As deadly as it is beautiful, this hellish cave under a small town in Mexico is quite possibly one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

Sweltering heat, 100% humidity, and 12 meter razor sharp crystals jutting out in all directions. Cheers to Paul Williams for strapping ice packs to his chest and braving the crystal caves to capture them for the upcoming doco; ‘How Earth made us’.

via Iron Ammonite

The BQE Project is a massive multi media explosion by talent-ridden, overachiever Sufjan Stevens.

Hit the jump for a lot more…

To give you a bit of backstory; Stevens was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to do a piece for the Next Wave festival. Sufjan decided to tackle The Brooklyn Queens Expressway because of its underdog persona as a monument of the area.

The BQE itself is an urban expressway built over the course of several decades, (1939-1964) led by the master architect Robert Moses.

The roadway was a painstaking piecemeal project, poorly planned, badly built, and relentlessly encumbered by the obstacles of the era.
The resulting expressway has become one of Brooklyn’s most notable icons of urban blight. And, for Sufjan Stevens, an object of unmitigated inspiration.

photo by NY portraits.

Stevens began by conceptualizing a musical piece, but caught up in the project and the inspiration behind it, he found himself creating something bigger. Primarily driving The BQE is a short film, shot on 16mm film. An accompanying album of the same name follows the lead of the 50 minute film. Complimenting the structure and timing of the film.

In the midst of the project Stevens said no to no nothing. Using whatever came to mind to flesh out his story on Moses’ highway. It’s the type of creativity we should all aspire to.

Together with the film and it’s original score, Sufjan put together a comic book telling the story of his own mythical hoop girls – Guardians of the BQE, as well as a view-master stereoscopic reel, a photographic essay and a liner written essay covering the political ideas that he had about the iconic highway and it’s controversial history.

Sufjan Stevens. Photo by Danny Renshaw.

The BQE was performed in the Howard Gilman Opera House in celebration of the 25th anniversary Next Wave Festival in October of 2007. The BQE screens Saturday, October 24th, and Sunday, October 25th 2009, at the 92Y Tribeca.

The album is available now. It definitely shows off Stevens’ skill as a classical composer, shying away from his indie-folk reputation. The album is reminiscent of musical stories like Peter and the Wolf.

Grabbing the double CD Album with net you most of Sufjan’s project in a neat package. I would definitely recommend it if your a fan, and if your keen to get to know more about this bane of brooklyn.

Give it a listen before hand if you are not familiar with Sufjan Stevens – he is one of the most diverse and talented musicians to date, and a difficult one not to like!

Thanks to Asmatic Kitty & Jack Palmer of Bomblog.

Monster Children Gallery presents WEBUYYOURKIDS.

Sonny Day & Biddy Maroney are the duo who make up WBYK, and they are a fucking stellar combo. Their psychotic multi-media illustrations are intricate and expertly structured. Each one is a lesson in design. Check them out and go nab a piece of the work for your wall.

Japanese artist Kazuki Takamastsu is a master of graphic design, animation and modeling, mashing all three skills together to create his works. Using 3D and 2D computer rendering and acrylic gouache painting to bring it all into reality. Or at least the reality that hangs on a wall in a gallery.

These ominous, faceless, colour-less & context-less girls are more then a little creepy.
The images are similar to the “answers” to those old Magic Eye 3D illusion books, but with a splash of Japanese animation influence.

Fu^*ing brilliant!

If you happen to be hanging out in Omotesando , Tokyo – you can check out his work at Spiral Gallery from 28th Oct-3rd Nov 2009. If not only for a look at the fantastic Spiral Gallery itself!

Hit more to check out more of Takamastu’s work.

Special thanks to Kazuki Takamatsu getting in contact for info on his methods of creation.
情報をありがとう！

The guys over at CardBoard Kids Collective, along with Deadshit Digest author Lincoln Caplice have put together another Monster Children Gallery Featurette!

This time the spotlight is on Rob Tucker, Artist out of little old New Zealand. His vibrant images of pop icons are raw and nostalgic. This time, tuned to the local life of Sydney itself. I will let the artist himself elaborate, watch the video above.

Looks like a great exhibit, check it out if your in the Sydney vicinity @ Monster Children Gallery.

Sydney lies on the coast of what is essentially a gigantic desert island. Today a red haze descended over the city thanks to a massive dust storm blown out to the shores of New South Whales.

Apart from smothering the city in dust and giving those with Asthma a hard time (Eshay!), the dust has given us some amazing photography.

Hit more to Check them out !!

Monster Children Gallery – The Mirror Stage from Monster Children

If your in sydney, swing past and check out Monster Children Gallery.

A gallery that is fighting the good fight; promoting upcoming modern artists.

That is all about to change !

In fact I have bought myself a domain to make this little wall of scribblings official. I still have a few kinks to work out but watch this space – or more accurately, watch out for kindofpretty.com – coming soon!

21 now.

Aside from that, there are heaps of things for me to catch up on – blog-wise – My twenty first birthday has been and gone. It was grrrrrreat, one of the best nights of my life. Its semi self-centered, but it was very moving to hear all the stories people had to tell and touching, sometimes embarrassing thoughts they had about me. I don’t think moments like that happen very often and it couldn’t have gone better.

Very cool venue too – the Monte Cristo Room is definitely recommended to anyone looking to add a little class to an event. There were a couple of hiccups through organizing the party, and it is quite a steep price but I wouldn’t have had it anywhere else.

small passions.

Everyone has different interests, of course! And if your lucky, then you get to earn your money doing something that interests you deeply, but the chances are your NEVER going to cover every one of your own passions in your professional life. You got to make good on your hobbies on your own time!! That is what I am trying to do more of… Some things I really have had a gaining interst in are as follows:

1. Visual effects in film – Creating that movie magic with AfterEffects, Final Cut and PhotoShop.
2. Architecture – Looking at the great cities of the world and finding out a little about their history and distinctive buildings – and how their put together!
3. Illustrations – Drawing, making pictures and just being able to pick up a pencil or pen and put something on paper that your happy with. Its a good skill for birthday cards.
4. Fabric – Getting to grips with the basics of making my own shirts, pants and cardies. Saves money and its always good to do something practical.
5. Japanese!! 日本語を話すことができますので、私は日本にいるときに学ぶ !!

Those are my top five for the moment. I am excited about learning about all of them – I also want to know what everyone else in interested in.

What are your top five interests you want more time to pursue?

expect more.

and finally, Kindofpretty will be updated DAILY from now on. At least 1 quality post!

Hold me to it!

Ciao!

Catchalot Postcard

Its simple, colourful and cool Japanese stationary with nice ideals. Playful enough for kids to enjoy scribbling in, but eligant enough to use in the office, Plus! A lot of their items are hand made!

Nice huh!?

Catchalot book cover

catchalot book cover

Translation might be a little off – but I think the title says “Lets go out!”

Click to visit their half-english half-japanese site!

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