to do list (2010)

since my phone has nothing interesting to say...

my brother Andy bought a g3 ibook a few months ago to 'teach himself mac.' needless to say, the g3 isnt the best machine to learn on since its pre-intel and really cant run 80-90% of any contemporary programs - isnt it fun to say contemporary when i am referencing things made only 5 years ago? no. its not. slow down.

ive been wanting to move my main machine down to the basement for recording purposes; the cassette four track i have is toast and i always hated mixing down so far removed from the space i created in. andy doesnt have the time with two kids and an outdated machine to learn programs in order to teach others how to use them for the cheap so i grabbed it (paid him for it) and its on its way. now ive done plenty of research on how to get a solid multitracked signal into really shitty computers, so aside from the mac i will have to purchase (or find in some box somewhere) a simple little mixer and interface. basically i will be doing future recordings direct to the machine while working with two tracks. its classic. its a challenge. its kinda easy. its recording 101. im not a whole band, so i wont have to worry too much about mic placement and the such in a group setting, but i am excited to see what i can do with a solid drum track and all of the ephemeral crap i have collected over the years. building and building and layering and layering.

the last run of any self recording ive done was my ipod plugged directly into my computer, making some fantastically delayed, overdriven, oscillating single tones. its not enough. thats too easy. too minimal for anyone to take seriously, no matter how well the textures translate from low to hi-fi.

ive got to find host for the songs or i'll just start releasing digi-eps until someone tells me to stop. i really really hope that person isnt my wife.

in less creative news i cant bring myself to ruin good paper until i get a good idea. the sketch books are getting dusty and i havent seen anything remotely interesting lately. i need to see some dance, some theater, some action. i want to get back into the figure but who wants to sit and have me make them look ugly? no one. ten years ago this wouldnt have been a problem. i guess thats why some art school kids stay at university for umpteen years: the chicks, maaaaan. whatev.

thin fevers has a new ep out - dont worry, you cant hear the cymbals:
album name
(live) on the Scene
there was an interview that went with it - just us clowning on ourselves and talking about sandwiches. thank god that isnt around. it would have ruined our reputation.

rooms is about to rule the world with a proper press push for our full length. dont seem surprised if you see a crappy write up somewhere. music journalists, and i say this because i knew some in my day and theyre dicks, some music journalists are dicks. they read the one sheet, the copy and paste, they get to track 3 and say they know the sound. thats lazy and not good for music. plus, it makes them dicks.


enough about dicks. i have to practice the ebow now.

challenge for a civilized society (1999)

Challenge For A Civilized Society - 1999
5"x7"
collograph on ink jet print

done in early '99 as i was trying to get collographs on top of other printed materials. the mix of intaglio and offset press (looking) printing processes really got my blood flowing. then i graduated a month later. this little piece is enough to make me want to PAY for press time. ideas anyone?

I'm in america at xmas time

Noblesville, IN

found work

i honestly cant remember when i would have done these, but lets say in the last two years.
titles are as written on the pieces, but to clarify, hgtv really just stands for home and garden television, a channel that for some reason i was all about until i realized their shows are about ten minutes long with a bajilion commercials. also, my want to punch dick cheney in the face is very 2007 or 2008.
dig.

Going home.

Ben Jacobs thought about scale and space. That's hard to find in this town.

-

Srsly?

Jon domont in skinny jeans? Srsly?

Its not that cold tonight but strangely, the sun is out

old picture

i saw that i had this picture taped to the back of my desk. mustve been there for a couple of years.
its treatment on source material for a painting i did as a senior at herron. the professor gave me a D in the class because of attendance because he was never looking for me even though i was there 95% of the time.

the picture also started a relationship with a now dear friend that i wish i would hang out with more often but, well, we all know how we find and lose people in time.

Math Class

Everyone else is tuning but me.

Thunder Perfect Mind long form description

On Friday, December 4, the music and multi-media performing arts group BASILICA will present "Thunder Perfect Mind: An Exploration of Sound, Light, and Consciousness" at the Murphy Art Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. This vast, interactive multi-media production will include performances and installations by over 20 musicians and artists.

Thunder Perfect Mind will be presented in Suite 2 of the Murphy Art Center, the 5000-square-foot location formerly occupied by Dolphin Papers. The space will be filled with a vast installation of wood, metal, and fabric architecture that will serve as the environment for the lights, sounds, performances, and interactions that comprise Thunder Perfect Mind.

Thunder Perfect Mind focuses on themes of post-dualistic transcendence of the inherited dichotomies between consciousness and non-consciousness, order and chaos, past and future, reality and the ideal, the known and the unknown; and the establishment of a dynamic, harmonic equilibrium between these supposed binary oppositions. The dissolution of these apparent dichotomies will be realized through the spatial and temporal juxtapositions of the performances and other components of this production. This process will be presented in a manner seeking to engage both the material and the spiritual; the mind and the body; the senses as well as the emotions and the intellect.

Thunder Perfect Mind takes its name from a poem of the same title that was discovered among the Gnostic manuscripts found in a sealed clay vessel at Nag Hammadi in southern Egypt in 1945. This production will include the recitation of an interpretation of this ancient text by poet and performance artist Chelsea Parkkila. The recitation of this treatment will continue throughout the entire duration of the evening.

The musicians of BASILICA will provide thundering concretions of consciousness through the performance of compositions by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, Indianapolis native Charlie Olvera, and BASILICA's own Joe Molinaro. The precision and exuberance of these performances will create points of intense focus of psychological and physical intent amid the more nebulous chain of events that will fill the evening.

Thunder Perfect Mind will also feature the premiere of Matthew Andert's Optical Theremin Choir, a system of nearly 20 interactive electronic instruments. Like traditional theremins, these custom-designed-and-built instruments are activated by movement and proximity but instead of being sensitive to electromagnetic fields, these instruments are activated by light and visual motion.

The evening will also include the premiere of a new composition by Joe Molinaro which provides a depiction of the ideas presented in the compelling and controversial book “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" by psychologist Julian Jaynes. Molinaro's "Breakdowns of the Bicameral Mind" explores Jaynes's notion of the emergence of human consciousness from the mythological dependencies of the archaic human mind into the modern perceptual and cognitive state of awareness that we now recognize as "consciousness." The composition features primal rhythms and hypnotic repetition and improvisation that will work in conjunction with the Optical Theremin Choir to produce unforgettable sculptures of sound, light, and video interactivity that will fill the entire space inhabited by Thunder Perfect Mind.

The entrances and exits of Thunder Perfect Mind will feature the Unified Fields interactive video display by IUPUI Music and Arts Technology faculty member Jordan Munson. Thunder Perfect Mind will also feature the premiere of Munson’s new audio-video interactivity system that transforms musical and environmental sound into video motion.

Prof. Andrew Bucksbarg will present his social cinema work PASS CAMERA, which will engage the audience in live audio and video reflections and interactivity, and Prof. Margaret Dolinsky's Celestial Reflections will provide breathtaking displays of digital art that will evolve throughout the course of the evening.

Additional music and video interactive improvisations will be held throughout the remainder of the evening.

Thunder Perfect Mind will be held from 8:00 to 11:00 P.M. on Friday, December 4 at the Murphy Art Center at 1043 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana 46203. Thunder Perfect Mind is presented in conjunction with the Big Car Gallery and is part of the IDADA First Friday Art Tour which is held in downtown Indianapolis every month. Admission is free, and all ages are welcome to attend. Audience participation will be welcomed and encouraged!

Half full or half empty?

Saturdays schedule

Brutal.

Life Lesson

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Gettin it?

Its strange to feel like it would be wrong to text co-workers you know are watching the same show as you are. I need some team building!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Trust me. My cat really isn't this ugly in real life.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

This camera has caffine in its circuits.

the sickness

so it hit me again tonight. how i dont even get pissed off when i find someone has started a blog, written a few posts, then ditched the idea altogether....
they start to actually write something, then stop. i could give examples but that would just double the internet, and we dont need that, now do we?

at the same time i wonder how to get more action on this puppy. for a while i was showing what i was doing in the studio. traffic dropped off. then i started posting info on shows. naturally, no one cares what the hell i am doing musically. i dont want to use this for the same reason people who dont use twitter hate twitter; constant updates of useless information. i get it. i see it. i try to get around it but end up looking back and see the same kind of false self importance those that hate see in any micro blogging. im not using this soap box to eat chips off of it, but i might just do five word reviews of movies. i think thats helpful! or at least funny, i dunno.

so here. i did this for a show that, in the directors own words, will be a shit storm of sound.


thunder perfect mind













ben jacobs, the director of the Basilica project, seemed to enjoy some of my tweets and facebook links to some past drum work i had done. match that with my not-so-secret-but-hardly-public musical experimentation and well, im playing drums in a post-graduate tech-metal drum circle.... how very post-modern!

quick aside: folks need to stop using the word modern when they mean contemporary. this goes for visual Art, Design, Music. and well, anything that is post-anything really. i bugs the crap out of me to hear someone refer to a "modern design" that is clearly based on source material from 1970 +. that time line means "Contemporary."
the internet isnt a modern thing. it is now. it is contemporary. the latest fuck buttons record isnt modern in its use of instruments. its contemporary. hal hartley films arent about modern film ideals. theyre contempoaray.


ok. sorry.
ok. not really.

but you get it.
i hope.

so dont think i will stop hitting this page a few times every once in a while to just tell you whats up. thats what its for. hell. the beer isnt always that cold. not even a little.

and dont mind the tags for this post; im just trying to drum up some traffic.

double drum duty OR i cant remember the last time i played two shows with two bands at the same club the same night

11.19.09

















i think maybe it was Incest Fest (13 bands, all connected, all at one show) about 5 years ago, when fevers played then a few bands later didache played... but that was at my house and well... its not the same.

Rooms was tagged to play this a while ago, but in needing an opener for a show always brings up the question, "why dont we get your other band to play too?" well, because no one ever thinks i can play two blazing sets in one night. well thats just horse hockey. i can have sex and then play a show, so how hard could doing two sets be? it wont be.

both bands are super fun to play in and as long as i can keep my head clear and my muscles warm it shouldnt be a problem. the show is free, there will be some good beer there (locals always has something delicious on tap), and you get to see how many beats i jack from each band im in.

Rooms show + my Art = good month ahead

for the stationary odessy cd release show!
@ the mel and only $6, one of those free cds with admission jobbies.
should be a pretty sweet show.








thanks goes to karl and joyful noise who we will hopefully be doing more work with soonish.

ALSO, i was asked to contribute a piece of Art for the 8th annual Tonic Ball, an event that this year is raising money for the awesomeness that is Second Helpings. the caliber of work has wained and wandered throughout the years but is back to top form, obviously if they asked me, right?

the piece, Marmoset Set (1998), is in fact, a marmoset set list. its been given the treatment of time with liquids and moves and placements and tapings and relocations galore. its more than a set list obviously, but my newer-ish artist statement breaks it down as such:

my work deals with the recreation of new memories through the amassment, assemblage, and treatment of items connected to former ordeals. mix tapes, set lists, aged paint, ten year old digital photos; these things that find their way around my mind, into a drawer, out of a stack.

opening night to see the work along with the others donated this year will be on November 6th at the totally pro shop A V Framing in fountain square. bidding for the pieces is in $100 increments and well, i really hope my piece brings in some dough for second helpings.

the big draw of just giving a piece away for free (aside from getting my name in some heads that have never heard it) is that %100 of the money raised goes to the org. not to me, not to the gallery, not to the organizers. thats how it should be done considering the hits NFPs take these days from corps that cant even play their own game well.

hope to see you thursday or friday.... either way... my shits busy these days!

a wall of death if you havent seen one before.

the dudes in caliban do a lil webcast from time to time. here is an episode from a concert in poland where at 10 am there were already 200,000 people there.

its strange to see for me because only a few weeks ago these guys were at the Emerson theater here in indy. Andy the singer is an old friend of Andrea's and we were lucky enough to kidnap him for a few hours and just hang out ar our place. we talked about "pit justice" and kids having fun and where our lives were and etc and etc.... but heres this video of him, at work, doing what he does best in front of 200,000 + people. wowl

skip to the 4:50 mark to check out the biggest WALL OF DEATH i have ever seen on film. i had seen others get started, but never the actual collision. easily 500 kids slamming into one another = awesome.



Caliban TV - EPISODE 7 - Woodstock Festival, Poland

Caliban [ON BEASTFEST TOUR!] | MySpace Video

a little throw back to now.

a mention of the President.

when German in-laws call you to say they are happy with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to your president the same day their daughter was in a car accident, you know you voted the right way.

links to pics of my work as seen on facebook

youve seen a lot of them on here already, but now they dimensions and prices have been updated.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17039&id=774418753&l=f95c156c0e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34782&id=774418753&l=70766da091

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22133&id=774418753&l=faab5efd2f

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18709&id=774418753&l=b83ab534b8

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17651&id=774418753&l=5d96fd3253

its like im in the MATRIX!!!

so i went up to look at some cars today and found a used toyota matrix that looks pretty snazzy. the catch is that its an '06, which in my head means that in two months it will be a four year old car. yeep!

anywho, while on my recent car quest ive found online video reviews that are both compelling and totally suck shit. the one below is a bit of each. for one i LOVE the way this dude says "carolla" but at the same time am annoyed by his circling of the car.... the car i want to buy, but gray. they look a lot bigger in person, which im sure this dude would attest to, in one form or another.



oh yea... buy my paintings for cheap so i can afford this thing.

hello future....

oh wait, i play drums! this is totally unpractical for me!

yet still cool.

its totally still summer on the floor

i swear it was just sitting there.

ROOMS s/t cd release show!!!

this has already proven to be a great show. how do i know? because im on the damn cd!

100th post... this shit is getting old

so i downloaded the brushes app for my ipod. its pretty amazing.



i like that i can make lines like bic pens.
gotta try to get the drips down, though.

ongoing projects

as my energies have recently been steered towards the musical end of my spectrum, i can write about some pretty awesome things coming up in the near future.

first, my long time crew Thin Fevers is getting hair cuts and doing tons of ab crunches to get ready for a photo shoot at the end of the month. none of the band knows where the hell this shoot will take place or what kind of release forms will needed to be signed, but hey, we're pretty, so it'll make us feel good.

Fevers will also be playing a pretty damn sexy summer show with soon to be friends the the Jai-Alai Savant & the Che Arthur Three at the Vollrath (or more lovingly referred to as the "Voltron" by the coolest of kids) on June 27th.

here, look at this....















The other band im in, ROOMS is preparing for some cool shows coming up, the most important being our full length recording's release show on August 7th at the Historic Melody Inn. word on the street is that this cd is going to blow up pretty huge, so get one at this show since we probably wont want to do a reissue. some of the songs are a little older and we have close to an entire follow up already written, so get on that shit, NOW.

I havent had much time to take proper pics of the solo show from April, but i have to share the bad news that Alchemy, the gallery that so graciously hosted the show, is now dead. the owners still live on, but the space is otherwise not going to be used for its intended purpose. as they never had a proper web site, neither do i, but that will change pretty quickly. get your bookmarks ready, k?

ok off to practice.

the show is over

thanks to all that were able to make it out to Alchemy to view my first solo exhibition. I wish i could have done some subsequent receptions but time didnt allow for it. a majority of the works are still for sale at soon to be reduced prices so keep you bookmarks open for a better site to view my ongoing developments.

the new site, in my head, will have both the images i make and the sounds that not only influence them but are created concurrently with the work. i was in a bit of a pinch to get this first show together but in the future would like not a "mulit-media", bonk you over the head vibe but one that alludes to some of the deeper meanings of the works through sound and light. some of you already get what im saying, some of you just need a bit more of a push in the right direction. dont worry, its nothing too heavy, ok?

thanks to rob and nikki for sharing their amazing space, all of the amazingly talented stylists that had to look at my shit every time they went to work, thanks to wfyi for the support (development ftw), thanks to all of the women that inspired some of those images, thanks to larry for firing me so i could get some time by myself, and thanks to my wife andrea. without her support and patience while i was getting this show together i wouldnt have finished any of the work she said was either over worked or almost there.

keep an eye out as i try (as half-assedly as i can) to get more work produced and more work out there to see in person.

regards,

ben

your MUST HAVE summer accessory

now is it me, or does the third verse sound like it was phoned in by the singer of the now defunct Chicago band US Maple?

call my bro. he can help

but his umbrella is his. git yr own.

Georges Braque's dead soul is going a little nuts right now

theoretical crystal growth on a constant substrate

via: ffffound.com

so much has yet to be done

so in the last month:
Database and user interface flip at work.
Greencard interview.
busted master cylinder.
2&1/2 weeks to get an exhibition together which included but was not limited to, piece choices, coordination with gallery, purchase of frames & mats, assemblage of frames & mats, hanging and opening.

now:
radio drive production duties.
1on1 talks with 18 remaining callers.
change bank account.
find a damn doctor.

what you can do:
say nice things and think good thoughts.

preparation makes me a prep? f that.

a weekend spent half-framing screwed up my back. i say half framing because i assembled. i didnt make anything but the pictures. didnt cut wood or joint any corners or glue anything. just made sandwiches of plexi, paper, board and board. being a good sandwich maker doesnt make you a good cook, or anything close to a chef. kinda like how mixing a good color doesnt make you a good painter, or anything close to a good artist.
[thats why i like black and white, sucka!]

Andrea was outta town at a conference she said was educational and helpful, but i wonder how much of what she workshopped will be usefull in the next few months...she needs another job. you know, for more money, respect, benefits, and a chance to convince her to move downtown. maybe just more money. nonetheless, i had time to work and work and smoked and drank and worked. the two days i had made me wish for a house so badly so i just drove around, thinking about what it would really take to you know, get a house.

my mother dropped by and one of our conversations went into my want of a managed property. i know why at my age i still want someone else to cut the grass, fix the sink, landscape the yard: i got other stuff to do, thats why. i have stuff to make, songs to play, places to go check out. im not going to get older just to ride on a lawmower for 20 minutes a week. that time could be better used sleeping for an extra 20 minutes in the morning. now that is meaningful.

more preparations are being made for Peter Freund Sr. to visit our grand nation via Germany. two + weeks of a father in-law i havent seen for years and not once since being married. he is kinda bad ass if you ask me. he is in the hospital about two months out of the year and still travels six more. last i heard he had to go in because he had broken his belly button. how hard it that?!?! good times will be had.

more preparations for the Rooms cd to come out sometime soon. i have to design the cover, again, after matt called me drunk to yell about monochromatic cover fails and how my text looks too tough guy & punk. fun part was that he did it while i was at work so i yelled at him and my callers just laughed and laughed at my upity art talk and grunts. i'll get to it, next week.

ug. blogging at work. makes me want a laptop.

nerdiness

"Think about it, when Gandalf came back, he had new duds, white hair, and a shiney new white staff. I don't seem to recall the Fellowship questioning what Gandalf was or whether or not he was a Cylon."

i can read that and totally understand it. can you?

via galactica site rep

i wish my dining room couch always looked like this.

truth

Francis Bacon on being asked about the horror of his work-

"Because, if you say something very directly to somebody, they're sometimes offended, although it is a fact. Because people tend to be offended by facts, or what used to be called truth."

from "The Brutality of Fact" Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester

before the music dies

a MUST SEE for musicians and music fans alike. If you've ever felt like there was something wrong with music today,you HAVE to see this. This documentary exposes the problems with the music industry and also explores some solutions. Just watch.

side note: Erykah Badu is giving you "Real Talk" on here. And her performance is awesome too.


via: heavy gun

gaw dam i wunt this

understandably, andrea has some trouble with Bad Brains' Religion. but damn, i want these shoes. the iconic thunderbolt, destruction of the capital building, and a wearable, sure to be comfortable shoe?.... i want them but cant find a place to order... so i ask you, readers of this thing, find me a link or point me in the right direction!

one of the reasons i play music and make art

i've got this as a patch .......... somewhere.
when i was a wee emo boy in catholic school i went to a lot of shows at the sitcom at 42nd and College ave. i was a bit of an outsider at shows since i was already smoking reds and never stopped eating meat... teen story aside, i was lucky enough one early summer evening to see Ordination of Aaron play the first show of a summer tour that would bring them back a month later for me to see again. i bought a 7" at the show and the A side was awesome. the B side, let me correct this, EVERY B SIDE had a number of jumps on it. apparently almost every 7" they sold that tour had a number of huge dips, making the second song almost unplayable, let alone ready for repeat listens.... the second time in town that summer someone shouted that their record was broken and sounded like shit (im pretty sure it was tony pontius or ben shine) to which the singer said they were all made that way but only maybe on purpose. two years later, in the scene, he couldve made a joke about kids shelling out bucks for busted shit that would be collectors items one day... thats another story from a time before selling out as an emo band didnt have any-fucking-thing about haircuts or tight jeans.

my point is that this band still to this day very much epitomizes what i think a cathartic show experience should be; guitar and drum parts you could probably play within a few minutes or hours of practice and a vocal part that you can try to sing along to but its really someone else's voice, their insides making the words you hear mean something to both you and them... and thats the big problem with post 90's emo; before it was connection of emotions but for the last 6-8 years its been about pussy and glam, razor blades and hair dye. no part in that thanks. but 15 years ago i saw this band and it kinda changed my life in the most subtle of ways. from the inside out.

thankfully i went to clean up my bookmarks and re-stumbled upon the sound of indie. posted was a song from the full length released that same summer (i had jason mager's copy forever, but he took it back)... its a record i would like to revisit but at the same time im sure the only way i could would be to snag the LP from someone who really loves it. in the mean time i will keep watching this video: OoA live at the sound of indie.

every f from the sopranos

say what you will about the morals or even the ending to one of the best shows ever produced.... go ahead, say it. SAY IT!!!

this video is a compilation of every curse word ever said on the show that cannot be said on over the air television. it starts cathartic but begins to numb, then turns to glee, then i remember where the story is going and the emotions start going nutty, like the show. this is totally NSFW but worth a watch, but only if you have seen the series. i know these edits are tenths of a second long, but in order they really reveal too much of the story, which is one of the reasons why its so genius.


the sopranos, uncensored. from victor solomon on Vimeo.

let me know what time it is.

i think i need this to save the country.

big ups to my aunt kathy simply for writing the words "obama watch." now i really want one.

whats good about painting with wine? you drink it.

two things out of about ten tonight stood out to me, enough to photograph badly and share (man, i need to get the photo stuff down)...

the first is something ive already written and come to terms with since: they're panties. ok? i know they are, you know they are. my approach isn't dirty but subconscious, and i know what youre thinking when you see the image. i still have some highlight work to do on the shape to provide more the definition of cloth and the sheerness, but im done trying to say its not what it is. im not that good of an artist to bullshit you into thinking youre not looking at what youre looking at. meaning is one thing, image is another. superficiality and the commercial world; they are one in the same.


calvin klein
25 x 19.5"
pencil, wine, gesso, house paint.


i also started with some marks on a sheet that i thought would turn into a logo of some sort. after some coverage and observation i found myself looking at a knee in the foreground and the rest of a thigh and torso in the background. i remembered how much fun it was to do the 'fake musculature' so i layed into the paper with a sharpened watercolor pencil. i have no idea how i will keep this thing from bleeding black after another coat of some background treatment and focused lighting work. a challenge. fine. i will take it.

fake knee
25 x 19.5"
guache, wine, watercolor pencil

these things were broken up by me trying to repair an old cassette tape i found title 17:22. i know its a sound work i did about ten years ago. in the past i would use the Playstation Music Generator to make beats and drones sampled from Fugazi instrumentals... i cant remember the theme of this tape, so i did my best to straighten out the warped/wrapped strip of tape. cassettes are a bitch because you CAN SEE THE PROBLEM through the plastic, so you keep pulling out tape, trying to pinpoint the problem inside the case, but you just keep pulling until something bad happens. i was about 1 cm away from snapping the tape, so i stopped in hopes that one day this year i will amass all of my broken tapes, open up the cases, repair the actual tape, reassemble and enjoy tones from the past. i know i have a problem getting rid of cassettes that may/may not have anything of value on them, but every once in a while i will find some one minute long song (or a ten minute jam) from when i was so concentrated on a theme that i really CAUGHT something, really recorded a moment that may resonate with someone besides myself. in my mind, that is one "truth" of Art and proof that someone IS an artist - the ability to bottle a moment (or a series of times) in a form of choice and have it mean more than just that moment.

man, i didnt have that much wine. wtf.

new (old) tools

kewl tewls
i just KNEW i had a heat gun stored away in my fathers air force issue foot locker (along with a sunny day real estate and sonny rollins lps)...

i have had two bottles of wine evaporating their last drips of merlot/cabernet goodness on my desk for about a month now. then, last night after going to see phoenix bodies play in a basement (the best way, by the way), me and the wife along with good friends jenny and antonio were smoking waaaaay too many cigarettes in the office when i decided to drop some wine onto a page of a new blank book i made this week. jenny was a little amiss that the line of concentrated, fermented grape juice looked a lot like an earthworm. she had been part of a childhood turf war in Muncie, IN and let me know that she once had a can of worms dumped on her head. no dirt, just worms. awwwww. isnt that cute?!? no. its gross (but kinda cute, right?)
wine on canvas (200?) 9x9

blah x 4. ive done two "real" paintings with wine on primed, white canvases. i love them. i would love to do more, so i bought a couple bottles of crappy wine at aldi (really, not that crappy since i will drink two of them) with the intention of getting some pretty layers of the earthy color that only wine on primed surface can provide. sloppy layers of wine (possibly cooked down for concentration this time around) can be dried with the heat gun in a few minutes. i like showing the process, the layering of color, but really, waiting around to watching wine dry is boring. use the technology you want to to make the image you want.

i wish i had a monotype press. i also happened across a post-card portfolio from 2000. herron and the university of tennessee did a little print exchange. i remember being so happy to get my classmates work and well, more than a little let down with the out of state mailings. maybe if i plug in the ole scanner i can share some goods and bads? you wanna?... my piece was an ink jet color print of a tank firing a big shell with a thick burgundy colored colograph on top. it looks immediate and is named after an Unwound album. yea! undergrad! i should get back to that kind of work. steal an image, crop and re-place on black background, place a violently drawn layer of line over it. simple. effective.

match this with a few (2) started underwear pieces. not as sloppy as the previous bra pieces, but still cool, to me, at least. a little more realistic, but de-sexualized as far as connotation and color choice. i would love to reduce the shapes to just that (a shape) and forget about the anthropological weight of underwear, while still letting the viewer know thats what it is. the challenge to illustrate the triangular shape of a pair of womens underwear, complete with lace trim, and expect viewers to NOT see a fetish-istic element? whatever. really, whatever.

oh, and that IS a managector in the top pic. hello contour!

Hokusai's most famous woodcut on a PSP? yes.

im not that big into hand held gaming, but this skin for a psp makes me want to ride the bus and play call of duty, just for fun!

neats

via: destructoid!

back to it (the IT being what you want it to be)

this past weekend andrea asked me to listen to the heat vent. of course she is crazy but i thought i heard something going on too, so i got on my knees and well...

i went to our basement storage area and saw nothing going on in the main room. the back room (my studio space) was a different story; on the left wall there was a hissing sound coming from the ceiling, mist in the air, and a nice stream of hot water falling right atop my prized "Dinosaur" strat copy guitar (best $35 spent ever)... the floor was soaked and everything in sight was moist. luckily there is a drain in the floor, uncovered by carpet remnants or cigarette butts, so most of the over flow was taken care of. some of the things not taken care of were a Bose mounted speaker i used to rock out to whilst painting and drawing (i plugged it in today and it gave me a nasty hum with moments of squeal), a receiver/tape deck/record player which im pretty sure is a goner, a fender sfx II amp which still works, some awesome pencils that decided to expand in hot water (thanks frenchies, your shit breaks).... and carpet... and some other throw aways like, well, nothing much.

the maintenance guy called back within minutes of me leaving a voice mail on some emergency line. he would be over as soon as he got some pants on (thanks dude, me and the lady really appreciate the thought)... they started work at 7:30 saturday morning and were done when i got home from work at 2:30. new pipe and they re-tubed a furnace duct that was all rusted out with, you guessed it, water.

why the hell am i writing about this? because i rearranged my studio, made two blank books out of the paper i use (small series, big sales) and am hyped to get in there and basically do some cool shit. im looking at the better series of the last year - i think i made about 5-6 strong, multiple piece works, but different people (whom i all listen to and respect) like the most disparate and 'not like the other' images...

how the fuck am i supposed to meld the imagery of an eagle with that of a victoria secrets bra? thats not a challenge, thats fucking dumb.

so i have more work cut out for me, maybe too much, but thats better than being a boring sap. trust me, it is.

a depressing song to listen to while contemplating the Israel/Palestine conflict

even if you cant dig on contemporary dance,
or if you dont like Antony's voice,
or if you think Israel has the right as a sovereign nation to kill for the sake of making a point (crusades anyone?)...

let the video play and think about what so many others must come to terms with; wether it be a sad teenager that cant grow into their feelings, a woman in Gaza seeing her children killed, or yourself on one of those dark days we somehow get through....



strings by Nico Muhly, my new favorite contemporary composer.

i kinda needed this to get my mind in check. my resolution for this year (that i CAN NOT BREAK is to take bigger steps to achieve what i want to happen in my life. i found this article about sins made in taking those steps. so you should make bigger steps too,but try to not fall down.

thanks shoemoney. you have a dumb name but have inspired me, in a way.

seriously. what the fuck. seriously

BART officer shoots unarmed man.

riots last night in Oakland.
this happened 2 a.m. New Years Day.

what the fuck.