Janet Reno dances for no man!

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Indecision 2004 - Dance Party
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With the upcoming presidential campaign all over the news, I've enjoyed watching completely non relevant political satrire from 2004. Watching the Indecision 2004 DVD never gets old. Highlights include Steven Colbert interviews at the conventions before anyone knew who he was and Rob Cordry's hometown tour of Boston.

Take Note

Since giving up designing couture in Paris, Christian Lacroix is apparently moving into the world of notebook design. This is great news for those of us who love his design but only have the budget for $12 purchases rather than $12,000.

Ronchamp Redux

 Renzo Piano's convent for the Poor Clares. Photo by Michel Denance    

La Chapelle de Notre Dame du Haut Ronchamp by Le Corbusier. Photograph: Alamy

An interesting read about the addition of a convent and visitors center to the hill where Le Corbusier's famous chapel sits in Ronchamp.

His and Hers

Trevor Tondro for The New York Times

I love this slideshow of two brightly painted cottages. It makes me long for a nice warm summer day.

Don't hold your breath

The Weather Project at the Tate Modern (Photo by Slynnal)

Sad to discover that the London Olympic organizing committee has rejected the proposal by Olafur Eliasson. The summer before my second year of grad school Cameron and I drove up to San Francisco to see a retrospective of his work at the SFMOMA. The show was amazing and it sounds cheesy but it got me excited about making art again after the lazy days of the summer.

Homespun religion

House at Sutton Coldfield by Ernest Newton. Before 1899

"Belief in the sacredness of home-life is still left to us, and is itself a religion, pure and easy to believe. It requires no elaborate creeds, its worship is the simplest, its discipline the gentlest and its rewards are peace and contentment."
-Ernest Newton, 1891

I found this quote while reading FLW's biography and it gave me pause. While I agree with the sentiment, ideally home life should be one of peace and contentment, it was most certainly written by a man who has never done laundry or scrubbed a floor in his life, hence his belief that this peace comes about simply and gently.

Words of Wisdom

Reading the quote from Nan Goldin in my previous post reminded me of some interesting advice Jeffrey Vallance gave to me and my fellow UCSB MFA students during class one day. Someone asked him a question along the lines of "How do you make it as an artist financially?" He replied in all thoughtful seriousness that we would simply have to get a lot of credit cards and max them out. I remember sitting there stunned to be hearing such a suggestion. Anywho one google search later and I discover that Jeffery was on Letterman and also hosted a show on MTV in the 80's, bizzaro.

Thanks Nan

Nan Goldin's 'Top Tip' for aspiring photographers:

Don't do it. There are way too many photographers. Try to draw or get politically involved in something that matters. And unless you need to make art to stay alive, you shouldn't be making art.

Mr. Conductor

Everyone's favorite vice president of programming and microwave oven technology at the sheinhardt wig company has a side gig as a radio talk show host, who knew? I just listened to his interview with Lorne Michaels which was pretty interesting. All I knew of Lorne were from his brief appearances on SNL as the stern boss in various sketches, so it was interesting to see how unbosslike he seemed in the interview.

It means business

Here's a post to shake things up a bit. I tend to blog about my love of architecture, art, food, clothes, etc. however I've also developed into a huge fan of Bloomberg Businessweek, bizarre no? Cameron started getting the magazine about a year ago for free with some extra airline miles and I was always really impressed with the cover art each month and eventually I cracked one open and had a read. I know basically nothing about business but I found the articles really engaging, concise and also fairly balanced in their analysis (a nice contrast to the Atlantic which always seems like it has a major ax to grind).

Mr Qiang

Cameron at MassMOCA

The sign of a true friend, someone who is willing to let you do this to them 30 times.

 I saw Cai Guo-Qiang's work for the first time at MassMOCA and was really awed by his representation of narratives unfolding in three dimensions. Seeing his show was the genesis for a project of mine where I created a cast of the wonderful Sarah Hilton everyday for one month and then displayed the molds in a calendar format.  I also had the interesting experience of calling Mr. Qiang's workshop to inquire about pricing for his work. I was taking a museum studies course and our final project involved selecting a work under $5000 and creating a proposal for the museum to purchase it. My first thought was to see if there were any small gun powder drawings in that price range. The woman I spoke to in his studio was very kind, though she made it quite clear that his work was well out of the $5000 range and I felt a little silly for not realizing this to begin with.

Cai Guo-Qiang: Sky Ladder on Nowness.com.

Just put on your sneaker and go

I ran four miles this morning in the snow (when will it end!) and I felt great for the whole run which really took me by surprise. Watching this video makes me want to actually try and keep running (not that I have an delusions about becoming fast mind you) beyond the point where I loose the baby weight and have tended to settle back into a no exercise routine.

Señor Macho Solo

In honor of Jack White's upcoming solo album here is an interview with him from a few years ago. I found out about the White Stripes in probably the most uncool way possible, by listening to NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Gross was interviewing Loretta Lynn about her album Van Leer Rose, which Jack produced and sang on. I went out and bought the album, my first country album i believe, and I really loved it.  Anywho I was intrigued about why the lead singer of a Detroit rock band would go produce an album for an older country singer, so I bought my first White Stripes album, Elephant and have been a fan ever since. And as a final random aside I just found out that the female motocross championship is called the Loretta Lynn and is held on a track on her property, pretty awesome.

Safer Art

To begin I'm typing this as I sit here writhing in pain because I decided to reward myself with a cookie after a run and my stomach isn't thrilled with the choice, so I'll make this short and sweet. Here's a 60 minutes segment from Art Basel, which highlights art sales to the 1%. Alas we are strictly in the 99% here in Spokane (why Russian billionaires don't vacation here is beyond me) and the art market remains soft to say the least.