Street art is fascinating enough on it’s own but, given it’s ephemeral nature, the act of photographing it is essential. And sometimes a photograph of street art, when it’s from an interesting angle or incorporates experiments with color, light, and/or contrast, is a piece of art in itself. Annie Ridlon, of Moontree Studios in Jamaica Plain, writes on her Flickr page:

"In my neighborhood there's a 300 foot wall tucked away behind the train tracks, which serves as the canvas for one of the most gorgeous, ever-changing street murals I've ever beheld. It's pretty much a secret, so there's not many people who even know of its existence.

The wall is in a constant state of flux. Every day new pieces are added, old paint crumbles or is intentionally destroyed, layers of tags and signs and full-blown pieces are layered on top of one another. It's an incredible riot of color and texture. It's also a testament to the creative subculture which created it, and to the ever evolving nature of art itself."

Photographing the mural has become a project for Ridlon, as it has for many members of Flickr’s street art groups, who scour the streets on an unending treasure hunt for the perfect (or imperfect, which can be just as alluring) stencil or freshly wheatpasted poster. Below, a smattering of Ridlon’s photos, which she’s selling prints of on the website/crafters heaven, Etsy.







Photos by oxymephorous.

We're also digging this conceptually similar, up-close photo of the Wall in Central Square, snapped by eatskisleep.



And speaking of crafting, knitgirl is injecting originality into Vancouver’s street art scene, one brightly woven cozy at a time. If Banksy spent a few afternoons hanging out with your grandmother, this might be the result, and we totally adore the concept. knitgirl’s works seem to be everywhere - poles, trees, bikes - and it’s making us want to steal the idea, pick up some knitting sticks, and spread the trend to Boston. There’s just something so friendly - not to mention more accessible - about it. Not all street art is so easily likeable - sometimes glaring tags can be offputting. knitgirl's work is like a friendly reminder that street art can be created in any medium, and in any place. After all, who hates mittens? Photos below. 


Photo by Yorri¢k.


Photo by REDRUM (AYS).


Photo by Knightmusik. [Ed. note - We totally want one of these for our bike.]

More knitgirl photos here.

--Caitlin E. Curran

5/5/2008 4:52:58 PM by Will Spitz | Comments [0] |  

And speaking of not detoxing, here's more shizzle from the Interwebs. Garfield Minus Garfield is exactly how it sounds: the lonely, depressing tale of John Arbuckle or, as the GMG mastermind puts it: "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?" A sampling:











More here.

-Caitlin E. Curran

4/24/2008 3:35:34 PM by Will Spitz | Comments [0] |  

Tee hee! We're all a-titter over this week's Observer cover, although we can imagine Anna Wintour has an enormous bee buzzing in her bonnet right about now. Oh my!

Here is this April's cover of Vogue, featuring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen. It was shot by Annie Leibovitz: click for what might have been her "inspiration." As you might imagine, its been causing quite the stir!



Weeee! Here's the Observer's silly little spoof, conveniently timed to their magazine-themed issue. Doesn't Si Newhouse look ever so dainty?

4/2/2008 3:32:32 PM by Sharon Steel | Comments [0] |  

Anime Boston 2008

ThePhoenix.com's resident cosplay expert, Maddy Myers, reports from Anime Boston. And yes, if you must know, she made that Zelda suit from scratch. 

 

Good idea: 15,000 Anime Fans swarming Hynes Convention Center.

Bad idea: Only five computers set up to register them all.

 

Staffers were undeniably overpowered by attendance at Anime Boston 2008. Nicknamed "Line Con", Anime Boston featured a wait for almost every event. (It probably didn't help that there was an outbreak of "Con Flu.") Hopefully, the higher-ups will have found a better way to organize registration by 2009, but that won’t stop the lines for other huge events. Patience has become a necessary virtue for Massachusetts-based otaku.

 

When events ran well, they ran quite well indeed. The Pillows concert exceeded the already-high expectations (for those willing to wait in the hours-long line to see them). The Tetris Ninjas returned to the Masquerade this year to do an amazing Duck Hunt sketch. And, as always, cosplayers from far and wide came together to impress the heck out of each other (my highest compliments to the Devil May Cry 4 group, Ultima from FFXII, the Companion Cube from Portal, the humongous Jigglypuff, and . . . well, I could go on all day).

 

Even though I saw a lot of kids bitterly pawning their 3-day passes after a disappointing Friday, I think Anime Boston is still worth attending. Despite its notorious disorganization problems, the convention has always had impressive guest speaker lists and a huge variety in events. Next year, fans will know what to expect and the long lines won’t disappoint or surprise. We’re all just hoping that the staff size starts catching up with the attendance rates. The Anime fans of New England deserve it!

-- Maddy Myers

3/31/2008 8:19:14 PM by Carly Carioli | Comments [0] |  

I'll come totally clean on this: as much as I was enjoying this season, it wasn't until this week that I thought the Celtics were a real NBA Championship contender. Much like everyone else, I was simply expecting the eventual champion to be a western power, be it San Antonio, Los Angeles, or Utah, with New Orleans, Dallas, Phoenix, et al looking at a tougher road but still having a puncher's chance if they made it in. Boston I saw as the Eastern Conference version of the early '00s Kings - they'll go through the regular season like a hot knife through butter, but when it came time for the playoffs they'd be too thin, too worn out, too simply ill-prepared to keep up with the elites.

After the events of this week - winning a hard-fought defensive struggle against the reigning champs, dominating a team in the midst of a historic win streak, and overcoming an off night from its two point guards to beat Dallas (a team, granted, that's still adjusting to life with Jason Kidd) - we fail to see how anyone could think this team is anything less than the best team in the NBA. They are playing their best ball of the season, they're getting contributions from their entire roster (except for Brian Scalabrine,) and they're now deep enough to keep their big three healthy (and win games without them.)

Also, Boston Globe? I know the Red Sox basically run this town, but could we maybe get some coverage of this team?

3/21/2008 9:18:16 AM by Ryan Stewart | Comments [0] |  

Yes, yes, I am obsessed with Amy Larocca's weekly New York magazine fashion popsicle, in which she interviews one or more crazily dressed urbanite and explains why they are loathsome, amazing, weird, terrible, or the coolest just by asking them, like, four questions. Deborah Solomon, take note! Sometimes the answers are all about What You're Wearing. It really is that simple!

This week's feature is a true gem. The ladies are above, the link to the full text of the Q&A is here, but my favorite response, possibly ever, to the query "What do you do?" is below. SO, okay, these women are kind of insane and obviously loaded and the fur coats are heinous. But isn't this a nice, breezy, non-annoying way to respond to such an inquiry if, say, you don't have a job, and people are all up in your grill, like WHY ARE YOU NOT WORKING? I also think it's an amazing technique even if you DO have a job and a stress attacks and deadlines. Living and enjoying. WHAT A CONCEPT.

What do you guys do?
ELISA: Right now I am living life. Because I can. I’m living, and I’m enjoying. I collect art, I collect fashion. I can’t lie to you, I love it. At some point you follow a type of life with a schedule, and I kind of said, “You know what? I’m going to take a hike for a while.”

That's right! Take a hike, lady! Do it in your riding boots and gray skinny jeans. While you're at it, get yourself a TV show or go become Paris's new BFF. She would heart you!

3/17/2008 4:58:35 PM by Sharon Steel | Comments [0] |  

(Photograph by Michael Lutch)

 

Is there a pianist in the house?

 

Moved and excited by pianist Leon Fleisher’s performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Boston Symphony, I wanted to hear it again. But when I returned to Symphony Hall, I learned that around 6:00 PM that evening, a stomach flu had forced Fleisher to cancel, and that the distinguished Austrian/Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti, in town to hear his son Julian (one of the BSO’s two new assistant conductors) in his BSO conducting debut, agreed to go on, without any rehearsal, in Fleisher’s place. I was disappointed—but not for long.

 

This also marked the BSO debut of the 69-year-old Kuerti, a masterful and elegant player who studied with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski and at the Longy School, and played the first movement of the Grieg Piano Concerto at a morning children’s concert with the Esplanade Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler a week before his tenth birthday. Fleisher, at 79, and still in treatment for focal dystonia in his right hand, had to slow down the fast movements and still missed a few notes (he played “beyond the notes”). But Kuerti hit them all, jawdroppingly full speed ahead. His sound is softer-edged than Fleisher’s jewel-like pointedness, but it’s also crystalline, transparent, and so precise that every note is distinguishable, even as it’s flying by at hummingbird speed. The Emperor is full of trills, and Kuerti’s are virtually birdlike, rising in triumph then floating gracefully, magically downward.

 

Kuerti doesn’t have Fleisher’s muscularity or sense of drama, but he has, above all, an extraordinary sense of musical continuity. He seemed to play each movement, especially the slow, songful middle movement, in a single breath. His pacing was flawless, especially in Beethoven’s unbroken transition from the inward slow movement to the extroverted, dancing finale, which Kuerti plunged into with breathtaking daring.

 

This was the second consecutive BSO concert series during which a major soloist had to cancel (the week before, baritone Thomas Quasthoff sang a set of Schubert songs only at one concert before he came down with the flu and lost his voice—he was replaced with the Brahms Serenade the BSO played the week before that).

 

Meanwhile, Kuerti’s 31-year-old son, who provided such sympathetic and imaginative support for Fleisher, delivered more of the same for his father’s very different approach. This was a memorable pairing. Surely the BSO will find a time when they can do it again, and with some advance notice.

 

―Lloyd Schwartz

3/12/2008 5:30:33 PM by Nina MacLaughlin | Comments [0] |  

Yesterday's New York Times travel section had an interesting piece about graffiti and street art in Berlin. From the article:

"Nearly everywhere you go, from the cafe-lined streets of Kreuzberg to the leafy schoolyards in Grunewald, hastily drawn “tags” stream across the sidewalk and crawl up the side of buildings, in an elaborate zigzag of cartoonish graphics, puffy letters, photo-like wheat pastes and bold stencils. Parts of the city look as splattered as a New York City subway car from the 1970s.

And it’s not just no-name graffiti writers who are contributing to the visual assault. With no shortage of vacant buildings, weedy lots and creative nomads, Berlin has become a blank canvas for graffiti artists far and wide, turning the German capital into arguably the most “bombed” — slang for graffiti-covered — city in Europe."

Catch the video interview with Berlin street artist Ali here, read the rest of the article here, or enjoy a collection of Berlin street art photos I've assembled below, via the Global Urban Art Pool.

Photos by K!WA.

Warhol bananas, as mentioned in the NYT. Photos by nolifebeforecoffee.

Photo by LoisInWonderland.

3/3/2008 4:07:20 PM by Caitlin | Comments [2] |  

Leap out of your desks, bitches.

You shouldn't be here.

2/29/2008 12:51:11 PM by Ellee Dean | Comments [0] |  

2/26/2008 2:05:28 PM by Ryan Stewart | Comments [0] |  

It was born in New York City. But since then, the flash mob whatshamacallit has spread -- so that now these things are just about everywhere. Yes, it seems like with each passing week, another group of people randomly drop their pants while riding public transportation, or engage in a giant city-wide pillow fight or -- and this is my personal favorite -- freeze for a few minutes in some public place. Case in point: in this excellent video from a few days ago, a large group of Brits freeze in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London. If any of these things could be considered art, it’s this one. Have a look at the couple frozen mid-kiss and then the woman taking a picture with a phone, gasping at something in the distance with her hand over her mouth.

All of this, of course, is to lend some context to the event that occurred at Faneuil Hall just a few hours ago -- the Silent Dance Experiment, as it's being called. This event required a little more legwork from participants than other events I’ve witnessed/taken part in. In order to participate, you had to download a 15 minute or so mp3 put together by the good folks at Banditos Misteriosos (with some help from DJ JR -- Jonathan Rubinger), the group responsible for the event. The mp3, which you can download off the group’s website here if you'd like, came complete with instructions for the dancers and - surprise! - dance music. This, as far as I know, is a brand new concept when it comes to these sorts of things. Usually, folks taking part simply have all downloaded the same song prior to the event.

The plan was to show up, iPod in pocket, at Faneuil Hall before one (the official starting time) in front of the Sam Adams statue. I got there way early, sat down in a DD and began reading the James Parker-approved Enter Naomi (an excellent read thus far and trust me when I say that you don’t have to be a Black Flag fan to enjoy). Eventually, I ventured over and circled the Hall, eyeing all of the folks by the statue with headphones and the tourists looking on without any clue as to what was in store for them. A mother with her daughter walked over to me and asked if I knew what was going on. I shook my head. At the risk of sounding hopelessly lame, I like to think of every event as a sort of mission to throw off the public--err, civilians, I should say. These people who came to Boston to snap photos of themselves in front of the odd statue and the replica Cheers bar.

I’m not sure how it all got started, whether there was an individual who called out something, but it did. And once it did, it began very tentatively. There were plenty of people -- though far fewer than the event's Facebook page would have you think (I'm sure the weather played a role in that) -- but many looked hesitant to get into it. I don’t know if it was self-consciousness or nerves or the mp3 giving the dancers instructions to pace themselves. Eventually though, the dance party began to come to life. Taking orders from some unseen and unheard source, they engaged in all number of cheesy, bar mitzvah party-inspired moves. I recognized Ethan who is part of Banditos Misteriosos, dressed in a fake beard and ridiculous outfit. He once or twice held up what appeared to be a piece of cardboard for his fellow dancers to see. The entire thing commenced with a giant conga line. For a YouTube of it, click here. 

Last night, in the midst of reading up on the event, I came across the Yelp page for the event and on it an interesting comment. Someone had mentioned that “It'd be nice if we did some stuff in Boston that wasn't simply an imitation of what another city has already done!”. In response, Ethan of the Misteriosos wrote to this Yelper that his group did indeed have more original ideas in the works. I, myself, am very excited to see what else they can do.

2/23/2008 3:44:52 PM by Ian Sands | Comments [0] |  

2/7/2008 3:21:09 PM by Ellee Dean | Comments [0] |  

First, the news:

Click here for more info.

Back to our regular program. In Boston, as previously reported, Monopoly everywhere:









All photos courtesy of hargo, who'd like to share this "timeless holiday story about family, love, and codependency" with you. Watch out for those reindeer around South Station.

Not in Boston (Rome, Italy - we think):







All photos by the Jango.

12/6/2007 1:08:48 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

This made me laugh. Jim “Suldog” Sullivan of Watertown Mass is on a quest to stop Christmas from encroaching on Turkey Day’s turf. He’s tired of having to sit through all those ads for Christmas in November. Of the malls he frequents breaking out the Santa suits prematurely. Of the supermarket shelves he peers down boasting cookies decorated “in green and red sprinkles.” So he’s fighting back and making me giggle in the process. I especially love the first few lines of his blog post — “They’re beating me down. I keep getting up, but I don’t know how much longer I can continue to do so. It’s tougher every time" — which read like they're introducing a prison memoir.

Sullivan doesn’t only toss his verbal Molotov cocktails at the corporations that shill their Christmas schlock this time of year, he’s also got it in for the “boob” he spies on TV at Giants stadium wearing a Santa hat on his head. Declares Sullivan of said boob: “If I could have somehow teleported myself to Giants Stadium and wrapped a length of piano wire around his neck, I would have delighted in seeing his eyes bulge from their sockets while the wire sliced his jugular vein. Merry Christmas!” Just glorious. Sullivan is a little like the Christian-version of that other anger management flunkee, the writer and "This American Life" contributor Shalom Auslander. Later he calls out the worst offenders — they being Target, Macy’s, Lowe’s, and WROR radio in Boston (for playing Madonna's "Santa Baby") — and reveals that he "will never shop at any of these stores" until they "forego holiday advertisements until at least the week of Thanksgiving..." 

11/21/2007 3:03:02 PM by Ian Sands | Comments [1] |  

I'm late to the Project Runway Season 4 rehash game, but rest assured. I've already watched the debut twice (yes, twice) and I can say with a great deal of self-assurance that this is totally my favorite season so far. Not even A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila can top the happiness of Proj Run. Although it's fun to alternate Tila and PR marathons. In fact, I highly recommend it.

So. Simone, the only pretty girl, got voted off. Sad! Heidi Klum doesn't like to be upstaged by quirky-cutes. It's going to be okay, though. I'm not worried. Neither are any of the straight men I know who watch this show without any hand-holding or convincing from yours truly. Although Tim Gunn really does seem... deflated. What's wrong, Tim? I still like Guide to Style, even if the critics say it's a poor-woman's What Not to Wear. I enjoy Tim and Veronica Webb together, I like the presents hes gives away, and I would love to give him a double kiss on the cheeks. Just saying. Elisa, I think, is fantastic. She's so art-school. It's amazing to watch her work. The thing she did with rubbing the chiffon in the grass was magic. I want more. Forever. I already have a soft spot for Rami because he's Israeli and I appreciate his quiet confidence. Plus, his winsome, chic gray dress! And yes, I have a television crush on him. But. I feel like he's a bit too purposeful. We shall see. Oh, one last thing. It really bothered me that the puffed sleeves on Christian's jacket weren't even. I echoed Tim's concerns about that, though Nina Garcia didn't seem to care?! Christian's shtick is extremely loud and proud. Obviously I adore the 'tude. Although if I knew him I would probably be like -- move, bitch. He really is kind of a bitch, right? Except his word for that is Flawless. Or was it Fabulous? Hmmm.

11/20/2007 12:56:23 PM by Sharon Steel | Comments [0] |  

11/13/2007 1:05:13 PM by Ian Sands | Comments [0] |  

In Boston (Nineta, on Comm Ave and beyond):






**(This one's actually by Matt Siren)



Photos snagged from l_a_i_a.

Not in Boston (Talking Britneys in Vancouver, British Columbia):









Photos swiped from jerm9ine.

Help us out. Send a photo or two. Drop an e-mail here.

11/9/2007 2:20:56 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |