Song of the Day

At the end of every blog I make, I put a song of the day. My reasoning behind this is that I feel that there are just too many people satisfied with what's playing on the radio. The more you explore music, the more you realize how the radio and the popular stations on it, play a lot of crap. The musicians and artists aren't crap, but what the radio decides to play is. Think about it.

You have one musical artist with a new album that's out, usually they get one or two hits that get played constantly on the air. When you hear the tune, you hear one or two songs from a 12-18 track album and since there are millions of musicians out there and so many hits to play, choosing just one or two from each album makes sense. And it does. The problem is that the one track they choose sounds nothing like the rest of the album or the choice of the popular hit was wrongly alligned but not only that, you have a million musicians out there and if you've noticed only about 50 of them get even noticed by radio stations and so they replay the same hits over and over. This is fine if you're going on a 30 minute car ride to work, but if you've been forced to listen to the damned thing for 8 hours because you forgot your cd's or everyone else around you forgot their sense of taste in the last decade. So in my smallest efforts, I've decided to build a collection of hits that I think are great. Maybe you've heard of the musicians, maybe you haven't, but either way, I appreciate them and if my theory is correct, you can appreciate them as well. Think about it.

Why is it that one person will like hip hop and another person will detest it. Is it personal taste or choice…really? Or, could it be closer related to your older brother or sister liking a different style or better yet, being involved in a genre that typically detests other genres (like metal or punk for instance). It could also be that your friends don't like and so consequently, you don't like it. Most likely though, you've convinced yourself you don't like this music because you decided a while ago that you just don't like it. Yes, this psychology can sometimes run in circles, but you'll get a hang on my lingo. :)

So, like, veering away from hamburgers and hot dogs because that's all you know, maybe try some pasta for a change. Continue on this path and you (yes you) may end up eating things you never thought you could….like octopus legs  (yumm). This is the way of life, it changes all the time and so you need to find yourself open like a cup that needs constant filling. You grow stronger as you change and eventually you may even look back in your life and laugh and say "man, I can't believe I used to only eat hamburgers and hot dogs".

So, in my attempt to get country lovers to listen to new wave, metal lovers to hip hop, punk lovers to folk, pop lovers to progressive rock, I give you this. 

Todays song of the day.

Mojave 3 - Bluebird of Happiness

 

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For your visual pleasures, go here

San Luis De Los Frances

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The Coloured Lines Sing

Jackson Pollock
"The method of painting is the natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. "

Each painting calls out to different people in a different way and if the one is right for you, you'll know because you'll be in tears. Don't believe me? Maybe you should take a look at some paintings. I'm not talking about the net or a print. An actual painting. If I put you in a room with an original painting, a print of that painting and then a photograph of that painting, you might just ask yourself "how can this be? They look nothing alike!" Doubt you'll ever get that sort of reaction, huh? Well, do this enough times and you'll be very….very surprised. Which is a reason why you should never buy art online, because you don't really really know what you're buying. But before I go on about tips for buying original artwork (which I'm oh so very tempted to do) I want to talk with you about abstract art.

If you want to get a sense of someone, I say, look at their work. With abstract, it's a million times easier to get a sense of what the person is like than with realism because with realism you never know if the artist is telling a story they liked or telling a personal story. The really good artists can make any realism look personal and intimate and this isn't my problem. When you have someone who's technically trained and can pull off something intimate every once in a while, it gets really confusing whether this guy is actually any good or if he's just sticking to the artist rule book. Abstract is very hard to pull off and is usually pretty easy to point out the talentless ones. Since the whole point of abstract is to get down to the raw emotion without having figures or representations get in the way, the true talent of the artist shows through. You paint sadness, you don't paint a sad woman. That's the difference. Less interference. Like it or don't, that's your choice.

Mark Rothko
"The progression of a painter's work as it travels in time from point to point, will be toward clarity.. toward the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea.. and the idea and the observer.. To achieve this clarity is inevitably to be understood."
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Song Of The Day
King Crimson - Neil and Jack and Me

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Why Modernism?

I'd very much like to go on and on about why modernism is and came to be but really, truly, honestly…my ideas are equal to my education which is next to none when it comes to formal education, so most of my ideas come from observation, personal reading and thinking about it way too damn much. So, this is what I take of it.

First off, let's talk about history of modernism and why people drew scribbles on their canvases and expected people to buy them. Back then, all you could get were representations of a natural environment. Not even natural, just environment. So, if you liked art, you could buy paintings of people, farm houses, boats, myths and legends, religious. If you were lucky, you'd find something really cool like something out of Bosch's work.

"The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch

Regardless, there were limitations to what and how you could paint and this was all regulated by the art academy at the time. If the academy didn't recognize you, you didn't really exist as an artist (in their eyes anyway). Of course, there have always been people who think differently than the almighty institution. Some galleries who accepted different works for people with different tastes were called "avant-garde". You know, people who push the envelope. Anyway, these things were happening very gradually. Artists were always pushing in new directions. I think after the famous impressionists, people were getting a little more used to their art being a little funnier than the usual realism or rococo (super-macho paintings) so a paintings done by the post-impressionists or the art nouveau (new art) were better received and people actually bought them. 

"The Peacock Skirt" by Aubrey Beardsley. This is a good example of art nouveau.

Eventually you get stuff like cubism (which Picasso started), dadaism, bauhaus, surrealism, action painting, abstract expressionism and the list goes on and on.

 So why would someone buy something with a few lines on it?

You'd have to ask that person, but ever since art became more and more bizarre people started asking "well, what is art?" or "what's considered to be art" because at this point, it's comes to tampons in a tea cup (yes, that's from "Ghost World"). They had to change the definition from something aesthetical on your wall (not to say that realism is void of meaning) to having the definition of the work being more important than the content. Of course, there are a million and one theories to these pieces and people will rave about the blue or red square on white canvas. And, honestly…that's fine. And, I'll tell you why….

Tomorrow.

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"Artist Pablo Picasso surprised a burglar at work in his new chateau. The intruder got away, but Picasso told the police he could do a rough sketch of what he looked like. On the basis of his drawing, the police arrested a mother superior, the minister of finance, a washing machine, and the Eiffel tower."

"An artist had been working on a nude portrait for a long time. Every day, he was up early and worked late - bringing perfection with every stroke of his paint brush. As each day passed, he gained a better understanding of the female body and was able to really make his paintings shine.

After a month, the artist had become very weary from this non-stop effort and decided to take it easy for the day. Since his model had already shown up, he suggested they merely have a glass of wine and talk - since normally he preferred to do his painting in silence.

They talked for a few hours, getting to know each other better. Then as they were sipping their claret, the artist heard a car arriving outside. He jumped up and said, "Oh no! It's my wife! Quick, take off your clothes!" "

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Song of the day:

!!! (Chk chk chk) - Bend Over Beethoven 

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From Brodi Blog

Introduction to the Art World

This is quite a new step for me considering my lack of social skills and reclusive-ness, but what my mind can not express through using vocal cords it expresses a tad bit better with my fingers. So, if anyone is listening, these are my thoughts and opinions expressed in a blog. I will be covering a wide array of topics, but my conquest of the art world is likely the main topic. Speaking of the art world though, I think some of you may be out in the dark. Yes, there is an art world out there and yes, it bites. There is almost literally a door someone needs to step through before being recognized in this world. There is no need to be timid about walking through it like most of us are. It's time to be boastful and retaliate against the quiet atmosphere of tuxedo wine glasses and beret wearing artists. If there's going to be a change in this art world environment, we need to make it applicable to everyone. It's not tea time anymore. Art is no longer subject to the opera house, it just needs to be recognized.

There have been valid attempts (for an example just look at modernism) but the efforts fall flat every time and is then consumed by the present art world. Any rebellion against this by any artist is seen as "cutting edge" and then everyone wants a piece of it. But, let's be honest, the tuxedo people are really no different than the rest of us. The old Bourgeoisie is dead (or is hiding under the bed) and the middle ground won the war of the rich and poor. Don't see this as the divide being broken and everyone turned to shades of gray, no, the line was broken and now we have more colour (for you out there looking for typo's, colour is color in Canada and Brit-land).

So, here's a very very brief update on the art world history up to now (The Brodi Version). You probably already know about Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne and the rest of the ever so famous impressionists. And probably about the most famous of artists, Picasso and his handy work on taking a giant lead spoon and mixing up the art world until no one knew what it was anymore. I can go on about him, Michelangelo and Da Vinci and how they gave artists the status of fine artist and not craftsman...but I won't. It's old news. I prefer to go on about what's been happening in the last 110 years and most of all, what's happening today. Most of you don't know this, but we don't call today's art "Modernism" we call it "Contemporary". It's all to do with World War 2 and the shift in dominant art cities. When Paris (the old dominant art city) fell to the Germans the new city became New York City and a little later on London. The title of Modernism slowly fell when the popular modernist painters got older and eventually died (there's still some out there painting).

Right now, we have this guy named Damien Hirst and he's aweful swell. Never heard of him? Well, maybe you've heard of his famous  Dead Shark a.k.a "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" 

Or, better yet, his diamond encrusted skull "For the Love of God"

Yes, it's a shiny skull with 8,601 diamonds on it. The asking price was £50,000,000.

This was in the Free Press in Winnipeg, no doubt all around the world.

So, why is this guy so important? Beats the hell out of me, but then again, I couldn't tell you why

 Dali was so famous either.

I don't think anyone really understands why it is that some artists get all the attention while some lag behind. That's the world for you (the world world, not the art world)

Anyway, here's a part in the blog where I introduce you to some new music. I'll elaborate more on this later, but for now, just enjoy this tune.

Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica

comfy in nautica

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