CONSTANT SIEGE

“My idea is that if I say I’m sorry, then at least the words have been released into the universe.”

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:57:33 -0500

“My idea is that if I say I’m sorry, then at least the words have been released into the universe.”

Will Blanche, ‘The Newly Constructed Towers of the World...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:49:48 -0500

Will Blanche, ‘The Newly Constructed Towers of the World Trade Center Seen From the South Side on West Street, May, 1973’ (via These Americans)

Study: Photographs Help Ease Pain

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:04:10 -0500

Study: Photographs Help Ease Pain:

“The ﬁndings suggest that bringing loved ones’ photographs to painful procedures may be beneﬁcial, particularly if those individuals cannot be there. In fact, because loved ones vary in their ability to provide support, photographs may, in some cases, be more effective than in-person support. In sum, these ﬁndings challenge the notion that the beneﬁcial effects of social support come solely from supportive social interactions and suggest that simple reminders of loved ones may be sufﬁcient to engender feelings of support.”

John Dickie, gold and silver Versace-logo-encrusted Mexican...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:57:00 -0500

John Dickie, gold and silver Versace-logo-encrusted Mexican druglord pistol, Mexico City, via Planet Magazine

Charlotte Gainsbourg music video, ‘Heaven Can Wait’...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:48:10 -0500

Charlotte Gainsbourg music video, ‘Heaven Can Wait’ featuring Beck, directed by Keith Schofield, making liberal reference to the work of William Hundley, specifically his ‘Entoptic Phenomena’ (previously) and ‘With Cheeseburgers’ series. (see image above, top row images Hundley originals, bottom row screen grabs from the Gainsbourg video.)

Click image for Antville discussion on the “homage.” Hundley was evidently unaware of the usage, and not pleased.

Schofield on his “working process”:

“I basically have this huge folder of all these found photos and when I get a song in, I’ll play the track and I’ll look through these pictures and see if any thing sticks,” he says. “I’ll be reading something randomly and see a funny picture and throw it in the folder. The whole thing with found photos is that they’re funny because there’s no context to them. You look at a funny picture and go, ‘what’s the scene about?’ And you draw your own conclusions.”

Also also: Google Muthafucka! Do you use it!?

And also: Mr. Schofield might also find TinEye useful

And lastly: A Note To Young ~~Art~~ Directors ~~and The Photographers That Work With Them~~

Abandoned taxi on fire, Manhattan, 2002

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:03:09 -0500

Abandoned taxi on fire, Manhattan, 2002

Cracked crosswalk guides and manhole cover, Brooklyn See...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:26:00 -0500

Cracked crosswalk guides and manhole cover, Brooklyn

The new mid-career retrospective (1990-) book for Nick Knight is...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:25:30 -0500

The new mid-career retrospective (1990-) book for Nick Knight is out now.

Also also: Massive Attack ‘Collected-Special Edition’ cover

And: ‘Insensate’, Nick Knight, Gareth Pugh, Ruth Hogben

"Hey hey, you know I’ve met a lot of cool chicks. But I’ve never met a girl with all her..."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:34:00 -0500

“Hey hey, you know I’ve met a lot of cool chicks. But I’ve never met a girl with all her own teeth. That’s why I love you babe, that’s why we could be… But you’re too young, too young, for me.”

- New Order, ‘Fine Time’

Steam footprints in the bath, 4:26 am, Brooklyn See...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:49:46 -0500

Steam footprints in the bath, 4:26 am, Brooklyn

Also also: The Canadian in the bubble-bath, Lux-11, Berlin, 2007

And also: KT upstairs in the bath on a rainy fall afternoon

And don’t miss: Monkey takes bath. It’s horrible.

"You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:04:09 -0500

“You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”

- William Blake

Walton Ford, ‘Sensations of an Infant Heart’ 1999...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:57:00 -0500

Walton Ford, ‘Sensations of an Infant Heart’ 1999 (detail)

“When John James Audubon was a young boy, his stepmother’s pet monkey strangled Audubon’s favorite pet parrot. The monkey was kept chained after the incident. Later Audubon would write that the “sensations of my infant heart at this cruel sight were agony to me” and that the painful memory may have been one of the reasons he painted birds.”

My favorite kind of beauty is jolie laide, 'pretty-ugly'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:19:48 -0500

My favorite kind of beauty is jolie laide, 'pretty-ugly':

“No, jolie laide aims to jog us out of our reflexive habits of looking and assessing by embracing the aesthetic pleasures of the visually off kilter: a bump on the nose, eyes that are set too closely together, a jagged smear of a mouth. It points away from the kittenish, pliant prettiness of Brigitte Bardot toward the tense, smolderingly imperfect allure of Anouk Aimée or Jeanne Moreau. Although the concept of jolie laide recognizes that “men act and women appear,” as the writer John Berger once put it, it also recognizes that behind the visceral image lies an internal life. In that sense it is a triumph of personality over physiognomy, the imposition of substance over surface. Think of Ellen Barkin’s wonderfully crumpled semaphore of a smile instead of Christie Brinkley’s gleaming, uncomplicated flash of teeth; of Sofia Coppola’s introspective, girl-in-a-Vermeer-painting aura rather than the paint-by-numbers cheerleader vibe of Lindsay Lohan.” -Daphne Merkin, ‘The Unfairest of Them All’, 2005

"After a certain degree of prettiness, one pretty girl is as pretty as another."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:23:46 -0500

“After a certain degree of prettiness, one pretty girl is as pretty as another.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

‘Beware pickpockets and loose women. New Orleans Police...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:15:22 -0500

‘Beware pickpockets and loose women. New Orleans Police Department.’

‘Vintage Dizainier Scout Finger Rosary Ring’, Etsy,...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:33:39 -0500

‘Vintage Dizainier Scout Finger Rosary Ring’, Etsy, $22

Facts Prove No Match for Gossip, It Seems

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:03:56 -0500

Facts Prove No Match for Gossip, It Seems:

“The researchers set out to test the power of gossip, which has been exalted by theorists in recent decades. Language, according to the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, evolved because gossip is a more efficient version of the “social grooming” essential for animals to live in groups.

Apes and other creatures solidify their social bonds by cleaning and stroking one another, but the size of the group is limited because there’s not enough time in the day to groom a large number of animals.

Speech enabled humans to bond with lots of people while going about their hunting and gathering. Instead of spending hours untangling hair, they could bond with friendly conversation (“Your hair looks so unmatted today!”) or by picking apart someone else’s behavior (“Yeah, he was supposed to share the wildebeest, but I heard he kept both haunches”).”

Perou, ‘Perou Hirst’ 2009 See also: Zhang Huan, ‘Zhu...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:17:50 -0500

Perou, ‘Perou Hirst’ 2009

And also: Pig Leg, unknown

And also also: Honky is a corruption of hungy or hunky, a term which originated in the stockyards and slaughterhouses of Chicago

And happy: Fred Einaudi, Tulips

And lastly: Michael Moore, Roger & Me, ‘Pets Or Meat’ 1989

Walton Ford, ‘The Debt To Pleasure’ 2006...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:14:59 -0500

Walton Ford, ‘The Debt To Pleasure’ 2006 (detail)

“There is an erotics of dislike. It can be (I am indebted to a young friend for the helpful phrase) “a physical thing.” … To like something is to want to ingest it, and in that sense is to submit to the world. To like something is to succumb, in a small but contentful way, to death. But dislike hardens the perimeter between the self and the world, and brings clarity to the object isolated in its light. Any dislike is in some measure a triumph of definition, distinction, and discrimination - a triumph of life.” -John Lanchester, ‘The Debt to Pleasure’ page 6-7

"I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living...."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:03:12 -0500

“I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living. I Sin For A Living.”

- The Meatmen