Put This On

This post is a bit dude centric for which I apologize. From time to time I find myself wandering the internet looking for fashion inspiration. Some of my favorites to date are A Continuous Lean, Definitive Touch, and Nerd Boyfriend. In my search for the new hotness I ran across Put This On. Put this on is a new men’s fashion show available through Vimeo and blog run by Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor, who’s girlfriend runs the aforementioned Nerd Boyfriend. The show delves deep into one aspect of mens fashion every episode. I’ve always dug Jesse’s classic american style and I’m excited he’s chosen to share his knowledge with us.

Dominik Kruger

Dominik Kruger is a Portland-based designer + photographer. He caught my eye because I know these landscapes and how heavily they are photographed. It can be difficult to take a camera with you to places that are so heavily covered already in greeting cards, calendars and web headers.

These scapes though feel like they’ve never been seen before. Especially this last one – can I call it out as Silver Falls south of Portland? I could be wrong, at first glance I thought it might be Latourell Falls but it’s not the right spill over. Yeah, I’m sticking with Silver Falls if any one can call me out on it I’d love to know where this is. The top two seem like the Sisters Wilderness – not sure about that lake though. I also really appreciate that he can execute both distinct styles, moody or washed out & dreamy. Nice skeeels.

Excellent work sir, so glad to have found you.

Dominik Kruger Portfolio | Photoblog

Polaroid SX-70, just stop it

No way.
The flute, the narration, the 10 minute Polaroid ad!
It’s so scientific and dreamy! I’d like to play this ad as my eulogy, thank you very much. Polaroid, why are you so smooth? I actually had this same model as a teenager, a gift from my father. I used to love how it would pop open – it looked like a spy device. I totally swiped this vid from F Yeah! Art.

M.I.A. censored on YouTube

First of all I thought M.I.A. announced she had retired?
Clearly that is not the case, and she’s made it loud and clear with the release of her new single, Born Free. Available steaming for free on her site.
I’ve decided to not embed the video for it here on the blog. Perhaps it’s because it’s before 8am, but it’s one of the more violent/graphic music videos I’ve ever seen. Although now that I think of it, it’s no worse than any R-rated action flick.
If you’d like to see the video that’s been banned from YouTube, check it if you want it.

Here are my comments though (video spoilers, stop reading if you want to just watch it yourself). Why is this being banned? And why are people shocked?

I’d wager that many complaints are coming from parents of young teens. But the same parents probably let their kids watch Gladiator, or The Passion. This is no worse.

In fact as a comment on humans discriminating against each other I find the video to have quite the point of view! If we can find reasons to act violently against each other on such grounds as skin color or national origin, is it so ridiculous to depict violence against red heads? It’s a complete comment on what we have been doing to each other for millennia.

And, what would you expect from the daughter of a Tamil Tiger Revolutionary? He was a freedom fighter, she, an artist with a voice.

Anyhow, it’s not safe for work, but if you can read between the lines (and the shrapnel), you will get it. The same old program we love to engage in – differentiation by appearance. Hopefully this system will die off in this century.

Lewisburg, PENN 3960 Miles // Zach’s Road

First of all Zach is moving very quickly. In the past week he’s bounced from Queens to Atlantic City, Princeton to Philly. I love the mix of images here. Zach seems like one who would casually sip coffee at a cemetery.

There was a time in my life when I lived in the burbs that I took my lunches at a local graveyard. It was nice, quiet, and heavy. The 10% that was creepy/odd is what kept me coming back. My friends humored me one hot summer evening when we sipped beer at the base of a huge tree surrounded by tombstones.
Nice enough for a walk, not a nap though.
I could never let my guard down quite that far.
I’ll be there someday though, all I can hope is that someone walks by my headstone and mutters “Hm, that dude must have been interesting” and Googles my name to find this post. Snap. Full circle.

I love that Zach has chosen Arvo Pärt to surround this poem. It goes nicely with the phrase “Your limbs will be torn off in a farm accident.”

More information about this series here.