March 29th, 2011 by jeremy
image from wikipedia
Film Diary: After Life (1998), directed by Hirokazu Koreeda.
A week in the life of dead people. The most pragmatic movie about death I’ve ever seen, it is at times a mystery, a documentary, a movie about introspection and the meaning of life and memory with surreal Gondry-esque moments. It should be cheesy but it’s not.
*not currently available through Netflix, but the Portland Library has it so check your local library
March 24th, 2011 by jeremy
Recently I was given the new edition of the amazing book “A” by Louis Zukofsky for my birthday. Written over the majority of his life (from 1927-1978), it begins with the letter A and ends with the word Zion and is divided into 24 sections to reflect the hours in the day. Widely considered a masterpiece, it was published in sections throughout his life and was at the printers being printed for the first time as a complete book when he died.
I first saw it in person when I borrowed a copy from the Portland Library and it turned out they are still lending the first cloth edition from 1978. I liked the cover so much that I took a bunch of photos not knowing I would one day do a blog post about book covers (who knows what the future holds!).
new paperback edition published 2011 by New Directions
cloth edition published 1978 by University of California Press
March 14th, 2011 by jeremy
Calder Quartet with Andrew WK (from Facebook)
We saw Calder Quartet play two really great pieces of music this weekend at the Portland Central Library at a free event put on by Friends of Chamber Music (and hey, we’re all friends of chamber music, aren’t we?). They are playing two shows this week at PSU, the second of which I’m recommending as they are playing a piece by one of my favorite composers, Leoš Janáček.
Leoš Janáček with his wife in 1881 (from Wikipedia)
They are also doing one of the pieces they performed at the Library, Fred Frith‘s Lelekovice (1991), that was compelling, kinetic and definitely worth experiencing in-person.
Tickets & information here: http://www.focm.org/cla4_10.htm
Calder Quartet
Mon & Tue, March 14 & 15, 7:30 pm
Lincoln Performance Hall, Portland State University
Monday program
Haydn | Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33 No. 2 “The Joke”
Jacob ter Veldhuis | Quartet No. 3 “There must be some way out of here”
Schubert | Quartet in G Major , D. 887
Tuesday program
Janáček | Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”
Fred Frith | Lelekovice, Op. 20
Beethoven | Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 “Serioso”
March 8th, 2011 by jeremy
I got this book at a small used book store here in Portland. It’s from 1887 and according to the title page is, “A story of simple country life giving a humorous and entertaining picture of every day life and incidents in the rural districts, with Uncle Ben’s trip to the city of Chicago and to California, and his experience with the shams and sharpers of the metropolitan world.”
You can download a full copy of it here.
March 3rd, 2011 by jeremy
I took these photos of the dvd “Horowitz in Moscow” while I was watching it on our television. This was Vladimir Horowitz’s 1986 return to his native country after over 60 years of being abroad. The people are literally moved to tears by his performance and it’s hard to tell in these photos if some are sleeping or just listening with their eyes closed. It’s a wonderful performance (I highly recommend the DVD), especially of two pieces from the great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin.
March 1st, 2011 by jeremy
Well, maybe. To be honest I haven’t seen it yet, but that’s what a good friend of my proposed after going to the Paula Cooper Gallery and watching “The Clock” for several hours.
stills from “The Clock”
“The Clock” is a 24 hour film of clips from movies and television edited together to show clocks and watches that display and correspond to the actual time so that it is as if you are watching a real clock, if you will. It sounds like something that could be incredibly boring or at the same time incredibly addicting, like some sort of cinematic feats-of-strength. According to the NY Times in an excellent article about the movie, “…“The Clock” was hailed as a masterpiece when it made its debut at the White Cube gallery in London last fall.” It doesn’t seem to be playing anywhere at the moment that I can see, which means we’ll all have to wait to see it elsewhere to find out where it ranks on our “greatest” list. So it’s hard to tell if its one of the greatest movies ever made, but it’s certainly one of the longest.
still from Histoire(s) du cinéma
The idea of “The Clock” reminds me of a movie Jean-Luc Godard completed in 1998 called, “Histoire(s) du Cinéma”, which was made almost entirely of clips from films (as well as sound) that overlap so that you see several movies at once. It was his history of cinema that was almost 5 hours long. I have yet to see this movie as well, so it’s ranking among the great works, along with “The Clock”, will have to rest with those lucky enough to have seen them.
still from Histoire(s) du cinéma
more stills from “The Clock”
February 21st, 2011 by jeremy
George Washington drew this practice survey at age 16 of his
half-brother Lawrence’s turnip field at Mount Vernon
the first US Dollar Bill
Washington Irving and Woodrow Wilson both did biographies of Washington.
February 15th, 2011 by jeremy
Our good friend and former SF Store manager, Kirk Snyder is also a painter in his own right and did the amazing red square painting in our former SF Store. I really love these paintings from last year called “SSAF Niteglow Beehive”. Check out his blog too, although it’s been a while since he’s updated.
SSAF Niteglow Beehive
Kirk’s awesome painting in our old SF Store
February 10th, 2011 by jeremy
Father’s Forgotten Figs by Evah Fan
LO artist and current Stockholm resident Evah Fan is part of a Lunar New Year show at Giant Robot (GR2 in LA) called Year of the Rabbit which runs from February 5th-March 2, 2011. If you’re in LA definitely check it out (it has tons of great artists in it including another LO artist Kaori Kasai).
Speaking of Evah we added some new products of hers to our online shop–the fun Slump postcard, Tra La La Riso Print, and 7-color Goop screenprint!
