I had the pleasure of witnessing the final performance of Forklift Danceworks', The Trash Project this weekend. The Trash Project was a choreographed dance of 16 municipal Solid Waste Services trucks, 30 Solid Waste Services employees, and a three-piece band, performed before 2,000 people on an abandoned airstrip in the triple-digit heat of an Austin dusk. Forklift Danceworks' Choreographer, Allison Orr clearly set out to challenge the viewers' perceptions of: dance as a medium, public art, community, consumerism and waste generation, and the Solid Waste Services employees and machinery who constitute the entire cast of performers. What's as, if not.. Read More »

Miranda July's latest endeavor, the sculptural installation titled Eleven Heavy Things, is currently on exhibit at Union Square Park. The multi-talented artist/actress/writer/director displays her usual off-kilter sweetness and sense of humor in both the works themselves and the idea behind them. The sculptures are intended to be posed on, or within, for photographs, and to convey playful (sometimes even naive) textual messages and imagery. The resulting photographs will be taken by and shared with countless acquaintances of the tourists and visitors who pass through the park. The format all but guarantees an audience far more diverse than a typical gallery,.. Read More »

Mr. Andrew Bird has always been a hugely popular at Stowe Provisions, and our admiration of Ian Schneller's horn speakers has been previously documented here. As has the connection between Mr. Bird and Mr. Schneller.  The two Chicago-based artists are teaming up to create an audio-visual landscape/performance piece for the Guggenheim's Dark Sounds Series (which also includes Beirut!). I can't imagine a more fitting setting for the performance than Frank Lloyd Wright's nautilus-inspired building. It'll be a rumination on experimentation by master craftsmen inside a rumination on experimentation by a master craftsman, amplified by hundreds of artist-created horns inside a.. Read More »

the Meteoric Rise In the crime-ridden NYC of the 1970s, he covers the city with the graffiti tag SAMO. In 1981 he puts paint on canvas for the first time, and by 1983 he is an artist with “rock star status.” He achieves critical and commercial success, though he is constantly confronted by racism from his peers. the Fall of a Young Artist In 1985 he and Andy Warhol become close friends and painting collaborators, but they part ways and Warhol dies suddenly in 1987. Basquiat’s heroin addiction worsens, and he dies of an overdose in 1988 at the age.. Read More »

Efficiency and Design in Scandinavia The Scandinavian countries have frequently set the bar when it comes to efficiency and design over the past century or so.  These photos are a very vibrant reminder of those qualities.  I find the images almost overwhelmingly inspiring.  We can only dream of mass transit so modern, clean, and efficient in the United States, and works of public art here rarely approach the scope of this project in terms of both size and public engagement.  You could certainly argue that the recent works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude fit this bill.  However, their work is usually.. Read More »

Harvey Pekar, the irascible writer who spun the mundane details of his own life and the quotidian existences of his fellow Cleveland residents into comic-book narratives, and who showed that the comic-book panel could include everyday feelings of anxiety and disappointment as easily as it does the adventures of costumed heroes, has died. Mr. Pekar enjoyed a brief and uneasy fame in the 1980s as an occasional guest of “Late Night With David Letterman.” A film version of “American Splendor” was released in 2003, starring Paul Giamatti as Mr. Pekar. Who is Harvey Pekar? 17 movies I like from 2000-2005.. Read More »

The Movie A recent review on the NY Times website on Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch reminded me of the dark beauty of this movie, a hallucinatory western in which a man heads west in search of a job.  The mythic landscape of the American West is haunted by memories of genocide and environmental disaster, with characters overtaken by greed and violence. The Cast Starring Johnny Depp as William Blake, an accountant / poet, the movie has an amazing supporting cast that includes Gary Farmer, Gabriel Byrne, Crispin Glover, Alfred Molina, Robert Mitchum, Iggy Popp, Billy Bob Thorton and John.. Read More »

South Africa and William Kentridge As the World Cup kicked off today, eyes all over the world are on South Africa. The MOMA just finished an amazing exhibition of this South African's work, a vast multidisciplinary practice that includes drawing, film animation, printmaking, collage and theatrical performance.  His work is incredibly beautiful and sad at the same time. Definitely worth checking out. love, Howie http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/williamkentridge/> Read More »

ZOLA JESUS "NIGHT" MUSIC VIDEO from FUTURE PRIMITIVE FILMS on Vimeo. Like everything this little firecracker does, it's pretty great.  Kinda looks like a Dan Flavin exhibit in the background no?  Check her out on the List of recent albums that have either been recorded or should be listened to, in a remote cabin by bearded men and flannel clad women. Read More »

Will Johnson at IF&D The lovely ladies at IF+D brought a little slice of Americana into my life this thursday night and officially ushered in spring, as far as I'm concerned. The prolific, multi-talented, and part-time Austin resident, Will Johnson finally showed his baseball paintings IN Austin. the Music of Will Johnson You may know Mr. Johnson from one of his many Americana oriented music projects. Mr. Johnson fronts the feedback-friendly band Centro-matic, as well as the gentler South San Gabriel, in addition to recording and touring under his own name. Most recently Conor Oberst, Yim Yames, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward.. Read More »

This little gem in the Longbranch Inn men's room seems very appropriate with SXSW and all of its excesses and debauchery fast-approaching. Read More »

http://www.last.fm/music/Peggy+Honeywell/_/Me+And+My+Barry+McGee In case y'all didn't understand this earlier, i totally heart clare rojas. Not in a creepy way. That's why i posted a link to a nice little cover she did of the Kris Kristofferson/Janis Joplin classic, "Me and Bobby McGee". With practically no effort at all, Honeywell turns it into a charming lo-fi love letter to her real life husband. I can't help but think the painting above could easily be of the two as well. Eyes and ears, start enjoying. Read More »

The Golden Archipelago Austin's Jonathon Meiburg and Co. just dropped their latest album, the Golden Archipelago, via Matador at midnight. The album is the third by the group, Shearwater, in its triptych of albums broaching the subjects of environment, decay and the largely negative effects of human activity on the natural world. These subjects are near to the heart of Meiburg, who's formal education was in the realm of orinthology and field research. Orinthology and a Dossier This third, and final, panel in the triptych focuses specifically on the natural processes specific to the isolation of island environs. Early purchasers.. Read More »

I Love Clare Rojas One of my favorite banjo-plucking female folkies (honeywell), and probably my current favorite visual artist (rojas) just published her second childrens book and completed an installation at Ikon Gallery in the UK. That last bit of info is of importance because that's who you can buy the book from. The book's called Pidgy (as in pigeon), and someone buy me one already because the copy I buy will certainly end up in my handsome nephew's hands. It's vintage Clare Rojas, heavily influenced by textiles and folk-art as well as the whimsy of her husband, Barry McGee. Rojas.. Read More »