ickibod styzinetti

Also, for what it's worth, here's my final decade top ten list. Yeah, I cheated a bit. Eat it.

( Behind the cut... )

Hey, Robert Frank is 85 today. Happy birthday Mr. Frank! And it's the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Happy anniversary! And hey, it's my birthday. I'm 35. Half way there. Woo hoo.

My birthday cake. Three sliders and an order of chicken rings!

I've severely cut back on buying, well, everything. But photobooks have taken a big hit in the last year or so. I used to scour Moe's, Half Price Books and other places (Amazon, Powells, Abes, etc) to pick up new, used, remaindered photobooks. Not so much any more. I get a few freebies through work, but rarely anything exceptional. I have to hold out for not just the random collectables, casually cool-looking books and hit on the books with severe substance. The last one I bought was the expanded edition of Looking In Robert Franks' The American. I've barely scratched the surface in reading/looking at it. Maybe a little too much heft to it.

Anyway, my next photobook purchase is going to be Japanese Photobooks of the '60s and '70s (Aperture). I was on the fence until going to the SFMOMA today and taking a peek at it. Beyond the insanely awesomeness of the book designs show in it, the photos...oh man, the photos are gorgeous. Daido Moriyama is a photo superstar for a reason. Sigh. I can't wait to get it.

Runners up include:
Christopher Anderson's Capitolio
Susan Meiselas' In History
Daido Moriyama' Farewell Photography
Anders Petersen's French Kiss

and...well a lot more. So many good photo books. Magnum's Georgian Spring, Jim Goldberg's Open See, I Tokyo by Jacob Aue Sobol, Jason Eskenazi's Wonderland (just missed buying a copy of that...now they're going for hundreds of dollars, bummer), and on and on...

Yeah, I've said it before, but I totally love Carolyn Drake's photography. So good. (sigh)

A small bit of sunshine (so to speak):



A short (10 min) piece on Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama.

Thanks to Aya for pointing this out to me: eBay seller using my Teengenerate photo to sell some of his records...

Wow. A test pressing of Minor Threat's "Out of Step" (sold by Jeff Nelson) just went for almost $6,000. Fucking crazy.

And an old photo...this one from Venice, about five years ago.


Venice
October 2004

Video version of Torta Justice (part 1):

Downtown San Francisco
July 2009

Achy and tired and man, I could really go for a bag of those cheap, shitty, delicious powder donuts right now...

Speaking of donuts, it is ridiculous there are NO fresh donut shops in downtown SF. Not that I've found anyway. The donuts from 7-11 just don't cut it. Overpriced and stale, and that's coming from someone who really isn't very picky about donuts (see above craving for packaged donuts).

I'm not a big Terry Richardson fan, I don't buy into the cult shit around him at all, but I really appreciate his approach to shooting: "I make it up as a I go along." Walking into a big deal photo shoot with a point-n-shoot because that's what he likes shooting with, sticking to his guns and making something outta that. I totally respect that.

Here's a little clip of him talking about that.

Also...on a heavy '70s jag, fueled largely by Third World War...finally getting around to hearing the Deviants and Pink Fairies...looking for MP3s (and original vinyl, naturally) or Terry Stamp's solo album Fatsticks.

Union Square
San Francisco, CA
August? 2009

Market/Montgomery
San Francisco, CA
August 2009

Friday: Blue öyster Cult (at Santa Cruz County Fair)
Friday: Sex/Vid (at Balazo Gallery)
Saturday: Sex/Vid (at Hemlock)
Saturday: David Cross (at the Warfield)
Sunday: Giman Swap


Decisions need to be made.

Just stumbled across this old blog post on some German's blog called "The Art of Record Covers."

Rad.

Full-frame digital Leica to be announced Sept. 9.

WANT IT.

I'd even consider selling most of my Nikon gear if the hi ISO could match the D700. Though at a rumored $8,000 - $10,000 (body ONLY) I don't think I'd have enough Nikon gear to come up with that kind of money.

Awesome set of photos by Charles Harbutt, someone I had never heard of until this morning. Turns out he's a former Magnum photographer, current professor at Parson's. Not just good photos, but a really great edit.

I just got handed a review copy of Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk.

It's an oral history of Bay Area punk, a-la Please Kill Me.

Stay tuned...

Woah. Disney bought Marvel. I'm not much of a comic person anymore, but still, woah.