A Mans World

Last year, James Brown departed the Earth to spend Christmas in Heaven. Here's a hadnful of funky reminders of what made this man so great.

Check that chest weaponary...






Lovin the astrological breakdown


Godfathers of unity (and '80s neon after FX)

Places I Remember

Paradise Gate
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, 2001.
Photographer: Stephen Petegorsky.

I really miss wandering through this castle, over the red bridge, across the tennis courts, to trespass on the property of the deinstitutionalized asylum. Ahhhh...memories.

Patrick Dougherty builds amazing structures from tree samplings, and I hope to one day live inside (or at least beside) one of them.

Here's the man at work:

X-mas Card

Santa Baby....

Probably the closest representation of the holiday spirit (or at the very least in geographical proximity), Santa's Ghetto has set up shop on Manger Street in Bethlehem across from the Church of Nativity. Combining the great passions of my life: street art, politics, and holiday spectacle; some of today's most influential and recognizable graffito's create a thing of beauty out of the divisionary wall (reminiscent of the art created on the Berlin Wall). Proceeds of all sales are going to projects for local children and youth, and Santa assures those ready to dole out a few shekles for a good cause, that "not one cent will go to any political groups, governmental institutions or, in fact, any grown-ups at all."

Get in touch with the spirit!Santa's Ghetto 2007

Be a Pal

Sign the petition to get the Bay Ridge Ferry up and running again....or I very well may never see you again.

Liberate the North American recluse!

Be Still My Aching Metrocard

Ever since moving to my lovely (and reclusive) apartment, I have been hunting for an easier route to make my way back to humanity. One day I wandered down towards the Navy Yard and saw a sign for a ferry. A ferry!! Oh boy, oh boy, a pretty and quick commute! But alas, no schedules around, no ferry to be found. A single water taxi, with no cabbie. Boo.

But today on GreenBrooklyn.com I came upon an article about the Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliancce working towards restoring this ferry that would make the commute (wait for it) 15 minutes! Wow...I'll be keeping my ears to the ground for this to come to fruition.

Salt Water Sound

Open Air

OPEN AIR from knox on Vimeo.


Run those yards!

Its Been Ages!

Yes, an entire season has almost come and gone, and here I am shirking my writerly duties....or rather Im writing often and alot and shirking my bloggery....

Either way Im usually in the midst of shrugging off many a thing, so here's my peace offering to any readers who still exist (is there anybody out there?), a small sampling of what's running amok in my conscience. It's really more like a clown car in there so don't try and make sense, just take this as a reintroduction. The winter should provide me with more insights, and fascinations, I hope.

First thing in the morning,
as I wander betwixt imaginary boundaries,
I think of you and smile.

Germans Know How to Party

Brave Little Soldiers

JR vs Blu

Speicher blu_mp4
Uploaded by urbangrassroots

Oh yes......

I just wanted to thumb-wrestle but....

Ive got a bag of empty cans and some free time...

Marine Mischief Causes Confusion in New York Harbor

NEW YORK (The New York Times)—As reported in the New York Times, Brooklyn artist Duke Riley was able to float a make-shift submarine within 200 feet of the cruise ship the Queen Mary 2, which was docked in Red Hook. Riley’s performance art project was halted by the New York City Police Department and the Coast Guard, with the artist and his two assistants taken into custody for their stunt. Made to resemble the Turtle, a Revolutionary War era submarine, Riley's vessel was fabricated from plywood coated with fiberglass. The sub is scheduled to go on display soon at the Chelsea gallery Magnan Projects, after it and its captain have dried off.

Check the images:HERE
And seriously, if anyone feels like they need to explore some bad ideas in submarine construction with me, the door is ALWAYS open (and can we maybe build a fort out of couch cushions too?)

Listen to THIS and get yourself in the mood.

Drifting Away

Bill Pinkney 1925-2007

He knew some things about L O V E

Reclaiming Design

These pieces are amazing and a responsible way towards chic living. Makes me wish twice as hard that I had a fully stocked workbench.

My Geekiest Blog Yet...

Since I'm a nerd, and totally addicted to both dashboard and reading the days headlines, me and the CNN widget have been tight since day one. Our relationship was honest, keeping tabs on goings on, quietly on the sidelines of each others day. And although I didn't always agree with what my little black, white, and red interface had to say I could at least look at it knowing it was trying to maintain a modicum of integrity.

Two days ago, or perhaps three, I hit the little refresh button and thought that there had been some glitch in my system. All these little hyperlinks were littering the sections directly below each headline, making it only possible for me to read 2 at a time! And for what? So that you could send it to facebook and digg it easier! Ugh...look, Im all for changing with the times, I just don't think it necessary to clutter up my headlines with what seem to be less than pressing issues. How could you know that you want to email/facebook/del.icio.us unless you've already read the story? Put it along the bottom of the actual story, or at the very least hire a decent web designer to make those hyperlinks (which are SECONDARY to the headlines) less visually obtrusive. Im saying, you're a multi-million dollar company you must know people who can provide this sort of service.

I'll always have a special place on my dashboard for you, but until you learn how to act, BBC widget with it's scrolling headlines and search bar are getting all your time.

And just to save face and thank you for bearing with my rant: Bad News

Face2Face Movie

Face 2 Face - THE BOOK
Uploaded by 28millimetres

My favorite project of the past year.....

Made for Walking

The only thing sexier than high heels and Prince, is Prince in high heels...

In Over Your Head

Brave New York

New York City circa 1988-2003
(By Richard Sandler, the filmmaker responsible for "The Gods of Times Square", which youve probably never seen or heard of but should have. Go dig it up in a video store with a good cult/indie section. And I do mean video store.)

The New Commandments

*thanks to Domer for linking me this

Unabashed Cloud-Humping

Eden Goes Dark- Domer

Finding a balance between melancholy growls and joyful indifference, Domer takes you through the stress and struggle of yet another city day on, Work With Me. Playful and dark in the same breath, "Whistler" is a jaunty depressives walk through the park, and "Tacky Shoes" nearly begs for a euro-house remix. With a truly original approach to beat making, never fully existing within a single genre, Domer stretches expectations beyond the 16 bars or verse-chorus-verse cubicles, into the land of the independent musical contractor.

Domer-You and Me

Look for him on UK label: Skipping Beats Records

...because I can't forget

Everytime She Turns Around....

...its her birthday
Ive got a bit of work to tend to. Perhaps not just tonight but in the next year(s) of my life. Thanks for checking in with me from time to time. I'll do my best in the realms of edu-tainment.

Peas and Carrots,
Clouds and Candy

No Such Thing as Neutral Space

Suffice it to say, this is a near-future addition to my dvd library

The Nature of Permanence

When I was a child in my fathers car, I would watch the city zip by from the back window and read the rooftops from the highway. I remember seeing COST REVS wheat-pastes on every crosswalk light in the city in the mid to late nineties. For a while I truly thought REVS was running for office.

One of my all-time favorite pieces I could only see from the BQE. REVS image of Sisyphus pushing the stone of Life up the hill with a checkerboard beneath him. I found what seems to be a recreation of that piece a few weeks back in East Williamsburg. It was a strangely sentimental moment.

REVS journey as an artist has always amazed me. He wrote a book inside the tunnels of the subway. Each wall a new page of his life. I mean this in the most literal of senses. He wrote his story deep in those tunnels and I always dreamt of reading them first hand. For now I just collect snippets.

Thanks to Wooster Collective for posting this video today, to help me remember the writer who made me look at each wall twice.

"Spilling whiskey and learning songs for The ONE that got away"

Rotoscoped live performance of Tom Waits circa 1979.....


The original live action was shot with 5 cameras - 2 high, 2 low and one hand held. The music from "The One That Got Away" blared in the background as Tom sang karaoke style different lyrics on each take. Two strippers, 6 takes and 13 hours of video footage were edited to make this 5 1/2 minute live action short which was then turned into animation.

Even animated he's the hotness....

Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle...

A worker of the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) in Batu Maung, Penang, discovered this strange auqatic biped upon contemplating making lunch. The only thing that saved it from the soup pot was the Chinese belief that eating fish with unusual features could bring disaster or ill luck. It was later thrown back into the waters from whence it came, bogling the minds of local scientists who believe it must have swam into Malaysian waters from either North Sulawesi in Indonesia, or South Africa.

Who would have thunk it. Sharks are scary as it, the last thing they need is to learn how to run too....



In other new species news, the clouded leopard of Borneo and Sumatra has been discovered to be a seperate species from its cousins in mainland Southeast Asia.

Sometimes growing to the size of a small panther, the clouded leopard is the biggest predator in Borneo, equipped with the longest canine teeth, relative to body size, of any cat.

Its nice to know we are still evoloving, new islands springing up, fish with feet, and freshly discovered differentiations in species. So exciting! I hope they find one of those flying fish with feet, THAT would be the coolest animal ever made.

Banksy Feature- BBC Culture Show

Living By Words Alone

In the midst of a demonstration, a breaking moment of news, or near riot, there is a certain degree of bullet-proof delusion that cancels out the usual fear involved in such moments when you are reporting on the event itself. Your camera or recorder feel as if they are a shield between you and the rest of the world, since within the minds eye you have ceased to be a participant and have crossed into the realm of conscientious observer.

The fantasy of merely being the watchful eye is just that. Everyday reporters put themselves at risk, far more reality based than the fear of losing a lead or accidentally deleting that perfect shot. Those who report the wars are not just watching but become a part of them. Often used as pawns and leverage in negotions, these men and women take risks for a living.

The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps meticulous records of abuses to the journalistic community and offers help for those headed out on dangerous assignments or in the midst of capture or arrest in hostile environments.

Go check out their site: Committee to Protect Journalists and browse the press freedom archives for statistics on killings, abductions, and imprisonments. And after that consider giving them a donation, to help keep the project running.

"In the Image of God"

Trailer for the Face2Face project:


Face2Face takes an up close and very personal look at that which divides us politically set against that which connects us on the very basic humanistic level. In an attempt to bring a bit of compassion and understanding to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, French photographer JR and North African mathematician Marco, have embarked upon this project to convert signals into messages and to connect art to action.

From Face2FaceProject.com:

"After a week, we had a conclusion with the same words: these people look the same; they speak almost the same language, like twin brothers raised in different families."

You can see more of JR's work on HERE

A little late, but this was worth sharing...

February 10th
From The Times:
Council cleaners jetwash away Banksy’s graffiti art
Nicola Woolcock

When council cleaners spotted graffiti 24 hours before the official opening of a new London square, they enthusiasically removed every trace of the offending drawings.

Unfortunately, the two stencils they wiped out were drawn by Banksy, the subversive artist. One of his works fetched more than £100,000 in auction at Sotheby’s this week.

To make matters worse, the street cleaners did not deem the graffiti worthy of being photographed before destruction, as is their usual policy. Nor did they seek permission from the building’s owners.

The council has now admitted its blunder and apologised.

The street cleaners, armed with jetwashers, had been ordered to touch up the area before the official opening of Gillett Square in Hackney last November.

Two days before the ceremony, Hackney Cooperative Developments (HCD) decided to uncover a 4ft Banksy stencil of a girl wearing a frilly dress and a gas mask. It had been covered by plywood for several months.

It was scrubbed off the day after, along with another Banksy picture on their building of a man’s face.

Adam Hart, executive director of HCD, wrote to Hackney Council complaining that the murals had been removed, saying: “These were famous artworks by Banksy and of considerable value and there is likely to be something of an outcry.” He said later: “Perhaps the nature of the whole thing is that graffiti is ephemeral, so maybe Banksy would approve.”

The council is now drawing up a list of graffiti artwork in the borough that should not be removed. Mr Hart said: “It’s something they need to be aware of so they don’t eradicate everything that gives character to the area.”

Urban Scavenger

Cruising the Wooster Collective site, as usual I came across a bit of inspiration. UrbanCurators.com documents a project begun by six Rhode Island School of Design students, mounting museum frames around the city of Providence, Rhode Island to specifically call attention to the overlooked beauty of decaying landscapes, derelict buildings, and all sorts of beautiful imperfections. (Think, the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi) The results are rather satisfying, but the scope of this project leaves me wanting for more frames in more cities. I would love to see a swatch book full of brick, biten away at by truck exhaust (like on the BQE by the bridge), and multi-layered walls, no longer wheat-pasted but not yet cleaned. In any event, its a pretty cool concept.

Here's a clip of their mission statement:

"Humans have for centuries sought after the grandeur of ruins that were once the glory of ancient cultures, recognizing them as windows into the lives of past civilizations. The Urban Curators project proposes that we should likewise cherish those ruins that reflect modern-day consumerism and industr- ialization, realizing them as vehicles by which we can gain insight into our own society."

Their links section is pretty great too. Various archives of urban ruins and explorations. The Northeast is teeming with rot kids. Dig in! It also led me to a great site called Dropspots.org, which is basically a message board working in conjunction with google maps to facilitate the exchange of various goods hidden in public places. Sort of a treasure hunt and swap meet in one. Go type in your zip code and check out how many times you passed over a prize because you were too focused on walking and not making eye-contact at the same time.

Thump,Thump

Ahh, Valentines day....a day celebrating love and all its complicated nuances. Contemplating the whole thing tends to furrow the brow so bad the only thing that can make it right is a little bit of music. But what does that special someone, or someones (geez, it only gets more complicated doesn't it?) evoke the desire to say?

I want you, I need you, come back to me, back off of me, Im over the knots you tie in my chest...ok just this one last time.

Any of these statements ringing a bit too familiar???
Yeah, all of them, sometimes being spoken simultaneously...

Don't be afraid. Embrace it. The worst it can do is eat you alive and leave you a mumbling hermetic mess. But hey, it feeds the art, whatever your art may be (and if your only outlet is the bottle, then talk about a wellspring of inspiration!)

So here's an indulgent little gift, to assist the rumination of the many ways in which we love

Lust:
Muddy Waters-I Just Wanna Make Love
Magnetic Fields-underwear
Joi-What If I kissed You
Gregory Isaacs-Love You in the Morning

Devotion:
Marcia Atkins-Im Still in Love(Yes, that hook)
Otis-Thats How Strong My Love Is
Chet Baker-My Funny Valentine
Jose Gonzalez-Lovestain

Desperation, Dread, & Anger:
Playgroup-50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
TV on the Radio-Dont Love You
St Etienne-Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Tanya Stepehns-Part Time Lover
Dawn Penn-You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)
Joan Jett & The BlackHearts-I Hate Myself For Loving You

"Trust Your Story"

"Is the inner world of a story too big to get onto the page?"

All stories are too big to get onto the page, if they're good stories.
Just like the world is too big to get onto the page. But you can
sketch and scratch it, and show bits that imply the whole. You can let
the reader put it together in her mind.

--Neil Gaiman, excerpt from Well.com

As usual the world provides me with playful and productive synchronicity. This weekend I finally watched Neil Gaiman's "Mirror Mask" and realized that I needed to take some time and get better acquainted with Mr.Gaimans body of work. There's the beast that is the Sandman series, childrens books: "The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish" and "The Wolves In the Walls" (which you can get audio of him reading...his voice is fantastic), and tons of other graphic novels, short stories and film projects.

As luck should have it, he's just released a new book of short stories, "Fragile Things", and did a fun email interview on Well.com. There is nothing more satisfying than good timing.

A clip from Mirror Mask...


Go visit him on his page, he's a juggernaut

Frisky Dingo

I think Ive come across my new Adult Swim jump off. Frisky Dingo uses allusions to Alan Moores Watchmen characters but placing them in more modern day situations involving family drama with Killface and his skulking adolescent son, and professional rivalries....enough of me, watch Killfaces debut, I love him...

Ok, that was episode one, heres a later one...Im saying, death and dismemberment gives me the giggles


Refined taste is over rated

"The Letters Have Left the Page"

Rammellzee- Style Wars interview "The Evolution of the letter"

Ok, I promise this is it for Today...

Go to Graffiti Research Lab's site and read their response to the "terror" toons...wow, the post-9/11 world cracks me up.

This is NOT the Work of the GRL

For Serious???

Oh come on! Everyone knows terrorists dont like cartoons. Loosen up them straps on your white hats and have yourselves a laugh Boston!

Figures as much...

reSistor seemed like such a great project, visually appealing, playful, intelligent. Of course it gets usurped by an ad agency. Fancy cool-hunting leeches! At least it was for a cause I can support....adult swim represent!

Read it for yourself...This is why we cant have nice things!!!

This Looks Like Fun

Shedding Light on the Public Domain

Above is a culture jam project that is a collaboration between AAA (Anti Advertising Agency) and the GRL (Graffiti Research Lab)

Here's a link to a video of the GRL's 2006 Summer Workshop which equipped those interested with the skills to make LED throwies and postal circuit stickers.

Also, Eyebeam OpenLab, a pioneer in open source creativity that provides those lucky enough to have a fellowship or affiliation with a new facility equipped with a laser cutter, 3D printer, workstations, web servers, and electronics workbenches.

Here are a few Projects at Eyebeam. Most interesting to me being the reBlog program which allows users to filter and republish off of RSS feeds, and the Wave Bubble, a self-tuning, wide-bandwidth portable WiFi/cellular/Bluetooth/GPS/etc. RF jammer. For those moments when someone elses culture is jamming in your ear (maybe not the kindest use of technology, admittedly, but a hilarious concept none the less).

Turn Your Head and Cough

Back in those golden days when my iPod still loved and embraced me, shutting out the rest of the world, I had a few quality mixes I would turn to. Extended DJ sets and the such. I was going to share a few key ones, but as I searched through my files I realized a few things

1. Club bangers CAN and DO get played out, and thats ok
2. I haven't downloaded a proper extended mix in a while
3. Dr. Auratheft left his mark on my heart

Who is Dr. Auratheft?

Im not entirely sure, to tell you the truth. Happened upon him on a message board (presumably Hollerboard) sometime in the spring, downloaded a grip of his sets and haven't looked back since. I think he's Dutch. I know he's hella versatile and prolific.

Check his site: Get your medicine

Don't expect your average club mix. It's none of that. Ive got some catching up to do with the good Doctor but some of my favorites include:

War at Dirty Jims- Calypso war songs...think a predecessor to todays hip-hop battles

Bohemia After Dark- Soulful, and jazzy with just a dash of hip-hop. Makes you want to break out your smoking jacket...or at least pour that Steel Reserve into a glass like a grown man do.

Shout Sister Shout- When only the raspy voice of a woman will do, pretty little crackle-pops and all.

Sister Deejay's Summer Mood- Quality reggae. No gunshots. No airhorns.

Bam Bam- A mento mix that just gets you feeling right for a long day of grey winter streets. Mento sounds like a well blended cross between calypso, reggae, and folk music and sorta gets you feelin warm all over.

Dont sleep on the King Tubbys mixes either....
And really basically anything Ive downloaded from him has been a good time and a mini history lesson. This my friends is universal healthcare at its finest.

Mashing Up the Earth

I download.
Compulsively.
Its not entirely unproductive, and I like to believe it has taught me a bit about music. In its own way its encouraged me to run out and pay for live performances. But what about the mash-ups and odd remixes? Well, I cant say I need to see all them things live. A mash-up is very much a science, delicate in measure and magnitude. It can go awry faster than a freshman romance.
Believe it.
That being said, here are a few I bump when Im not being a total music snob (and by music snob I mean listening to things I demure from putting on mixtapes...the south can talk dirty to me whenever it wants, stop trying to break us up!)

For them soft, squishy moments:
One in a Million
A little Blockhead(I would absolutely see him live...Im curious and a little bit in love)
True mash-up Magic(makes you wish you owned a hair iron)
Just because it got beat into the ground, doesnt mean its not still good...

Rockin out your benzi box:
Air-horns make everything better
Its all about Andre
Two Patron Saints of Brooklyn, together at last

Soon to come: Songs that are inappropriate to play at anytime for any reason...get ready to roll your eyes and press play

Graffiti Archaeology

(This got painted over the next day. May or June 2006)
So rad. Check the progression of these spots. Human cut and paste technology is remarkable.
GoHereNow. Candle West (11 Spring Street) is my favorite , but probably just because Ive watched it evolve myself, this covers about 4 years and I really hope they keep it up.

Very Necessary

So, its mad late and I get an IM saying "turn to 189 NOW"
I oblige. Its not that Pixar hasnt led me astray MANY times in the past, its just that its usually at least hilarious, and I cant remember what 189 is and am half-way expecting it to be BCAT showing trannies at the West Indian Day parade.
True Story.
VH1 Soul, back to back videos from House Party (sidenote:can the rash of throwback flattops go away immediately, please. No one has ever looked right rocking one. Not even Wesley Snipes in New Jack City, although he came the closest) followed by SaltN Pepa with their doorknocker earrings and coordinated dances, and Tone Loc. I aint mad at any of that.

But the real reason I was compelled to write this was the Freestyle section. OH MY GOD! Lisa Lisa talking about taking you home in that pink genie satin swami pant situation. WOW! There was a chick wearing her hair like a unicorn! And it still looked fly! I love that track, so I was psyched when it came on, but I had no idea how much I really loved it until I saw those outfits, and the chick who is part unicorn.

Watch this:


Followed up by Shannon, Let the Music Play. The video wasn't anywhere as amazing as the Cult Jam, but that track is still a banger. That being said, here's some freestyle for you:

Can You Feel the Beat
Party Goin On
Glamorous Life
And of course,The Mexican!

And just cause they liked Door-knocker earrings too....Cars That go BOOM

"Here, Bullet,"

Excerpt from "Here, Bullet," a book of poetry written by Sgt. Brian Turner, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, while he was serving in Iraq:

Here, Bullet
If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta's opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you've started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel's cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue's explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.

Get-Up Kids

Was browsing the Wooster Collective site today and saw a posting about this flick called "Pedestrian Gallery", a quality short about graffiti: old-school, new-school and where its all headed. The best part is the fact this was put together by a group of 14-17 year olds in a Documentary film class taught this summer at the Tribeca Film Institute.

Check it out: Pedestrian Gallery

And while you're at it, go ahead and bookmark Wooster Collective