Romain-Gavras myspace

Wow, how menacing is that first video? I like the use of a montage to tell a story. I remember seeing that Jay-Z 99 problems video a fews years back and was just amazed. Of course it’s not just the technique, it’s also the use of ghetto as a subject is always curious and fucking crazy -it’s the bad=cool all over again.

Signatune

Mark Romanek and Wong Kar-wai montages:

Crowd outside before going in

Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoski

Packed theater

Deathbowl to Downtown

I thought the documentary was interesting. Its discussion spans between 1970s - 1990s and begins with a little introduction of skateboarding from its Californian roots. The emphasis is on how New York is an anti-skateboarding city but the skateboarders adapted to the surroundings during NY’s economic ups and downs. There are a lot of skateboarding videos, cameos by well known artists, skateboarders, the original Zoo York team, SHUT Skateboarding company during the 90’s, there’s a New York City map by artist Neckface, voice over by Chloe Sevigny, the development of NY’s prevalence for freestyling, the saturation of skateboarding in culture, tv, commercials, etc. The documentary took between 2-3 years to complete but personally I don’t think you can tell. I have never skateboarded in my life but I thought it was interesting.

Neckface

I like his work. The pulling up of the jacket to the face is instinctual. I think he was being courteous because he had a cold, and he didn’t want to pass it on to me. He’s just a nice guy, what can I say?

Mountain Dew Sponsored After-Party @ Waterfront


Yo I’m on the internets Aron Downtown Don

There was a skate ramp @ Waterfront





The meat in the burgers tasted like tuna

Skateboarding




DJ Paul Sevigny, in relation to Chloe Sevigny? Maybe?



Tonight was just the beginning. Photographic History of Skateboarding in New York City Reception on May 9th, 2008 @ Etnies Showroom 29 Greene St., NYC, NY. PUBLIC VIEWING starts Saturday May 10th 12-6PM. Visit their site.

In an effort to look for a new job, Yutaka Tsujino created Yutaka Sucks.com where he shows off his portfolio of Ad work and provides hilarious testimonials from real? ex-coworkers/bosses on how much he sucks. According to Gawker.com, his efforts has already gotten him a new job.

I just watched Naissance Des Pieuvres (Water Lillies). It’s about sexual confusion of teenage girls. I liked it. I didn’t know what it was about, beforehand, and if you watch the trailer, you wouldn’t know what it’s about either. That’s how they should market films, by showing you interesting images without any explanation of the plot or subject whatsoever. No, that’s not completely true. The trailer conveys sexy confusion, which is what this movie’s about.

I also saw 2 Days in Paris. This was Sunday. I liked it very much. It’s funny. It’s directed by Julie Delpy, the actress in the movie. I like her after having seen this. I recommend watching this movie too. If I were you, I would start by watching this one and then Water Lillies after a few days. 2 Days in Paris is a comedy.

Adam Goldberg is likable, as the over-intellectualized New Yorker in Paris. I have never seen The Hebrew Hammer, which he was also in. I’m glad I didn’t see that cause not knowing much about Adam Goldberg, other than from having seen him in a few episodes of Friends, made him feel fresh. That’s just me.

The movie feels very personal. I love the camera work. The story is about a Parisian, Julie Delpy, with her boyfriend in Paris.

Theme, Giant Robot, The Journal, The Economist, GQ and Details

Best and Brightest: The Chief Spring Showcase
FRIDAY, MAY 2nd, 7pm-10pm
hosted bar

exhibited photography by:
Jeff Barnett-Winsby
Jaimie Warren
Brad Troemel
Maxim Ryazansky
Santiago Mostyn

music provided by:
DJ Rev McFly

@ The ARM
281 N.7th St & Havemeyer/Meeker, BKNY

Theo Boettger

Dirty Tricks

May 1 - June 7, 2008

Opening reception:
Thursday, May 1, 6-9 PM

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art
547 West 27th Street
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001
(between 10th & 11th Ave.)

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art is pleased to present Dirty Tricks, Theo Boettger’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Born and raised in former East Germany, Boettger fuses expressive brushstrokes and graffiti style technique with tradition and street art; mixing bright colors with a subtle palette of dark tones and hues.

Boettger’s work combines painting, sculpture and installation that ask larger questions about humanity as seen from a personal perspective. The artist observes life in his home city of Berlin, taking in its citizen’s response to society’s many hardships, the manipulative forces of mass media and the visible excesses of capitalism. He comments on these issues while aligning himself with the individual’s struggle against these forces.

Artistic examinations of upheaval in society by means of street observations have a rich historical tradition in Germany. The high point of this tradition was, arguably, the urban painting of Expressionism and Critical Realism in the 1920’s. By juxtaposing the rich and the poor, and combining the seemingly limitless possibilities for amusement in Germany’s capital Berlin and the individual’s experience of social anonymity, artists like George Grosz and Otto Dix often created a very specific tension in their narrative.

Boettger’s work seems to draw on this tradition by creating a pandemonium of contemporary life on the brink of the abyss. Drawing from his own personal experiences as an artist living and working in Berlin’s historic working class neighbourhoods (Wedding and Neukoelln), Boettger confronts the viewer with demoralising details of social inequality and the apparent hopelessness of the human condition. Rivalling the unemployment rate of the ‘20s, these neighbourhoods have become an infamous testimony to a forgotten youth, where competing gangs fight each other on a daily basis, while others attempt to go about their own “business,” but are merely getting by. Boettger’s work carries a stark critique of western capitalism as it is prevalent in Berlin and post- reunification Germany.

Theo Boettger was born in Meißen, Germany in 1975 and currently lives and works in Berlin. He holds an MFA, under Professor H. P. Adamski, from the Academy of Fine Arts, Dresden. He exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany including Galerie im Schloss Senftenberg, Museum des Landkreises Oberspreewald Lausitz and Gallery Pankow, Berlin. Boettger frequently works in collaboration with German artist Jan Brokof on large scale installations.

I’m going.

Tribeca Film Festival: April 23 - May 4; You buy tickets for the movies you want to see

New York Photo Festival: May 14 - 18 (buy tickets now); You buy a pass for the 4 days

Bicycle Film Festival: May 28 - June 1 (buy tickets now, May is Bike month); You buy a pass for the 4 days

New York Asian Film Festival: June 20 - July 6