I ponder the meaning of fashion week on The Comment today.
The topic was the “remix” and the discussion was led by author Steven Johnson (The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America), Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and current legal representation for Shephard Fairey, also a participant at the NYPL talk. Fairey, of course, is the artist of Andre the Giant and Obama fame, who is now being sued by the AP (big surprise) for using one of their images as the basis of his infamous “Hope” poster. (An aside…initially it was thought that the image…similar to one many, many agencies also have, was a Reuters photo. And Reuters told Fairey that they were “proud and honored.”)
Largely, the discussion focused on the issue of copyright infringement and who or what copyright protects, and does the regulation of intellectual property in the end just stifle free thought and the generation of ideas…i.e. as Johnson put it, “Are we protecting or connecting ideas.” Examples throughout history of appropriation/sampling/remixing were given via Powerpoint and Youtube projected on a large screen next to the stage. Hello, visual aid literacy at work.
Generally, the consensus was, Continue reading ‘“remix” is the cool new word for “appropriation”’
The Anna Copa Cabanna Show in Paper magazine today. All photos by Alexander Thompson.
If you live in New York (or are visiting) and wanna catch us live: We’re performing at the Highline Ballroom on March 3rd as part of the Rock-It Science festival with Rufus Wainwright, Dee Snider and a slew of scientists in bands….and our next full production is at Joe’s Pub on May 2nd.
Some good digs in his House of Holland review on style.com today.
God only knows which decade the Tibetan lamb “bustle” on a wool skirt reared up from. On the other hand, that same shaggy beast totally rocked out in a coat of graduated black, white, and gray. Call it a winsome lose-some situation.
Bummer, I loved drinking my Euro Tropicana. No more.
At first, men riding Harley Davidson motorcycles appear quite silly, incredibly. True, their tough exoskeletons of stiff leather, boots that could break a leg, hair obscured by a grungy bandanna make them look quite fearsome. But only when they’re not on the motorcycle. There is something about they way they must hold their arms nearly overhead to grip the handles, as though stretching out on a piece of gym equipment, which seems anything but threatening (leather could be spandex, boots could be high-top sneakers and so forth). It makes a man riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle look like a child uncomfortably forced to wear a homemade pirate costume, a teenager in a sandwich board or Lily Tomlin in a giant chair. It is not until you realize that by sitting low in the bike, obscured from sight, the men steer and point a ferocious front wheel as though it is not a human hurtling towards you, but an out of control machine from some Stephen King thriller. Suddenly, you take them seriously.
I will not tell you the name of this place, because I can’t. It is the type of place a friend must take you to or you must stumble upon when exiting the train because you decide for once not to look down, but look up. The minute you walk in you enter a zone of dark wood and hushed tables and antiques from a South American farm and the warm owner leads you to a table in the back of the room with flourish, where the window peeks out into a garden that is only shadows, navy blue skies and outlines of bare winter trees. You don’t know where you are, but you are not in Brooklyn and it is not 2009, it is 1909. Continue reading ’secret guacamole’
In Which Sometimes It Is Better To Be Good Than Great on This Recording.
Not sure why, but I have a hard time drumming up excitement for London Fashion Week. Must just be bad residual memories of covering it in years past during frigid February, with all the expensive taxis, expensive (and bad) food, snotty publicists, impossible locations, predictable parties. Fashion-wise, there are some redemptive designers: Richard Nicoll, Christopher Kane, Louise Goldin. What can I say…I like super tailored, structured designs. Sean Young’s character Rachael in Blade Runner will always be a muse in the morning.
l-r: Richard Nicoll, Christopher Kane, Louise Goldin, f/w 2009, photos via style.com
I’ll always have a place in my heart for Paul Smith, though his is a look that can be created by styling yourself with various combinations of tweeds, stripes and florals.
Paul Smith f/w 2009, photos via style.com
Apparently an Italian named Kinder Aggugini is getting all the buzz from editors this season, but in his Fall 2009 collection he appears to be doing what nearly every London designer loves to do at some point (or at every point), which is reinvent London street fashion in a more upmarket way. They just need something new to hang on to, now that Giles Deacon is stale and Gareth Pugh shipped out to Paris.
I have nothing to say on the Oscars other than that I heartily approve of their use of gold and silver unitards in the opening medley with Hugh Jackman. Skip ahead to 3:58 in the clip below.
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