#jersey artform

[jerseyartform]

BMW to 1955 FORD Body Swap action. That’s a whole BMW 528 under that Ford

[yegarts]

“I am YEG Arts” Series: Jen Mesch

Photo by Aspen Zettel, 2021.

Contemporary dancer and choreographer Jen Mesch’s creativity is seemingly boundless. She doesn’t shy away from new adventures and challenges, whether it’s a fascinating new collaboration with an experimental musician or mastering a new artform (in recent years she’s added film to her repertoire). She’s a multi-disciplinary artist in the broadest sense and embraces cross-training not only in dance, but in other schools of thought such as philosophy and science, and by staying in tune with her community.

This week on the YEG Arts blog, we catch up with the multi-talented artist, Jen Mesch.

Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and what keeps you living and working here.

I moved to Edmonton a little over 13 years ago from New Jersey. My husband who's a composer got a job working at the University of Alberta and I started working here as a healthcare worker. I guess my sort of “Edmonton origin story” in dance is that I looked up what kinds of things were happening and found Mile Zero Dance. I saw this photograph of Gerry Morita [Mile Zero Dance’s Artistic Director] in a fake fur coat in front of a barn with these wild sunglasses, drinking a cup of tea, doing a little bit of a dance pose – and I knew I was going to be fine in Edmonton! Mile Zero has really been a great place for me, I have performed there as an independent choreographer, and since the beginning, I really was welcomed with open arms into that contemporary community and just this year I decided to be on the Board. It has been kind of a home base for me as an independent choreographer.

As a multi-disciplinary artist, is there a common thread you bring to all of your storytelling? Are there themes you find yourself revisiting time and time again?

I think people look at dance and see a story – that's a normal thing for humans to do – to look for meaning or a story, but [as dancers] we're not actually trained in storytelling. I think that's a specific skill, it's literary. People often don't ask the same thing of music, and dance is sort of uniquely situated in that we're connected very strongly to music. Obviously, we also have a strong connection with theatre and performance art. But we're also completely different from all of them. I definitely try to steer away from storytelling and I think that's hard in a big theatre town (it's a big literary and music town too.) I think it's hard for people outside of the dance community to find their way into non-narrative work. But the common themes for me are that I tend to work as a soloist as an independent choreographer. I'm pretty reclusive in my daily life so I do a lot of solo work and a lot of the themes involve solitude, organic sorts of landscapes and in the case of my current work Go Where Light Is, I guess outer space and the universe are included in an organic landscape.

What's one of the biggest professional risks you've taken, and how did it influence where you are today?

The biggest professional risk I ever took was deciding to become a dancer at age 22 because I didn't study dance as a child. [As a young adult] I did start taking dance classes, and then I went on to major in engineering. There was a talent show at my engineering university and I entered one of my little dance pieces and won first place. The $50 prize meant I could buy my chemical engineering textbook; I was so happy and relieved. Eventually, I dropped out of engineering and told my parents I wanted to be a dancer, which was, I think pretty wild of me to do. I mean, I'd had just twice-a-week classes at my community college in modern dance. I had come back from dropping out of engineering school and I asked my dance teacher what I needed to do. She said, Take as much ballet as you possibly can, and take jazz and modern – take everything. So I did. I took all the money from my minimum wage job and took every dance class that I could take. I was in classes five or six days a week. I don't see myself as a super high-level dancer at this point in my life, but I can't believe how much I've done and have been able to do. So, I guess that my advice to other people is to try. You don't know unless you do and put everything into it. It could have gone nowhere for me. I could have changed my mind, but here I am.

What's one piece of advice you wish that you had received when you were starting out in dance?

I was an adult when I started studying dance so it's a bit different than when you started out as a kid. I started with some already firm ideas of who I was and what I wanted dance to be for myself, but I think one piece of advice I wish I had (which I do anyway) is the notion of cross-training. Both physically and in terms of genres or disciplines, I think it's really important that people learn about other artforms, learn about other schools of thinking, about philosophy, and the sciences. All of those things make us more rounded human beings and should inform our practices as artists.

Photo by Aspen Zettel, 2021.

Tell us a little bit about the unique characteristics and challenges of dance in contrast with other art disciplines. What do you wish people better understood about dance?

Well, I think it's changing a little bit, but there are some biases against dance (at least in North America) that dance is sort of inherently female and that it's inherently recreational. So, I think it gets discounted. People understand that you can be a recreational photographer; you can be a professional photographer. I think people do understand that there are ballet dancers that are very highly trained, but it seems so unattainable for most people. That is a big wall that I think we're all trying to figure out how to break down a little bit – these hierarchies in dance.

Another disadvantage is that it costs a lot of money to put it on; it's very labor intensive; and it's a very personnel intensive art form. Dance is seen as being mostly for girls and women, even at young ages. It's very hard to find role models for boys who want to dance and yet it's often men who then become the major choreographers and the major directors of dance companies. Women are trying to find their voice at a time when we're also stepping aside to make more room for more kinds of people and more kinds of dancers. I think that's a challenge for everyone in the arts – to make more room.

Another significant problem for Edmonton and anywhere really, is that compared to other art forms, there are fewer dance programs at the post-secondary level. Edmonton currently has nothing like that as opposed to very fully realized theatre and music departments. It’s something that the dance community is trying to address. At the same time as we're trying to increase scholarships and increase awareness of dance, we're also trying to increase awareness of each other's dance forms and dance communities.

Tell us about your most recent dance project, Go Where Light Is.

Go Where Light Is has been a really exciting and challenging project. Because I normally work as a soloist, the larger-scale things that I've done have been with improv structures that have been quite loose. Like I construct a general timbre of the piece and they're usually people spread out over large areas so that people sort of come upon little things happening in different places in an area. With this one, I don't want to say this is my pandemic piece, but I did really miss dancing with everybody. I just had it in my heart, I wanted to do something really big with lots of people in it. I also had these really strong eerie feelings of the universe really not just being something out there in outer space or something that requires technology to perceive. That it's really just around us all of the time. And all these distances of course are relative. And even during the day, it's not something that happens at night, where we can see stars. The stars are just always there. And I just started thinking about how strange the world is as we've created these structures and systems around us. I started thinking more and more about the uniqueness of the human animal and the context of the universe without all of these constructs around us. So that's kind of where I started. There are a lot of themes that come through in the piece, the music steers a lot of it. The piece was written by my husband Scott Smallwood and his collaborative partner Stephan Moore.

Tell us more about your filmmaking.

In 2016-17, I was the artist in residence at Harcourt House. The residency is meant to support the work of an artist as they advance or emerge into a new area of their work. I was in my late 40s by then and I was dealing with lots of injuries and thinking a lot about what I wanted to be doing and about the online presence of dance. And I started thinking I would like to learn how to do dance for film and during the residency. I started taking film classes at the University of Alberta and FAVA. I made some little films in those classes, and they became part of the exhibition at the end of my residency, and then I found out that you could submit online to film festivals, so I got into a bunch of film festivals which was weird and fun. I felt a little bit upset because I'd been making films for, like, not even a year and I was getting awards for filmmaking. You could just never do that with dance! It’s said it takes ten years to make a dancer. I told my teacher that and he said, “Well it's different for you because you're already an artist.” I suppose that's kind of true, I already have strong compositional ideas and content ideas. It is a very different medium. It turns out I really love editing and it goes back to this whole thing of kind of being a person of solitude.

Can you tell us about a hidden gem in Edmonton’s dance scene that you think more people should know about?

Mile Zero Dance is opening up a new space in the next little while in the Ritchie neighborhood and I'm really excited to see how that's going to affect everything. Both in terms of having a more solid and secure location for themselves and what it's going to bring to dance. That's probably the thing I'm most excited about.

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Jen Mesch. Listen to Jen Mesch tell her story on CBC Radio’s Radio Active show! Aired March 23, 2023.

Photo by Aspen Zettel, 2021.

About Jen Mesch

To say that dancer/choreographer Jen Mesch inhabits any performance she gives is an understatement. Described as enigmatic, unusually perceptive and artistically fearless, Mesch’s wide variety of interests often lead her to unique collaborations in unexpected places.

Mesch has created over 200 works for dance performances, film, and experimental theatre in the US and Canada. She has performed with Cindy Baker, Dawn Cargiulo Berman (Momix), Penny Hutchinson (Mark Morris Dance Group), Jack Magai (Troy Chainsaw Ensemble), Linda Mannheim (Martha Graham Dance Company), Jennifer Monson (Birdbrain Dance), Gerry Morita (Mile Zero Dance), Susan Tenney (Jane Erdman Dance) and Kimberly Young (a canary torsi). For over a decade, Mesch has worked primarily with experimental musicians and has performed with Roger Admiral, Nico Arnáez, Allison Balcetis, Stephan Moore, Will Northlich-Redmond, Scott Smallwood, and Nate Wooley. She was the 2016-2017 Artist in Residence at Harcourt House which culminated in a two month dance, film, and visual art installation in fall 2017. Her film Hard White Spring received the award for Outstanding Experimental Film or Video at FAVA Fest and it was a semi-finalist in Cinema d’iDEA festival in Rome. Her first film, Soft Red Winter was screened at the Venice Short Film Festival. Mesch also teaches dance improvisation and technique, and her writings on dance have appeared in The Dance Current (Canada) and on her own Dance Conspiracy blog.

[mettamakers]

🌴🦋🌕 AfterGlow: Ruby Chase, DJ Shango, Zen Xaria, and Luxe'n'Bass

Dance, Play, Connect & Vibe with community after the Poranguí musical healing journey at an epic venue in D.C. with Danley Sound Labs audio, next-level lighting and projection design, and high-vibes, good people.

Unlock the beauty within, and activate your entire being.

Doors for Poranguí: 6PM (see details below) AfterGlow Doors: 11:00PM (without Porangui admission) Tickets: https://bit.ly/porangui-afterglow Early-Bird: $20, Day of Show: $25; receive 20% with purchase of Poranguí ticket! (see details below)

DJ SHANGO:

DJ Shango is a Burning Man DJ, a Philadelphia, DC & Jersey based DJ. Bringing indigenous and world sounds that uplift, enlighten, and open the chakras, Shango brings his vision to life through motion and raw power on the dance floor. Art and music collide, healing the audience of their traumas using movement, chanting, mantras, crystal vibrations, live drummers, and tribal body art. Shango’s ancient futuristic artform creates a constant flow of physical and ethereal release within the audience, purposefully increasing the power and influence of healing energy directed toward the crowd each event, creating a massive healing movement in Philadelphia and beyond. https://linktr.ee/DJShango

ZEN XARIA: Zen Xaria is a multi-media, multi-instrumentalist singer and artist from Baltimore, MD who loves to sing in many languages and styles, as well as creating digital art, murals, sculptures and installments. Zen has been been creating their entire life, and performing flute since 2017.

"I am a channel that allows spirit to manifest into a visionary journey" https://www.instagram.com/f0xg0ddess/

RUBY CHASE: Ruby Chase is a social alchemist, utilizing the power of sound frequencies and booty shaking to awaken passion. As a DJ, Vocalist, and Music Producer, she has been spreading her music around the world, traveling to various sacred sites and high vibe gatherings producing music with the local sounds and flavors of the lands she travels to.

Ruby demonstrates her passion for utilizing music as a gateway for impact by teaming up with many global impact organizations and speaking up about important topics such as mental health, earth conservation, ancient wisdom, love, and female empowerment. Weaving a mix of Shanti vibes with global dance music woven with her ethereal live vocals and interactive invitations, Ruby’s sets turn the dance floor into a ceremony. Dive deeper at: https://rubychase.love

LUXE'N'BASS: Tag team duo "Luxe'n'Bass", (Rachel Luxe B2B Dj Bassmint), bass music aficionados, partners in crime, renegade sound, power-couple supreme. Providing the best of Bass Music and underground sound.

Specializing in Deep Dubstep, this heavyweight partnership is nothing to take lightly. Dance, love, and enjoy, we'll help you along the way. https://www.facebook.com/LuxenBass/

About Ecstatic Dance DC: Ecstatic Dance D.C. is the dance-iest dance floor in all of DC. An incredible diversity of people show. https://facebook.com/ecstaticdancedc

About Mettā Creative: Mettā Creative’s mission is to connect and inspire a mettā-driven community to live more regeneratively through transformational experiences. Learn more and join the community here: https://MettaCreative.world/

About the Venue: A.i. is our roaming pop up event series that isn’t limited to one location. As every artist and genre is different, the ambiance is ever changing as well. This allows us to curate modular experiences where we always tailor our space to best fit the theme. We do this by customizing different visuals, lighting designs, art installations, etc. With an ever changing environment to work with, we have crafted and curated experiences that reach a broad spectrum of communities. https://www.nuandroids.com/

We want to thank the Poranguí team, and everyone else involved to help make this transformational experience a reality.

This is the official "AfterGlow" for: Beauty Way Tour: A Music, Dance, and Healing Experience Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/2Wri60Oe0 Tickets: https://eventbrite.com/e/425481545757 Early-Bird: $40, Day of Show: $45 Doors: 6PM Opening Music is Medicine Workshop w/ Poranguí: 7PM Live Show: 8PM

[rndyounghowze]

And The Nominees Are… (Part 2/2)

#younghowzetheatreawards

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Mays Landing, NJ

Venmo: @rndyounghowze

The nominations for the first ever Young-Howze Theatre Awards are finally here! We have been working hard since March of 2020 reviewing over a hundred and forty digital productions. We have been poring over them all since January to bring you these categories and the shows vying for them.

Let’s remind everyone what our criteria were: Because of the pandemic this year every show that we have reviewed was nominated for at least one category. We picked winners by a very specific set of criteria: What was this show attempting to do? Was it successful? Was it the most successful of all the shows that tried to do this? We apologize to anyone who thought that we would be announcing winners today. We decided that we wanted to save all of the spoilers for the live show on February 21st at 8PM EST. Please remember that even if you only get one nomination it is because we wanted to honor everyone who worked hard this year (every theatre artist who did a show this year deserves a medal). However we understand that specific nominations are useful for theatre creators in their resumes, grant applications etc.

All Nominees should receive a nomination email from us. If you haven’t gotten an email by Monday 11:59pm PST email is at rndyounghowze@gmail.com

Congratulations everyone! We are so proud of your accomplishments and amazing work. We’ve already seen shows this year that are award worthy. You all exceeded our expectations. Without further ado...

Solo Performance

“Chewie Award” For Team Behind A Solo Performance

“Blood/Sugar” by Diana Wyenn in Los Angeles, CA

“Kristina Wong For Public Office” by Kristina Wong in Los Angeles, CA

“Disenchanted: A Cabaret of Twisted Fairy Tales” by Eliane Morel at Melbourne Fringe

“All By Myself Award” For Solo Performance Of The Year

“The Bassoonist” by Sean P. Mette and Autumn Kaleidoscope at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Kristina Wong For Public Office” by Kristina Wong in Los Angeles, CA

“Sarah Palin: Rogue None” by Amanda Nicastro in NYC, NY

“What Would John Hughes Do?” by Telia Nevile at Melbourne Fringe

“Campfire Award” For Storyteller Of The Year

“Right Now” By Martin Dockery at Minnesota Fringe Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Life Underground” by Brad Lawrence at FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

“Pumpkin Pie Show” by Pumpkin Pie Show at FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

“UnterClub” by Juan Sebastian Peralta in Uruguay

“Full of Woe” by Genevieve Yosco and Sour Grapes Productions at FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

Seasons, Series and Festivals

“BIPOC HERO” For The BIPOC Creative Team Of The Year

TBA

“Worldwide Award” For Collaborative Work Of The Year

“The Art of Facing Fear Brazil” By Os Satyros in São Paulo, Brazil “The Art of Facing Fear US” Os Satyros and Company of Angels and Rob Lecrone, in co-production with Os Satyros and Darling Desperados. “The Art of Facing Fear Africa/Europe” Os Satyros and Cie Kaddu, Crown Troupe of Africa, Darling Desperados, Oddmanout Theatre Company, Portuguese Cultural Center of Mindelo, Tell-a-Tale, The Kwasha! Theatre Company, The Market Theatre Laboratory, Village Gossip Productions

“Macbeth #6” Os Satyros São Paulo, Brazil and the Center for Interdisciplinary Performance Art - Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Enough Plays to End Gun Violence at Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, NJ

“Down the Stream” For Digital Season of The Year

Frigid NY in NYC, NY

Combined Artform in Los Angeles, CA

“There’s No I in Theatre” For Non-Profit Theatre of The Year

Elm Street Cultural Arts Village in Woodstock, GA

Sour Grapes Productions in NYC, NY

Opal Theatre in Boise, Idaho

Know Theatre of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH

Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, VA

“Deja Vu Award” Recurring Streaming Series Of The Year

“Tilted Frame” by Combined Artform in Los Angeles, CA

“Bingewatch and Friends” by Diana Brown and Dan Wilson in San Francisco, CA

“Reparations Show” by Kevin R Free at Frigid NY in NYC, NY

“Monologues For Us By Us” By Cincinnati Black Theatre Artists Collective in Cincinnati, Ohio

“Bard Brunch” by Sour Grapes Productions in NYC, NY

“On The Fringes” Fringe of the Year

Minnesota Fringe

Halifax Fringe

Melbourne Fringe

Montreal Fringe

Cincinnati Fringe

“The Shortie“ Short Form Festival Of The Year

“48 Hours in Harlem” By Harlem 9 in Harlem, NY

“Overnight Sensations” by Hollins Playwrights Lab in Roanoke, VA

Estrogenius Festival by FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

Fire This Time Festival at FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

Single Shows

“Weird and Worth It” For Experimental Production Of The Year

“Paul And Erika’s House Show” By Theatre Mobile at Cincinnati Fringe

“Hivemind” by Solasta Theatre at Cincinnati Fringe

“#TXT Show” by Brian Feldman at Minnesota Fringe and Melbourne Fringe

“Butterfly Effect” by Unnatural Disasters at Halifax Fringe

“New Normal” by Os Satyros in São Paulo, Brazil

“One Man Nutcracker” by Chris Davis in Philadelphia, PA

“Cabaret De Profundis” By Buntport Theatre in Denver, CO

“So Nice We Saw It Twice” Touring Show Of The Year

“Desperately Seeking The Exit” by Peter Michael Marino and PM2 at Cincinnati Fringe And Queerly Festival and Show Up, Kids! In NYC!

“Paul and Erika’s House Show” by Theatre Mobile at Cincinnati Fringe and Minnesota Fringe

“Love and Other Lures” by Dr. Dour and Peach at Cincinnati Fringe and Minnesota Fringe

“Killjoy, Ohio” by Queen City Flash at Cincinnati Fringe and Minnesota Fringe

“TXT Show By Brian Feldman at Minnesota Fringe and Melbourne Fringe

“Kristina Wong For Public Office” by Kristina Wong in Koreatown and Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, CA

“Before Times” For Pre-Pandemic Recording Of The Year

“Petunia and Chicken” by Animal Engine at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Unrepentant Necrophile” by The ColdHarts at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Knife Slingin’” By Motz at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Occupy This!” By Rev Nuge at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Stow You Baggage” By Alexx Rouse at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Butcher Holler” by Ad Hoc Economy at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Lady Macbeth and Her Pal Megan” by Megan Gogerty at Cincinnati Fringe Festival Cincinnati, OH

“Dammit, Jim!” by Polly Esther in Toronto, CA

“A Night With The Dead” by Martha Preve and Something From Abroad at Hartford Fringe in FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

“A Christmas Carol In Harlem” by Classical Theatre of Harlem in NYC, NY

“Forbidden City” by Martin Dockery at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Practical Game Changer” For Practical Effects Of The Year

“Killjoy, Ohio” by Queen City Flash at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Zoo Motel” By Thaddeus Phillips in Columbia, South America

“A Light Touch” by Mind of a Snail at Minnesota Fringe Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Digital Game Changer” For Digital Effects Of The Year

“M-O-U-S-E” by Rory Sheridan at the Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“King Lear” by SF Shakes in San Francisco, CA

“War Of The Worlds” by Ben Hernandez at Cal State in Los Angeles, CA

“Claws Out! A Holiday Drag Musical” by City Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA

“18+ Allowed” For Adult Variety Of The Year

“Disenchanted: A Cabaret of Twisted Fairy Tales” by Eliane Morel at Melbourne Fringe

“Creepy Boys” by Scantily Glad at Melbourne Fringe

Red Mill Revue at Melbourne Fringe

Queers On The Fringe at Melbourne Fringe

“Reach Out“ For Immersive Production Of The Year

“Feast” by Megan Gogerty at Know Theatre of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH

“In Lak’Ech” by No Peeking Theatre in Jersey City, NJ

“Twelfth Night”” by Food of Love Productions in NYC, NY

“Grace Notes” For Musical Production Of The Year

“Dream &” By Sarah Willis and The Queer Feminists Next Door at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Colony” by Psophonia and Aura at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“TV Tunes” by Leslie Vincent at Minnesota Fringe Minneapolis, Minnesota

“The In-Between Years” By The Champagne Drops in Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Love and Other Lures” By Dr. Dour and Peach at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Hollow” by David Kent at Edinburgh Fringe

“One Vote Won” by Nashville Opera in Nashville, TN

“Meet Me In St. Louis” By Irish Rep in NYC, NY

“Power” For Fifth-Wall Breaking Show Of The Year

“Matriarch” by Sandy Greenwood at Melbourne Fringe

Chanukahmunication by the Feldman Dynamic in Washington, DC

“Proof Of Love” By Chisa Hutchinson and BLBW in Chicago, IL

Individuals

“Magician” For Press Contact Of The Year

Emily Godfrey For FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

Liz Carman For Know Theatre of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH

“Tech Witch” For Tech Person Of The Year

David Svengalis for “Tilted Frame” by Combined Artform in Los Angeles, CA

Henry Bateman for Know Theatre of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH

“Extensions“ For Movement Artist Of The Year

“Proximity” by Pones at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Definition of Man” by DConstruction Arts at Halifax Fringe

Marina Calendar For Tree She at Estrogenius Festival NYC, NY

Nick Daniels For “Folk Dances of A Nucleic Village” at Pittsburgh Fringe Pittsburgh, PA

“You Oughta Be In Pictures” For Film Of The Year

“Proximity” by Pones at Cincinnati Fringe

“Opinions Of Men” by Ben Dudley at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Macbeth” by Gorilla Repertory Theatre in NYC, NY

“Black Emperor of Broadway” by Vision Films Inc and Egeli Productions in Provincetown, MA

“Concord Floral” by Jordan Tamanelli at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado

Zoom

“Pioneer” For Innovative Achievement Of The Year

Waiting for the Host” by Mark Palmieri in NYC, NY

“Desperately Seeking the Exit” by Peter Michael Marino in NYC, NY

“Long Zoomie” For Long-Form Zoom Play Of The Year

“3 Way Lovve” by Marcus Ma’at Atkins at Minnesota Fringe Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Im Ur Hamlet” By Genevieve Yosco and Sour Grapes Productions in NYC, NY

“Rideshare” by Reginald Edmund and BLBW in Chicago, Illinois

“Disrobed” by Steven Vlasak and Troy Peterson at Hollywood Fringe Hollywood, CA

“Sons of Liberty” by Cris Eli Blak in Louisville, KY

“Call For The Wailing Women” by Katrina D. RiChard and BLBW in Chicago, IL

“Jump!” By Charly Evon Simpson at TSU in Nashville, TN

“Short Zoomie” For Short-Form Zoom Play Of The Year

“Soup” by Rachel Carnez at Project Y Theatre in NYC, NY

“Missing Ingredient” by Colleen O’Doherty at Project Y Theatre in NYC, NY

“Pas De Deux” by Kevin Ferguson at Missouri S&T in St. Louis, Missouri

“Scaramouche and Pinochle” by Mike Moran Missouri S&T in St. Louis, Missouri

Screen Manager Of The Year

TBA

Stream Yard

“Duck“ For Streamyard Production Of The Year

“Infemous” by Infemous at the Queerly Festival and Montreal Fringe Festival

“Romeo and Juliet Virtually” By Miles Beyond Entertainment in Los Angeles, CA

“Day of the Dead Variety Show” by Something From Abroad at FRIGID NY in NYC, NY

“Latina Christmas Special Special” by Latina Christmas Special in Los Angeles, CA

Staged Production

“The Globe“ For Staged Production of The Year

“Quit While You’re Ahead” By Alexx Rouse and A-Z Productions at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Dreary Dearie” By Caitlyn Waltermire at Cincinnati Fringe Cincinnati, OH

“Hellish Reunion” by The Feral Theatre Company at Minnesota Fringe Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Polka Dots: The Cool Kids Musical” by Melvin Tunstall III at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, VA

“Titus Andronicus” by Shakespeare by the Sea in San Pedro, CA

“She Kills Monsters” by Qui Nguyen at Elm Street Arts Cultural Village in Woodstock, GA

Please Be Sure To Tune In To The Live Show on either our YouTube Channel, FRIGID NY’s YouTube, or you can go to Combined Artform’s Channel. Also follow their Facebook pages for live updates. Our social media will be taken over before and during the show by Saturday Lawson of Punchline Loading and Genevieve Yosco of Sour Grapes Productions! We can’t wait to see you there!

*****A Word From Our Sponsors*****

We have a YouTube Channel. We’re working furiously to get new videos up weekly.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0M6M04VtDpqFzVLxjfrRZA

We have official merch now! Keep us fed and get gifts for the family all at the same time!

https://teespring.com/rnd-younghowze?pid=972

Wanna be a sponsor? Email us for rates at rndyounghowze@gmail.com

Check out our Social Media

Twitter: @rndyounghowze

Instagram: @rndyounghowze

Facebook: Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

[randomvarious]

The Sugarhill Gang - “Rapper’s Delight” The Best Rap Album of All Time Song released in 1979. Compilation released in 1999. Hip Hop

“Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang is the most important song in the history of hip hop music. Period. It was the genre’s first commercial record and it sold millions of copies around the world. It suddenly introduced white people and everyone outside of the tri-state area, as well as countless people in other countries, to a Bronx-born, organic subculture whose popularity had previously grown through mostly word-of-mouth. It’s not the first hip hop song ever recorded (that honor belongs to “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” by The Fatback Band), but historians unanimously agree that it is indeed the genre’s runner-up record. And without its commercial success, hip hop might have only become a late 70s-early 80s New York fad, only to be cherished by its small set of original participants and Pitchfork-reading hipster types who wax nostalgic about those halcyon CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City days where the city’s various strains of new wave, glam rock, punk, art punk, no wave, and the like all converged.

But I’m here to tell you that this iconic song, the one that made hip hop a viable commercial enterprise and enabled it to eventually become the biggest music genre on the planet, is actually a total fraud. And that’s for a couple reasons. Now, before you go all Rocko lavender hippo lady on me, let me just say that “Rapper’s Delight” is by no means a bad song. In fact, it’s one of the greatest songs ever made. But it was a total fucking cash grab, too; an absolute sellout record. And that’s ironic because, for a genre that’s had so many insufferable purists who bristle at the idea of inauthenticity (full disclosure: I was one of those people), they have no problem with calling this song an indispensable piece of “real” and “true” hip hop music.

Let me explain some hip hop history, first though.

Hip hop culture began in the south Bronx in the summer of 1973, about a full six years before “Rapper’s Delight” came out. It was started by a DJ from Jamaica named Kool Herc. Herc is the genius who figured out how to isolate the instrumental break on a record and extend it by having two copies of the record and lining up the second one to start after the break from the first one finished. This allowed people to dance to the same beat for extended periods of time, which gave birth to breakdancing and dance battles. Another thing the extension of the break enabled was rapping. Rapping came out of toasting, a Jamaican DJ tradition in which the DJ would bust out a nifty and rhythmic, spoken-word rhyme, often shouting out someone of note who was in attendance. But then that eventually morphed into an extended series of rhymes, which gave way to the MC.

Rapping at that point was largely a poetic, improvised stream-of-consciousness. MCs would rap for minutes on end, displaying their mental dexterity as they would do their best to keep on beat and try to make sense while rhyming the last word of each line with the next.

That’s where Sylvia Robinson comes into this story. Robinson was an R&B / soul / funk / disco artist and producer who had appeared plenty of times on the R&B charts and landed a top-three national hit with “Pillow Talk” in 1973. In 1979, she started her own label, Sugar Hill Records, which would become the most important hip hop label in the early part of the next decade. Robinson’s first interaction with rapping didn’t come inside a Bronx club or at a Bronx block party though. It was instead at her niece’s birthday party in Harlem, where DJ Lovebug Starski was doing a bit of call-and-response with his audience. 

From The Independent:

"The DJ [was talking] over the music, and the kids were going crazy. He would say something like, 'Throw your hands [up in] the air' and they'd do it," she recalled. "All of a sudden, something said [to me]: 'Put something like that on a record, and it will be the biggest thing you ever had'. I didn't even know you called it rap."

At first, Robinson had no takers. No rapper or DJ she approached thought making a hip hop record was a good idea. It was just a fun thing people did at parties. It wasn’t something that would ever end up being profitable. According to cultural critic Harry Allen, when Chuck D of Public Enemy first heard that rap was going to be put on records, he asked, “'How are you going to put three hours on a record?' Because that's the way MCs used to rhyme. They'd just rhyme and rhyme and rhyme for hours."

But Robinson would eventually find some people to rap on a record. It’s unclear whether or not it was her son or her herself who initially found the first member of her rap group, but it happened at a pizza shop in Englewood, New Jersey, where Big Bank Hank was spotted rapping while working his shift. Robinson then brought Hank out in front of the parlor to audition. The next member, Master Gee, would then audition in her car, followed by Wonder Mike. Robinson couldn’t decide which rapper she liked most, so she decided to sign all of them. And thus, the Sugarhill Gang was born.

However, it should be noted that Big Bank Hank, Master Gee, and Wonder Mike were absolute nobodies at the time. They weren’t serious MCs or DJs. The guys who had been putting it down since hip hop’s inception like Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and Kool DJ AJ had never had these guys rap on their stages before. They were total amateurs.

But Robinson didn’t care and not long after she signed them, “Rapper’s Delight” came to fruition. The #1 song in the country at the time happened to be Chic’s “Good Times,” and coincidentally, it was also a superb beat for rapping over. Robinson probably thought that using an uber popular instrumental for her rap record would move units, too, and ultimately, she would be proven right. She enlisted a funk band called Positive Force to recreate the “Good Times” instrumental, and,  incredibly, they and the Sugarhill Gang pumped out “Rapper’s Delight” in a single nineteen-minute take. There were no lyrical flubs and no mistakes by any of the players. It was an amazingly efficient use of studio time.

That nineteen minutes was then pared down to 14:30 and the recording was pressed to wax and then went to sale. However, “Rapper’s Delight” failed to catch on at first. Radio DJs were reticent to play such a ridiculously long song and hip hop party DJs had no idea who the Sugarhill Gang was. But once a radio version was cut, which is the version I’ve posted today, the record got radio play, which then translated to immense record sales. It made the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #36, while hitting #4 on the R&B chart. And it became an even bigger hit outside of the U.S., reaching the top-five all across Europe, Canada, and South Africa. It also sold literally millions of records. The second hip hop song to ever be recorded for commercial purposes was a suddenly and completely unexpected global phenomenon. Hip hop had hit the big time.

But outside of the fact that this monstrous song was clearly a mere ploy to make money and was actually not an organic piece of Bronx-bred hip hop culture, there was even more fraudulence to it. Big Bank Hank, the second MC to grace the track, actually stole all of his verses from another rapper, the legend Grandmaster Caz. Caz was a member of a foundational hip hop group called The Cold Crush Brothers, who were known to rap at parties in the Bronx. Hank offered to become Caz’s manager and took out a loan to upgrade Cold Crush’s soundsystem. Then, to pay off that loan, he got a job at the pizza shop that he was eventually discovered in. But when he was seen rapping while working and was quickly auditioned afterwards, he used Caz’s lyrics. So, when Hank introduces himself on “Rapper’s Delight” with, “I’m the C-A-S-A, the N-O-V-A, and the rest is F-L-Y,” know he is spelling out one of Grandmaster Caz’s nicknames, and without his permission. And to this day, Caz hasn’t seen a single dime from “Rapper’s Delight”’s sales. Criminal shit.

But in the grand scheme of things, despite that bad sleight on Caz and the ultimate motive to record the song, “Rapper’s Delight” is still, by absolute happenstance, a masterpiece. It’s not just one of the first hip hop records, but it’s just so infectiously fun. But because of how fun it is, another thing that apparently pissed off other rappers at the time was that the song wasn’t about anything important. A lot of rappers were angry at the conditions in which they lived and they thought it was lame that a bunch of outsiders had cashed in on their artform while not even channeling any of the south Bronx’s inner rage. But a few years later, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five would release hip hop’s second unmitigated classic, “The Message,” a socially conscious-painted picture of the South Bronx. And it was released on, funnily enough, Sugar Hill Records.

There’s a moral or something to this story somewhere. Without the selling out and without Big Bank Hank’s lyrical theft, who knows where hip hop culture would be today? “Rapper’s Delight” sure wasn’t made for the purest of reasons, but it exposed hip hop music, and then eventually the actual authentic Bronx culture, to the entire world. Had Sylvia Robinson not seen dollar signs in this fun and unique party gimmick, would Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five or Afrika Bambaataa or Kurtis Blow become household names? Would hip hop ever be sold commercially? Would the following, more lyrical Def Jam wave with acts like Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J ever happen? And then would N.W.A happen or the Native Tongues posse with A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Queen Latifah, and Black Sheep? I could go on, but you get the picture.

[creativeprocesssophielindsay]

CINDY SHERMAN

Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #13 (1978)

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/cindy-sherman-louis-vuitton-fondation

Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #21 (1978)

https://drnorth.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/picture-of-the-week-77-cindy-shermans-film-stills/#jp-carousel-7513

Cindy Sherman Untitled #92, "Disasters and Fairy Tales" Series (1985)

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1038

Cindy Sherman Untitled #209, "History Portrait" Series (1989)

http://juliettebuck.blogspot.com/2012/04/cindy-sherman.html

Biography of Cindy Sherman

Childhood Cindy Sherman was born January 19, 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey (virtually a suburb of New York City). Shortly after Cindy's birth, the family moved to Huntington, Long Island, where Cindy grew up as the youngest of five children. Although her parents shared a general disinterest in the arts-her father was an engineer and her mother a reading teacher-Sherman chose to study art in college, enrolling at the State University of New York, at Buffalo, in the early 1970s. Early Training

Sherman studied in Buffalo from 1972-76; she began as a painter, but she quickly found herself frustrated by what she considered certain limitations of the medium. The 1970s was an eclectic era for painters working in the aftermath of Minimalism, and feeling as though "there was nothing more to say [through painting]," Sherman shifted her attention to photography. Although initially failing a required photography class, she later elected to repeat the course, which ignited her passion for the subject. During her studies, Sherman met fellow artists Robert Longo and Charles Clough, with whom she co-founded Hallwalls Center for Contemporary Art in 1974 (it continues to function to the present day as a dynamic, multi-arts "hub"). Longo and Sherman dated until 1979. During her studies, Sherman was exposed to Conceptual art and other progressive art movements and media under the widely influential art instructor, Barbara Jo Revelle.

Upon graduation, Sherman moved to New York City to pursue her artistic career. In 1977, with her downtown residential and studio loft as her primary backdrop, Sherman began taking a series of photographs of herself, a project she would eventually refer to as the Untitled Film Stills. In this series, Sherman embodies the character of "Everywoman." Re-fashioning herself repeatedly into the guise of various female archetypes, Sherman played the girly pin-up, the film noir siren, the housewife, the prostitute, and the noble damsel in distress. The black-and-white series occupied her for about three years, so that by 1980 Sherman had virtually exhausted a myriad of seemingly timeless clichés referring to the "feminine."

Mature Period

With the debut of Untitled Film Stills, Sherman secured her position in the New York art world, leading to her first solo show at the non-profit exhibition space, The Kitchen. Shortly after, she was commissioned to create a centrefold image for Artform magazine. Photos of a pink-robe-clad Sherman were ultimately deemed too racy by editor Ingrid Sischy and rejected. There is no knowing whether a subsequent series shot from 1985 to 1989, Disasters and Fairy Tales, was in some sense a response to that act of rejection, but, notably, it is a much darker endeavour than its prettified predecessor. Its gloomy palette and scenes strewn with vomit and mould challenged viewers to find beauty in the ugly and the unqualified grotesque.

Sherman's next series took on the hallowed subject of the art tableau. History Portraits again presented Sherman-as-model, but this time she assumed the air of European art history's most famous "leading ladies." Living in Europe at the time of its creation, Sherman drew inspiration from the West's great museums. That interlude gave way, in 1992, to Sherman's Sex Pictures, a project taken up in response to the censorship of the art of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. In the Sex Pictures, Sherman substituted her own figure for that of a doll. Intending to shock and scandalize the public, the images present close-ups of doll-on-doll sex scenes and prosthetic genitalia. Shortly after she began work on this series, Sherman received a MacArthur Fellowship.

In 1997, Sherman crossed over from still art photography to motion pictures, aided in part by her husband at that time, film director Michel Auder (the two divorced in 1999). She made her directorial debut with the thriller, Office Killer, starring Molly Ringwald and Jeanne Tripplehorn. A year later, Sherman played herself in John Waters's 1998 comedy, Pecker.

Over the last decade, Sherman done clown's make-up in a series of still photography (2003) and, even more recently, she explored carefully staged female "suburban" identities in a solo show at Metro Pictures, NY (2008). In the latter series, Sherman photographed herself in various states of awkward make-up, superimposing stodgy, highly self-conscious portraits over contrived domestic and faux-monumental backdrops. In 2006, Sherman was honoured by a retrospective of her work at the Jeu de Paume Museum, in Paris. Sherman continues to live and work in New York City, where she is dating David Byrne, of the band, "Talking Heads." She celebrated a solo exhibition at MoMA in early 2012.

  The Legacy of Cindy Sherman

The ultimate participant-critic of mass consumer culture, one perpetually partaking of its daily realities while nonetheless challenging its underlying assumptions, Cindy Sherman epitomizes the 1980s technique of "image-scavengering," and "appropriation" by artists seeking to question the so-called truth potential of mass imagery and its seductive hold on our individual and collective psyches. Sherman's depersonalized approach to portrait photography has suggested a new, socially critical capacity for a medium that was once presumed a tool of documentary realism (or aesthetic pleasure). This "readymade" quality of the critically applied photograph, whereby a pre-existing image or convention is appropriated intact by the artist and subtly turned into something more conceptually problematic, if not psychologically disturbing, has come to characterize much work of a new generation defying easy categorization.

In addition, Sherman's work has been specifically cited as opening onto a new, "expanded field" of photography since the late 1990s, in much work characterized by a "fusion of narrative and stasis," such as in the photography of Jeff Wall, Anna Gaskell, Justine Kurland, Jenny Gage, and Sharon Lockhart. Such artists extend Sherman's anti-narrative approach to the medium and its subject matter, in work that frequently suggests unresolved stories and scenarios wrenched from contexts both common and disturbingly mysterious.

[chsamuseum]

The Art of Translation

After finishing his career as a diplomat for the Republic of China and retiring in 1958, my great-grandfather Shih-Shun Liu settled down in the United States. Liu originally lived in Princeton, New Jersey, but moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after the passing of his wife in the 1970s. During his time in the United States, Liu focused his efforts into making Chinese culture more accessible to the West through his translations of Chinese poetry and Confucian philosophy. One of Liu’s most notable works was the translation of Li Fu Chen’s The Confucian Way. Chen was the minister of education in the Republic of China as well as a controversial figure for his creation of the CC Clique, an anti-communist and far-right faction of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party of Taiwan).  

My great-grandfather saw his passion for translation as an artform that allowed Westerners to experience Chinese culture in English while still maintaining the unique Chinese touch of the original author. This is displayed in the forward of his book One Hundred and One Chinese Poems: “All translators of poetry, it has often been observed, are expected to combine the conflicting desiderata of fidelity and beauty. But the task of the writer who sets out to English the Chinese poets is even more exacting. He must not only produce a work of art in his own language but also devise means of giving his version a specifically Chinese touch.” Through the art of poetry and translation, Liu ensured that the Chinese culture that he loved would be seen and appreciated by people from all over the world. 

Here is a poem that Liu translated that was originally written by Lu Yu, a prominent Chinese poet during the Song Dynasty. This poem makes me think of how my great-grandfather, despite having an incredible career, was still haunted by the fact that his country had been torn apart by civil war, and the China that he loved and represented had become unrecognizable to him. When my great-grandfather joined China’s Nationalist government, it was seeking to strengthen the image of China and make the country a world power once again. However, by the end of his career, the Nationalist government was seen as weak and riddled with corruption. Liu, like many other Chinese officials, saw no other option but retirement.

A Testament

After death everything is void, I know,

But my regret is only 

Not to have seen the country reunited.

The day when once again the Emperor’s forces

Obtain a foothold in the North, do not forget to tell me,

When the family sacrifice is offered.

- Lu Yu

Below is a photo of The Confucian Way book that Liu translated and a photo of him when he was younger.

Submitted by Caleb Liu. Caleb is a Research Intern at CHSA and recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

[independentartistbuzz]

Indie 5-0: 5 Questions with Shadow Monster

Shadow Monster is an angsty and loud two-piece from Bushwick, Brooklyn. Gillian Visco’s gritty, dissonant and desperate guitar riffs meet with John Swanson’s epic and explosive drumming style to form a raw and moody version of grunge rock. Their hypnotic and smooth, yet raw, vibrant and dark sound brings the true essence of the group to life. The video perfectly encapsulates the essence of the duo, and goes above and beyond to impress your ears. We caught up with the duo for an exclusive Indie 5-0 below! Catch their new video for “Kill Me Sweetie” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU97k1xQ02g 1. What is the inspiration behind your latest  single "Kill Me Sweetie" and did you draw the piece from a personal place? I wrote this song at the tail end of a long and tumultuous relationship, when I was working towards assimilating myself back into the world again, all the while feeling like everything around me had lost all its beauty and meaning.  2. When creating songs, how long does it take to accomplish from start to finish? Every song is a little different. Sometimes I’ll be in a pure flow state and be able to write a song from start to finish in one sitting, but that sort of euphoric experience is pretty rare. I have songs that have taken years to write. Others have taken months. A song will usually take many different forms in rehearsal and during the first couple times performing it live, before it settles into its final version. The entire process is exciting and addictive to me. 3. At what age did you realize that music is a career you wanted to pursue; what was your 'ah-ha' moment? My dad was a musician so music has always played an integral role in my life. Though I never studied it in school, learning how to play guitar and write songs was a huge part of my alone time growing up and all through college. I always knew music would be a constant as I pursued other artforms, but I really started taking it seriously after I moved to New York. When John Swanson joined Shadow Monster in 2017, the band became the forefront of my endeavors.  4. Who are your musical inspirations; what artists inspired you to start your career and find your musical passion? My songwriting heroes are Elliott Smith, Kurt Cobain, The Beatles, Conor Oberst, Jeff Mangum, and Joni Mitchell. When I was a kid in Jersey learning how to play guitar, emo and lyric-saturated music was pretty big, so bands like Brand New, Saves The Day, and early Dashboard Confessional had a big impact on me and the early songs I wrote. That aesthetic has a tendency to sneak its way into my current rep of songs without me realizing it. 5. As we head back to a bit of normalcy in the pandemic world, can we expect more songs, videos or singles? We are in the studio currently wrapping up recording on our next album which we hope to have ready to roll out by the end of the year. So yes, definitely expect a new video and single alongside the announcement of our next album before the year is out! In the meantime we’ll be out here in Brooklyn playing as many shows as possible.  Connect with Shadow Monster:

http://www.theshadowmonster.com/  https://shadowmonster.bandcamp.com https://www.instagram.com/shadowmonster/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/60w1ZpD1LXnp3DKgB56DSz

[canvasbubbleblog]

An Interesting Take on Football Canvas Ideas

Football is one of the world-renowned sports and connects millions of fans across the globe. Fans connect through merchandise customized to their tastes and preferences. It includes various stuff, like flags, keychains, footballs, posters, jerseys, and much more.

The technological revolution in printing mechanism facilitates getting customized photos printed on the canvas. The life-like feel and appeal pour out the rich look, which seems to be missing in a casual photo frame. A football canvas photo is a good idea to connect with emotions for a football enthusiast.

Let’s have a look at the canvas print online for football.

Tips for Creating Football Canvas Art

Better Alternative to Poster

A poster is a prevalent materialistic merchandise that every football lover has displayed on their walls. This expresses ideas, thoughts, feelings, and bonding with football through a public space.

However, canvas printing has made it more artistic to display the photo or painting. The visual appeal of canvas print online is nothing less compared to the grandeur of canvas painting.

Make a Gallery Wall

If you are a big-time football fan, it is a good idea to dedicate a gallery wall to your passion. A single photo on canvas evokes so much emotion that the entire gallery will make the wall more lively.

The football canvas photos can be modified in various shapes and sizes. So, fans can have a gallery wall customized according to the choice. In fact, reflecting the photos through multiple panels is another fascinating idea.

Create Photo Effects

Football canvas art can be depicted in different ways by creating a photo effect. The state-of-the-art photo effects transform and bring depth to the photo.

There are numerous ways to edit and customize photos using filters and effects applied to the canvas prints. This has enabled the creation of a unique football canvas different from others.

Lifetime Memory

Football canvas print online will provide a lifetime memory to the admirer. The visual aesthetic appeal in canvas photos highlight the emotional and artistic qualities of the photograph.

You can easily have those pictures that capture the exact expression of your favorite football player.

Final Words

There are so many things you can do with a football canvas art that recreates the moment on your wall. It brings a feeling of possessing a soccer trophy that you wish to cherish for your entire life.

The beautiful artform of the football canvas will continue to inspire football lovers.

[kicksaddictny]

HUF Blends Skateboarding and Street Art for Holiday 2020

Blending skateboarding and street art, the HUF Holiday 2020 collection lookbook is set against a skateable mural installation by graffiti artist and HUF brand ambassador, Remio, accompanied by a video featuring HUF team riders Dan Plunkett and Salomon Cardenas showcasing skateboarding as a true artform with a wallride over a collage-esque preview of the collection.

The Holiday 2020 collection is the final chapter of a year-long homage to HUF’s past, with nostalgic 90's skate culture reinterpreted into modern designs that offer a fresh look into the future. A seasonal-appropriate color palette—including brick burgundy, French navy, gold, and camel tan—meet winter-ready fabrics across key styles and casual fits. The matching Polarys Jacket & Pant are made of super-warm tie-dyed polar fleece, while the Glacier Puffer Jacket, in soft-touch micro ripstop nylon, is insulated for heavy weather as a nod to HUF’s international reach.

New takes on heritage skate include the Sanford Long Sleeve Flannel in classic shadow plaid, the striped Bedford Knit Shirt, and the color-blocked Pops Herringbone Bucket Hat. Retro sportswear staples are reimagined in the mesh Fulton Hockey Jersey, Yorke Rugby shirt, and heavyweight Hartford Pullover Hoodie.

The HUF Holiday 2020 collection drops this Thursday, October 15th, at the brand’s flagship stores and online shop.

[engy-mohamed]

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1864. He studied engineering in Germany before returning to New York in 1890 with a plan to prove that photography was an artform worthy of artistic recognition just like painting and sculpture. He joined the Camera Club of New York (an association of amateur photography enthusiasts) and soon became the Editor of Camera Notes, the journal of the Camera Club of New York, where he would publish the works of other photographers who shared his view on the medium. A number of disagreements over Alfred’s editorial policies led to his and other like minded photographers breaking away from the association to form another association called  Photo-Secession, advocating an emphasis on the craftsmanship involved in photography. 

Alfred achieved his desired affiliation with painting through a set of compositional choices along with the elaborate use of natural elements like rain, snow, and steam to unify the components of a scene into a visually pleasing final product.

His final photographs, such as From My Window at the Shelton, North, are said to have emphasized ““the fragmented nature of contemporary life,”highlighting  the geometric forms of the city as seen from an upper floor of a modern skyscraper. 

Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/stgp/hd_stgp.htm

[smart-carpet]

SMART Carpet and Flooring Offers New Promotion and Asks: ‘Looking for a Unique Christmas Gift? Give the Gift of Flooring!’ Purchase one flooring gift card and receive another gift card in return.

MANASQUAN, N.J., Dec. 13, 2019 – SMART Carpet and Flooring (https://www.smartcarpet.com/) recently announced a rare double gift card opportunity for its customers to help with upcoming holiday shopping ideas. Starting as low as $150, customers can tailor each gift card amount, giving as much as they want to help towards their loved ones’ purchase of flooring as a special one-of-a-kind gift. The double-gift promotion then immediately takes 10 percent of that purchase and returns it back to the original customer as an all-purpose Visa Gift Card. The double card promotion can be accessed HERE.

“We love the holiday season here at SMART Carpet,” said Brendan Phillips, SMART Carpet and Flooring founder and president. “But we know how much of a challenge it is to try and find the perfect gift for each person on your shopping list. New flooring is a different type of holiday gift idea, but we believe it’s a special and unique chance to really give someone a gift that is not only useful, but one that keeps on giving. A new floor can become a daily reminder to the recipient about how much they are loved. And with the 10-percent Visa return, it’s a win-win scenario.”

Classic Flooring Gifts: The Excellence and Luxury of Hardwood

Hardwood flooring is almost an artform: both in its timeless beauty and its upkeep. A well-kept hardwood floor can be a joy and a treasure for generations, because nothing makes an impression quite like dark, rich hardwoods laid out in an entrance hall or dining room. Warm, elegant and personal, both solid and engineered hardwoods are popular choices.

Solid Planks: Traditional solid hardwood floors feature finished boards crafted of pure solid woods like oak, maple, hickory and walnut. Each board is then measured and positioned before being nailed over a suitable subflooring. Hardwood floors are a premium flooring that require skill and finesse to install properly; a job that is definitely best left to a floor installation expert. But the dazzling and unique designs of the woodgrain give these floors a luxurious appearance that is unmatched. Hardwoods can be refinished many times and are designed to last for multiple decades.

Engineered Planks: Engineered hardwood flooring planks are crafted of multiple thin layers, including compressed wood, resin and polymers that are then usually topped with layers of real hardwood to achieve a dazzling outward appearance. Engineered flooring planks are versatile in their installation requirements and can be fitted and snapped into place, rather than nailed to a subfloor. Each plank is crafted with grooves to allow ease of installation, and creates a floating-floor that can be laid over a level base of tile, linoleum, wood or concrete.

SMART Carpet and Flooring always maintains a variety of hardwood flooring choices for any renovation job. The store also carries vinyl, tile or carpet, and allows customers a choice from literally thousands of brands — all from a mobile showroom that is ready to appear at a customer’s convenience.

About SMART Carpet and Flooring

As the Tri-State area’s original shop-at-home flooring provider with deep roots in New Jersey, SMART Carpet and Flooring eliminates the hassle of buying new carpet and flooring by doing everything at the client’s home, where color and quality selection matter most. Because the company is a mill-direct buying service and not a store, SMART Carpet and Flooring customers can save up to 50 percent off typical store prices. SMART Carpet and Flooring includes everything from measuring and layout to installation and financing. Learn more at: www.SmartCarpet.com.

Contact:

Danielle D’Angelo-Boos SMART Carpet and Flooring 732-292-6100 ddangelo@smartcarpet.com

[sinsitysol]

sinsitysound

SInSitySound Productions we are VividVisionaries On the Climb II Supremacy Creators Of Art Mastering Our Craft 4 Love of Our Artform Our Sound Lucid Illusions or Acid Dreams You Paint Your Perception E.s.b.E_ soblown B.s.O_ : Artist Flexican "Gal" : Artist : Sounds Comin Soon IIIEYES : Artist : Sounds Comin Soon JB THE Truth : Artist : Sounds Comin Soon Devin : Head of Visuals: VIVID VISIONS COMIN SOON: AKA VIdeos Roster still Growing these the only Ballers with Team Jerseys SInSitySound Productions we are VividVisionaries On the Climb II Supremacy Creators Of Art Mastering Our Craft 4 Love of Our Artform Our Sound Lucid Illusions or Acid Dreams You Paint Your Perception E.s.b.E_ soblown B.s.O_ : Artist Flexican "Gal" : Artist : Sounds Comin Soon IIIEYES : Artist : Sounds Comin Soon JB THE Truth : Artist : Sounds Comin Soon Devin : Head of Visuals: VIVID VISIONS COMIN SOON: AKA VIdeos Roster still Growing these the only Ballers with Team Jerseys

[junker-town]

Copa América 2021 jerseys, ranked and reviewed

Photo credit should read LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images

We take a look at the best and worst kits of those competing in the continental tournament of South America

Theoretically, the nations of South America’s footballing governing body — CONMEBOL —gather together every four years to compete for the title of best national team on the continent. In reality, it happens significantly more often, with this summer’s being the fourth tournament since 2015.

The Covid-19 pandemic threw the tournament another wrinkle. Like the Euros, this tournament was scheduled to be played in 2020 and was forced to move due to the pandemic. However, there have been much bigger roadblocks ahead than their European counterparts.

The tournament was scheduled to be the first-ever to be hosted by multiple nations, with the bid going to Argentina and Colombia. However, the pandemic has brought on a poor climate in both those nations to the point where hosting a continental football tournament seemed irresponsible. In Argentina, the country has been averaging above 30,000 cases of Covid-19 cases per day over the last few weeks. In Colombia, spiking numbers in the range of the mid-20,000’s have been coupled with ongoing unrest stemming from protests against the country’s president Iván Duque Márquez.

So last week, only 14 days before the tournament was set to start, CONMEBOL chose to move the tournament out of Argentina and Colombia. Instead, the Copa America will be hosted by Brazil, whose Covid-19 rates are averaging about 90,000 per day.

This tournament is one of the biggest, brightest, and best in the world when it comes to showcasing talent. On the pitch, the talent is displayed by players both established and up-and-coming alike. They’ll be doing all of this wearing the jerseys and badges of their respective home nations.

As we have done here twice before, once for the start of the European football calendar and once for MLS, we will be analyzing and ranking the kits of the nations playing in the Copa America. The jerseys will be ranked based on their style, traditions, overall color scheme, and uniqueness.

We’ll start at the bottom:

10. Bolivia

I don’t necessarily hate these kits, I just think Bolivia has had better offerings in the past. They seem to be the most boring shirts at this tournament. The subtle designs Marathon put on the front of the shirt are underwhelming and fail to stand out, especially compared to past kits worn by La Verde.

For a country that is as culturally bright and diverse as Bolivia, they should be wearing jerseys that accurately reflect that. This doesn’t do it for me.

9. Venezuela

One of two nations to never have won a Copa America, Venezuela will be showing up to this edition of the tournament wearing the same jerseys they’ve had since 2019. After being sponsored by adidas for a long time, Venezuela switched kit manufacturers and went with Italian brand Givova. It’s unclear why La Vinotinto chose to not create a new kit for their team on the continent’s biggest stage. Despite the fact that both of these kits look rather nice, the lack of something new sinks Venezuela to No. 9.

8. Uruguay

Yes, the only pictures of these kits that exist come from Luis Suarez and his Twitter account

This is not points off for the home kit. I’m a fan of the monochrome badge and overall, it seems like a well put together jersey for La Celeste.

It drops to No. 8 because of the away kit. This new Puma template of having the name of the country written out underneath a large Puma logo on a plain white jersey is weird and in some ways unsettling. These were all over the place in our Euros kit preview and I took points off there for this design. We continue that tradition here.

7. Colombia

The bold away kit design from adidas sees them re-use a template which kinda reminds me of a Rorschach test. I love the Colombian flag at the bottom of the sleeves and the three stripes in yellow.

But the home kit looks...boring? It has the same flag motif on the sleeves, but it almost blends in thanks to the yellow on the Colombian flag being at the top. The home kits Los Cafeteros wore from the 2014 World Cup, the 2016 Copa America, the 2018 World Cup, and the 2019 Copa America are all unique and fantastic. For them to go from four bangers in a row to a kit that plays it safe seems like the opposite of their brand and sticks out like a sore thumb.

6. Peru

You can’t beat a classic, and Peru didn’t decide to do that here. The iconic red sash stays on the home shirt for Los Incas and the inverse colors carry over to the away jersey. When matched with subtle gold accents, this is a great effort by Marathon to keep the tradition alive.

5. Chile

Like Puma, Nike also went down the national symbol route when they created their kits for Chile.

The home kit has a really smart collar and the traditional solid red of La Roja. The accents on the sides of the kit was inspired by Chilean textile patterns.

The away kit has a wild pattern on it. Nike doesn’t provide an explanation for the blue block in the middle of the chest, but says the red “wings” on the kit pay tribute to the national bird of Chile - the Andean condor.

And in case you were wondering, no, the Andean condor is not red. It’s the heaviest flying bird in the world and is a member of the vulture family.

Fun fact: the Andean condor is the national symbol for five different South American countries. While it’s nowhere on the jerseys of Peru or Colombia, it’s present on the crests of Bolivia and Ecuador. Chile is the only one who were brave enough to slap that bird on a kit.

At the end of it all, the wings on the jersey do look similar to those on the bird. But, it’s too garish of a design to be any higher than the top five. Nike does deserve credit for trying.

4. Argentina

Let’s start with the away kit. That same Rorschach-esque pattern is back. If anything, it kinda looks like adidas decided to just copy the Colombia jersey and apply the same principles to Argentina. Let’s see here: shoulder stripes similar to the national colors, same shoulders being a blank slate, that weird pattern, sleeves that have the pattern of the national flag - yeah no that seems like a template to me. Though I’ll say this, if it is the template adidas is going with, I like it. It seems creative enough to stand out but ties back to the national fabric of each team.

The reason it drops to 4th on this list is the home jersey. To me, those stripes of La Albiceleste are sacred from a design standpoint. To put any camouflage pattern on it is sacrilegious.

3. Brazil

These aren’t bad at all. It’s hard to screw up the Brazilian home kit, and by my estimation, they haven’t (including 1994). Keeping it simple makes it classy and elegant at the same time. The away kit reverts back to the traditional blue after the Seleção wore a white kit in 2019 to honor the 100th anniversary of their first Copa America victory. The pattern here is subtle and clean at the same time and marks as a good way to return to the norm.

2. Paraguay

The home kit wins this one for me. In Puma’s first run with Los Guaraníes they tied in a number of important national elements in the kit.

Their traditional red and white home kit has a graphic toward the bottom inspired by a traditional lace artform known as Ñandutí. Inside the collar is the phrase “Ndaipóri Khyhjé”, meaning “without fear” in Guarani - an official language in Paraguay and one from its indigenous people.

On the away kit, a simple white shirt gets the addition of two stripes over the crest - one red and one blue - alluding to the national flag.

Puma did a great job with these kits and deserve plaudits for their effort.

1. Ecuador

Back in January of 2020, Ecuador decided to rebrand themselves by dropping a new crest. They did so by creating an awe-inspiring two minute long video showing how each detail of the badge reflects the history and culture of Ecuador

Dentro de nuestro nuevo escudo llevamos la garra manabita y su fuerza a través de la silla #manteña, esa tenacidad y lucha incansable que los caracteriza, lo llevaremos en cada partido ⚽️ Va por tí #Manabí pic.twitter.com/ZSjc99EWvt

— FEF (@FEFecuador) January 15, 2020

With a logo reveal that good, they needed their first kits to be as outstanding. Marathon answered the call and made the exact kits this crest deserves. The home kit has a beautiful balance between yellow and blue stripes with solid yellow sleeves. The away kit has a monocolor badge, a fantastic turquoise color, and a great looking collar.

These elements themselves are good enough to put them at no. 1 on the list but there��s more. On the inside of each of the jerseys, under the back collar, they dropped yet ANOTHER beautifully designed logo that pays homage to the land Ecuador calls home.

While Ecuador isn’t expected to go far at this tournament, they certainly win Best Dressed.

Jake covers Bayern Munich and German soccer in writing and via podcasting at Bavarian Football Works. He also reviews jerseys for SB Nation. He can be found screaming into the void on Twitter @jeffersonfenner.

[soundartschoolstudent]

It was a hard week, even harder for me when I found out Daniel Johnston died. His work held a special place in my heart in my formative years as a teen in the suburbs of New Jersey. Johnston’s music showed me the possibility of how home recorded music could be more powerful than big studio produced work. In terms of sound art, I feel this correlates with the idea of capturing sound and tape music. The idea an artist, let’s say in the pop music context can now record songs at home, especially at this time, is so groundbreaking as far as innovating the artform of songwriting. This is “I’m Walking the Cow” by Daniel Johnston, one of my favorites by him. It’s so genuine and childish in its nature, the home organ recorded on tape is clipping and creating a wall of sound that’s really lovely. You can feel and hear the quality that this was crafted in an intimate home environment. It’s like we’re here in Johnston’s own “sound journal.” RIP D.J.