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:

"...angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night..."


Since we’ve come to the end of November, it’s my last chance to say something about the Golden Jubilee anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s monumental poem “Howl,” published by City Lights in November exactly 50 years ago.

I read “Howl” for the first time when I was 17, exploring literature on my own for the first time. It stung me like a wasp bite. I spent countless hours scribbling in composition books trying desperately to emulate its style. I suppose, in a way, I’ve never stopped trying to emulate its style: the long breath, the odd imagery, the dizzy cacophony of language. I owe a great deal to this poem, as a formative experience it helped shape my personal aesthetic and also inspired me tremendously.

If you’ve never read “Howl,” I highly recommend clicking here now and taking the time to experience it. And then as a dessert, seek out an audio version of Ginsberg reading it. Personally, I love the brilliant Kronos Quartet recording.

Here is a NPR story about the anniversary.

Here is a video interview with Ginsberg from 1995.

Here is a link to some Ginsberg You Tube videos.

Here is a Believer article by the travel writer Rolf Potts about why we should also remember the anniversary of Ginsberg’s “Wichita Vortex Sutra.”

Do you think it's dangerous
to have Busby Berkeley dreams?

- the Magnetic Fields


Although he’s no longer with us, today was legendary film director / choreographer Busby Berkeley’s birthday. Above is a shot from one of his pictures.


Next, I wanted to share with you the World Press Photo winner of the year:

"On the night before the burial, Cathey’s wife Katherine refused to leave the body, and played songs on her laptop that reminded her of her husband." -photo by Todd Heisler, USA, Rocky Mountain News/Polaris Images

Click here to see the rest of the winners.


D. says in Monday's comment section that Alex Katz is the painting equivalent of Cheever. That comparison made me smile. Here are two Katz paintings I enjoy:

Orange Hat
(1990)

Portrait of a Poet: Kenneth Koch
(1970)