CHINESE ART INVASION: LUO TAO

U.K. artist by way of China, Luo Tao is a recent graduate from the Glasgow School of art and has been featured on the respected Saatchi Gallery site. (Saatchi also has a new Chinese art installation, view here) According to her site (in Rickey Henderson): "Luo Tao's illustrations reference aspects of her native Chinese culture and comparisons between Eastern and Western societies. The illustrations frequently display a dark sense of humour as well as political satire." I'll say. Andrew Wallace likes these very much. (via Lost at E Minor)

HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA: PENTAGRAM PAPERS #39 (SIGNS)

Pentagram Design, a design institution if I've ever seen one, has worked with any company worth a salt on everything from architecture, graphics, identities to packaging. Their regular publication, The Pentagram Papers, in their own words, "will publish examples of curious, entertaining, stimulating, provocative and occasionally controversial points of view that have come to the attention of, or in some cases are actually originated by, Pentagram." (1975-present)

Issue #39 includes an article entitled Signs which documents the lives of the homeless in America through the signs that tell their story and the intimate portraits of those who carry them. Particularly moving in this collection are the details, visible in the subjects faces and signs, (the sign above is a sadly ironic example in this recession) as testaments to the toll of homelessness and the reasons how/why people become homeless.

In each of my first three years in teaching (at either the high school or the summer camp) I've taught homeless students whose ages range from 7 to 17. (annually, there are more than a thousand homeless NH students, that we know of) While the percentage of homeless students in high school who graduate is extremely low, their situations are heartbreaking and their courage (whether they finish or not) is often staggering. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, in any given year in the United States:
-There may be as many as 3 million men, women and children living without a regular, adequate nighttime residence.
-Children under 18 make up almost 40% of this population. (42% of them under 5 years of age)
-Veterans make up 40% of homeless males. (approximately 27% of the total population)
-The mentally-ill constitute 16% of the total population.
-Addiction is the cause for anywhere from 30-60% of homeless Americans (depending on who you talk to)

In NH, there are at least 25 shelters who help house and provide services to the approximately 2,500 homeless. (NH Coalition to End Homelessness)
Here are ten ways you can help.






(via Cool Hunting, Pentagram Papers #39)

BEST BRUSHES: FEDERICO YANKELEVICH

Spanish painter Fede Yankelevich creates simple, mostly black on white portraits of powerful ideas, icons and amazing nudes. My favorite piece (up top) is an image of famed Argentinian writer/poet/artist Julio Cortazar. (Hopscotch won the National Book Award in 67') Yankelevich's published works have graced the pages of Esquire and Artafacta and are posted on the regular at his site.

(via It's Nice That)

HUMANITARIAN AID/HANDSOME DESIGN: OXFAM INTERNATIONAL

Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to fight poverty and injustice. In their honorable quest, Oxfam has employed the help of Barcelona design firm HEYStudio to make their image and ideas more acceptable (and handsome) through quality design. While an organization like Oxfam can truly benefit from these design upgrades, their cause and the impoverished people of the world are the real winners. (Too much? A bit dramatic, but true regardless) HeyStudio says:

Branding project for Intermón Oxfam. The aim was to renew the image of Oxfam and create an emotional link between the association and its young target. To create a more visual language, the letters are converted into illustrations, which increases the signification of words and create a own graphical personality, direct and reinvidicative. Titles are reduced to one single word to communicate quicker and more directly. The all identity is based on one single black colour printed on different colour papers, to facilitate the production and lower costs.

New fact sheet from Oxfam came out a few days ago, read it in full here.
•1 out of 6 people in the world suffer from chronic hunger.
Forty percent of the people on our planet—more than 2.5 billion—
now live in poverty, struggling to survive on less than $2 a day.
• In 2008 alone, rising food prices forced an additional 40 million
people into hunger.
• According to the UN’s World Food Program, the number of
global food emergencies has increased from an average of 15
per year during the 1980s to more than 30 per year since 2000.
• If you were born in the US, you can expect, on average, to live
nearly 78 years. If you live in Zimbabwe, you have only a 43
percent chance of surviving past 40.
• Poverty limits access to education. Globally, 771 million people
lack basic literacy skills; two-thirds of them are women.
• Every day, 25,000 children under the age of 5 die, mostly from
preventable causes.
• While the US is one of the wealthiest countries on earth, over
39 million Americans live in poverty.


(Via World Famous Design Junkies)

NEW WARES: OLIVER PEOPLES AND ERIC ELMS VANS

A few purchases today, which is rare for a teacher in the summer. The new Eric Elms x Vans model debuted at Identity (Portsmouth, NH) this afternoon so I had to cop a pair while the gettin was good. (Elms installation pic below just to make this post about something other than me purchasing crap) New nerd glasses as well, from the Summer/Fall 09' Collection, mine are the Oliver Peoples "Deacon" sunglasses made prescription. Thanks to Patty and the ladies at Eyelook Optical in Portsmouth.

AMERICA'S MOST TRUSTED NEWSCASTER: JON STEWART

In a new poll by Time Magazine, Americans were asked "Now that Walter Cronkite has passed on, who is America's most trusted newscaster?" Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart beat out newscasters from the major networks marking a significant change in the perception of previously trusted news sources. Considering the legacy of American television journalism, it certainly is odd, a joke maybe, that a comedian is percieved as more trustworthy than actual news source anchors. (no matter how awesome he is) Therefore this poll appears to be a rather sad reflection on the state of American journalism today, especially considering the recent growth of entertainment news and a shift from journalists like Cronkite (who did much of his own research and writing) to news casters who do little other than look good (sometimes) and read teleprompters. Now, Jon Stewart isn't even a "newscaster" in the typical sense, (or at all) but he does much of own research and writing and his viewers are consistently the most informed compared to every source of news available. (according to Pew Research, see below) So it may be fair to say that Stewart is upholding at least a few of the grand journalistic tradtions that Cronkite helped establish, even if it is for the sake of entertainment. (which is what Stewart has openly stated is his job, not reporting news)

It must be said, that the poll, conducted online, is clearly missing a few notable Fox and CNN anchors, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Bill O'Reilly, Chris Wallace, etc. As of right now, I don't know if the available choices were chosen based on popularity or some other more subjective criteria. Regardless, it speaks volumes that Stewart received more votes than the established anchors he beat out.

MANNY MANIA: BOSTON

This past weekend, Red Bull's Manny Mania Contest rolled into Boston for an official display of technical skateboarding and spazz kids ingesting too much caffeine. Portsmouth, NH's own Nelson Wormstead MC'd (on a gold mic no less) and Dover's Matty Johnson took home MVP honors. Peep the video and suffer through the Swollen Members track (alt video with a far better soundtrack: Lords of the Underground "Chief Rocka" available here)

THE REAL LOWER EAST SIDE: CAPTURED

LITTLE BROTHER IS WATCHING BIG BROTHER.

This month, the long-time-coming documentary, CAPTURED premiered in New York City. Produced by Mark Levin (Slam) and starring Clayton Peterson and Jimmy Gestapo (of the NYHC institution Murphy's Law) the film has been in "production" for 30 years. Watch the preview then head to Amazon, iTunes or whatevs to get your paws on one.

Since 1979 Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City's Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge he's recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.

GULF COAST SLABS: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF CLAY KETTER

Clay Ketter, an American artist/photog by way of Sweden, traveled to post-Katrina Mississippi to capture the view of its devastation not in the debris on the ground, but in the foundations of the former houses from above. Ketter, a former carpenter himself, knew just where to look to find beautiful composition in the bleakest of circumstances. Better known for his paintings and assemblages using construction materials, this series is especially evocative considering the lives and dreams that use to occupy the slabs he shot. (click on the images to enlarge)

A retrospective of Ketter's work (including the "Gulf Coast Slabs" series as well as paintings and sculpture) is currently on display at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden until August 16th of this year. Highly recommended. (via Today and Tomorrow)

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK: THE SPECIFICS HARDLY MATTER

Every now and again a movie comes along and rips you out of your world. (even if just for a few hours) Synecdoche, NY, a film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) is either so accurate and profound or so damn crazy and disjointed that you have to see it. (I vote profound) I realize the movie came out months ago, but you can't post important scenes from a freshly released film. (plus, I just saw it) So with that said, if you haven't see it, I might not watch this scene.

Here is the transcribed monologue including it's beginning which is not in the clip, but should be. I would edit it, but I don't have that much time on my hands. According to the movie, none of us do:

What was once before you - an exciting, mysterious future - is now behind you. Lived; understood; disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyones experience. Every single one. The specifics hardly matter. Everyone is everyone. So you are Adele, Hazel, Claire, Olive. You are Ellen. All her meager sadnesses are yours; all her loneliness; the gray, straw-like hair; her red raw hands. Its yours. It is time for you to understand this.
Walk.(begin clip)
As the people who adore you stop adoring you; as they die; as they move on; as you shed them; as you shed your beauty; your youth; as the world forgets you; as you recognize your transience; as you begin to lose your characteristics one by one; as you learn there is no-one watching you, and there never was, you think only about driving - not coming from any place; not arriving any place. Just driving, counting off time. Now you are here, it's 7:43. Now you are here, it's 7:44. Now you are...

TABERNACLE: A SOLO EXHIBITION BY CHRISTOPHER DAVISON

A few months ago, I posted some work by Christopher Davison, a Philadephia based artist with an amazing style and subject matter that tends to abduct your senses. (in a good way) Deservedly so, Mr. Davison has a new solo exhibition called Tabernacle, opening at the Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York City beginning in late July through August. The piece in the invite (above) is considerably brighter in tone and subject matter and certainly befits the exhibition's name which means "a sanctuary for worship." (or a receptacle for the consecrated elements of the Eucharist) Considering the predominant use of demons/devils and dark imagery in Davison's previous work, perhaps this show represents a new direction for the artist, or simply another side in the world of good/evil. Looking forward to it.


(via Christopher Davison)

3RD GRADE NECESSARY: ANTI-THEFT LUNCH BAGS

In the summers, I work for a day camp in Portsmouth, playing kickball and tag games with 1st through 4th graders. With my campers in mind, the design team of Mihoko Ouchi and Sherwood Forlee known formally as The. (they admittedly have short attention spans) have created the perfect solution for lunch time thievery. Imagine the look on a young persons face when they discover the delicious lunch they thought they stole turned out to be a moldy sandwich due to green spots printed on the sandwich bag. The original owner may not get the meal back, they'll be damned if some snot-nosed kid will enjoy their parents' hard earned tuna fish (or PBJ). At the very least, the bags would make for some deep conversations at cafeteria lunch tables. Perhaps they'll make one for lunchables?

For most of the year, I teach high school history and I'm sorry to say that this invention might actually be better suited for an office (or teacher's room) environment. At least that way, the potential culprit would put your lunch back in the communal fridge (and then tell the whole school about the poor quality of lunches its teachers possess).

(via Design Boom)

NEW SUMMER JAMS: THE VERY BEST (ESAU MWAMWAYA + RADIOCLIT)

Last winter's mixtape champions The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya and British DJ duo Radioclit) are finishing up their official debut album, Warm Heart of Africa, due out this fall. So far FOUR new MP3s have leaked out including the much hyped single "Warm Heart of Africa," (featuring Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend fame) "Ntende Uli" and this past Friday, "Julie" (my personal favorite) and RainDance (feat. M.I.A.) were snuck out as well. Today, their label Green Owl had the Julie/RainDance MP3s pulled, but I've included a link to the streams at hype machine (I'm sure you can still find them for download somewhere?) These new songs (and the new album) will surely move your idiot body around so get on it before, as Will says, these songs will be overblown in a shitty car commercial soundtrack.

If you haven't heard The Very Best Mixtape from late 08' click here to download its magnificence. While I generally enjoyed these mashes this past winter, it really should have been a summertime/top down release. Suddenly, "Tengazako" and "Boyz" have taken on new meaning now that the "Paper Planes"/Kala overload is finished and the weather's warm. Also, "Solata" is definitely the best possible use for that ol' Cannibal Ox track, "Life's Ill."

Click to download:
-Warm Heart of Africa (feat. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend) (SORRY, LINK HAS BEEN REMOVED PER REQUEST BY LABEL)
-Ntende Uli (SORRY, LINK HAS BEEN REMOVED PER REQUEST BY LABEL)
Streams:
-Julie
-Rain Dance (feat. M.I.A.)

(via I Guess I'm Floating)

ORGANIC HANGING: CLAIRE MORGAN

Irish visual artist Claire Morgan has created some compelling organic installations in the past few years, most notably in a group exhibition entitled Building With Colour at Northumbria University in Newcastle. Pictured above is a piece called Fluid which displays a taxidermied crow crashing through a plane of lush strawberries, all painstakingly suspended in air using nylon and fishing hooks. Pictured below is an installation from last year titled Captive and featured a taxidermied owl that crashed attempting to hunt a white mouse and was left in a sea of pieces of plastic bags. Morgan says of her work, "I use materials that display signs of excess or decay, and find myself contemplating issues relating to the 'residues' that we as a society leave on the earth."
Darren Ambrose, lecturer in art theory, says "Morgan’s sculptural material is ordinary, familiar and everyday, but is transfigured through the rigor of formal composition into becoming resonant with a mysterious melancholic power that allows it to be unfamiliar to us again.” Well said.
(via Booooooom)

STRANGE/SMART: CORPORATE RETAIL WOOS AMERICA'S PROGRESSIVES

In an ironic twist of fate, retail behemoth Wal-Mart has unexpectedly cast their support in favor of a mandate that requires American companies to provide health insurance for their workers. Say Whaaaaa? Yes, Wal-Mart, who for years railed against such a mandate and encouraged employees to use state medicaid programs instead of providing it themselves (along with SEVERAL other ethical/environmental concerns) is now working with the Service Employees International UNION to require insurance for their previously underpaid, sometimes undocumented, never unionized, sometimes discriminated against, still-waiting-for-their-overtime-pay employees. The support is a huge boon for an Obama administration trying to cover the remaining uninsured 50 million Americans by lowering health care costs and providing a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. The health care reform legislation (the issue of raising the funds is still up for discussion) is currently being drafted and may see a vote this summer.

In an equally strange move, a new McDonald's restaurant in Cary, NC has included an electric motor charging station in its parking lot for green customers. Perhaps even stranger, this was not their first electric car charger (Arizona late 90's). According to Pike Research, there will be over 5 million charge points for electric vehicles in the world by the year 2015. That same McDonald's, set to open July 14th, was constructed using a wide-range of recycled materials. In the U.K., they recycle their vegetable oil into bio-diesel and this year, all stores began using fish from sustainable fisheries (fish make up only a tiny percentage of sales). McDonald's has also participated in setting a ban on using cattle feed from soy grown in recently deforested areas.

While the sudden and dramatic shift in ethical/environmental policy by these companies is impressive, rest assured the changes have almost nothing to do with providing health care or saving the planet and everything to do with making money off the increased market share they will surely secure with the progressive label they hope to garner. Wal-Mart isn't as concerned with insuring their employees (or they wouldn't have been one of the worst at doing so for years and years) as they are looking to boost their image for providing health care that may cover all their workers, but with health care costs dropping, won't cost them much at all in the end. The goodwill they'll get should bring in a new customer base (myself not included) that may have previously criticized Wal-Mart for a variety of valid reasons.

So could McDonald's and Wal-Mart be the new progressive leaders of the corporate world? Definitely not. Both companies still have arguably two of the worst environmental/ethical records out there (especially the massive use of resources to make beef for McDonald's). This isn't surprising, typically, larger, more established companies in the U.S. are understandably slow to change (change comes at a huge price sometimes) and will only do what they must to stay competitive and achieve efficiency while keeping costs at their absolute lowest. It is usually the smaller, younger businesses that drive the push for ethical and environmental progression since they are smaller, easily-changed operations and will take chances on different markets to try to compete with the more established companies. Sometimes they even do so because they feel a responsibility to reduce their carbon footprints and benefit people in ways other than providing products, but obviously, these changes can be profitable too. Improving their green/ethical public relations (even slightly) is the perfect play for large companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald's and while these corporations make these changes to increase efficiency and/or bring new customers and ultimately, to make money, it certainly is an improvement for the world. Hopefully they'll keep going, they've got a lot of work to do.
(via Hybrid Cars, The Boston Globe)

PAST MEETS FUTURE: LINOS RECORD PLAYER

12 years ago, more than half of my music collection was on vinyl. I'd amassed my records for years and it consisted mostly of choice punk/hardcore and hip-hop which, in general, wasn't available in CD format. I'm not even going to pretend everything on my record player was worth listening to, but that's another matter. Sadly, I sold those 7" and 12"s (even 10" and 5"s too) a few years back and transitioned to digital music, which nearly fits on my 30GB ipod. Though, unfortunately mp3/4's don't come close to matching the sound quality and let us avoid a discussion on their lack of album art. Had I known that one day (this past year) Charles Pyott would design the sleekest record player ever, I would be enjoying some 7 Seconds or Chokehold (or Slapshot, see not all good) right now on my side table.

Called the linos, the USB player is portable and can be powered via computer or outlet. It operates using a small motor in the spindle on which you place the record while the arm stabilizes the apparatus. The picture below provides a visual explanation. The linos is not, as far I know, in production right now, but hopefully in the near, near future. Look for it, while I attempt to round up the ol' vinyl.
(via NotCot)