Wednesday Wind-down

Mellow shoe-gaze influenced rock - for fans of Atlas Sound and some of the quieter sides of Lower Dens and Real Estate.



Finnish musician Olli Aarni's new album of "decayed pop tunes" (Avant Archive). Strange and familiar at the same time. While less song-based and more instrumental - his last album on this label was exceptional. Recommended.

New Print

This is a proof I made last week - keep an eye out for variations of this and other new prints on etsy soon.

Photo of the Day

taken by Lorna in Rocky Mountain National Park last week

Photo of the Day: Fanny Latour-Lambert

by Fanny Latour-Lambert

One by Balthus

Happy Thanksgiving

Wild turkeys in Rocky Mountain National Park

Wednesday Wind-down

Shamantis - nice electronic ambient- synthy and spaced out -you can listen and/or download the whole album for free.



Keeping with the very minimal theme - enjoy this very spare neo-classical album by Endless Melancholy

Photo of the Day: Clyfford Still

detail of a Clyfford Still painting at the museum

Choral tape loop

sampled from slowed down home recordings on 78s and a field recording from St. John's in Denver

From the collection: Ravi Zupa

 

Two Ravi Zupa small works we have in our collection. 

Three by Ben Kehoe

"Spiritual Reconnaissance" by Ben Kehoe

"An Element Unprepared For" by Ben Kehoe

"So Long Ramshackle Security" by Ben Kehoe

from  Camilo Paredes on flickr

Photo(s) of the Day

Wednesday Wind-down

A very patient, calm, hazy composition made up of tape loops by M.Mucci. As the reviewer at scrapyard forecast writes, "The work washes bleary melodies and lush textures over the listener, while ebbing, flowing, and changing almost without notice over an hour." 



The Volume Settings Folder takes the listener on a journey with Ivan Hoe and Other Tales. 



and for something a bit more conventional - here's a new Bobby Womack song - old soul with a modern spin.

Brancusi

 Brancusi at the Philadelphia Ar Museum (photo by me)

Sleeping muse — Brancusi — 1908 (photo by me)

Robert Longo, Untitled (After C.B.), 2006. Graphite on paper.

Skyfall Art

The new James Bond film, Skyfall was probably the best Bond film I've seen in a long time. It was fun, self-conscious about it's own Bond movie conventions (with lines like, "somebody usually dies"), and probably more more beautifully filmed than any Bond film in recent memory. The dramatic lighting of the final showdown reminded me of some of the incredible shots in Apocalypse Now. For that matter - they also reminded me of Turner's paintings. This painting "The Fighting Temeraire" by J.M.W. Turner makes an appearance in the Skyfall scene pictured above:

There's also an incredible Friedrich-esque Scottish landscape in the film:

Caspar David Friedrich, "Evening Landscape with Two Men", 1830

My own photo of the Scottish highlands from August, 2012:

Colorado Wolverine

M56, the juvenile wolverine tagged in Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyo., in April of 2009 and believed to have walked to Colorado soon after, still is ranging in Northern Colorado. Here he eyes a photographer on April 22, 2012 near Guanella Pass. (Cameron Miller, special to The Denver Post - follow link to see more of his work and support this photographer)

This morning's Denver Post has an interesting article about the first wolverine seen in Colorado for 90 years - called M56. According to the article at the Post, only 250 wolverines are estimated to exist in the lower 48 states. There are talks of re-introduction of the species into Colorado - with hold ups from various "shareholders" (skiing, mining, etc). Like many people, I love a good underdog or lone-wolf story - I think that's part of the lure of the West. In 2008 I wrote about a possible wolf in Rocky Mountain National Park and this story of M56 closely relates - both in the rarity of the species in Colorado and the talk of possible re-introduction. For more information, check out the Wolverine Blog.

Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues

New Print

I've been experimenting with dry-point etchings with my drawing class. This is my first go of it - 4x6" image size - based on a painting I made earlier this year. You can buy one from the small edition at my Etsy shop for $25 with shipping in the US.

A few more from Ravi Zupa

Ravi Zupa's show at Black Book Gallery right now is excellent - don't miss it. If you are in Denver, you need to see this show. 

Ravi Zupa | Kitchen Stuff | Watercolor, colored ink, colored pencil, India ink, graphite, silkscreen, collaged paper, etching and traffic cone relief printing on wood panel | 24 x 32 Inches

Ravi Zupa | Feed, Stifle | Watercolor, colored ink, colored pencil, India ink, graphite, silkscreen, collaged paper, etching and traffic cone relief printing on wood panel | 24 x 32 Inches

Wednesday Wind-Down

Winding down seems especially relevant post-election. These picks are all over the board - starting with Tollund Men who do very grainy noise rock - from Denver.



Yume uses a great sample from Cassie's "Me&U" for this chilled out single (free download)




and lastly - Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" re-composed by Max Richter

Liberty

photo by yours truly

Painting of the Day: Matthijs Maris

Matthijs Maris, Head of a Girl, 1888, Oil on Canvas (at the Philadelphia Museum of Art - photo by me)

Seeing someone you don't know... again

Skip to 1:24 :

“Have you ever seen somebody that you don’t know, again? You know, like someone who’s a total stranger but they keep popping up once and a while? Like God is running out of extras in the movie of your life or something? Starting to reuse people.” - Louis C.K.

This keeps happening to me.

Spiralling

 Norway, 2009

Australia, 2010

 Mongolia, 2011

Jordan/Israel, 2012