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thedollarcrate · 5 years ago

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50 Best Albums (That I Own on Vinyl) of the Decade

It’s hard to comprehend how much transpires over the course of a decade or wrap your head around how long (or short) of time that really is.

But what better way to try than to make a list!

Now, I know “Best of” lists like this one are inherently subjective – and probably say more about their maker’s preferences than actually reflecting the best music released in a particular time period. And, I’ll be the first to admit that the list below is incredibly limited, and that I need to widen my exposure to more artists and genres.

But hey, this is all in fun.

So feel free to debate, pick apart or share your own favorite albums from the past decade. But before you dive in, just a few quick points for context:

-I only ranked albums I actually own on vinyl released between 2010 and 2019, which limited my choices to about 170 records.

-I only ranked new music released this past decade, so no reissues or older material released for the first time (sorry Prince’s Piano & A Microphone and Originals).

-I first started buying vinyl around ’09-’10 and started off purchasing mostly new releases before my habits shifted and I started looking for older records. This shows in the list below – nearly a quarter of the albums below were released in 2010 and almost 70% from the first half of the decade.

And we’re off…

50. Centipede Hz, Animal Collective (2012)

Let’s be honest, it was impossible for Animal Collective to top a universally acclaimed and era-defining album – and it was unfair to expect them to. But maybe the continuous onslaught of bizarre and eclectic music found on Centipede Hz was just what we needed after all.

49. Singles, Future Islands (2014)

So much more than Sam Herring’s pelvis busting dance moves and “Seasons (Waiting On You),” every track on Singlesbursts with life and heart pumping energy. To quote Letterman: I’ll take all of that you got.

48. Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph, Frog Eyes (2010)

I don’t think I’ll ever understand Carey Mercer’s lyrics, but I’m certain I’ll never tire of getting lost in his hidden words and knotty melodies.

47. Leaving Atlanta, Gentleman Jesse (2012)

Thirty seven minutes of Pure Power Pop Perfection (note the capital “Ps”).

46. Burst Apart, The Antlers (2011)

If there’s another album with a song titled “Putting the Dog to Sleep” that is as haunting and beautiful as this one, I don’t want to know about it.

45. Carrion Crawler/The Dream, Thee Oh Sees (2011)

With John Dwyer churning out record after record in the ‘10s, it should come as no surprise that at least one landed on this list (and they’re all great). Garage rock. Surf rock. Post-punk rock. Psych rock. Noise rock. Rock rock. I don’t care what you call it, Thee Oh Sees put the pedal to the metal on Carrion Crawler/The Dream, taking you for a wild ride that never lets up.

44. 1989, Taylor Swift (2014)

Irresistibly catchy, everyone needs to satisfy their pop sweet tooth every now and then. 1989 is so sugary, it might just give you a cavity or two.

43. City Music, Kevin Morby (2017)

The city. The countryside. A beach. Aboard a train. At the pearly gates. It doesn’t matter where you listen to City Music because Kevin Morby’s jams will immediately transport you to your own laid back, happy place.

42. Remind Me Tomorrow, Sharon Van Etten (2019)

You’ll regret it if you keep waiting to listen this powerhouse – and powerful – synth-soaked record.

41. You Want It Darker, Leonard Cohen (2016)

It doesn’t get much darker, bleaker or sparse than this, but I wouldn’t want it any other way from the masterful Leonard Cohen.

40. American Dream, LCD Soundsystem (2017)

Retirement never sounded so good.

39. Capacity, Big Thief (2017)

Quietly captivating, mesmerizing and elegant, Big Thief knock you out without you even realizing it.

38. St. Vincent, St. Vincent (2014)

Annie Clark’s shapeshifting album won’t only shred your face off, it somehow makes you feel smarter, too.

37. Before Today, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (2010)

So, so weird and so, so good.

36. Expo 86, Wolf Parade (2010)

Like #50, Wolf Parade might always live in the shadow and expectations of a towering classic, yet somehow Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner still continually craft eccentric and bombastic rock albums. Expo 86 is no exception, and it is an underrated classic in its own right.

35. Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves (2018)

Like a sunset or sunrise, Golden Hour radiates beauty and warmth with each of its glowing tracks.

34. Yuck, Yuck (2011)

Despite their name and its hideous album cover, there’s nothing gross about Yuck’s infectious indie rock.

33. Play It Strange, The Fresh & Onlys (2010)

I once saw The Fresh & Onlys play at a tiny club in D.C. It might’ve been the loudest show I’ve ever been to – my ears rang for days. This record is just as rollicking, hazy and good as that show was loud.

32. Natalie Prass, Natalie Prass (2015)

There’s a reason “Welcome to 1979” is stamped in tiny letters on this vinyl’s inner ring – it’s silky smooth, filled with impeccable soft ballads and finely tuned jams – and just a tinge of funk.

31. I Am Easy To Find, The National (2019)

Few bands matched the consistent output of quality albums in the ‘10s as The National. They had one heck of a run, and I Am Easy To Find was a fascinating way to end it – a 21st rock album that felt more complex and expansive than anything they’d done before.

30. Melodrama, Lorde (2018)

Everything a pop record should be and then some – bold, breathtaking and exuberant.

29. Just Enough Hip To Be Woman, Broncho (2014)

If you can’t tell from its playful title, this pop rock album wants nothing more than to have fun – and it succeeds on every level.

28. Avi Buffalo, Avi Buffalo (2010)

Sometimes all you want is a light, sunny and meandering album to wash over you and get lost in, and this one will do the trick every time.

27. Hippies, Harlem (2010)

Imagine a band practicing inside a garage inside a garage inside another garage and you’ve got Harlem. This is garage rock to the max – and at its rambunctious best.

26. Puberty 2, Mitski (2016)

It’s hard to describe Puberty 2. Sure, it might sound like simple dreamy indie rock, but it ebbs and flows in unexpected ways that leaves you guessing where it’s heading next.

25. mbv, My Bloody Valentine (2013)

Picking up right where they left off – even if it was more than a decade later – My Bloody Valentine reminded everyone why they are the masters of reverb soaked shoegaze.

24. A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead (2016)

Even after all these years and albums, Radiohead still found a way to reinvent themselves and push the boundaries of rock music – and our expectations of them. With gorgeous arrangements and slow-burning, tension filled tracks, AMSP proves that even Radiohead can still take risks – and proves rock bands can make quiet, intimate songs sound epic. Oh yeah, and it has “True Love Waits.”

23. Art Angels, Grimes (2015)

Grimes gave us the future of pop music before most could even envision it. This laid the groundwork for all the challenging and intricate – and danceable – pop music that would follow. And it still sounds ahead of its time.

22. Meet Me At The Muster Station, PS I Love You (2010)

The first sounds out of Paul Saulnier’s mouth on Meet Me At The Munster Station aren’t words at all but two short, ecstatic yelps. And this same boundless energy and passion bleeds through on every fuzzy, raucous second of every track. Did I mention there’s a song called “Butterflies & Boners”?

21. More Than Any Other Day, Ought (2014)

You really ought to listen to Ought if you aren’t already. Tim Darcy and co. sound a bit uneasy, paranoid and self-aware, but they make the most minute challenges sound so exhilarating and life-altering – even the struggle deciding between two percent and whole milk at the grocery store.

20. Lemonade, Beyoncé (2017)

All hail Queen Bey.

19. Twin-Hand Movement, Lower Dens (2010)

This album sounds like 2 am on a dark, rainy Saturday night – in the best way imaginable.

18. Tomboy, Panda Bear (2011)

You can always count on Panda Bear to make hypnotic, loopy electronic music sound so breezy and effortless.

17. Modern Vampires Of The City, Vampire Weekend (2013)

I don’t know why, but I want to dislike Vampire Weekend so much. But that’s impossible when their music is so damn good and every note sounds so neat and perfect.

16. Past Life Martyred Saints, EMA (2011)

Just do yourself and listen to this album please.

15. The Archandroid, Janelle Monáe (2010)

Blending too many genres to count, this is what I imagine music sounds like in space.

14. Carrie & Lowell, Sufjan Stevens (2015)

I’ll let you know how I feel about this one after I stop crying.

13. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire (2010)

It’s everything you either love or hate about Arcade Fire. Grand, sincere and sweeping rock that swings for the fences with every guitar chord, drumbeat and horn blast. I love it.

12. Silence Yourself, Savages (2013)

Savages grab you by the throat and never let go – this is one intense album.

11. Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes (2011)

This might be the epitome of ‘10s indie rock – and for good reason. Introspective, sensitive and searching for some greater meaning, Robin Pecknold holds nothing back and lays it all out on Helplessness Blues.

10. Kaputt, Destroyer (2011)

Dan Bejar is an enigma and seemingly reluctant rock star. I saw him perform an acoustic set where he spent a majority of the time playing with his back towards the audience (although in fairness, it was at a free outdoor show on a college campus with people mostly chatting obnoxiously over him), and yet it’s as if his creativity requires him to constantly release new albums and show them off. Kaputt is as equally strange and mysterious – and just as creative – as its maker.

9. Black Star, David Bowie (2016)

Take away the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding this album’s release and it would still be in the top tier of David Bowie’s extensive catalogue. Experimenting until the very end, Bowie morphed into something entirely new one last time. Part jazz, part rock and part I’m not sure what you would call it, the results were once again out of this world. He couldn’t give it all away, but we’re sure thankful for what he could.

8. Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)

Shedding the cabin in the woods vibe, Justin Vernon took a giant leap forward with Bon Iver and made ‘80s soft rock popular.

7. Celebration Rock, Japandroids (2012)

Perhaps the most aptly named album on this list, no other album exudes the joy of making music and rocking out with your buddy than this one. It’s hard to believe all that noise and energy comes from just two people.

6. Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Angel Olsen (2014)

Angel Olsen’s hypnotic and seductive vocals, lyrics and guitar suck you in immediately, mesmerizing you from the first gentle strums to the peaks and valleys of “Lights Out” and “Stars” all the way to the closer’s pulsing drumbeats and majestic piano.

5. Black Messiah, D'Angelo And The Vanguard (2015)

Oozing with cool, sexy and confident R&B funk, D’Angelo returned after 14 years with an instant soul masterpiece.

4. The Monitor, Titus Andronicus (2010)

It says a lot when a band can a.) make an hour plus punk rock record b.) loosely base it on the Civil War c.) quote Abraham Lincoln d.) close it out with a 14 minute track inspired by a famous naval battle and e.) still make you want to listen to it over and over and over again.

3. Lost In The Dream, The War On Drugs (2014)

The rare album that can feel vast and ambitious and yet deeply private and personal all at once. You really will get lost in these soaring songs.

2. Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter (2010)

At times perfectly melodic and structured and at others feeling on the brink of falling apart, Halcyon Digest is a paradox – sounding peaceful, bright and idyllic while also peering over the edge into something darker. This is a remarkable record from a remarkable band. If not for the abrupt end to the darkly beautiful closer “He Would Have Laughed,” Halcyon Digest sounds like it could go on forever.

1. Let England Shake, PJ Harvey (2011)

A stunning, thought-provoking, and moving – not to mention endlessly listenable – transcendent piece of art about life and the Great War. PJ Harvey doesn’t hold back on the brutality and absurdity of armed conflict, and the album’s devastating closing track – “The Colour of the Earth” – will linger in your mind long after the record stops spinning. As powerful today as it was eight years ago, this album will remain timely and important for years – and decades – to come.

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kalluun-patangaroa · 5 years ago

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Brett Anderson: ‘I was trying to look at myself as a specimen’

by Helen Cullen

The Irish Times, 28 September 2019

Suede singer discusses his second memoir and how it swings from candour to euphoria

Brett Anderson’s book avoids exploitation of those that travelled within his orbit, with no trace of gossip, blame or exposé. Photograph: Paul Khera

Here he comes: the beautiful one, with the book in his hand he vowed never to write. It was inevitable. Those who read his first memoir, 2018’s Coal Black Mornings, the bildungsroman which so elegantly deconstructed the childhood, adolescence and ultimate creation of the artist, will understand why it was so irresistible for him; Brett Anderson is a poet who discovered songwriting first.

Renowned for lyrics that elevate the banal, bleak ephemera of ordinary life to something extraordinary, Anderson says he finds “the iconography of mundanity inspiring. I look at a chain link fence and see romance there.” On this occasion, he has taken something extraordinary – cultural superstardom – and made it uniquely ordinary with its grounded presentation.

Once he had embraced the opportunities that writing his own memoir gave him; reclaiming truth from the tabloids, re-evaluating perceived successes and failures, creating the official record of Suede’s history, and all with the precision prose and eclectic turns of phrase that were synonymous with his lyrics, he was destined to keep going.

The first book was written for his son so that he would know his father in a way that is profoundly difficult for most of us. This time around, the book exists because Anderson loved writing Coal Black Mornings so much. “I thought it was really interesting what I did with it,” he explains, “so I couldn’t resist picking at the scab, although I know the experience of publishing this book will be different because of the period of my life that it deals with.”

Charting the ascent of Suede in the 1990s through the halcyon moments of appearing on the cover of Melody Maker before ever releasing a single, to the gut-wrenching ultimate implosion of the band, Anderson doesn’t shy away from either the glorious or the gory. The book ends backstage at the Graham Norton show with the band splitting up; the perfect moment to close as Anderson is unafraid to hold failure up to the light. As he says, “Sometimes it’s not the sparkling moments that define us but the darker ones leading up to them.”

Absence of exploitation

And yet he manages to achieve something unique for the realm of rock biography; the book exhibits a total absence of exploitation of those that travelled within his orbit, avoiding any trace of gossip, blame or exposé. All the revelations are his own; the secrets just his to tell. As such he is dispirited in anticipation of the inevitable trawling through by some for salacious quotes to satisfy a greediness for controversy.

“I know that a gossipiness is going to be projected on to it and that every review will focus on Britpop even though the whole point of the book was to try to talk about something other than that,” he says. “It was slightly naive of me to think that I could write about these things in a more interesting way without it being dragged back to that agenda, but I hope when people read it they will understand what I was trying to do.”

“I was interested in understanding what the industry did to me . . . out of fascination with how it all worked.”

In chapter one, Anderson explains his ambition was “to use elements of my own story as a way to reach out and reveal the broader picture, to look at my journey from struggle to success and to self-destruction and back again and use that narrative to talk about some of the forces that acted on me and to maybe uncover some sort of truth about the machinery that whirrs away, often unseen, especially by those on whom it is working, to create the bands that people hear on the radio.”

The result becomes a masterclass in understanding the emotional and practical infrastructure of the 1990s music industry. The micro level of Anderson’s unique personal experience is positioned within the macro in an illuminating and thought-provoking manner that contextualises their trajectory.

Amoral industry

“I was trying to look at myself as almost like a specimen,” he says. “The industry is completely amoral. It’s not deliberately trying to romanticise drugs or damage anyone but these things grow out of it. I was interested in understanding what the industry did to me, not by way of complaint, but more out of fascination with how it all worked.”

Reading Anderson’s account of the darkest days of his addiction is harrowing; it’s difficult to reconcile his past self with the refined, intellectual and incredibly warm gentleman waxing lyrical before me on a sunny September morning in his west London bolthole. More than anything, it is a relief that he survived.

The memoir manages to avoid, however, pandering to the cliches surrounding the drug-fuelled mythology of rock stars that Anderson admits being seduced by. Instead it raises questions about the consequences of mining your own self as the muse. If you become personally invested in the dangerous myths that surround creativity – so you must keep perpetuating behaviours that might destroy you in order to create – how do you ever break that cycle and find a new way to work?

Looking back now, Anderson acknowledges that “justifying indulgences is a function of that myth but you do learn that isn’t the only way to create and that you don’t need an external stimulus to generate ideas – that in fact it can have the opposite effect”.

The importance of tenacity within the creative process is a major, and refreshing, theme of the memoir. It is poignant to hear Anderson recount how a fear of returning to the poverty of his childhood drove him to persevere with the band when others might have surrendered. Although many would disagree, it’s clear that Anderson does not consider himself an artistic visionary but rather someone with a great work ethic.

“I was brought up in a very poor family, aware of the narrow limitations of my parents’ lives. Not wanting that for myself and my own family still drives me,” he explains. “A lot of great art has been created because of that fear and there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t give up and I like how hard I work, that I keep throwing ideas together and in the jumble occasionally good things pop up.”

Press caricature

Anderson’s account of how his persona was curated by the media at the height of their celebrity is compelling. Although his essential self was always driving their creative decisions, the press created a caricature of him that he lost control of and resulted in three decades of a man bridging the gap between his authentic self and a stage persona.

Brett Anderson and Suede: “It doesn’t matter what else I do now or how many great records I make because I was most influential as an artist during a certain time.”

“It wasn’t something I was conscious of doing at the time but I definitely made choices that fuelled it and the press exaggerated it further and ran with it,” he explains. For all music fans, and the Suede tribe in particular, the book offers these delicious insights into all aspects of the band; their image, songwriting craft, business decisions and relationships with the press. Did he feel any anxiety about stripping away that protective veneer now and allowing the fans and beyond to visit Oz and meet the wizard?

“There was definitely a fear that I might be undermining my own mystique to its detriment but I’m at the phase in my career where it doesn’t matter anymore. If I’d done this 15 or 20 years ago I think it would’ve affected how people see me but by now my image is too set. It doesn’t matter what else I do now or how many great records I make because I was most influential as an artist during a certain time and I can’t ever get away from the perception formed then. It’s galling, irritating, frustrating but I just have to accept that.”

In this, Anderson may not be right. This memoir has a profound capacity to alter the way music fans perceive the industry, their idols and the creative process – and to challenge any fixed ideas they may have about the man himself. In the wake of their eighth studio album, 2018’s The Blue Hour, and the incredible documentary, The Insatiable Ones, produced by Mike Christie that charts 25 years of the band, Anderson is experiencing a cultural renaissance that signifies him as an artist still in his prime. In the memoir he describes Suede as being like “a pram that’s been pushed down a hill” but his legions of fans will be relieved to hear it is finally parked up safely. For now, at least.

Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn is published by Little, Brown on October 3rd

#suede #brett anderson #press #the irish times #2019 #afternoons with the blinds drawn

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ginnyzero · 5 years ago

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My Fashion Connection

I’ve been trying to pin down lately why I love fashion and fashion design. Because I don’t love clothes and designing clothes and the choosing of fabrics because of the glitz and glam of high end runway shows and the glossy pages of Vogue magazine and adulation of famous design houses. Most of that I didn’t even know about until I went to school. I didn’t choose fashion because of any of those things. I really wanted to go into Computer Game Design because of games like Myst.

Growing up in a very small town in the middle of the southern tier of New York, fashion wasn’t anything that anyone in our town was interested in except the town pageant queen who had a ‘reputation.’ It’s dairy country. My town was and is much more interested in dirt bikes, hunting and fishing and kegger beer parties. There were a couple of families that were more well to do and worked at Cornell or IBM and thus wore nicer clothes but out of a town of say 50 to 100 people, there were more cows and farmers and retirees. It’s the type of town when two of the young people marry each other, the entire town becomes related.

My mother is a home sewer. I hate the term sewer in professional capacity because it has the connotations of a house wife sitting at home making amateur garments. My mother made a lot of my sister’s clothes growing up and when she started sending me to Christian schools with dress codes, she also made clothes for me. (Mostly jumpers.) Eventually she either got tired of sewing or felt that we needed to buy things to keep up appearances and she stopped. (This ended up with us shopping in budget discount overrun boutique shops. Yes. A thing. Family Dollar and Dollar General didn’t exist yet! And mother hadn’t discovered the “joys” of the Salvation Army and second hand or they simply weren’t close enough to shop at.)

In a tiny town, you have to drive almost an hour in every direction to get to anything that remotely resembles a fabric shop. Except, between our tiny town and the city of Ithaca we got lucky, because out in a nowhere more nowhere than our nowhere was a tiny fabric shop run by a petite old woman named Leona.

To get to Leona’s shop, you took this very twisty road over and through the hills and turned right when you finally hit another ‘major’ road. And then off to the left less than a mile was a huge stand of pine trees and in the middle of these pines was a dirt drive. You’d drive up the hill between these tall pines the rocks in the dirt crunching under your tires that opened onto a clearing on top of a hill that held a farm. Leona ran her shop out of her home, a one story mixture of a red roofed, white trailer with an add on to make it an L shape. The barn hadn’t been kept up and the red stain was fading and the barn was falling apart. You parked on the edge of the drive, hoped it hadn’t rained lately and it wasn’t pure mud so you could get back out. (If you got stuck, there was always the local farmer with a tractor and chains to pull you out.) You had to park on the edge because despite the fact the farm wasn’t an active farm, she rented out the land and your cars needed to be out of the way for the tractors to get through.

She had the shop in the add on built on the back of the trailer. Firewood piled up next to the screen door and cats lounged everywhere. Leona liked hoarding things so the walkway had gnomes, garden statues and benches and wheelbarrows and yes, there was a tiny garden windmill in the middle of the circular drive. If it was winter, salt crunched under your boots and you had to walk carefully across the ice covered mud slush. If it was spring or summer, there were flowers peeping up among the grass.

And once you crossed the threshold, warmth, Leona smiling with her curly short white hair and the measuring tape around her neck behind the measuring counter. Bolts and bolts of colorful and textured fabrics lined the walls and the blank spaces of walls over tables were old fashioned wall paper in dark red with ducks or cream and pink rose prints and warm golden colored wood panels. Painted sawblades provided decoration. The clock might have been a novelty item, a cow or a cat or even something with shears for the hands. I can’t remember. (There might have been all three.) It smelled mostly of sawdust, dust and in the winter, the sharp smell of a burning fire from the potbelly stoves. Leona’s help were also middle aged or older ladies like her and they weren’t quite as friendly, but they were helpful.

Leona stocked her shop by going down to NYC and buying overruns from the warehouses. (Overruns are fabrics that designers don't end up using and fabrics manufacturers make too much of because they predict more sales than they make. Most fabric retail stores are stocked by overruns.) She mostly had colorful cotton prints and upholstery fabric. There was a little fashion fabric and by the time I hit high school, she had things like stretch velvet. She mostly sold to quilters and people like my mother. Cornell doesn’t have a fashion design program, only a science textiles program, but she’d occasionally get students. Her hours were irregular. I don’t know if she ever turned a profit. She encouraged touching the fabric. (Though she didn’t like children taking bolts out of the shelves for good reason.) She didn’t mind that I wandered about away from my mother. She always remembered me no matter how much time had passed.

But every time I go into a fabric shop, there is still that bit of magic from going to Leona’s. When I returned from college, I wanted to go and show Leona some of my projects. She died before I got the chance and I still regret that.

Professional shops like Mood, Britex, B&J’s and to an extent the discount fabric warehouse that I used during college in San Francisco make me shake my head because the workers don’t always feel helpful. They don’t make you feel like every customer is important. They aren’t like Leona, as frail as she was, with her sunny smiles and slightly raspy voice, glasses, and cheerful attitude and love of textiles.

I also had Barbie. I’ve talked about Barbie and my love of Barbie. I would play with Barbie rather than with baby dolls. (My baby dolls took lots of naps according to my mother.) And I loved the clothing packs. I loved dressing and undressing her and trying new outfits out of the outfits I had. Barbie was a safe present to buy for me when I was growing up, because a) that meant my group of Barbie’s got new clothes and b) if this Barbie had different color hair or skin then I got more variety in my Barbies. (My favorite was the long red headed mermaid with the teal outfit. This was back when the tail was a “Skirt” you could take on and off.) I had maybe one Ken and I inherited a lot of clothes from my older sister who grew out of Barbie about the time I started getting interested. Some of them were homemade but I couldn’t get my mother to make more and she wouldn’t teach me how to sew to make them myself. (In fact, she said it was too hard and downright discouraged it. Guess who doesn’t really like sewing? Me.)

Today, I love Monster High and Ever After High, but if they’d existed when I was a child, I wouldn’t have gotten them because of my parents’ extreme dislike of anything related to monsters, ghosts or Halloween. (I am a November child people. This is ridiculous. Come on, I share a birthday with Bram Stoker. OKAY.)

And somewhere in that time, (1992 apparently, man, I was younger than I thought) when I was getting a pittance of an allowance and had saved money from Christmas, I had enough money to buy a new Barbie or a Crayola Fashion Design stencil/tracing kit. This was before Project Runway. This was before the idea that these Fashion Drawing kits were thought to be remotely popular. No one thought that little girls might like drawing clothes! (Go figure.) The Easy Bake Oven was still the biggest and most innovative thing for a girl’s toy. But Crayola came out with a stencil kit with a bunch of papers that had design outlines, and pattern rubbing plates and a light box. Everything in the kit was meant to fit in the light box. The light box was plastic, pink and ran on D batteries (not included bummer.) And I had just enough money to buy it or a new Barbie. (I think my only other difficult choice that compares to this was the Star Craft Battle Chest and something else and I chose the Battle Chest.)

(I can't believe I found a picture of that, someone is selling one on ebay.) Because, I mean, a new Barbie would only give me one set of new clothes, with this fashion design kit I could draw clothes, lots and lots and lots of clothes. I had always been an artistic child. I liked drawing. This had never really been encouraged except in the “here, have another set of colored pencils, pastels, watercolors, no lessons included.” So, here was Barbie in paper form! I didn’t have to take the clothes on and off. I could just trace what they had on the sheets or try to come up with stuff myself.

Pages of my Fashion Design Kit Now

I’m not going to say I was very good at it. The point was, I had fun, this was something to do that didn’t involve playing a game on the computer or reading a book or practicing my piano and I hadn’t gotten into writing at this age. So, from using this stencil, I started with encouragement of one of my friends, to try and make it more real life proportion and draw the figures myself (once again without any sort of drawing classes. The art classes at my school were a joke.) I bought sketchbooks and took them to school with me. I started writing because of this same friend.

It was frankly an escape. My allowance never grew bigger. So, it went towards buying new books to read, sketchbooks and replenishing my Crayola colored pencils. (Though Imperial ones were better but I only got those out of the colored pencil color by number kits.) I didn’t buy fashion magazines. The idea of fashion as a career wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t have a career on my radar. College was one of those, “I’ll think about it later,” things.

The girls at my school who were cheerleaders and liked fashion weren’t precisely my friends and felt like complete foreigners and strangers to me. I didn’t ‘get’ them. We had our groups and we stuck to them. Having arrived to this school after the groups were formed, I fit nowhere and living so far away from everyone else, there was no way that I could feasibly see to hang out with them after school in order to get to know them well enough to fit into one of the groups at all.

Magazines were a luxury in our house. Vogue never made it into the house ever. It took until after 7th grade and a major fight that we even got the newspaper. So by the time I hit eleventh and twelfth grade and college was ‘mandatory’ and I had a list of requirements for what college I could go to, I had to look through what the colleges offered versus what I was interested in and thought I could be good at. (Let me say that writing wasn’t considered because my mother was very anxious about me being able to have a ‘real job.’) And the practice test for the ACT in 10th grade came with this odd employment aptitude test thing to help you find the job that would be the right fit. (Goodness knows if it was remotely accurate.) Fashion design was in my “right fit” category. And between all the majors, there was a tiny college in Ohio that happened to have a Fashion Design degree under their Health and Human Services Major. And since the only computer graphics and gaming major I could find was at a Calvinist college in Michigan, I thought the Mennonite College in Ohio was probably a better idea.

I didn’t read fashion magazines. I didn’t know really how to sew. (Sewing lessons with my mother were a complete disaster.) I couldn’t make a pattern. I had absolutely no portfolio. There were three things I liked, writing, computer games and drawing clothes. And let’s be clear, I wasn’t that great at drawing clothes and my designs at the time probably weren’t that innovative. I had to make a choice and what very little information I could glean from the Ithaca Public Library (seriously, you’d think having Ithaca College and Cornell, the library would be better,) fashion seemed the way to go. It was a massive industry. It had to have work available after I attained my degree.

Oh to be that young and naïve again. Probably sheltered is the better term.

I was over a year and a half into my fashion degree at this tiny college when someone finally thought to clue me in that “to get a design degree you have to have an art minor.” Realizing that this was utterly ridiculous and that making patterns in ¼ of the size wasn’t really going to get me anywhere after trying to talk with one of the other students about whether or not we could really get work after going to this school, (I’m sorry, sweetie, I hope you realized I was trying to convince myself as well as you,) I transferred out and into the Academy of Art. (And this took another large fight.)

Where, I had a lot of credits but I essentially had to start from the beginning. So, having those credits wasn’t actually to my advantage because the numbers of credit hours earned made it appear that I had more experience than I did. This got me more scrutiny and really a worse college experience.

Let’s understand something, I grew up in New York. The Fashion Institute of Technology is part of the SUNY system of colleges. I was a New York resident. It would have been fairly cheap for me to go to FIT. My parents didn’t want me in NYC or at a secular school. Parsons was always out of the question because it’s as costly as Cornell and I understood that. FIT would have been an extremely LOGICAL CHOICE.

Oh well, I loved San Francisco. I loved the big city/small town feel of it and the ability to walk most places and the public transit. If it wasn’t so expensive to live there, I might still be there.

So, schooling wore away at me, but it didn’t dim my love of creating clothes. My love of creating clothes was never founded or predicated upon the idea that success was a runway show and a big fancy store and my name in lights. I didn’t want to be the next Coco Chanel. I didn’t know who she was and at the time I started drawing clothes, I frankly didn’t care. My going into fashion was me going “here is something I love and enjoy doing, can I make a job out of it? Yes. Yes. I can.”

No one can take that from me. I might get bored or tired, but you can’t take the love of creating away from me.

And by the way, I still don’t read Vogue. It’s out of date before it’s printed and 75% advertisements. I also still don’t care about a runway show or seeing my name in lights as a “name” of a brand. That’s not the fashion price point I do or understand. And that’s okay, despite the push by fashion schools to design for that price point and that should be your goal, there is a lot more to fashion than ready to wear. Maybe that gives me an advantage, maybe it doesn't. That's not my connection to fashion. Magical fabric shops, Barbie, Crayola, the joy of creating, those are my fashion connections. And those are a lot more tangible than a runway or a name in lights by my account.

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tobiasenfagan95 · 4 years ago

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Beautiphol: Art in a State of Entertainment

Art must be fun. Otherwise, it is going to don't convey with its own audience in any constructive manner and some other material that it may continue will soon likely probably undoubtedly be lost. Any song you reveal love it will not amuse the ear, will soon probably be lost... and its own message of love is going to be deciphered by the noises of bitterness and indifference of one's listener.

The same relates to a wide range of art. Critics understand that once people start snoring throughout their pictures, they will have lost the match. Writers, painters... they know that after you don't amuse your reader/viewer, any chance you'd at conveying your feelings along with your beliefs, will be faded quicker than hydrogen onto a bright sunny day in the center of Cairo.

That said, art being fun is 1 thing... and art has been"entertainment" is just another.

A fantastic example here's your magician. He's an entertainer and his objective is by definition of high-definition... to amuse with using magical. What he can takes enormous abilities, a wealth in dedication and talent to his or her job. By having an entertainer, does he really care whether the members of the crowd eventually become informed and more knowledgeable individuals after his series? No more... Actually, the more they understand about that which they've just seen, the more the NaijaVibe. Is it true that the entertainer concern yourself with all the enrichment of the audience spiritual condition? And saying"spiritual", I usually do not mean that the religious interpretation of the period. A individual enriches his"spirit" by accessing advice, wisdom, thoughts, senses and also a greater understanding about a topic he didn't own before becoming vulnerable to this foundation of the info. Therefore can a magician enhance his viewer's soul? Yes... they could. Might it be compulsory though because he's definitely an entertainer? No... it's maybe not.

I feel here is the heart difference between an artist and an entertainer. When art is made only to function itself and meet the tastes of an individual by providing them with a brief, joyous encounter, without raising their knowledgebase or presenting a fresh outlook or understanding concerning the subject it concerns itself... afterward your artist chooses to be a artist also transforms in a entertainer. That's the purpose when art turns into a item, and also its own center function is not any further to donate, to enlarge, to enhance or to increase its field... however to be swallowed. A temporary activity which arouses mental performance at a lively method, creating a favorable psychological response, which as agreeable as it could be, once its sway moves, leaves one in no more than spiritual condition when you're previously. Still another item that functions the specific same function is ofcourse, the usage of medication.

There are fantastic cases of entertainers that have been able to amuse successfully during their livelihood, while still being a huge supply of wisdom and creativity. They supply their audience with brand fresh thoughts, new senses and raise problems that could only help our civilization, simplifying their very particular work to an innovative degree that's rather tricky to attain. A fantastic instance of that is that the area of standup humor. When entertainers such as George Carlin, or Eddie Izzard captured on point, they did not simply want due to their own audience to really have a fantastic time. They wanted their audience to really have a fantastic time and make the theater more informed and more knowledgeable. Entertainment was not enough, there was quite a lasting, spiritual and cultural advantage for those visitors to shoot home. All these entertainers, then, become more than entertainers... they eventually become musicians. Yet another fantastic example is that painting. After Picasso introduced cubism, he achieved not just in creating enjoyable visual work, however he also succeeded in enhancing the craft of painting using a fresh stylenew methodology and raised their or her own artistic field into some other level. Picasso did not only amuse his audience... he developed his own viewer's understanding and comprehension of composition and beauty.

Building beauty in art is amazing...

Building art since you want to view beauty is beautiphol.

In literature and also the film business, the entertainment mechanics have heralded the artistic mechanics and the industry is bombarded with functions of very slender religious participation, or not whatsoever. I've lately read a publication inside the Sci-Fi genre that had an intriguing plot (I usually do not delight in hammering down other writers or their job, therefore I won't mention that the name ) and I had been amazed by how little difference it made for my"spirit" once I finished reading it. It gave me that I could potentially maintain. There clearly is a formula ; With a stationary plot, adjusted characters, a stationary atmosphere for its storyline and the personalities to workin, and also their aim was simple... to supply a cure. Can I like it? Yes, it had been a fun book, exceptionally well written and the storyline kept me curious. However, it neglected to obtain a fantastic balance between entertainment and art, leaning towards the latter, and I guess as a result of marketing reasons. It had nothing more to give to its reader aside from a minute positive psychological gratification that's doomed to fade off and return nothing unchanged. Can I believe it for a masterpiece of design? Ido not. And let me spell out why...

The solution and also desirable consequence of intercourse is of class the climax. You are able to find an orgasm by having sex to a partner or simply by masturbating. The distinction is that by having intercourse, you may attain more than simply an orgasm. While with lust, you just receive an orgasm. In the event the act of writing a publication which merely strives to give me an"orgasm" is recognized as"art," then what would you call that the act of masturbating as a way to acquire an orgasm? ...

"... making love?"

This quotation from Ernst Fischer summarises and conveys my personal artistic motives perfectly. And since I am no where near Fischer's degree or articulation and writing skills, I don't have anything to add.

"In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable... and help to change it." -Ernst Fischer

No biographical information are offered to your writer as a consequence of his anonymity.

A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist at 2012 because of his work The Unwords, '' the first book written by an anonymous author to become nominated at the foundation of Goodreads.

The official site of The Unwords is really an entirely ad-free environment by the writer develops the entire thematic direction of this publication with brand fresh articles published on a weekly basis. Even the Unwords simply take advantage of these author's insufficient individuality and nearly in human quantities of introspection, since they put out to see, to educate and inspire, by forcing out the reader of their rut and into a universe where many matters have been already abandoned undone... but nothing else is going to be left !

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chicagoindiecritics · 5 years ago

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Trolls World Tour

(Image: denofgeek.com)

TROLLS WORLD TOUR— 4 STARS

When it comes to Trolls, the exuberant animated musical hit from 2016, there is a lightness to it anyone can recognize both on the surface and on the inside. In case it’s been a while, ask any early childhood school teacher, especially the ones at home right now missing the hugs of their doting students during e-learning, and they will tell you glitter is virtually weightless and gets everywhere, not unlike the easy-to-replay movie itself. The fuzzy felt texture of Trolls’ predominant homemade scrapbook look isn’t much heavier. The kicker is they were the right materials and textures for the craft project in question.

Adding more weight from the original movie’s message of finding internal happiness and not changing for others wouldn’t take much. With equal simplicity and symbolism, the felt of this dreamy universe for the sequel Trolls World Tour is upped to include heavy quilts, denim, leather, satin, velour, vinyl, and more. The multiplication of said textiles matches an appreciated boost in weightier themes. What is ready and primed to delight can also move body parts other than your hips and toes.

While the party goes on for Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick), Branch (Justin Timberlake), and the rest of their popping partners in their forested funhouse, a mighty melodic menace is invading other realms. It is the electric scourge of rock music, an onslaught orchestrated by Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom). She seeks to capture the magical strings of each style of music and stamp out their artful individuality. Barb’s first conquest is the underwater Techno Trolls led by King Trollex (Anthony Ramos), leaving her mascara-ed gaze focused on the Classical, Funk, Country, and Pop strings next.

The naive Queen Poppy learns of this looming threat coming true and seeks to make Queen Barb her friend with a cutesy invitation. Meanwhile, the four-legged Cooper (Ron Funches) ventures to find his true origins amidst the chaos. Just as the pragmatic Branch warns, the combative rock ruler wants no such thing from Poppy, triggering a pursuit that sends the spunky squad visiting new places beyond their borders with saves, rescues, and dance breaks aplenty.

LESSON #1: GOOD LEADERS AND GOOD FRIENDS, FOR THAT MATTER, LISTEN— From a topical character standpoint, there are many hairy and daft dwarves that hear only what they want to hear. They put too much trust into their own thoughts and interests without considering those same things of others, especially those they mean to care about. Stuff like this is on the nose, for sure, but welcome.

LESSON #2: HEY KIDS, LEARN YOUR GENRES OF MUSIC— Likely to much parental delight as they share a streaming couch with their tikes, Trolls World Tour spans the whole gamut of musical genres. With clever wit and artistic design choices, the movie rightly pokes fun at each type’s images and fandoms within our collective entertainment consciousness. Rock might be made the “villain,” per se, but no genre is free from little digs at its strengths and weaknesses (like how Pop has ruined everything).

This journey into different musical motifs gave the animation teams full creative opportunity to enlarge worlds with these new tactile tones. The work from Art Director Tim Lamb, Head of Character Look Andy Harbek, and Head of Environments Michael Trull deserves high praise. The results are stupendous with every inch of the frame draped in material detail that would take hours to appreciate every CGI thread.

Like a good sequel should (even one to animated fluff), Trolls World Tour elevates stakes with its ambitious amusement to become an even bigger compilation tape than it already was. The talent, led by returning star and musical producer Justin Timberlake, is boosted further by the addition of genius Black Panther Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson as an additional producer and Rachel Bloom performing her own rock leads. Collaborations with Anna Kendrick, Anderson Paak, Icona Pop, Kelly Clarkson, Mary J. Blige, Dierks Bentley, and others power a musical energy that is boundless. That is precisely the blast audiences were hoping for.

The truest surprise of Trolls World Tour circles back to that notion of weight. Underneath all of the new fabric surfaces is a mass of glowing and beating hearts which, as we all should realize, is where all music starts in every literal and figurative fashion. The script, begun by the returning Trolls duo of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger and freshened by the TV talent Elizabeth Tippet (Life in Pieces) and the A Dog’s Purpose/A Dog’s Journey team of Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, is filled with cultural metaphors and excellent message of positivity and inclusion. The examples are as stout as they are sunny.

LESSON #3: “DENYING OUR DIFFERENCES IS DENYING THE TRUTH”— Look no further than this delivered line. Differences do matter. We all can’t and don’t look and/or sound the same. Music is the storytelling vessel in Trolls World Tour, but people are the true target. All music should be saved, just as all people should as well. Who knew a Trolls movie would go there?

LESSON #4: THE DEFINITIONS OF “HARMONY”— The big word the newly home-schooling parents and guardians can pull out of this movie and write on their imaginary blackboards is “harmony.” Real harmony takes different voices. Whether you take its musical definition of “a pleasant combination of different notes of music played at the same time” or its societal connotation of “living together peacefully rather than fighting or arguing,” Trolls World Tour screams and sings for calming and celebratory unity. Make that happen and put a pinky promise on that shhhh…ugar.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#870)

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drink-n-watch · 5 years ago

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Genre: Slice of life, comedy, drama, relax, kitty!

Episodes: 12

Studio: ZEXCS

There are those perfect little moments in life. Not the big important ones that change your destiny. The ones I’m talking about are the quiet mundane little times were nothing much happens but everything seems to just fall into place. For instance, a lazy afternoon when you happen to discover the perfect little cafe. Not too fancy but pretty and comfortable. Not so popular as to be overcrowded but not desolate either. Maybe the weather is awful outside and you happen to be safe and warm in your seat. Or maybe it’s gorgeously sunny and you’re enjoying the lush green scenery from the huge window you’re sitting by. The staff is kind and friendly. The drinks and food are delicious but reasonably priced. As you text with your best friend or read your latest obsession, you sort of wish you could live in this moment forever. It’s a light effortless happiness that can just pass you by without you even noticing. Those of us who are lucky get to stack up those moments and add them up to a wonderful lifetime. And Rokuhōdō is a place that specializes in creating them for their customers. Perfect little moments in time crafted with tender care that will make you smile, if just for a bit.

It’s no accident that my summary tells you next to nothing about what actually happens in Yotsuiro Biyori. This is a show like a sunny afternoon. It’s more about creating an atmosphere and an idea than telling a specific story. Did I just describe Slice of Life as a genre? Maybe. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

did you just think I want to go there? you’re going to think that a lot during this show

Now that I’ve sneakily established that Yotsuiro Biyori is a Slice of Life, you probably have all sorts of expectations for its production values and style. If not, I’m sure the pictures in this post gave you some ideas. You’re probably right on every count.

The series invested more in design and art which remains wonderfully consistent, than animation. The style itself took me an episode or two to warm up to but once I did, I ended up enjoying it a lot. Like most aspects of the series, it’s not very flashy or striking but it’s well done and reliable. The voice acting is handled the same way. Calm and understated performances delivered so naturally that you could forget these aren’t the actual character’s voices. Well, they are but you know what I mean.

It’s the type of show you feel safe sinking into because you know what to expect. It doesn’t do anything much out of the ordinary in terms of production, but what it does, it does very well. Much better than average in fact.

it’s just tea, but it’s so good!

As for the narrative, it’s also pure slice of life. Sui inherited a café/restaurant from his grandfather and he runs in with a small cooking and serving staff. It’s a warm comfortable little place that aims for a traditional Japanese experience and a happy relaxed atmosphere. That’s exactly what the rest of the show aims for as well, and it succeeds. The stories themselves don’t really matter all that much. My favourite may have been the one about the kitten because of adorableness overload (see header gif) but they were all unfailingly pleasant.

One thing I appreciated about Yotsuiro Biyori is how it refuses to dwell. We know Gure had a difficult rebellious phase as a kid but we never find out why or exactly what happened. Just that he got over it eventually. Tokitaka was a successful artist but gave it up, again we have no idea why. Sui and his twin brother haven’t spoken in years despite being very close as kids. There’s a rift there. They live quite close to each other and could easily visit. You guessed it, we never see what went wrong, and when they do finally meet there’s no resolution to be had. No one screams or cries. It’s just quiet little pains or disappointments that occasionally haunt you for a second then drift out of your mind.

my pic choices are very eye centric…

Handling the drama so lightly felt absolutely true to life and fit in with everything else Yotsuiro Biyori is about. It’s a show about enjoying the little things. If I could compare it to anything else, it would be the Flying Witch. It had that same easy-going peacefully blissful atmosphere. Yotsuiro Biyori may have been a touch more comedic or at least more slapstick in its comedy.

I was very surprised by how much I Enjoyed this series. It really is an ideal show to help you unwind and forget your problems. It also made me long for a homey little neighbourhood cafe I could while away afternoons in. That’s something I really miss about living downtown (I’m in a suburb now).

Final verdict, come in, take a load off and enjoy your time at Rokuhōdō Yotsuiro Biyori.

exactly

Favourite character: Nakao Tsubaki (he cooks nothing but deserts…)

What this anime taught me: Not so much “taught” but ever since I finished watching it, I switched the little coffee I did drink to green tea and I’m very happy about that. Don’t know why. It tastes better I guess.

Drunken men give some of the best pep talks.

Suggested drink: Tea Tini – simple yet delicious just like this show

Every time we see Kinako-chan – take a sip

Every time Gure speaks in Italian – Saluti

Every time anyone gets a low-key foodgasm – get a snack

Every time Sui gets shiny glasses – take a sip

Every time anyone says “chiffon” – take a sip

Every time Gure and Tsubaki biker – take a sip

Every time the show makes you hungry – get another snack and be disappointed it’s not the same as what’s onscreen

Every time Sui isn’t wearing a kimono – gawk

Every time Gure makes foam art – take a sip

Every time Sui isn’t allowed to cook – sigh in relief

Every time you spot a return customer – take a sip

favourite character and all figured he deserved at least one screencap

This time I really went completely insane on the screencaps. couldn’t help it, this show translates so well to still images. If you have the time you can take a look at the huge imgur gallery I put together. I tried to curate the pics to really represent the show. I’d love to have your thoughts on it.

For those that think imgur is scary, I also have a Pinterest board of course and a few examples below:

Yotsuiro Biyori – Come for the Tea, Stay for Everything Else Genre: Slice of life, comedy, drama, relax, kitty! Episodes: 12 Studio: ZEXCS There are those perfect little moments in life.

#anime #comedy #drama #slice of life #Yotsuiro Biyori #yummy

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maizestove · 6 years ago

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5 Reasons to visit Malmö in Sweden

Last weekend I was invited by the Tourism Office of Malmö to spend a few days in their charming city Malmö. The tour was organized in collabortion with my friend and fellow blogger Niki of My Scandinavian Home and I was up for a new discovery – it was my first time in Malmö! I did not know what to expect. So I was pumped with excitement – not only to discover Malmö in Sweden but also to meet some of my good ol’ blogger friends – Stefan from Trend Stefan, Agata from Passion Shake, Mette from Monsters Circus and Elisabetta from Italian Bark. Holly from decor8 was supposed to be part of the trip too, but had to cancel due to other obligations. But let me tell you more about Malmö! First let’s answer one important question: Where to stay in Malmö?

Hotel Duxiana: This boutique hotel is located right in the old town of Malmö and is very close to the central station. Upon arrival it takes roughly 10 minutes to walk there. This hotel is the best place to immerse yourself into Scandinavian design right from the beginning. The rooms are beautifully equipped and styled featuring a line-up of Scandinavian design classics and real plants. Moreover, you will sleep like a baby in the divine beds because this hotel is the extension of the renown Swedish bed design brand Dux. You can thank me later!

Here are five good reasons why you should visit Malmö in Sweden:

1) Mix of European Vibes: Malmö is located in the far south of Sweden, in a region called Skane. It’s proximity to Denmark makes it easily accessible through the Copenhagen airport. Additionally, Malmö is a very vibrant city with a big population of mixed origins. But not only the people add to a certain mix, also the city itself has a great mix of European vibes. To me, it felt a bit Swedish, a bit Danish, even a bit Dutch. You might wonder how come Dutch? Well, first of all the Netherlands are not that far away. But mostly I got this feeling due to the canals stretching through the city. They connect the city center with the port, industrial areas as well as residential parts. The canals meander through a green park with a windmill – I could literally see a loaf of Gouda around the corner. But then again I am a very imaginative person:-) Our captain Niki took us on a wonderful boat trip along the canals on a sunny Sunday morning courtesy of ‘Book a Boat’. Definitely something you should consider when in Malmö! It is so much fun!

2) Perfect Size: Size matters – and when it comes to a city weekend, a smaller size is what you should be aiming at. Why? Because it makes a weekend getaway much more pleasant! Malmö is a perfectly walkable city and offers sights, galleries, great shops, cool cafés and fine restaurants all in walking distance. The old town is a compact entity with cute little streets, small and colourful houses, lovely cafés. Speaking of cafés: When in Sweden, never miss the traditional fika time – a little coffee & cake break in the afternoon. I have two café tips for you:

Noir Kaffekultur: A very cool & urban little café in the old town. Great seating space outside, it has almost a Parisian vibe. Inside think of dark walls, the scent of fresh coffee and cinnamon rolls. Great for a little break!

Konditori Katarina: Very beautiful pâtisserie in the old town with a great selection of pastries, chocolates, and bread. Go for a cup of good coffee and a cardamom-cinnamon roll, so delicious! And very instagrammable!

3) Good Design: One of the main reasons for our visit in Malmö was the design scene. Malmö is a great place for anyone interest in Scandinavian design as well as art. Luckily, we had two experts on Scandinavian design in our group, Niki and Stefan, so we got a few first-hand insights into the history of Scandinavian design as well as its definition. Little did I know that Scandinavian design as we know it today was induced by the state in order to make Scandinavian dwellings brighter, better and healthier for its citizens! But let me give you a few top design addresses and shops to visit in Malmö:

Form Design Center & Shop: Located in a dream like courtyard, this gallery will satisfy all your cravings for art, design and Scandinavian craftsmanship. On three floors you can visit exhibitions of varying international artists, enjoy a coffee in the café, and shop Scandinavian and local design in the shop.

Olsson & Gerthel: A great design shop with renown Scandinavian design labels as well as designs by local creatives. I loved the ceramics and art in this place.

Formargruppen: This design shop unites the work of several local artists and desingers offering local arts & crafts. Great shop to find a unique souvenir or gift. Look out for nice ceramics there!

AB Smaland: Now here your vintage and plant loving heart will skip a beat! At least mine did! This huge concept store features a fabulous collection of vintage and contemporary items ranging from furniture over home textiles to decorative pieces. I had a huge crush on their vintage ceramics. Also swoon worthy is their plant shop and cute café space. Plan some extra time for this gem!

Grandpa: A pretty hipster mix of home items, stationery and fashion can be found at Grandpa. Funky name for a funky shop! Go there for the typical outdoorsy Scandi look!

Konsthall Malmö: Another great gallery if you like contemporary art. A good adjacent shop offers books on design and art as well as come creative postcards.

Florista: A beautiful florist with an extraordinary selection of flowers, plants and dried flowers. They also offer workshops to create wreaths – we attended a cool workshop and created our own dried flower wreaths.

Blomster Pigan: Another great florist with great flowers, plants, and pots to take home!

Roy & Son: In case you feel the urge for a hipster haircut or barber service, go to Roy & Son. You will be served drip coffee and listen to vintage records.

4) Good Food: As much as I love design, I also loooove good food. So this is a crucial factor too when choosing a travel destination. In a nutshell: Malmö did not disappoint on that level either. I enjoyed some delicious treats while in Malmö. Here are a few great addresses for you:

Bastard: This Michelin starred restaurant is focused on nose-to-tail food with a Scandinavian twist and earthy flavors. Very popular among Malmö citizens. Think of open kitchen, bar area, dark industrial style. And good and delicious plates!

Raw Food House: A great address for an organic lunch in town. Healthy food choices are on offer and the atmosphere is airy, bright and relaxed. It can get crowded at noon though.

Mineral: Very urban, very cool, very young – this restaurant looks like a creative hub for young chefs and is very popular among a younger, hip crowd. My personal highlight: the huge Ficus plant indoors. Ha!

Smak: Smak means ‘taste’ in Swedish and they are not short of delicious tastes here! Next to the Konsthall Malmö, this is a great option for lunch. Don’t be fooled by the canteen like system – the food is exquisite!

Malmö Saluhall: This market/food hall is a safe option if you are unsure what you want to eat. A wide selection of food stands and indoor restaurants offer culinary delights. And afterwards you can stroll away and do some food shopping for home too. Look out for delicious local chocolates!

5) Green Spaces: Another reason why you should consider a visit of Malmö are the abundant green spaces in Sweden’s third largest city. As a coastal town there is already plenty of nature and water around. The canals stretching throughout the city add more natural vibes to the city. Additionally, the city has several parks to enjoy and relax in the midst of greens. Lush and centrally located is the ‘Slottsträdgarden’, the ‘castle park’. The park offers playgrounds, a café, gondolas to enjoy the canals, greenhouses for plant lovers, and even a windmill. Opposite of it is an old cemetery in a park-like ambiance, and even though it might sound bizarre, but I love to stroll through old cemeteries. Malmö has a great balance of urban vibes and laid-back green spaces so it’s a great weekend escape for anyone looking for a bit of city buzz and nature alike.

This tour was organized by Malmö Tourism. As always all opinions and photos are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands who support this blog!

Photography by Igor Josifovic, hotel room & Grandpa shop picture by Agata Dimmich, group and gallery pic by Stefan Nilsson

The post 5 Reasons to visit Malmö in Sweden appeared first on Happy Interior Blog.

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roywaelchi · 6 years ago

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Skateboard Artist Profile: Lauren Ramer

New Jersey designer and illustrator Lauren Ramer’s skateboards give us a warm, nostalgic feeling as her graphics remind us of late 80s and early 90s deck designs. It was a time when skateboard graphics, much like the people who rode them, fit in very few scenes outside of its own culture. Of course Lauren has a contemporary take on deck design, but her obvious connection to the genesis of modern day skateboard graphics, and her delightfully repulsive designs, made us very curious about her first exposure to skateboarding as well as her creative process.

What was your introduction to skateboarding?

Growing up I had a lot of guy friends. I would hang out with all the skateboarders and so eagerly want to skate, but, unfortunately, lacked any and all talent for skating. Although I sucked at it, I would still try and I would fall… a lot, especially when I turned 18 and got my first longboard. I hit a huge rock, face-planted in front of my house, and was covered in band-aids for a few days. It was around this age I realized that maybe I would be a part of the community by using my artistic side to design skateboard graphics instead.

During those early days in the skateboarding community, were you influenced at all by skateboard graphics? Was it even something you noticed at the time or do you ever think back to those designs?

When it came to skateboarding the graphics were all I ever saw or noticed. When it came to brand, speed, style, etc. I didn’t really know any of it, but the bright and crazy graphics are what always stood out to me.

Your designs have a classic skateboard graphic feel, combining gross or dark subjects with a playful sense of humor. Was using skateboards as a canvas a natural progression for you or something that was always in your sights as a designer?

Designing skateboards felt like a very natural progression for my art style, especially since the subject matter I like to draw doesn’t fit into a lot of industries.

In the beginning, what drew you towards art or was it just something you always did because it came naturally? What were some of your earliest creations and inspirations?

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember, but I personally feel like I didn’t start finding my style and artistic voice until college. Over the years I tried to experiment with different mediums to find what I like, but I really like pencil and ink drawings followed by digital coloring. It just feels natural! Also, one theme that has really stuck with me through my art development is horror. Through high school a lot of my art revolved around horror, creepiness, and just overall weirdness. I’ve always had a love for horror movies and creepy characters so it felt natural I keep that theme in my work.

My designs always seem to take a cute, light turn and I honestly have no idea why. Whenever I begin a project with the initial thought of “Oh yeah! I’m going to make this gross, disgusting illustration.” it always ends up becoming cute and charming somehow. Also I think my use of bright colors also adds to this.

Who is the artist that inspired you the most when exploring this side of your creativity?

I was always very inspired by 90s cartoons like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The weird characters and funky colors always got me so excited. One artist who really inspires me is Chris Piascik. One of my professors at college introduced us to him, and ever since then it made me feel confident that drawing weird and unusual creatures is something people actually want to see!

When creating graphics for a skateboard do you start with the idea that it’s going to look good on a deck or does that realization come after the graphic is completed?

For my skateboards I always take into account the strange long dimensions. I usually start with a small rough sketch of a skateboard shape, then I create my illustrations to fit nicely inside the weird shape. I like to think of things that are tall or long, for instance right now I am working on a really tall and gross cheeseburger deck.

What’s your process for creating a design as a skateboard graphic?

After I have have drawn a little doodle of a design inside a skateboard shape I redraw it at a slightly larger scale on Bristol paper, usually 11 x 14 [inches] or something. This is where I usually take a lot of time to draw in all the details. When I get to the inking phase with pens I don’t like to have to think about anything, so I take my time in pencil mode until I’ve got the drawing to where I like it.

After inking, I scan it into my computer and I color it in Photoshop with my Wacom Cintiq. Adding bright colors is my favorite part. Also, I’m so indecisive about colors. I usually go through like 6 different palette options before I find the one I like.

Describe your work space and the conditions in which you enjoy designing.

Currently I have my own small studio in the second bedroom of my house in which I use to create art. It’s amazing to have my own space considering over the years I never had an art studio. Before this I was living in a small 500 square foot house where my “studio” was just a corner of my kitchen. Now it’s great. I can listen to music or watch It’s Always Sunny… and lock myself in my studio for hours on end. It’s surrounded with all types of art and weird decorations so it definitely makes it feel like home.

Do you figuratively or literally ever go outside of your comfort zone when creating?

I feel like I haven’t really gone out of my comfort zone in a while, especially with my illustration, but I think that’s because I tend to dabble in quite a few different hobbies and crafts, so I don’t get bored of one thing. For example, I painted a mural in my house a few weeks ago and the style, medium is very different than my illustration. I tend to find other outlets to express creatively so I don’t ever feel a need to leave my comfort zone.

However, I will mention that I am currently doing Inktober this year and, although it’s not totally out of my element, color is my safe space, so doing strictly black and white illustrations is a little scary for me!

What’s the mural you painted in your house?

I feel like most people would expect me to say “Oh I painted a giant monster with boogers” since that is my illustration style, but I actually just painted a really simple mountain scene. I like my house to feel homey and serene. I keep the weirdness to my art studio.

Do you only create digitally or is there another medium you enjoy exploring?

When it comes to my illustration and my style, digital is what I love. However, every now and then I like picking up all sorts of mediums and tools for creating. Sometimes I like sewing and knitting, other times I even like acrylic or oil painting. I think I just prefer digital illustration nowadays since there is no mess and mistakes are easier to fix.

Where does the name Freak Head come from? Why was that choice made for your skate brand name?

When I was trying to think of a name for my boards I wanted something fun and strange. Not sure how those two words came together, but it felt right!

What would be a dream project within the skateboard industry? What about a dream project in general?

For me a dream project isn’t necessarily an individual illustration, but more of a dream to launch my brand into a full on skateboard and apparel company. It’s definitely one of my long term goals, but there’s much work to be done!

What advice do you have for other artists when tackling the concept of putting their designs on skateboards? What general advice do you have for artists getting started?

Just do it! Skateboards are a unique medium in which really anything goes for skateboard graphics. Any gross, pretty, silly, or simple graphic can make an awesome board design. So just start doodling, painting, or whatever it is you do and throw it on a board.

Lauren’s Freak Head skateboards can be seen and purchased at BoardPusher.com/shop/FreakHead, find more of her artwork at LaurenRamer.com, follow her on Instagram and most social channels @laurenramer, and, if you’re fortunate enough to be in Philadelphia this weekend, find her booth at the Philly Punk Rock Flea Market this Saturday, October 27th.

Skateboard Artist Profile: Lauren Ramer published first on https://laderaskateboards.tumblr.com/

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gunboatbaylodge · 7 years ago

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Last chance to see Monet’s Secret Garden at the Vancouver Art Gallery (plus fall exhibition preview!)

This year, in the heat and never-ending sunniness of summer, I spent most of the time out of doors. However, with the return of cooler weather and rainy days, I’ve started to long for contemplation in galleries once again.

Claude Monet’s Secret Garden at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) has been on my do-list for quite some time. With the exhibition closing in just over two weeks, I managed to fit in a visit. I’d highly recommend doing the same before it ends.

The exhibition runs until October 1, 2017 and has generated considerable buzz from art enthusiasts in the city. I went on a weekend afternoon and the VAG was very busy. Obviously, other people had the same idea for a rainy day activity. I’d suggest getting there early to avoid line-ups and congestion in the gallery rooms and corridors.

Photo Credit: Tara Lee

Secret Garden is located on the main first floor of the gallery and is an impressive collection of Monet’s works from the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. Michel Monet, son of Claude Monet, left his paintings to the gallery in 1966, making it the recipient of the largest collection of Monet works anywhere. The exhibition at the VAG is so exciting since it is the most significant one in Canada in two decades.

The thirty-eight paintings on display cover the rich trajectory of Monet’s artistic endeavours and present a range of different subject matter, from French industrialization to more pastoral works of the countryside.

The Bridge at Vervyl, 1889

Together, the works showcase the groundbreaking nature of Monet’s artistic eye and representation. This was an artist willing to paint France at a specific temporal moment, refusing to look away from controversial signs of modernization, such as trains and factories. Many of his contemporaries were still wedded to pre-industrial nostalgic scenes. The paintings also show Monet’s attempts to capture the ephemeral, whether in light or movement.

Train in the Snow, The Locomotive, 1875

Of course, of particular interest in the exhibition is the emergence of Impressionism and Monet’s deviation from solid forms and shading to a more experimental use of paint on canvas premised on short, disconnected brushstrokes with intensely vibrant displays of colour. For example, a work Taking a Walk Near Argenteuil, where the Monet lived from 1871-1878, draws the eye to the movement of clouds, people, leaves, and the rich texture of the countryside.

Taking a Walk Near Argenteuil, 1875

The most recognizable of the works for me are found within Monet’s Giverny period, a prolific span of years from 1883 until his death in 1926.

Field of Yellow Irises at Giverny, 1887

The artist purchased a house in this northern French village where he painted in the open air, depicting his evolving gardens and ponds as the seasons unfolded over the decades. Iconic water lily paintings are included in the VAG exhibition, mesmerizing in their play with the surface of the water and what it dreamily reflects.

Water Lilies, 1916-1919

I was also drawn to later works of Monet during a time when he began to suffer from cataracts and failing vision, which had an effect on his ability to distinguish colours. The artist primarily had the labels on the tubes of paint to guide him in his colour choice. It’s astounding he was able to create beauty amidst such loss.

Roses, 1925-1926

Also worth viewing is a documentary of Monet’s life and artistic evolution that provides more context and background to the stunning works on display.

Overall, Secret Garden is the ideal outing for the end of summer/beginning of fall. After spending a couple of hours in the gallery–including viewing the Emily Carr exhibition, Into the Forest, on the top floor–head to the Gallery Café for a drink, a bite, and an opportunity to think and chat about what you’ve just visually absorbed.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:

There’s also plenty to look forward to this fall and winter at VAG. Here are some highlights:

Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting (September 30, 2017 to January 1, 2018)

This exhibition looks at two modes of painting in Canada from the 1970s onwards. Thirty-one artists who were part of these divergent aesthetics will be on display.

True Nordic: How Scandinavia Influenced Design in Canada (October 28, 2017 to January 28, 2018)

Lars Dressler and Jason Dressler, Brothers Dressler, Branches Chandelier, 2009, white oak, Courtesy of Brothers Dressler

With Scandinavian artistic ethos all the rage currently, this exhibition is sure to be of interest. It will look at craft and industrial design and its appearance and influence in this country.

Portrait of the Artist: An Exhibition from the Royal Collection (October 28, 2017 to February 4, 2018)

From the Royal Collection, this meta-exhibition of over eighty works explores representations of artists, either done through self-depiction or by others. What does it mean to be a artist? How do they perceive themselves and how do others see them?

Gordon Smith: The Black Paintings (October 21, 2017 to February 4, 2018)

Look forward to a mounting of Gordon Smith’s black paintings, exploring his wartime experiences as well as texture, layering, collage techniques, and the expressiveness of paint.

Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive (October 28, 2017 to Feburary 4, 2018)

This collection will display Carol Sawyer’s efforts to connect singer and artist Natalie Brettschneider to musicians and artists in mid-century British Columbia.

Further info on all exhibitions is available on-line.

Inside Vancouver Blog

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soundtrackphoto · 8 years ago

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Water Tower #36

For a photographer there is nothing more important than light. Everything about photography relies on it. Too much and a photo can become overexposed. Too little and it is underexposed. Composition, structure, texture all rely on light. Tricks of the trade such as aperture and shutter speed can manipulate that light. Freezing motion in place or utilizing shadows only works well with an understanding of light. It is the one aspect of photography that I continue to learn about every time I pick my camera up. After all light is never exactly the same on any given day or situation so it is a constant learning process.

Consider too the masters of paintings who created their own light studies by painting a series of still lifes. Usually by way of a bowl of fruit, a vase of flowers or in the case of Claude Monet, with a haystack. Painters have long used these types of studies to hone their craft. When I studied art in college we learned why this sort of simple subject matter was so important. Along with shape and form, the subtle difference between light and shadow may drastically change the overall effect depending on time of day. Experimenting with the same subject matter reveals new textures and nuance.

Lets use the example of Monet’s haystacks for instance . A simple cluster of hay stacked in a field is by no means a particularly exciting subject. But in capturing the different looks to the haystacks throughout the day Monet made it intrinsically more interesting. Playing with the light such as that comes with careful observation and analysis. Is the light more pleasing at noon, or does it give off more of a glow at sunset? Does the halo of light over the entire field look best at sunrise, or at mid-afternoon? Is a summer sunset more vibrant than one in fall?

I was thinking recently about how important light can be to our mood. The occasional dreary rainy day at home sipping tea or a glass of wine gazing out the window can be very enjoyable. Too many of those sorts of days in a row start to weigh on me however and I find myself eventually craving light. That might be the first hints of sun in the morning, with golden light rising and reflecting over the buildings of my neighborhood or the clear blues of a bright and sunny day. Or the soothing tones of sunset-red, pink, purple and orange immersed in the clouds. Even the glow of the city at night or the light from the stars can be pleasing.

I don’t know about other people but I have favorite times of the day. Times when I feel most at ease and happy. For some that might be morning, for others it might be quitting time from work. Thinking about this further, I came to the conclusion that the real reason we have a favorite time might just be about the light one expects to see. We feel energized when we get a warming sunrise or a calming sunset. As if the very qualities of color variations that occur on a single day make us feel connected to that light. I started to wonder if that was why painters and photographers are so drawn to capturing the shifting of light. Perhaps artists feel the need to study light as a way of seeing our response to those shifts.

In deciding to do my own light study, I wanted something that I could take a photograph of on a regular basis, at several different times of day over a period of time. I chose a water tower perched above my favorite old brick building in our neighborhood. I liked the contrast between the brick of the building and the wood of the water tower.

I was not methodical about this. I did not take a photo at 6:47 every day to compare. Instead I tried to hit key times of day. Sunrise, midday, late afternoon, sunset, night time. I tried to take it more or less from the same position each time. I experimented with the tools at my disposal-shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. I made adjustments each time. Some I deemed right away to be unacceptable. Others I put in the maybe category. In the end I probably took about 50 photos of this water tower and only sat down to write these words when I felt satisfied with my final choice to feature. *

Thinking of how to fit music into this equation I gradually came to realize an artist works on variations of a theme in a light study and tweaks them by altering the approach and final look as desired. So too does a musician goes into a recording studio with a song, and adjust it. You start with the song. Perhaps it was written with the idea of being a fast paced rocker. Or maybe it was written solo on a piano. Maybe it was meant to have only one singer. Yet so many times the song, the instrumentation, the tempo, the vocals change when the approach to the song gets altered. That rocker becomes a ballad instead. That solo piano becomes an electric guitar riff. Or the song intended to have only one singer now has a 20 piece Gospel choir and a horn section.

At their peak, REM were arguably doing all of this sort of experimentation, and quite successfully too. The early albums especially were rife with this sort of tinkering around, such as the song Time After Time (Annelise) from their second full length album- Reckoning. It may be dark and a little bleak, yet it is quite captivating precisely for that darkness. The recording of Reckoning apparently happened quickly, but choices and decisions still had to be made for each song, much like the moment a painter commits brush to canvas, or a photographer makes adjustments before clicking the shutter release.

The end result may not be satisfying to everyone. An artist or musician might consider it their best work while the general public rejects it outright. Some may consider it a step back while the artist considers it a step forward. In R.E.M.’s case Time After Time is viewed both with a mixture of regard and disdain among fans. Regardless of how it ultimately plays out, artists experiment in the hope that it will push their work further. I realized in doing this light study that this was the common thread running in art and music-the desire to continually challenge oneself and find new ways to express ideas. For musicians it comes in the studio, recording a song several times and making adjustments. For me it comes from being patient and really thinking about what I ultimately want to present. In taking a series of photos of the same exact thing I learned what works and does not work for me aesthetically.

*In the gallery below are some of the shots I liked, but did not quite satisfy me in the end. The photo at the top of this post however is my favorite of the series. I took it as the sun was rising one morning. Ironically 15 minutes later the day turned out to be cloudy and overcast, but for that brief moment, the sky had contrast and the rays of sun shone vibrantly on the water tower and the building.

Time After Time (Annelise)-Written By Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Peter Buck & Michael Stipe

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All Photographs By Robert P. Doyle

Light Study For a photographer there is nothing more important than light. Everything about photography relies on it. Too much and a photo can become overexposed.

#Light #Light Study #Music #Photography #R.E.M. Water Towers #Rock

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