Wool Wood & Whiskey

• About
• Contact
• Home
• Shop

02-17-12

DON’T GO PRO

I can’t be the only one who sees the inherent narcissism in the camera-headed loonies everywhere today. If you really shred that hard, fine — immortalize that barrel view or cliff huck. But straight to Facebook programming? Seriously? Remember to always ask your grandfather what he thinks before doing something like that.

02-13-12

THE HUNT

Dutch photographer Isabella Rozendaal’s images of sportsmen in Europe, America and Africa portray hunting as it really happens. There’s a fondness in these images that belies an honest curiosity at an ancient way of life that has somehow grown so alien.

Graphic, playful, stoic and nostalgic all at once, the lack of judgement is what drew me to Isabella’s work. Hunting has been disparaged for so long as something cruel and barbaric, it’s nice to see an artist taking a good long look at its roots. Unless you’re a vegetarian, you might want to think about doing the same.

Look for a book on this body of work sometime in the next few years. Good things come to those who wait, and it’s great to see a photographer taking time to develop a project like this.

02-07-12

MILLENNIUM MAGAZINES

Waking up to find out that you have work at MoMA isn’t the worst way to start a day. RRR, a zine I’m honored to contribute to regularly, is currently featured in the Millennium Magazines show, through May 14.

This survey of experimental art and design magazines published since 2000 explores the various ways in which contemporary artists and designers utilize the magazine format as an experimental space for the presentation of artworks and text. Throughout the 20th century, international avant-garde activities in the visual arts and design were often codified first in the informal context of a magazine or journal. This exhibition, drawn from the holdings of the MoMA Library, follows the practice into the 21st century. The works on view represent a broad array of international titles within this genre, from community-building newspapers to image-only photography magazines to conceptual design projects. The contents illustrate a diverse range of image-making, editing, design, printing, and distribution practices. There are obvious connections to the past lineage of artists’ magazines and little architecture and design magazines of the 20th century, as well as a clear sense of the application of new techniques of image-editing and printing methods. Assembled together, these contemporary magazines provide a first-hand view into these practices and represents the MoMA Library’s sustained effort to document and collect this medium.

Huge thanks to the always-inspiring man behind RRR, Scott Massey, for including me in the adventure.

01-30-12

FUNDED

01-27-12

YELLOW RAINCOATS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD

KYLE LEEPER RAIN OR SHINE from Hellaclips on Vimeo.

Lots of style here, and inspiration to burn.

01-26-12

CASSETTE: A DOCUMENTARY FILM

Someday in the distant future somebody’s going to make a documentary about the downfall of American society. It’s going to be a bummer, and an ancient John Malkovich is going to narrate it.

“Modern social scientists,” he’ll say, “trace the decline of the American empire to a singular moment: the production of the very first CD.” Cut to shots of thousands upon thousands of mirror-surfaced perfect circles — thereby inferring a correlation to colonial-era witch hunt criteria — followed by shots of the yuppies in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. “In a single decade,” Malkovich will intone, “a cultural shift of epic proportions, from the post-war ethics of quality, function and thrift… the gramophone, the vinyl record, the cassette tape… to the consumption of cheap, flashy consumer goods. Together, we worshiped the compact disc in all its fragility, and together we ensured our demise.”

Ok, so that will most likely never happen, but cassettes were pretty cool, and I’m glad we’re starting to come together on the consensus that cd’s sucked. Personally, back in high school I had a shoe box full of halfway worn out cassettes in the giant Buick station wagon I drove. For some reason, at some point I switched over to a discman with one of those ridiculous cassette adapters, and my life really never was the same thereafter.

A tape, you could pop in, pop out and then chuck back into the box without a care in the world. It played once and it would play again, for the most part. With cds you had to flip gingerly through some plastic-and-gauze book (that was going to scratch the things to high hell eventually anyway), delicately select a disc, handle it like an original copy of the Constitution, and then essentially play ring toss, aiming for the spindle on the player, all while driving.

I guess my point is that tapes were like America itself; tough but full of sentiment, maybe kind of imperfect but simple, functional and kind of beautiful sometimes. Don’t even get me started on mix tapes vs. iTunes playlists — I mourn for kids today. That’s why I was pretty excited to learn that a new friend is making a documentary on the history and re-emergence of the cassette tape.

Seth Smoot is a talented guy (one half of the amazing Seth-Kendra husband-wife photographer-stylist team Jenny and I had to opportunity to work with last weekend) and this doc is going to be tops. You should help fund it on Kickstarter — I did. Given the buzz on Hypebeast and a “Best of Kickstarter” nod from Sundance, this film is going to be big, and in the internet age docs like this shouldn’t have to go on anyone’s credit card.

2 1/2 Days Left!

01-19-12

UNCLE TONY

“She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations and she’s proud of the fact that her food is f—ing bad for you. If I were on at seven at night and loved by millions of people at every age, I would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it’s OK to eat food that is killing us. Plus, her food sucks.” –Anthony Bourdain on Paula Dean

01-18-12

WOOT WOOD!

WW&W in-house wood consultant and Olde Man Style Master Peter Jackson Hussey of Structure Build and Design featured on WoodDesign.com. Says Peter:

“Within the process, the smell of cedar when cut, the smooth feel of walnut sanded to a fine finish, and the contrast and beauty of the grain as it absorbs oil are all observed and earnest experiences I have along the way.”

Check out his work if you haven’t, and grab me a 12 pack of Full Sail Sessions at the Blanchard’s in JP while you’re at it. Oregon beer in the Northeast, finally.

01-16-12

WHAT DO YOU DO?

When people ask you what you do, and you say “I’m a writer,” that can mean almost anything. Books? Blogs? Journalism? Screenwriting? Copy? Advertising? For most of us grinding out words for a living these days, you can assume it’s an “all of the above” scenario.

The thing is, writing isn’t necessarily as mystifying as the other creative trades. Graphic design = photoshop nightmare to most people, and ask anyone who has tried to figure out software like Final Cut Pro on their own if they would rather have paid someone to do it. Bet I know the answer.

The issue for us writers is that most people write every day. Put one word after another, and if it seems ok, it’s ok, right? 99% of the time, that’s true, but sometimes it’s a little more involved.

That’s why, when I found my notes from a project I worked on this summer, I wanted to post them to here to illustrate what it’s really all about. Ideas don’t just work themselves into careful, succinct sentences. There’s an economy of function at work, and believe it or not, to get from one page of notes to a two-minute video takes a lot of work. And A LOT of editing.

So for all my writing brethren and sistren out there, keep grinding. And for anyone thinking about hiring a professional to write something for them today, Thanks — and please do. It’ll come out great. We promise.

01-04-12

TIMBER TIMBRE

Have you been to Montreal? I mean, are they serious up there? Somehow a city built on the prairie — an urban aberration amidst flat, sprawling farmlands — oozes awesomeness from every crack in the sidewalk, every stone set in place however many hundreds of years ago.

It’s a city best seen from the street; from a local’s perspective. Thankfully, due to our intrepid, world-traveling friend, we got to do just that last month. She set us up in her rented basement room just outside downtown and took us out to see the sights.

Along the way we met the friends she made in her short time in the city. These are friendly people, these Canadians. It’s almost like their lack of stress about health insurance and complicity in world-policing is tangible. Stuffing our faces across the city, we verbed the hell out of some nouns — charcuterie-ing, coffee-ing, boulangerie-ing, and yes, even poutine-ing.
Read more…