coming soon: space in your face!

nebulaaaahhhhhhzzzzz

No, not this space. Although, space pictures are really cool. I’m a big fan of nebulae, because it’s like making shapes out of clouds, only they are sweeter. Because they come in super radical colors, and plus that’s where stars are born. That’s all pretty badass to me, but then again, I still love going to the planetarium. Don’t hate.

theselby.com

Also,this interior space is also not in your face. It could be. I wasted several hours looking at these interiors. Owned by people who presumably have cooler lives than I do. (Or at least nicer houses and apartments). The photography is truly interesting. I can thank one of my favorite online writers for this find, Rosecrans Baldwin. He writes for the Digital Ramble column in the New York Time Magazine’s The Moment. He’s coming out with a book later this year, so I’ll keep you posted on that. For now you, can also catch him on The Morning News, an online publication that he helped to start in 1999.

The space I’m talking about is the one being carved out by N.A.S.A. It’s okay, I also thought that our space program might be releasing an album of ambient space noises, asteroids colliding, or secrets hidden alien tracks recorded for the past 30 years. It’s actually a collaboration between two L.A. based DJs and their friends. If that saying is true about the company you keep, this album is going to be awesome. Their new single, Money (see video below) is going to be making them just that. It features David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, and Z-trip. If that’s not enough for you, their album is going to be released featuring covers by five artists: Shepard Fairey, Marcel Dzama, Sage Vaughn, The Date Farmers, and Mark Gonzales.

Sidenote: Russ really likes how I manage to reference Shepard Fairey all the time. It’s not my fault he’s popular and people love to blog about him, take pictures of his installations, and crowd his openings. So in an attempt to write about other things I’m interested in, it was only fitting that Shepard Fairey ironically show up anyway! I heard he designed this poster people may have heard about, it had to do with our new president. I also heard that the poster is now in the National Portrait Gallery.

inauguration installation

Last spring I chased two of my favorite men, (who are also extraordinarily fast walkers, it’s a light jog of a pace for anyone of the short legged nature) around the galleries in New York . One of the best shows I’ve ever seen was by one of N.A.S.A.’s cover artists at the David Zwirner Gallery. Marcel Dzama’s Even the Ghost of the Past was on display, with the first room dedicated to paintings and sketchbooks. The second room was dark with two displays of his sculptural work. The third room was a theatre for a black and white video installation. One of the things he is most noted for is his muted color palette, which is attributed to his using a root-beer paint for the variations in browns he achieves. He also kept amazing company in a collective known as The Royal Art Lodge, with Michael Dumontier, Neil Farber, Drue Langlois, Jonathan Pylypchuk, and Adrian Williams. Marcel features work in several galleries. I’ve seen some minature sculptures at a gallery in Philadelphia, as well as a print of his featured in a show at F.U.E.L. gallery. His sculptural work and video is as equally and as darkly enchanting as the rest of his work.

Owl Troubles, 2003

May I suggest keeping good company? It seems to be working out for everyone else.

-posted by samsquared

The Good Double Life

all rights reserved, the hour, flickr.com

I can remember being younger, and swearing I would be a rocker one day. The lead singer of a giant rock band. I forgot a major part in joining a rock band was learning an instrument. Well, I had an electric guitar, I just never bothered to finish learning how chords work. I blame it on my small hands. So I decided to pursue a career with my other passion, art.

I was playing the game of Life with some friends, I picked the career card of an artist. Unlike real life, this career came with a salary of $100,000. I decided I must be a celebrity artist, like David Byrne (above). He has been popular on the alternative music scene since the 80s for being the lead man of the Talking Heads. Since he spent all that money going to one of the finest art schools, RISD, he’s managed to pursue his career as an artist as well. This September, I first heard the new collaborative album between David Byrne and Brian Eno, titled Everything that Happens will Happen Today. It was the melody of the single, Strange Overtones, I couldn’t get out of my head. When I got the album, I really liked the cover art and type treatment. I was not suprised album art master Stephen Sagmeister was responsible.

I still have a hard time getting the song out of my head once it’s there. I then read on another blog, David Byrne had designed temporary installations of bike racks around New York City. You don’t often hear about people becoming famous, and then successfully pursuing art or design. Allow me to point out all the horrible celebrity fashion designers out there. Or perhaps the famous people who most certainly have nothing to do with their design line, or perhaps too much to do with the design, other than their name being plastered on everything. There’s even the famous people who decide they can create music.

Now I’m not saying since you have plenty of money you shouldn’t produce an album. Go for it! But perhaps maybe you should produce a band or an artist who’s been working on their masterpiece for 10 years plus. I’m not an artistic genius, but I’m willing to bet that studio album you cut in six months is about as good an idea as Paris Hilton opening her mouth to speak, much less sing.

David Byrne references pop up everywhere. It’s because over the years, his following has placed enormous trust in what he finds interesting, and assume it will probably pique their interest. I was passed along a link for a great list of the Best/Worst Design in 2008. If you don’t frequent Under Consideration yet, you will now. The 826 Pirate Store front was acknowledged by Byrne as “definitely one of the top five pirate stores.” I think it looks pretty awesome, but I’m partial to pirates and booty. It’s not just that Byrne takes interest in what’s cool, but what’s cool really like him. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, MGMT is one of the best bands to gain a serious following in 2008, comparable to Justice in 2007. They have covered Talking Heads This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody). There have been many awesome covers of Talking Heads songs over the years, as well as art attached to the albums.

I’ve heard if you want to be successful, you should model yourself after successful people you would like to embody. Fortunately for me and my dream of achieving a multi-faceted career, I have looked to David Byrne for inspiration. With the advent of blogging, I can now follow David Byrne’s thought process with ease!

-posted by samsquared