R.I.P Camu Tao

Just posted at definitive Jux:

Today, at around 2pm, our dear friend, family member and musical collaborator Tero “CAMU TAO” Smith passed away in his home town of Columbus, Ohio. Tero had been quietly fighting for his life for the last year and a half after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

To those who knew Tero, he was an almost uncategorizable force of nature. Wild, hilarious, proud, loving, tough, outspoken, spontaneous and brilliant. He wore his heart on his sleeve and he dripped creativity, leaving inspiration and awe in the hearts and minds of anyone who was fortunate enough to see him work.

Art pt5

There’s not a great deal about Paul Laffoley that I could communicate to you in a way that would make any sense, except that he is a 68 year old artist / architect. Really, I couldn’t explain it any more deeply right now.
I’m lucky enough to own a rare book of his called The Phenomenology of Revelation, which documents his work pretty concisely.

Billy Childish

 Click the title for a link to a good Podcast featuring Billy Childish. 

If you don't know who Billy is, then just click the link anyway, listen and learn something for gods sake...

From the LA downhill to Capitol Hill

And speaking of radical, the top pic is a of Corey Webster - sorry - Josh Brolin from un upcoming George W Bush biopic from Oliver Stone. The other pic is Corey - sorry - Josh in 'maybe the best skateboard movie ever', Thrashin'. Funny how things change... well... not really funny but - oh whatever. I'm off to buy a bowling pin for my dining table.

Hot + Hot = radical!

This pic was in a few newspapers but as far as I'm concerned should have been front page. It's not from Close Encounters, but is the volcanic explosion in Chile. Volcanic ash rising up and as far as I understand, being hit by lighting from a massvie passing storm. I'm sure there's a scientific term for this (which I will look up shortly) but for now we'll go with my brothers succinct description of 'the coolest photo ever...'

Sweet 16 / 2

Sweet 16

Got this book for my birthday - highly recommend it.

You don't have this

...and most who have seen it would say you don't want it either.

Back in the 70's we invented these things called 'VCR's' that played 'tapes'. 

This is truly awful - actually, it's surreal. Though there are some good bits...

Coffee, Donuts and noodles (oh my)

It's amazing what you can get if you just ask...

Albert Hofmann: 1906 - 2008

Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD, who accidentally ingested some 

and then found out what it was really for, died today.

Saturday Sun day

 

Had a nice little skate at South Bank, despite the Dutch festival.

Art pt4

Spatial Concept `Waiting' by Lucio Fontana, 1960.

You know that scene in Ferris Bueller where Cameron has a proper 'moment' while staring into that Seurat painting? That happened to me the first time I stood in front of this. This is one of my (and Lu's) favourite ever pieces of art and you can see it in the Tate Modern.

'87 - that was my favourite shit, god...

May not have been '87, but close enough. I have lost nearly all my old copies of R.A.D, but remember this advert like it was yesterday. By the way, the other end of that blue ledge that Jonah is skating, is where I got closest in my life to actually dying. From www.whenwewasrad.co.uk.

10.05 a.m - Where I'm at

Listening to: NIN, 21 Ghosts III.
Looking at: Battersea power station on the horizon, across the river Thames.
Drinking: free coffee.
Reading Rilke:

If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no indifferent place.

Art pt3

So I thought adding Giger would be the blog equivalent of having a Reservoir Dogs poster on your bedroom wall, right? Seminal, one-of-a-kind etc but too obvious? Meh.

Book Launch last night

Book launch at the Cornell Spaceship Gallery last night, went well - though you’ll have to take my word for it because like the goober I am, I forgot my camera.

However I thought I’d post anyway just to say well done to my lovely wife for organising the whole thing. As usual it was months of hard work ending with a very successful event.

Click the title to link to the Smashed Landscape page and visit the gallery if you’re in the area.

Spoken Word night

10.30p.m. Just got back from a reading at Moonbows in Brockley. Went pretty well. The next Open Mic night there is actually on my birthday - Tues May 6th at 8pm. So if any of you fancy coming down to hear some poems and buy me a drink, then do so.

Also I've been thinking about death quite a bit recently, and though Jake and me were discussing the down side of constantly posting YouTube clips on our blogs, seeing as he loaned me all his Iron and Wine CD's, I had to put this on here as it's one of the most beautiful songs about death that I know. Night night:

Chuck Heston

You can take my guns now.

40 wpm

Trying to switch the TV off is a challenge. I just zone out and stare every night - so thought 'd go the other way and try to read 3 books at once.

It's not going well.

Comic book movies suck

O.k. not all of them suck - but most. They're never as good as the source material. There's a new Punisher film coming out which again, will poop all over the comics. The Punisher was sick, and apart from X-Men, was the only comic series I collected EVERYTHING from beginning to end.

Anyway, while organising I pulled these out, They're the No1 of the 4 issue limited series, and No1 of the War Zone series (which they've decided to name the new film after) The War Zone cover is rad as it's die-cut.

Star Wars toys that never came to be

Nuff Said.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.

The three laws of prediction:

1. When a scientist states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

"These are simple words, but in them exists a very singular hope: science can do anything that strong and able minds ask it to, and that a faith in science doesn’t remove one from a sense of wonder."

Arthur C Clarke, 1917 – 2008

Best Movie Soundtracks PT2:

O.k. this isn’t actually a soundtrack, but, I consider it a soundtrack album in that - like the new Nine Inch Nails instrumental album Ghosts the sounds go hand-in-hand with landscapes, both actual and mental/visual landscapes.
‘When’ does contain vocals but most are sparse and infrequent.

And even though the first track is - without any hint of irony - called ‘I wrote this song for the girl Paris Hilton’ like Trouble Man, it’s an excellent record for riding the train or sitting in the back of a car with your headphones on.
Click the title for the website(note: this site is NEVER updated so don’t expect any recent news.

Art pt2

Second in the list of artists I want to big up on here, is Derek Hess. A lot of people will have seen this work on T-shirts or record covers for bands like Clutch and others, and not know who the artist is, so check out the website. The piece above is ‘Burned Out’ and is one of three that I have at home.

Richard on Jimi

I was looking for a good live Little Richard clip to post because you don't actually need a reason, it's Little Richard. Anyway, I found this which basically kills anything music-wise I could've found - and probably anything else you'll see this week:

Best Movie Soundtracks Ever PT1:

This movie is by all accounts, a pretty average blaxploitation flick from around 1973. However the soundtrack is in the top 5 best Marvin gaye albums. Aswell as vocals, Marvin played drums, keyboards and piano on the record. Can you do that? No you can't. Find it - buy it - listen to it and it will make your days better. Trust me.

Robert Scott Carey

...so close - the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night.
And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing.
My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero.

Here I am

If you want something interesting to do this weekend (or whenever you like really - up to you) wander up to the Broadbent Gallery near Westbourne Grove - and go skate Meanwhile if you fancy dodging the drunks and their scratchy dogs running around off their leads - but mainly to go and see Here I am, the most recent paintings from Teresita Dennis.

Art

I wanted to start sharing some art with you, the first of which is this dude's. Some people in this country may know of Jose Parla, but I’m pretty sure it wont be many…

His work – in his words - ‘Is inspired by the anonymous art found in the streets. The art is often in the form of calligraphy or the actions of torn and stripped posters. The inscriptions in my work are used as a form of drawing, and to maintain a record of my observations…’

I love this. Some things hit you the right way on initial contact - sometimes you absorb it organically, other times it creates conflict and has to be understood and slowly accepted as the great works of art that they are. I think either effect is a sign of the integrity of the work and will lead you to a better understanding of the concepts behind it, and also to hopefully discovering more of the same.

The piece above is called ‘Between the earthly and the divine’ and is one of my favourites. Check out the website

Pope Bob