#nowplaying 11th dimension

Can you tell I'm insanely excited to see Mr. Casablancas? And that I cannot stop listening to the 11th dimension... Hope you enjoy these lyrics as much as I do. Refreshing change from "‘Cuz I’m out in the club
And I’m sippin that bubb, And you’re not gonna reach my telephone." Sorry... but seriously.

I just nod, I've never been so good at shaking hands
I live on the frozen surface of a fireball
Where cities come together, to hate each other in the name of sport
America, nothing is ever just how you plan
I looked up to you but you thought I would look the other way

And you hear, what you want to hear
And they take what they want to take
Don't be sad, won't ever happen like this anymore
So whens it coming? This last new great movement that I can join
The warning here
Your faith has got to be greater than your fear

Forgive them even if they are not sorry
All the vultures, bootleggers at the door waiting
Your are looking for your own voice, but in others
While it leaves you trapped in another dimension

Drop your guard, you don't have to be smart all of the time
I got a mind full of blanks
I need to go somewhere new fast
And don't be shy, oh no, at least deliberately
No one really cares or wonders why anymore
Oh I got music, coming outta my hands and feet and kisses
That is how it once was done
All the dreamers on the run

Forgive them even if they are not sorry
All the vultures, bootleggers at the door waiting
Were so quick to point out our own flaws in others
Complicated, man was on the wings of robots
If you believe in this world then no one has died in vain
But don't think that yet, to the top, now know what to do

A stroke of genius - ha.

JULIAN CASABLANCAS

is out promoting his new album Phrazes for the Young and stopping in T.O.!!!

FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2010 @ THE KOOL HAUS 

Originally @ The Phoenix - but it sold out fast so they moved to a more sizable venue... 

I'm not overly impressed about that - regardless, that's where I'll be in case you're wondering... 

Why I'm stoked for the Strokes front-man solo show: 

• Is This It came out in 2001 - it remains one of my absolute favourite albums of all time.

• Even though Julian has been married for five years and is expecting a baby this month (unless he/she has already arrived) he still rocks HARD, whether on tour promoting his solo album or working on the completion of the Strokes fourth album - which is coming soon... as he told New York Magazine.

• Phrazes for the Young is wicked. Especially 11th Dimension, (scroll to watch).

• IT'S JULIAN CASABLANCAS!!!! Seriously, enough said. 

Oh and...

I want to add this photo (below) to my poster collection.

Current Poster Collection:

Bob, Bob (Robert), and Bob. Maybe Julian's middle name is Bob? 

It just ties in so nicely, minus the name conflict, but I think I could learn to live with it.

11th Dimension video. 




Stay tuned for a post-show review. 

I believe in gentle harmony

At least... I get to hear this song 1000 times a day on the job. I love Passion Pit. There are no upcoming Toronto dates on their tour, but they are stopping in Niagara Falls, NY on March 28, 2010. ROAD TRIP! 

Lose yourself in lines dissecting

The work of Los Angeles artist, Aili Schmeltz is fantastic.

Initially, it was the name Aili that stole my attention and desire to click - the unique, rare Finnish name is the same which my lovely sister just happens to go by. I was pleasantly surprised to find the art did not disappoint, either.

Bling - 2008
styrofoam, spray foam, enamel paint, wood
34" x 21 " x 22" 

Scrolling through the 3D mixed media installations, I recalled past instances in which I attempted to create perceptive sculpture in fine art studio classes, and this is why my appreciation is great. It's not easy in the least to create something with profound conception, that is equally visually interesting as it is aesthetically pleasing. Yet to some, it looks like a pile of garbage - likely the same people who dismiss modern art without even slight consideration. 

via More New Math 

Right!?

In studio practice, Aili draws her inspiration from natural events and her most recent work is fueled by her love/hate relationship with Los Angeles, where she lives and works. 

"I am especially interested in how the landscape and weather systems are altered by the human hand, the driving social attitudes that guide those decisions and the aftermath of those alterations in terms of natural hybridization and human lifestyle shifts. This process of research began with an interest in the history of the midwestern suburban landscape and culture from my youth, where the middle class idea of “the good life” fueled a massive overhaul of the American landscape that would drastically alter how we live for generations to come."

I was mostly impressed with Aili's 2009 La Fuente de la Vida Project: Disco 1 through 5. The vivid neon colours are incredibly captivating and the sporadic patterning + linear composition is music to my eyes. 

La Fuente de la Vida Project: Disco 1 - 2009

vinyl paint and ink on paper 

96" x 72"

La Fuente de la Vida Project: Disco 2 - 2009
vinyl paint and ink on paper
96" x 72"

La Fuente de la Vida Project: Disco 3 - 2009
vinyl paint and ink on paper
96" x 72"

La Fuente de la Vida Project: Disco 4 - 2009
vinyl paint and ink on paper
72" x 96"

La Fuente de la Vida Project: Disco 5 - 2009
vinyl paint and ink on paper
72" x 96"

I think m

I'm seeing the future account of a toxic waste disaster and its glowing after effects, leading to hell on Earth. Not too far-fetched. 

I really love this Berlin Study 2, too. It just as a certain je ne sais quoi, non? ha.

Berlin Study 2 - 2009
gouache and ink on paper
18" x 24"

From Finland, Delay Trees

I'm feeling slightly guilty that I haven't gone completely gung-ho for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, like seemingly everyone else on the planet! I didn't watch the opening ceremonies - I did however go to a Toronto Rock lacrosse game, which should count for something, since it is the most Canadian sport ever (... maybe tied with hockey).


On Saturday night, while He was glued to the hockey updates, I opted to organize my wardrobe and design my newly purchased and assembled Portis clothes rack from Ikea, instead. 

Organization is pretty + Bob.  

It's not that I don't completely respect the athletes and think the sense of competition and community is awesome - it's just that I feel so bad for the people who's life dreams are shattered by missing the mark by 0.000001 of a second, or worse, their life is literally shattered like in the case of Nodar Kumaritashvili - so tragic and heartbreaking. 

Tonight it was speed skating that caught and kept my interest and I found myself rooting considerably for the Finnish team, as Mika Poutala raced the Men's 500 m. Both my dad's parents were born in Finland and while I am 100 per cent Canadian, I love that this European culture is part of my heritage and would love to one day visit. Besides my own family, I have never met anyone who has shared this background with me and I have a strong desire to further my knowledge about EVERYTHING the Finnish culture has to offer. There has to be more than cold winters and hot saunas!

I began researching, starting in the music department. My little 18-year-old bro would be happy to know Children of Bodem hail from Helsinki, although I'm sure he already knows - 1) being a fan and 2) being a fan who geographically categorizes all his bands on iTunes, rather obsessively. 


Aside from C.O.B and HIM, I didn't recognize too many of the bands, Wikipedia has so nicely catalogued for me, from the country. Even Architecture in Helsinki (a band I adore) is from Australia, despite being named after the Finn capital. There does seem to be a fondness of metal and metal sub genres (ie: dark metal, melodic heavy metal, death metal, symphonic power metal, thrash metal, black metal, epic metal, power metal, doom metal, gothic metal, viking metal (ha!), folk metal...) and I think the point is across. FINNS LIKE THEIR METAL. I wonder what the difference is between dark metal and black metal... hm!

Sadly, I'm not big into any type of metal, but I did come across cute indie pop quartet called Delay Trees, and I quite liked them. Here is a video, made by "someone" :Markus Kontiainen of a gig they played in Lahti, Finland. It's amazing... especially for just a "feel good video" and not even the official video for the song About Brothers, which plays in the background and that I am quickly falling in love with. The song is from their 'Soft Construction EP' which I plan to delve into in the coming weeks. Looks like all their upcoming gigs are in Finland... so now all I need to do is start planning that trip to Europe I was supposed to take forever ago. 

Delay Trees, Kaskas @ Torvi 6.2.2010 from Markus Kontiainen on Vimeo.


Love it. Enjoy =)

If cupid's got a gun, then he's shootin'

Happy Valentine's Day lovers. 


(Actually, happy family day! A day that I did not only, not see my family, I had to work - since apparently other people chose to spend their family day shopping at the Eaton Centre with their children... fun times). 


Trust me when I tell you - I'm not the mushy kind. However this Valentine's, I was feeling the love and wore red tights. So festive, right.  


I was treated to a lovely meal @ Gio Rana's Really, Really Nice Restaurant, on Queen East. You may have passed by it without knowing exactly what it is, but surely you've noticed it. Without signs indicating the title of this elegant Italian eatery, it is a giant sculpted nose that marks the location, instead. Pure class. 

Gio Rana's Really Really Nice Restaurant - 1220 Queen St. E. 

When HE lived down at Queen E. and Jones a couple summers ago, we would drive by often and when we finally discovered what this sizable schnoz disclosed, we vowed to one day visit. Finally, the day arrived yesterday with surprise reservations for 6:30p.m. 


We ordered:

 Fritto misto - fried calamari and shrimp, appetizer to share. 

Ossobuco- finished w/ cremini mushrooms and asiago with a side of asparagus w/ gorgonzola for him. 

Seared salmon w/ tomatoes and lemon/thyme salsa with a side of bean and potato salad for moi! 

Everything was incredibly delicious, seriously timely, not overly-priced and the atmosphere was mellow. The wall art was intriguing, and the staff was super nice and laid-back, and I can easily say, Gio Rana's definitely lived up to it's really, really nice proclamation.   

Jason Schwartzman for Opening Ceremony Spring 2010

Opening Ceremony Spring/Summer 2010 brought to us in a short French nouvelle vague inspired film, with Jason Schwartzman and Kirsten Dunst, by Gia Coppola and Tracy Antonopoulos. I wonder if I'll ever get sick of this style... I think not.

The film screens tomorrow, but here's the "exclusive first-look" via Style.com. 


Music by Coconut Records, Is this sound ok? Yes, Jason... it's wicked.







LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! I would... but it doesn't matter, because I really do! Jason Schwartzman is on my top 5. 

You remind me of home

72. William and Emily 

There is something about Death 

Like love itself!

If with some one with whom you have known passion, 

And the glow of youthful love, 

You also, after years of life

Together, feel the sinking of the fire, 

And thus fade away together, 

Gradually, faintly, delicately, 

As it were in each other's arms, 

Passing from the familiar room-

That is a power of unison between souls

Like love itself!

Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950).  Spoon River Anthology.  1916. 

Happy Valentine's 2010. May we all find the love which we truly deserve. All you need is love, love is all you need. ♥

untitled (2010) helvetica on screen

After researching the Mudd Club era this morning, I came back later in the day lusting for more details. I'm infatuated with atypical-type legends of underground/emerging art scenes who knowingly or not, created waves of artistic revolution, reinventing originality and designing new forms of perception. As Diane von Furstenburg so mildly comments regarding her impact on forever changing pop culture alongside Warhol in FASHION's March 2010 issue:

"You can't tell history while you're living it. It's only when you look back, and even then you don't say, 'Oh, look at what I have done.' You just live it."

Just thought I'd throw that in there since I just finished reading over the glossy pages and it feels fitting, as well as, part inspirational, part redundant. If I could hang with an underground arty avant-gard crowd forever changing the face of pop culture history - don't you think I would just do that and live it myself? Isn't that why I go to small indie concerts at Reverb on Queen W. and attend parties like "The Rager" at Sneaky Dees, duh. Or I think I'll just settle with finding my place in this universe and balance the act with some soul and artistic expression.

Speaking of artistic expression... while fulfilling my lust for everything Mudd-related, I veered down the avenue of artist Keith Haring, you know the one who curated the rotating gallery for the club... since you're following my blog so diligently... @smtwtfs. 

  

untitled (1982) marker ink and acrylic on found canvas

untitled (1987) acrylic on canvas

untitled (1990) sumi ink on board

Turns out, I'm far from alone in enjoying the work of Haring. Keith Haring is everywhere - literally! From Swiss water bottle brand SIGG's special limited-edition collectors' series (released in July 09), to Jeremy Scott/Schott collaboration result: 'The Perfecto' motorcycle jacket with all-over b&w Keith Haring inspired design, to Kanye's head at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

 

SIGG "Celebrate America" special limited-edition collectors' series

'The Perfecto' by Jeremy Scott and Schott.

Kanye West @ 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

I guess no one cared too much about his hair after his appalling antics of the evening.  

At the beginning of this year, Keith Haring Journals was inducted into Penguin Classics as a Deluxe Edition with 90 b&w images of his art, Polaroids (never-before-published) and "a remarkable glimpse of a man who, in his quest to become an artist, instead became an icon." That was so unsubtle and lame, I couldn't resist. Still, I'd be interested in flipping through the pages, wouldn't you? 

Mudd Club Moment - Freedom, Opportunity, Subversion

I was estatic to open my inbox this morning and see that Elizabeth and James had sent some big news! MK & A's Spring '10 collection is now available in stores and online. I decided to do some finder window shopping. Sad but true.

The collection is descibed as:

A gritty 80's vibe reminiscent of New York City's Mudd club era with pop embellishments, tonal tie-dye, leather panels and washed down fabrics.

The Mudd Club was a TriBeCa nightclub (1978-1982), a hub for underground music and counterculture scene in NYC. It was the anti-Studio 54 until downtown celebrities took over the scene and the club establised an elitist rep.

It had gender-neutral bathrooms and a rotating gallery curated by Keith Haring, live new wave and experiemental music performances - I'm thinking it was to NYC what CiRCA is to T.O., maybe in the later years?

Nearly a decade ago, Tim Blanks chronicled the Mudd Quake in The New York Times Magazine, in an colourful account of living in this fashionable, avant garde moment.

Mudd Quake: "The Mudd Club meant something: freedom, opportunity, subversion, all cosseted by the nurturing insularity of a genuine underground scene."

...

 And once you distill the elements of the look from Maripol's Polaroids, you see it everywhere for spring, from prom dresses, cocktail sheaths, pedal pushers and leather jackets over slips to fur stoles, rhinestones, red, red lips, black, black eyeliner and bad-girl hair.

The apotheosis of thrift-shop chic, Mudd fashion was embodied by Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper and early Maripol-styled Madonna, and eventually entered the fashion vocabulary of the wider world. Which makes the current revival inevitable, since what goes around comes around.

MARIPOL'S POLARIODS

And that's where the story would stop if all we were talking about was a renewed appetite for fingerless lace gloves and crinolined party frocks. But Mudd redux is much more than Mudd reduced to fashion nostalgia. After all, the Mudd Club meant something: freedom, opportunity, subversion, all cosseted by the nurturing insularity of a genuine underground scene, perhaps the last real one New York had. Après lui, le déluge: AIDS, MTV, recession, crack, Reagan's war on drugs, yuppie gentrification, celebrity culture, each in its own way restricting individuality and creativity. Is it any wonder that people should now be lending totemic significance to the Mudd moment? It has been more than 17 years -- a generation -- since Mass shut his club down. Nostalgia tends to run in cycles. Muddites were as attracted to the 50's and 60's as we are today to the 70's and 80's.

But the Mudd Club's studied rejection of disco culture has an even deeper resonance. When Maripol goes to clubs now, she sees a void. "The Mudd Club was not something that would leave you empty," she says. "It wasn't only about dancing. It was a merging of artists. There was a lot of intellectual exchange in art, literature, music, films.* "


In other words, the Mudd blazed trails. It created a liberating environment, most singularly and romantically in the way it exalted art as a way to set yourself free. The club was the first downtown venue to celebrate graffiti art and rap, to give significant exposure to artists like Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf. It was a magnet for free spirits from all over America. Even if you weren't an artist, musician or filmmaker, it offered the empowering possibility that you could be.

(This article is amazing... I want to include the entire thing, but you can just go read it yourself here if you want).

Nine years later, designers including MK & A are drawing inspiration from the Mudd moment one more time.

These two looks are my favourite. The tie-dye doesn't scream hippie - but hot grunge. The dress on the right is gorgeous - it is actually a deep rich blue. I like the full shoulder detailing, reminiscent of 80's but still very modern.

I liked most of the pieces except for the hideous beaded Dietrich Tunic and matching mini - normally I like embellished beadwork, at least on models, but this is just wrong. With red and green sporatic beads - I wouldn't even wear this at Christmas time. Take away the red and green top layer of beads and it would be a beautiful piece IMO. 

Kristen Stewart wore Elizabeth and James to the New Moon premier in Madrid - simple but an awesome piece. I like the model's shoes better though, sorry Kristen.

xxx