To a strange and exciting New Year

Zohar Lazar

Zohar Lazar is definitely a new favorite painter of mine.  I love the cartoony quality while at times expressing drama and sadness. Awesome stuff!

Ewan McGregor: Tested to the limits in Honduras

BBC did this interesting trip to through La Mosquitia, the rainforest of Honduras, with Ewan McGregor.  Above is just a clip of survival tricks of having drinking water by using a banana tree as a well and water filter of sorts.  For the whole story watch the video here.

Junot Díaz

I recently read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz - and I LOVED it.  I love his style, through equal street talk and intellectual speak.  He is so accessible- and brings you right in- connects you and even educates you.  It's the type of book that left me wanting to give it off to someone else immediately so they can experience it too. He won the Pulitzer prize for this book- and he completely deserved it!  I'm excited to start his newest book This Is How You Lose Her.

Brandon Stanton - Humans of New York

 

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"His birthday is coming up. We’re going to shut down the entire block and have an ice sculpture."
“A sculpture of the dog?”
“Life sized.”

"I tend to be cynical about a lot of things, but Maya Angelou is somebody that no matter how much I pick her apart, she still has integrity. She was a victim of incest and rape, and she worked as a stripper. And now she’s a literary icon and Nobel Laureate. It goes to show that life is cumulative, and you can’t devalue any type of experience."

"I spotted these two from a block away.  They were walking away from me, so I chased them down to see if I could photograph the girl for a micro fashion post.When I finally caught up to them, however, I noticed the father was reading to her as they walked"

You’d be hard pressed to find Brandon Stanton, the brain behind storytelling blog turned New York Times bestseller, “Humans of New York,” without a camera in his hands. He needs it for the 5 to 6 portraits he takes each day and posts for his thousands of social media fans and website visitors to see. Stanton turned to photography full time after being laid off from his job as a Chicago bond trader in 2010. He took a chance on an idea he had to take 10,000 portraits of people around New York City and plot them on a map like a census of the metropolitan area. The resulting project has turned into something larger than he ever could have expected. Stanton’s photos are being imitated all over the world (see Humans of India, Humans of Tehran, Humans of Bronx Science and Humans of LaGuardia), and the 29-year-old is garnering major media attention for his capsules of a moment in time. TIME 30 Under 30

I have been following him through his Facebook page.  It's so nice to be reminded of humanity and people's individual stories daily. Love his work.

Her Trailer

New Spike Jonze movie comes out January 10th, 2014. Can't wait.

Maurice Sendak

35 and Single

An Argentine woman, documenting her relationships, begins an intimate investigation searching for love and answers: must she settle down or continue to be a free spirit in order to be happy? NYT

Baby, you're right!

MMMmmmmhmmm

Los Rakas feat. Faviola - Abrazame (Uproot Andy Hold Yuh)

Dancing in my studio to this song... hombre.  I miss Latin America so bad.

Mira como tu me tienes! ha.

Cesar Chavez: An American Hero

I'm super excited about this movie! The director of the film, Diego Luna, stated in an interview with the Huff Post “the idea behind the film is to talk about a community that now I have a strong connection with. And I found out that no one has done a film about him and I don’t think it has been celebrated enough. And I think it’s the right time to tell the story of Cesar Chavez.”

Ever

New favorite street artist! I love Ever's murals so much! He is originally from Argentina and has painted walls all over the world. love.love.love.

Cholita

So bad ass! Love it.

Francis Bacon Fragments Of A Portrait - interview by David Sylvester

Super interesting interview with one of my favorites.

Jake Fried | Down Into Nothing

Jake Fried at it again! Love his work! Hand drawn animation made with ink, gouache, whiteout, and coffee.

Mati Klarwein

"It’s hard to get across just how important this man is in just a few sentences, but it must be done. Mati Klarwein was the man literally responsible for every great, legendary record cover you’ll see — if he didn’t do it, he inspired it. A student of a Jerusalem art school at the age of 15, Mati began incorporating his spiritual beliefs into the images he was creating of the mountainous landscape he felt such affinity with. Brief spells in Paris, Mallorca and St.Tropez cemented his style and he soon became legendary for the trippy, erotic scenes he was able to produce unlike anyone else. Timothy Leary (who loved drugs) once said of Mati that he was one of the only artists at the time who 'didn’t need psychedelics.'
Just as free love started to kick off, Mati became the go-to man for record sleeves, portraits and murals, some of which you could probably look at for 100 years and still not get tired of. His ability to capture an entire era in these wild, flowing images (he was friends with Salvador Dali) is something that puts him right up there with Hendrix and John Bonham and the hundreds of others that helped make the 1960s and 70s so immortally iconic."INT

Such an inspiration!

Black in Latin America

I recently read Isabel Allendes' Island Beneath the Sea, whose "story takes readers back 200 years in time to the slave uprising that led to the creation of the world’s first independent black republic, Haiti." The only slave revolt in history that has succeeded. After reading this incredible story I started reading more about African influence in the Caribbean/Latin America and tripped onto this three part series "Black in Latin America." It's super interesting- they focus mainly on Haiti, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. Check out the other two parts here and here.

Rita Indiana y los Misterios - DA PA LO DO

The Dominican government recently upheld a law that strips Haitian-Dominicans of their citizenship. The law is highly controversial; an editorial written by none other than singer Rita Indiana was published yesterday by El País.

Jarina De Marco - Spell On You

Gotdamn-What a beauty! Technicolor Dominican/Brazilian Voodoo-Pop.

Wor - Django Django

wild.

Colin Muir Dorward

 Colin Muir Dorward's first painting of the leg bouncing around the room and through the stool, with the little door way towards the bottom of the painting just does it for me. I can't even explain it, but I think it's the honest awkwardness of it that attracts me.  Check out more of this Canadian's work here.

Guillermo del Toro x Simpsons

EPIC opening to the Simpsons' Halloween special directed by Guillermo del Toro!

saudades

Tim Knowles

 Tim Knowles has a series of trees drawing, that make be laugh.  I love the idea.  There is an innocent beautiful part to it that makes me think of a child doing this but the fact that it's a curious adult makes it funnier still.

Alex Chinneck

 Alex Chinneck's sliding house or "From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes" is a site specific instillation in the seaside town of Margate in Kent, UK.  The piece tricks the viewer into believing the facade of the house has slid down in a very cartoon way exposing the top floor.  If you are in the UK area go check it out!

From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes
1 Godwin Road
Cliftonville
Margate
CT9 2HA

Let's pretend