May 15, 2012
Alejandro [ali-hahn-dro] Jodorowsky [ho-dor-row-ski] (b. 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and spiritual guru. Best known for his avant-garde films, he has been ‘venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts’ for his work which ‘is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation.’
Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe in 1947. After moving to Paris in the early 1950s he turned to cinema, directing the short film ‘Les têtes interverties’ in 1957. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists.
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May 14, 2012
Shigeru Miyamoto [she-gay-roo mee-yah-moe-toe] (b. 1952) is a Japanese game designer and creator of ‘Donkey Kong,’ ‘Mario,’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda’ series for Nintendo. He is one of the most famous game designers in the world and is often called the father of modern video gaming.
His games give players many ways to play and explore, which was unique at the time. Miyamoto started working with Nintendo in 1977 as an artist when it was still a toy and playing-card company. In 1980, he designed ‘Donkey Kong,’ which was a big success. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of his later work. His other creations for Nintendo include ‘Star Fox,’ ‘F-Zero,’ and ‘Pikmin.’
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May 11, 2012
Himanshu Kumar Suri aka Heems is an American rapper from Queens best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist. Suri is also the founder of Greedhead Entertainment, an independent record label. In 2012, he released his first solo mixtape, ‘Nehru Jackets’ on his Greedhead imprint and in conjunction with SEVA NY, a community-based organization from Queens of which Suri is a board member. Suri has also written about music and all things South Asian for the ‘Village Voice,’ ‘Death and Taxes’ magazine, ‘Fuse,’ ‘Stereogum,’ and ‘Alternet.’ Suri graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 2003, where he was vice president when the September 11 attacks happened two blocks away. Suri then attended Wesleyan University where he studied economics.
In 2008, Suri formed Das Racist with his college friend Victor Vazquez. Shortly thereafter, Suri’s high school friend Ashok Kondabolu joined as their hype man. Das Racist first found success on the internet with their 2008 song ‘Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,’ and then quickly established themselves within the underground rap scene with their 2010 mixtapes ‘Shut Up, Dude’ and ‘Sit Down, Man,’ both of which earned them critical acclaim.
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May 11, 2012
Donald Glover (b. 1983) is an American actor, writer, comedian, and musician. Glover first came to attention for his work in the sketch group Derrick Comedy. He is best known for being a writer for ’30 Rock,’ and for his role the NBC comedy series ‘Community.’ In 2011, Glover signed to Glassnote Records under the stage name Childish Gambino; his first studio album, ‘Camp,’ was released in 2011. Glover DJs and produces his own music under the moniker ‘mcDJ.’
His music is of the electronic/remix variety and is often made available for free download via his official site. Glover raps as Childish Gambino, a name he found from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator. His work touches on family issues, schoolyard bullying, troubled romantic relationships, suicidal thoughts, and alcoholism. He has disowned his 2005 album, ‘The Younger I Get,’ as the too-raw ramblings of what he calls a ‘decrepit Drake.’
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May 10, 2012
Mireille Suzanne Francette Porte (b. 1947), better known as ORLAN, is a French artist. She lives and works in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. She was invited to be a scholar in residence at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, for the 2006-2007 academic year. She sits on the board of administrators for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and is a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Cergy (a suburb of Paris).
Although ORLAN is best known for her work with plastic surgery in the early-to-mid 1990s, she has not limited her work to a particular medium.
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May 3, 2012
Slavoj Žižek [slah-voy zhee-zhek] (b. 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic working. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory and theoretical psychoanalysis. Žižek is a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology University of Ljubljana.
Žižek uses examples from popular culture to explain the theory of Jacques Lacan and uses Lacanian psychoanalysis, Hegelian philosophy, and Marxist economic criticism to interpret and speak extensively on immediately current social phenomena, including the current ongoing global financial crisis.
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May 1, 2012
James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist, known for both his commercial and fine art gallery work. He is also known in the American comics industry as a cover artist for various books published by DC Comics, as well as for his work for Prada, ESPN, and Atlantic Records. His work, which has been collected in numerous volumes, has been compared to Maxfield Parrish (known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery). Jean was born in Taiwan and was raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. He illustrated covers for the comic book series ‘Fables’ and ‘The Umbrella Academy.’ In 2008, Jean retired from illustration and commercial projects to focus on painting.
In 2007, Jean created a mural for the Prada Epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. He also created a backdrop for Prada’s Spring/Summer 2008 show in Milan. Aspects of the Epicenter mural and the Milan wallpaper were transformed into clothing, handbags, shoes, and packaging. Prada undertook a global campaign that featured Jean’s work in advertising environments, animation, and special events. Jean developed an animated short based on the theme titled ‘Trembled Blossoms,’ taken from the poem ‘Ode to Psyche,’ by John Keats (one of his darker and more experimental odes). In 2010, Jean was commissioned by fashion designer Phillip Lim to paint a series of portraits featuring Los Angeles-based actors, musicians, and tastemakers, including Rachel Bilson, Selma Blair, and Devendra Banhart.
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April 30, 2012
Simon Reynolds (b. 1963) is an English music critic who is well known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term ‘post-rock.’ Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock. He has contributed to ‘Melody Maker’ (where he first made his name), ‘Spin,’ ‘Rolling Stone,’ ‘Mojo,’ and others. He currently resides in the East Village in NY.
Reynolds’ first experience writing about music was with ‘Monitor,’ a fanzine he helped to found in 1984 while he was studying history at Oxford. The publication only lasted for six issues. When it was discontinued in 1986, Reynolds was already making his name writing for ‘Melody Maker,’ one of the three major British music magazines of the time (the other two being the ‘New Musical Express’ (NME) and ‘Sounds’).
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April 27, 2012
Lisa Frank is an American commercial artist and founder of Lisa Frank Incorporated, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The artist’s work appears on various commercial elementary and middle-school products, mostly school supplies. Also common among Lisa Frank-related items are stickers and a variety of other merchandise such as clothing and toys marketed towards young girls. Frank founded the company in 1979 at the age of 24, and her success resulted from her sticker line.
The company’s headquarters is easily visible because of the bright hearts, stars, and music notes decorating the side of the building. There is currently a quarterly magazine also named ‘Lisa Frank.’ Her corporation’s artwork features extremely bright and vibrant colors, and round, smooth, reflective surfaces. A number of characters recur on ‘Lisa Frank’ branded items, such as a Hollywood Bear, and Markie the unicorn. Rainbows and especially the color purple are abundant in Lisa Frank’s art.
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April 26, 2012
Ken Nordine (b. 1920) is an American voiceover and recording artist best known for his series of ‘Word Jazz’ albums. His deep, resonant voice has also been featured in many commercial advertisements and movie trailers. One critic wrote that ‘you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice.’ During the 1940s, he was heard on ‘The World’s Great Novels’ and other radio programs broadcast from Chicago. He attracted wider attention when he recorded the aural vignettes on ‘Word Jazz’ (1957), which features Nordine’s narration over cool jazz by the Chico Hamilton jazz group, recording under the alias of Fred Katz, who was then the cellist with Hamilton’s quintet.
Nordine began performing and recording such albums at the peak of the beat era and was associated with the poetry-and-jazz movement. However, some of Nordine’s ‘writings are more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe’ than to the beats. Many of his word jazz tracks feature critiques of societal norms. Some are lightweight and humorous, while others reveal dark, paranoid undercurrents and bizarre, dream-like scenarios. Nordine was Linda Blair’s vocal coach for her role in ‘The Exorcist.’
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April 26, 2012
Lee Shelton(1865 – 1912) was a black carriage driver and pimp convicted of murdering William ‘Billy’ Lyons on Christmas night, 1895 in St. Louis. The crime was immortalized in a popular song that has been recorded by numerous artists. Stagger Lee (also ‘Stackalee,’ ‘Stackolee,’ and ‘Stagolee’) ultimately becomes a folk figure of the trickster type as numerous legends accumulated around him.
Lee Shelton was not a common pimp, he belonged to a group of pimps known in St. Louis as the ‘Macks.’ The Macks were not just ‘urban strollers’; they presented themselves as objects to be observed. Shelton died in prison in 1912, of tuberculosis. Stagger Lee has become an archetype, the embodiment of a tough black man;one who is sly, streetwise, cool, lawless, amoral, potentially violent, and who defies white authority.
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April 26, 2012
Clay Shirky (b. 1964) is an American writer, consultant, and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has a joint appointment at NYU as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and Assistant Arts Professor in the New Media focused graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). His courses address, among other things, the interrelated effects of the topology of social networks and technological networks, how our networks shape culture and vice-versa.
Shirky divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client–server infrastructure that characterizes the World Wide Web. He is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Advisory Board. In 2010, Kevin Kelly (founding executive editor of ‘Wired’ magazine) cited the phrase ‘Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution,’ and called it the ‘Shirky Principle,’ as the phrasing reminded him of the clarity of the Peter Principle.
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