The Children's Hour

Coming to New York in the fall!

New Books

Just Kids................................Patti Smith*

Graphic Women...................Hillary L. Chute

Stone Butch Blues................Leslie Feinberg*

My Red Blood.......................Alix Dobkin

To Teach................................William Ayers*

New art by me

I wish I had photo shop.

Tasya van Ree

Tasya van Ree

Flower

14 Actors Acting

14 Actors Acting

JDS

JD Salinger died today, he's one of my favorite authors. Except only his short stories, absolutely NOT "Catcher in the Rye." I read that in high school and loved it but then when I reread it in college it was just not that great.

However, I absolutely LOVE "Nine Stories", "Franny and Zooey", and "Raise High the Roof beam Carpenter and Seymour: An Introduction" (in that order). Mainly because I love how Salinger wrote about the Glass family throughout his stories and it was great how you could piece together the family's history through different books. Also many people believe the character Buddy was based on Salinger, which makes sense since both were writers and ended up living in the woods out of touch with reality.

While so many people talk about how they would love to see a film of "Catcher" (which will never happen because Salinger and his family won't allow it), I would much rather see a film about the Glass family based on all the short stories about them. It would be very "Royal Tenenbaum"-esque (Wes Anderson did base some of that movie on the Glass family). It would be so dysfunctionally and darkly fantastic. Someone get on that.

Girls Like Us

I just started reading the book "Girls Like Us" by Sheila Weller about Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. These three women are amazing!!!! I already loved Joni Mitchell before this; Blue is an amazing album.

The book is a biography of all three and they are so fascinating and so talented. I wish I was alive in the 60s and 70s and was a folk singer. I'm only halfway through it, but I already can't wait for all of the interactions each woman had with each other and with other amazing artists.

I had no idea Joni's song "Little Green" was about giving up her daughter for adoption when she was really young. I also had no idea that Carly Simon's dad is the Simon of Simon and Schuster. Definitely a must read.

The Addams Family

I saw the new musical "The Addams Family," which is previewing in Chicago before heading to Broadway. The best part of the play was Jackie Hoffman ("Kissing Jessica Stein"!) who played the grandma, she should have gotten more stage time because she is hilarious. Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane were in it too and are always fabulous. Also the actress who played Wednesday has an amazing voice! It was a weird show but entertaining, and I think once it gets reworked a little before opening in New York it will be better.

Chiho Aoshima

While I was reading about Takashi Murakami I found out that his studio supports 7 Japanese artists as well. Chiho Aoshima is by far my favorite out of all of them. She seems to be one of the more successful artists of the group as well, having installations all of the world. Here are some of my favorite paintings by her, enjoy!

I really must go to Japan and try to go to Murakami's studio and galleries that represent him.

Liz Does Weather

Liz Feldman stalks Al Roker, it is amazing, pure genious

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Takashi Murakami

For some reason I'm newly obsessed with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. When I interned at the MCA Chicago his work was covering the walls in the cafe, I think it was the Jelly Fish Eyes. Now I'm reading the book "Seven Days in the Art World" by Sarah Thorton and Murakami is mentioned a lot. Also he did the artwork on Kanye West's album "Gradution". His art is just so colorful, I love it. Here are some pictures of his work:

Current Obsessions: Mindy Kaling's twitter, my coloring book exhibition for class! Also my blog, I'm definitely going to keep it after this semester is over.

Female Force

Apparently there is this comic book series called Female Force and each issue focuses on the life of an important woman. So far Oprah, Princess Diana, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and others have been the topic. And the newest one is going to be on Ellen Degeneres! I kind of want to go out and get it, for the stories and to see the graphics. I wonder if they sell these at bookstores or if they are only available online.

Project 4

One of a Kind, show and sale, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, December 4, 2009

Clearly this is a first attempt at using iMovie, but I'm pretty pleased with the results. Also, I apologize for the shaky camera work; I need more practice. And I was wondering, how do you make the music transitions smoother?

Current Obsessions: In B Flat, other cool music video from youtube

Video Project

While I haven't started my video project for CyberPed, I have been thinking of ideas. Here are some images that I think will inspire my final product:

Awkward interview like Zach Galifianakis

Music video perhaps...

or.... Inside the Actors Studio

Current Obsessions: Scrumtrulescent, funnyordie.com

Jeanne-Claude

Today the artist Jeanne-Claude (of Christo and Jeanne-Claude) died.

I had the privilege of working with their artwork at The Phillips Collection in DC last fall for their project "Over the River" which would drape fabric over the Arkansas River in Colorado. Jeanne-Claude was always so enthusiastic about their work and called each project her child. Whenever someone from the museum spoke to her there was always a hilarious story about the things she said. She will be missed!

Also, I wonder if Christo will continue to go through with "Over the River" and their other planned project "The Mastaba" which is to be built in the United Arab Emirates. The process would not be the same without Jeanne-Claude.

Psychedelic Posters

I found these really cool posters from the 1960s and 1970s on the Brooklyn Museum website in the blog and their collection. There's currently an exhibition going on there called "Who Shot Rock & Roll" and it looks amazing! It reminds me of the MCA exhibition "Sympathy for the Devil" which was also about music and art. I just love the 1960s and everything about them, I mean my favorite year is 1968.

Current Obsessions: Pirate Radio and soup

Quimby's

I have discovered my newest obsession in Wicker Park/Bucktown: Quimby's Bookstore. This store has so many graphic novels and authors that I love. I went there today for the first time just to check it out and found great stuff. I had been looking for this series written by Ariel Schrag for such a long time and they had it! This is the one I got today, the first in the series:

The second book in the series is being turned into a film. And I think that last one recently came out. I'm really excited to start reading this and the spend more time in Quimby's!

Current Obsessions: Ariel Schrag, Craig Thompson, Marjane Satrapi, Alison Bechdel

Ms. Feldman

Another amazing adventure!

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Doodles

I found this blog from comedian Michael Showalter. It has all of his "doodles" that I guess he just does in his free time. They are really fun and sarcastic. His blog is mostly promoting his tv series or films or comedy tours, but his drawings make the blog much more fun to look at. Here's his newest one in honor of Halloween: