Tuesday, September 30, 2008

the knicks. WHY??

once, way back when i was a loyal NY Knicks basketball fan. I knew a lot about the team, and cared deeply about the future of the team. Every year the season would begin with hope anew...would the new rookies workout? would the trades mesh with the team...would the new coach help? would, would, would i now care if i could?

I grew up a stones throw from Madison Sq Garden, and used to go to many Knicks games as a kid. I would sneak in, bogue tickets from people with xtras, and sometimes i'd pay a scalper after the game started and get the tix for $5 each. We would sit in the nosebleed seats and move down to within the first 10 rows. and NOBODY made as much noise screaming and whistling as much as my friends and i did! i even hung out after the game as a young teen to get autographs! man i loved those days! Ray Williams, Toby Knight, Bill Cartwright and Sugar Ray Richardson.

So what the F##K happened to my beloved knicks? Well it's not a simple thing that led to the demise of this storied club which hasn't won a NBA championship in 35 years despite having the highest salary of any team for years and years!!!! and if you really want to know, you could start with the ownership of the team Jim Dolan. and then you could read any article you want to find on the internet and you'll find a trail of reasons starting with the point guard Stephan Marbury (the self dubbed "starbury"), and going back to Isiah Thomas (former losing coach and convicted sexual harasser) to overpaid players & overpaid players who don't even play (injuries), and on and on till you're blue in the face. Remember Patrick Ewing? The heart of the team, the team leader. remember the disgraceful treatment he got??? maybe that was the beginning of the end? Anyway a losing culture and a hang-dog, slumped shoulder lack of confidence has been following this team around game after game stinking up the arenas they play in for years now. Always losing close games, always losing a lead with a few minutes left until i couldn't hurt anymore. and i stopped caring.

so now a new season begins, with a new coach, and what do i care? the soap opera of this team begins before a single regular season game begins with hooplah around "starbury" and his not accepting a buyout of his final year contract...sure he wants the full money he's owed (spites's a good enuf reason at this point) and it's even tho neither he or the team wants him to stay in NY anymore. great way to start off the season.

the whole team will be lookin down at the floor, their sneakers, the anything down below eye level where your eyes belong when you know the shame of being a NY Knick.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

this week's reading list & MORE

i have sooooooooo many books to read. i've got a mostly insane backlog of required reading some of which is simply re-reading, like the Black Hole in the beautiful hard bound edition put out by Pantheon.

But then there's the Lambiek Almanac 1968-1993. a 25th anniversary publication and scholarly work encompassing the life of this legendary comic book shop in Amsterdam. So many great artists did all kinds of cool ad , poster, and promotional work for them over the years. i picked it up on my last trip to Amsterdam back in June. So many great memories come flooding back when i read this awesome publication. Like my brother Klaas!!! and the art deals i did with Lambiek. and hangin out and drinkin and??? in the shop!@!!. The great Peter Pontiac Reviews i got there, and the amazing place it self tucked away on the kerkestraat. They're having the 40th anniversary for Lambiek in November. hmmmmm? i want to be there! we'll see!!!

Lastly big props to my bud Tim Lane for the publication of Abandoned Cars. Collecting his comix and strip art into a beautiful hardbound edition. i've been reading it and loving the art and stories.

you gotta love stacks of books!!! Every time i clean up a bit, i find a book and start reading.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

who is SONNY FORTUNE !! ??

is Sonny Fortune a super hero?
a classic private eye?

great name to be sure for all of the above,
but mister Fortune doesn't blow away bad guys....he blows into wind instruments and is one of the greatest living horn players.
i got to see mister Fortune's quartet play last nite at the Sweet Rhythm club in the west village (site of the old sweet basil club), with my old buddy (and avid jazz connosieur) Pauly Sheffron.
we started the evening off with some bbq action at Hill Country (one of the city's premiere joints...and they had short ribs on the menu!!!) anyway fastforward to hangin out in the village (pre-show) at the bar Kettle for a beer and to watch the Mets meltdown en route to another late season bailout. then we headed to the club. when Pauly tells me a guy is his favorite sax player, I LISTEN. so i was in good spirits to see Sonny play. he did not dissapoint. This is a guy who's played with Miles Davis, Buddy Rich, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Mongo Santamaria and countless others. Just as anyone would be proud to say they've played even one of those guys, there are i'm sure gazillions of musicians who'd be equally proud to have played with Sonny. Sonny is a master Sax player (soprano, alto, and more) but he's also a brilliant flautist. and so we were treated to original compositions along with wonder versions of standards. We stayed for 2 sets and it was amazing.
for more about Sonny Fortune go to http://www.sonnyfortune.com/

the fact that my buddy Pauly is friends with Sonny is nice too as he's very friendly and it was nice to shake hands with a jazz legend.

they're playing again tonite at Sweet Rhythm...so check them out if you can.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

work work work

getting the posters and postcards printed, writing press the press release, and taking the art to the framer. what? YES!!! i've had some of the art in my hands. but not all of it! giandelli, corona, fior, and liberatore.
it's gettin awefully close, i hope i get the rest of the art in time!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

italian ART DAY!!!!

i got a nice batch of art today!!!
pencil layouts/roughs from Liberatore's Batman Black & White.
A great Frida Kahlo portrait by Igort.
Manuele Fior's gorgeous watercolors.
Marco Corona's crazy cool cover paintings.
Plus awesome Gabriella Giandelli's line art, and Andrea Bruno's work!!!

scans, and framing in the works!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

music

did you know i love music?
as a kid i played clarinet in the elementary school orchestra and in the stage band orchestra of my junior high school....and was i good!!!? not really. but i wasn't bad either. all this time i was taking piano lessons. kinda boring classical, with a touch of ragtime at the end, but no interesting jazz. the academic side of piano lessons kinda turned me off. fast forward to my college years and i started to learn some guitar from my friends who ever would teach me a chord or 2 and then found my greatest interest in bass guitar. back then my dream was to be the jimi hendrix of electric bass. yep. i dreamed that. luckily for you and many others that dream never came true. can you imagine jimi on bass? boring!!! anyhoo, i loved funk, r & b, and jass fusion where it was combined with those kinds of music. i've kinda let the music thing slide, and keep hoping to upgrade my computer system and get the whole home recording music studio thing going again eventually. remember the old tascam 4 track studio?? i had one! remember the first early drum machines? the TR 808 ?? i had one. ahhhhhhh the good old days! speaking of those good old days.....

*my first favorite song?: Dancing machine by the Jackson 5. *my first album?: Honey by the Ohio Players! *first fav hard rock band?: Led Zep. *favorite bass player of all time?: Jaco Pastorius. *Musicians i'm most grateful for having the chance to see them live?: Jaco, James Brown, Zappa, Michael Brecker, Miles Davis, Freddie Mercury with Queen (1977), the recently passed Hiram Bullock. *people i wished i coulda seen live?: Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker.

so, why am i thinkin about music? besides listening to music everyday and ALWAYS looking for new bands and music genres to explore...i can get into that later, lets just say one thing i enjoy is the new york alt music scene. Thing is i'm reading a GREAT BOOK called "Musical Legends" by the legendary underground artist JUSTIN GREEN. put out by Last Gasp publishing it collects all his work published in Pulse Magazine! I highly recommend it! today thanks to that book i enjoyed listening to Louis Jordan, an early influence on the godfather of soul James Brown.

perk up those ears, and open those eyes and run out and git urself a copy of Musical Legends. u won't regret it!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

mma w(rap)

some good fights last weekend...aaaaaaaaaaand sum duds!
nate the great looked uh...great. fast that was.
i liked the korean guy (dong kim), but man he needs some conditioning. he was like a monkey climbin on the back of brown.
the brazilian guy palhares looks like a true beast buuuuut where's the striking? zero. when that aspect of his game improves, he's gonna punish a lot of fighters. dan henderson won, but by a slim margin in my book. still, it was a good fight for him. good to see a legend get a long overdue ufc win.
for me the big question mark of the night was franklin vs hamill. this was a great striker vs a great wrestler. ?? i love hamill, guy's got a lotta heart, remember when he KICKED bisping's ass...but was robbed? i expected the match to go to the ground at some point. the only way to negate a striker is to take him to the ground. that's elementary. so why no wrestling? answer: conspiracy! somebody said: keep this a standup fight. no other explanation. hamill's a decent striker but not in franklin's class. but few guys are better at taking guys to the mat than hamill. we'll never know the truth

and then lidell vs evans. surprise? NOT. i know something about boxing. you keep your hands UP after throwin punches. it's an amateur mistake. i'm sure lidell will continue to draw people to fights (like tyson did post ear munching, post jail, post insanity)...but for how long? btw did you see him play poker on tv at the world series of poker main event? YIKES!!! thank god he's a better mma guy...same result tho, amateur moves lead to knockouts!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

italian ART show line-up!!

wow. it's a true italian MASTERS show and it's happening at the Scott Eder Gallery in early October:
Tanino Liberatore, Lorenzo Mattotti, Milo Manara, Igort, Sergio Toppi, Gipi, Manuelle Fior, Marco Corona, Andrea Bruno, and Gabriella Giandelli !!!

a DREAM group show.

Friday, September 5, 2008

why nyc?

because there's always stuff to do!

take tonite: the opening party for the Charles Burns show at the Adam Baumgold gallery! A great opportunity to more Charles Burns art in one public place than you're likely to see anywhere ever. A great mix of work dating back to his Raw days and on upward to the fanta graphic Dog Boy & Skin Deep work. i'm VERY excited.

also this evening the private preview for lowbrow artiste Camille Rose Garcia at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.

where's my money? oh yeah. spent it all.

s