When I first read this 1974 novel, set in West Germany around the time of the Red Army Faction, it seemed very foreign to me in every sense. A serious terrorist threat? Law enforcement overreach to deal with it? Powerful, sensationalist right-wing media whipping up the panic? Well, times have changed, and the resonances today are different for American readers. I discovered as much earlier this year, when Penguin asked me to write an introduction for this new paperback edition.
I know I’m well past the age of someone who should be doing this, but every once in a while I like to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Last weekend while watching “Jane and the Dragon” (great show, by the way), I saw a commercial for a new cereal called Raisin Brahms.
As in the 19th century German composer Johannes Brahms.
Ok, so it’s not a real cereal. It’s actually a public service announcement created by an organization called Americans for the Arts. As part of their “The Arts. Ask for More.” campaign, they partnered up with the NAMM Foundation and the Ad Council to produce commercials that encourage parents to get their kids interested in the arts. Because Brahms really is part of a complete breakfast. Take that Frosted Flakes.
I got outed on the elevator the other day. A co-worker spotted knitting needles in my bag.
I rarely have a chance to knit these days, and compensate by indulging in the next best thing: looking at weird knitted art online.
Listening to this week’s show, I remembered an odd, thought-provoking site that can add to Jeremy Deller’s “Conversations about Iraq .” Artist Dave Cole has a series entitled “Kevlar Baby Clothes”, which features exactly that: baby clothes created from bullet-proof vests discarded from the war in Iraq.
David Cole, Kevlar Baby Line
Cole’s work often juxtaposes the harsh realities of our world against the sentiments of childhood: a hand-knit, porcelain baby blanket (made from an “Extreme Temperature Refractory Ceramic Textile”); a teddy bear knit with fiber glass; an AK-47 that appears to be made from bubble gum. But something about the Kevlar onesie put a lump in my throat. I am knitting for a little man who will be here this January. I can only hope he’ll have to look up what Kevlar and suicide bombs mean when he grows up.
Dave Cole Kevlar Snowsuit, 2008
- Susie Karlowski
(You might also want to see Cole knit a HUGE American flag here.)
Even if you don’t know it, you’ve probably already heard the music of Orba Squara. The New York City-based singer-songwriter Mitch Davis’ one-man band is responsible for the effervescent tune featured in the iPhone commercials that have been blanketing the airwaves for the last couple of years. The song is called “Perfect Timing (This Morning),” and it’s one of many tracks from Orba’s debut album that have popped up in unexpected places.
Davis usually handles all of the instruments in his songs by himself, including the toy pianos, sitar, and glockenspiel, but when it came to laying down some of the guitar parts and vocals on his new album, The Trouble With Flying, he was lucky enough to enlist his childhood hero, Billy Squier. The 80’s rock god appears on two new Orba Squara tracks, including “Tell Me.”
Here’s Davis performing a solo acoustic version when he visited Studio 360.
And here it is on the album with Billy Squier.
Mitch Davis (L) with Billy Squier (R) working on Orba Squara's album (courtesy of World's Fair)
Billy Squier was Davis’ first concert — a show at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum. Over twenty years later, it all came full circle when Orba Squara opened for Squier at a recent Long Island show. And there’s one more twist to the story — Davis is currently at work in the studio collaborating on some new material for Squier’s next release.
Here’s the story of how these two musicians found each other:
Seniority rules at Yale, but not entirely. The Whiffenpoofs are the century-old men’s a cappella ensemble, limited to 14 vocalists from each year’s senior class – you’ll hear them on this week’s show. But there’s a noteworthy junior who’s hot on their heels.
Tenor Sam Tsui is a featured soloist with the Duke’s Men of Yale. And he fronts another a cappella group on the side that might be even more exclusive than the Whiffs. That’s because there’s only one member of his collective. Sam’s six-part-harmony tribute to the late great Michael Jackson has been seen 1.7 million times and counting on YouTube. The performance is produced by Kurt Schneider, Sam’s Yale classmate and neighbor from his Pennsylvania hometown. If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s incredible. That’s Sam at center stage singing the hook from “Thriller.” And that’s him in the red shirt singing about the kid not being his son – and in the other red shirt also.
We’ve got another dazzling Jackson interpretation on the show this weekend. The L.A.-based indie-a-cappella group Sonos visit Studio 360 to perform a classic by the Jackson 5.
New York City’s El Museo del Barrio has reopened after a well-deserved multi-million dollar renovation.
The museum was started 40 years ago by performance artist Rafael Montañez Ortiz in a public school classroom with the mission of highlighting Puerto Rican artists. Since then, it’s grown into an important cultural institution with a collection of more than “6,500 objects spanning more than 800 years of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino art.”
I have always loved this little museum, and am very excited to see the permanent collection, particularly the installations, in a space that allows the visitor more room to take in the exuberant work.
El Museo del Barrio will celebrate it’s 40th Anniversary throughout the year with special programs and exhibitions. I’ll be spending my Halloween at the (free!) Dia de Los Muertos festival: calavera mask and retablos making workshops, with hot chocolate and Pan de Muerte!
- Susie Karlowski
Pepón Osorio (b. 1955, Santurce, Puerto Rico) La Cama (The Bed) 1987
Mixed Media installation, 75 x 57 1/2 x 81 1/2 inches (190.5 x 146.1 x 207 cm)
Collection El Museo del Barrio, NY
Museum purchase, S93.68
Tomorrow, the much-anticipated film, “Where the Wild Things Are” is coming to theaters. It’s based on the beloved children’s book by Maurice Sendak, whose fantastical illustrations have inspired innumerable artists.
One of those inspired artists is Cory Godbey. Godbey is an illustrator who started the fabulous blog Terrible Yellow Eyes, an homage to Sendak by dozens of illustrators from around the world. Together, they have contributed more than 250 Wild Things tribute pieces. The collection is quite diverse (from cartoons, to paintings, to diorama) and inspirational in its own right.
"Steam Thing," by Bill Carman
"Tamed," by Chris Houghton
Curator Cory Godbey first discovered Sendak’s classic as a teenager: he told us “it was this watershed moment. Where The Wild Things Are changed the way I looked at picture books, and helped me understand my own style as an artist.” And as a writer – Godbey was inspired by Sendak’s short, active sentences. He loves the way Wild Things opens with the line, “The night Max wore his wolf suit…” because “there’s no exposition, [Sendak] just drops you right into the story.”
"Wild and Instrumental," by Cory Godbey
And Godbey continues to be inspired by the character Max and the childhood imagination and anger that shape his world. Godbey explains that when he was growing up, “there weren’t books like that that so openly worked through anger issues. I really love that [Max] can go to where all these horrible things are, but he’s not going to get hurt – nothing really bad is going to happen – he’s in control of it. That’s empowering.”
Out of 1,262 artists from 41 states and 15 foreign countries, Ran Ortner was declared the winner at ArtPrize, the festival that took over Grand Rapids, Michigan for the last couple of weeks. There were balloon sculptures and paper airplane demonstrations, but in the end, the public got behind Ortner’s two-dimensional painting, “Open Water no.24,” and made its creator $250,000 richer. Ortner will be on the show next week to tell Kurt how his life as a struggling artist has been forever changed. Until then, consider a couple others who fell short of the blue ribbon:
"Imagine That"
Second place finisher Tracy Van Duinen received raves for his tile mural, “Imagine That,” displayed outside the city’s Children’s Museum. (He pocketed a cool $100,000 for his efforts.) Van Duinen worked in Chicago’s public school system, leading inner city kids to create large murals and sculptures. Community groups in Grand Rapids helped assemble Van Duinen’s installation outside the museum, contributing the small paintings that were incorporated into the design and helping to adhere some of the tiles. While Van Duinen fell short of first place, the city won big — it gets to keep “Imagine That.” The mosaic will remain on the museum’s façade.
Works by Eric Daigh
The Traverse City-based artist Eric Daigh took third prize, collecting $50,000 for “Portraits,” which consisted of three of his signature pushpin designs. Taking inspiration from the artist Chuck Close and photographer Martin Schoeller, Daigh devised his own method for capturing his subjects. He starts by taking photos of them and then using a computer program to create a very low resolution image. Then he sets up a grid and gets to work dotting his canvas with five different colors of pushpins, the kind you would tack onto a bulletin board.
Daigh seems destined for something big. And he’ll always be able to pinpoint his success to ArtPrize.
Earlier this summer, we lamented the decreased flow of swag into our office in the wake of the recession. While many promotion companies continue to tighten their belts, some recent arrivals may forecast a recovery. Below are some of our own uncommon economic indicators:
From the folks at Sesame Street, we got a cookie monster tote bag promoting the show’s 40th season:
And, reminding us to “waste not, want not,” Frankie Negron’s new album, Independence Day, came with this bracelet:
… which also doubles as…
…a thumb drive!
But perhaps the piece de resistance came from kiddie rockers, The Jimmies, in support of their new album, Make Your Own Someday:
![Osorio_La Cama (The Bed)[5]](http://studio360.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/osorio_la-cama-the-bed5.jpg?w=300&h=234 "Osorio_La Cama (The Bed)[5]")
