Oh hai Monday what’s up, didn’t… didn’t see you there.  There’s lots of buzzin around the Birdsong Micropress HQ this week.  First of all Blanco, the strong-as-death-sweet-as-love artist responsible for the b-b-b-beautiful cover of birdsong #13, just unveiled a new work for “The Art of Basketball,” a part of Art Basel Miami Beach this Decemeber.  Sponsored by the NBA, presented by Public Works and curated by Billi Kid and James & Karla Murray, “the Art of Basketball will select a group of creative individuals that will develop literal works of art directly onto basketballs and backboards. These unique canvases will be donated by the NBA and will be given to each artist to produce works in all manner of context and variable skill. The considered contributors will represent some of the best artists making waves in the graffiti and street art community as well as the media at large.”

Blanco’s piece is painted directly onto a backboard, with the hoop still on it and everything. MARVEL, PLEBES.  It’s pretty great.

I think most of these dudes liked dick

Also, this week is like D-Day for BS.  I sent BRD SNG #2 to the printer last night, I’m picking up some screenprinted flyers tonight, and SATURDAY IS OUR BIG BIG BENEFIT SHOW.  Here’s a secret: I really want it to be a huge success. So just, you know, tell everyone you know and come have fun.  The bands are fantastic, the venue is super chill (I just typed that word), and the company is smart, sexy, and supportive. Plus, I’ll love you forever

AND WITH THAT, IT’S THIS WEEK IN BIRDSONG!!!!

MONDAY 10/18

gimmie bran for breakfast

Hot off the heels, or maybe in the throes, of releasing GIRLS TO THE FRONT: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution, and the subsequent whirlwind book tour and PR campaign, Sara Marcus is reading at the Mixer Reading and Music Series tonight at Cakeshop.  Ms. Marcus graced the birdsong stage in the early summer for our two-year anniversary party, and is a very animated and engaging reader.  She’ll be sharing the stage with readers Rachel Eliza Griffiths and Rob Scheffield, and musical guest STARRING.

Cakeshop
152 Ludlow St., bet. Stanton and Rivington
7:00 p.m., FREE

TUESDAY 10/19

five finger discount

Jennifer Michael Hecht, poet, intellectual historian, and probably my favorite professor of all time, is reading tonight at the New School’s poetry forum. “Hecht’s award-winning collections of poems include Funny, winner of University of Wisconsin’s 2005 Felix Pollak Prize, and The Next Ancient World, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s 2002 First Book Award.” She was also a birdsong guest reader for the release of our 11th issue, and is an orator not to be missed.  To be honest, I get a little emotional when I think about JMH. Her support helped to instill a genuine confidence within me, in my writing and, I guess, in my humanity. Self-belief is contagious, y’all!

The New School
Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall
66 West 12th Street, room 510
6:30 p.m.

nip slip

ALSO Baby Alpaca is playing a free show tonight for CMJ at The Delancey, if you want to catch a sweet set before they play the Birdsong Benefit Show on Saturday! Also, in the wake of all the gay suicides getting press recently, Chris shared a very touching story and performed a new song on East Village Boys to say, “it gets better.”  Most of us have similar, horrifying stories from those bleak years, or continue to live them, and given the many deviations our lives might have taken: I feel very lucky that we all got the chance to know one another other.  Thanks for sharing, Chris.

The Delancey
168 Delancey St, New York NY
the ground floor stage
7:30 pm

WEDNESDAY 10/20

surrender, mutants!

Cinders Gallery is a charming, artist-run gallery space and bookstore/zine shop on the corner of Havemeyer and Hope that I have continually visited since moving to Williamsburg– and an always reliable home for Scorcher and birdsong. However, it’s unfortunately closing it’s doors at 103 Havemeyer due to a huge hike in their rent!!!!  Their ethos was something I really believed in, to “support artists [they] feel are important and under-represented, have great exhibitions, and create a space where rad, positive and productive people can meet one another” — a similar principal on which birdsong was founded — and Sto and Kellie have always been really nice and supportive of us and our zines.  It won’t be the same street, or frankly the same burg.  I hope their new digs, wherever it opens, isn’t too far away and I hope it doesn’t take too long.  Good luck, guys!

Today’s as good a day as any to check out Cinders’ second-to-last exhibition, Plain Air, an exploration of landscape and the space we inhabit, and “the second in a series of exhibitions put together by the loose-knit collective/publishing-printmaking project called Apenest.”  They have self-published several massive compendiums of underground contemporary art with some very talented artists, including Alex Lukas– a personal favorite of mine who was first introduced to me by birdsong artist and logo designer Cara Fulmor.

October 15th – November 14th 2010
Cinders Gallery
103 Havemeyer St. Store#2
Brooklyn, NY
Hours: WED-SUN 1-7pm

THURSDAY 10/21

WHAT IS LIFE WITHOUT LIVING

love in the time of cholas

Bradford Nordeen, friend, mogul, and always enthusiastic supporter of birdsong, presents two experimental queer works that tear open Hollywood narratives to address these startling queer perspectives. La Rubia (Zan Amparan, an interviewee in birdsong #13 and lead singer of gloriously homo punk band Little Victory) will DJ after the screeening with a set of girl group hits.

“The program title misremembers the opening lyric of the theme to Imitation of Life. The tune hauntingly floods Luther Price’s A. Alongside David Scheid’s video, Margot Kidder, these pieces use drag and collage editing tactics to reconstruct Hollywood from a space of queer fantasy, creating private narratives from popular fiction. David Scheid will be in attendance for the screening, which will feature a special introductory message by author and critic Kevin Killian.”

Read more about the works presented here, and don’t forget to click “attending” on Facebook!

NP Contemporary Art Center’s New Media room
131 Chrystie Street
8–10pm

FRIDAY 10/22

cheque list

OMG I AM SO EXCITED one of my favorite new bands, Diamond Rings (who Max wrote about in a Hump Day post not too long ago and whose album is out in like, one minute) is playing the FREE Distiller Promo Showcase at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Last month I saw John O, the Toronto-based man behind the diamonds, at my own local ice cream shop on Graham and Metropolitan.  He got strawberry with a sugar cone in fill face makeup. LUXE, honey!!!

Distiller Promo Showcase — CMJ Party — Cotton Jones, Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers, Diamond Rings, S. Carey (of Bon Iver), The Hush Now

Knitting Factory Brooklyn
361 Metropolitan Ave
Doors: 1:00 PM / Show: 2:00 PM

Saturday 10/23 – THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!!

A benefit show for Birdsong Micropress–

hey kid u wanna see a dead body?

w/ B0DY H1GH, Paps, Algae & Tentacles, Baby Alpaca, and Making Friendz

$$$ will go toward the publishing costs of our tri-annual collaborative lit/art/interview zine birdsong; our free, amended, tri-annual newsprint interstitial BRD SNG; and recording costs for our upcoming free quarterly Birdsong Podcast Series– a cross-disciplinary showcase featuring an interview with a local artist, reading from a local writer, and live session with a local band.

The first 20 people get this beautiful, free, screenprinted poster!!!

So come, hang out, have fun, shoot the shit, dance a bit, maybe buy a zine, kiss on the cheek, and support local independent publishing!

Saturday, October 23rd
Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm, $5-10 sliding scale
at Silent Barn
915 Wyckoff Ave
right off the Halsey L stop

BE THERE PLEASE BE THERE OH MY GOD!!

1.  Contributing artist and perennial birdsong photographer Blanco will have some art in Free Arts NYC’s “Street Art New York” Silent Auction Benefit this Saturday at Factory Fresh gallery in Bushwick:

The Benefit, to be held at one of New York’s epicenters for the thriving new Street Art scene, Factory Fresh Gallery, will feature an incredibly strong selection of today’s Street Artists joining together for one night as a community to benefit NYC kids from disadvantaged backgrounds as the numbers of poor and low-income children in New York continues to rise. Representing a renaissance in modern urban art at the dawn of a new decade, this show will very likely be the largest collection of 2010′s street artists in one location.

Factory Fresh Gallery
1053 Flushing Avenue
Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York 11237
between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop

AAAAAND starting May 1st,  he’s also got a repainted Eames lounge chair going up in the display window at Barney’s, as a part of Billi Kid and Luna Park’s, “Eames Inspiration” showcase/auction to benefit NYC arts programs in schools:

Public Works Department’s ‘Eames Inspiration’ Online Charity Auction to Benefit Operation Design, a Creative Mentorship Program for NYC Public School Students Limited-Edition Collection of Eames Chairs Re-Imagined by 20 Graffiti and Street Artists to be Featured in Barneys New York Windows.

The auction will take place in June, and perhaps a reception, too. Will let you know when we know.

2.  Khalid El Khatib has a very moving story up on the Revelon Run/Walk for Women website, a 5K fundraiser on May 1st to support cancer research.  Well, it’s less a story and more a short, heartfelt account of his grandmother’s last days struggling with cancer, and you can sponsor he and his team (the Brandy Manhattans) if you have some extra dough for charity.

Photo by Becki Fuller

Instead of posting some photographs of the newest in new street art, I want to talk about Shepard Fairey. By now I am sure you all know that Shepard Fairey is the guy behind the oh so popular Obama “Hope” posters of last years campaign. And many of you probably also know that he is the guy behind the Obey stickers and wheat pastes plastered across the country.

Opinions on Fairey span the spectrum. On the one hand, a unique version of his Obama poster was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery last spring and remains the most popular piece on display there. Alternatively many people have been concerned that Shepard’s work is little more then plagiarism. (see lawsuit filed by the associated press). Now I am not writing to argue one way or the other, I just want to tell it the way I see it.

During the Spring a retrospective of Shepard’s work opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Initially I was not too interested in taking the Fung Wah bus 5 hours to Boston to see works which I have already seen plastered from Portland to Poughkeepsie. I had no intention of going until my Aunt in Boston invited my parents and I to visit and see the show. At first I was surprised. These are three people who, though well versed in the Wyeths and O’Keefes of the world, dont really know a thing about street art. But I realized that they were also three people attempting to relate to me. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that Obey bores me. If nothing else it was an excuse to see my parents and have some of my aunt’s sick Korean cooking. Besides, I found out the Bolt Bus has wifi! So I relented and made a brief sojourn in Boston a couple weeks ago.

I went to the ICA having considered the exhibit I was about to see significantly less then the bulgogi I anticipated eating afterward, but I came away with some impressions which made me glad I went. Watching old videos in the galleries I remembered how Fairey had started the whole “Andre the Giant has a Posse” thing as a joke, and in the beginning it was pretty awesome! Say what you will about the content, but hte reality is that Fairey was one of the first modern street artist to get up everywhere. In the early going it was all about goofing around and messing with the system. When he placed an Andre the Giant head over the campaign billboard for Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci it was all a big prank, and I appreciate that. I think the problem that I have and that a lot of other people have is with what Obey has become. Obey started as a joke but it has become seemingly a monolithic brand name. Now any goofball can roll down to Urban outfitters and buy an Obey t-shirt in a bid for for some kind of street cred. But I don’t really have a problem with that so much. I am not going to sit here and say the Shep Fairey sold out, because its just too easy to accuse people of selling out when you live in a basement apartment. Everyone wants to make some money and live comfortably and Fairey is no different. And I cant blame him for his clothing line. I might have done the same thing. But there are some problems with Obey which I find quite a bit more troubling then selling clothes at urban outfitters.

Josh MacPhee, an artist who I have a lot of respect for, wrote this critique of Shepard Fairey’s work citing Shepard’s use of borrowed imagery. Macphee argued that this was plagiarism, and I am not one to disagree with him. In the case of the Obama poster, it is clear that Fairey did significantly alter the original image to an extent that made it a new piece of work but in many cases, the image is barely denatured. Anyone who knows anything about art history knows that re-appropriation is nothing new. People have called Fairey this generations Warhrol and he did the same thing thirty five years ago. But we all know where Warhols images were coming from and we knew what they were about. Everyone knew it was a picture of Marilyn or Chairman Mao.

Photo by Laughing Squid

But when you look at Fairey’s work the same can not always be said and herein lies an even bigger problem. Not only does Fairey re-appropriate other artists images, but he strips them of their context and meaning (Black power, Cuban Revolution, IWW) leaving us with imagery that is perhaps suggestive but without any real content. Is that Angela Davis or just a girl with a fro?It quickly becomes a matter of moving units with little regard to the importance of the imagery. Mark Vallen argued this point better then I ever could, its worth your time to spend a few minutes and read his article here. I went into the ICA already with this in my mind. Nothing that I saw in the show changed my mind in the least. Overall I think the show did a decent job of spanning Fairey’s career thus far and illuminating his influences in punk rock and skateboarding but that should be no surprise. Some of the large pieces really are nice pieces of work because of their layering and sheer size but overall my opinion of Fairey has not changed. As I left the gallery, I asked my aunt what she thought about the show. She told me that Fairey seems to have become his own parody, and I agreed. Obey started out as a joke, making fun of the system we live in, but now he is just a another cog selling a clothing brand with little artistic merit. I find it a little troubling to see how easy it is to slip over to the other side, but I’m still living in a basement apartment.

Okay so I have a not-so-secret love of all those “Dream” tags around this town.

I’m not sure but De La Vega seems the likely writer, although he has said that after being arrested he doesn’t do graffiti anymore. Either way I think he’s kind of the jam, his sort of street artist proverb thing he’s got going on, moving from Spanish Harlem to the Ivy Leagues and back, and especially his philosophy regarding being one’s own validator and creating value for your work yourself– D.I.Y. in a nutshell.

I started keeping track of my “Dream” encounters in the summer of 2007, which was of course the summer Paps and I started recording stuff together (back then I couldn’t even touch GarageBand we used Quicktime) and the summer I renounced my future career in medicine/medical sociology for more artistic pursuits (Peter Pan). I noticed this wall on my walk between our apartments–

OK lets be honest I was not dating the best caliber of dudes (never have I ever I guess), and I was getting dumped so often that I had a “getting over” mix on my ipod (it started off with Sade and ended with Kelly Clarkson [btw I'm a CATCH ppl are just FLAKES]). The wall was reading my mind! And even though I happen to believe in witchy shit, it sort of freaked me out that as I processed I would see new phrases –

to

(I drink)

to finally, outside of San Loco–

The walls were processing with me. And then one day, months or maybe even over a year later, I realized that the “Do Not Fall in Love” wall was–

–blank.

And I was pregnant (j/k its my backpack! lolololz).

I’m sort of a late bloomer, and even though I flirted with Riot Grrrl in high school nothing about D.I.Y. really stuck. It was only that summer when Paps and I started to record our songs that I really began learning the benefit of doing things to do them; not needing a recording studio; publishing myself instead of waiting six months to get rejected by some literary journal that doesn’t even publish stuff I like. Whatevs man we got birdsongs now so fuck you mountain of rejection letters.

Last weekend I started noticing the tags again, for the first time in a long time maybe a year even.

First–

to (with Paps)–

I don’t know yet what they’re telling me this time, only that I feel on the cusp of something really great and special and exciting. Considering that De La Vega wrote:

“I started to write inspirational quotes on the ground as a way to give people hope. I wanted to encourage others to really think about themselves and their dreams. I believe that you can be whatever you want to be. It will take a lot of hard work but great things do happen. Become your dream.”

He is so positive! and I would say his intended effect is not lost on me. Growing up on a reservation doesn’t really engender too much hope, I mean its engineered that way. I think thats true too if you’re a woman or gay or a person of color or poor (or all of those!) etc. So feeling this way, creating your own value, is subversive and confusing and empowering. And making zines or Garage Band tracks and imovies and all that, pushing outward in all directions, is that’s expression. And now that I think about it, the new “Dream”s I’ve been noticing are just this.

so without further ado I present to you—-

“a day in the ocean with blood” (all I did was eat a banana and feed the cat [and almost throw up] the rest is the genius of Paps btw our techno band name is Paps Peaks)