INFINITE LIGHTS VOL.02 In the coming weeks more information will come up regarding the next installment in Senzu’s Fundraising Efforts. The times have been rough the last 3 years. Internationally, the status quo has shifted. who were once allies, are now contemptuous, those that were once enemies, now bolster each other propaganda. In America there has been laws that directly target women, minorities, native Americans,… View On WordPress

THE RISE OF SCOTT XYLO THE RISE OF SCOTT XYLO Scott Xylo is a rare kind of creative, balancing artistic cultural enrichment and a self awareness. a self awareness of upholding his own artistic credibility and cultivating a vision. the journey of Scott from his beginnings to his recent releases is one of experimentation and continuous growth as a artist. when i first heard his music in 2013 it immediately stood out; its clear focus on each… View On WordPress

Since 2017 there has a special kind of “talk show” on youtube that i love watching. Its not the typical program you will think of when you hear “talk show”. the cultural zeitgeist has attached images of late night television, a couch a desk and maybe a coffee table, a live band, or perhaps the day time type shows with a single host interacting with a group of people or the audience directly. This show is a bit different; it features a eagle eye view of the host and the guest on their backs as they discuss a wide range of topics and the format, although unorthodox provides a new look at what a “Talk Show” was in the first place, a conversation that we act as a fly on the wall. the show im talking about is “Small Tlk” a youtube series hosted by Producer/Musician/Filmmaker/Visual Artist LASTNAMEDAVID. I could have easily written a essay on his music or his film work in general, but i want to save that for another day, today i want to really focus on his take on the talk show format. He is currently 3 seasons into the show and each season features some of the best fresh faces from the LA area and beyond. The show IS essentially a podcast, but the visual aspect is pretty key to the experience of what this program provides. its not a typical face to face podcast interview, its not a phone in or skyped in interview, its not a mish mash of edited material. Guests have include some of the brightest minds in the los angeles creative zeitgeist, including ; Liv.e, Joyce Wrice, Alima Lee, Koreatown oddity, Yung Morpheus, Ashtre Jinkins, Cptn Krk, B.Cool Aid, Maxo, & Mousey McGlynn, just to name a few. Small Tlk is a new look at how the interview can be more than some face to face promo. the conversations direction is not static, the density of the conversations vary from guest to guest, moment to moment. You can enjoy these on either Youtube or Apple Podcasts -Alex Auclair Small Tlk – hosted by LASTNAMEDAVID – Is This A Talk Show? Since 2017 there has a special kind of “talk show” on youtube that i love watching. Its not the typical program you will think of when you hear “talk show”.



Jim Blashfield, the collage animation mastermind behind some of the most iconic music videos and textural aesthetics in visual art. In the mid-1980s, with the completion of his comic surrealist animated film SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES (the video above), Jim’s work caught the attention of some of the era’s most creative artists working in popular music. His short is an erratic experience of stop-motion madness, abstract symbols flying around a screen. the smooth execution of some of the animation makes for a very surreal and lifelike effect. and shifts from eerie and dreamlike to discomforting and unnerving. it challenges and bewilders. He would go onto work with a catalog of true greats; from talking heads to Michael Jackson, from Paul Simon to sesame street. his work with sesame street, in particular, is really colorful and far out in its own right. I wish this style was used more often.

he went on to do videos for Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush(Don’t Give Up), & even the track I Cant Wait by Nu Shooz. His work in music videos would gain attention and soon he was primarily doing music videos and less sesame street segments. Talking Heads (And She Said) a psychedelic video showcasing his surrealist collage style. reminiscent of the Monty Python and the flying circus opening sequences. in this music video, we see Blashfield having the time of his life playing with photos of David Byrne, flying limbs, the city and suburbs and flying house held technology slowly filling the sky.

Michael Jackson (Leave Me Alone) this one is full of great references and self aware humor in it. the video opens with an overview of what seems like Los Angeles or perhaps a Hollywood lot when a trailer blows up. from inside flys out Michael and then we cut to shot of various headlines about the pop singer. contrasted with the sights of luxury like peacocks, fine porcelain, vases, hanging garden like imagery. he lands back down in a kind of tunnel of love ride at an amusement park (which is later revealed to be Hollywood, which in itself is a circus). Notice the dogs in the suits and Michael refrain “stop dogging me around”, they appear throughout the entire video. then we transition to a different kind of luxurious atmosphere, a shrine to Elizabeth Taylor, his dear friend. its then revealed the extent of the circus/amusement park, that seems to exploit animals, oddities, and MJ. who of course has a dance sequence with the skeleton of the elephant man. and like the giant man in Gullivers travels we see Michael break free from the circus and stand over the ruins of the industry. it won them both a Grammy for “best music video” in 1990, best special effects at both the Cannes film festival and MTV music video awards in 1990. this was the first time Blashfield explored his clients personality and in it created a landmark video.

I will say that Blashfield stands out to me for the drive it must have taken to complete these in the 80s and late 70s. the amount of focus and attention to detail is hard to comprehend in todays arena of creative tools. Just think about the process it would take. South Park, a series using collage stop motion animation, is recognized for its hard attention to detail it took to create. Blashfield does stop motion animation but takes it to another place with photography, culture jamming, collage art techniques, and narrative direction in a story. culminating in michael jacksons’ “leave me alone” video, he utilizes all the techniques of using his photography, props, altered photos, video clips, cgi, and a slew of other mediums. he does this all while following a story that reflects the song, michaels life, and his own style at the height of capability. To Quote Blashfields website “As director of some of music video’s most adventurously animated clips, Blashfield takes real objects from everyday life– newspapers, baby carriages, spatulas– and then photographs, Xeroxes, and animates them until they become hauntingly metaphorical. “ Jim Blashfield Jim Blashfield, the collage animation mastermind behind some of the most iconic music videos and textural aesthetics in visual art.

The Price is Right is one of the longest-running television game shows in America. Despite being near 50 years old, it has continued to use the theme & background music from the Psychedelic Golden Days of TV. and for good reason They are Iconic! Now what started as a small curiosity in the catacombs of televisions yesteryear, I began to sleuth. upon googling the show to inquire about its composer, I came across the name “Edd Kalehoff“. Excited I went to look up his name on youtube, I had not thought to look into his catalog or Wikipedia. Well, I came across pages and pages of game show themes, news station bumps, commercials, tv show themes, and countless other things. the work all seemed to stretch from the mid to late 70s until some early 90s work. he continued to work but it seems his streak in the late 70s and 80s was prolific. Card Sharks (86-88), Double Dare (86-93), Triva Trap (84-85), CBS News Night Watch (89-90), Hollywood Squares (83-84), Match Game (83-84), 48 Hours (88-90), Price is Right (72-present), The News Center (1980-1990), Nightly Business Report (79-present), among others. In 1994 he provided music for essentially all original programming for the then-new network FX (back then it was stylized as “fX” with a lower case f). for fX he provided theme music for Personal fX, The Pet Dept, Breakfast Time, Prom Nite, Back Chat, and the music for its Launch Show. the list is HUGE, and you read it here. Now beyond the themes, i found some other Incredibly aged music videos (??). these are for news stations and they are basically a music video with the news crew in it or some feature of the city. these are called “News Music Packages”, and they are not complete without dancers, choirs, and peak 80s/90s aesthetics. I mean these are just incredible. He did these glorious visual art time capsules for New York, Oxnard, San Diego, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Topeka, Buffalo, Rochester, Detroit, Albany, Cincinnati, and Boston. Below is a glorious one for channel 5 news Cleveland. Prepare yourself. Again I want to emphasize that I actually love a vast majority of this man’s work. he has done so many iconic sounds that are actually pretty reflective of the new technology or trends at the time. if anything i see this guy as an example of someone that made a solid career of being a background player and he did it like a champion, i mean who was his competition? quincy jones? they did work together on a documentary in 1972; The Anderson Tapes. Regardless it should be noted he didn’t stick to just doing themes for game shows and the news, Kalehoff often did work for Sports networks and produced for The Roches and Andrea McArdle. he was Known for his work on the keyboard and was an avid Moog player, he is featured in the 2004 documentary “Moog” and He was prominently featured in a 1973 television commercial for Schaefer Beer as “Edd Kalehoff at the MOOG synthesizer” playing his rendition of the company’s jingle. Edd Kalehoff is not a name that most would recognize but his music and iconic contributions to Huge corporate entities, makes his obscurity stand out to me. He didn’t just do these game shows and have commercial work and production credit with bands. I also discovered he created some of the most iconic sports themes EVER. Monday Night Football had used “Heavy Action” by Johnny Pearson in background segments of their airings in the early 80s, but in 1989 Edd Kalehoff “modernized” it and it became the official theme. His version stayed the Theme for Monday Night Football Until 2006 when a team of musicians reinterpreted the theme for a newer generation. in 2010 that same team reinterpreted the theme into various genres. He did A LOT of work and i think its a great example of success behind the scenes.

here are his credits (via his website). click to enlarge them EDD KALEHOFF : THE ICONIC COMPOSER OF TV & SPORTS. The Price is Right is one of the longest-running television game shows in America. Despite being near 50 years old, it has continued to use the theme & background music from the Psychedelic Golden Days of TV.

Durutti Column, Vini Reilly & The Chill of the Factory Durutti Column, Vini Reilly & The Chill of the Factory Durutti Column is a group i just recently discovered, maybe 2 years ago. I remember i came across The song “Never Known”, and immediately the guitar caught my ear, over the minimal drum machine with a crooning manchester accent vocalist. The song reminded me of so much modern music but was so authentic and damaged. Durutti Column… View On WordPress

David Hammons is one of the most influential artists in our modern time, and i know he would hate the compliment, or perhaps resent the competive ensinuation with the phrase. Hammons work vibrates with a raw realism and surrealistic iconogrpahy, his pieces themematically centers on the black american experience, the absurdity of racial epitaphs, stereotypes, Counter-Consumerism and deep critiques on capitalism. Ill try my best to put down some of his work below along with a brief description with citations as well as accompanying commentary that will be mine. i am doing this article strictly out of love of this artist, i see his influence in so many different facets of art, i hope you, like me, will find his art inspiring and thought provoking. LEFT – Spade with Chains (1973) – Hammons moved to new york in 1972 and shortly after began his “Spade” Series, which was named and inspired by the racial slur “Spade” which was common in New York. where the artist employs a provocative, derogatory term, coupled with the literal gardening instrument, in order to make a visual pun between the blade of a shovel and an African mask, and a contemporary statement about the issues of bondage and resistance. Right – Bird (1973) – This assemblage from 1973 is a tribute to Charlie Parker, the iconic American jazz musician. Parker was known as “Yardbird” or “Bird” throughout his career and alluded to this nickname in many of his most famous compositions, including “Bird of Paradise,” “Ornithology,” and “Yardbird Suite.” The African American musician, who died in 1955 at the age of thirty-four, remains one of the most influential saxophonists and composers in jazz history. Bird is composed of a saxophone, mannequin hands, and a spade. This work—in which Hammons makes a slight “dig” at the word spade, a derogatory term for a black man—expressly connects the crafts of two talented black artists. “I WAS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY BLACK PEOPLE WERE CALLED SPADES, AS OPPOSED TO CLUBS. BECAUSE I REMEMBER BEING CALLED A SPADE ONCE, AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT IT MEANT; N****** I KNEW BUT SPADE I STILL DON’T. SO I TOOK THE SHAPE, AND STARTED PAINTING IT.” – David Hammons 1986 LEFT – Champ (1989) – The bright red boxing gloves could be a nod to Muhammad Ali, like Keith Haring’s tribute to friend and fellow artist Jean-Michel Basquiat with A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat. Regardless, Hammons makes a statement about the black experience and the aspiration of becoming a professional athlete. Duct-taped and tied together, the boxing gloves are the only icons of victory preventing the dark, rubber inner tube from becoming a victim’s flayed skin. Their unity alludes to the belief that black people cannot exist as significant and successful individuals unless they obtain athletic greatness. The attachment of the boxing gloves to the inner tube rather than a human body emphasizes that this determination for greatness attributed to the champion’s own undoing—he is simultaneously the victor and the victim. Hanging from a nail on the wall, Champ commemorates and mourns the black athletes, especially boxers, who “achieve themselves to death” and become symbols of black excellence.

RIGHT – America The Beautiful… (1969) – This striking work is from a series of “body prints” that David Hammons made early in his career, soon after his arrival in Los Angeles in 1963. To create these prints, he made impressions of his own face, arms, and torso by covering his body with oil or margarine, pressing it against a sheet of paper, and then sprinkling pigment on the surface. For America the Beautiful, the artist used lithography to add the American flag that envelops the central figure. Hammons created this work in 1968, toward the end of the civil rights movement and the beginning of the Black Power movement. The assertive combination of a patriotic symbol with the body of a black man (the artist) underscores the heightened racial tensions in the United States during this period. “THAT’S WHY I LIKE DOING STUFF BETTER ON THE STREET, BECAUSE THE ART BECOMES JUST ONE OF THE OBJECTS THAT’S IN THE PATH OF YOUR EVERYDAY EXISTENCE. IT’S WHAT YOU MOVE THROUGH, AND IT DOESN’T HAVE ANY SENIORITY OVER ANYTHING ELSE. THOSE PIECES WERE ALL ABOUT MAKING SURE THAT THE BLACK VIEWER HAD A REFLECTION OF HIMSELF IN THE WORK. WHITE VIEWERS HAVE TO LOOK AT SOMEONE ELSE’S CULTURE IN THOSE PIECES AND SEE VERY LITTLE OF THEMSELVES IN IT.” – David Hammons 1986 Higher Goals (1986) – The work was built on site in Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza Park over a period of eight weeks. The Temporary Structure Titled ‘Higher Goals’ consists of five bottle cap-studded telephone poles ranging in height from 20’ to 30’. Mounted at the top of each pole will be a basketball backboard (also covered with bottle caps) complete with hoop and net. In a labor-intensive process, Hammons nailed more than 10,000 bottle caps onto the surface of each pole to create distinctive diamond, spiral and mesh patterns. Hammons explained the concept behind Higher Goals with an analogy to professional basketball teams. “It takes five to play on a team, but there are thousands who want to play—not everyone will make it, but even if they don’t at least they tried.” This statement is indicative of Hammons’ personal belief that aspirations should not be confined to set limits and that individuals should set goals at higher levels (i.e. above the standard 10-foot-high measure of a basketball net)’. Hammons provided a ordinary basketball hoop, net, and backboard are set on a three-story high pole – commenting on the almost impossible aspirations of sports stardom as a way out of the ghetto. DOING THINGS IN THE STREET IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ART I THINK. BECAUSE ART HAS GOTTEN SO….I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK ART IS ABOUT NOW. IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING. LIKE MALCOLM X SAID, IT’S LIKE NOVOCAINE. IT USED TO WAKE YOU UP BUT NOW IT PUTS YOU TO SLEEP. I THINK THAT ART NOW IS PUTTING PEOPLE TO SLEEP. THERE’S SO MUCH OF IT AROUND IN THIS TOWN THAT IT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING. THAT’S WHY THE ARTIST HAS TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHAT HE SHOWS AND WHEN HE SHOWS NOW. BECAUSE THE PEOPLE AREN’T REALLY LOOKING AT ART, THEY’RE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER AND EACH OTHER’S CLOTHES AND EACH OTHER’S HAIRCUTS. – David Hammons 1986 Blizz-aard Ball Sale (1983) – Perhaps the most well known of his work was a critique on commodity, price, value, and consumerism in general. In this performance Hammons situates himself alongside street vendors in downtown Manhattan in order to sell snowballs which are priced according to size. This act serves both as a parody on commodity exchange and a commentary on the capitalistic nature of art fostered by art galleries. Furthermore, it puts a satirical premium on whiteness, ridiculing the superficial luxury of racial classification as well as critiquing the hard social realities of street vending experienced by those who have been discriminated against in terms of race or class. “WHEN I WAS IN CALIFORNIA, ARTISTS WOULD WORK FOR YEARS AND NEVER HAVE A SHOW. SO SHOWING HAS NEVER BEEN THAT IMPORTANT TO ME. WE USED TO CUSS PEOPLE OUT: PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT OUR WORK, DEALERS, ETC., BECAUSE THAT PART OF BEING AN ARTIST WAS ALWAYS A JOKE TO US. WHEN I CAME TO NEW YORK, I DIDN’T SEE ANY OF THAT. EVERYBODY WAS JUST GROVELING AND TOMMING, ANYTHING TO BE IN THE ROOM WITH SOMEBODY WITH SOME MONEY. THERE WERE NO BAD GUYS HERE; SO I SAID, “LET ME BE A BAD GUY,” OR ATTEMPT TO BE A BAD GUY, OR PLAY WITH THE BAD AREAS AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.” David Hammons [½] David Hammons is one of the most influential artists in our modern time, and i know he would hate the compliment, or perhaps resent the competive ensinuation with the phrase.

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Tsuguya Inoue is an artist that behind some of my all time favorite japanese artists, and i cant help but find the scale of his work to be awe inspiring. this is an article that sets out to lay out some of his work that i have come across as well as some visual works hes done, typography, and his work with sony on the FES watches. Below youll see his album art for Sandi & the Sunsets from 1981 and hes using video editing software to create something broken and electric. theres a harsh haunted aura to this whole layout. This slideshow requires JavaScript.

some of those that have already lurked deeply into japans avant garde art movement have probably noticed the sudden explosion of style that happened in the late 70s early 80s. Alot of what we attribute to these times get filed under “Vaporwave” or “Chill lo fi” and to be frank, its a lazy description. Thats not to say i dont listen to vaporwave or use the term, i believe there should be a definite seperation from vaporwave post-2010 and what Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Hiroshi Sato, and others were doing in the 80s and late 70s. If you are familiar with any vaporwave at all, listen to some of these artists immediately. im only making this article to share the legacy of these amazing artists. This slideshow requires JavaScript.

but i digress, this is going to going over the work of Tsuguya Inoue; the man, that until i find out otherwise, provided all the artwork for ryuichi sakamotos catalog, and some YMOs as well as other classics. Here Tsuguya did the design for the YMO 1983 tour, and this warped mirage-esque typeface is just.. oh so nice. also the 3d boxes containing the musicians is almost showing the concept of internet avatars, motionless automatons, much like today. This slideshow requires JavaScript. He also provided artwork for Hi-Tech/No Crime, Naughty Boys, Service and After Service. His art style had no preconceived idea of what he was going to make. he jumps from video software deconstructionist, to the straight ahead profile Photo, to paintings in both primitive expressionist and impressionist styles. His type faces does not stick to one rule of thumb. you can see where he does carry the typeface over from the tour poster to Services YMO logo (middle bottom row) This slideshow requires JavaScript. This slideshow requires JavaScript. This slideshow requires JavaScript. The Art Of Tsuguya Inoue Tsuguya Inoue is an artist that behind some of my all time favorite japanese artists, and i cant help but find the scale of his work to be awe inspiring.