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Real macabre art. I’m so happy.

Monday, June 7th, 2010

This past weekend I went to the Museum of Art and Design (or MAD), the new-ish museum in Columbus Circle. They have an exhibition right now called Dead or Alive, inspired by the cabinet of curiosity. The cabinet of curiosity is where the rich well-traveled, well-educated man in the 1700s and 1800s would put all of the natural items he had collected in distant lands (taxidermied beasties, shells, pinned bugs, coral, pressed plants, etc.). Here’s a picture of one to give you an idea.

Using the concept of the cabinet of curiosity, MAD created an exhibition of, well, dead things. It was very difficult not to think of this movie quote over and over again. (quote is at 1:25)

Being the somewhat gloomy goth-like creature that I am (you can review my Ossuary of Sedlec entry if there’s any doubt in your mind) I loved this exhibition. Actually, what’s even dorkier is that I have been following a few of the artists for years, and could make comments like, “Oh, she’s working with bone now! That’s a different medium for her, compared to the metalsmithing work she did in 2007.” I’m just going to cover a few of my favorite artists there. There was Jennifer Trask, the artist I was geeking out about above. I first saw her work at SOFA in 2007 or 2008. She did these amazing necklaces made with a beautiful marriage of the rare and the mundane. For example, snake skin that had been shed. Gold. Bone black. Raw diamonds. Silver. Butterfly wings. Charcoal. Leaves. Beetles. Here’s a picture of one of those necklaces.

Jennifer then went through a period where she made amazing pins. Here’s one of my favorites, using semi-precious stones, gold and some small animal’s vertibrae.

At the exhibition, Jennifer had a big wall piece, which I’m not used to seeing from her. It was great, though. She had a frame, and coming out of the frame were all these flowers, but all the flowers were made from bones. There were antlers too. I prefer her jewelry, but I like that she’s trying new stuff.

The other artist I was psyched to see was Alastair Mackie. He works a lot with owl pellets and the contents therein. In college, I wanted one of his mouse skull orbs so badly.

I was hoping to see a mouse skull orb in person at this exhibition but alas, it was not meant to be. Alastair had a piece where there was a loom, and next to it was a pile of mouse bones. Owl pellets, for people who don’t know, are the regurgitated inedible remains of their food. The owl can’t digest fur and bones, so his body makes a little packet out of it and he barfs it up. The loom had fabric woven on it with the fur of the mice, and the mouse bones were what was left of those pellets.

What delighted me more about this exhibition, more than the plethora of dead things, was the complete anal retentiveness of many of the artists. Sometimes I feel like I’m too nitpicky, but these artists made me feel right at home. “If it’s not tiny and perfect and complicated, don’t bother,” seems to be their motto. I was with my people, and it felt so good. Let me give you some examples. There was Fabian Pena, who makes collages of skulls and hearts and hands with tiny pieces of cockroach wings.

Or Tim Hawkinson, who made the pointy thing out of pieces of interlocking eggshell. He made a tiny bird skeleton out of fingernail clippings.

My personal favorite was the piece by Lonneke Gordijn, with the LED lights that had dandelion seeds painstakingly attached to each bulb to mimic a dandelion poof. These people are crazy, I tell ya. Crazy AWESOME.

There was also Kate MccGuire, who makes swirling writhing shapes with pigeon feathers.

But the big surprise winner for me was Jennifer Angus, who prints her own wallpaper and then makes installations in rooms where she covers the rooms in patterns of pinned dried bugs.

The best part of her installation was there was a dollhouse in the middle, and bugs were propped up on their hind legs pottering around the house, doing roofwork and fixing the porch and whatnot. I couldn’t find a picture of it, but I found a similar one to give you an idea.

The exhibition is on until October 24th, so if you get a chance, make an effort to see this. The permanent collection is pretty terrif too, and the store is stellar. All-around good stuff.

http://madmuseum.org/

Addendum: I totally forgot the light fixture made from silkworm cocoons, or the giant hairnet filled with milkweed seeds. Did I mention this exhibition is fantastical? Because it is.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Nature, New York, Random Art Bloggery, Stuff | 1 Comment »

Peter Gabriel and other stuff.

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

1. I saw this great shirt covered with long rectangular sequins in a swirly pattern. And in order to keep them from getting hooked on things and ripping off, there’s a extremely fine mesh or tulle sewn on top. I likes it. I likes it a lot.

2. Some mornings I come out of my apartment building and Lawrence the cat is there. I love Lawrence. His owner takes him outside on a leash and and lets him sniff around, eat the grass, barf the grass, whatever he wants. And every morning that I see him is a good day. I pet Lawrence, he ignores me, and I go on my merry way.

3. I walk past a Sephora on my way to work most days, and they are selling some kind of makeup airbrush. Unfortunately, this picture makes it look like they’re selling the face-stretching thing from the movie Brazil.

4. Last night I saw Peter Gabriel in concert. And when I say, “in concert”, I mean it. He had a sixty-piece orchestra behind him. I didn’t especially want to go, but Cricket insisted that I have a life for once, so I went. And I totally didn’t regret it. Well, except for the guy sitting on my left. He looked exactly like The Dude from The Big Lebowski, and as soon as he sat down, a down comforter of pot funk encircled my head and muffled my breathing. It was so pungent, and it reeked of herbs and skunks, or maybe burning tires. It must have been phenomenal weed, because The Dude was clearly having a different experience from most everyone else around him. He was doing a great deal of closed-eyed appreciation, with accompanying hand gestures, like he was conducting. It was hard not to giggle at his earnestness. Anyway, Gabriel is promoting his new album, an album of covers called “Scratch My Back”. He did a bunch of the covers for the first half (which was great). He also performed a song that I knew from somewhere and poked me right in the heart and made me tear up, called “The Book of Love”. The first thing I did when I got to work today was try to figure out where I knew the song from, and it’s from the series finale of Scrubs. I loved Scrubs, so when I watched the finale, I cried like a kid whose large and impressive baseball card collection just fell in a creek. It’s a touching song. See for yourself. Then he took a break and Lou Reed came out and played “Solisbury Hill”, and ruined it. It was loud, and in the key of grungy, and tempo wasn’t his primary focus, and Lou kinda just hollered the song (“Boomboomboom!”). At one point, Cricket turned to me and said, “This is terrible, right? It’s not just me, right?” But then Peter came back out and played his hits, and that was killer. He did “Digging In the Dirt” and “Red Rain” and “Solisbury Hill” (CORRECTLY) and “Don’t Give Up”, all of this with this orchestra playing (so, so good) and then the orchestra started up on something that sounded familiar and then Gabriel walked up to the microphone and sang “Love…” and I flipped out. It was super-great. I cannot wait for the DVD of this tour to come out so I can have this version. So, even though I didn’t get home until 12:37 a.m. and had to go to work the next day, it was still worth it. Just a closing note:

Dear Other People In The Audience,
Peter Gabriel has a set list. He’s not gonna go all rogue with a 60-piece orchestra behind him and play whatever you scream out. So please stop shrieking “BIKO!!” between songs, it’s annoying. Thank you.

Posted in Activitays, Advertising, Apartment, Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, New York, Stuff | 2 Comments »

Random things you ought to know.

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

1. I did not know this about myself, but I learned today from Cute Overload that I like banana slugs.

I think that the name should be changed to “American Cheese Slug”.

Thank you, photographer J-Fish.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/j-fish/

2. I saw The Princess and The Frog the other night (it was meh) but I noticed that I look exactly like the large friendly alligator named Louis who only wants to play trumpet in a band. I took a screengrab so you could appreciate the similarity. I mean, look at Louis’ facial expression. I make that face all the time.

I would prefer to look exactly like a fancy-pants lady movie star, but it is what it is.

3. Charts! First, a chart about Pixar characters.

And then an angry chart about how stupid charts are.

4. I originally thought this was the greatest Rube Goldberg thing of all time – the Honda cog commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo

And then I saw the OKGO video. Super rad, dudes. Super rad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Posted in Advertising, Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Charts, Music Videos, Stuff, Teh Intarwebz | 1 Comment »

Happy happy spring spring!

Monday, April 12th, 2010

While living in New York can be awful, weather-wise, the benefit of that is that when the weather is beautiful, you really appreciate it. Can’t imagine it’s the same for people who live in the Caribbean. Now spring has sprung in Manhattan, and the park right in front of my job is full of flowers. I tell you, it makes everything better.

It also means that the Macy’s Flower Show was this past week. Since is it:
– across the street, and
– free,
I couldn’t not go. Here’s my blog entry from two years ago on it. And, as usual, it was visually stunning. The theme this year was oldie-tymie hot-air balloons.

The gardens were lovely. As usual, my favorite was the bromeliad and orchid garden.

And the entrance area’s ceiling was covered with paper butterflies.

The best part: a cage with three neat colored finches in one of the aisles.

The sad moment for me was when I realized that all the little placards were written in Papyrus font. (Sad face emoticon here.) However, I did have a “tee hee” graphic designer moment.

See? The plant is called Papyrus, and it’s in the Papyrus font! Ha ha ha! Graphic designer humor! Never gets old.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Nature, New York, Stuff | 2 Comments »

Budapest and Prague – Part 1.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

I went to Budapest for three days and Prague for six days, and it was the one of the best vacations ever. I’m going to cover a great deal of what I saw there, and I want to warn you ahead of time, it’s going to be very architecture-heavy, so if you’re not a huge architecture fan, perhaps this would be an excellent week to go do something else, you know, take care of some last minute taxes, or refinish your boat, something like that. With that said, on with the recap!

Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, that are separated by the Danube River. It is a very photogenic city and wasn’t really messed up by copious amounts of crappity Communist apartment complexes and the like. Here’s a nice shot from the top of a hill. See that building on the left? We’re going to get more into detail of that one later.

This is a picture from a similar spot. What’s cool about this shot is that in the foreground, you can see the unique ceramic tile roofs one finds in Budapest. In the background you can see the Parliament building, which was built in the high-gothic style exactly like the Parliament building in London. Although Gothic was from the 12th century to the 16th century, both Parliaments were built in the 1800s. The way you can tell the difference is London has Big Ben, and the Budapest Parliament has a large central dome. You can see a bit of it there.

I loved the look of Budapest. There were a lot of Baroque* houses that were slightly worse-for-wear, it made it look like a fairy book to me, or maybe something out of Harry Potter.

Here’s a combination of baroque and tile roof. The thing in the foreground is a pillar in the center of a small square done in classic baroque style. I can always tell baroque because there’s a whole lotta clouds and cherubs and more clouds and then some gold and silver if possible and maybe an church organ stuffed in there. “Restraint” is not really a baroque thing. Also, you can clearly see the neato tile roof on the church in the background.

After WWII, Budapest went into a flurry of repairs to get the buildings back into some kind of shape. They did leave one building in terrible condition as a reminder of the way the city looked after being bombed and shot at. You can really appreciate how mangled it looks. Also take into consideration there was another floor above the ones you see that was completely demolished in an air attack.

One of the things I love about Europe is that it’s like perpetual RenFaire there, all the time. It was more obvious in Prague, but Budapest had it going on as well. One of my favorite moments of the trip was seeing:
– a man with male patterned baldness and dreadlocks simultaneously
– in medieval garb
– reading the paper
– with a hawk and an eagle sitting next to him.
It was such a weird grouping of things, I had to take a picture. One cannot make these things up.

So, the building I mentioned earlier. My favorite period of design has to be Art Nouveau (also known as Jugendstil, Secession or Liberty), which was a very short international style from 1890 to 1905. The reason I like it so much is because it incorporated a great deal of the patterns and formations one finds in nature and, if done well, has a tension to it like a rubber band or a whip. It is often done in a way I am not terribly fond of, with lots of morose-looking women in togas draped over things like ragdoll cats. But when it’s done in a simple, clean non-excessive manner, it can’t be beat. And the exterior of this building in Budapest, the Four Seasons hotel, is one of the finest examples of this I’ve ever seen. The combination of the matte stone and the occasional touches of gold is perfect.

One of the nice things that Budapest is doing to make themselves more cosmopolitan is to light up their city á la Paris from dusk until midnight. I took this picture right next to a large monument called Liberty.

This is the Liberty monument. I can’t tell you much about it because the entire time the guide was talking, I was freaking out with delight because BATS! There were bats all around! Eating moths! Wheee! So I’m sure this is a very important site with a great deal of significance, but I can’t tell you anything about it. Bats!

I took a night boat ride down the Danube and saw some lovely lit-up sites. I took a sweet picture of the famous Chain Bridge from the shore – look at the cute couple on the park bench.

There’s my Four Seasons hotel at night. Sigh.

And here’s the Parliament. You can truly appreciate the dome the way it has been illuminated.

This is a Greek Orthodox church. You see how it only has one tower? The other one was destroyed by a bombing in the war. The church didn’t have money to repair it, and by the time the money had been raised, everyone was used to only having one tower. So that’s how the church remains.

This is the Freedom Bridge. It’s a nice contrast to the equally lovely Chain Bridge.

Lest you think that Budapest is only old buildings, there is quite a bit of good modern architecture. Here’s an example.

Tomorrow, more of Budapest and maybe we get started on Prague.

*”And if it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it! A ha ha, ha ha!” I quoted this, oh, about a million times on this trip.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Random Art Bloggery, Stuff, Travels - I Has Them | 2 Comments »

Westminster Dog Show 2010. Also, belated Christmas present.

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

1. Snorth and I exchanged holiday presents in February (hey, are you perfect? I think not), I gave her the “Rubenstein D’Grumples” drawing, and she surprised me with this great piece. Here’s the back story: Snorth bought a flower pot that looks like a snail. It cracked, so she was no longer able to put plants in it. Instead of weeping and rending her garments, she repurposed it. She crocheted a little dome out of eyelash yarn, which looked like a little moss cap, and then crocheted accompanying mushrooms on top of that. Snorth stuffed the snail pot and put this moss ‘n’ mushrooms on top and voila: instant terrificness.

Isn’t that charming? I don’t know where to put it in my apartment yet, but I love it and I’m going to find it a good home.

2. DOG SHOW OMG BBQ. Anyone who reads this blog knows how much I look forward to this thing every year. And this year was no disappointment. My camera decided to die last year at Westminster, so I was concerned I wouldn’t have any pictures this year with my new camera, like I was cursed. But my new camera did great and many of my pictures came out just fine. I’m going to take you through the benching area which isn’t photographed much. It’s where the dogs are groomed and where they wait before being judged.

There are these little patches of wood shavings throughout the room, and that’s where the dogs relieve themselves before heading out into the ring. Here are two papillons (French for “butterfly”, so called because of the giant, wing-like ears) contemplating takin’ a tinkle.

In order to keep your beast looking their best, you have to use a myriad of styling tools on them. The groomers use all the ones you see at the salons: hairdryers, hairspray, brushes, combs, fancy foot baths, even eye shadow. And oh so many hair clips and hair ties. Here you see a fine fellah rockin’ some sweet blue ones.

Here’s an afgan wearing a snood. The afgan’s ears are long and covered with hair, and you don’t want that dragging on the ground and in their food bowl, do you? No, you don’t. So many dogs with ears like that are seen wearing what appears to be festively-colored granny-panties on their head.

This one is blurry, but I couldn’t not include it. This dog has his ears wrapped, I don’t know why. I’m sure they have a good reason. It does make the dog look really silly, like a highly displeased Pippy Longstocking. I giggled when I saw him.

This dog is getting a foot bath. I guess his feet were shmutzy. I just loved how he looked like he had been on a coffee and cigarettes bender for a week.

This is a sheepdog wearing socks. Please note how fluffy the dog is, and then look at the socks and realize how skinny he actually is under all that fluffitude. The handler was helpful in telling me that this was the back end of the dog (sometimes it is hard to tell).

And this is the front.

I loved this dog solely because he reminded me of Stains.

Here is a picture of the nicest German shepherd you ever could meet. It liked to hop up on its back legs, put its front legs on its owner’s shoulders, and give her kisses all over her face. Awwwww.

These is my most favorite dog breed in the whole world, the Borzoi. Borzois are also known as Russian Wolfhounds. They have been used in art and paintings for centuries because they’re so elegant and lithe.

Here is a male and female borzoi hangin’ out, being photogenic unintentionally. Even when they’re not trying to be pretty, they are.

And here’s a female borzoi laying on the ground, having a meaningful discussion with my mother. I think I’m going to have this framed for her.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, New York, Random Art Bloggery, Stuff | 2 Comments »

Gibbon and Sedlec. Like Simon and Garfunkel, or Hall and Oates.

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Since nothing interesting is going on in my life right now except work, work and more work (with some work on the side), I figured I’d show you a video that has captured my interest right now. It’s of a baby gibbon who sounds like a cross between a songbird and R2D2. First of all, the gibbon is all kinds of creepy-looking, with extra-long fingers and spooky, wide-open eyes. And then it makes the beeping squeaking noises. I can’t get enough of this video for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_BvkVvOvEs

Also, I just booked tickets to go to Prague and Budapest at the end of March. Mainly Prague, but I’ll be hittin’ up Budapest for a couple of days, which will be a cool additional bit on my trip. I’ve wanted to go to the Sedlec Ossuary located right outside Prague for about fifteen years, and now finally I’m going to get my chance. Decorating with the local dead people, how can I not? I mean. really.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Stuff, Teh Intarwebz, Travels - I Has Them | No Comments »

Halloween. And the fishtank. Mainly the fishtank.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

It’s Halloween again, as it seems to be every year, and this year due to a truly psychotic work week (I enjoy working 36 hours in three days, no, really, I do) I did not have an opportunity to make or even care about a costume. So I did not. I did, however, get a great idea for next year’s costume (the tooth fairy, but not how you’re thinking, a more creepy-like tooth fairy). But back to the story: my friend Neenernator had her annual Halloween party a week early this year because she wasn’t going to be around this weekend, so Cricket and I went. And it was lovely. Out of the many vaguely steampunk slash gothic sluts at the party, Neenernator was by far the best one.

She actually took some time to decorate her house for Halloween, which really doesn’t take a ton of effort for her because Neenernator’s house is already pretty macabre to begin with. There’s deep maroon and mustard-colored walls, and that slate wall with the antique wood stove you see there in the picture (also the red velvet curtains, please notice those as well) and Bob the Real Human Skull sitting on the mantle keeping company with the small shark in formaldehyde, and the light that resembles an alien brain, all that stuff is permanent house fixtures all year round. So for Halloween she could pretty much hang that creepy bat thing from the chandelier and call it a day. But no, she really made it unpleasant (she had a gross fake decomposing severed head as a knife block and red Jell-o with eyeballs in the blender) and I spent a lot of time not in the kitchen with those things. Honestly, I spent very little time socializing and most of my time with the fishtank. I have an unhealthy obsession with Neenernator’s fishtank. I’ve mentioned it before. Sadly, one member of her giant blue fish couple died, so now only one is left. But she got new different fish, so I ended staring at them for three hours. I also learned an important life lesson, which is that it is incredibly difficult to take pictures of fish in a fishtank. The tank blasts the flash right back at you, and the fish are constantly moving around, and the camera doesn’t know what to focus on, it’s an opportunity rife with failure. Here are my best attempts.

First, the gigantor tank.

Shy iridescent gray fish.

Albino pleco (suckerfish).

One of them cool new fishies. It’s a golden striped iridescent something-or-other, with catfish whiskers. I heart them big time.

And here are two pictures Neenernator during the daytime that are far better. You can see the lonely blue fella. You see the vertical version? You see those diamond-shaped ones with the stripes and the little orange ones underneath them? I bought her those. I’m very attached to those ones.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Nature, Stuff | 1 Comment »

The cutest picture in the world.

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

This past weekend I went to local street fair in Pittsfield, Mass. and the raptor people who I see every year at the Blessing of the Animals at St. Francis of Assisi were there. These people (photo taken at the Blessing of the Animals):

See that big orange-eyed Eurasian Eagle Owl? My cousin took a picture with him/her. The raptor people have a thing where you get a photo taken with the rodent-killing bird of your choice, you pay $10, and you get a photo. You support them and you get a keepsake in return. Everybody wins. You know how I love the Eastern Screech Owl? This guy? (photo also taken at the Blessing of the Animals)

Well, he was in Pittsfield! His name is Solomon and he is mega-adorable. I made my father pose for a picture with him. I don’t know who’s cuter in this picture.

Look at Solomon, doing his best impression of a rotting bit of tree. And ANGRY and APPALLED rotting bit of tree. My dad said he weighed three ounces. Three ounces of KILLING MACHINE. Three ounces, for those among us who suck at visualizing amounts, is equal to a Three Musketeers bar. Think of that the next time you’re holding one in your hand. The candy bar, not an owl. Don’t hold owls.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Nature | No Comments »

I got more Africa pics!

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

First, some pictures Cricket took of some incredibly cute bebbeh vervet monkeys:

Then, so pictures sent to Cricket from the morning walk where they saw the rhino and conveniently didn’t die:

And another thing I didn’t mention is that a big thing in Africa is vibrantly printed cloth.

It is common to print political leaders on them.

I saw these fabulous cloths with Obama on them while I was in Africa. The best part of them was the artist had put a star on his lip, as if he was wearing lip gloss. So fabu. And, lest you thought I was kidding, I found a shot of it.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Nature, Travels - I Has Them | 1 Comment »

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