Last Saturday I ventured into the urban jungle of Long Island City in support of photographer Joey L's opening, the Cradle of Mankind.
The show, curated by the fabulous ladies at Heart Art Productions , Celeste Holt-Walters and Audrie Lawrence, was housed at The Foundry, a gorgeous 19th century building that was the perfect backdrop to Joey L's cinematic images of natives of Ethiopia.
20 year old Joey L already has quite an impressive portfolio of images as well as extensive travels under his belt. These particular portraits of folks from various Ethiopian tribes are stunning; all of the subjects seems quite relaxed in front of the camera and clearly trust the photographer to do their likenesses justice.
The portraits were displayed throughout The Foundry with a soundtrack provided by Karaoke Killed the Kat's Chris Goldteeth and Lord Easy, and free-flowing booze. There was also a production company shooting footage of the party for a documentary about Joey L and his travels (I think I did a really good job of avoiding the cameras--nobody needs to see my silly mug on tv!)
Congrats to Joey L and Heart Art Productions for an awesome turnout and beautiful show! Check out the pics, courtesy of Celeste Holt-Walters:
As I have mentioned before, I am a bit of a music fan.
I don't purport to be any kind of expert or music snob, I like what I like, tending to lean toward the indie-ish variety. I am never one to be the "first" to discover bands, and I can sometimes be a little predictable (coughanimalcollectivecough) but I make no excuses, I know what I like!
I first heard Passion Pit when they played with Phoenix over the summer, my friend Kathy had gotten me tickets and, not really knowing either band, I went blindly. As much as Phoenix were the main attraction, I found myself very drawn to the dancey vibe that Passion Pit had going. A half hour in and I was hooked.
(video for "Sleepyhead", which is also now, unfortunately, featured in a Palm Pixie ad--darn sellouts!)
Kathy and I went to see these darlings again last Friday at Terminal 5, a venue that I really WANT to love, but I can't seem to. It tries to be a medium-sized concert space, with two upper levels of balcony that in theory should be really great--and they ARE, if you have no desire to watch the band perform whatsoever. After multiple tries finding space around the balcony that would enable us to actually see what was going on, and almost taking down overzealous teenyboppers in the process (more on that in a sec), we found our way back down to the floor and had to be satisfied with standing behind some freakishly tall puberty-aged boys (hooray growth hormones!)
Now, I do not my fancy myself an "old" person, regardless of my physical age..and I have been to my share of GA shows and stood in the front row, without second thought. However, when sharing space with overamorous, over intoxicated kids (I'm thinking ranging from 16-20), I suddenly feel like I've instantly turned into my grandmother. And not in that "let me bake you brownies and give you money" kind of way.
The band started with "I've Got Your Number" and from the first note we were surrounded by flailing bodies heaving themselves at the stage, each other, and us. Many were wearing flashing neon jewelry, rings that blared like strobe lights, that they were utterly mesmerized with. Two kids next to us fluttered their hands in front of their faces, obviously entranced by their flashing rings, and spent almost the entire show photographing or filming their hands. Teen couples dirty danced while making out voraciously to songs like "Moths Wings" and "Little Secret". So very romantic, especially the one couple who stood swaying in a spoon, his face buried in her neck for about 3 songs until they skittered off to do more Ecstasy (I assume).
At one point a kid lit up a cigarette next to me, and the grandmother in me came out again as I pointed my finger and tsked. "You can't smoke in here!" Grandma fumed. He looked at me, scowled, and kept puffing away.
Regardless of such distractions, Passion Pit puts on a fun show. Lead singer Michael Angelakos voice does well live, and if dancing is your thing, then this is definitely a band to check out. Just be respectful of your concert neighbors--and be sure to step carefully over the half-passed out dude slumped over on the floor of the exit on your way out.
I stumbled upon this photo essay at Art Bistro, a really great community for artists and people who love art.
As someone who loves food, photography, and voyeurism, I thought this was pretty brilliant.
Mark Menjivar, a photographer in San Antonio, TX, photographed the contents of various peoples' fridges, and then includes information about said people.
Here are a few of my favorites:
(c) Mark Menjivar (via artbistro.monster.com)
The woman who resides in this household can bench press over 200 pounds. Note the snake in the freezer.
(c) Mark Menjivar (via artbistro.monster.com)
This person is the owner of a defunct amusement park, and a former WW II Prisoner of War. He really likes packaged foods, canned goods and fruit cups!
You can see more over here or at http://markmenjivar.com/.
Besides the fact that I live 5 short blocks from the Brooklyn Museum, I am also a fangirl of anything music related. Which makes it pretty unbelievable that it's taken me a month to get my lazy self over to the "Who Shot Rock and Roll" exhibit, which will be on view until 1/31/10.
The exhibition is quite impressive, not so much because the photos were unique (many I had seen before), but it was more about the photographers themselves, the stories that they had to tell, or the stories behind the photos. For example, there was a polaroid of Courtney Love, taken during a shoot for "Live Through This", mere days after Kurt Cobain killed himself. Or a series of Elvis, his arms wrapped around a woman--the shots look totally staged but apparently he met this woman on the street and she dared him to kiss her, which he did (on a side note, Elvis was exceptionally gorgeous. Not news, I know, but worth mentioning!).
The photos were split up into different categories, such as behind-the-scenes; musicians before they became famous (a great one of Madonna walking down the street, snapped by Amy Arbus who recognized her from the gym but didn't necessarily know she was an up-and-coming "star"), live performances, fans, portraits, and my personal favorite, album covers!
In addition to the still images, the museum included some videos such as David Bowie "Life on Mars" directed by Mick Rock (I teared up watching that one. Such a beautiful man/alien he is!), and "One" by U2 directed by Anton Corbijn, as well as several others.
Album cover art by Hipgnosis. Long before Photoshop existed-the design team actually had to go to the desert of Morocco, blow up each and every one of those red balls and photograph them. Much simpler (and more extravagant!) times! Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. (c) Mick Rock
John and Yoko soon before he was tragically killed (this is not the exact photo from the show, I don't believe, but one of the outtakes from the shoot. (c) Allen Tannenbaum
