Oof.

Ring in the new year with the Bad Tattoo Gallery.

Bjork to the future...

Tech Video of the Week

As Bjork continues her world tour, many people have noted the very unusual instrument on stage that looks like a glass table with a number of glowing toys being pushed around.

It is, in fact, an amazing new instrument called the Reactable, that was developed by music engineers in Spain. Like Microsoft's Surface computer, it uses a table-top screen that reacts to touch. But it goes beyond that, turning the complex sound mixing board into an intuitive visual interface.
From Towleroad (Towleroad.com)

detroit is just cool, face it

not trying to patronize Kluv and Zena any more than I would on a typical day, but this NYT article proves that detroit rawks:

check it

The architect had no interest in smoothing over the scars, which are worn as badges of pride. The gallery floor in what was once the car showroom retains its red octagonal tile; the other floors are raw concrete. Interior walls — collages of peeling paint, exposed brick and concrete block — have been left untouched so that you can see the traces of where they have been cut open and patched over during years of crude alterations.

props to matt c on this one

Time Sucks

You're going to be sorry you clicked this link.

I think it's related to this link.

I sent it to Andrew and he hasn't slept since.

Gerhard Richter - the latest

The latest additions to Gerhard Richter's site are now live. They've been a long time coming, but we think it's turned out pretty cool. The site now offers interactive exhibition tours from past shows of Richter's work. And if you haven't seen John's completely kickass timeline, yougonow.

There's currently only a couple of exhibitions populated with art, but hopefully there will be more added in the near future. It's another great way to explore the incredible breadth and depth of Richter's work.

Who is Gerhard Richter?

Yeeeeaarrgghhh!! Edvard Munch's The Scream burned!

Edvard Munch's The Scream and Madonna are thought to have been destroyed by their captors. Goth kids and other aspiring high school poets are in mourning.

Way Cool.

Maggot Art™

Maggot Art™ is a fantastic new teaching tool for use in the elementary school setting. Children get hands-on experience with insects that most people find truly disgusting — maggots — while creating a beautiful piece of artwork to share with others. (via Portal of Evil)

Eye candy

What's Thursday without a little Gwar photo gallery browsing?

Can't quite get motivated today?

Take a break and zone out to Hektor the wonder spraypaint-inkjet printer. Watch the movie.

via boing boing

Art or Low-brow Ugliness?

To show Chicago's commitment to... (art, kitsch? crap?) the city's newest, ugliest, artistic dead end, "Baseball Bobbleheads" is off and running. They look about as bad as if someone put a baseball uniform on and then allowed you to paint over it. 11 of these duds are in place, 23 more are coming.

Crafty Beavers! or She's Crafty, She get's around!

You can join a funky little craft fair on September 20th in Wicker Park for $50. FUN!

Is it ART or is it JUST PLAIN CRAP?

This is a fun website to see just how cultured you actually are...is it a urinal or art? You be the judge, and then get your Art IQ score.

WAIT- even better- is it snack food or POO?

I got a lot wrong on this list...apparently I am going to have a poo-poo platter for din-din tonight!

Portrait of the Artist in Plastic

Jarvis Rockwell's toys plumb the emotional depths of culture, religion, and the artist's own relationship with his famous father, Norman Rockwell.

Yes, but is it art? Well, probably not, but all those toys sure are cool to look at! I dream of being able to have a room in my house, with large glass cases in which to display all my mexican masked-wrestler action figures. (via ArtKrush*)

*By the way ArtKrush is featuring my old studio neighbor from grad school, Su-en Wong. She's one of maybe four people on Earth who has actually paid money to own some of my art!

We don't need no stinkin' GameBoy Advance...

Atari 2600. Wood cases. From Wisconsin. Geek nirvana?

A graphic designer at Jim Greeley Sign and Awning in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Heckendorn builds the units on lunch breaks. Each one costs him about $200 in parts and 10 hours of labor. He uses the company's tool shop (with the boss's blessing), routing and cutting out cases from solid plastic and oak.

I've been selling Akron short

Now that's some art!

via Same site as our Transformer friend

Look What I Found

A magazine dedicated to stuff people found in their alleys / laundromats / cellars.

via Winster

John Cage rockin' from beyond the grave

Halberstadt organ fans keep on rockin'

via matty fatty pasta face [in LA]

Lorem Ipsum

For the graphic geek in all of us.

Etch-A-Sketch

Just like the real thing, baby

Artists of Bruke

Finally, printmakers get some respect in the form of a slick Flash-based web site which overviews a current exhibit at MOMA. They also have a guide to printmaking which is more interesting than the actual exhibit's site. BTW neither site's pop-up windows/Flash detection are Mozilla friendly... harumph!! (via ArtKrush)

While on the subject of printmaking, don't forget to visit The Birdmachine and buy a subscription. Jay's trying to go legit and has a beautiful new space from which they are now operating.

Artist Makes Bonsai Tree Crashes

Behind the Typeface

Tonight's episode: Cooper Black

hot dog boy

just go and watch these short vids. take what you want from them.

via what do you care?

GPS Drawing

Really big drawings made by tracking one's movements via GPS.

As we used to say in art school, "If you can't make it good, make it big." (and if you can't make it big make a whole bunch of 'em)

via Art Krush

Sweet Homely Chicago

Following the city's feigned interest in "Suite Home Chicago" (this years citywide-sidewalk-art-thing) an auction is being held to unload all of it. Now's your chance to get your hands on some memorable pieces like... errrr... I don't remember any.

Bid on a sofa and commemorate your complete indifference to the second-least interesting concept* since Chicago handed the keys of the city to the Board of Tourism 3 years ago.

Who can imagine the hilarity to come next year when another familiar object undergoes the same familiar surface treatments? The regularly-scheduled spontaneity rolls on.

*Last years dud - Ping-pong tables - takes first prize.

Shameless Plug **CORRECTION**

The Scholl Family Art show's opening has been moved earlier. It's now 3pm-6pm on Friday Oct. 5th. I know many of you were planning your weekends around this event, and I apologize for any inconvenience.

To make up for it, here's a really well-designed, fun, and informative website that will, I am sure, inspire all sorts of thought provoking weblog discussion.

God Bless our Truckers

This fine piece of art is something for every American, every Trucker, every Trucker Lover, and every deadbeat worker working a deadbeat job and in need of a daily dose of humor.

via Disturbing Auctions Dot Com

Clip-On Tie: The Diary of a New York Art Museum Security Guard

For those of you who do not know, David Berman is the frontman for the Silver Jews. He's also a poet and frequent contributor to various online and offline magazines. Berman has close ties to Pavement and has featured Stevel Malkmus on several Silver Jews albums. Check out the Silver Jews web site if you are in the mood. The video for Random Rules was filmed in Chicago. The opening scene takes place at the Rainbo on Damen. As a writer and musician, Berman has definitely influenced me and, if you enjoy such artists like Smog, Mountain Goats and Elliot Smith, you might just enjoy the Silver Jews.

Michael Moore's Epiphany

From todayÕs OpinionJournal.com:

Out of a morbid fascination, we've been following the commentaries of left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore on the events of Sept. 11. As we've noted before, Moore's first reaction was to sneer at those Americans he views as his enemies: President Bush, Republicans, people who work in the financial industry. We're pleased to report, though, that his
latest dispatch--written in New York City after finishing a drive across the country--is improved in tone, a lot less smirky. Proximity to the horror seems to have shocked him into recognizing reality. He even manages to say something thoughtful, about the movie he was working on when he traveled across the country:

>>
This started out as a documentary on gun violence in
America, but the largest mass murder in our history was
just committed--without the use of a single gun! Not a
single bullet fired! No bomb was set off, no missile was
fired, no weapon (i.e., a device that was solely and
specifically manufactured to kill humans) was used. A
boxcutter!--I can't stop thinking about this. A thousand
gun control laws would not have prevented this
massacre. What am I doing?
<<


via Wall Street Journal

What the Chunk!

for those who can appreciate the art of manipulating bicycle designs. i know i do. meet the Chunks.

via My friend Todd

Music Journalists Admit Making Up Gig Reviews

Former NME journalists David Quantick and Stuart Maconie have admitted they have reviewed gigs without attending.

Maconie even wrote that Gracie Slick was great fronting Jefferson Starship at the 1989 Reading Festival, even though she had left the band two years before.

The revelations come in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, which blows the lid on the world of rock journalism.

In the show, Quantick tells how he once reviewed three gigs in a week but only heard three songs at one of the shows.

He missed a Fine Young Cannibals gig after a date mix-up, gave his friends his tickets to see Blue Oyster Cult, and got bored of the Elton John show so left after three songs. He made up reviews of all three shows.

Fellow critic Andrew Collins, who also appears in the Edinburgh show, revealed that he was once sent a gift-wrapped box of faeces by The Levellers following a bad review of one of their albums.

Project Muse

Here we have a thorough guide to scholarly journals online. Dig in.

Wired News: 'Igniting Fear With Flying Metal'

"I don't think people get many visceral experiences these days," Pauline said. "Humans are made to have extreme experiences. They are landmarks in your life."

Mark Pauline and Survival Research Laboratories have been fusing theatre and technology since the late seventies. This article covers The Arbitrary Calculation of Pathological Amusement show in Tokyo where they, for the first time, allowed an SRL robot to be tele-operated, unsupervised, over the Web by non-SRL crew in a full-scale show.

I dig the Konrad Adenauer quote at the beginning of the article: "The good Lord sets definite limits on man's wisdom but sets no limits on his stupidity Ð- and that's just not fair."

Nudes bring out the Prudes

Public Art - A series of nude bodies (male - sorry!) etched into the floor of the L.A. airport. Passengers are fine with it but it's upsetting the powers that be.

The World of Stainboy

I was a fairly big fan of Tim Burton's early pieces such as Edward Scissors Hands, but Nightmare Before Christmas and that Peach flick didn't do much for me. However, I am very impressed with Burton's new creation, Stainboy. Some pretty fresh stuff! I particularly enjoyed the episode called "Bowling Ball Head."

via Yahoo Email

Anti-Corporate Art Site (Funny)

"Rtmark" is a vigalante art endeavor that solicits anti-corporate conceptual ideas from people and tries to find money or sponsorship to build them. Keep your eyes peeled for greeting cards for cons on Death Row, A robot that moves onto private turf to spray paint messages on the ground, and the Barbie Liberation Army.
Like something out of Fight Club.

saves the day

okay, this is a direct plug for one of the best bands in the US today. thanx to motero for introducing me to saves the day. motero and i are going to see them at the House of Blues Chicago on July 25--so join us. look at our pictures in the Members section of this site and spot us to tell us how you really feel about House8Net and anything else you may be thinking of at the time.

kaleidoscopy

I recently fished around for this URL so I could spend my unbillable time making pretty hypnotic patterns. It's an old applet but it's still good clean fun, even for Baptists.

"A Little Piece of the Sea..."

Andrew, on the seashell necklace I WAS considering purchasing for a friend's birthday:

"What the hell are those god-awful things? Okay, DISCO QUEEN..."

cracked up freestyle

no url. no reason. no cage. no nothin' but a cracked up freestyle fit of words. perhaps art will be covered here, perhaps not. i don't mind if i just cover blanks with images of yawning midgets online at the local sperm bank. drew, any word from the president? i thought you'd remind me to cause a riot today. anyway, i've had ideas for gibberish today and i thought i'd just introduce myself here. you cannot view my photo just yet. chris is busy with a "deliverable." what's that you ask? a deliverable may be defined as something going to the client. the "client?" what's that you ask? a client is someone who keeps you in business. "business?" what's that you ask? jeez, that could go on forever. and if you are in this "client business," you know what i'm sprayin' here. so it goes. my name is brunobrain and i'll bother you with ramblings from time to time. and i might even post some noises. here's one. off to bowling...

noise no. three
this is where i bury myself
and tie bottle caps together with
fishing line to make my shawl
she pushes her aluminum cart
down schubert avenue
and i just destroyed three villains

with my infamous choke hold
that even my friends fear
i am light here
i am without weight
and the bugs burrowing underneath
my skin are not satisfied because
i do not squirm in discomfort