Dive into the archives.
- Habitus 04: N.O.L.A.
A few months ago I mentioned a trip I made with my friend Josh to the great city of New Orleans. He was putting the finishing touches on the fourth issue of his magazine Habitus and I was tagging along. (Wrote a post about, want to hear it, here it go…)
The issue is out now and it’s very good, probably my second favorite so far. (Issue 02: Sarajevo is still holding down #1) Here’s a little blurb on the content…
Our edition features some of the leading writers and thinkers from the city and beyond: including Rodger Kamenetz, Andrei Codrescu, Nancy Lemann, and others. In addition to our usual array of terrific fiction and poetry, we have a meditation on disaster and memory from Ari Kelman, a celebrated environmental historian, a photo essay documenting the city’s unique and exuberant street culture from photographer L.J. Goldstein; an extraordinary memoir of the intersection of African-American and Jewish roots in one New Orleans family from Ronne Hartfield; interviews with musician-historian Ned Sublette and the Brazilian urban-planning innovator Jamie Lerner; and many more exciting features.
Regardless of the fact that’s its my friend’s project, Habitus really is a unique and constantly edutaining publication. Order a copy yesterday or better yet subscribe…
To celebrate the issue I want to post up a conversation that I sat in on while I was down in NO. It was between Josh and Ronald Lewis, an advocate and spokesperson for the city’s Lower Ninth Ward and the founder of The House of Dance and Feathers , a museum that honors the cultural traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians and Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs of New Orleans. The conversation provides as much background as you’ll need, so I’m just gonna get to it. VERY good read for anyone interested in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, parade culture, or hearing a southern black man describe the horrors of eating Gefilte fish…
Joshua Harry Ellison: How did this place get started?
Ronald Lewis: Well, you know, I started this before Katrina. I had a little building called The House of Dance and Feathers…
JHE: Here?
RL: Yeah. But it was a smaller building that faced the street. That picture in front of you there, that’s how the interior of the original building looked. And Katrina took all of that. And I remember, right after the storm, me and LJ [Goldstein] made contact with each other, and he came out with his little club - the 69 Social and Pleasure Club, Krewe du Jieux, and everybody - and got me some help to clean out my house and get my life back started.
Then I spoke at a conference called Reinhabiting NOLA at Loyola University, with Rachel [Breunlin]’s husband Dan Etheridge and Dr Helen Regis. I spoke and told them that I needed help to rebuild to show that this could happen after all of this devastation. And the help came, and out of that came this: the new House of Dance & Feathers - a living story out of all this pain and suffering and misery.
Popularity: 3% [?]
- Haas & Hahn in the house
UPDATE: I wrote a short piece on the project for Art Review. Check it here.
I’m still in Rio and it is pretty damn mind-blowing. I plan to write something about this trip, but I’m not sure when. I estimate I’ll need approximately 3 weeks inside a sensory deprivation tank to recollect myself, and I’ll hopefully get to work after that. For now I want show some images from the thing that brought me here - Rio Cruzeiro, an amazing painting that my friends Jeroen & Dre (aka Haas & Hahn) just completed in Vila Cruzeiro, a favela in Rio. I’ve written about their project a few times, so for some background check these posts: 1 2 Or better yet check their site Favela Painting.
Here’s a tour of the painting I made on my first day here. The weather wasn’t good that day, so hopefully I’ll take some more before I leave…
There’s some really nice photos from the painting’s ‘grand opening’ last weekend. They were taken by Douglas Engle. Check em here.
Props boys.
Popularity: 6% [?]
- Beijing Rising
Through a miracle of Facebook, I just became aware of this beautiful/bleak video made by Neville Mars of Dynamic City Foundation. Neville strapped a camera to a helium baloon and flew it over Wang Jing, a neighborhood in northern Beijing. During the Olympic viewing frenzy, some people asked me to explain what Beijing was like before the Games. I wish I’d had this clip then, it would have saved me a lot of unnecessary waffle.
Check out more DCF projects at the bURB site.
Also, buy their book The Chinese Dream.Popularity: 8% [?]
- Save the date
For a while now I’ve been hyping up Favela Painting, a project created by the Dutch imagineering duo Haas & Hahn. (Check this post and this one and this one to see what I’m talking about…)
Well, their efforts are finally reaching a climax with the completion of their latest and greatest work “Rio Cruzeiro” and to celebrate they’re hosting a weekend of fun, sun, and hopefully no guns in Rio. Here’s some text from the announcement:
Haas & Hahn proudly announce the inauguration of Rio Cruzeiro, a Favela Painting Project, on 17-19 October 2008
Rio Cruzeiro, an artwork by Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn. A +2000 m2 painting of a Japanese style river based on a design by master tattooist Rob Admiraal. Painted together with kids from the community of Vila Cruzeiro, the most infamous favela of Rio de Janeiro.
The weekend of the 17th - 19th of October will feature an opening party, photo exhibit and video installations in the center of Rio de Janeiro. On the 18th the painting will be unveiled, followed by a huge blockparty. There will be photo opportunities for the press, guided tours through the community and the whole day will be planned in cooperation with the IBISS Community Center.
If you’re in the neighborhood come through and check it out. Even if you’re not and aren’t planning to be, change plans and come check it out. It’s guaranteed infotainment for one and all. I’m going, so you know it’s the shit! Nuff said.
For more info: www.favelapainting.com
Popularity: 8% [?]
- A handshake from Lok
My friend Lok Jansen is an architect, illustrator, and all around awesome person. He lives in Tokyo with his equally awesome wife Naoko and I don’t see them enough. Fortunately, Lok occasionally hits me off with some of his latest work, and somehow the space between here and there feels smaller. Yesterday was such a day - in my inbox, amongst the boring work shit and junk mail, I found a glowing orb of flavor in a the form of email from Lok with 4 sketches attached. The sketches are inspired by the urban villages around southern China. (I wrote a little bit about a visit I made to one in this post from a while ago.)
Anyway, these sketches are off the hook. Here’s what Lok said about them:
I’m doing these for a new cityscape or two about the Urban Villages. Went and spent time in a couple of them in Shenzhen and in Guangzhou. Places like the Handshake Apartments (Wo Shou Lau) in Shenzhen, and Ba Deng Cun (巴登村). After the mostly Japanese cityscapes I was looking for something new and was of course struck by the very high density, the amount of life, activity, struggle and joy. Which is why I added people to these for the first time - to have them contrast with the wild machine-like surroundings, and have the environment stand for the overwhelming situation the people are trying to overcome. I was impressed by peoples ‘let’s make some money’ attitude, but also struck by the vulnerability of each individual. And of course I wanted to do tribute to the pajama stylo.
Here they are (click to enlarge highly recommended):
And as an extra bonus, here’s a short film Lok made while walking through the “handshake apartments” (我手楼, so named because the buildings are packed in so tight that neighbors can shake hands out of their windows) in Shenzhen. I think a lot of what Lok mentioned is evident here and it makes the sketches that much more beautiful.
Popularity: 11% [?]
- Favela Update
I’ve written a couple of times before about Favela Painting, an amazing project that my friends Jeroen & Dre are doing in Brazil.
They’ve spent most of the last few years making movies, music videos, and murals in Vila Cruzeiro, a
slumshantytownfavelacommunity in Rio. The neighborhood became world infamous in 2002 when a journalist named Tim Lopes who’d been working undercover investigating a local drug gang was viciously beaten and burned in a roadside ditch. The incident caused a lot of employers to pull out of Vila Cruzeiro and the area still suffers from a reputation as an ultra-violent, almost uninhabitable place.The Favela Painting project was created partly to counteract this image and raise awareness of the people who quietly endure behind the haze of shock stories and homicide stats. It launched in 2006 with ‘The boy with the kite’, a mural that Jeroen and Dre created together with local kids on the side of a building that eventually became the neighorhood’s first art gallery. It generated a lot of positive press for the area. Here’s one piece from The Guardian.
And here’s a short clip about the mural with interviews with Vito and Mauri, two of the guys who helped make it.
On the strength of that, last year Jeroen & Dre started working on a much more ambitious painting - a 2000M² monster depicting a carp-filled river, rendered in the style of Japanese tattoos and woodblock prints. The work is ongoing, but here are some of the latest pics…
They’ve also been putting videos of the process up on youtube, including some awful ones from when they need the shut down and run for cover when gunfights break out.
This is a great project, one that deserves support. You can read a lot more about it on their website - www.favelapainting.com . There’s also an option for giving donations, which I know they’d appreciate.
Popularity: 8% [?]
- Awesome Book: The Chinese Dream
Very Friend Neville Mars and his colleagues at the Dynamic City Foundation have just released an amazing new book called The Chinese Dream. Neville is an architect from Holland. We met in New York in ‘99 when he was working with a couple friends on a film called NYNTEEN NYNTY NYNE, and over the years I’ve come to deeply admire his commitment to quality and overall flip mode ethic.
He moved to China four or five years ago, lured by an announcement that China planned to build 400 new cities of 1 million inhabitants each by 2020, or 20 new cities a year for 20 years. He co-founded DCF, a kind of amorphous collective of sociologists, planners, researchers and designers, and got to work. In 2003 they launched the Urban China 2020 project, an in-depth study of the effects of China’s flash-urbanization and what designers could do in response. To expand the pool of participants, observers, critics, etc. a couple of years ago DCF established an online collaboration platform called BURB for open-source research and design.
The Chinese Dream (010, 2008) is the culmination of these efforts, a 784-page opus that I can honestly say is the most beautiful book on China I’ve ever seen. Besides that I can’t say much more, though, because I haven’t actually read it yet. Neville showed it to me last month between drinks and in poor lighting conditions, but I was honestly blow away by it. So I’m riding with that emotion. (Nev holla)
Here are some sample spreads, in case you think I’m exaggerating. Click to enlarge…
To view many more and read the book’s introduction, check out the Chinese Dream fact sheet here.
I don’t think it’s arrived in western stores yet, but you can order the book from the publisher’s site here.
For all the Beijing heads, here are a few places where you can pick it up…
FakeSpace www.fakedesign.co.uk
Bookworm www.beijingbookworm.com
Timezone8 timezone8.com
Onewaystreet Library, Yuanmingyuan www.onewaystreet.cnPopularity: 6% [?]
- nu un
For the past few days I’ve been in Guangzhou meeting up with friends and celebrating the opening of a new shop for United Nude, a fashion company owned by my friends Rem and Galahad that’s dedicated to improving the overall sexiness of women around the world. I was too busy hugging and irresponsibly drinking to take any photos of the opening, so here’s a shot from UN’s spring/summer collection, which I think demonstrates the brand’s core strengths: innovation, beauty, and stripper friendliness.
Check out the rest of the collection here.
Buy United Nude here.Popularity: 9% [?]
- Zaplin & Powernap present: A Morricone Gangster
My friend Jesse aka Powernap and his partner Zaplin have thrown their hats into the Jiggaman remix ring. As I mentioned a while ago, that is a very crowded ring, but, somehow, the best of the best find ways to keep it fresh. A Morricone Gangster is a good example. It samples the shoot-em-up sounds of legendary composer Ennio Morricone and gives the American Gangster album a welcome dose of international flavor.
Here’s a sample: Morricone Gangster remix of “Sweet” (ironically one of my least favorite songs on the original album)
DOWNLOAD
right-click + ’save link as’ (mac) / ’save target as’ (windows)Download the album free from the Morricone Gangster site.
I’m a little late putting this up, but whatever. Classic material stands the test of time.
Popularity: 10% [?]
- Habitus 03: Buenos Aires
My friend Josh makes an incredible magazine called Habitus. It’s a quarterly journal that explores the concept of diaspora, from inside, outside, above and below. The emphasis is on the Jewish experience, but it expands far beyond that. Each issue takes a different city for its subject. The latest is about Buenos Aires. It includes interviews with composer Osvaldo Golijov and photographer Marcelo Brodsky, fiction from Rodrigo Fresan, Anna Maria Shua, and Marcelo Birmajer, poetry from Alejandra Pizarnik, Tal Nitzan, and Mirta Rosenberg…and a rare interview with Jorge Luis Borges. An excerpt from it will be featured in the “Readings” section of April issue of Harper’s Magazine. (!)
I don’t actually have it yet (LOL), but the issues before it, Budapest and Sarajevo, were both eye opening and mind expanding. So Josh, hook that up.
To learn more and order, check the habitus site.
Here’s Josh’s introduction to the issue:
It’s winter in Buenos Aires, one of the coldest ever. This is a port city in the southern hemisphere—low and humid—and the winds here have a raw, sudden sting. People look restless. If they are outdoors, their heads are down. Most activity has been driven inside. All the life that usually takes place on the street has been corralled into narrow spaces. Noise floods out through the openings in every border or barrier.
(more…)Popularity: 7% [?]
- Nepr in the mix
What can I say. Spring is coming and Drunken Lion Sound System is making it rain. Two new mixes today, both by Nepr from a land down under.
This one’s from a while back. Download it immediately. It’s amazing.
DOWNLOAD
Right-click + ’save link as’ [mac] / ’save target as’ [window]TRACKLIST:
1. antibalas - battle of the species
2. incredible bongo band - apache
3. incredible bongo band - bongo rock ‘73
4. sizzla - hard ground
5. truths and rights riddim (instr)
6. Richie Spice - youths are so cold
7. bikstok rogsystem - 3 stk’s toj
8. Ghost in a shell (soundtrack) - making of a cyborg
9. dj shadow - organ donor
10. bloc party - hunting for witches
11. Kubus/Delic - braz-ill
12. crazy (dancehall remix)
13. gnarls barkely - crazy
14. Diplo vs RJD2
15. burning marijuana (LIVE)
16. Nanko - lucky you
17. Daweh Congo - guidance
18. Junior Reid - One Blood
19. Diana King - Shy Guy
20. I Wayne - Living in Love
21. Doctors Darling Riddim (instr)
22. Tanya Stevens - It’s a pity
23. Bookshelf Riddim (instr)
24. Roll Deep (instr)
25. Roll Deep - Heat
26. Kubus - Spaanse Peper
27. Ghostface - astro (ft. Kubus)
28. Iration Steppas - Rasta Headquarters
29. High Tone - The Orientalist
30. High Tone - Jesus Christ Supastar
31. High Tone - Wicked Tune
32. High Tone - Taniotoshi
33. Men at Work - i come from a land down underHere’s his new one vetste miks ooit Also great.
TRACKLIST:
intro: skippy
1. Mr.Vegas - Hot Wuk
2. Beenie Man - Remix T (Junkaroo Riddim)
3. South Rakkas Crew - Chinkuzi Riddim - Ston
4. Elephant Man - Head top
5. Sean Paul - Private Party (Atmosphere Riddim)
6. DeMarco - War Dem All Day N Night
7. Aidonia - Bukam Bukam (Bill BAck Riddim)
8. DeMarco - Duppy Know Who Fi Frighten
9. Hotwinter Riddim :
a. Bling Dawg - Anytime
b. Sean Paul - I Can Give You Pleasure
c. Busy Signal - Wine Up Pon Me
d. Dr Evil - Fluffy
10. Magic System - Un Gaou A Oran
11. Magic System - Bouger Bouger
12. Jaylib - Champion Sound
13. Tay Zonday - Chocolate Rain (FS Green Remix)
14. Jahcoozi - Shake The Doom
15. Lady Sovereign - Gatheration
16. ModeSelektor - 2000007 feat TTC
17. Seeed - Pleas feat. Lady Saw
18. South Rakkas Crew - Version (Red Alert Riddim)
19. Kano - P’s & Q’s
20. ModeSelektor - The Wedding Toccata Theme
21. Simian Mobile Disco - It’s The Beat
22. Opposites - Dom Lomp & Famous feat Willy Wartaal & DioPopularity: 7% [?]
- Drunken Lion Mixtape #4: Stupidtelligent
OK, #4 in the Drunk Lion Sound System mixtape series just arrived from DJ Gringo Drama out in Rio. Blended using the finest dancehall, dub, hip hop, house, and d&b, this mix is simply delicious. Drink up…
Here’s the tracklist:
01 - LAZARUS - PINCH
02 - SUFFERING AND SMILING - TALIB KWELI, JORGE BEN, DEAD PREZ
03 - WHEN YOU HOLD ME - HORSEPOWER PRODUCTIONS
04 - PIMP FLAVOURS - HORSEPOWER PRODUCTIONS
05 - FRIQUE FRIQUE - HELDER REI DO KUDURO
06 - GAMMA - LUKE ENVOY
07 - KING TUBBY’S KEY - KING TUBBY & SOUL SYNDICATE
08 - VERSION 78 STYLE - GLEN BROWN & KING TUBBY
09 - RUN TO THE DUST - WESTERNSYNTHETICS
10 - DA WEASEL - BURAKA SOM SISTEMA
11 - MINE TO GIVE - PHOTEK
12 - HOW DO I LET GO - DENNIS FERRER FEAT. K.T. BROOKS
13 - SWING MY WAY - THREE WAY PLAYAZ
14 - BOUNCE INST. - TIMBALAND
15 - DAT GIRL RIGHT THERE INST. - USHER
16 - LOOKING GOOD - AMP G
17 - MY LOVE (DUBSTEP REMIX) - RUF
18 - GHOST TOWN - ROSSI B & LUCA
19 - NOBODY KNOWS - ROSSI B & LUCA
20 - BLOOD VERSION - JA-MAN ALLSTARS
21 - NO ONE REGGAE REMIX - ALICIA KEYS FEAT. DAMIAN MARLEY
22 - ANGOLA - BONGA & DON KIKAS
23 - ANSWER - HENRY & LOUIS MEETS BLUE & RED
24 - FOXY - BOXCUTTER
DOWNLOAD
right click + ’save link as’ [mac] / ’save target as’ [windows]Popularity: 6% [?]
- NYCity - direct your eyeballs here.
According to my dear friends at Google, VERY FEEL gets more visits from New York than any other city. So I thought I’d try to make some use of that and promote an event that I’d definitely be at if I was in NY.
I’m not 100% sure of everything that this exhibition involves, but I know a major part is dedicated to the photos of Iwan Baan, one of the nicest, travelingest men I know. For the past couple years he’s been criss-crossing China photographing interesting/outrageous/ridiculous buildings. Here’s a small taste of what he’s showing…
The show is running until the end of May.
The opening is tomorrow from 6-8
at
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
New York NY 10012For more information check out www.aiany.org
Popularity: 7% [?]
- Putting the R in dance theateR
“A person hears only what he understands.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Life is a song.” - Robert Sylvester Kelly
One of the most important facets of R Kelly’s genius is his ability to take inspiration from (literally) anything. Whether he’s comparing a rocky relationship to a rodeo or the woman he loves to a jeep, Mr. Showbiz understands that any and everything can be transformed into art. So while some may take offense when he describes the act of lovemaking as “hopping like two kangaroos” or the female reproductive organs as “a big old piece of cake” that “tastes like Skittles”, the Pied Piper of R&B is, in his own playful, funky way, acknowledging the essential oneness of all things.
In his latest work, GrindFaust, dancer-choreographer and very friend Adrian Jevicki brings the R’s all-inclusive ethos into the realm of dance theater, retelling a masterpiece of German literature against a background of contemporary R&B jizams. In the words of the press release
Movementpants presents GrindFaust, a fresh telling of Goethe’s epic-poem-play featuring the music of R&B master, Robert Kelly. The company’s signature blend of mime, physical comedy and contemporary dance is fused with the physical vocabulary of the modern R&B dance video to bring new light to a dusty ol’ classic.
Here is a clip from the show’s opening at the Tank in New York.
Adrian’s company movementpants is also spearheading a drive to make modern dance available to a wider audience by offering reduced rate commissions. As their website says, “Just send us what tune you’d like a dance for and we’ll make a dance for it, put it on a dvd and mail it to you.” Doesn’t get more art-for-the-people than that…
Find out more at the movementpants site.
Popularity: 7% [?]
- Opa! New flavors from Rio
My friends Jeroen & Dre are working on an amazing project called Favela Painting that I wrote about a while ago.
Over the summer, they shot a video for the song ‘Beijo na boca’ by Rio Bebel
DOWNLOAD
Right-click + ’save link as’ (mac) ’save target as’ (pc)the video’s out and it’s awesome:
They also made a hip hop movie in favelas around Rio:
And for a final treat, here’s the ‘drunk in the morning’ mixtape by Jeroen AKA Gringo Drama:
DOWNLOADPopularity: 7% [?]
