29 February 2008

Amber Alert Issued for Missing Artwork


Taken from a Jonathan LeVine Gallery newsletter:

On Wednesday, February 27th at approximately 5pm, an original drawing by Lori Earley was stolen directly off the wall of her current solo exhibition, Fade to Gray, which just opened this past weekend. The drawing “Untitled” was in an elaborate white frame, measuring 16" x 14".

The suspect in question is a white male, approximately 6’2” tall, in his mid-to-late thirties. He was seen wearing a blue baseball hat with a navy blue backpack, and he spoke with a very heavy New York accent.

I'd like to think the art thief is right now molesting the piece in his tiny apartment, keeping it in a unlit room, and feeding it old hotdogs until someone leaves him $35,000 in unmarked bills in a garbage can in Seward Park with no funny stuff.

Mr. Chris Silva


(Photo Nicky Dieter, 2005, Chicago)

He has recently updated his sites, his resume, has been particapating in group shows, and creating new inspirarational works. I can't wait for more.

http://www.chrissilva.com
http://chrissilva.blogspot.com

Ketchup Packet Says "Cool It"


The years post Seinfeld’s salsa/seltzer episode were questionable for America’s table condiments. The inflammatory comment from George, “Salsa is now the number one condiment in America”, resonated in the minds of billions and was the stab in the back that its 3rd cousin (related through tomato) Ketchup (also catsup) didn’t deserve. In the 15 years of squirming in pain, the only retaliatory move has been to turn ketchup green.

From now on when asked, “Don’t you know the difference between seltzer and salsa?” You can look to the single serving package for Heinz’s reply, it is beautifully illustrated in the form of The-Fonz-packet as thou saying, “Hey…Cool it.”

This is a great example of why the print industry still exists. Let's face facts--it's concrete. There it is real as ever in my hand, it's tear squeezes out lustrous ketchup on top a fry, it's all happening to me. I'm not watching it on T.V. or via the Internet; this moment is as solid as the rock used by ketchup to cave in the skull of salsa.

These are happy days.

Arrest-Proof Yourself


An Ex-Cop Reveals How Easy It Is for Anyone to Get Arrested.
Written by Dale C Carson - 2007
"Painters paint, firemen put out fires, and cops put people in jail. Every month you and your employer tally up the number of arrests you made. That's how you get rated. If you make seven arrests and someone else makes five, who's the better cop? That gives a police officer an incentive to arrest as many people as possible. There were 70,000 arrests in Duval County, Florida, between 2003 and 2004—that's about 7 percent of the population. About 10 percent of the people arrested were released within 21 days. That means that you have about 7,000 people who were never prosecuted and should never have seen the inside of a squad car, but now they have an arrest record."
Excerpt from interview with Dale C Carson in Harpers Magazine.

I already got my copy.

"Holding Down the Hood"


The Heart Broken in Half(1990) is a documentary on street gangs in the late eighties early 90's in Chicago.
The film is based on Dwight Conquergood's field research, the ethnographer who also co-produced and co-directed the film.



On The Same Tip: 80 Blocks From Tiffany's (1979). The film directed by Gary Weis
is a documentary on the gangs in the South Bronx in the late seventies early eighties.


28 February 2008

Is That Your Dog, It Looks Half Rat or Sumtin...



There's Nothing Mickey Mouse about Three Thug Mice, a new online cartoon series created by New York City artist, Steve Marcus.
The amount of artistic and talented individuals involved in this series is insane. Just the main characters Vic, Tik and Brik alone are voiced by
Min-One, Ra The Rugged Man, and Kool G Rap.

To see the rest of the cast, from Ari Lehman (the first Jason in Friday the 13th) to M-1 (Dead Prez), check out the show at www.threethugmice.com

Pelican Tonight!


Empty Bottle
THU . 2/28/08 (9:00pm , $12)
PELICAN, Black Cobra label: At A Loss,Blackflash,Delboy,Diwphalanx

Oh man... I've been 30-40 min. late to work everyday this week. Tonight I have a freelance meeting, they are going say scratch the last 2 months of work and provide new versions by next Friday. After the meeting it's the Off-Register preshow, and then my boys Pelican are doing it at the Bottle. On tour in support of their latest instrumental behemoth City of Echoes, joining them will be west coast heavies Black Cobra. Supporting their latest At A Loss release, the group plays sludgy and thick fuzzy riffs that will stick to the soles of your shoes and break your legs. New York natives Unearthly Trance open with their brand of "grim hypnotic doom featuring blackened sound waves and lethargic riffs."

Won't you join me in classic metal douchbaggery while I yell out SLAYER?

27 February 2008

Dustward at Wreck Center Today



A-Ron's Wreck Center in New York will play host to a new exhibit by the artist collective Dustward. There will also be a special Dustward one-day-only store with an assortment of paraphernalia for sale, from phone batteries (?) to t-shirts.

Dustward celebrates a variety of disciplines including publishing, graffiti, photography, bike messenger culture, skateboarding, design, and music. Since the early 90’s individual Dustward members have interacted with each other on a variety of levels. In 2007 the artists solidified their social and artistic network forming The Dustward uniting artists from Philadelphia, NYC, L.A. and San Fran. As a collective unit, the artists work to display their unified vision; a bleak, outside look at the last outposts of a crumbling society refracted and rebuilt into an overwhelming, multi-layered, visual, audio, and lifestyle collage. Should be a great show.

The Wreck Center
75 Sullivan Street, NYC
Wed., February 27, 2008

From Slam X Hype

Dengue Fever



LA based DENGUE FEVER, seamlessly blends Cambodian pop with psychedelic music, fronted by Cambodian pop star CHHOM NIMOL, singing in Khmer. Seriously this clique is as sick as the illness, bleeding eyes hotness. I once dated a Cambodian girl she was 4'9", 90 lbs., and made of pure heaven. Tonights goal: Win this singer over with my facial hair. All I need is to know how to correctly pronounce her name. Help me out.

TONIGHT: WED . 2/27/08 ( 9:00pm , $12)
The Empty Bottle & KCRW present

And on another note props to Digs UAC, CYA, Chicago. The bottle appearently knows the drill. Peep the header.

26 February 2008

Off-Register opening


Foundation Projects presents Off-Register, a traveling group exhibition of experimental printmaking.The Off-Register exhibition will showcase prints by a collection of international artists and graphic designers associated through the professional practice of commercial print design, but that do not consider themselves printmakers.

The exhibition explores the relationship these artists and graphic designers have to printing and how commercial processes may inform more traditional methods of fine art print making.

Chicago is the first stop on the year long exhibition tour that opens at Chicago’s new AV-aerie exhibition space, located in the former Open End gallery which previously hosted such exhibitions as Up Our Sleeves and Tragic Beauty.

OFF-REGISTER CHICAGO
February 29th – March 15th, 2008
Featuring Robin Cameron, Michael Coleman, Justin Fines,
Ryan Giese, Grotesk vs. Lowrider [collaboration], Steven Harrington, Maya Hayuk, Cody Hudson, Evan Hecox, Ben Loiz + Carolina Chaves [collaboration], Geoff McFetridge, Colin Metcalf, Andy Mueller, Michael Perry, Jon Resh, Joel Speasmaker, Todd St. John, Andrew Townsend, David J. Weissberg, WEWORKFORTHEM: Michael Cina + Michael Young [collaboration], and Rory Wilson.

AV-aerie
2000 West Fulton, Chicago IL

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, February 29th, 2008, 7pm
Music from The Gutterbutter DJs + Never Enough Hope, presented by The Empty Bottle
$5 Admission

EXHIBITION + PERFORMANCE
Saturday, March 1st, 2008, 7pm
Music from Lightspeed Champion + Never Enough Hope, presented by The Empty Bottle
$10 Admission

**The exhibitions continues onto the Riviera Gallery in Brooklyn, June 12th – July 6th, 2008. Off-Register will continue to travel in the United States and abroad through 2008, with additional locations to be announced soon.

Island of Plastic Waste Twice the Size of U.S.

Plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

It is a vast area of plastic debris and other flotsam drifting in the northern Pacific Ocean, held there by swirling ocean currents.It is also called the great Pacific garbage patch is now alarming some with its ever-growing size and possible impact on human health.

The "patch" is in fact two massive, linked areas of circulating rubbish, says Dr Marcus Eriksen, research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, founded by Moore.Although the boundaries change, it stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the California coast, across the northern Pacific toward Japan.

"The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup," Dr Eriksen says.

The concentration of floating plastic debris just beneath the ocean's surface is the product of underwater currents, which conspire to bring together all the junk that accumulates in the Pacific Ocean.

The Conscientious Objector
www.news.com.au

The *New* Projects


I saw this ad on the back of the Onion newspaper and thought it was a funny joke. I called the number on the ad and checked the website. Turns out it's real. Flatubush Gardens are the projects for the new poor a.k.a. middle class.

Pay only $1025 a month to have your own one bedroom with new hardwood floors in the charming neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn! Only blocks from Bed-Sty, and drug dealers available right on the corner! But to rent an apartment you have to pass a criminal background check first. Gotta keep the riff-raff out.


post from In Her City

C.O.P.S.

25 February 2008

Upset mag

Tryin to catch me ridin' dirty...

upsetmag.blogspot.com

About us


Okay, so some background. I'd like to say how I called Tony a few months ago and told him how we need to do something for ourselves. We need to do something that is ours, and in a sense, that is what UPSET magazine is. We're all about taking and not pussyfooting around. It's a fuck you attitude. It's not nice about things at all. It's out there: forward and direct. It's the goddamn Rambo of magazines, but less fat.

We believe you can do whatever you want because we do whatever we want. So lets go out there and lets show these other magazines who's boss and lets take this state championship back to mom! YEA! Seriously though, I feel like this is the difference between us and other mags. We are go getters, and fuck the rest with their PR bullshit. We only work with people we like (or can tolerate) and we're about the come up.