Wednesday Wind-down

From the artist; "Sun Showers is equal parts relaxation & reflection - the sounds of a warm day spent on the porch, washed in a light rain. For this release, Matthew collected a handful of field recordings - a large wind chime found at the local gardening store, some bird songs from his front yard, and a brief rain shower that eased in one afternoon - and then processed each one to create new, unique texture. Acoustic guitar, keys, and a subtle jazz drum sample were also used to compose the Sun Shower soundscape"



For something a little less open - and a bit more composed, check out Emmalee Crane's "Formantine" album. Whereas the Barlow album above is quiet and private, "Formantine" is big and open. Crane uses a mix of horns and electronic textures to layer up a very rich, complex sound. 

Film Still Tuesday

From the upcoming Lars Von Trier movie, "Nymphomaniac"

Two Openings This Weekend

 I will be showing some abstraction at Denver's Groundswell gallery among some very talented company and at Eastern Oregon University - the Nightingale Gallery will have three of my small paintings in a show called, "Quietude" opening Friday February 8th from 6-8 pm.

One of the works being shown in Oregon is this 18x24" painting of mine called, "Light through a Monastery Window".

Three by Josh Peters

 Speak, Memory
2012
Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas
66 x 49 inches

 The Tinker and the Crab
2012
Acrylic on Canvas
59 x 58 inches

 Studio Installation
2012

Adele Hugo in the West Indies
2010
Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas
68 x 84 inches

Josh Peters

Somewhere to Disappear

You can buy the download of Alec Soth's excellent documentary "Somewhere to Disappear" for just one dollar at filmDIY. Highly recommended.

Wednesay Wind-down

Mellow sampled music.



A nice lo-fi 50s throwback -something you might expect to hear in a David Lynch film.

Film Still Tuesday

Lost Highway, by David Lynch

2001: A Space Odyssey, by Stanley Kubrick

Magnolia, by Paul Thomas Anderson

Three by Helmut Federle

Helmut Federle

Nathan Abels art now represented by Robischon Gallery

I am pleased to announce that my work is now represented by Robischon gallery in Denver.

Paintings by Andrew Mazorol and Tynan Kerr

Paintings by Andrew Mazorol and Tynan Kerr

Inside & Outside

Various Paints on Canvas

48x64 in

2012

Effigies

Various Paints on Canvas

96x60 in

2012

Levitation

Various Paints on Canvas

48x84in

2010

Healing

Various Paints on Canvas

48x64 in

2012

The artist is also in a great band called Myrrh:

New work by Ane Graff

 Your Groundwater. Ane Graff

Opening Saturday February 2 at 14.00 p.m.
The exhibition will be opened by Karin Hindsbo, dir. Sørlandets Kunstmuseum,
and will be on display until April 28th 2013. A new essay by Norwegian writer Johanne Nordby Wernø on Ane Graff's art will be published especially for this exhibition.

You can view more of her work on my blog here - including a short interview she did with me way back in 2008.

Photo of the Day

Conditions Permitting - Rocky Mountain National Park Will Conduct Winter Pile Burning Operations. (NPS photo, picture taken by firefighter during operations last year) - this is what those piles of wood were for in my print from last year:

Wednesday Wind-down

I've lost a lot of interest in "post-rock" over the years (the crescendo formula was getting as predicable as a "drop" in dubstep) - but this is a really nice exception. I listened to this album all the way through a couple of times yesterday and I recommend it for those of you who enjoy post-rock and even modern classical compositions. It is a lot more dynamic and complex than most build-up/break-down post-rock.



I would also like to suggest streaming and/or purchasing Hiatus Kaiyote's "Tawk Tomahawk" - an unusual neo-soul/jazzy album that is hard to describe. Watch this video and I think you'll be sold:

Photo of the Day

click for source (flickr)

New Kris Lewis

 Kris Lewis

Lynx

Retired National Park Service employee Steve Chaney spotted two lynx in southwest Colorado last weekend and managed to capture the rare encounter on camera - via CPW

Wednesday Wind-down

This video perfectly accompanies this beautiful hazy composition by Finland's Olli Aarni. The full album is only available on mail-order cassette but you can enjoy this track over and over again via soundcloud:

for something more upbeat - this awesome yodelling mix is infectious (and a free download here):

Snow Play

We enjoyed the figid weekend in Steamboat Springs - snowshoeing, hot springs, sledding, and good friends. Check out this awesome video of our friend Sally on the sledding ramp we built (perhaps a little too high)...

Here's a couple other images from the weekend:

 Snowshoeing in Steamboat Springs

 rural protest (Steamboat Springs, CO)

Me tubing over my friend Matt - then eating a lot of snow

Aerial Image of the Day

Found this on an old disc of images - the blue line on the topographic map is the line we would fly to take photos - each red dot is a click of the camera and the blue rectangle is the coverage area.

On Never Looking Up

There's a new tumblr blog called "We Never Look Up" - which pretty well depicts the experience of those of us without smartphones (by choice in my case) in any public space. In my opinion the loss of actual human connection is huge. I've been slowly making my way through Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman - a book written about the cultural effects of TV and (as the title implies) perpetual amusement. The book better applies to the internet and smartphones now. He writes,

"Americans no longer talk to each other, the entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas; the exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities, and commercials. For the message of television [and the internet perhaps]  as metaphor is not only that all the world is a stage but that the stage is located in Las Vegas, Nevada."

Yesterday my middle school students told me that because I have an outdated phone, no cable tv, and listen to "weird music" I must be... an alien. Ha Ha. Hilarious - but also an obvious indication that I'm swimming against the tide with my frustration with the overuse and constant amusement people insist on with their smartphones.

It isn't this way everywhere - in fact, in Italy - people look up. It was instantly clear to us that we had arrived back in the United States last Monday when we looked around the room and saw "phone drones" everywhere. In a interesting study written up in Business Insider, "There is also the Italian attitude towards the utility, or should that be futility, of the world wide web...over a quarter (26.7%) of Italians think the internet is useless and uninteresting." I found Italians talking to each other, talking to strangers, enjoying the beauty of their city, and all the while - not looking down at their phones.

I know the chances of this trend reversing are minimal but maybe once in a while- take a walk around your neighborhood without your phone. Do you really need to know what everyone else is eating right now or what their baby looks like today?