CursesFoiledfrom Michael Christian Gaudet, since 2007.

My Bloody Valentine at Roseland, Sept. 23, 2008. Photo © 2008.

I don’t know if they “sold out” but the venue did. They ended the concert with the infamous Disney ride that is their wall of noise finale. About 17 minutes of cacophony that is not unlike what you’d hear during an atomic blast. The room vibrated so much that hairs on my arms stood at full attention and my legs felt like mini-fans were circulating the air in my pants. Ear plugs definitely required.

I got another chance to see A Place To Bury Strangers.

"Missing You" Single by APTBS. Photo © 2008.

The beauty of APTBS is in the layers of sounds. Oliver Ackermann makes it look effortless to blend so many guitar sounds together at once that it sounds like there are an extra two invisible guitarists on stage with him. I know this sort of effect playing isn’t easy, but you can tell that this is his passion. And then the projections behind the band, 16mm film strips that were madly edited like Quentin Tarantino meets Andy Warhol, were just the right icing on the cake—a pop art collage of vintage girls, cars, guns, and sparks.

The band sounds so much better live than on their early recordings that I really was wide eyed and disbelieving. It was full throttle guitar. I was also hoping the gig would give me the a taste of the feelings I had when I was infatuated with My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and The Jesus & Mary Chain, and it did. For a fleeting few moments, I was 17 again, with my headphones on. It wasn’t just nostalgia, although it was a sort of relief to know that the old shoegaze sound persists and is still evolving. The feeling was more like watching a magic trick and getting completely taken in.

Photo © 2008.

Patrick, who works at Microsoft, wanted some portraits done for work related projects, so we got together last Sunday at his apartment in Brooklyn. I had to improvise lighting when my remote flash wouldn’t sync up properly. You don’t have to be a European oil painter to appreciate window light.

Photo © 2008.

iPhone Snap from last night. Nick McCabe, guitarist for The Verve. Second night at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. A much better show than the first night and one of the best performances I’ve seen of The Verve. Also, another black Blade Strat guitar of Nick’s came out during the set. It wasn’t there last night and that’s not a brand you see very often in the States.

iPhone Snap from last night: Nick McCabe of The Verve at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.

Photo © 2008.

Because I noticed these things… He was playing a sunburst Levinson Blade Strat, an offset metallic black Fernandes electric guitar, an offset vintage red ‘65 Fender Electric XII 12 string (like Jimmy page used on “Stairway to Heaven”), and a Fiesta Red Strat. Very cool.

I was at the opening for Christopher Daniels’ first solo exhibit at Number 35 Gallery last week.  His two canvas drawings on display were enough to fill the very small room. The canvases were so large that they each consumed a whole wall, and, in fact, had to be stretched inside that very room because there was no other way for them to be brought inside.

Number 35 Gallery, April 19th, 2008. Photo © 2008.

What the gallery says about Christopher’s work is that the drawings are made up of thousands of tiny characters in a map-like world of “impossible landscapes.” And this is what a lot of people paid attention to when they looked over the drawings. They would point at little characters or little icons or symbols, each drawn tiny like impulsive drawings in the margins of a school text, hidden in dense patterns of yet more characters. But the most interesting facet of his work, to me, was that the drawings performed well because of the coloring. Christopher is a talented colorist.

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Keegan from Lise Sarfati’s recent work in NY Magazine’s article “The Waiting Room.”

I was in a waiting room a few weeks ago, leafing through the magazines, when I saw Magnum photographer Lise Sarfati’s name printed at the bottom of some really good editorial work. It made me stop to read the article. Lise’s sensibilities have made her one of the people I most admire in photography this year, ever since I first looked at her book The New Life and read about her process in Aperture.

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Down in the food court, you can get your fill of pizza, Indian take-out, cheesecakes, and back-lit photos.

Photo © 2007.

Ever since I saw the Snow Globe series by Martin and Munoz, which was exciting for me whenever I was eating lunch at Grand Central (for the whole time it was last year), I was anxious to see what new installations would get put up in the underground cafeteria’s Lightbox Project. The latest is a bit meta… “Meet Me At Grand Central.” A group of photos by Boris Klapwald that were taken in the early 1950’s. They’re all hyper-American, black and white, often with cinematic lighting, and for quick snapshots they look great as large scale transparencies. The 40” x 30” aluminum lightbox frames, that look like Parisian steampunk windows, are always fun to see just for themselves. I’ve often wondered if that’s half the appeal.