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"During my last trek through what remained of the A & R department, I was invited to sort through a stack of records and demos that were to be junked. Among them I discovered a gem: a studio-cut acetate of "Like a Rolling Stone." Carefully packing it into an empty LP jacket, I carried it home and that weekend played it more than once in my apartment. The effect was the same as it had been the first time I had experienced it. Exhilaration. Heart pounding. Body rolling - followed by neighbors banging on the walls in protest. Then, on Sunday evening, it came to me. I knew exactly where the song could be fully appreciated."
"Instead, I went off to the most extraordinary show in Paris, "The Third Eye: Photography and the Occult" at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (through February 6). With more than 300 small photos, many from the late 19th century and nearly all patently fraudulent, the show is about the power of illusion and the compulsion of belief. Spirit photos, each purporting to capture the ghostly presence of a departed loved one hovering beside the living, throng the exhibition's opening galleries with wraiths—disembodied heads, transparent figures, angelic children, hands raised in blessing, a vaporous dog—and their anxious, deluded companions. Far more alarming (and more than a little hilarious) are pictures of mediums who, when not levitating furniture, could manifest thoughts and dreams as spurts of fluid or ectoplasmic macramé. No matter how hokey, the images curator Pierre Apraxine has gathered here (many of which will travel to the Metropolitan Museum, where "The Third Eye" opens next September 27) have the dreamy, disturbing allure of the most compelling surrealist concoctions. These photographs don't just subvert realism, they feed off and fuck with it, offering a view through the looking glass to a world where hallucinations look as real as, say, grain silos."
wall, uninterrupted - With the walls in the museum’s atrium space four stories high at certain points, the question of its surface material became a major issue. At one point, Taniguchi considered metal panels, but this raised the problem of a pattern across its surface that would be distracting as a backdrop for freestanding or hanging art. Plaster made obvious sense because, in theory, it is limitless. However, industry standards in the U.S. require an expansion joint every 30 feet to prevent cracking. The resulting grid would be just as bad, not to mention contrary to Taniguchi’s general minimalist aesthetic. So KPF used curtain wall construction to make the wall structurally independent of the intermediate floor slabs, and tied only to the existing columns, which are 26 feet apart on center. While the way the curtain wall ties into the existing structure varies slightly from point to point as specific conditions require, here’s the basic pattern: The wall is comprised of 14-gauge steel with lateral cross-bracing. Six-by-six-inch steel angles tie the frame to the museum’s concrete slabs for lateral support. (One benefit of 14-gauge steel studs is they can be put up by plaster workers; heavier gauge studs require steel workers, which would have complicated an already tight schedule.) Over this steel framework is a layer of 3/4” plywood, which acts as a membrane and makes it easier to hang art since screws have something to bite into. One or two layers of sheetrock (depending on fire-rating) is attached to the plywood, then finished with a plaster skim coat.
"Set craftsmen were reputedly responsible for the phantasmagorial sense of architectural detail at El Cabrillo, which includes a central outdoor Moorish fountain, timbered ceilings, Catalina tile work, swashbuckling wrought-iron hardware and scaled-down versions of Citizen Kane-like carved concrete fireplaces in each apartment."
digicamhistory
How an Original Velvet Underground Acetate Wound Up in Portland (And Could Be the Most Expensive Record in the World!)
"A persistently high demand for artistic innovation has produced a regime in which conceptual approaches have predominated," Mr. Galenson wrote in a paper. "The art world has consequently been flooded by a series of new ideas, usually embodied in individual works, generally made by young artists who have failed to make more than one significant contribution in their careers."
sottsass, mau on charlie rose tonight
8) "BEFORE THE END (THE LAST PAINTING SHOW)" Curated by painter Olivier Mosset, this show at the Swiss Institute in New York last month revolved around the idea that many conceptual artists were once abstract painters producing minimal, often monochromatic work. It wasn't the blank surfaces of these "last paintings" that attracted me, though, but the feeling of nostalgia they inspired. Standing in the gallery I thought of all the "last times" in my life that I'd registered too late. I kiss a friend goodbye on the street corner after spending the afternoon together watching bad movies, and it's not until much later that I think, "Wow, that was the last time I ever saw him."
legendary surfers
a definitive history of surfing's culture and heros
surfwriter
hotdogger dewey webber
radiator shame. this old house is heated by radiators and lots of them. we keep the heat at about 78 degrees day and night because of the tenants. is that warm enough ? even still, i keep some of my windows cracked open for comfort and ventelation. there are victorian period painted metal radiator covers for every single radiator in this house. many with female cameo design accents. the tenants seem to like them as they compliment the rest of their apartments period details. I took my covers out however and stored them in the basement. our esthetic is to remove the paint from all radiators and heat pipes. that is let the metal read metal. just as we let the hard wood floors shine through and the plaster and lath ceilings and walls be painted bright white and plaster like. i just fitted out my ceiling medallions with individual bare 100w light bulbs. and we kept the old linoleum kitchen floors.
theres been a major onslaught of news coverage of tanaguchis new moma expansion. i like it alot, but i think the real story is their redoubled effort to position moma as a luxury brand retail outlet. their once humble bookstore seems to have suddenly come up to speed with its highhat fifth avenue neighbors : Rolex, Harry Winston, Bergdorfs, Tiffany, Burberry, Hermes, Cartier...
