Over the past few weeks, Elevator Repair Service has been in Portland and Seattle performing Gatz, their performance which involves the complete six hour reading of The Great Gatsby. I intended to go. But I just can’t bring myself to do it.
I’m up for any strange art thing, I mean I’m one of [...]

I read a New Yorker story recently about the cult of Leica cameras. Some of the most famous photographs in history have been taken with Leica’s, and photographers love them. But at $4,000+ a pop, you’d better really love it, and you’d hope it takes a great photo.
…as the camera has evolved over [...]

Inside Japan (a bit like Berlin), there aren’t really serious art collectors. Inside Japan, people like Murakami and Nara make their money by doing corporate identity (Vuitton, Roppongi Hills) or mass-producing souvenirs… Art is collapsed into the mass market. Galleries are often in department stores, and often show what we’d think of as commercial work; [...]

On large farms, sometimes only one crop is grown. Many times these crops are corn or soy beans. These crops are more lucrative because they are used in many processed foods and may be subsidized.
Small farms, on the other hand, often have many crops that rotate and change over the course of a [...]

In the late ’80s, Czechoslovakia became a democratic state, and in 1993 peacefully separated into two countries – the Czech Republic and Slovakia. With democracy came capitalism and advertising, and with capitalism and advertising came The Hypermarket. Hypermarkets are the world’s superstores, selling shoes and spinach, pipe wrenches and pumpkins, all you would [...]

Over the last five years, artists Miranda July (most widely known for making the film Me and You and Everyone We Know) and Harrell Fletcher have provided 63 art recipes or assignments as part of the project Learning to Love You More. Over 5,000 people have completed assignments and submitted them to the web [...]

Montreal artist Cesar Saez is creating a 300 meter banana, with a bamboo skeleton and helium bladders, which he intends to launch into geostationary orbit over Texas. It is launching from Baja, Mexico. It will appear in the sky 10-20% the size of the moon.
Just to be clear, 300 meters is over twice [...]

I went to an afternoon of flat track roller derby, and even though it’s a sport, I could care less who won or lost. A lot of us were there to be entertained. Roller derby is dramatic and theatrical. Lots of players and whole teams have strong characters (whether real or mythical), [...]

5 Pointz has been mentioned in lots of places this year, but that’s ok, it’s good people hear about it.
5 Pointz is a graffiti museum and legal painting space in Queens. The building is a many story warehouse covered on all sides, ground to roof, with art by graffiti artists. Artists live in [...]

I’ve been trying to learn Japanese this year. I’m making progress but it’s definitely slow. While I took Spanish in high school, my brain didn’t shift the way it is now. As I started to write and learn these brand new characters, I started noticing all the things I take for granted, [...]

Richard DeDomenici is an artist, seems to have a lot of fun traveling and making shows for BBC. I’m jealous!
Richard DeMomenici’s Power of Art (a BBC promotion supporting Simon Schama’s show).

Visit his sites:
Richard DeDomenici’s Art site and
Non-art site

This is an excellent show, with beautiful cinematography and a very smart, passionate look at the people behind some of the greatest art in history. Episodes look at the lives of Van Gogh, Picasso, Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, Turner and Rothko.
More on the Power of Art site.
It’s airing on PBS now (schedule is on the [...]

Each scene rolls on quietly with poetic light and ambient sounds, with the few words spoken coming from the Iraqi people themselves. Each of the three parts of the film focus on one person, and simply shows what they see and hear, as their voices sparsely speak about their lives. The first person [...]

Tears of the Black Tiger combines the early Clint Eastwood Western with Hong Kong and Thai films of the 1950’s and 60’s. Though it sticks to plot and acting that retain high melodrama and graphic violence, it has fun with all of the genres that inspired it, with many hysterical scenes that border on [...]

Some of the best funk and psychedelic music ever written was created for Italian B-movies in the 1960s and 70s. This music was compiled and released by Plastic Records in Italy. I discovered them through Tower Records (of all places) who carried a single album from their catalogue – Vroommm: Funk Cinematique. [...]