Meet the Band

Last week, I threw some preview, rehearsal pics up of Phillip Roebuck practicing with his new band. Their first gig was a couple of days ago, and here's what it looked like.

Last Night's Dream

pic:  abeautifulmess.typepad.com

it was bright in the distance, like you feel in southern california, and i'm pretty sure that's where the setting was. but it could have been early seventies hawaii.

real life was hipstamatic. i had a smattering of friends there. two girls sharing their name were retreating to a winter somewhere east of me. as they walked away, they dimmed, as though in a tunnel. the kelly's. the first was heartbroken and the second was cherubic and being a good friend.

"Leaving Holland" by Catherine Fosnot. Photoshop by jESiO

i was tied up

then rescued

pic: Richard Wong

freed. 

which represents?

pic: Bjorn Stromberg

then i was a passenger. there were mountains and more greens than in reality.

pic: Tim Nikias

Love Looked Good That Night

I'm putting together a photo spread for AltDaily on some of the awesome things that went on in Norfolk Thursday night. Here are my pics from the Love Looks Better in the Morning art opening at Selden Gallery.

I played with  mixing color and black & white. 

Off to the Art Show

One of the most awesome people in Norfolk, Miz Hannah Serrano (AltDaily's publisher), has convinced the city to let her curate an art show at Selden Gallery. This is rad. 

The opening is tonight and I'm stoked. Pictures to come soon, as I'm shooting all over Norfolk tonight. Below are some of the artists from the show whom I dig, what (if anything) I've said about them in previous blogs, new discoveries, and AltDaily's take  on their talent and creativity. 

Nichole Ashikis aka Dripping Neon Design

Nichole does a lot of sketchy-type drawings with sometimes violent strokes of neon.  Here's her AltDaily article.  I've only seen her stuff a couple of times and recently hung out with her at the Brenn show, where she was drawing the band while I was shooting them. There wasn't any light though, so I don't know if she ended up with anything.

Richard Perkins

Richard Perkins' photography is worthy of being seen. I've written about him before. AltDaily's written about him before too. I love his blog. He's primarily a documentarian of the party scene, with a good many of his shots taken at local promotors' events. While those shots are rarely posed or artsy, they're one hell of a representation of time and place, and remind me of Vice-style shots. I like his posed, conceptualized stuff better, though.

Stuntkid aka Jason Levesque

Stuntkid is one of our strongest local artists, imo. Here's my previous thoughts on him. Here's AltDaily's.  I couldn't decide between the two, radically different, pictures above so I listed both. I just like how his mind works...

Sam V. aka Sam Vanagas

Something about his work reminds me of the Metallica video for "The Unforgiven." Its sad and alone yet full of energy and mayhem. Here's what AltDaily says.


Tim Skirven

I'll be honest. I didn't totally know Skirven's work before this project. Not sure how I missed AltDaily's article on him last year, but I did. I just read it and really liked his realistic, yet determined outlook on working professionally as an artist. I also like that he won the same JMU Graphic Design award as an old, good pal of mine did a decade ago. 

Caps and Rabbers

Hadn't done a digital collage in a while. Have never done a self portrait. Also, acquired a bouquet of new fonts today. Put them all together, and you get the above. 

ExittixE

Bat Papi by Mr. Brainwash

Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop is up for an Academy Award. Nice. I haven't reviewed it before, which is odd, considering I review pretty much anything I watch more than once. And seeing how this film is currently free on Netflix, and was a big hit in Norfolk last summer when it played The Naro, I'm just gonna chalk this one up to laziness.

For anyone who hasn't seen the documentary, the biggest question really is, "is this a documentary or an elaborate work of fiction?" I think it's a documentary. If it is fake, it's worlds above that drivel Joaquin Phoenix tried to push on us in I'm Still Here. 

The idea is that a man with a camera (shop owner Thierry Guetta), but no real talent, clumsily embeds himself in the infamous Banksy's entourage, by explaining to everyone he's making a documentary on street art. The tables get turned when Banksy realizes the guy can't edit his way out of a paper bag and, in order to make all the footage salvagable, he agrees to take over the project. Meanwhile, Guetta's reinvented himself as an actual street artist (feel those tables turning?) and dubbed himself Mr. Brainwash. 

Banksy

His first show, for which he doesn't produce anything himself, but rather hires an army of assistants to assemble, create, and install, sells hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art. Banksy is left scratching his head at the little Frankenstein art monster he created. 

I find myself wondering, this: if Guetta had enough money to hire his huge staff for the Mr. Brainswash stuff, he would have had that same opportunity to hire someone to put his film together in a nicer format for Banksy...but he didn't. Why? Is it psychological? Or maniacal? Or really dumb luck?

The mainstream news is already buzzing about whether Banksy will show up for the Oscar's. Um...no? It's already won several awards around the world and no Banksy. The man's anonymity is his gimmick. It takes nothing away from his talent, but, if we knew who he was, a bit of the exclusivity goes away. He did release a statement, though: 

"This is a big surprise. I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me." 

Nice.

For the sake of art, street art, pop art, young art, gimmicky art, and so on, I'm rooting for this to be a winner. The more talk it generates, the more projects supporting street art (pun intended) pop up. 

It's a Buckdancer's Choice, My Friend

Better take my advice...

I went to a Phillip Roebuck & crew rehearsal yesterday. They're playing for the first time as an ensemble this Thursday at Taphouse in Norfolk, so it was sweet to get a sneak peak of the new material. It's awesome. 

Video coming soon to AltDaily from my friend, photographer Sam Shinault. Here are some pictures I took mixed in with some pictures inspired by how I think when I listen to their rough, pretty, bluegrassy, stompy collective.

pic: nollan jay

pic: Russell Lee, 1940

pic: pink sherbet

Nowhere Friends

pic: Richard Aaron

I just watched Middle of Nowhere, a 2008 indie film available for free on Netflix as we speak. I wanted to see solely based on the fact that it starred Eva Amurri. She's known mainly for being Susan Sarandon's daughter. Unlike many Hollywood spawn, the few interviews I've read quote her as intelligent and cultured. The first I came across was her discussing how Robert Mapplethorpe shot nudes of her as a small child. This, and her mom was the original Janet in Rocky Horror. How could someone like this not be intriguing?

A quick wikipedia search also reveals her father's side of the family are pretty prestigious in the Italian entertainment industry and that she has a degree from Brown University.

If I were to be involved in a first film, Middle of Nowhere would be that project. It's script (written by actress Michelle Morgan) is spot on. Its small budget was spent in exactly the right ways. The acting was superb. The music and cinematography killed it. Don't get me wrong, you could tell this wasn't a Spielberg film, but they took this shoestring and made the epitome of cat's cradle with it. Amurri and Yelchin aren't gorgeous, nor are they dumb. Their character's are challenged by real-life, slightly mundane situations many of us relate to (alienation from parents, how to pay for college, unrequited crushes). Ten years removed from these sorts of troubles, I felt a clear connection that transcended age or experience. I still can't decide what I enjoyed more, the script or how the young actors reacted to it.

The best shot of Anton Yelchin, smokin' in the bathtub.

I didn't realize Sarandon was actually in the film until it started. Then, Amurri's costar, the stoner-adorable Anton Yelchin actually reminded me of what Robert Mapplethorpe might have been like in 1965. All curly hair, weird laughs, and pot smoke (minus the art, of course).

The story revolves around Grace (Amurri, who isn't the prettiest or most charming.) She's much more real, and it was encouraging to see a starring role go to someone like this. Grace is responsible and smart; and wants to go to college to escape her small town and irresponsible mother (Sarandon). The film opens with Grace learning she doesn't qualify for student loans because her mom ruined her credit by taking out credit cards in her name. We quickly meet said mother and younger sister, Taylor (a valuable sneak peak at what talent Willa Holland may show us in future movies), age 15, and struggling with that whole "child versus adult" phase we all go through.

pic: Alex Marie

Dorian (Yelchin) arrives at Grace's part time job, realizes she needs money, and that she has a valuable asset to his marijuana-selling business: a car. He offers to split his summer profits with her in exchange for rides, and she agrees. The weeks progress, Dorian develops feelings for Grace. Grace develops feelings for Ben (a cute vacationer), Taylor develops feelings for older boys in general, and, unlike most plots, nothing drastic really happens. I felt like I was watching myself at ages 15-20. I thought I loved people, whom I really just wanted to kiss. I look back now at friends from that era and realized there was real love in strange circumstances. The film ended and I felt the three young people would grow up and apart and remember one another fondly, but not be overly sentimental or melodramatic in their reflections on that summer.

Grace will go to college, but will she stay all four years? Taylor will probably get married to a local and work at a bank or clothing store. Their mom will remain stuck and inane.