Rarely do I watch an entire Kickstarter pitch, but I crush on Amanda Palmer hard and this is a great gimmick for a campaign video. And well, she’s right, this is the future of music and art and filmmaking and invention and chemistry, construction, innovation and baking. Although the word future is not what it used to be. Future now means….. next 6 to 8 months? So we agree with her proclamation until September? Maybe November?
This weekend Fabric Horse is setting up camp at the New Amsterdam Bicycle Show. They will have new Little Canvas Bags and their newest Rucksack Luxes for sale!
Saturday 4/28 + Sunday 4/29
Located at 275 Hudson St. at the Skylight Soho, NYC
10am – 7pm
In a hip little stretch of street, some blocks inland from Venice beach lies the current exhibition of Michele Mikesell’s anthropomorphic tribute to one of the most interesting places of rest in Oklahoma, Hugo. Historically known as the destination for removed American Indians and later Russian Jews, Hugo is now known only for a non-deadly shootout in a Walmart parking lot in 1993 and for it’s uncomfortably large population of Carnies.
Harry 18x24
Yes, this little Okie homestead, population less than 6000, is known to the world as Circus City, who knew? Apparently Michele and Wikipedia. So while Auntie Madge goes to Boca Raton, all the tired elephants, angry clowns and 9-year-old bedazzled gymnasts go to Hugo for the winter. Not surprisingly, it is also where they often die or at the least have their worn out carcasses buried.
“Hugo, Ok”, the title of Madam Mikesell’s exhibit pays homage to those circuteers. This collection embodies the dark and tempestuous time of her subjects. Her historical portraits of bygone performers are now adorned with feathers, their eyes, tight and pointedly avian. Her colors challenge the darknes, as a sole circus tent would amidst an approaching storm on the flat horizon of the Oklahoma plain.
It is quite apparent that Michelle has caught the spirit of those travelling performers, caged them in oil and brought them back to the visual world. And the icing on this cake? Once you are introduced to the likes of “The Great Humberto” on his tightrope or “Harry” on his mile high pole you can get in your pick-up truck, drive east and place a flower on their graves.
But for now go to Altered Space Gallery. A perfect haven off Abbot Kinney Blvd. in the part of Venice you’ll want to bring your grandmother for lunch and a stroll. There’s an added bonus, the front of the space is presently home to the pop-up M|Herrington Gallery which is currently showing Michelle Wiener, Cait O’Connor and Melissa Herrington herself. This ensemble is calming and comforting in tone while the subject matter embraces the imperfections of biological forms, human included.
Once upon a time, in another calendar year, I had interviewed the genius behind Concrete Polish, Angela Monaco, when she first opened her jewelry/accessory/gallery store at 716 N. 3rd st Philadelph. As I recall, I spent my time oggling the Kraken ring and dreaming about twiggy fingers I will never possess, fluttering my eyelashes for someone to buy me a new pair of Fleathers and relishing in the awesomeness of her small shop which teams with the local vibe of a kickass arts community. Now this little Northern Liberties gem is gathering up it’s short skirts for a kick off tomorrow with NAILTITE!, Concrete Polish, Topstitch and Gun$ Garcia that you cannot miss, unless, of course, you are 2,393 miles away (which is my particular predicament).
HERE ARE SOME OF THE NUGGETS THESE GODDESSES HAVE LINED UP:
***Nail paintings by by Nail Tite! $10-$25
***Create your own custom earrings by FLEATHERS! (This is killing me, I need to f-n call in)
And dig this, if you TWEET them (#IGOTSPRINGFEVER / @CONCRETEPOLISH1 @NAILTITE) your favorite spring trend your itching to test on the public, you could win a Free Nail Tite Makeover and a $15 Gift Certificate to Concrete Polish Showroom!
Read these little scoops from the artists themselves:
“For Philly-based jewelry outfitter Concrete Polish and manicurist Nail Tite, collaborating has seemed to go hand in hand. What started as a simple idea inspired by the city’s most daring style mavens has manifested into a monthly style session that focuses on building customizable personal style with the two go-to brands. With a handmade touch, the duo will offer custom nail art, crafted jewelry, music, and more at the Concrete Polish Studio. This is a one of a kind studio session and new experience in Philly set to redesign the beauty and accessory experience!
Nail Tite was created by Suzi Analogue (music artist, co-owner of SWRV.BIZ) who met amazing nail artists and designers while studying in Tokyo, Japan that encouraged her vision for creating outrageous nail designs. Shortly after her return to the states, Nail Tite began holding nail art sessions in cities including Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore and L.A., as she saw a world of next level nails taking over the globe. Nail Tite’s style-driven manicures have been requested by photographers from magazines including Nylon, Essence and Nails Magazine; as well as designers like NINO BRAND and Nic*Fish. Nail Tite has quickly become a go-to brand for leaders of many creative industries, and has shown talent suitable for high-fashion.
Check out her look book Gold in the Dark!”
I have so many words for this meaningful piece of artwork, so many ponderances and expletives, divergances and delusions. But I am mostly a director and creative writer (as if you couldn’t have guessed) and I know when a work stands, without chair rails, without billboards, without commentary; perfectly, powerfully and nobly.
From the video’s youtube page:
“Music: Filastine (with Nova)
Director/DOP/Editor: Astu Prasidya (aka Tooliq)
Production and Concept: Grey Filastine & Nova
Funded: by a crowd
Colony Collapse is filmed at sites of ecological friction, the fault lines of conflict between humanity and (the rest of) nature. It is a video made to confront and indict the ongoing catastrophes that are the very fabric of our globalized economic order. For examples we used….
Lapindo (Sidoarjo) Mud Disaster is an eruption of scalding mud and flammable vapors triggered by a gas drilling gone awry. It has buried more than a dozen villages and blocked a major highway, and is expected to keep expanding for the next 25 years. Lapindo is located close to the home town of the the director (Tooliq) and singer (Nova).
Below a freshly shattered dam on the shoulder of Merapi mountain. This required a meeting with an important Islamic mountain shaman, who wanted to know we weren’t up to anything frivolous or disrespectful. After the vetting he sent his crew to guide and protect us, some men went upriver a few kilometers to warn us by mobile phone if a new flood was coming down.
Bantar Gebang is a landscape of trash. Garbage stretches farther than the eye can see. Mountains, rivers, and even villages where the trash-pickers live. Not something easy to summarize in words.
A supermarket nested in a mega-mall within a skyscraper. Air conditioning, shopping carts, muzak, just like any posh supermarket. But right outside is a the permanent traffic jam of Jakarta, a sprawling mega-city of at least 10 million.”
As blame is one of my pet peeves and Philly has been riddled lately with happy shooters just taking in the sunshine I thought I would share this with ya’ll, cause well, it’s Samuel Jackson.
You Can’t Schedule Cultural Change
A Post-Mortem of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), held on Saturday, April 30th as part of the Kimmel Center’s Tenth Anniversary, featured live music, framed art, and street performances along a 5 block span of Philadelphia’s Broad Street. According to PIFA planners, the fair was meant to (re)inspire the city of Philadelphia through the “passion” and “power” of art. To create, even, a utopian City of Art. Organizers steeped in self-importance visualized a city in rapture; gleaming and productive, a happy city even. Evoking keywords from the Art Nouveau movement in Western Europe in the early 20th Century, one PIFA press release claimed that exactly 100 years later, in 2011, Philadelphia would reignite the flame of passion, power, and grace. Philadelphia was not only to be rejuvenated by this power, but would ideally also become a leading global city; the central node in a new transnational explosion of art. Of course, no one saw the irony in trying to institute a spontaneous art-based cultural movement. Please nod your head if any of these hyperbolic pipe dreams left you deeply troubled… VIEW MORE AFTER THE JUMP »»
