soundscape saturday :: red bull academy

The Red Bull Music Academy is a platform for thosewho shape our musical future, a music workshop that has been traveling the world since 1998.  Setting up our EQ HQ for two fortnight long terms in a different musical metropolis each year, we pull together pioneers of days gone by and musical legends of tomorrow from all aspects of rhythm and sound.

For two weeks, 60 selected participants: producers, vocalists, DJs, instrumentalists, and all around musical mavericks from all around the globe come together to check gear, chat on tunes, play in clubs, get a rare glimpse into local musical hybrids in a different country, swap musical visions in the studio, and discover closely guarded secrets of mixing desk magic straight from those who started revolutions in sound.  They're the people we look up to, and they're looking to you for a fresh perspective in turn.

art and fashion friday :: sprayblog

Julie Hill


Kristy Anne Ligones


Remedy Sains


Madsen Krenky


Pietari Posti


Sprayblog
A blog which searches for thought provoking people, places, and things making positive contributions to culture and communities through art, politics, fashion, music, design, and film.  The blog has several unique weekly features that allow us to stand out from the blogoshere.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday there is a Thought Provoking Interview and with an Artist discussing their art making process, current work, and general interests.  The rest of the time we are providing up to date info about Art, Photography, Design, Graphic Design, and Illustrations from all over the globe.

whimsical wednesday :: indescribble

Indescribble
Laura Bath
"When Laura was little she drew a picture of a dog and showed it to her mum. Her mum then asked what she had copied it from.  Laura replied: “From my head”.  From then on pictures and ideas have regularly fallen out of her head and somehow made it into the real world, landing on any scrap of paper left lying around.  At age 17, she had work hung in the Royal Academy of Art as part of their outreach project and she later graduated with a BA (Hons) Illustration degree in 2004. Since then she has spent most of her time with a pencil, pen, paintbrush or mouse (the computer variety although she is very fond of furry little creatures) firmly in her hand. Her artwork echoes her Gemini personality; one half is a growing collection of strange but happy looking creatures and the other more traditional figurative pieces based on the female form.  What ends up on the paper just relies on what mood she’s in. Her inspiration comes from everywhere and everyone, whatever comes her way. She loves the countryside and animals, 80’s cartoons and memorabilia, charity shops, car boot sales, Hayao Miyazaki films, Japanese design and pop culture, reading books by Terry Pratchett, making a mess, Peppermint tea and of course Marmite!"

body movement tuesday :: le train bleu

Front Stage Curtain






Le Train Bleu
A ballet in one act with choreography by Nijinska, libretto by Cocteau, 
music by Milhaud, curtain by Picasso, set by Henri Laurens, and 
costumes by Chanel.
Premiered 20 June 1924, by the Ballets Russes de Diaghilev at the 
Théâtre de Champs-Elysées, Paris.
A ballet with a sporting theme, it features a group of fashionable and 
rich friends amusing themselves on the Mediterranean coast.  
Cocteau's scenario was influenced by the Olympic Games, silent films, 
and jazz music, while Nijinska's choreography had a strong gymnastic 
element to it.  The Train Bleu itself, an express train between Paris and 
the Côte d'Azur, does not appear in the ballet.
Le Train Bleu takes place amidst the French Riviera circa 1920s, an era 
where populist visions of a modernist utopia gave rise to the cult of the 
body beautiful.  Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska satirised this shift 
towards shallower lifestyles using Chanel’s sporting ensembles as a 
fashion conduit.

oddities and magikal monday :: phantasmaphile

Nusch Eluard




Julie Heffernan




Rina Banarjee




Meredith Dittmar




Phantasmaphile
Phantasmaphile = Pam Grossman
Residence = Brooklyn, NY
Day job = Creative Planner for a digital media company
Co-founder of OBSERVATORY arts and events space in Gowanus, 
Brooklyn 
www.observatoryroom.org
Spare time = Writing Music and Poems, Making Art, Devouring Books, 
Frequenting Museums and Galleries, Accumulating Marvels, 
Feasting, Floating

soundscape saturday :: jeekoos

Jeekoos
DubFront Records
"(the English spelling of the Polish word Dzikus,
loosely translated as “a feral woodsman”)
crept into the Chicago music scene playing bass in punk bands
and producing four track hiphop and breakbeat type madness.
Always a seeker of fresh musical experiences, Jeekoos
found himself at a party near the end of the century. It was there
that he encountered jungle music. Soon after, he discovered
Part Time Sucker Radio – a consistent source of jungle, breakbeats and DnB.
Impressed by the show’s selections of styles and sounds,
Jeekoos became a regular listener, then a contributor,
then a freakin’ resident dj. When he ran up on Dubstep,
with its intensity, gnarly basslines and attention to detail,
he naturally incorporated it into his sets and production style.
He crafts tunes and mixes that are nothing short of block rocking.
Jeekoos also props up Chicago’s lowdown sounds with sick event flyers
and web design and is the man behind the MidwestDubstep.com forum.
Respect to tha Wubmaster!"

Vote for Jeekoos in the semi-finals to play Lollapalooza!

fashion and art friday :: doug stapleton

Iconoclast



The Proposal



The Wonders of the World



Maggie (The Margot Birds)

Doug Stapleton
"In my collages, I cut and reconfigure found images to set up 
ambiguous narratives that often refer to the original source, but mess 
around with the message.  Visually I respond to the operatic shimmer, 
sparkle and complexity, the grandly narrated spectacle, that is the 
history of western art.  I want to continue that high key drama in 
my work."

photographic thursday :: dan merlo photography

Dan Merlo Photography
Specializing in capturing raw emotive energy and manifesting a
conceptual idea, his style is both explosive yet refined.

whimsical wednesday :: papercuthearts and baltica

PaperCutHearts
Repurposing outdated cartography and vintage lexicography into 
papercut art for the one you heart.
"Eight years ago I started self-studying Eastern European folklore 
paper cutting and two years later transitioned to one-sheet solid color 
cutouts.  During that time I arrived at my own style which I'm now 
excited to share with you on etsy.  I especially love working with 
outdated maps, dictionaries, vintage books and music sheets creating 
one-of-a-kind custom cartography and lexicography paper-cut art for 
those you heart."
and..
if that is not endearing enough, her handmade jewelry is stunning.







Baltica
{naturally adorned} feminine jewelry with a soul

body movement tuesday :: the seldoms

Dan Merlo




The Seldoms
"The Seldoms make contemporary dance that translates inquiry into 
movement and amplifies its impact through collaboration with image, 
sound, text and location, providing an avenue for audiences to 
experience relevant and engaging dance.  We are a Chicago based 
dance performance company that values making intelligent, visual 
dance theater driven by inquiry.  We ground our inquiry in the history 
of ideas, art history, and our personal experience to find complex and
faceted ways to describe the nature of our question."

"The center of our work is dance, however, our vision extends to the 
whole of action and environment on stage."

oddities and magikal monday :: anthropomorphe

Linder Sterling



J.J. Grandville



Spencer Tunick



Roberto Kusterle

Anthropomorphe
Anthropomorphe proposes a reflection on individual and collective 
human body identity.
automata, freaks, monsters, clones, mutants, cyborgs, androids, 
hybrids, robots