Thursday, October 29, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tips for Greater Literacy
Get Up, Read Up:
Graffiti is much more appealling if you can decipher the letters in the first place. Reading tags around town and then being able to match them up to the bigger brighter pieces is one of the greater joys of the art form. The secret to figuring out the letter styles is actually in the tags (and when I say 'tags' I mean the little, monochromatic signatures that are rarely no larger than a writers own wingspan. Any bigger than that and you're qualifying for throw-up status. Larger and more intricate than that is the piece, short for masterpiece.Uhh...how lame do I sound breaking this down...)
Whatever. This truck that I saw in Manhattan iss a true wonder of the craft and obviously executed by some serious masters. I want you all who read this blog to be to be able to read this piece and really look into it. The way I was able to unlockout these names in the first place was by first finding the tag next tothe pieces. "The tags next to the pieces: A signature of a signature" There's usually always one there like the legend on a map.
Once you've found the tag and read the name, the letters in the piece begin to reveal themselves. If you can see the original letterforms you can begin to appreciate the permutations of the artist's own style. This piece by KEO on the back of this truck is full of extra bits and serifs and vroom-vrooms that make the letters go zoom-zoom. With all that there it can be hard to cut through all the adornments and see the letters. So here I've redrawn KEO's piece for easier legibility in hopes of allowing greater appreciation for what he did.
Its commonplace for two letters side-by-side to share a leg or a stem but this is the first time that I can recall ever seeing three letters all come together on one common point. The white triangle in the middle of my drawing is for KEO a nexus for the leg of K, the bottom rung of the E, and the base of the O. Whoa. Word. And the alligator character poking out of the manhole cover to boot!
Also: Having just gotten that BK book back today, I'm giddily flipping thru the pages and admiring all the signatures I amassed on my campaign northerly. No less than 7! And not one of them some scribbled crap I can't boast about. In fact, the morning I ran into that all-woman production on the corner of Bedford Ave and S. 5th St., this guy showed up to watch: TATU the founder and president of the XMEN crew, the same crew KEO reps on the truck. I asked him to write in my book and this is what he gave me back
Read his story here and check out KEO's blog too while you're at it.
Graffiti is much more appealling if you can decipher the letters in the first place. Reading tags around town and then being able to match them up to the bigger brighter pieces is one of the greater joys of the art form. The secret to figuring out the letter styles is actually in the tags (and when I say 'tags' I mean the little, monochromatic signatures that are rarely no larger than a writers own wingspan. Any bigger than that and you're qualifying for throw-up status. Larger and more intricate than that is the piece, short for masterpiece.Uhh...how lame do I sound breaking this down...)
Whatever. This truck that I saw in Manhattan iss a true wonder of the craft and obviously executed by some serious masters. I want you all who read this blog to be to be able to read this piece and really look into it. The way I was able to unlockout these names in the first place was by first finding the tag next tothe pieces. "The tags next to the pieces: A signature of a signature" There's usually always one there like the legend on a map.
Once you've found the tag and read the name, the letters in the piece begin to reveal themselves. If you can see the original letterforms you can begin to appreciate the permutations of the artist's own style. This piece by KEO on the back of this truck is full of extra bits and serifs and vroom-vrooms that make the letters go zoom-zoom. With all that there it can be hard to cut through all the adornments and see the letters. So here I've redrawn KEO's piece for easier legibility in hopes of allowing greater appreciation for what he did.
Its commonplace for two letters side-by-side to share a leg or a stem but this is the first time that I can recall ever seeing three letters all come together on one common point. The white triangle in the middle of my drawing is for KEO a nexus for the leg of K, the bottom rung of the E, and the base of the O. Whoa. Word. And the alligator character poking out of the manhole cover to boot!
Also: Having just gotten that BK book back today, I'm giddily flipping thru the pages and admiring all the signatures I amassed on my campaign northerly. No less than 7! And not one of them some scribbled crap I can't boast about. In fact, the morning I ran into that all-woman production on the corner of Bedford Ave and S. 5th St., this guy showed up to watch: TATU the founder and president of the XMEN crew, the same crew KEO reps on the truck. I asked him to write in my book and this is what he gave me back
Read his story here and check out KEO's blog too while you're at it.
Jungle Boogie
Don't let the geodesic dome fool you: This is NOT in Knoxville TN. Its in a little town called Treme, just south of the sea level in Louisiana, 7th Ward y'hearD? I snuck this photo when I bought that Saints shirt on Friday. The photo doesn't do it justice but you can see a little something, sumthin from this here.
*Yes. That is a super secret escape hatch from the top floor to the bottom. It emptied into a homemade pool/pond the night I first laid eyes on this structure.
*You can also make out the monkey rope hammock hallway swing that connects the main building to the hackberry annex on the left.
*The short, young architect also informed me himself about the super awesome security system he designed that "automatically bashes in the brains of anybody he doesn't like who tries to enter in the clubhouse, like those jerks Bob and Terry."(Fortunately that was turned off the night of the party.
*Obviously this is one of the coolest treehouses around (up there with that multi-tiered mansion that bank robber built for himself in the forests of the Cascade mountains. See "The Treehouse Book" by Peter and Judy Nelson for more on that)
Not sure if OSHA ever signed off on the project though...Enter if you dare.
*Yes. That is a super secret escape hatch from the top floor to the bottom. It emptied into a homemade pool/pond the night I first laid eyes on this structure.
*You can also make out the monkey rope hammock hallway swing that connects the main building to the hackberry annex on the left.
*The short, young architect also informed me himself about the super awesome security system he designed that "automatically bashes in the brains of anybody he doesn't like who tries to enter in the clubhouse, like those jerks Bob and Terry."(Fortunately that was turned off the night of the party.
*Obviously this is one of the coolest treehouses around (up there with that multi-tiered mansion that bank robber built for himself in the forests of the Cascade mountains. See "The Treehouse Book" by Peter and Judy Nelson for more on that)
Not sure if OSHA ever signed off on the project though...Enter if you dare.
Front page
Back to what I was saying about the Picayune being a great paper...
This really falls more into the ADD*Sportsmen's realm but he's fallen off with unfolding tragedy that is the Titans 2009 season (They started out 0-1 before the season started with the loss of Air McNair).
God bless the Saints and god bless their winning streak. Its got a lot of us hyped. Every win becomes front page news on Monday (as seen here)
But wait...what's wrong with this picture?
SABOR!
Oh Yeah! O Yes!! I got my lost summer sketchbook mailed back from Brooklyn today! Here's a quick one I did while waiting for my escort to Coney Island to show up.
Friday, October 23, 2009
From Austin's Book
Here's a page from a collaborative sketchbook I'm working on to send to a friend. He wants to learn more about letters.
Jumping on the bandwagon
I biked down Esplanade and stopped in at the Art House on the Corner of Claiborne. Though I must have passed that place two-thousand times this summer, I only recently stopped in there for the first time last month when they threw a big party.
You can't tell from the facade but they have the coolest 4 story treehouse in the backyard that looks like ...well nothing I've ever seen before in my life. Its the coolest treehouse unimaginable. I'd like to go back and draw it sometime to post.
But today they had the gates open and a mannequin posing some freshly printed shirts on the sidewalk. I moseyed in and got to peek at the operation and left with this one here. Only ten bucks!
You can't tell from the facade but they have the coolest 4 story treehouse in the backyard that looks like ...well nothing I've ever seen before in my life. Its the coolest treehouse unimaginable. I'd like to go back and draw it sometime to post.
But today they had the gates open and a mannequin posing some freshly printed shirts on the sidewalk. I moseyed in and got to peek at the operation and left with this one here. Only ten bucks!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Tatuajes
I like BBQ and I like brass bands. I like Freret St. and I like flash art. This guy had tats on his scalp.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Oh Louisiana! The Highs and the Lows.
Bygone thinking and ridiculous power tripping may be the bane of progress in Louisiana but at least for the editors of The Times-Picayune it makes for good copy. At 75 cents daily, the Picayune is well worth it, consistently rewarding that trifling investment with ludicrously bizarre headlines that could only be born below sea-level. Last weeks Naked Burglar is only one great example. More often than one would like the headlines fall into the "laugh to keep from crying category" (see: rep. William Jefferson) if not the straight-up tragic (see: streak comes to an end)
Irony abounds down here as is clear from today's headlines, the day after the President dropped by to shake some hands and instill the faith back in few folks. Like any welcome guest, we wish he could've visited a little longer with us but so it goes when you're a busy man trying to get a few things done before the end of the day.
True enough, his time probably would've been well spent visiting any number of places along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi too. But for some reason, Tangipahoa, LA was never considered on that list. Maybe the President could've helped placate the concerns of Keith Bradwell about the children of interracial couples. Click to enlarge and read
Irony abounds down here as is clear from today's headlines, the day after the President dropped by to shake some hands and instill the faith back in few folks. Like any welcome guest, we wish he could've visited a little longer with us but so it goes when you're a busy man trying to get a few things done before the end of the day.
True enough, his time probably would've been well spent visiting any number of places along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi too. But for some reason, Tangipahoa, LA was never considered on that list. Maybe the President could've helped placate the concerns of Keith Bradwell about the children of interracial couples. Click to enlarge and read
Hip Hop Hair
WTUL DJ and photographer Johnny Bapo (aka Noah K) let me sneak a peek at some of the photos he's been developing recently of hip hop heads and the dudes that trim them. Tentatively titled "The Hip-hoppers and Barbers Series" JB has already shown some of these shots, clandestinely curating his own display at a gallery on Julia during Art for Arts Sake last month. He was found out and received warmly by the art director who let him keep his work up. (As of press time, he has yet to go back to collect them).
Here are a few of the shots and a collaborative collage of test strips done with the publishers of the Papr*Papr.
Here are a few of the shots and a collaborative collage of test strips done with the publishers of the Papr*Papr.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
No Carbs, All Charrr: Hooray for chicharrones!
"I'm In Love with Chee-Cha-RO-Nays!"
So goes the closing line of that famous mariachi ballad "Chee-chee, Cha-cha." The song (and dance) devoted to the ever popular delicacy of chicharrones, originally recorded in 1923 by Los Hermanos Blogoyas. The song immortalized the ever popular delicacy of fried swine skin and helped spread its popularity from its origins in Mexico all the way north thru the Dirty Souf and beyond.
The original lyrics were actually written in 1902 and credited to Ronaldo Chaqueta-Sucio not long after the miracuolous invention of chicharones by his good friend and neighbor of, Eduardo Dosperritos.
Popular legend has it that Dosperritos turned tragedy into triumph one night in the little town of San Flakos Oros when he made the best of an unfortunate barnyard shaving mishap and created chicharrones. Greasing up his favorite pig, Esmerelda, for a good clean shave the night before he planned to take her to the fall village festival and annual puerco-prize show, disaster struck and fate intervened. With two hands firmly gripping the haunchs of Esmerelda he stumbled backwards on a log and the pig slipped from his grip and flew into the fire he had lit to see by. A horrific squeal went up heard by all the neighbors and though he valiantly risked severe burns to save her, the poor beast was doomed.
But not all was lost. DP peeled the skin off the blistering carcasse in the hopes of salvaging enough to make one of the traditional authentic skin pinatas of yore to be enjoyed by los ninos the next day. But upon arriving at the fair a pack of hungry vagabundos descended on the burlap sack containing the remains of Esmerelda before Senor Dosperritos could find the town taxidermist. "Delicioso!" the huérfanos declared and soon Dosperritos was recounting the recipe which rapidly spread throughout his hometown of San Flakos Oros and the greater Sur.
(Of course some jealous familias who claim it was there bisabuelos who invented chicharones will give you a much different and slanderous account of what the alleged baracho Dosperritos was really doing out there late at night in the campo with that grease on his hands. The Papr*Papr refuses to proliferate such beastly hearsay though)
Forever after Chicharones have been enjoyed by each new generation of southerners the world over. This author indeed has cherished memories of being fed his first fluffy bits of pork rinds while perched atop his father's shoulders at the Grundy County flea market (la verdad).
So with that history divulged we get to the real meat of this post and my most recent rediscovery of this sweet and savory snack of the south. The sponsors of the Papr*Papr present to you a handy buyers guide and consumer rating for the products on the market.
Both of these brands and the varied flavors can be found in gas stations wherever "y'all" is common vernacular. These four samples were all purchased at the same store along I-59 somewhere in Mississippi on the author's most recent jaunt home to Tennessee
Baken-etS is a frito-lays subsidary and manufactured in Plano, TX. This BBQ flavor is a safe and classic way to go (although not truly the "original" plain unflavored variety which were passed over by the juror.) Take a moment to ponder the word Baken-etS and admire not only the symmetry of the B and S but also the fine drop shadow. Well worth your 79 cents.
Like the Flintstones meet the Jetsons, who doesn't love a little multi-brand combo? Louisiana hot sauce ranks high on my favorites list of tableside salsas way above the vinegary mess of Tabasco, and on par with that rangling rascal Texas Pete. Unfortunately this combination is best described as a mongrel-amalgo. What seemed like a good idea ended up being a poor mismatch. I guess the bottle and the bag are best kept seperate.
Apart from the Blogoyas Brothers song, the history of the Chicharrones has inspired plenty of art over the years. This bag is a classic example evidenced by the use of multiple type faces and and the graphic logos. Note the flames over the block letters, the use of fluoroscent orange to highlight the affordable price, and the subtle stamp of approval from the USDA. Yes the advantages of a diet that includes fried pork skin are loud and clear on this packaging. A great source of graphic design and no carbohydrates! this bag can clearly be traced back to the influence of
Gustav Posada, one of the grandsons of the mexican printmaker Jose Posada, and a legendary diseñador de Chee-Chees bolsos. He created some of the most classic letterpressed chicharrones bag designs of the early 1920's. Due to the inarchival nature of pig grease however few of these bags remain. Today they are highly treasured among collectors and have been generously appraised before on PBS's Antique Roadshow.
Sweet Heat. Mi amor, la mejor. With a name like that how could you go wrong? The term "sweet heat" of course originally comes from the lyrics of the "Chee-Chee, Cha-Cha" and the recounting of Eduardo's love for his pig: "And so Esmerelda did dance away into the fire/ leaving him burning with the sweet heat of desire." Here it is used to describe the subtle sweet and spicy flavoring that this lovely shade of orange rinds has to offer. Golden Flake provides the best buy and the best flavor with this one.
So there you have it folks. Armed with this knowledge, I encourage to go out and explore the wonderful world of Crunchy Pig Dermis that awaits you. Like biting ito a crispy cloud of heaven, chicharrones will fill you up and ease you down into a nice swine skin induced nap filled with sweet dreams of our snouted breathren. Bon Apetit.
So goes the closing line of that famous mariachi ballad "Chee-chee, Cha-cha." The song (and dance) devoted to the ever popular delicacy of chicharrones, originally recorded in 1923 by Los Hermanos Blogoyas. The song immortalized the ever popular delicacy of fried swine skin and helped spread its popularity from its origins in Mexico all the way north thru the Dirty Souf and beyond.
The original lyrics were actually written in 1902 and credited to Ronaldo Chaqueta-Sucio not long after the miracuolous invention of chicharones by his good friend and neighbor of, Eduardo Dosperritos.
Popular legend has it that Dosperritos turned tragedy into triumph one night in the little town of San Flakos Oros when he made the best of an unfortunate barnyard shaving mishap and created chicharrones. Greasing up his favorite pig, Esmerelda, for a good clean shave the night before he planned to take her to the fall village festival and annual puerco-prize show, disaster struck and fate intervened. With two hands firmly gripping the haunchs of Esmerelda he stumbled backwards on a log and the pig slipped from his grip and flew into the fire he had lit to see by. A horrific squeal went up heard by all the neighbors and though he valiantly risked severe burns to save her, the poor beast was doomed.
But not all was lost. DP peeled the skin off the blistering carcasse in the hopes of salvaging enough to make one of the traditional authentic skin pinatas of yore to be enjoyed by los ninos the next day. But upon arriving at the fair a pack of hungry vagabundos descended on the burlap sack containing the remains of Esmerelda before Senor Dosperritos could find the town taxidermist. "Delicioso!" the huérfanos declared and soon Dosperritos was recounting the recipe which rapidly spread throughout his hometown of San Flakos Oros and the greater Sur.
(Of course some jealous familias who claim it was there bisabuelos who invented chicharones will give you a much different and slanderous account of what the alleged baracho Dosperritos was really doing out there late at night in the campo with that grease on his hands. The Papr*Papr refuses to proliferate such beastly hearsay though)
Forever after Chicharones have been enjoyed by each new generation of southerners the world over. This author indeed has cherished memories of being fed his first fluffy bits of pork rinds while perched atop his father's shoulders at the Grundy County flea market (la verdad).
So with that history divulged we get to the real meat of this post and my most recent rediscovery of this sweet and savory snack of the south. The sponsors of the Papr*Papr present to you a handy buyers guide and consumer rating for the products on the market.
Both of these brands and the varied flavors can be found in gas stations wherever "y'all" is common vernacular. These four samples were all purchased at the same store along I-59 somewhere in Mississippi on the author's most recent jaunt home to Tennessee
Baken-etS is a frito-lays subsidary and manufactured in Plano, TX. This BBQ flavor is a safe and classic way to go (although not truly the "original" plain unflavored variety which were passed over by the juror.) Take a moment to ponder the word Baken-etS and admire not only the symmetry of the B and S but also the fine drop shadow. Well worth your 79 cents.
Like the Flintstones meet the Jetsons, who doesn't love a little multi-brand combo? Louisiana hot sauce ranks high on my favorites list of tableside salsas way above the vinegary mess of Tabasco, and on par with that rangling rascal Texas Pete. Unfortunately this combination is best described as a mongrel-amalgo. What seemed like a good idea ended up being a poor mismatch. I guess the bottle and the bag are best kept seperate.
Apart from the Blogoyas Brothers song, the history of the Chicharrones has inspired plenty of art over the years. This bag is a classic example evidenced by the use of multiple type faces and and the graphic logos. Note the flames over the block letters, the use of fluoroscent orange to highlight the affordable price, and the subtle stamp of approval from the USDA. Yes the advantages of a diet that includes fried pork skin are loud and clear on this packaging. A great source of graphic design and no carbohydrates! this bag can clearly be traced back to the influence of Gustav Posada, one of the grandsons of the mexican printmaker Jose Posada, and a legendary diseñador de Chee-Chees bolsos. He created some of the most classic letterpressed chicharrones bag designs of the early 1920's. Due to the inarchival nature of pig grease however few of these bags remain. Today they are highly treasured among collectors and have been generously appraised before on PBS's Antique Roadshow.
Sweet Heat. Mi amor, la mejor. With a name like that how could you go wrong? The term "sweet heat" of course originally comes from the lyrics of the "Chee-Chee, Cha-Cha" and the recounting of Eduardo's love for his pig: "And so Esmerelda did dance away into the fire/ leaving him burning with the sweet heat of desire." Here it is used to describe the subtle sweet and spicy flavoring that this lovely shade of orange rinds has to offer. Golden Flake provides the best buy and the best flavor with this one.So there you have it folks. Armed with this knowledge, I encourage to go out and explore the wonderful world of Crunchy Pig Dermis that awaits you. Like biting ito a crispy cloud of heaven, chicharrones will fill you up and ease you down into a nice swine skin induced nap filled with sweet dreams of our snouted breathren. Bon Apetit.
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