I was having some fun with taking pictures around the house with my new lens, so I thought I’d share. Besides, this may be the only reasonable way to up my posting on vdov, especially since I don’t think anyone pays attention to my gallery (but I will add the images there, too: shollen.vdov.net …visit sometime). (more…)
While I was studying 20th century music at the end of my music major at Bowdoin, I was shown (by someone, I have no idea who) a painting (i.e., on canvas, not a musical painting) that Shostakovich did, entitled “Self-Portrait”. Or at least I think it was called “Self-Portrait”, regardless that is what he considered the painting to be. As Shostakovich has for some time been one of my favorite composers (if not my favorite — his string quartets are among my favorite music ever written or played; Even now I am listening to the 4th movement of no. 11, and some of my fondest memories as a violist stem from the playing of these quartets), I sometimes go on long searches to find whatever book this came from or some reprint online or *something*. To date, though, I have never found it, and any search for “Self-Portrait” coupled with Shostakovich returns a series of his musical compositions which bare that name. If anyone out there knows anything about this painting, please post something about it here!
The painting is very somber, almost depressing. It depicts a man with very little definition walking away from the point of view of the painter. The color palate is very dark, as I remember. I would estimate that only 15% of the frame is taken up with the walking man and the rest by his surroundings on the street he is traveling down. This is how I remember the painting, though I never fully studied it and my memory could be very flawed. But, he’s definitely walking away from the point of view of the painter.
If I could remember who showed that painting to me (over 4 years ago now), I would just email him/her. My memory is not that good.
Cheers.
Tonight I was surfing around the internet trying to find something interesting to read (one of my favorite activities) while the pseudo-sweet sounds of Amunblane and the Electrocustics (Lucas & Nate playing everything under the sun on what has become a 6-guitar collection in my house) wafted through the hallways and into my office. Amazingly, something I saw made me think — a lot. I initially dismissed the title “Publisher Tests Selling by the Chapter” in my RSS feed from the Wall Street Journal. After some introspection on the idea, I came back to the article, and was disappointed by my inability to read the full article as, of course you know, WSJ requires a subscription. So I didn’t read it. Instead I’ll go on a major rant about this and many other things tie into a general theory of how we as a society consume content through technology, and offer a historical perspective on the subject. I may be very wrong about all these things, though I think it brings up a number of interesting issues that are worthy of consideration. (more…)
If you have been paying very close attention you might have noticed that our “friend’s sites” have gone +1up. The addition is Tim Barz and some of his associates who founded NYStreetart.com. I just wanted to let you all know that there is a new site available in the vdov universe. They are not officially affiliated with us but nonetheless there is a lot of great stuff there. The whole idea is cataloging the various images and art on the walls and facades of New York and various other places (so far NY and Berlin). I am hoping that they keep it up and build a big database. They have already opened it up to user submissions via email. So if you find yourself in a place with some good street art, snap some photos, and get yourself over to NYStreetart.com and drop them a line.
I mentioned that Of Montreal has a brand new album that is just leaking all over the internet. The leak’s not a bad thing it’s a good thing. Everyone loves it! The name is Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? The so-called-single is “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse” and it now officially has a music video. The only problem is that this video is the worst parts of the 60’s all rolled into one. It is everything awful in the protein hippie synthesis video. However, the song is quite good. The only problem is that the video cheapens the song by making the concept of the album completely explicit in the irony of the video, destroying the fragile layer of belief suspension that allows you to listen to the intensely personal ravings of Kevin Barnes and come out the other side seeing the beauty. The introversion of the album is painted with a silliness that is the hallmark [of] Of Montreal and the what strings it all together is the belief that underneath it all Barnes really means it and isn’t just taking us all for a ride. There is a small hope that artistically the album is not just glam-rock doused with feelings and that it is really feelings dusted with glam. The video would work with something more pat and disposable as an ironic statement but in the context of Hissing Fauna it falls far short of what it could be. That being said, it is still fun and maybe that is the weird beauty [of] Of Montreal. You can’t completely love or hate it and there is a certain art in that. Well, take a peek and enjoy the music even if it means blocking the visual. (more…)
It might be a bit of a lie to call this a comic review. Basically, I am just repeating to our readers something awesome that I found a while back. I know that couple of you at least will be interested. I have had (at the prodding of Mr. Meyers) a little experience with locksport, or rather the recreational art of lock picking. There are sites and groups dedicated to the activity but lock picking has long been a side part of “hacker” and general nerd culture. It is just something about defeating the hard (or not so hard in some cases) work of others. There are basic rules of conduct to it as well, so as to distinguish between the lock enthusiast and the thief. The main one being that one should never pick a lock that they do not own or have been given explicit instruction to do so by the owner. That is the general gist of it. I am still not very good and it specifically relates to my lack of tools. I know that I should have made my own set of picks but I opted for the easy way out and bought a small, basic set. Now you might be wondering where all of this is going? Well its going to the educational comic made by Locksport International! Basically they took Apple’s new Comic Life software for making homebrew comics and used it to teach the art of lock picking. No more will you be forced to learn from some IT Geek or dry MIT created text only walkthrough. Now you can get the basics in colorful comic form, which actually makes it all that much easier to follow. I think instructional comics are largely underrated and would love to see more of them. Anyway I think it is well worth a gander whether you are interested in picking locks or just want to see a good use of Comic Life.
What can I say? The window seat needed a coffee table. Although this is a very simple design, and has reportedly been used to make several beer-pong tables, I had promised to publish it, so here it is: a flat top, 4 legs, and 2 corner brackets on each leg. This table is also very long, which was chosen to match the length of the window seat; however, the dimensions listed here can be very easily adjusted to fit any space. (more…)
I’ve recently been faced with a large, empty apartment, a budget, and about a week to make it feel like a home. Furnishing via Craig’s List had always been my plan, but with two living rooms? Oh, also, by the way, we can’t fit anything larger than the smallest loveseat up our stairwell. The one that did make it up here was the result of a 45 minute battle with geometry. The stairwell lost–and not without some wounds to show for it–but we weren’t about to invite another couch to war. Didn’t they have large pieces of furniture in the early 1900’s? What gives?
Anyhow, my sister and I were pondering our large-empty-space, low-budget problems (and recognizing that there was no possibility of solving either problem with big cheap couches) while sitting in the window seat of a downtown Providence Starbucks. Now, wait…we can bring materials up the stairwell… 12 cinder blocks and 32 square feet of particle board later the project had started. (more…)
New photos in the gallery: projects & excursions/bristol, ri.
I took these like two weeks ago…but what are you going to do? There is a park down on the tip of the East Providence peninsula called Colt State Park. Most of the pictures are from there, some of them are also from a dock area where I was probably trespassing, but the locals just waved and smiled, glad someone was taking notice of their beautiful little corner of the earth. Or something.
There is also another new album which is a series of pictures I took of a very funny bird and his friend. This is where the square thumbnails really get in my way because you’re supposed to see all pictures at the same time, and I’d have to do something weird like combine them all in photoshop to make that possible here. So appreciation of this album has become a project for your imagination.
On another note, I’d really like to do some portraits, so if anyone in RI is interested, let me know (yes, the state is that small).
The Horrible Sickness, an amazing improv/sketch comedy group in LA who we interviewed in the spring, now have short comedy skits on their webpage (here!). So far there are two, but I hope that they will continue to make these and put them up on their site. I HIGHLY recommend Dead Man’s Cliff.
Having ranted about the new videos, I will also say that the videos are very different from their live shows, and in order to fully experience these sick individuals, you need to go see their show. In Santa Monica, CA, if you’re around (full info here).
With a small amount of supposition and daring and surprisingly little coercion, I have secured the South wall of the famed Empty Bottle in Chicago for a month-long exhibition of some of my photographs. They are up now, as you can see in the picture to the left, and some of you will have the lucky opportunity to personally view them them there at the Art Brut show this coming Friday. That is, if they survive that long. I’m beginning to think that, with regards to survival, even beer bottles, really, are pushing it with the glass/drunkard combination. So I went back today, after one weekend, to hang the last (forgotten) picture and expected to clean the frames of the other photos; surprisingly, the glass was clean–but one pane had broken (just in the corner, I don’t think I’ll replace it). Not surprisingly, this isn’t really the safest place for a wall of glass. (more…)
Well kids, all the discussion about the gallery recently prompted me to spend more or less all night and a bunch of time this morning before starting work implementing Gallery 2! This is opposed to the previous version, Gallery 1.5. The improvements over 1.5 are pretty staggering, far too many to discuss in this brief post. If you’re interested in any of this, please feel free to head over to the gallery site and check it out. Performance, aesthetics, and functionality have all been greatly improved. All that being said, I invite you all to check out the new gallery, featuring the life-oriented pictures of both myself and afischer, as well as the art of shollen. To all: enjoy.