NY Art Book Fair

Looking for something to do this weekend? Well if you're in NYC, you should definitely be checking out the NY Art Book Fair hosted by Printed Matter. If you're a zine and book nerd like us then it's definitely worth checking out. The fair runs from Friday Oct. 2nd- Sunday Oct. 4th with a preview/benefit on Thursday night. Here's some info about the benefit:

"Following the preview, Deitch Studios, Long Island City, will generously host a benefit for Printed Matter, featuring industrial punk-and-dub duo, I.U.D. (Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance and Sadie Laska of Growing). DJs Tim Lokiec and Gary Murphy play vintage house. Tickets begin at $20 and include limited artist editions by Elmgreen & Dragset, Jutta Koether, Tom Sachs, and Mungo Thomson."

Should be fun. Plus, a side project of Gang Gang Dance and Growing is worth the price of admission alone.

LOCATION:
Deitch Studios, 4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City

Click here for more info.

A Wild Bird Roams

A wild turkey roams the streets of Northern Liberties. No joke. My recent sightings of an unknown wild bird lead me to a google image search scavenger hunt. Turns out it's a wild turkey, not a pheasant as I had previously assumed. More importantly, my search led me to this awesome print done by Tugboat Printshop out of Pittsburgh. They have some really nice prints brimming with originality and boat loads(pun intended) of character. Just another reason to love Pittsburgh. Check out their website here.

Quote of the Day

Heard this lovely little blurb on my way to work today. Inspiring.

Currently Listening: The United States Of America

"Their sound blended a range of musical genres, including avant-garde, psychedelic, and progressive. One of the more notable points of the band was that it had no guitar player, which for its time was quite radical, as the electric guitar occupied a central position in rock music of the time. Instead, they used strings, keyboards and electronics, including primitive synthesizers, and various audio processors, including the ring modulator."

Unfortunately they only recorded one album, but sometimes things are better off that way though. This has been on my turntable for the past few days and gets me in a groove while working on things or cleaning the apartment. I posted a few songs below. "Coming Down" sounds like a pretty typical 60's rock song. "Cloud Song" (my favorite) is more of a ballad and "The American Metaphysical Circus" gets pretty wacky with voice manipulation and ring modulator.

Coming Down:


Cloud Song:


The American Metaphysical Circus:

Audio/Visual Break

Alvin Band, Temple Pressure

This video has been getting me through the work week, hopefully it can do the same for you. Really awesome vocal patterns and harmonies combined with a creative video make for a good lunch break treat.

This is one of the many works of my former teacher, John Langdon. He invented the ambigram, and has gained notoriety with his work for Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I payed him a visit last Saturday up at his mountain home in upstate PA. His house is like a private museum, filled with his work, inspiration, mid-century style furniture, and one of a kind works from other artists and designers. I got a first hand look and his newest paintings and ambigrams, his amazing wood block type collection, and sketches of his first ambigrams that dated back to 1968. With no formal education in design, John's education has developed through his constant observation of his surroundings, and it is apparent in his work. Using common phrases, well-known logos, and clever juxtaposition of words, John's paintings are a harmonious combination of simplicity and smarts. A show of his paintings is in the works at Pure Gold gallery in Northern Liberties in Philly. Check out John's website for a full scope of his work.

(click to enlarge)

Since healthcare is in the spotlight right now, I decided to make this B2(19.68" x 27.83") poster to raise awareness. It's important to keep an open mind when it comes to fixing the system. The United States is not always the best, and we must recognize that fact before we ever expect to make a change for the better.

Iram the Wonderer

So we're finally making some headway on our friend Eric's zine. It's been talked about a lot and now we're excited to finally start tossing some ideas around in terms of packaging and design. Here's the description from Eric's email:

"The zine will be "Iram the Wonderer" follows a creature from his virgin birth of a traveling gypsy, his travels with his mother (incognito on his mothers back as a bonzai tree), eating his mother (wearing her heart as a necklace for guidance for the remainder of the zine), psychadelic encounter- visions of god (a 3 headed owl crucified on a cactus), lonesome drunken campfire (the smoke will read, "welcome the stars with wine and guitars") each 2 page will have text intertwined with the illustrations... I have yet to think of anything for his death, but it will be something of mind rape magnitude.
-rickkkkyyybobbs"

Judging from that description alone, I'm sure that Eric will come up with some ridiculous illustrations. Check out some of his work below:




Also, check out his blog.

"I think I have a diease that makes my hearing imperfect, but at least I make some wonderful noise"

Some of the best things in life are hidden gems. Things that you don't realize at first but when you do, you're instantly hooked. Kind of like the time you realized that you enjoy the taste of beer, or when you figure out new shortcuts on your computer. These sort of gems happen to be my favorite things in life, and this song by the husband and wife duo of Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan has been a recent favorite of mine. In its original form, the songs from this Animal Collective side project were released all in reverse, some of which were sped up as well. While this might confuse some people (everyone), it really is no surprise coming from these two. They simply thought it sounded better that way (to each his own). Causing internet babble, some people pretty much wrote the album off as horrible. Pitchfork gave it a rating of 1 (yes, on a scale of 1-10), and many fans were upset at the release. But while most people didn't even bother to upload the album to their iTunes, some people decided to open it in an audio program and get to work on how its supposed to sound. When reversed back to its original form, this album is pretty much amazing and beautiful, the song "Sasong" in particular. Check out the two versions below.

Reversed and sped up x2. (With some cool animations actually):


The original version:


For those of you interested, I'm pretty sure the "fixed" version of this album is now available on iTunes.

Come check out some of my graphics work at this upcominig show in Philly.
www.placeyourarthere.com

Place Your Art Here - Opening Night Show
Friday, September 4th, 2009
7pm - 11pm

Place Your Art Here will feature 100 + entries from 50+ artists with a variety of backgrounds. There were endless possibilities, but each entry had to follow a specific set of guidelines and fit within an existing template.
All entries are black & white only and placed within a 5 x 7 vertical format.
Entries include: graphic design, illustration, typography, collage, photography, screen printing, finger painting, and everything in between . . .