:: TOO MUCH TO PROVE, TOO MUCH TO LOSE ::

(photos from another end-of-summer expedition, this one to the tugboat graveyard)

"Maybe contemporary art should be more like casinos." - Richard Prince

So this coming weekend, Oct. 3-4, is going to be one big party up in Portland, Maine. With an art opening and late Black Label dance party on Friday, and then Japanther and Matt & Kim with the Black Label DJs again on Saturday. It's early October, Maine is beautiful, and it's not a bad bus ride from NYC (Chinatown bus to Boston, Concord Coach to Portland). What better early-fall getaway could there be? Just a suggestion.

MP3:

I was lucky enough for Lidia Stone to slip me a couple preview tracks from their forthcoming EP Loud Birth. A band that never disappoints my ears, yet I seem to have some sort of curse where I am never able to catch any of their live shows in town. Their next one is no exception, as I will be in Maine installing my show. Oh well, that doesn't mean you have to make the same mistake. They play with Pony Pants and Le Rug at Silent Barn this Thursday, Oct. 2nd. It's their EP release party, and they will be giving away copies to everyone there (as in for free). Don't be a doofus like me and miss it.

- Lidia Stone - Trains

A band's place in myspace.

:: COLLECTING MAGNETS ::

I've been travelling around for work the last few weeks. I've made a couple good photos but these aren't them.

In my absence, the God Went Surfing With The Devil website was updated to feature some powerful teasers.

:: SOMETIMES VICARIOUS DOESN'T CUT IT ::

(CD release round-robin show for the Ninjasonik remix album "All Our Friends Are In Bands;" a condensed reenactment of Top Gun on the Metropolitan G train platform; DJ Rob Low spinning at some American Apparel party)

Things that were amusing in the last week:
A) People who find you on Flickr and ask to publish your photos for free, and then get pissed off at you when you say no (unless you get paid).
B) People who try to sneak in past the door at a fundraiser party to avoid paying the measly $5, and then get all angry at you when you catch up to them and ask them for the entrance fee.

The sense of entitlement some people operate with is pretty gross.

MP3:

So Ninjasonik just released a remix album put together from all of their friend's bands (Matt & Kim, The Deathset, Team Robespierre, The Vivian Girls, Best Fwends, Snakes Say Hiss). It is appropriately enough named "All Our Friends Are In Bands." It also has the bonus Ninjasonik track Art School Girls. You don't really need me to tell you how good it is. But I will do one better than that, and give away two copies of the album, courtesy of Bikes In The Kitchen. So to win your copy, send me an mp3 of what you think is going to be my new favorite song (my email address is at the top of the right side column, next to the antlers). In two weeks I will pick two winners and send you your CDs (and obviously post your submission on here, because after all, it is my new favorite song). I can only ship in the continental US, so apologies to my two European readers.

I picked this track not so much because it's my favorite, but because it has the friend's-bands-roll-call in it. If you want to hear the best tracks, you'll have to win the CD. . . or just buy it for $5 from Bikes In The Kitchen

- Ninjasonik - Silver Tiles (Matt & Kim remix)

A band's place in myspace.

:: BREAK MY DREAMS ::

(memorial and installation of Sze Man Chan's ghost bike on Manhattan and Montrose in Brooklyn)

Ghost Bikes

:: DUMBO Art Under The Bridge Festival ::

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!

The Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) is pleased to present the D.U.M.B.O. ART UNDER THE BRIDGE FESTIVAL,™ sponsored by Current. For the 12th year running, the entire neighborhood of Dumbo, Brooklyn, will become a multi-sensory art arena, FREE and open to all.

Over the FESTIVAL weekend, art will be happening everywhere: streets, sidewalks, storefronts, elevators, lobbies, the water, the waterfront, parks, nooks, crannies, NY Water Taxi, and more. Along with the 65+ new public art projects, over 100 local artists will open their studios to the public and at the new Galapagos Art Space, video_dumbo will feature a non-stop program of cutting edge video art from NYC and around the world.

The FESTIVAL presents art that breaks the white cube: art that is touchable, accessible and interactive. The appeal is universal: for many of the anticipated 150,000 visitors, the FESTIVAL will be their first encounter with art and artists.

7 PM on Friday, September 26th through Sunday, September 28th evening.

Julian Duron

:: PERPETUAL INTERLOPER ::

I have a solo show opening in Portland, Maine on October 3rd at SPACE Gallery. It's going to be a fun opening weekend, with Japanther and Matt & Kim playing in the gallery on Saturday, and the Black Label Bicycle Club DJs spinning a dirty dance floor on Friday (the actual opening night) and Saturday. Also come see DJ Dirtyfingers' installation in the front window of the gallery. I'll be hanging out in Portland for a couple weeks as part of a residency at The Bakery, and will be giving an artist talk and guest critique as well. So if you live in the area, drop me a line. All I know about Portland is that it's pretty, and lobster is supposed to be cheap.

PS. My little sister is currently sticking it out in the political battleground state of Ohio canvasing for Obama. My other little sister just passed the Bar Exam, and I'm proud of both of them. Just wanted to say that.

:::

Constant Quarry
Photographs by Tod Seelie

Oct. 4 - Nov. 13

SPACE Gallery
538 Congress St.
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 828-5600
www.space538.org

Opening, Friday, October 3rd 5-9pm, Free
with Black Label Bicycle Club DJ's Dirtyfinger, Porkchop and Stache

Post-Opening Party w/ BLBC DJs 9pm - 1am

Saturday, October 4th 9pm $8
Japanther
Matt & Kim
BLBC DJ's

:::

MP3:

- The Nightwatchman - BattleHymns

A band's place in myspace.

:: IF I DON'T DIE OR WORSE, I'M GONNA NEED A NAP ::

(photos from the recent NYC Burlesque Festival)

So I am headed to Maine soon for my next solo show (more on that soon). But before I leave, there are some great things going on this weekend in Brooklyn. Both are pretty much can't-be-missed, and hopefully if I can take a breather from my framing-marathon I will be there.

:::

Help Send Miss Rockaway to Europe!
Friday September 26

Since the termination of the Miss Rockaway Armada in St. Louis last summer, former crew members have been collaborating on new creative projects that have grown out of the energy of the Mississippi river. After an installation at MassMOCA last April, the crew was invited to create an installation in Amsterdam for Program Heartland. Now we need the cash to get there and buy materials!

Two floors of ceiling shaking goodness to twitch your tail to. Bands downstairs to thump your toes to:
Dark Dark Dark
The Gamut
Vampire Hands
U.S. Girls
Trillions of Gallons of Gas
Brownbird Rudy Relic

Tunes upstairs to shake the rest of you:
DJ DIRTY FINGER
DJ RUSTY LAZER (new orleans bounce!!)

Live silkscreening to make you look good while doing it
Cheap tacos & beer

Surreal Estate
15 Thames St, between Morgan Ave. & Bogart St., Brooklyn
9pm doors-late; $5-$7 Suggested Donation
missrockaway.org

:::

Bikes In The Kitchen presents:
NinjaSonik Album Release show
Saturday, September 27th

"All Our Friends Are In Bands"
This 8 track EP showcases a community of talent and friends from Brooklyn to Baltimore. NinjaSonik remixes each song, adding new vocals and upping the dance. Tracks include remixes from Matt & Kim, Japanther, TheDeathSet, Team Robespierre, Best Fwends, Snakes Say Hisss, and features "Art School Girls", a new NinjaSonik single.

Alphabeta Shop [70 greenpoint ave + franklin]
6pm. $8. All Ages

Round Robin style show: each band will play 2 songs at a time.

NinjaSonik
Japanther
Knyfe Hyts
Snakes Say Hisss
3 Pac, Lionshare
dj Dirty Finger

:::

MP3:

Matt & Kim's new album is going to get remixed into oblivion. Mark my words.

- Matt & Kim - Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare

A band's place in myspace.

:: THE LIGHT OF THE TASTEE FREEZE SPELLS SALVATION ::

Usually, Mr. Bryan Derballa (who I share these Fecal NYC duties with) has the livin'-the-good-life market cornered around here. But just because he's got it covered, does that mean I shouldn't toss my hat in the ring on occassion?

Goodbye, Summer. You were a good one.

MP3:

- Notorious B.I.G. - Party And Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)

A band's place in myspace.

:: UNION UNION UNION UNION, UN-NION. ::

Congratulations to John and Jessica on their wedding day. I'm sending my love from the sunflower fields of France. Have a wonderful life together!

:: DOWN WITH PERFECTION ::

It's amazing how difficult it can be to see your friend inside a psych ward. And how much more overwhelmingly helpless you feel when you are trying to help and take care of them when they are finally let out. It's hard to be reminded that you can't always be what you want to for everyone you care about.

MP3:

- 16 Horsepower - Wayfaring Stranger

A band's place in myspace.

:: ONLY THE "HAVES" CAN IGNORE CLASS WAR ::

I'm still plugging away through photos from the past month, but in the meantime check out this three person exhibition I have work in and an end-of-summer-party-to-end-all-summer-parties hosted by Chief Mag.

:::

Heist Gallery is proud to present REVERB.

REVERB is an exhibition about the persistence of an experience that reminds us how unmistakably alive we are. Like the absorption of sound by surrounding walls that trap the echo of its source, these photographs capture the result of experience so vivid and real that it becomes an infinite reverb. Reverb amplifies the raw spirit of a good punk song, defining its essential point, turning noise into a justification of its effect. The photographers presented in this exhibition achieve exactly this effect in their depicted images, capturing life as they live it in the impending now that has no before and whose after doesn't matter.

REVERB opens on September 11th from 6-8pm, and will be on view till October 5, 2008.

HEIST GALLERY
27 ESSEX STREET NEW YORK, NY 10002
P: 212.253.0451 E: heist.nyc@gmail.com
WWW.HEISTGALLERY.COM

:::

Summer is over! And ChiefMag is now two-years old! Phew... let's party. Let's party the old-fashioned way.

Firstofall... it's free. FREE, FREE, BYOB. And on a rooftop. With eight (8) of our favorite DJs spinning hot jamz for about, oh... about nine (9) or 10 hours. It's the last summer ever!

To celebrate
THE LAST SUMMER EVER
as well as
CHIEF'S 2nd ANNIVERSARY,
we're getting a few of our friends and family together for
A ROOFTOP DANCE PARTY.
And you're invited!

FRIDAY, Sept 12th
6pm-3am

75 Roebling
btwn
N.7th & N.8th
BKNY

BYOB
FREE

DJ DirtyFinger
(BLBC, Dance!!Attack!!)
DJ PorkChop
(BLBC, SSPC)
DJ TeenWolf
(Ninjasonik)
DJ Rev McFly
(Ninjasonik)
DJ Morsy
(NanaChill)
DJ C-Lo
(Bikes In The Kitchen)
DJ CatMaster
(Dance!!Attack!!)
Murdertronics
(HotCrew57)

:::

MP3:

After watching Rage Against The Machine perform in the crowd acapella at the RNC, I was reminded how much I appreciate Mr. Rocha. I'm embarrassed to admit that in high school I wouldn't let myself be a fan because the band was popular with the "Jocks" (mortal enemies of Punks, after all). Well I'm getting a second chance, as Mr. Rocha has a new band, One Day As A Lion. I was skeptical, but it's pretty good, like Rage with an update. One song reminds me of newer Parts & Labor, another seems to have hints of Death From Above 1979 (both amazing bands, so that speaks well in my mind).

- One Day As A Lion - Last Letter

A band's place in myspace.

:: WHEN BULLIES HAVE KIDS ITS NEVER PRETTY ::

(the rafts at night on the Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea)

I don't typically use this blog for personal rants, but I'm going to break that rule. The wonderful world of the internet and flickr has given rise to a huge amount of readily available images. As online self-publishing grows, so does the need for content, such as snazy imagery. Most people have come to the understanding that if you are going to lift someone's image, and not ask permission, you provide a credit and a link to the creator. This avoids pissing off the person you are "borrowing" from by promoting them, and in most people's minds doesn't constitute stealing if you provide credit.

However, then there are apparent jerks like Jamie O'Shea who not only repeatedly use people's images without credit, but will actually go to the effort to capture a non-downloadable image and then crop out someone's watermark to remove the credit put there by the artist (in this case, mine). That's not just being careless or lazy, that's actually making a conscious effort to obscure the artist's identity from their work. That's stealing. Of course if people didn't steal images, who would need to put their name on their photo in the first place? One would think that as the previous editor of Juxtapoz he would have a bit more respect for artists. Especially if this person said something like, "Everything is artist driven. I work as a liaison and advocate for artists in corporate culture."

Between this sort of crap and the looming Orphan Works bill, I am really wondering about continuing to put so much of my work out in the public realm. Once someone grabs an unmarked image off of a website and posts it to their own without credit, and then someone grabs it off of that site and posts it to a forum somewhere, etc... it's too late. Toss in the loss of the original file name due to blog-hosting renaming procedure and the image quickly becomes an orphan. So even if an interested party did want to license the image (and not just automatically claim to have already made a "reasonably diligent search" before using it without permission) it really does become difficult at this point to track down the origin. And as a friend of mine put it to me while we were talking about making a living as an artist and selling prints: "Why would I buy one of your photographs when I can get them for free on your site?" Good question.

I have asked Mr. O'Shea several times (sorta nicely) that the image be removed from his site, no response. Comments left by friends have been moderated into limbo. So I offer this to the court of public opinion: Is it okay to remove a watermark from an image you grabbed without requesting permission and then use it on your website?

MP3:

- Smog - Cold Blooded Old Times

A band's place in myspace.

:: THE SCREEN DOOR SLAMS, MARY'S DRESS WAVES ::

This is the rest of my visit to North Carolina. Friends and family. Horseshoes and rope swings. Peanut butter tofu and sweet potato fries. It's really beautiful there.

My little sister is a badass.

Jacob curated our photo show. He's a champ.

Double ringer.

Blue hour.

Best friend's girl.

:: MY MISTAKE WAS NOT TRYING TO OWN YOU ::

(We came, we saw, we took Manhattan at dawn. One of the rafts of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea rounds the southern tip)

We made it.

Come see us and the rafts on Sunday, Sept. 7th in Long Island City at the opening of Swoon's second solo show in NYC. Details here.

MP3:

- Hurray For The Riff Raff - Bricks

A band's place in myspace.

:: BEFORE LIFE RUNS YOU DOWN ::

I was looking over photos from August and realized that almost everything I shot was for work of some kind. I decided that Labor Day was gonna be for me--lots of shooting, zero working. I packed up and went to the Bronx with a crew of lovable misfits. This is nothing more than friendship, weeping willows and golden light. Sometimes it's all you need.