We here at Stowe Provisions are fans of many things. Two of those happen to be Nico Muhly and axes.  Nico Muhly is a classically trained come avante garde composer and arranger, as well as a member of the Bedroom Community.  Muhly has recently set music to some short films directed by Finn O'Hara, the subject of which is axes.  Pretty Axes made by Best Made Co. We eagerly await more films with beautiful music that celebrate the collision between an axe and wood. Love, Stowe Provisions CHOP (preview) from Peter Buchanan-Smith on Vimeo. 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 »

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 »

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 »

I finally saw Shutter Island and I thought the movie was pretty good. The score, however, was drop-dead gorgeous. Robbie Robertson and the Shutter Island score The highlight of the whole production comes during the credits for chrissake. Robbie Robertson curated the soundtrack and selected Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" from his superb, The Blue Notebooks, as the pictures aural backbone. That is saying a lot in the context of a collection of work by modern classical giants like John Cage, Richter, Ingram Marshall, and Brian Eno. Robertson reprises the selection in the credits and seamlessly folds Dinah.. Read More »

The good people over at Hearya.com have a vast library of quality content. This is from their in studio session with AA Bondy. Mr. Bondy's record last year, When the Devil's Loose, was one of my top 10 records of 2009. He's got a face almost like Woody Guthrie's, a whiskey and honey-soaked voice, and his songs feature alt-country touchstones like harmonica, national guitar, and pedal steel. While I am a sucker for the product of those collective elements, Bondy achieves something both bigger and smaller than the sum of the parts. His restraint in both singing and songwriting produce the.. Read More »

My self esteem must be at an all-time high. You've seen all the experts' lists , but recently i'm convinced that "expert" just means well-connected. So, hey, here's my two cents. In case you couldn't have guessed my two cents may have spent a little time weathering the elements under a softball field bleacher, aquiring a nice patina. Maybe someone spilled a beer down there. Definitely not shiny. top 10 records in whatever order i thought of them Animal Collective ^ Merriweather Post Pavilion the xx ^ xx Chad Van Gaalen ^ Soft Airplane Timber Timbre ^ Timber Timbre St.. Read More »