The Bloggomist: Today’s Dish/Yesterday’s Spam
Lifestyle Opinion

I generally don’t like the Q&A style. It’s kind of slacker-y, like picking up a turkey from Boston Market for the family Thanksgiving dinner. But sometimes Q&A is the best way to preserve genius, which is what I consider Tom Lenham, the British creator of the Goths In Hot Weather© blog →

Joann Sfar’s Serge Gainsbourg, vie héroïque may not reveal much in the way of unexplored biographical fact about the late great chanson singer’s life. After all, Gainsbourg’s romantic exploits and creative collaborations are well-documented, revealing the life of a poet-singer who was constantly reinventing himself through his music and muses. In three decades, he produced records reaching across reggae and rock, and to this day, 1971′s Histoire de Melody Nelson may be the best rock album to come out of La France (sorry, Phoenix). The album’s Lolita-esque narrative and orchestral funk ran only 28 minutes, but its conceptual daring more than makes up for its brevity. Think Sebastien Tellier’s lasciviousness and Beck’s chameleon musicality, except Gainsbourg was doing it all since the sixties. →

Process Media presents DEAR ANDY KAUFMAN, I HATE YOUR GUTS!
The Cinefamily – Los Angeles, CA
12/3/09

Process Media and The Cinefamily honor the legacy of comic Andy Kaufman with the release of the new Process book Dear Andy Kauman, I Hate Your Guts! and an evening of rare and never-before-seen solid Kaufman gold pulled from the video archives of Lynne Margulies (Kaufman’s girlfriend, director of the Kaufman doc I’m from Hollywood, and author of the book). Margulies will present a treasure trove of rarities including recently unearthed footage from Kaufman’s brief but illustrious career as “Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World,” →

Wacky wordplay and rapid deliveries is the style of Themselves’ catatonic “Roman Is As Roman Does,” their latest single from upcoming third record CrownsDown. The video is visual nonsense, with unintelligent cavemen gesturing and staring blankly at sugary cupcakes, but it’s enjoyable in a what the hell did I just see kind of way. It’s what the cavemen of Plato’s allegory might be like after having eaten sugary food for the first time. →

I (and thousands of my closest friends) have fallen in love with Michael Williams’ excellent blog A Continuous Lean. His daily postings of vintage Americana design, fashion and lifestyle speak to a time when quality was paramount and style timeless. Now you too can obtain the classic looks and debonair flair of the ACL gentleman at the Get Handsome Pop Up Shop this weekend in NYC. Get in on the deals from Billykirk, Rogues Gallery, J.Crew and Jack Spade as well as products from Williams’ forthcoming ACL Shop which is set to launch Monday, November 23rd. Click the flyer for more info, or hop over to PopUpFlea.com!

The Bloggomist: Design in the Blood
Technology Opinion

To suggest that design should become more open and transparent isn’t to say that it should be an exclusively communal effort. Things run afoul with too many cooks in the kitchen, no matter what the industry. Even from within a company opinions from people with more power than sense can easily derail a good design process, and as a designer it can be surprisingly hard to maintain creative license. →

The Bloggomist: Why I Love DC
Music Opinion

The foundation of go-go music emerged in Washington, DC’s dance clubs during the 1970′s when live bands were going head to head with disco music. It was Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers who first brought the funky beats to the nation’s capital. If you asked DC natives about go-go, many would attribute the subgenre of funk to Chuck Brown. →

VBS.tv visits Western Philadelphia, where they find the ingenious musician/producer, Ramble John Krohn, better known to the world as RJD2.  For those who don’t know, he was the guy who released the masterful album, Dead Ringer and recently helped score the theme song to the award-winning show, Mad Men.  He’s slated to release his new album, Colossus, at the beginning of 2010.

In the time it takes RJ to assemble and bake his recipe for homemade apple-raspberry cobbler a la mode, Jordan of Electronic Independence gets a comprehensive tour through RJ’s home studio. An enviable playground that houses the Holy Grail of analog synth technology →

Cordy Ryman’s Solo Show
Mark Moore Gallery – LA, CA
11/21/09

Cordy Ryman showcases his distinctive sculptural paintings and installations at Mark Moore Gallery for his Los Angeles solo show with eight new inimitable works. With a rather organic minimalistic approach, Ryman creates his masterpieces by utilizing the environment and materials and introduces them through the realm of pleasure. His artwork utilizes unique materials including paint, wood, Velcro, swatches, staples, metal and debris and focuses on specific elements such as site-specificity, shadow, raw, materiality and dimension. →