Archive for March, 2008I’ve discussed graf in depth here in the past. I was interested to see that the Graffiti Research Lab has “made it big”. Check out the video.
Ever since the OPP renovated the bar, one thing has bothered me and that’s the lOWERCASE ls on the beer signs. Now, I’ve always loved the artwork on the OPP’s chalkboard, don’t get me wrong. I think each panel is absolutely beautiful. I remember, just after the remodel, wondering when the chalkboard would return. Finally it did, and WTF. One of my favorites is the LAKE MISSOULA AMBER from the KETTlE HOUSE. I mentioned it to some of my friends, and we had a laugh about it, ordered another round, and (they) forgot about it. But I couldn’t. It was one of those things that was always slightly annoying. But I should just get over it, right? Well, I found some other folks who think lOWERCASE ls are equally as absurd. I guess this validation is enough to let it go.(yeah, another restaurant post. This one deals directly with local art, so cut me some slack, eh?)
Check out more lOWERCASE ls here. Why not buy me a MOOSE DROOl? Click below to buy me a beer. Thanks! Tags: 59801, art, art in missoula, bar, beer, lOWERCASEl59801, art, art in missoula, bar, beer, lOWERCASEl
Last night there were rumors that Missoula’s newest hip place to eat, 515 would be closing. It was supposed to be all hush-hush, apparently, and there was a blowout party for selected invited guests. A phone call to the restaurant at 7.20PM this evening confirms that 515 has indeed closed its doors permanently. It’s a shame. This town needs more variety in its dining choices, especially downtown. Good luck, Paul and Carrie. Tags: 59801, arts and culture in missoula, community, creativity, dining, drinking, economy59801, arts and culture in missoula, community, creativity, dining, drinking, economy Originally uploaded by love not fear Despite this fact, Sunday morning we loaded up the snowboards and some warm gear and headed out to Snowbowl for my first snowboarding lesson, four days after my 37th birthday. I was admittedly nervous, but trusted my good friend Lucas, the Original Gimp. Lucas, as many of you know, is an adaptive rider and snowboard instructor who has pretty much dedicated his life to the sport, so I knew I was in good hands. My first challenge was figuring out how to strap in my feet. Foot, rather. To get on the lift, one must “skate” on the snow, a practice similar to that of skateboarding, so having both feet strapped in is no good in this case. I figured out how to do it, awkwardly, and then learned how to do J-turns by shifting my weight on the board and either lifting my toes or my heels, depending upon how I wanted to turn. I would come to learn that Luke was building a foundation of skills on which to build each piece of the day’s lessons. The lift operator made my next challenge slightly easier by slowing down the lift. I caught the chair on the first try, but I misunderstood the instruction offered by Lucas, so I was riding solo for the 12 minutes up the lift, Lucas shouting encouragement from the chair behind me. Of course, I wrecked getting off the lift, but I was able to scoot out of the way of the next chair, and skated down a ways to strap in both feet for the next part of my lesson: setting an edge. Just as with J-turns, one sets an edge based upon the distribution of weight on the feet, either forward up on the toes, or backwards, toes lifted. Learning this allowed me to “float” down the mountain a ways in a “falling leaf” zigzag pattern. The first few times I did this, it was in concert with Lucas, as I stood facing him on my board, and we “danced” down the mountain holding hands. He would squeeze one of my hands, and I would change direction simply by looking in the direction of the hand squeeze. Eventually, I was able to do this solo. I felt pretty comfortable doing this on my heel side, but my toe side definitely needs some work. Still, I was ready for the next step, which was combining toe side and heel side to actually carve a path down the hill. Lucas explained the concept to me, and I gave it a whirl on my own. I ate shit. Of course. But I got up and tried it again, eventually figuring out how to carve a few turns on my own. I wrecked. A lot. The most spectacular wreck included what felt to me like turning end over end 20 times, but Lucas reports that it was only 2 times. Still, I lost my goggles and hat, and was pretty beat up. I also became stuck in some powder at one point. I’d stand up and fall down, stand up and fall down, without really gaining any ground in regards to traveling any one direction. Rewind, repeat about 10 or 11 times, and I was pretty tired. Judging by Lucas’ laughter, though, I looked pretty funny, and I ended up lying there laughing, too. What else was I supposed to do, eh? Even though I slept 11 hours last night, I’m still pretty tired and sore. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to give something like this a try, and, overall, it was a good experience. I’m looking forward to trying it again. Tags: 59801, missoula, montana, snowboarding59801, missoula, montana, snowboarding Originally uploaded by love not fear The last drawing class I took was in 10th grade. Hard to believe, I know, but I’ve just never really drawn much. I like to doodle, but drawing realistically has never been my forte. Part of it was simply not practicing, but I’ve always been pretty uninterested in creating realistic art. Recently, though, I attended a life drawing session at the Missoula Art Museum. Every Wednesday night artists gather in the basement of the MAM and draw a nude model. I decided to give it a shot. I arrived with a graphite pencil, a charcoal pencil, a brown “liquid paintbrush” pen and a Sharpie. I wanted to draw using a variety of media, maybe even mixing all types on one page to see what happened. The session began with a series of 30 second gestures. The model would hold a pose for 30 seconds, the moderator would say change, and the model would strike another pose for 30 seconds.? While there was free paper available for us to use, I wanted to use the vellum paper I had brought with me, but I didn’t want to waste it. I decided it would be fun and interesting to draw each pose with a different utensil all on the same page. The above is the first drawing from the 30 second gesture series.
Still. I was encouraged to see that my drawings seemed to be getting better. Not by much, but definitely better. By the time the 10 minute poses began, I was deep in frustration. I stopped drawing before the 10 minutes were over and wrote, Huge frustration at not being better at this. Want to run out of the room now. Go outside. Originally uploaded by love not fear I’ll probably draw again, but not before practicing on my own for a while. The experience was a good one. Trying something new and being humbled by the drastic difference in what I expected I would be able to achieve and what I actually achieved. I’m converting a bunch of .avi files to .mov files because for whatever reason, Quicktime and VLC both aren’t playing .avi files. I’d like to index all of my movie files that I’ve shot and begin playing around with editing again. I’m using iSquint to make the conversions. Check out their HELP menu.
The only CD I ever checked out of a library that I never returned was “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, the David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration. (After many overdue notices arriving in the mail, I went down to the library, told them I’d lost the item, and paid for it. they now have another copy in their stacks). I loved MLITBOG for a lot of reasons, the layered sounds, the samples, the beats, the moods that it created. At the time, I was already familiar with David Byrne’s solo work as well as his work with The Talking Heads, but I had only heard about Eno. Since then, I’ve come to love Eno and his work with a variety of other musicians, including his production work with Devo, Talking Heads, Jane Sieberry (now Issa, who, like Reznor, gives her music away for free) and especially James and the “Laid” and “Wah-Wah” albums. Eno, the “non-musician”, is most known for his prolific catalogue of ambient music, including the fantastic “Music for Airports”, as well as being an amazing record producer and contributor to such movies as David Lynch’s “Dune”.
Eno has always been fascinated by technology and how to twist and bend it for his own purposes. He’s experimented with generative music, music that composes itself, and has branched out into visual art as well, creating a computer game that generates a possible 77 million paintings, chosen by Eno himself. He is currently working on the soundtrack for the multi-player game Spore, “that allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a multi cellular organism, through development as a sapient and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.” [Wikipedia]. I’m here to make the case that Trent Reznor is the new Brian Eno.
Reznor got his start in Cleveland creating what would become Pretty Hate Machine by himself after-hours at the Right Track Studio where he worked as an assistant engineer and janitor. He became proficient at manipulating sounds and bending technology to his own purposes as well, just as Eno learned to do. He’s produced many record albums, including a handful for Marilyn Manson, as well as the phenomenal “Natural Born Killers” soundtrack and the “Lost Highway” soundtrack. His subtle contribution to Tori Amos’ “Past the Mission” on her “Under the Pink” album showed how quiet he could be when he needed to be. It was also the first time I can remember hearing him sing quietly while someone else took the spotlight. Reznor’s original music from id Software’s video game “Quake” was long one of my favorite ambient pieces of music to load into iTunes when I needed to get some work done and didn’t want to be disturbed. He expanded his fascination with technology and its possibilities with the release of “Year Zero” and its companion alternate reality websites/reality game and subsequent user-submitted art in 2007. Eno once predicted that music would one day become user-modifiable constructs, and imagined a day when future generations would look at past generations in wonder, asking in wonder, “you mean you listened to the same music over and over?”. Reznor took that idea and ran with it, releasing “The Hand that Feeds” from his dismal “With Teeth” 2005 release as a multi-track Garage Band download that fans could get for free and remix as they pleased. His newest release “Ghosts I-IV”, was released in a variety of formats, including a free torrent seeded by NIN itself. “Ghosts” was released as with a Creative Commons license (no copyright), and Reznor announced yesterday that the tracks can be used to participate in a NIN sponsored film festival on You Tube. Talk about user generated content. The album itself is supurb. I’d love to hear Eno’s thoughts on it. Those of you who haven’t hear it, go grab it at NIN’s official site and give it a listen for yourself. Grab the torrent if you’re familiar with the technology. “Ghosts” ranges from smooth and quiet piano to the heavy muddy guitar and keyboard laden layers we’ve come to expect from Reznor. I’m looking forward to what people come up with, and might even make a contribution myself if I can find some time along with everything else I have going on. NIN Ghosts Film Festival on YouTube .. Tags: alternative, art, artist, artists, arts, call to artists, community, creativecommons, creativity, experiment, festival, film, inspiration, internet, musicalternative, art, artist, artists, arts, call to artists, community, creativecommons, creativity, experiment, festival, film, inspiration, internet, music
I Got Born TodayThanks for all of the birthday wishes thus far. And hey? Why not buy me a shot?
Click the shotglass to buy me a shotTags: artist happybirthdayartist happybirthday Originally uploaded by love not fear i beat my machine it’s a part of me it’s inside of me the me that you know he had some second thoughts all pain disappears it’s the nature of my circuitry the me that you know he used to have feelings i can try to get away but i’ve strapped myself in hiding backwards inside of me i feel so unafraid…. –NIN, The Becoming I’m using the wires to attach the glass to the metal. |
