Photo Credit: Piper Ferguson

Inspired by the Minutemen song, Evil Monito’s “Tour Spiel” highlights the musician’s life on the road. Each week, we’ll check in with some of our favorite artists touring stateside or abroad. We’ll provide an intimate look into what it’s like to be packed in a van or waiting for a flight with the same people for hours on end. It takes a certain state of mind to survive any lengthy tour. Yet it’s the memorable experiences that makes touring ultimately rewarding, if not interesting. This week we highlight romantic troubadours, The 88, who had their share of ups and downs.  Whether it be experiencing a spiritual moment with Pink Floyd or a rowdy bar brawl during their set, life on the road for these guys is anything but predictable. →

Photo Credit: Ian Witlen

Inspired by the Minutemen song, Evil Monito’s “Tour Spiel” highlights the musician’s life on the road. Each week, we’ll check in with some of our favorite artists touring stateside or abroad. We’ll provide an intimate look into what it’s like to be packed in a van or waiting for a flight with the same people for hours on end. It takes a certain state of mind to survive any lengthy tour. Yet it’s the memorable experiences that make life on the road ultimately rewarding, if not interesting. This week we highlight the charming band, Surfer Blood who profess their adoration of SF culture and divulge in a music playlist that keeps them from nodding off while driving. →

“This Is Where We Live” by 4th Estate
Any distraction is welcome during this show-stopping storm that weather forecasters have mentioned could rival El Nino’s torrential onslaught in ‘98.  Thus in my quest to kill time, I’ve found this painstakingly detailed stop-mo animation by the ridiculously talented 4th Estate Publishers.  It is interesting to note that they’ve constructed everything themselves by hand.  A wondrous effort that hearkens the pre-CG glory days of my childhood hero, Jim Henson, Gumby, and even further back to the myriad of hand-made endeavors by gifted Russian animators. →

Inspired by the Minutemen song, Evil Monito’s “Tour Spiel” highlights the musician’s life on the road. Each week, we’ll check in with some of our favorite artists touring stateside or abroad. We’ll provide an intimate look into what it’s like to be packed in a van or waiting for a flight with the same people for hours on end. It takes a certain state of mind to survive any lengthy tour. Yet it’s the memorable experiences that make life on the road ultimately rewarding, if not interesting. This week we highlight the Khmer psych band, Dengue Fever who braved a strange cult commune in Sedona and food poisoning in Cambodia in their quest to bring a unique brand of rock to the world music circuit. →

Nao Bustamante’s “Filmformance”
Sundance Festival -
Park City, Utah
1/24/10

Filmmaker and performance artist Nao Bustamante returns to Sundance with a deliciously outrageous and ambitious new work; her short film Untitled #1 (from the series Earth People 2507), starring her toy poodle as a herd of buffalo, appeared at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Silver & Gold combines film, live performance, and original costumes into a self-proclaimed “filmformance” that evokes the muse of legendary filmmaker Jack Smith →

Mikal Hameed’s First SF Art Exhibition
Medicine Agency – San Francisco, CA
1/8/10

Medicine Agency is proud to bring the breakthrough artist, Mikal Hameed,  his first show in San Francisco.  Join him tonight, January 8th, for a night of fun, art, sounds, friends, and an interactive audio experience!  Mikal creates original large-scale sound sculptures and mixed media sound paintings using a combination of reclaimed mid-century modern furniture and vintage electronics.  His sound baths are aesthetically pleasing to both the eyes and ears! →

Bring in the New Year with LA’s Reggae Soul Revivalists
Commonwealth Lounge – Fullerton, CA
1/7/10

With bold aspirations of bringing dusty reggae soul back to the LA music scene, the Lions (Ubiquity Records) have successfully championed a sound that is as much their own as it is a nod to the past.  Receiving critical acclaim for their cool aesthetic, tight musicianship and crackling funk; they’ve earned a coveted place in the underground scene. →

Shizu Saldamando’s Solo Exhibition
Steve Turner Gallery – LA, CA
1/2/10

Steve Turner Contemporary is pleased to present There is a place…, an exhibition in its project room featuring new works by the Los Angeles based artist, Shizu Saldamando. Her show entitled, There is a Place is taken from a popular Morrissey song, “There is a Place in Hell for me and my Friends” and it documents Shizu Saldamando’s friends, who are also artists. In her work, Saldamando translates her snapshot photographs into drawings and paintings that depict her friends in social situations that she observes in bars, dance clubs, backyard parties and art galleries. →

Ice Sculpture in Kongens Nytory Square (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Lasting Impression of 2009
As we anticipate 2010 with all its unsettling uncertainties and the tenuous promises of fortune, I’d like to reflect on the past year during the eve of the New Year.  I chose this ice polar bear sculpture as the memorable image of 2009.  A bit of irony, to say the least, that the lasting image is a transitory piece of art that melted in front of the recent Copenhagen Conference.  Mark Coreth, a master sculptor of animals in motion →

Photo Credit: Kristy Cameron

Inspired by the Minutemen song, Evil Monito’s “Tour Spiel” highlights the musician’s life on the road. Each week, we’ll check in with some of our favorite artists touring stateside or abroad. We’ll provide an intimate look into what it’s like to be packed in a van or waiting for a flight with the same people for hours on end. It takes a certain state of mind to survive any lengthy tour. Yet it’s the memorable experiences that make life on the road ultimately rewarding, if not interesting. This week we decided to highlight Rachel Flotard of Visqueen, who flew out to Laos with a philanthropic purpose.  She set out with a few thousand dollars to pave the school’s floors and twenty suitcases full of school and medical supplies for her return trip to aid Ban Na Mouang.  →