The Pursuit of Happyness got me thinking: what would I do if I had no money, no friends or family to lean on for support, and a little boy to take care of? My answer: I have no idea. Honestly, it's nearly impossible to even imagine myself in such a situation. Just watching the events unfold on screen was mentally crippling. Yet somehow this guy pulled it off, which wouldn't be such a big deal if this were merely a make-believe Hollywood feel-good flick, but it's not. It's based on a true story. So when the end comes, and Will Smith's eyes fill up with tears, my eyes empathetically mirrored his because even though his reality is so far removed from mine that it should be as hard to relate with as a sci-fi flick, even though I may be a privileged member of the middle class with a strong network of friends and family who would be there to ensure that a similar fate never happened to me, the emotions still resonate powerfully. Every step of the way, I was right there with him.

This film isn't a great cinematic achievement by any means, but it did get me thinking, and both the two leads (Smith and his real-life son) are fantastic. If you're in the mood to watch a triumph of will, no pun intended, or if you just feel like crying, check it out.

My girlfriend and I just finished watching Little Miss Sunshine and I liked it so much I had to post a recommendation straight away.

From the heroin addicted grandfather, to the Nietzsche-worshiping son who's taken a vow of silence, to the uncle who's recently attempted suicide (and happens to be the premier Proust scholar in America), to the average-looking little girl with dreams of winning a beauty pageant, to the unemployed father attempting to market a motivational program, to the mother who's just trying to hold everything together, this family drama is truly compelling and engaging from start to finish.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think you will, too.

First, the work of self-taught NYC artist Lori Field:

Renaissance Woman

Eastern Bonnet

Next, Bo Culpepper, who got his MFA in painting at East Carolina University:

Untitled Drawing 4

Untitled Drawing 7

And lastly, check out this Jonathan Lethem article on the late James Brown.

Thanks to ONETOKENBLACKGUY for putting me onto this beautiful Death Cab video, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark":

Let’s begin with The Clayton Brothers (Rob & Christian). One was born in Ohio, the other in Colorado, and now they both reside in California:

Fluff

Note From the Staff

My brother put it perfectly when he turned to me while the credits were rolling and said, "De Palma could have made a really interesting movie about The Black Dahlia; but he didn't."

As a die-hard fan of the old De Palma classics from the 80s, it breaks my heart to report that his new flick is a cinematic tragedy. Simply put, the De Palma of old is gone daddy gone. No more jaw-dropping camera work, no more edge-of-your-seat suspense. Now all we're left with is a plain-looking, two and a half hour borefest.

My advice: skip this picture and rent Body Double instead. We must always remember that contrary to his last few disasters, De Palma was once a true auteur.

In closing, check out the zany Dutch artists Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukacs:

Check out Square America, a gallery of vintage snapshots & vernacular photography:

Today I give you two Californian artists.

The first is Nintendo-inspired Bob Dob:

Some Things Never Change

Rough Night Out

The second is Martha Rich:

Freedomwig 1

The One

Freedom Puffs

Born in England and raised in Nigeria, Yinka Shonibare currently lives and works in London:

Scramble for Africa
(2003)

The Swing (after Fragonard)
(2001)

Scientists in Liverpool have concluded that Shakespearean language excites positive brain activity. In other words, reading his stuff really does make you smarter. Click here to read the article.

The Economist says Postmodernism is the new black.

Here is a site with loads of sweet essays and lectures by the likes of Zizek, Agamben, and Deleuze, among others, including this cool Columbia lecture where Zizek says: "Democracy" means that whatever electoral manipulation took place, every political agent will unconditionally respect the results.

Click here to listen to Miles Davis Radio.

Rheim Alkadhi, the daughter of an American mother and an Iraqi father, lived in the Middle East throughout the 1970s and now lives in Los Angeles. These images are from her project entitled My Lover in Unequal Parts: A Found Photo Project:

I Think to Ask

I Stand in the Street

And finally, check out this super cool Peter, Bjorn & John video for their tune Young Folks:

The Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2006 is outright laughable. Seriously. The Knife (Silent Shout) as #1 Album of 2006? Really? Has someone sliced their collective medulla oblongata? No offense, but the best thing on that album sounds like the intro music to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. I’m no aficionado, but anyone with ears can tell you that there’s something genuinely wrong with those Pitchfork people.

To counteract their foul list, I feel obliged to share my top 10 favorite albums of 2006.

But before the actual list, I should site two albums that are wild cards: two I've just recently started listening to, both of which are mesmerizing:

Joanna Newsom
Ys

TV on the Radio
Return to Cookie Mountain

NOW THEN...


number TEN

Gnarls Barkley
St. Elsewhere

number NINE

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
The Dust of Retreat

number EIGHT

Jolie Holland
Springtime Can Kill You

number SEVEN

Juana Molina
Son

number SIX

The Mountain Goats
Get Lonely

number FIVE

Islands
Return to the Sea

number FOUR

Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins
Rabbit Fur Coat

number THREE

Band of Horses
Everything All the Time

number TWO

Grizzly Bear
Yellow House

number ONE

Beirut
The Gulag Orkestar

Check out the pretty Lumini Mattia Digital Art Gallery:

So Far
(2006)

Need to Think
(2006)

In preparation for the nationally televised Lakers game on Christmas day, check out this sweet compilation of Kobe’s game winning highlights.

Click here to listen to Zizek’s excellent Master Class on Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction.

You owe it to yourself to watch this video of a guitar virtuoso named Andy McKee:

While traveling to visit my girlfriend’s folks in Pennsylvania this past weekend, I listened to a couple books-on-tape: Jeanette Winterson’s Weight, and Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.

Susie Breck and Dick Hill nearly destroy Winterson's gorgeous prose with their horrific voices. Seriously. Were I not a diehard Winterson fan, I would have never finished listening. Aside from the ear-wrenching irritation from exposure to those two over-actors droning on in the most pretentious locutions, I truly felt a sharp twinge of embarrassment for Winterson. She could hardly be proud of what they've done to her lovely book. If it were my novel that they butchered, I would sue them and demand the publisher burn every existing copy. It doesn't make sense why Winterson just didn't read it herself, with her elegant British accent. A wordsmith of her caliber should never entrust her words to such disgusting amateurs. Luckily, even the most hideous of voices is no match for the splendor of Winterson's language. She is a literary gem. Her sentences are like ice cold sweet tea on the hottest day of summer. Here's an example:

"All the stories are here, silt-packed and fossil-stored. The book of the world opens anywhere, chronology is one method only and not the best. Clocks are not time. Even radioactive rock-clocks, even gut-spun DNA, can only tell time like a story."

If you’re in the mood for a retelling of the Atlas myth, you should certainly check out this slim volume; but under no circumstances should you listen to the audio recording!


You really can’t go wrong with an opening like, “One night last summer, all the killers in my head assembled on a stage in Massachusetts to sing show tunes.” Vowell is another writer who crafts choice sentences, which is especially important when attempting to make a book about the first three presidential assassinations interesting. I, for one, had little interest in the death of Lincoln, Garfield, or McKinley; but with her enthusiasm and artistry, Vowell pulled me into her obsession. Another good thing about this recording is that the author did it herself, which saves her from the destruction of Breck and Hill. Alongside Vowell’s little-girl voice, there are guest appearances by John Stewart, Conan O’Brian, Catherine Keener, Eric Bogosian, and loads of other people, who give life to these historical characters. As opposed to the Winterson, I would highly recommend this audio recording.

German artist Sonja Feldmeier gathered various people of different age, background, cultural and social affiliation, and asked them to describe the face of someone famous that they admired, for a new collection entitled Phantom OO. Using the same software that Criminal Investigation Departments use to produce composite sketches, she created these images:

Elvis Presley, Musician

Marylin Monroe, Actress

Captain Picard, Star Fleet Captain

Johnny Depp, Actor

bright stupid confetti is officially one year old!!!

With absolutely no idea what I was doing, no overarching goal or definitive aspiration, no focus or intention of any kind, I began this tiny spot in Lincoln, Nebraska, on December 18th, 2005.

It certainly didn't start out as an arts journal. The first few months wallowed in boring personal meanderings and silly diary-esque photos. In the beginning, only about 8 people knew this place existed, and only about 5 of them stopped by frequently. Then after months of trial and error, I finally found a cyber voice that seemed suitable, and my meager readership has since grown exponentially.

I’d like to thank all of you who come here to share in this experience with me. Art is a very personal thing. As Marcel Duchamp so smartly pointed out, “Art is like a shipwreck ... it's every man for himself.” With that in mind, I hope you’ve been able to find something here that has turned you on, informed you, made you think, made you smile, made you want to investigate and inquire further. Most of all, I hope you enjoy visiting. My goal now is to make next year even better than the last.

ps - don't forget about Cityscape

Angela Fraleigh got her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from the Yale University School of Art:

untitled
(2006)

that i may somehow take on the weight of your sadness
(2005)

before it had a name
(2005)

Angelina Jolie is set to grace the cover of Vogue next month. Click here and here for sneak peeks.

Speaking of Vogue. Click here to watch the Barbara Walters interview with Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

Legendary Makeup and Costume Designer Van Smith passed away last week. Here is the NYTimes article about him.

Did you hear that Bret Easton Ellis is working on a horror-tinged soap opera for Showtime, called "The Canyons"?

How about a couple of surreal pieces from Mihai Criste:

Essence of Creation

Mathafisic Autum

And lastly...

Orhan Pamuk held his Nobel Lecture on December 7, 2006, at the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm. You can click here to either read a transcript or watch a video of him giving the entire lecture, titled "My Father's Suitcase." I very much enjoyed what Pamuk had to say, not only because I am a fan of his work, but because of the way he made such a public speech so very beautifully personal. Here is a particularly powerful excerpt:

"As you know, the question we writers are asked most often, the favourite question, is; why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can't do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at all of you, so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but – just as in a dream – I can't quite get there. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy."

Michelle Blade is currently an MFA candidate at California College of the Arts:

Tennis Match

Campfire

Click here to read an article about a fully functional Harpsichord made of Legos.





Lastly, check out the Switzerland-based graphic design studio called Flag:






ps - For the record, I enjoyed the artistry of The Fountain, but the storyline made me sad.

Believe it or not, Aronofsky's new film is even more depressing than his last.

I wrote a huge long reaction to this movie, but decided to delete it because in retrospect it made me sound mental. Suffice it to say, I think everyone should read a book called The Immortalist by Alan Harrington, which is an excellent companion piece for The Fountain. If more people read it, maybe our world would be a much better place.

Click here to see an interesting stop motion film.

Click here to read Three Poems in SNReview by my Nebraska buddy Lucas Stock.

Bicycles Locked to Poles is a photo series by NYC artist John Glassie:







Click here to visit a cool Nanotechnology Art Gallery with stuff like this:

20x20um organic film, cc mode

Jacob Hashimoto was born in Greeley, Colorado. He earned his BFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago:

Grass Green and a Little Bit of Air
(2006)

Broken Red Circuit
(2006)

Karin Davie is a Canadian artist who got her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, and now lives in NYC:

Pushed, Pulled, Depleted & Duplicated #1
(2002)

Between My Eye and Heart No. 1
(2004)

ps - What about the diary of Edward Robb Ellis?

Forget what you heard.

Go rent Idlewild, for Outkast's music, the saturated colors, the interesting camerawork, the fun choreography, cool costumes, and a chance to see a smart movie that defies stereotype.

My girlfriend and I watched it last night, and aside from one unfortunate plot move at the end, we were both pleased.



Now how about a couple fashion photographers...

The first is Gilles Bensimon, the US Elle Magazine publication director and head photographer:





The second is the London-based duo Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott:






ps - Have you read about the diary of Robert Shields?

If Isaiah was right, and there’s nothing new under the sun, then everything we writers write is plagiarism. How hard is that to understand? Unfortunately, for Ian McEwan, some lame folks didn’t get the memo; he’s now being accused of ripping someone off in his latest novel. Gawd, that’s annoying. Thankfully a bunch of A-list writers have stepped up to support him. Click here to read more.

Jason Salavon earned his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He still lives and works in the windy city. The follow are selections from is 2001 collection, which he explains thusly:

“MTV compiled a millenium list of the "Greatest Music Videos of All Time." Each of the videos in the top 10 of this list were digitized in their entirety and the individual frames were simplified to their mean average color, eliminating overt content. These solid-colored squares were then arranged in their original sequence and are read left-to-right, top-to-bottom.”

Vogue

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Sabotage

In memory of the poet kari edwards, a kind and longtime supporter of this blog, who passed away last Saturday, I leave you with her words:


Things keep falling

Things keep falling
the morning keeps falling
infinite fatigue gives way to
the standby dumb watchers
watch the water disappear

I cannot think
my head a place
from the hunks
that fall from the sky
while flocks of banners
battle on
through boiling river cries
and rocks of deserts
yet to come

a final lapse into
another following
another reapproach
a final lapse into
I do not know what
returning to another
I am not sure I want to know
an otherwise all too real
too real
instantly retrieved
over burdened
conceived in freedom
a few minutes
a life time

From his Private Stages Collection, the provocative German artist Peter Freitag:

Kim
(2004)

Thekla
(2005)

Anja
(2006)

If you were looking for proof of Jung’s Universal Unconscious, it seems Bat Segundo was thinking what I was thinking yesterday, as he’s just posted an audio interview with Kelly Link. Click here to listen to it.

Click here to look at some great Chinese Public Health Posters like these:

I Do Not Draw on Public Walls and Do Not Litter
with Fruit Peels and Paper
(1950)

Human Body is Like a Factory
(1933)

I'd like to end today with a poem by Bob Hicok, from FIELD Magazine:


TEAM EFFORT

Everyone at the same time if everyone at the same time
looked up from coffee looked up from crotch looked up
if everyone at night at dawn at lunch looked up
at the black at the blue morsel sky at the congress
of clouds of stars looked up from needle from packets
of buzzing from the wedding of dollars if everyone
in Queens in Wembley if everyone in my head if everyone
looked up from electroshock from drift if everyone
threw back the appetite of the eyes threw back the village
of the head the persistence of the skull if everyone thought
I am the vanishing point I am the frontal lobe of wind
if everyone stood and raised their wings and tuned
their orchestra if the census stood the tens of
stood the billions of stood the Earth would move
the circle would move the spinning would move if everyone
at the same time opened their mouth let the wolf
of their uvula go the rivers would stare at us
again would return to our faces the expressions
they carried away to the ocean to bury in the ocean
to save in case we ever came back.

Today I thought I’d give you two artists who may on the surface seem quite different, but upon closer analysis seem to share a common interest in cultural commentary.

But first, if you’re looking for some new music, check out Information Leafblower’s Top 40 Bands in America - 2006 Edition.

Now then.

The first is German-based artist Jeppe Hein, who had a crazy fascination with benches back in 2005:

Social Bench #5
(2005)

Social Bench #9
(2005)

Social Bench #4
(2005)

And the second is Los Angeles-based photographer Melanie Pullen, who has this very cool but very creepy collection of photos called High Fashion Crime Scenes where she dresses women in couture and then stages them based on vintage crime scenes she finds in old LAPD files:

Hugo's Camera
(2004)

Mr. Rossi
(2004)

Phones
(2005)

In closing, you should click here and take the time to read Kelly Link's short story entitled, "The Faery Handbag." It is super duper excellent. And then after you read it, and fall in love with Link's quirky genius, you will need to go out and buy both of her books (this one & this one), brew up some tea, open some cookies, sit down somewhere cozy, and read them from cover to cover. This will make you warm and bright.




ps - This last Saturday marked the 50 year anniversary of the day Fidel and Che began the revolution in Cuba. Unfortunately, Castro was still too sick to attend the parade held in his honor. Read more about it here.

Let's begin with the wicked surrealism of Luka Skalabrin:












With great anticipation, my girlfriend and I watched S.W.C last night.

Man, what a major letdown. We agreed that the bits with Stephen Colbert were good, but ultimately not enough to save this unfortunate mess. My advice: save your dollars.



Today I’m finalizing my selections for the 2007 OSU Press/The Journal Award in Poetry. It’s been fun reading submissions, seeing the multitude of voices represented. And although I am only one of the dozen readers responsible for shortlisting manuscripts, I have a feeling that one of mine might make it all the way. Of course, I can’t reveal the title just yet, but once the winner is announced I’ll let you know.

I recently stumbled onto this fantastic happening in Brooklyn called Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School. This is how they explain what they do: “We comb New York to find the most beautiful burlesque dancers, the most bizarre circus freaks, and the most rippling hunks of man. Then, on the second Saturday of every month, we let you draw them for three hours." Here's a couple photos: