Yearly Archives for 2008

ARTHUR BEST OF 2007 LISTS No. 10: PShaw

Pshaw’s Lucky 13 for 2007

1. Popeye Vol. 1 [Fantagraphics] America’s first comic super hero from 1929 [Superman debuted in 1938] from the original Thimble Theatre newspaper comic strips. Matchless and defying all imitations [Boo! to the animated cartoons! Read the book.]. Sunday’s reprinted for the first time in full color. Arf Arf!

2. Little High People takes 7 & 8 [Complete Jack Johnson box: Miles Davis] Have replaced Kraftwerk on Bremen Radio as my temporary fave. Two Electric keyboards and organ, plus cuica and kazoo, nice!

3. Powr Mastrs Vol.1 [Picturebox] CF of the band Kites makes a big splash.

4. Ernst Haeckel 19th century German biologist,naturalist, and proto-psychedelic illustrator of sea creatures.

5. Ben Jones [member of Paper Rad] as inspirational as Gary Panter.

6. Ron Regé Jr. go to Plight of the Cartoon Utopian [http://ronrege.blogspot.com/]

8. MIT’s Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change researching our climate dynamics on the Charles River.

9. Lucid Absinthe the green muse served up right in Allston, Mass.

10. Buddha’s Hand smells nice, looks weird!

11. Capital Reef National Park Utah dazzling geological wonder. Way far away from civilization, hardly any tourists or food!

12. Black Cat/White Cat [1998 Emir Kusturica] very entertaining and fun spirited. Great cast of characters.

13. Lazy Magnet He Sought For That Magic By Which All The Glory And Mystic Chivalry Were Made To Shine – or – Is Music Even Good?
[2007 Corleone CD] Jeremy Harris defends his title with a sense of Doom, and remains the Champ.

PShaw is PShaw. He’s been drawing the “Strings” comic strip for Arthur since No. 19.

ARTHUR BEST OF 2007 LISTS No. 9: Stacy Kranitz

Notable moments from 2007
by Stacy Kranitz

A small victory for justice, when in September an appeals court threw out
the all white jury conviction of Mychal Bell, 17 in Jena, Louisiana.

The death of an ancient blood sport. Louisiana State legislature passed a
law this summer that will make cockfighting illegal at the end of the 2008
season. This is the last state where the sport that used to be fought on the
lawn of the White House is still legal. By the end of 2008 there will be no
legal cockfighting anywhere in the United States.

Listening to the Arson Anthem EP

Listening to Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3

Listening to Wolves In the Throne Room, Two Hunters

Listening to Kevin Nutt’s weekly gospel radio show, Sinners Crossroad

Watching R. Kelly, Trapped in the Closet Ch. 1-22

Watching Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn

Reading LENI: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl by Steven Bach

Reading Atchafalaya Houseboat by Gwen Roland

Photojournalist Stacy Kranitz photographed Celebration for Arthur No. 27. Her photo essay on contemporary extreme Scandinavian metal musicians way back in Arthur No. 16 is still talked about. She is at work on two new features for Arthur about… well, that would be telling.

ARTHUR BEST OF 2007 LISTS No. 8: Richard Pleuger

Richard Pleuger’s top something of 2007:

1. Listening to “These Days” by XuXu Fang while pounding down the snowy slopes and spectacular vistas of the Swiss Alps.

2. The Valerie Project at the Silent Movie Theatre (1st night), LA

3. Roky Erickson Live at El Rey, LA

4. Spiritualized at the Vista Theatre (first night), LA

5. Caribou Andorra

6. Remy the Rat in Ratatouille (Pixar)

7. Eight Miles High, the movie on Germany’s 60’s icon Uschi Obermaier

8. Alan Vega Station

9. Filming “Urania Descending” with Tav Falco at the Attersee, Austria

10. Watching Dali’s Destino on a big screen and taking in the sharpest and most dangerous paintings of his career in the “Dali & Film” exhibition, LACMA

11. Retreiving and watching my “lost” master tape of the concert by Berlin’s The Legendary Golden Vampires from 1985. Nineteen atomic minutes, enjoyable someday on the net!

Richard Pleuger is an international man of mystery and longtime contributing editor, writer, photographer, archivist, humorist and general inspiration to Arthur Magazine. His profile of Tav Falco in Arthur No. 21 is one of the most beloved features ever published in the mag.

ARTHUR BEST OF 2007 LISTS No. 7: Trinie Dalton

TOP stuff all of equal greatness
by Trinie Dalton

Valerie Project is a live re-soundtracking by members of Espers, Fursaxa, and Fern Knight of Czech New Wave film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Live, the orchestra kills the original sound and plays their own magic, creepy score to this goth horror fairy tale about a girl losing her virginity. Lubos Fiser’s OG soundtrack has been recently re-released on CD and that is a treat as well. But live, the show is stunning, with full instrumentation beyond the average rock band, including Mary Lattimore’s lovely harp playing. CD’s out on Drag City if you miss the live show.

Meramec Caverns in Stanton, Missouri: killer caves, unreal cave classroom in which boy scouts learn speleology and geology, and an annual gospel retreat accommodating 600 people underground that I REALLY want to go to. There is also a disco ball in the cave entrance. Won’t spoil the highlights of the tour, but let’s just say it’s an hour and a half of mind-blowing wonder.

Salt Point State Park in Sonoma County, California: land holdings include one of the last protected pygmy forests, in which topsoil has eroding, causing nutrient-starved plants to flourish despite stunting conditions. This mixed conifer and redwood forest is ideal for mushroom hunting as well, not psychedelics but other showy varieties.

Gore (Picture Box Inc.) by Black Dice and Jason Frank Rothenberg: features collages by the talented Bjorn Copeland. Psychedelic humor and bold color palette.

Ariel Pink: new album recorded this year, unreleased as of yet? Played several spot-on Los Angeles shows, such as an opening gig for Gang Gang Dance at the Henry Fonda Theater and a rooftop blowout in Echo Park the same night Devendra Banhart closed his long Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon Tour at the Orpheum. Catch him live.

Les Mangalepa: Endurance

New American Writing series at the Hammer Museum: hosted by Benjamin Weissman is the best reading series and is even better now that the Hammer’s hot pink-seated Billy Wilder theater has opened. Highlight shows in this venue were Miranda July reading from her new book and artist Jim Shaw performing with orchestra of handmade instruments for the closing of the Eden’s Edge exhibit.

Panda Bear: Person Pitch

Family Books: the bookstore hosted many fun events, including a mini-reading series I curated, and continuously offers new titles to browse while visiting. Brings the boutique-style, niche-shop of New York to Los Angeles, and also proves to me that there’s a younger generation who read.

Denise Emmer: Canto Lunar

Kenneth Anger Volumes I & II released on DVD: my favorite director now has DVDs available with Anger-approved soundtracks and film quality. Director’s commentaries on each film are invaluable. Scorpion Rising, Puce Moment, two versions of Rabbit’s Moon, a letter Bobby Beausoleil wrote about his trials and tribulations battling Satan while recording the Invocation soundtrack from prison, the list of greatness continues.

The Killing Kind: this lost-classic directed by Curtis Harrington is now easy to watch, and wow, is it a creepy tale of a serial killer and his psychotic mother. Best Horror Film 2007!

Oaxaca: visiting Oaxaca City and taking day trips out into each of the four mountain ranges that form its basin gave me a lifetime of inspiration. Monte Alban, the hub of Zapotec culture, was a highlight, as were visiting a calcified waterfall called Hierve el Agua and hiking into the montane cloud forest to caves, wild orchids, and several bromeliad species.

Olympic Spa in L.A.’s Koreatown: $15 gets you a pass into a world of hot baths, dry saunas, steam rooms, and a heated jade-tiled floor to lie on. Ladies only.

Diving Bell and the Butterfly: directed by Julian Schnabel makes you want to give the egomaniac another chance. This retelling of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s paralyzing stroke and his struggle to write a book by learning a blinking alphabet to spell each letter out to a secretary for transcription is completely tragic and beautifully filmed.

Fit To Print: Printed Media in Recent Collage at Gagosian: was my favorite group show this year, solidifying collage’s recent return into the art critical spotlight. Fifty people in this show, but highlights were Jim Drain, Rachel Harrison, Richard Prince’s nurse novel book covers, Bjorn Copeland, Paul McCarthy & Benjamin Weissman, Christian Holstad, Jason Meadows, and many more. Coincides with the collage portion of New Museum’s (Un)Monumental exhibit, inaugurating their new space on the Bowery.

Liz Craft at Marianne Boesky: best solo show starred maybe twenty new all-white painted bronze and mixed media Aztec-style boxes with windows, terraces, and various objects attached inside, outside, above, below, and around these intriguing forms. These surreal dream objects reminded me of Magritte, Cornell, Duchamp, Oppenheim, though with more Mexican-California flair.

The Art of Raising A Puppy (Little, Brown, and Company) by the Monks of New Skete: was a book that taught me a lot about fostering the pup I adopted from the pound. Written by Eastern Orthodox Monks in upstate New York, this book describes positive-reward method training techniques for German Sheperds, though the theories apply to all canines.

LAMA annual mushroom fair: this year’s was totally dried up due to drought, but usually the display tables feature all the species people find and bring in for I.D., some dudes with microscopes identifying, slide lectures, and displays showing all the native Southern California fungus varieties.

Wanda, directed by Barbara Loden, was screened at the Redcat in conjunction with the WACK! exhibition at MOCA. This great, 1970s feminist-era film, turns the then-popular ideas of feminism on their head, starring an incompetent, redneck loser, Wanda, who continuously digs herself into holes she can’t get out of. She is a charming, funny protagonist who actually convinces the viewer that males are the ones who make the most sense sometimes. This film presents a complex view of gender politics, rejecting stereotypes either way, and can be hard to see, though hopefully one day it will be released on DVD.

TRINIE DALTON is an author, artist, mushroom enthusiast and longtime contributor to Arthur Magazine. Her most recent books are the illustrated novella A Unicorn Is Born (with artist Kathrin Ayers) (Abrams), the short story collection Wide Eyed (Akashic) and a collection of confiscated schoolroom notes, Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is (McSweeney’s). She profiled Ethan Miller of Comets on Fire and Howlin Rain in Arthur No. 24, Delia and Gavin in Arthur No. 21, Animal Collective in Arthur No. 19, Henry Darger documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu in Arthur No. 15, RTX in Arthur No. 12 and both Devendra Banhart and CocoRosie in Arthur No. 10. Trinie just moved to New York and is working on at least three secret projects.