I’m definitely digging on the work of Parra, great illustration styles. peep his process video for his arktip/incase colab. nice diy aesthetic. this guy makes it look so easy.
An interview: Ed Fladung/Quality Peoples → Stevey.com
Stevey B sent me a set of interview questions a while back and I did my best to answer them as long-winded and ramblingly as possible1. His questions allowed me to go in to some of the things I haven’t really been talking about on this blog. It’s kind of an interesting digression from standard blog-talk:
Q: I find Mexico is an inspiring place; The “do it yourself” mentality permeates everything. How inspiring is that on going further with your photos/design/architecture?
I love Mexico’s DIY aesthetic. Mexicans are an inventive bunch; they excel with working with what is available. I’m constantly having my preconceptions smashed with regards to ways of doing things. But that mentality is a blessing and a curse. I’m constantly in awe of Mexico’s abundance of hand-painted signs. They are omnipresent in daily Mexican life, from the taco stand to the small business, to the “slippery when wet” signs at the airport. Conversely, the DIY aesthetic applies to things like infrastructure as well. One day our municipality tore up the perfectly fine paving stones on our street and it took them 3 months to finish the job; with no direct car access to our house. There are no words.
I wanna thank Stevey for hooking me up with a great interview and in the spirit of paying it forward2, I’ll do my best to highlight other people’s creative output and vibe in a similar way. Thanks Steve.
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Today’s soundtrack: Blind Willie McTell - Wabash Cannonball
and bonus Dyin’ Crapshooter’s Blues (one of the best talkin’ records ever)
- there could definitely have been small amounts of fermented cactus juice involved ↩
- Despite common beliefs, this concept did not originate in the American Beauty-esque rip-off movie Pay It Forward but rather, it originated in a letter from Ben Franklin to Benjamin Webb. ↩
“Streaming Gradient” by Jen Stark on Vimeo
Jen Stark makes beautiful art out of the most base of available materials: construction paper. Peep her drawings as well, amazing.
[via wooster]
Ioan Grillo and Daniel Hernandez file a video report for Current TV on the growing phenomenon of the mexican death saint Sante Muerte:
A cult in Mexico has been growing to worship the Santa Muerte or Holy Death, a kind of female incarnation of the Grim Reaper. In this pod, VC2 producer Ioan Grillo and Journalist Daniel Hernandez go deep into Santa Muerte’s spiritual center in Tepito, an old market neighborhood in the heart of Mexico City, which has long been associated with the criminal underworld to learn more about this new religious movement gaining traction at the fringe of mexican culture.
I’m fascinated by the intersection of Catholicism and pre-Columbian animism in Mexico. It’s really quite special. And it must keep the Pope up late at night worrying about how to downplay the animistic deities that believers have woven in to various saints and virgins. These figures are integral to most Mexican’s belief systems.
Really gorgeous pieces of fired roku surf art are happening over at Clay Fin. I really dig the references to different eras in fin design. I don’t know much about the artist or where these beauties can be found, but I know good art when I see it. Maybe Rob 70 can drop the knowledge on us all, since he seems to have the inside skinny.
Ex-NY Times staff photographer, prolific blogger and gear head Vincent Laforet is live blogging during a special three week long shoot. He’s out at Pipeline right now, photographing and videoing freesurfer Jamie O’Brien. He’s using RED cameras, 5D Mark II and tons of cool shit like radio-controlled helicopters. This is the ultimate intersection of good waves and bleeding-edge camera tech.
The above image comes from a slo-mo clip of Jamie riding a pigdog switchfoot into Backdoor and then switching back to his normal stance just after he hits the tube. pretty amazing foot work. you can even see the clip in full 1020p here.
For my money, I love my surf films properly celluloided and sun-burnt soulidified. But the results Laforet is getting, take high-definition digital video to new levels. He’s at the front of the collision between still photography and high-definition video and he’s doing it on the fly and blogging about it.
Pretty freakin’ rad!
Happy New Year and Feliz Año Nuevo from the Quality Personages to the global gypsy mosse.
We’re now in the home stretch of this preggo thingy. Strictly speaking babies are usually born from the 38th to the 41st week and astrologically speaking babies are often born in higher numbers around the full moon. The mollusk’s due date is the 12th and it just so happens that the 10th is a full moon. So I’m betting on the 10th.
It’s been a long, strange, wonderful journey and we’re enjoying the last few days left before little man makes his eminent arrival. We’re catching up on sleep, movies and pet projects.
The day before we left, my sister Elizabeth took a bunch of awesome photos to capture the moment.
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pon the ipod: Arthur Russell - A little lost [dug via The Playlist]
Los Angeles peoples: seminal photographer/artist Glen E. Friedman has a new show called Idealist Propaganda up at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects gallery on Sunset. The show runs until January 9th and is a collection of images that appear in a recently published book of the same name.
Forget “in your face” or “life-affirming” or any of the other hackneyed descriptions lazily ascribed to the material, this is some kick you in the kidneys, tattoo your teeth-type shit. Friedman got it and it’s all there. The Check Your Head-era Beasties, nose-picking next to craggy ruins and leafy California palms. A maniacal Henry Rollins frothing at the helm of Black Flag. Public Enemy shrouded in shadows, assault weapons and beat automobiles, at the height of the their Yo! Bumrush the Show menace. Run DMC, seemingly confirming the veracity of the phrase: Tougher than Leather. Friedman’s depressingly precocious Dogtown & Z-Boys shots, Tony Alva and Jay Adams hurtling through drained swimming pools, tempting paralysis and gravity with a dazzling grace. Material from his most recent Recognize Series, filled with transcendent shots of blissful marshmallow clouds contrasting cold blue sky. - Jeff Weiss @ LA Weekly
- Skaters Jump in as Foreclosures Drain the Pool - NYTimes.com
ahhhh, the silver lining: "Across the nation, the ultimate symbol of suburban success has become one more reminder of the economic meltdown, with builders going under, pools going to seed and skaters finding a surplus of deserted pools in which to perfect their acrobatic aerials." - As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. - WSJ.com
Interesting read, if for nothing else than for pure mental exercise. What this guy is saying is pure cockamamy. "California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence." Yeah, California going to the Chinese. Um, can I have some of the crack this guy is smoking. - INDXR
awesome looking free open source lite cms. quick and easy way to get your design or photography portfolio online and have it looking good. super cool! - CSSTYPE - web safe typography on screen for pixel perfectionists
edit and preview css-based text in real-time. this is for people who take their text seriously. wonderful tool! - Infinite Scroll | Wordpress plugin, jQuery plugin, interaction design pattern, greasemonkey script
this turns blog paging on it's ear. it is what it says it is an "infinite scroller". when you scroll to the bottom of a page it loads new posts. you can literally go back to the beginning of a blog, just by scrolling to the bottom. Combine this with "Lazy load" and you never have to click next/previous again. hurray. but doesn't work if you have anything of value in the footer, since you really never see the footer
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“Such a star I’ve never seen, she’s as pretty as a queen. She’s as perfect as an angel from above, If she’ll only be my wife, I’ll live happy all my life. With that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls” and bonus
