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BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE
THE SURF INTERVIEW: WAYNE RICH: SHAPER
Wayne Rich Lives, Surfs and Shapes Boards in Santa Barbara, California USA. He has been through hell and high water more than once in his life. Mr Rich is a master surfboard shaper, an artist, a humanist and he's cool. He found the time to discuss surfing, the art & craft of creating surfboards, growing up in the California surfing community and the technical as well as creative decisions in making a specialized board for any individual surfer. Wayne is a dedicated surfer who lives the life, he knows the lore, he abides by the surfers code and has a great sense of what it is to be a surfer today. He is also an award winning board shaper with an incredible shaping style. Take Notes Surf students, this Man is a true veteran of the early days.This isn't an Interview, this is Surfing History 101 & Mr Rich is your Professor.
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi: You Have Been Shaping For Quite A While, How Did You Originally Get A Chance To Shape Boards ?
Wayne Rich: It really all started for me when my mother took to me in her arms under the lip of a breaking wave through the shore break at 2nd Street in Hermosa at 3 years old, followed by swim class's for the next 7 years at the historical "Swim Gym" on Pier Avenue. Owned by the Legendary lifeguard Iron Man Champion Mr. Paul Matthies and his wife Aneta, the Swim Gym taught almost everyone in the South Bay how to swim well enough to always be safe transitioning into the ocean with respect and confidence. My swim instructor at 3 years of age was Mrs. Rudi Bendiksen who was married to Danny Bendiksen - one of the Great Shapers at Bing Surfboards. We became family friends and I was in awe of Dan and Rudi's beach and ocean lifestyle as well as my sister Zona, who was their babysitter and I mowed their lawn once a week for 2.00, and the honor of hanging in the garage handling all of the bitchin' boards in Dan's insane quiver that included: Hawaiian Guns, Nuuhiwa lightweights and Nose Riders, with a few experimental transitional short boards that were for Rolf Aurness. Dan was sort of a second father to me and a few of my friends at times through early childhood. He shaped me my very first actual custom board when I was 12, after I had to earn the right of a custom by riding anything possible on the beach or around the neighborhood garages or yards up to that point. My sister Zona and my mother Bertie were cool enough to always take me surfing and were avid water women themselves back then, that was key in keeping the dream alive in my early years.
Wayne Rich: In the 70's some of my friends and I would strip the glass off old longboards and try to shape them into something different for fun, but it wasn't like starting from a real blank, so I guess that doesn't really count as actual shaping, although we really had fun and it pissed off our parents as it made a hell of a mess. My mentor was Danny Bendiksen, who shaped at Bing surfboards during the 60's and early 70's and I would go in after school occasionally to watch him shape and to this day I use many of the techniques that Danny used then. I feel honored to have been so lucky to grow up in Hermosa Beach and two blocks from the Bay Cities factories of the famed Pollard Valley, the only industrial two block square area zoned for manufacturing in the HB. There is so much history in that tiny mecca of the surfing world from the past 50 to 60 years that much of the world has probably not heard about. The original surfer/board builders - Greg Noll, Bing, Rick, Jacobs, Dewey Weber, Velzy, Becker, Donald Takayama, Lance Carson, Eddie Talbot, Pat Ryan aka Gumby, Mobley, Vardeman, Dave Boyce, Petrillo, Reef, Unity, and Wayne Miyata, Sam Harwood aka Skipper Fats, Dave Higley, Pat Reardon, Don Kadowaki, Steve and Chris Schlickenmeyer, Dennis Jarvis - Spyder, Tom Stanton, John Lessing, Mike Eaton, Bendiksen, Mike Geib, Jeff Widener, Redman, Ray Lucke, Zen Del Rio, Steve "Berdie" Burdette, Steve Mangagli, Bobby Jensen, Henry Ford, Kenny Tilton, Mike Collins and sons Timmy and Tom of Shoreline Glassing, and Two of the greatest airbrush artists in the world - Steve Carranza, and for a few short years - The late Jack Meyer, and in later years Tyler Hatzikian, and Matt Calvani, Mark Broeg, Jeff Biggs and that's just off the top of my head to name a few. All of the Kick Ass take no prisoners - South Bay Lifeguards, and of course Bill and Bob Miestrell and their kids (Body Glove Wetsuits), have had a profound influence on the surfing world in many ways branching out all over the entire planet today.
Wayne Rich: By '79, I started getting more serious about wanting to learn the true art of shaping and design but was afraid to get off of my Bendiksen's that worked so insane. Dan called bullshit on that and encouraged me to ride both and stop making excuses - he was like a god to us! I just shut up, did what he said and he was always there through the process and saved me when I got in over my head. I also had the good fortune to work with a master woodworker and boat builder named Dave Harris who was my craftsmanship mentor with the traditional tools of the old world wizards. So that is my foundation and what a blessing it was to grow up on 7th Street in Hermosa, two blocks from all the factories and 5 blocks from the beach around such a diverse town with sometimes over 40 Hells Angels bikes lined up in front of Pier 52, or some other local bar keeping order in the downtown area near Hermosa pier. Every one of these people and more not listed have been the foundation of influence in the Water, and in the vast elements of the Craft throughout my entire life.
Wayne Rich: As a matter of fact, the knowledge I learned over the years from these people was so deep, that I could go anywhere in the world to build boards and be at the highest level of technique and cratsmanship in any shop, anywhere. This really opened the right doors with the right people as I migrated North, to Ventura, Port Hueneme and Hollywood by The Sea, (Serious Hard Core Localism) and once again, my foundation got me through it and I fit right in with them. I lived at Hollywood by The Sea for nearly 10 years before moving to Carpinteria and eventually Goleta, but have been shaping Santa Barbara for the past 20 years. Once I got hooked on the beach breaks of Oxnard, and Rincon, not to mention the lower end of the Central Coast, I just ended up staying up here. Working for 13 years in Reynolds Yaters original Santa Barbara Surf Shop with Clyde Beatty and a great crew of craftsman has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Working around Renny during this time was like going to Graduate School in all ways of board building, what an Honor !
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi: Besides Functionality & Form, Color & Pattern Are Also A Big Part Of Your Work, Discuss How Your Designs Have Evolved Through The Years .
Wayne Rich: As Frank Lloyd Wright always said - "Form Follows Function," The color designs and particular uses of them in simple flowing ways will accent the lines of a surfboard. I've been really learning more and more about this very thing in the past decade. I think breaking certain rules with color and design is most interesting and learning how far we stretch those limitations is the real art of the whole thing. I have always loved abstract resin swirl techniques and try to put a different twist on than conventional production abstracts and have worked with Chris Fallon at Studio 609 since the '90's to push some of these ideas and limitations with color designs on my boards. He's an amazing artist and helps me get the effects that are mind boggling in recent years. The evolution of the designs really come from a lifetime of riding waves with my friends up and down the coast and around the world. The era's of wave riding mindset inspire us as Designers and Builders to ride the circle where ever we want to depending on how we surf, and where we surf.
Wayne Rich: Many of us that are serious about surfing, have quite a diverse quiver of boards and depending on the person, can range from 4 or 5 and some up to 20 or more boards that are highly specialized and tuned for specific breaks and conditions. I guess to answer this question thoroughly: my designs have become more versatile in every way around the entire circle of design theory and application through the experience of "feeling the cause and effect" of incremented shape and contour changes as well as fin designs and placements relating to specific types of boards. This is only achieved though the trial and error real time testing - Incredibly humbling at times, but truly the most insanely fun parts of what we do. Then we document all of this as best we can in a creative and evolving way in the shaping room while always maintaining the human element of free flowing - Hands - Eyes - & Dreamlike Mind, tuning the progression and change in only the essential areas of any given design. There is really No End to this process of dynamic experimentation and I'll do it till I Die!
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi: Your Use Of Concave Shapes Is Really Progressive. Share With Our Readers Your Decision To Really Push The Inverted Arch In Your Designs.
Wayne Rich: The concave's that I shape into the vast variety of my models will vary in many ways depending on the desired "cause and effect" of feel and performance that we are striving for in a purpose built board. If it's not purpose built, I won't build it! This can get pretty deep, and it's really why many of us chase this Dragon for a lifetime! For example, If you are shooting for a high level authentic traditional single fin Nose Rider and you want the lift of a concave, there are many things to take into consideration. First off here, Who is riding the board and what are they looking for in feel? How much do they weigh? What is their level? Are you sure you want or need the lift of a concave? Where are they surfing the board primarily, what type of wave? If so, then we can adjust the rocker accordingly and start by deciding on how deep and where do we want it deep and why, followed by do we want to blend it into the middle of the bottom so we can control the push point, or do we want the defined tear drop Nuuhiwa Nose Rider type of concave with the push point on your back foot or if you're not right on the tip. They all have great dynamics and it's really all about how to balance them with each riders style.
Wayne Rich: Keep in mind that the rail foil of the deck and bottom have a huge effect on the speed of the board and work hand in hand with the concave and where it transitions into the bottom of the board. So we don't want release on the rail with a nose rider and we can retard the effect of the concave by how we foil the rail into it. The weight of the board is also a factor as well as the fin area, design, and placement, wood stringers, and if you design "flex" into a specific area of the nose or tail. In a nutshell, this type of concave is more of a lifting device and a speed brake in some areas of the wave to keep us perched on the tip. Nothing is for free in the design world folks, there are always side effects to every design feature and this extra lift can sometimes pull you up out of the slot in certain conditions and you need to adjust in a fluid manor with good footwork to keep them in the constantly changing hook of the curl while driving on the tip. With a Short Board for 3-5 foot conditions, concave's will be used in a different way with a different purpose in mind. We want speed! We want maximum lift! We want release off the rails and the tail! With these things balanced with the proper rocker and fin set up, We get maneuverability and speed working together! One example is light entry concave under the front 1/3 to center of the board that increases in depth out through the tail of the board. Sometimes you can sand in light double barrel concave's inside the big single concave only through the back 1/3 of the tail as another variation of this example. This really creates great lift and less wetted surface under the rider through each maneuver, offering the quick powerful movement we want out of a good short board design. These examples are tip of the iceberg as for the whole concept, I've been as brief as possible.
Artist: Andy Warhol, American, 1928-1987 Skull, 1976 acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen 15 x 19 in. (38.1 x 48.3 cm.) Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
ALL ART IMAGES: Courtesy of The PHOENIX ART MUSEUM and The Andy Warhol Museum,
Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Phoenix Art Museum 1625 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004
ON PHOTOGRAPHS: "I like images and so to make images became kind of natural."
ON PARIS: "I never really had a concept for something. It was really the intuition before I really saw it. So, Paris was very good for me.
ON LONDON: "It was wonderful, because, they didn't pay any attention to you. Which, today, they would tell you to fuck off or turn away, you know."
ON NEW YORK CITY: "New York is a very good city, wherever you look around, it has a character. and you know, It isn't a pretty life, it isn't a sweet life, it's, it's the real life, that I looked for, and that I got.
ON AMERICA: "In America I wanted to do it differently. There was no more romanticism really, a look at a country that I didn't really know, I had only been here a couple of years. The Americans was the first time I made a trip across the country… I really felt something very strong from the people. I looked at poor people, how they tried to survive, what a lonely time it can be in America, what at a tough country it is."
ON EARLY INFLUENCES: "You grow up in a place and the culture of that place or your parents or your situation, it influences you. There was a war going on, Switzerland was a place that was closed off from everywhere, you couldn't get out and you were afraid that the nazi's would invade … so of course, it had an influence on a jew."
ON RACE RELATIONS: "Also, I saw for the first time the way blacks were treated, it was surprising to me, but it didn't make me hate America, it made me understand how people can be. You know, you learn a lot traveling and you learn a lot when you are a photographer and thats what probably what makes the difference, if you have some brain and some feeling for people, you are going to be a good photographer."
ON PERCEPTION OF HIS IMAGES: "The reaction surprised me, because people thought it was an anti-American story, so then, it took ten years till that changed, but I do like America, so I became an American and thats what I know best."
ON CREATING PICTURES : "The Pictures have to talk, not me, and so be it."
" I appreciate everyone's job, because Iv'e done it, I know what it takes, I know how hard it is and I understand. "
Joshua TRILIEGI: How did the idea for the Smoke series originally come about?
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Wayne Rich: The Asymmetric design is the brainchild of Carl Ekstrom. Carl is the Godfather of the Asymm movement in the world today! Asymm's are a heel and toe thing, designed with the longer rail line on the frontside or backside depending on the style and power in your stance. Most are built with the longer rail line on the riders frontside and the shorter rail line on the backside, but some people want it the other way around.The templates are completely different from one side to the other and the boards are really interesting, the best thing is that when you ride them they don't feel weird or asymmetrical in any way. That part is Mind - Blowing! the bottom contours are totally different too, as well as rail volume, overall foil, and thickness distribution.
Wayne Rich: They are very intriguing and have created quite an underground movement with many of us that build them since Carl Ekstom was honored in the Icons of Foam Boardroom Show (formerly, Sacred Craft - Tribute to the Masters). 6 shapers were chosen by Carl to create any type of asymm they wanted and need to submit a mini thesis on the design to be judged in the end by Rusty, Stan Pleskunas & Carl in a very subjective format. Every board was unique and awesome in their own way and we all had a great time that elevated our minds in every way. Somehow mine was picked as the winner, but it could have gone to anyone and I'm sure it was heart wrenching for the guys to pick any one board, when they were all the winner! The coolest part is that I have been still shaping and riding the design that I came up with for the show and it has changed my life in the water and that's what it's all about.
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi: Share With Our Readers The Different Challenges Regarding Size Starting With A. Longboards B. Guns C. Tri Fins And Shaping Specifically For A Very Particular Rider.
You have to surf what you shape to earn the high degree of respect and understanding needed to have confidence through humility with any type of surfboard design and the conditions that it will be surfed in. That becomes serious business when it comes to big wave guns, so you go as far as you can without drowning, and then you need the help of your brothers that can take it a step further. We forge intimate relationships with our riders to mind meld what we can together about the dynamics to call the shots on the key design elements. This is pretty much the same in everything we make from 70's retro single fins, to classic fish designs and alternative boards to the modern short board. My friends that are my riders, have helped me throughout my life with this endless learning experience, I owe it all to them.
Wayne Rich: Two weeks ago the MSA Malibu Classic Invitational had the best surf in the 50 year history of the event. Joel Tudor, Vince Felix, and myself, all won our respective age divisions on old school classic designs that we have been working on together and that was a highlight in the life. It's so cool when things come full circle through the Brotherhood of Soul in the ultimate Dojo, we are all good "dirty white belts" in training, and we will never stop learning! To wrap it up, in one of my heats, my old bro Allen Sarlo and I were sitting deep up the point waiting for a set and I said hey brother - "Do it for Jay!" And he said, "YEAH - Do it for Jay!" as he looked up in the sky. I wanted him to win it for Jay so bad to help him heal as he and everyone in the whole Surf / Skate community has been in shock the past couple weeks with the passing of Jay Adams. A few moments later, I said, "If you don't, for any reason, I will do my best to pull it off." At the awards ceremony it was an honor of a lifetime to tell the story and raise up the win in honor of Jay Boy. The Underground Lives !
Welcome to The SUMMER 2015 Edition of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE. This Edition contains The BUREAU ICON Essay on Georgia O'KEEFFE, A Photographic Profile on Robert FRANK's Classic Book The Americans, INTERVIEWS with Photographer Alex HARRIS, The Portrait Painter Jon SWIHART, The Legendary SURF Photographer Jack ENGLISH and The BUREAU Summer Guest Artist: Irby PACE. CINEMA: On The Set of The Classic Film RAGING BULL. CUISINE: PALMS Beverly Hills & Pedro INOSCENCIO, Heir to The Throne: Jamie WYETH, BOOKS: David BROWNE's Opus on The Grateful Dead. Herb RITTS in Boston, Charles RAY in Chicago, Andy WARHOL in Phoenix, Peter BLUME in Hartford, FASHION: The Dandy LIONS Photography and New FICTION by Linda TOCH. +An Interview with The Bureau Editor's Mom, Maria Francesca TRILIEGI on her New Book. We are pleased to have New Readers in The SOUTH: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Louisiana at our Newest Community Site, BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE: THE SOUTH. Links to Summer Events across the USA including, The CHICAGO Blues Festival, AUSTIN Biker Festival, Scorsese Collects in NEW YORK, 4TH of July Celebrations + so much more. The BUREAU EDITORIAL DIS - Organizations: Are Groups in America Abusing Power ?MUSIC: Lets ROCK at Fahey / Klein Gallery in MIAMI, MUSEUMS: National Gallery of Art, PORTRAITS: Native American Portraits from The YALE Collection of Western Americana. Plus Links to Our Eight Different Community Sites Celebrating The ARTS Across AMERICA . The Social Media Sites serve More as a look back at Previous BUREAU Editions + Features
THE BUREAU SUMMER EDITION 2015 EDITED by JOSHUA TRILIEGI
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Norman Seeff : Mick Jagger Los Angeles, CA USA 1972 Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Miami
LETS ROCK is on View Through to JUNE 13th 2015 at Fahey/Klein Miami
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BUREAU SUMMER EDITION 2015 EDITED by JOSHUA TRILIEGI
When You Download The FREE Edition it will open on your computer or device, It is an Electronic Interactive Version of BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine. We suggest you view the pdf in the [ Two Page with Cover ] and [ Full Screen Mode ] Options which are Provided at the Top of your Menu Bar under the VIEW section. Simply choose Two Page Layout & Full Screen to enjoy. This format allows for The Magazine to be read as a Paper Edition. Displaying images and Text in Center-folds. When reading on a computer, utilize the Arrows on your keyboard to turn the pages. Be Sure To Download A High Resolution Version at BUREAU of Arts And Culture's Official Magazine Website or any of Our Community Sites with Links Provided Below. We Thank: Da Capo Press, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Pace/MacGill Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Georgia O'Keefe Museum of Art, Fine Arts Center Colorado Springs, Duke University, Andy Warhol Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Crystal Bridges, United Artists, Spot Photo Works, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art Huston Texas, Gallerie Urbane, Mary Boone Gallery, Pace Gallery, Asian Art Museum, Magnum Photo, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Fahey/Klein, Tobey C. Moss, Sandra Gehring, George Billis, Martin - Gropius - Bau Berlin, San Jose Museum of Art, First Run Features, Downtown Records, Koplin Del Rio, Robert Berman, Indie Printing, American Film Institute, SFMOMA, Palm Beverly Hills, KM Fine Arts, LA Art Show, Photo LA, Jewish Contemporary Museum, Cultural Affairs, Yale Collection of Rare Books & Manuscript and Richard Levy. Contributing Photographers: Norman Seef, Herb Ritts, Jack English, Alex Harris, Gered Mankowitz, Bohnchang Koo, Natsumi Hayashi, Raymond Depardon, T. Enami, Dennis Stock, Dina Litovsky, Guillermo Cervera, Moises Saman, Cathleen Naundorf, Terry Richardson, Phil Stern, Dennis Morris, Henry Diltz, Steve Schapiro, Yousuf Karsh, Ellen Von Unwerth, William Claxton, Robin Holland, Andrew Moore, James Gabbard, Mary Ellen Mark, John Robert Rowlands, Brian Duffy, Robert Frank, Jon Lewis, Sven Hans, David Levinthal, Joshua White, Brian Forrest, Lorna Stovall, Elliott Erwitt, Rene Burri, Susan Wright, David Leventhal, Peter Van Agtmael & The Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi. Contributing Guest Artists: Irby Pace, Jon Swihart, F. Scott Hess, Ho Ryon Lee, Andy Moses, Kahn & Selesnick, Jules Engel, Patrick Lee, David Palumbo, Tom Gregg, Tony Fitzpatrick, Gary Lang, Fabrizio Casetta, DJ Hall, David FeBland, Eric Zener, Seeroon Yeretzian, Dawn Jackson, Charles Dickson, Ernesto DeLaLoza, Diana Wong, Gustavo Godoy, John Weston, Kris Kuksi, Bomonster, Hiroshi Ariyama, Linda Stark, Kota Ezawa, Russell Nachman, Katsushika Hokusai and Xuan Chen Contributing Writers: Robin Holland, Jamar Mar(s) Tucker, Linda Toch, Maria (Mom) Triliegi
THE NATIVE AMERICANS
What is Sacred ? What is Holy ? What is Original ? What is American ? They tell me that Football, McDonalds & The Automobile are American. Although, the only thing that seems to me that is holy, sacred, original and also American is: The Native American. The original ecologists, with a deep understanding of the natural sciences, including astronomy, keeping time, recording natural and spiritual occurrences in regards to evolution. They are the storytellers and record keepers in tune with nature, animals and the planet earth. We are Americans and we are now out of balance. We are struggling with our identity, as a country, as a people and beyond that, as human beings. How will we make peace with one another ? How will we solve the riddles of our history ? In 1492, "Columbus sailed the ocean blue…" 500+ years later, we are left in the dark, regarding race relations, regarding peaceful understanding of our diverse lifestyles, regarding the history of Slavery, regarding how we all speak different languages, regarding our different religions and the fact that all our official political representatives have boiled down each and every argument into a request and or a bequest of financial gain or loss. We are in denial, ecologically, ideologically and in general. Native Americans lost much of this great land and what it meant to them, they sacrificed and they survived. Will we as modern day Americans also experience a similar take over of this Beautiful Country by handing it over to Big Business ? What will be left in the aftermath ? Take a look around, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's happening now or maybe it already did.
ANDY WARHOL IS IN ARIZONA !
How a genuinely curious and simply child-like Individual took over the entire Art World… Is Probably how I would begin a story describing Andy's entire career and trajectory into and then out of the stratosphere of Culture. He used genuine experiences, friendships, new technologies, interest's and even phobia's to reflect on and represent what he saw, but most of all, he used and honored: the experiment. Willing to fail but determined to succeed and sometimes achieving both concurrently. A personal failure could easily become a professional championship win in Warhol's World. A professional failure could lead to personal triumphs. Andy used the world and the world's inhabitants returned the favor. The Story of Andy Warhol can never be told in a single sitting, nor should it be. All good artist's should simply be viewed one image at a time. That is the nature of art and artists, stories and writers, photographs and photographers, musicians and music: One word, One Note, One Image at a time is as ample a device as any to experience what need be.
Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Phoenix Art Museum 1625 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004
TAP TO VISIT MUSEUM EXHIBIT / ANDY WARHOL PORTRAITS at : phxart.org
ROBERT FRANK: VISUAL POET
Photographers around the world revere Robert Frank's contributions to the image pool. Museums of the National and International variety create anthologies, catalogues and booklets attempting to put into perspective the precise importance of Mr. Frank's work. Art galleries and private dealers invest tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in reproducing and reselling the Robert Frank catalogue to new collectors at higher and higher prices each year. Robert Frank's photographs have become iconic, the images are American to the core and yet, he was an outsider, a beatnik, an immigrant, a visual poet. It is almost impossible to define why and what and how the impetus, the formula, the motivation surfaces within an individual artist, but within the example of Mister Robert Frank, it is safe to say that this honest man, with a most basic and unadorned tool in hand, was indeed on a quest for that rare and delectable entity known quite simply, plainly & rather straightforwardly as: The TRUTH.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Robert Frank travelled the United States in search of America and Americans: he found both. Seeking the truth, leads to knowledge, with knowledge comes responsibility, with responsibility comes wisdom and somewhere within the wisdom, sits some version of truth. What if the truth you find has something in it that is just the slightest bit askew ? What if your parents fled a dictator for a place that was safe and secure and then you were to gamble all that away for a place that spoke of a much larger idea and when you went out to find that idea, it didn't actually exist ? Like many immigrants, like my ancestors and many of your ancestors, we as a people came to discover America and quickly, we realized that America didn't really exist in the way we thought it did. Within that realization also comes a comprehension that although America is not everything we were told, it is now ours and as Americans, we can collectively & individually make a contribution, and in that offering, in that very active step forward into our lives, we make America what it is: You and me. Frank turned his eye on America and took its picture. He did not flinch, he did not turn away, he did not judge, he did not separate, he did not categorize, he did not modify, he did nothing but document, and in that study and within his vignettes, his so-called snap shots, something quite real surfaced, it expounded well beyond the veneer and eventually he found what many of us can only hope to fathom: Mister Robert Frank had simply discovered America & made it his own. He was not the first to, 'discover,' America. Columbus had discovered America in 1492. Washington and his boys followed suit and decided they liked the place more than they did their own homes. Who could blame them ? This place is awesome. The big difference with Robert Frank's discovery is that he did not conquer, nor did he enslave, he just simply captured the image and after all: image is everything. When America actually viewed it's own portrait shortly after World War II and in the decade to follow, it was somewhat shocked at the signs of poverty, the segregation, the somewhat disheveled look. The melting pot of life had seen it's own reflection and turned away, blaming the mirror. The Portrait of America and Americans by Mr. Robert Frank has gone onto have a lasting effect on the populist, the politics, the entire cultural landscape, which in the mid fifties was about to undergo a major shift in values. These images of America immediately influenced an entire generation of writers, artists and activists that had both preceded and coincided with this very new and emerging America. A recent exhibition presented by The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University unveiled many works from Mr. Frank's famous AMERICANS Series that had never been publicly displayed.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
At seventeen years of age, Frank learns to develop and print photographs with a neighbor who also introduces him to modern art, the apprenticeship lasted a year. At about this same time, fascism and the rise of Hitler's influence in Germany, where his family emigrated from, his father is German, his mother Swiss, effected the young man's perspectives. Frank, who was of Jewish descent, surely knew, growing up in Sweden, that he was different. His parents were both culturally astute, his father could quote Goethe in two languages, his mother created drawings. When a cousin of Frank's came to visit, her parents, who had stayed behind were eventually victims of the holocaust. The memories of Frank's parents recoiling from the sound of Hitler's hatred remained with him forever. In 1942, Robert Frank studied at Wolgensinger studio in Zurich, where he became influenced by the New Photography and an ethic that, in his teacher's own words, "Photography is the representation of reality - its mission is to convey essence, form and atmosphere." Frank learns to light, print and organize his works as well as contact sheet his 2 1/4 negatives. Two years later, he lands a job developing works for the largest photo studio in Switzerland, by day, he prints their work, by night, he prints his own. By 1946 Frank produces an impressive portfolio entitled, simply 40 Fotos. With the end of World War II, he travels to Paris, Milan and Brussels and by 1947, with a rebellious streak of independence and stories of American culture engrained in his psyche by literature and world events, Mr. Frank boards a ship to America. He recalls sitting between a wild, gangster-hatted American who eats with his hands and a Bishop with rosary and red sash: a scene straight out of a movie. Frank briefly worked for Harper's and a year later, he travelled to Peru and Bolivia. By 1949, he was back in Europe traveling to Spain, France, Italy and later that year is published in Camera magazine, with a prophetic declaration, "We believe Robert Frank can teach us how to see …"
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Robert Frank travelled between Europe and America several times in the early nineteen fifties. He married, had a child, applied for and received a Guggenheim grant & drove across the United States documenting a very real America. He had already captured iconic images in England, Scotland, Peru and Spain, including top hatted Londoners, coal miners in Whales, workers in LaPaz, bullfighters in Barcelona. He was now in search of the American image, outside of the big cities, rural America. It is fitting that the author of, "On The Road," Jack Kerouac and Robert Frank would eventually collaborate on a film. Kerouac also wrote the preface to Frank's seminal mid fifties survey work that was eventually published in 1958, entitled simply, "The Americans." Mr. Franks entry into America in 1947 and his many travels coincided exactly with author Kerouac's own pursuit and invention of a New Prose language in America. It was the perfect alignment. Frank's search for the truth in images, his abhorrence of commercial situations, where he quickly realized that, "There was no spirit there … the only thing that mattered was to make money," was in total unison with the emerging beatnik movement. Which eventually led to the cultural revolution and a new generation of values that included women's rights, civil rights and alternative lifestyles. Frank was also very much in line with the new school of painting that had taken hold by the likes of New York action painter Jackson Pollock, who had graced the cover of time in 1947, the year Frank first arrived in America. He states, regarding the new found style, after a conscious exodus from his New York commercial assignments, "I was very free with the camera. I didn't think of what would be the correct thing to do. I did what I felt like doing. I was like an action painter… I was making a kind of diary."
The tools Frank selects become even simpler when he begins using a point and shoot 35mm Leica, suggested by his boss and mentor at Harper's Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, rather than his 2 1/4 inch box camera. It is very possible that Robert Frank was one of the few modern photographers to be fully conscious of his intuition, utilizing a philosophy of following one's heart as opposed to one's mind. The 35mm camera made this very particular and personal transition that much easier. Frank was also very aware of the myths that had surrounded photography since World War II, with the adventurous roving journalist tradition of photographers such as Robert Capa, who later co-founded Magnum Photo Agency, the first agency to be run by and for photographers. There were times in Frank's early career when lack of sales and rejection from the large magazine publications only fueled his motivation. He strived to break free of the style, story concept and basic mainstream presentation of imagery that pervaded the publishing industry: the beginning, middle & end formulas that LIFE magazine so heartily represented. Frank began to present his layouts and book design works without many words or narration and juxtaposing images such as Christ on the cross with a Ballon at a parade, titled : Men of Wood & Men of Air. Though, even more effective and minimalist are images presented with no text at all and no image juxtaposed, simply an image on one page and a blank page next to it. In this way, Robert Frank elevated the conversation by allowing the viewer to do some thinking, to read the symbols, to project themselves into the image and decide for themselves what was going on. By doing so, he also added a much needed element that had been missing from the photography of the nineteen fifties, Mr. Frank brought back a sense of curiosity to photography and in doing so, he created a new visual poetry with various meanings to each viewer.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
No Less than ten minutes into the documentary entitled, "Leaving Home, Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank," Mr. Frank rejects the films process, unveiling a glimpse into his very true character as a kind of idiosyncratic jazz purist. Up to this point in the film, the filmmaker's have decided to do a, 'connect the dots' biographical take, asking Mr. Frank to discuss and recall all the known biographical facts that have been so well explored before in books and catalogues, such as the very detailed essays by Sarah Greenough of The National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C. where much of Frank's photographic work resides for future study. These biographical essays can also be found in the very extensive book entitled, "ROBERT FRANK Moving Out" on Scalo Press. In the middle of a question and answer session, Mr. Frank is asked to repeat an earlier observation, because the film crew had actually run out of film. He responds with a fiery exchange: "Well, look, forget it. Look, I'm not an actor, you know. I can't go through this shit, you know. I mean… theres no spontaneity in this, it's completely against my nature what's happening here. So, if the crew can't get it together with the film, let's go out to Coney Island, lets play a Beckett play there and lets look at the landscape with my photographs and see that this man is looking for something he did fifty years ago." In the next shot of the film, Mr Frank is seen on the street in Coney Island asking a cop on a horse, "Sir, do you know where this is ? I took this picture almost fifty years ago," The cop answers, "No, I don't know." Mr Frank turns to the camera in response, "Let's find a real old guy, he would know." Suddenly we get some authenticity and a peek into what it Is that Robert Frank does so well: He connects with real people. Eventually, a young african american man points out the location, "It was right there," he points across the way, "So then, you knew it as a kid ?" Frank asks and the young man answers, "Yeah." There is a very heart felt parting glance, Franks says, "Thanks a lot." Then, suddenly, the young man reaches out his hand and Mr. Frank grabs the young man's wrist, their eyes meet and they relate. It's a small, yet beautiful moment where two strangers have connected. We get the sense that
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Mr. Frank's pictures, his early and entire catalogue were also indeed created with this special human need, for a man, alone with his art and his ideas, to connect with his people, with his immediate surroundings and with the world at large. At another point in the documentary, Mr Frank is riding a bus, looking out the window, recalling an earlier series of works taken from the windows of moving buses. He looks out the window quietly reminiscing in a solitary manner. As an admirer of Mr. Frank and his work, to watch him with no camera in his hands, was literally, for me, quite painful. When a human being you love turns ninety years of age, as Mr. Frank currently has, it is high time to celebrate his life, his work, his experiences. It is also time to ensure that this human being has everything he needs, that he knows how very well loved, well respected and well deserving he is of life's gifts. When both of my Grandfather's had turned ninety, I dropped everything I was doing and focused on them, we made documentary films together, we created images, we conducted interviews, we ate together, we discussed their lives, we set the story straight. Now, both of those men no longer walk the earth, they have moved on to another world. As I look at Robert Frank's world of images, as I look at Robert Frank's life, as I look at Robert Frank's experience at my own 'middle age', I get invigorated, I get inspired, I get turned on to life again and a new phase of creating begins. The power of the Individual is awe inspiring. Very few singular Artists, Writers or Filmmakers have set the bar to a new standard in the way in which Mr. Robert Frank has done. He is stubbornly passionate, defiantly individualistic, decidedly authentic, unabashedly truthful, culturally curious and it is very safe to say that Mr. Robert Frank did not sell out. He influenced and continues to influence The Arts, Advertising, Musicians, Writers, Filmmakers and of course photography, every single decade since his first appearing on theses shores. He is a living legend and most likely, he would shun that appraisal. Which is neither here nor there, the fact is, he did his job, the images remain, end of story.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
ROBERT FRANK
VISUAL POET : In His Words
ON PHOTOGRAPHS: "I like images and so to make images became kind of natural."
ON PARIS: "I never really had a concept for something. It was really the intuition before I really saw it. So, Paris was very good for me.
ON LONDON: "It was wonderful, because, they didn't pay any attention to you. Which, today, they would tell you to fuck off or turn away, you know."
ON NEW YORK CITY: "New York is a very good city, wherever you look around, it has a character. and you know, It isn't a pretty life, it isn't a sweet life, it's, it's the real life, that I looked for, and that I got.
ON AMERICA: "In America I wanted to do it differently. There was no more romanticism really, a look at a country that I didn't really know, I had only been here a couple of years. The Americans was the first time I made a trip across the country… I really felt something very strong from the people. I looked at poor people, how they tried to survive, what a lonely time it can be in America, what at a tough country it is."
ON EARLY INFLUENCES: "You grow up in a place and the culture of that place or your parents or your situation, it influences you. There was a war going on, Switzerland was a place that was closed off from everywhere, you couldn't get out and you were afraid that the nazi's would invade … so of course, it had an influence on a jew."
ON RACE RELATIONS: "Also, I saw for the first time the way blacks were treated, it was surprising to me, but it didn't make me hate America, it made me understand how people can be. You know, you learn a lot traveling and you learn a lot when you are a photographer and thats what probably what makes the difference, if you have some brain and some feeling for people, you are going to be a good photographer."
ON PERCEPTION OF HIS IMAGES: "The reaction surprised me, because people thought it was an anti-American story, so then, it took ten years till that changed, but I do like America, so I became an American and thats what I know best."
ON CREATING PICTURES : "The Pictures have to talk, not me, and so be it."
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Mr Robert Frank's Images are Archived in The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. USA
THE BUREAU CUISINE : PALM
The Palm Restaurants have been around since the early Nineteen Twenties, first in New York City and then the world. There are very few American establishments that can boast existing for three generations, being owned and operated by the Original Family and retaining a reputation with new trends in cuisine. Palm in Beverly Hills, their newest flagship, does all this and more.
We recently visited with Chef Pedro Inoscencio over dinner to discuss the Palm in Beverly Hills. The new space is an incredible improvement from the former location in West Hollywood. The Palm regulars will feel they have some spacious new breathing room, while newcomers will simply enjoy the vibe. Comfortable booths, high ceilings, private dining sections, a quiet table in the back, or front and center and a bar that has you easily chatting over the best cocktails money can buy. Many of the famous trademark celebrity artworks and drawings have been tastefully transferred to keep the original flavor intact as well as the tried and true recipes and yet, Chef Pedro Inoscencio, who has worked at Palm for twelve years, climbing the ladder, one rung at a time, is always looking for new ways to entice his budding clientele. Beverly Hills has always been about retaining a tried and true customer with new and consistently healthier recipes. Executive Chef Inoscencio knows very well, from experience, how to do so. "Food is really an Art," he explains over a glass of Fourteen Hands Merlot and a hearty salad made of baby kale, pine nuts, currants and romano cheese tossed in oil, dijon & lemon, "I found out early on, how much I actually enjoyed creating food and so, after working in the kitchen on a summer job, I went back to school and got a degree in the culinary arts." His first job out of school was with the Ritz Carlton, working with the best in the business inspired the young up and comer to continue honing his craft, that was over fifteen years ago and now he is at the top of his game. It's inspiring & a pleasure to discuss cuisine with the best in the biz.
CHEF: PEDRO INOSCENCIO
One of the newest aspects of Palm Beverly Hills is a returning original tradition of the freshest meat and steaks available by having an in-house butcher and closely watched aging process. Chef Inoscencio describes the advantages of this capability, while I simply marvel at and enjoy both the New York Steak and the local selections. "Everything is done in-house, drying and selecting here makes the end result much more tender. All of our meats are hand selected by the president of our company." One of the advantages of working in the culinary industry from entry level to Executive Chef, Inoscencio relates, is a deep comprehension of the entire business, "I appreciate everyone's job, because Iv'e done it, I know what it takes, I know how hard it is and I understand." It is this mix of humble know how and skilled expertise that makes Inoscencio someone special to Los Angeles. An example of Pedro's modest attitude would be the time he was offered Head Chef position and declined. "I simply wanted to learn every aspect of the management side, so I could be successful at the executive position, so, I turned it down." Luckily, Palm's management was patient enough until Inoscencio felt he had mastered his craft and some five years later, he was offered the job again, this time, he was ready. Pedro comes from a large family, he was born in Mexico and travelled to America at twelve years of age. The very fact that his position as Executive Chef has coincided with this new location makes this particular progression that much sweeter. We have to hand it to both the Palm's management for allowing and nurturing an entry level employee to work their way up to the top as well as Chef Pedro for waiting until he felt his time had come. Watching him walk from the kitchen to our table with the gravitas of a seasoned pro, one immediately observes, first hand what over fifteen years in this industry provides: Inoscencio simply belongs here."This new location in Beverly Hills has been a goal and dream come true to the owners of this company for a long time and to be offered this position at this location is an honor and I feel pretty proud of it." As he heads back into the kitchen, I walk into the bar, thinking to myself, "Someone very cool has just made it."
" I appreciate everyone's job, because Iv'e done it, I know what it takes, I know how hard it is and I understand. "
- Pedro INOSCENCIO
Executive Chef
PALM Beverly Hills
PALM RESTAURANT IN BEVERLY HILLS
267 N CANON DRIVE BEVERLY HILLS CA 90210 PHONE : 310 550 8811 FAX : 310 278 5334THEPALM.COM
INTERVIEW GUEST ARTIST: IRBY PACE
Joshua TRILIEGI: How did the idea for the Smoke series originally come about?
Irby PACE: I had the idea of starting this project a few years before leaving graduate school in 2012, but initiating the series always seemed to get pushed back because of other priorities I had at the time such as school, teaching, etc., but it stayed in my mind and in my sketchbook. Occasionally... weekly... monthly... I would go back through my sketchbook and just absorb or contemplate new ideas or revisit old ones, even the ones that failed. After graduate school I became part of an artist run collective, 500x, which inspired me to do something new from my previous artworks.
Starting any body of work is complicated, at least for me it is, because I have a specific visual image and I have to see it come to fruition before I can continue to explore within the given work. I failed with the Pop! series more times that I can count and I continue to do so. On average I make anywhere from four to five setups for every successful one final photograph. But this challenge keeps me motivated, I feel like I’m always fighting the elements, wind, lighting, etc.
Another challenge I wanted to explore was to do everything “through the lens.” This is what keeps me on edge and it makes it all of the hard work worth it when everything just lines up perfectly. With the work I was thinking like a painter and a photographer combined. I wanted to add these clouds to these physical spaces much like a painter would manipulate a space with oils or acrylics, but the photography makes it hyper realistic because it’s actually happening. It is in these small split second moments that I really truly live as a photographer.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Experimentation and hard work are always a big part of finding an original idea in modern art, your art catalogue shows clearly that you have earned your position and yet the smoke series seems so simple. Tell our readers a bit about your ' search ' for the art image.
Irby PACE: I, and other artists, live in a time where it is seemingly harder and harder to make an original piece of “art.” Yeah I know... that’s a trite statement. Its the mantra of undergrads and artists and everyone. Well, I can’t say everyone, but how about a majority of people. But, it is surprising to me how common that statement is. Even non artistic people say that, or at least I’ve heard a few here or there say that. Maybe the old adage that “everything has been done before” really is true. Maybe it’s bullshit. Maybe we need to move on from this self imposed pity party and start trying to make some original shit happen. But how do we do this? When I hear “nothing’s original” I step up on a soapbox and let them know that every new piece of technology that is being introduced daily has the potential to be an outlet for an art making practice, tool, etc.Experimentation is what makes this process difficult. We’re conditioned to make something “right” then to continue to rinse and repeat this process. But you have to take the time to deviate from the path, to try something new, and to be willing to fail. Failing isn’t necessarily desirable, but that’s my barometer to know when I’m on to something.
To Download The Entire INTERVIEW Tap This Link : SUMMER EDITION PACE:
BUREAU ART in AMERICA : TEXAS
Tap To Visit On Line: NasherSculptureCenter.org
DALLAS Art Pick : THE NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
The Nasher Sculpture Center is located in the heart of Dallas’ thriving downtown Arts District. This summer, the Nasher Sculpture Center will present a major exhibition of the work of British sculptor Phyllida Barlow. Barlow employs commonplace materials—wood, plaster, concrete, cardboard, and strips of colorful cloth or tape—in extraordinary, monumental, ramshackle, hand-built structures that expound a dizzying array of novel sculptural forms. Recent projects at the Tate Britain in London and the New Museum in New York have showcased the prodigious talents of the now 70-year-old Barlow, who, after a distinguished teaching career at the Slade School of Art in London, is finally enjoying the broad international recognition her work has long deserved. Her exhibition at the Nasher will feature new work inspired by, and created for, the unique spaces of its galleries. Like several of Barlow’s recent projects, these new works will challenge accepted notions of sculpture, blurring the line between constructed form (sculpture) and constructed environment (architecture), and providing a powerful counterpoint to the refined surroundings of the Nasher’s Renzo Piano-designed building. More than simply a presentation of unique objects, the distinct sculptures in Barlow’s installations create a coherent, if varied, environment, linking to one another through materials, method of fabrication, or color palette. 2001 Flora Street Dallas, Texas 75201 214 . 242 . 5100
Shigeo Gochō, Self and Others Series, 1975–77, printed 1992, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum © Hiroichi Gochō
MUSEUM OF FINE ART HOUSTON TEXAS
The Museum of Fine Art Houston is home to The Films of Robert Frank as well as a fabulous permanent collection of Art and Temporary Exhibitions that rival any Art Institute across the United States. Currently on View through to July 12, 2015
FOR A NEW WORLD TO COME: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968–1979
The late 1960s and early 1970s marked a period of political and social turmoil in Japan. The country was struggling to forge a new identity on the world stage, and Japanese artists were seeking a medium that could adequately respond to these uncertain times. For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968–1979 explores in depth, for the first time, the role of photography in the formation of Contemporary art in Japan. 250 works: photographs, photo books, paintings, sculpture, and film-based installations. The unprecedented survey demonstrates how 29 Japanese artists and photographers enlisted the camera to make experimental and conceptual shifts in their artistic practices during a time of radical societal change.
Tap The Link to Visit: http://www.mfah.org
SUMMER OF 2015 EVENTS IN AUSTIN TEXAS
MONIKA SOSNOWSKA ART: The Stairs Opens MAY 10, 2015
On View at Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria
LAGUNA GLORIA 3809 WEST 35TH STREET AUSTIN, TEXAS 78703 512 458 8191
TAP TO VISIT: http://www.thecontemporaryaustin.org
The Republic of Texas Biker Rally June 11TH to June 14 2015
Travis County AUSTIN: Center & Sixth Street / The state's largest motorcycle Gathering of Bikers for rides, Parades and music. TAP TO VISIT: http://www.rotrally.com
The Austin Fourth of July Fireworks and Symphony
Auditorium Shores: The Austin Symphony hosts an annual concert of Patriotic Music
culminating in a spectacular fi rework display over Lady Bird Lake. www.roadwayevents.com
Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival August 23rd 2015
Fiesta Gardens : If you wanna beat the heat this summer then you gotta eat the heat! Join
The Austin Chronicle for one of the world's largest hot sauce festivals. www.austinchronicle.com
The PAINTER: GEORGIA O'KEEFFE
Georgia O'Keeffe, as a person, was precocious, defiant, intelligent, unwavering and spirited. Throughout her education and early years as a painter, she produced an original abstractionist style that had preceded a group of New York painters of the male variety that has, to this day, remained wholly original, breathtakingly expansive and sexually charged in a way that empowers feminine energy and iconography. O'Keeffe rejected analysis of her works from start to finish, from her early years in New York, to her later years in The West, everyone seemed to get it wrong. So then, let us look again at the paintings and life of Ms. Georgia O'Keeffe and see if we can put this incredible body of work into a new and contemporary context with a fresh eye and revisionist look at this phenomenally bold American.
THE BUREAU ICON : GEORGIA O'KEEFFE
Georgia O'Keeffe is born in Wisconsin in 1887 to Irish - Hungarian parents. By the time her years equal her fingers, she discovers art. Early study of watercolors leads to college, art school in Chicago and the Arts Student League in New York City. She recalled, later in life, "I only remember two things that I painted in those years - a large bunch of purple lilacs and some red and yellow corn." Subjects and colors she would return to throughout her life. By her twentieth year, she is awarded prizes and still seems to reject the praise, due mostly to the fact that her art education seems to reward technique over originality. Adding, in those later reflections, "… I never did like school." While in New York, she and a group of fellow students visit the progressive Art Gallery, 291, eight years later, her own drawings will land in the hands of 291's founder, Alfred Stieglitz, who will become one of her greatest friends, confidants and legally, her husband. In the interim, Georgia O'Keeffe quits painting for four years straight, then, at the University of Virginia and later while studying for a teachers credentials at Columbia College, she falls under the tutelage of Arthur Dow and is set free to pursue something new and wholly original. "I decided to start anew - to strip away what I had been taught, to accept as true, my own thinking. This was one of the best times in my life. There was no one around to look at what I was doing - no one interested - no one to say anything about it one way or another. I was alone and singularly free, working into my own, unknown - no one to satisfy, but myself." This particular statement is extremely important to the core of her character, as it displays O'Keeffe's disdain for any particular reactions to the work, either casually, by fellow artists or formally, by the art critics. As a woman who was decades ahead of her contemporaries, in terms of abstraction in both form and color as well as feminine energy personified freely and independently in an iconic manner: O'Keeffe took a beating by the critics. Some of the blame often falls on Alfred Stieglitz and his in depth photographic series of Ms. O'Keeffe in all her natural beauty as a young woman. Unfortunately, the public discovered Georgia O'Keeffe as the muse of an older male rebel on the front lines of intellectual battles which included, photography as art, the importance of european abstraction and American art as a whole, before they had gotten to discover the original paintings and watercolors of O'Keeffe as Artist. The timing was off and Ms. O'Keeffe, although celebrated on a national level in art circles, was also widely dismissed through the lens of new psychological trends that included the great Freudian fraud which attempted to minimize the feminine energy that Georgia O'Keeffe's work so boldly personified. Once again, from the beginning of time and written history, the female is minimized by rhetoric & ideology through the powers that be, when all along, Georgia O'Keeffe is actually winning the game. From the modern perspective of 2015, it is time to liberate O'Keeffe's eroticism.
O'Keeffe's journey into public notoriety had all started through a mutual friend in 1916 when Stieglitz famously receives a series of charcoal drawings by a young Miss O'Keeffe and immediately is smitten by the originality, the boldness and no doubt by the fact that the drawings are created by an American who is both young and female. He has seen nothing like it before and in a letter that is formally typed and mailed to O'Keeffe, he expresses his admiration. "What am I to say ? It is impossible for me to put into words what I saw and felt in your drawings. As a matter of fact I would not make any attempt to do so. I might give you what I received from them if you and I were to meet and talk about life. Possibly then, through such a conversation I might make you feel what your drawings gave me. I do want to tell you that they gave me great joy… If at all possible, I would like to show them." O'Keeffe would later describe the 291 gallery, "The things you saw at Stieglitz's place sent you off into the world, just like his conversations did… It was a place that helped you find your own road: It was the only place."
"The things you saw at Stieglitz's place sent you off into the world…"
Alfred Stieglitz and his artistic efforts had been on the verge of the vanguard since the early 1890s. In the beginning, through his own photography in New York City and later in Austria, Italy and Germany. His trips to Paris and his friendship with Edward Steichen had exposed him to the works of Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Rodin, all of whom would later be exhibited at 291 Gallery. Culturally speaking, there was a fight for the new and Stieglitz had taken the side of The Moderns, "The search for the truth is my obsession." he describes, "The camera fascinated me and photography became my life." While many people enjoyed the new found art of the photograph, there were purists, such as Baudelaire, who hated photography. Although, at the same time, a new group of painters, also in search of truth on American soil, began to create a new type of painting, which became known as the Ashcan School, painters such as Bellows, Shin, Luks and Sloan, who did not shy away from everyday people, subjects and locations of the populist working class lifestyle.
Alfred Stieglitz walked the streets of New York from 1893 to 1895 capturing photographic images of everyday life. He came from a wealthy family, married into another wealthy family & soon found incompatibility, he took refuge into photography. In 1902 Stieglitz started a magazine, opened a gallery and founded a new group of photographers with Edward Steichen called The Photo Secessionists, by it's very name and definition, it was a rebel act of separation from the norm and it began a steep and unsteady incline towards a peak of cultural defiance that would slowly lead upward to the very top. At the start, Alfred Stieglitz's fight was for photography as art and he indeed found supporters and subscribers. Eventually, he began to fight for modernism at all levels, which included much of the art from the newest and most outrageous European painters. In 1907, while on a ship headed for Europe, Stieglitz has an epiphany through a photographic image that, as he describes was, "A Step in my own Evolution."
Georgia O'Keeffe Pedernal with Red Hills 1936 oil on linen, 19 3/4 x 29 3/4 inches. Collection of the New Mexico M.O.A Bequest of Helen Miller Jones
While in Paris, Alfred Stieglitz photographs Rodin, he views Cezanne's new cubist watercolors and Picasso's paintings, including, "Madame's De Avegnons." A year later, in 1908, his exhibition of the sculptor Rodin's drawings causes a stir by their very nature and erotic simplicity, again, he is ahead of the pack and slowly loses the photographic subscribers who originally supported 291 Gallery and the magazine. In 1911, Stieglitz's Gallery is the first American gallery to exhibit the drawings of Pablo Picasso.
"Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery is the first American gallery to exhibit the drawings of Pablo Picasso"
The public reaction to Picasso's new modernist and primitive approach is abhorrent and with only a single sale, Stieglitz felt obliged to purchase a work himself. His magazine, "Camera Work," was the very first to publish the writings of Gertrude Stein, who would go onto become a modernist wonder of literature and a champion of Picasso's work around the world. Then in 1913, The New York City Armory Show pierces the veil of modernism and justifies many of Alfred Stieglitz's prior decisions. Soon he realizes that the struggle for American Art is lagging behind the europeans and his next cultural battle is for the validity of an American modernist art form by American artists.
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Why all this history, you wonder ? I thought this was an article about Georgia O'Keeffe, you ask ? Yes, dear reader, it is, but to comprehend the importance of the beauty, the freedom and the defiant nature of Ms. O'Keeffe's work, you must first understand the fight that preceded her grand entry and the very importance of the simple fact that Georgia O'Keeffe was a very solid American woman with ideas and images stirring inside her imagination that would come into existence and be related directly with a man that had been searching for just such an ideal for over a decade.
"Everyone began talking about the search for… The Next Great American Thing."
When Stieglitze found Georgia O'Keeffe, he had found: "The Great American Thing." As Georgia O'Keeffe herself had described time and time again, looking back at those heady times, "Everyone began talking about the search for the next Great American Novel, the next Great American Poem, the next Great American Painting, The next Great American Thing." Well, my dear readers, I am very happy to inform you that Georgia O'Keeffe not only filled that void, she had been working on the equation, without actually defining it as such, from the time she was ten years old. Now she was twenty-nine years old, had been discovered by Stieglitz and was about to take center stage.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) Yellow Cactus, 1929 Oil on canvas, 30x42 in. Dallas Museum of Art Texas. Courtesy Colorado Springs FAC
The world of the 1920s and it could be argued, that the world of today, is a male dominated world, where woman are subjugated to second class citizenship. Georgia O'Keeffe along Steiglitz's other contemporary painters including John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove helped to define a new and original abstract form in painting that had never, ever, been expressed before. Ms. O'Keeffe did not copy, she did not follow, she did not supplicate, she Invented a whole new 'Thing' and it had all been based on her inner life, her female power, her very sexual and erotic nature.
"The Interesting thing about O'Keeffe is her ability to learn from the Steiglitz gang and the opposing faction of artists commonly called the precisionists ..."
It was new, it was beautiful, it was bold, it was sensual, it was exciting, it was tempestuous, it was authentic, it was avant-garde, it was unblemished, it was purely Georgia O'Keeffe and above all: It was a New American Art Form. The Interesting thing about O'Keeffe is her ability to learn from the Stieglitz gang and the opposing faction of artists commonly called the precisionists group, which culled inspiration from factories, architecture & machinery, leading the way into modern pop such as Andy Warhol's work. O'Keeffe's work includes both a very personal inner emotional and naturally inspired oeuvre and a very precise and overall interest in architecture & modernism. She won by simply using techniques, ideas and methods that did not devote themselves to any school or group.
Pelvis IV, 1944 Georgia O’Keeffe Oil on Masonite 36 x 40 (91.4 x 101.6) Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
But not so fast, there is still so much to say, so much more to explain, this is really just the beginning and yet, due to O'Keeffe's consistency, in both style and technique, the works she will produce, from 1918, when she moves to New York, up to her big abstract art exhibition in 1923, compare, very much in power, in expression and in composition with the works she will produce for the rest of her life: Amazingly so. Georgia O'Keeffe the artist, was seldom in search of a style, if anything she had abandoned her own original approach briefly, only to return to it and then held steadfast to what has now become the O'Keeffe method, with a clearly recognizable iconic brand in todays contemporary world of art. Her move from teaching in Texas to living with Stieglitz in New York happened relatively easily and her adjustment to the big city, where she had briefly studied was seamless. Having been promised by Alfred Stieglitz that she could work for a year straight, without interruption, the original vow had turned into the pledge of an entire lifetime. Though, there were times when his photographic objectification not only was a hinderance to her personal space, it did ultimately damage her perception in the public's eye and personally, she was hurt by the mainstream reaction, especially by the critics. Two years prior to her one person abstract exhibit, Stieglitz displayed 145 new photo works, many of them were of his new muse and lover, Georgia O'Keeffe.
Pelvis Series, Red with Yellow, 1945 Georgia O’Keeffe Oil on canvas 36 1/8 x 48 1/8 (91.8 x 122.2) ) © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
The images of O'Keeffe are comparable, in modern times, to that of, say, a celebrity power couple such as Jay-Z and Beyonce'. The sexualization of Georgia O'Keeffe had begun. Lets remember, this is by no means the 1930s with Clara Bow or the 1940s with Greta Garbo or the 1950s with Marilyn Monroe or the 1960s with Bridgette Bardot or the 1970s with Raquel Welch or the 1980s with Madonna or the 1990s with Sharon Stone or the 2000s with What's - her - name: This is 1921. On top of that, we are talking about a very serious artist, not a broadway showgirl, not a singer, not an actress, an intellectual visual artist who, in the words of Arthur Dove, one of the male painters in the Stieglitz art gallery stable, "…Is Actually Doing What All The Guys are Trying to Do." O'Keeffe's Abstract Art show is more than impressive, but due to the harsh criticisms, she gives up abstraction for the next few years and switches to representational objects. Though, her choice of subjects such as fruit and flowers is a rather subtle change. If we look closely at the psychology behind this maneuver, we can see that it was entirely calculated and was actually a bold move toward flipping the script on the subjective mind-scape that had pervaded the times via Freudian theories that were trendily in vogue. By creating representational works that still contained a fierce and even blatantly sexually charged nature, Georgia O'Keeffe was tempting critics to fall on their own swords. The critics had originally tried to intimate that she was a sensual animal, expressing her hidden desires through her paintings. Two years later, when O'Keeffe showed up with pears, apples, flowers and the like, all incredibly and beautifully rendered, with the definite possibility of being interpreted as orifice - like shapes and feminine curves that one might taste or touch, she had set a trap for the critics and still marched on into the next sixty years doing exactly as she had from the very start.
Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur, 1930 Georgia O’Keeffe Oil on canvas 30 1/8 x 40 (76.5 x 101.6) © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
On the one hand, O'Keeffe had won the battle, on the other hand, we still must wonder what might have been, had the critics not been so foul. It seems that in Georgia O'Keeffe's very nature, there was a sly, humorous, independent human being with a philosophical bent that took each challenge, like a boxer might take a rap on the chin, she simply shook her head and got right back in the ring. A year later, Stieglitz handed her a different type of ring and the two began a journey that would last up until his death in 1949, he was twenty-three years her senior. Many years after his death, O'Keefe described their relationship in the simplest of terms, "I was interested in what he did and he was interested in what I did: Very Interested." Decades later, Georgia O'Keeffe had also taken a much younger lover and partner, shocking those around her and creating the same type of stir that had originally started her career in the first place. Her life had come full circle. Georgia O'Keeffe's first visit to New Mexico in 1929, five years after their marriage, started a new love affair with the landscape, which included annual summer stays and eventually a permanent home that would provide an entirely new style, technique and viewpoint which harkened back to her earliest works, before the critics had tried to sexualize, demonize and project a nasty glaze over her very robust, sensually charged paintings that, to this day, will get just about anyone thinking about the beauty of love. If I find myself looking at an O'Keeffe for very long, well, there is no other way to put it, I get turned on. Anyone who says different is either sexless, afraid or most likely, simply too young or a virgin. O'Keeffe's images simply approve of passion, desire and the art of lovemaking. It is also safe to say that, were she alive today, O'Keeffe would most likely dismiss this entire analysis. The fact of the matter is, for a painter so, 'In Love with Color,' language, words and any verbal communication seemed almost rudimentary compared to the purity of visual expressions by a genius.
The BUREAU ICON : Georgia O'Keefe / Summer 2015 / Written By Joshua A. Triliegi
To Download The Entire MAGAZINE ARTICLE FOR FREE SIMPLY Tap This Link : SUMMER EDITION O'KEEFFE
GEORGIA O'KEEFE EXHIBITIONS AND RELATED LINKS
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Georgia O’Keeffe: Line, Color, Composition
May 8 – September 13, 2015 TAP THE LINK: www.okeeffemuseum.org
PHOENIX ART MUSEUM: From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism June 7—September 7, 2015 TAP THE LINK : phxart.org
FINE ARTS CENTER COLORADO SPRINGS: Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and
Still Life Art in New Mexico June 27 – Sept 13 2015 TAP THE LINK: csfineartscenter.org
SCHEINBAUM & RUSSEK LTD: Representing Photographs by Todd Webb & Myron Wood
TAP THE LINK : www.photographydealers.com
TACOMA ART MUSEUM: TAP THE LINK : www.TacomaArtMuseum.org
DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART : Georgia O'Keeffe in The Permanent Collection
TAP THE LINK : www.DMA.org
PHOTOGRAPHER: VICTORY TISCHLER BLUE
There are Rock Star Photographers. There are Photographers who shoot Rock Stars. There are even Rock Star Photographers who shoot Rocks and Stars, Victory Tischler Blue is a combination of all three. We discovered this image and knew nothing about the photographer who apparently has been a bass player for The Runaways, made an appearance in Spinal Tap and is a serious photographer with some of the most interesting images of the American Desert Landscape that we have seen lately. Ms. Blue's desert is haunted, hallucinated and hallowed. This is Sam Shepard's desert with long lost gas stations, deserted automobiles from other decades, satellite response gear, dried out cacti and ancient artifacts that still provide the mysteries that behold the great American West. Defunct signage from an old cafe that once hosted stories such as The Petrified Forrest stand defiantly like an erect statue in Time Square. And yes, as is so often the case, there is just a hint that maybe , somewhere out there, some living being has landed, will land or is just passing by on it's way to another galaxy not so far, far away. This incredible Image was originally exhibited at The Spot Photo Works Art Gallery in Los Angeles, California U. S. A.
Spot Photo Works 6679 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90038 USA
ALEX HARRIS : PHOTOGRAPHER
Alex Harris's Photographs are Quintessentially and to the Core: American. He is a Master Photographer with decades of consistently important, relevant and revelatory images. From the early Nineteen Seventies with a socially conscious black and white portfolio and a degree from Yale, Harris captured images on the front lines of culturally significant moments. In The Nineteen Eighties he founded the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In the Nineties, he co founded the groundbreaking photographic magazine, Double Take. He has received fellowships from The Guggenheim & Rockefeller, has published fifteen books and is a Professor for the Practice of Public Policy and Documentary Studies at Duke. His work in CUBA was very Influential to many of his contemporaries. We are very pleased to bring you the very first of several Photographic Essays Celebrating The Art, The Experience and The Conversation of One of America's Best and Brightest Living Photographers, Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Mister Alex Harris.
Joshua TRILIEGI: What initially attracted you to Photography ?
Alex HARRIS : I was attracted to photography before I really had the words to express that attraction. My grandfather Alexander Eisemann, used his camera with great wit and precision to chronicle my mother’s life before I was born, and then the life of her young children and family – me included. I was so attracted to the stories he told with his pictures and the albums he put together, the stories of an intact family living together, full of joy and humor. In fact I was more attracted to that story than the reality of my family life, which must have been fraught with difficulty as my parents separated and divorced by the time I was six and moved to separate homes. When I graduated from high school, I can’t think of one family in my neighborhood that had remained intact or remained in their original homes. Looking back I see its not an accident that my first projects as a required me to immerse myself in some of the most intact, long-lived communities in the United States, the Hispanic villages of northern New Mexico and the Inuit villages in Alaska.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Describe how one image leads to another in creating a Series.
Alex HARRIS : I began shooting color landscapes and interiors in New Mexico in 1979 with the premise that I didn’t want the photographs to be about color so I would try to ignore color with my camera entirely, to photograph color blind. And for about six months I successfully photographed colorblind while making absolutely uninteresting color photographs! One evening at dusk I saw the way the light was hitting my neighbor George Romero’s yellow front porch, and I stopped to photograph it. The porch post visible in the picture was painted blue, white, and red. A shadow from a second post off-camera made it appear that shadows were falling in the wrong direction. I allowed myself to respond to this scene and to color. From then on I looked for color as an aspect of culture, as an essential part of the way the people express themselves with their homes. I was able to go back to the people, homes and fields I had visited over the years as a black-and-white portrait photographer and to photograph would have been the backgrounds to those portraits, now as the foreground and subject of the picture, making what I began to see is another kind of portrait, a portrait without people. I tended to work with one theme at a time:, so bedrooms and other interiors of homes, close-ups of objects and possessions, photographs of villages from a distance, landscapes with signs of human presence, landscapes as seen through automobiles. And I would move back and forth between those series.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Lets talk about this series we are currently sharing with our readers. Tell us how the dashboard images came about and describe the juxtaposing the interior with the exteriors.
Alex HARRIS : When I had the idea to photograph the landscape of northern New Mexico through the interiors of the cars of people who lived there, I’d been living in northern New Mexico on and off for almost 15 years and working in color there for about five years with a view camera. I saw myself as making the portrait of this region without including any actual people in the pictures. So I photographed extensively inside homes, whose decoration was primarily the domain of women, and the outsides of homes and in the fields, which was primarily the domain of men. In photographing these spaces, in a sense I was portraying the people who had created or shaped those spaces over the years. I wanted to represent the younger generation, and the spaces they controlled and decorated were the interiors of their cars. It seemed uninteresting simply to photograph the dashboards and interiors wherever the cars happened randomly to be parked. I had the idea that if I could balance the light inside and outside the car, I could use my camera to make a connection between the car interior and the landscape that person lived in or often drove through. I thought my pictures could represent what it felt like for people in the villages to see their own landscape and community, for the viewer of the photograph to see their world through the frames they had decorated and that they themselves often peered through. The best portraits make a connection between a person’s interior world – in a sense their life history – and the world that surrounds them. That’s what I was looking for in these pictures.
To Download The Entire INTERVIEW WITH A FABULOUS PHOTO ESSAY AND TEN QUESTION INTERVIEW WITH ALEX HARRIA Tap This Link : SUMMER EDITION
North Carolina Museum of Art
James Prosek, American Bison, 2014, oil, acrylic, and mixed media on panel, 45 x 56 in., Courtesy of the artist and Schwartz Wajahat, New York, © 2014 James Pros 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC 27607 www.ncartmuseum.org
BUREAU MAGAZINE CINEMA
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL
By Joshua TRILIEGI
A man in a hooded, leopard skin robe walks down a long hallway while a group of men push aside those standing in his path. We hear a crowd of thousands cheer the man on, "Jake Jake Jake …" they begin to chant. He is wearing boxing gloves, this is a championship fight, the crowd is dressed in their finest, the men are wearing suits and hats, the women are wearing jewelry, the place is filled with cigar and cigarette smoke, sailors, businessmen, middle aged characters scream the man's name over and over, the women smile as he passes by, his trainers walk in front of and behind the man as he walks down the pathway toward the ring, the volume of the crowd amplifies as the man gets closer and closer to the large roped off square canvas at the center of the arena. The man in the leopard skin robe enters through the ropes, a nondescript fellow with a microphone introduces the man in the robe, the crowd goes wild with frenzy, people are shouting, clapping, everyone is yelling something and then, suddenly, a quiet gent behind a camera yells, "cut" and the place goes silent, the action ceases, everyone settles and a pensive discussion between the crew behind the camera ensues. A few changes are discussed, several people make notations and we do it all over again. I am barely a teenager. It is a first time experience and I am collaborating with the finest in the business. My father and I are working together on the film set of a classic piece of cinema with the Actor Robert DeNiro and Director Martin Scorsese. This is On the Set Raging Bull, thirty-five years later & this is all true.
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
I get home from school and, once again, my parents are having a debate and it is about me. This has happened a few times, once, when my brother wanted to take me to an important surf contest on a week day and another time, when we got stuck at the border of Mexico and America late one Sunday night and didn't get home until early Monday morning. Today's negotiation is all about what is more important ? For me to attend school or for me to participate in making a film? The prior debates were also surrounding weather a day in real life would mean more to my education than a day at school. My dad had always felt that real life events had a gravity that would inform much more than the controlled environs of a formal education. In the past, his debating skills would convince mom that this was true and after some heated discussion, he wins her over. Now, we have to figure out how a thirteen year old kid with shoulder length hair is going to fit into a film that takes place in the late 1940s and early Fifties. First, he offers to cut it and I say no. Then, my hair is tied into a pony tail and stuffed up into a woolen cap that my old man had worn since he was a barber down on Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. Back then, my mother had found herself single, with three kids, she was italian, she was beautiful, she was liberated and although the barber had barely begun his own life as a bachelor and hadn't entered college, when my mom walked in to get my older brother's hair cut, he fell for her and at six months old, he and I become pals. Through the years, we seldom had to deal with any of the father & son bullshit that can ruin a great relationship, we were often, simply friends or roommates or just happened to be living together. We both had to answer to the same lady, for him, it was the love of his life, for me, it was my mom, who made me clean my room, do chores, wash my own clothes and do my homework before running out for the day and get back by nightfall.
Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci play The La Motta Brothers in RAGING BULL / United Artists
We have been through some tough times together as a family and come out unscathed. But things are about to get really rough. In about six months, mom is going to move back to Milwaukee for a stretch, my brother and I will stay in California and my sister will go with mom. We did fifteen years without a separation, but my mom is coming into her own and my dad is freaking out. We get up at five in the morning and drive downtown to the Olympic Auditorium, where my old man is moonlighting nights as a security guard. The Olympic was the place, back in the day, where boxing matches happened every weekend. The great American boxing tradition was much bigger and wider spread than most people realize today. A few kids from just about any working class neighborhood, would start fighting in the ring, very early on, certainly kids my age did. There was the Golden Gloves, usually sponsored by a local newspaper and there was the Diamond Belt, often played live on local radio stations. My grandfather fought for these competitions in the late 1920s & early Thirties. He and his friends even started a boxing club, the Battling Bombers. They'd get up in the morning, run along the lakefront, work out at the gym and then go to work all day. He was a great fighter, he naturally had the correct build, could take a punch, had a mean right hook, but one thing he didn't have, was the reach. And if you can't reach your opponent, nothing much matters. In any event, my dad was very aware of my grandfather's history as well as the talent that lay in director Martin Scorsese. My parents had seen Scorsese's early films, but when, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," was released, both my parents had noticed that my precocious behavior compared that of Alice's son.The big screen rapport between the boy and Alice had undertones of my own relationship with mom.
Actress Cathy Moriarty plays Jake LaMotta's Wife, Vicki in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We get to the set and already thousands of people are filling the auditorium. I am dressed in jeans and suspenders, a cap and tennis shoes. He is wearing a suit and tie. Because my dad is actually an employee, we have all access. The scene we are shooting today is a famous 'single take' that Martin Scorsese will later make into one of his trademark style techniques. A favorite example of which would be the incredible scene in, 'GoodFellas' when Henry and Karen walk into a nightclub through the kitchen, to avoid the lines out front. They stroll through the door, down a hallway, into the kitchen, where Henry greets the chef, past a couple, who Henry chastises for always meeting here and on into the club, where a table is placed directly in front of the entertainer, who then sends Henry and his date a bottle of champagne. It is an amazing and exhilarating piece of cinema. The scene we are about to shoot uses similar elements. The first time we shoot the scene, the camera is behind Jake and he walks from dressing room to hallway to entryway of the arena and down the long path to the ring, where he makes a sharp left, past the judges and a right into the ring. My father and I are seated just above left of camera, the crew is situated below us, to our right. In between takes, and I can only assume that because my dad worked at the auditorium, or because it was meant to teach me something, or because he thought I would 'be discovered,' he began to call over production techies and assistants, asking questions about this or that adjustment. All these years later, having worked on films, directed and produced, I still can't believe what guts my dad had for the way he participated in the actual filming of the day. I mean, we were just extras, actually, we weren't even that, we were bum rushing the entire experience and here he is actually, 'participating' in the filmmaking process.
Actors Frank Adonis, Joseph Bono and Frank Vincent in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
The first, 'adjustment,' we notice, is when Martin Scorsese moves an extra on the right hand side of the scene from visibility. The man is dressed to the nines, in suit and hat. This is a crowd scene with thousands of people. At any one time, the camera is taking in from twelve to twelve hundred people. This is Mr Scorsese as a master oil painter, creating a giant fresco, placing each individual exactly where he wants them, every now and then, within the single take, an individual character may express an action that will end up on the screen for maybe a second or two. An older, portly man in the hallway, reaches out to Jake outside his dressing room, a middle aged man in a mustache, turns to his left while Jake passes by, clapping, a young woman cheers Jake on as he turns to the left towards the ring. When my father calls over one of the crew members and inquires about the particular change of position, the man simply looks at my dad, then looks at me, then gets on the talkie and finds out. A few minutes later, he comes over to inform us that the well dressed man is in an outfit that resembles one of the main characters and could be confusing to the overall film. This is the first of several inquiries that alerts the crew that either one of Marty's close pals is in the audience or a renegade security guard with kid in tow is taking notes. For now, we are still flying under the radar. We do the scene again, this time, the camera is in front of Jake, the sound of the arena is deafening. This is the moment, in the story & script, where Jake LaMotta finally gets the title fight he deserves. After several editing techniques of a wide variety, mostly, extremely fast and short clips, his shot at the title is pronounced, with this extended, single take and in the final film, it works out beautifully.
Joe Pesci and Nicholas Colasanto, The Neighborhood Don in in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We break for lunch. The entire auditorium is practically full with thousands of extras and somehow, my dad is able to situate me right next to Robert DeNiro. To this day, I still don't know how he did that, but I have a few ideas why. All these years later, looking back on that very important day in my life, I can see clearly that he wanted me to have the opportunities that existed here in Hollywood. As it turns out, he was a natural born bum rusher, who, on several occasions had done this type of thing before. One example, that stands out, is the time he got backstage at a concert and handed Waylon Jennings a tape with a bunch of songs he had written with his cousin. I should also say here that my old man was definitely a gambler, but he also had talent, he wrote poetry, painted, he knew music very well, was a master craftsman, he had charisma and the gift of gab, he was handsome and had a great heart, but to me, back then, he was simply the guy I had lived with, that my mom had loved, since I was six months old. That said, here I am, eating lunch with a silent Robert DeNiro, who is donned in hood and robe, no one else dared to sit at that table. While I am chowing down with Bobby, my old man is chatting up the crew, he's, no doubt, getting that high that can easily be had when on the set of a great film, probably doesn't even realize it. I look up and he is now talking to the real life Jake LaMotta, getting his autograph, introducing me to people, we are no longer, under the radar. After lunch, a crew member stops by and explains that because I am not an adult, and there are no tutors on the set, the law requires that half day rules apply to actors under eighteen and so, we will not be able to stay for the full day. My old man tries for a second or two to appease and convince, then realizes, ultimately, that we have already succeeded, it has been a great day at the roulette wheel of life. We walk back to our car and drive home. Ten years later, I buy my first film camera, write my first screenplay & produce my first short film. The screenplay is a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival's writers workshop and the short film wins nominations elsewhere.
Academy Award © Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
Raging Bull, as a film, is ahead of it's time. The critics, who had, just a few years earlier, lauded Sylvestor Stallone's, 'Rocky' as a winning, feel good boxing film, did not know what to do with a film as brutally honest and unapologetic as Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. The film was actually, a project that Robert DeNiro had been working on, for quite some time. After the success of The Deerhunter and Godfather II, he was able to put projects together which suited his goals and challenged the audience. For the first time in film history, an actor had gained a record amount of pounds, to play a character in a 'later in life' sequence, setting the bar several notches higher for techniques utilizing one's physique. Even the best film critics are not quite ready for the honesty of Martin Scorsese. America wanted another feel good film about boxing, and what it got, was a stark, reality based film that exposed the brutality, realism and masochism that surrounded Jake LaMotta's life. Not to mention the art house aspect of filming the entire project, with the exception of a few color home movies, in classic black and white. A bold, artistic decision that has, since then, garnered "Raging Bull" the reverence and deep respect of film lovers and cinema creators around the world. All one needs to do is study the film stills and camera work of Michael Chapman to realize why this film is a work of Art on almost every level. Even the sound design is especially mesmerizing, specifically how each crucial punch, in every single fight scene, is given a special mix of audio effect. It is a mesmerizing work of art and a testament to great cinema, without a doubt. At that years Academy Awards © Ceremony, Robert DeNiro walks up the isle, people are cheering, they reach out to him, applaud his performance and he gladly accepts the Oscar Award for Best Actor. Although my dad is unable to read this, I would like to thank him, Marty, Bobby and the Academy: We Made IT.
Image: Martin Scorsese in London England 1996 Photographer: Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photo
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL By Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine / 2015 SUMMER Edition
TAP LINKS BELOW TO VIEW RAGING BULL FILM CLIPS RELATED TO THIS ARTICLE
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE: Scorsese Collects
THE FILM and ART PICK NEW YORK: May 30 – October 25, 2015
In celebration of New York City director Martin Scorsese’s enduring commitment to the preservation of international film culture, MoMA presents 34 works from the Scorsese Poster Collection. The installation is centered around a rare, billboard-size poster for the 1951 film Tales of Hoffmann, and features other large-format pieces representing the work of directors such as Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, 1948), Max Ophuls (The Earrings of Madame de..., 1953) and Jacques Tourneur (I Walked with a Zombie, 1943), and key designers, such as Italy’s Anselmo Ballester and Britain's Peter Strausfeld. In addition to European art house and American genre films, Raoul Walsh’s silent classic The Regeneration (1915) and Howard Hawks’s Scarface (1932) (represented by a rare lobby card) are included. The Film Poster Art Exhibition will be accompanied by the Film Series, Scorsese Screens in August 2015.
MOMA: The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 Tap To Visit On Line : http://www.moma.org
THE BUREAU PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY: YELLOW
PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY : YELLOW ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT © TRILIEGI STUDIO 2015 LOS ANGELES CA USA
Image by Guest Artist : Irby Pace Courtesy of Gallerie Urbane
THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS
The Original Fiction Series: " THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS," began two years ago with Season One. An interesting experiment that originally introduced five fictional families, through dozens of characters that came to life before our readers eyes, when Editor Joshua Triliegi, improvised an entire novel on a daily basis and publicly published each chapter on-line. Season Two was an entire smash hit with readers in Los Angeles, where the novel is set and quickly spread to communities around the world through google translations and word of mouth. Season Three begins in August 2015 and the same rules will apply. The entire final season will be improvised and posted publicly on a weekly basis beginning, Friday August the 7th 2015 and continuing each friday to the stories final completion of Book One. "Improvised," in this instance, means: The writer starts and finishes each section without taking any prior notes whatsoever and publishes the completed episode on all Community Sites. Season III is The Finale'.
READ A NEW EPISODE EVERY FRIDAY IN AUGUST 2015
BEGINNING ON AUGUST 7TH / 14TH / 21ST / 28TH
INTERVIEW : JON SWIHART
THE PORTRAIT PAINTER
Joshua TRILIEGI : Lets discuss, Commissions. You were recently commissioned by Brad PITT to create a portrait in relation to his wife's new film project on the American war hero Louie ZAMPERINI. Discuss how this came about, how you approach the assignment and how much time you may spend on a daily basis for each overall portrait.
Jon SWIHART : The whole experience surrounding Louie Zamperini really felt like kismet, because before I was commissioned by Brad Pitt to paint Louie, I had been approached a few months earlier to paint his portrait for an organization. At that time, I read Unbroken and was enthralled and clearly envisioned how I would portray Louie dressed in his old WW2 bomber jacket and officer's cap, his body deteriorating but his spirit still resilient and unbroken. So,it was hugely disappointing when that first commission fell through. Then out of the blue, fate gave me a second chance when Pitt saw my recently completed portrait of the artist Don Bachardy, which gave him the idea of having a portrait of Zamperini painted as a talismanic gift for Angelina Jolie. Laura Hillenbrand had written the book, “Unbroken”, telling the amazing story of Louie’s life through WWII. After spearheading efforts to bring this epic story to life on the big screen, Angelina Jolie was also directing the picture. While doing her research, Jolie became very close to Louie, admiring him and taking strength and inspiration from his indomitable spirit. I went to Zamperini’s home to do the photo shoot and had the opportunity to visit with him for a bit. It was obvious that behind the 96 year old façade was the same determined and precocious young man from the book. Even in his frail condition, he exuded a zest for life that was inspiring in itself. Louie was known to those close to him, for an expression in his eyes, so with the family’s help, I was able to capture this expression for the painting. Now, inspired by the book, but even more so by the man himself, I set out to do the painting. I was extremely honored and excited, but also, a little intimidated by the task at hand.
I was confident about getting a likeness, but unsure about striking a balance between the reality of his frailness and the dignity of the man and his history. For instance, in reality the bomber jacket was much larger on Louie’s shrunken frame, so I had a friend come over and pose in a similar leather jacket so I could accurately compromise between reality and the painting. The portrait took 6 weeks, working about 8 hours per day. When the painting was completed, I brought it to Louie’s home so he could see it in person and I could get his feedback. I thought I was confident about the final result until I got a big thumbs-up from Louie and felt this huge wave of relief flow over me. His family was also very happy with the portrait, which meant a lot to me. Formalities over, I spent the next hour listening to Louie tell stories and had the opportunity to ask him questions. I had been wondering about the ethereal music he heard late in his time on the raft while marooned at sea and wondered if it would be recreated in the movie. Louie said he did remember the tune for some time afterwards and had been whistling it in the prisoner camp when another prisoner who was a musician asked where he heard that wonderful piece of music. Over time, he forgot the melody and, unfortunately it hadn’t been written down. I made one more visit to bring Louie a framed photo of the painting for his 97th birthday. He was in good spirits, making plans for a birthday dinner and happy to have more visitors. Unfortunately, this would be the last time I saw him. This commission was the most meaningful of my career. I have painted many ‘famous’ people, including ex-presidents, movie stars and astronauts, but I felt that in honoring Louie, in my small way, I was also honoring all of the thousands of men and women in uniform with untold stories of courage, determination and character.
TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE JON SWIHART INTERVIEW WITH PORTRAIT IMAGES AND TEN QUESTION SIMPLY TAP THE LINK
image: Guest Artist Irby Pace Courtesy of Gallerie Urbane
SO MANY ROADS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD
By Joshua TRILIEGI
David Browne has written a grand opus of a book on, of all things, the greatest rock & roll accident that has ever occurred: The Grateful Dead. No other band in Rock & Roll history can be compared to 'The Dead,' as they have been commonly known by fans and professionals alike. From the early days in Palo Alto California to the later days across the entire world, Mr. Browne has fashioned an exhaustively researched book into an easily readable tome of sorts. The writer for Rolling Stone magazine has taken an original and interesting approach and given us a portrait of the band through a very straight forward concept that fits well with his style, his experience and his day job, writing about music in digestible amounts. Mr. Browne breaks down the careers and characters that make up the Dead, from start to finish, by simply creating complete and utter portraits of various days in the life of The Grateful Dead. Days in which Mr Browne felt that a significant window into the soul of the band could be glimpsed. It is a smart concept considering that Mr. Browne was not an insider. He did not tour with the band, so he was well aware that this book would not compare, nor did he wish to compete with the previous books which have preceded this fine piece of history. Through his research methods, which seem to be exemplary, without all the show off style that can sometimes leave a bitter taste in the reader, and his experience at Rolling Stone magazine, Browne takes us into the forming of the band, their many transformations and delivers portraits of each member with the greatest care and delicacy available. Its a complex story, told with an exacting style.
By the fifth page of The Prologue, the reader is hooked. I personally cannot think of a more easy reading style, chocked with so many actual facts, insights and observations in a very long, long time. Sometimes his acuity is just as strange and off the cuff as the formulas and elements that make up The Grateful Dead's original and one of a kind style of music. For instance, Jerry Garcia's early concerns and fears regarding the Cuban missile crisis in America is a real eye opener, which on first impression seems slightly heavy handed, but upon consideration of Garcia's age and experience, entirely fitting. Browne interviewed surviving members, had access to The Grateful Dead Archive in Santa Cruz as well as a multitude of interviews directly from his office job at Rolling Stone magazine. But he didn't stop there, apparently there has been more literature in connection with the Grateful Dead than one would ever imagine. From sources as diverse as Tom Wolf'e, Electric Kool - Aid Acid Test, written in 1968 to the source that broke Watergate, The Washington Post. Everyone has seemingly spent some time ruminating on the indescribable elements that make up the iconic sound that originated such classic pillars of Rock & Roll History like, Truckin', Casey Jones & Uncle John's Band. Mr. Browne has received attention previously for writing about, brace yourself: The 'Importance' of John Tesch. Lets not hold that against him, maybe, like The Grateful Dead, he was intoxicated or simply mixing and matching inspiration and improvisation. Either way, this author has delved deep down into the facts, the myths and the fiction surrounding Garcia and his band of bad boy compadre's and has surfaced with a nice read that newcomers as well as hardcore fans will surely dig. Mr. Brown has also written about: Sonic Youth, Jeff Buckley and James Taylor. As a writer who occasionally hitchhiked to and from preschool in Northern California, with my mom, and on more than one occasion received rides home from members of The Dead: I wholeheartedly approve of this
book. Now available on Da Capo Press. Worth every dollar spent on the 482 pages it offers readers.
THE BUREAU LITERARY SITE
Literature has a Power and a Scope All It's Own. We originally founded the publication and the magazine to become part of the great history of writers, editors and publishers of the world. Interviews with writers Luis VALDEZ of ZooT Suit and La Bamba Fame and The Great Fiction Writer T. C. BOYLE have been instrumental in grounding that original goal. The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Literary Site gathered readers quickly through Google Member Readers and followers/subscribers. We wrote about writers as diverse as Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, Ernest Lehman and offered resources for Writers, Publishers and Booksellers around The World from London to Paris and beyond. Our Coverage of The Los Angeles Book Fair brought us in touch with Art Book makers and small press publishers around the world. We interviewed authors and artist from Germany, Portland, The U.K., and plenty of East Coast booksellers. Now we also create the BUREAU Literary Edition which is e-mailed directly to 100s of Bookstores in the USA and abroad. Contact us with your next Literary Event or Book Reading or have your Publisher or PR firm Request The Bureau Interview.
LITERARY SITE http://TheyCallItTheCityofANGELS.blogspot.com
HERB RITTS : MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON
25 YEARS:NOW A CLASSIC
ON VIEW NOW THROUGH TO NOVEMBER 8, 2015
The Herb Ritts catalogue is now over twenty-five years young. A recent Exhibit at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts gives us a chance to reassess the work of a fundamentally commercial photographer who wanted dearly to shatter the worlds perceptions of Art, Commerciality and Fashion. He had access to the worlds best models, personalities and locations and through it all, had the simplicity and potency to create iconic imagery that harkened back to the earliest days of photography. In looking at The HERB RITTS catalogue, we can see the influence of another great American photographer, Walker Evans, whose work was first celebrated 50 years before Herb Ritts would go onto create some of his most exemplary images that actually defined the times he lived in. Although Walker Evans subjects included the downtrodden and the disparaged, due to the very struggles that occurred economically in the 1930s, Ritts takes that clean, straight ahead style and points his camera at celebrities and clothing in the way that Evans might document a wrench or a trowel. The excesses of The 1980s allowed Ritts, budgets and portfolio commissions, that to this day, seem extreme. And yet, he filtered it down into something very basic, taking a creative note from the architect Mies Van Der Rohe's ever famous quote: "Less IS More."
Considering other influences, we must also mention photographers such as Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz who had both fought a tedious battle to affirm that photography, in the hands of an artist, could indeed be an 'art' and that the by product of this new instrument called a camera, was indeed an Art-form which could rival and compare to great paintings created by great painters and therefore photographs could, should and would be considered: a great art.
The very fact that Herb Ritts' work is now residing within the walls of an institute such as The Boston Museum of Fine Art is a testament to those early battles.It is often said that an object becomes valuable and collectible at its 25 year mark. Many of the images in this exhibition were valuable the day they were taken, but we can also see, with that mellowing, like a good whiskey in the barrel, that yes indeed, The Herb RITTS Portfolio is gathering a value that is now vintage value and all the while his works are earthy, sleek, deceivingly simple & purely classic.
Madonna, Tokyo Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) 1987 Photograph, gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Herb Ritts © Herb Ritts Foundation
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mick Jagger, London, 1987 by Photographer Herb RITTS at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1.Naomi Campbell, Face in Hand, Hollywood, 1990 2. Backflip, Paradise Cove, 1987 3. Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen, Long Island, 1987 Images Related to this Bureau Article : Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Herb Ritts © Herb Ritts Foundation Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Archie Thompson and Albert Rudin American, active c. 1935 Shoes, c. 1940 watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paperboard overall: 32.3 x 42.4 cm (12 11/16 x 16 11/16 in.) Courtesy of National Gallery of Art Washington D.C. USA
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
In Washington D.C. deep inside The Archives of The National Gallery of Art lay objects, images and great works of art that have defined who we are as Americans. For some modern day Americans, a defining object might be the washer and dryer at the local laundromat or a half a gallon container of homogenized milk for the baby or the metropolitan bus that takes them from one end of town to another. The significance of an object is sometimes related directly to the importance of that object in relation to the Artist who creates the portrait, the drawing or the work of art, be it a drawing, a musical composition or a piece of literature. We have chosen several images from the gallery for no particular reason, other than the very fact that these everyday objects are indeed a part of our American history, which we can never forget. The Artists in America have become the heroes of this country, not because they died in it's defense, not because they were forced to actually sacrifice their lives to be remembered, but because they simply loved, adored, reflected on and represented an object, an idea, a rendition of their life in America, in Art, in Music in Words.Today, We salute The Artists of America.
Daniel Marshack American, active c. 1935 Woman's Gym Suit, 1935/1942 watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paperboard overall: 45.5 x 30.2 cm (17 15/16 x 11 7/8 in.) Archives of The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. United States of America
JAMIE WYETH : AMERICAN PAINTER
There are very few American Artists, who are self taught, third generation and bent on creating works that are studied, intuitive and strikingly original, Jamie Wyeth, Son of Andrew Wyeth, Grandson to N.C. Wyeth is one of the rare few. In a show that originated at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and has since then travelled to The San Antonio Museum of Art and will next be in Bennington Arkansas at Crystal Bridges, Mr. Jamie Wyeth exhibits a survey of works, from the earliest drawings to recent projects with a stunning series of paintings and drawings that display a life's work of the highest magnitude. The Wyeth Legacy is one of America's greatest contribution to the arts and through Jamie Wyeth, that legacy is alive and well. I recall my father describing the first time he had viewed a Painting by Jamie Wyeth depicting a man on a motorcycle, facing the viewer head on. He had studied the works of Andrew Wyeth and had grown up reading the literature which N.C. Wyeth had illustrated, but upon viewing the masterwork of Jamie Wyeth, he gladly handed over the reins to young Jamie, then he looked at me and smiled. Since then, I have always respected the Wyeths and their family, their lives, their art at a level which can only be described, not in words, not in metaphor, but simply as it is.
Maria Francesca Triliegi is an Author with an upcoming book, a personal counselor to a very wide variety of people, from everyday working class folks, to some serious public figures that include both the worlds of politics and entertainment. Maria also happens to be The Editor of this Publication's Mother. So then, the other day, I called my Mom and we discussed her new book, her career and what it is like to do what it is she does by personally counseling people.
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE: BOOKS
Let’s discuss the new book that is being released later this summer. Although you have been working on a number of book projects recently, you decided to release The book of forty essays entitled, "LIFE IS GOOD: When You Do The Work". Why this book first and why now?
Maria Francesca Triliegi: I have been doing my work as an astrologer, teacher and retreat leader for over 30 years and have had a myriad of clients with so many different challenges and life changes as well as a curiosity for understanding themselves. Each time I meet with a client, I am excited to share with them their individuality and yet through it all I have noticed we human beings are so similar. There are basic tenets in life that remain certain and trustable. These are what we humans have a tendency to take advantage of and these are essentially what the essays describe. I adore words. I always have. I’ve been a reader since childhood and have kept journals through the years. The reason I decided to write and release LIFE IS GOOD now is because with the speedup of time we can easily lose track of what makes life good.
"There are basic tenets in life that remain certain and trustable. These are what we humans have a tendency to take advantage of and these are essentially what the essays describe."
No matter our circumstances, situations or challenges there is much about our lives that, if we are willing to pay attention and notice more about who we truly are, collectively and individually; as well as how much the Universe, God, Goddess or whatever we call the essence of life we have been given; we will find that it is possible to choose to live with the mantra that LIFE IS GOOD. The added tagline “When You Do the Work” is, I find, a necessary component in how to live one’s life respectively, responsibly and with a consciousness of alive integrity and passion. The beauty surrounding us in the natural world along with the compassion and kindness innate in each of us is in itself something to strive to protect and enjoy. After that there is so much one can do to pay closer attention to how to honor the gifts each one of us is given. The essays are my way of expressing my thoughts collected through the many years of being an observer of all of life. I see with eyes that care deeply about the simple pleasures that we all have access to. I want my book to be a reminder of how to observe, appreciate, enjoy and take responsibility for all that we have been given at what seems to be very little cost.
TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH MARIA FRANCESCA TRILIEGI SIMPLY TAP THIS LINK AND RECEIVE THE ENTIRE SUMMER EDITION FREE :
The Italian Straw Hat, 1952 Oil on paper on board, 22 1/4 x 30 3/8 in.Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, The Schnakenberg Fund, 1955.32 Art © The Educational Alliance, Inc./Estate of Peter Blume/Licensed by VAGA, New York
Peter Blume
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
600 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Tap to Visit : http://www.thewadsworth.org
CHICAGO EVENTS SUMMER 2015
The CHICAGO BLUES FESTIVAL : June 12 - 14, 2015 Grant Park FREE The largest free blues festival in the world and remains the largest of Chicago's Music Festivals. During three days on five stages, more than 500,000 blues fans prove that Chicago is the "Blues Capital of the World." Past performers include Bonnie Raitt, Ray Charles, B. B. King, the late Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy and the late Koko Taylor.
The SHEFFIELD Music Festival & Garden Walk : July 18 & 19, 2015 Sponsored by the Sheffield Neighborhood Association (SNA), a non-profit community organization. The "Summer's Best Festival" features self-guided tours of more than 80 Gardens, guided Architectural Tours, live entertainment by some of Chicago's and North America's finest bands, food and drink, and activities for children at the Kids' Corner. http://www.sheffieldgardenwalk.com/
The CHICAGO TRIATHLON : AUGUST 30, 2015 : The new bike course will allow Elite participants the ability to start first, providing unobstructed space along previously congested Lake Shore Drive.The swim is held in Monroe Harbor, with the start line at Balbo Dr. and Lake Shore Drive. International swimmers first head south, swimming parallel to the sea wall.The run course begins at the grass reserve just south of Randolph. http://www.chicagotriathlon.com/
BUREAU FASHION: The DANDY LIONS
Dandy Lion: (Re) Articulating Black Masculine IdentityNow Through July 12, 2015
All too often in America and across the world, we are exposed to a negative image regarding people of color. Within the mainstream media and often times in films and publications, we are given cliched versions of life on every level. Stories and images are pushed in our faces with a determination to send a larger message to the populist about the populists.Anyone who is pretty hip can see through this device and yet, after a while, we have to simply oppose this tool by simply showing the world a whole other side of the coin. These images from the Exhibit, Dandy Lions:(Re)Articulating Black Masculine Identity, are on View at The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Dandy Lion: (Re)Articulating Black Masculine Identity features work from emerging and renowned photographers and filmmakers from the US, Europe and Africa, including Hanif Abur-Rahim, Jody Ake, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Rose Callahan, Kia Chenelle, Bouba Dola, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Russell K. Frederick, Cassi Amanda Gibson, Allison Janae Hamilton, Akintola Hanif, Harness Hamese/Loux the Vintage Guru, L. Kasimu Harris, Jamala Johns, Caroline Kaminju, Charl Landvreugd, Jati Lindsay, Devin Mays, Terence Nance, Arteh Odjidja, Numa Perrier, Alexis Peskine, Radcliffe Roye, Sara Shamsavari, Nyugen Smith, Daniele Tamagni, Richard Terborg and Rog Walker. This exhibition is guest curated by US-based independent curator Shantrelle P. Lewis.
The Museum of Contemporary Photography Columbia College in Chicago 600 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60605 USA Tap to Visit the Exhibition online Now : http://www.mocp.org
Charles Ray: The American Sculptor
Charles Ray is one of the very few artists alive today to combine both humor and pathos in a way that is equally foreboding as well as strangely understated. Unlike Jeff Koons, who is considered one of Ray's contemporaries, Mr. Ray comes off as just a bit more modest, not just in scale and subject, but in the actual, 'Selling' of the idea. Mostly due to the size, surface and finishing styles of the actual sculptures. Mr. Koons, whose work is magnificent in the same way as, say, a Salvador Dali, is what we might call a 'Hard Sell'. Koons' candy coated surfaces are reminiscent of a famous 1950's Car Commercial by Earl Scheib who promised to paint any car for $39.95, of course the prices went up as time went on and so too for these Sculptors. Ray is represented by Matthew Mark$ and Koons by Larry Gago$ian. This retrospect entitled Charles Ray: Sculpture 1997-2014, had us thinking he passed away last year. But, like The Art World, the title is deceiving & this is simply a survey of those years. Charles Ray lives in Los Angeles and as Dr. Frankenstein exclaimed, "IT'S ALIVE!"
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Charles Ray: Sculpture 1997 - 2014
Tap to Visit On line: http://www.artic.edu
THE BUREAU IN SAN DIEGO
SAN DIEGO is another one of those Cities that unless you visited more than a few times, you might not realize what a great Community it actually is. As a Photographer, I find the place to have a very special sort of light that keeps me returning again and again. La Jolla, Mission Beach, The Lamplight all with something to offer tourists, locals and professionals. As a writer, visiting San Diego is a boon of simple and earthy characters, with a fine mix of working class individuals, retired professionals and a bevy of wealthy folks. The magazine has taken readers into original design interviews, the Museum of Modern Art, Photographic Essays into Old Town San Diego, Interviews with local Theater Productions, An In Depth Surf Interview with Community Surf Hero Bird of Birds Surf Shack in San Diego, Inside The La Jolla Athenaeum and a constant relationship with Dennis Wills of D.G. Wills Bookstore a legendary location visited by The best Writers in the world. It's been a wild ride San Diego. Next Up: A Photographic Essay of The Coastal Walkabout from Solana Beach to La Jolla, Articles on Eateries such as The Cottage, Mary's English Kitchen and Juice Crafters, Plus an Interview with Roman Palacios Local Opera Singer and Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire ...
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE
presents
SURF INTERVIEW: JACK ENGLISH
Joshua TRILIEGI: Your catalogue is beautiful, diverse and modern and yet, at the same time, your images have an original and purist aesthetic that harkens back to the 1970's. Discuss style in surf photography and explain how you go about 'picturing ' images.
Jack ENGLISH: I love being different and getting a different shot from the next photographer which in the surfing world is so very challenging. If your on the North Shore of Oahu and their are 20 pros out well you're going to have at least 20 photographers on the beach and 20 in the water shooting the same shot and for the most part shooting the same angle. When I do my shoots here in California I always make sure I am the only photographer or if I show up to a place like Malibu on a big swell and their might be 3 other photographers there I will try to sneak down the beach and get an angle in which they aren't getting in hopes that I picked the best location in or out of the water. Every photographer has their own style, but I always try to imagine the shot I am going for months in advance for a specific surfer or location. I rarely show up to a spot and just start shooting. I put everything together with the surfer before he goes out in the water. It's like he is my model and I communicate to him or her what type of shot or move I would like them to do. I like to be involved on what their wearing or what board their riding. I like to direct my shoots and be just as much involved if not more then the surfer. I am not like go out and surf and I will take your picture - it's not like that for me. I am a director of my own shoots.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Surf culture is now a worldwide thing, for those of us on the West Coast, who grew up with it, it was and is a way of life. For the audience, its exotic and a commodity of sorts. Explain how you view the trajectory of Surf culture in the recent decades .
Jack ENGLISH: Maybe it's not safe for me to say this based on [ the fact that] I eat, breathe and sleep surfing and surf photography, but it's kind of boring now to an extreme. Kind of like everything has been done. To me, the late 80's into the early 90's was the best. The 80's had the bright fluorescent wetsuits and the early 90's had the momentum generation: Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian, Ross Williams, Rob Machado, etc… They took surfing to it's highest level. These guy's weren't trying to dress all groovy, they just ripped at surfing. They we're untouchable. You have guy's now that pretty much suck at surfing, but they try to dress the part kind of like, hey I am not that good at surfing, but I will try to be the hipster or groovy guy that way I can still get paid to surf. Companies fall for it for whatever reasons based on their are so many dam brands nowadays and all of them want or think they need to sponsor someone.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Share your views regarding Digital versus Film and the future of photography.
Jack ENGLISH: Digital is such a f*cking copout. It's like a musician who needs all these machines to make their music for them. Take someone like an Elton John who just needs a piano and he will kill it. All these digital photographers became photographers because it was easy, cheap and mostly no cost for film and processing. I have one friend who told me he would never had shot photos if it we'rent for digital. I think in the past before digital you had the true photographers who really loved photography. The photographers that loved going to the photo lab dropping off their film and then hours later racing back to the photo lab praying they nailed the shot. The photographers that loved the smell of the photo labs or the smell of film. On the flip side I can't speak for the digi guy's and say they don't really love photographer or their not really photographers, that's not it. I mean if I was brought up after the film era I to would most likely just be shooting digital and always question what is film. But I was brought up int he film era and my heart is for film. I have passed a point where I hate digital. I hate hard drives, cords, cards, all that shit just bugs me and then have to worry if my hard drive crashes I loose everything. I can't handle that. How am I suppose to shoot so many wonderful images and then I am to rely on some hard drive not to crash, fuck that. I much rather have a folder full of tangible slides or negatives on my shelves and be done with it.
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WITH SURF PHOTOGRAPHER JACK ENGLISH ON COVER TAP LINK:
Santa Barbara California is a very Beautiful Community. Recently, I was asked by someone in the big city, "Why did The Magazine focus on a City such as Santa Barbara ?" I found myself having to defend, rather easily, a place I have grown to Love. So many of our greatest writers and actors have also fallen in love with Santa Barbara, but it's rather difficult to describe why. There is a first class Film Festival, top of the line Wineries, A Coastal Beauty that compares to any coast, in any country around The World. And all the while, It's laid back. With lots of Surfers, Bikers, Real people, living their lives everyday. No matter how respected this magazine gets in New York City or Los Angeles or even overseas, I personally spend more time in cities such as Santa barbara, more quality time than I have ever expected. After all is said and done after the work is over, there is nothing quite like a Glass of Wine or a Swim in The Oceans at Santa Barbara County. So far, we've brought readers into The Santa Barbara Winery with Photo Essays, Audio Interviews at The Lost Horizon Bookstore and Adama Vegan Cuisine and an in depth Interview with Santa Barbara's Award winning Board Shaper Wayne Rich.
SANTA BARBARA http://BUREAUofARTSandCULTURESantaBarbara.blogspot.com
BUREAU EDITORIAL DIS-organization[s]
What has happened to today's organizations ? There was a time when being 'organized' meant doing something that improved life for the group of people you were associating with. Is today's society embroiled in a power struggle that allows Members Only to be favored exponentially ? Are organizations and associations wielding their power in a manner that could be abusive ? Have you noticed that individuals and heads of particular departments, including the mouthpieces in media outlets and those in the public eye are using their platforms in a disingenuous manner ? If you have answered, 'Yes' to any of these questions, you are not alone. From Churches to Non - Profits, from Television networks to Newspaper publishers, from Markets to Corporations, from Neighborhood to Region, from States to Cities & Counties: we are now experiencing a shift in the ideology of a Group vs The Individual.
Of course there are the exceptions, sometimes within an organization, one will find a partial, fair and exemplary individual & even the occasional entire organization as a whole. Though, we should always remember that many clubs, schools, religions and membership style affiliations are exactly created for the sake of empowering that particular group and sometimes rewarding it's members for their behavior within the group. A membership radio station will reward it's listeners with occasional gifts, a membership film festival will rewards its members with discounts to events, a membership museum will allow priority access to its members and a membership religion will go as far as offering jobs, counseling, a social activity and sometimes even life after death. The membership markets offer admission and discounts to products, all sounds fair, yes ? Well, maybe. What happens when non members wish to participate in a related event ? What happens when non members wish to promote or interview or even celebrate something related to this group, be it, radio or museum or marketplace or film festival or even religious ? There is room for abuses of power here and often times exclusive privileges depend on the very rejection of outsiders, non members and 'interlopers.'
There are times when actually making an example of an individual is all part of the membership and organization game. Either on the grand scale, for instance, when someone like Edward Snowden is admonished for sharing secrets, he is made to no longer freely live in America as an American, he is forced to make choices which drive him away from his country of origin. On a smaller scale, due to the many facets of groups and group thinking that have slowly but steadily spread into industries such as entertainment and publishing, being a member, is now being offered as entry into an industry, acceptance as an artist and eventually: success. Thats a very dangerous game. I recall visiting a small community on a tropical island, where the original group of natives had been, for many, many 100s of years affiliated with a particular religion. Because I was a visiting person with business contacts in the West, many of the people I met exclaimed how they had converted to a religion which is very popular in the West. I saw how there was a connection between business opportunities for converts and it startled me. Since that time, I have become more and more aware of this dilemma and must confess that I would personally prefer failure to success due to affiliation through a group of members of some sort. There are entire Arts Publications whose only contributors are members, graduates and teachers and or students of that school of thinking. There are entire theaters that exist solely to exhibit the talents and works by graduates of a certain school where people have studied art or film or music.
So then, the financial aspects of this debate now creep into the room. If your parents can pay for your entry into a school or a University, then, talent allowing, you may have a chance. The problem with this dilemma is that, eventually, it sets up a much larger paradigm wherein a whole other group is conversely created, one in which non whites or non asians or non mexicans or non _________ [ Fill - in - the - blank ] are excluded. Thus creating a world of clubs, cliques and collectives without respect, regard or reward for non members. Unfortunately, I believe we have now arrived at this particular destination and within the very borders of each city, state and country, the infantile philosophies surrounding this way of thinking are handicapping our ability to progress as a society, a country a planet: we are in trouble people. Had I not been raised in Los Angeles or travelled throughout the world or even been respectful, curious and a learned student of International films, art and music, maybe I would not even be fully aware of this dilemma. Editing and creating a magazine that seeks to speak with the best artists, actors, filmmakers, culturally aware individuals has indeed been an education in this regard.
"Every now and then, I meet an incredible individual
who seeks only to offer the beautiful thing that
their institute is actually there to offer…"
As was mentioned, every now and then, I meet an incredible individual who seeks only to offer the beautiful thing that their institute is actually there to offer. An example of that would be every image you see in this edition of the magazine from a gallery or museum. Though, unfortunately, more often than not, we receive a cold reception or worse a manipulated, contrived and down right embarrassingly false set of circumstances that include denial of full access, a series of bureaucratic levels which hinder the goal or simply being lied to or delayed or ignored, resulting in a particular due date having since than expired, thus creating the inability to sponsor, participate or include a contribution of some sort. Sometimes, non members are offered some form of limited access, which is than manipulated to show the 'non-member,' how great life could be, if only they joined the club of conformists, believers, non-believers, etc… Playing the game to get what you want. These social traps are set on a daily basis. More often than not, walking away is the best bet, though, as a publication, with a goal oriented schedule to promote, affiliate and sponsor social events that surround art, music, film, science, culture and eventually receive advertising dollars to provide a service to the institutes, organizations and companies or non profits, my concerns sometime lead me down the path to investigative journalism: where I am often aghast at the quote un-quote 'members' of some of these organizations. Sometimes this includes a local market or a non profit or an art gallery or even a member of my own government. How far will all of this member versus non member go before it blows up in our faces ? Or is that the point ? Look around at your world. Look around at your organizations. Look around at your own religion, your own so - called group. If you like what you see. Cool. But, if you notice that your superiority is based on the fact that you are a so-called 'member' of a group, that is either based on belief, income, non-belief or lack of income, race, color, age, sex, education, admission fee, a particular lifestyle or some other in-crowd superficial aspect, it may be that you are not superior at all. Quite possibly the exact opposite may be true.
Norman Seeff : The Ramones New York, 1977 © Norman Seeff Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Miami
LET'S ROCK
Now Through JUNE 13, 2015
Rock & Roll Music has always been affiliated with the medium and Art of Photography. Performances only last a few minutes, hours or the duration of the current tour. Musicians found early on that the power of the image from last years tour could sell tickets and albums to next years tour and the fusion or marriage between the camera and the music was complete. Let's Rock, the current exhibit at Fahey / Klein's new Gallery in Miami, Florida takes us through the History of Modern Rock and Roll with photographs by the best in the biz. Including: Jim Marshall’s iconic shot of Johnny Cash flipping the bird, Barry Feinstein’s image of fans peering into the window of Bob Dylan’s limo, Frank Stefanko’s Bruce Springsteen at the beginning of his career and Harry Benson’s playful photograph of a Beatles’ pillow fight.
Led Zeppelin (In Front of Plane) New York, 1973 © Bob Gruen, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Miami
Lets Rock, is an important photographic exhibit because it balances the grit with the glamour, the guts with the glory and the guys with the gals in all that bare truth that Rock and Roll Music was originally meant to express. Lets not forget that this was a music in touch with it's anger, in touch with it's passion, in touch with it's feelings, it's roots, it's working class upbringing. Surely Mick Jagger is the face of the Stones, but without a working class pal such as Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones might just have been another Hermans Hermits. As Rock & Roll becomes more and more appropriated by millionaires, museums and extremely wealthy non profit entities, it may be a good time to remind them all, that Rock & Roll, belongs to The People. We saw these same trends with William Shakespeare, who originally wrote for the people and Classical greats such as Ludwig Van Beethoven.We The People Own Rock & Roll, we own Rap, we own Country, we own The Blues, we own Jazz. This is All Peoples Music, much of it originated in America, so then, we own America. Take pride in great music America, you made it happen. It's Yours : Lets Rock.
Norman Seeff Keith Richards Los Angeles 1972 Courtesy Fahey / Klein Gallery Miami
Gered Mankowitz : Jimi Hendrix (Classic), 1966 © Gered Mankowitz, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Miami
FAHEY / KLEIN GALLERY in MIAMI 4025 Northeast 2nd Avenue Second Floor Miami Florida 33137 U.S.A
On 2nd Avenue, between 40th and 41st St. In the Miami Design District. Across 2nd Ave from the newly established Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Fahey/Klein Gallery Miami is on the Second Floor of the Chrome Hearts building. Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am – 7pm.
The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Seattle Community Site will be featuring neighboring Cities such as Tacoma and Portland's Museums, Galleries, Music Events and Special Cultural happenings as well as ALL The Subjects that The Magazine brings you regularly: ART . FILM . MUSIC . DESIGN . CULTURE . ARCHITECTURE . ECOLOGY . INTERVIEWS + More …Coming Soon : Exclusive Interviews with local Artists, Musicians and Museums Including Rock Hushka Chief Curator at The Tacoma Art Museum. In Depth Articles on Seattle & Washington's Cultural Touch points including: Jimi HENDRIX, ECOLOGICAL Concerns, The PORTS of Washington, Native American Issues and Historically significant Moments in it's History.
NEW FICTION: KAZUO ALONE
A Short Story by Linda Toch / Little Tokyo Story Contest Winner 2015
Kazuo embraced Mondays like no other and that was because of its silence. Mondays were sweet, a sweep of semi-peace in the streets of Los Angeles. The typical street-crawlers were in school and the typical tourists at their nine to five jobs, and so Kazuo chose Monday to roam, map, conquer his neighborhoods unperturbed. Mondays were a convenience only when eighty five of your years had passed and your company along with it. It was nice timing for those who desired solace. The old man had fit this criteria to a tee. People talked about him, of course; no one who walks alone can keep his name out of others’ mouths. They say he had a wife once. They say his marriage was a spectacle, a whirr of harmonies—he, a striking man, she, an incandescent beauty—he, solemn-faced, she, the embodiment of joy. She was his joy. Small talk still lingers about their wedding to date, a legend left for the gossip mill to disperse. 100 brown doves. That was how many they released that day.
Rumor had it, the birds swirled around the couple, drawing a ribbon with their synchronized bodies before soaring up and beyond sight. They called this God’s miracle, God’s blessing on a beautiful union. A year later, when the wife’s cheeks ran out of ruby colors to make room for pallor, they called it God’s apology instead. His solemn face turned sorrow. He hadn’t remarried since. Years past and people trickled in and out of his life, and Kazuo never put forth the efforts to make them stay. He, ever the true Buddhist, held no attachments. Religion had nothing to do with this, of course; he simply couldn’t be bothered with anyone else to begin with. Yet in spite of this, there was something that drew him back to Little Tokyo time after time. Kazuo knew his streets well, but he was mindless when he walked. He lived in his head, in a world far detached from realities, from earth—perhaps that was the sole reason why he enjoyed his solo strolls. When he returned, unaware of the lefts and rights he chose, he found himself wound up on First or Alameda. Always. He’d spot the museum’s large puzzle cube, listen to the paper lanterns crinkle above his head, feel the gust of wind as children breezed by him with an excitement so distantly familiar to him… it was the way wide streets became smaller and then wider again, and the way the tiny shops were cramped so closely. He’d be a dead man before he admitted it, but Little Tokyo had wormed its way into his heart.
The streets were by no means empty on Mondays, but Kazuo didn’t need to bump and squirm his way through crowds among crowds. It was mostly college students flocking to the modernized corners, anyway. The sushi joints. Yogurtland. Anything with bright letters and an appearance that promised a good time. Kazuo rested in a quieter area, a little sector of a street filled with mom and pop shops. He sat in front of a bakery store of the Japanese Village Plaza, listening to a performer improvise a song for a family next to him. The singer’s voice, mellow and pleasant, was a charmer. It was as if people paid for the happy ambience his keyboard brought instead of the performance itself. The tip jar was filled to the brim. High school ditchers passed by him, the corners of their mouth dribbled with ice cream. The infectious bliss that came from the musician seemed to make them younger and younger. Such a gift, to be able to have your keyboard turn the elderly to adults, the adults to teens, the teens to children…and the teens laughed joyously, ecstatically, their heads thrown back the way a seven year old’s would.
Kazuo’s heart stung a little. He remembered how it was, to be young and enamored. No one else existed but the person by your side; nothing else was tangible except the hands brushing against your own. “And you, sir!” the performer called, suddenly, index finger pointed straight at Kazuo. “What is your name?” “Ah, I…no, I didn’t tip you,” Kazuo responded sheepishly, waving his hands to the artist. “No money.” Smiling, his inquirer replied, “I’m here to talk, not much else. How are you?” His words reverberated from the microphone and bounced around in Kazuo’s ears. I’m here to talk…when was the last conversation Kazuo had? It was with his insurers, wasn’t it? Or his doctor? The nurses? “I…I’m fine, thank you.” It felt like all of Little Tokyo stared at him, their eyes digging into his skin. Even the pigeons that scattered among the Plaza seemed to look into the old man. Seemed to look into how he sat, crookedly. How his back hunched and his teeth yellowed even more in bare sunlight. How his forehead wrinkled and sagged his face downward into a perpetual frown. He finally felt like his age in his skin, and he’d never been more aware of eighty five years than that day. “Ah, before I launch into a song, do you want me to dedicate it to someone?” the performer continued. Again with the questions. “A loved one, maybe?” he pressed. Kazuo merely shook his head. “No, no one. There’s no one.” “You were in love, weren’t you? I can tell by the way you look down.” The performer pressed a few keys, his fingers cascading over them with a feathery lightness. The sounds floated melodiously into the air, drawing in more and more of a crowd.
Kazuo shuffled his feet in embarrassment. “Let me ask an easier question, then. How did you meet?” The grin the musician gave coaxed an answer out of the reluctant Kazuo. He stuttered, yelling it half-heartedly, just loud enough for the other man to hear. “We met by the Aoyama tree!” Too loud, Kazuo thought, cringing. I was too loud. Too much noise… The performer’s eyes glinted, and his smile widened. He continued pressing down more keys, more and more, a stream of gorgeous sounds making way to Kazuo’s ears. But he sang nothing into the microphone. Kazuo was startled by the silence, but sat still to enjoy the music regardless. A minute had passed before the man proceeded with more questions. “The Aoyama tree…what a beautiful place to meet a beautiful woman, no?” Kazuo nodded. “It was,” he agreed softly. “It was.” His mind drifted back to a time when his heart was filled with inexplicable emotions, a mesh of pain and thrill, hope and fervor and ultimately: heat. There was the sting of leaving his family behind. He could not touch his mother’s face anymore, or help his father walk in old age. But on another hand, he had made his way into LA. The city of the greats. The giants. The powerful, the dreamers. The city to get lost in, to get found, to be anonymous, to make a name—LA. It was an achievement all on its own, making it there. And then there was her. He remembered meeting her perfectly: the clumsiness that ensued, the awkward exchange of greetings that followed. He stumbled, and she tripped, and he fell, and she toppled over. And he said hello. And she gifted him a smile. “I’ve seen you a couple times, sir,” the performer continued. “You come here often. I want to give thanks for showing love to our little world.”
Kazuo remembered the shops, the nooks and crannies found in them, and the entanglement of histories and modern culture. The celebrations, the festivals. The morning prayers. Kazuo remembered all of it. And he remembered her traversing by his side the entire time, exploring the ‘little world’ that only seemed to get bigger the more they stayed in it. And he remembered the happiness. Where was the crying child in Little Tokyo? The frowning human? They didn’t seem to exist. The streets were flooded with happiness, a happiness like no other. And it was still flooded today. But the idea of joy was so faint in his heart, as time wrung out the euphoria in all his memories, that Kazuo only now began to feel again. There was bitterness locked inside of him, a bitterness that never left him since her passing. And so he exhaled this bitterness with the timing of the music. In and out. Just like the morning meditations she used to accompany him to, around the temple near their precious love-tree. He breathed in the piano notes and breathed out the heaviness in his heart. “The Aoyama tree,” the performer started, “is a sign of resilience. It’s a sign of forever. Of going on. It’s an old, old survivor in the city…much like you, I’d imagine.” Again, the performer smiled. “And much like your love. The tree is entwined with your past, my friend, and that’s a beautiful honor.” Kazuo lifted himself up slowly and walked toward the performer. His hands shook. He leaned forward and put a five dollar bill in the tip jar. It was all the money he had. “Thank you. Thank you. I feel light again,” Kazuo whispered. The performer shoved the microphone out of the way, and whispered back, “Your joy is long overdue…you needed to visit your roots again. Back to where it all started. No thanks are needed for that, my friend.” But with a twinkle in his eye, he added, “I thought you had no money, Kazuo.” It was Kazuo’s turn to smile. He made his way to Aoyama Tree, this time, his mind clear of directions. Somehow, his feet remembered the paths he had taken with her decades ago. Back to the tree’s roots, back to his roots, back to the roots of his first and only love. He felt his heart pump vigorously to keep up with his pace. A part of him wanted to touch the bark. Stroke it. Carve initials into it. He wanted to interact. To feel. But he stayed behind, admiring the piece of art nature invested into this land.
What made Little Tokyo magical was the people around it, he realized. The children, the teens, the adults, the families, the couples. The performer. Her. And him. He was a part of it, the city, the culture. He always was. It was six o’clock by the time Kazuo finished. His legs tired of the walk, he walked in a daze, a wonderment of the new Little Tokyo he was seeing. With every street was a new memory he uncovered once more. There was no more pain heaving down in his chest. He walked a little straighter, stood a little taller. He would visit the tree next Monday, he decided. And the week after that, and the week after that. And forevermore. He would visit the tree for as long as the tree stood there, and as long as he stood alive. There was no more remorse in his reminiscence. Just joy. Kazuo grinned as he thought of the performer. He relived the entire ordeal in his head as he made his way back home. And then it struck him—how did the performer know of his name in the first place? How did the performer know anything at all? And, most importantly, did any of that matter? His spirit felt rejuvenated, youthful. Twenty years old at best. And that was the greatest gift anyone had ever bestowed on him since her smile. For that alone, Kazuo didn’t need the answers to his questions. The sunset settled down and the darkness cloaked the colorful skies with black. He stepped into his house, exhausted by this Monday’s elongated walk. The loneliness always kept on his shoulders had all dissipated by then. Certainly he lived by himself, but that didn’t mean he was alone, no. Not any longer. And before he could lock the door shut, Kazuo could swear he heard the faint coo of a dove outside… a sound that made his eyes dampen. He pressed his palms against his cheeks, surprised. The tears were his own. The emotions were his own. Where was the crying child in Little Tokyo, anyway? Where could you find the frowning adult? He sunk into the comforts of his home and drifted into sleep, his ears filled with the sounds of music and doves. The man was at peace at last.
Linda Toch is a writer and a 2015 Winner of the Los Angeles CA USA Little Tokyo Story Contest.
Images Related to this Bureau Article : Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Herb Ritts
© Herb Ritts Foundation Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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THE BUREAU SUMMER EDITION 2015 EDITED by JOSHUA TRILIEGI
WE CELEBRATE ART MUSIC FILM FASHION SURFING BIKING INTERVIEW ARCHITECTURE FICTION DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY CUISINE BOOKS CULTURE
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We Thank: Da Capo Press, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Pace/MacGill Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Georgia O'Keefe Museum of Art, Fine Arts Center Colorado Springs, Duke University, Andy Warhol Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Crystal Bridges, United Artists, Spot Photo Works, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art Huston Texas, Gallerie Urbane, Mary Boone Gallery, Pace Gallery, Asian Art Museum, Magnum Photo, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Fahey/Klein, Tobey C. Moss, Sandra Gehring, George Billis, Martin - Gropius - Bau Berlin, San Jose Museum of Art, First Run Features, Downtown Records, Koplin Del Rio, Robert Berman, Indie Printing, American Film Institute, SFMOMA, Palm Beverly Hills, KM Fine Arts, LA Art Show, Photo LA, Jewish Contemporary Museum, Cultural Affairs, Yale Collection of Rare Books & Manuscript and Richard Levy.
Contributing Photographers: Norman Seef, Herb Ritts, Jack English, Alex Harris, Gered Mankowitz, Bohnchang Koo, Natsumi Hayashi, Raymond Depardon, T. Enami, Dennis Stock, Dina Litovsky, Guillermo Cervera, Moises Saman, Cathleen Naundorf, Terry Richardson, Phil Stern, Dennis Morris, Henry Diltz, Steve Schapiro, Yousuf Karsh, Ellen Von Unwerth, William Claxton, Robin Holland, Andrew Moore, James Gabbard, Mary Ellen Mark, John Robert Rowlands, Brian Duffy, Robert Frank, Jon Lewis, Sven Hans, David Levinthal, Joshua White, Brian Forrest, Lorna Stovall, Elliott Erwitt, Rene Burri, Susan Wright, David Leventhal, Peter Van Agtmael & The Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi.
Contributing Guest Artists: Irby Pace, Jon Swihart, F. Scott Hess, Ho Ryon Lee, Andy Moses, Kahn & Selesnick, Jules Engel, Patrick Lee, David Palumbo, Tom Gregg, Tony Fitzpatrick, Gary Lang, Fabrizio Casetta, DJ Hall, David FeBland, Eric Zener, Seeroon Yeretzian, Dawn Jackson, Charles Dickson, Ernesto DeLaLoza, Diana Wong, Gustavo Godoy, John Weston, Kris Kuksi, Bomonster, Hiroshi Ariyama, Linda Stark, Kota Ezawa, Russell Nachman, Katsushika Hokusai and Xuan Chen
Contributing Writers: Robin Holland, Jamar Mar(s) Tucker, Linda Toch, Maria (Mom) Triliegi
Georgia O’Keeffe Black Patio Door, 1955 Oil on canvas, 40 1/8x30 in. Amon Carter
Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. (O’Keeffe 1283) © Copyright 2015 Amon
Carter Museum of American Art Special Thanks to Crystal Springs Fine Arts Center
INTERVIEW: BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE EDITOR: JOSHUA TRILIEGI
Writer Joshua Triliegi discusses his most recent Fiction Project, "They Call It The City of ANGELS," creating beliEvable characters and the challenges therein. Season One & Season Two are available on line at most of the 10 various BUREAU of Arts and Culture Websites & translatable around the world.
Discuss the process of writing your recent fiction project, " They Call It The City of Angels ."
Joshua Triliegi: I had lived through the riots of 1992, actually had a home not far from the epicenter and experienced the event first hand, I noticed how the riot was being perceived by those outside our community, people began to call me from around the world, my friends in Paris, my relatives in the mid west, childhood pals, school mates, etc... Each person had a different take on why and what was happening, I still have those recordings, this was back in the day of home message recorders with cassettes. So, after 20 years, I began to re listen to the voices and felt like something was missing in the dialogue.
" I noticed how the riot was being perceived by those outside our community ..."
Some of my friends and fellow theater contemporaries such as Anna Deveare Smith and Roger Guenvere Smith had been making bold statements in relation to the riots with their own works and I realized that there was a version of original origin inside of me. I felt the need to represent the community in detail, but with the event in the background. Because, I can tell you from first hand experience that when these events happen, people are still people, and they deal with these types of historical emergencies differently based on their own culture, their own codes, their own needs and everyday happenstances.
You originally published each chapter on a daily basis, explain how and why ?
Joshua Triliegi: I had been editing The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine for a few years, we printed thousands of magazines that were widely distributed throughout Los Angeles and San Francisco and had created an on-line readership.The part of me that had dabbled in fiction through the years with screenplays and short stories had been ignored for those few years. On the one hand, it was simply a challenge to create a novel without notes, improvising on a daily basis, on the other hand, it gave the project a freedom and an urgency that had some connection with the philosophy of Jack Kerouac and his Spontaneous Prose theories. One thing it did, was forced me, as a creator, to make the decisions quickly and it also, at the time, created a daily on line readership, at least with our core readers, that to this day has strengthened our community sites and followers on line. Season One was a series of introductions to each character. Season Two, which happened the following year, was a completely different experience all together.
Describe Season Two of They Call It The City of Angels and those challenges.
Joshua Triliegi: Well first of all, the opening line of Season One is, " Los Angeles is a funny place to live, but those laughing were usually from out of town, " That opener immediately set up an insiders viewpoint that expresses a certain struggle and angst as well as an outsider — looking — in — perception that may be skewed. In introducing characters throughout season one, I was simply creating a cast of characters that I knew somehow would be important to set the tone surrounding the riots of 1992 in Los Angeles. With Season Two, and an entire year of gestation, which was extremely helpful, even if it was entirely on a subconscious level, I had a very real responsibility to be true to my characters and each persons culture. I had chosen an extremely diverse group of people, but had not actually mentioned their nationality, or color in Season One. By the time season Two rolled around, I found it impossible not to mention their differences and went several steps further to actually define those differences and describe how each character was effected by the perception of the events in their life. This is a novel that happens to take place before, during and after the riot. The characters themselves all have lives that are so complete and full and challenged, as real life actually is, that the riot as a backdrop is entirely secondary to the story. I was surprised at how much backstory there actually was. I also think my background in theater, gave me a sense of character development that really kicked my characters lives into extreme detail and gave them a fully realized life.
How do you go about creating a character ?
Joshua Triliegi: Well, there is usually a combination of very real respect and curiosity involved. Sometimes, I may have seen that person somewhere in the world and something about them attracted my attention in some way. In the case of They Call It The City of Angels, I knew the people of Los Angeles had all been hurt badly by the riots of 1992, because I am one of those people and it hurt. One minute we were relating between cultures, colors, incomes, the next we were pitted up against one another because some people in power had gotten away with a clear injustice. So with season two, I personally had to delve deeper into each persons life and present a fully realized set of circumstances that would pay off the reader, in terms of entertainment and at the same time be true to the code of each character. Once they were fully realized, the characters themselves would do things that surprised me and that is when something really interesting began to happen.
Could you tell us a bit more about the characters and give us some examples of how they would surprise you as a writer ?
Joshua Triliegi: Well, Jordan, who is an African American bus driver and happens to be a Muslim, began to find himself in extremely humorous situations where he is somehow judged by events and circumstances beyond his control. I thought that was interesting because the average person most likely perceives the people of that particular faith as very serious. Jordan has a girlfriend who is not Muslim and when he is confronted by temptation, he is equally as human as any of my readers and so, he gets himself into situations that complicate his experience and a certain amount of folly ensues. Fred, who is an asian shop owner and a Buddhist, has overcome a series of tragedies, yet has somehow retained his dignity with a stoicism that is practically heroic. At one point, in the middle of a living nightmare, he simply goes golfing, alone and gets a hole in one. Junior, who is a Mexican American young man recently released from prison really drives the story as much of his backstory connects us to Fred and his tragedies as well as legal decisions such as the one that caused the city to erupt as it does in the riot.
You talk a lot about Responsibility to Character, what do you mean and how do you conduct research ?
Joshua Triliegi: Well, if I make a decision that a character is a Muslim or Asian or Mexican or what have you, if I want the respect of my readers and of those who may actually be Muslim, Asian or Mexican, it behooves me to learn something about that character. As a middle aged man who lives in Los Angeles and has done an extensive amount of travel throughout my life, there is a certain amount of familiarity with certain people. But for instance, with Fred, I watched films on the history of the Korean War and had already respected the Korean Community here in Los Angeles for standing up for themselves the way they did. I witnessed full on attacks and gun fights between some of the toughest gangsters in LA and I think even they gained respect for this community in that regard. Fred is simply one of those shop owners, he is a very humble and unassuming man, in season two, he finds himself entering a whole new life and for me as a writer, that is very gratifying and to be totally honest, writing for Fred was the most bitter sweet experience ever. Here is a man who has lost a daughter, a wife, a business partner and he is about to lose all he has, his shop. Regarding Junior and Jordan, I grew up with these guys, I have met them again and again, on buses, in neighborhoods at school. Jordan has a resilience and a casual humor that has been passed down from generations, a survival skill that includes an ironic outlook at life. He also has that accidental Buster Keaton sort of ability to walk through traffic and come out unscathed. Junior on the other hand is a real heavy, like any number of classic characters in familiar cinema history confronted with the challenges of poverty and tragedy. He is the character that paid the biggest price and in return, we feel that experience. There is a certain amount of mystery and even a pent up sexuality and sometimes a violence that erupts due to his circumstances. In season two, within a single episode, Junior takes his father, who is a busboy at a cafe and repositions him as the Don or boss of their original ranch in Mexico.
There seems to be a lot of religion in They Call it the City of Angels, how did that occur and do you attend church or prescribe to any particular faith ?
I never intended for there to be so much religion in this book. But, if you know Los Angeles like I do, you will realize how important faith is to a good many people and particularly to the characters I chose to represent. With Jordan being Muslim, it allowed me to delve into the challenges a person might have pertaining to that particular faith. Fred's life is so full of tragedy that even a devout buddhist would have trouble accepting and letting go of the events that occur in his life. Junior found god in prison as many people do, upon his release back into the real world, he is forced to make decisions which challenge that belief system and sometimes go against his faith, at the same time, he finds himself physically closer to real life events and objects of religious historical significance than the average believer which brings us into a heightened reality and raises questions in a new way. As for my own belief system, I dabble in a series of exercises and rituals that spring from a wide variety of faiths and practices.
You discussed Jordan, Fred and Junior. Tell us about Cliff and Charles and Chuck.
Joshua Triliegi: I don't really believe in secondary characters, but in writing fiction, certain characters simply emerge more pronounced than others. As this project was a daily serial for the magazine, I did try my best to keep a balance, giving each character a fully realized set of circumstances and history. That said, some characters were related to another through family, incident or history and later, I felt compelled to know more about them and see how they would emerge.
Charles is one of those legendary rock and roll guys who was on tour with music royalty and simply disappeared. He's the missing father we all hear about and wonder what would happen if he were to suddenly return into our lives ? His son Mickey, his wife Maggie, his daughter Cally have all gone on with their lives, when Jordan, accidentally runs him over while driving his bus, Charles returns home and a new chapter in their lives begins again.
Chuck is a cop who just happened to marry Juniors sister and they have several daughters. When Junior returns from prison, he and Chuck clash simply because of their careers and history. I felt it was important to include authority in this story and once I decided to represent a police officer, I wanted him to be as fully realized and interesting as any other character, though, clearly Junior drives much of this section of the novel and Chuck is simply another person that complicates Juniors arrival. I should also explain that the arrival of Junior from years in prison is really the beginning of events that lead up to the basic thrust of the story and somehow almost everyone in the novel has a backstory that connects in some way.
Cliff is absolutely one of my all time favorites. He is a mentally challenged boy whose father happens to be the judge on the case that develops into the unjust legal decision and eventually the actual 1992 riots. I have always felt that challenged individuals deserve much more than the marginalized lifestyles that we as a contemporary society provide. Many ancient societies have relegated what we dismiss as something very special. Cliff is challenged, but also happens to be a very intuitively gifted human being whose drawings portend actual future events. Even though his parents are extremely pragmatic, they are forced to consider his gifts.
Cliff is a young upper middle class white boy who is entirely obsessed with the late great comedian Richard Pryor and at very inopportune times, Cliff will perform entire Richard Pryor comedic routines, including much of the original risqué language. Cliff is an innocent who pushes the societal mores to the edge. I have found through fiction the ability to discuss, develop and delve into ideas that no other medium provided me. And as you may know, I am a painter, film maker, photographer, sculptor, designer, who also edits a magazine reviewing art, film and culture.
As a man, do you find it challenging to write female characters ?
Joshua Triliegi: To some extent, yes. That said, I have spent a good many years with women and have had very close relationships with the female gender, both personally and professionally, so on average, I would say that I am not a total buffoon. In They Call It City of Angels, Jordan's girlfriend Wanda and his mom both appeared and bloomed as fully realized characters that I really enjoyed writing for. Cliffs mother Dora is also a very strong female character that I am very proud to have created. Season two presented a special challenge with dialogue between characters that was new territory for me. I have written screenplays in the past, sometimes with collaborators, once with my brother and more recently with my nephew and in Angels, I found it, for the first time, very easy to imagine the conversations and action in a way that was totally new to my process. I would most likely credit that to my own relationships and possibly to the several recent years of interviewing and writing for the magazine in general.
When will we see another season of They Call It The City of Angels ?
We have set a tradition of it being the Summer Fiction Project at the Magazine and since August is a relatively slow month for advertising and cultural events, we will most likely see a Season Three in the summer of 2015. As you may know, I do not take any written notes at all prior to the day that I actually write the chapter, so the characters simply develop on a subconscious level and then during the one month or two week process, I pretty much do nothing at all, but ponder their existence, day to day. This can sometimes be nerve racking as I do plot things out in my head and sometimes even make extreme mental notes, though even then some ideas simply don't make it on the page. During Season Two, I omitted a section of a chapter and later revealed another chapter into a different sequence of events, but besides that it has been a rather straight ahead chapter a day experience that simply pushed me to invent, develop and complete the work of fiction that might have otherwise never existed or possibly taken much more time. I am curious to see how my next project will develop.
What is your next project ?
Joshua Triliegi; I am working on a couple of things of historic importance. Though I can't say much about them. One is an actual event that I have been given permission to portray by the actual estate and I don't know yet if it will be an ' Inspired by ... ' type of Novel or if it will be creative Non Fiction. The other is a fiction piece I have been developing for sometime now.
" I have been writing consciously since I was fourteen, stories, journals, poetry, lyrics, screenplays, but as far as fiction goes, They Call It The City of Angels is probably my first successful project with a major readership and I am very thankful that it happened. Better late than never. "
After that I have a sort of family opus that is probably the most researched project I have ever undergone. I have been writing consciously since I was fourteen, stories, journals, poetry, lyrics, screenplays, but as far as fiction goes, They Call It The City of Angels is probably my first successful project with a major readership and I am very thankful that it happened. Better late than never.
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Five Questions with Matt Schwartz
BUREAU Magazine finally caught up with Matt Schwartz recently after his busy schedule documenting several interesting projects in connection with both Surfing and Music. Matt is a photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. We admire his visual aesthetic and rapped out recently about his no nonsense approach to the Art and Craft of Fine Art Photography.
Bureau: What inspires you to create images ?
MS: I kind of have to. I come up with an idea or see someone or something beautiful and for some reason, I need to own that image forever. It is not enough for me to see something beautiful and just look at it without a camera. Everything is more vivid and alive through the lens. I am there with the person or object and become one with it. I used to lose myself by playing music, though for the past 10 years it's been photography. I once wrote in my journal "she hit pause" about a girl I met who stopped time in my life. This is what photography is to me, and where the name to my studio : She Hit Pause Studios, came from.
Bureau: You keep up an interesting catalog, but still find time to make them available and affordable. How important is it for you to be collected ?
MS: That is a great question. I have been asking myself that almost daily. I have been selling my work full time for about 10 years. I typically have been doing the selling myself, either in Brooklyn or on my site. I have never had an ego about my work, which I attribute to why it has worked. I like selling pics to people my age and younger. I like when people say " This is the first piece of real art I am buying " or telling me how happy the work makes them. I think this keeps me going more than the $ aspect. I have recently started selling more expensive limited editions to collectors. It feels a little weird selling an image for more than my car cost. I think selling affordable pics to people in their 20's and the limited editions is a good balance for me. It keeps me humble. A few weeks ago,
I was selling my work and someone came up to me and said he was a big fan of my work and he wanted to meet me. I thanked him and asked him what he does. He said he played in a band. His name was Ben from Mumford and Sons. That was really rewarding.
Bureau: You have a keen ability to create another time & place with some of your process: The surfing images and the transfer prints. How much does nostalgia play into our work ? And tell us a little about that process.
MS: I definitely have a Fondness and attraction to life before computers and cell phones. Film over digital. The faster this world moves, the more I am yearning for its opposite. Lately, I've been buying vintage video games and musical instruments. There is a certain romance to a typewriter or even a notebook than writing on a computer. cont -
There is a weight to film over digital, where you cherish each image and make them count. I like rawness and messiness over polished and megapixels. Most of my work is done on polaroids and film. I use large format polaroids, pull apart the film and then rub the negatives onto watercolor paper. With all of the above said I have used digital on a few shoots for clients and see where it can be useful if a quick turnaround is needed.
Bureau: Did you go to school for Art and how important is education for Photographers.
MS: I did not go to school for art. I took one photograph class my last year. Before shooting professionally, I was setting up fashion shoots with girlfriends and just taking pics for the love of it. That is why it worked for me. I never pressed the shutter on the camera thinking that this will lead to money. It is all images that I want to exist. I am not into expensive cameras or the idea of education for photography. Everything can be learned from a book or by experimenting. The rawness and the "mistakes" are what make photography unique, not rules about composition and lighting. To me, photography is looking through the lens, finding something beautiful and pressing the button. There is no inner dialog or rules, just passion.
Bureau: What are you working on now ?
MS: I just photographed the band "Vacationer" last week, which was a lot of fun. I really like their music and the creative direction the label gave was "We don't want to give you any creative direction. We want you to do what you do" That was awesome to hear and led to a great shoot.
I was hired to shoot The Wanderlust Festival in Hawaii 3 or 4 weeks ago. It was perfect for me. Surfing, yoga and music. I have three shoots from Puerto Rico that I am trying to release and then tackle the Hawaii photos. After the festival, I hung around for a week and shot some of my favorite surfing images ever taken. Today, my work was being sold at a market in the city and I met with my first photo rep and an architectural/design firm about doing the decor for a new boutique hotel they are opening. Lots of hustling. I am trying to differentiate between good stress and bad stress. I am told I am experiencing good stress right now. I am ready to jump some levels in my career. I have sold a lot of work and still have hundreds of unreleased images. I just want to concentrate on shooting and sleeping.
SURFERS AND LOW RIDERS:
"GO GO's DROPPING IN ..."
FICTION
to surf, we don't
want him hanging around these streets & fields for ever.'
Somehow, they agree.
I'm told we will be getting up at five AM. The surf journey starts early when you
live inland.
We pile into someones van & are on the sand lot walking to the reef &
break by sunrise. If I don't look up, its legs and feet and crotches : I'm nine, ten
or eleven, the only kid in attendance. Were about to to see one of our neighbor-
hood jesters steal an entire season from a bunch of internationally known pros.
wild
sense of un expectancy from the surf, which is cold and grey, is in the air. Bigsets flow in, getting larger & slanting into even more powerful faces that broaden
slowly, without notice, becoming the big waves that cats from all over came hereto be a part of. These are Winter swells. Different than the smooth, silver, glassy,
summer afternoons we knew so well. This is the mean, cold, sharp, kind of grey,
jagged, hurtful side of mother nature. An old woman of an ocean ready to take the boys into manhood. Several little stands & tables with umbrellas & banners are
blown over completely. The more concerned sponsors embarrassingly back up their
entire camps. It's an outsiders nightmare & a locals home favorite kind of condition.
the kind of prank that makes names and legends and stories such as this one here.
He's chewing on two pink chocolate sprinkled cakes, shaped like breasts. Chasing
them down with several gulps of Mad Dog Twenty-twenty & a quaalude or codeine
'cause his wetsuit has a giant rip in it and he messed up his ankle the night before
at Oktoberfest. Sleeping in his car in front of Millers Market until pre dawn hours.
He's looking like a coyote running in the back field, while all these pros look like a
bunch of rabbits, sitting, quiet. Even though they have been in the water for several
heats or sessions of elimination and judgements on style, distance, etc... Go-Go's
not even entered in the competition. He's simply going to jump out there and join
the ranks with a wild sense of piracy that comes with years of life on the water. Like
a renegade native, getting high on the water. He can't help it. Go Go's dropping in.
Now the word is getting and Bill is saying that Go-Go is
a kook. But everyone else is goading him into it. The b level players like, Gozer, Richie
and the others. " Yeah Go - Go do it." So, we're all aware that something is going to
happen and all the guys that look like newscasters at the table are about to be surprised
by the " Attack of the Boys from The East End " like a film at the Roadio drive-in. We had
our own daredevil-jokester-madman-hero and we'd have sent him into anything, just to
watch him burn, although it was his matchbook, that was always clear, so it didn't seem
like anyone even thought twice about his safety, except maybe Bill.
There are boats at bay, in case of any
emergency and the girls are all in their bikini's and cut off jeans. They must have come
up from Mexico the way they look, glowing with that peach, amber glow that white girls
get after a season or two on the road with surfers. The tips of their hair, the tan toes, the
bright colored clothes and all the wind blown edges of their attitude. Go - Go slips away
long enough for us to forget about his plan when someone at the surf officials table
becomes extremely animated and upset, waiving erratically at some thing no one else
can see. Another official breaks out the bull horn and starts directing the man on the
break wall to , " Get away from the water. "
Go - Go continues down the wall toward the rocky point where locals, who knew the terrain, could jump off by counting the right
three second interval between the breaking set and the next rising crest. But today, this
was just plain fucking insane and everybody knew it. I started to get concerned. Not like Bill did, by calling him a knuckle head, but fearfulthat a bad thing could happen. And of course a bad thing could happen, that's thepoint of these manhood rituals with the sea and earth and wind and ourselves. ButGo-Go was built to do this, just like he was built to steal a police car because the cops
busted up a party where he was about to get laid and it really pissed him off. Somewere not impressed, whereas we were ecstatic, I mean I was anyway. The place wasbeing robbed of it's boundaries, that was the thing. So Go-Go does a run and a jump,off the end of the concrete, over the first set of rocks and launches a toes - out - cat -like - flight over the six feet of rocks on the outer side of the break wall and into the
sacred sea. Breaking several rules, disrupting the contest and banishing himself from
any future competition position according to the Official California Surfing Federation
handbook of 1970 - something.
But Go-Go wasn't saving for retirement, he was building
up a different account of sorts and was about to hit the long shot on a late bet at roulette. Now he's out there and has to drop in on this next big set and do this thing or it'll flop
and he'll have lost a chance & completely ruined an otherwise decent Winter competition.
He works quick, paddling into a larger break point which can completely slam you into the
rocks if your to close at drop in. By now everyone knows what's going on, all eyes are on
Go - Go. People in our circle start shouting, " Go - Go you f*cker ." Others join in like
fans at a Rams game or Stones concert, " Go - Gooooooooo, do it man." Finally, the war
cryisheard,"G-e-r-o-n-i-m-o !" IlookupandevenBillisbeaming.Asthey
all shouted into the cold, grey sea, Go - Go dropped in and it was then that I started to
understand what surfing was really all about.
- ALWAYS WATCH FOR THE FLAGS AT YOUR LIFEGUARD STATION
- NEVER DISRESPECT THE LOCALS
- NEVER RUN OVER SWIMMER (S)
- COUNT SWELLS PRIOR TO ENTRY
- KNOW WHERE THE RIP TIDES ARE
- ALWAYS RESPECT MOTHER OCEAN
- SHARE THE WAVES WITH OTHERS
AD SPACE AND INTERVIEWS,PHOTOGRAPHS AND HOTSPOTS REVEALED.
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