Alabaster

Photograph by Steven Klein (via)

This beautiful Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2013 (by Alexander Wang) ad campaign shot by Steven Klein features Kristen McMenamy, represented as some sort of cloistered alabaster goddess. Her postures and colorless skin are some weird approximation of high renaissance sculpture - and I get the feeling that she is not dead, but would be very cool to the touch.

The campaign was styled by Jacob K - the guy behind some of my most favorite ads and editorials of all time!

For further looking, check out W Magazine's December 2012 and May 2013 covers and editorials.

Suburban Lawns

Artist Denise Gallant's video for the Suburban Lawns' Janitor is as peculiar and awesome as singer Su Tissue's succinct recitations. Her performance reminds me of knocking on a hollow log that something weird and creepy lives in, but you don't know what it is.

As an innovator of video design during the inception of the 1980's veejay scene, Denise Gallant pioneered original effects for the likes of such artists as Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, Tangerine Dream, and Supertramp. Between the years of 1980 and 1984, she worked on 50+ music videos - and has since won a Billboard Music Award for her achievements in the industry. Basically, she's a total badass.

Back-side of Suburban Lawn's first self-titled LP

The Suburban Lawns were formed in 1978 by CalArts students Sue Tissue and Vex Billingsgate in Long Beach, California. They were later joined by scraps of defunct SoCal bands Chuck Roast, John Gleur, and Frankie Ennui. With their powers combined, they became a totally awesome ensemble of observant musical weirdos.

For some great further reading, check out this awesome interview with Frankie Ennui over at Freida's Whip.  Boom, Boom - boom, boom.

Aerial Fancies

"Tulip Farm - Netherlands", photographer unknown

"Tulip Farms of Holland", photographer unknown

"San Francisco Bay salt flats" by Michael Layefski

"Potash evaporation ponds with blue dye near Moab, Utah..." by Kevin Beebe

"Evaporation Ponds" by Jesse Varner

Aerial vantage points provide the oddest perspectives.  Once upon a time — I was standing tiptoes on a chair in the kitchen trying to reach a far-away basket of snacks.  Up on the chair, I discovered that the top of the fridge was caked with a fine layer of fudgy kitchen dust. It was the first time I noticed that our old blue and green rug showed a flock of some birds eating berries.         

In a roundabout way, we arrive back to tulips in Holland with my favorite duo of design - Charles and Ray Eames' Powers of Ten (1977). This amazing and a legendary little film, which profoundly ponders structure and scale, was based on the essay "Cosmic View" by Dutch scholar Kees Boeke.

Kleenex Scrapes

"Nice" by Kleenex (1978).
Nothing like the tuneful, punk scrapings of these lovely Swiss-German gals to get that eyeliner swiping.

Princess

I love this picture of teenage Lady Diana on a Swiss ski vacation. I wonder if she drank from that bottle of Johnny Walker? Who is her SKI BOB and what is he reading? This picture was taken about a year before she met Prince Charles.

Two days after her famous engagement, the Daily Mirror purchased this photo from a scandal-monger. The editor decided to nix it from publication and I like to imagine that their grease-pen veto came straight from the teenage Diana herself.

I, as many others do, feel a strange kinship with her. I'm not even sure why, really.

50 Words 4 Snow

      Sullarniq: Eskimo for snow blown in through a doorway.

↑ "Nocturne in Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow" James McNeill Whistler (1876)

        Tuaq: Eskimo for lump of old ice frozen into new ice.

↑ "Hunters in the Snow" Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565)

       Qanipalaat: Eskimo for feathery clumps of falling snow.

↑ "Moscow. Red Square" Boris Kustodiev

      Pukak: Eskimo for snow crust.

↑ "Ipatiev monastery in the winter light" Aleksey Savrasov (1870)

       Nittaalaq: Eskimo for air thick with snow.

↑ "February" Grant Wood (1940)

Here's a little send-off from Kate Bush — it's my favorite song on her album 50 Words For Snow (2011):


For extra credit, check out the title track "50 Words For Snow". (SPOILER: Stephen Frye monotonously recites Inuit snow words, probably poorly, for eight minutes. It makes me feel like I'm watching performance art that I reaaaly shouldn't be giggling at but I juuust can't help it.

      Inuit words via Azimuth.

Björk's House

Here she is, the queen of Icelandic music, Björk Guðmundsdóttir! When the days are so dark and short where I live I start eating lots of gjetost cheese and lighting candles all the time.

Björk's 1992 MTV Cribs house-tour of her Icelandic nest is awesome. She has this enormous and beautifully modern chandelier with blue taper candles in her living-room. As she lights the candles for the camera she chirrps and trills:

"I think this big room definitely needs a center-point, you know? And a light in the middle... I think chandelier is a heart of every home and in the winter its, like, dark - It's dark almost twenty hours a day. It's quite amazing how these candles can - they actually [light] up the whole flat and in a nice kind of way."

       I love how her possessions have been curated.  Everything is special!

Runway Ladies

Photos by Yvan Rodic

St. Petersburg, 2012
I really like the juxtaposition of these two photos by Yvan Rodic.
The уборщица and the модель.

Goodbye Summer

Shot with an old plastic MAXIM 101X 35mm.
After developing a trial roll of film was completely blasted by a light leak, I taped up most of this camera's body with painter's tape and didn't remove it until the film had been wound back into its canister.

I then brought this old plastic camera with me to visit my family at the beach. I wasn't even sure if my tape experiment would work so I was completely careless with my photo-taking. Many of these pictures were snapped by curious friends and relatives who found the Franken-camera sitting around  and wanted to see if it worked. The resulting photos ended up capturing this summer weekend nicely.

Morgan le Fay

Clad in chain-mail, structured armor, leather, and lace, Kristen McMenamy broods like a hellion in W Magazine's September 2012 editorial "The Dame of Thrones".

I love how barbed wire and a conical Philip Treacy transparent head-piece (#4) give this medieval Britain thing a whole seam-in-time feel. I remember hearing an interview with Monty Python's Michael Palin that a lot of the chain-mail worn in The Holy Grail was actually just knitted creations spray painted silver (sounds soggy). Craig Lawrence's metallic yarn chain mail shirt and pants (#3) are very convincing and wearable... something maybe Daphne Guinness would don to check out a litter of dalmatian puppies (or whatever it is that she does with herself). Her inspired silver glove by Shaun Leane (#8) certainly seems useful for glancing blows from little doggie paws.

mmm

Photography:  Tim Walker Styled by:  Jacob K Hair and Headpieces:  Julien d'Ys Makeup:    Val Garlande