crowded streets

Something about this image triggered a pang of longing this morning. I always am dreaming of travel, but this image of EMOL painting in Sao Paulo reminded me of tiny streets and paths in Varanassi, India. One of the most amazing trips I've ever taken. I wonder what I'd learn from travel now. I'd like it to be extensive.

Andy for Campbell's

Somehow, I'd never seen this photo before. Really fantastic. When I was younger, I didn't really "get" Warhol. Now I'm slightly obsessed with him.

Drips

the man KR in Miami. One of my favorite pictures from that whole experience.

paper

I've had some extra minutes lately to read some things not directly to work. It's really nice. I love pages as opposed to bookmarks.
Also, editing has been fun again. I'm hyped on this upcoming Hank Willis Thomas feature I'm working on now. Definitely got my mind working fast last night.
What joy enjoying what you do.

itsprettyawesome.

awesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesome.

Ready, Able

Damn. I'm needing to get down with the claymation way of life.

Christmas time is fun

We have a mini tree! I think it's purty.

strong

if I could wish for one thing today, it would be for a lil more courage.

White sand n palm trees

Miami was humid and hectic and overwhelming. Saw some sick art, even better acts, and stayed in the swankiest hotel ever, but I was very glad to be back home. Around real people. And not in high heels.

Buenvenidos a Miami

Big Willie knows what's up. I'm getting really pumped for Miami fun the next few days all of a sudden (perhaps it's the realization that I will definitely get to party with Dr Dre tomorrow night).

Party in the city where the heat is on
All night, on the beach till the break of dawn
Welcome to Miami
Buenvenidos a Miami!

Wizard Smoke

Hey, lets grab a shit-load of colored chalk and skate around in it! Eeeepic. The song choice makes it all the better.

It’s Okay in The Land of Talk

This is how you stop time...at least for 5 min. I'm in love.

The Surreal Landscapes of Scarlett Hooft Graafland

I'm officially obsessed with Dutch artist Scarlett Hooft Graafland.

Inhabiting the border between straight photography, performance and sculpture, Hooft Graafland’s photographs are records of her highly choreographed live performances in the salt deserts of Bolivia, the Canadian arctic, or mountainsides in China.

Fascinated by the surreal beauty of the harsh natural landscape, she utilizes this as her canvas. Anthropologically curious, her ideas emerge directly from the local mythology that originates in this otherworldly environment.

Using naïve and childlike color palettes her photographs draw on the language of the surreal showing familiar objects out of context (balloons dotted across a lake, top hats flying through the desert, a man resting on an igloo). Her humorous and unsettling juxtaposition of these everyday objects with the sparse, unforgiving landscape echoes the aesthetic of surrealists such as René Magritte. Hooft Graafland utilizes the medium of photography, associated with the representation of truth, to represent the fantastic and the irrational.

Dive into her work and never come back. It’s that beautiful.

Fluff

okay, I know. could I be any more of a girl?! Kitten pics? But c'mon, they really are so friggin cute. Jeh-sus I want one.
Well, either a cat or a snake. Cus snakes are pretty bad-ass. But definitely not both. That sounds like a recipe for a whole lotta sadness, not the desired animal fun I'm going for.

far away places

Been doing a lot of thinkin lately and feeling quite good about it all. Thinking of far away places and fun upcoming mini-trips. Thinking of friends, the past, the future, and how the hell is all comes together again and again. Thinking about how fucking grateful I am and how I really just want to keep this big trip going.
Change is definitely on the horizon, which has gotten me thinking about how much I have learned in the past 2-3 years.
Creative minds really are the juicy pulp of the world's fruit and every now and again I get really cool gifts from people I admire. Faith47 has been talking about this vid for a while and it made my Wednesday upon its release this morning. I'm so happy smart, caring, fun people exist in my life. and yours.

juicy

Why are succulents so cool? They look so juicy and are so resilient.

exciting

Why yes sir, I'm on my way to the neurology department.

ouch.

How I feel today.

Thank you for keeping it oh-so real, Doze

"Have big balls. Grab your nuts and say Fuck It. Don't be afraid. [...] Don't let people fuckin hold you down. Be careless and go for it."

healthy advice from the legendary Doze Green.

Love. next weekend will see live. bring it.

Life Underwater

This shit just took my Friday up a notch: Underwater photography by Russian photog Elena Kalis. She lives in the Bahamas (why am I not doing that right now?) and takes insane underwater pics...a lot of her kids, and daughter in particular, it seems. Really surreal. Love love love it.





Then Evan told me to check out James Cooper's work, which is also underwater but a bit less polished and candy-coated. Also very cool. I particularly dig the spray paint action.

it's thursday. again.

I find it perpetually ironic that I strive for a fairly worry-free existence, yet every time I start to achieve it, I’m instantly bored. Perhaps this means I need to push myself further in these rare moments of contentment, but I never seem to do that. Right now, for example, things are good. Everything is fine. And I’m pretty bored.

Granted, I’m at work, and there’s almost nothing more mind-numbing than being bored while at work, but I’m sick of daydreaming about all this shit I wanna do and am not actually doing. Why? I’m not sure. Fear. Complacency. Confusion. Lack of funds. Lack of motivation. All these things suck. Not that I’m particularly unhappy, because I’m actually quite happy, but holy fuck, there is so much friggin stuff I want to see and experience it’s tough staying in one spot (aka my office chair or SF) for a while. To help soothe myself, I think about better stuff and look at things I like. I also really secretly hope no one ever looks at this blog cus I honestly think blogging is really egotistical and privately hate the internet. So here’s my personal ego trip.


I'd like to lie in bed, naked, with my best friends or even just cool people. so long as the bedspread was striped and there was patterned wallpaper like this.


even better: cool tiles! I want to sit by the window like this in italy, south africa, tokyo, israel, greece, brazil, and india (again).


Just trippy. I want to know how this photog captured this.


I also want to see clouds like this. perhaps on the plains. I remember being on a service trip in Montana, staying in the most remote Indian reservation as a high school senior and going on a long walk with my best friend to the middle of nowhere. lying down in the middle of the highway, knowing we could never possibly be harmed. the sky there was rad too.


raking balloons seems cheerful.


as does kicking it with a big wabbit. or it could be really creepy (in that donnie darko-esque way).


but nothing is better than this. nothing.


except for the possibility of going wherever you want in your dreams. which is what I do every second of my day.

Jennifer Lee Lescher

I just found out my old roommate while studying abroad in India has a website of all her ill photography. This girl is one of the single coolest people I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know and travel in some of the craziest places I will probably ever step foot, so finding this kinda made my day.
www.jenniferlescher.com

Jay-Z: A Master Of Occult Wisdom?

The Blueprint III is great, as is this article from NPR. oh, and Rihanna in this vid. She's also great. Swagga much?

If you don't put it on hella thick; nobody's gonna take you seriously

It's a fine science. The science of chola girls.

Working in the hood

has its merits. Aside from dodging crackheads in the street (literally), you get to see busted water valves spewing vast amounts of water into 3rd street. It was friggin massive.
Just another Wednesday in HP. No big deal.

On the roof of the Met

NYC was fun. Lots of park action (Central, Washington Square, High Line...) The weather was ideal. But it's definitely always good to be back home and in your own bed. Next trip will def be somewhere with palm trees, lots of white sand, and (hopefully) not much else.

Show me how you get down

can't stop

The Top (Music Video) from Francis and the Lights on Vimeo.

watching this.

I heart NYC

In 24 hours, I'll be well on my way to NYC! Our flight leaves at friggin 6:45 in the AM, so we'll have the afternoon and night to live it up. I love NYC for many many reasons, mostly because it never ever sleeps and you pretty much feel as though you have your finger on the pulse of life when walking anywhere in the Five Burroughs.

I tend to consistently hit a few key spots whenever I go to NYC, like the MoMA, Flying A (great shop on SOHO), the Guggenheim, sometimes the Met, The Cub Room, and Central Park.

On this particular trip, I also really wanna see the new Kehinde Wiley show at Deitch (conveniently opening the night we arrive!) and their meth lab explosion show, which I have heard is amazing. Oh, and definitely the Os Gemeos mural on Houston and Bowry. My last trip there last October was one of the best ever so I predict an ever better trip will ensue this year. I already feel energized just thinking about the Big Apple. Lets see what kinda trouble I can get into...

Buff Dis

I almost forgot how much I love Buff Dis. If you have beef with street art, you can't really get too pissed at this guy; all his work is done in masking tape. I'm partial to this SF piece... gotta represent.
Pluuus, how effing rad is his name!?! Crafty fellow.

from Micronesia back to Oakland

My friend has been doing the Peace Corps thing in Micronesia and took this rad photo; not even photoshopped! Shiiit. He gets to check out coral and palm trees and the coolest thing I have seen all day is an impromptu dance party in the back of some caddy rolling down 3rd (working in the hood has its own merits too, I guess.)

Buut, at least I may get to go stop by the incredible Monica Canilao's spot/shooting range tomorrow in Oakland. Her artwork is amazing and style even better. I secretly kinda wanna be her (just kinda).

Alex Prager

is one of my fav photographers and also just did the shoot of our founder (robert williams) for his portrait in our upcoming issue dedicated to him (the image directly above was actually in our last photo issue as well). I can't give away details yet, but I do so love the consistent use of wigs by Alex in all her shoots. Makes me wanna rock a wig on days other than Halloween.

Pretty. and possibly true.

By Jamie Tao.

Let Me Twitter Dat

How old is this kid? Like 14?
I hate twitter and I have to use it everyday. Tweet tweet bitch.

Hearts for Annie Leibovitz

Seems like everyone is picking apart Annie Leibovitz these days. I, for one, have a great love and appreciation for her work. I don't think it's overrated and I don't think her massive financial woes are solely a symptom of poor money management. Annie's an artist. And that means she's kinda weird and intense.

When I think of Annie Leibovitz, the name alone instantly brings to mind dozens of iconographic photos the world has come to recognize and love. How, then, could such an influential and significant photographer reportedly be in debt $24 million? We know the economy is tough, but this issue is far more deeply rooted than a few bad investments. We're not excusing excessive real estate purchases, but Annie’s money woes rip to the heart of an artist’s temperament and years of personal and artistic challenge.

There's an great article in NY Mag on this here. I spent way too long reading it today.

We're All A Bit Wild. i hope.

The beautifully difficult thing about being a sensitive and passionate person (something I even hate to admit to myself) is that things affect you. I can get really happy, really frustrated, really fascinated and really sad. Sometimes all at once. But I've learned to appreciate the nuances of life, attempting to extract the value of every moment, emotion, influence and thought for what it's worth.

Sometimes I get caught up in all I have to do at work or things I should take care of and I get pissed because I know, in essence, it doesn't really matter and I'm being pulled away from my true self. But what makes me really sad are the people who don't have these extreme feelings. The ones who go through life day to day not really thinking or feeling, whether it be pain or exultation.

Naturally, I got really excited when I first saw the trailer for Spike Jones' Where The Wild Things Are film. Then I watched the second trailer today and loved it just as much. The beauty of this book and subsequent film lies in its disguised simplicity. It's a basic children's book, but the story is so filled with hope and empowerment. That is something I think anyone can relate to, or at least appreciate.

I love when the monster Aaron says to the kid Max, “This is gonna be a place where only the things you want to happen, will happen." and Max replies, "We can totally build a place like that.” I feel like that all the time, this little idealistic notion I keep tucked away for the days I feel lost or lonely.

“This is all yours, you’re the owner of this world.” True dat, Aaron. True dat.

This might have been what it looked like, if it wasn't a cutout...

Must've been a slow news day. I just wanna know who made that bear cardboard cutout. Did a damn fine good job.

The New Yorker Fiction Podcast

...changed my life today. I normally devour NPR on a daily basis, but their podcasts can be somewhat hit or miss. The New Yorker Fiction Podcast is my new jam. It's like being read stories by a really good storyteller, but while you're at work doing other stuff you're actually paid to do.

Meeting Mac

Got to hang out with Mac yesterday! It's always super fulfilling to get to meet my favorite artists and Mac is definitely one of them. His new work is aaamazing and he even let me interview him with my new Flip camcorder (which I'm obsessed with now).

Such a rad guy. So soft-spoken for hanging out with such a hard crew.