Crambo!

Omar just IM’d me a great Tom & Jerry memory. So good…

Scan Processor Studies

There is something very unnerving and beautiful about this video: Scan Processor Studies excerpts pt.1 by by Woody Vasulka & Brian O’Reilly.

The source materials were generated by Woody using a Rutt-Etra Scan Processor in the 1970s and sat on a shelf for years, having been recently digitized. Woody came into my studio one day and asked me if I would be interested in using them to work on a collaboration, and the project began from there…

[via Today and Tomorrow]

I Need to Improve My Correspondence Skills

This correspondence between a Blockbuster customer and manager about late movies put tears in my eyes:

With the possible exception of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the movies were not worth watching let alone stealing. In Logan’s Run, for example, the computer crashed at the end when presented with conflicting facts and blew up destroying the entire city. When my computer crashes I carry on a little bit and have a cigarette while it is rebooting.

[via The Morning News]

Diverting Arts Funding

David Byrne suggests diverting arts funding to more education rather than arts institutions. I’m not sure where I stand but it’s definitely worth discussing.

I suggested that it was more important that children, and everyone really, be imbued with a sense that they themselves might make things — that the things they might make have value — as opposed to learning mainly to appreciate the great masters, whether they be Bach, Picasso or the literary canon. I proposed that the value of art might be of more use to society in that regard, rather than focusing on supporting, well, museums and symphony halls. Naturally, to a senator who has made it her noble mission to argue for more support for the arts, this is slightly heretical and, as she said, “very American.”

I wonder how much money would be wasted trying to imbue uninterested students “with a sense that they themselves might make things” other than bongs in ceramics class.

DIY Philip Glass

Fucking awesome demonstration of the patterns of Philip Glass’ music

[via kottke]

Ridiculous

Bangladeshis, Koreans stake out their pieces of L.A.

I couldn’t help but notice that the Bangladesh Assn. was above a Oaxacan restaurant and a Salvadoran furniture shop, and next door to a Guatemalan mail service. Also nearby, in the same building, was a Peruvian smoke shop and a Korean American cellphone shop owned by a Korean national who speaks Spanish, but not Bengali.

All this “Little [Country]” stuff really becomes tiresome as it does little to actually describe any neighborhood. Not only that, no one ever agrees on the boundaries anyway. When I tell people I live in Koreatown they ask where, when I say “1st and Vermont” they say “That’s not Koreatown”. When I tell someone else that I live near Koreatown but my neighborhood doesn’t have a name, they say “No, you live in Koreatown”.

Observations on Observation

Chris gives his affirmation on an excellent post by Carol Diehl at Art Vent.

Her site is a great source for smart and informed writing on art.

8 days and 3,700 miles driving into the sun from New Hampshire to Oregon

8 days and 3,700 miles driving into the sun from New Hampshire to Oregon.

Really great simple sketches. I’ve been wanting to do more drawing that captures views I find interesting. Maybe a good practice to take up while camping where I make a lot more free time for myself.

Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier – Her Discovered Work

I acquired Vivian’s negatives while at a furniture and antique auction. From what I know, the auction house acquired her belongings from her storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. I didn’t know what ‘street photography’ was when I purchased them.

The lot included 30-40,000 negatives from the 60’s and 70’s with 600 rolls still undeveloped. Beautiful photography.

I just bought a Holga to play around with medium format (I get my first roll back on Monday) and now I’m looking at the type of camera Maier used, a Twin Lens Reflex. B&H has A Segull for pretty cheap.

TED – Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon talks about her photographs for TED. She’s a bit rigid (TED is a big deal) but her explanation of her work shows she has real meaning behind what she does. It is devoid of the contrived/constructed bullshit that much contemporary art is built upon (or used for justification, after the fact).

Gallery of some of her photos at The Morning News.