Photo: Ashley Walters (Maryland Institute College of Art)

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Mike Aho of the Austin based ((sounder)), who we've featured over the years, has just released this great Madonna cover which was recorded at Okay Mountain.

Ok, so we "know" there are no Brown Recluses in California, but shit, it looked like one to us... Found in the folk's house in Marin on the bathroom floor on Saturday. Argh.

Oops. Looks like our drunk cabby's vodka bottle slipped out... Think he needed a cab more than we did. Bummer.

New boat with more stretch out room.

Spoke Art opened The Black Robe on Thursday night, with the work of Barron Storey, Mike Dringenberg and Keita Morimoto, and was curated by Eidolon Fine Arts.

Each artist made work in response to the thousand year-old poetry of Ono No Komachi, a female poet who worked with concepts of truth, longing, lust, and transience. The poems were displayed above each work, and although they were hard to read, provided a sense of context to the show. Instead of grouping each artists’ work together, they were interspersed with one another throughout the gallery, which solidified the conceptual basis for the show. The diversity of the works, which range from ink to graphite to dye and watercolor was refreshing and the medium specificity of each allowed for clear delineation as to which artist created what.

Keita Morimoto, Isolation, Acrylic and oil on panel

Barron Storey, The Question, Scratchboard, acrlyic, ink, acetate, archival print on canvas

Keita Morimoto, The Autumn, Oil on canvas

These days New York-native multimedia artist, Michael Alan, has been incredibly active artistically in the big city. Between staging hours-long Living Installations at the New Museum and other DIY spaces, exhibiting his drawings and paintings in group exhibitions and hosting an unusual solo show in the home of his mother, Alan proves that there is no rest for the wicked. I caught up with him recently to hear the latest, the backstory, and what's next.

Hm. Where to start on that one...

You know, participating in art and signing on, doing all the steps, being in the scene and doing what you've got to do- you just constantly question is this exactly what I signed on for? Is this exactly why I'm an artist? I try to constantly do things that are the reasons I signed on. Like when I was younger, why I drew as a kid, why I made pranks and would be the class clown and draw in peoples' books, draw dicks on walls- you know, where that pure essence came from. I got pretty fucked up this year.

And with people coming to visit me to see how I'm doing and see my mom- slowly it kind of hit me, "why don't you just do a show here?"

I always try to do shows in strange or odd places along with the regular gallery format and all that. I just felt like it would be really honest. It's where I've spent a lot of time and its an extremely emotional space for me. The work I make is about emotion and letting people in so it really fits. My parents have been a huge support and I want to celebrate that. My mom has been a collaborator in my performances and she can't go to them anymore and go see the exhibitions. I got this success going on and want to bring it to her in her own home.

Most of the collaborations are musical, or the Living Installations, which I think is more of an experience than a performance. I've learned to choose the people based on being drawn to them as a person, not so much to their art but their spirit. Real soul searching, proactive people. That's Kenny Sharf, I mean he's super, super, super alien-nice. I've never met anyone as nice as that guy. I don't want to work with people who are negative and down. I'm coming from the Fugazi scene, you know, the posi-punk scene- so negativity doesn't match. So I'm looking for people who are proactive in their life. Especially in collaboration, there's hiccups- and it's about getting through that hiccup. And that's how my mom is – I grew up collaborating with her as a kid. We made a children's book when I was younger, always doing artistic stuff. I would do studio visits with her when I was five.

At New Museum there's a huge performance thing going on called UnTapped, and I'm doing my rendition- I guess it will be more of a solo version, it will be four hours with music made with people I've collaborated with. I haven't worked out entirely what I'll be doing.

Have you been listening to Youth Lagoon's newest album Wondrous Bughouse? If not, do. It's one of the best albums we've heard in awhile.

Henrik Haven, who keeps us up to date in all that's Copenhagen and Denmark, emailed over some photos from the Viborg International Billboard Painting Festival that's running throughout June. In this short installment he introduces us to the work of urban/graffiti artist and illustrator NYCHOS.

Kelly Tunstall, who's showing w/ Ferris Plock at FFDG this August 16th, recently finished some commissions for A16 in Oakland. Here's a little taste, and check out her last year's show at FFDG.

Brendan Monroe, whose show Melting Into the Floor runs through June 15th at LA's Richard Heller, creates these great wooden sculptures and featured a bunch in the show... He's often asked how he goes about making them and gives us at Fecal Face a little 'how to' on the process.

There's a question that I get asked a lot, "How do you make those?" It often comes soon after something like, "Do you make those yourself?" I find myself trying to explain, but I'm sure I never communicate clearly what it is that I did to make the thing. So I'd like to show the way it's done with the help of a few photos. I'm not formally trained in making this kind of thing. I figured it out as I went along and learned a lot along the way. If you've got any questions or want to know more details, post them in the comments below. -Brendan Monroe

Skaters out there, been watching the 6th series of the Battle At The Berrics? For you older(ish) skaters out there, shit has gotten nutty hasn't it? If you're not sure what we're referring to, check Koston V. Shane O'Neill. Wowzas. Most of us would be lucky to land a kickflip following a nollie flip... or even doing a 360 flip. Anywho...

This year's trophy (as seen below) was created by Tokyo-based artist Haroshi who does incredible wood work (see here).

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"Battle At The Berrics" is the most watched game of S.K.A.T.E in the world, with top pros battling head to head, working their way through the brackets to become the Battle At The Berrics champion. The winner walks away with this incredible trophy made by Japanese artist Haroshi, know for his intricate work using pieces of reclaimed skate decks.

http://theberrics.com/

Mexico City based Curiot, whose sold out solo show Age of Omuktlans ran last March at FFDG, just finished this great mural entitled "El Retorno de Akhankutli" in Mexico. He recently completed one in Berlin too which we'll be posting in the coming week. The guy is very very talented in our eyes. Click here to view more of his work.

Beautiful detail and shading.

This made our day. Not only do we love pizza but we also love Henry Gunderson... So a board shapped like a hot slice designed by Henry Gunderson for The Good Company, well... this writer needs to go for a slice right now.

Action skateboard stunts performed in the video below around the streets of San Francisco by Henry Gunderson himself.