Velvets Fan (without imported items)

New blog: http://ricm.ac

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:27:52 GMT

I'm no longer active on Soup.io, despite it being an awesome service. You can find me now on ricm.ac.

New personal blog: ricm.ac

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:47:21 GMT

I've started a new personal blog: http://ricm.ac/. This will be home for my art, music and book finds from now on. Also I plan to do creative writing there.

ricm.ac will largely replace the need for Velvets Fan, although perhaps I'll find another use for it. I still love soup.io.

"So, this record, The Age of Adz, is, in some ways, a result of that process o..."

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:24:31 GMT

"So, this record, The Age of Adz, is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self. That's why I think the record's really obsessed with sensation and has a hysterical melodrama to it."

–Sufjan Stevens Discusses His "Mysterious and Debilitating" Health Issues

"There is something tiresome about Picasso. Jonathan Jones put his finger on i..."

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 10:54:25 GMT

"There is something tiresome about Picasso. Jonathan Jones put his finger on it in a piece in the Guardian last month. "Each work by Picasso is a unique piece of autobiography," he said, which signifies that each work is, no matter how dazzling, inherently trivial. To understand Picasso's works, you must regard them as "anecdotes or snapshots of a particular moment in his life". There is nothing more to most of Picasso's work than virtuosic showing off – except for Guernica. The studies for Guernica show this was one work in which Picasso forgot himself. Instead of basking in his own brilliance, he worked humbly and hard, to forge an ikon of the agony of republican Spain."

–Picasso was just a big show-off. Most of his work is inherently trivial | Germaine Greer | Art and design | The Guardian

Brendan McGetrick's TEDx talk: Me-We; Liked the UNIT bit especially, a magazi...

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 10:27:18 GMT

Brendan McGetrick's TEDx talk: Me-We; Liked the UNIT bit especially, a magazine insert exploring how other countries relate to China (and vice versa).

"I like the lines to be sharp but the inside to be really out of control. Ins...

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 09:24:27 GMT

"I like the lines to be sharp but the inside to be really out of control. Inside of the line there's chaos, but the line keeps it contained." Serena Mitnik-Miller, untitled watercolor; via Juxtapoz Dec issue

Art as Form of Reality - Herbert Marcuse

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:01:23 GMT

"As part of the established culture, Art is affirmative, sustaining this culture; as alienation from the established reality, Art is a negating force. The history of Art can be understood as the harmonization of this antagonism."

http://libcom.org/library/art-form-reality-herbert-marcuse

Franz Pforr, Self-Portrait, 1810. One of my favorite paintings from the Europ...

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:55:22 GMT

Franz Pforr, Self-Portrait, 1810. One of my favorite paintings from the European Masters exhibition at Te Papa today. The eyes are very penetrating. Bit of a tragic figure, he died of tuberculosis at age 24.

Liber Novus, James Jean (presumably named after Jung's 'The Red Book'); Mixed...

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:44:32 GMT

Liber Novus, James Jean (presumably named after Jung's 'The Red Book'); Mixed Media on Canvas, 48 x 60", 2009

Yann Tiersen: Dust Lane (new album/artist I heard about via @allsongs. sounds...

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:32:17 GMT

Yann Tiersen: Dust Lane (new album/artist I heard about via @allsongs. sounds and looks amazing...)

Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation; excerpt from THE BQE - A...

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:54:28 GMT

Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation; excerpt from THE BQE - A Film by Sufjan Stevens

Amazon.com: Best of 2010: Books

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 21:32:37 GMT

http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=2486012011&ref_=pe_120700_17471430

Soul Riddim 3; Mixed Media; Matt Hebermehl

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:23:24 GMT

Soul Riddim 3; Mixed Media; Matt Hebermehl

hello and goodbye; mixed media; yoskay yamamoto

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:17:02 GMT

hello and goodbye; mixed media; yoskay yamamoto

"Wolf Trap"; Acrylic 14x18; John Lupo Avanti

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:14:05 GMT

"Wolf Trap"; Acrylic 14x18; John Lupo Avanti

Mitch Battese, Native American Artist, explores spirituality in Native Americ...

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:11:18 GMT

Mitch Battese, Native American Artist, explores spirituality in Native American Art.

This band simultaneously delights and depresses me. I love their sound, but a...

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:44:18 GMT

Smith Westerns - Weekend by forcefieldprThis band simultaneously delights and depresses me. I love their sound, but also would love to be their age again (and looking like them!) ;) Seriously though, they are an excellent new, young band. I bet they go big in 2011, when their second album is released. Via Right Hear.

Unnamed work by Augustine Kofie; Best 'circle' work of his I could find, afte...

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:53:36 GMT

Unnamed work by Augustine Kofie; Best 'circle' work of his I could find, after reading article in Juxtapoz. ref: Group Show: Fear No Art 3/ Boston, MA

From 'Sketches of Spain, Summer 2009' by El Mac

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:40:18 GMT

From 'Sketches of Spain, Summer 2009' by El Mac

Yellow Peril: El Mac; Spraypaint on concrete, San Francisco, USA 2009

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:38:06 GMT

Yellow Peril: El Mac; Spraypaint on concrete, San Francisco, USA 2009

Project Room Berlin - Augustine Kofie & El Mac; Director, Camera, Edit: Timid...

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:36:57 GMT

Project Room Berlin - Augustine Kofie & El Mac; Director, Camera, Edit: Timid; Music: Gloria by Pearls Of Joy

DUBLAB Project: Into Infinity; Augustine Kofie

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:34:11 GMT

DUBLAB Project: Into Infinity; Augustine Kofie

On a Drop of Dew: Andrew Marvell

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:47:59 GMT

SEE, how the orient dew,
Shed from the bosom of the morn
Into the blowing roses,
(Yet careless of its mansion new,
For the clear region where 'twas born,)
Round in itself incloses ;
And, in its little globe's extent,
Frames, as it can, its native element.
How it the purple flower does slight,
Scarce touching where it lies ;
But gazing back upon the skies,
Shines with a mournful light,
Like its own tear,
Because so long divided from the sphere.
Restless it rolls, and unsecure,
Trembling, lest it grow impure ;
Till the warm sun pity its pain,
And to the skies exhale it back again.
So the soul, that drop, that ray
Of the clear fountain of eternal day,
(Could it within the human flower be seen,)
Remembering still its former height,
Shuns the sweet leaves, and blossoms green,
And, recollecting its own light,
Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express
The greater heaven in an heaven less.
In how coy a figure wound,
Every way it turns away ;
So the world-excluding round,
Yet receiving in the day ;
Dark beneath, but bright above,
Here disdaining, there in love.
How loose and easy hence to go ;
How girt and ready to ascend ;
Moving but on a point below,
It all about does upwards bend.
Such did the manna's sacred dew distil ;
White and entire, though congealed and chill ;
Congealed on earth ; but does, dissolving, run
Into the glories of the almighty sun.

Via luminarium.org

Tonight I listened to an NPR All Songs Considered podcast called Tunes That G...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:38:16 GMT

Tonight I listened to an NPR All Songs Considered podcast called Tunes That Got You Through Your Teens. I thought about the artists and songs that affected me in my teenage years. Prince's 'Purple Rain' was a memorable album, just as I hit my teens. 'When Doves Cry' was the standout track, with its sparse beat and beautiful, yet harsh, lyrics.

I listened to bands like REM, INXS and Guns n' Roses throughout my mid-teens.

The revelation for me came when I discovered The Velvet Underground. I think I was around 17 or 18 and I bought a Greatest Hits CD, the image of which adorns this post. It's also where I took the lead image for this site, my personal blog Velvets Fan. I remember browsing through a CD shop at the local mall and coming across this new band that I'd not heard of, or at least didn't know much about. The silver cover, even in the relatively small CD case, intrigued me and so did their story. Discovered by Andy Warhol, etc. So I bought it and proceeded to listen to it many many times over the years. It of course led me to get the rest of VU's CDs, which I devoured constantly through my late teens and early 20s.

I still listen to the Velvets regularly, although not obsessively as in my teens.

"--it came to me that the reason to make things less plain in a poem is that o..."

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:49:51 GMT

"--it came to me that the reason to make things less plain in a poem is that only by getting the reader to participate in making the meaning does it become a poem."

–Alice Fulton, from 'The Poet's Notebook'

This was my favorite art work at 49 Geary today. I loved the golden colors, t...

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:47:41 GMT

This was my favorite art work at 49 Geary today. I loved the golden colors, the ancient Greek-like poses and the different views the glass boxes showed. I got a new view of the work at different angles. I was transfixed, shuffling around and moving up and down to get a new look. This was at the Toomey Tourell gallery and the artist is Maria Park.

The Garden (excerpt), by Andrew Marvell; via 'The Soul Is Here For Its Own Joy' anthology

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 07:23:50 GMT

What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head ;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine ;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach ;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness :
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide :
There like a bird it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings ;
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light.

Ref

In 1906, "days before the earthquake," the Fair daughters sold the hotel to a...

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:55:42 GMT

In 1906, "days before the earthquake," the Fair daughters sold the hotel to a couple of rich lawyers.

I'm rather fascinated by the story behind the building of Fairmont Hotel.

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:52:36 GMT

I'm rather fascinated by the story behind the building of Fairmont Hotel.

James Graham Fair, struck it rich in Nevada silver mines. The Fairmont Hotel ...

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:01:17 GMT

James Graham Fair, struck it rich in Nevada silver mines. The Fairmont Hotel in SF was named after him. Photo taken at the hotel, which has some nice framed photos of its history.

Yin and Yang I, 2009: Feng Jin; Patina-finished Stainless Steel and Granite Base

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:04:23 GMT

Yin and Yang I, 2009: Feng Jin; Patina-finished Stainless Steel and Granite Base

Shadow Sculpture: Feng Jin; at Union Square in SF today, there was an outdoor...

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:58:38 GMT

Shadow Sculpture: Feng Jin; at Union Square in SF today, there was an outdoor art show. While wandering around, I spotted this and other sculpture art works by Feng Jin. I complimented the artist on his work - was very impressed. Reminded me a little of Modigliani.

Vanishing Point, by Mark McMorris from the book Entrepôt.

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:54:25 GMT

Vanishing Point, by Mark McMorris from the book Entrepôt.

Language as Migration: An Interview with Mark McMorris; R A I N T A X I o n l i n e Winter 2008/2009

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:45:35 GMT

"I was really interested in poetic form, rather than in the transmission of a particular lived environment. This lived environment didn’t interest me that much. Vernaculars are indices of lived environments. Then you also have images, and you have a way of having your thoughts unfold, which is one aspect of vernacular. Okay, you have your vernacular, you have your images, and you have the problem that the poem takes up and handles. All of those things tell you are reading an American poem, a poem from the South, a poem from New Zealand, a poem from the Inuit, a poem from the Caribbean. None of those things interested me. Whatever the indices of a lived environment were, those did not interest me. What interested me was poetic form. The handling of language, or as Pound says “the dance of the intellect” on words. That’s what I was interested in. Why it interested me is because I felt it. The things I was reading were very compelling."

http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2008winter/mcmorris.shtml

Poets' Quarterly review of Entrepôt by Mark McMorris

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:45:18 GMT

"It is probably worth noting that an entrepôt is a trading post, a locus of exchange, a place populated by transients. It is, as McMorris stated in an interview in Rain Taxi before this book was completed, “a place that is in between other places.” Fittingly, the overall mood herein is one of transition, of displacement. (And this mood is heightened by the fact that many of the poems are presented as epistles to a character named Michael, as if they were dispatches from an expedition.) In any such environment, affection and conflict inevitably arise. And so it is in these poems: love and war are the yin and yang of human interaction."

http://poetsquarterly.yolasite.com/spring10_mcmorris.php

Wu-Tang Clan: Top 10 Wu-Tang Albums

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:33:44 GMT

I've downloaded the top 3 so far. It's officially my Wu Phase (I went through another Bowie Phase recently, but I haven't explored Wu-Tang Clan before).

http://www.prefixmag.com/features/wu-tang-clan/top-10-wu-tang-albums/16433/

Feng Bin, Dance-14, acrylic on silk, 2008 (note: the painting I saw today was...

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 08:59:46 GMT

Feng Bin, Dance-14, acrylic on silk, 2008 (note: the painting I saw today was called Dance 16 and it was better than 14. However I can't find a copy of 16 online. Pity, as it was my favorite art work at the roundabout exhibition @ City Gallery Wellington)

Sakarin Krue-on, Yellow Simple; Pulp, powder pigments, turmeric, and fibergla...

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 08:41:33 GMT

Sakarin Krue-on, Yellow Simple; Pulp, powder pigments, turmeric, and fiberglass; 2001 (found via roundabout exhibition, City Gallery Wellington)

Ori Gersht, Time Slice 4/6, c-print, 2005 (found via roundabout exhibition, C...

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 08:31:06 GMT

Ori Gersht, Time Slice 4/6, c-print, 2005 (found via roundabout exhibition, City Gallery Wellington)

Stella Im Hultberg: Lately. 3.75"x5". Ink, Graphite & Colored Pencil on Rives...

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:24:50 GMT

Stella Im Hultberg: Lately. 3.75"x5". Ink, Graphite & Colored Pencil on Rives BFK paper.