Photo by Gerard Victor
The f0nk. We’ve discussed it before, and now it’s back again. Released in 1974 by Kool and the Gang, “Summer Madness” remains one of the best grooves from the 70’s. The beat is not only irrepressible but one of the most familiar samples of all time. G-funk and Mr. Smith with Jazzy Jeff helped reintroduce the song to a younger audience, and to them, it is the definition of summer.
So now it gets a flip by one of the best drummers in the game.
While I was visiting Reykjavik, hands down the coolest person I met was Siggi Odds. Siggi is an artist and designer who’s style is heavily influenced by Native American art and nature itself, with a touch of Matisse thrown in. It’s both contemporary and abstract at the same time, with lots of energy and color to everything he does. Siggi’s work feels a lot like what the vibe of Iceland is, and I think Icelanders agree. He recently was chosen to have his work put on a national stamp, celebrating one of the most beautiful birds their country has, the puffin. Like Iceland, Siggi’s work ranges from fine art to branding and identity.
Late last year the Canadian singer-songwriter Patrick Watson ran a competition asking fans to create a music-video for his track “Blackwind”. The entries were really impressive and it’s incredible to see the quality of fan-made videos being made. Last month he finally announced the winner as Chloe Poirier-Sauve but also gave special mention to six other entries; one of which is this video created by the South-Korean director Dee Shin.
Collaborations are always interesting, especially when they involve individuals who you wouldn’t image working together. The EP above is the culmination of three different but equally talented artists: Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, and Serengeti. I don’t know how I missed this, but I haven’t heard anyone mention it before either.
Stranger things have happened, but rarely do they make such beautiful music. The three esses that comprise the enigmatically titled s / s / s are as follows: Sufjan Stevens, he of the Fifty States Project and various baroque folk-pop opuses; Serengeti, the wry-witted rapper known for in-depth on-record character studies; and Son Lux, silken-voiced singer, studio wizard and singular beatsmith. The project’s roots reach back to 2009’s Dark Was the Night compilation, where Stevens and Geti met over a Buck 65 remix of a song written by psych-folkie Castanets. Continuing in the spirit of (unlikely) collaboration, the pair passed beats and raps back and forth, eventually enlisting Son Lux to dream Beak & Claw into fruition.
Surrounded By Art Material: An Interview With Alex Israel
Alex Israel is one of our favorite LA artists. He’s conceptual, he’s very LA, and he is all about abusing entertainment structures in Los Angeles to make art. It’s super fascinating and fun work. For our Featured Interview with the artist, we rode around Los Angeles with him as he took us from destination to destination that has had an influence on him. It was a lot of fun. Also, note that he has a really rad piece up at LAXART called Lens that is a giant lens from a pair of sunglasses blown up for us all to examine. It’s up through April 20.
Imagine your home was wallpapered in the wildest array of mismatched stripes, and every time you entered it felt like a graphic designer’s fun house that danced with prism rhythm. This is the work of Dutch artist Wies Preijde. A recent graduate of the Textile Design Department at the Royal Academy of Art (aka The Hague), Preijde specializes in textile design installations that truly defy imagination.
When I think of balloons, I usually think of the helium variety. They’re like brightly-colored bubbles of optimism that can only be held down to earth by white curling ribbon and mailboxes. But balloons can be so much more. They come in all shapes and sizes, and the size of this balloon is… humongous.
During stressful launches, NASA’s jet Propulsion Laboratory mission control eats handfuls of peanuts for good luck. Peanuts have been a part of space exploration for a long time. A dedicated reader passed along the above Peanuts Snoopy astronaut action figure: Snoopy was the NASA Manned Flight Awareness Program mascot (with the blessing of Peanuts creator Charles Schultz) and spoke out for flight safety. NASA even awards a “Silver Snoopy Award” to employees and contractors for outstanding human flight safety achievements.
Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan of Apollo X named their Lunar Module (LM) Snoopy. The Command Service Module was named Charlie Brown.
