03.25.2010

Just watched "Waiting for Hockney", where artist Billy Pappas spent 10 years creating a drawing of Marilyn Monroe. A drawing of a photograph by Richard Avedon. He attempted to do a drawing so detailed to the point he was working only in sections the size of a period on newsprint. The second goal of this endeavor was to show this drawing to David Hockney. Turns out Mr. Hockney and the people around him were underimpressed with the image. After seeing it I felt quite underwhelmed myself. From afar the drawing was a poor representation of the beauty that was Marilyn Monroe but up close it's quite beautiful. Each hair was shown, each flaw was depicted, every little detail was there. With that said I don't think I could spend a month working on the same piece much less 10 years..

Poll; Which film to submit to Dallas VideFest

Just to the right I have listed few films to choose from for the upcoming Dallas VideFest, please take a moment to watch the films and select which one to submit. Thanks for your help.

6 string cbg

Finally finished the 6 string cbg. Woke up the other morning noticing that there seemed to be a "dip" in the middle of the instrument. Upon further inspection I noticed that the tension created by more strings pulled off the back part of the neck and has started to bow the neck a little bit. Put some nuts and bolts, some gorilla glue, and a couple angle pieces and now I think I have solved this issue. I will have to create another 6 string in the future but I've learned what to do and not to do with this one. Besides I have two diddley-bo's to make for future HIO gigs.

03.17.2010; The rest of the day

Found a new home for my old 1967 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman. The poor guitar sat in an old shed for over 20 years in Montgomery, Alabama with the abusive heat and high humidity, then sat in a closet till yesterday. Hopefully, the new owner can piece this bad boy back together and get it into the hands of someone that can play it.











Looks like this when in good condition, mine didn't look anything like this.

Drove around Fort Worth running errands and getting the remaining pieces to put together two electric diddley-bo's and to fix my 6 string cbg that decided to break on me the other night.

Picked up a copy of Wii Music. Fun little music game with some interesting musical possibilities.

03.17.2010; Warhol show.

Went to see the Andy Warhol exhibit, The Last Decade, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Let me start out by saying that I'm not an Andy Warhol fan at all, I think he was a lucky, lucky person and somewhat of a hack but I can't deny his place in art history, but for $5 it's worth it to see the few paintings in there that he did with Jean Michel Basquiat, who I find very interesting.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs your attention is divided between probably one of the best paintings of the whole show, "Mona Lisa" 1979, and probably one of the worst installations of artwork I've ever seen, that is a full wall painted to look like one of his paintings of a portrait done in very shocking colors. "Mona Lisa" is a white monochromatic painting created with about twenty small screenprint of the Mona Lisa. The first few rooms are your typical screenprints of portraits with some photographs sprinkled in. As you progress you pass through some rooms containing some camouflage paintings and a few rather large Rorschach test paintings.

Up to this point my favorite Warhol paintings have been his collaborations with Jean Michel Basquiat; "Origin of Cotton", "Untitled; Heart Attack", "Untitled; 50 Dentures" and the strongest piece, "Sin More" 1985. "Sin More" is a stark piece with muted colors and in the middle is the words "Sin More", originally another word but Basquiat has wiped out part of the words. This show did open my eyes up to some of Warhol's images containing religious icons, especially a large screenprint containing two depictions of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" printed over a field of yellow. The placard next to the painting said that Warhol kept his religious beliefs a secret till after his death. I really enjoyed viewing the painting, "Detail of the Last Supper (Christ 112 times)" 1986, where he has printed little yellow line drawings of Christs profile onto black canvases 112 times. I wonder why 112 times other than it makes a long rectangle but I stared at these paintings the longest while at the show.

In the small room downstairs, they were running a small show for the artist Gabriel Acevado Velarde. One room is filled with a giant orange tarp, suspended from the ceiling, filled with some trash. Second room is gravel covered with the orange tarp, with speakers adhered to the top with sounds being created. The third room had two giant orange tents with videos being played in each, which I didn't even view them because I was bored of the show. Maybe I didn't understand the ultimate goal of the show, maybe it was sensory overload after looking through the Warhol show twice, whatever it may be I found this show pretty uninteresting.

Music to clean the house to, 03.15.2010;

"Purgatory Hill" - Pat MacDonald
"Plastic Beach" - Gorillaz
"Tronic" - Black Milk
"Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables" - Dead Kennedys
"Cracker and Shoe" - David Sait and Michael Keith.

Train 03.09.2010

Soundtrack for 03.12.2010;

"Live at the Kessler 03.07.2010" - HIO

"4.0 subtle distorted guitar drones" - Glenn Ryszko

"Machine" - Glenn Ryszko