The Best in the Game

"I ain't got no worries."

World Cup 2014 Prints

"The Official Art Print Edition 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ features a world-class selection of artists and their works on football, Brazil, and Celebration. It is a Limited Edition, only 2,014 high-quality art prints of each work are available for collectors worldwide."

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
Official Art Print Editions

Dream Job 2

Recording music, rapping vocals when inspired...


"If you watch LeBron dunk in the middle of a game, you’re gonna get up and freak out. And it was like that when Kanye spit the first verse of “I Am a God”. It was really fucking early in the morning, and he just came downstairs, and was like, “Yo, let’s go.” It was the most emphatic performance. I was like, “Holy shit!” [laughs] I stopped and hit save really quick and thought, “Fuck, I gotta back up the drive right now, man. That was crazy.”

He does that shit a lot. He did it on “New Day” as well, from Watch the Throne. We were set up at the SoHo Grand, and he came in at fucking 9:30 in the morning and was like, “Yo, I got the ‘New Day’ verse, bring it up.” Then he spit it. I looked at him, like, “For real, man? That just happened? You just did that shit?” He just smiled at me."

- "producer/engineer/mixer" Noah Goldstein
Pitchfork - "The Yeezus Sessions"

Related,
Dream Job 1

Related,
Music that inspired Yeezus

Charley Harper's "Golden Book of Biology"

Excerpt from a NYT's 2008 Q+A with the makers of FreeDarko:

B.H.: Your book may be the world’s most attractive textbook. How important is it for you guys to have art that is representative of the words you’re writing? What books/magazines/Web sites/album covers formed your personal visual styles?

Big Baby Belafonte: The world’s most attractive textbook is actually the 1961 Giant Golden Book of Biology, with illustrations by Charley Harper, which was a major influence for me while designing and illustrating the Almanac. I think the textbook model allowed us to put a veneer of order on our otherwise unruly and occasionally nonsensical subject matter.

Furniture for "the New Home Office"

Coalesse Hosu Convertible Lounge, one of several pieces highlighted in WSJ's "Welcome to the New Home Office."

"You can transform this chair, created by designer Patricia Urquiola, into a low-slung chaise (as shown) simply by pulling out the seat cushion. Coalesse's research revealed that people derive emotional comfort from working closer to the floor. Bonus: A low posture allows you to spread your work materials around you. The Hosu also has a cable pass-through to cut down on cord clutter and a side storage pocket to keep your phone handy."

The Wolf of Wall Street

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio's fifth film together. Still three behind De Niro.

November 15, 2013.

Nathan Sawaya's Lego Art

New York Times - "A Vision That’s Not Quite a Snap"

The Making of Yeezus

Music producer Rick Rubin (founded Def Jam Records in 1983 in his NYU dorm room) helped Kanye West finish Yeezus in the three weeks leading up to its label handover due date. Here's an excerpt from his email interview with WSJ.

Q: How would you describe the new sound he was driving for, and how you did you help him arrive there?

RR: He wanted the music to take a stripped-down minimal direction. He was always examining what we could take out instead of put in. A good example would be the song that became “Bound.” When he first played it for me, it was a more middle of the road R&B song, done in an adult contemporary style. Kanye had the idea of combining that track with a cool sample he had found and liked – I removed all of the R&B elements leaving only a single note baseline in the hook which we processed to have a punk edge in the Suicide tradition. 

Q: Can you recall a scene from the sessions that might help people understand his method in the studio?  

RR: We were working on a Sunday [the same day West attended a baby shower for girlfriend Kim Kardashian] and the album was to be turned in two days later. Kanye was planning to go to Milan that night. Five songs still needed vocals and two or three of them still needed lyrics. He said, “Don’t worry, I will score 40 points for you in the fourth quarter.” In the two hours before had to run out to catch the plane, he did exactly that: finished all lyrics and performed them with gusto. A remarkable feat. He had total confidence in his ability to get the job done when push came to shove.

Related,
Architecture Magazine - "Kanye West cites a Le Corbusier lamp as an influence on his latest album."

Art Decor Cars of Yesteryear

Wall Street Journal has a gallery of Nashville museum Frist Center for the Visual Arts's new exhibit "Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Cars." Reminiscent of the Batman: The Animated Series dark deco.

Above is the 1937 Delahaye 135MS Roadster.

1939 Bugatti Type 57C.

1930 Bugatti Type 46.

1939 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow Sedan.

1936 Delahaye 135M Figoni & Falaschi Competition Coupe.

1934 Volsin Type C27 Arosport Coupe.

George Orwell's 1984 Sales Up 5,000 Percent

Seems relevant.

Cherub - "Doses and Mimosas"

Malcolm Gladwell - "David and Goliath"

Malcolm Gladwell, regular New Yorker contributor and author of The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, is set to release his fifth book, David and Goliath, on October 1.

Here's the publisher's synopsis.

"We all know that underdogs can win–that’s what the David versus Goliath legend tells us, and we’ve seen it with our own eyes. Or have we? In DAVID AND GOLIATH, Malcolm Gladwell, with his unparalleled ability to grasp connections others miss, uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty, the powerful and the dispossessed. Gladwell examines the battlefields of Northern Ireland and Vietnam, takes us into the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, and digs into the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms–all in an attempt to demonstrate how fundamentally we misunderstand the true meaning of advantages and disadvantages. When is a traumatic childhood a good thing? When does a disability leave someone better off? Do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into? Why are the childhoods of people at the top of one profession after another marked by deprivation and struggle?"

"Behind Kanye's Mask"

New York Times - "The Visionaries: Behind Kanye's Mask"
by Jon Caramanica

So many classic Kanye quotes. Read it all.

Q: Even though you had always wanted to be out in front, was there ever a point where you valued your anonymity?

"Yeah, I held on to the last moments of it. I knew when I wrote the line “light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson” [from the song “Slow Jamz"] I was going to be a big star. At the time, they used to have the Virgin music [stores], and I would go there and just go up the escalator and say to myself, “I’m soaking in these last moments of anonymity.” I knew I was going to make it this far; I knew that this was going to happen."

Catching Up

Two items I've been meaning to post for a few weeks.

Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams "hard pressed to find a non-pornographic video with more nudity crammed into four minutes" viral music video for the #1 song on iTunes "Blurred Lines."

And the Jay-Z sighting from 1939. Crazy stuff.

Tattoo Artist - Scott Campbell

Q: What's your favorite kind of tattoo to do?

"I enjoy the technical stuff, the ornamental and beautifully rendered lettering. The way that you write a word can affect the meaning when done right. But that being said, I have a special place in my heart for fucked-up, two-in-the-morning, drunken tattoos. I feel like a lot of people come to me for my technical ability, but I appreciate the emotion and passion that goes into spur-of-the-moment tattoos. Maybe it's trying to take the passion and the spontaneity of the drunken, enamored moment and render it in a way that you're not embarrassed to show your mother."

Q: What would you say is the main reason people want tattoos?

"I first started getting tattooed because I grew up in this really conservative, southern, suburban environment. It was a way of promising myself that I wouldn't grow up to be like my parents. I don't know if tattoos hold that much rebellion anymore. A lot of times people will get tattooed based on what's going on in their lives—someone close to them dies and they get a memorial tattoo, they fall in love or they have children and want to commemorate that. Anytime they're feeling things so strongly that a T-shirt or bumper sticker doesn't quite do it, or they want that idea or feeling to be physical and a part of them, that's when you get it tattooed. It can be really cathartic. Getting tattooed can be a way of taking control of things and affecting who you are in a symbolic way."

Details - "Ink Different: Master Artist Scott Campbell on Getting Your First Tattoo"
New York Times - "Drawn to a Larger Scale"

William Eggleston

Wall Street Journal - "Through the Lens of Eggleston"

Daft Punk - "Touch"

New York Magazine - "Pharrell Williams Expands His Palette"

"And the track on [Random Access Memories] that Pharrell gets especially gushy about—the one that’s “going to change your life; not your mind, your life”—is “Touch,” featuring vocals from Paul Williams, the seventies singer-songwriter whose best-known song is still “The Rainbow Connection,” Kermit the Frog’s big hit. It is, Pharrell says, “the best song I’ve heard in years. It’s magical and majestic at the same time. It is unbelievable. It made me emotional. I didn’t know that sounds could be put together that could do that to people.” He lifts up from his skaterish sprawl on a couch and leans in, shaking his head, another enthusiastic rave building up: “He’s one of the best writers—Paul Williams is one of the best writers ever."

Cocktail Screen Prints

By Crispin Finn. Via TWBE.

The Dissolve

Chicago-based music website Pitchfork.com is in the works with a group of former writers and editors  of A.V. Club to create TheDissolve.com, "dedicated to all things cinematic, the folks behind the site are aiming to create a comprehensive archive of movie content, ranging from reviews and commentary to interviews and essays."

TIME - "Q&A: Keith Phipps Talks About Pitchfork’s New Movie Site, The Dissolve"

Porsche 911 50 Years Edition

3 minute film of a beautiful car.

Diplo's "Endless Summer" Playlist

Major Lazer DJ/Producer Diplo made this "Endless Summer" playlist for New York Magazine's Summer issue.