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July 22 2011
RADAR NYC 7.21.11 – feat. Diana Eng
Photo by Ricardo Louis via Diana Eng
This week, we bring back the blog with help from Diana Eng (RADAR ep 31 – Fairytale Fashion), and she made it easy for me, since I’m already a huge fan of most of her choices. She’s been quite busy lately, with her amazing line and increasing popularity in the fashion world, including her new collection of Laser Lace Tees and Tops. You can also check out her shop, as well as read up on her inspiration on her own blog.
nyan.cat
How long can you nyan for? This very well could be the last thing the Internet ever needs, as it combines the holy trifecta of cats, adorableness, and utter randomness. Based off of PRguitarman’s original Pop Tart Cat .gif (I suppose toast is healthier?) times how long you can, well, nyan. It’s so addictive, though, that you can nyan for hours on end if you allow it. Added bonuses here include putting the site into different languages such as Japanese (makes sense), Nyan (exactly what you’d expect) and Catalan, giving double meaning to the .cat domain name. We may think it’s cute now, but once cats successfully conquer the Internet, the rest of the world will surely follow. So cute though!
Unleash the fury of NYAN HERE.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
This was Diana’s pick, but I have to interject here—this isn’t just one of my all time favorite songs, but possibly my all time favorite music video, and a big part of my inspiration for wanting to get into filming bands. A ballad off their definitely-classic-by-now debut LP Fever to Tell, it showed that the (at the time) rising buzz band Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and more specifically, lead singer Karen O) could do more than thrash and screech, but also create one of the most touching songs of the last decade.
You can buy the album HERE
Tina Fey – Bossypants
Tina Fey is just one of those people who do pretty much everything right—30 Rock is still the funniest thing on TV after like, what, 5 seasons? Then there’s Date Night and Baby Mama, and the fact that after she left Saturday Night Live the only time people talk about the show is when they mention how far downhill it’s gone since then. So clearly she’s some kind of sorceress and we should all be terrified. Or you can read her hilarious book and hopefully absorb some of its power. If nothing else, reading it on the subway is sure to piss off the disgruntled former frat bros who still insist, “women aren’t funny.” Tina Fey just happens to be at the top of a long list of women who prove them wrong.
You can pick up a copy HERE
Talk To Me
Talk To Me is a new exhibit at MoMA that examines the ways humans interact with objects. Every day we interact with things like computers and increasingly smarter phones, which in turn, interact with us. Talk To Me offers a look at the history and future of these interaction, going back to products from the 1960s and looking forward with some products in development. A lot goes into it—visual design, interface, information. In keeping with the theme, the organizers encourage communication and feedback from the visitors, ranging from suggestions from designers to visitor interaction using cell phones. Be sure to check out the blog as well.
Talk To Me
July 24–November 7
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
EVENT INFO
Thingiverse and Ponoko
Diana has picked a couple of nice blogs for you to check out, specifically if you like, well, things and stuff. Thingiverse is a blog co-founded by fellow RADAR contributor Bre Pettis of Makerbot (RADAR ep 19), focusing on digital designs from ordinary people and realizing them through the use of machines like laser cutters and digital printers. In a similar vein is Ponoko, which is sort of like a digital Etsy (or rather, a more-digital Etsy), exploring the art of digital making even further.
June 09 2011
RADAR NYC 6.9.11
My Potholes
What do you do when there’s a pothole in your street? Try avoiding it? Call the city to fill it in? Effective ideas, though they aren’t especially imaginative. With the help of Claudia Ficca and Davide Luciano, a couple of Montreal-based artists, these folks in several US and Canadian cities turned their potholes into works of art—at least temporarily. But the photos on My Potholes capture a number of whimsical moments created from minor nuisances. Watch as they turn common road hazards into swimming pools, donut fryers, gardens, rabbit holes, and more.
Check it out HERE
Noveller – Alone Star
NOVELLER “ALONE STAR” from Matt Kleiner on Vimeo.
Noveller, a.k.a. Sarah Lipstate (RADAR ep 28 – Before I Die) has just released this gorgeous black and white video on her website for her song “Alone Star” off her new album Glacial Glow. Directed by Matt Kleiner, this video chronicles several days in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne. It’s some powerful stuff when paired with the musical storytelling of this Brooklyn-based guitar goddess. Contrasting the busy city with vast desert, it creates a truly surreal scene.
Check out Sarah’s website HERE
Ben McCool Interview
Writer Ben McCool (RADAR ep 41 – Memoir) has a new comic series coming out this September, but in the meantime you can check out a preview of it as well as an interview with USA Today. Titled “Pigs,” the comic takes a gritty look at the Cold War, which if you can believe it, ended two decades ago this year. So now it’s far back enough in our collective subconscious that we can take another look at the whole terrifying era of mutually assured destruction, secret agents and the Cuban Missile Crisis and see that things weren’t quite as black-and-white as we all thought at the time.
Read the article HERE.
Magic and Bubbles
Poetry Brothel, House of Illusions NYC
Our friends at the Poetry Brothel (RADAR ep 20) are bringing it back this weekend, with a magical twist. The “whores” will be teaming up with a master magician for some old school, Houdini-esque illusions.
Sunday, June 12th, 8pm-1am
The Back Room
102 Norfolk Street
New York, NY
$5-$15
EVENT INFO
Newmindspace Bubble Battle NYC 2011
The folks at Newmindspace (RADAR ep 10) want to make New York a more bubbly, effervescent place for its residents. Join hundreds of other bubble battlers with your own bubble-making supplies, and let the air fill with soapy, prismatic orbs (and yes I was trying to avoid saying “bubble” again).
Location TBA
Saturday, June 18th 2010 @ 6:00pm
Rain or shine. Free and all ages!
New York, NY
EVENT INFO
Second Avenue Sagas
New Yorkers, be honest, how often do you find yourself silently (or not so silently) cursing the MTA for all the service changes and fare increases? Second Avenue Sagas hopes to answer some of the questions as to why all these annoyances happen. What started as a blog chronicling the progress of the long-delayed Second Avenue Subway, is now a blog covering all forms of New York City transit, offering opinions, insight, progress reports, and ideas to make transit better, as well as listing all the weekend service changes every Friday. It’s a great place for New Yorkers to get informed and involved with the city’s decisions on transportation.
May 13 2011
RADAR NYC 5.12.11 – feat. Lori Nix
This week, we return to our contributor-curated series of blog posts with Lori Nix (RADAR ep 33 – Unnatural History). She found us a nice mix of beautiful works of art and some quirky, off the wall stuff–sort of like her own work.
Cravendale Cats
That’s it, I’m officially jealous of the British. After outdoing us in music and comedy for years, they now roll out this oddly addicting TV spot for milk—which is undoubtedly a result of years of its creators spending too much time on the Internet. Because—and I’ve mentioned this before—the equation goes: cats + doing weird things = roughly 85% of Internet content. Also, note the strange milk cartons they use over there (hey, at least it doesn’t come in bags like in Canada).
Find more on this clever campaign HERE.
Bodies of Water: Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink
The music from this extremely talented LA-based collective has this rolling, lively Spaghetti Western-esque epicness to it that hooked me pretty much immediately, sort of like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros without all the gimmickry. Ennio Morricone would be proud. But don’t get me wrong, there’s still enough theatrics and choral pieces to make this record the very definition of grand. Listen to it while walking down the street makes your life an instant musical. Just don’t blame me if people stare at you when you start singing along.
You can buy the album HERE
Bodies of Water’s website
Hi-Fructose Magazine
Despite new media’s repeated attempts to kill off the magazine once and for all (blogger’s note: hi there, sorry about that!), Hi-Fructose Magazine may be all the proof needed to show that there will always be a place for a beautifully-made, high quality, full color quarterly. Hi-Fructose aims to profile and discuss alternative artists, while at the same time dissecting what “alternative” means, bending genres and shattering norms in the process. Whatever you want to call it, there’s really some stunning work on display here.
You can pick up a copy at most bookstores, or check out their web presence HERE
Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
It may still be a ways off, but Otherworldly at the Museum of Arts and Design should definitely be worth the wait. Lori Nix and other diorama artists will be showcasing their different creations, extremely detailed microcosms of worlds that are both realistic and surreal—glimpses of our world both as it is and as it could be.
Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
June 7 – September 18
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
$15 Admission
EVENT INFO
New York Mag (and comments)
When Lori told me she liked to liked to read New York Magazine online to laugh at the comments following the articles, I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. But I didn’t have to look far to find out—the comments section is a nice concentrated cross-section of the Internet as a whole. You’ll find cynical, snarky millennials, sarcastic storytellers, political pundits who insert their opinions of Bush and/or Obama into every conversation, and trolls of course, because trolls simply are and always will be—they are as deeply ingrained into comment threads as the Pope is into Catholicism. It’s worth a laugh on any day you could use a bit of a confidence boost.
March 04 2011
RADAR NYC 3.3.11 – feat Marc Horowitz
This week’s edition of RADAR NYC is brought to you by Marc Horowitz (RADAR ep 18 – Google Maps Road Trip). When we last checked in on him, he was working on The Advice of Strangers, a project where he had strangers vote on all his life choices. His latest project is a series of short video “studies,” showing a day in the life of things like talking random objects and dust. Many of his selections for this blog seem to fit the theme of “a day in the life,” whether it’s the life of a city or the life of an imaginative teenager.
You can see the rest of the videos HERE.
Manhatta
Directed by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, Manhatta is a short film depicting the city in 1921. And it’s honestly amazing how much hasn’t changed since then—the film depicts shots of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Staten Island Ferry, as well as a few buildings modern New Yorkers would certainly recognize. These are things we see every day, just as we did 90 years ago. A series of shots filmed to show the creators’ love of the city, the stark images of steel and steam invoke a feeling of strength and power It chronicles a moment in the life of not just any city, but The City.
Martin Creed: Thinking / Not Thinking
At first glance I thought this was a music video, but it’s actually much more than that. Martin Creed is a Glaswegian conceptual artist, though many of his works mix music and visuals. The song itself manages to be both catchy and chaotic, which contrasts nicely from the minimalist video of two dogs of (very) different size representing Thinking (the small one) and Not Thinking (the large one). It’s quite a funny juxtaposition, reflecting the different roles of consciousness and unconsciousness.
Patton Oswalt: Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
Zombie? Spaceship? Or wasteland? Take your pick, if you like awesome things. Or if you’re a teenager with an overactive imagination. According to comedian Patton Oswalt, these are the themes we tend to gravitate toward as young storytellers. Oswalt shares his thoughts on growing up in this hilarious memoir of his own experiences (of the three above topics, he picked wastelands), from dealing with relatives as a child to working in a “grim Canadian comedy club.” It should definitely be a great read for all those creative kids who grew up in the suburbs.
You can buy the book HERE
Roman Signer at Young Projects
This week’s even goes out to our readers in LA. Roman Signer is a Swiss Artist who specializes in what he calls “momentary sculptures,” essentially small live installations that are captured on video. One work, “Barrel with Camera,” is of Signer placing a camera in a barrel and rolling it down a hill, though the video withholds this information until the end to give the viewer a humorous revelation. Many of his works invoke humor, ranging from slapstick to dark comedy, all laced with social commentary against pretensions. The art world could always use a bit more humor.
Ongoing through March 14
Young Projects
8687 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA
EVENT INFO
News, Words, and Drawings of the Day
Finally, Marc gives us a few things to follow, including a couple we can follow on our smart phones. The Fluent News app gives us a break from the cacophony of all the different news outlets out there, and aggregates the top stories into a mobile newspaper that the viewer can customize to his or her own tastes. For all the language geeks out there, there’s the Dictionary app, which includes a Word of the Day feature for those of us who like to confuse our friends with our ever-expanding vocabularies. And this last one isn’t an app, but artist Lauren Nassef posts a new drawing every day on her website, ranging from current events (Gaddafi) to some rather beautiful vintage-esque portraits.
Fluent News app
Dictionary app
Lauren Nassef’s website
February 17 2011
RADAR NYC 2.17.11 – feat. Mary Mattingly
This week’s installment RADAR NYC is brought to you by Mary Mattingly (RADAR ep 17 – Waterpod), a well-known New York-based visual artist who uses a variety of different mediums from photography to living installations to explore themes of different relationships. She shared with us some things that inspire her and offer a glimpse into her world, including a book from a famous experimental composer, an Italian organization that focuses on smart city planning, and an avant-garde turntablist from Peru. And while they all come from very different backgrounds, each of the artists she chose have something in common – they all find creative and brilliant ways to reevaluate things that are part of our everyday lives, from time to silence to the city itself.
Christian Marclay – “The Clock”
This is kind of amazing. Would you watch a clock for 24 hours straight? What if it was the most captivating clock ever? Artist Christian Marclay spliced together thousands of film clips from across the history of cinema, each one referencing a different moment in the day. So think of whenever a movie character looks at his or her watch, or mentions what time it is—Marclay has somehow crafted an entire day out of these moments, and presents it in real time, as a living clock. So if you tune in at 8:37 a.m., that’s what time it will be for the characters on screen. The Clock will be showing at the Paula Cooper Gallery until February 19.
“The Clock” at the Paula Cooper Gallery
Frazey Ford – “Blue Streak Mama”
Frazey Ford has lived quite an interesting life. Born in a Canadian commune in the late 70s, she spent the 80s traveling Asia with her family. Then in the late 90s, she formed the Canadian band The Be Good Tanyas, which split in 2008. And just last year, she released her debut solo album, Obadiah. The album is full of wonderful soulful folk (or is it folky soul?) that’s definitely worth a full listen, but the song “Blue Streak Mama” stands out particularly well. It has a distinctive blues-rock feel to it, sort of like a female-fronted Black Keys. But with more stripped-back instrumentation, the amazing vocals and lyrics take center stage and really shine through.
Free download available at Frazey Ford’s Myspace
John Cage – “Silence: Lectures and Writings”
I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it/ and that is poetry/ as I need it.
-John Cage, “Lecture on Nothing” (1949)
Composer John Cage was a pioneer of American experimental music and one of the most influential American composers of the 20th Century. His most famous composition, 4’33”, consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds without a note being played, and instead encourages the listener to focus on the sounds of the environment as it is played. Silence is Cage’s first book, published in 1961, made up of a collection of essays and lectures he wrote from 1939 to 1961, including “Lecture on Nothing,” quoted above. It is also his best known book, in which he discusses the nature of writing and ideas.
You can buy the book HERE
Turntable Artist Maria Chavez at The Stone
Maria Chavez Live 11-16-10 from Forest Christenson on Vimeo.
Maria Chavez is a Brooklyn-based experimental turntablist from Peru. She uses both new and broken needles (she calls them “pencils of sound”) on different records to create live sound installations, of which no two are ever exactly alike. Above is a live video of Chavez at a show in Queens last November. You can see her use a variety of different objects to create her sound, including (very) broken records, showing that a turntablist can many things beyond getting people onto the dance floor. She’ll be joined by harpist Shelley Burgon at The Stone on March 1.
Tuesday, March 1 · 8:00 pm
The Stone
East 2nd Street @ Avenue C
New York, NY 10009
EVENT INFO
cluster.eu
As we make our way through the 21st Century, one important issue for all urban-dwellers is the ever-growing and changing landscape of cities. Any New Yorker can attest that cities continue to grow quite rapidly. Cluster is a non-profit organization based in Turin, Italy, which seeks to answer these questions, looking for innovative and creative ways to plan and design modern cities. Their goal, to improve and revitalize urban life, has already helped Turin to become a cultural center in northwest Italy, and now they want to reach out to other cities in Europe and beyond, from improving drinking water in Haiti to experimental architecture in Brazil.
Follow Cluster HERE.
December 15 2010
Space Hunter – RADAR S4 Ep 40 [vid]
Heather Gargon is a Space Hunter who travels with her sister Kristen to worlds unknown in search of exotic life forms. The Space Hunter project includes creatures that Heather draws, builds and animates via stop motion photography – all elements of an expansive installation. The worlds that she creates are fantastic and whimsical, and mix a nostalgic atmosphere with the endearing sensibility of a b-movie space adventure.
Relevant sites:
http://www.facebook.com/SpaceHunterGargon
Credits:
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Josh Cramer
EDITOR Jawad Metni
DP Jeremy Saulnier
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
FEATURED MUSIC by:
The Present “Space Meadow”
Evenings “Babe”
November 08 2010
RADAR NYC 11.08.10
The Underbelly Project
Here at RADAR we usually don’t go for videos or projects that have started to become heavily circulated throughout the web, but when we came in contact with The Underbelly Project, there was no way we were going to turn out heads.
The NYC subway system is a haunting web of tracks and stations that criss-cross and span the boroughs of the city. It’s dark expansive system of tunnels have few hidden gems. Every now and then you see graffiti scrawled under a light near a tunnel staircase. Maybe you get a glimpse of workers from a distance. But not everything can be easily spotted in such a vast network of transportation. Somethings must get lost. Underground activities must go unnoticed. What secrets are under the fast streets of New York? For one thing there is The Underbelly Project which is a collection of art from over a hundred different street artists decorating an abandoned subway station somewhere deep underneath the city. This collection of street art which is closed to the public, is a place where nightmares and fantasies mingle and dash themselves across urban, industrial canvases. The Shadow Machine video is a perfect example of the ghostly pieces one would encounter in a place that off the beaten tracks. This is surely something to be excited about.
Website – The Underbelly Project
The Shadow Machine – LINK
Playbutton
It’s exciting to encounter a game changer before it changes the game. PlayButton is nothing more than an MP3 player built in the shape of a pin. It is a device that could really alter the way to distribute music to the public. Playbutton is a way to literally a way to “put on” your music. It turns your favorite album into an accessory that you take eveywhere. It is fashionable way to support music. Most brilliant of all is that there is no way to mess around with the music that is already on the pin. Artists have complete control over their sound and the way you experience it. This is most definitely going to become a must have little gadget.
Link – http://www.playbutton.co/
Storybird
Storybird is fun site to explore no matter what your age range is. The idea behind this bustling, moving web experience is creating short, fun, straightforward stories in the vein of children’s picture books. The stories and books seem endless, and the content is diverse enough that it can keep even old souls coming back for quick and electrifying short stories in high resolution display. The charm behind Storybird is the ability to become part of this artistic community. Becoming a writer is as easy as starting of with one of the many templates available to you. Also, the site features artists and their works from which you can take subjects and place them in your story. When they say collaborative storytelling they mean. Check out the site, and go through some short stories. If you want to create your own short ditties be sure to join.
The City by Lori Nix
Lori Nix (RADAR Ep33 – Unnatural History) is having a show. Her series The City, constructed and photographed since 2008, will be on display at ClampArt. This will be Lori’s first solo show at the gallery. Her work will then travel to Chicago for an exhibition at Catherine Edelman Gallery, January 7 – February 26, 2011. Lori’s use of dioramas instead of actual subjects creates a dynamic and dramatic setting for her photography. Her process truly differentiates her from other photographers because she prefers to work with her hands rather than create worlds through computers and editing tricks. She doesn’t even edit her photographs after shooting. She is an true artist with a vision and fidelity to her subject matter. The worlds that she creates are completely vivid, and realistic, her photography then captures these hyper-realistic mini-worlds, and freezes them in a believable facsimile of the real world. Lori Nix is an inventive and talented creator of worlds.
THE CITY
Solo Exhibition of New Work
November 4 – December 18, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday November 4, 6 – 8 pm
ClampArt Gallery
521-531 W. 25th Street, New York City
Website -http://www.lorinix.net/
@poweredbyart
Land Art Generator features works and ideas for public art pieces that creates clean energy. Their concepts and designs are futuristic and functional in the way that works would work within the space they are featured in. The idea behind the movement is to bring to the forefront art that is active and that serves a purpose. It is hard not to fall in love with the clean lines and delicate aesthetics qualities that rely heavily on enhancing the natural surroundings of the public work. Apart from featuring works, Land Art Generator links its followers to news and events concerning design that revolves around being eco-friendly.
Follow them on Twitter
Blog- HERE
October 29 2010
RADAR NYC 10.29.10
Wall of Light
Luca Barcellona is a supremely talented calligraphy and letter artist who has a streak of figural arts in him that is amazing to encounter. When he draws his intricate and dazzling letters it is a fluid performance of delicate proportions. The long, broad strokes of steady perfection are hypnotizing to watch. His work has been exhibited in galleries and on the large walls across the streets of Europe. His public works are a combination of ancient manuscripts and urban graffiti that defies many modern ideas of what public art is and could be. The Wall of Light project by Luca Barcellona and features the artist creating a dynamic light show where he creates poetic musings with his beautiful lettering. These words are accompanied by vivid illustrations and settings in which the words float around. Interesting to note is the public’s interactions with the wall of light. People can be seen at the bottom of the wall moving around and interacting with the moving surface. These people become ghostly images that become part of the settings that Luca Barcellona creates. What a cool video and awesome concept!
Some of my favorite stuff by him HERE
Luca Barcellona website
Tin Pan Band Live – Union Square
Everybody’s favorite lilting blues band, Tin Pan Band is having a very public show, and you just have to give them a listen. The Tin Pan Band will be playing Union Square above the N/R/Q platform. The instrumentals are lively and mesh together beautifully to create a solid backing for lyrics about love, loss, and overall living. Their brand of Blues is distinctly urban by focusing on topics like gentrification of old city neighborhoods and greed. In New York, the Blues are experiencing a Renaissance, and Tin Pan Band is at the forefront of this rebirth. On your commute back from work, stop by and give them a listen. Also, check our RADAR episode on the Poetry Brothel featuring music by Tin Pan Band.
Where:
Thu Nov 04, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
Union Square subway station, above the N/R/Q platform
My Biggest Regret Ever
PostSecret established a candid intimacy that only the internet in its immaculate glorification of the individual can achieve. My Biggest Regret Ever takes the most gut-wrenching of human emotions and splatters it across the internet in plain black font against a white screen. The stark directness of the blog correlates wonderfully with the honesty and forwardness of the confessions that make up the site. Regret is something that runs through every person, and the anguish that comes from past mistakes affects everyone. What do you regret? What still haunts you to this day? Read what others have to say, or post your own entry. Maybe this is the cathartic release you’ve been looking for.
http://www.mybiggestregretever.com/
Overlap by Aakash Nihalani
Aakash Nihalani (RADAR Ep21 – Tapes and Mirrors) is a great public art figure. His ephemeral compositions are mostly shaped through the use of bright florescent adhesive tapes and cardboard. He creates simple polygonal shapes and places them within an urban setting in ways that make them look three dimensional, but still out of place. With his newest show he takes the founding elements of his aesthetic and lets them run amuck around the urban sprawl of the USA, India, and parts of Europe. This time his polygonal figures start to take on organic forms through the layering of tape and cardboard into intricate forms. These sharp organic figures now interact within their environments through their purposed interactions with city surfaces from different points of perspective. Nihalani manipulates what the audience can see by making floors become backgrounds and sides of buildings become foregrounds. Aakash Nihalani uses public space in a smart, mind bending way, and his show is sure to be engaging.
Overlap by Aakash Nihalani
Bose Pacia
163 Plymouth Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
November 4 – December 18
Artist Reception: 4 November, 6 – 8 pm
After Party: 4 November 9 – 11 pm @ 17 Frost (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) – Featuring Das Racist
In Conversation: 20 November 3pm
Design Related – Social Network for Designers
Design Related is a place where creativity inspires creativity. It is excellent source of inspiration through the exploration of a pool of diverse artists that practice different in mediums of creation. They have a stimulating inspiration section on their website where members can post a steady stream of inventive and cultured articles and links that can really get the juices flowing. Their twitter account distills the very idea of the flow of artistry into a torrent of media and sites that send you on a flight of fancy through design and imagination. Overall, even though Design Related is about the abstracts that are art and design, it grounds itself in the practicalities of being able to make what the mind sets out to think. This is a place where functionality meets the muse. Get impelled. Get enlivened. Let yourself get Design Related.
Follow them on Twitter
October 23 2010
RADAR NYC 10.22.10
Dancing Hands Pa Pamericano
This is an odd, fun and strangely hypnotic video that features a couple using only their hands to do an elaborate dance to a Latin-inspired electropop song. Could it just be the next amazing and elaborate dance video to go viral and make its rounds on all the big trendy Internet sites? Maybe. Is it still really cool and catchy as hell? Definitely.
Dfalt – Free Mixtape
Roger O’Donnel just might be one of the most accomplished musician we’ve featured in a RADAR episode (Ep26 – Hidden Oras). After all, how many musicians out there can say they used to be in The Cure? But aside from performing with high profile acts also including the Psychedelic Furs among others, he’s also made time for an impressive solo career. His latest work, quite a departure from the goth rock of The Cure, is Piano Formations, which pairs ambient piano pieces with videos of clouds that he filmed. The set will include an audio CD, a DVD of the cloud videos with the audio and a book of the piano exercise scores, and will be released November 15, but O’Donnel’s website has some of the tracks and videos available for streaming now.
Facebook Page with Video: HERE
Website with Audio Streams: HERE
Glesbo – Glennis McMurray’s
Looking for advice? Glennis McMurray (Ep2 – I Eat Pandas) just might have some for you. She’s been writing a hilarious blog called Glesbo for years, and recently (very recently, as in October 19), she decided incorporate an advice column called Ask G. Readers can send in questions and Glennis will publish her response, full of profanities, tangents, and surprisingly good advice. And while you’re there, the rest of the blog is also a good read, if you like witty observations mixed with toilet humor and made-up words to describe obnoxious creeps (such as Jagwad, Jagdong and Jagloaf among others).
Story Pirates – HalloWhoa!
Story Pirates (Ep30 – Story Pirates) are known for providing kids with performances full of family friendly fun. This… is not one of those performances. HalloWOAH! is an after-dark, adults-only event, where the Story Pirates take you through a bizarre, unpredictable haunted house experience. And of course, there’s a bar. And while this event isn’t for the kids, proceeds from the event will go towards Story Pirates after school programs and Manhattan Youth programming.
ADULTS ONLY SHOWS
Friday, October 22nd & 29th: 10 PM and 11 PM
Saturday, October 16th & 23rd: 9 PM to 11 PM
Saturday, October 30th: 9pm and 10pm
Sunday, October 31st: 9 PM to 11 PM.
The Downtown Community Center
120 Warren Street
New York, NY 10007
Event Info
Molly Crabapple
Molly Crabapple is the mastermind behind Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School (Ep8 – Dr. Sketchy’s), as well as an accomplished artist in her own right. Her kinky, Gilded Age-inspired illustrations are quite unmistakable, and her latest project is a little something called the Art Monkey Alphabet—and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Each day for 26 days, she’ll release another monkey letter illustration, and when it’s all done, she will release the monkeys as a font, as well as silkscreen posters of all the letters.
October 06 2010
PULSE – Head in a Freezer: the 241543903.com project
On April 6, 2009, New York-based artist David Horvitz, known for his quirky DIY projects, posted a picture of himself with his head in a freezer on his Flickr account. Under the photo read:
That same day, a friend of Horvitz posted another photo using the same freezer. Two weeks later, 241543903.com was created, with the intention of “Experiencing a MEME in the Making.”
For those of you who don’t know, a meme is essentially a unit of culture (weird way of putting it, I know, but think along the lines of a video, an idea, or a catchphrase) that spreads, in this case via the Internet, and essentially goes viral. With 241543903.com, Horvitz and friends attempted to document this idea as it evolved into a meme.
And, oh, did it ever. By January 2010, there were over 100 photos with the caption “241543903” on Flickr alone. In today’s world, with Lady Gaga videos getting millions of views on YouTube within mere minutes, 100 photos may not seem like a lot. But this project, remember, is not just Internet-based. These 100+ people found out about the project, left their computers, physically stuck their heads into their freezers, took photos, and posted them online. When looked at from that perspective, 100 is quite a lot of people.
And that was just in January. Since then, the project has expanded from Flickr to other social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and Tumblr. And if you do a Google image search of 241543903 right this second, over 5,000 photos show up, all of different people, all around the world, sticking their heads in various freezers.
My favorite part about the project, aside from its undeniable success at achieving what it set out to achieve, is the variety of photos that people took. I love that the project is very straight-forward (“take a picture with your head in the freezer”) and yet open to endless interpretations. Here are a few of my favorite 241543903 pictures (I’d love to see the customers’ reaction to the person who stuck his head in a freezer at the supermarket), but, as you know, you can do a Google search and find which ones you like best.
241543903.com was created a year a half ago, but it’s still very active. The blog is filled with video documentation of the project, video responses from participants, and updates from the creators. Also check out knowyourmeme.com, a site that documents various memes around the globe, including the Heads in Freezers (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/241543903). Who knows? Maybe it’ll inspire you to create your own meme, and maybe one day it’ll catch on and Radar will do a Pulse feature on it. One can only dream.
And don’t forget to stick your head in the freezer!
September 15 2010
New Type York – RADAR S3 Ep 35 [vid]
New Type York is a glimpse at the lost history of signage and typography in NYC. James Patrick Gibson walks the streets of New York “uncovering the typographic artifacts of New York City”, seeking out all forms of signage that not only convey information but also provide a sense of style. A graphic designer by trade, Gibson’s New Type York has an intimate relationship with fonts, exploring how each pushes a different emotion, revealing the nature of the business whose name it bears while also celebrating what is simply pleasing the eye.
Relevant sites:
Credits:
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Josh Cramer
EDITOR Jawad Metni
DP Adam Newport-Berra
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
FEATURED MUSIC by:
Glass Ghost “Mechanical Life”
Mike Swoop “On My Mind”
New Type York – RADAR S3 Ep 35 [vid]
New Type York is a glimpse at the lost history of signage and typography in NYC. James Patrick Gibson walks the streets of New York “uncovering the typographic artifacts of New York City”, seeking out all forms of signage that not only convey information but also provide a sense of style. A graphic designer by trade, Gibson’s New Type York has an intimate relationship with fonts, exploring how each pushes a different emotion, revealing the nature of the business whose name it bears while also celebrating what is simply pleasing the eye.
Relevant sites:
Credits:
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Josh Cramer
EDITOR Jawad Metni
DP Adam Newport-Berra
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
FEATURED MUSIC by:
Glass Ghost “Mechanical Life”
Mike Swoop “On My Mind”
September 01 2010
Unnatural History – RADAR S3 Ep 33 [vid]
Unnatural History recaptures rare moments in time, both past and present. The project consists of still photos, taken of rebuilt miniature scenes. Some scenes recreate natural disasters while others capture a natural history seen within museums at time where history and science didn’t see eye to eye. The end result tricks the viewer into believing they are seeing life size scenes, instead of the miniature dioramas that they really are.
Relevant sites:
Credits:
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Josh Cramer
EDITOR Jawad Metni
DP Jarin Blaschke
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
TITLE SEQUENCE Jordan Gray
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
ADDITIONAL MUSIC by:
Pinback “Loro”
Morningbells “Octopus”
Saxon Shores “This Shameless Moment”
August 25 2010
FCKD Mag – RADAR S3 Ep 32 [vid]
Ryan Watkins-Hughes, founder of the FCKD Mag project, is a deconstructionist through and through. In this latest project, Ryan is making a social commentary on advertisements by purchasing the flashiest, advert filled magazines and altering the covers as well as the ads inside of the magazine. By adding his artwork to the already printed magazine Ryan is replacing the “junk food for the brain” with his own work. Once he hacks the magazines he then “shopdrops” them back on the shelf, to be picked up by an unsuspecting consumer.
Relevant sites:
Credits:
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Alex Johnson
DP Jeremy Saulnier
EDITOR Jawad Metni
SERIES PRODUCER Josh Cramer
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
TITLE SEQUENCE Jordan Gray
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
ADDITIONAL MUSIC by:
Small Black “Despicable Dogs” Washed Out RMX
Tall Firs “Hairdo”
MossyRock “I Want to Eat Your Eyes Out”
FCKD Mag – RADAR S3 Ep 32 [vid]
Ryan Watkins-Hughes, founder of the FCKD Mag project, is a deconstructionist through and through. In this latest project, Ryan is making a social commentary on advertisements by purchasing the flashiest, advert filled magazines and altering the covers as well as the ads inside of the magazine. By adding his artwork to the already printed magazine Ryan is replacing the “junk food for the brain” with his own work. Once he hacks the magazines he then “shopdrops” them back on the shelf, to be picked up by an unsuspecting consumer.
Relevant sites:
Credits:
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Alex Johnson
DP Jeremy Saulnier
EDITOR Jawad Metni
SERIES PRODUCER Josh Cramer
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
TITLE SEQUENCE Jordan Gray
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
ADDITIONAL MUSIC by:
Small Black “Despicable Dogs” Washed Out RMX
Tall Firs “Hairdo”
MossyRock “I Want to Eat Your Eyes Out”
August 10 2010
Catching up with Color Me Katie
Since we last saw her, Katie Sokoler AKA Color Me Katie has been busy. In case you need a refresher, Katie is an amazing, young photographer and street artist working out of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Since our Season One episode on Katie (RADAR 011 – Color Me Katie), she has taken her work in cunning new directions, and has caught the attention of discerning eyes worldwide (including, The Greenpoint Gazette tells us, the one and only Martha Stewart??). Yes, worldwide. A popular French talk show featured Katie’s Brooklyn Thought Bubble project, even creating their own animated version of her bubbles (check it out HERE at Katie’s website). The French are always so cutting edge.
Locally, Katie was featured in a spread in the January 2010 issue of American Way magazine (the in-flight magazine of American Airlines), and in a May 2010 issue of the New York Daily News. Her talents have also been picked up by New York’s infamous Improv Everywhere. Did you see Darth Vader and Princess Leia on the 6 train? Katie was there. It’s hard to imagine Katie going unnoticed, particularly since Pac-Man started popping up on the walls all around her Greenpoint neighborhood…
As usual, Katie set guerilla photo-traps, hiding across the street and waiting for unsuspecting passers-by to walk in front of her art, then SNAP. A woman walking home from the store is suddenly a woman fleeing a fast-approaching Pac-Man. This is what Katie does – she fuses the imagined with the real, and turns the sometimes isolated and cold city into a playground where people can laugh with each other and at themselves.
You can find Katie’s work all over Brooklyn, or online, at Gothamist, where she is a regular contributor (and rides mechanical bulls).
Oh, and did we mention that ModCloth started carrying a line of Color Me Katie shoes?
Keep up with Katie’s newest adventures in the city HERE.
July 28 2010
Before I Die – RADAR S3 ep 28 [vid]
Before I Die is a rare form of Interactive Art, started by K.S. Rives and Nicole Kenney, creating life, out of death. Using a Polaroid camera, Rives and Kenney have traveled far and wide asking people what they would like to do before they die, and snapping their photo as they answer. Rives and Kenny found that asking an age-old question inspired people to reach for a goal they set from themselves. The project soon moved online enabling people from all around the globe to take their own photo, post it and share what they wanted to do before they die.
July 25 2010
PULSE – Boogie
BOOGIE
Boogie is a Serbian born photographer who emigrated to the United States in 1998. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. With an effortless but honest “shoot first, ask later” approach and nimble timing, he captures the moments that transform a split second opportunity into a decisive photograph.
Boogie has the grace of a documentarian and little heed for comfort zones. In characteristically gritty black and white film, he catalogues poverty, civil war, and urban decay. He arrests us with the bleaker aspects of the human condition and the social taboos we may often ignore.
Rather than gloss over his subject, he pulls the viewer in. Unflinching and fearless in style, his photographic presence poses a sharp contrast to the vulnerability and intimacy of the portraits he creates.
At its lighter moments, his work points to the wry visual coincidences of cities with millions of people, places, and things– taking cues from found text, discarded trash, or birds in flight.
Seeing his work is a glimpse into nearly a decade and a half on the fringes of life happening all around us. You can check out more of his work at www.artcoup.com, where you can also find information about his five published books.
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