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Archives for April 2012

Letters from women in Santa Fe, New Mexico: “A Testimonial” by Sparrow

A Testimonial

by Sparrow

I have lived in this city
25 years
and all that time
I have dropped things.
I’ve dropped
tissues,
letters from women
in Santa Fe, N.M.,
money,
the keys to my house,
books by
Jacques Prevert.
And all this time,
you,
the people of this
city, have pointed
to me, and said,
“Hey!” “Sir!” “You!
You dropped something!”
and then I’ve picked it up.
You have watched
over me all these
years,
and I’ve waited till
now to thank you.

From The United States of Poetry episode “The Land and the People.”
Copyright Washington Square Arts, 1995.

2B2 by Lambchop

The official video for Lambchop’s 2B2, shot by Zack Spiger, featuring live footage from Lambchop’s Spring 2012 tour of Europe. And this bonus: Lambchop’s frontman Kurt Wagner on Yo La Tengo, the Monkees, JAMC, and more in a Pitchfork interview. Wow.

A Fine Ending: 1950s movie end titles

Film end titles from the 1950s

A composite of 1950s American, Italian and French movie end title screenshots from one of our favorite websites, The Movie Title Stills Collection, created by the most excellent designer Christian Annyas. Here are the film titles, from left-to-right, top-to-bottom:

  1. FINE: Il Cammino Della Speranza (1950)
  2. THE END: Human Desire (1954)
  3. FINE: Non c’è pace tra gli ulivi (1950)
  4. The End: Big Heat (1953)
  5. FINE: Grido (1957)
  6. THE END: Desk Set (1957)
  7. FINE: Un Maledetto Imbroglio (1959)
  8. The End: It Happened To Jane (1959)
  9. FINE: Un Americano a Roma (1954)
  10. The End: Teacher’s Pet (1958)
  11. FIN: Bob le Flambeur (1955)
  12. The End: His Kind of Woman (1951)
  13. FINE: Guardie e Ladri (1951)
  14. THE END: From Here To Eternity (1953)
  15. FINE: La Grand Guerra (1959)
  16. the end: 12 Angry Men (1957)
  17. Fine: Le Notti di Cabiria (1957)
  18. THE END: Not As A Stranger (1955)

To END this silly dialectic with one last FINE, I originally posted here a quick video of the end title sequence of Un Americano a Roma (1954), which I found after I had already begun contrasting the title languages; alas, the video has been pulled. But here is an still image, with the character in the hospital bed “erasing” the “FINE” end title that you can see in the middle-right of the montage above:

Un Americano a Roma -- end title

For a related post, see: The End (1991) by Ed Ruscha.

I Can Be Your Monday June 4th, 1962 No. 296 Issue of The New York Mirror

Editor’s Note: The following text is a dramatic retelling of actual events it is based on painting lore, hearsay, a BFA, a few assorted books and television.

One morning in 1962 curator, art historian and critic Henry Geldzahler and Andy Warhol were having breakfast. Warhol was basking in his new found success over an order of dry wheat toast and black coffee. Geldzahler looked up from his newspaper and said: “Andy, You know you can’t just paint happy flowers for the rest of your life” Andy wiped his mouth with a stiff cloth napkin, squinted and replied “I can’t?” Geldzahler insisted “No you can’t, you need to start paint what’s going on in the world.” Andy sheepishly replied, “Going on, what’s going on?” Geldzahler picked up his newspaper wagging his index finger instructively at to the front page “This is what’s going on Andy, tragedy, agony and disaster.”

The tattered remnant of the Monday June 4th 1962 Volume 37, No. 296 of the New York Mirror pictured below is the actual newspaper Geldzahler presented to Warhol that morning, and which Warhol with great acumen rendered that afternoon. Besides being one of the most incredible paintings I have ever seen (yes it is in fact a painting not a silkscreen, and under close scrutiny this is truly one of those painters’ paintings we hear so much about), I admire Warhol’s ability to listen to his friend’s suggestion. But Warhol’s true brilliance is in his decision not only to follow the spirit of his mentor’s suggestion–i.e. paint more dramatically charged subject matter, but the fact that he literally follows thorough in rendering exactly what he was handed. This act demonstrates not only a profound suspension of ego (most painters/artists like to call the shots) and an incredible willingness to accept constructive criticism, but a good measure of personal courage as well, for through this painting (experience), Warhol might have been confronting, reliving and re-feeling the “accidental” death of his father when he was 13.

Death and disaster. Warhol would focused on this theme for the next year (Red Car Crash, Purple Jumping Man, and Orange Disaster). And if you would like the “official story” behind the Death and Disaster series, view this clip from PBS’s American Masters.

Image Credit: Andy Warhol, 129 Die In Jet (Plane Crash), 1962, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 254×183cm, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Vladimir Mayakovsky: The jutting cheekbones of the ocean charted on a dish of jelly

Vladimir Mayakovsky - portrait - book
Left: Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1924, by Alexander Rodchenko. Right: The Collected Poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky, translated by Dorian Rottenberg, USSR, 1972.

Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930) was the leading poet of Russian Revolution of 1917 and of the early Soviet period. He was, “an individualist and a rebel against established taste and standards, one of the founders of Russian Futurism movement. Originally Mayakovsky planned to become an artist. His early poems have strong painterly visions and sequences in many of his works recall film techniques. Mayakovsky was deeply concerned with the problem of death throughout his life, and in 1930, troubled by critics and disappointment in love, he shot himself with a pocket pistol.” (Authors’ Calendar)

Mayakovsky is often associated with the Soviet regime, and has been in and out of favor because of that, though he did become disillusioned with the Soviet cause by the end of his life. He is not by any means my favorite Russian poet of the era, and I mainly wanted an excuse to post the image of that cool book cover above, but here’s an early Mayakovsky poem from 1913 that I quite like:

What About You?

I splashed some colours from a tubler
and smeared the drab world with emotion.
I charted on a dish of jelly
the jutting cheekbones of the ocean.
Upon the scales of a tin salmon
I read the calls of lips yet mute.
And you,
could you have played a nocturne
with just a drainpipe for a flute?

Source: Ubuweb has a free download of The Collected Poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky, my source for the book cover image and the poem.

Caine’s Arcade and the joy of creative play

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick: A 9 year old boy – who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto part store – is about to have the best day of his life.

“To stimulate creativity, one must develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.”
~Albert Einstein

You’ve probably heard by now the story of Caine Monroy, which began with an exuberantly creative 9 year old boy and his chance encounter with a kindred spirit, blossomed into an act of love, and went viral thanks to the 11-minute video above. Andy Isaacson wrote a great story about the Caine’s Arcade phenomenon in this week’s New Yorker, The Perfect Moment Goes Perfectly Viral, which is a must-read. It tells the whole amazing story, which is almost as much about the 37 year old struggling filmmaker playing in his artistic medium as it is about young Caine playing in his.

I find this story very inspiring, and a wonderful tonic to the glut of bad news we hear about every day. And it got me thinking afresh about the role of inspiration, joy, and creative play in our work here at Zinzin and in our everyday lives.

In our Manifesto (#13) we ask the question, “When Was The Last Time You Enjoyed Naming?,” and go on to say that the naming process, “should be engaging, thought-provoking, cathartic, stimulating, argumentative, enlightening, and just plain fun. You are creating a name that ideally will function as a very concise poem and catch fire out in the wider world. It’s a rush.” This belief is at the core of who we are at Zinzin, and Caine’s Arcade is a perfect example. We believe that what matters most is the capacity and willingness to perceive poetry and art in the words and life all around us. It’s not about “skills,” it’s about sensibility, and sensitivity. If you have it, you know it can’t be turned off. There is no down time, nor would you ever want there to be.

There is so much rich language  all around us–past, present and future–that it’s simply the funnest thing in the world to play with it, mold it, break it down and rejigger it. This is the art of naming. This is the joy of creation and discovery applied to the real world task of creating brands. We strive to live in an inspired state all the time, because inspiration is joyful, and inspiration is addictive. This is what Caine Monroy embodies for me with every fiber of his being, and this is where all great art–and names–comes from. No wonder he almost always has such a big grin on his face–he’s only nine, but he already knows the secret of happiness. Let’s hope he stays “forever young,” for, as Picasso famously said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” I think Caine Monroy has a great chance to hold onto that spirit of creative joy, and Mullick’s wonderful little film will always be there to remind him of it.

Pile Up Gawking Slack-Jawed and Rubbernecked: Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) by Monte Hellman

James Taylor is The Driver, Warren Oates is G.T.O, Laurie Bird is The Girl, Harry Dean Stanton is The Oklahoma Hitchhiker (as H.D. Stanton) and Dennis ‘Beach Boy’ Wilson is The Mechanic! Monte Hellman directs this 1971 bunch of small town car freaks chasing me across two states, make that three states. Pink slips for cars where to? DC? Then on down to Florida. Florida? Yes Florida. Color me gone, baby. Check out the rear end. This man is on something officer and may very well want to suck us up his tail pipe. And all they think about is cars, them small town car freaks. Are you trying to blow my mind in the far-out world of the high-speed scene! SFX: screeching careening tires and dueling approaching colliding car horns. Yes it is truly a mess, a muddle, a pickle, a befuddle, a heap, a botch, a blunder, a bust, a ruin, a fumble, a bumble, a snafu, a goof, and an utter shambles of a film, but what a glorious mess it is. And like any good wreck this 19 car pile up is bound to leave you gawking slack-jawed and rubbernecked. In fact Hellman’s Blacktop and Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny (2003) would make wonderful drive-in double feature. Here is an excerpt from the Criterion Collection synopsis:

“…Yet no summary can do justice to the existential punch of Two-Lane Blacktop. Maverick director Monte Hellman’s stripped-down narrative, gorgeous widescreen compositions, and sophisticated look at American male obsession make this one of the artistic high points of 1970s cinema, and possibly the greatest road movie ever made.”

Stop Press: Garry Winogrand’s SFMOMA Retrospective To Open March 2013

Save this date: March 09, 2013. We are happy to learn that the San Francisco Museum of Art will be launching a major Garry Winogrand retrospective next year. Winogrand’s work has been the subject of several posts here recently, including a reflection on his last retrospective in Los Angeles 25 years ago and an incredible interview. We can hardly wait to see how SFMOMA & Leo Rubinfien curates Winogrand’s “prodigious body” of work. Here is the announcement from the SFMOMA website:

This retrospective, organized by SFMOMA under the direction of photographer and writer Leo Rubinfien, is the first major touring exhibition and catalogue in 25 years dedicated to the work of (1928-1984). Despite being widely recognized as one of the preeminent American photographers of the 20th century, Winogrand has to date been inadequately published and incompletely explored by critics and art historians. Postponing the editing of his prodigious body of work and then coming abruptly to the end of his life, he completed only five modest books, which contain just a fraction of his total work and merely suggest his great importance to the history of photography. The curatorial research undertaken for this project has made possible the first exhibition and catalogue that reveal to the public the full breadth of Winogrand’s oeuvre — a jubilant, epic portrait of America that is Whitmanesque in its ambition to encompass the whole of the nation’s life. One of the principal artists in any medium of the eruptive 1960s, Winogrand combines a sense of the hope and buoyancy of American life after World War II with a powerful anxiety, presenting America shining with possibility while also threatening to spin out of control.

Source: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art | Photo Credit: Statue of Liberty Ferry, New York 1971 © Estate of Garry Winogrand