Take this sinking boat and point it home

God knows I absolutely adore the film "Once" and also the music of "Swell Season" a.k.a. the guy and girl in the film, a.k.a. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

I have never been a big fan of award shows, but this was definitely great. I love, love, love Glen but I have to say I absolutely loved what Marketa said the most (starts at 1:40 mark. And to think she may never had the chance to had they not brought her back out!) It was also wonderful to hear her speak because in every performance I've seen them, on TV, or at their show, she barely said a word. After hearing her speak I say, she should talk more. A lot more.

Leopold Rabus

Check out a lot more of his pieces on his website at a much larger size, really amazing.

Leopold Rabus website (at Gelerie Adler)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" may quite possibly be the most beautiful movie I have seen. And, I've seen good movies. But this, blew me away in ways I've never felt before. Blew me away that now I am in space. Floating. In pitch black but I see colors. Brilliant colors. And images. Breathtaking memories. Mine. Everyone’s. Before and after me. The only sound, the beating of a heart. Ba boom, ba boom... I am not sure if it's my own, or a collective heartbeat, all the Worlds, in sync.

Now about the film itself. It's quiet, at times it's so quiet it's almost silent. But in that silence, beauty magnifies. And it deafens. It deafens you so you can hear, for the very first time. It moves you. You'll tremble. Little earthquakes will shake your senses awake. Like one that comes in the middle of a dream. You wonder 'did it just?' Yes, yes it did. It has the power of the most desperate natural disaster mother nature could ever inflict yet also the delicacy of a single dandelion seed in the air.

I say this movie, you are a fool if you don't see. You really don't need to see the trailer or read up on it. In fact the trailer doesn't do justice and you are not going to want to know too much about it beforehand. Just go see it. And oh this movie is directed by Julian Schnabel of "Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls." He knows, does beauty. But oh this one. You really did it sir-



offical movie website

movie IMDB site

Actor/ Model Musician

Lukas Haas, better known as an actor, well I like his music. He was in a band called "Bunny" with fellow actor/director Vincent Gallo. I also enjoy Vincent Gallo's music. So much in fact his songs "Honey Bunny" "Lonely Boy" and "Somewhere Place" is in one of my cherished iPod playlist called "Pretentious Junkies" along with Pete Doherty. Pete Doherty's music I also love quite a bit. Especially his acoustic stuff. Every now and then though I can get down rocking to some Babyshambles.

Lukas is releasing a solo album in the Spring. It's true I'm just a sucker for singer songwriters. I'd like to think for good singer songwriters.

Here's Lukas singing his song "Shooting Star" looking all good with his buzzed head, scruffy face, leather jacket and big ears.



Lukas Haas MySpace

Food for thought

I have been losing sleep the past few nights. Why? I can't seem to shake off all these food thoughts, ideas, recipes coming to my head. For no reason, or for a reason, whatever it is of my passions, food seems to be the one tugging at my heart the most right now. They first come in vaguely. Like a simple, common food pairing or a dish. Then it starts to morph a little bit. A little change here, a little exotic twist there. Then the visualization comes in. The colors, the layers, final "look" and the plating- placement, cherry balsamic reduction swirl there, a dab of green herb sauce for accent... Once it starts, I just can't stop.

I've also been indulging in discovering and snooping around different food recipe blogs. Usually jumping from a blog I like to another recommended on it. As Picasso said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." And seeing as cooking is art, let us steal and improve upon our knowledge so we can do better and dream bigger and always cook scrumpdiliciously. Being an aesthetics lover and nut I tend to only love sites that have good recipes, but also great over all design and great photos. Here are some of my favorite ones (Yumsugar is the one I go to regularly. Not necessarily a blog, it's just a really fun food site.)

Cream Puffs in Venice
Rice and Noodles
Seven Spoons
YumSugar

This obsessing over food does mean I have been neglecting my other loves. Of my top three- art, travelling, and food seeing as I just did some travelling out into beautiful Santa Barbara county, CA this past weekend (which also involved WINE TASTING) I am only neglecting art. Which, really is the worst one to neglect. Good news though, I just bought 2 yds of canvas today. I have less than two weeks before I leave for Chicago (well plus roadtrip days) which means I have only that time, really less than, to paint something on it. This means lots of fun, tons of painting and being happy. Also I have a few "people in LA" drawings I'd like to start on soon. I will post some fresh art ASAP. That's a promise.

Anyway, here is a really fun recipe I'm going to try out ASAP.


Red Velvet Cake Balls

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

Bakerella (for more photos and other recipes)

What is Art?- from Creature Comforts

Pretty amazing. (I love the printmaking dog and the little bit at the 5 minute mark.)



“I’ve thought about this for years. My definition of art is anything that anyone creates that invokes a reaction from someone else, even an animal. That’s art. Art’s also a friend of mine, a Mexican guy, nice guy.”

Creature Comforts website

My Blueberry Nights

There's a new Wong Kar Wai movie that's coming out in April (limited release on April 4th, 2008.) I'm a big fan of his, though I've only seen three of his movies and still missing few of the essentials ("In the Mood for Love," "Chungking Express".)

"My Blueberry Nights" is his first American feature film. From what I've read it's been getting very mixed reviews, but then again, what doesn't get very mixed reviews?

The cast is stellar, it has some of my favorite actors- Natalie Portman (ultimate favorite,) Jude Law, also Rachel Weisz. Norah Jones, yes the singer, is the lead which is certainly a surprising choice. From what I have seen though, she seems to be a very good actor and if Wong chose her I'm sure he saw something in her. It also, has a cameo by Cat Power. You mix all these wonderful people with Wong's genius, it makes one movie I am very much looking forward to seeing.

Anais Nin at 105

Tonight at the Hammer Museum there was a talk honoring Anaϊs Nin, the writer who documented culture, artists, and her own emotional journey in a daily diary started at the age of eleven. Featuring reflections by those who knew Nin personally: electronic music pioneer Bebe Barron; writer Deena Metzger; architect Eric Lloyd Wright; and founder of the Center of Autobiographic Studies, Tristine Rainer. (from Hammer Museum page)

I will admit when it comes to her, I am quite naive and unfamiliar(which was proven to me especially after tonight.) I have only read Henry and June which I thought was somewhat naive of a writing (though the nature of it- diary of a woman in love, lends to it.) I've done a bit of research to fill my curiosity so I knew bits and pieces about her. With this said, I am so glad that I went to this event because I returned with a deeper understanding of her, a legitimate curiosity of her own individual genius, writings, and life.

This entry certainly I know will not do the night or Anais justice, what was said, what was learned, the touching moments, the laughs, the lessons, the dream that should never die. What I took from it I feel is in my heart, and it seems impossible to write it all down in a little blog entry. My next discovering Anais step is to read Cities of the Interior then also start to build my Anais diary collection and read them whenever I need them.

Tonight, two speakers stood out for me, and I would not hesitate to assume for everyone else there as well.

First was Tristine Rainer. She spoke mainly about how Anais understood and valued people, the human relationships. Also what she finished with was very poignant. She spoke of how if Anais was still alive she would hope that in this material driven, culturally starved world, the artists will remember and bring sensitivity, hope and beauty into it and wait until the rest of the society is ready again. Couple quotes I wrote down-
"she could intuit the balance of your checkbook" (referring to how generous she was with her money)
"she knew when you couldn't handle the truth. and she knew when you could handle the truth."
"she would say- it's your responsibility to deal with your neurosis."

The second was Deena Metzger. Who left quite an impression to be an incredible woman herself. She pointed out that someone who lives her private life in the public, is bound to have another life even behind that. She made such a great point that perhaps the reason that Anais was so beautiful (and worked at it) and flamboyant was because she had to be in order to be noticed because she was a woman and it was a time when women could not even dream about being a writer. She had to invent herself in other ways in order to bring attention to her talent, her passion, her words. Also another reason though was because Anais recognized the intelligence of beauty. She wanted to know it, connect to it, and she was devoted to it because of it. I really loved what Anais' said to Deena when she was having difficulty writing- "it's simple. You begin with a dream and you end with a dream. You just fill in the middle."


Anais Nin website

Deena Metzger website

Tristine Rainer website

What's cookin' good lookin'?

Easy Tasty "Asian" Shrimpie (or Chicken-lickin' or Tofuliciou) Stir-Fry

Not being in my own kitchen and having limited pantry items and spices has forced me to use unconventional ingredients to cook foods and create the taste that I like. Here's a recent meal I cooked after surveying what I had available.

I call it "Asian" because it tastes like Asian food but the only actual Asian ingredient is just a tablespoon of soy sauce. I'm using shrimp because I personally love it, but you can also use either chicken or firm tofu as well. This is not an actual recipe, I rarely write them down or work from one. But if anyone would like a recipe I can certainly figure it out (specific amounts, cooking time, etc.) E-mail if interested to- ArtFondaLee@gmail.com

Now onto the cooking-


shrimp marinade:
tapatio, or other hot sauce, balsamic vinaigrette, garlic, jalapeno (optional)



marinate for 10-15 minutes (longer for chicken, less for tofu)



stir fry ingredients:
soy sauce, brown sugar, red wine, veggies



over medium heat sautee garlic in oil



add shrimp



add veggies (pour in rest of the shrimp marinade)



add cooked rice (pour in stir fry sauce ingredients)



plate (remember- we eat with our eyes and mouth!)



enjoy!

Hush now...

Black Nielson- Love Song To Chan Marshall

I absolutely loved this song and the video when I first heard/saw it. The band, Black Nielson, has been broken up since 2005 so the band itself I suppose is no longer very relevant. However, could a "Love Song To Chan Marshall" ever be irrelevant?

I am not sure what it is about my recent rekindled obsession with Chan Marshall. I could always cite one of my favorite quotes, "beauty inspires obsession." I guess it was the dream. She was a complete bitch in it to me, which well a girl likes. I guess it's seeing her soon (although had it not been the dream I would not have bought the tickets.) I guess it's, needing something like her. Something that tugs, that moves, that puzzles, that intrigues, that punches your half asleep Passion right in the face and says "hey, you see this?" "Yeah, wake up." It's that whole fine line between 'do you want this person or do you really just want to be this person?' My answer obviously is both.


Cat Power- Lost Someone (Live)

I think painting any sort of celebrity or a famous person (some could argue Chan is or is not, but she clearly is a known person) is very embarrassing (yes, painting political figures was painful hence.) Which is a shame. Really I just want to paint her and give it to her before the show so she would love me forever. (Dork!)

Ian Francis

I learned about Ian Francis a bit over a year ago. Came upon a really cool section of his website where you can see the process of how one painting is done. From beginning to end. I definitely dig the contrast of tight and lose work within the same piece. My work certainly is not nearly as good or like his, but that's something I always make sure to do in all my pieces as well. Something about a "finished" look that really bugs the fuck out of me. It seems too forced. There should be breathing room. You know? A thing alive, is never perfect.






Ian Francis website

step by step painting

Jeffrey Todd Smith

Because I never make work like this...



Everything U Fuck Turns 2 Math, 2007
ink and gouache on paper 16" x 20"



I Could Look at Myself in Your Eyes Forever, 2007
ink and gouache on paper 24" x 30"



Fecal Face interview

Reading IS sexy

If reading is dangerous, this is why- it conjures up nostalgia for things, times, and places I have no right to be nostalgic about. If it is hard enough to live in our own lifetime, what burden it is we are putting ourselves to read books, poems that come packed full of another one, two, three lifetimes worth of memories, emotions, passions, histories. And how is it that their romances seem so much more passionate, their fights actually worth dying for, and why does it always seem like the best time to be an artist was in their time and not at all my very own. It stirs up emotions and convinces you, so well, that YOU felt this. Then the guilt, of no longer feelng it. The guilt of letting it evaporate over some tens and hundreds of years we had no control of. But we should have!

Right now I am reading-
Oscar Wilde A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford (biography)
De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (his prison letters to Bosie)
Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse

The ADD that makes me have at least three paintings going at once also carries over to reading (and some would say to all aspects of my life.) However, I'm convinced reading a biography, a non-fiction, and a fiction really just counts as reading one thing.




"All existance seemed to be based on duality, on contrast. Either one was a man or one was a woman, either a wanderer or sedentary burgher, either a thinking person or a feeling person-no one could breathe in at the same time as he breathed out, be a man as well as a woman, experience freedom as well as order, combine instinct and mind. One always had to pay for one with the loss of the other, and one thing was always just as important and desirable as the other."

from Narcissus and Goldmund

O.Wilde

"There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands."

Oscar Wilde from Lady Windermere's Fan

MAKING HAPPY I one human life

I have been going to this beautiful photo blog for now 2 or some years. I forget how I stumbled upon it, but I am thankful that I found it. I am not so consistant on going to the site. Days pass, months pass. But when I find myself pondering beauty, when I find myself wanting to touch beauty, I remember there is a place I can go to indulge my eyes, where rest of the senses can not help but to follow. In those moments, I know to go here.

Every photograph is so delicate, subtle, and haunting regardless of the subject matter. Fragile and powerful both exist harmoniously without any strain or struggle. Every subject in the photo seems to have the name Beauty, or is possessed by Her which is quite a lucky thing to be.









MAKING HAPPY

From the Buddhist to the Whores

Asleep & Awake (1975)

Directed by Tom Schiller- with Henry Miller

Run time- 35 minutes



trailer






part one



part two



part three



the end.

Places You'll Go

James Jean





Tropical Toxic (blog of Asaf and Tomer)

Chicken or the Egg

I was compelled to write a sort of an essay after somewhat randomly contemplating the relationship of Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and June Miller tonight. Then watching this clip from the movie "Henry and June" and especially hearing the lines "You just want experience. You're a writer. You make love to whatever you need" got me in that special place and made me want to touch upon a subject I often ponder around and about-




This is a very powerful scene from the movie “Henry and June," the point in which their respectably established roles all at once are played out, stripped, swapped, dropped, exposed, switched, regained, etc, etc. Everyone is honest, lying, the victim, the manipulator, and all of these conflicting emotions are actually being felt genuinely. How is this possible? The only answer is that it just seems to be the nature of the artist and the muse relationship.

Artist and muse dynamic has always been something I’ve been intrigued by. It is an intricate and delicate relationship that never is simply what it seems to be, what it ought to be- one that inspires and one that is inspired, then both benefit, grow, and compliment one another with the most beautiful and satisfying results (consistently and continuously) may it be a piece of art work, song, poem, or a book.

The lines often are blurred. The role, also. Is it that the artist takes because he/she is in power and the muse gives because he/she gives up power. Or the artist relays because he/she is powerless while the muse is powerful and controls. Could it ever be equal? A partnership? As with most things in life balance seems to be the most difficult thing to find in this relationship. And when a product (painting, song, poem, or story) is presented is it to satisfy only the artist, only the muse, ideally both but how easily is this achieved? Is it possible? The artist is selfish to portray and steal from the muse what he/she only wishes to while the muse is vain and self-important expecting to be portrayed as his/her fantasy self. For both to be satisfied the process seems masturbatory for both parties and if both are dissatisfied, completely volatile and destructive and even worse, wasteful.

Ultimately I believe that since it is the artist who has the creative power with it, also holds the responsibility. But the artist temperament often gives little room for maintaining full control. Is it then always one the master and the other the slave where neither ever stays as one and the role changes without clear boundaries that can ever be set? At any moment the power can shift, there never seems to be stability. But this may be what drives it. Those that create and those that want to be at the heart of it, perhaps can not exist in stability or wish to.

The relationships of Henry, Anais, and June is especially interesting and telling of the confusing nature of the artist-muse relationship because the two artists (writers) perceive the same muse, June, in two very different perspectives which lead to a creation of two very different literary characters. All the while Henry and Anais also are powerless to June under different circumstances leading up to and after the creative process. June's expectations and needs too vary for the two. And through out it all there are no clear boundaries or sensibility in the dynamic that at times is explosive creatively and beautifully while at other times explosive in the ugliest ways.


Recommended reads-

Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
Henry and June Anais Nin

Henry Miller Wikipedia
Anais Nin Wikipedia
June Miller Wikipedia