Here’s links to both films on Netflix:

La Haine on Netflix.

French director Mathieu Kassovitz traces a fateful day in the lives of alienated ghetto youths Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé) — a Jew, an Arab and an African, respectively — who are grappling with the aftermath of unexpected tragedy. When their friend Abdel lies comatose after a police beating, Vinz vows to dispense rough justice, sealing the destiny of all three.

Alphaville on Netflix:

Directed by cinematic legend Jean-Luc Godard, this mesmerizing sci-fi noir centers on secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) and his mission to destroy Alpha 60, the sentient computer that controls Alphaville by destroying freedom of thought or individuality. Brilliantly realized and crafted, Godard’s 1965 film helped to lay the foundation for future sci-fi classics such as Blade Runner, The Terminator and The Matrix.

I didn’t see this person but this exchange was hilarious:

This person described himself joyfully as a bodyguard slash musician.
He was holding an assault rifle.

Some Dutch madmen.

Just weird.

From the show’s press release on the Sloan Fine Art site:

In Black Forest / White Lightning, Nathan Skiles presents a collection of densely adorned cuckoo clocks, ranging from the intricately elegant to the over-the-top outrageous, as a means to invigorate his method of associative image making and feed his interest in the incongruous. While the clocks lend themselves easily to observations on the convenient clichés and “rules” of time and space, specific (and repeated) themes within the works expand beyond immediate associations and evolve into musings on the self-consciousness and limits popularly ascribed to these rules. And with his innovative use of foam rubber as his primary material, Skiles tricks the eye and obliterates the baggage of immediate recognition, further challenging his audience to look beyond the immediate and investigate the core issues presented in his work.

I shot some images of his clocks myself, they’re posted here for you to enjoy:

More of Nathan Skiles’ work.

This label’s releases are described as…

“…the most unusual record you have ever put on your turntable. It is a unique mixture of entertainment, excitement, beauty and practicality.” — Persuasive Percussion (1959) liner notes

My kind of music.

More from the gallery overview:

Command Records was founded in 1959 by Enoch Light (1905-1978), a classical violinist, bandleader, and sound recording engineer. Light went to extraordinary technical lengths, and often great expense, to create recordings of the absolute highest quality possible that took full advantage of new technical capabilities of home audio equipment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Light specifically perfected stereo effects that bounced sounds between the right and left channel speakers, which was called a “ping-pong effect”.

On each album sleeve, Light would include lengthy technical descriptions about each song, the musicians, the depth and breadth of the sounds, and how they were recorded. In order to fit his descriptions, he doubled the size of a standard album sleeve and enabled it to fold open like a book, thereby inventing the gatefold-packaging format. The gatefold sleeve became highly popular in following decades.

Luckily there’s some great images on the gallery site. Josef Albers was a graphic artist but his massive influence on the profession was through his educational programs, such as his excellent color theory book, Interaction of Color.

This juxtaposition between loving human connection and fearsome beasts seemed to capture the strange sense that Sendak’s characters don’t really fall easily into any one black or white space in our minds, but rather a blur across that spectrum of love and hate.

This morning I came across the paintings of Austin Power on the Behance Network. Specifically, his new series, titled “21 Portraits of People I Miss“. There’s a longing and sadness to his work that’s obvious, but also a serious and controlled discipline in these seemingly unfinished works, and a use of colors that really strike a chord with me as entirely contemporary and modern. Wonderful work and even more wonderful because they’re watercolors.

His show is opening tomorrow at Satsko, 245 Eldridge St., New York, NY 10002. 6-9pm.

View a selection of his work from this particular show.
View his portfolio online.

I discovered sound and art installation artist’s Pe Lang and Zimoun’s “Untitled Sound Objects” series at the Today & Tomorrow Blog. They create sound textures using machinery driven objects, most performing a simple task or motion. I started watching the videos and was mesmerized, they play like it could be a new ambient/noise composition and they’re all beautifully and minimally designed installations. The rotors twisting the loops of chains is just too cool.

Watch (and listen to) the amazing video of the installation here.

View beautiful and minimal photographs of the installation here.

With this understanding I thought I’d take some of the strategic thinking typically reserved for businesses and map a quick process for people to use for their professional selves. I’ll keep this extremely simple since I’d like this to be something people can run with and not a long dragged out analysis/paralysis process. I’ve translated the following concepts from the business to the individual, and seeing it this way makes me see the process a little differently. It’s actually eerie how people-brands and business-brands can be so similar.

The 4 Human Experiences Your Brand Should Affect:

1. Perception: What do you want people to think of you? Be this person.

2. Reason: Are you who you say/act like? Authenticity is critical, look for your deeper truth, what’s beneath the surface you may be afraid to expose?

3. Emotion: Are you connecting with people on a deeper level? What do you believe deeply in that you can advocate/evangelize?

4. Resonance: Do you connect with people in a way that’s meaningful to them? Are you reading other’s needs or are you acting on your own?

The Building Blocks of Your Experience:

1. Where do you have the most credibility?

2. Where do you have the most experience?

3. What are you passionate about?

4. What causes are you aligned with personally?

5. How do you define success for yourself? Money, achievement, freedom?

6. What do you stand for?

7. Who are you competing with?

8. How are you different from them?

9. Who would you be excited to collaborate with?

10. Is there a social context to your desires?

11. Choosing only adjectives, how would you describe your best qualities?

I’m really just winging this but in looking back at this post this is some powerful stuff for any person to do for themselves. If you’re like me and you’ve had a difficulty in the past describing what you do to strangers, this would be a fantastic immersive process to take on, even if it were just for 30 minutes.