Reggie Watts/Santogold/Taylor Mali

I wish i could claim ownership of finding this awesome man, but i cant. Someone else did and i am posting this because its so incredibly important. Reggie Watts tackles issues such as race and gender in a comedic way. The weight of his subject-matter is off set by his awesome ability to make you giggle at it......in a nervous and funny way.

In his video Fuck, Shit, Stack he uses crude language in order to comment on the lack of use of proper language within young culture today. He comments on the status of HIGH ART with his "put some fuck on a wall. ananlyze it" commentary, and ties it all together with horrible statements about women and wearing bullet proof vests for no reason, thus commenting on race. The cynicism and sarcasm are so important.

Please watch this video in its entirety. Im also attaching a Santogold song because she is amazing.

im also going to attach one more video about language specifically, taken from def jam poetry by a guy named Taylor Mali.

i vote for complete annihilation of art-speak. we need to take it back down to basic feelings while, like, you know, still declaring things to be, like, true.



what?!??!? this is brilliant!

Ellen Gallagher- DeLuxe

Ellen Gallagher- Delux


Hottie


Ellen Gallagher's work examines race through the use of ads from black publications or images of blacks. In her piece, DeLuxe, Gallagher exaggerates the wigs and blocks out the eyes of the black women in the wig ad, creating caricature like representation of the black woman.

This piece speaks to age old trend of black women conforming to European standards of beauty, trading in natural hair (in texture and color) for straight and colored hair in order to 'fit in'. On one level, Gallagher's piece is simply an exaggeration of the unnaturalness of the wigs on the black women. The bright yellow cut out brings out the odd shapes of the wigs, making them seem more like geometric headdresses rather than hair. On another level, the yellow wigs represent the hair colors that many black women chose that generally (although their are some exceptions) do not occur naturally within the black race. On the third level, the whiting out of the eyes shows loss of identity. The individuality of the black woman has been melted into white ideals of beauty, making everyone a cookie cutter image of the blond, straight haired prototype of beauty. The whiting of the eyes also adds to the caricature appeal the piece as a whole.

I'm all about people expressing themselves with their hair or whatever else, but when I see black women out on the street, on t.v, in film, or in print with long, blond straight wigs/weaves, there is something that doesn't sit well with me. I don't believe that everyone black women should always embrace their natural hair at all times, but straight blonde hair seems like such a stretch to meet another races standard of beautiful hair. One of the worst examples of this that I have seen was Hottie from Flavor of Love. She wore a long, thick, blonde wig (See image above) for the entire show and when asked if it was a wig, she said had the nerve to say her hair grew out of her head like that! When I looked at Deluxe for the first time, I thought about Hottie. All that blond hair and those big eyes. Hottie is a walking representation of DeLuxe.

Vincent Price - my long lost love

(Fabulous picture of Vincent Price as Egghead from Batman)

As a child until my teenage years, I had this obsession with Vincent Price. Anything that had Vincent Price in it, even if it was a sound clip of his voice, I was on it. One of my favorite movies when I was younger was The House of Wax. I could watch it over and over again. There was something about the macabre nature of Vincent Price and his films that I loved, plus the sound of his voice is like a knife cutting through hot butter!

Today while going through Slate.com, I found an article about Vincent Price. Apparently him and his wife were food aficionados and there are several collections of his recipes available. I even found an audio clip of him explaining how to make Viennese eggs!

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/CM/Vincent_Price_-_Viennese_Stuffed_Eggs.mp3

I am posting this for sheer entertainment value. I just want Vincent Price to come back to life, stroke my hair and read me a bedtime story. Below are youtube clips of Tim Burton's short film 'Vincent', which is narrated by Vincent Price, and Vincent Price's reading of The Raven.

My Vincent Price obsession is officially revived.

Dreams of Flying

Photographer Jan Van Holleben has a collection of photographs called Dreams of Flying. This collection is absolutely adorable. Van Holleben uses posed figures lying on solid, flat surfaces, to create the illusion of movement. The juxtaposition of the poses imitating movement on flat surfaces create playful images that evoke a happy feeling. When I look at these pictures, I think of moments when I was a child (and even now) where I let my imagination take me away to something fantastic. Even though I might be sitting on a rock alone, I could imagine that I was standing on the moon searching for life. I love that these photographs remind me of that. Below are some of the photographs I found in the collection that I adore.

Circuit bending with Pokemon

Found this guy just bored surfing. He's called Kaseo, check out his site here

Ruby Slippers

The ruby slippers are the magical shoes worn by Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) in the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz.

The ruby slippers were designed by Gilbert Adrian.

One pair is on permanent exhibition at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. (ROAD TRIP!!!!!)

The Ruby Slippers play yet another integral role in the 1985 Disney film "Return to Oz", in which Disney had to obtain rights from MGM to use reproductions in the film. Unlike the slippers used in the 1939 film, the hand-made British spool-heeled shoes for Return to Oz were covered in hundreds of red crystals.

Miranda July

http://mirandajuly.com/
Miranda July (born February 15, 1974) is a performance artist, musician, writer, actress and film director. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, after having lived for many years in Portland, Oregon.

Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 film and was the debut feature-length film by Miranda July. The film won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

This clip of the film says it all...




here are some photos i was attracted to as well: