October 05, 2003
Ono/McGinness
Dietch Projects overflowed itself once again, with and Yoko Ono openings on the same night at the two Soho spaces. Perfect opportunity to run into old friends...
Actually between the crowds was some decent art. Ono pretty much followed a two part formula. 1- if you can't make it good, make it big. 2- pimp John Lennon's shit until she dies. Really it was better then it sounds. "Imagine Peace was the theme, the photos where absolutely enormous, impressive solely on their size, but impressive none the less. The human size animal traps would have been cooler if they actually worked. The blood and rag covered refugee camp was truly disturbing. No idea what the giant shoes where doing in there... Not exactly coherent, but yeah its not as bas as it sounds.
McGinness is more interesting though, walking the graphic design/art border tighter then anyone. As an artist? Well his stuff looks good. Really nice silkscreens, they'd match a lot of couches. Aesthetically its all good. But should they be limited editions or one offs just to up their retail value? If that's what it takes to get paid, sure I guess. But damn why not reproduce? I'm all for artists getting paid big dollars, but the artificial scarcity bit still turns me off. Plus McGinness is a way smarter designer then artist, the creativity shines a lot brighter inside the books.
October 02, 2003
Un Animation Du TechnoHouse Musique
In July 1993 I took a Techno Sound-system to West Africa and made a documentary.
dammmmnnnnn! read the whole jammy, you hear?
The film is available too, although it seems to be served off some 56k line or something. Can't wait to peep.
[via GUTTERBREAKZ]
September 28, 2003
September 22, 2003
Renewable Brooklyn
On October 4, 2003 from 3-10pm, DJs and bands will participate in a groundbreaking use of renewable energy, performing in an arena powered by off-set wind power.
Renewable Brooklyn looks interesting, they are promoting what looks to be a good event in every aspect except the $24 ticket price...
The lineup:
2 Many DJ¹s (Soulwax)
Handsome Boy Modeling School
(Dan the Automator and Prince Paul)
Richard Fearless (Death In Vegas)
Radio 4
Out Hud
Head Automatica
(Glassjaw members and Dan the Automator)
Dark.Light Projections
Jonny Cragg- Host
All sort of renewable resources being promoted, looks like a pretty impressive combination of environmental activism, community development and creativity. If its a benefit then yeah its worth the dollars.
September 15, 2003
A Few Hours in the LES
Spent a few hours blasting through some of the finest that the Lower East Side has to offer, here is the quickness:
Schiller's Liquor Bar:
Rolled up at 1pm on a Sunday and got a table for two with no delay, full but no wait for Sunday brunch only two weeks in to a McNally restaurant. Not the greatest sign, but they'll make bank anyway. The fabled McNally attention for detail was on full display. Unfortunately this time the focus was on making a restaurant look exactly like by elementary school bathrooms. Then again I went to elementary school in New York City and the out of towners will probably be impressed by the McNally effort. Service was excellent, food was good and only overpriced by a few dollars. Go to Pastis instead.
Alife Rivington Club:
Finally made it to this over hyped marketing ploy. Everything I had heard made it seem like the selling sneakers in a English private club environment was a brilliant bit of irony. No its far scarier, its part a larger movement to turn hip hop into an aristocratic space. Scary. Sneaker hunting used to be about exploration, digging through shoe stores that time forgot for the gems. Now its about who you know, getting on the good side of the clerics at the snotty sneaker stores and kissing the right marketing droids ass. Wack. They had a couple nice shoes for sure, but this custom Dunks and Air Force's shit has got to go. Past its half life already, snake print or no, these are still out of date shoes. Fashion is rapidly approaching a point of no return, where trends are over before they start. Who want to bet on the life cycle of those mini fedoras replacing mesh on the hipsterati heads?
Guss' Pickles:
Still number one, the Pickle Guy is good, but Guss' is the best hand's down, legs spread.
il laboratorio del gelato:
God damn, this was unexpected. Pickles and ice cream, must be knocked up... No seriously this is the most subtle ice cream I've ever encountered in a store front. Slamming.
September 12, 2003
September 10, 2003
blackSpots
blackSpot sneakers: rethink the cool
Yes! Finally, this is something that's needed to happen for a long time. Activists love to go after Nike like the company is sitting on a mountain of cocaine and the activists need a fix. I agree strongly with these activists on some issues and disagree with them just as strongly on others. Regardless I as so damn down with what they are doing with blackSpot.
This is protest as it should be done. There is a space for criticism, especially of the constructive sort. But bitching and moaning will only get you so far. And boycotts and protests will only get you another inch or two farther. If you have a problem with a product or company then the constructive path is to build a better product.
Now I have certain doubts and issues with their approach, and similar issue with their parents at Adbusters, but that is for another post. Right now I am here to praise them. I once spent an entire day researching alternatives to Nike. The short version? There are Nike's on my feet right now.
The Longer? Well, most sneakers are built in sweatshops and even if they aren't the products they are made of probably are. Even if they aren't its almost impossible to prove it given the messy chain of suppliers involved, information that is often not publicly available anyway.
The only really sweatshop free sneakers are made in the US or Europe, and personally I like my money going all over the world, even if it risks funding a sweatshop or two. Plus the two US made sneaker brands are Sausony and New Balance. Now Sausony makes great shoes, but every pair I've owned has warn out at the rear inside corner of the sole within a few months. They just aren't made for my feet. As for New Balance, lets just say you couldn't make an uglier sneaker if you wrapped an insole in plaster then ran over it with a tractor while a dog humps it. I'll take my Nike's instead please, size 11 thank you.
But now we have an alternative in the mix. More importantly it sets the stage for a whole new breed of protest and transformation of the world. Finally activists might start waking up and realize that capital is a tool not the enemy. I'll be writing a lot more about this in the near future.
September 07, 2003
Creativity Yesterday (and..)
Spent the better part of yesterday at Tokion Magazine's Creativity Now Conference. The short? Well I'm writing this rather then attending today... No it's not really that bad, just not feeling today's line up much yesterday was actually pretty good.
Highlight was definitely "Branding America to the Muslim World" with Abderrahim Foukara of Al-Jazeera and Robert Tappan of the US Office of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. First off I have to respect Tappan for walking straight into enemy territory, he didn't have to do this panel. And part of him seems to actually have some good ideas, he genuinely is aware of the need for dialogue between the muslim and western worlds. And then? Utter failure. Be showed about 10 minutes of the propaganda our country is trying to push into Muslim countries, and god it was awful. No one's buying this product...
What really made Tappan the fool was his defensiveness. He could have just admitted the product was crap and obviously propaganda, but instead he tried to justify, does he truly think that this shit is authentic? The bulk of the videos were real footage, shot of Muslims in America, none of who will be movie stars anytime soon. But really who cares is a dozen Muslims like living in America, we know there is a serious discrimination issue in this country, and our actions in the Middle East speak for themselves...
Abderrahim Foukara on the other hand, was quite a treat. A rare bridge between the west and the "Arab street". He spoke of the schizophrenic nature of people's relation to America, the simultaneous embracing and rejection of culture and technology. Not to mention Israel, and tone deaf actions of the American government has lead so many in the Arab world as seeing it as pro-Israel, and more importantly anti-Arab. As for solutions as a journalist he offered none, not a happy answer.
Perhaps most interesting of all was talking to him about the disjunction between the Al-Jazeera reporters in America and the Al-Jazeera broadcast image. Obviously there was a lot he couldn't say as an employee, but the implications were clear. Al-Jazeera as a network shades anti-American as a selling point. It brings in the viewers. But it also seemed clear that he and the other Al-Jazeera reporters in the west took a much more moderated view of America. Is this the same tension we see in US newsrooms, or a larger cultural issue?
Highlight 2 was on a different tip. Can't say I had high expectations of Peter Saville's talk, he's got a cavalier rep and apparently was awful last time round NY. But he shined this time, not nearly as much as a prick as he's made out to be, although there is some rock star their. But he came with stories from the frontlines and they were worth listening too. Sure sounds like he caught a couple lucky breaks, but what successful person hasn't?
The most interesting of his observations was that design has over taken British culture, its replacing advertising as a way to sell product. Ads are now humorous entertainment, while design is what moves the products off the shelf. Didn't go into the ramifications, but I can think of both good and bad from this.
The other interesting point was on the difference in corporate vs street design in the US and UK. His take on the UK has design being mainly consumer driven, the people want it and get it (in both senses of the phrase). Big business on the other hand is somewhat behind the curve (although that insidious BP logo indicates otherwise to me.)
In the US Saville argues (or maybe just muses), it is the corporations that understand the power of design, while on the street we just put up and put up with any old crap. Case to point perhaps is that the BP logo was actually designed by the SF office of Landor Associates. But we digress, the main point of Saville's talk was that being a rock start designer sounds pretty damn fun. Someday...
Speaking of fun, highlight 3 was the hip hop history lession with Kool Herc, Melle Mel and Phase 2. Nothing new here kids, but its always good to here the legends speak, even if they were the token minorities in a otherwise white day...
And on the white side of things, who the fuck decided to put 5 white men on stage for a panel entitled "The Commodification of Street Art"? Not that it was a bad panel, its certainly had its moments. But damn it could have been a lot better. For one, a real moderator would have helped, future conference organizers please take note, its best to have a separate moderator for each panel, one who really knows their shit preferably.
The big issue with this panel though was that there was no dissenting voice, Ryan McGinness tried for a second, but he was on the wrong panel (he really should have been switched with ESPO who is on a pop icon panel today). McGinness does get props for shouting out Wooster Collective on stage, holla! Jeffrey Deitch and Wieden + Kennedy's John Jay both are seriously sharp men, with a lot to say. But they where kicking pitches, not exploring the issue.
Deitch got the deepest, talking about how artists in the 70's where able to subvert the museum system with the work they placed into it, and called on artists today to subvert the advertising system with the work they inject into it. A nice sentiment... but seriously I want to hear about tactics.
Jay being an ad man, and very successful one, had the fullest pitch. He came across as genuinely committed to building strong working relationships with artists in an ad context. And the Skwerm/Nike video he showed was indeed some sick shit. I tend to agree with him up to a point, there certainly are situations where corporate cash handled by the right people, can help out the art world and their are certainly worse places that cash can go. But its situational not sustainable. It reminds me a bit of music biz. The right relation between A&R, marketing and the artist can be amazing for all involved. But 9 times out of 10 it doesn't happen. With results a bit like say Electric Moyo...
Which brings us to the tragedy of the day, Shepard "Obey Giant" Fairey. Let me start out by saying I've met Shep a few times, and even had the good fortune to go out on a pasting run with him, and can easily say he's one of the more genuine people I've ever encountered. But the sense I'm getting is that he's in over his head, and watching him tread water on stage was not a pleasant experience. More then anything Shep seemed to be trying to justify his actions to himself. Bottom line when he needs the cash he does the work. And honestly Shep seems to have more issues with it then me and I think most of the audience. But by blurring the lines between his work for money, and personally work he's created a giant trap for himself. And make no mistake of it odds are Shep was almost certainly out on the streets last night risking life, limb and arrest to put up more Obey posters. Believe me I've seen him climb, he's truly putting his life on the line to do this. There is no questioning his devotion (obsession?) to his art work. If the issue is authenticity then no amount of bad ads will diminish the authenticity of what Shep does.
When you dance with the devil its best to learn some of his moves. And unfortunately when Shep is making money he's dancing with some real devils. Marketing to minors, it ain't pretty shit. And when Shep admitted on stage to being a consultant on Nissan's awful Electric Moyo campaign I was pretty shocked. The campaign is so bad I refuse to link to it, and I certainly never would have pictured Shep being involved in such crap. His honesty is admirable for sure, but if he's going to keep dealing with corporations, be better learn to play the game. I didn't need to hear that info...
Thank god for Shep the conference organizers weren't smart enough to get a real counterpoint voice on the stage. Would have been great for the audience though. This was a discussion just crying out for a critical dialogue. I'm no fan of Naomi Klein, but damn it would have been nice to have her perspective in the mix...
As for the rest of the conference, only thing of note was Vice's Suroosh Alvi description of his business model: "punk rock capitalism". Lets think about that one a bit...
August 24, 2003
A Blossoming
Its been a long time coming and its so close I smell it. Creative doldrums have dominated the past few years in music and style. These are dark economic times and creativity has been nursing a major hangover after partying like 1999 for most of a decade. But I see buds breaking, rhizomes reemerging above the ground. A new mutant aesthetic is on its rise. Imagine it as a building. It has history, 100 years back it was a tenement. 2 years ago it was crumbling husk of shattered brick wall. Weeds growing everywhere, graffiti covering all smooth surfaces. Today you enter through a side door, black painted steel covered in tags, stickers and stencil. You are in the back, you are in a garden. Bamboo shoots and white orchids. A small stream wanders through. The walls are covered with the original graf, throw-ups mixed with fantastic wild style pieces. You turn and head up the stairs, clear plastic meets plate glass, you are back in a dream of the future. Hi tech form and function. You reach the landing and pause, the wall is a shifting plastic, the latest of tech you presume. But the door is almost floating in it. The doorway has moldings, left over from a past life perhaps? Layers of paint are peeling of the door like a beach shack, the knob is dented copper.
You enter to a space of pure light, projections dance around you all walls, floors and ceiling, this is pure information transformed in pure beauty. Needless to say the sound system is slamming. Your eyes shift to the corner, an space between the walls you missed on the first scan, you head into it. Another staircase, heading up. The walls are covered with drawings, their are hundreds of stories on these walls, dozens of artists intertwined as they tell their tales. Perhaps you spend years deciphering them, but more likely you reach the landing and a door slides upon for you. Now the floors are hardwood. Large windows cut into exposed brick on three walls give you a view back into the street, you are still in your city. The back wall is bookshelves, the collection is of course flawless, there are comfortable chairs, you'll need to return to read. Display cases filled with scientific curiosities are scattered through the space, their is much to learn. But first you push forward rooms splattered with paint, rooms that make you think you are pac man, a fireplace someplace, a rec room, low ceilings for intimacy, high ceilings to uplift the soul. Intricate carvings contrasted with minimal simplicity. This is a meshwork, a space of cross breeding. At first perhaps you attempt to localize everything, give it a name, a place, a time. But this doesn't last long, the handcrafted weaves back and forth with the digital, the historical melds seamlessly with the hi tech.
Who created this space, a graf artist? media mogul? perhaps a woodworker, but then maybe it was a plastics designer. You look for the cracks separating the spaces, and they are not there. There must be a point where one craftsman transitions to another, but you can not put your finger on it. Could it be that this space was not created but grew instead? I suppose that means its still growing.
Black Ecstasy
Sort of sad that Simon Reynolds is talking about nadirs so much lately, cause its looking increasingly like the best music critic of the 90's is dangerously close to his own nadir. ? please Simon, how long before you realize that the British just can't make hip hop. Like all British hip hop the beats are solid. And like the best of the bunch the content of the lyrics is pretty intelligent. But fuck he could have wrote a book or something cause it ain't hip hop unless the shit flows. And Rascal's flow is about as forced as the case for the invasion of Iraq...
Now lets get to the irony. Not sure what's up with Mr. Reynolds, but he claims not know whether David Banner's Like a Pimp is hip hop's nadir or the start of something entirely new. Truth is its a manifestation of something Reynolds predicted a few years back in more astute times, black American ecstasy music. A song of pure E stabs, makes my skin tingle just listening to it. Who needs a groove when the beat keeps lifting that E higher and higher? Bone Crusher goes one better with an E rushing voice, who needs Mentasm when you can just use your lungs?
I'm beginning to think much of the British Rave Explosion E was laced with major amounts of speed. Would certainly explain the constantly escalating BPMs of the early 90's. Its not a property of the E at all, and the dirty south is showing just how effective the slowed down E sound can be. Finally, been waiting for this music for a while now. This is the sound of ecstasy plus soul, lets hear it multiply.
One last thought, could it be that Timbaland, in all his genius, might have actually slowed down this development? Don't think he actually eats the pills, but his excellent ear has been offering up audio close enough for the crowd. Fake black ecstasy for the club. And being on top of his game and commercial gold equals soundwave domination. But now the homegrown producers have found the space to emerge; the real black ecstasy sound is stepping forth. Tellingly their models seem to be DJ Screw and Manny Fresh, not Timbaland and Dre. This is music for the mixtape economy not the major label economy.
August 18, 2003
August 11, 2003
Ideal Driven
That idealism is what I find so compelling at the best Spanish restaurants, and so sadly missing in France. The nouvelle cuisine movement burgeoned at the end of the hopeful 60's, nurtured by a belief that honest cooking -- mindful of culinary tradition, natural products and individual creativity -- could make a better world. That optimism has curdled. Besieged with soaring costs and smothering regulations, French chefs think more imaginatively about brand extension than about recipe invention. They cling to past glory, to a tradition of nouvelle cuisine that is becoming as hoary as Escoffier. In Spain, as García Santos says, young chefs still touchingly believe that they can change the world.
- Arthur Lubow A Laboratory of Taste
August 09, 2003
Punk Rock Cell Phone
My Treo 300 cell/pda broke the other day. Not in any digital or electronic way, its a pure mechanical failure. Phone and pda work great still, but the flip mechanism for opening the device is straight busted. Flip open the phone and the top half is left dangling. Worst part about it is anyone with a couple weeks of high school physics could have predicted this issue, the failure is engineered right into the device. Every time you open the phone, a strong metal spring pushes the soft plastic flip top open. Hard metal pushing on soft plastic, its going to break, guaranteed. And I've only had this particular Treo 300 for 7 months.
Planned obsolescence sucks no matter how you cut it, but I've come to expect I'll be getting a new phone every 12-18 months or so. 7 seems a short for an obvious design flaw. Especially since the replacement model isn't even due out for another few months.
Anyway despite this problem I still think the Treo's are the best devices on the market. The killer app in a palm for me is email, so it needs to be a phone combo. And it needs a keyboard. The Treo is the best of that small bunch.
Anyway for reasons I'm not going to go into here, I'm keeping my current Treo till the new model comes out, rather then having insurance replace it. So that means I'm going full cyberpunk on it. A pda phone held together with wire, velcro and electrical tape. Its the new style, you hear me? All those shiny new devices need to get out like Tom Cruise, its all about the hacked up tech pappi.
August 05, 2003
A Beef with Chicken
A note to vegetarians: this entry is about meat. If you don't like it don't read it or at least don't comment on it. I was a vegetarian for a year. It sucked. I have canine teeth for a reason and its not to go malnourished or to keep large corporate soy farms in business. Death is a natural part of our world, accept it please, or at least don't push your subhuman eating preferences on to others...
Anyway, I've been noticing a bit of trend lately, people who will eat beef but not chicken. Used to be that all meat eaters ate chicken, it was the safe meat. About 3 years ago I stopped eating chicken, seemed to be making me sick. Still never proven it, but I was getting ill all the time and stopping the chicken habit stopped that. I blamed it on all the hormones and crap pumped into chickens.
Mind went a bit wild justifying my new anti-chicken diet. Chickens are the dirtiest of food animals. Birds are delicate, they can't handle the hormones the way cows can. They are dirty, cooped up eating their own shit, with beakless mouths. Etc, ect. BS really, but good enough to win some arguments. And now suddenly people seem to agree with me. "I'd rather eat beef", "chicken's are dirty", "unhealthy" all buzzing around me.
Anecdotal evidence of course, but I've got a decent track record at eyeing trends early, is it time for the backlash against chicken?
July 10, 2003
June 26, 2003
micro.culture at the semes ;; IASPM International, Montréal July 3-7
no way I can make it, but it looks fascinating. tobias' talk particularly;;
Hearing Difference: The Seme.
bq. tobias c. van Veen
The study of resistant musical practice has often theorised its status as a "subculture." Since the advent of global capitalism, however, underground anarcho-theorists and political philosophers alike have been struggling with theorising the new position of resistant subcultures. This new position is, by default, the opposition. No longer able to practice a politics of disappearance in the mode of a liberatory invisibility, "subcultures" have shifted through the same terrain as capital: networked globalisation. Hand-in-hand with the spread of tele-technologies, electronic music cultures have shifted from the practices of the Temporary Autonomous Zone to what we can begin to theorise as a network of "microcultures." No longer invisible, but weaved into the same global fabric as capital, the very terrain of politics is remixed as microcultures move from resistance to positive and affirmative ontological projects. At the same time, musical trends play out this shift as the postmodern aesthetic of sampling is complexified through the resurgence of computer music, including the digital processes of granulation and a return to an avant-garde aesthetics of failure. Spin that again, and we could say: from memes to semes.
Is it me or does tobias translate postmodern theory into human clarity better then anyone this side of De Landa? Can't make it to Montreal at that time unfortunately...
June 20, 2003
Dinner and Drinks with the Good Dr Ellis
Met up with Josh Ellis of Zenarchery fame for dinner, drinks and wandering. He's up in the Bay to meet with his new employer and is moving here for good soon. We talked a lot about the old SF of 7 years ago when he lived here. I think he's in for some surprises given the mass exodus of the past few years.*
Josh has been mysteriously hyping up his new gig on his blog for a while, and while I'm not liable to reveal many details there is tremendous potential. Lets just say this company claims to have found one of the internet idealists' holy grails. I'm somewhat skeptical, but I do believe this particular change does have the potential to be revolutionary. More likely though it will successful and useful, but not quite as earthshaking as some cloudy eyed proponents make it out to be. Regardless its great news and exciting stuff, congratulations Josh, the bay area needs some new troublemakers.
We talked a bunch about SF rent, its ridiculously easy to find a nice space in SF right now, which makes it a once in a lifetime opportunity to move to the city. Jump in while you can kids, things are going to change. I just hope enough of the freaks pushed out by the dot com era move back. And yeah I still won't be making this place home, fear not, I'll be gone before you know it, hopefully to Barcelona.
While on the subject of places to live Josh has some crazy stories about people living in the storm drains below Los Vegas. They're 10 years old and already have a vibrant community of living in them, and a legendary Gollum like figure who is rumored to stalk down and kill strangers that come into his dark private space. Josh has written a few articles on these communities, which I need to track down and read. Sounds like a great book to me, but apparently there isn't much interest yet.
Interestingly I just started reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which is about a world of people living beneath the streets of London. So far its quite good, although Gaiman's prose doesn't have nearly poetry of his comics. Fortunately his ideas are just as imaginative and inventive as ever.
----
*on a somewhat related note though, its good to read danah boyd's enthusiastic posts on how much she loves SF. This city will return to its former glories at some point.
May 16, 2003
Crib Notes From the Rapture
The Rapture were designed for stardom from the moment they were named. It just makes great headlines. Tried to actually moblog a post titled "Live from the Rapture" but the software failed. The problem with moblogging is ifs its an experience worth logging then the act of logging it is going to take you out of the experience.
The experience? Yeah, the Rapture put on a damn good show. Start out a bit too close to their indie rock roots for my comfort, but all the soul and funk that the DFA whipped into them shows up soon enough. Are the Rapture here to finally kill rock and roll or are they here to save it by making it danceable again? Give me a year or two to get that answer.
Had way more to say but I think the failed moblogging killed it. Noticed this effect before, if I try to moblog but don't get the fully info into that attempt then its really hard to motivate to re-blog the whole story. Oh well, go see the Rapture. And yeah if you are smart burn a ton of CDs of the album. Its not out till August and most of the crowd did not seem to have heard it. Its pretty strange to be recognize a song and watch a crowd that doesn't btw. Anyway I could have made serious cash selling advance burns of that album to the mass of fans starving for its release. Not that I would ever advocate anything illegal of course, so check with your friendly RIAA rep before proceeding on that plan.
March 19, 2003
Rate What?
Time Out New York has a NYC: Overrated feature. Got to admit I'm a sucker for this sort of listing. $20 Bucks someone important in compiling this list lives on the lower fringes of Park Slope though, major bias in that direction.
March 10, 2003
Back Back Y'all
Saw Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn do a talk with DJ Shadow last night. The occasion, promoting his new book Yes Yes Y'all over at the Punch Gallery (which just happens to also be my office when in SF). An interesting dive into the history of Hip-Hop from an unlikely first hand observer. The show of photos is up at Punch for a while well worth checking out.
The most interesting aspect of the talk was the real sense of the flow of history. Charlie got to see and document hip hop go from an obscure ghetto party style to an international phenomena. Almost more interesting was the way the old school was shoved aside and ignored before the culture matured enough to respect its history. A bit of a dark ages for the originators in the late 80's as the young thoughts claimed their territory.
What really opened my eyes up though was a conversation I had with him the day before where he described the scene in 1973 when he moved to New York City. The world he entered was of long haired tail end hippies, shooting dope while carrying on an anti society stance. A diametrical opposite of the world of hip hop. And no one could have possibly predicted the rise hip hop culture. When Wild Style first played in Germany they thought it was science fiction. A strong reminder of just how quickly the world can change. Wonder where the next hip hop is coming from, can't wait.
Visual Flare Ups
John Galliano's web site drop kicks a necessary infusion of energy and humor into the fashion web. Enjoy.
March 08, 2003
Bring Back the Ecstasy
Standing in the back of SF's Arrow bar listening to the electroclash/sub 80's retro trash, all I could hope for was the early 90's revival. How much nicer is it to be in a big warehouse with people on E instead of a dark cramped club filled with cokeheads? tobias c. van Veen captures it better with warehouse . space : rave culture, selling-out, and sonic revolution.
And on a related tip, I've always wondered what fashion subgenre will magnified into a 90's revival? Candy raver brightness, grunge grime, Prada minimalism? The funniest I think would have to be guido take on the minimal, what a fitting way to piss on modernism...
January 28, 2003
Speardance
"The official line is we had our schedules mixed up, so we had to leave, but I didn't like the movie . . . Sundance is weird. The movies are weird - you actually have to think about them when you watch them."-Britney Spears via Page Six