all images by Chelsea Pfohl, check out her blog here.

-antwan

I go on at around 11pm and stay keepin it trill til about 1am. My girl Erin should be there throwin’ some tracks on the grill so cum git phuck dup and dance your feet off. It’s Lexi’s bday too, so yeah, you know we’re goin’ in. black out type shit.

-antwan.

‘The Last Laugh’ by Nick Etre

Art enthusiasts gathered at the Guggenheim this Saturday for the closing of Maurizio Cattelan’s show entitled ‘All’.  The impressive show was a retrospective honoring Maurizio’s 21 years of art making as well his retirement at the young age of 51.  The show consisted of 128 works spanning the artist’s career being hung from the center of the museum from top to bottom.  Knowing and loving Cattelan’s work, I came out of the show laughing and thinking to myself ‘He would!’  Seeing the pieces together made me realize the power he imbues through his manipulation of the system he is embedded within.   He really is giving people the ‘Middle Finger’.  Quite literally in some cases.  I’ve realized my attraction to his work is a direct result of the stories behind the art.  For example, Maurizio was unable to produce a work for the 1991 Venice Biennale.  He decided the night before the opening to go to the nearest police station and report the theft of the non-existent work.  The report was then framed and installed in place of the sculpture. Was this a failure?  I think not.  I think it is simply Maurizio gaining a relationship with his method.  His struggle is what leads him to his miraculous genius.  Another example is “Tarzan and Jane,” a large color photograph of two people in lion costumes peering through a door. The viewer is then informed the image is of art dealers who gamely wore these suits for the duration of the show in their gallery in 1993. He is the ultimate prankster.  I mean he obviously knows what he is doing with all of this, I am curious as to whether the general public gets it.  Regardless Maurizio Cattelan has had the last laugh.

Sidenote: It was my (Antwan) first time at the Guggenheim ever and I ust have to say I don’t remember the last time I saw an exhibition curated with curated with such precision. And well, since it’s all of the work of Maurizio anyway, I guess that says a lot of about the kind of artist he is. I can’t wait for the next show at the Guggenheim, I have a feeling I’ll be back really soon.

Nick and Antwan

[photos by Antwan's cell phone, not bad huh?]

The next death took place about 6 hours later on the tracks between 3rd avenue and Union Square on the L line; he was later identified as Brian O’Mara of Garden City. Sighs, why was he on the tracks?

At around 4pm a MTA worker reported a body in the tunnel on the tracks of the A line at Nostrand station.

The final death came at around 10pm when a head was seen between the subway car and the platform at the 6th Avenue station of the L train…

WHAT’S GOING ON IN NYC?! I’M KINDA SCARED FOR REAL. My prayers go out to all those that lost someone.

-a

Sup yall,

I haven’t really been around much as of late, been on my vacation steez, but I’m back and plan to post a lot like old times. blah, blah. I saw that Nicki Minaj debuted a new video so of course I had to watch it and see what all the hype was about. From the beginning I have been a Nicki fan, but for some reason or another my interest has waned. I like the video because it reminds me of some Hype Williams, ultra bright colors on a big ol’ booty, that’s pretty rad! Haha. But what kinda stinks is that I like the video more than the song. I would totally dance to this in a club, but that’s because I like to dance just in general.

Nicki is so crazy I swear, it’s hilarious. I bet this was a really fun video shoot. Her in a cage goin’ buck, shakin’ her ass and makin’ jokes, I can only imagine. I need to shoot behind the scenes photos on a video shoot for her one day, lol. Oh yeah, so throughout the first half of the video a quick flash of an “ass” keeps popping up so of course I needed to see if this was Nicki’s ass in the video…I posted it below.

yeah, bummer I know, it’s not her ass, it’s some kinda CGI booty that’s in the video. Haha. I wished that it was her ass, but then I realized that if she put her treasure trunk out there like that it’d make her a stupid hoe. And yeah, the video is below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

-antwan.

So I moved into a new place in London around mid-October… and for some reason we STILL don’t have the internet.

How could this happen? Well, after a rough initial withdrawal period, we all agreed (all 7 of us!) that it was actually nice not having the internet at home. Our warehouse flat became a sort of oasis away from the typical barrage of constant facebook updates and the addictive frivolity of youtube videos. We found ourselves being much more sociable than we’d otherwise probably be. All of us being creatively-inclined people, we’d often work on projects together. We’d share stories about our friends’ marveling at our not being familiar with the most recent viral videos or other pop culture phenomena (mind you, I didn’t even have so much as a smart phone during this time).

I found it especially amusing over christmas when I had a few friends staying over for a few days, and everyone was getting really edgy after a day or so of not having internet access. I even recall my friend Simon likening not having the internet to not having “hot water” (which to some extent, I must admit, is sorta true). However, by the end of their visit, all admitted that they were sorta starting to enjoy their life sans internet (well, maybe not Simon…).

Not being able to stream films, I, personally, found myself traveling to dark places with my housemate’s Twin Peaks box set (that’s deserving of another blog entry in itself…).

Click here to view the embedded video.

In any case, the honeymoon is basically over now. Not due to a renewed desire to waste hours on Wikipedia, but rather, what has resurfaced are a number of practical obstacles that arise out of not having the internet. (I, for example, run an antiquarian book business on ebay, so it’s a tremendous inconvenience to have to always run to the hybrid cafe-salon-shop-playground-beach(?) across the street any time I need to check my listings etc.)

Another thing I’ve missed tremendously is discovering new music. So now we reach the main point of this entry, which is to share 3 tracks that have gotten me all excited since I’ve rediscovered the internet (in no particular order).

1. Grimes- ‘OBLIVION’

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a playlist from a few months ago, I professed my love for Grimes, a.k.a. Montreal-based artist Claire Boucher (and hinted that I may soon be writing a book on her, which is still in the works). Recently signed to 4AD, her forthcoming album Visions, on which this track features, is due out in February. Needless to say anticipation is physically painful.

2. Nicolas Jaar – ‘PROBLEM WITH THE SUN’

Click here to view the embedded video.

This track has actually been around for awhile, as it was on Nicolas Jaar’s critically acclaimed 2011 album Space is Only Noise. How I totally missed this one, with all it’s Knife-like steel drum goodness, is beyond me, but since hearing it at just the right time (which, as it happens, was at 8 a.m. during a party that was still going over the weekend) I haven’t been able to stop listening to it. Nice lyrics too: There must be a problem/with the sun/because my eyes can’t see/why you don’t like me.

3. Kindness – ‘SEOD’

Click here to view the embedded video.

Heard this puppy through my friend Dev’s incredible daily mini-playlists he posts on his Blood Orange facebook wall, (which I highly recommend if you’re a fan of doing little work to discover amazing songs both old and new). ‘SEOD’ is also a taste of a forthcoming album due out soon (March 19th) on Terrible Records (the same label that brought you CANT, Blood Orange, and Twin Shadow), but the ‘SEOD’ is due out as a 12″ single sometime this month. Very Arthur Russell-esque, but somehow more mysterious and more disco (but not in that lame italo-disco revivalist way). Jump ahead to 2:00 minutes in if you’re impatient. Repeated listens reap rewards.

<3

Stephanie

So little and petite with a great face, I love the simplicity of this shoot — just a girl playing dress up.

date: 2011

model: Yannick Abrath

photographer: Ben Tom

These images are from a shoot titled “Pink Pages” which he shot for I Love You Magazine no. 5. I love this set. I’m not sure why I like it so much, but what I do know is that it’s perfect. That shade of pink is grand. Marcus Gaab is a native of Germany (1970) and spends his time between Berlin and New York City. He has shot for such publications as Vanity Fair, The New York Times Style Magazine, and iD magazine — this dude is awesome.

^ I want this.

later nerds,
antwan.

I met Kevin Munoz during my time in Austin, Texas this past month. I was with Ian and we were looking for the wine that was at the opening, typical. Anyway, Kevin was there, we talked a little about random shit, crackin’ jokes and such and he gave me his card. I checked it out, liked it, and now here we are. I like his stuff and I think you will as well. Hire him for something.

^ Love this one! Would look so awesome on a totebag.

later nerds,
antwan