoping to find it used for a couple bucks cheaper, but alas, it's awesome, so no one is selling it for less. so i stopped by the record store, not really expecting to find it. but i did! all their other records were there, too, but this particular one is the one worth having on vinyl. there's something more adult about it (and the ep woman king, which i found at work) that resonates more with me than any of sam beam's previous work.

i have no interest in discussing the song "flightless bird, american mouth" being on the twilight soundtrack. but that is a genuinely beautiful, beautiful song. along with "carousel" and "boy with a coin"... wonders.

he really is a masterful songwriter, though. i would love to see iron & wine live. asap.

i also found jamiroquai's dynamite (sony, 2005) and death cab for cutie's narrow stairs (atlantic, 2008)... i listened to side a of narrow stairs and managed to split the lp cleanly in half, so i won't be listening to that again. sadness... every intention of replacing it eventually. what is with some of the holes in some records being smaller than others? ugh.

cloud gate.

2010-04-20T17:27:00.001-07:00

photo (c) katie mothes 2010

this is the only other thing that i wanted to mention post-chicago trip. i love cloud gate (aka. "the bean") by anish kapoor. i may have mentioned this before, even, because i so adore kapoor. and yes, that rhyme was on purpose. all hail the bean. see some of his other work here.

farnsworth house.

2010-04-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

more photos after the jump.

last week i spent six days in the southern chicago suburbs for work. the saturday that i drove back to wisconsin, i took a detour to plano, illinois to see the farnsworth house, ludwig mies van der rohe's masterpiece of a residence along the fox river.

i was extremely impressed not only with the house, but with the visitor center and the staff. i was running fifteen minutes late for my tour when i got there, but it was absolutely no problem at all to move me over to the next one, and the woman in the gift shop cheerfully put in a documentary about the house for me while i waited.

the house is one of those iconic places that is pictured in every architecture and art history book you'll ever pick up. mies van der rohe accomplished great modernist architecture in this house, and it's no wonder at all that since it was first heard of, it's been world famous.

i'm a big fan of modernist and contemporary architecture, as you might already guess by some of my previous posts. i read dwell magazine to get an idea of the trends, i look at photos in house books and other periodicals... but nothing compares to being able to stand inside the house and experience it for yourself. a house is a 3-D object that can't be appreciated by looking at a photograph, just like a a sculpture can't be appreciated fully until you can walk around it. a house you have to be able to walk around, and walk inside of.

the outside of this house is impressive, but it's when you're inside that you feel you've been transported. standing anywhere inside the house, one cannot see any of the supports holding up the lower porch or any part of the I-beams that touch the ground. you're lifted five feet and some inches off the ground, and with the flawless floor-to-ceiling windows, you feel almost like you're floating through the woods.

mid-century modern = one of my favorite eras in 20th century architecture. this falls into that very broad category, but mostly it's in the international style. theory, of course, being an art history fanatic, is where it's all at. one of my favorite concepts that this house embraces, being an international style home, is the twofold juxtaposition of new-world and old-world. first, it's a modern house in a natural setting. new and old. in the materials of the house, mies used steel and glass along with roman travertine marble and rare primavera wood from guatemala.

it's flawless. i want one. :)

all photos (c) katie mothes 2010

books and architecture and books on architecture.

2010-04-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

andres serrano, piss christ, 1987

andres serrano is just one of many artists and illustrators discussed in s. brent plate's book entitled blasphemy: art that offends (black dog publishing). it was released in 2006, a decent-size art book with text that is easily readable... it was definitely interesting. every single image in the book has been considered offensive to someone at some time in history. it includes everything from early christian illuminated manuscripts to bansky, andres serrano's piss christ (a photograph which, at the time of its display, created an uproar in the united states government, calling censorship into question) to the demolition by the taliban of ancient bamiyan buddha statues.

this really is an excellent book. it's a pretty fascinating look at the concept of so-called blasphemous and sacreligious art. it discusses what blasphemy means to different cultures, their religions, and in different areas and eras. i was not personally offended by anything in this book. i'm not religious, so the concept of mixing capitalist imagery with religious imagery doesn't faze me as it might someone who was religious. the point is that it fazes a LOT of people, and this book sort of cracks the surface of why, not just how.

via contemporist

it's been a while since i've posted a house. i've looked at quite a few -- i even scored some back issues of residential architect magazine and architecture magazine at work the other day -- but this house just spoke to me. there's something to be said about the old being transformed into the new. i have an undying love for midcentury modern, as i've posted about before, and when houses from that era are remodeled i'm always really excited to see what they did. even more, i like when there is really old existing architecture and something ultra-modern is added on. i've noticed this moreso in u.k. and irish architecture -- their willingness to use the old, existing building and add on something that complements it without overshadowing it or ruining it altogether.

this particular house is in ballymahon, ireland. (see, there's something about those isles.) there's something particularly and wonderfully irish about this. maybe because the cottage-y aspect of it is not lost on the fact that this is brand-spankin'-new contemporary. odos architects designed this addition. they've done many projects -- the link is to their residential portfolio. there's a friary in there that's absolutely stunning... and while some of the houses look particularly irish to me, others are simply modern and stunning without looking like they belong only in the irish countryside. everything on their site is spectacular.

and last, but not least, i'm just about finished with this book, why architecture matters by paul goldberger (yale). it's a very concise, and at times personal, look at architecture and why it is important. plain and simple, and yet no less interesting. it's not a difficult read, not studded with architectural jargon that a person who hasn't studied architecture wouldn't understand -- the point is to give an overview about exactly what the title says, why architecture matters. why we need it, why we want it, why we love it and hate it and sometimes both at the same time. he discusses how it shapes us, how we expect it, how it impacts our daily lives. everything from the bicycle shed to chartres cathedral, it's here. and it's not too dry. very nice.

elephant mag.

2010-03-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

via curated

elephant, a new contemporary art and visual culture magazine just launched over the winter, and i managed to snag a copy of the first issue at b&n while i was there earlier today... i was meaning to find a copy of modern painters magazine, and for some reason they don't carry that one anymore. sad, sad day.

but then i found this. the second issue has been released so i wanted to make sure to nab this while i could.

so far i'm really impressed. i'll be the first to admit that i only scrape the surface when it comes to my knowledge of contemporary art. hence the interest in periodicals, because i learn a lot that way about what's going on super-currently. (i had to grab the current issue of artforum, too, because it rules for one, and for two it had a film still of a burning turntable on the front. how perfect.)

anyway, i'm totally in love with it. its layout is interesting, its organized reasonably well, and though it's printed in england and costs me a walloping $20, it's worth it to not have to deal with advertisements. you really do get what you pay for. and i'm totally loving this... especially the article on gianpaolo pagni called "graphic painting." one learns a lot, and learns about more to like.

like like love. :)

the ghost writer.

2010-03-21T09:17:00.001-07:00

yesterday i decided that i wanted to go to the cinema, and because nothing else really interested me enough to spend $8 on it, the ghost writer basically won the toss. i knew next to nothing about it, so i skimmed the new york times review and figured it seemed like a ewan mcgregor sort of evening.

i'm no film buff, but i know what i like. and i liked this.

turned out that i am absolutely smitten with the whole thing. i thought the film was perfectly cast. i'll be the first to admit that pierce brosnan, to me, doesn't mean much. but as adam lang, former prime minister, he was at the top of his game. and ewan mcgregor, cast as the ghost writer for mr. lang's memoirs, was just the right kind of unattached, seemingly benign presence. and i'll also say that when i saw kim cattrall was in this movie, i was a little skeptical. simply because i've never bought into the sex in the city franchise and that's the only thing i associate her with. but as amelia bly, adam lang's assistant in the movie, she wasn't half bad. i also loved olivia williams as ruth lang. but the clincher was tom wilkinson, who seems to appear in every political-intrigue movie that i like.

my first thought after leaving the cinema was that the ghost writer is like tony gilroy's michael clayton meets any number of alfred hitchcock films. the atmospheric, dank, oppressive cloudiness and darkness of the ghost writer, paired with alexandre desplat's musical score made for a winning combination of "whoa, creepy," and "wait, what?"

unquestionably, the plot was predictable. that said, it was the subtle nuances that made the film. the creeping shots of the gray, ultra-modern martha's vineyard home, the winter sea that rolls like mercury, or the mysterious curving, wooded roads really emphasized darkness and foreboding. creepalicious! it was filmed mostly in germany, so i read, and there is something rather ethereal and foreign about the u.s. setting. while meant to be in martha's vineyard, it seems to be elsewhere. there is a neither-here-nor-there feeling to the whole thing that keeps you wondering who will end up here and who will end up there.

anyway, like i knew it would, it has grown on me even since last night. i left feeling bungled-up, a little unsure, but fascinated and impressed. today i'm just more fascinated and impressed, and i'll see it again.

it's just a saturday full of cool.

2010-03-20T13:05:00.001-07:00

i've bought not one, not two, but THREE new pairs of jeans within the last week. and can you believe that i've never actually owned a pair of levi's? not real levi's. i think i had a made-for-target pair several years ago (that were crap, by the way). it was time for some new pairs because all of my trusty old ones are either too old, or covered in paint that isn't suitable for days outside the house.

even better than buying jeans is buying jeans on sale. all three pairs were on sale. gotta love a bargain. and since shedding 15 pounds (and keeping them off, yay) since last september, i did need at least one new pair. and not that i had even really dropped much in the size department (maybe one size, but that depends), the jeans i had just weren't fitting properly anymore. there's something so refreshing about trying on a new pair of denim jeans and finding that they fit you like they were made for you. because i'm sure we all know that for every twenty pairs of jeans were try on, we might find one that fits us like it should. i know i've caved and bought pairs that sort of fit just because they were better than most.

anyway. the point is, new jeans are cool. hell, new clothes are always cool. and what girl would disagree? so on that point, i also bought a skirt (on sale, hello.) and a pair of shoes. it's tax return time, baby! and it's spring! suit up!

moving on...

i just finished david small's stitches, a memoir written in the format of a graphic novel. i'm new the the world of graphic novels, and even then my interest in them is extremely limited. i just read asterios polyp by david mazzucchelli (amazing), and happened to find stitches on the new release/short loan rack at the local library. i'd never heard of him, but now that i work in the childrens section at the bookstore, maybe i will. he's illustrated several childrens books. but this memoir is something altogether different and astounding and really amazing. it takes place in detroit, starting when david was 6. his family is horrifyingly dysfunctional, and the way he illustrates these very abrupt, sometimes disturbing moments in his life is simply masterful. i recommend this to anyone, graphic novel lover or not.

p.s. it's also cool that when i'm feeling tired/bored/sad, this blog helps me think of things that are happy and cool. and then i feel better. simple, yes. good.

the local library.

2010-03-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

photo via wisconsin historical society, kaukauna public library, 1905.

this is an ode to local public libraries! i love the library. of course, this is what my library looked like 105 years ago. and this main part of the building still exists... there is now a highway that runs in front of it, and where the main entrance is, there has long been an addition with a different entrance. this part of the building is now mostly the childrens section and offices below. but how cool is that building? love it.

the library in kaukauna is very small. but of course it's hooked up to the network of libraries in the state so i can get virtually any book i want. so it hardly matters that their selection is minimal. the point is, it's a hop skip and a jump from my house, and even more important than selection, in my opinion, is how nice it is to visit there. sometimes i just want to check out books for the sake of checking them out... because i just like to go there.

i just checked out david small's stitches, and i will be writing up about that shortly.

an irish farmhouse cookbook by mary kinsella.

2010-03-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

i ran across mary kinsella's an irish farmhouse cookbook at work one day while shelving in the cooking section. at the time, i'd been trying to find a simple, yet authentic way to make irish stew. i have one other irish cookbook, although it is a book that a restaurant in dublin released, and it's a little too gourmet for things like irish stew. :) there are no photographs in mary kinsella's book, and it is also out of print. you can find it on amazon used for pretty cheap here.

last night, i baked up a frenzy with the traditional scone recipe. i substituted maple syrup for golden syrup and by the third batch had kind of gotten on a roll and was adding all sorts of things... cinnamon, bran, sugar... they're none-too-sweet, except for the light sugar dusting on one batch, and the craisins in another batch add a real tangy sweetness that's amazing. this morning i made myself some irish tea (with milk, of course) and had one of the maple-cinnamon scones. super yum.

IRISH BREAKFAST SCONES

ingredients:

1/2 cups flour (-- heaping, probably.)
pinch of salt
1/3 cup wholemeal flour (-- i used bob's red mill unprocessed whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp golden syrup (-- i used maple)
1 pint or 5/8 cup milk
3/4 cup bran (optional)

prep time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 20-25 minutes
oven position: top
oven temp: gas 6, 200C, 400F

method:

1. sieve flour and salt into a bowl, add wholemeal flour and bran if used.

2. put in the margarine or butter, add the baking powder, mix ingredients well together.

3. add the syrup and enough milk to mix to a loose dough. add extra milk if bran is used.

4. turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. roll out, cut the dough in half, then into quaters and then into eighths.

5. place on the lightly floured baking sheet and place in the oven.

6. when baked, set out on a wire rack to cool.

using this basic recipe, there are so many different things one can add. and what was great was that each batch only made eight scones, so they were perfect for sitting down and sharing right away. i made three batches altogether: maple-cinnamon, maple bran, and craisin. but i'm taking them to work this afternoon to give away to hungry booksellers! below are the maple-cinnamon scones which were the last, and sweetest of the bunch. i brushed them with maple syrup and sprinkled sugar on top of that while they were still warm. and they're super yummy warmed back up. like semi-sweet baked doughnuts. mm.

bike comes out of the shed.

2010-03-10T11:34:00.001-08:00

springtime = outside time! wisconsin winters make for seriously frantic excuses to get outside when the temperature hits merely 40 degrees.

last summer i purchased a basic trek road bike for basically leisurely riding. i have no real interest in racing, but i took advantage of early morning rides before work quite often -- one of the longer morning rides i did was actually out to work, which is a solid 15 miles. it was awesome.

but then...

i hurt my back quite badly in the latter part of the year. not sure still what happened exactly, but a couple of times i threw my back out terribly. it may have been because of the bike, it may have been because i wailed on the deteriorating clutch pedal in my saab a little too hard (haha), it may have been because i lifted boxes the wrong way at work, or i was walking funny when i fractured (both of) my feet while trekking through europe, or the bad shoes i tend to wear on concrete floors all day at work... or a combination of all these things. regardless, it hurt and hurt and continued to hurt. all the way through the beginning of this year i was having really annoying issues with sciatica down my left side. terrible. annoying. and i still get weird pangs every once in a while, or when i twist the wrong way it will go stiff.

thing is, winter has turned me into a total sedentary being. my exercise involved walking up and down the stairs to my apartment and meandering around mostly slowly at work, shelving books. and of course, to keep my back healthy, exercise is the one best thing i can do. so this afternoon, regardless of the chilly rain and 41 degree temp, i decided to take my bike out for its first -- what turned out to be a very short -- spin.

i'd meant to go to the grocery store, only to realize halfway there that i didn't have a lock with which to fasten my bike in place while i shopped. alas, i turned around, not without that tell-tale wet-and-sand streak up my rear, and very cold hands. i probably biked all of five blocks altogether, though, granted, up a couple of hills -- and i was totally winded. it just goes to show how out of shape i've become over the last few months. however short, however ridiculously out of breath i was when i returned home, it was a perfect teaser run. all i want now is for the sun to come out and to be able to ride just a little bit further... and then a little bit further.

and it's only march. yay bike.

on the docket tonight: vigorous walk around town with mom and sister in the p.m.

andy warhol polaroids.

2010-03-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

this is how i feel about andy warhol:

i adore him. and i adore what he's done. but that's covering a very broad, wide, generalized range of things -- from screen prints and lithrographs to paintings, sculptures, photography, film -- you name it. a lot of it i love love love love (love!) -- his rorschach paintings, or his architectonic advertisements, repeating elvises, virgin marys, and so on (see september 26, 2009). but andy warhol produced SO MUCH (this is definitely just part of his ouevre), that there is, within it all -- good andy, and so-so andy. i wouldn't go as far as to say there's bad andy. there's uneventful andy. there's 'well, that's andy, so i guess i like it' andy. and then there's 'this is a really badly-hung show; why is andy here?' andy.

the latter is the problem i had today.

the lawton gallery on the university of green bay campus had a show entitled 'hidden treasures' which is a conglomerate of artwork from collections around the green bay area. these included local and not-so-local artists, contemporary and not-so-contemporary. it ranged from indian art to woodcuts from the osaka school, to gilbert & george (a total let-down because the one gilbert & george piece was one that could have been downloaded for free from the guardian.co.uk website in 2007)...

i can't reasonably complain about this show because it is green bay, and it is uwgb, and what is a person to expect? this isn't new york or chicago, or even milwaukee. i thought the show was laid-out poorly, though, but that's all i'm going to say about it.

the warhol polaroids were the reason i went. and worth looking at for any warhol fanzoid. the ones they had on display were part of a larger gift from the andy warhol foundation to the university of green bay. the basquiat polaroid pictured above is very similar to one they have at the lawton gallery, except without the hand and a little more of a smile. there were also photos of dolly parton, jean-michele basquiat's parents, bruno bischofberger's kids, and others. they weren't the best ones in the bunch, but of thousands of polaroids, seeing a few in a group like that is always a treat and i don't care where they are or who has them or how weird the rest of the show looks.

there are a few other green bay collection pieces at the neville public museum in green bay, although i did not visit there today. the show at the lawton is on display through april 1.

drew barrymore as little edie.

2010-02-28T20:39:00.000-08:00

film still courtesy the guardian (with a nice little blog article, too).

this hbo movie came out in the middle of 2009... i just borrowed it from the library after having watched the original maysles documentary just a few weeks ago, i thought it would be fitting to watch the drew barrymore/jessica lange feature while it was still fresh in my mind. starting from the opening scene of drew -- little edie -- dancing in the foyer of grey gardens, i knew her performance was going to be amazing.

and seriously -- the STYLE! they duplicated the scenes from the original documentary to the T -- the clothes, the set, everything. i can't forget the little brown sweater vest with the light blue flowers... the way she wears it as a vest, then wears it as a scarf. classic edie. i love it.

and not only that, but when they show the scene of her describing her "costume" in the garden -- how she shows the skirt that's strangely pinned on one side, showing her pantyhose and some pants underneath... it's so weird, but she's edie! it's perfect. and the fact that the maysles had their own little part in this movie -- their brief, intrigued, "well, let's do this" sort of attitude -- it gave just that little extra bit of showtime for them... when they were so obviously interacting with the beales in their documentary, but never really played a part.

drew played little edie so faithfully. jessica lange was fantastic, too; the combination of the two was great, which is precisely what was needed to make this a good film. and it's good.

now THIS is a renovation.

2010-02-23T20:29:00.001-08:00

via contemporist

you are meant to ignore the above photo. but one has to appreciate having seen it, so keep that dismal, winter ranch in mind when you look at the photo after the jump.

WOW. i have kind of a distaste for the sort of blah ranch in the above photo. so did the owners of that house, apparently, because they turned it into something SO much cooler. but what's great is that the mid-century sensibility wasn't totally lost on it. and while the house is nearly unrecognizable as something having been built out of that, the interior updated and brightened and opened and looks every bit as modern and fresh and groovy as this house was probably hoping to look when it was first built. designed by hufft projects, whose other designs i'm also quite fond of, this "modern w/ ranch" in kansas is serious about the mod.

i love a good makeover!!!

cate blanchett as bob dylan.

2010-02-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

i realize i'm a couple years behind all the hype over this movie, but i finally watched it last night and was blown away, as so many were, by cate blanchett's portrayal of jude quinn, ie. bob dylan. i think blanchett is absolutely timeless; every role i've seen her play, she's done to near perfection. other parts of this movie were so-so, ho-hum, but i kept looking forward to when they would cut back to cate. and heath ledger was okay, too, although i wasn't so much moved by his character. so just for the hell of it, below is just a video showing my favorite scene from the film... the scenes in the video-walled room and with ginsberg yelling at jesus.

new york gallery week.

2010-02-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

dan flavin, the nominal three (to william of ockham), 1963.

via artdaily

oh my god. (oh my god.) this is smart. this will be fun! they maybe should have thought of this a while ago, but alas. 50 galleries in manhattan -- including spaces in soho, chelsea, the upper and lower east side, and 57th street -- will be launching new york gallery week in may of this year, for the first time. it's planned for the future to be a week-long annual event, though the pilot this year is going to be only a few days -- may 7-10 during a weekend when galleries will be open on days they aren't usually open, and for extended hours.

i imagine this should do well to (re)illuminate the gallery scene in new york city. it seems to me that -- especially contemporary -- artists tend to get their mfa, make some big work, and go straight to museums, skipping the gallery scene altogether. this should probably turn into an amazing party if all goes well, and hopefully gets better through the years. i can't imagine it will be bad; the galleries are sure to pull out all the stops for something like this when the international art world spotlight is on them again.

would love to see this.

dwell magazine - subscribed!

2010-02-22T07:50:00.001-08:00

this issue of dwell magazine has been devoured already. this has been my favorite magazine for a year or two now; it's like crack cocaine for the design-addicted. i compulsively page through an issue every time i find myself in a store that carries it, but i couldn't always justify purchasing one every single month... it's just my take on magazines. my mom, however, happened to come across a subscription sign-up a little while ago and she's now receiving these babies in the mail. why i didn't shell out of the $19.95-a-year to do it myself is anyone's guess... but maybe next year i'll take over.

i'm totally enamoured with this magazine. i love the design, i love the simplicity, i love the down-to-earth writing about modern design that is often not down-to-earth at all, and i love the content -- they choose imaginative and fascinating designs and structures to show. i'm so happy this magazine exists.

silly ideas that turn out well: slinky lampshade.

2010-02-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

i had a lamp base. i had a nice bulb. but it didn't have a shade -- or one that fit, and i'm sick and tired of the same old-same old paper lampshades. i didn't want a paper lantern, and i wasn't sure what the hell i could use to make this look nice.

the other day my sister happened to have a tangled-up metal slinky hanging off of a cabinet knob in her apartment. lo! i thought, tangling up a bunch of slinky toys might just do the trick! and won't you believe it -- half price books had a veritable mountain of miniature metal slinkies for sale. so i bought 15 of them, unabashedly carrying around a bag of slinkies like i have a serious compulsion or something, and brought them home.

it took me about an hour to stretch and tangle them all together -- i didn't really have a plan. and i didn't know how they would react to all the twisting and pulling. and they were really annoying to work with at first; i almost thought i blew $25 on slinkies only to get frustrated and discouraged, and to get metallic crap all over my hands that smelled metallic -- have you ever smelled a slinky? i even tried cutting out the bottom of a planters nuts countainer because the metal ring of the rim fit perfectly into the lamp base that i have. but the slinkies absolutely refused to sit nicely on the ring, and once i started wrapping the metal around the ring, it no longer fit where it needed to go. had to scrap that idea.

then it dawned on me that i had a spare glass jar in the cabinet, so i used that as a base onto which to tangle and "sculpt" to the slinkies. it's weird, yes. but i love it.

calvin tomkins' "lives of the artists."

2010-02-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

image via fargfabriken

above image is maurizio cattelan's Him, 2001. that is adolf hitler, praying. and i only include it because i can't find a decent image of tomkins' book cover and this is far more interesting.

tomkins' book was published in 2008, a collection of articles he wrote throughout the last couple decades on contemporary and living artists -- jeff koons, damien hirst, cindy sherman, maurizio cattelan, and more. it's a fantastic, easy-to-read, easy-to-digest overview of these artists, all of whom are absolute giants in the art world in their own way, and tomkins provides compelling explanations why. he includes interview notes and quotes by the artists that are at turns poignant and hilarious. where it might be easy for him to throw in his own criticisms of the work that he presents (Him by cattelan is one of the examples in that part), he lets the artist do the talking, and gives you, the reader, an opening to check the work out for yourself before you start absorbing others' judgments prior to seeing it yourself.

this is a really cool book; i found it at the library, but if i come across a copy at the bookstore, i might just have to snag this one for my own library. :)

kaukauna coffee & tea in the news.

2010-02-15T10:28:00.001-08:00

photo by kasi kochollek for the appleton post-crescent

aw, that's my little sister at the counter of her coffee shop. she's in the local business news this week, maureen wallenfang's column, to talk about her business and her expansion to the other side of town! it's so cool to see people you know in the paper. ;) (see the drink menu i wrote out?)

also, since this is a post about ali -- she announced she's engaged! to her boyfriend (high school sweetheart, really) kevin. married in about a year, she thinks? looking sooo forward to it. happiness abounds!

banksy and colum mccann.

2010-02-12T19:09:00.001-08:00

via banksyfilm whatever this is, it'll clearly be amazing. i hope it's accessible in the usa before long. i'd love to see it.

i also just finished reading colum mccann's national book award-winning novel 'let the great world spin,' which is published by random house. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. i recommend this to anyone and everyone. i'm currently also reading 'the bonfire on the vanities' by tom wolfe, which is a curious, and completely coincidentally, perfect partner for this book. the new york times review even considered mccann's work to be something of a literary "precursor" to 'the bonfire of the vanities.'

set in new york city in the 1970s, the story revolves around a group of people who are intimately known to one another or hardly know one another at all. relationships, history, love, and the thread of connection that is the man on the tightrope between the world trade center towers. mccann is faultless in his presentation of these characters' stories; they are developed so thoroughly, so carefully, that one wonders if you might actually know them, if you might look them up in the phone book and see what they're doing these days.

i haven't read a book this good in quite a while.

candice breitz's factum @ white cube.

2010-02-10T14:41:00.001-08:00

via white cube gallery

candice breitz is new to me. i haven't seen her works before, and i won't be able to see this one, seeing as it's in london. but anyone with access to the hoxton square white cube should probably go check this out, because it sounds amazing. the above image is a still from 'factum kang', 2009, which is part of a group of works called 'factum' after robert rauschenberg's works factum I and II in 1957 in which he did near-identical paintings.

breitz interviewed and filmed identical twins, and also a trio of triplets, and presents them in diptych (and triptych) format to show them in similar dress and setting, though appearing as though they are having a conversation with one another.

if i hadn't just read (half of, then put down) audrey niffenegger's 'her fearful symmetry', i probably wouldn't find this as interesting, but the concept of identical twins who look the same, but can in fact be so different, never gets old. i find that the way this must be put together is quite brilliant... to see the twins speaking and reacting as if they are speaking to one another, and not to the artist, is really quite intriguing. and i wish that i could go see this exhibit!

yeasayer's odd blood.

2010-02-08T21:51:00.001-08:00

oh oh oh. the new album by brooklyn-based yeasayer, odd blood, does not disappoint. it's definitely a departure from their previous release, 2007's all hour cymbals. it's a little bit more electronic, infusing middle-eastern sounds and a plethora of synth, feedback, vocal samples that in "love me girl," for example, sound like depeche mode's making an appearance. so amazing, really. i've listened to "ambling alp" several dozen times at this point, since i've had it for a while. but it's so great to have the rest of the album to give it some context now.

amore mio low chair.

2010-02-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

via jon goulder

because i'm totally on a mid-century modern kick right now (i was drooling over todd oldham's hand made modern book at work the other day), i saw these chairs and their correspondingly spectacular furniture friends and thought they were perfect! there is a coffee table to match, and also on the jon goulder website (he's quite good in all his designs!) he has a credenza that is really, really cool. i never used to care about furniture at all until i started decorating a tabula rasa apartment. not to mention that i my burgeoning love of modern residential architecture sort of goes hand-in-hand with what can go inside those houses! little finds like this are always a treat.

to come... yeasayer's new album, odd blood, scheduled to drop february 9!

taxidermy for the crafter-at-heart.

2010-02-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

via dazed.

sweet stuff here! art by shauna richardson. i love that it's an eerie mix of craft, kitsch, and fine art. you don't really know what it is... but it's cool. essentially, for the purposes of this blog, i don't need to go any further than that... ha!

laurie frick and her house.

2010-02-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

via contemporist

it's been a while since i've come across a new modern residence in my daily perusing that has had me feel so warm and content as this one in austin, tx by krdb. one thing it has going for it is the warmer climate of texas, where i'm always drawn to the desert plant landscaping and the possibility for more open, airy spaces. what's so exciting about this house (for an artist, laurie frick -- the things one discovers!) is how it seems to combine homey-ness and material collections with gallery-like open spaces and white, modern walls. an obvious choice for an artist, but it still seems full of life -- which a lot of modern houses, in their very concept, are not at all. i love the industrial hints -- the I-beams on the ceilings, mixed in with the rugs and pottery and books! and art! it's great. it's not so minimal; a change.

laurie frick's stuff is pretty cool. should check out the link above; she does collages out of found postcards, books, papers, etc. and makes some really spectacular works out of art out of them.

free february at aic!

2010-02-01T10:29:00.001-08:00

from the aic modern collection: max beckmann, self-portrait, 1937.

the art institute of chicago starts their FREE FEBRUARY month of free admission -- all month. totally cool.

also, by virtue of the fact that it is now february, my spirits are brightened just a little... knowing we're no longer in january, and a little closer to spring. ;)

and finally, massive attack's new heligoland, which you can listen to in its entirety on npr's website, will be released on february 9. i wouldn't necessarily place massive attack at the very top of my list or anything, but i did have a phase several years ago when i considered mezzanine to be one of my favorite albums of the time. listening to their older stuff dates the music, but this is new and yet familiar. according to the npr article, it has been a solid seven years since their last release, so that's saying something. and considering my interest in electronic music has waned (temporarily as always) in recent months, heligoland, so far, sounds wonderful.

damien in the bin.

2010-01-25T11:14:00.001-08:00

starting with this: michael landy is a british artist who likes to make art out of trash. the picture above depicts "christmas tree", 1997, at the tate. with that said, his latest venture is the art bin, into which he has invited other artists to throw their art. damien hirst is one of these, along with tracey emin, julian opie, and gary hume. i love love love the irony. it's no secret that some (usually art-illiterate) folks don't care at all for a lot of contemporary art -- it's not art! my kindergartener could do that! -- you've heard it. you've maybe thought the same, or said. regardless, it's a great play on that concept. and the bin is enormous! over the span of the exhibit, starting january 29 and running through march 10, artists' works will be trashed in the bin, and as the exhibition's page states, "Art Bin will gradually fill up over the six week course of the exhibition to create ’a monument to creative failure’." fantastic!

worth noting, just for humor's sake, in 2001: damien in the bin.

i'm a photographer, not a terrorist.

2010-01-24T17:38:00.001-08:00

flickr gallery of photos from the protest at trafalgar square where a bunch of photographers and more showed up yesterday to protest the attack on photographers as potential terrorists: here. kind of wish i could have been there for that.

cb2.

2010-01-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

i found a copy of cb2's (crate & barrel, you guys are geniuses!) catalog in my mailbox, courtesy of my thoughtful grandmother and mother, who realized that pretty much everything in there is practically must-have material. i suppose i could narrow it down, but seriously... after looking through nothing but urban outfitters catalogs and the ikea website (and a lot of target lately) while decorating my humble apartment -- not to count out of the thrift shops, which have proven MOST beneficial! -- this was a breath of fresh air! there are two chicago locations, and it seems now that the next time i'm in the city, i will be at a cb2 store at some point during my stay. it's necessary.

cb2 affordable in a good-design sense of the term. you can't really have quality AND good design for pennies... that's always kind of where ikea and target and such fall short. their brand is built on affordability with style, but the cheapness of the material and the whole diy assembly is kind of exhausting after a while. i sure don't need another particle-board shelf. nope. the very thought makes me feel as though my whole house will come crashing down if my books get too heavy.

therefore, though i have no purchased anything yet, i can maybe say preemptively that i indeed love cb2. :) i shall provide a further review once i actually find something to own. haha.

bridge house.

2010-01-02T18:01:00.001-08:00

via contemporist

how freakin' cool is this! a much cooler way to overlook a brook.

jane eyre and california hills.

2009-12-23T21:11:00.001-08:00

who wouldn't kill to live in a place like this? the hills of malibu, california, to be sure. this house is gorgeous. the blair house, designed by bruce bolander (link to entire online residential portfolio). i love-love-love the mid-century throwback with the furniture and the long horizontals. it' very "california!" some of his other work is really awesome, too.

and i'm halfway through a re-reading of jane eyre by charlotte brontë. i last read it in high school, possibly my junior year? and i don't remember being too interested in it at all. i'm not sure i was interested in anything literary then. but on further re-evaluation, i realize that i love it. of course, in the vein of other famous english literature -- jane austin, emily brontë, william thackeray, etc. i'm having a great time. :)

also very, very good is richard ford's collection of three short stories published in the 90s entitled women with men. also worth taking a look at -- a quick read, but not forgettable in the slightest.

kolokythokeftedes with tzatziki!

2009-12-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

this was the (very delicious) outcome of my first attempt at greek zucchini balls (kolokythokeftedes) and cucumber garlic sauce (tzatziki). they turned out well! the recipe is from kopiaste and even though i had to do a little bit of guesswork with measurements (and didn't keep track, bleh me) they turned out really well! they were delicious! and a good test of this is that my notoriously picky younger sister actually liked them! the only thing i will do next time is hold way back on the amount of garlic used in the tzatziki. it's a little overwhelming, even though with all the garlic in there it brings back pretty strong memories of the restaurant in monastiraki, greece that i visited with my friend in may:

the above photo is our lunch table at the cafe in monastiraki earlier this spring, and this was my first taste of the kolokythokeftedes. these were astounding. astounding, i tell you. absolutely nothing has surpassed this meal to date, and even though my homemade ones weren't quite as fantastic as these ones, i'm still pretty happy that i got close. i can tweak a little bit and i think i might be able to work something out. :)

this is why people live in new zealand.

2009-12-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

via archdaily

i'm not sure if i even need to explain my reason for including this. i got sucked into looking through postings on archdaily and ran across this house in new zealand by fearon hay architects. their houses are fantastic, utilizing huge walls of glass to take in the gorgeous views of australia and new zealand -- they even did a loft in tribeca, nyc. regardless, the house above is the quintessential high-elevation glass house. it's perfect. it's small, but that's what makes it livable. i can't imagine anyone living in this house and not feeling at peace with the world when they look out those windows. perfect.

lamborghini ankonian concept.

2009-12-12T17:04:00.000-08:00

via automotto

if i saw this thing coming up on me, i would freaking dive off the road. it's like the car out of hell, and it TOTALLY rules. when i first looked at it, i wasn't quite sure about all the crazy lines, the layers, and "folds." but the more i look at it, the more i appreciate those, and how boxy and long it is. i mean, i hate to say it, but my first thought was, "batmobile! yesss!" even without all of the land-or-water-motorcycle-built-in sort of thing, it's pretty amazing!

snow day!

2009-12-09T06:54:00.001-08:00

i took some artistic license with this shot this morning. i'm not sure i would feel the same as i do if the building across the street actually looked like this.

i don't like snow, so let's just get that straight first off. but i do like snow days. the wisconsin university system and most government-run agencies are closed today as far as i know. i may not like snow, but i like a good adventure. and i like when the norm has to take a day off.

my car is very stuck in the parking lot behind where i live. i was out at 6:45 this morning shoveling it out so that i could at least back it up and get it out of the way of the plow. i've been told that i should try to be in to work at 11am, but we'll see if that's even possible. for now, i'm content to listen to adele and drink hot tea. it's still snowing... blizzard warning until midnight tonight.

p.s. this adele x basement jaxx mix is fantastic. came out last year. never get enough:

kwik-e-mart, for real.

2009-11-29T07:27:00.001-08:00

via grievous bodily charm

i've never been much of a fan of the simpsons, but i have watched it occasionally. that doesn't deter me from liking this whole idea, though! 7/11 has opened up 11 real kwik-e-marts in the u.s. as part of a promotion. hilarious, and really thorough! more photos at the link above.

also, [edit.] i thought i was finished, but then i saw this house. the ross street house by robert mills architects in melbourne, australia... i'm not sure what it is about australia, but for all i've seen so far, australian contemporary architecture is practically tops.

aqua tower, chicago.

2009-11-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

urban architecture close to home! studio gang architects have just completed the aqua tower in chicago, il. it's slated for a hotel, commercial and retail space, and residential space. i'm going to have to seek this one out the next time i'm in the city; i'm always so excited to see the new towers they're building, but usually i only see the posterboards and the in-prog cranes, i-beams, and slabs of concrete. so excited to get a good look at this one -- it's a real beauty. a new, 21st century, bright addition to the city. and i mean, come on, who doesn't love a high-rise building that peta awards a "proggy" award to?

and speaking of chicago... and architecture... the green + wired smart home at the chicago museum of science and industry is still on exhibit, at the very least through january 10. i went to see it in 2008, though for 2009 they redesigned with a baby nursery, earth-friendly landscaping, new furniture, and more. i'm not sure what their plan is for that baby, but i hope they can keep that exhibit going for a while. it's such a fantastic idea to have a functioning home built right into the center of the museum.

el mac & retna

2009-11-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

spectacular street artists coming your way! just discovered this guy, the mac, who has on a collaborative show at the robert berman gallery in los angeles with retna. the show is probably due to close soon -- it's been extended, and i'm super late finding out about it, obviously. i'm super interested in figural art -- it's always what i've been drawn to when i'm creating. there's something about really well-done images of people that can really move other people. there's a connection to be made -- el mac kind of has a combination of magazine glossies and guys like the one above -- some are just pretty faces, but some make you take a second. regardless, any of these i'd be delighted to run across on the street! :)

bauhaus: workshops for modernity.

2009-11-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

moma opened its doors to its latest exhibition, bauhaus: workshops for modernity, open through january 25, 2010. i might just have to scrape up $250 for a plane ticket and go see this. according to the blurb on the exhibition website, the show "brings together over 400 works by some 100 teachers and students of the bauhaus that reflect the extraordinarily broad range of of the school's output..."

sounds good to me!

unmistaken child.

2009-11-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

released earlier this year, unmistaken child follows the four year quest of buddhist monk tenzin zopa to find the child who is the reincarnation of his master, geshe lama konchong. since tenzin zopa has been a follower of lama konchong for 21 years -- since he was 7 years old, the dalai lama charges him with the responsibility of finding this child. the film is directed by nati baratz, and was released just earlier this year. i laughed and cried, and enjoyed every minute. definitely, definitely worth a look.

florentijn hofman.

2009-11-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

via florentijn hofman

i've (sort of) rediscovered florentijn hofman, a dutch contemporary artist who devotes himself to installations that are often quite large in scale and probably intense to behold in person. i first found him (though not knowing who he was) when i found a few photos of rubber duck (2009) which is a traveling -- and giant -- rubber duck that floats on water. it has traveled to and from several continents now, its latest stop being osaka, japan. it started out in amsterdam, and has also visited other parts of europe, and brazil.

the above installation is from his solo show "dushi" at the hague where he changes the dimensions of familiar stuffed animals and gives the idea an entirely new feeling.

i think this guy is super fantastic. i love how he plays with everyday things and concepts -- rubber ducks, delivery vans, and coats of paint on buildings. but when he sculpts something, either throwing it out of scale or distorting it, he adds a sense of "how comfortable am i with this?" to it. it's like if i went to reach for my cell phone and it was the size of a couch. or if my house was wrapped in purple cellophane, how would i feel about that? would it still be my house? would it cease to be a house, and in turn become something else? a candy, perhaps? or a present?

there's a bit of jeff koons' balloon animals crossed with a marc jacobs handbag in his inflated 3 caniches (2008). there's a huge nod to christo and jean-claude's wrapped reichstag-era in his blue beukelsblauw (2004-06) and campaign for orange (2006). it might lean a little bit TOO much toward these other contemporary tops. but i still like hofman.

and by the way, christo and jean-claude, if you ever get that arkansas river project, i will BE THERE. it's been in the works for too long. too long.

this video is amazing!

2009-11-04T22:08:00.000-08:00

i don't usually get swept up with viral videos. but i saw/heard this one and i just had to share it. it's really impressive! this ricardo autobahn fellow made a song out of movie clips, which is more amazing than most video montages (which i love in and of themselves) but this actually has a beat! and rhymes! and there's a lot of bill murray!

liu bolin.

2009-11-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

liu bolin! my latest find. can check out a bunch more of his work here, and a short profile with exhibition history here. the photograph above is entitled graffiti, 2008. his latest work is in a similar fashion: he paints chinese citizens to blend in with their backgrounds. he's only recently been exhibited outside of china, and i only learned about him yesterday. but i got a big kick out of it! and he's worth keeping an eye on. i think it's a cool take on raw photography in this era of digital photographic manipulation and retouching. additionally, he sculpts. and it doesn't take a genius to detect direct chinese political tones in much of it. one such sculpture i like is his bronze burning man 3, 2007, depicting a burning chairman mao statue. i don't think he could have been more clear. worth a look. :)

arctic monkeys' HUMBUG

2009-10-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

i finally took a listen to the new arctic monkeys album, humbug. i heard about it in rolling stone a couple of months ago and was really intrigued to hear that they recorded it in the states, and that alex turner (the lovely, the talented) is still sneering away. i loved rob sheffield's comment, "their ace third album is full of turner's snide observations on human behavior — when he looks you in the eye and sneers, "what came first, the chicken or the dickhead?" it's not a compliment."

i've been revamping an apartment above my sister's coffee shop for a few days now and have had everything in the cd player from cat power to just jack to the garden state official soundtrack. this was a change of pace -- and a welcome one!

i first got into arctic monkeys when i gave a listen to 2007's favourite worst nightmare. their debut album, 2005's whatever people say i am, that's what i'm not was making huuuge waves in the u.k. when i was there studying abroad in the spring of '06. i didn't really care for them then, though, and i'm not sure why. it wasn't until i heard fwn that i was like, WTF what have i been missing!??? -- so i snatched up their first one immediately and have loved them both, though they are both very different records, and the first is still better -- in my mind -- than their sophomore album.

i like alex turner so much that his side project, the last shadow puppets, are a favorite in my car stereo also. the only negative thing i have to say is that when i went to see them in chicago a while ago, they put on the most impersonal, rushed show i've seen. the music was fine, though faster than the albums, and they gave off a general don't-give-a-fuck-about-chicago sort of vibe. it's too bad, it left a bad taste in my mouth, but i'd be willing to give them another shot, i think.

humbug sounds like turner and the monkeys finding their footing. the lyrics are intense and the sound is appropriately eerie and ravaging and beautiful.. i'm a big fan of this album after only a couple of listens.

BEST magazine find!

2009-10-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

this is worth a second post in one morning. i may not have mentioned this tiny, but very significant point before -- DWELL IS MY FAVORITE MAGAZINE. i'm a modern residential architecture nerd, and this magazine is a) edgy, b) lay-person and user-friend, and c) awesome! but the greatest news yet to come of my love affair with this periodical is that this past september they put out their first spinoff magazine -- make it yours is a diy-friendly version of their magazine, complete with archive photos and ways that you can make the look your own. that's the whole concept. simple, and rad. i saw it in milwaukee last month and passed it up, but now that i'm redecorating a place of my own, i found it again at lowe's this morning and snatched it up without a second glance. i've fallen hard for a magazine. how nerd is that.

the storybook wolf by josé luis rodríguez

2009-10-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

via the guardian

the guardian just posted a gorgeous and stunning gallery of five photographs that are winners of this year's veolia environment wildlife photographer of the year. the above photo is by josé luis rodríguez of spain, "storybook wolf," which won under the category of animal portraits. there's another photo of a HUGE flock of starlings that took the prize for the black and white category by danny green of the u.k.

the photo up top is so mysterious and exciting; i would hang this in an edgy living space. actually, i would display it anywhere i could. i was hoping i could dig up a little bit more on rodríguez, but i can't seem to find much else, at least at a brief glance.

san francisco does it again!

2009-10-21T06:35:00.001-07:00

via npr

san fran! my love! you have done it again!

first, about two and a half years ago, s.f. banned the use of petroleum-based plastic bags in supermarkets and the like, promoting recyclable paper, reusable canvas or plastic, or compostable cornstarch bags instead -- as a means of reducing unnecessary waste.

now! s.f. is the first city in the nation to create a law that forbids residents to discard food waste into the normal rubbish! they will now have to discard it into another bin, which the city will then remove, turn to compost, and sell to farms and whatnot. HOW GREAT IS THAT?? the whole store is at the link above.

after dark by haruki murakami.

2009-10-19T19:33:00.001-07:00

ever since high school i've heard haruki murakami mentioned and recommended by my more well-read friends. i tried reading sputnik sweetheart a long time ago. i'm not sure i even finished it; it was not overly impressed.

sometimes it's worth it to try an author again.

after dark is absolutely, hands down, my favorite novel read in the past few years. it's short -- i read it in one night, and totally blasted my way through the thing, i was so entranced. it deserves another read-through, and it surely will get one.

a couple of weeks ago i found a mass market paperback version of after dark accidentally thrown in with the mystery paperbacks, and i snapped it up. murakami is a hard find at the shop -- and i learned that when certain other employees come across his works, they hoard them also, so he rarely makes it out to the shelves! i have norwegian wood in paperback also, snapped up somewhere along the line, and it's been sitting in a pile of waiting-to-reads since i bought it. i was still a little skeptical after sputnik sweetheart so it took a little convincing.

after dark has convinced me. it's a surreal trip through the wee hours of the night, between midnight and dawn, in tokyo. what's to love is not only the story, but murakami's style is seemingly so simple, so straight-forward. you don't need to ponder over lengthy or complicated sentences because it's all laid out for you. what you get is beautiful lyricism and a poetic, dreamy sort of novel that pushes you through to the end. i just couldn't put it down.

after dark is murakami's most recent publication that has been translated into english, released here in 2007. his current book (or books -- three volumes total to be released in japan by 2010), released so far only in japan, is 1Q84, which references george orwell's 1984. can't wait.

roa and a water lawn.

2009-10-17T08:51:00.001-07:00

via contemporist

this house is the shit. i know that's not technical lingo, but wow, a yard of water!? it's like the pond swallowed up the lawn and made it more awesome. check out the photos of the interior of the house, also, which are just as fantastic. the landscape design along with the house, in this case, is absolutely spectacular. according to the info, the pond and landscaping was preserved from a house that previously sat on the lot and had to be removed. i think they did more than what they could -- they did what they should. it's so beautiful.

the stats: atherton house in atherton, california by turnbull griffin haesloop architects. and as usual, when i checked out their other projects, i was just as astounded and... in love.

via robots will kill

roa. i'm not sure it's possible to be a fan of street art without being a fan of roa. the work is understated in a way: black and white, simple, realistic. but it's profound. there are numerous photo collections of his work on flickr and on other sites. i have to share vandalog (the link takes you to a particularly alive-looking version of this same bird, which you must check out), and the link above features a large gallery of photos of roa's work.

speling and 22 tracks.

2009-10-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

i attended a spelling bee last night with -- you guessed it -- half price books of appleton, wi. we didn't win the bee, but we won the award for most creative costumes -- we dressed up like powderpuff football players, or something like it! :) it was a "back to school" theme... and it went a little long, but with the cash bar, it wasn't all bad. ;) i've always liked spelling bees, although i have to admit that the last time i was in one was probably the 6th grade, and i misspelled "juvenile" (juvinile) and that was that. the bee was the 14th annual to benefit the fox valley literacy coalition. so it was for a good cause.

and also, on a music note... discovered the site 22 tracks which, under different genres, aims to play streaming emergent music! the new lcd soundsystem song is on there, and suddenly i found myself hooked on many others! a sure favorite.

music from europe.

2009-10-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

first, la roux. she's the newest addition to my itunes library... her self-titled album has finally been released in the united states... it's a totally 80s-infused dance album. it's funky, light-hearted sounding, but with really penetrable, deep lyrics. a few months ago i heard the tracks "fascination" and "in for the kill." itunes had "bulletproof" as their free single a couple of weeks ago and that was it -- i had to have the album. it's great driving music!

and another route altogether is beth orton, whose 1999 album central reservation we have been playing at work from time to time. below i posted the video for one of my favorite songs off that album, "blood red river." "stolen car," the first track, is another favorite. beth orton's voice is chilling and absolutely beautiful.

lately i've been in either a la roux- or beth orton-type mood. there's really nothing like pulling out beloved albums after not listening to them in ages... and adding new ones...

which brings me to my discovery last night; how could i have missed this? not that it's entirely old news or anything, but probably not stateside at all -- milow. if you haven't seen/heard his song "ayo technology" (yes, it is that song, a 50 cent cover [!!]) it's totally worth checking out. milow, who i believe is a dutch-belgian singer, is pretty popular in germany, as far as i can gather. not sure if i've been living under a rock or he just hasn't gotten over to the states yet much. but no matter -- check out the video below. it's awesome. and then check out some of his other songs; they are also quite nice.

houses that give me heart palpitations.

2009-10-07T21:22:00.001-07:00

via contemporist

OH MY STARS! i am so in love with this house AND its location... i cannot begin to really describe how much i love it. i went directly to the pb elemental architecture website and started fooling around looking at all of their delicious residential architecture. these are the houses that really stop me dead in my tracks... the ones that when all is said and done, look like they grew out of that spot in the earth and were made for exactly that place. this house is magnificent! in the northwest forest, it looks like it is glowing.

this particular house is in north bend, washington. the firm is based out of seattle and all of their featured residences online are in washington. it's no wonder; the northwest is where i would build a contemporary house, no questions asked. the geography is perfect.

i'm keeping these guys in mind. i love everything they're doing.

pop life.

2009-10-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

via slamxhype

pretty much this looks like the coolest show of the moment. andy warhol, damien hirst, jeff koons, takashi murakami, keith haring, and more. clearly. it's like... if i had a spare $800 i would jump a flight to london RIGHT NOW, and i would go directly to this show. the concept of the show is based on the andy warhol's famous quote, "good business is the best art."

the show is at the tate modern through january 17, 2010. maybe i can still make it after all. ;)

and speaking of london.. looks as though they're taking a hint from paris and other cities that have implemented the bikes-for-hire programs with the docks that you can swipe your credit card, rent the bike, then return... so you can bike around town. london appears to finally be getting on the bandwagon and if the implementation goes as planned, they expect there to be 6,000 bikes and 400 docks throughout the city next summer! link to the bbc video here.

the metropolis of tomorrow.

2009-10-03T19:15:00.001-07:00

i'd never heard of hugh ferriss before i read the september 2008 issue of dwell magazine. i could write an altogether separate post about how much i love dwell, and i probably will, so i'll save it for now. ;) i discovered hugh ferriss's draughtmanship in the archive section of the magazine, which is one of my favorite sections. i was blown away by the sharp contrast, the gotham-like quality of it all, like king kong could swing off any of the huge skyscrapers, or giant spotlights would careen over the angles of architecture that looked simultaneously sci-fi and stalinesque. his publication, the metropolis of tomorrow from 1986 (it coincided with an exhibit in new york city) foreshadows the cities of the future which, to me, look rather like... dubai.

john king put it right out there in dwell -- "in this age of computer imagery and photoshopped verisimilitude, it's hard to imagine a time when one of the nation's most provocative architectural theorists was an illustrator -- a man who never designed an actual building but instead crafted his visions in charcoal."

i'll also have to check out his tome power in buildings.

...

went down to oshkosh's gallery walk. i like local gallery openings, even though it's rare that i find something that really gets me excited. a friend of mine had a small display in a space on main street and it was fun to see her stuff. plus, she's recently engaged! so, i feel i must emphasize my congrats to her for both the show and the engagement. :) woohoo!

phrazes for the young.

2009-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

on october 20, julian casablancas (better known as the frontman for the strokes) will release his solo debut, phrazes for the young. i've heard the sample song, the first single, 11th dimension, and it is pretty rad! link to his myspace page and the song, plus a few videos here. where the strokes were hailed as the gritty saviors of rock 'n roll at the time they released is this it back in what, 2001? -- julian is taking a new route complete with synths and drum machines on his solo work, and i LIKE IT. if 11th dimension is any representation of the rest of the album, it's going to be a catchy electro-pop party. i'm not sure what this means for the strokes; i cooled to them after room on fire. i'm pretty excited for the 20th. :)

1000 melting men.

2009-10-02T07:30:00.001-07:00

via unurth

artist nele azevedo installed 1000 melting ice men on steps in berlin. the work was done in collaboration with the world wildlife fund as an artistic commentary on global warming. how cool is that? they look like they're all relatively small, but 1000 is no small feat. it would be so awesome if these were life size...

the diving bell and the butterfly

2009-09-30T10:42:00.001-07:00

to be honest, i didn't even know what a diving bell was. i just read this book, after coming across it at work and remembering very acutely how much i wanted to read it after i saw the film when it came out. i was so touched by this story, and by his conviction to write it, and the grace with which he wrote it... i think it's a real contemporary classic, a beautiful testament to the power of the human spirit under circumstances that we can barely begin to imagine. i recommend it to everyone. it's a fast read, but in it brevity is a deep-down soul, and the beauty of this memoir is extreme.

jean-dominique bauby, in the mid 1990s, was the editor-in-chief for french elle magazine. He suffered from a massive stroke which paralyzed almost his entire body, excepting his ability to swivel his head and use his right eye. he suffered from a neurological condition called "locked-in syndrome," in which he could think and interpret clearly, but his entire outer shell was useless and in constant pain. by merely blinking his eye to inidicate letters of the alphabet, caregivers and friends wrote down -- very slowly -- every word he wanted to write and compiled this memoir during his months at a hospital in northern france.

united oil station in los angeles.

2009-09-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

via arch daily

kanner architects out of santa monica designed this united oil gas station in los angeles. okay. there's that, but did you catch the part about it being a gas station? it's unexpected, but i love it! the sweeping futuristic shelter roof over the pumps and the glass cylindrical part of the convenience store are so reminiscent of mid-century california commercial architecture, and yet it's very forward-looking. i love how the car wash has a ramp that gives the whole thing a king of hot wheels racetrack feel, which, i suppose, psychologically amps up drivers, as it's a gas station after all. they can fuel up and go, go, go! anyway. took me totally by surprise today, and even though in my mind i'm thinking, 'but it's a gas station!' it's still pretty awesome.

it officially feels like fall outside, and has for the past couple of days. it's been cold, and dreary, and rather windy. but altogether, fall is my favorite season of the year. i love shopping for sweaters and scarves, and like that the humidity dissipates. i try not to think about how it leads into my least favorite season of the year... ;)

milwaukee does warhol. or does warhol do milwaukee?

2009-09-26T19:18:00.001-07:00

warhol! went down to MAM today to see the first day of andy warhol: the last decade, which was EXCELLENT. a really well-put-together show of a wide range of his works... eggs, ads, rorschachs, collaborations with basquiat, and more. it really was quite excellent. i plan to go again and spend a long while, with an audio guide. i'm that big of a freak.

no photos were allowed in the exhibition itself, but the chairman maos (always a favorite) are in the permanent collection, and i was just as excited to see them again.

and below, a little MAM calatrava action for you on the east end of the building.

also, if ever in milwaukee, check out beans & barley. perfect, hip little cafe and market on milwaukee's east side. reminded me a lot of a market in arcata, california where i used to shop called wildberries, except smaller, and with a cafe. :) had a really wonderful chicken quesadilla there with friends. yum!

september 2008.

2009-09-25T19:48:00.001-07:00

someone sold us a stack of magazines at the bookstore yesterday, and i found this one, from a year ago, with a couple of entertaining articles in it. a) what your stuff reveals about you, and b) the style imperative.

finally, paris.

2009-09-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

i promised to post them... paris in three shots. haha. right. these are all my own, taken in the spring of 2006. :)

copenhagen. (it's just fun to say.)

2009-09-24T08:23:00.001-07:00

via copenhagen street style

...and they wear awesome clothes in europe! i'm feeling like a fashionista this morning because a splurged a little bit at tjmaxx yesterday and bought a pair of black leather boots, a cinch-neck tunic, and a green drape sweater. oh, and a mod little white dish for my new apartment to display beach stones i picked up a couple months ago...

i check street style out in different cities all of the time. you should see me when i'm visiting a city -- i probably pay more attention to the people walking by me than where i'm going. i'm always getting inspiration, and the one pictures above was the one i've most recently found that really strikes my fancy. one, she's wearing almost all black. i love black. i wear it daily, sometimes nothing but. sometimes i wish i could do street trendspotting for a living. that would be rad.

rebecca - daphne du maurier

2009-09-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

i picked up the book 'rebecca' by daphne du maurier a couple of weeks ago when i was shelving carts and carts full of fiction at work. i don't read romance as a rule, but i do enjoy classic literature, and not to mention british period pieces. and all because years ago, maybe 1997? (i was about 12) my mom and i watched pbs's masterpiece theatre version of rebecca with diana rigg as mrs. danvers. ohhhh she was so creepy! really, the only thing i remembered about the entire production was that eerie mrs. danvers. so when i saw the book come in, i snatched it up. and i don't regret it one bit. generally speaking, i've had anywhere from two to five books going at once, a mixture of genres. this was the one i finished first. :)

also, cooking has been a great joy lately. and it's a wonder that a newfound joy of cooking, or all-around food enjoyment, really, has come with a diet. yes, i said it. a diet. a naughty word in my book, always, but since in my mind i look at it as a "project," it seems to hold a little less negative clout. my mom learned from a friend about the fat belly diet, prevention magazine's new big thing. we just started it about three weeks ago, and bought the cookbook a few days ago. my, my, my. since it's all healthy food, you feel guiltless about eating things like olives and blue cheese and pasta... as long as it's in healthy portions. of course! we've loved all of the recipes so far... last night we ate tenderloin steak with roasted potatoes covered in melted blue cheese and walnuts. my other favorite was a whole wheat pesto rigatoni with tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts... or the cioppino! anyway... can't wait to try the chicken pad thai. :)

...and the best part is, i've actually lost about 8lbs already, much of which i'm sure is water weight, but the scale doesn't need to show me twice that it's making a difference. and the jeans are just a little less snug. i'm officially on the healthy bandwagon... and loving it.

neate stuff.

2009-09-17T14:53:00.001-07:00

via uk street art

i should really be getting away from the computer right now, and starting dinner, but i just had to post about adam neate before i do. this guy. yeah. he's got a show coming up at elms lesters painting rooms starting 9 october - 21 november. adam neate: a new understanding. it's in london, of course. my favorite hub for street art of any kind -- this is installation art and multimedia right here. adam neate, i've just discovered. i want to see it in person. the above work, family circle, is one in particular that i would love to study.

the cubist influence is striking, as is the palette. i want to reach in and given them all a hug, and cry with them. neate seems to havean innate ability to emotionally reach out from his surface, grab you by the collar and yank you into the work. on his page at the elms lesters site, check out the concert pianist (2009), or coffee (2008). they're moody and exhilerating. incredible!

henning mankell's kurt wallander.

2009-09-17T07:32:00.001-07:00

henning mankell.

my story with this swedish crime author begins with, unsurprisingly at least to me, masterpiece mystery on pbs. i am absolutely smitten with british crime dramas. i'm smitten with most crime dramas in general (we're talking law & order, some csi, etc.) but british ones... to die for. the camera shots, the length, the mini-series. i'm a sucker for all those agatha christie adaptations of poirot and miss marple! but something altogether different was on several weeks ago... kenneth branaugh starring as kurt wallander. i'd never heard of it.

there are nine kurt wallander novels by henning mankell in print. he's also written several other novels, but i haven't read any of them (yet?). right now i'm half way through the above pictured one, and it's amazing. it's just that the barren-seeming, wind-whipped scanian landscape is perfect for ghastly murders and crime with a real international flair. it's fast-paced, it keeps you hooked, and i feel as though it's been translated pretty well, save only a couple times when i've had to kind of decode sentences in which i think "electric" meant "electronic" or something silly. regardless, it's fun.

since i have an hour of lunch time at my job at the bookstore (you can imagine the stacks of books i acquire for myself and hopelessly stare at in yearning to read them all, if only simultaneously!) i get a lot of reading done. so i'll probably be posting books here quite a lot. all the merrier!

eco children's center in thailanddd.

2009-09-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

via archdaily

this is the coolest place ever!! doesn't it look like something straight out of never never land? designed by 24h > architects, it has an auditorium/cinema, library, art room, music room, and fashion room -- all with an ecological sensibility that's super awesome. it's geared toward visiting children -- connected somehow to a hotel that's nearby on the island of koh kood, thailand. anyway. i wish i had had a place like this to hang out when i was seven years old... they did such an awesome job. i want to go. :D

paris, je t'aime!

2009-09-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

after watching the film paris, je t'aime again the other day -- found a copy at work, how cool! -- i've been in the parisian spirit, i guess. not to mention the last movie i saw in the theatre, julie & julia, also was, almost needless to say, parisian. ;) if you haven't seen paris, je t'aime, you should. eighteen directors craft their interpretations of love in the city of love, or so it goes. and all in about five minutes each! well worth it... gus van sant, wes craven, the coen brothers, gerard depardieu, and more... huge. i love it. check it out.

and in the parisian spirit, i'm just going to pop in a little mention of how much i love european style. and french capital style. a quick look at summer weekend street paris via refinery 29 ...

maybe i'll throw a couple of my own photos from paris up here when i get a chance. soon. :)

sol lewitt installation: complete!

2009-09-10T08:39:00.001-07:00

via gothamist

the 59th street / columbus circle station in new york city has a newly completed sol lewitt installation. looks like a party, doesn't it! it's called "whirls and twirls (mta)." i love station art, having first been turned on to it on the london underground. new york just got a real gem of a work here. check out the link above for more information about the project, and other events involving sol lewitt going on right now in nyc. :)

and speaking of london...

i've been there twice now within the last three years. the first time i studied there for college and spent about three months hanging around the west end for the most part. i just went back this past may with a friend and a little bit by myself, basically revisiting old sites, but exploring quite a bit more too. but OH! how i wish i was going to be there on the 19th! september 19 - 27 is the 2009 london design festival with everything from trafalgar square installations to museum shows, student exhibitions and craft sales! this is DEFINITELY something i'm keeping in mind for next year, and years to come...

marcio kogan.

2009-09-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

via contemporist

it's basically the haute couture of modern residential architecture. marcio kogan's paraty house in brazil, on an island between são paolo and rio de janeiro. basic structure is two concrete boxes, one on top of the other. the above link has some spectacular photographs of both interior and exterior. i just can't get over the stone. i love the stone. this house is practically a modern museum. check out mario kogan's website (it's an awesome site). all of the projects are seriously to die for, plus, there's some other funky stuff to check out on there. i feel like i'd practically exist in an alternate universe if a place like this was my home.

vote for your favorite shelter...

2009-09-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

the design it shelter competition, which partnered with the guggenheim museum, is a contest which challenged participants to design a shelter for different geographic locations around the world. all the submissions are in, and voting started today. participants used google sketchup to design their projects. voting runs until october 20 here, and the winner will be announced on october 21! this is a great idea. i love it.

the london police.

2009-09-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

if you haven't heard of the london police, then i'm going to tell you about them. chaz and bob, two "geezers" from London collaborate on both canvas and street art to make the above -- freaking awesome! -- work. they started back in 1998 in amsterdam trying to spruce up the city streets. opening THIS THURSDAY (september 10, 2009) in los angeles at the carmicheal gallery, their show brothers in arms will be a sure treat. below is a video introduction to these gallant brothers in arms... it's good for a laugh if nothing else. :)

cultural center in lille, fr.

2009-09-05T06:37:00.001-07:00

via yatzer

i think community arts and culture centers are so important to neighborhoods and cities. i don't have much of one here; at least not a central one like some places, or like this one above in lille, france. lille 3000, designed by franklin azzi architects, they turned an old railway station, gare saint-sauveur into an arts center and cafe. it is totally rad! i had to show the photo above because my favorite part about the cafe is the fluroescent lighting, and other photos show it elsewhere too. Gallery space, theatre, outdoor pavement... how much cooler can you get? i would practically live in this place if i was in lille.

jesus was a crossmaker // frida hyvönen

2009-09-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

frida hyvönen. her site.
"jesus was a crossmaker" pitchfork review and listen.

take a listen. gorgeous. pitchfork reviews it well, mind, so i'm just going to have to go with that. frida has a talent and style that i think kind of went out with the 70s, which is when this song was written originally. anyway, a beautiful voice for a beautiful song, and her piano accompaniment is fantastic and moving. i recommend checking out all of her stuff; i had until death comes in my car stereo for a couple of weeks this past spring. good stuff.

wolfe den by mj neal architects

2009-09-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

via contemporist

WOW! 2,400 sq. ft. in austin, tx. by mj neal architects. i love this house. love it. it's my favorite combination of contemporary modern with serious pokes at mid-century. the boxiness reminds me of the eames house. the sand-brick walls are so 1950s i can hardly contain myself. that outdoor fireplace and the wall that the tv hangs on... looks like straight out of an old ranch or something. i'm also big into the wood on the exterior of the house. they took care to construct it out of recycled or responsible materials. a little information is at the link above, or, check out mj neal architects. the ramp house and the twin peaks house projects are two others in their online portfolio that i like quite a lot.

le fotos

2009-09-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

via behance

came across some photography today. this photographer, luca privitera, has a small portfolio on behance.net, and i couldn't help but share. a lot of it is really atmospheric. some is more journalistic, some is more fine art (like above). the above photo is part of a series he titled 'how long a memory?' it's all very mysterious, and some of it very culturally-packed. if that makes any sense whatsoever.. ;)

and while i'm sharing photography, another:

also via behance

kim erlandsen has a couple of collections of architectural photography that i totally dig. these are the kinds of photos i usually take on trips. the symmetry is really fun, and the atmosphere in some of the cityscapes is well-pulled-off. the above photo is from the tokyo collection.

seven days in a bmw

2009-08-29T21:36:00.001-07:00

read about this fantastic book in the new york times' best books of 2008 list... i was meaning to get it for a long time, but then randomly stumbled across it at a thrift store the other day for two bucks! i'm well into it, but not finished, and it's totally engrossing. sarah thornton writes wonderfully, and after reading my other favorite art-world exposé, i bought andy warhol by richard polsky, it's a really fun look again at all of what makes the contemporary art world so crazy and awesome! i'm not even finished with this book, and i recommend it to everyone!

via dezeen

the new bmw concept car... vision efficientdynamics. looks like a dragonfly, and check out the lights in the grill. anyway, love this. bmw is always a favorite. and by the way, no matter what kind of car i have, i want to drive around in those woods.

are they coming back?

2009-08-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

i have a confession to make. jamiroquai is at least one of my favorite bands, if not the favorite band. i love them. the only song that ever made it onto mainstream charts here "virtual insanity" way back in what, 1997? i was 12, so let's be real. i barely cared. but when i was about 16 or 17, one of my friends at work (who is still a close friend today) turned me on to these guys. so that was back in 2001 or so. and for my birthday that year, another friend of mine bought me every album they'd released up to that point. and i was set..

the problem is, or was, that there had been some not-so-secret discontent on the band's part, or at least the frontman, jay kay, with their record label, sony. their contract was up after the release of their last "album" -- more or less a greatest hits compilation with a couple of new tracks tacked on the end. those two tracks, i'm telling you... i used them to hold me over as much as i could, but... my friend and i have been waiting... and waiting... for even the tiniest tidbit of news we could nibble on. suffice it to say, i was reading all of the british newspaper rumors up until now; i wanted so much to believe!

and TODAY!! well, it was posted a couple of days ago, but one of the big fan sites, funkin.com, posted a news item after an interview by derrick mckenzie (drummer) on playvbz.com. what this all culminates in is the very real possibility that within a year, i may be holding a brand new jamiroquai album! mention of a tour was made, but i'm not getting my hopes too high yet for that. i do, after all, live in wisconsin.

via yatzer

the osler house, brazil, by marcio kogan.

i want to be here, right now. i love the modular aspect of it, the pivoted top over the pool. it reminds me of mid-century california architecture, which i suppose is perfect in brazil where it is also sunny and warm. the wooden paneling along the bottom opens up out into the pool; i think this is brilliant! it's warm even when it's closed. it's private and closed-off, but it manages not to look like a gigantic garage door. and i feel like the house as a whole just the right size. any bigger and the size would detract from the details, like those stairs at the end that seem to just float off the end of the house.

and on a final note... i love to take trips. yesterday i hopped in my car, still unsure where to go, though i had been thinking i would do the usual route along the northern edge of the door county peninsula. but i took out my wisconsin map and essentially decided i should just drive to northern michigan. i hadn't been up that way since i took a road trip to canada several years ago. the saab had a full tank of gas, so i drove up through green bay, stopping for a coffee along the way, and then just after hwy 41 veers north of green bay, i got off the highway and followed county roads along the lakeshore. some of the towns were so small i could almost blink and miss them... little suamico must have been so little i didn't even notice it.

i drove to peshtigo, wi., of peshtigo fire fame. i knew next to nothing about the fire, other than that there had been one, and i surmised that it was terrible. but i stopped into the historical society fire museum and a sweet old lady summed up what happened that fateful day in 1871. essentially, the town had been battling forest fires all summer, but that october, wind turned it into a real firestorm, and it wipen out the entire town. i looked around the museum for a while. continued up to marinette/menominee, mi. and continued along the lakeshore on m-35 until i decided that since i didn't really have a destination, and escanaba was just a little too far for my patience, i turned around. grabbed lunch at gas station that served like a camping outpost, grabbed lunch, and found a picnic area near the lake right off the road.

took some country roads back. the photo above is of an old school house on hwy j, north of green bay somewhere. i love old, abandoned buildings, and this one had apple trees growing all around it. it was great to get out for the day, and what a beautiful day it was.

aesthetic apparatus

2009-08-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

i've stumbled across a really fantastic graphic/poster design outfit based in the twin cities. aesthetic apparatus. i'm more into their posters and art prints, but they have a pretty solid portfolio of logo designs and whatnot also. i'm really excited about it; thinking of all the blank white walls i have to fill in a new apartment soon! there are some really fantastic test prints that are super rad.

also, it's no accident that i chose their poster for the march 24, 2009 a.c. newman show. even though i didn't go, a.c. newman is one of the half dozen artists i've been rotating in my ipod for a few months now. i've been a fan of the new pornographers for a long time, and enjoy neko case's solo stuff... a.c. newman is carl newman, also of the new pornographers, making a go at solo. it's good stuff! i'm a huge fan of solo projects! i started listening to him at the same time i re-discovered fleet foxes, and they make a nice mix-tape together, just the two bands.

enough artists to check out now for a while? ;)

just jack and milwaukee warhol mania.

2009-08-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

alright, so here's the deal. if you haven't ever listened to just jack, and you like u.k. music, and you like a good dance beat, WHY haven't you listened to just jack?? ;) jack allsop, a.k.a. just jack has this new album (coming?) out entitled all night cinema. he hasn't made it to u.s. mainstream at all, but i remember listening to his first much more hip-hop-infused debut the outer marker, way back in '03 when i was living out in northern california. i sort of forgot about him then, and for a long time, until one of my buddies asked me one day, "have you heard of just jack? he has a great album out." and it was his latest at the time, overtones, featuring people like kylie minogue and others, and much more electronic. i guess the song "starz in their eyes" had top radio play in the u.k. for a long time. never would have heard that here.

but NOW! since i've been waiting since APRIL... all night cinema has hit the racks, at least in some places, and it's beaten the last two for me. my favorite tracks so far are "embers" (the first single), "253," "the day i died" (the second single) and the instrumental "basement," which has a pounding beat i can't get over. and mind, i don't even listen to techno! you can hear clips from tracks and learn more about him here.

... onto the art world, ever-blossoming in wisconsin...

september 26, 2009!! you know where i will be? i will be in milwaukee, at the milwaukee art museum, checking out their new show andy warhol: the last decade... YESSS. someone i work with mentioned this is passing the other day, and i had actually not heard about it! i know! no idea. so there will be a day trip in order to go see that show. and maybe see it again, before it takes off on its national tour. i hope it's good.

below i've included a video that i like a lot. andy warhol eating a hamburger. it's so random, and like most things, that's why it's so great. plus, i like the sound emphasis on the bags and wrappers. it's just so... andy.