Pablo Honey

Halloween Idea #14

I went to Virginia Museum of Fine Art's Picasso exhibit last week (on loan from  the Musée National in Paris.) I'll do a proper art post on that soon. In the meantime, I noticed the gift shop was selling striped "Picasso" shirts for, like, a million dollars and thought it'd be a good Halloween costume contendor.

Striped shirt, paintbrush, cigarette. Pretty basic. Maybe add a bald cap?

Pro's:

-All I'd have to buy is a bald cap.

-It's art based.

Con's:

-Would people get it? I live in Norfolk, VA. People don't get much around here.

Only six months to go!

Art Over Here, Art Over There

Last week was Art|Everywhere's opening night. Here are some highlights. You can view the rest of the pictures I took here.

More Mapplethorpe

I just learned of yet another NYC exhibit I sadly cannot attend. Robert Mapplethorpe (whose work I like more every millisecond) is most known for his explorations of the underground S&M scene of 1970s New York. The reputation that came with that work leads him to be either popularized or devalued, depending on what critic you read. 

This show is different. It asked fifty regular Americans from all over the country to look at 2,000 of his images and pick their favorite. They had to state why they picked the work and what it meant to them. Here's a slideshow where the choosers explain why. I found several pieces I'd never seen before.

Spankin' New Banksy

To commemorate riots in his hometown of Bristol, UK, Banksy just released the above poster. The good news? It's $5. The bad news? It's sold exclusively at Bristol's Anarchist Bookfair this Saturday. I guess watching ebay Saturday evening could be a fun experiment in watching money grow on trees.

ST(o)P

I went to Stone Temple Pilots last week. I took pics (here) and there's a review at the bottom of the post.

 It was my second time seeing them live and Adam's third. The first time I saw them was about ten years ago and it was one of the best shows of my life. Adam was pretty much equally stoked.

We got there and opening band Rose Hill Drive were on fire! I mean, they really brought the crowd together and I walked out of there ready to download away.  Stone Temp started and, well, they were "doing their job." They weren't bad and the DeLeo brothers brought their talent out full frontal. Weiland (whose heroin torso has sadly been replaced by a dad belly) didn't have any emotion or show any enjoyment. It was as if every dance move he tried was really done by a puppet master above the stage, with tiny invisible strings attached to his underarms.

He looked tired. He looked sober, too. It's weird to even think about wanting someone to not be, but he's not lost in a moment which makes watching him mediocre now when it used to be mesmerizing. Not a position I'd want to be in. Anyway, his voice is still top notch.

They played all the hits. He stood two feet from me singing my favorite song lyric of all time "Is it raining in your bedroom?" (Don't ask why it's my favorite, as I have no idea.) Bucket list: check. He didn't really speak or banter. At one point someone threw a beer on the stage and he kinda commented that "this ain't the county fair" and how dumb it is to waste beer in this economy. Hardy har har.

STP's new songs from Stone Temple Pilots (2010) were really good. Oftentimes when classic bands take an interlude to play the new stuff, that's when I head to smoke or make a phone call. Not here. They stood up to the old material in quality and in songwriting. Again, had they been performed with more enthusiasm, I think the crowd really would have dug it.

In the end, I get it a B-.

Sick Sad World

I found the most awesome blog today called Sick Sad World. It contains all things Daria, including the entire playlist from every single episode. It also contains user-submissions of original art and acting inspired by Daria. I'm so stoked to start playing it. I'm also not the only one thinking a Daria-themed Halloween would rule. Here are some of the highlights:

Who didn't?

(I had one manicure ever: Junior Prom. This photo very well may have changed that.)

drama students recreate the first scene of episode 1

Some People Call Me Maurice

Midnight Toker.

Went to see Steve Miller Band on Friday night. The above tapestry was the second best thing about the show, trailing only behind the stage set-up revealed upon its dropping.  It was a bucket list kind of concert. I'd never seen him before, know a ton of his songs, and who doesn't like free beer?

The big surprise was Miller's backup singer (whom I will refer to as fatbald Wayne Newton.) This guy ruined the show for me. I cropped him out of my photos out of principle. He had a decent voice but worse dance moves than a toddler. Like a lot of older artists, Miller's voice isn't what it used to be. However, as much as it might suck to see Willie Nelson or Bob Dylan have to tone it down onstage, those artists would never consider taking a complete backseat to an unattractive, mediocre unknown. Wayne's dancing was so distracting, I found the only way to really enjoy the show was not to look at it. And Miller even let him sing entire songs solo! Whaddabumma!

Anyway, I took some photos...

A rare moment where Miller actually proves he's not a robot.

Very cool astrology-meets-rock backdrop (aka, the best part of the show.)

He can sing, just chooses not to.

Coming Up Roses

pic: jESiO

Rose Hill Drive opened for STP last week and killed it. I learned last time they were in town it was opening for Government Mule, who are quite the departure from Stone Temp, so I was intrigued. The NorVa was packed. Making my way to the front row, a'ha moments were popping up on the faces I passed. No longer were they patiently waiting for the headliner, tolerating these unknown rock-n-rollers; instead they were really digging it.

From Boulder, these dudes have been compared to Zeppelin and Cream a lot. They've definitely got a psychedelic seventies thing going on, but it's definitively American, with it's straightforward riffing and metal harmonies. If I had to compare, I'd actually say Soundgarden meets KOL. Bands crop up like this from time to time (remember Wolfmother?), gain a bunch of buzz, and often are recycled into nostalgic one-hit wonderville. I don't see this for Rose Hill Drive, as they seem quite content to maintain solid tours and festival gigs (they've done Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Warped Tour and others.) They're definitely a buzz band if nothing else (though they have been for five years, being named a band to watch by Rolling Stone in 2007), though I've been buzzing for nearly a week on them and they were the opener. It's so rad when that happens.

Art|Everywhere Part Deux

Art|Everywhere is back in just about 48 hours. Whew! I can't believe it's been a year already. Last year I got involved to a fairly low-key extent, but it was the catalyst for a lot of great things for Norfolk, and for me, over the rest of the year.

I'm assisting again this year, with a little more focused responsibility. I'm also excited to say I've already blogged about several of the artists already at various points in jesiowastaken's life...If you live in Norfolk, try your best to hit Granby Street up on April 30. Though the art will be up for two months afterwards if you can't make it.

Nichole Ashikis

Nicole Ashikis has been mentioned on here before, specifically when she was part of Love Looks Better in the Morning, the gallery show whose opening night I photographed back in late January. I love how she's unabashed when it comes to color and how her strokes are ragged and kind of have a controlled violence in them. 

Amanda Page Stephens

I found myself helping Amanda Page with her installation yesterday and it's awesome. I (and most others, I assume) associate her with canvases--pieces you would hang on a wall. She's doing a complete 180 for Art|Everywhere that deals with mental illness and the ridiculousness of medical care/health insurance in America right now. So basically, I hot glued a bunch of pills to wire under her direction and learned a lot more than I expected to while doing it.

DAVMO

I wrote very recently about DAVMO...About how his piece remembering John Kohn is the coolest public memorial. He's so talented and I'm so stoked Harry's BBQ is going to become DAVMO's BBQ for a couple of months.

Beth Austin

Anyone who knows me (or anyone who doesn't but reads this blog) knows I love, love, love music photography and practice it myself pretty regularly. Beth Austin reminds me of myself...not stylistically, but in the sense that she's really trying to capture moments and is a real music fan and not all about the technical.

Clay McGlamory

Clay's a dude I smoke cigarettes with at Taphouse from time to time. I didn't even realize he was an artist, let alone a professional one, until a few weeks ago. Derrrr. His works are big and complicated and I don't even know where to start without sounding completely uneducated. And since I haven't seen any of his work in person, I don't want to tell lies. However, from what I've seen online, they're toweringly impressive. Glowing, glassy installations reminiscent of kaleidoscoped mosaics are never, ever a bad thing, ya know?

Lastly, here is a preview of the work done by Elyse Lovelace and Heather Bryant, called "Bird on a String." These are girls after my own heart, what with making a blog about their piece and all. I've mentioned Elyse before on jesiowastaken, but as a curator instead of an artist. She was responsible for the art show I went to in March where I fell head over heels for the work of Asa Jackson.  We've also worked together on about a billion AltDaily projects over the last year, so I'm particularly partial/proud of this one.

Busknews

WVEC Channel 13 interviewed me today regarding all the busking work I've been doing over the last year or so. The best part? We were done with the interview and the guy says "too bad there aren't any buskers out here right now" and, literally, two appeared at the end of the same block we were on. Karma!

Here's a link to their story as well.

F(EASTER)!!!

I made some Easter dinner and had a little backyard jam for dessert (and took pics of course.)