spring art

spring is here. a leaf is about to turn...

I have two blogs now, which is stupid. This is the studio art and random musings one. The other one is all photo based.

here's the link to the photo one... http://thegreatestescapist.tumblr.com/

it currently gets updated alot more than this one.


Second... thought i'd post some photos of some work i recently have finished... some of these will be in my thesis show this month. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it tho...

for now, heres some art

New ideas, a new mix, a day of truancy

i'm working on a new blog, or hosting site, or whatever to try and put up photos and some videos more regularly. 2009 caused a back up of photos that need to get thru the system and be shown. It isn't by any means my favorite work to date, but there are a few beautiful things i found this past year... and hopefully if i come up with a good system, i'll start putting all of this expensive machinery to use. Maybe i can actually get my photos up for sale before the end of this year... well see...

In other news, a while back a room mate and myself had a conversation about our musical up bringing of sorts, and just how we have traveled fairly different paths to bring us to the musical place we both are at now. we agreed to make each other mixes, and i decided to go back in the vault and find the music that really inspired me at the most pivitol times, and still proves to be some of my favorite records. It's a 2 disc set (43 songs) of music made specifically thru 1996 - 2003, and runs the gauntlet from folky billy bragg, to moderately embarassing pop punk, to hard core, to the beginnings of indie and when emo was still a genre.

you can download it here... http://www.sendspace.com/file/96cg86

Let me know what you think... and hopefully i'll get those photos up one day.

top of 2009

I love lists. i love music. naturally i love the annual best of lists. It's fun to expose people to some of the music that really inspired and entertained you thru out the year, and hopefully get to find out about some new stuff yourself... so here is mine, including a link to download a play list of some of my favorite tracks from the mentioned records. hopefully you dig some of this...

1. Gregory allan Isakov - The Empty Northern Hemishpere.
(there is nothing ground breaking or new in this record. infact, you might not even like it much after the first listen, but after a few plays it will sink in and hit you... this is an amazing record. It's a record that will seriously stand up for ever, cause it's not fitting a trend, it's just solid, incredible song writing)

2. Bruce Peninsula - A mountain is a mouth
(this is the single coolest record you will hear all year. Canadians making 19th century southern gospel and slave music. think Tom waits meets anathallo)

3. Owen - New Leaves
(it's owen...)

4. Mew - No More Stories...
(it's mew... and they are successfully going further in making themselves one of the most unique bands ever... if only they didn't have those 2 slow long songs in the middle of the record)

5. Animal Collective - merryweather
(if you haven't heard this record.. you probably lived under a rock for all of 2009)

6. Nurses - Apple Acres
(3 dudes, lots of basketball jerseys, a ton of keyboards, and... one weird danielson moves to portland record)

7.Fanfarlo - reservoir
(horrible band name, incredible record. arcade fire meets clap your hands say yeah... but better then both)

8. Converge - ave to fall
(i fought it for years... but i officially love this band, and this record sealed the deal. and was definitely the nail in that coffin. BRUTAL)

9. Passion Pit - Manners
(this years mgmt? but better... cause they could write an entire record that was listenable... and listen to this record we did... ALOT)

10. Avett Brothers - I and love and you
(they added more instruments, stopped writing (as many) songs about pretty girls, and made an incredible record that got you excited for whats next)

11. Mono - hymn to the immortal wind
(i don't understand why i haven't seen this on any lists. this record is amazing. the first time i listened to it, i was walking to dinner in vegas, and upon getting to my restaurant walked around the strip for another hour till the record ended, because it's that good)

12. Kyte - Science for the living
(scottish electronic rock similair to sigur ros... if they were scottish electronic)

13. Throw me the statue - Purpleface
(just an EP, but possible the best recording of the year... if it wasn't for how much the ful length let me down this would be so much higher.... purchase this EP immediately.)

14. Phoenix - Wolfgang amadeus phoenix
(this record blew my mind when it came out... then a couple weeks later it lost it's appeal... hence it being this low)

15. Pearl Jam - The fixer
(it's pearl jam... and totally kicking ass)

OTHER NOTEWORTHY RECORDS

Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
(much like phoenix, i loved this record when i first heard it... then got bored... but am back on now... it's fresh still so maybe ill change my mind again, either way.. it's good)

Coconut records - Davy
(if i went n play counts alone this would be my favorite record of the year... but... it's not really that good... but it's a fun listen

Art brut - art brut v satan
(much like cocnut records... i listen to this record like CRAZY last spring. it is fun and awesome... but far from "best" of the year.)

Local Native - gorilla manor
(see freelance whales)

As Cities Burn - Hell or high water
(one of my total favorite bands... in retrospect this record should be in the top 15... but.. i guess i like this song at the end of a play list?... well come back to this record in time i think...)



Hopefully you are interested in some of this... if you want to listen to some of these bands... you can download the play list HERE: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YDS4VNTI

2010: a space odyssey

so this is the year of the space odyssey.... thankfully the year didn't begin with apes killing each other... well.. mine didn't atleast..

finally getting at my photos from the trip. i stand by my belief that things look better when it's cold. unfortunately, things look better when you know how to stand still and hold a camera... which didn't happen much this last month...

either way, i love this photo, so take it with you until i figure out the best way to show the rest of these to the world..

blizzards brats and beer

Back from europe. cab at 4 am (or 5 am) from Utrecht to amsterdam. fly amsterdam to warsaw. fly the craziest flight of my life from warsaw to toronto. arrive 2 hours late. get excited about a delayed flight for the first time ever. until that delayed flight turn into a 3 hour delay. try to eat tim hortons. end up wanting to puke. fly toronto to chicago. get in a disgruntled cab home.

yesterday will likely go down in the books as the most ridiculous travel day of my life.

europe was cold. paris was on strike (the whole city. i'm serious) munich was full and delicious. andechs kloster beer is the best beer in europe. some of the best in the world actually. learned about nazis. sa an old man balance on a wine bottle. there was a blizzard. europe shut down. saw an amazing mondrian/picasso/cezzane exhibit in den haag, walked around in the snow alot. drank lots of "coffee" (which.. is a universal term for lots of different coffee based beverages). ate more bread then usual (which.. is alot). thought i had parisites. had a great time.

now it's time for christmas, and getting melissa settled in, and editing photos and videos, and trying to enjoy the rest of my vacation on what little money is left from europe. strikes and blizzards cause for alot of unexpected expenses.

merry christmas folks.

show tonight

The show at gold star is tonight. I'm showering for the first time in recent memory. i'm even gonna change this shirt i've been wearing for 3 days. it's gonna be a party. hopefully.

i'm showing more then i thought i could, which is rad.

I'm gonna break out the new flip cam and get some footage of the shenanigans...


worst case scenario i use it to bludgen my own head so this head ache goes away.

Upcomming group show

It's been awhile. mainly cause i've been busy. i bought a video camera. shit's about to get weird. either way all of that art work is starting to pay off...

December 5th, at 7pm, I will be in a group show at Gold Star Bar in Chicago (1755 W Division St, Chicago IL). I'm not really sure what the show is gonna be like, or what exactly i will show thanks to my work being HUGE, and this being a group show with limited room. Either way, I'm excited to be showing at home with some new artists, and showing some of the ridiculous amounts of crap i've been making. If you are in Chicago you should come. It is gonna be fun.

After the show, i'll be jumping across the Pond for a few weeks full of romantic adventure comedy. for good measure, we might throw some suspense in there. who knows.

Now i need to go sew some things. and turn off this new john mayer... what a let down.