Monday, July 31, 2006

Favorite flicks in July

Tristram Shandy
Green Street Hooligans
One From the Heart
Cache
Clerks Deux
A Scanner Darkly
Monster in the Forest (Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle)
Lady in the Water

Tristram Shandy has a good website - the front page is made to look like a PC desktop, with the windows icons. The recycle bin even has rejected one-sheet and website designs.
http://www.tristramshandymovie.com/

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Truisms list

Am trying to be better about lists b/c Lara and Claudia love them so much. :-)

So here's my truisms list.

Don't waste energy on what other people think.
Money means nothing unless you have none.
If he cheats on her, he'll cheat on you.
If someone can't work things out with you to your face, they are working them out behind your back.
People who try to control others lack self control.
Don't let fear make your decisions for you.
Some people never move past junior high behavior: try to consider it entertaining.
The price of security can be way higher than the price of risking and failing.
Never use unlicensed contractors for big projects.
Despite how much you want them to be, no one is perfect, and you don't get to pick their imperfections.
Bullies only understand bullying; don't try to reason with them.
If you worry about what's "cool" you're the victim of someone else's marketing plan.
Kharma exists.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Betrayal

Betrayal, Frank Whyte, 2004

Betrayal comes in many forms,
But relies on underlying intimacy
To insure a lethal wound.
It is an emotional ambush,
Carefully designed,
Flawlessly executed,
Producing an evil sound,
In the orchestra of life.

"Let's talk about it," she said,
"So I might explain why you are wrong.
You are paranoid, suspicious,
And you lack the proper trust.
If only you had more faith in me,
You would understand your flaws."

Then, filled with doubt,
And tangents notwithstanding,
I struggle with myself.
Am I flawed?
Do I lack the proper trust?
Am I paranoid and suspicious?
Perhaps it is me.

The Betrayer
Will wrap themselves in a coat of righteousness,
Impervious to honest eyes,
That are searching for a soul.
Instead...
They will describe their soul for you,
And demand that you will see
The spiritual mirage.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Photo of the Week

Is by Lara, whose blog is here: http://laragoesblogging.blogspot.com. This one's called Sunday Morning.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Where are all the revolutionary women artists?

Lately I've been romanticizing the bohemian lifestyle. Checking out places to live in Jerome and Bisbee (bohemian centers both), daydreaming about escaping the killing routine of office life. It usually works like this - I join the bohemians, and in a year am daydreaming about working in an office where they hand you lots of money just for putting up with really inane stuff. ("It'll be ok, I'll just do my stuff on the side.")

I've been through this before. I had my first go at bohemia in the early 90s. It's a lifestyle with a ton of perks, but is really hard to maintain in an obsessively capitalist society. I lived in an old cowboy shack on a ranch, never wore uncomfortable clothes, got to live and work on the navajo reservation for a month at a time (making and selling jewelry with my navajo buds), worked my own hours, went to artist 'salons' every Friday (read, happy hour for artsy types), had a bunch of artists for friends, went to AMAZING parties, and made a meager living at "art". We basically started First Fridays, had a gallery on Art Walk, and I did everything I set out to do except, well, to keep doing it. Everything you hear about artists - that they're flaky, unreliable, and self-centered? Mostly true. It was a hard life. Especially being involved with another one.

At that time I discovered all these great women artists that somehow got left out of the art history classes I had at college. People who made me want to stick with it, maybe even become a real artist. Like Frida Kahlo.

Everyone knows Frida's story - her horrible accident, her lifetime of pain, her pain in the ass husband, Diego Rivera. But she was also a great surrealist artist and a political revolutionary. She housed Trotsky when he was being hunted by Stalin, and supposedly had an affair with him. You know how any type of rebellion now is really just eclipsed by glamour? She didn't give a rip about her unibrow or clothing style - she never caved to critical New Yorkers when she landed there. She was relentlessly, unapologetically, Frida.

Or Remedios Varo - never heard of her, right? She lived in Mexico City and Paris in the 30s and 40s - her work was completely overshadowed by male contemporaries like Andre Breton and Max Ernst. She too was an amazing surrealist painter, arguably better than any of her contemporaries, but she never became famous. She was a revolutionary as well, participating in the dada debates that informed so much of the surrealists' work at that time and later.

And Niki deSaint Phalle. She, her partner Jean Tinguely, and a group of friends built this enormous "Cyclops" sculpture in the middle of a forest outside Paris - it took 20 years to make this incredible piece of work. They never even kept track of their expenses - they just devoted 20 years to developing a sculpture.

Where are these women now? Where are revolutionary women artists? They have to be out there. Now it seems that the only 'revolutionary' women are performance artists whose shtick is a whole entertainment package, or couched in feminism, rather than in just living an authentically revolutionary life and having their art reflect it. Even in music, people who may have started out as somewhat revolutionary, like Chrissie Hynde, they cowtow to mainstream canonization like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Niki deSaint Phalle, she would spit on zis hall of fame craziness... The only woman I can think of that could rise to that level is Bjork. She is not gonna be upstaged by Matthew Barney and seems impervious to criticism. (Yet what do people focus on? Her swan dress. Sigh.)

But anyway. Are women so afraid of being labeled unfeminine, or even, unfemale, that they no longer have the capacity for free thinking? Has art become a commodity that is only valued when it is sold at Sotheby's for upwards of a million? Where are all the bohemians?

Maybe it's just too hard.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Photo of the week

I'm going to start putting in a photo every week by one of my fab photo friends.

Today's is Contemplation, by Carolyn Ryan English.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

New web design feedback

What do you think for the front page of my new site? Too flowery/summery for mosaics? Should I do something that has actual pics?

Monday, July 17, 2006

Selfportraitr


The Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York is doing a combination online/in-house photography exhibit aligned with flickr.com. Anyone can upload a photo to flickr.com and tag it with "self-portrait" - the photo then automatically becomes part of the show at the Gallery, which has large monitors set up around a room, and online at www.pacemacgill.com.

The photos appear in rows of thumbnails that enlarge when you click them. There are already over 115,000 photos in the show and it doesn't close until August 25.

You can choose "best of show" by voting for your favorites.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Mickey Mouse as Paul Simonon

A Japanese company, ROEN, is selling a Mickey Mouse figurine inspired by the Clash's London Calling album cover (which was in turn inspired by an Elvis Presley album cover). Thanks, Dave!


Saturday, July 15, 2006

LaLa


LaLa is a CD club where you create on list of CDs you have that you don't want, and a list of ones you want but don't have. You browse the database and pay $1 per CD. The thing that makes LaLa stand out is that they give the artist 20% of the sale. Here's what one of the founders, Bill Nguyen, says:
"I'll be the first to advocate that artists should make a lot more from each CD. 'la la' is taking the unprecedented action of giving artists 20% of our revenues from used CDs, no used record store or online site does this today. I'll also promise to work tirelessly to reduce overhead in marketing costs across the industry, so artists can make more from selling their music.

I ask you to do your part by doing the right thing: remove songs from your iPod or PC if you've agreed to send the CD to another member.

If you want to listen to that CD again, just add it to your Want List and help us support that artist you can't get enough of. You'll have access to plenty of good music to enjoy in the meantime. We'll make sure of that!

Respect the artists and Karma will be on your side."

It's pretty cool. http://www.lala.com

Friday, July 14, 2006

A Scanner Darkly

Starts today!! Just a reminder.
MSNBC says it's style over substance. ummmm, duh!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Mexico pics

Mexico is fun. It's like the 70s, but with better beer. Actually, better tequila too. The only way to do Mexico is with good friends and good tequila. I tried it once with just neighbors and beer, and trust me, it's not the same. :-)

Puerto Penasco is the closest ocean beach to Phoenix, for the uninitiated. I hadn't been for years and years. In fact, I had sworn I would never go back in like 1993. But the beach, it's hard to resist. And indeed, Rocky Point has improved in many ways. In fact, we stayed in a resort that had a wide-screen plasma tv and dvd in each room. Not exactly the trailer accomodations I had last time. And I think the beach is whiter. Is that possible? You can still go completely local, but you can also choose escargot in hazelnut cream sauce (oh, yes!) off a wonderful French menu. Just like the real cities in Mexico.

Here are some pics. Actually, Lara took most of them b/c a. she was paying closer attention, b. did not drink as much tequila, and c. has a better camera. (OK, and she's a great photographer too!)

That's Judy, Claudia, and Lara. And the snails. yummy.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Carolyn Ryan English, photographer -- click on title


So my friend Carolyn struggled for years as an artist (of the photographer type) trying to make a living in corporate America. She was unceremoniously relieved of her position on April 20 (4:20!). Because they didn't have any reason to terminate her, considering she won international awards for her work, was featured on most of the company's collateral work, and is well-liked by co-workers and the mucky-mucks, her basically insane boss found a way to eliminate her position. No one is sure why, but as we all know, that's how it sometimes goes.

Her family, friends, and co-workers responded to this "crisis" by congratulating her. In fact, I got this email from Carolyn late in the day after it happened: "Funny, I get layed off and lose my job and EVERYONE says congrats!"

Since then she has been developing a new career as an art and portrait photographer, and has traveled - even fulfilled a lifelong dream of exploring Ireland. AND Paris. Not to mention meeting her birth family, and let's see, what else? Anyway, she has had a busy couple of months.

We are collaborating on a website, and her enthusiasm, and pretty much her work, is inspiring me to get going again on web design. It's fun! I forgot. So I'm showing you a few of her great pictures, and at the bottom is the link to my portfolio of sites (the ones that are still up, anyway).

Congrats again to Carolyn!!! And if you want to drop her a line and tell her how much you like her stuff, email her here.
http://www.estreetgirlphoto.com





here's my portfolio page

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Bisbee

I spent the last few days in a cottage right outside Bisbee. It was great - beautiful scenery, cool weather, relaxing. And Bisbee is great. Tons of areas to explore. Here are some pics. There are more at the Flickr link.