João Gilberto & Caetano Veloso - O Pato

Well, haven't posted in a long while...but 27club commented on one of the entries and I was like, 'Damn, someone still reads this?!' So I've decided to do a couple more.. Haha I guess I need a little nudging...

Anyways, been learning a bit about history of Brazilian music, specifically the popularization of samba under the rule of Getulio Vargas in the 1930s-40s. He tried to promote nationalism through the use of radio and pop culture. Pretty awesome stuff - music as a political tool...

But I'm more into bossa nova and above is a video of João Gilberto (aka 'Father of Bossa Nova') and Caetano Veloso (an equally well-known musician... whom I know little about). It was a movement that lasted from the 1950s-60s.

Hope all is well.

JR JR JR

TRAILER " WOMEN ARE HEROES"
Uploaded by JR

'“Women are Heroes" project, a collaboration between JR and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Taking his trusty 28 millimeter lens, for the last year JR has been traveling to such countries as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Southern Sudan and Kenya, documenting the lives of a group of incredibly courageous women.

Now, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the full documentation of the Women Are Heroes project is being launched on the web. And not surprisingly, the work is absolutely breathtaking.

This past Saturday, the faces of eight women were placed on walls across Brussels, where they will remain for a month.'

It's so easy to bitch... So easy. But when you compare your daily troubles with those of these women, women who can still bring themselves to put on smiles and funny faces, who are you to piss and moan?

Source: Wooster Collective

Look from Down Below

Click me!

Source: Fecal Face

Black Eyed Dog

"Heath Ledger had directed a relatively unseen video for Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog," a song titled after Winston Churchill's term for depression. Ledger created the video for an exhibition paying tribute to Drake's work ([whose life] was cut short by an antidepressant overdose [in 1974, at the age of 26]). In the time since, Heath's self-described "obsession" and unfortunate similarities with the singer-songwriter have been drawn out and explored, as has most every other detail speculative or otherwise of Ledger's life. Bits of the video are now available, bundled into this newscast circulating on YouTube. In it, Ledger directs himself spinning in a field and drowning in a tub."

At first I appreciated how the reporters provided some context for the video, but they just dragged on and on and on. Stop milking it.

Source: Stereogum

Accompanying Viddies

LOVE is a DESERTER


U R A FEVER


CHEAP and CHEERFUL

Some People are Just Born Cooler Than Others

Source: Official Site

Source: The Stylish Underground

Fashion Rocks! 2005 - Prada/The Kills

Source: United Visual Artists

Wood Suits by Michael Rea

What kinds of projects can we expect to see from you in the near future?

I am currently working on a piece involving carbonite and myself. I am also interested in making a piece that deals with exorcism. I just confirmed that I will be traveling to Germany this summer to build a time machine. I feel in the new global theater, America should give back. While we received so much help from German scientists in building the first nuclear bomb. The least we could do is help them build a time machine.

hahaha

Artist Statement

Standing on the shoulders of other people's dreams could perhaps be the most pathetic of all dreams. The intent of my work is to create something short of its outcome. My goal is to create the idea of an object that remains a dream. The objects I create are based on fictions, rather than realities. I have always been interested in the ephemeral worlds established in film, or even in popular culture. Fictions or established hearsay allow for a flawed interpretation, which leads to a flawed result. The sublime is unattainable, and not an option. I further amplify this experience by only using my memory to construct my images. Failure is imminent. I find humor allows me to enjoy this experience, and I in turn build humor into the worlds established by my work. I have chosen to depict these states with unfinished wood, and other materials which convey a sense of the temporal. I find the beauty in life lies in between moments. My work offers a sense of what could be and what could never be simultaneously.

Source: Fecal Face + Michael Rea.com