Lambchop & Alejandro Escovedo

Rock legends Lambchop & Alejandro Escovedo put on a double-bill show for Duke Performances Friday night and it was amazing.
Lambchop started out slow with some soft jams, heavy on the instrumentals and then picked up spped at the end. Kurt Wagner's creativity and musicianship cannot be defied.

Alejandro Escovedo started out heavy on the guitar riffs, true rock n' roll in black shirt and skinny jeans, rocking with his instrument. His encore was low-key and touching. These two, long-lasting alt-country bands continue to put on a good show.

The Box: Squandered Potential, the Search for a Real Plot

"The Box" is a wonderful example of a plot with a lot of potential that goes nowhere. What is today's obseesion with the circular plot? What's so bad about true plot and character development? Flirting with ideas of extraterrestrial life and the philosophies of Sartre's No Exit, "The Box" fails to ever even scratch the surface of any truly inventive sci-fi ideas. Set in 1976, the movie ends up feeling like a simple, and failed, attempt to revive a "Twilight Zone" episode. The most entertaining part of the movie is seeing snippets of 1976 headlines and pop culture that run through the background of the film. Props to the production designer, Alexander Hammond. At least he was doing his job. I can't say so much for the director Richard Kelly or Cameron Diaz and James Marsden. The suspense of the movie continuously falls flat. A Richard Matheson tale has so much more potential and creative flexibility than we see on the screen with "The Box." Instead, Kelly decides to avoid creating a truly mind-bending and original idea and simply takes a mere half-hearted stab at the sci-fi/horror genre.

This Is It

Michael Jackson is a star among stars. No one has ever engendered as much international fascination and sensation as Jackson has with his music, dance and personal life. This Is It continues the observation of the truly dangerous double-edged sword this degree of fame creates. As Jackson and his enormous crew dance, sing and jam their way towards an epic concert run, I couldn’t help but be caught up in the entertainment magic of Jackson and his iconic moves. 

At the same time, however, musings about prescription drugs, mounting debt and all the other dramas that cloud Jackson’s memory continued to interrupt my simple fan enjoyment of the spectacle. The documentary can’t hide Jackson’s gaunt frame or muffle the questions many filmgoers have concerning his last months, but it can ignore these peripheral issues. And it does. And that’s a good thing.

Instead, director Kenny Ortega offers a final, unadulterated glimpse of Jackson, focusing on the roles that fit the artist best: dancer, musician and performer. This Is It proves that, even at 50, the King of Pop would not be outperformed. The rehearsal footage hints at what would have been a show of spectacular choreography and special effects. Skilled dancers and musicians surround Jackson at every moment, anxious and excited to be in the presence of the entertainment legend. The footage further serves as a tribute and consolation to the crew, whose months of rigorous, behind-the-scenes practice so sadly resulted in a show that never was.

This Is It’s ultimate success is its ability to capture the total possession with which Jackson approached his art. The man was his music, and nothing could ever be too perfect. It’s not easy being King. Ch'mon!

Rock & Shop Vintage Market in Durham@Golden Belt

Rock & Shop brings style, music to Golden Belt

By TINA SIADAK
October 15, 2009

A crystal necklace from Good Girls Studio, Inc. -one of the designers showing on Saturday. 

These days, there’s nothing more new than the old. Vintage design fulfills the ever-expanding, trendy urge to make a bold and unique personal style statement. Collecting a few refurbished jewelry pieces and some recycled designer dresses is the perfect way to create a customized wardrobe on a budget.

And now the chance to cash in on this trend is coming to Durham.

This Saturday, the Rock & Shop Vintage Market will take place in the Cotton Room at Golden Belt. The afternoon-long event features vintage vendors and designers exhibiting and selling their wares to Durham residents. 

Local designers Michelle Smith and Regan Wood organized the market, collecting a curated selection of eco-friendly recycled furniture and fashions from a range of regional vendors. Smith and Wood run an online shop called indieNC that offers similar vintage products. 

“The Rock & Shop Market is indieNC come to life,” Smith said. “The impetus for the event was a silent auction I organized for WXDU featuring live music from the Rosebuds. That was so successful—I really wanted to create another similar local event—and that’s how Rock & Shop was born.” 

One of the vendors coming for Saturday’s event is Kiona van Rhee-Wilson, creator of Lucky Accessories. The brand employs several different design methods to create a diverse collection of accessories. Rhee-Wilson’s use of non-traditional materials makes her jewelry unique, embodying the essence of refurbished vintage.

“I use vintage wallpaper to make necklaces, rings, pendants,” she said.  “I also have a line called Made of Money that uses old coins from all around the world.” 

Although Rhee-Wilson has sold her products at the Rock & Shop Market in Raleigh before, she said she is excited for the new spin the Vintage Market in Durham offers designers.

“The Rock & Shop Vintage Market places more emphasis on the refurbished factor of the products,” she said. “It’s all about that vintage component.”

Smith mentioned that the designers were selected in part because of their ability to take old materials and create something modern and stylish. The Rock & Shop Vintage Market exemplifies the range of creative possibility available from utilizing a variety of recycled and discarded elements.

In addition to the vendor displays, the afternoon will include a live fashion show and performances from two local bands: Lonnie Walker and Mount Weather. The fashion show features eight North Carolinian designers, including Brightleaf Square’s Dolly’s Vintage and the eco-conscious, ornate jewelry of Good Girls Studio, Inc.

Katie Seiz co-styled the fashion show and is also one of Dolly’s two in-house designers. Her line, Vintage Garden, is a collection of earrings and other accessories fashioned from found vintage fabrics and other recycled materials. 

“Dolly’s sells a variety of quirky, fun vintage items. Not only clothes and accessories, but gifts and other objects as well,” Seiz said.

Dolly’s will be presenting five looks in Saturday’s show.

Continuing the theme of independent and local creativity, Lonnie Walker and Mount Weather are both up-and-coming area rock bands. Lonnie Walker began in 2005 as a one-man act and has since grown in both membership and musical maturity. Now a quintet and signed to Raleigh’s Terpsikhore Records, Lonnie Walker has cultivated an original mix of Americana influences with dance rock rhythms.

Mount Weather is another five-piece band based out of Chapel Hill. Their sound is a melodic and airy pop-rock that resonates low-key indie playfulness. Mount Weather will open the line-up at 1:30 p.m., with the fashion show wedged between the two bands’ acts.

The Rock & Shop Vintage Market is a veritable celebration of re-used and refurbished design, complete with beer, a DJ and live performances. More than that, however, the emphasis the event places on sustainability and local business provides yet another example of Durham’s efforts to foster an independent, hip and urban community.

The Rock & Shop Market is Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. at the Golden Belt arts complex’s Cotton Room on the third floor of Building 2. Admission is $3. For more information, click here.

Duke Chronicle's recess- 10/15/09

Bob Timberlake Exhibit at the American Tobacco Campus

Art takes a backseat at ATC's A Carolina Collection

By TINA SIADAK
October 1, 2009

What happens to art when it is no longer anything but its market? 

The opening of Bob Timberlake’s A Carolina Collection at the American Tobacco Campus did a good job of answering that question. With booze and swanky hors d’oeuvres from Revolution as the centerpiece of the room, Timberlake’s watercolors took a backseat at their own showing. The atmosphere and mood appeared more like a corporate mixer than any art exhibition. Moved to the side to make room for cocktail tables, the paintings had a complete non-presence in the airy space of the Strickland Lobby.

Timberlake is known for his detailed watercolor depictions of the rural South. Picturesque ocean-side landscapes and windowsill still lifes epitomize his work. Timberlake’s evocation of American simplicity endeared his work to the masses and the artist is now a veritable powerhouse of faux-antique products. His sprawling gallery in Blowing Rock, North Carolina sells everything from reproductions and furniture to coffee and sweets.

A Carolina Collection offered nothing new or unexpected from the usual Timberlake repertoire. Multiple watercolors focused on the snowy landscapes of Carolina farm homes or the shanty-like ocean cottages of yesteryear’s Outer Banks. The paintings mainly inspired thoughts of how perfectly they would complete the decor of any quintessential mountain getaway or seaside vacation home.

Timberlake has clearly created a successful niche for himself in the art market. As his design empire continues to expand to include home accessories, souvenirs and toys. One has to wonder, however, how connected Timberlake is to his art today. The opening of A Carolina Collection, where art acted as the mere side plate to good food and small talk, indicated that in the midst of manufacturing, creative purpose has been lost.

-Duke Chronicle's recess 10/1/09

Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction

The name Georgia O’Keeffe solicits a slew of varied responses. Some view the artist with awe and appreciation, while others believe her to be overrated and mundane.

            Personally, O’Keeffe has always been an inspiration as a woman artist who truly understands the emotive power of art, and, more specifically, color.

            Known and popularized for her landscapes and floral paintings, O’Keeffe actually dedicated a large amount of her studies and work to abstraction. The new exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction, at the Whitney Museum in NYC explores this side of O’Keeffe’s artwork.

            The exhibition compounds numerous abstractions from the very start of O’Keeffe’s career to the very end. By creating a timeline of these abstract pieces, the exhibition further tries to confront and explain the controversies that haunted O’Keeffe’s career. For one, the collection includes some of the ultra-magnified, cropped floral paintings that so many guesses to be symbols for the female anatomy. Abstraction acknowledges these opinions and presents O’Keeffe’s frustrated reaction to the public connection of her work with sexual imagery.

            The exhibition also includes Alfred Stieglitz’s photographs of the artist and the background story of their significance to her enormous reputation, as well as the link of her art to female sexuality. In the beginning of their relationship, O’Keeffe posed for Stieglitz in a series of intimate nude photographs. O’Keeffe gained a measure of celebrity from this series and from her controversial affair with the much-her-senior Stieglitz.

            Later O’Keeffe posed for Stieglitz again, but this time posed in a profile of calm dignity: a remade portrait of female independence and confidence. The two series offer an interesting juxtaposition of youth and old age, creating a portfolio of maturing femininity.

            The story on the sidelines of the Abstraction exhibition, however, may point to what is so polarizing about O’Keeffe’s art. As a living legend, it seems O’Keeffe was always fighting the public interpretations of her works, and ultimately of her own persona. Even in the Whitney’s postmortem exhibition, the experience of the art is still irrevocably linked to the story of the artist.

            As for me, I look at O’Keeffe’s work as an exploration of color and shape. I was particularly drawn to the works of the “Eternal Star” series and the “Abstraction: Alexius” piece.

Here is a link to the Whitney website.  

And a write-up of the exhibition in WSJ. 

Jean Toche: Impressions froma Rogue Bush Imperial Presidency

A review of Jean Toche's new exhibition in the John Hope Franklin Center. Written for Chronicle's recess. 

Artist Jean Toche is known for his controversial and reactionary work, and his new exhibition at the John Hope Franklin Center is no exception. Titled Jean Toche: Impressions from the Rogue Bush Imperial Presidency, the collection includes expressionist photography coupled with vehement political statements and various news excerpts. Kristine Stiles, professor of art, art history and visual studies, curated the show, drawing the works from her own archives.

The collection is comprised mainly of four-by-five-and-a-half inch cards, each featuring a distorted photographic image displayed above a written statement from Toche. The works comment on a range of topics from excess consumerism to "Bush: Brutal Butcher of Fallujah!" Many of the photographs are abstracted images of Jean Toche himself, from dramatic and confronting close-ups of his face to pictures of his exposed backside. Toche uses his own portrait to add visual potency to his radical statements. On one card, Toche quotes a New York Times article and surmises the possibility of an unchecked Republican dominance, asking the question, "Another Thousand-Years Reich?" These words are paired with a photograph of Toche's back, with his bare buttocks visible under a black T-shirt marked with only one word: UTOPIA.

This is but a single example of Toche's mix of stark humor and radical political observances. The works do not just attack Republicans and the Bush administration. Toche also calls attention to ignorance and apathy among the American people, a growing and worrisome xenophobic attitude in Europe and an art market overrun by the principles of consumerism.

Impressions from the Rogue Bush Imperial Presidency is an exhibition that makes no amends or compromises and forces the viewer to react. Whether viewers agree with Toche or not, the works offer a personal and intimate summons to engage in today's sociopolitical debates.

Jean Toche: Impressions from the Rogue Bush Imperial Presidency is on display now through Nov. 29 at the John Hope Franklin Center Main Gallery.


Issue Date: 09/24/09 Duke Chronicle's recess

Datarock Creates Instant Dance Party at Local 506

Once Datarock took the stage, total cool groove took control. Breaking out in saxophone solos. Taking to the floor to dance with the audience. Synchronized choreography. It was an energized performance. 

The signature red jumpsuits were in full force. Thank god for small venues like the Local 506.

Karin Park and Esser-Great Openers for Datarock

Karin Park has a great haunting voice. Listen to her music on lastfm.

Esser was second to take the stage - a great electro-rock band from Britain. The lead singer had an awesome hair do too. But seriously, they had some great original music. Listen to it here 

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An Interview with Satch Hoyt

Last week I interviewed artist and musician Satch Hoyt at the Liberty Arts Center. Hoyt was working on a project for the Nasher's future exhibition The Record. From seeing Hoyt's work to hearing about the other artist who are participating, The Record sounds like it's going to be an amazing show. Way to go Nasher. Can't wait for August 2010. My interview for Chronicle's recess appears below:

Celestial Vessel

Media Credit: Kevin Lincoln/The Chronicle Satch Hoyt has spent this week working on a 16-foot piece called "Celestial Vessel" to be included in the Nasher's 2010 exhibition The Record. Hoyt incorporated red RCA vinyl for the piece.

Musician and artist Satch Hoyt is spending this week as an artist in residence at the Nasher Museum of Art. Hoyt is currently working on "Celestial Vessel," a 16-foot canoe incorporating RCA records and an original soundscape, for inclusion in the Nasher's August 2010 exhibition The Record. recess' Tina Siadak caught up with the artist this week to talk about pop culture, "Celestial Vessel" and more.

Your project, "Celestial Vessel," is part of the Nasher's upcoming exhibition The Record, which focuses on the culture of the vinyl record in contemporary art. What has been your personal experience with the vinyl record?

The vinyl is a signifier and transmitter of information. I grew up in the 1970s and there was a lot of politicized music. African-American culture was influencing the whole African diaspora. Also, there was a tactile ritual related to the listening experience you don't have now. No one knows who or what they're listening to today. Being a musician, I learned to play from listening to records.

Do you think the vinyl has a future in pop culture or is it more of a historical symbol now?

DJs are always going to want to use vinyl. So in DJ culture, we won't lose vinyl. As long as people are still tuned into that, vinyl will live. Independent musicians still strive to get that 12-inch white label record to DJs. There's something prestigious about that.

"Celestial Vessel" is a 16-foot canoe made out of vinyl records. What was your inspiration for creating this structure?

The vessel seeks to investigate various pertinent issues such as displacement, rootlessness and abandonment, also acknowledging the fact that belief systems and music held elements of the culture intact. Part of my mission is to mine history and find materials that no one else has used in the contemporary art world. These RCA Victor Red Seal vinyls were only released for about four years. I discovered them at a New York flea market three or four years ago. The canoe is a symbol of the Middle Passage and the African diaspora. It was the first vessel of slavery. Traders used canoes to transport slaves down the rivers to the slave ships.

How will the soundscape you are composing for "Celestial Vessel" play into the exhibition?

The soundscape hasn't been created yet, but for sure I will be sampling from some of these Red Seal records. I always do the soundscape after the work has been completed. The soundscape for "The Don Kingdom: In the Corner"-I was able to record Muhammad Ali on the heavy bag and Sugar Ray Robinson jumping rope. I mixed that together with DJ Spinna to create a hip-hop beat. "Celestial Vessel" is an extremely complex piece because it represents a timeline stretching from the slave ship to now.

You have exhibited work all over the world. Are there different cultural reactions to your art?

Some of my work would never translate outside of the United States. New York is the seat of the black intelligentsia -there's an arena there, a platform. The black intelligentsia has to come here. This is where there is reception. A piece like "Brown v. Board of Education" wouldn't resonate if I showed it in Germany. There isn't that knowledge. "Celestial Vessel" would resonate in the U.K., but not the same as in the United States.

What impact do you hope your work has on the viewer?

I am dedicated to making works with sociopolitical layers, but once it goes out there, it has a life of its own. But if people start asking question they can become enlightened witnesses. I like to think I am provoking with my work.

Hoyt will appear tomorrow at a public reception from 7 to 9 p.m. at Liberty Arts, 401-B. Foster St., as part of the monthly Third Friday festivities. The artist will also give a talk today at 12:30 p.m. in room 240 of the Franklin Center, 2204 Erwin Rd., entitled "Hybrid Navigations in a Galaxy of Souls."


Issue released: 9/17/09 Duke Chronicle's recess

Chronicle's recess Review of Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution opened this summer in Durham's American Tobacco District. I wrote a review of the restaurant for Chronicle's recess. It was a slightly odd dining experience but I do have cravings for that Havana Blast-a banana smoothie with a shot of espresso! Read the review below: 

What could be more relaxing than a gently humid, late summer's night spent in the beautiful and historic backdrop of the American Tobacco Campus? Add in the subtle presence of a '60s-era Latin soundtrack and things are starting to get therapeutic. As I took in the serene atmosphere of Cuban Revolution's outside dining section, I found the problem set-induced anxiety from which I had been suffering rapidly mambo away. And then the menu arrived.

A veritable explosion of colors and images, Cuban Revolution's menu is more than a bit overwhelming. Once the initial shock of visual overload subsides, a whole new confusion sets in while perusing the various political blurbs and listed plate options. A demand to bring home troops from Iraq is juxtaposed with an invitation to try a sizzling, pressed Cuban Sandwich. Another section lists U.S. casualties in various conflicts and then proclaims the policy hypocrisy of a 45-year Cuban embargo. I found if I wanted an empanada and a banana-espresso shake, I'd be ordering the "Bay of Pigs" with a "Havana Blast."

I'm all for camp and kitsch but that doesn't seem to be the effect Cuban Revolution's creators were aiming for in the conception of the restaurant or menu. Their mission (this is the Providence, R.I.-based chain's third location) states a desire to "set the stage for a return to an era when challenging the norm was the norm." In the end, however, the result is less counter-culture and more inappropriate-theme park.

As for the food, Cuban Revolution does offer a diverse selection of traditional tapas, pressed sandwiches and entrees. The standout dishes were the yuca fries alioli, a flavorful take on the traditional fry basket, and the croquetas (ham croquettes with remoulade). The "world's best" Cuban sandwich was filling, but left something to be desired in terms of flavor.

Unless you're beyond famished, the best dining strategy at Cuban Revolution is to forgo the heavier entrees and choose a selection of tapas. Also, go for one of the restaurant's tropical milkshakes, offered in flavors like guava, mango or hazelnut.

The inside of the restaurant feels more like a cocktail bar thanks to dramatic mood lighting, so if weather allows, stick outside for the food and then head inside for pitchers of sangria.

All in all, both the food and atmosphere of Cuban Revolution fail to invoke any type of fervor-political, gastronomic or otherwise. If you see me waving a Che Guevara flag and spouting Marxist philosophy on the Plaza, just note: it's not because of the garlic plantains.

-Tina Siadak  Issue date: 9/3/09 Duke Chronicle recess

Recess Review of Lump Gallery and Jerstin Crosby's New Show

I wrote an article a while back about Jerstin Crosby's new art show revolving around the Earth Liberation Front eco-terrorist group. The exhibition is at Raleigh's Lump Gallery. Sidenote: There was a large man dressed up as an oompa loompa at the opening...he wasn't part of the show. Read the review here .

WXDU 88.7FM: The Weekend Pump-Up

My new show starts this Friday. From then on, it's every Friday from 9am to noon. Tune in to hear upbeat jams to pump you up for the weekend!

Click here to stream the show online.

Motor Safety and Policing: Russian Style

Cutout Cop

Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times

In an attempt to improve the work of Russia's traffic police, the Krasnogvardeisky District branch of the All-Russian Automobilists Society has set up life-size photographic mockups of police officers, complete with batons, in order to encourage motorists to slow down.

More Goodness From Sweden

Swedish electronic musician Andreas Kleerup's debut CD reaches America. The CD is mainly decent electronic rythms but the standout track 'Until We Bleed' featuring Lykke Li is both haunting and catchy. Check it out. 'Thank You for Nothing' is another good track, thorough Euro techno.

Peace is Cool, But Arrogant Consumerism is Power

Just finished Tom Robbins' "Another Roadside Attraction." The book served to entertain, but also succeeded in continuing an ongoing image debate. Hippie or hipster? The book makes a strong case for the freedom and serenity that comes from being one with nature, but then again an urban persona is so exciting and tres chic. One can only suppose the winning point is that the book was written in 1971. Inner serenity and the hippie movement is a thing of the past glimpsed only (and in dwindling numbers) at music festivals and in small Appalachian mountain communities. Enter the reign of self-entitlement and skinny jeans.

Another Great Video From Passion Pit

I loved Passion Pit's video for 'The Reeling', not only is it a great song but the graphic video effects were quite surprising and impressive for a breakout band of sorts. Now a video is out for 'To Kingdom Come' and again Passion Pit doesn't fail to put out something fun and quirky-and possibly referential to global warming. Still great music, too.

M.I.A. and Main Stage Discomfort

In an interview on Spinner.com M.I.A. admits some discomfort with playing the main stage at Coachella '09. I appreciate her reasoning-that it was weird to transfer from a dance show in the Sahara tent in '08 to an artistic concert this past spring. I didn't see her show in '08 but I found her performance this year to be big on the hype and little on the music. I thought perhaps M.I.A. is vastly overrated and sensationalized, but maybe it is true that her artistry is more at ease in a subtler setting. It will be interesting to see if she evolves into her superstardom, reverts back to her off-the-beaten path origins, or just simply fails to make an adjustment.

I loved your set

at Coachella this year, but it seemed like you weren't as comfortable playing on the main stage as you were in the dance tent the year before. Is that accurate?

Honestly, it's like when Daft Punk played .. .Daft Punk have got way more music than I have and time in music than me and they still played the same Sahara Tent that I played in 2008. I think it just has to do with dance music. I just always counted my stuff as dance music. And what happened between Coachella 2008 and 2009 is that 'Paper Planes' had gone mainstream and people started seeing me as an "artist" as opposed to a "dance act." It's really weird. 'Kala' got to, like, Number One on the electronic charts or something and I just processed it always like that -- I make electronic music. And it was really weird because then I was in this other realm where I had, like, 50,000 people, but it didn't feel like being in a club. And maybe in my head and who I am as an artist, I needed to digest that and I felt like I just wasn't ready to turn the main stage into a big club.

I would've much rather moved the main stage into the tent. But when I had it in the tent, there was just so much chaos. And you know it's not like I planned it; that's just how it was. People were climbing up the rafters and people couldn't fit in and stuff. And there was like a huge reaction to that and a reaction against Coachella about that. Loads of people wrote in saying "You should've put M.I.A. on the main stage. Why did you put her in the tent?"

Great New Release

Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles just released the album 'LP' under their side project Discovery. The album captures the attitudes of both Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot while taking the synth and electronic quirks even further. My favorite tracks are "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and the cover of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back". Listen at Spinner.

Dan Black-Good Songs, Great Videos

I first heard Dan Black's remix "HYPNTZ" last year, was impressed, and since then have been keeping an eye on him. He's released some more videos since then and they're all great and fun.

Michael Jackson-A Revolutionary Performer 1958-2009

Looking back at Michael Jackson music videos and youtube concert recordings, it's amazing to see how much passion there is in all of his performances. In terms of creativity and devotion, he is a true and timeless inspiration.