AMP

The 80’s was not a kind decade for anything besides Cocaine. Rock-stars felt the burn especially bad, the Beatles included. For instance, George Harrison turned in what could be laziest video performance ever:

Ringo’s contributions were far better than the disastrous 70’s, but that’s only because the other Beatles helped write him songs…

Lennon–well, he missed out on a good portion of the 80’s for good reason. But, he still managed to squeak out this stinker (more in terms of the video vs. the song):

And somehow, amid all this mess, Paul McCartney managed to make a pretty rad contribution to the canon of Christmas songs (I would love to hear a group of caroler’s take on this):

Full disclosure: I consider this man to be my best friend ever, so there.

From Tucker Gerrick's 'Best Summer Ever'

Everyone in the world has their own personal ‘golden era’. It’s usually that time when all your best friends happened to live in the same town, worked shit jobs for shit pay, and yet it was all worth it when you got together, got drunk, and made something happen. It’s the era that movies like ‘The Sandlot’, ‘Stand By Me’, and ‘Superbad’ cater to–when everything was good great.

From Tucker Gerrick's 'Best Summer Ever'

The reason I bring this up is because old roommate, current slum-lord, and future skate/coffee/wine-bar entrepreneur Tucker Gerrick will be debuting his latest collection of photographs at Umber Studios this Saturday. ‘Best Summer Ever’ consists of photographs Tucker made all throughout the Summer of 2008. Among a certain group of friends, this was that golden era where relationships were formed and transformed through an endless stream of fantastic moments. But, as George Harrison sings, all things must pass, and Fall will come, people leave, and the Minnesota Winter always arrives.

So here we are, a year later, a number of experiences to tuck under our collective belts, and a beautiful, touching photographic collection to reference a great period of time for a group of friends.

From Tucker Gerrick's 'Best Summer Ever'

I encourage you to check this show out. Through one man’s photographs of his own golden era, a number of universally beautiful moments are revealed.

Tim Barber over at Tinyvices.com announced the addition of Ryan McGinley’s ‘Moonmilk‘ to the site. Clicking through the exhibit I saw some images I liked, some I didn’t, and some that blended in with the rest of McGinley’s work.

Ryan McGinley, from Moonmilk (ripped from Tinyvices.com)

Complain as much as you want about McGinley only photographing naked white kids–he KNOWS color. McGinley’s palette comes across as confident and beautiful in this latest project, building off the foundation laid down in his ‘Irregular Regulars‘ series. As for the subject matter, well, I’ve made my comparisons before, and I still stand by them (I’d maybe even throw in a Wynn Bullock reference after looking at the whole set). But I’ll be damned if McGinley doesn’t produce some beautiful photographs. Check it out, and hopefully there will be a show at Team Gallery next Spring.

I’ve been on a quest to discover new comedians, ways to make me laugh, and funny people in general. So far, this guy has been a veritable goldmine of comedy:

Oh yeah, and he has about 30 videos of this up on his youtube channel. Pop some popcorn and make an evening out of it…MIND BLOWING.

I’ve been plugging away at my studio every chance I can get–I guess I’m fully a weekend warrior. For those of you curious to see how I’ve been making work like the image below, I made a short little film illustrating the exposure process. Enjoy!

Tree 07

The making of Tree 07