BEAUTY: Installation--Tokujin Yoshioka

This past summer, Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka participated in a group exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. The theme of the show was “Sensing Nature” and each artist created physical manifestations of grand, amorphous or immaterial concepts of nature such as wind, starlight, water, mountains and waterfalls. Yoshioka’s piece called “Snow” consisted of a fifteen meter-wide floor-to-ceiling glass box filled with thousands of pounds of feathers blowing and swirling in a mock snowstorm. Captivating, evocative, and beautiful.


http://www.tokujin.com/en/

BEAUTY: Men--Vintage Military

Vintage sexy sailors, soldiers, and fine flyboys: BFFs.

BEAUTY: Clothing--Asher Levine

Asher Levine is very young but full of ideas. This is his highly conceptual S/S '11 collection for men. Fringe, fins and wings. Further blurring the line between art and fashion is the very creative "pod people" promo video, shown after the pictures. (I NEED those huge, angled fin boots!)

Asher says, "I’m inspired by particle collisions, laboratories, conjoined organisms, giant isopods, Kenny Scharf, Scott Ewalt, and Wendy O. Williams."

http://www.asherlevine.com/

"Inexactly"

Inexactly

Doors are opening,
the wind whispers
“Today” and
“Today” and
“Today” and it feels like
something is coming.
A day like this lets
me believe that
I have a right to
exist--
a day like this lets
me pay back the past.
It’s the kind of day to
visit gravesides, tombstones,
to walk nude in the forest,
to sing for strangers.
A day to drive with
all the windows down,
to smell purity.
But I know I’m
only human,
that it’s still
just the world.
I know it’s not
heaven...
not
exactly.

©JEF 1992

Our Neighborhood

All Time Is Simultaneous

Times Like These

Everything and Nothing

“These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,
If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.

This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
This the common air that bathes the globe.”
--Walt Whitman, from SONG OF MYSELF

BEAUTY: Man--Rafael Lazzini

Rafael Lazzini, model.

http://www.rlazzini.blogspot.com/

Happy First Day Of Autumn 2010

11:09 PM Eastern time US, 8:09 PM Pacific time, where I am. (5:09 Island time for Odette...)

Happy Fall.

Happy Birthday, "Oh, By The Way!"

A year ago, I had a dream during the night in which I started a blog called “Oh, By The Way.” When I woke up that morning, I went to the computer and promptly started a blog called “Oh, By The Way.” Seriously--it was the first thing I did that morning, and yes, I often act out in waking life things I have dreamt. The idea was to post things that I would normally tell or email my friends: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/designer/model/singer/actor… or, have you seen this video/ heard this song/ seen this movie/ read this book/ seen this picture?” My only rule: I promised myself that I would not blog about anything overtly political, that I would not comment on current affairs (no matter how crazy or harmful the key players might be), that I would keep my blog in a positive space, not negative. Readers might spot an occasional veiled comment here and there, but it is always part of a larger posting about a film, a book, etc. I am dedicated to posting the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, the inspiring. And just like life, these things often have a bit of melancholy in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday “Oh, By The Way.” You are one year old and you consist of two hundred and sixty two posts, not counting these wishes.

Just finished reading...

...THE ROCKING CITY: THE EXPLOSIVE BIRTH OF THE BEATLES by music promoter and night club entrepreneur Sam Leach.

An interesting chronicle of the birth of not only The Beatles but of the Merseybeat sound itself, Leach's account of his involvement in this cultural turning point is ultimately a sad affair. Taken over by Brian Epstein, Sam lost out on The Beatles. Leach also lost out on many other opportunities to "make it big" by being swindled, cheated, and conned. The world of early rock n' roll in Northern England seemed to be populated with scheming, plotting figures (managers, promoters, etc.) who resembled mafioso dons, with bloody, single-minded intent to cause the downfall of any rival. Like any industry, to be sure...

The book is a glimpse into a moment of pop culture history but it's a tad littered with extraneous information. I did a fair amount of skimming...

Recommend? If you are a hard-hard-hard-core Beatles fan, you need to read this. Otherwise, you know all you need to know already.

Probably not today...

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
--The Buddha

“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”
--The Buddha

Currently listening to...

..."Emerge" by Fischerspooner.

"Sounds good
Looks good
Feels good too--
Uh-huh that's right"

Gorgeous lead singer (he is one half of Fischerspooner), actor, and performance artist (and Michael Stipe’s ex) Casey Spooner is my hero. I love his fearlessness, his sense of costume, his theatricality and his smoky eye. Few men can sport a beard and a smoky eye and pull it off, but Casey does, and does it quite well.
(Nicole told me that he reminds her of me. *squeal* Thanks, Nicole!)

http://www.fischerspooner.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Michael Sowa

Michael Sowa’s whimsical, surreal work is often heartbreaking to me. His series of images of rabbits alone, struggling to live in a human-sized world never fails to touch me. His little bunnies look so lonely, so determined to be independent, and so out of their league. I worry for them. I want to help them. They shouldn’t be out on the street or riding the train alone, so small, such easy targets. It appears that they are steadfast in their effort to be brave and self-sufficient, but it's simply not that kind of world for a bunny. They can't see the birds of prey circling overhead. I will take them in from the storm and keep them safe.



https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Sowa/19796724855
http://www.michaelsowaprints.com/