photo collections

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Adios señor!

VOTE!

Rubber action

Conscience and science

Darfur

reading wide eyed

From the village voice:"With the addictive immediacy of a '90s zine, Trinie Dalton's first-person fictions read like photocopied memoirs, even when her main character's a male Catholic elf. The L.A.-based editor of the lycanthrope-friendly Werewolf Express, Dalton opens Wide Eyed on Pavement's "Range Life" and ends with Lou Reed as Prince Charming, owner of a castle he bought after a "drug-induced vision of Snow White loving him." Whether it's a lobster-loving Mick Jagger or the Flaming Lips' drummer transmitting psychic vibes, her cameo rockers function as glittery talismans. Equal parts Lisa Carver and Michelle Tea, Dalton's tales feature hummingbirds, manatees, Wookiees, shrooms, the video game Burgertime, her boyfriend (artist Matt Greene), and late-night horticulture ("to be quite frank, my moon garden is the horniest place on Earth"). Her libido skips a beat when she's eating bacon, looking at a unicorn pic in a Texas motel, or watching a salamander swim. Because folks also grow wide-eyed from fear, Dalton stocks her Eden with bloody tiles, old lady ghosts, various forms of loneliness, sliced fingers, dudes obsessing girl puke, girls obsessing eBay trinkets, "the Summer of Ailments," and a sketchy biker-like guy spitting in a teenager's underwear. These oddities create a rainbow-colored Rorschach. As one narrator admits: "I am still officially turned on by fur. I'm also in awe of living animals and wish to celebrate their lives to the fullest." Her subsequent fantasy includes fireside champagne and Barry White—fueled sex while reclining on the tanned skin of her deceased pooch. "

NEAVE.TV

Lusting reality

Somebody said that Terry Richardson stole Larry Clark's approach to photo work. I think in fact Larry Clark deals with very different subject matters than Terry does. What they might share is a common aesthetic on what I call "low brow" documentary aesthetics with"realistic" sensibilities. This type of aesthetic elements has been developing for a while now as a reflection of the times. This zeitgeist of the "raw" is a commun denominator between Clark's work, Richardson and Jurgen Teller (and many many more). For that the spirit of the times is a shared space in time rather than a registered product. All these images share elements such as very high contrast, vivid use of value and color, and very explicit hardcore scenes. But what else is this than the achievement of frozen images that spell "veracity" and "honesty" : the documentation of humanity in contemporary terms, individuality that is set by media example: fame, fashion and lust...Consumption of intimate inmortal ideas by public shaped mortals. This photographers share a capability of engaging viewers in their exploration of private selves...But all do this in different settings and presenting different human states. The images above are Larry Clarck's. The images below are by Jurgen Teller.

el loco -babasonicos-

Soy...
víctima de un Dios
frágil temperamental
que en vez de rezar por mí
se fué a bailar...
Se fué a la Disco del lugar.
quiso mi disfraz,
vivir como un mortal...
Como no logró matarme
me regaló...
una visión particular.

Volutas de humo titilo
a su encuentro
siento el fulgor
y quiero entrar.

Soy...
Víctima de un dios
díscolo y muy singular
que a su antojo fiel
me arrebató a mi mujer
y la interno en un lupanar
que él administro
como chulo, un gran señor
y llegó hasta el fin, de confundir
su impunidad...
se creyó omnisciente

Volutas de humo titilo
a su encuentro
siento el fulgor
y quiero entrar.

Lo regalado es mío y se acabo
no lo devuelvo...

Fuí...
víctima de un Dios
frágil temperamental
que en vez de rezar por mí
se fué a bailar...
a la Disco del lugar.

Demented innocence

Eyemazing
Issue 7 Summer 2005

(Interview between Roger Ballen and
Heather Snider)

Roger Ballen first gained widespread attention with the release of his third book, Platteland, Images from Rural South Africa (1994). Since that time Ballen has expanded his vision and reputation by building outward from documentary portraiture into a highly complex, personal style, taking his photography into a fascinating, cryptic, vision of the human psyche. Originally from New York, Ballen has been living in South Africa for 30 years. We recently spoke with him about his current work and the path his art has taken over the last 10 years.

Heather Snider: You have a new book, Shadow Chamber (Phaidon), and two exhibitions opening this autumn. How would you describe your latest work?

Roger Ballen: In a way it is about a strange, ambiguous, dark, and comic place. It is a space that we might recognize; yet we are not quite clear where it is. It is not necessarily a place that you would want to visit or spend a Sunday afternoon. It has elements that are both disturbing and humorous.

HS: Have all of your books been about a place?

RB: My first published project was Boyhood in 1978. Boyhood was about my childhood and was not about a place; in fact I traveled around quite a bit for that series. The first South African project I published was Dorps, Small Towns of South Africa (1985), which I still believe is the most important book I’ve done. The third book, Platteland, deals with an archetypal group of people who express a sensibility of alienation, fear, and marginalization. After Platteland I started to make statements that went beyond the social dynamics of a particular place. My last book, Outland, was more aesthetic and psychological, somewhere between fact and fiction.

HS: What do you think brought about these changes?

RB: It is difficult to say, and it wasn’t that I woke up one day and began seeing things differently. There were many little steps along the way. It’s like ageing, every day you get a little older and I am older now.

The power of Cocorosie

"Sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady are a study in opposed personas, one wise, one witchy. Their vocals struggle against one another in a battle of good and evil. Their sound is all tape hiss, found-sound percussive loops and obscure instruments." "The lovely Casady sisters -- the classically trained, operatic Sierra and the intuitive, Wu-Tang-loving Bianca -- provide a fascinating case study in competing and complementary aesthetics and talents. Since surfacing in 2004 with their first album, La Maison de mon Reve, famously recorded in a Paris coldwater flat, the duo has become a fulcrum of New York's vibrant music scene. They're often lumped with the independent folk renaissance, due mostly to the fragillity of their compositions and their friendship with Devendra Banhart, but the Casadysreally occupy a musical world all their own, one in which stuttering beats live alongside plucked harps, piano figures collide with decaying loops created from toy instruments, and Bianca's sauntering, scratchy streetwise menace counterbalances Sierra's refined skyscraping pathos. The duo's second album, Noah's Ark, released in September 2005, was darker, stranger, and better than the first. CocoRosie's self-conscious bohemianism and relentless experimentalism has polarized audiences in the past, but spend enough time in their world and you won't want to leave." >>Jesse Ashlock for EPITONIC (source)

Ruminator update

I went to St. Mark's Bookshop on Manhattan and got some good reading material. (I'm devouring words...I'm already covered a third of two of this books). From the simple to the dense:
/ On Hashish by Walter Benjamin.
/ The Psychic Soviet - and Other Works by Ian F. Svenonius

/ Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice
/ The Politics of Friendship, Jacques Derrida

An audio analysis on current American TV

How the current status on mainstream TV is divided in two different directions. The material and the metaphysical...Oh, when finding depth on the shallow, things become so textural, so rich...so humorous and interesting.
"The success of these crime shows isn't surprising, says critic at-large John Powers (VOGUE mag), who finds that the difference between the two kinds of shows says a lot about current TV."

-click on the image to access the audio file from NPR's "fresh air" segment-

Images by Vincent Dixon

Comercial messages with excelent humor and concepts.

A cool movie

Charles Bukowsi played by Matt Dillon: a cool take on the depths of rawness that Bukowski explored, too cool perhaps. His writting is totally viceral and personal, the movie fails to transmit the author's very difficult nature.

Synopsis: " Henry Chinaski considers himself a writer, and on occasion writes. Mostly he quests for the booze and women that sidetrack and seduce, rather than inspire greatness. When he falls for Jan, the soulful connection fails to save either from their self-destructive ways, and the relationship totters between earnest connection and reflective loathing."

"A man is determined to live life to the fullest, even if it means taking many jobs, loving many women and rejecting every part of the American dream."
"Bukowski on Work: Bums and indolents, all of us working there realized our days were numbered. So we relaxed and waited for them to find out how inept we were. Meanwhile, we lived with the system, gave them a few honest hours, and drank togetherat night."

Barfly with Mickey Rourke is my favorite take on Chinaski (Bukowski's alter-ego) and his "Hollywood" my favorite book ever. TRAILER

Evolution

Somebody said to me once: advertisement is not a vehicle for social change.I'm not that convinced about the lack of power. A good example by Dove.

Hugo no, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

He is hot, but hotness is not enough to be an exceptional actor. Perhaps a model for Hugo Boss will do.HERE

Vectorial darkness

Visual archive

The Land of Lost Content is the world’s largest archive of 20th and 21st century popular culture. This online resource is the result of a lifetime of collecting by Stella and Dave Mitchell who house their collection in the wonderful LOLC museum in Shropshire, and a lifetime of building a design research and inspiration resource by Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway from their Red or Dead days through to HemingwayDesign. These collections are now online, searchable, downloadable and in many cases ready to be utilised by designers, marketing departments, advertising agencies, et al, for a very reasonable fee.

Aesthetics as feminine health

"Suzanne Somers has brought bioidentical hormones onto center stage. In her new book, The Sexy Years, and in media appearances to promote it, she eloquently describes how bioidentical hormones relieved her menopause symptoms. She also makes it clear that she intends to stay" on them for the rest of her life."

"Most women who receive hormone replacement therapy are prescribed drugs like Premarin or Prempro, which come from the urine of pregnant mares. Bioidenticals, which are also prescribed, are derived from soy, wild yam and other plant extracts. Advocates say their molecular structure is similar to that of the hormones they are replacing and can serve the same purpose.But hormone replacement therapy, in general, is controversial. The National Institutes of Health reported in 2002 that it posed more health risks than benefits for women in a clinical trial, yet that conclusion hardly appears to be the last word. Little research has been done on the bioidentical alternatives, and it is not even known how or if they work, nor whether they carry the same risks as the drugs, like for breast cancer.“We just don’t have the information, and I think it would be irresponsible to promise that for women without the information,” said Dr. Isaac Schiff, the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “No one has proven that the bioidentical is any safer or any more harmful than Premarin.” Ms. Wiley, 54, said she came upon bioidenticals about a decade ago after suffering from an ovarian cyst, fibroid tumor and lump on her chest. “I got tired of being scared,” she said, and started to work with a molecular biologist to refine what has since become the Wiley Protocol, which consists of a bioidentical estradiol and progesterone preparation in a topical cream (she holds the patent) that is “dosed to mimic the natural hormones produced by your body when you were 20 years old,” she said." Ms. Wiley shrugged this off. “Does it have to come from a pedigreed source?” Instead, she maintains that the debate is really a “fight over women’s bodies and how much money those women are worth to doctors, who gets to prescribe and sell hormones to these women,” she said. “Suzanne is giving women enough ammunition and information to ask the right questions when they go to the doctors. They’re not happy she’s thinking on their own and they don’t want women to do that, either.”
NYtimes
Discussion

awesomeness

The Walker Art Center

I worked at the Walker Art Center for two years. I have personal affection for the museum, besides the admiration for its relevant cultural value. I'm sharing a blog comment from "Tall Paul" that shows a peek on the Walker "culture":

Signifying Robot: What do you think the Walker looks like?

by Paul Schmelzer at 12:16 pm 2006-08-30
Filed under:

• Architecture

Love it or not, the aluminum-clad Walker expansion is fertile ground for creative description. It's been likened to Miss Pac-Man, an “angry robot head,” and a Transformer of toy and cartoon fame. It's been panned as a “bruised ice cube” (by the Guthrie Theater actor who played Ebenezer Scrooge) and praised as “a rough-cut gem” (Icon, UK) and “as light and luscious as crumpled silk” (Newsweek). Last summer, I asked people passing by how they’d describe the unusual facade; since it never ended up in the magazine, I’ll run some of the replies here. Feel free to add your own in comments.

“It looks like that ship from Star Wars, where they found R2-D2 and C3PO.”
--Bob Bodin, houseman, 20.21 Restaurant and Bar by Wolfgang Puck

“It's like aluminum foil, flat, but crumpled a little. Like something you'd find in your grandma's freezer.”
--Erica Qualy, former member of the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council

“It looks like a monkey.”
--Max Molina

“It looks like a giant square with a little edge that's kind of crooked.”
--Madi Molina

“I think it looks like a really mad polar bear.”
--Gus Molina

“It looks like a space port, just like the one I saw on Mars that one time.”
--Paul Molina

“It's like a floating ice cube. The windows were inspired by snowflake cutouts, so the architects must have had this winter thing in their minds. It's like January in Minnesota.”
--Nancy Beach, Walker tour guide

“The new Walker looks like a glacier.”
--Brett Smith, Visitors Services Specialist, Film/Video

“It reminds me of Frank Gehry's outdoor amphitheater at Millennium Park in Chicago.”
--Chris Bettis

“It's like a giant robot head. And the rest of the robot is submerged underground, so when the Walker gets enough funding, the whole thing's going to rise up and attack the city. The buildings are going to battle like in those Japanese movies.”
--Alison Bromander

“It looks like a metallic grasshopper.”
--Liz Sexton, Visitors Services Specialist, PR/Marketing

“Have you ever heard of the band godheadSilo?”
--Chad Weber, gallery monitor

The Rock Drill

Tate Modern invited The Chemical Brothers to walk around the gallery and find a work of art that would inspire them to write a track. It was Jacob Epstein's Torso in Metal from 'The Rock Drill' that grabbed their attention. It's a menacing sculpture made out of bronze. The Chemical Brothers said that they wanted to 'capture the latent feeling of force that the figure has'. The result is their latest track, The Rock Drill. There are only two places that you can hear the track - at Tate Modern, next to the sculpture, or online.

the cool hint of fashion

Hold your horses, and enjoy! (Hint)

My favorite drunk

My First Affair With That Older Woman
By Charles Bukowski

When I look back now at the abuse I took from her I feel shame that I was so innocent, but I must say she did match me drink for drink, and I realized that her life her feelings for things had been ruined along the way, and that I was no more than a temporary companion; she was ten years older, and mortally hurt by the past and the present; she treated me badly: desertion, other men; she brought me immense pain continually; she lied, stole; there was desertion: other men, yet we had our moments; and our little soap opera ended with her in a coma in the hospital, and I sat at her bed for hours talking to her, and then she opened her eyes and saw me:"I knew it would be you," she said. then she closed her eyes. the next day she was dead. I drank alone for two years after that.

Eulogy to a hell of a dame
Some dogs who sleep ay night must dream of bones / and I remember your bones in flesh and best in that dark green dress and those high-heeled bright black shoes / you always cursed when you drank / your hair coming down, you wanted to explode out of what was holding you: rotten memories of a rotten past, and you finally got out by dying, leaving me with the rotten present; you've been dead 28 years yet I remember you better than any of the rest; you were the only one who understood the futility of the arrangement of life; all the others were only displeased with trivial segments, carped nonsensically about nonsense; Jane, you were killed by knowing too much.
here's a drink
to your bones
that this dog still dreams about.

///////////////////////// voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind ////////////////////////

Ludic art the TATE modern: "German artist Carsten Höller has been commissioned to create this new work, entitled Test Site, for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, part of the Unilever Series. Test Site consists of 5 giant spiralling slides, linking the upper galleries with the Hall! It is both the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the 'inner spectacle' experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend."

noble love

Named for one of director-photographer Bruce Weber's beloved golden retrievers, A LETTER TO TRUE is a cinematic essay--in the free-association style of Weber's CHOP SUEY (2001)--documenting his obsessions and concerns in a post-9/11 world with emphasis on the importance of canine companionship. Using a heartfelt, handwritten letter to the dog as a springboard, Weber begins the film with thoughts on his dismay over the terrorist attacks in New York, then transitions into his longtime fascination with actor Dirk Bogarde, who is seen in vintage home movies during the idyllic years he spent in Provence with his manager, Anthony Forwood.
"About as exciting as watching someone else's home movies -- albeit, beautifully photographed ones."

Charlie is already in England

Charlie, my favorite italian greyhund, has crossed the pond! Toghether with Nicole Dotin and her hubby the relocated in the rainy island. mmm I should visit Charlie and Nicole.

Erik Leung

ego tripping at the gates of hell

I was waiting on a moment
But the moment never came
All the billion other moments
Were just slipping all away
I must have been tripping
Just ego tripping
I was wanting you to love me
But your love it never came
All the other love around me
Was just wasting all away
I must have been tripping
Just ego tripping
I was waiting on a moment
But the moment never came

Boot ambivalence

Following the state of ankle boots in fashion currency I have not been able to find a pair that I consider atractive enough. They all are either with crazy high uncomfortable heels, to flat or totally "trendy" in a boring way. I found two that are unique enough to be considered into my future expenses. #1-MaxStudio. #2- ViaSpiga

Funny eew!

Gorgeous

In 1996 I was living in Berlin with my Johannesburgian (half Jewish half Dutch) boyfriend. He was blond and very hairy: I thought he was French. He called me gorgeous. A Brit Studio brought gorgeous to me once again, in a very similar voice. -click the image- .

fashion wise

Berserker, "Going berserk"

The image belongs to MN vikings. I have always find very interesting the past clash of cultures between the very mithologichal scandinavia and what was a "more civilized" society. The Berserker is the image of that demented viking creature that is still a language reference.

The term berserker comes from Old Norseberserkr (plural berserkir), meaning "bare of shirt", meaning a warrior fighting without armor (debated), or "bear shirt", alluding to wearing clothing made of bear fur. Some berserks also took names with björn in them in reference to a bear. The pre-battle ritual of the berserker included ritualistic group chants and dances, serving to work the warriors into a fighting rage; the rituals also seemed to give the berserkers the feeling of invulnerability, causing them to fight with a reckless disregard for their own safety. It is possible that these rituals also included psychoactives (the most commonly suggested psychoactive being the Amanita muscaria species of mushroom) mixed with mead, allowing the berserker to disregard pain and wounds in battle.

Another theory about berserkers is that wearing bear or wolf skins served as a symbol of their proclivity for worshipping the spirit of the bear. Siberian and Sámi peoples venerated the bear (see bear worship), although there is no direct evidence of similar veneration in Viking Age Norse culture.
The notion that Nordic Vikings used the fly agaric mushroom to produce their berserker rages was first suggested by the Swedish professor Samual Ödman in 1784. Ödman based his theory on reports about the use of fly-agaric among Siberian shamans. The notion has become widespread since the 19th century, but no contemporary sources mention this use or anything similar in their description of berserkers. Today, it is generally considered untrue or at best speculation that cannot be proven. A UK television programme in 2004 tested the possible use of fly agaric and alcohol by training a healthy volunteer in the use of Viking weapons, then evaluating his performance under the influence of fly agaric or alcohol compared to no influence. It was shown that use of fly agaric or alcohol severely reduced his fighting ability, and the tentative conclusion drawn was that berserk state was achieved psychologically; otherwise, berserkers would have been too easy to kill. Of course, this does not take into account the mindset that the berserker likely would have attempted to place himself in. According to Saxo Grammaticus they also drank bear or wolf blood.

Francoise Hardy et Jacques Dutronc

Haut misogyny

This is the F/W 2006 ads for Dolce & Gabanna. They are trying to go for a shock effect, but it feels so simplistic...Are they thinking that their customers are simple minded bimbos, that will find this public objectification elegant? This does not have to do with a woman being capable of enjoying sex or being kinky. This has to do with women subjection. This is not about group sex...this is about power. Hers? some might say that she is the one with the power here... The "brains" for this campaign are assuming that maybe D&G costumers are into public statements of gender submission...and that submission is actually a manifestation of power. Totally missing that accepting submission socially is the least sexy than a woman can think of. The ambiguity is in the qualities of the men in the image: greased boy toys for her (?). Haut misogyny perhaps... in my opinion a total faux pas!
SOURCE