Category: Marginalia

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Chuck Close Exhibit at Austin Museum of Art

Chuck Close’s “A Couple of Ways of Doing Something,” now showing at the Austin Museum of Art, is a new look at some old photographic techniques. Close’s use of an early form of the photograph, called a daguerrotype, forms the basis of the exhibit.

Chuck Close: A Couple of Ways of Doing Something

Unlike artists who show us alternate realities that don’t actually exist, Chuck Close shows us what we’ve been missing in the world right in front of our faces. “I have always been fascinated by how one way of doing something can kick open a door to another way,” Close has remarked. “For me, the original image serves as a matrix, from which I can explore issues of scale, information, and perception.”

Chuck Close: Laurie Anderson

“A Couple of Ways of Doing Something” features Close’s use of digital pigment prints, tapestries, and photogravures alongside poems by Bob Holman. The exhibit’s subjects include Holman, Cindy Sherman, Philip Glass, Terry Winters, Laurie Anderson (pictured above), and Close himself, among many other New York creative luminaries.

The exhibit runs through November 8th.

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Slayer: Show No Mercy

There is no other metal band that compares to Slayer. No other band has been together as long, destroyed as much stuff, ripped as hard, nor kept their collective foot so heavy on the pedal. Slayer has never let up. Ever.

I finally got to see them wreck shit live on stage at the Mayhem Festival on August 14th in San Antonio, Texas. Thanks to Matt and Nate Bailie, whom I’ve known since the ninth grade, I can now die happy. The set list included “Psychopathy Red” from their forthcoming World Painted Blood record, but also featured highlights from their nearly three decades of chaos, including “War Ensemble,” “Dead Skin Mask,” “Mandatory Suicide,” “Born of Fire,” “Ghosts of War,” “South of Heaven,” “Angel of Death,” “Raining Blood” and “Hell Awaits.”

Here are some of the photos that Jessy and I took from the seething floor of the arena.

SLAYER

Tom

Devil Sign

If you had to sum it up… That probably does it.

Flaming Slayer eagle

Hell Awaits

Thanks again to Matt and Nate for getting us there and getting us in.

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A New Level

Level MagazineThe old Level Magazine was one of those titles that put the Life in “lifestyle” magazine — and it’s back online starting today! Editor/publisher/leader Chris Noble invited me to contribute, so I’ll be posting bits over there on a regular.

Here’s the history of the magazine direct from Chris:

In 1999, the magazine Level was born. Brothers Mark and Chris Noble, publishers of a BMX magazine and a core MTB magazine, got bored of going into their local newsagent and seeing nothing on the lifestyle shelves for them or their like. The US had produced Grand Royal, a happy-go-lucky hobby, more or less, of The Beastie Boys, and Mark and Chris felt that there was a gap in the UK market for something along those lines.

How hard could it be?

After several months of masterminding, almost-disastrous back-and-forth wrangling with the bureaucracy of WH Smith (the main wholesaler/retailers in the UK), designing and redesigning and getting editor Chris Quigley on board, Level quietly appeared on magazine shelves across the UK and beyond.

With the contributions of various luminaries—some of whom grace these web pages—and a remit of “All Things Good”, Level went down well. Unhindered by strict genres or target niches, it really did fill a gap. The talk was underground but very complimentary. Issue 01 picked up the UK’s inaugural Magazine Design Awards’ “Best Designed Consumer Magazine” prize.

From then on, the only way was, well, neither up nor down. The high-budget, low-moral advertising vultures of the London-based competition had a stranglehold on the ad spends of the rich and famous brands. Despite an increase in promotional spend and advertising sales strategy, Level, without a desire to sell its soul, found its pages to be a hard sell. Only the most discerning of brands supported the magazine, and it just wasn’t enough. The brakes came on in November 2000, after only eleven issues.

But it’s always been there. Gnawing away in the back of our minds, especially that of publisher/designer Chris Noble. The brothers parted ways with the publishing company at the end of 2006, but Chris saw to it that he took Level with him.

Since then, Chris has had more time to think about bringing the magazine back in one way or another, and during the first half of 2009, he dove head-first into the world of web code which he had so far largely managed to avoid.

And the rest is browser history.

level screenshot

Many thanks to Chris Noble. I am damn proud to be a part of the new era of Level.

Check it out.

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New Follow for Now Website

FollowforNow.comI’ve been redesigning the Follow for Now site because I don’t have enough to do and because the old one wasn’t yellow enough.

Check it out and let me know if you see any glitches or have any suggestions. I’m just trying to make it work for both people who have the book and people who’ve never heard of it.

Also, I’d like to unload the rest of the inventory before the world goes “all-digital.”

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Follow for Now on the Kindle

Follow for Now on the KindleAs if you’re not sick of hearing about it yet, Follow for Now is now available on the Kindle. Now you can get all forty three interviews, all the pictures, all the goodness, in Amazon’s digital format. So, if you’ve made the jump from atoms to bits with your books, you can now add Follow for Now to your collection.

For those who don’t know, Follow for Now: Interviews with Friends and Heroes is an anthology of forty-three interviews with minds of all kinds.

Spanning over seven years, Follow for Now includes interviews with such luminaries as Bruce Sterling, Douglas Rushkoff, DJ Spooky, Philip K. Dick, Aesop Rock, Erik Davis, Howard Bloom, David X. Cohen, Richard Saul Wurman, N. Katherine Hayles, Manuel De Landa, Rudy Rucker, Milemarker, Steve Aylett, Doug Stanhope, Paul Roberts, Shepard Fairey, Tod Swank, dälek, Eric Zimmerman, Steven Johnson, Mark Dery, Geert Lovink, Brenda Laurel, and many, many more (click here for the full Table of Contents).

Follow for Now is an eclectic, independently-minded snapshot of the intellectual landscape at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It also includes an extensive bibliography, a full index, and weighs in at nearly 400 pages.

And now you can get it on the Kindle.

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Razorcake hates Follow for Now

Before you start thinking that everyone loves my book, Follow for Now (they don’t), check out Keith Rosson’s review on Razorcake. Here’s an excerpt:

There’s just not much interesting material being covered, even in the music and literature sections, which I feel a lot more comfortable with than, say, the science section. Like when Christopher interviews Milemarker—and time has still not proven to me that they were anything but a pretty boring band made up of some decent writers—and in lieu of trying to make Al Burian squirm a bit or trying to bring a bit of life to a band that’s always been celebrated for its coldness, he asks them “whom they read and respect.” Honestly, man—I couldn’t give a flying shit how some space-rock band has been using their library cards.

In contrast — and though he means it pejoratively — he nails it when he says, “Follow for Now unfortunately seems more interested in the ideas being presented regarding technology, media, literature, etc. than the interviews themselves.” Well, yeah!

Anyway, Rosson may have missed the point of the book, but I appreciate the attention as always.

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Go Skateboarding Day: Secret Spot

So, I was bumming around in San Marcos, Texas over the Go Skateboarding Day weekend, and I ran into this skateboard kid who used to live in Austin. He told me about this secret, outlaw spot in my neighborhood in Austin, and gave me some sketchy directions to it.

When I got back, I checked it out, and sure enough: a hidden concrete playground with lumps and lips and pool corners — less than a mile from my place!

Below are the surveillance photos I took of it upon my return:

Secret Spot: Shady Tranny

Secret Spot: Pool Corner

Secret Spot: Green Thing

It’s on… [Updates to follow.]

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Research Help

I often hear or overhear interesting anecdotes that, if they stick with me, I later attempt to locate sources for. Well, I am currently in need of two citations, and for the life of me, I can’t find them. I need proper accounts of and sources for these stories:

  • When Thomas Edison demonstrated his original recording of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” a prominent figure heard it and was absolutely appalled. He couldn’t sleep that night for fear that Edison was conjuring the dead with his invention (or some such nonsense).
  • It has been said (somewhere) that good architectural engineers put sidewalks in last because then you know where they belong from the trails left by the traffic of feet.

If you have any idea where I can find the original (or secondary) accounts of these stories, let me know. I’d greatly appreciate it.