TINY MIX TAPES

www.tinymixtapes.com



More on the mix tapes tip, with a twist. TINY MIX TAPES offers to create a custom mix, based on a phrase you submit. So, your offering of Songs for Your Best Friend who Lives in France, Where he is Hungry and Cold gets spit out as a bunch of track listings that you can go out and find. Poetic. Lazy?

Also, they do archive a series of mixes by Chocolate Grinder, which should introduce you to a bunch of music that you never heard before (that doesn't suck). Archive here.

LOUD FARM

www.loudfarm.com



For those into the band scene, both in San Francisco and elsewhere, there is Loud Farm. Freshly launched, they cull the web for articles on (mostly) independent music and post - boiling down the fat so to speak. So we're talking interviews, reviews, articles, and a well organized Bay Area music calendar. Clicking on Loud Farm takes you to all sorts of web projects that you never knew existed. But you should. Plus they have a fresh design scheme going on which makes me want to rush right down to their office and pinch someone's cheeks really hard til nice and pink.

LOBO

www.lobo.cx



Lobo is a design and animation company based out of Brazil but working internationally. Flipping through their projects you get the idea that they try to make the most out of each opportunity. Some of the concepts are stronger than others, but maybe my non-Portuguese-speaking-ass missed something.

Their website's Flash interface is a glimpse into the future of web design. In the PORTFOLIO section, check out the projects for REDE GLOBO (1), FORD (6), and GOL LINHAS AÉREAS (11). GOL, which is about the transformation of ideas, employs a lush, flickering light source recalling early cell animation. Belíssimo!

KITSUNENOIR & MUXTAPE

www.kitsunenoir.com/blog/mixtapes



Ran across this page which is essentially a collection of mix tapes, including the cover art (very important). That the tape has become the cd has become the .mp3 - no matter. Nothing more exciting, to me, than getting a personal mix. This is a glimpse, a journey, straight in to the center of another human. Ignore the words flapping from their lips, check out the music. Special special.

There also is Muxtape, who as of late is in transformation. Their caterpillar state was a site where you could listen to user mixes, with a really nice colorful interface that didn't make you miss the cover art. Somehow. Alas, the more attention focused on the Muxtape folks, the more intellectual property right issues started popping up. Currently they exist in some hybrid state where they are getting popular indie band members to create short mixes, while also promoting their tracks. I give Muxtape the benefit of the doubt. I hope they find a way to stay true to their original vision. Judging from their current moves, they are going in the direction of legal and possibly even profitable. Good luck!

FAILE

www.faile.net/winter_09



Faile, the international artist collective based out of Brooklyn, celebrates in font and color the excesses of contemporary urban life. I think of this work as both inspired by and flipping off advertising. Visually sampling one attention grabbing graphic after another into georgeous, apoloyptic visions. Not too much here to not like, except maybe their success, if you are so inclined.

SPIKE JONZE

www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1137833099



The multi-talented Spike Jonze (music video directing, fancy pants wearing, hot hot talented ex-wife having, beard sporting, bad assing..) is now doing his part as a producer/creative director for Vice TV. Better known as VBS, the online media wing of the sprawling made-in-the-USA American Apparel hipster monopoly. The company that everyone loves to hate. The company with the print adds that offend everyone with boobs. Which I get and don't get. Conspiracy theories are so 1990's folks.

Regardless, VBS is really dope. Their programming is past gusty and mostly intelligent but always interesting. Vice's voice is unique, period, but especially in the online television sphere. Plus they are producing content that others lack either the ambition or balls to make happen. Check out their travel series. Can you say North Korea? When is the last time you saw a f*cking news crew north of the DMZ? Ganstas.

The first two episodes of Spike's Spends Saturday With, feature the inspired Kayne West and then MIA. For Kayne haters, of which there are too many, check out his episode and see if you feel any differently.

SAM CHIVERS

www.samchivers.com/portfolio.html



Sam is a bloke drawing down in Bristol. His color and line work is masterful - just knowing he is out there doing this pushes me to work harder and more. The fact that he pulls off these detailed designs as silkscreens makes them even more beautiful.

He is involved somehow, cannot figure out exactly how, with these folks: www.peopleofprint.com, and makes for a nice side trip.

DIESEL'S XXX PARTY CLIP

www.break.com/index/sfw-porn-clips.html



Perverted, funny & inspired. Not for those under 18 years. Unless you need a good laugh.

JUDD VETRONE

www.juddvetrone.com/pages/color3.php



What's to say?

SACRED MTN

www.sacredmtn.com/



It can be a trick to walk in both the worlds of design and art. It shouldn't be, and many people tell you that it's not, but I think it is. Maybe that is changing. Some people pull it off well.

I first ran into the people/person behind Sacred Mtn at the San Francisco Zine fest in 2007. He/they were drinking beer at 11:30 in the morning and selling these D-O-P-E silkscreened posters. When I tried to buy one the interaction became really drawn out and convoluted and strange and then kinda charming. A couple years later I am a serious fan.

Sacred Mtn puts out some incredibly imaginative stuff, comfortably dipping across a handful of mediums. They tend to induce this stupid, blissed-out, child-like expression in people. Ridiculous. And genius. Luckily you can stumble over their handy-work in galleries, web videos, design shops, magazines, on tshirts etc.

Don't miss the effects reel on the OrdinaryKids site (www.ordinarykids.com). OrdinaryKids is a Bay Area design studio specializing in interactive story telling, motion graphics, fake manuals and print design. As well Sacred Mtn acted as their Creative Director for three years.

TAKAKO YAMAGUCHI

www.jancarjones.com/current/takako-yamaguchi/



I'm really really (really really) encouraging folks to take some time to see this magic little show of paintings by Takako Yamaguchi. Jumping off from the best of Op Art, without the annoying sandy rub, Yamaguchi mines the depths of California landscape painting through the lens of a surrealist. Opulent brushwork. Baroque, if sun bleached palette. Just get yer ass down there. Up through this Saturday, February 28th. Last week! Last week!

Even if you miss the current show, I strongly recommend visiting this unique little gallery in downtown San Francisco. Celebrating one year this month, Eric Renehan Jones and Ava Jancar have created a place with integrity. Close to the downtown gallery scene (á la 49 Geary and the museum ghetto) but with a spot of its own, taking the walk over to Jancar Jones Gallery is a must.

The building is reminiscent of a Haruki Murakami novel, where the character gets off an elevator on to a floor which doesn't really exist. The gallery occupies the mezzanine level down a long, long hallway. The interior space is intimate and oddly shaped - it has some resonance with Adobe Books Back Room gallery (3166 16th Street, San Francisco). If I was to believe in, or have more knowledge of, sacred geometry I might evoke a theory. But I'm not, nor do I.

Their first year of artists has been quirky and conceptual, without straying into the stinky pedantic and pretentious. Each show comes off with a level of freshness, and modest excitable energy. As my wife (Ingrid Keir, she has a name) is apt to say, "quiet storm." Keep your eye on this space and support them. One way that you can do this is via their artist prints, a series of affordable works on paper.

Jancar Jones Gallery
965 Mission, Suite 120
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-281-3770
Thursday-Saturday, noon-6pm & by appointment
www.jancarjones.com/

THE ART BOOM IS OVER

www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/arts/design/15cott.html?scp=22&sq=art&st=cse



A flawed, slightly fatalistic look at the history of American art during booms and busts. Something to think about and decide for yourself. Ultimately, having some perspective on all this shite is important. As people who make culture, and consume it.

This subject came up last night at my local bar, the Uptown. I was chatting with Brion Nuda Rosch, artist and bartender on Monday nights. I fessed up to making work specifically for the Miami Art Fair one year. Brion mentioned bending his art production schedule to be timed with Portland's Art Fair. Not that there is anything wrong with it, with art fairs, with selling work. More an acknowledgment of the reasons that we make art, and the factors that go into those decisions. By the way, I didn't sell a single a single piece from my Miami series.

FRANK MAGNOTTA

www.fmagnotta.com



I kinda freaked out the first time I saw this guy's work. Part of the magic is the scale of these graphite masterpieces (upwards of 80 inches in width). He shows out of Cohan & Leslie galleries in NY. They have some of Frank's older work on their website which is worth seeing:

http://www.cohanandleslie.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=17

PARRA

This might be offensive to some, funny to others. Maybe just skip this one if yer on the uptight side. There we go. French club track by Le Le, with drawings by the super hot illustrator, artist and band member, Parra. You've probably seen his stuff around. His work starts as drawings, as opposed to working on the computer, which you can feel. He's got a great sense of humor. There is an interview of this cat on Fecalface, which includes a link to more of his online stuff here.

ANDERS SCHRODER

www.frame.dk/#/WORK/38
www.frame.dk/#/WORK/68
www.frame.dk/#/WORK/69
www.frame.dk/#/WORK/55

www.frame.dk/#/WORK/36

I have to admit to a soft spot in my heart for flashy motion graphics. This dude is sick! Super bowl spots, MTV awards, and other such non-essential, gratuitous occasions seem to be his specialty. Anders also goes by the name DFORM1 if you are looking for more of his work.

This monster that builds out of a coffee cup just gives me a warm feeling all over.

BORIS THE BLADE

www.flickr.com/photos/boristheblade



Flickr is a rabbit hole unto itself. Down, down many an afternoon could be spent on that journey, looking through the lenses of countless great photographers. Yet this popular photo site, as convenient as it is, seems to be more about the consumption of images than it is about experiencing great photographs.

Regardless, this photographer who goes by the name Boris The Blade does stand out from the pack. A Photoshop master and dramatic conceptualist, I intuitively feel that Boris is an artist in conversation with Hollywood. By that I mean the scale of his ideas, his absurd visions, and his technical prowess.

I've pointed you to one set on his Flickr account, but the others are worth looking through as well. His range spans many genres, too numerous to list here. Or I'm too lazy maybe.

TAUBA AUERBACH

www.taubaauerbach.com



A fantastic website by a fantastic artist. Using an old-school flashing GIF style animation (even if it is created using Flash), Tauba's site is one part psychedelia mixed with one part minimalist design, with a generous splash of imaginative, playful fonts & lots of color. Revisit, as the site is updated fairly often.

Don't miss out on her books, as you are rooting around the site. She has a new book out, titled 50/50, that is a gorgeous collection of black and white patterns. Available on Amazon, at SF MOMA and I would guess Jack Hanley's in San Francisco. B-O-M-B !

For those in the Bay Area now, you can catch her work at SF MOMA as a part of the biannual SECA show for Bay Area talent. She also shows in NY with Deitch Projects, so keep an eye out.

EAST VILLAGE RADIO

www.eastvillageradio.com



This online radio station is housed at 21 1st Avenue in NYC's East Village. Literally a street level window, from which behind an eclectic group of DJs, local & international, play music. There is an archive of shows that stream for free. Go into the SCHEDULE section to search for shows. Highlights:



AUTHENTIC SHIT, Fridays from 8-10 PM.
Producer, DJ and international man about the scene Mark Ronson let's us peak in to what is going on in his mind. Sometimes it is brilliant, tho other times quite annoying. He doesn't talk the whole time and his musical tastes are worth your perseverance. Plus he does seem to be having a hell of a lot of fun being Mark Ronson! So rock on.



TWO FOR TENNIS, Tuesdays from 6-8 PM.
Tim Love Lee, Gringo Scarrr and a cast of fellow nut cases enlighten and entertain with an eclectic mix, mostly played while in the nude, and possibly while on drugs. Keep your ears perked for shows where the Pikesmen show up. This occasional bike gang gets pretty damn wound up, smashing bottles over each other's heads and terrorizing Manhattan in full biker gang regalia. I know, it sounds gay, and it is! It is too bad we can only witness the spectacle via the radio. Or rather, enjoy from the safety of your laptop.

ALEX TROCHUT

www.alextrochut.com



OK, poke around this guy's site some. Expansive. Great interface design on his website, and over-the-top illustrations. Some of the work here is art deco in nature - the elegant use of chiaroscuro and frequent tone of whimsy. Good fargin' job, Alex. I'm a huge fan.

PLAN B

www.adbusters.org/magazine/82/tactical_briefing.html



Something to consider. Kinda scary, kinda hopeful. But either way it resonates with me today. My friends' jobs are dropping off like flies. Not for the most part that they enjoyed their jobs. Mostly working for boring ass corporations. Collecting a paycheck. Our common adult religion, formerly known as the career, is going the way of Catholicism. It might be f%cked after all! Is there a plan B?

ST. VINCENT from Dig For Fire on Vimeo.

A nice little live show given at NYC's Other Music. Great vibes. For some reason watching this show reminds me of being in Athens, Georgia one humid summer. I was driving out West for the first time from NY and stopped over at some college friends' apartment. We spent the night on a moldy carpet in the living room, which I seem to remember had mushrooms growing on it. Great hospitality though, and an amazing local music scene. Intimate as hell.

After giving St. Vincent's studio recordings a shot, without a whole lotta luck, it is nice to run across this gem of a performance. More stripped down and not so many layers to weed through to access her voice. On hearing this I realize I have to revisit her other music. Again.