look at the stars / look how they shine for you

star painting, 2011

'star painting' consists of 9 sheets of paper in which a map of the stars is depicted using pinpricks. backlit by a lantern and situated outside, 'star painting' creates a micro cosmos on earth, while paying homage to the night sky it faces.

space age nostalgia

having always had a fascination with cover songs (who originates them, who covers them, who pulls it off), i spent the past few days digging through youtube for david bowie treasure. these are my favorites:

hypnos part 2

when i went to sleep i had a strange dream. i was part of a rebel faction, made up of my coworkers, in a 7-storied world, the floors of which were accessible by elevators. the world was a strange combination of interior, which referenced libraries and commercial coffeeshops, and exterior 19th century french buildings. our task was to overcome a darth-vader-esque figure and his dark armies in order to reach the buddha, who was stationed on the 7th floor. when i returned from kicking demon ass on the 5th floor, my commander gave me one more task. i was to retrieve the four legs of a table to present to the buddha. each leg had a figure carved into it such as a slave and a lamb, whose outlines were painted red. i was hesitant to accept the task at first, but then saw that one of the legs featured a man and a woman facing each other in fetal positions. i exclaimed that it represented the origin of love, which was a noble thing to retrieve. my coworkers cheered me on, while floating in a pool. somewhere in there, there was an oncoming train.

you have no idea

[kid walks up to the front desk of the primarily latino youth center in which i work. i look up from my current book: race, culture, and the city: a pedagogy for black urban struggle.]

kid: what are you reading?
me: oh, a book about how white people are keeping us down.
kid: is it scary?

seen on the way to work today

directions to the land of booyah, fig. 1

yeah, yeah, yeah

there's so much and yet, nothing that needs to be said about seeing my messiah in concert. it just is, or was. regarding the photographs: the entire band emerged behind a filmy white screen, she donned a crown during the hauntingly lovely skeletons, halfway through the 12-ft inflatable eyeballs they had onstage came unloosed and made their way through the audience, and at the end cannons shot pink and white confetti covering all of us, and it was good, and it was beautiful.

life would be so easy if i were a dog

on my way from work to work i found myself on sunset boulevard behind this volkswagen passat with a big shaggy dog in the backseat that restlessly paced the width of the car the entire time. its head would appear out the left window, then out the right window, then back out the left again, etc with metronomic consistency. i wish i could fully convey how funny this was, but i'm pretty sure camerafoning while driving is a punishable offense.

built to thrill

so, oh my god, so like, my ridiculously hip label job gave me free passes to this ridiculously hip street festival in this ridiculously hip neighborhood and i thought how ridiculously hip would it be if i reinvented myself as a 35mm street photographer and plastered REALLY OBNOXIOUSLY LARGE photographs of my endeavors all over the internet? the answer is, i'm sorry. but i think these are nice to look at.


(the band is built to spill)






(can we marvel for a moment at how blatantly self unaware people are at concerts, when they believe that everyone's attention is turned toward the stage? naturally i find them to be more interesting subjects than the band itself. that, and i enjoy watching people make out.)



and now for someone who had a better time than all of us combined:

ingmar bergman on the ideal man

the character of sara, who uncannily resembles scarlett johansson, in wild strawberries