Insanity

These gentlemen have a large house, a video camera, and way more free time than me. They are also awesome. Apparently, more of the same can be harnessed here.

Jen Stark

Jen Stark made this beautiful cut paper object, among many others. I like.

Beauty

If you have never encountered the work of Jim Woodring, now is the time.
Above, a prehistoric sea slug who closely resembles the fruit of Mr. Woodring's candy-colored interior life.

Imagine

This is a virtual tour of a cell at Guantanamo. Jesus.

A Behemoth's Slow and Agonizing Demise

Apparently, David Byrne gave a presentation here at SXSW regarding the future of the music industry. Essentially, Byrne's prediction is that we will go totally wild-west/free-market sometime in the next 5-10 years. Music will be written, recorded, and distributed by it's makers with only a small, managerial/promotional role played by the people who used to run the show. I say bring it on, unless Rick Rubin gets his way.

Old ladies from Florida

Nice.

#30

As a general admirer, even addict, of elegant and eye-pleasing design, I recommend this. Spanish print ads from the 70s courtesy of this gentleman.

The Glenn Branca Challenge

Glenn Branca is a musician/composer known for bridging the gap between the more academic/serious experimental music of people like Phillip Glass, John Cage, and Steve Reich and the wierd downtown art-rock of late 70s-early 80s New York, most famously Sonic Youth. J. Neal of Allmusic places him in the "fringe between the edgier end of art music and the artsier end of rock." Among his works: a symphony for 100 electric guitars performed at the base of the World Trade Center in 2000.

Anyways, quoth same in his New York Times blog (web-and-members-only TimesSelect edition, hence the cutting annd the pasting):

"Yes, this is a contest.

And it’s open to any and everyone.

Here are the rules. Write and record up to three minutes of startlingly new and original instrumental chords. They can be scored in any fashion whatsoever, using any instrumentation or sound producing devices. You can submit a static series of chords or you can perturb the chords in any fashion. You can just submit one big gorgeous chord if you wish.

The submissions can be sent . . . in the form of a posted link to a site where a recording of the piece can be heard (like MySpace, for example).

At the end of the month I will announce the winners on my last blog entry.

I was hoping to be able to have some kind of small rewards for the winners, but it’s not possible at this time. The links to all of the entries will stay posted in the comment section so that people can judge for themselves if they don’t like my choices. But I will only post entries that seem to be within the spirit of the contest.

[Legal Note: By submitting a link to music you represent and warrant that the music found there is your original creation and that it does not infringe on any existing copyright.]

Anyone who can’t post an entry because they’re not a member of TimesSelect can just send the link to me at glenn@glennbranca.com and I’ll post it.

In searching for lost chords there can only be one method, and that is the method that eschews all pre-existing methods."

Wow. That last line is a real doozy, right?

Glenn Branca's website, and a picture of a truly insane guitar, can be found here.

Vintage Violence.

Made by Christy Karacas, erstwhile late-night drinking companion of 2002 (the bearded man in front) at the Greenpoint Tavern, where hopefully one can still buy a 32 oz. Budweiser for 3.50, though I am doubtful.

on the fickleness of the universal order:

(really quite touching, isn't it?)

and of the vanity and cruelty of men:

(To download in entirety click here or here.)

Now This.

wow.

Greetings and Salutations!

Hello, dear reader, peoples of the world/interweb, my hopeful and beloved posterity,
As this constitues my baptismal post, I apologize there is not much to it. Hoping to hereby keep a record of notable items, happenings, photographs, artworks, news of my own doings and findings, should there be any, or those of my associates and colleagues (somewhat likelier), I have made this tentative step into a net-existence hopefully more fertile than that of myspace. At the very minimum, it has forced me to finally learn how to write a hyperlink. Should anyone besides myself find meaning in any of this, please let me know. Cheers.