Daniel Askill

Gotta catch up on who made this.

Apparently it was inspired obliquely by this.

007- Spoke Count

RSVP form

Chorus Gallery's first outing with my name behind it is Spoke Count. Democratic, curated by no one, and fun, it is united by only size (8x8) and theme (bikes). We will not be editing out for content or for media.

Why? Besides having a great big group show for our first show that will bring in a ton of people? This will be the only "bike-art" show I hope I ever put on. Chorus will not be a bike gallery. It will be an alternative space contemporary art gallery showing local and national talent.

My wife and I were making a comparison between Chorus and restaurants. "New American" sounds specific and identifiable, but is rather vague. If you ask a foodie what it is, they would have a hard time to identify it exactly, but would know some of the things that you should expect.

Furthering the restaurant metaphor, "fresh, local, and best" the mantra of new foodie CSA/localvore/slowfood culture is applicable to Chorus. New work, locals predominantly, and "best of" quality artists is what we plan on specializing.

I'll be updating here about each show we produce. I've got a schedule already for the first 6 months, so I'll release info when we solidify the details and content for each show.

Thoughts about why wave is more than cool.

Google wave. The next next new black or something like that. Google always has some cool tool that gets the press, the wow factor, etc. I might regret this in a few years, but I think this one is different.

I'm waiting for all my friends to find me, and I'm trying to find them currently. It seems odd, as I took on a gmail account late in life, and live off my yahoo to this day. Reliable and not connected to my blog. Yahoo just allows for more anonymity. I use my three emails for access control like the land line we give out to anyone we don't want to call us while we are running around. The non-profit we donated to needs a phone number? No problem. Land line.

I want to use wave as a repository for all the stuff I do with my friends. The Boston Cask Society, the Turkey Fry, my weekly group rides, etc.

This brings up the larger question of social dynamics in wave. Will people I don't know be able to find my waves and join in this little group I'm starting that will function as a cycling listserve/board/email chain, but better? How googleable will google wave be? Will I be able to search for a wave for cycling groups in a town I'm planning on visiting, find a ride, drop in, meet some new friends, and walk away happy?

How will groups function in wave? Will wave become a single source to interact with private social networks and will these networks interact with the outside world? Will wave function as a private network blogger with all the content acting like a private invite only blog? Can it be used to replace the message board?

While that is still to be worked out, the strength of wave is not the communicative functions. Those technologies exist already in various states and make me feel like it will become another place I have to check into every day. One should not be interested in the various communicative functions being pulled together. The newness to this technology is the ability to pull existing and comfortable technologies together and, importantly, edit them. There can be a single message with an archive of iterations, new dates, new answers to Y/N/M polls or you can lose that data and move on. Who needs an archive 3 years deep on a message board with numerous private messages about rides, broken bikes, school/work schedules, and such. Throw all that in wave and edit at will. Occasionally edit out the old PM's by creating an archive and a redundant wave. The function of Y/N/M polls and editing of details (time and location of ride) makes it ideal for this.

Many have argued that this is a digital dark ages. We are not archiving enough of the data we are producing. Every blog post ever is not being saved for future academics. How will we live and understand our social condition without the intrigue and rumors floating around on the web. The redundant blog posts, tweets, board threads, etc and all the official web postings from official news organizations about (insert short lived news phenomenon here-- cf. balloon boy) will be lost to time immemorial if we don't do something is the idea. We could do research on the invention of the printing press by following back the dispersion of new books printed with this technology solely because there are sales receipts and advertisements from the 1500's still extant. Weirder things have been useful.

But I can choose what is important to me through the editing. No longer will all my scratching and clawing about where we should meet or is it at 8 or 9 be archived and that is a good thing. You can make a separate wave to hash that out and the central pillar that is the schedule is still sitting there asking if you want to go for a 50 mile ride on monday morning. This is the type of things that allows us to focus on what is important. It allows us to discern what we care about and what and when we decide to archive or edit.

Is the squabble over time important from 4 years ago, does the message board thread have to archive it as a chronological dump, a storehouse of dead moments or can we function in the now, allowing the narrative to develop for the future, edited to reflect where we are after the 50 miles that 4 people did on Mon Dec 1st. I have found very few message boards to be self-edited. It often turns into a shit show with egos, trolls, cliques, and flame wars as the norm. But the things that matter, the things that you want to turn into a wiki, are the things that would not be edited out in wave. I hope.

Combo

Money/mouth

Apparently I've inherited the Chorus Gallery at Open Bicycle.

Now the rubber meets the road and other people can chew my ass out for mediocre shows and incoherent praxis.

I welcome the criticism. Now, off to take part in shows, the hard way.

BCA's 21st Drawing Show

I think the drawing show has gotten out of hand. There are 2 works I was interested in at the show. Three? Maybe. I didn't see any reason to talk about the show as it was filled to the gills with stale 50 year old pseudo-abstract expressionist collage and works that function in some form of a self-referential navel gazing bubble. Then I stumbled onto a quote to describe how I felt about it.

In the last years of the boom, numerous artists came to the fore who have their aesthetic heads up the aesthetic asses of Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, Cady Noland, and Christopher Wool. They make punkish black-and-white art and ad hoc arrangements of disheveled stuff, architectural fragments, and Xeroxed photos.

...

Many of these artists have sold a lot of work, and most will be part of a lost generation. They thought they were playing the system; it turned out that they were themselves being played.

Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs

RIP Roc Raida

Toba Khedoori

I think I'm most interested in her work because it floats between realism and pattern. Saltz says that she is a minimalist. I buy that, but I don't see the idealized object in space sculptural implications that are usually identified as minimalism. Her surfaces are not minimalist enough for minimalists with the wax and fuzzies covering the surface. Her technique doesn't come across as literalist work-- one won't find the spatial interactions of Dan Flavin's neon tubes and her work is certainly not as sparse as Tony Smith's Black Box.

Her work pulls from quiescent moments. It brings the attempt to capture a moment or a visual effect in a two dimensional representation. She does not bring the object into being, but flattens and distorts the reality to fit a visual vocabulary that tricks the viewer into caring about what is being represented here.





More images here.

when I was a baby.

Kuduro

One part Afrobeat
One part hip hop
Two parts video mixing from american tv sources
Mix liberally serve on the interwebs





As I understand it, Kuduro is Angolan. I've apparently been sleeping on this style, as even Wiki has sources going back to the 80's. Blentwell has some mixed samples for you

Live hip hop is awesome.

People, come out to the Nave Gallery for Aug 7 from 6-8 for the Physical Digital closing party.

Demain C'est Loin

Where I've been.

I crewed for John Caton's failed bid at RAW. I can't tell you how amazing it was as it has to be experienced. 1300 miles of driving in 4 days. 30 hours of hard work with 15 minutes of sleep. Constant consideration of what's to come and what the rider can handle.




I've been creating work for physical digital.

And that took some time. I've got 3 great pieces for the show now, and am trying to finish up some other pieces that I hope work. It's difficult to decide if something is meh or hell yeah sometimes. You try so hard, and end up showing what you believe in, hopefully.

Takemitsu

I can't help myself. I'm producing some new work, and when that happens I listen to more music.

Eliot Carter

In celebration of a true master.









I hope he has another 100 years of life. While every young artist knows Philip Glass and Steve Reich, I think that either of those composers would have been lost and unable to found a career without the groundwork that Carter laid. His life should be better known by my generation of artists. He lived through the idealistic NY scenes of the 20's through 50's. He is connected to an educated, thoughtful, sensitive, and interrelated past that will never be regained. Never again will composers be the apex of fine art and culture. I doubt very much that there will be another composer who writes music about poems while considering the new aesthetic techniques that are found in film. His was a singular time. His work is the last of a breed. Consider this- he was born 2 years after Dimitri Shostakovich.

After watching him grill Ursula Oppens into being more sensitive, to play contemplatively, as if there was something being thought of, rather than being played, I believe that his compositions have been rushed and played too aggressively by most. He wanted these pieces to be dreamlike and have some swing to them. Not to be hammered home in time, like clockwork or like a music box.

Quite a few composers talk about writing and wondering if their works can be preformed by even the right performers. Glass is always talking about his early years being a new way of playing, and it was, but I wonder if all of Carter's work are in fact played the way he heard them in his head. I wonder if he would like to rewrite some of his own work after hearing certain performances.

Drop it on the one

Funk songs masquerading as soul-full pop:

1958

I like to place things in time lines.

1958
(Thanks to Greg for pointing me towards the PE)




Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament founded with Bertrand Russell as first president.
Gerald Holtom designs the peace symbol.
First Lennon/McCarthy/Harrison song recorded.



Grandmaster Flash, Ice-T, Babyface, Gary Numan, Prince, Jello Biafra, Madonna, Tim Burton, Michael Jackson, Joan Jett, Thomas Dolby all born in 1958.

W. C. Handy died

A Great Day in Harlem photo taken by Art Kane for Esquire.

Jean Arp has retrospective at MOMA.

Curation LIst

I'll be using this space to make some curatorial lists.

First, photos without their emulsion.

Richard Galpin



Curtis Mann
Who showed at Howard Yezerski in March. I think this was a successful show. I fully enjoyed it.

Chicago

I got a crush on Chitown right now. (other than their b-ball team... damn game 7)





Olafur Eliasson is up at the MCA.

AIC has a show of Multiples and Works on Paper that haven't been seen in a while. And is about to have a Cy Twombly show of recent work.

Jen Thomas is at Vespine

Ann Nathan has up Ben Duke and Christopher Klein (painters? recommended by me? Every now and then a brush can be used to make art...)

Post-season, hell yeah.

If I may.

The 6th game for Boston will not be easy, but experience will win over rookies. I hate this series no matter how exciting it has been. And yes, Rondo deserved a F1 for that hit. But let's move on kids. Lot's more basketball to play.

Birdman is the opposite of Mikki "6 fouls" Moore. We chose wrong.

And speaking of Denver, you may ask WTF? 58 point difference? What happened! Well, N.O. happened. They are porous in defense for sure. A mediocre bunch (minus their one great player). Let's be honest, both squads are long term mid-grade NBA players. But I'd take Denver's mix of speed and flexiblity on the court. They may be my second favorite squad in the league right now, and the clear leader for the western conf.

I don't fear either 76'ers or Orlando. It should be a Clevland/Boston conference finals. But the internet is full of pigheaded information and slander, so that's why they play the games.

Gotta go print and miss the game. Effin work...

Modernism

Much like it's hard to see how Modernism was influenced by Poussin.


I think we find it very hard to hear the revolutionary modernism in Debussy today.


It does not mean that it is not there, but it is hard for us to locate the influence sometimes. We skip the influences to the actualities.

NBA

Why people think there is a conspiracy:

Detroit v. Cleveland, Game 2, April 21, 2009.
_______________________________
Clevland Free throws: 32-43
L. James Free throws: 13-17
Detroit Free throws: 13-16

One mans ceiling is another mans floor.

I just got a flac encoded version of the Paul's Boutique remaster. I'd like to say that I'm "real" enough to be immune to the cheesy pseudo-pop that is this disc, but I'm not. My relisten to the remaster has made me reconsider re: how hip hop should consider itself. Beyond being a dictionary of samples. Beyond being something I've been exposed to for two decades and I have a pavlovian response to. This album has a specific place in the history of hip hop and that moment exposes many of the traps that hip hop has found itself in since hip hop was born of funk and disco in the mid 70's.

This was an era where no one had to defend their own version of what was "real." Absent are the nausiating mentions of brand names and the knee jerk obverse from the 90's. No need to choose sides on the dialectic of "jiggy" or "independent as fuck." There was no reason to mention national politics. The country was doing alright and our current president was a lowly Harvard law-student. There was no populist outrage to channel. A certain member of the band hadn't even started caring about Tibet yet. The much hyped east/west myths hadn't started yet either.

Paul's Boutique comes from a group of NY dudes who didn't care that they shouldn't be hip hop in Cali working with the guys who did Tone Lōc and Young Mc's albums. They had no support from their label, managers, former producer, or anyone. They were frat rapers to everyone else. They were either at a low point or free to rewrite history. They made an album that includes what they thought word play should be at the time. They had an incredible group of instrumentals from the Dust Brothers. They grabbed the attention of every beat maker on the planet and the lyrics were good enough to still sound pretty fresh today.

For too long we who enjoy hip hop have worried about the borders of our music. Like sheep dogs we worry about the edges: who produced the album, who paid for it, who did they sample, are they from a certain town, will they tour with other bands from their label, etc? And more insidious questions. Why aren't they doing something that I find to be "real". Either saying more or less of something than they did or did not say. You have to either be more or less street, more or less intelligent, or some thing else like that. Company Flow has too many lyrics and their beats are too slow. They are too backpacker. Wu-Tang is too street or not street enough depending on who is judging. Real hip hop is X and you are not that.

Hip hop will do fine with out you worrying about it. To use a metaphor, instead of viewing hip hop artists as a species that need herding, it should be considered an environment for different species to grow up in. Each of hip hop's subspecies are an autochthonous species of hip hop's healthy, vibrant landscape. If someone was worried that Q-Tip is too soft, Lif is too political, Aesop is too art school, Jazzy Jay is a sell out, Gangstarr is too commercial, Hawt ### FM is too violent, too misogynist, too urban, or whatever, too bad! If hip hop is an art form, rather than a derivative sub-section of pop than it has to be diverse. To be a healthy environment there has to be a balance of competing forces.

Throughout the history of Fine Art, an art form that has one style is doomed to failure. It is only those that can adapt to the environment of art that survive. Artists change style, media, etc as they see fit to make new work. If every new art student entering the art market made the same work there would be something wrong and no one would want to see the work at all. Art is an environment which allows for diverse forms to exist in it. That's one reason why trying to find a singular definition for Fine Art has always failed. It isn't a thing, its a method-thought process-idea-environment-modality-etc.

Paul's Boutique is enjoyable. Unlike Lif's new album I Heard it Today, which to me is unpleasant to say the least. I've been a fan since he was a nobody, but I can't imagine getting excited by that album. Does that mean that Lif should reconsider his career? No. It just means that I'm not interested in faux-political populist ramblings. I am living through this complicated economic environment just like everyone else is by doing what I can do. It just makes bad art to me. To quote (of all people) Ben Affleck on Rachel Maddow's show:

I think it can be really tricky because I think you have to think of it as a storyteller first. Because, I think when it becomes didactic, you know, it is off-putting. And I think you have to tell a good story. I think at the root of good stories is humanity. And if you‘re telling stories that have a kind of humanity in it, I think, those naturally play - I think - play to the values inherent to liberal democracy, which value people - which empathizes with the struggles of people who work for a living and cares about the value of human life.

And you know, to me, that kind of dovetails with the kind of values I care about. I think when you start banging on it too hard and, you know, you want to re-make the jungle, it feels a little bit like - it can feel a little strident.

I think doing documentaries, for example, is sort of a better way to get at that. Michael Moore, obviously, has been very effective at doing that. There are a lot of different ways to, you know, kind of use artistic expression to effect social change.

I do think that‘s an appropriate way to do it as an artist. And I think it‘s a way that we can kind of fit in. I‘ve tried to do that making documentaries and making movies but only in ways where I think it can be effective.

If you'd like to buy a retrospective, press 1

I have nothing positive* to say about the Supply and Demand show at the ICA. The "catalog" is produced and published by the artist. The first thing you read on the wall is SF's words about how all this design work for his clothing brand is a phenomenology experiment. I think every wall text is from the "catalog." It reminds me of a certain show that the MFA put up...

It's not the most egregious exhibit being sold as a retrospective that is up right now though. Dude was 29 when this show was put together. Consider that for a minute.

Whereas Stevovich deserves a retrospective. His style or materials have not changed in significant ways over time, but his career has gone on long enough that some hardworking curator could go through his 38+ year career and find some themes and influences to write about and supplement with other artists' works. And his numerous collectors would appreciate his work getting some shine and would be happy to donate.


*Why am I bringing it up again? I went over to see the Eileen Quinlan and Acting Out show tonight. Both are as nice as I hoped they would be. But I had to walk through Supply and Demand again and it made me feel dirty. ick. I'll write more tomorrow.

To my 1 reader

I just started cataloging a private print collection that shall remain annon. Let's say it is big a big enough collection that I am considering which frame builder will get my monies later this year for my cyclocross ride. I will be back to reviewing work and writing a bit as soon as I get it rolling.

For now, go to the BP Biennial at the 808, Peter's show, and prepare for The Miracle 5's show at 242 (RSVP people!). The PEM has some contemporary Chinese art up through May. Thursday, March 19th, the ICA's Jen Mergel and Eileen Quinlan will discuss some interesting photos and on April 2 the lovely miss Mergel will discuss videos. And if you are going to the SGC conference in Chicago or are lucky enough to live in the windy city I will have two works being shown and am looking for drinking buddies like usual! As SGC is a drinking not a print conference...


And last, but most cryptically, congrats to B.S. on his new job in finance at a local Art Organization- even though it has not been announced.

Feb Gallery Round up

450 Harrison- The home of Boston's obvious galleries.

• OHT- Some kind of indistinguishable painting. Someday painters will become as jaded as I am about talking about loaded brushes and the tension of surfaces.
• Soprafina- Effectively Mixit studios show. I got no love for these works. The lone exception is Heddi Siebel's print "...nowhere on earth was there just such a situation..." which is a well conceived monoprint fantasy of an archipelago's map with some ocean going vessels and the moon. Which held my attention and kept me viewing it for a few minutes so I could enjoy the various relationships presented in the assorted images.
  
• Steven Zevitas- Julie Miller continues her OCD love fest for small circles in various colors. Someone at this gallery loves fields of small objects. Jacob El Hanani, Astrid Bowlby, and Miller all work in a similar style. Not that it is a bad thing, but it is sometimes remarkable to see the similarities in shows at a single gallery.
  
• Kingston- Sophia Ainslie- I've not liked other works by this artist, but I was blown away by the casual and open ended work in this show. Instead of getting bogged down in a single theme- plastic detergent bottles- these drawings are automatic and reveal as much about the landscape as any of her other installations, if not more. They are more like a Sarah Sze sculpture or a Lebbeus Woods conceptual architectural plan than the artist's own recent work. She also has a prodigious output in this show. It seems like she could do this all day.
• Diamond- closed when I was there. But I love the type of realism that they purvey.
• Sampson- Sculptures from Kenji Fujita. I'm never sure what to say about the sculptures that Sampson puts up. These and Taylor Davis's work both annoy me for their lovely complexities. They remind me of what Roger Scruton said about Heidegger "Being and Time is formidably difficult- unless it is utter nonsense" I think many viewers have a difficulty deciding if these sculptures are art-as-what-you-can-get-away-with or if Fujita truly believes that these works are a kind of fractured fairy tale or based on Wallace Stevens' poems. I fall on the side of believing in the artist, and was amused by the home-store materials and shoddy craftsmanship. I love the floor standing "Air Plant #1" which could be exhibited with Nathalie Miebach's work and each would enhance the other's meaning.
  
• Walker Contemporary- Ryan McLennan who hails from Richmond and VCU. Man I can't put words to these works on paper. Animals, subliminal bears made out of leaves, the white background. These works are the most interesting thing at 450 Harrison right now. You owe it to yourself to go see these in person. McLennan has kept an active gallery schedule in Richmond, LA, and other spots over the last few years. I think his work is very personal for him and is both highly cerebral and seductive visually for the viewer. I'm sure that there are some who will decry the illustrative quality to his work, but for those people, I have nothing but sympathy and the suggestion to look at the relationships portrayed in his work. For those who will disparage the meanings and relationships between the animals as PC lefty blah blah, what do you want? Greenbergian object art?
  
• Kayafas- Aaron Siskind shows some more photogravures and Beth Kantrowitz curates a show called "add and subtract" and Bruce Cratsley puts up some work. Too many works, too little conections to me. A gallery can have too much space.
  
• Carroll and Sons- Up front is Wendy Richmond. She had a few of the black and white intaglio prints shown a few years ago here and they return with some new video works to accompany them. The videos change my understanding of the intaglio versions. The videos create a sense of missing out and there is a hard time believing that they are not staged. But they aren't. This is the reflection of NY and its lack of stillness. Anywhere you are a person seems unaware that you are capturing them for a gallery show. The intaglio versions seem to be composed, and I intend both meanings- the are both polite and shaped by the artist. They seem static and poetic- time is slower and each subject is standing for themselves in their own space. Whereas the video works seem like desperate dances, motion for the sake of motion, and the subject is just another person who the artists doesn't care about or recognize as a person. In fact, that is the crux to me. It seems that the artist just looks for oblivious people to prove that people are oblivious in NY. No moments are more important than any other. They whoosh by and are replaced by another moment that you can't seem to stop from whooshing by again. No one connects. There is no composition or composing yourself for the spiral of people in the video portion. It seemed very NY and very cynical compared to the intaglio versions.
  

Retrospective?

I think that one of the more apt reviews of Shep. Fairey's work is by n+1. I think if individual people want to like his posters/t-shirts/ephemera good for them. Art is something that people don't agree on. You can like it, I don't have to. But when the ICA decided to mount a "20 year retrospective" of his work, they should expect someone to raise the criticism that this artist is not even 40 yet. How could everything he's ever done since he was 18 be considered worthy of the intellectual weight of the ICA? Did making a sticker and selling a lot of t-shirts earn him a place in their schedule with Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor and Tara Donovan?

Compared to the Street Level show from a few months back, his work has not evolved into mature work as Mark Bradford, William Cordova, and Robin Rhode's work has. They call this a retrospective, a selection of work that looks back and looks again at an artist's work. But the ICA did not take this opportunity to place his work into a historical construct. There can't be a discusion of growth, as he is utilizing the same tired steal other people's work and wheatpaste in public method his whole career. There is nothing at all looking back about this exhibition. To discuss his shortcomings and his pitfalls. His influences. To understand his place in the lineage of artists. None of this is done by the ICA. Instead they mounted a fluffy piece of propoganda for an artist who already has a large ego.

One would expect at least a mention of the ever present question of his sources and what his work's real political value is. Instead the ICA didn't question anything other than by mentioning that his work sometimes could be read as mass-market and that he is daring and provocative as he flouts a Marxian high/low Art/art reading. Who cares? Where is the intellectual curiosity about him? Just like the numerous blogs that parrot his self-assertion as a Phenomenologist the ICA didn't question his version of his work or his self.

Phenomenology?

As Mr. Frank S. Fairey is the talk of the town, I'm going to explore his work and statements from a few different lenses. First up his manifesto:

The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. Heidegger describes Phenomenology as "the process of letting things manifest themselves." Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.

Kind of. Even a mass market source like Wikipedia doesn't think that Phenomenology is able to be distilled down to a single thing. First let's use the modifier that identifies Heidegger's version of Phenomenology and let's call it Existential Phenomenology. Now, if memory serves me right, Heidegger's impetus to write Being and Time was a reaction to psychologism and Kant's epistemological refinement of metaphysical inquiry. Through the writings of his teacher Husserel, Gadamer, and others who were exploring the realms of fact and knowledge Heidegger was well versed in how we understand, ontologically speaking, our selves and who we are. Heidegger decided to add to this knowledge by exploring the vocabulary used by philosophers to explain being. Something he thought that was overlooked since the Greek philosophizers were discussing things.

So, a guy whose major work gives Ph.D students headaches over the complexity of his writing and his thoughts, who discusses the complexities of the independent subject and sensory apprehension, who was arguing against empiricism and positivist science as philosophy, who asked how we know we exist in an ontological sense-- his major contribution to philosophy was that we should look at stickers in public, that we don't understand where they come from or what they mean, if they mean anything at all or are just quasi-advertisements or actual advertisements for something, and we should be able to disagree if we want to? That Heidegger wanted people to put up random acts of confusion for people in public to make them question things?

And since when did Hediegger not want to discuss things via abstract observations? I'm pretty sure he wanted to discuss abstract things like existence, knowledge, thought, connection, history, aesthetics, culture, expression and other things that were profoundly observable through his Existential Phenomenology, which is, rest assured, an abstraction utilizing observations. But I'm sure that Mr. Fariey is well versed in the Hermeneutic of Facticity and Aristotle's use of phronesis, the differences between ready-at-hand and present-at-hand (which would radically alter his sticker "experiment") and Hediegger's use of alethia in aesthetic criticism. The one about disclosure and the history of world vs. the history of earth? That olde chestnut.

Plastic Little

Maybe it's all the coffee and marshmallows I've been eating, but, I like

One more Rose

This is the best yet description of the things the Board of Overseers at Brandeis did not think about. I'm sure the Related Use Rule of the 2006 Pension Protection Act did not come into their Overseeing.

Mulatu Astatke and Heliocentrics?

Digging suggestions

I love 1970, 1972, and 1974. Why?

1970-

• Hubert Laws- Afro Classic
• Grant Green- Alive
• Curtis Mayfield- Curtis
• Maceo and All the King's Men- Doing Their Own Thing
• Donald Byrd- Electric Byrd
• Quincy Jones- Gula Matari
• King Hebert- King Hebert and the Knights with Jack Harden
• Miles Davis- Live Evil
• Mandrill- Mandrill
• Airto Moreira- Natural Feelings
• Dizzy Gillespie- The Real Thing
• Freddie Hubbard- Red Clay
• Freddie Hubbard- Straight Life
• Galt MacDermot- Two Gentlemen of Verona
• Brothers Unlimited- Who's for the Young?

1972-

• Black Heat- Black Heat
• Esther Phillips- Alone Again Naturally
• Eumir Deodato- Prelude
• Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s- Food for Thought
• Freddie Hubbard- Sky Dive
• Funk Inc. Chicken Lickin'
• The Jimmy Castor Band- It's Just Begun
  
• The Jimmy Castor Band- Phase Two
• Jimmy Smith- Root Down
• The Lafayette Afro Rock Band- Malik
• Les McCann- Layers
• Mandrill- Mandrill Is
• Osibisa- Heads
• The Politicians- Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic
• Randy Weston- Blue Moses

1974

• Airto Moreira- Virgin Land
• Bill Withers- +'Justments
• Eddie Russ- Fresh Out
• Grover Washington- Mister Magic
• Herbie Hancock- Dedication
• Herbie Hancock- Thrust
• Idris Muhammad- Power of Soul
• Joe Farrell- Upon this Rock
• O'Donel Levy- Dawn of a New Day

And that's the obvious stuff that I feel like mentioning. Pete Moore, Tom Scott, The Three Degrees, The Whatnauts, Lou Donaldson, The Meters, Manu Dibango? How could you not love those years?

A Rose by any other name...

First, let's get a group of links out of the way, so you can read some of the details for yourselves.

1. Time- This made time. That's good.
   
2. The Daily Beast- The beginning of the money trail starts to leak
   
3. MAN interview- He has also released a PDF statement calling for blood and excusing any staff that want to leave.
   
4. CAA- Favorite academic quote yet:
   

   The teaching of art and art history in higher education is untenable without the direct study of physical works of art, and it appears the Brandeis Board of Trustees has disregarded the kind of scholarship and creativity that have been the hallmark of CAA members for nearly one hundred years.

5. Conde Nast Portfolio A and B- Surprised by the fact that they care, but not surprised by the desire to deregulate of the markets vis-a-vis the rose should be able to sell anything they want.
   
6. Innermost parts- A synopsis on what went down when the students got to talk to Pres. Reinharz
7. The Hoot-Talk about anything you'd like but the Rose, which is what everyone wants to talk about...
   
8. Tom Lentz of Harvard talks- And I for one would love to see Harvard, MFA, ICA, or whoever will step up with the funds talk to Brandeis prior to open market sale. If the Rose is going to close, then at least find homes for these works in public collections.
   

As far as I can tell, this whole idea is in order to circumvent MA state law for non-profit entities regarding gains vs. initial capital of the Endowment fund- long story short, if they sell the works for more than one dollar, they get instant gains on the books, and can spend money again. Their laudable emergency fund is going to run out this year as they cannot touch the endowment's initial capital

About the Rose

So, the Board of Overseers at Brandeis have deemed in their infinite wisdom that the Rose art museum is expendable. That, to paraphrase Laurie Fendrich, art is a commodity after all.

Beyond the obvious stuff, the closing a museum is bad, the lengthy lawsuits are on the way, and the Brandeis is going to have a massive loss of status in the arts community, there are quite a few moving parts to watch.

It seems that the Board of Overseers didn't consider discussing this with the Board of the Rose, important past donors, or almost anyone- save the state AG, who is involved because of their non-profit status. The woman whose name is on the walls takes this as a massive affront to her and her husband who expanded the building to exhibit the collection she loves.

The current director of the museum, Michael Rush must be in a swirl right now. There are indications that the review by a certain auction house he had conducted after he was hired may be the cause of the myopic $Dollar$Signs$ that are blinding the Board. As it is slowly coming out that this is a top down problem, I doubt people will hold this against him. In spring of '07 (PDF) the Brandeis Magazine they send to alumni had an article that went in to great depth about the numerous changes Rush was hoping to engender at the museum. All positive. Nothing like what is happening.

Now, to use a metaphor, I've never seen a University have a bank scare before, but do you think that some students might transfer out of an institution that has to sell the art on the walls to survive? I do.

And what does this do for the school's future? Would you donate art to Brandeis? I sure wouldn't without some serious legalese connected to the donation. So there is almost no chance of ever having a museum at the University again. This may also dissuade people considering other financial gifts.

And last, how bad has Brandeis been hit? Will Yehuda Reinharz leave anything uncut? Is Brandeis the first school to go to a meta-major system with a summer semester? Either way good luck Brandeis. You're going to need it.

Abstract Innovations

Q-Tip seems like he is in every music blog right now. The Renaissance has quickly taken on "classic" status. I like it, so don't expect me to hate on it here. But I just listened to Abstract Innovations, and it's also pretty good. If I have all my information right, it is a mix tape put together by Dub MD and came out a minute ago. So I get caught sleeping again.

You'll find that the tape sounds kinda like a certain recent release from Q-Tip. Three of the songs get worked on here and developed after this mixtape into The Renaissance versions that were released late last year. But wait, not only are there pre-production versions of songs you already know, there are also some sweet tracks on here that you probably haven't heard. Poetry with Erykah Badu for example or I Got Rhythm Ft Royce The 5' 9 & Lena Horne. Go find it.

In fact, let me introduce you to Capt. Crawl. He's your new best friend. Remember MP3's suck and if you can go buy the vinyl you'll be happier and the artist you like will be able to buy dinner tonight. So listen to the free download and then go support the artists.[/soapbox]

Hello World

The Rose is closing down. The annual at the DeCordova is going Biannual. Bill Arning is leaving for TX. John Updike dies. Bottom feeder mass market galleries are even closing. The LEF is not going to give money to artists anymore. The ICA just gave an award to an employee of a major gallery- whose owner happens to be on the ICA's board- and had the least interesting work in the competition. The art world is in transition locally.

Scotch whisky is looking like a good idea right about now. But seriously, there seems to be a need for some serious soul searching in the Boston Art scene. BRS and Greg Cook are talking about it. The more I learn about other cities, I find that Boston has per-capita the worst art scene around. I don't blame the substantial presence of NY in our backyard for the lack of exhibition space here. Contributing causes could be the price of real estate and the number of schools in the area. Or, it could be some melange of issues that will never be overcome.

I, and others need to be very exact when speaking about this issue. We could start by taking stock in what we have. We have numerous commercial galleries in Boston. They are diverse no matter how much people complain about them. No one should confuse the Nielsen, GASP, Sampson, and Diamond-Newman galleries.

One could complain about large local institute/museums- Phillips Andover, The Davis, DeCordova, The Rose, or the ICA for examples but in reality we have quite a few great local groups that put on pretty good shows. The most obvious one, the MFA has lots of great unnoticed shows, and if bringing in boring blockbusters to advertise on the sides of buses for tourists is how they pay their bills, so be it. And we haven't even talked about Harvard, BC, BU, SMFA, Tufts, Simmons, MIT, etc which at any given time one will have a knock you out show that will not be seen elsewhere.

Now we get to the other spaces. Non-commercial, institute, musuem or educational spaces. Other. The great missing link in Boston in my opinion. Boston proper is enclosed by spaces like Essex, the Danforth, or the South Shore. All three have a balance of classes, exhibitions, and bill paying worries. All three would love to see a proposal for exhibition. All three would love if you took or taught a class. And all three are often wrongly overlooked as they don't have a singular driving force that is obvious from the outside.

We lost artSpace@16 last summer. And that left a hole in Boston's fabric. We have the Berwick, and I for one believe we need more non-profit oranizations like the Berwick. Totally divorced from relying on classes for their money. Founded by someone or a group who means well with a singular focus. There are micro-locations in town with the Distillery or FPAC that have local members to serve, but always take proposals. Are there other places? Does the BCA counts as other and how does it take proposals? I'm running out of "other" here. And that I think is the problem. If you are not a prof/student or a member of a commercial gallery the next best thing is for you to start your own space?

If there is a lack of space, and this is something that people truly care about, than our goal should be to find each other and make something happen. Similar to Pure from 2006. To use an example from history, we are in the same place that Bambaataa was before he created the Zulu Nation. No one really cares about what artists are doing in Boston, so let's make it happen on our own. Let's put our time to good use and work together. I'll let you know when I have a good idea. For now, just taking stock is a good start.