A Van She Christmas

This is the first Christmas in years that my Grandmother has spent with our family and this song has been stuck in my head for the last week. With all of those irritating jingles out there, I am humming 'You go sexual city,' Merry Christmas!

Van She - Sex City (live) [youtube]
Van She - Sex City [zshare]

Art in Words

I was formally introduced to Ed Ruscha's 50 years of painting last night at the Hayward Gallery and he made an excellent impression. Ruscha falls into the group of my few and favorite artists whose unique perspective is not only groundbreaking but simple, like they are able to see the world from an obvious vantage point before anyone else realizes its there.

His cross-sections of words in art and art in words are not only easy viewing but speak to the flexibility of genres from advertising to exhibitions, a reflection of his pop art origins. In fact they are all the kind of pieces one might want in their own home.

His most recent work an interpretation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road would have been interesting but I am sorry to say I missed it! Below are a few images from the Hayward exhibition:

A 13 Year Old and The Mill

A few notable additions to the blog roll:

http://themilltheblog.com/

THE MILL BLOG: This is the culture blog for Trinity College in Hartford Connect. While at first I was hesitant to add it to my blog roll because of my fundamental issues with camp trintrin, as the Mill's president put it "We're trying to change trinity because we all have fundamental issues with it too."

http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/

STYLE ROOKIE: What does a girl have to do to meet Karl Lagerfeld? Start blogging at age 11. Tavi Gevinson has generated more hype in the fashion world than I ever managed in middle school gym class. Her style is eccentric and her writing clever, you can also see her photo shoot in Pop Magazine this month.

The Detail it takes to Disappear

Below are a few images of Liu Bolin, a new contemporary artist to keep an eye out for. Bolin views his work as a protest against the dark side of a society that lets people disappear. He works with assistants and his project can involve standing still for hours on end. Despite previously having his studio closed by the Chinese government, he is currently working in Beijing.

Triangle Walks

Photo Source

View slide show here

I knew that I could get my hopes up for last nights Fever Ray gig in Kentish Town, when her music video made its way onto The Moment last week. Like the video suggests, the performance was haunting and unique. When I heard the album, I did not know what to expect, but I found the show fascinating.

The stage was speckled with old fashioned lamp shades which blinked with the music while lasers and mirrors attempted to take away from the headdresses adorning every member of the band. The entire space smelled of incense, the haze of smoke never lifted and the music is hugely sensational in its own right.

I will admit that my primary reason for going to see Fever Ray was because I am terrified The Knife will never tour again, but that is not giving Fever Ray enough credit, if you have an opportunity see them live, don't miss it.

Fever Ray - If I had a Heart [mp3]

Fever Ray- Triangle Walks (Tiga remix) [mp3]

The Knife- Hearbeats [zshare]

Please note: If anyone does not own the song hearbeats, it is a must download.

The Power of Portraits

Ever since I first studied art history, I have had a certain fascination with portraiture. The attempts and the successes produced when an artist captures a person in an image is always interesting to pick apart.

Richard Avedon spent five days in the UN photographing some the most powerful people in the world and the slide show of their images is not be missed. The article appears in this weeks New Yorker and slide show is available on the New Yorker Website.

Can you imagine if John Singer Sargent had the opportunity to paint Muammar Qaddafi? Maybe I should keep my portrait dreams to myself..

5 Years 2 Minutes 20 Seconds

Serge Gainsbourg - animation des graffitis sur 5 ans du mur rue de Verneuil

from Arnaud Jourdain on Vimeo

A short film of the layers of graffiti outside Serge Gainsbourg former home in Paris.

Dirty Songs for Sad Lovers

I bought the new The National album the week it came out, and I highly recommended it for anyone who is a fan of the indie group and/or Matt Berninger beautiful voice. While it is more dynamic than their previous albums, I still do not love Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers the way I love Boxer. However it should noted, that it may be my favorite album title of all time.

Start with this track and see it goes:

90 Mile Water Wall - The National [zshare]

So Long SHUNT

Its a sad day when the only club-art instillation hybrid in an abandoned train station closes. That day is today. With different artists and performers every evening, SHUNT was always an interesting place for a drink and was packed this past Thursday with the end so near.

In a city obsessed with guest lists and members clubs, the queue for SHUNT speaks to it's egalitarian door policy; it doesn't matter who you are, you have to be here before 11:00 and you have to wait to get in. Apparently the minds behind the magic are looking for a new venue, but its hard to say where another cavernous space exists that is just waiting to be filled with surprises around every dark corners.

SHUNT's front entrance in London Bridge train station

So long SHUNT

364 Days

"Once again they gave the worst job to a black man..."

One year tomorrow since the election, and the critiques are rolling in from all corners of the media. While Obama has managed some passing grades with expectations like his, there should have never have been a recession, right? Seeing as he has not actually been in office for one year, waiting until January for another round of report cards seems fair. And remember six years ago this time, the US had not 'occupied' Iraq for one year yet, and the only war Obama has started is on Fox News.

She Wolf vs. She Wolf

A latino goddess and an indie white boy, both are worth a download:

Shakira - She Wolf [zshare]

She Wolf- The Violet Hour [zshare]

More Kapoor

I will fully admit to being a fadist, but this is for anyone who missed the Cloud Gate reference in my last Kapoor post.

A Poem for Last Week

I retired my copy of Lunch Poems today for a new handbag book of poetry. Poems are the best kind of subway reading, and I cannot recommend Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara highly enough (it even fits in my smallest handbags).

FIVE POEMS

Well now, hold on
maybe I won't go to sleep at all
and it'll be a beautiful white night
or else I'll collapse
completely from the nerves and be calm
as a rug or bottle of pills
or suddenly I'll be in Montauk
swimming and love it and not caring where

• 
  

an invitation to lunch
HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT?
when I only have 16 cents and 2
packages of yoghurt
there's a lesson in that, isn't there
like in Chinese poetry when a leaf falls?
hold off on the yoghurt till the very last,
when everything may improve

• 
  

at the Rond-Point they were eating
an oyster, but here
we were dropping by sculptures
and seeing some paintings
and the smasheroo-grates of Cadoret
and music by Vaese, too
well Adolph Gottlief I guess you
are the hero of this day
along with venison and Bill

I'll sleep on the yoghurt and dream of the Persian Gulf

• 
  

which I did it was wonderful
to be in bed again and the knock
on my door for once signified "hi there"
and on the deafening walk
through the ghettos where bombs have gone off lately
left by subway violators
I knew why I love taxis, yes
subways are only fun when you're feeling sexy
and who feels sexy after The Blue Angel
well maybe a little bit

• 
  

I seem to be defying fate or am I avoiding it?

-Frank O'Hara 1960

Been Waiting a Long Time for Bye Bye

There are few bands I follow as closely as LCD Soundsystem, and there are few bands who have had so little activity in the last few years to follow. Thankfully, the new album is out in November, and in the mean time an amuse bouche:

LCD Soundsystem - Bye Bye Bayou [zshare]

A Sculpture Says a Thousand Words

"I have often said that I have nothing to say as an artist. Having something to say implies that one is struggling with meaning. The role of the artist is in fact that we don't know what to say, and it is that not knowing that leads to the work." -Anish Kapoor

Slug

Svayambh

Tall Tree and the Eye

Ever since I saw Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate reflecting all of down town Chicago, I have wanted to see an exhibition of his work and the Royal Academy of Arts finally provided me with the opportunity. Kapoor's sculptures play on instillation and are like magnets interacting with their viewers; from small children to my date, it was easy to find visitors to the gallery guiltily looking around before quickly reaching out to touch the art. His pieces are a wonderful balance of organic forms and synthetic materials, which like a new species of plant feel oddly natural and totally foreign. Kapoor is one conemporaty artist whose work I will believe will be survive into future generations.

Shooting into the Corner

Every 20 minutes a canon would be loaded with red wax and shot into another room of the gallery. I pity the intern who has to clean the thirty tons of wax, which will be splattered all over the walls of the Royal Academy for the duration of the exhibition.

The Chicken or the Egg

I found this picture on PMA and the song a few weeks ago on a different blog; its hard to say which is responsible for this post. Although Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is ancient history in blogosphere years, this remix is not to be missed:

Rome (Neighbors remix feat. Devendra Banhart) - Phoenix [zshare]

Everyone's a Winner

"The nobel prize for lack of chemistry went to John McCain and Sarah Palin"
- David Letterman

Koons in Covent Garden

This is the closest I will get to a thanksgiving day parade this year

Black White Yellow

An entire basement of used books for 50p some of which are arranged by color. It has everything and nothing you ever wanted, stop by on your way to Portobello.

28 Pembridge Rd, W11 3HL

What's in a Name

Having stepped down as Governor, Sarah Palin has written her memoirs entitled 'Going Rogue: An American Life,' which will be available in mid-November. I am admittedly very curious to see what Palin will have come up in the last few months which is ready for publication, and I am not alone. Amazon as well as Barnes & Nobles have seen significant pre-release sales.

When Palin's political career began to decline, maybe when she 'went rogue' I secretly hoped she would stay in the public eye. She makes Jon Stewart's life easier with her never ending supplying of increasingly comical poor decisions. Like the fact that she named her book after the title of a Slate article, which was less than flattering. I doubt John Dickerson has already ordered a copy of his namesake.

Home Town Hero

Cleveland's most recent export has managed to make a few

worthwhile friends in the world of electronica:

Kid Cudi - Day n' Night (Crookers Remix) [zshare]

Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness (featuring MGMT & Ratatat) [zshare]

Walking in my Mind

The Hayward Gallery's summer exhibition was entitled Walking in My Mind, and it included the works of ten artists given a space to turn into their imagination. From polka dots to porn every room was completely different, but entertaining none the less.

Jason Rhoade's imagination almost smelled like a boys room, but I appreciated how straightforward him and Thomas Hirschhorn were about the amount of junk that piles up. My surprise favorite was Charles Avery, a young Scottish artist whose work I will continue to look for.

I loved the nature of the exhibition because it directly required the artists to indulge in their inner monologue. Unfortunately, the exhibition was an instillation and all the pieces of the different creative processes have been taken down, but here are a few picture that I was not allowed to take.

A man in a suite in Chiharu Shiota's web

Yayoi Kusama's expression of her hallucinations

Charle's Avery's infinity chamber

Yayoi Kusama

Vampire Weekend and a Penguin

At the Lock Tavern this past Tuesday, I happened upon Chris the bass player from Vampire weekend performing a free DJ set, and an Australian man in a penguin costume. Chris played Discovery's So Insane, which I requested (and blogged about before); he pleasantly responded to my request with 'I'm the bass player.'

Americana: Indians Abroad

There are few minorities who have fought the politically correct battle as well as the Native Americans. Teachers across the US will correct their students when they refer to the many individual tribes as Indians. Sports teams have changed mascots in order not to offend misrepresented descendants in their fan base. And the stories of cowboys and Indians are mostly left to twentieth century Hollywood.

However apparently in the interest of selling CDs, not just one group but multiple groups of buskers at the Edinburgh fringe embraced all of the classic stereotypes. There were tomahawks, huge headdresses, dream catchers and plenty of flute dominated music, when these musicians clad in animal skins took to the streets.

Apparently the PC battle is yet to go global, but it might have to if the Scottish children keep crying out, "look Mummy, red indians."

Old School for September

Both Pretty Much Amazing and Pitchfork published their best songs of the decade in August, a little prematurely, but its a lazy month and reading best of lists is always surprisingly satisfying. These rankings were primarily a reminder of old friends but also ideal for discovering a few tracks from years past.

My new (old) favorites for fall:

Roisin Murphy – Ramalama (Bang Bang) [mp3]

Sufjan Stevens - Chicago [mp3]

Poseidon Outshines in the Return of Ulysses

Image Source guardian.co.uk

The Royal Ballet of Flanders's production of the Return of Ulysses in Edinburgh not only managed to beautifully balance contemporary choreography with classical ballet, but did so without taking itself it to seriously. Poseidon graces the stage in a tutu and flippers, while Athena acts as mistress of ceremonies in gold, and Penelope resists her suitors constant attention while awaiting for Odysseus to return. A familiar story in an entertaining light, not be missed.

A few from the Edinburgh Festival

Looking up the royal Mile

Upside-down on Princes Street

Bubblegum busking: Jakil [MySpace]

When I moved to Scotland, it was in September and Edinburgh was just coming down from its festival high. I have been meaning to go the festival for the last five years, and it did not disappoint. Although it had been described to me many times, the magnitude of the event was still a surprise.

Anyone who is interested in the performing arts or counts the Avant-garde amongst their guilty pleasures, should make an effort to experience the festival.

Official Sites: Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Festival

My Mecca

I have never seen so much cheese in one place.