“Serendipity plays a part when I print with lith chemicals. Often unrepeatable results appear before me on the paper, results that excite me in their unpredictability. I appreciate the pen-and-ink-drawing quality that lith provides me; reality disappears from the page, bringing forth an illusion for the viewer, a misrepresentation of accuracy. All of my composites are done in the darkroom, where absurdity takes precedence over actuality.“
Carson Mell has been making some of my favorite animated shorts of the past ten years. I met him years ago and about a year later picked up first issue of Wholphin, a DVD magazine that McSweeney’s puts out, his film The Writer, stole the show and I’ve been hooked ever since. His work is like a colorized Charles Burns, book but funnier.
Start with Saguaro, an excerpt from his novel about Bobby Bird, a country music star whose rose and fell from stardom and wants to tell you all about it. From there check out The Devil in Denim and Chonto, they are short films based on the book. From there the rest is up to you and there’s lots to see and hear.
One of the first things a friend mentioned to me when I moved to Seattle is if I had ever seen the documentary Streetwise, which I hadn’t but by his description of the movie it became something I became obsessed trying to find for a while. Once discouraged from a quick search on Netflix and finding out that it was out of print, my hunt lost momentum and I somehow my mission was forgotten. But a recent discovery on YouTube yielded a full upload of the entire film in 10 (!) parts (shout out to the dude that uploaded this and also that awesome 1970s KFC commercial).
Streetwise documents the lives of young runaways that fled to Seattle in the early 80s, and follows the kids through their bouts with drugs, prostitution and rivalry. Shit is kinda long, and not something you could really watch at work. But flag the post and return to it after you’ve gotten stoned and have an hour on the couch.
Found at a thrift store deep in the valley. “They will change the way you think of blocks forever!” Great 80’s package design with Blox background inspired by Jasper Johns’ “Between the Clock and the Bed” which was inspired by a late self-portrait by Munch… Well probably not but the Blox are quite radical.
