le printemps

 I've been seeing these illustrations by Charlotte Fréreau on tumblr every so often and I love them! So whimsical and cute!

1000 Teenage Hearts

This December, I've listened to mostly one album, and it's called Heaven is For Easy Girls by The Awkward Stage 

The Awkward Stage is a band fronted by Shane Nelken, a cremationist from Vancouver. The band is named for, and strives to describe, the fumbling feelings of adolescence and how you can't really shake them off, even as you mature. This sounds extremely daunting, especially as I am an adolescent. Yet, I feel that the album doesn't portray those emotions weightily, but rather with a slightly humorous perspective.
Anyhow, it wasn't the lyrics that first attracted me, but the melodies. The songs have a sense of yearning in this sweet, melodic, pop-y way. I just finished finals, and I was going to say how this album is perfect for studying. However, after refining my studying skills, I realized that classical music is really the best for that purpose. Now, this album is still very appropriate for flopping onto a nearby cushy piece of furniture and crying because finals suck. "Heaven is for Easy Girls" isn't necessarily sad, but mournful in the very best way.

yay yay

 

For a project on culture I had to do in French class, I made this booklet, or zine, if you will, on the music genre called "Yé-yé," and I thought it turned out pretty cute. Above is the cover (illustration is of Sylvie Vartan), and below is the introduction.

 

 

Here is one of my favorite songs from my research: "Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles" by Françoise Hardy. It translates to "All the Boys and Girls," and is about her finding herself surrounded by couples and feeling lonseome. This song was the one that essentially made her famous, but she reportedly hated it. I love the song for it's soft, sweet, bubblegum-y sound. Also, the video is awesome! (but a little dizzying so take caution)

STOP MOTION

     Stop motion animation is a cinematography technique most commonly used to make inanimate objects appear to be animate, by using a camera to take individual pictures of each frame. Lately, I have been really interested in it! I've been perusing the interwebs for different types (admittedly not a very difficult task) and found some pretty neat videos.

Stop motion films can be as simple as moving objects, or in this case, dancing rocks:

I wasn't able to find much information on this except for the fact that it was on sesame street because apparently, this was the type of thing sesame street used to air (searching "dancing rock sesame street" didn't bring up much. however, I did find this video of Paul Rudd singing about earth).

Stop Motion films can also be very complex:

   

Carine Khalifé created this music video to "Blown Minded" for the band Young Galaxy with oil and paint on glass. She made 3-8 seconds a day, starting from scratch for each frame. This one is so neat. I get so absorbed in watching it, I forget that it's a stop motion, as it truly seems to be made from magic.

Although not my preferable bowl of noodles, I'm still intrigued by "No Noodles" by Tyler Nicolson. It is so perfectly whimsy and weird. And also, may I say, the sound effects are spot on!

"Sweet Dreams" by Kirstin Lepore follows the story of a cupcake who sails to a new community. It's very detailed and creative. All of her work is so amazingly seamless.

"Her Ghost Friend," directed by Saigo No Shudan is about a girl who dies and becomes a ghost, traveling through outer space and parallel universes (I think?). I wish I could understand the lyrics! Anyways, I do know that it is beautiful, dreamy, and a little eerie.

And lastly, Ben Wyatt's "Requiem for a Tuesday:"

     Stop motion animation seems to take a lot of devotion, not unlike most forms of art. I think it is so alluring to me because of how obvious the devotion is. I find myself struck by awe after watching each of these videos, thinking of how painstakingly the artist must have worked to create moving image frame by frame.

JIL IS BACK

Jil Sander returned to her namesake fashion house in time for the Spring 2013 collection and I love it!

 At first I was like, "who needs pockets that big?!" but then I was like "ugh I do!!!!!!!!" I also really love how it's a revamped school uniform jumper.

 And then there was this cool color-blocking going on.

 And lastly, there were these white dresses with white-ish polka dots? I really like how its detailed and simple at the same time. Like, it's secretly not simple.

 Anyways, this is a pretty dumb review but I like Jil Sander and I like this collection!

SF ZINE FEST 2012

I went to the San Francisco Zine Fest a couple weeks ago (I'm embarrassed this wasn't up sooner!) and it was soo cool!!

me, forgetting how to smile+zines+photo-bombing fire engine

        According to Wikipedia, a zine is "a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier." Basically, zines are little booklets of AWESOMENESS, with a variety of subjects. The SF Zine Fest had more than just zines, though. There were also comics, art things, and independently published books. Here's what I came home with:

Runner Runner - A  free comic from Tugboat Press
On Tugboat Press's website, they said that they asked each artist "how much story can you fit in one page" as a sort of prompt, and their answers were published in the book. It has a really cool assortment of artists and stories!

Passage - by Tessa Brunton
I love this so much! Tessa writes/draws about her family and how they celebrate "coming-of-age", in this case her brother's coming-of-age ceremony. The words are thoughtful and earnest and the drawings have so much depth! There are many awesome things going on, but one of my favorites is the textures of the panels. The illustrations seem to have so much care put into them, with the detailing of sweaters, carpets, and sheets, among many other things.

Monsteritus No. 2 - A Field Guide to the Strange & Unusual- made by Kenneth K. Srivijittakar
This zine is a smorgasbord of rad. It consists of wonderfully bizarre (and sometimes creepy) drawings and articles. Contents include a recipe for grilled cheese, history of the passenger pigeon, and the life cycle of a tape worm, (and more)! Monsteritus left me craving for more abnormal stories extracted from everyday life.

Map of Fog - made by Marcus Soriano
Map of Fog is a non-fiction zine about San Francisco. This edition is has four stories about experiences in San Francisco, plus a peek into the special places within the Sunset District. The anecdotes (titled Suicide, Shrooms, Stabbing, and Seizure) are captivating and eerie. As someone who loves San Francisco so much, it was really interesting to read this zine, written by someone who also loves San Francisco, but in a completely different way.

SF Zine Fest was a super cool exhibition of independent publishing, art and CREATIVITY! I cannot wait for next year.

CINDY SHERMAN @ SFMOMA

Today, I saw the Cindy Sherman exhibit at the SFMoMA. I really liked the Untitled Film Stills and the Art History series.

Untitled Film Still #13, Untitled #225

But I LOVED her stop-motion video, Doll Clothes:

Imagine the amount of time and work this must of taken!

If you're interested in more Cindy, check out this video where she talks about how she creates her photos (and seems, like, really down to earth):

and also: this awesome episode of This American Life in which Ira Glass recounts his experience at Sherman's exhibit at the MoMA.