"She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner,"
08 February, 2007
Vicky Lynn Hogan R.I.P.
She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan.
"She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner,"
"She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner,"
07 February, 2007
du Fonds Sida Afrique
Vanessa Paradis et Yannick Noah, parrains du Fonds Sida Afrique
AFP 29.01.07 | 16h12
Les chanteurs Vanessa Paradis et Yannick Noah seront les parrains de la soirée de lancement du Fonds Solidarité Sida Afrique, à l'initiative de Solidarité Sida, qui aura lieu le 6 février à l'Olympia à Paris, a annoncé l'association qui organise chaque année le festival Solidays.
Cali, M, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Jean-Louis Aubert, MC Solaar, Louis Bertignac ou Abd Al Malik figurent parmi les nombreux artistes qui se produiront au cours de cette soirée de soutien.
En présence d'Antoine de Caunes, président d'honneur de Solidarité Sida, le Fonds de Solidarité Sida, en faveur de l'accès aux traitements et aux soins des malades les plus démunis, sera créé au cours de ce concert, sous le signe de la solidarité Nord-Sud.
Selon Solidarité Sida, les systèmes de santé défaillants, les médicaments génériques inaccessibles et le difficile accès aux traitements dans les pays en développement condamnent chaque année 2,4 millions d'Africains dont 570 000 enfants.
AFP 29.01.07 | 16h12
Les chanteurs Vanessa Paradis et Yannick Noah seront les parrains de la soirée de lancement du Fonds Solidarité Sida Afrique, à l'initiative de Solidarité Sida, qui aura lieu le 6 février à l'Olympia à Paris, a annoncé l'association qui organise chaque année le festival Solidays.
Cali, M, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Jean-Louis Aubert, MC Solaar, Louis Bertignac ou Abd Al Malik figurent parmi les nombreux artistes qui se produiront au cours de cette soirée de soutien.
En présence d'Antoine de Caunes, président d'honneur de Solidarité Sida, le Fonds de Solidarité Sida, en faveur de l'accès aux traitements et aux soins des malades les plus démunis, sera créé au cours de ce concert, sous le signe de la solidarité Nord-Sud.
Selon Solidarité Sida, les systèmes de santé défaillants, les médicaments génériques inaccessibles et le difficile accès aux traitements dans les pays en développement condamnent chaque année 2,4 millions d'Africains dont 570 000 enfants.
Again and as if to begin
ATE HYLDEN
AGAIN AND AS IF TO BEGIN
Saturday evening Feb. 10th 5-7pm.
At
Richard Telles Fine Art
7380 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles 90036
HAMNETT
Katharine E. Hamnett (born August 16, 1947) is a British fashion designer best known for her political t-shirts and her ethical business philosophy. She graduated from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
Hamnett founded the Katharine E. Hamnett clothier in 1979. In the early 1980s Hamnett's oversized t-shirts with large block letter slogans were adopted by pop bands including Wham!, with her "CHOOSE LIFE" slogans prominently displayed in the music video for "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", and "FRANKIE SAY RELAX", adopted by Frankie Goes to Hollywood with the popularity of their hit song "Relax"; the latter also popularized shirts with the slogans "Frankie Say War Hide Yourself" and "Frankie Say Arm The Unemployed".
At one point, Hamnett met with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wearing her own t-shirt with the slogan "58% Don't Want Pershing", a reference to polls showing public opposition in the United Kingdom against the basing of United States nuclear weapons on Pershing missiles. In 2003, at a London fashion show, Hamnett's catwalk models wore shirts with "No War, Blair Out", a reference to the looming invasion of Iraq. More recently, models such as Naomi Campbell have appeared in Hamnett shirts bearing the slogans "Use Condoms" and "Peace". Hamnett has since expressed scepticism that t-shirt slogans accomplish anything concrete, and suspects that for some, the slogans are a substitute for action.
Notably, the "Choose Life" slogan, which in the context of the day was directed at drug abuse and suicide, has since been adopted by the anti-abortion movement, even appearing on Florida license plates.
Beginning in 1989, with research showing pesticide poisoning in cotton-growing regions, and sweatshop labour a major part of the textiles industry, Hamnett began lobbying for major changes in the way the industry operated. After disappointment with the results, Hamnett terminated most of her licensing arrangements, and in 2005 relaunched her line under stricter ethical guidelines, including manufacturing and agricultural practices.
04 February, 2007
ryan o'neil
Actor Ryan O'Neal was arrested early yesterday morning at his Malibu, Calif., home. O'Neal, 65, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after a fight with his 42-year-old son, according to police.
Griffin O'Neal was reportedly not injured, but his 22-year-old girlfriend, Joanne Berry, received what is being classified as "minor injuries," Sgt. Ken Crocker said last night.
According to reports, deputies went to Ryan's Malibu beach house shortly after midnight following a call stating that Griffin O'Neal and Berry had allegedly been attacked by the elder O'Neal.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies also charged O'Neal with negligent discharge of a firearm, Sgt. Crocker stated. Ryan O'Neal was released from jail at 5:30 a.m. yesterday after reportedly posting $50,000 bail.
Griffin O'Neal was reportedly not injured, but his 22-year-old girlfriend, Joanne Berry, received what is being classified as "minor injuries," Sgt. Ken Crocker said last night.
According to reports, deputies went to Ryan's Malibu beach house shortly after midnight following a call stating that Griffin O'Neal and Berry had allegedly been attacked by the elder O'Neal.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies also charged O'Neal with negligent discharge of a firearm, Sgt. Crocker stated. Ryan O'Neal was released from jail at 5:30 a.m. yesterday after reportedly posting $50,000 bail.
re draw
re draw
ain cocke, jennifer dudley, haegeen kim, adam shecter, jessica slaven, molly springfield, & ami tallman
brooklyn fire proof
101 Richardson Street, Top Floor Brooklyn, NY 11211
Show dates feb 9-march 31
opening friday february 9, 7-10 pm
gallery open weekends 12-6 or by appointment
718-302-4702
ain cocke, jennifer dudley, haegeen kim, adam shecter, jessica slaven, molly springfield, & ami tallman
brooklyn fire proof
101 Richardson Street, Top Floor Brooklyn, NY 11211
Show dates feb 9-march 31
opening friday february 9, 7-10 pm
gallery open weekends 12-6 or by appointment
718-302-4702
03 February, 2007
pavillion of purple silk..
On the wall facing the throne hung a life-sized portrait of Charles V in hunting dress, with a great mastiff by his side, and a picture of Philip II receiving homage of the Netherlands occupied the center of the wall.Between the walls stood a black ebony cabinet, inlaid with plates of ivory, on wich the figures from Holbein's "Dance of Death" had been graved-by the hand, some said, of that famous master himself.
He would not have given a rose for all the pearls on the canopy, or one white petal of his rose for the throne itself.
Here, in the palace, the air was close and heavy, but in the forest the wind blew free, and the sunlight with wandering hands of gold moved the tremulous leaves aside. There were flowers, too, in the forest, not so splendid, perhaps, as the flowers in the garden, but more sweetly scented for all that; hyacinths in early spring that flooded with waving purple the cool glens and grassy knolls; yellow primroses that nestled in little clumps around gnarled roots of the oak tree; bright celandine, and blue speedwell, and irsis lilac and gold.
He would not have given a rose for all the pearls on the canopy, or one white petal of his rose for the throne itself.
Here, in the palace, the air was close and heavy, but in the forest the wind blew free, and the sunlight with wandering hands of gold moved the tremulous leaves aside. There were flowers, too, in the forest, not so splendid, perhaps, as the flowers in the garden, but more sweetly scented for all that; hyacinths in early spring that flooded with waving purple the cool glens and grassy knolls; yellow primroses that nestled in little clumps around gnarled roots of the oak tree; bright celandine, and blue speedwell, and irsis lilac and gold.
01 February, 2007
helmikuu
February "month of the pearl"
Twilight makes up the trees and the faces,
With his blue cloak, under his uncertain mask;
Kiss of dust around the tired mouths...
Far becomes close, and the very near, distant.
The masquerade, other melancholic distance,
Was love’s false gesture, sadder and charming.
*proust
Twilight makes up the trees and the faces,
With his blue cloak, under his uncertain mask;
Kiss of dust around the tired mouths...
Far becomes close, and the very near, distant.
The masquerade, other melancholic distance,
Was love’s false gesture, sadder and charming.
*proust
31 January, 2007
King of Curves
Cher:"This is an Alaia"
Her assailent:"An a whata"
Cher:"It's like a totally important designer"
10 Years Ago, Alaïa Launched His Revolution : Landmark for King of Curves
By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, September 3, 1991
If there were any justice in this (fashion) world, Azzedine Alaïa would be a worldwide household name, instead of a cult hero. It is 10 years since the small, shy, Tunisian-born designer launched the body-conscious stretch looks that have defined the way an entire generation dresses and become the fashion revolution of the last decade. .
"Ten years? Yes, it is ten years!" said Alaïa at his Paris studio in the Marais, where he will open a boutique (decorated with panels by the New York painter Julian Schnabel) this month. While other designers celebrate landmark years as rites of passage, Alaïa will not be marking these first 10 years. Nor does he even admit the overwhelming influence on fashion of his ideas. .
"Who can really say who invents something first in fashion?" he says. "I had used the stretch materials for years to shape the inside of garments I made for private clients. Then I just started using them on their own. And look at the corset effects I have done in my new collection. They go back to the 18th century, even if no one had done them in knit before." .
The corsets in question include a lightly-boned version of the "body" - the one-piece foundation that was another of Alaïa's gifts to the fashion world. Other outfits in his new collection are made with a network of openwork seaming tracing the shape of the body without constricting it and revealing flesh in a subtle way. The thrust of the top halves is designed not just for sex appeal (although that never seems far from Alaïa's fashion vision), but also to balance the new mid-calf lengths. The designer who was the master of the skimpy skirt, showed, in a big collection, almost entirely skinny skirts falling to mid-calf. .
"IT is time to change," he says. "But you have to show them with high heels, or the long length looks drab." The alternative was a shorter skirt, flared at the front, cut on the bias, with a wrap at the back - a masterpiece of fashion origami that shows the designer's technical skill with the scissors. .
Alaïa, who originally studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Tunisia, and worked briefly with Thierry Mugler, launched his clingy line in 1981 - at the moment when fashion was entering the oversized, androgynous era. His body-conscious clothes seemed a deliberate challenge - throwing down a sexist gauntlet in a feminist world. The first collection included riveted gauntlets in the glove-soft leather that has become one of the hallmarks of his designs. Big leather riding coats and curvy wool jackets - shown this season with the skinny skirts, 1940s hairstyles and high-heeled ankle boots - are the commercial heart of Alaïa's line. Ah commerce! It is hard to believe that Alaïa himself has ever made a commercial decision. While the mass-market has fed off his clinging styles for at least seven years, he works in the back room, head down, perfecting the patterns that he cuts entirely himself. His lack of interest in self-promotion is legendary.
He does not speak English. He does not like airplanes. Another designer might have used his power as King of the Curves to take on quick-buck licensees for undies, swimsuits or exercise clothes - or even raised backing for a chain of boutiques. Alaïa prefers to work to his own standards and an idiosyncratic time scale. As it is, Bergdorf Goodman (which stopped carrying the line in 1985 after a contretemps with the designer) will put Alaïa back in the store this fall. The autumn collection was shown months after all other designers, who present in March, on a steamy Saturday night at the end of July, when the entire fashion world had left for vacation. Only the unswerving loyalty of the world's top models - Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson - kept them in town. Alaïa was the first to put them on the runway, thus starting yet another fashion trend of making models into superstars.
He created a fluffy-bunny white outfit in which Naomi Campbell paraded mouthing the words of her newly launched pop record. The recurring themes of the collection were the shapely tops and long skinny skirts, leopard prints and fabrics with a tactile feel, from fake fur, to a new boiled-up knit and sloppy Joe tunic sweaters in fruits-of-the-forest colors: hawthorn orange, bilberry and cranberry. "There is a sensuality about fabric," says Alaïa. "I think all materials should be inviting when they touch the skin. When I watch children stroking their mother's clothes, I feel that I have succeeded." ALAIA'S secret - and the reason why his clothes have such a faithful following - is his research into materials and above all the way he cuts them. "Although I was working with stretch from the beginning, I never made tubes," he says. "Jersey was always cut and pieced together. And these knits are not printed; the jacquard knit is worked to make the pattern fall like this." He is holding a body suit with a butterfly motif, inspired by Arletty, who is one of his heroines.
The suit sashayed down the runway spreading colorful wings across each buttock. Copyists would just splash on a print to give the same effect - but not, of course, the same fit. The irony of Azzedine Alaïa's work is that whereas his look has been molded to the mass market by using Lycra, his own versions are painstakingly crafted with traditional dressmaking skills.
Alaïa started his career as a dressmaker whose name was passed by word of mouth among chic Parisian women. And he still has as clients or customers women who look to him to iron out or reshape the little bulges. So while many women have rejected the body-hugging look as only for the young with beautiful bodies, the unsung fashion hero who started it all aims to dress every woman so that her body looks a cut above the rest.
Her assailent:"An a whata"
Cher:"It's like a totally important designer"
10 Years Ago, Alaïa Launched His Revolution : Landmark for King of Curves
By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, September 3, 1991
If there were any justice in this (fashion) world, Azzedine Alaïa would be a worldwide household name, instead of a cult hero. It is 10 years since the small, shy, Tunisian-born designer launched the body-conscious stretch looks that have defined the way an entire generation dresses and become the fashion revolution of the last decade. .
"Ten years? Yes, it is ten years!" said Alaïa at his Paris studio in the Marais, where he will open a boutique (decorated with panels by the New York painter Julian Schnabel) this month. While other designers celebrate landmark years as rites of passage, Alaïa will not be marking these first 10 years. Nor does he even admit the overwhelming influence on fashion of his ideas. .
"Who can really say who invents something first in fashion?" he says. "I had used the stretch materials for years to shape the inside of garments I made for private clients. Then I just started using them on their own. And look at the corset effects I have done in my new collection. They go back to the 18th century, even if no one had done them in knit before." .
The corsets in question include a lightly-boned version of the "body" - the one-piece foundation that was another of Alaïa's gifts to the fashion world. Other outfits in his new collection are made with a network of openwork seaming tracing the shape of the body without constricting it and revealing flesh in a subtle way. The thrust of the top halves is designed not just for sex appeal (although that never seems far from Alaïa's fashion vision), but also to balance the new mid-calf lengths. The designer who was the master of the skimpy skirt, showed, in a big collection, almost entirely skinny skirts falling to mid-calf. .
"IT is time to change," he says. "But you have to show them with high heels, or the long length looks drab." The alternative was a shorter skirt, flared at the front, cut on the bias, with a wrap at the back - a masterpiece of fashion origami that shows the designer's technical skill with the scissors. .
Alaïa, who originally studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Tunisia, and worked briefly with Thierry Mugler, launched his clingy line in 1981 - at the moment when fashion was entering the oversized, androgynous era. His body-conscious clothes seemed a deliberate challenge - throwing down a sexist gauntlet in a feminist world. The first collection included riveted gauntlets in the glove-soft leather that has become one of the hallmarks of his designs. Big leather riding coats and curvy wool jackets - shown this season with the skinny skirts, 1940s hairstyles and high-heeled ankle boots - are the commercial heart of Alaïa's line. Ah commerce! It is hard to believe that Alaïa himself has ever made a commercial decision. While the mass-market has fed off his clinging styles for at least seven years, he works in the back room, head down, perfecting the patterns that he cuts entirely himself. His lack of interest in self-promotion is legendary.
He does not speak English. He does not like airplanes. Another designer might have used his power as King of the Curves to take on quick-buck licensees for undies, swimsuits or exercise clothes - or even raised backing for a chain of boutiques. Alaïa prefers to work to his own standards and an idiosyncratic time scale. As it is, Bergdorf Goodman (which stopped carrying the line in 1985 after a contretemps with the designer) will put Alaïa back in the store this fall. The autumn collection was shown months after all other designers, who present in March, on a steamy Saturday night at the end of July, when the entire fashion world had left for vacation. Only the unswerving loyalty of the world's top models - Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson - kept them in town. Alaïa was the first to put them on the runway, thus starting yet another fashion trend of making models into superstars.
He created a fluffy-bunny white outfit in which Naomi Campbell paraded mouthing the words of her newly launched pop record. The recurring themes of the collection were the shapely tops and long skinny skirts, leopard prints and fabrics with a tactile feel, from fake fur, to a new boiled-up knit and sloppy Joe tunic sweaters in fruits-of-the-forest colors: hawthorn orange, bilberry and cranberry. "There is a sensuality about fabric," says Alaïa. "I think all materials should be inviting when they touch the skin. When I watch children stroking their mother's clothes, I feel that I have succeeded." ALAIA'S secret - and the reason why his clothes have such a faithful following - is his research into materials and above all the way he cuts them. "Although I was working with stretch from the beginning, I never made tubes," he says. "Jersey was always cut and pieced together. And these knits are not printed; the jacquard knit is worked to make the pattern fall like this." He is holding a body suit with a butterfly motif, inspired by Arletty, who is one of his heroines.
The suit sashayed down the runway spreading colorful wings across each buttock. Copyists would just splash on a print to give the same effect - but not, of course, the same fit. The irony of Azzedine Alaïa's work is that whereas his look has been molded to the mass market by using Lycra, his own versions are painstakingly crafted with traditional dressmaking skills.
Alaïa started his career as a dressmaker whose name was passed by word of mouth among chic Parisian women. And he still has as clients or customers women who look to him to iron out or reshape the little bulges. So while many women have rejected the body-hugging look as only for the young with beautiful bodies, the unsung fashion hero who started it all aims to dress every woman so that her body looks a cut above the rest.
etoiles
In the life, the objectives which one lays down have a priority importance. Yours imply the recourse to not very orthodoxe methods. You need also to rejoin the greatest number of people to your cause. Blow, you make pass your personal interests after your new conscience of the collective. 17, the New moon reveals a new order, and it is you who hold the rudder.
The 21, Venus is given the responsability to sublimate your beauty.
To remain faithful to yourself seemed more important forever. That it is about love, of practical life or simple pleasures of the existence. The events around the eclipse out of Ram of March will start on your premise a serious review of detail. 
Later, you will say good-bye to familiar arrangements and will explore other possibilities. Await the developments of mid-May to make a decision: they will point the way towards the future. Certain changes are practical.
However, you will decide that it is time to widen your horizon by the study, voyages or even spirituality.seek council near people whom you respect but base your choices on a conviction, and not on what the others consider wise.
Certain proposals are perfectly honest but deserve a small investigation. If there or patience is no time to you, seek of the assistance near quite informed people. You will gain to listen to their councils, even if you do not like them.
The 21, Venus is given the responsability to sublimate your beauty.
To remain faithful to yourself seemed more important forever. That it is about love, of practical life or simple pleasures of the existence. The events around the eclipse out of Ram of March will start on your premise a serious review of detail. 
Later, you will say good-bye to familiar arrangements and will explore other possibilities. Await the developments of mid-May to make a decision: they will point the way towards the future. Certain changes are practical.
However, you will decide that it is time to widen your horizon by the study, voyages or even spirituality.seek council near people whom you respect but base your choices on a conviction, and not on what the others consider wise.
Certain proposals are perfectly honest but deserve a small investigation. If there or patience is no time to you, seek of the assistance near quite informed people. You will gain to listen to their councils, even if you do not like them.
29 January, 2007
Barbaro
Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has been euthanized after new setbacks in the attempt to save the colt's life after a broken hind leg ended his career in the Preakness Stakes race in May. Barbaro, who was 4 years old, received an outpouring of public support and interest after his injury.
"This wasn't just the animal-owning, pet-loving public," said Joan Hendricks, dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Veterinarian School, on the outpouring of emotion for Barbaro. "This was the general public."
It had been a rocky road for Barbaro since the bay colt became racing's sweetheart at Churchill Downs. He survived major surgery on his shattered right hind leg in May, only to develop laminitis, a painful and often fatal inflammation, in his left hind foot in July — a direct result of standing on that foot while the right leg healed.
The laminitis required surgeons to cut away nearly 80 percent of his left hoof.
Both legs seemed to heal slowly through the fall, but a few weeks ago, Barbaro began experiencing more pain in his left hind foot, which caused him to put more weight on his right, which, in turn, developed an abscess.
Saturday, veterinarians at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center surgically implanted a device at the base of his right hind leg. They hoped to take weight off the abscess. But the procedure had risks of its own: In taking the weight off of Barbaro's foot and putting it on his leg bone, they were placing stress on the bone that just finished healing.
Synthèse
Contexte : Vous
Carte : La papesse
Trop de possibilités cachées vous échappent encore, car vous ne savez pas appréhender votre vie dans toute sa richesse et ses facettes les plus multiples. Il faut parfois savoir s'arrêter pour repartir de plus belle. C'est le moment d'une vraie réflexion qui vous conduira à des choix forts et importants dans vos projets. La concentration s’impose...
Context: You
Chart: The papess
Trop of hidden possibilities still escape to you, because you cannot apprehend your life in all its multiple richness and its facets. Sometimes it is necessary to know to stop to set out again of more beautiful. It is the moment of a true reflexion which will lead you to strong and important choices in your projects. The concentration is essential…
context: Around you
Chart: Justice
to imply itself more in collective work, to take your responsabilities while being faithful to your most expensive principles, here are obsessions which will animate you and change in-depth your report/ratio with the others, professionally or not. But it is necessary to be oneself in all things
Context: Prospects
Chart: The world
Tomorrow, your dreams of always are indeed likely to be carried out, at the moment when you will however almost have made your mourning of it. You will be able to then enjoy fully this just reward of the things, and to peacefully taste a pleasure frustrated too a long time. It will be the moment to be rewarded for all your efforts.
Contexte : Synthèse
Carte : Les amants
L'affectif s'exprimera davantage dans toute votre vie, vous vous montrerez plus passionnée et sensuelle dans votre travail ou le cercle de vos amitiés. S'il en ressort une énergie toute nouvelle, vous voilà aussi plus vulnérable et plus fragile. Vous n'assumerez pas toujours après coup les audaces dont vous aurez été capable.
Context: Synthesis
Chart: The lovers
the emotional one will be expressed more in all your life, you will show yourselves more impassioned and sensual in your work or the circle of your friendships. If it comes out a very new energy from it, you here also more vulnerable and more fragile. You will not assume always afterwards the audacities of which you will have been able.
28 January, 2007
STEPHEN G. RHODES
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: January 26, 2007
STEPHEN G. RHODES
Recurrency
Guild & Greyshkul
28 Wooster Street, SoHo
Through Feb. 10
It’s great when someone gets ambitiously complicated and makes it work, as the young Los Angeles-based artist Stephen G. Rhodes does in his first solo show. Formally, he juggles video, sculpture, photographs and drawings, and hooks them up in a circling narrative that ricochets from 19th-century fiction to B films to Hurricane Katrina.
The main event is a double-screen video based on Ambrose Bierce’s macabre short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Set during the Civil War, the story revolves around a hanging that is aborted when the rope breaks. The prisoner escapes and makes it back home to his wife, at which point Bierce yanks us back to the gallows: the rope, it turns out, didn’t break, after all; the escape was the man’s dying fantasy.
Mr. Rhodes, who grew up in Louisiana, saw a film based on the story repeatedly in grade school; has replayed it in his mind often since; and now does so in his art. In the videos we see a gallows trapdoor open, and a body plummet into water. A man with a noose around his neck races through a forest. The trailing rope takes on a life of its own, slithering around trees and over rocks, stretching out endlessly.
A plantation house appears, and suddenly we are back at the opening scene, watching the trapdoor open again, and the sequence starts anew, like an unstoppable narrative in a panic dream. Objects from the dream are scattered through the gallery: a wooden gallows; stiffened lengths of rope rearing like serpents.
On the back wall another video plays, this one a sped-up, scrambled version of a Cecil B. DeMille potboiler, “The Buccaneer,” about the 1815 naval siege of New Orleans. History — or an absurdist pop-culture version of it — flashes before our eyes. Dark collages on the walls mix images of the Louisiana bayous, Disney World and post-Katrina destruction; large X’s spray-painted over each collage recall the identifying marks made by officials on houses after the storm.
Mr. Rhodes’s looping play of history, fiction and recent reality is memorably atmospheric. That he has ingeniously enlisted so many mediums in its cause makes the mechanics of eternal recurrence seem particularly tangled and insidious.
*HOLLAND COTTER
Published: January 26, 2007
STEPHEN G. RHODES
Recurrency
Guild & Greyshkul
28 Wooster Street, SoHo
Through Feb. 10
It’s great when someone gets ambitiously complicated and makes it work, as the young Los Angeles-based artist Stephen G. Rhodes does in his first solo show. Formally, he juggles video, sculpture, photographs and drawings, and hooks them up in a circling narrative that ricochets from 19th-century fiction to B films to Hurricane Katrina.
The main event is a double-screen video based on Ambrose Bierce’s macabre short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Set during the Civil War, the story revolves around a hanging that is aborted when the rope breaks. The prisoner escapes and makes it back home to his wife, at which point Bierce yanks us back to the gallows: the rope, it turns out, didn’t break, after all; the escape was the man’s dying fantasy.
Mr. Rhodes, who grew up in Louisiana, saw a film based on the story repeatedly in grade school; has replayed it in his mind often since; and now does so in his art. In the videos we see a gallows trapdoor open, and a body plummet into water. A man with a noose around his neck races through a forest. The trailing rope takes on a life of its own, slithering around trees and over rocks, stretching out endlessly.
A plantation house appears, and suddenly we are back at the opening scene, watching the trapdoor open again, and the sequence starts anew, like an unstoppable narrative in a panic dream. Objects from the dream are scattered through the gallery: a wooden gallows; stiffened lengths of rope rearing like serpents.
On the back wall another video plays, this one a sped-up, scrambled version of a Cecil B. DeMille potboiler, “The Buccaneer,” about the 1815 naval siege of New Orleans. History — or an absurdist pop-culture version of it — flashes before our eyes. Dark collages on the walls mix images of the Louisiana bayous, Disney World and post-Katrina destruction; large X’s spray-painted over each collage recall the identifying marks made by officials on houses after the storm.
Mr. Rhodes’s looping play of history, fiction and recent reality is memorably atmospheric. That he has ingeniously enlisted so many mediums in its cause makes the mechanics of eternal recurrence seem particularly tangled and insidious.
*HOLLAND COTTER
forever free
Forever Free is the debut album by LA’s favorite avant-rockers The Spirit Girls. The band has an interesting origin – it grew out of “The Spirit Girls: Songs that Never Die,” a rock opera created by noted LA artist Marnie Weber. The opera follows a group of ghost girls on a fairytale-like journey as they search for a place to perform their songs and tell their stories.
Forever Free chronicles the lives and deaths of the Spirit Girls through expressive, multi-dimensional vocals, powerful, melodic guitars, thick psychedelic synths, and mournful cello riffs. The Spirit Girls’ sound has been described as something of a cross between Sonic Youth, King Crimson and 17th Century French Romantic paintings.
After performing “Songs That Never Die” to sellout crowds, Marnie decided to expand her original concept into a separate, but unique musical group. As an original member of LA’s legendary 80’s band The Party Boys, Marnie had little trouble recruiting the musicians she needed. Such notable musicians as Dani Tull (Polar Bear), Tamara Sussman (Bertha Mason and The Polio Kids), Tanya Haden (Silver Sun Pickups & the Haden Three) and Debbie Spinelli (Rad Waste, 17 Pygmies) all signed on as active members of the Spirit Girls.
And so the saga of this band of ghost girls continues, as they wander through a series of imaginary landscapes similar to those in the collages and films of Marnie Weber. With the renewed interest in 80’s “post-punk” music, Forever Free is sure to play well to today’s “alternative” audience while still appealing to the original punk set that still like to take a walk on the wild side.
Forever Free chronicles the lives and deaths of the Spirit Girls through expressive, multi-dimensional vocals, powerful, melodic guitars, thick psychedelic synths, and mournful cello riffs. The Spirit Girls’ sound has been described as something of a cross between Sonic Youth, King Crimson and 17th Century French Romantic paintings.
After performing “Songs That Never Die” to sellout crowds, Marnie decided to expand her original concept into a separate, but unique musical group. As an original member of LA’s legendary 80’s band The Party Boys, Marnie had little trouble recruiting the musicians she needed. Such notable musicians as Dani Tull (Polar Bear), Tamara Sussman (Bertha Mason and The Polio Kids), Tanya Haden (Silver Sun Pickups & the Haden Three) and Debbie Spinelli (Rad Waste, 17 Pygmies) all signed on as active members of the Spirit Girls.
And so the saga of this band of ghost girls continues, as they wander through a series of imaginary landscapes similar to those in the collages and films of Marnie Weber. With the renewed interest in 80’s “post-punk” music, Forever Free is sure to play well to today’s “alternative” audience while still appealing to the original punk set that still like to take a walk on the wild side.
Hanoi Jane
Tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated in Washington to demand the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
The rally comes days before Congress is to discuss President George W Bush's new strategy for Iraq - including the despatch of 21,500 additional troops.
The protesters, chanting "Bring the troops home", were joined by Vietnam War-era protester, actress Jane Fonda.
Violence continued in Iraq on Saturday, with at least 15 killed in a suicide bomb attack in a Baghdad market.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington says this anti-war rally at the foot of the US Capitol was a marked shift away from the White House and on to Congress.
The protesters want Congress, now run by the Democrats, to block funding for the president's new strategy, our correspondent says.
Resolution
Jane Fonda, the Hollywood actress who angered many Americans by visiting Hanoi in 1972 during the Vietnam War, told the crowd: "I haven't spoken at an anti-war rally for 34 years. But silence is no longer an option."
She added: "I'm so sad that we still have to do this, that we did not learn the lessons from the Vietnam War."
Fonda was joined by fellow actors Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Robbins said: "What we need is courage, courage and conviction and we need people to represent the voice of the American people, a very clear voice last November, a voice that said: 'We're done with this war'."
The Democrats took control of both Houses in November's mid-term election, sparking Mr Bush's decision to form a new strategy for Iraq. But our correspondent says Congress has so far balked at using the power of funding and only a handful of staunch anti-war Congressmen were present at the rally. A man brings a child to hospital after Saturday's Baghdad bombing
Although nearly all Democrats and a growing numbers of Republicans oppose the president's plans, he says, senators have not been able to agree yet on a single non-binding resolution expressing their concerns. At the rally a coffin covered with a US flag and a pair of military boots was put on display. Organisers also filled a large bin with tags bearing the names of Iraqis who have died. More than a dozen veterans, anti-war activists, religious heads and actors addressed the crowd.
A small counter-protest held up a Fonda doll with the sign "Jane Fonda American Traitor". Mr Bush reportedly reaffirmed his commitment to the troop increase in a phone call with Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki on Saturday.
White House national security adviser spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq and the new strategy is designed to do just that."
Violence continued in Iraq on Saturday:
At least 15 people were killed and 55 injured when twin suicide car bomb attacks struck a market in the mainly Shia New Baghdad district
Iraqi police said eight computer firm employees were kidnapped by men in police uniforms in central Baghdad
The US military said it had killed 14 suspected insurgents during an air strike on a building used as a hideout south of Baquba
The US military announced the death of seven more soldiers. Three were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on
Saturday, two by roadside bombs in Diyala province on Friday and two by a bomb in east Baghdad on Thursday.
Also on Saturday, Russia said it planned to question the US on its increasing military presence in the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would seek an explanation during a visit to Washington next week.
He also said it was his "deep conviction that Iran and Syria should not be isolated and must be involved in the settlement process".
The rally comes days before Congress is to discuss President George W Bush's new strategy for Iraq - including the despatch of 21,500 additional troops.
The protesters, chanting "Bring the troops home", were joined by Vietnam War-era protester, actress Jane Fonda.
Violence continued in Iraq on Saturday, with at least 15 killed in a suicide bomb attack in a Baghdad market.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington says this anti-war rally at the foot of the US Capitol was a marked shift away from the White House and on to Congress.
The protesters want Congress, now run by the Democrats, to block funding for the president's new strategy, our correspondent says.
Resolution
Jane Fonda, the Hollywood actress who angered many Americans by visiting Hanoi in 1972 during the Vietnam War, told the crowd: "I haven't spoken at an anti-war rally for 34 years. But silence is no longer an option."
She added: "I'm so sad that we still have to do this, that we did not learn the lessons from the Vietnam War."
Fonda was joined by fellow actors Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Robbins said: "What we need is courage, courage and conviction and we need people to represent the voice of the American people, a very clear voice last November, a voice that said: 'We're done with this war'."
The Democrats took control of both Houses in November's mid-term election, sparking Mr Bush's decision to form a new strategy for Iraq. But our correspondent says Congress has so far balked at using the power of funding and only a handful of staunch anti-war Congressmen were present at the rally. A man brings a child to hospital after Saturday's Baghdad bombing
Although nearly all Democrats and a growing numbers of Republicans oppose the president's plans, he says, senators have not been able to agree yet on a single non-binding resolution expressing their concerns. At the rally a coffin covered with a US flag and a pair of military boots was put on display. Organisers also filled a large bin with tags bearing the names of Iraqis who have died. More than a dozen veterans, anti-war activists, religious heads and actors addressed the crowd.
A small counter-protest held up a Fonda doll with the sign "Jane Fonda American Traitor". Mr Bush reportedly reaffirmed his commitment to the troop increase in a phone call with Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki on Saturday.
White House national security adviser spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq and the new strategy is designed to do just that."
Violence continued in Iraq on Saturday:
At least 15 people were killed and 55 injured when twin suicide car bomb attacks struck a market in the mainly Shia New Baghdad district
Iraqi police said eight computer firm employees were kidnapped by men in police uniforms in central Baghdad
The US military said it had killed 14 suspected insurgents during an air strike on a building used as a hideout south of Baquba
The US military announced the death of seven more soldiers. Three were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on
Saturday, two by roadside bombs in Diyala province on Friday and two by a bomb in east Baghdad on Thursday.
Also on Saturday, Russia said it planned to question the US on its increasing military presence in the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would seek an explanation during a visit to Washington next week.
He also said it was his "deep conviction that Iran and Syria should not be isolated and must be involved in the settlement process".
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