"People say a lot of negative shit about me, but I defy you to find somebody who says I did a poor job of cutting grass or clearing snow."  (Michael Koryta, Last Words)
- posted by cjb @ 1:45 PM

 

Wider angle warmly appreciated.  If I'd had this image a year or two ago I would have spent much less time in Coquitlam and much more time in nearly-Shaughnessy, where I finally ended up thanks to the kind assistance of Constant Readers Keefer & L.  My picture's subject largely concealed behind this picture's subject's natty green coat.  Not exhibited yet, but will definitely appear in the next show; one of the very few Vancouver pictures I've made in the last few years that feels in any way alive.
- posted by cjb @ 12:02 PM

 

And Archer’s where you left him,
With his arrows slightly out of reach  
Impossible raver on your death bed:
Archer on the Beach!

Anyone still wanting (or even vaguely nagged by) my so-called aesthetic methodology is referred to v.1 (on the 12") and v.2 (on Poison Season).
- posted by cjb @ 8:19 PM

 

"'I got a call from a friend who asked me to help them get this tiger out of a staircase,' said Andy Didorosi, 28, of Detroit. 'He asked me if I had a leafblower, and I said I had a weedwhacker, so he told me to bring that....I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my tools and hopped in my truck, because, you know, tiger....I don't know much about tiger logistics, but we were told to be this huge blue tarp monster with the weedwhacker and try to be scary and make loud noises. That just made him angry. You could say he got tiger rage, so we retreated.'"
- posted by cjb @ 9:06 AM

 

"Rechristening the land Botanic Garden Park, the company subdivided the canyon floor and sold off individual lots, marketing them as 'country estates.' Now, decades later, those estates host multimillion-dollar homes, and what remains of the gardens -- exotic trees, quiet ponds, and commemorative plaques from the Forest of Fame -- is hidden behind security gates."
- posted by cjb @ 8:56 PM

 

Times Square -- leavening & lightening this punishing 90-hr week, multiple guitar breaks that sound like freedom.  & those drums!
- posted by cjb @ 8:27 PM

 

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- posted by cjb @ 10:45 AM

 

SD alumnus Denny Dias at the Iridium, yesterday or the day before.  Wish I could have sent this great performance to you, Pete!

"Denny Dias was working with his own band out of his basement in Hicksville, Long Island when he placed an ad in The Village Voice that read: 'Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops. Assholes need not apply.' Soon Donald Fagen and Walter Becker joined Dias' band and the new group immediately began playing their own material. [Then] Dias fired the rest of the band and he, Fagen, and Becker moved to California, where they added drummer Jim Hodder, guitarist Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, and vocalist David Palmer before recording for ABC/Dunhill Records as Steely Dan."
- posted by cjb @ 9:31 AM

 

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- posted by cjb @ 7:27 PM

 

The Creatures of Legg Lake: Concrete Sculptures of Benjamin Dominguez

"In 1950, the Army Corps began construction of the Whittier Narrows with the caveat that the region would remain a recreational area. The lakes were intended as public fishing lakes, and were created as a joint project of the Department of Fish and Game, Wildlife Conservation Board, and the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. This unique partnership resulted in an overlapping of jurisdictions between local, county, state and federal agencies.

As part of the construction, Los Angeles County Supervisor Frank G. Bonelli looked for examples of play equipment that implemented new thinking in playground design, with the hopes that something unique would draw together the diverse communities surrounding the Narrows. He became very interested in a new 'fantasy-land"' park in Las Vegas that was generating a considerable amount of media coverage. In the newspapers, he saw intriguing photographs of sculptures of a mother dragon surrounded by mushrooms, and two unique fish slides that were accessed through their open mouths and whose slide followed the curve of the fish's body.

The sculptures, Bonelli learned, were the creations of Benjamin Dominguez. He was a seasoned artist with earlier works in Las Vegas and El Paso, Texas, as well as a fruitful career in Mexico City. Supervisor Bonelli saw in Dominguez and his playful cement creatures the perfect opportunity to make the Whittier Narrows Recreational Area a destination, and soon commissioned him to transform Legg Lake."

(More Dominguez creations here)
- posted by cjb @ 7:03 PM