MY BODY // currently spinning

I live in a loud house with a bunch of musicians, so I get the benefit of constantly being introduced to new beats and sounds. If you can handle loud midnight recording sessions in the living room, spiderwebs of monster cables all over the house and a new roommate every two months due to touring schedules, and are really passionate at all about music, LIVE WITH MUSICIANS, something new is always happening or being created. Which is completely welcome in this new boring 9-6 lifestyle I'm living now/in denial about. Yay for my false adulthood.

So a couple of months ago I headed to The Silent Barn in Bushwick for a lil show and ended up falling in love with My Body. My Body is a band hailing from Portland, Darren on percussive beats and Jordan's vocals and melodies. Together they create an R&B-inspired dreamscape that rolled over my eardrums like candy. Jordan's vocals have a very subtle country styling as they float over perfectly designed percussion. Performing next to Silent Barns's glowing moon made everything so dreamy.

I got to catch them a second time last week at Glasslands, and watching them play below the undulating light pipe installations was like being transported to an underwater coral reef with a soundtrack. They don't have an EP yet, but I'm definitely getting it as soon as it comes out. It's the type of music that I could sit down and design a collection to.

Check out their video New Cat below!


My Body - New Cat from Calvin Waterman on Vimeo.

R.I.P 3RD WARD // ny i love you but yr bringing me down

:-(

I'm a little late to the game on this, but I was holding out hoping that some philanthropic billionaire would step in and jolt the 3rd Ward back to life. It's more than sad to see this neighborhood staple of 7 years close it's doors, especially when I've only been able to enjoy it for the last 8 months, since I only just moved to Brooklyn last February.



I never got to take a proper class, but the Wednesday night drink and draw sessions were a great part of my weekly routine. I was noticing quick improvements in my life drawing and my anatomical structure was getting a lot more accurate. The room was always full of this great energy and music and talent. And you just cannot beat all you can drink for $10.



Word on the street is the shuttering was caused by poor money management. They had just opened a Philly branch, and apparently it sucked them dry. It's sad to see great ideas killed by poor business strategy, and just reinforces my philosophy that creatives need to be business-savvy to thrive and bring big ideas to life. I'm still convinced that the 3rd Ward method of schooling is the future, though, especially when you think about the traditional methods of continuing education. It makes so much more sense to specialize and take classes for specific skill sets than going through the life/money swallowing commitment that grad school seems to be. Hopefully, since the idea's definitely out there, there will be 3rd Ward alternatives popping up. I've already found a couple alternative drink and draw sessions. As for the third ward, I'm calling that space in Bushwick becomes "luxury loft condos" within the next two years. Brooklyn, I weep for you.

In other bummer news, 5 Pointz in Queens is being demolished to make way for more condos. Which is, you know, typical.

ART INSPO // joe hamilton

Hyper Geography from Joe Hamilton on Vimeo.

This video by Joe Hamilton is a kaleidoscopic look at the juxtaposition we straddle between our networked reality and nature. It's also what the inside of my brain looks like.
Joe Hamilton is a digital and analog artist that is participating in Paddles On!, the first digital auction of digital artwork, benefitting new media artists and Rhizome. It's interesting to see if it'll be successful in an era of the idea of digital being synonymous with shareable (and free).

WEEKLY INSPO // gilded warrior

Born Gold - I Am Exit

Vivienne Westwood Spring 2014

Urs Fischer - Untitled

Ashish Spring 2014

Ernesto Neto - Leviathan (2010)

Fausto Puglisi

Antonio Berardi

Anna Dello Russo

BATHS // MPMF RECAP

I took a lil break from work last week and headed home to Cincinnati for a vacation from the city and to see the Midpoint Music Festival. MPMF is a Midwest smorgasboard of up and coming indie rock from around the US. Some big acts played like the Breeders and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and those were very cool to catch but there was one stand-out to me from the whole weekend.

BATHS

CONFESSION, I've been kind of hugely out of love with indie rock lately. It just feels so cringably twee sometimes, with all of the crafted mustaches, A-line skirts, and bow-ties: I just cannot. Sometimes it's like if Etsy were music (see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes). So I thought heavily about that when I bought the ticket but went anyway, knowing that this whole thing could end up me being bored in an episode of Portlandia. BUT I never fail to have a good time with old friends and the one after party on Friday is always pretty sick (last year the kids who hosted had a whole tub of original formula Four Loko on ice and I ended up laying on the sidwalk for like 10 minutes).

SO BATHS. Baths is a project by Will Weisenfeld, a California producer, musical architect, and total babe. Baths has everything I've been loving lately; associative music, layers of cascading vocals, 2 cute boys with a bunch of soundboards and pedals, and sick beatz. I think music like BATHS is a really important and beautiful step in music creation, and reflects this merging of sound design and music in a way that gets me really excited for the future. I wish I could go to an entire music festival that was just that, or basically anything on the Anticon label. Music that incorporates clicking pens and rushing water gives me goosebumps on the back of my neck (see HOT SUGAR for the NYC version of this).

ANGELO MARANI Speaks 2 My Soul via Milan Fashion Week

TASTE-LEVEL CONFESSION: I worked at Hot Topic in high school.

LORDE // the love club ep

(artwork from The Love Club EP cover)

So *hair flip* I called this months ago, butI just have to write about it.  I CANNOT get enough of her. I listen to this EP on my morning commute almost every day on the train. It's perfect get-up-and-stay-optimistic-while-fighting-crowds music. 

 The way she structures her music is brilliant. Most of it is electronically mixed percussion sounds with overlaid vocal effects. Her sound is elegant and feels like beautifully designed music that sends a profound message of clean simplicity.

Oh, and did I mention she's 16? She's like some kind of prodigy. 

 

 

MAKING THE VIDEO // vensaire's see i'm you

Moving to the city was a little rough, as I had to say goodbye to my DIY style job at Unholy Hips and adopt a new more corporate-ish lifestyle as I got hired as an in-house designer. But New York is about the hustle and always being tired, so I still do way too many little projects on the side.

My most recent finished venture was designing costumes and makeup for my roommate's band's music video. They wanted a lot of Japanese and Roman mythological influence, so we decided to make a kimono out of some beautiful Japanese brocade fabrics. The makeup was designed around the faux ritual story made for the video. And I'm SUPER proud of the almost perfect circle I drew on the model's forehead in lip liner.

Photo by Lauren Gesswein

And Colleen and I looking really cool on set.

Photo by Lauren Gesswein

Had loads of fun filming the video. Check it out, it's one of my favorite Vensaire songs.

See I'm You from Vensaire on Vimeo.

FIRST ONE

OBLIGATORY BLOG PLAN STATEMENT: I think I want this to be a more organized place to brain-dump my projects and stories and interests. Kind of like a mental bank of my process work and inspiration. I'd like to keep a running list of the things that motivate my work and drive me to constantly grow as a designer and artist.

I recently moved to New York for a new job/dream job in the city. I was pretty not stoked to move here at first, due to a lot of things that surround a condition I refer to as the Midwest Inferiority Complex. It's been about 8 months and I'm happy to report that I'm sure I was never meant to go anywhere else and I've never been more inspired. I just needed a place to put it all.

Sometimes, though, I hate the word blog. Like just look at it

blog

What a weird ugly word.