An old 4-part series from the BBC. Have a look, Parts 2, 3, and 4 after the jump. Some scary stuff.
Not to be a downer here, but I wanted to note the passing of a really intelligent and inspiring man, Tony Judt. His awful struggle with ALS was covered in the media until his demise… was a shitty disease to die from. I’ve been reading some of his articles for a while now… his views were most enlightening and humanistic, and he wasn’t afraid to say it as it was. An old interview with him can be see here.
Say what you will, but Glenn O’Brien is legit. You can’t fake what he has lived over the last 35 years - and that art collection…
Go to The Selby for more pics.
In light of MIA’s recent redhead persecution video, which was a bit of an overpriced joke, I thought I’d share a music video that is chock full of “controversial” imagery, most of it real and current. The first 40 seconds or so are quite strong. Nicked this from the most excellent Pampelmoose…
The perfect image of McQueen, shot by John Dominis. Great, effortless looking style. More images here.
Nuclear Power isn’t safe. When it goes tits up, we end up with ghost towns, death and illness for thousands of people (and for many generations), contaminated land and wildlife… a massive toll in every way. Truly not worth the risk -however small proponents say it is. Chernobyl, twenty four years on. There is a mad rush (and big pressure) to build more of these plants, but we need to keep saying no to them. It’s just not worth it.
I admire a guy who can be both immensely successful, yet be humble and not take himself so seriously. Newman was known for his skinny “chicken legs”, so he playfully applied this insider joke to his racing team’s logo. Refreshing.
Bill Moyers is sadly now off the air. What a huge loss for journalism.
Check out his final show here. It’s a very enlightening episode, highlighting citizen activists in Iowa, and recent protests on Wall Street. Encouraging stuff. We need more of this, not less.
Kate Bush is a brilliant artist. She has long been one of my favourite musicians. An incredible songwriter, and yet quite overlooked in recent years… perhaps due to her quiet lifestyle. I’m happy to read she is getting some respect from young female musicians as they recognize her influence. Read all about it at the Guardian website.
Well, I guess we all have to grow up sometime. Plus move to the burbs, get new teeth and a bland getup. It’s just the contrast from youth to maturity is so much more exaggerated in a character like Shaun Ryder…
Here is the grown up version of Shaun, present day…
Plus, a wee doc for those interested in Mr. Ryder
I am a huge fan of architect Christopher Alexander.
Here you’ll find a fascinating and compelling debate he had with the Peter Eisenman back in 1982. It speaks volumes. How does simple reason argue against complex philisophical systems? Alexander did very well but the establishment as a whole, and the public as a whole, have gone with Eisenman’s way of thinking. Peter’s comment (near the end of the debate) that “How does someone become so powerful if he is screwing up the world?” is a funny justification and point of defense. Of course, as we see in the world today, just because an individual is powerful or successful does not mean they are right, or doing the right thing. Yet our society constantly reinforces that notion- The cream rises to the top. That belief ignores that the cream could be curdled or toxic…
I need to see this film. Actually people in general need to see this film. This sort of awful behaviour by corporations, and the fact that they largely get away with it, is in part why there is a growing resentment against the US. Things like this shouldn’t be happening, especially by a country that prides itself on espousing good values.
I’m not sure how Billy Reid makes money, but I hope he is able to continue to do what he does for a really long time. I suppose that’s what his recent move into wholesale will help him do though. His product doesn’t get a lot of play on the web, except for maybe here, because it’s product you have to wear to truly appreciate. I love his traditional and pure design ethos. I know the tag “clothes you can wear forever” gets thrown around way too much these days, but what he does truly is timeless.
T Magazine sat down and had a chat with the man:
I understand that you were born in Louisiana and had worked in your mother’s boutique, eventually moving on to Saks as a young executive, and then spearheading the Greg Norman line for Reebok. You’ve also worked with Fruit of the Loom, Neiman Marcus and JC Penney, while operating your own marketing company. When did the crossover into design occur?
Actually, I was very fortunate to work in situations where I could always be a part of the creative process. Twenty-three years ago, I began at Reebok, where I worked with a handful of folks to help launch Greg Norman, which gave me the opportunity to travel the world developing product. The “marketing company” actually was freelance design work — “marketing company” sounds more official. So basically I’ve been on the design side for quite some time. I have had first-hand exposure to several sides of the business; ultimately, all these experiences have helped me have a more thorough understanding of the industry and processes.
What is the concept behind Billy Reid?
I design things I want to wear and that fit into my likes and dislikes and my life. I like natural things, so we use no synthetics throughout the collection. I like the outdoors and getting my hands dirty. I am a traditionalist at heart, like old-fashioned techniques and have a fond love of antiques. I am a Southerner and that certainly influences my life and work. So, if you put these things in a blender, the result is the concept, or collection. It starts with classic American clothing, and I try to take it in a modern direction that stays true to the traditional.
With the surge of popularity in classic men’s workwear, conservative suiting and a general return to quality garments — American-made and built to last — would you consider this trend tied to the economy? Have young rural and suburban transplants to New York fueled this interest in “authenticity”?
Yes to all. I think our generation saw the fall of the United States apparel manufacturing industry after Nafta. Mass production, for the most part, went away with Nafta, so factories have had to rethink how to exist. What we’re experiencing now is a revival of quality and authenticity and a new way for America to compete. This in turn can create a new opportunity for our design community. It is a very marketable proposition and one that I hope continues to build.
With all the collaborations going on between heritage brands and newer labels, do you have any intentions of following suit?
When the collaboration is right for all involved and feels like a natural fit, then to me it makes sense. We would certainly welcome the right project with a like-minded partner. For example, we are working with Stetson this coming fall to create a limited-edition collection of headwear and accessories inspired by our love of American workwear. We’re using turn-of-the-century deadstock materials, mixed with Louisiana nutria and waxed cottons. This idea is to marry their heritage with our perspective on the functional outdoor products.
You live in Florence, Ala., but are frequently in New York to visit your shop on Bond Street. How do you spend your time here?
I spend most of my time in the East Village or near our shop, and during the day I bounce from factory to factory in the garment center. I’ve got a few local hangouts like Great Jones, 11th Street Bar, Think Coffee, Dashwood Books, the Smile and the Bowery Hotel that I visit from time to time.
If I were to visit Florence, where would you suggest I go?
Our area has a rich music heritage — the Stones, Dylan, Aretha, Lynyrd Skynyrd and thousands of other notables recorded here. Sam Phillips and W.C. Handy are from here. So some music studio tours would be fun. We have a beautiful historic downtown with a little sandwich shop, Trowbridge’s, which hasn’t changed since 1918. Also, we are on the Tennessee River, so some time on the water would be a nice treat as well. We love it here, which is why we choose it is as home base.
It’s obvious that the South is a big part of your life and an influence in your work. From where else do you draw your inspiration?
Life experiences, whether travel, a few days in the woods, spending time in our local library just hanging, music of all kinds, photography new and old. I guess inspiration comes from everywhere if you let it.
What’s your opinion on linen or white after Labor Day?
My mother would say absolutely not! However, I’ve used linen mixed with wool for certain washed techniques that seem right for early fall. White, other than a shirt, is probably a stretch unless you’re in West Palm.
I’ve made no secret of my love of JMB. What I had not heard is that there is finally going to be a definitive and revealing doc on the art legend. Linda Yablonsky of T Magazine writes about the new documentary, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child,” she previewed at, of all places, Art Basel in Miami - which couldn’t be further from the roots at which Basquiat’s art had sprung. She writes a very poignant summary of her experience and how it was juxtaposed by the gaudiness of the week. Here is an excerpt:
“The last thing anyone expects from an art fair in a resort town like Miami Beach is a shattering emotional experience. The fair is about the commerce of bling, not the transformation of the spirit. Yet that is what arrived on Friday night, when the filmmaker Tamra Davis previewed her new documentary, “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child,” at the Colony Theater on Lincoln Road.
The film, which will premiere next month at the Sundance Film Festival, was a labor of love for Davis, who met the artist in 1983 and, with the screenwriter Becky Johnston, interviewed him on camera two years before his death, at age 27, from a heroin overdose. That was in 1988. Davis then put the footage away until a traveling museum retrospective made it clear that there was little of the actual Basquiat on film. (He played a character role in “Downtown ‘81,” and Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat,” with Jeffrey Wright in the title role, was partly fiction.)
“Jean-Michel was so angry about friends he felt had betrayed him by selling paintings he had given them,” Davis told the audience during a brief panel discussion at the screening, “that I felt making a film would be taking more advantage of him, even after his death.” Eventually she made a short and submitted it to Sundance, where the Arthouse Films producer David Koh saw it and encouraged her to turn it into a feature-length story.
At the screening, the hip-hop producer Fab Five Freddy, who was a Basquiat cohort, recalled the intense rivalry between Schnabel and the younger art star. “Julian making a film about Jean-Michel is like George Foreman making a film about Muhammad Ali,” he said, to knowing laughter. Tamra Davis’s Basquiat, he added, is the real thing.
I can vouch for that. Basquiat was someone I knew personally, and the film, which details his meteoric career and includes poignant interviews with key friends and colleagues (Glenn O’Brien, Diego Cortez, the dealers Annina Nosei and Bruno Bischofberger, Fab and Basquiat’s longest-term girlfriend, Suzanne Mallouk, among others), made my heart ache. Davis has created a profoundly moving testament to an artist who really could not do anything but make paintings, to the gritty New York of the early ’80s and to the creative community that helped foster Basquiat’s genius. It is also, as Davis put it, “a classic tale of what fame does to someone who is so beautiful and has such force.” At the end, everyone sat for several minutes in stunned silence, hardly a dry eye in the house.
I thought about the places I could have gone that night — the cocktail party at the Webster for Victor and Rolf, the Moncler dinner for Pharrell Williams at Casa Tua, the Gang Gang Dance concert at O.H.W.O.W, the Visionaire party at Le Baron in the Delano, Francesco Clemente’s dinner for Sante d’Orazio at the W — and how ironic it was that the tragedy at the heart of this film provided the only real perspective on the madness of the whole week, which the fair itself had engineered. Against the dozens of relentlessly product-promoting social events surrounding it, the real world isn’t just distant. It doesn’t exist.”
Time again to play the game- “guess the ass behind the quote.“
“I don’t want to sound snotty or cocky. Let’s just say I’m blessed to have my own company. Whatever I want, I can have it made.”
Love these images of Joan Jett circa 1977 by Brad Elterman.
Divey West Hollywood “rock n’ roll” motel. Black tee. Raw denim. Worn in vulcanized army-style gym shoes. John Wayne on the tele - perfect.
I love this trailer. So different from the ones they do now, where the entire movie is shown in “best-of” snippets. Welles was a bloody genius. From the series of doc segments (after the jump) you can see how he started to unravel. So it seems most everyone has to deal with a failure in leadership, or management armed with grand myopia… I’m not sure if I take comfort in this realization, or if its a sad comment on the world.
Sadly, a great actor and star of a guilty pleasure of mine from 80’s TV has passed away. Edward Woodward was 79. R.I.P.
Mickey Rooney. Still going after all these years (89 of them). He’s a constant even though you’d figure he passed away years ago. I’m happy to report he is still alive and kicking, though he looks a bit different now from the photo above. He was a massive film star in the thirties, served in WWII… the guy has seen so much, lived through so many era’s- he’s a walking time capsule.