top image Fiona Fraser, bottom image Adventure Time, Beautopia
January. Jaded and cold New York City slicker, tonight, I am slanketed, snuggilicious like a Suburbanite, way down, down, down under my down coverlets in the depths of my past. Crystal ball says: I see my first boyfriend at age 14, a sweet, golden, hippie mop-haired guitar player in suede Adidas and fringy shorts. He was the first boy chosen to choose a girl at the rollar rink, boys on one side, girls on the other. I was a nerdy, arty, skinny Jew fro’d girl thing who never had a “boyfriend” and didn’t expect to. Always chosen next-to-last for every sport or game, right before the mentally-challenged girl. Suddenly, I was The Chosen One as the hot guitar rock star of our Tween Tour of the Americas group rollar-ed up to me, hand outstretched for the first solo coupled spin round the rink. Yes, indeed, the BeeGee’s music did go up, the wind sailed through my curls, my black and white world did go suddenly this summer technicolor and I did feel like a treasure. (We spent the whole summer in the back of the tour bus creating heat, but that’s another story)
January 1, 2012. Hello year of the dragon.
“To see clearly,” the Greek origin of the word Dragon, is the mystery of suddenly being chosen for love, luck or transcendance. Something sees you, you see something, subject and object melt. This is LOVE. Myths say dragons rule the roost underground over the firey, rooted chandeliers of their caves where the world’s jewels and gold are hidden. In my world of NYC, fire-breathing dragons jog all over NYC above ground, every day. Where everyone thinks you are out partying constantly every night (you are) gabbing, dragging or in drag, pontificating, warming up or working a room seeking to see clearly.
There are also nights gasp ((( in )))) where the species cave and plot jeweled treasures to release in Spring. Really hibernating. Reading. Watching Cartoons. Portlandia. Restoring energy for the hustle the next day. Give us 2 days of rain in a row or snow, we enjoy our downy feathered nests (((slankets))) like the rest of y’all.
Inner discoveries under the covers of culture can inspire and re-generate. Like a bird in its nest, this month, upon a record-breaking auction sale of prints by John James Audubon, the artist and naturalist who inspired his namesake, The Audubon Society, I was fed by the artist’s fascinating story and my passion for art and nature. The Society’s stellar conservation efforts began as an outcry against the wildly feathered hats of the fashionable ladies of the 19th century, proving that beauty and appreciation can inspire, in balance and respect.
And so like an adventurer in the wild, I play an appreciative Rainbow Child sharing my cache of found jewels in NYC, through the people, places and things which crossed my path this month.
Appreciation is the latest App. One snowy day I found pleasure in the simple and free. A secret alien snow message on a car. (((see the eyes?))) Appreciating a Central Park view while my own might be more feet to the ground, given the rent in this Metropolis.
My own private “terrace” revealed a snowy bird, stalwart on her nest, keeping warm a white egg for Spring. Going Deep, a bear-like hiber’s quiet, simple meditations reveal the brightest and most valuable jewels, rainbow colored like a psychodelic umbilical cord straight from dragon’s Middle Earth to Almighty Whomever above. A meditation on the jewels inside, those wheels of energy they have not yet designed ad campaigns around, invented elixirs for or appointed stations for re-fuel -can rock you with power or just infuse simple, peaceful color. Simple to Elaborate, here’s what turned me on this month.
Get up close, this mighty, flighty ring is by my friend, Stan Gaz, a painter, sculpter and precious custom-order jeweler whose visionary world mixes meteor crash sites, spacesuited travelers and butterflies. “Cameraman,” or the oval at the top is the “eye” signature of his work. His paintings of colored butterflies are right now dreaming in their cocoons of white, in silence to capture new colors. Yep, it’s a themed post, inspired by simple color. Pretend I am your door-to-door Color Me Beautiful rep, coming to sell you on new inspirational make-up, wake-ups for Spring.
Treasure: Above and below. Tiny bird feet can sometimes be seen on the sidewalks on NYC. Let’s go!
GOLD
Gold first. It began this month with a dream. I dreampt I stood up in an audience wearing a floaty transparent dress with flowers on it. I could feel the past blowing away from me, behind me, my head of hair+thoughts a complete golden wheat field in the breeze+sun in me and before me. (and then I got crafty and made this picture.)
Treasure: Then these golden coins greeted me on January 1 at a new pharmacy in the hood, 86th Street between First and Second Aves. called Tisane, like a Euro apothecary stocking herbs, homeopathy and a coffee bar with royal blue ceramic tiles and a fancy, frilled dish of chocolates for guests. Duane Reade has this? Nope. CVS, nope? More of this please, across America.
Gold, all agree is very refreshing and feels healthy, wealthy and wise. Gold is Good.
After gold discs, gold doors, like these at Storefront for Art and Architecture at 97 Kenmare, are for conjuring up and inviting transformative gold.
Treasure: Gold bowls and goblets. Ercole, the artisan mosaic studio known for its shop in one of the most treasured stores in New York, ABC Carpet and Home, gathers together its own atelier this Spring, to expand into furniture and wovens. With an in-store atelier, and artisans crafting, the space promises to be a Mecca for Mosaic.
Old gold revisited this month is the first edition set of books by famed bird illustrator, John James Audubon (1785-1851) fetching 7.9 million dollars at auction. It was a treasure to discover his Thoreau-like history. Born in Haiti to a wealthy French sea captain merchant and a young slave, named Jeanne, who died six months after his birth, Audubon’s passion for nature over school studies kept him wandering in the countryside sketching and collecting. He struggled financially with other ventures for almost his whole life until giving in to his passion, gifting us with his legacy of serene images of rare and common birds.
Treasure: And so, with time on your hands this winter between parties, get back into under the covers of comforters and books. Discover this treasure: Self Publish Be Happy, (and their “Self-Publish, Be Naughty,” giving folks outlets for their “inlet” produced home-movies and sex tomes) It is slightly more evolved than 1970’s “don’t worry, be happy.” Times, they have changed. And now! To the rest of the mindless color romp!
WHITE
White is blank slate. Snow, Crystaline, Mind, Metal, Mental, Blank pages. Containing all colors within. Defending the blank page, the creative pause that refreshes, is Paper Pete, from the Adventure Time cartoon. As leader of a little band of origami warriors with odd accents, formed from the blank pages at the beginning of all books, he defends libraries against Moldo, the gloppy bacterial chillins of sloth and “one day I will write.” Go buy a blank page journal, touch paper again. The promise and weight of white is measured by clouds, feathered down and porcelain plates. Snowy owls, matte blanque bowls, ball gowns heavy and nightgowns light, for Nights in White Satin.
Secret Treasures:Vases are from Holaria of Brazil, white bulbous dress treasures of Charles James and these porcelain plates, free-form shaped and colored are stacked in ABC Carpet and Home. Not perfect, random, ordered like growth rings inside a tree.
SILVER
Glass, silver and white are “metal” and represent the mind, the temporality of glass and ice. Snow crystals. My Grandmother had a huge glass vase like this at the entrance of her home which entranced us when we “pinged” it and it sang.
Secret Treasures: My silver screen friends include silver-scalloped Kim Jackson and Jeremiah Newton, who produced the “Beautiful Darling” documentary on his close friend, Warhol screen star, Candy Darling, which received rave reviews such as this one from EW. Oh kids, only in NYC, can someone in the crowd surprise you with a sudden intimate historic connection or a “They Might Be Giants” premonition next month. Giants might be Kim, just back from Sundance Film Festival, having successfully raised funds on Kickstarter for the coming-of-age tale, “The Harder They Fall,” from directors Daoud Abeid and Dahkil Hausif. Set in Jamaica, where a city boy is sent to re-connect, like I was sent on my Teen Tour, mentioned afore. (after being grounded for a month…um, another story)
Jeremiah and Candy were friends and roommates, living together until the end of Darling’s quicksilver life in 1974. They met in the summer of 1966 when Jeremiah was on his first-ever trip to the Village from his home in Queens. You would think, as a Warhol film star, Candy slept every night in a Hollywood bed like this.
Nope. She rode the bus and often ate canned beans. Immortalized in songs by Lou Reed and David Bowie, she left us with the mercurial shiny siren call to come out from the Island (any island we imagine) and “Hey, babe, Take a walk on the wild side.”
Good Night Candy Darling.
PURPLE
Purple is high vibes, the color of the Princely One and also Susan Strong, of Beautopia, who lives underground and mumbles in Adventure Time. A kind of strong-willed, purple-passioned Amazon with a Hello Kitty hood, Big Galoofy Susan needs a human little boy and his Hero Heart, or red flower or fire to help her win back her people’s home. (this is not a metaphor for me, so stop it now;-)
Treasures: Blue Jays, Amazons and Dandies will love the vintage bowties at Brooks Brothers from blogger, designer, prepster K. Cooper Ray of SocialPrimer. A new friend, he is a smart styler of manners, drinking and Life. ( Tip: Men wearing purple pass, women in purple are often found kaftan’d and coffee-tawking their chack-ras in the New Age fan club.)
Herons always look elegant, as does all white furniture, especially in a room painted matte purple grey-ish, charcoal-ish, This is a new obsession and yes, I realize how hommie blogger this reads.
BLUE
Blue is a watery, communicative, empathetic place, vibrating to voice and language and movement. Blue receives and it moves things. Like a dancing blue Krishna, it’s just before black space and infinity, where blue reflective water, sky and definitions eventually melt.
On a very rainy NYC city morning, I had my first glimpse of a new sculpture, Gran Elefandret, an upside down dancing elephant by Miquel Barceló’s, balancing until the end of May, 2012 in Union Square. A gift from Marlborough Gallery and The Union Square Partnership.
Secret Treasures: Other blue treasures include the blue form of the heron bird in Central Park. Back inside the city streets, at Crosby Street Hotel bar, a custom coat commissioned in Paris, arrived on my friend, John Favreau, and his larger than life baby blues and blue scarf inspired. As head honcho at McCall’s and Vogue Patterns (can you say revival of crafts) he would say of his scarf: “Cut and sew your own!” Now there’s a wintery hobby.
Treasure: John also turned me on to a hilarious, not just about sewing blog, called “Male Pattern Boldness.” Love.
Perfect pattern match.
GREEN
One day, before you were born, I was a tot in yonder 1970’s, and my mom came back from a trip to New York City, having gotten her make-up done by a place with a name like Makeup Unlimited or Makeup Experiment. The decreed adornment was metallic olive/avocado green eyeshadow which she then wore for 30 years. The glitter was from glam rock, the whole lid swath came from Cleopatra through Elizabeth Taylor. Like Spring’s first robins, green eyeshadow, green anything, indicates growth, money, promise, hope, heart. It’s Easy to be Green.
These greenish iridecent bufflehead ducks are doing their tiny cute, green eyeshadowed thing in Central Park right now and the robins are coming next. Wearing of the green is coming again, like Spring, new bouncing Beyonce babies and wearing green eyeshadow,things to obsess about in the cold Winter.
Secret Treasures: NYC cosmetic glory stories abound from the independance of entrepreneurs like Adrian Arpel and Estee Lauder to one of the latest, Dexter Philip, of DEX New York. Dex recently opened his secret jewel-box studio, a new home for his mineral makeup with anti-aging and healthy ingredients, behind Plaza Athenee on 65th Street. And the iridescent green black and white bufflehead ducks can be seen any day on Jackie O’s reservoir. They also prefer Upper East Side digs.
YELLOW
Another boyfriend, a professional biologist and bird-watcher, (remember the afro’d nerd girl from age 14?) well, he showed me that sometimes birds travel sideways on trees. Amazing. Sometimes things go best sideways. Side to side togetherness is more equal and less hierarchical than front to back. Birds do it. Yellow is that kind of color, friendly, sunny. The planet Mars is resting, going retrograde until April, so we get time to review energetic, initiative types of things before bolting forward in the Spring conquering new horizons. Until then, if SAD gets to you, lay sideways next to someone you love, change the way your books are stacked and make new horizons. Add mellow yellow.
Treasures. My Indian textiles and coverings stacked like “horizona” in a basket with my Grandmother’s linen crochet tablecloth. She made it. Each textile and blanket has a story of comfort, each a film from my Life. Why hide them in a closet? (I am scaring myself again, again with the hommie blogger thing, please forgive, it’s Winter nesting.)
People had a bird over the Gaultier, Amy Jade Warbler Winehouse homage this month, but I suppose they better get used to it. We tend to lionize our fallen pop-heroes endlessly. A yellow cotton blouse is beyond, and unbuttoned, almost bare-breasted warbler-like! Bound to get you sideways, (glances and body positioning.) (Isn’t that fashiony stuff better?)
Yellow is for Charlie Harper, whose hero was Audubon, and he invented his own bird-language.
ORANGE
Spicy and warm. Sunrise and Sunset shocking. Joy. Works jointly for Monk robes and Pratesi slankets. It’s saucy for hats and street fashion. Hermes boxes, tumeric and citrine. Orangina. Paris metro tickets. Day lilies. Orange is Nonsense and Sea Urchins.Gimme.
Orange is favored by happy artists. From kids’ drawings of birds to adult fetishes, like this safety cone pamphlet happily distributed by my friend, artist Erik Sanner. Beak-like the cones corral us as bea-cones (yup) to safety.
Treasure: This little video, “We will never be discovered,” is smart dancing like idiots by a French performance group I in fact, did discover,named le contremaître et sa contremaîtresse, who have tons of videos where they are wearing orange. The song is by The City and Horses and it reminds me of the silliness that lovers share in the privacy of their bedrooms. Those dances never get discovered, yet are among life’s best, best moments.
And then for all those private dancer Creatives, who ask me all the time, “How do you do everything that you do, how can I start my_______ ? (art, business, cooking, writing, etc. fill in the blank) I give the answer that a certain mentor gave to me when I asked the same question. “Just do it. Anyhow or way. Don’t wait.” The truth is, by discovering your dream yourself, the world discovers you back.
Dontcha wanna? Orange ya will be discovered. Take it to the streets! Now!
Treasure: Touting my clients and friends, Muhlbauer for their playful hats which appear on the heads of Brad Pitt, Yoko Ono and Madonna.
PINK
Pink is a softy. It’s all whimsy and gets attached to animal names and other serious things to add the element of fluffy, soft like Pink Panther, pink elephant and pink pigs. In the Pink,Tickled Pink. Hence, no reason for these free-form pink things in my path this month.
America’s first couturier and another famed luminary who died in the Pink Chelsea Hotel. James designed the first down jacket in 1937, an image which inspired me to design.
RED
Ruby, Fire, Life force and dragon eyes. Red planet of Mars, blood, warrior, fort, comfort, strength, power. China red, Fruit, Ripe, Blush and flush on cheeks. Big Apple Red New York. Ralph Rucci, easily America’s next Couture King after Charles James. An inventor of weightlessness, soaring circumferences and references. Of this dress, stylist, Philip Bloch said, “Party in the back.” Does it get any more red hot than a flash of red from behind? On a pure white column?
Yes, it does. Our Angel bird at the Golden Globes, winged by her tiny writing tattoo, Brad and a red swoosh on a white column dress from Versace.
Treasure: Seeing a red-winged blackbird take flight and flash it’s red tips at you trumps all red in creation, from Louboutin pump undersides to even Dior’s best red confections. Do take a walk on the wild side, around Central Park and other parts this Spring and discover for yourself.
As a salute to illustrator René Gruau, famed for his red splashes and his work for Christian Dior in the forties and fifties, Dior’s 2011 inspiration got under my skin for so many reasons. As an art-school degreed Fashion Illustrator, I (((heart))) the lineage of fashion illustrators, Warhol and Galliano, turned runway designer as I’ve got a little somethin somethin for the runway in the works myself. Also, it was the first appearance of the *New* version of 1947’s New Look skirts returning full force for Spring 2012, the red passion reawakening and ombre sheers touching the magic of Charles James. It-girl of the moment, Olivia Palermo, summed it up: “Sometimes it’s good to go back to basics.”
Basic Brown? Non.
BROWN
Dirt, Earthy, Mirth. Basics, Chocolate, mudbaths, Spring plowing. I recall having a lime green, shirred Norma Kamali long column dress and all I wanted was to accessorize it with brown, like Spring leaves and dirt. Seemed natural to me. I could not find the vision in my mind, brown was for daytime, thank you. No dress shoes, no exquisite purse. Years later, this winter I got crafty and dyed a 1940’s pair of silk shoes brown. I love the dirty+distressed, rhinestone Lost in Las Vegas look that resulted. See? Wintry crafts are bewitching.
This turkey vulture has all the pomp and high-heeled glamour of a runway bird. Like good models, they are so huge in person on the ground, scary beautiful, yet truly graceful and magnificent in flight. They are the soaring high T-shaped big birds you can see all over. (for the non-bird-watchers) For me, they are like the lotus flower, growing up through mud, pristine. The T-birds are vultures, eating carrion, yet soaring above like eagles. They are not the edible pheasants under glass. Here’s to gawky teen birds turned beautiful.
Treasures: Two of my favorite New Yorker rare birds in one pic, philanthropist and writer, Michele Gerber Klein and Montgomery Frazier, MTV fashion director for many years, who has me charmed with his unforgiving brusque honesty, humor and mostly his gentleman true nature.
Treasure: I love when people call me about my services as a referral but they don’t tell me who sent them. Or they do and I don’t know the person! Word-of-mouth is one of the best compliments and I guess why the term “bespoke” is used so much these days. Beyond custom, Wikipedia says the origin is to “speak for something”, in the specialized meaning “to give order for it to be made.”” I prefer the biblical, gospel, awed feeling of a trusted conversation between maker and receiver. Like when the world goes from black and white to Technicolor with its synergy and uncanny surprises.
Bespoke shoemaker to kings and polo players, artist, Norman Vilalta, was introduced to me in this way. Daniel Porcelli, the evangelicalist for the brand, and I connected again this month and I refreshed my memory on this story of shoes that look like wood grain, ombre’d and approaching works of art.
BLACK
Night. Morning. One morning, up in the pitch black to meet my #earlyAM Twitter group at 7 am (yup) it was chilly, rainy, black, black, black and grey all over. I decided to make a little photo journalistic exercise and take pics of the black and grey commuters from underground NY. So pulled together, serene like black marble sculptures despite the drudgery of dreary weather dealing.
Is there an Audubon bird for a rainy day in NYC? The oyster catcher, running through the wet would be it. Red nose surfing the waves for pearls, parties and potentials.
Warm beacons in the grey and black this month included Hotel Delmano in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this coming from one who cringes at Victoriana anything. Like staring into Madame Blavatsky’s eyes, this place charmed, the drinks are artful, the tiny jewel box spaces and people sexy, fascinating and the walls of one cave are a glowing salmon pink.
My friend, hilarious video star, Amy Staats, and I found ourselves transfixed by a black haired woman with matte red lips, glossy white headphones and a black and white and red all over cape. We turned back to each other and at the same moment said, “Wow, she is…unforgettable.” My friend, did however, forget the name of the very attractive man, seemingly a regular at the bar, with a black studded jacket with a canvas painting hung delicately on it. If you know him, please tell him, I enjoyed our soulful stare at the door. (Thanks for any info, in Winter, one must employ every tactic.)
Which gives us the perfect way to embrace the Winter Chill at the Birth of the Year of the Dragon and end this month’s post. Busy. Chillin.
One fine day, two people simultaneously searched in Google:
“angry sex with my running partner in a café restroom.”
“Hey Persephone, how can I find the holy grail?”
both queries which led to this very blog you are reading now.
What people surf for in search of transcendance as we enter 2012 is not much changed, in 10 years, in 1000 years, since the Greek myths began or the dawn of “Time.” Like grafitti on the wall of an ancient city, human desires don’t change, we just transform everything in the wake of relentlessy pursuing them. Birth. Sex. Death. Repeat. or End?
With our wide-awake awareness of our botanical ball now teetering on the edge of unwinding, from tsunamis to 99 problems and 99 percent occupying the streets, each of our decisions can feel like feather surfing tidal waves. 2012 is year of the water dragon in Chinese astrology, fire-breathing energy into Everything, so we can either be consumed by the flames/water or Renew, kid. If we have to tighten Hermes belts, use cute-sloganed totes to lug our organic foods, consider our carbon footprint and Seven Generations in every action, that’s a tall order for the humans …unless,of course, we make it hot and sexy. (music! up!)
More fun+less mess is called for “The End of Time.”
For those on the 2012 Train to Nowhere Apocolypse, Chief Seattle said, “There is no death, only a change of worlds.” So, lighten up, let’s enjoy it by renaming it:
“Our Energy/Sex Crisis.”
Forty years after the famous crying Indian in the 1970’s commercial watching the polluting of America, most of our culture still teeters on our teenage mentality. We act like “Most Famous 2011 Teen” Rebecca Black, reluctantly fake-shrugging, mugging for the cameras, “OK, Mom,” having at the clean-up of our room only because we realize the equation impacts our Friday night joy rides with the gang. Nature’s publicity campaign, positioning “green” as new eco-luxury, bohemian chic and eco-techno, might have adjusted things a tad, but to really surf this change of worlds, let’s call it what it is, Our Energy/Sex Crisis. This way the drama and passion-driven can argue with their running partners and quest holy grail-like about Eco-Crisis+Predicaments from an Energetic/Sexual Urgency Scale and maybe Balance this Ball. Oui? Time, Birth, Sex, Desires and Death. C’mon, even Einstein said “It’s All Energy.” Think of it “All” as Desirable as Sex. Before we kill All and ourselves, for godsakes.
Alejandro Chaskielberg, Winner Sony World Photography Award 2011
For clues, predictions to energy/sex infuse the world’s predicaments, we spin the Time-machine in a mash-up including Native American quotes, to street art and re-visiting the top stories in an unearthed copy of one of my favorite Berkeley neo-hippie culture mags, cyberpunk bible, Grandmother to Wired mag, Mondo 2000, circa 1990’s. The Time-Machine also stopped at two icons of timeless, energetic/sexy, poetic dragon-energy people, to serve as hostsfor our foray, pop-culture’s famed “wild childs,” Bridget Bardot and Jimi Hendrix. Bridget was chosen for her beachy, rebel reclusive wildness,
and Jimi for his trans-gender, other-worldy music and his prophetic “castles made of sand slips into the sea, eventually” themed connection to this post.
How we might sexily, mightily and handily turn our little sandy spaceship towards more fun, less mess energy/sex, for the dawn of a new day, 2012, we look at some of Life’s precious basics and how the new consciousness might actually be the new energy/sexy:
art, gender, cars, transport, clothing, caves, food, nature, animals, body and music.
All New Energy/Sexy. All New, All the Time. Enter here.
my path to the beach during a recent trip to Miami Beach, where the genesis of this post began…
“A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.” Crazy Horse
(My Pre-Beach Dream/Vision: Even before I put a footprint upon my path to the beach I dreampt of it leading to an exact replica of Jessica Lichtenstein’s recent piece at Gallery Nine5, where happy groups played among Dr. Seuss-like pools and slides of pleasure. So come, dig a little place in the sand, welcome the waves, play in some pools and get some sexy-eco-techno love.)
NEW ART ENERGY/SEX
Follow That Artist! In ye cave times, artists were the harbingers or shamans amped up on hallicinagens charting the path for providers to find food or at the highest, cave dwellers appealing to the heavens to find inner peace. Today art is made by similar open, altruistic and passionate people which then is snatched up by smart and savvy investors and developers as investments worth as gold. It makes for one sexy scene. In Miami Beach’s Art Basel art fair this month to plant the seeds for a 2012 urban intervention, we play prophesy muse with some art trends as harbingers that might change the world:
We Get More Crafty, Knitta Please! A bike tour through the Wynwood art area (a mini Portland, btw) knitted together the trend of yarn bombing, appearing everywhere these days, even Gap commercials. Our favorite collective by one of the originators, Magda Sayeg, is named “Knitta Please,” embodying the warm and trendy “We Are The World” Grandma Earth blanket and cozy urge of this trend. Expect Macrame at the lowest and knitted community at the height.
We Scale+Transcend Culture!Peter Sarkisian‘s video piece crawling on a dictionary at Bernice Steinbaum gallery at once brings the playful body-oriented touch and feel of books and bodies with doodling, a kind of drooling desire and love my cold computer and I never share. Could a play on scale like this help the Earth? What if we re-defined ourselves as Baby Mamas and Baby Daddies to the Earth?
We Occupy Appropriation! A phone interview with Books IIII Bishof, curator of Primary Flight, primarily responsible for the advent of Miami Beach’s Wynwood becoming an internationally recognized home to the world’s finest graffiti art, was a manifesto on Questing. Books sees the timeless equation of art moving life forward through first the common man’s predicaments and resulting art which then becomes an obsessive quest for the upper class who pay for the missing street-level passion and drama in their lives of comfort. No money, but love, equals Make Art. No love, but money, equals Buy Art. With more experiential, audience-inclusive and performance oriented art, we see a harbinger of shared experience that is less something to appropriate, but more classless rituals which emphasize commonality, and dare we envision occupied territory like “tribal” and “ritual”and “sexy”?
We Contain History, Heraldry and Irony! The mascot of Art Basel’s birthplace, Basel, Switzerland, is the ancient beast, the basilisk, from the Greek meaning “little king,” a mythical winged snake/dragon. As Basel is the birthplace of important global markets in art and Time, aka the watch and jewelry industry, not to mention Swiss bank accounts, the city is a good indicator of the state of wealth in the world and how appropriate, like a lair, it is watched over by a dragon. Thanks 1% for hailing the transformative and creative powers of the dragon, the little king of paganism, wild child of Nature! (insert gratuitous, regal-costumed Hendrix image here!)
Given the preponderance of bling and courtly graphics over the past 5 years in art and consumer goods, I especially loved these holy, funny grails I saw at Art Basel, from Galerie VIVID, Studio Job and the famous Belgian hand-blown crystal-makers, Val Saint Lambert…in service to the Realm. Tell the google “holy grail” searcher, I may have found his vessel.
Two other Art Basel turn-ons mixing Mastery and Mass appeal while extolling the bio-geometric, included Moss‘s Morphing Fruit Platters 1D Series 300, a collaboration with Dr. Haresh Lalvani, architect, sculptor, inventor, morphologist and Professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute. The Doctor fed computationals to produce endless generations of laser cut steel disc fruit platters, each unique like snowflakes you can purchase. Something mass-sexy and fractal-feely there.
Alvaro Montagna
Tag! We’re it! We Embody Nature! And above, commissioned by Sushi Samba’s owner, Shimon Bokovza, for his venture, Grafitti Gone Global, Marc Forne‘s community-created, walk-in cozy coral keeps getting bigger each time a new version is built. For more on this and adventures at Art Basel see the article I wrote for Metropolis magazine’s POV on art and community, a growing trend with millions of prophetic permutations from coral-like cathedral building, art spawned by participants and other such populist interactive energy/sex and equation changes.
GENDER ENERGY/SEX
We Gender Bend! Pretty in Perennials, yes? Many men are. Gender transcendance pollenated everywhere this year, from Chaz Bono, legalized same-sex marriages and 3rd world abominations.
The antique issue of Mondo 2000 featured Kate Bornstein, aka the Gender Outlaw, whose definition of a 3rd gender is beyond social construct and definition and now, circa 2011, she helps teens combat bullying. I like the transition. Along with other needlessly dueling dualities, Bullying and Emotional Blackmail are absolutely two overfed, beastial, vestigial gender organs we need to lose as a species. For 2012, I predict more melting of such.
The more both macho and wimmen-folk cultures soften and toughen in balance (aka without fear) the excitement of contrast, free expression and non-repression will prevail, everywhere. Genders may like each other more. We have to have faith in this boys and girls. If 6 was 9, said Jimi.
Alvaro Montagna
CAR ENERGY SEX
We Re-invent the Wheel. Cars r us. I grew up in suburbia and my father was a car salesman, I placed him here, so he could be happy to be this close to Bridget. At the Art Basel launch of BMW’s sexy new i8 and i3, we saw that even luxury car makers are realizing the desire for energy efficiencies. Real change will mean giving up the fossilized fuel and fracked gas ghosts and playing more in the billion watt bulb of the original Wheel, the sun. Whisper until it is a scream…Solar Power.
The Sun rules as its design is the function, the purpose and packaging is the material object itself. In a nature-design perfection, all things should be valued for what they don’t utilize energy and materials wise and then what they give back. Like science meeting religion we’ll expect our goods and services to satisfy on multiple levels to prove their efficiency. This could be fun as a value system. Imagine the clapper, which grows food like a chia pet which doubles as a popeil knife.
Now our cycle of action is activities which leave re-generating stains upon imaginary, imperious sleek countertops to be wiped away with more paper, more refuse. Infinity-energy thinking can orient to spiraling DNA, bike wheels, eyeglasses or the crossing point of our 3rd eye, dissolving duality of all things for a greater vision and yes, maybe even a more “sexy” experience.
Horse-power and Sun-power gives new meaning to the Convertible, already a sexy idea.
The convertible parking lot reclamation icon, 1111 Lincoln Road, by architects Herzog & de Meuron in Miami, was a spot-on venue for BMW’s launch, sponsored by Dwell Media. Car indeed seemed all sexy but the unsexy question in the room was where the electricity comes from and that answer is still…oil. That heartburning image of the gulf burning while the sun shone overhead, giving out tons of energy is an emblematic cosmic joke. Five-hundred trees donated to the city in exchange for the event by architect and one of the presenters at the event, Chad Oppenheim, is the right thinking. Step by step. Breathing is an energetic exchange.
TRANSPORT ENERGY/SEX
Bike Likes. I like bikes. I love bikes. I love the freedom, free exercise, low-cost and zero polluting. I happily joined the locals loving the liberation via Miami’s Decobike, a pioneering urban rental/share program from tons of steel, high gas prices and parking nightmares. Although more bike lanes are still a gentrifying proposition, given Miami’s condo-car-centric culture, in the meantime, exfoliation by hedges, oldster diving right or left and potential collisions with parking meters are the lesser price to pay. Bridget certainly knew how to work a bike, see above.
BTW, several BMW positives are their support of arts, such as the above, Peter Jansen’s movement explorations and their partnership with Guggenheim Foundation for the Lab, conversations in 9 cities in 6 years.
CLOTHING ENERGY/SEX
The Fibers of Alchemy. Popping out of the BMW party we ran into our friend, architect Rene Gonzalez, designer of the Alchemist shop, which artfully showed only two stories in the whole store, Rick Owens and a Native American influence story highlighted by a teepee with video inside by Chrome Hearts. Reviewer, Candy Pratts Price on Vogue.com did not blink at $5000. moccasins to pad about the teepee, although I did. Why for half that price I could purchase the Rick Owens jacket I LOVE (in 3 colors too.) Not to mention it could perhaps feed a village for a few months. Doing the math and contemplating a luxury purchase is not sexy, but the real cost to the environment of our clothing is staggering.Transparency will thankfully increasingly help transcend the inequalities of clothing production, with stories such as the recently revealed real secrets behind Victoria Secret’s organic bras and panties, sourced from African child labor.
Legendary fashion pioneer heros and heroines, rose and fell this year, from the falling Gaultier’s insulting racial gaffe to the highest high of Alexander McQueen’s triumphant exhibit to Martin Margiela‘s house history in his Miami shop during Art Basel MB. Less visible is Queen Vivienne Westwood’s Ethical Fashion Programme, helping women in Kenya. Yes, it’s sloganed bags, but of the best kind. And I guess if you can’t be the rainbow like Jimi, you can tote it.
Spirits rose end of year with one of the Earth’s most forward clothing Master, Jochen Zeitz, CEO Sport and Lifestyle Group, CSO of PPR and Chairman of the Board of PUMA, with his speech on sustainability for the Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. His talk is a kind of milestone on “the economic invisibility of nature” and how the value of the planet’s natural resources, ecosystems and biodiversity can be fully and consistently considered in economic, accounting and decision-making systems.
CAVE ENERGY/SEX
Energy Efficient Edifaces. My 1994 issue of Mondo 2000 featured evolutionary architect, Eugene Tsui’s in-depth study of living organisms and natural processes, not just building inspired by forms. For instance, how can termites build towers 20 feet high, in climatic temperature swings of 40 to 120 degrees while maintaining a consistant interior temperature of 2 degrees? With dirt? And some of them date back 4000 years?
The architecture world thankfully leads the world with LEEDS certifications, a wish for the coming years is that food, clothing and health industries endeavor to the same. Although I am told most people do sex with their eyes closed, one can imagine that copulating eyes-wide open in a hive-like room only increases the buzz of birds and bees.
“No machine can compare with the ability of the human hand and 10,000 computers will never comprehend the design intelligence of a single blade of grass.”
Eugene Tsui
Keichi Ohta, Mondo 2000 cover
FOOD NATURE ENERGY/SEX Flower Food. Back in 2001, the same year I moved back to NYC from country living, solar house and organic farming, the book, Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan, archangel of new frontiers where “nature and culture interact,” came out. Beyond loving him for thinking sexy like plants and insects, I also love what he said about Jonny Appleseed, our mythical fertilizing folk hero, who promoted wild, un-grafted apples, aka hard cider apples. “Really, what Johnny Appleseed was doing and the reason he was welcome in every cabin in Ohio and Indiana was he was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier. He was our American Dionysus.” Oh yes, agriculture can be damn sexy. Of course when that same alchohol was used to tempt Indians away from their land and life, well, that is another story indeed.
Slower Food. Ten years ago, it took a forward thinking Japanese film crew to introduce me to Slow Food, exhibiting at the Natural Expo in LA, our client at the forefront of natural food and lifestyles. Fast forward to Miami 2011 and slow food translates to two days online to locate a non-Whole Foods nearby supermarket in Miami Beach’s northern parts. The dismal 3rd world bodega offerings reminded me of Michael Pollan’s letter to Whole Food on local produce.
Back in NYC, one tasty example of innovative Slower Food, my friend, Quinn Fitzgerald’s Feast Upon, takes the hunting and gathering time element out by selecting the best chefs and best local ingredients delivered to your home so you can cook, invite guests and thus create community. Now just in Brooklyn, a good idea fast coming to a city near you.
No Mo GMO’er Foods. The adjustment to organics is still debated, ongoing. And, then, like natural gas fracking, GMO (genetically-modified organisims) via Monsanto’s push to re-invent the wheel, keeps getting approvals, Obama, he of the organic garden on White House lawn, actually signed several just this week. Click here on Food Democracy Now to stop its presence on your plate. For me in 2012, a resolution to begin an indoor organic herb garden begins here.
ANIMAL ENERGY/SEX
“If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.” Chief Dan George
I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals. Bridget Bardot
Kids, Gurus and Animals say the Darnest things, yet let’s be real, they are often the Smartest things. This year, Miru Kim‘s 104 nude hours with two pigs saved from the slaughterhouse in a gallery was a primal hit at Art Basel. Our host, Bridget has been an animal rights activist for years.
Cloned animal farms are shutting down because less than 10 percent of animals survive and it remains a non-cost efficient, fruitless exercise. Outcry against this abuse, the past 5 years of street art, nightclubbers and fashion mags morphing animal horns, masks and sheer empathy shows encouraging direction and I personally love talking to the animals. It’s true they make us more human, can you imagine when we as a species can go back to really communing with them?
HEALTH ENERGY/SEX
Orlan
Modified bods. “Upon suffering beyond suffering: the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred Tree of Life and the whole earth will become one circle again. In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry kowledge and understanding of untiy among all living things and the young ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one.” Crazy Horse
Artist Orlan‘s surgery art on her body was featured in Mondo 2000 reminding us of this year’s shocking news of botched body morphing experiments and deaths at surgery “parties.” Coupled with a recent Wired magazine article on Trials and Errors: Why Science is Failing Us on failing pharmeceuticals, perhaps the world might finally be getting a clue.
A little intuition and simple natural solutions exist without diving into the medicine cabinet. I believe we have to know how to intuitively heal ourselves while we heal our host planet. A recent cold and flu was healed in 3 days on a “me-scription” of chicken soup, garlic, seaweed, yoga, meditation, sunshine and sleep and it was a reminder of the power we are only guessing at now, that our ancestors knew well. Is this the loop that will create the “end of Time?” I think so.
MUSIC ENERGY/SEX
Phonetically Un-modified Musicians. Late one night a friend popped out 7 discs of Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special and the lithe, positively groovin’ rock n roll and soul legends from the 1970’s made you hunger for un-lip-synced, super-fit, un-carbo-GMO bodies and innocent crooning. Even long-haired rockers looked kinda cute. Hot Chocolate’s lead singer was so pop-perfect and the colors of the stage had me groupie-taking cell pics of the telly and yearning for more live music and less props.
Perhaps the love child heir of Bridget (hair) and Jimi (air), Amy Winehouse joined Jimi in the 27 club this year along with legend, Phoebe Snow, leaving lady voices of Adele, Annie Clark, Lady Gaga and (we spotted her early-on) Florence Welch to carry the torch. And yes, Beyonce even made our list, given her swing to Mama-hood and Boho, Bardot-hood. Welcome to Bohemia, deary-one.
Yukimi Nagano is another Fem-Love of mine, she gets the “Neo-Bridget Award.” A little Morcheeba, a little Chaka Khan, Erykah Badu, I am loving the new album from Little Dragon, Ritual Union, with more songs on top of the song I already consider my theme song, Constant Surprises:
As for the menfolk and bands, this year we honored the passing of Heavy D, Nick Ashford and heavy, Gil Scott Heron, while we loved TV on the Radio, Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra, Bon Iver (we called them early on too) and traveling troupadour Gary Clark Jr. He gets the crown of Nu-Reverb, the “Neo-Jimi Award,” making live guitar blues sound like it might the first time ever breathed, ever invented. And the voice…the voice.
My all-time favorite music these days? Nature sounds on radio. crickets. bubbling brooks. birds. frogs. angels.
Angel come down from heaven yesterday
she stayed with me just long enough
for afternoon tea
and she told me a story yesterday
about the love between the moon and the deep blue sea
and when it was time for her to go
she spread her wings her wings high over me
and she said i shall return tomorrow
and i said fly on my sweet angel
fly on through the skies
fly on me sweet angel
tomorrow i will feel you by my side
and sure enough
this morning comes to me
with silver wings silhouetted
against the glow of the child sunrise
and as the blue birds and the sparrows envy me
she says i love you little boy
today you shall fly
she kissed me once
and the feeling so good
she made me cry
and now we can fly together
i said fly on my sweet angel
fly on through the skies
fly on my sweet angel
together we shall always be light
W A V E ON.
happy new year friends.
LOVE, Jade
OX OX
!
(…..)
go on now.
transcend. weave. be the inspiration, beauty + invention of people, places + things beyond Time.
Sound created the Universe, stars and lovers. hello I see, smell, taste you too.
East Coast USA: we are in black earth month here. It’s getting cold and we find ourselves seeking warmth, shelter, comfort in the familiar and also the transcendant. The mechanics of our thoughts, running around accomplishing things on our hamster wheels crave a dive into Sensuality and Creativity. I declare a Synesthesia Stew of the Seven Senses as the ticket out of disconnect and cold of Life’s Assembly Line. A dissolve and immersion into the sensory delights that exist as secret doorways in any moment can be symphonic and fulfilling like Olde Tyme Religion! (or at least a moment of feeling like an Art-Star, whatever that personally means for YOU.)
Astrologically, aka in the logic of the stars, for November we were in Scorpio moon related to secrets, extremism, the mysteries of birth and death. Now, with all those areas balanced and in check, we move into a moon ruled by archer Sagitarius moon, more free to indulge our curiosity about Life’s Secrets through a love of travel, knowledge with a fresh philosophy based on more than our intellect alone, learning to trust our instincts and seven senses. More fun, in other words.
Everyday in NYC offers this in abundance, here a sniff through my month in some of my favorite private clubs, rooftops, homes and photography galleries in search of The Best NYC Secrets To Unlock The Senses. Like the Tao, at every moment there are 10,000 things to choose to focus on, here are a few in this month’s issue, to get you started. First a dive into Star-stuff, the fountain of Sense and Creativity.
Simen Johan’s “Until the Kingdom Comes”
“The Earth on which we stand is made almost entirely of material created inside a star. Now we have a direct measurement of how supernovae enrich space with the elements that condense into the dust that is needed for stars, planets and life.”
Margaret Meixner of the Space Telescope Science Institute
Simen Johan
We are star stuff harvesting star light.
Carl Sagan
Scientists, Artists and US Weekly agree, stars are creation machines. The beginning, it is said was a word. I declare a less pedantic, authoritative hypothesis, maybe it was more like a song or a scent that served as Ye Gods’ Little Factory Whistle. Living always in our logical minds or mindless emotion, situating consciousness in the body and its senses is a great healer and comforter. Turning on music regulates heartbeat, lighting a scented candle is aromatherapy and all can be an instant elemental correction as our energy syncs up with the purity. We have the capacity to expand further into a transference and mash-up of the senses so we see music, feel color or taste touch to experience the creativity of Synesthasia, a wider spectrum of “Feel” inspiring artists throughout time with boundary-less borders of sensing.
here, to get your synapses firing, a clip of humans proclaiming monkeys and other animalia don’t dream, courtesy a bizarre, little radio snippet I see future DJ’s to sampling to great effect.
(ignore the bizarre Krishna art here, it’s an odd Oz behind the curtain for this clip, click Play, I promise its worth it!)
“Synesthetes often report that they were unaware their experiences were unusual until they realized other people did not have them, while others report feeling as if they had been keeping a secret their entire lives, as has been documented in interviews with synesthetes on how they discovered synesthesia in their childhood.”
Wikipedia
“She has that displacement of the senses which others take drugs to find. So she is like a lover of rock who sees vibrations when he hears sounds.”
Norman Mailer, “Marilyn: A Biography”
Sing the rapturous Love-Song unto me!
Burn to me perfumes!
Wear to me Jewels! Drink to me, for I love you!
I love you!
I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunrise;
I am the Naked Brilliance
of the voluptuous night-sky.
attributed to Nuit, an Egyptian sky goddess
Come! Now we dive into the secret drawer of our senses, the secret spots in NYC and what lies undies!
1st sense: secret sounds. Sing the rapturous Love-Song unto me!
Tarek Atoui is a snake-charmer crasher with the turntables, his arms flailing about like a mad scientist, hands in heavy rotation, maybe not even touching the turntables as much as luring the sound out of them.
Sound orgies by Gyorgy Ligeti and John Cage were top of the charts for me at age 16, hence I am a free-form sound fan, thankfully abundant in NYC (with the distinct exception of drunken west Village jazz club forays.) If a delve into Beyond the Beyond and Beyonce is your goal, every two years in New York City, Performa 11 presents a huge slate of life-inspiring performances, this year my highlight was “Visiting Tarab,” organized by Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui. A secret-sounds, opera-like sound immersion emerging from sixteen musicians and sound artists, such as my Romania homeboy, Gyorgy’s own prodigal son, Lukas Ligeti, and sound artists ranging from hip hop and dub maestros like Raz Mesinai, to electronic wizards such as DJ Spooky and Anti-Pop Consortium. All were invited by Atoui to Beirut to explore the world’s largest and most extensive collection of Classical Arab music.
Notes from my mobile: “I like that the audience is angry with the whale songs tinged mix of irritation building to a crescendo of annoyance much like a teenager thrashing his hips into a war game machine or the horror of a churning industrial conception contraption.”
photo by Edward Burtynsky
“When the wall of sound stopped abruptly, the audience whooped with pleasure and moaned when the sound crept into a resonance of heartbeat and shuffling dawn-like creeping. This then built into something akin to the American Beauty or True Blood soundtrack with Arab moulah wailing. Relaxing?…well I cleaned my phone of old messages and rotated my neck to absolve it of some kinks…so yes.
Then as a drummer and someone seemingly playing a plunger got on stage I swear I saw a butterfly in the dark studio. Ligeti worked a percussion instrument like a library of animal noises. Harp, drums and sax electrofied into silence with the waves of conversation voices in the crowd. Suddenly…
…the famous refrain “Jack declared house” voice music sample blared into airplanes as Raz Mesinai DJ took over the turntables for a solid set. Some wine and Tarek tearing up, I tweet: “These musicians are attacking their instruments I have never seen. Tearing up, crying myself.”
Sitting (by chance?) next to Performa founder, Roselee Goldberg and Lee Hirsch, director of the hailed movie, The Bully Project, capped the evening. Another thankfully typical, lyrical secret life-expanding NYC evening.
image of Roselee Goldberg and Tarek Atoui from Billy Farrell
2nd sense: seeing light: secrets of the universe expanding.
Given that personal experiences of recent discoveries of that which transcends even Einstein theories may be a little hard to pin down, namely “sub-atomic particles aka nuetrinos, faster than the speed of light, which shape-shift from one of three varieties of the particle which can “tranverse planets and walls of lead like light through a window” …an easier way is ducking in and out of NYC’s Chelsea galleries. Full of secret spaces that open up vastness, sinus’s and creativity, my shape-shifting, odd face-making friend (Vanity Fair Italia photographer, Orlando Salmeri) and I tested the theory of trancendance through an art jaunt on a recent Saturday. Here with Richard Serra’s “walls of lead” installation in the Gagosian gallery.
vision. seeing big secret things on the big screen.
“Letters From The Big Man” released on 11.11.11 in New York and nothing like a Big Secret Star to open up the senses. From a small indie film to be one of 100’s in a Time Square theatre, NY filmgoing is instant star-struckness.
For another sneak peek at being Brave in The Big Wild, see Disney’s “Brave” movie coming up in 2012, a romp through the Wilds O’ Scotland. More about this to come as we work on ILS:Scotland 2012, a BIG runway show at The Hammerstein Ballroom in March 2012, curated by some BIG names in fashion such as ……(secret), the creator of New York….Week…and … the founder of…Art…and….plus top designers such as…. There ye go laddie and lasses, that’s it for now, hold your horses, much more to come on this secret event unfolding.
Speaking of other secrets of NY, this month I discovered Brooks Brothers. I know, a classic NY tradition for basics and stalwart sartorials, but have you seen some of their designer collections such as Black Fleece from Thom Brown? I love it.
Not to mention a secret collection of yum Scottish-made luxury accessories, Fraser Balgowan, soon to be launching in the States, with leather and fabrics culled from one privately owned acreage of wild land, owned by the lovely Fiona and her husband, including free-range red deer. Now that is Touching Earth Sensuality!
…and yes, this shy laddie serving drinks at the Brooks Brothers party was wearing a kilt along with his cute pinchable face, Highballs in the Highlands, indeed!
3rd sense: feeling, touch, empathy. Wear to me Jewels!
Bejeweling is India’s grace upon the world and its colors often float majestically through NY. “India Song” from photographer Karen Knorr at Danziger Gallery, on until December 23, 2011, is a private jewel box to silent inner realms and the elegant mystical presence of an animal in a human space. Did the animal dream of this placement or did the human…one has to ask.
Hanut Singh is a secret. A Master Jeweler with a Pedigree. (his GrandPappy was the “late and great Maharaj Kunar Karamjit Singh of Kapurthala”) Gems like Alba Clemente, Cindy Sherman, Rachel Roy, Wendi Murdoch, Rasa Music’s Donna d’Cruz, Penelope Cruz and the Olsen twins crew all have Hanut’s number on the mobile.
I was honored to privately view the jewels on Hanut’s latest visit to New York and the organic power of the gems and settings made me repeatedly gasp. Really. More on Hanut for sure!
4th sense: scents erase time. Burn to me perfumes!
For secret perfumes of the best indie perfumers simmering up cauldrons of resins, fruit and flower elixirs and gummy woods…read last month’s post. My nasal fibers and brain synapses are still reeling from that stopping to smell the roses.
5th sense: space. privee trysting addresses in which to expand.
#241
I was invited for an evening at Norwood Club, sitting like a Grande Dame of Secrecy, unobtrusive on 14th Street while inside its four floors, an opera, harpist Phamie Gow and 10,000 other secret happenings were unfolding. We got a little tour with Alan Linn, the passionate owner whose taste in art and atmosphere is well worth the price of admission. A surprise evening in NY can be quiet and melodious in a candle lit plush living room with about 30 people grooving to harp music.
#21
Hustling down a cold street lit with soft golden doors, (which accounts for the blurry photog) I spotted Hotel Griffou. Have not yet been, but intrigued. “The restaurant gets its name from the 1870’s boarding house located in the same building and originally presided over by Madame Marie Griffou, a big-hearted French woman with a soft spot for creative types.”
#518, #9
Hotel Americano. For a birds-eye view of Chelsea, go up the back staircases of any hotel and head up to the roof. In summer, a roof bar is a cacophony of phonies posturing, in winter, rooftop bars are serene, windswept perches at the level of hawks, seagulls and helicopters. Recently we scurried up to the roof and saw two hawks, the masses tredding the highline and some cool pics.
Not quite as high up (2000) as Edward Burtynsky’s stunning “Dryland Farming” photographs at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery.
5th sense: tasting. Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!
New York’s culinary pleasures are endless and the secret is they don’t have to always cost a bundle. Two of my latest favorites, from our client, celebrity chef Nisa Lee’s Jade Cocktail, (that and other cocktail recipes here) to my latest obsession, dried seaweed in olive oil packs at C-Town for $1.79.
6th sense: otherworldly vision: visit with the up-all-night “freaks” of nyc. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunrise;
Good to touch base with the cafe ladies then and now. What creeps around NY at night is transcendant and usually transexual. Teacher of Diane Arbus, Lisette Model‘s images from the 30’s to 50’s, seen recently at Bruce Silverstein Gallery, resonate as much as Gilles Larrian‘s “Idols” at Steven Kasher Gallery.
And if you can’t stay up that late, just make a cool magazine.Part of Performa 11, Daido Moriyama presented a serenity of process, within the old time magazine making world, inviting people to construct their own at Aperture Foundation. I love his nighttime, elusive and secrets of NY images.
More magazine worship news this month includes that of style.com going print this month and my own personal visit to the shrine of V, the world’s biggest magazine. It was an afternoon, an off-day in the Mercer Street headquarters where the ISSUE was just lounging like a leopard or a Big Temple Buddha in the home offices, strangely quiet, while a sultry male model sat waiting for a call-in, the receptionist slinked through as did editors and photographers. (Another of my NYC secret spots is the largest Buddha in NY sitting in a temple at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Oh! and yes, while you are there, my new fave Chinatown vegan resto, Buddha Bodai. I know, there I go mixing up the senses again!))
Becoming larger than life is Rashaad Newsome, his work has evolved to Mastership. One of my favorites was the emanating, morphing Bling Video at Marlborough Gallery for his “Herald” exhibit,which included a Performa 11 performance (with the official heraldic write-up by my pal, curator Amani Olu.)
7th sense secret: Giving,touching. I am the Naked Brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.
Beyond the Gaga, the Gala hype and the Gallery bling, one eternal secret of NY is that everyone is very giving. A mature New Yorker’s evening out is less likely new beats and breakdancing as it is private and public soirees dedicated to raising funds for worthy causes. Why not plan a trip to NYC around attending a fund-raising event for a good cause? Stars, Feel-goods and a Sensory shelf life beyond 5 minutes. This month, three beautiful charities dedicated to kids and creativity have crossed my path. I declare that giving is the Seventh Sense.
Pencils of Promise “builds schools in the developing world and trains socially conscious young leaders to take action at home and abroad.” With catering by our client, Nisa Lee, Justin Bieber star-studded the Pencils of Promise 2011 charity gala this month.
A precious, smart friend Janine Francolini began Flawless Foundation, after struggling with her special needs son and the limiting and dangerous options and services available to him. “There are over 12 million children with behavioral challenges in this country and 1 in 5 children will have a psychiatric diagnosis by the age of 18.” The good news is that with diet, yoga, nature and new sharing-based and respectful behavior techniques (which we all can learn from) major healing is happening as a result of this tiny dynamo known as Janine.
A leader with Flawless Foundation’s Pioneer gardens project reports that “a class of 8 – 11 year old boys who are quite active and to watch them interacting, planning, gardening together with such calm and peace was AMAZING. The teachers were awe struck at the change in the students behavior – we are more convinced than ever that gardening is such a healing therapy for at risk youth.”
We met one of Bent On Learning‘s inspiring founders, Anne Desmond, at a Flawless event I attended with another Star Client, psychologist, Dr. Renee Clauselle. Celebrities who love yoga flock to this cause, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Molly Sims, Russell Simmons, Kelly Rutherford and a celebrity secret of mine, yogi Eddie Stern, whose Soho Ashtanga studio is low-pro and real, still after all these years. (as in 5 am classes)
Bent On Learning “offers instruction in yoga and meditation to students in grades K through 12 in New York City public schools and youth centers as a means of reducing stress and improving concentration, self-esteem and overall health.”
Looking like a re-incarnation of Jesus and John Lennon in one, Juan Mann began Free Hugs, one man’s mission to give free hugs to everyone in the street in 2004, in Australia. He has thankfully inspired imitators around the world in part due to the above Youtube video featuring Australian band Sick Puppies, which has been viewed over 70,000,000 times plus the obligatory Oprah show appearance. In these tense times of public demonstrations, it’s good to remember, maybe we need both, OWS and Free Hugs. A NYC secret is you can get free hugs in Union Square on any given day with some sweet kid toting a “FREE HUGS” sign.
williamreesecompany.com
Leading to next month, I am headed to Art Basel Miami Beach where I will be covering street and community art for Metropolis magazine as well as shopping a community art installation for 2012 with Jon Porcelli, who traveled the world, congregating 1000’s of nude folks on glaciers, buildings and other unseemly places with art photographer, Spencer Tunnick.
Got a little place right on that beach, I plan to avail myself of the free bikes in Miami and pedal around all low-tech, sensual and touchie-feelie-like. See you next month, on the other side!
OX OX
!
(…..)
go on now.
transcend. weave. be the inspiration, beauty + invention of people, places + things beyond Time.
The ground flowed backward beneath us
in a long streaked line of pale gray,
(Gadzooks! Let’s Go! How we love invitations to be literary-ish and sexy.)
(Note to Self: If you do indeed follow Gretel, the White Rabbit or Aslan, be sure to leave a trail of breadcrumbs…)
The end of October 2011. NYC.
Dear Diary,
A massive snowstorm plus lightening has arrived appropriately in honor of Samhain, aka “Summer’s End,” Ognissanti and il giorno dei Morti, one of the witches’ quarterly sabbaths, the one which deftly marks the vampiric bite of winter closing in. The snow obscures the outside,while the veil between our inner worlds gets thin, wispy, scanty and scarily threadbare. Lucid dreams come marching in, like an exotic stranger. To be sure they are some fun but we also hanker for real-time remedies of the cashmere sweater, warm body and spicy chai-tea-type to remind us that life exists in the frigid dark. Thank heaven and hell for the resulting dark months where we shall sootheth with fragrant and flagrant couplings spiced with Vampire tales from Nordic and Eastern Old Europe! A taste of immortality to spur us on!
In honor of all that, and at the bewitchy behest of Lucy of the indieperfumes blog, who beseeched (had to go there) creative “indie-perfumers” to whip up scents inspired by an old French vampire tale written in 1908 by Théophile Gautier, THIS is the reason for this post. Among several bloggers selected for reviewing, I received 4 packages in the post, which in of itself was a nerdy sexy tactile thrill. Way more fun than an acidy obstacle course through a perfume department or everyday fragrant monopolic corporate copulations!
The story is “Clarimonde” and the copulation in question (had to go there) is that of a priest named Romauld and an exquisite vampire courtesan named Clarimonde. Opening with…
Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a
strange and terrible one...
The tale is told from the priest’s agonizing perspective as he questions his double life, his time with the seductive scented sensualist lady of the evening …all the while seemingly tucked in his hair shirt comforter inside his solo monk bunk. (C’mon, did he have to go there?) Was it really all a dream? Did he go there?!
I have never been able to relate to this moral quandary of lust vs. piety like this priest …to me they are simply the same. Wee me was a Tiny Druid Priestess since the age of four, happy to converse with everything temporal and immortal cavorting in a square foot of suburban lawn from clover ladies to dirt hauling ants to tiny beetle Gregors. The habit grew throughout the years and between sweat lodges and initiation into Native American sisterhoods, organic farming and a lust for Pan, Bacchus, wine, coupling, True Blood and my Romanian heritage, well, really, this Clarimonde girl seems like one damn fun immortal. Miss “Clear World 1908” speaks to our frocked boy, Ro-Mr.Mauldlin, like his God would, promising Salvation and Eternal Love along with Nights Afire.
Ho Hum.
A little rote and olde tymie gothica, I’ve decided to pair the scent reviews with some modern couplings which I have both cinematically and in real life crossed paths with, those I personally find inspiring or vampiricly fascinating (had to go there) Love Stories. Fragrant GstaadGzadzillionairesses and their Worshipping Menfolk. These couples lure with the imagined absolute fragrance of their lives – both the scent of the woman and their fragrant lifestyle of seduction-these are women who you could easily run into in Gstaad, Go Completely Gaga over, or else, as we do in NYC, when celeb spotting, furtively text “Gadzooks! She’s in Dean and DeLuca!”
When a person appears like a lucid dream, we wake up to our immortality. To fight it like a Priest is a torment of self flagellation. Vampires and their victims are not suckers, they are choosy dieters. Natural selection. The seductresses here, Chloe Sevigny, Marina Abromovitz, Bjork and Carrie Brownstein are powerhouse “it girls,” exuding an indie-perfume monogram of pheramones – like a flower or fruit or prolific, Pro-Life human driven to press its genetic DNA forward, forward…into immortality.
Although I found the novel mostly dull, with the exception of
one seXual teXtual eXcerpt (rated xxx for literary sex)
the passage where two black stallions tear through a dense forest to Clarimonde’s castle where she lays dying and calls for the maudlin and besmitten priest to issue last rites. The journey to the castle called to mind the power of Madonna on stage writhing to vast Steven Klein’s images of her with a black horse for the Confessions tour. Romp with it then, herewith, the textual horse dispatches thundering upon the path of your night…scented couplings…and the Clarimonde scent reviews.
Two horses black as the night itself stood without the gate,
pawing the ground with impatience, and veiling their
chests with long streams of smoky vapour exhaled from their
nostrils. He held the stirrup and aided me to mount upon one;
then, merely laying his hand upon the pommel of the saddle,
he vaulted on the other,
pressed the animal's sides with his knees, and loosened rein.
The horse bounded
forward with the velocity of an arrow. Mine, of which
the stranger held the bridle, also started off at a swift gallop,
keeping up with his
companion. We devoured the road.
Witch-fires ever
and anon flitted across the road before us,
and the night-birds
shrieked fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond,
where we beheld
at intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wild cats.
The manes of the
horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat streamed
over their flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils
hard and fast.
Aroma M. by Maria and Alexis. Wholeness to the brink of insanity. Chloe Sevigny and Vincent Gallo.
Lolita and urban Latinas, Exotica Bombshells, as the inspiration for the makers of the Cherry Bomb Killer perfume, plus the horse description in Clarimonde, have repeatedly brought me close to insanity with their scent conjured for the Clarimonde project! Maria Mcelroy, creator of a dainty line called Aroma M., scents inspired by Geishas, in collaboration with Alexis Karl, sent Immortal Mine, scented with their words: “soil from an unmarked grave, blood from a slayed Wyvern, the sweet elixir of dying jasmine and fading neroli…essense of smoke from the funeral pyre…” Nope, Bloomies does not stock this…yet!
“Immortal Mine,” as indie-perfumer Head Honcho, Lucy herself wrote, “Indeed, as I linger over the last of the perfumed wine that fills my mouth with ambergris, musk, rose, honey and chocolate, that scent rising up from the back of my throat, I sink more deeply into the fragrant complexity on my inside wrist, and would myself seek to dream such vivid dreams of ultimate and Immortal Love.” Other Clarimonde Kids have been similarly smitten…read the sultry take on the Clarimonde story invented by Tarlesio. And Gadzooks!, perfumer, Monica Miller captured in a poem exactly what is so enigmatic about this “Immortal Mine.”
For me, wearing the scent brought the words “wholeness to the brink of insanity.” And oddly, another immersion reminds me of being a little girl, being enveloped by the wool overcoat of my Father, protected yet vunerable in his love and his scent. Another cold morning, a deep draught of the ungent reminds me of a brandied, candied apple with light flowers showering around. Um, yeah…this scent is orgasmic and it keeps changing its messages. I am more than a little enthralled with it. (and submitting to Gothica in Gotham…had to go there!)
Thus…
The coupling this scent reminds me of is that of Chloe Sevigny and Vincent Gallo in the movie Brown Bunny, with Bud’s relentless black and white rain soaked car journeys and obsessiveness that can only come from Immortal Love. Having brushed shoulders with both of these enigmatic souls, Chloë Sevigny, whom I surprised one evening as she stood alone, all-dressed-up, smoking, puzzled and deep in thought in a Paris hotel hallway and Vincent Gallo, at the book signing for his Brown Bunny film book, shyly signing my book, and then later dashing out of the store unto the street muttering hot holy words to himself like a madman, I admit it, I Love them both hotly!
...and the black silhouettes of
the trees seemed fleeing by us on either side like an army in rout. We
passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that I felt my flesh creep
in the chill darkness with superstitious fear.
The showers of bright sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod feet
of our horses remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and had any one
at that hour of the night beheld us both--my guide and myself--he must
have taken us for two spectres riding upon nightmares.
“Two Spectres Riding on Nightmares”
a double entendre of words, dreams and horses, are the odds paired in author and Master Perfumer, Mandy Aftel‘s new fragrance for the Clarimonde project called, “Oud Luban.” She writes of “a story of extremes: austerity and opulence; sin and holiness; carnality and abstinence.” I ask, could there be any couple in love and art more fitting that description than Marina Abramovitz and her lover, Ulay?
Mandy Aftel, Aftelier Perfumes and Oud Luban.
Marina Abromivitz and her lover, Ulay.
“Oud Luban” offers you the sharp citrusy floral topnote promise of a heavy winter liquor thrust into your cold hand. As you sip and warm to its fire, you fall into Frankenscense (the milk) and finally die in the arms of resinous “oud” heartwood, the most expensive essence in the world, ultimately held by vanilla notes and aged Patchouli. (ok, yes and you are wearing flowing, heavy velvet garments and a sparkling, leather sheathed sword by your side-flank…) See also The Clarimonde Project blog where Queen Lucy perfectly captures the church sensuality vibes, scenthive.com‘s description of Oud Luban’s church incense and the “highs and lows with no middle ground” as Mandy put it, to be transported into the Church of Passion and the State of Lust! (who wouldn’t join those parties…yes, it’s a double-entendre;-)
The image on Mandy’s postcard sent with the package spoke of the old Europe folk working the Earth and reminded me of Marina’s “Balkan Erotic Epic,” where both men and women gave their souls and sexuality to the the fecundity of the earth and the rain.
Aftelier’s “Oud Luban” can be purchased in a super cube of solid joy here.
Sangre Eau Parfum and Lip Stains by Monica Miller for Skye Botanicals.
Bjork and her lover, Matthew Barney.
But when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated them by uttering a strange,
gutteral, unearthly cry, and the gallop recommenced with fury.
Sangre Eau assaults like a shock of blood, violence or a sudden flash of a camera, an artist stealing someone’s soul. It has the beat and thrill of an urban garden of cultures clashing and shocking, like an early Madonna song, a Courtney Love melt down or a Bjork-Shock of warbled Pagan Poetry. I get hit with smoke and much-used colored pencils. Wax and a hot porn paperback. A Ron Galella black and white photo of dinner with Warhol. Up and out at 3 am, laughter, glasses shattering, risky behavior. Temporality loved so much, hovering between laughing and crying and know the feeling will live on only in memory or by repeating the formula. Is Sangre Eau perhaps a taste of addiction? (I love him, I love him, I love him…she loves him, she loves him, she loves him…ad infinitum.)
Monica conjured the dark-urban spin on the Clarimonde story inspiring me to think of passionate, couples who carry their coupling into every fiber. Bacchus into a corner!
Dusk quickened and Monica lights a Roman candle of Roman Chamomile with dark berry fruit essenses for the sex-in-your-face top note, and for the heart, a cocktail of Jasmine CO2, honeysuckle absolute, geranium absolute, white and red rose tinctures, which rise up instantly as I tap their names into the blog. (Blood of Christ! What is this love between plant scents and our desire!?) The base is musks (had to go there!) honey absolute, ambrette, Frankincense CO2 and Patchouli CO2 and you are crushed inside the mosh pit of Infernality for sure!
A little mosh pit of purpose is the Lip Stain Monica created called “Purple Shadow” a caldron of melting shea butter plus myrrh, peppermint, lemon balm and spices…again each of which enters my smell receptors as I type. Ok, yes it’s slathered upon my lips for easy access to the love canals of my nose…but still. Old news to anyone who follows me, I firmly believe “aliens” are among us, in the DNA of plants.
Tripping on Parfums des Beaux Arts and Ayala Moriel. And Portlandia fairylandia in twilight zones.Sunday. 8 am. NYC.
Dear Diary,
An innocent, fresh bright sun morning, the kind only possible after a day of the season’s first snow. Black coffee, lover still sleeping in a white tousled bed, I slip on red leather Moroccan slides to check the mailbox, where I hope the other packages from Clarimonde have arrived.
They have.
Even though I know it is a dream pillow, I have barely gotten through the layers of packaging and the scent rises up like a cloud. A nap with the pillow, designed to mimic the “Oriental perfume that lingered in the death chamber of Clarimonde” (eeeew!) granted me folklorica images of sleeping close to the ground in pine needles and the valerian root, violet leaves, roses, lavendar buds. orris root, liatris and patchouli (why did almost all the perfumers have go there?! to patchouli? what does that say about your hippie lover who reeked of it?) I saw images of embroidered lederhosen strapping in my lover’s heart, probably because Ayala Moriel‘s scents are all natural, artisan perfumes and I happen to have a favorite kitschy image of alpine love as part of an artwork in my home here:
which naturally brings me to my favorite nerdish couple, Fred and Carrie of Portlandia. (their take on postal packaging later)
Tower 1. Paradise Found in the Dream Pillow.
Tower 2. “Paradise Lost” perfume from Parfums des Beaux Arts.
Monday, Twilight. New York. Halloween. Alone. Writing like a Nerd. NYC.
Dear Diary,
This Paradise Lost scent reminded me that midweek last week I was invited to trip upstate to the Winery at St.George, a massive de-consecrated church built in 1912 by the family of John La Farge converted into a Winery. (yes there are La Farges there!) Twas the perfect spot to contemplate losing oneself to tripping on pleasures secular and sensual.
At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black mass pierced
through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before us
The hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden drawbridge, and
we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two
enormous towers.
Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle.
A 2007 Sebastiani Barbera, Sonoma Valley, that is.
And I quote the maker’s True Words. (the words of Tom, the incredible sommelier and owner of the Winery’s words are a blur…)
It is very supple and harmonious in its flavor purity and aromas. The incredibly fresh, dark, garnet color is immediately striking when the wine is poured. The aroma is filled with black cherries, blackberry pie crust and pureed blueberries with hints of vanilla and baker’s chocolate from the oak regime. The flavor echoes the nose with rich, concentrated blueberry and black cherry fruit. The wine has luxurious mouth coating tannins which effortlessly glide along the palate, providing structure and rich framework.
Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction,
and above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing.
When is wine like blood, like a song, a book and a perfume? (yep, this is a segue…)
When it is Paradise Lost.
Paradise Lost Perfume inspired by words in Clarimonde, “A twilight blue oriental perfume.”
The words in the story and the inspiration for the Clarimonde inspired parfum by Dawn (yes, that is really her name and she did go there) of Parfums des Beaux Arts, is called Paradise Lost.
Twilight. Dawn. The Changing Time. Between Worlds. In our lives, we are teenagers again. The threshold of children into adults. Why we are so fascinated by this time of revolution in our souls? It is the transition time, when immortality riding on a fast horse named Mortality comes to bite.
Damn that Dawn! She captured this. Paradise Lost is exactly Bittersweet, Fleeting, Acidy Sexy, the Dear John letter or text, the wolf in Grandma’s clothing, Vanessa Daou whispering Erica Jong’s empty room pain in the black, black forest,
the dead rose, the wine left in the glass, the field in winter, the vampire that must disappear, the empty teenager’s room before going out to a party with clothes left everywhere.
The perfume’s topnotes are all sweet love ignited: wild blue chamomile, immortelle, pressed violets, golden champaca. The heart notes begin to tear, rip, and cry with oils and scents of faded flowers, candlewax, oriental lotus, black orris. The base notes resound from memory, like finding an old letter: sable fur, fossilized amber, myrrh gum,bloody sweet accord and mitti.
This scent is the descent into the dark woods, the wardrobe or cave to discover magic. Thankfully Paradise Lost means that it may be found. The object that will bring it all back, the perfume, the person, the vampire, the prostitute, the sex toy, a draught from the fountain of youth in Dr. Heidegger’s study.
…and did our Dawn know? The blue will glow for Twilight, Dawn is Breaking…letters are posted…invitations…when Breaking Dawn, the newest Twilight movie premieres on November 18th. Tweens n Teens all a Twitter. (yep, had to go there too)
I obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture--columns,
arcades, flights of steps, stairways--a royal voluptuousness and elfin
magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland.
royal voluptuousness? fairyland? elfin good fun? welcome to NW Kearny Street, Portland Oregon!
Getting outa Gothica and back into Gotham, I flew back in a flash to Portland and to our nerd Lovers, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. They really toss it up when their new sex toy arrives in the mail. Because if you forgot the breadcrumbs to find your way back and are not tossing it up laughing all the way, life is a vampiric horror movie all the way.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell.”
– Edward Abbey
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”
– the late eminent economist Kenneth Boulding.
“When Saquasohuh, the Blue Star Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask before the unintiated, this is the 9th sign.
-Hopi prophecy
I-somewhere, dancing on a verdant globe.
When the world is running down, it might look just like this. Endless mosaic ribbon snakes of small cars, attended by the poor, the homeless and circus performers squeezing everything, their homes, beds and grafitti, into every available crevice on the side, middle and on highways choked by traffic snarls, while the rich zoom overhead in their helicopters to and from supreme, pristine highly-paid for well-designed spaces. There, dancing in that opened Pandora’s box of Earth, Sensuality and Expanse hidden in lush planted sunlit parcels, are those with power for the practice of new realities, surrounded by the Earth’s battery w i n d i n g…d o w n.. . . . as the Amazon moans,crashes,burns and disappears under a blazing sun.
I-am in Mythic Brazil, Sao Paulo, city of 11 million people, invited to speak at an international design conference on our Art Intervention in Milan. Design? Design?
BOOMSPDESIGN 2011 is the name of the conference, bringing international artists, designers, architects, manufacturers and designers to present and mingle on their disciplines. Invited by the seven-league boots promoter Roberto Cocenza, I spoke about the urban art intervention project we did in Milan for April’s Salone, you can see more about that and other presenters, here on the Green Provocateur blog. The immersion into the maze of Sao Paulo, new architecture experiments such as Dror’s Magic Carpet island above, followed by a left brain Amazon jungle-side visit ….and crash course! The whole idea of “design” and design in Brazil for me went way beyond the trifecta of Niemayer, Campana Brothers and Marcio Kogan which most identify as art, design and Brazil. Herewith are some trends I saw in Brazil as blueprints for the future. Visit our Twitter chat #artdesignbrazil for a taste, a little old-school Twitter on Machine Tech to envision an even Newer Technology being impulsed, Bio Tech, based on biology, which, as far as we know, at least for the next generation,
we will need these biology bodies and the Earth as umbilical cords to in order to operate said Machine Tech.
trend 1: i propose “I-not.”
Yup, very Buddhist and very post-Steve Jobs. Very necessary millenium drop I-ego for Earth survival.
The eyes of the Soul of Everything is watching. Can we embrace a childlike exploring of technology of caring and consciousness to re-design what is slowly killing our planet?
The pillars for this idea came from a touch down into the edge of the jungle and a term heard at the conference:
not-architecture.
The genesis is Amory Lovins whom I first heard speak about Negawatt power. not-architecture. Architecture that disappears and melds into the surroundings, nature and community. A structure that binds and contributes because it’s principals, materials and laws are founded exactly on and in accordance with nature.
The value is less not more.
Hail to Rudolf Steiner to Bucky Fuller to Chad Oppenheim’s philosophic approach to an “non-technical” method of building…in the ways of ancients and in accordance and relationship to flora and fauna, weather patterns. Hail also to Japanese architects CAt, who survived the earthquake and came to Brazil to tell about it. Their design for this highly functional and inspiring “non-space” and a school based on L shaped walls to create open classrooms allowing energy and children to live in conversation with the surrounding forest…took in more and built less. Less is more.
I-not is actually a technology.
The technology of I-Not or Nothing holds Buddhism as its Papa and Nature as its Mama. I-not. We do belong to the Earth as caretakers, vs. exploitative, ravenous and thoughtless unconnected creatures. After Steve Jobs’ visionary planet cruise, I am only invested in a philosophy which sells answers via undoing the need and salve of buying, figuring things out based on old time motives. Absorption by Nature vs. Naughty by Nature bypasses selfishness and fear. Taps into innate wisdom like seeing a surprising beautiful guru, a natural scene like this spectacular tree known as Tortoise tree, or Jaboticaba,with flowers and green little balls covering its limbs. This can make one drop all assumptions and know that the real universe is a work a bit larger than oneself, flowering, fruiting and prolificating like…wow.
Ideology based on personal assumption is headed to the graveyard. Which may just be our cities. This Graveyard for Carnival Props and Floats reminded me of the most potent image I bring forth from this trip:
On the side of a massive 12-lane highway maze, a half-naked, half ceremonially dressed dark skinned man with dreadlocks to his knees performed a slow and deliberate trance pantemime looking simultaneously like a Tai Chi warrior, a raindance shaman and/or just another homeless person living on the side of a highway doing a prancing dance of a man driven insane.
Not having an I-definiation for who or what or which of those he might be, will always be my image of Sao Paulo…its potential and its precarious edge.
But hey, we have trends to unravel and carry on about.
Herewith, just a few impressions of this Maze of a city. One photographer I met called it the “infinite city” and certainly a transverse of it lasting hour and 40 minutes from one end to the other with row upon row upon row of boxes, whether favelas (no windows) or tower boxes upon towers upon towers of square glass windows eyes blinking in the sun and the buzz-by of dragonfly helicopters. Yep, infinite.
trend 2: I-not-online shopping: streets are gifts. gift box shops.
Get down. Down at ground level, Brazil’s boxes perhaps pay endless homage to the le Corbusier visits which began in 1929. While the golden triangle and green roofs would be welcomed aspects of his 5-points of architecture, the box formula partial to “white space” proportions, the use of simple materials such as concrete, and strong “ocean-liner” window concepts make for strong brand identity. Like strips of gift boxes, unrelated at all to each other, the spirit of play reigns, although, truthfully, groundbreaking design in fashion, home or goods stamped with SP or Brazil is not to be found here on the high street. There are stellar exceptions, for which one must reveal thru an online surf before hitting the vast turf of SP and treading the streets.
The above proportion formula is repeated endlessly with color, texture, size variations. An exception, a design store intrigues at night with surface, neon and a sense of peeking under a door.
It turns out to belong to quintessential architect, designer Marcio Kogan’s Micasa Volume B, StudioMK27, whom I interviewed later for Metropolis magazine, who gave, (no surprise) the most poetic, abstract, smarty answers on the rising of Brazil as a design leader. In terms of the world’s urban architecture vernaculars, by default or design, this proportion is pleasing and may theoretically be the genesis of I-not urban architecture for its minimal material and form expression. Would it play in NYC? Think Apple store cube. Add solar, green roofs and grey water systems and maybe our cities might be trying vs. dying.
By day, my friend from Rio, Robert Landon, Lonely Planet and Telegraph UK writer, and I set out to explore the upscale neighborhood of Jardim Europa. A contrasting unforgettable image to the dancing Indian man here, was a super-tall, extremely handsome grey haired man with tall black riding boots taking massive Goliath strides down the street, I think leading a dog, it was all so astonishing, I can’t recall. (and if you want to see how I saw this exact image prior trip in a Jurgen Teller image…click here…except this Amazonian Europa was much more dashing!)
Above all, I wanted to see Alexandre Herchcovitch, (nice video there…make sure you see it) a favorite Brazilian designer of mine, with commadre Romanian heritage. Yes, the image of a biting vampire can fit his quirky expression.
trend 3: I-not-kindling. books still matter. matter still matters.
The Livraria da Vila book store designed by Sao Paulo architect, Isay Weinfeld, was truly a gift. Weinfeld captured the way one enters what seems to be a square of paper and cardboard is actually like the turning bookcase, the classic secret turning bookcase or wardrobe to enter into vast mythic worlds.
Once inside you can fall into rabbit holes down to the children’s section for #2 perfection and #3 is the repeating motif of double lights like traffic lights. Why is it so good? It makes no sense yet is entirely sensible.
trend 4: I-go-not-hungry. so satisfied by sao paulian gastronomi and partyin.
Cristallo coffee at their cafe with silvery wrapped chocolate spoons was surprise #1 and the second was bubbles of popping chocolate powder in the drink!
Brazil food. Moqueca fish stew. Bahia chicken in a curry sauce mushroom mousse. Pao de Queijo, cheese buns. White pizza chips. A massive buffet at the D&D Decoracao & Design Center restaurant (in Brooklin, another manifestation of SA’s US and Europe love) where we met in person, the powerhouse gals from Marcia Dadamos of MD, Mariana Amaral Comunicacao, sister PR firms with Jade Dressler for BOOMSPDESIGN along with Vania from D&D. Viking sponsored a brunch party in their indoor/outdoor showroom where we feasted next.
In bright sun and an 80’s music chill backyard vibe with every perfect silver powerhouse bbq and outdoor range ware flexing themselves for the serving of serious Salmon Carpaccio, quinoa with tomatoes, scallions and greens wild. Grilled strawberries in balsamic vinaigrette and gelato spoons served in metallic beads of sugar were the gifts of the Viking Executive Chef on site, Luis Fernando Perin, who worked with Daniel Boulud, and now travels around the world with Viking. Casa Vogue here and watch this movie for more:
By night the crowds roamed to super lit cubes with graffiti for a lil house music sprinkled with a folk singer, champagne and caipirinhas at design store Marche and Coletivo Amor de Madre, for the launch of new Friendswithyou prints.
We met so many good people from around the world, convincing us of SP’s place as a global meeting ground.
Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval lll of Friends With You are the sort of guys you keep running into, over and over again, sharing some jokes and definitely feeling friends with you.
Their happiness is popping up all over too. Glauco Diogenes is an earnest explorer of color and form, very upbeat and prolific. Looking forward to a NYC visit soon.
Triplets! Here I am with Francisco Spratley and Tiago Borges, two of the architects of Anywheredoor, instant friends from Barcelona but obviously brothers popped from the same womb as I.
Robert Landon, journalist and Chad Oppenheim, architect.Phuong-Cac Nguyen of coolhunting.com, revealed another peg in the “it’s a small world” tree. Her publicist for her book, Total Sao Paulo, is none other than Lynn Tejada, our LA partner at Green Galactic.
Esther Schattan of deluxe storage systems, Ornare, in deluxe grey velvet and Paul Clemence, artist.
Such a lovely girl, to match her coat…Patricia Toledo works as the SP point person with Zoe Melo, product developer for the likes of Tord Boontje, Hella Jongerius, Peter Stathis, Stephen Burks, Takeshi Ishiguru and Fernando & Humberto Campana.
King Dror of NYC and the owner of Marche, originally from Israel, who never stops smiling and Dror, who never has to smile to enchant.Renaissance designer of spaces both humorous and sublimely elegant, Guilherme Torres’ newly tatted arm and his space, which I could move into in a Hot Minute.
Here are the Gelato spoons and below this fruit herbal jelly gelatin thing with herbs fed to me in the jungle;-) that I cannot identify. But it was a friend’s mother who fed it to me, and I could identify her, so OK. Oi!
trend 5: I-not-on-a-track mind. sao paulo attracts an international crowd.
From France, designer Mattali Crasset, like a pop-art scientist in a turquoise lab coat with white straps on one wrist and a black cuff on the other presented her designs such as her Feral Houses. Next up. she exhibits at Paris’s Pompidou Museum.
From Japan, architects, Kazuhiro Kojima and Kazuko Akamatsu, otherwise known as CAt, spoke about influences such as movements of air, they showed lots of arrows and concerns not just one big flow, when they thought about air. They spoke of the flow of light, wind walls and the change by movement of sun. For a school, they considered sounds, the surrounding forest and activity of children and how visions and experiences of all were corralled in by moveable L-shaped walls.
Dror’s Nurai project for an island in Abu Duabi, was inspired by the idea of magic carpet….lifted for treasures. The island remains pristine, buildings cooled by green overhead, materials and systems all in consideration of the Island eco-system.
trend 6: I-not-techno brilliance. Chad Oppenheim.
What an honor to meet Chad Oppenheim, whose star goes on my wall with other brilliant yet very grounded people I am thrilled to know. Another 70’s kid from New Jersey like me who has a one track mind to the integrated world, Chad designs masterful cantilevered pools in LA for superstars like Director, Michael Bay, houses in Mustique for David Bowie and hotels in the desert rocks in Jordan… all by asking how to replace nature that is replaced by building.
“People bring me to sites and I don’t want to build and mess up the land!”
My I-pad notes from Chad’s presentation at BOOMSPDESIGN are full of I-not-architecture turn-on terms, literally like this: Infrastructure, porous wind turbines. Surfers paradise. Rainforest trees inside. Habitats in terraces.Tidal energy generation explode.Technology of simplicity. Roof camouflage to make structures disappear within the environment, designing closed loop of energy. Working with locals to create economy. Abt experience not form.
Chad Charts the entire biological system before building.
For the Wadi Run Resort in Jordan, Chad took eight hours to walk around the landscape, within a hour of where one of the seven wonders of the earth, Petra was built into the rocks.
The not-architecture follows the occupying shadows for placement and the arising forms are abstracted natural form.
Much has been debated about projects like these, however, Chad’s direction is entirely in tune to the environment, beyond just the surface beauty. From the official statement…”The resulting experience is sensual and sensitive, intentionally reduced to what is essential, establishing an ancient connection with the universe through simple, elemental forms, sincere materiality/detailing, and the use of bountiful natural resources both physical and ethereal. Nature accelerated, enhanced and embraced; nature nurtured.”
From my notes, poetic…describing the spa…Use of cisterns. To use the water. Candlelight.
Is it surprising that back home I have candles set by an intriguing favorite image of a man kissing his camel at Petra with some fantasy photoshopped jungle next door?
trend 6: I-cultivate + harvest. my own sustainable wood from my own forest.
Visiting the serene oasis, Etel was the best example of a visionary closed loop business. Etel owns and maintains the forests that supply the woods for their furnishings and you can feel it. The space is designed so light, woods and objects sit nobly like trees in a forest. No surprise to see longtime customer Chad Oppenheim shopping here when we visited. (definitely a reach item however, for amusement I asked the NY showroom for a quote on a barstool and at $2800. per, trust those 4 babies shall be carted home in an Ikea box via taxi. Sigh…I am a recycling fiend so maybe that equalizes.) And do excuse the fuzzy pics, I was being hustled along to get across the street to the above mentioned Viking party, where…among other fun… We sat with Chad, enthralled while Arthur of by kamy, a rug manufacturer laid treasure after treasure before us made of hemp, wovens, natural fibers and rugs that were recycled and pieced, plays on traditional patterns and weaves and even whole carpets that were batiked. The one that looked like water running was my favorite.
trend 7: I-not human, An Avatar in Amazon country
Hours and hours of driving after the conference took us to the jungle-side casita owned by the CEO of a major global corporation. We arrived at night and finally I could rest, inside my Indian prayer shawl and the silent wool blanket cocoon of the casita…big expanses of silence begin to talk between sleep and dreams. I was lulled by endless variations and dreams of a white house underground a carpet of a green farm roof like Dror’s with water and solar panel energy receptors above ground to channel energy for food stores and refrigeration underneath. In the morning,
I open the door from blackness to bright rows of juniper trees teaming with dragonflies, green hummingbirds with squeaking pulsating flitting everything and the shock of “real” life. An I-adjustment, an avatar world. Twos and twos and twos of birds and flocks of butterflies and insects are trapezing together on every platform of interstitial space. From the ground where insects crawl in their own pursuit of happiness like San Paulo cars in traffic to way overhead soaring Turkey Vultures and Birds of size and color I have never seen before.
On this one path, in bright sun and dappled darkness in 100 feet I must have seen 100 species. This one purple butterfly did the same dance for me that its NYC counterpart did just one month ago, calling my attention and landing for a photo.
A black butterfly with cherry red fruits as wingtips or an immense air slicing of lemon yellow silk will swing by your head…recover and a tiny grey and white monkey with round black furry ears is above looking at you tilting his head between eating fruits.
Stop and breathe and you notice 4 of his friends lounging in the tree also with tilted curious little people heads. We try to talk…I imagine they are like the Cheshire cat.
Loved the pool, amphitheatre cozy enough for 500 and five outdoor kitchens, all Viking accessorized but not the caged exotic birds, a toucan, macaws and the like, which apparently is common practice in Brazil. On my romp around the property on the full moon day, pondering the riches and scarcity of the Earth’s resources, I imagined I was like these lovelies in Fernando Amorosolo’s painting. Between al fresca yoga and nature hikes, like a geek, I played with images of water, glass, sun and the full moon which could be seen in the day sky.
The raised beds of lettuces, herbs and fruits and vegetables were so hearty and could exist anywhere…yes? Country or city! Concrete and farming are becoming friends…they have to.
trend 8: I-not just fashion, maybe I grow my food too. Farm store.
Back in Sao Paulo, The Farm Store is a forward thinking clothing store opening up the box to integrate nature through its live-plant walls and rainwater capturing systems, however, the unequalities of Brazil rage on all around. Across the street are tiny shops where a crowd of unemployed men hang out drinking. Not very much different from any forward thinking outpost, but clearly this is the colonial system of occupation and overthrow we have always seen.
From 40 dollars for a small pizza at an upscale restaurant to a one hour and a half drive and still be in the city of Sao Paulo amidst all the positive creative beings, buildings. It is beyond immense and dense. I have never seen anything like it. “The infinite city.” Yes.
I-not is I-finite.
Happy to have met Emmanuel Rengade in Paris many years ago, who has created two organic, wireless retreats integrated into the communities and arts that surround them, just hours from Sao Paulo. This was my footprint in Brazil, with the seed for the artist Pasha‘s project on the land at the former coffee plantation, Fazenda Catucaba. The mythical doorways are oriented in directions to tell a timeless story about Brazil and hold the dreams of the viewer in present time.
I-not.
Happy that architects and planners like Zachary Aders are working on urban farm solutions for the favelas of Sao Paulo.
Until then,
perhaps this grafitti, opposite the wall with the baby and space umbilical cords and across from the Farm store, this little gem of bio-machine tech merging richness, can inspire
like a Blue Star Kachina unmasked in the Plaza…
and protect and carry the dreams, trees, machines and children of Brazil forward.
Our agency helps pop culture, personality, and luxury lifestyle clients maximize their creative capital and amp up their identity + adventure + style.
We are known for lifting our clients’ dreams up 9 +++ notches with creative direction and services, design, product development, events + experiences that thrill.
***
Our New York Lifestylesarticle on our Slow Luxury scent design travel adventures with Aroma M perfumes.
READ THE ARTICLE here.
See more at: www.slow-luxury.com
***
We are thrilled that our award-winning Union Square, NYC art disruption project, Love Notes, was selected for coverage by CODAworxmagazine for art in the environment!
***
Industry trade reviews of our curation in Brazil:
“Art Installation in the Mountains of Brazil is Reminiscent of Goalposts” in PSFK.comand Trendhunter.com, industry trend resources.
***
Our article for Metropolis magazine:
“Visit Isola During Salone.”
First in a series on Art, Design,Green and Architecture and Milan’s Salone in April 2011
***
Our article for Design Observer:
“Degrees of Temporary”
Interview with Claudia Zanfi, co-founder of the cultural organization aMAZElab based in Milan.
In August 2014, we won a Merit Award in the Codaworx Awards, an international competition for design projects that demonstrate the most successful integration of commissioned art into an interior or architectural space. First as a Top 100 Finalist and then next, a Merit Award in the Landscape category, our curation of Pasha Radetski's "Portal do Sul," 10 gates in the mountains of Brazil premiered the art residency at Fazenda Catucaba, followed by Campana Brothers and homes by Marcio Kogan.
A little mosh pit of purpose is the Lip Stain Monica created called “Purple Shadow” a caldron of melting shea butter plus myrrh, peppermint, lemon balm and spices…again each of which enters my smell receptors as I type. Ok, yes it’s slathered upon my lips for easy access to the love canals of my nose…but still. Old news to anyone who follows me, I firmly believe “aliens” are among us, in the DNA of plants.
Sunday. 8 am. NYC.
Triplets! Here I am with Francisco Spratley and Tiago Borges, two of the architects of 
