Archive for February, 2013

UK illustrator Neil Stevens a.k.a. crayonefire designed these beautiful prints inspired by vintage flight and baggage tags.

Also, check out his great set of cassette tribute prints titled Don’t Forget the Cassette, that Owen and I are drooling over.

The Sheats Goldstein house might be the most frequently photographed piece of property in LA (if you haven’t seen it on innumerable blogs like Curbed, or from the video walk through Charles posted awhile ago, you probably remember it from The Big Lebowski)—so obviously, I jumped at the chance to take a tour of the iconic house with architect Duncan Nicholson, who has been restoring and adding to the property since the ’90s. And as much as I tried to restrain my trigger finger, I took a ridiculous amount of photos to add to the home’s documentation—apologies for the seemingly endless scroll above.

Obviously, it’s an amazing house—but I’m most interested in its evolution through the ages. James Goldstein purchased the house in 1972, and then re-hired John Lautner to improve upon the house (and undo some questionable renovations)—the torch was passed to Nicholson, who has been carrying on the work to date.

Duncan started working for Lautner in 1989, and one of his first projects at the firm was to collaborate with James Turrell on his ‘Skyspace’ for the property. The corresponding concrete decks and walkways he designed that connect the house to the Skyspace take you on a near surreal procession through the rain forest-like gardens on the property.

He was also the project architect on the living room installation and designed most of the furniture, some of which was of course immortalized on film when The Dude sat there drinking his laced White Russian.

The plans for the most ambitious phase of the project, including a guest house, tennis court, nightclub and terrace, were shelved for almost 10 years after Lautner passed in 1994. Work on the project resumed in 2003 and has been ongoing ever since. Currently under construction is the nightclub that lives beneath what is arguably the most stunning tennis court in existence. All components of the addition make use of poured-in-place concrete, staying true to Lautner’s original aesthetic, one that somehow manages to make concrete feel warm and organic.

Thanks to David John for the introduction and many facts via his You Have Been Here Sometime interview with Duncan Nicholson.

One of the better ways to deal with the confusion of subgenres and scene explanation is video interviews from the rising artists, and Red Bull Music did just that. They’ve recently conquered Alt R&B, Post Dubstep, Cloud Rap, and “Beats“, I think they’re going to keep going, well at least I hope they do. I’m not sure what will be next, honestly its a good series to watch, especially if you’re young and old and make beats. It gives the new generation reason and explains to them some humble beginnings and patience.

via Youtube

Beacon reveals their honey soaked single “Bring You Back” from their upcoming LP The Ways We Separate. What distinguishes them from other R&B acts right now is rare uptempo pace that gives it a slight driving feel while keeping true heartfelt lyrics.

Autre Ne Veut has a more aggressive approach with plenty of classic sensual tricks from R&B fused in heavily with the Art of Noise feel people can’t seem to kick. What makes it sounds new is the spikes of instruments that squeal that reminisce of freak out jazz from the 80s mixing with some Peter Gabriel logic going for itself that I really adore.

Laurel Halo remixes John Cale, not going to try and describe this, all I know is that really liked it.

Throwing Snow always seems to have some great track suggestions on Soundcloud, he’s back at it by sharing this hypnotic cut from Anthony Naples.

Last week I was wandering around Barnes & Nobles and in the section where they put painters and other artists of the likes, there was a book called Desert Air by George Steinmetz. The book had somehow had lost it’s way home from the Photography section a few aisles down. Stuck between Monet and Ruscha, the book was like “YO TIM. I KNOW YOU LOVE DESERTS AND STUFF SO PICK ME UP.”

George Steinmetz captures very intimate photos of landscapes. Most of these from this set are from his Desert Air collection. He achieves this intimacy via paramotoring which is a giant fan backpack with a throttle attached to a parachute. He’s able to fly both very high and low at slow speeds. All I know is that when I come back from my walk across America, I’m purchasing a paramotor, taking lessons and going straight to the Mojave.

View more of Mr. Steinmetz’s stunning, non filtered landscape photography: GEORGE STEINMETZ

Today NPR is streaming the new Youth Lagoon album and tomorrow he does on tour, just going to keep it short, what a great record, enjoy.

TRACKLIST
Through Mind and Back
Mute
Attic Doctor
The Bath
Pelican Man
Dropla
Sleep Paralysis
Third Dystopia
Raspberry Cane
Daisyphobia

TOUR DATES
02-26 Missoula, MT – Badlander
02-27 Bozeman, MT – Filling Station
02-28 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
03-01 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
03-06 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03-13-16 Austin, TX – SXSW
03-22 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Fest
04-12 Indio, CA – Coachella
04-19 Indio, CA – Coachella
04-21 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
04-22 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
04-24 Austin, TX – Mohawk
04-25 Dallas, TX – The Loft
04-26 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s
04-27 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks
04-28 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
04-30 Orlando, FL – The Social
05-01 Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
05-02 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
05-03 Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
05-04 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
05-07 Northampton, MA – Pearl St.
05-10 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
05-11 Columbia, MD – Sweet Life Festival
05-13 Toronto, Ontario – Great Hall
05-14 Columbus, OH – A&R Bar
05-15 Chicago, IL – Metro
05-16 Madison, WI – Majestic Theater
05-17 Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
05-22 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
05-23 Vancouver, British Columbia – Venue
05-24 Gorge, WA – Sasquatch! Fest
06-05 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center *
* with the National

Youth Lagoon’s second album, Wondrous Bughouse, is one of the most arresting headphone records you’ll hear this year. Trevor Powers, the band’s sole member, layers strange but alluring synth textures under quirky melodies and simple pop beats, in the process creating an expansive and endlessly engrossing world of sonic curiosities.

As with Youth Lagoon’s 2011 debut, The Year of Hibernation, the songs on Wondrous Bughouse are moody but not melancholy. Thematically, Powers finds himself in an existential spiral, as he asks grand questions about mortality, the spiritual world and his own mental state — which he describes as “hyperactive.” Weighty subjects ripe for pensive introspection, sure, but the music is uplifting, if a bit dysphoric, like an awkward hug for all that is light and beautiful.

Powers, who says he controls his busy mind with music, offers no illuminating epiphanies or profound discoveries on Wondrous Bughouse, out March 5; he says he hasn’t had any. But the songs allow him to assume the identity of Youth Lagoon and sort through all the emotional and mental baggage he, like so many, carries with him everywhere. The album opens a window into our odd little world, with the understanding that life is a baffling mystery, but also a wonderful ride.

via NPR

In honor of this week’s discovery of a moon-sized planet smaller than mercury, here’s a selection of work from 2012 of our own tiny sphere, featuring hills, craters, flats, fields, and broken flying machines. Shot with the Hasselblad 500 C/M on Kodak Portra. See more here.

Stumbled upon these cool posters by Ahmed Youness. They aren’t actually 80’s vintage but they do look the part.

Via Designspiration

ISO 3200!!!

A captivating set of journalistic style images from the East Side Access project as of February 12, 2013. These images serve not only as a historical record of the tunnel’s construction, but as a stunning example of how far high-end DSLR cameras have come in handling high ISO images. All these images were shot between ISO 3200 – 5000 on a Nikon D4, and – more notably – at sharp apertures and shutter speeds. Images this clean under those lighting conditions simply wouldn’t have been possible even a few years ago.

Oh yeah, the tunnel is pretty neat, too.

(Edit: was asked why ‘billy j mitchell’ was in the last frame. But of course, it was to illustrate how much detail and tone remains in Billy’s skin at high ISO and in dim lighting.)

Posted by: Owen Perry

If you are interested in mirroring on the iPhone at all and you haven’t heard of Mirrorgram you are missing out. It’s just about everything you could ask for in a mirroring app. You can snap a photo in the app or load one in, but the real beauty of it is once you are mirroring an image you can move it around to get the mirror just right. Above are a couple images I ran through Mirrorgram. The first one is a photo of a hanging light in my living room. I then mirrored it on a 45 degree angle to get the slit of light and then brought it back in to Mirrorgram again. The second one is a photo I took of a type poster and then ran it through PXL to get the jagged triangle pattern and then through Picfx to get the colour and the grain. I brought it into Mirrorgram to get the different patterns you see above.