Posted December 10, 2009 at 11:37am
More by Gabrielle Ferrer: Transparency IV. Tape, paper and ink on plastic lighting panel, 7” x 9” (2009)
Posted December 10, 2009 at 11:33am
A map of Laurel Canyon (ink on architectural linen) from the series Pocket Walks. Laurel Canyon Boulevard by Gabrielle Ferrer, on view starting Saturday, December 12 as part of the show “All Time Greatest” at the FOCA Gallery in Los Angeles.
With the curator repositioned as fan or enthusiast, artists were selected out of an admiration for or curiosity about their musical knowledge and tastes. The center of the gallery will feature a turntable and record collection composed of each artist’s chosen “all time greatest” album. Visitors are welcome to thumb through and listen to the records. The pairing of visual art and music emphasizes the temporal dimension of viewing, and comfortable seating will invite visitors to spend extended time with the works on display. Against the culture of rapid digital file sharing, All Time Greatest uses the exhibition format as an opportunity to revive an analog, old-school approach to sharing music at the same time that it adapts the fan culture of audiophiles to the task of the curator.
Ferrer’s series also includes a soft-ground etching (on a plate that she kept in her pocket while walking Laurel Canyon Boulevard); a 35mm photograph taken on the walk; and a Judee Sill song letterpress. Really smart; really beautiful. Other works here.
It was 29 years ago… yesterday. In honor of Sir Winston O’ Boogie, here’s the trailer for Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy, out 26 December in the U.K. and Spring 2010 in the U.S.
Posted December 6, 2009 at 9:49am
A canvas cowboy hat worn by Hank Williams during his time with Hank & Hezzy’s Drifting Cowboys in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Sold yesterday for $1,750 at Christie’s Country Music Sale. More from the auction here.
At the risk of inspiring an off-season invasion of New York chowhounds at what’s long been my favorite place to eat when home—my parents are among the few year-round residents of North Beach, on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island—I give you Mustache Bill’s. In continual operation since 1959, Bill’s earlier this year became the first diner to win an America’s Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation.
The only thing better than the decor is the food. Owner Bill Smith, who’s so skilled on the griddle that he can “paint” edible portraits of customers with pancake batter, started laboring as a dishwasher at 13 for the original owner, the late Joe Sprague, and learned how to cook from Charlie Lynch, who worked for Sprague. Smith bought the place in 1972. He still makes everything from scratch.
Some photos from my latest visit:
Best chicken cheesesteak ever.
Best turkey club too.
Not kitschy, just classic.
Mustache Bill’s Diner, Bayview Ave, Barnegat Light, NJ, 08006
Possible LP cover? From the Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection at the Library of Congress. Russia, circa 1905-1915.
Via NiN.
Christmas card sent by Surrealist artist and poet Kay Sage to Eleanor Howland Bunce (1959). From a new exhibition of personal, handmade holiday cards by American artists at the Smithsonian’s Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Image gallery here.
Paul Rand for IBM. Not so coincidentally, I bought a few Rand-designed Paul Valéry books from Mr. J.P. Williams at the Pop-Up Flea last week. He’s a terrific guy. See more from Williams’ IBM corporate identity/ephemera collection at his blog, Amass.
Wanted: Student molecular model set (c. 1940s). Wood balls and steel springs; white, red, orange, black, green.
