halloween retrospective

I love Halloween, gratuitously and unconditionally. And Halloween in New York City is spectacular.

courtesy geekologie.com

Between the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. it’s as if the children from Where The Wild Things Are (with a couple trick-or-treaters from The Nightmare Before Christmas thrown in for good measure) take over the city, then after sundown the big kids shut down Sixth Avenue for the Halloween Parade, arguably the best in the country, and then, and then … and then somehow the sun’s up. It’s the closest the real world gets to Burning Man.

So paging through my Google Reader today I was thrilled to come across these costumes. First, geekologie’s post, “Eff It, I’m Going As an IPhone” (click the link for a dozen other photos), and secondly, L.A. artist Jubilee A. Horn’s interpretation of Shepard Fairey’s Barack Obama poster, courtesy Eyeteeth blog. Until next year … 

courtesy eyeteeth.blogspot.com

my 50K love affair (it’s a piece of art, people)

So the man burned early under a bright (red) eclipsed moon. Dust storms and barreling winds couldn’t keep the double rainbows away. I was in awe, and inspired, by the Burning Man community this year. And, in particular, with one Brooklyite’s (+ team) amazing-fantastic sculpture, about which I will continue to harp about to anyone who will listen: “If I do not see that thing permanently installed in its own atrium in a modern art museum in 20, 40 years, then there is something wrong with our curatorial system, and how we determine what is art.” This gorgeous, shining, hulk of a piece is called Big Rig Jig, and it is one of the finest modern sculptural works I have ever seen — period. I interviewed Mike Ross, and SF Weekly loved it so much they picked it up for their art blog: Burning Man’s ‘Big Rig Jig’ Artist Nails It on 1st Try — A Q&A.
And by the way, this 360/vertical panorama plus from the Las Vegas Sun is absolutely worth playing around with. Do the hokey pokey and turn yourself about — glance up, see an enormous couplea trucks — that’s what it’s all about. Ding!

this is not a(nother) post…

a.) I’ve been on a sabbatical of the soul. b.) I’ve been on vacation. c.) I’ve been in locations without internet connection. d.) I was overwhelmed. A-D above are all valid reasons **yes, excuses** for not having blogged for the last couple of months. But the point is, I love this burgeoning, creative forum, where I have virtually complete editorial control, even if no one is reading. Still satisfying (and non-navel gazing).

I had my first response to an earlier post just two days ago–that’s roughly seven months after I started this blog–but damn, it was a good one. I encourage anybody who’s read this far to check out the response to the off-the-cuff essay, which launched this blog back in January 2007, “Culture Is Not Dead.” It’s well thought out and intelligent, albeit contrary. And I have absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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I’m really excited about a lot that’s going on in my personal culturesphere right now. LA graf, the escalating debate over “authenticity”, increased Burning Man prep, sightings and musings on riffs of Magritte’s “ceci n’est pas une pipe”, the heat-inspired fragrance of the New York summer. Stay tuned.