I really love Clayton Cubitt’s blog The Constant Siege, I read it everyday and I just get a general good vibe about the guy. So I saw this excerpt on his blog from something he posted on his blog on Nerve and I thought it was really great. The original piece is basically words of advice relating to photography and life in general. What he wrote down made me laugh though:

- Rules were meant to be broken, yes, but it feels much better if you know what the rules were in the first place. Picasso started as a realist. Once he had that down he could paint whatever he wanted. Be like Picasso. He got laid a lot.

- Expensive gear won’t make your images better, and more gear won’t make you more effective. If you can’t do it with a basic camera, you can’t do it. The simplest 10% of a camera does 90% of the work. The rest is cock-waving for specialists. That short, aging bald guy in the red sports car? The one with erectile dysfunction? That’s your fancy camera.

- What makes up a style? Find a photographer you really admire and rip him off mercilessly.Consider it a remote apprenticeship. This is the history of culture. One day you’ll accidentally start doing original work, and then some young punk will start ripping you off. And the cycle of life is continued…

For more of these check out the entry here.

Bobby

OMG, this is way fun for a Friday afternoon when you know all you want to do is go home. UT LOOP! is the newest creation from the folks over at Uniqlo, one of the finest Japanese clothiers. They also happen to destroy when it comes to viral marketing, as you can see above. UT LOOP! is basically sounds made by 9 different folks that you then combine to turn into little ditty. It’s like the music editor in Mario Paint but for the 21st century.

My loop is silly, but I like the rhythm of it. I also like ending with the fun UT kids, they were kind of my favorite sounds. I also love that the video of them making the sounds plays along as well, a nice detail. Go take 10 minutes and make yourself a loop!

My loop isn’t working, I don’t know why, but that’s rather annoying.

Bobby

You Can Do Better Than Me by Death Cab for Cutie

Bixby Canyon Bridge by Death Cab for Cutie

I’m happy to admit that I’m that guy who says he only likes a band’s “older stuff”, but I think there’s a validity to that. If a band has a life of 10 years or so, obviously their sound can change. And if anything, I get sad when my favorite bands release records that I don’t like, I don’t care about how cool they are I just want an awesome record. Upon hearing the first single from Death Cab for Cutie’s new album, Narrow Stairs, I was totally mortified. I Will Possess Your Heart is and 8 and half minute guitar jam that ends with some horrible vocal arrangements. Don’t get me wrong, I love guitar jams, Blue Line Swinger by Yo La Tengo is one of my all time favorite songs and that sucker comes in at over 9 minutes, but this new single was quite disheartening.

Nonetheless, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to listen to the new album. And well, it’s pretty dang good. The album starts out extremely strongly with Bixby Canyon Bridge, starting out crisp like DCFC songs usually do, and then the guitars kick in and things get serious. Gone is the pussyfooting around of the last album, and back to the more raw and lo-fi sound that they used to have. Skipping past I Will Possess Your Heart leads to No Sunlight, a poppy tune with slightly cheeseball lyrics, but the piano in the background makes me love it.

Then there’s Cath…, a song that feels much more like old DCFC. What really stands out on this track is the drums, much more creative and up front, something they used to do a lot more in their older stuff (think of A Movie Script Ending). Talking Bird is more of a mellow somber song, that then leads into the one of the best damn songs on this album, You Can Do Better Than Me. This song is possibly one of the best songs they’ve ever written, with Beach Boys-esque drums, piano melody and an organ providing a good backing. The song lyrically is not happy, nor is the title, but the music itself will make you instantly happy, I guarantee it.

Grapevine Fires is another gem on the album with some great backing vocals and a nice drum beat to it. The song talks about the fires here in Los Angeles along the Grapevine, a stretch of freeway that connects the Los Angeles area to the northern part of California (for those who aren’t from around here). Your New Twin Sized Bed is a good song, but I think it’s weird that he had Brothers on a Hotel Bed and now this… c’mon Ben, there’s lots of things to write about. Long Division is another really great song on the album, sounding like it could have been off of The Photo Album almost. Pity and Fear is not one of my favorites, it’s slightly electronic with a sort of Conga beat to it, I’m just not feeling it at all. But the album ends with The Ice Is Getting Thinner, a somber little ballad that ends how I think a DCFC album should end. It kind of reminds me of Coney Island.

Overall this album gets 7 or 8 out of 10, if I was to give it any sort of rating. It’s not perfect, nor is it the best album of the year, but it’s a really great step in a good direction, and something definitely worth taking a listen to. Now DCFC needs to call Modest Mouse and tell them to get their shit together and I’ll be REALLY happy.

Narrow Stairs comes out on May 13th through Atlantic Records.

Bobby

I never thought I’d be posting another Penguin Books story, but they’ve totally upped their game as of late! Following on the heels of their Shepard Fairey redesigned covers they’ve decided to redesign the covers of all the James Bond books in honor of (what would have been) Ian Fleming’s 100th birthday. The covers were created by illustrator Michael Gillette and feature beautiful women, a well-known vice of James Bond, with beautiful type artfully placed over their body.

The covers themselves are great, perfectly minimal, but they’ve also thought about the spines as well, adorning them with silhouettes of women and a good numbering system to keep your collection in order. I think this redesign is so successful, it works on so many levels. These are going to be released in hardback on May 29th, and you may just want to pick up the entire set just to have the hottest bookshelf ever.

Bobby

About 5 years ago I worked at a comic shop and it was one of the best jobs I ever had. I worked with this guy Rex who totally made it even more fun, and while we both liked comic books, we were not nerds, or at least compared to some of the people who came into the shop. In the store, we had a toy section, and in the toy section was a sale section where I found a Captin Jean Luc Picard action figure. He came with cloth clothing, which I decided to take off, leaving him only wearing his boots which also earned him the name, ‘Nude Picard’. Nude Picard would fight other toys all the time, being so bad ass he didn’t have to wear clothes, even though the dorks and geeks that strolled through the shop thought this was the most ridiculous thing they’d ever seen.

Storm Troopin’, a set of Flickr by Cindi G., totally reminds me of those days. Basically what she’s done is set up a bunch of Storm Trooper action figures in ridiculous (but well photographed) set-ups and started posting them onto her Fllickr. What’s most funny I think is that she treats them like small people. She doesn’t try to pretend that they’re full sized, they’re tiny storm trooper people who have feelings just like you and me!

My favorite is TK-315, who is always photographed with his coffee mug, as you can see above. The way she cocks their helmets and positions their bodies gives them a real sense of movement and life. If you need a good chuckle, definitely check out her photos!

These photos have been floating around the web for a few days now but I really enjoyed them so I thought I’d share them. Photographer Bill Henson was inspired by the idea of sitting in a dark space. like an opera. for a special performance. The performance being waited for in the pictures is the Paris Opera, which provided for some really interesting subjects. The photos themselves are pretty surreal and almost ethereal, the people in them looking bored or aloof because of the angles created by looking down on the performance itself. I also love the colors and the depth of the blacks, they’re so intense and unlike anything I’ve really seen.

Be sure to check out the more photos over on Shoot The Blog.

Bobby

There are a ton of good art shows this weekend, too many for me to post about individually, so I thought I’d do more of a round-up and sum things up better. Most of the shows take place around L.A., but one is in San Francisco and one is in Brooklyn, but all of them are awesome.

Thursday, May 8th 2008

Fellow Traveler - 8 pm
Featuring Justin Fines, Dan Funderburgh, and Kevin Devine

Fellow Traveler is new work by three Brooklyn artists originally from the American midwest. Like many immigrants, they celebrate their shared origins, but are also interested in where their individual paths diverge. Fellow Traveler are not adherents to a school or aesthetic, they are sympathetic allies with a shared perspective that refuse to be limited or defined by geography.

Click here for more info.

Friday, May 9th 2008

Your Mom’s In My Business - 6 to 10 pm
Featuring Kevin Lyons

Kevin Lyons was one of my favorite designers back in the day, seeing how he was the brains behind Urban Outfitters back then, and his hand drawn fonts were like a dream. Since then he’s been working I’m sure, but I haven’t heard of anything from him a while. So it’s exciting to see that he’s having a new show with all sorts of new work. Some guy named Dj Susreshot is gonna be there as well, so it should be a good time.

Click here for more info.

ARTribe - 7 to 10 pm
Featuring a bunch of young artists

The ARTribe organization is made up of Los Angeles high school students dedicated to raising money for a worthy cause by promoting artwork created by fellow high school students at the Santa Monica Art Studios. Our event will showcase the work of talented local teenagers determined to make a difference in the world through their creativity. Photography, sculpture, film, drawings, and paintings selected by a panel of artists and jurors will be on exhibition. The art will be on display in the generous space afforded by Studio 1. Artwork will be made available for sale at the event and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the S.P.I.R.A.L Foundation.

Click here for more info.

Forever and Never - 6 to 9 pm
Featuring Michael Sieben and Nat Swope

An ongoing collaborative print project between Michael Sieben and Nat Swope exhibiting 20 - 12″ x 12″ prints.
Framed and unframed prints will be for sale. $30 - $100

How could you pass up a show like that?

Click here for more info.

Saturday, May 10th 2008

Scion Art Tour 4 - 8 to 10 pm
Featuring Andrew Pommier, Andy Mueller, Angela Boatwright, Blaine Fontana, Blek LeRat, Books llll, Caia Koopman, Chris Yormick, Cody Hudson, Dalek, David Choe, Eye One, Francesco LoCastro, Freddi C, J. Shea, James Jean, Jeff Soto, Joshua Krause, Kelsey Brookes, Kenton Parker, Kofie, Mel Kadel, Michael Sieben, Mike Giant, Rammellzee, RETNA, R. Grimes, Ron English, Sam Flores, Sage Vaughn, Skwerm, Tim McCormick, Travis Millard, and The London Police

Scion’s Installation 4, “It’s A Beautiful World,” will open in
Los Angeles, the last of nine cities on the national tour, on May 10. The innovative Scion
Installation Art Tour launched its fourth installment last July and features a diverse array of
artists from around the world. The theme, “It’s a Beautiful World,” was interpreted by each
artist, in one of four mediums— painting, photography, sculpture, and collage. The culmination of the tour is accompanied by a live auction where all of the artwork will be auctioned off to the public, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go toward art related charities.

Click here for more info.

Bobby

Photos have popped up from The Cans Festival, an old grunge-y tunnel filled with amazing art and graffiti including none other than the king of witty street art, Banksy. It looks like it was quite a show, with art covering nearly every inch of the tunnel. It even looks like anyone could come in and stencil certain parts of the show, making it interactive as well.

Banksy’s section is pretty epic, with giant stencils, overturned cars (even though Barry McGee did it first) and even his statue of David with a bullet proof vest. Definitely check out Romanywg’s Flickr Set to see a ton of good looking photos from the event.

Bobby

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday again! With all the moving it the time went by so fast. Anyhow, this week’s artist is the amazing Kelsey Brookes, a guy who is not only an amazing painter, but a rather nice guy as well. Kelsey hails from San Diego where he used to be a scientist, but that went out the door and now he paints incredibly detailed and beautiful pieces of art.

Kelsey made the wallpaper above from a piece he did for the Semi-Permanent event in Sydney, but I figured that about 4 of you have probably ever seen this and you all would love it. As per usual the image has tons of details and and the most amazing choices in colors. I love the area around the skull at the top, like an old blanket you might find in your grandparent’s house. Also be sure to check out the iPhone wallpapers as well, the amount of detail in them is pretty rad.

I also wanted to let all the bay area folks Kelsey is having an opening at White Walls this Saturday from 7 to 10 pm with A.J. Fosik which looks pretty rad. White Walls seems to be a pretty rad gallery space with a ton of great artists having shows in the next few months, so if you’re in SF this weekend be sure to stop by and say hello!
And as usual check back next week for another awesome wallpaper!

Bobby

The folks over at Curbed have a nice gallery of photos showing the construction going on the High Line. From the looks of it there’s still a long way to go, but they’re making some good progress so far.

For those who don’t know, the High Line used to be an elevated railway used by freight trains that went into disuse in the 80’s. But a group of concerned citizens called Friends of the High Line decided to put this old landmark to use and proposed to turn the space into an elevated park. I’m a huge fan of taking existing spaces and making them new and exciting again, so I’m really excited to see this project come to a conclusion. Parts of the High Line might be finished by this summer, but as far as I can tell there’s no FINAL final date.

Bobby