Hot Dog / Cold Dog

Hot Dog 
R&B

Most of my dear readers are not big R&B/ Hip Hop fans, this I know. So with that in mind, if you were to get only one R&B/Hip Hop album this year, I would suggest Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream.

A lot of thought and care went into the song writing on this album. It's relatively short with most songs coming in under four minutes. The lyrics are smart and deal with everyday emotional concerns in plain unassuming language. There's no braggy millionaire playboy B.S. The production is excellent, surprising, fresh but always in service to the song and not just ear-catching novelty. What more do you want. Heavy rotation at Spindles Manor.

I know much has been said and typed about the R&B/ Hip hop - Rock innovation gap but let me just add a few words to the lament. I'm not going to say that no great Rock albums have been made in the last 15 years or so, or that nothing new, unexpected or innovative has been added to the Rock vocabulary, but I will say that one big difference is that when R&B artists push the edges out a bit and expand on what has come before, always looking for a new approach or method they also try to write hit songs. Not only has Miguel made something the critics can stroke to but the first single also went to number one.

In the late 70's/early 80's (78 to 83: The Golden Age) the so called "new wave" bands wanted to remake, remodel, and reform what Rock was and could do. They pushed the boundaries sonically, lyrically and even presented themselves in a whole new way. They had massive artistic ambition but even more importantly, they wanted to write hits. They wanted to follow their artistic path but that path had to lead to the top of the pop charts. Being a cult band is great but changing what everyone considers mainstream is an even more admirable accomplishment. They were being subversive but at the same time seduced everyone into loving them. How cool is that?

Since then, Rock (of any substance) has slowly ceded the charts to Hip Hop or R&B. When Rock did reach the mainstream (Cobain, Vedder, et al. whined endlessly how they never wanted anyone beyond cool kids in the know to like their music. Boo hoo!).

So here we are in 2012 and if you want to hear thrilling pop hits with some weight: Miguel!

Cold Dog 
Rockin' Pneumonia

It's been about two years since my asthma's gotten severe enough that I need a barrage of daily medicines to keep it under control. I think I'm finally recognizing the patterns, triggers and consequences of it and can maybe start trying to head things off or at least minimize the damage.

Apart from being allergic to every living creature, both animal and vegetable, dust seems to be my fiercest enemy. A more concerted effort to cut down on the amount of house dust is being made. As someone who has never been overly cleanly I need to constantly remind myself to vacuum. Actually, I don't even really have to vacuum as we have a robot slave that takes care of that for us but the dumb thing still can't get around well, so I at least have to clear the floors of detritus before setting him loose. It'd be nice to get that done once a week.

However, a big problem that I haven't found a solution to is chalk dust. Dust that rains down on me as I write on the blackboard, that coats everything I touch, that's on my skin, in my eyes and nose, which dries everything out but my lungs, which get busy making liters of phlegm.

Here's the pattern that's developed. I've mentioned the sand that blows off the desert in China and hangs over south-western Japan like mustard gas every spring and fall. That is the worst. So that gets the allergies going. After a few weeks I get a cold. It goes away and comes back as bronchitis. I get really sick but try to stick it out and eventually miss a couple of days of work. A few months later; repeat.

Late August/ early September, the cloud settled in. It was worse than usual and I was on heavy medication with plenty of side effects so that I could drag myself to work and then home and that's all. After a month or more the demon sand blew out of town and I inevitably caught a cold. I started coughing up the the most vile phlegm buy the bucket-load. I figured it was bronchitis and I could ride it out. Three days later I broke down and went to the doctor. He said bronchitis. Antibiotics and whatnot. I get worse and go back. I get I.V. antibiotics. My wife checks out my blood test results and says I have pneumonia. Three days later the doctor catches up and says it pneumonia. He basically orders me to take a day off work.

That's right. I have no vacations to take so I worked through the whole thing, potentially infecting hundreds of people. That's the way it works in a country with no sick days.

Until about a week ago, I was still very weak and pretty much came home after work and collapsed. I have to realize that this is the new norm and managing it has to be my approach. Winter is coming and that is a break from the allergies, at least the outdoor ones. It would be great to work somewhere where I wasn't exposed to hundreds of sniffing, coughing germ bags everyday. I'm a perfect example of someone who needs to do solitary work, preferably from inside a hermetically sealed plastic bubble.

Hot Dog / Cold Dog

Hot Dog

Pheobe Unwin

I've been digging through the internet for sites devoted to contemporary painting. Seeing as I live somewhere with no art galleries, have no friends involved with or interested in art, and that all major art magazines (including my former favorite "Modern Painters") don't cover painting in any serious way, the internet has become my only outlet/ input. Like with everything on the internet, patience is key to wading through the mountains of garbage. In my searches I have come across a few artist that I was previously unaware of that I strongly identify with.

One of these artist who I keep coming back to is Pheobe Unwin. As in my approach to music, I care very little about the biographical details of the creators of whatever art I enjoy.They rarely add anything to my appreciation and very often detract from it. Art they relies on an artist's back story for it's appeal is rarely the art that interests me. All I know about her is that she is British and depressingly young. The level of success she has achieved at such a young age would normally leave me torn, debating wether to hate her or just hate myself. That is if the attention she has received was not completely warranted (which is almost never the case).

After spending last weekend at Art Fair Tokyo, I was struck by how many young, and not so young, artists seem to be devoted to finding their "thing"; be it an impressive trick, a semi-clever take, or a broad, familiar and popular subject (such as pop culture, consumer culture, or in the case of Japan, endless artists inspired by manga and anime). Ms.Unwin seems less concerned with establishing a brand and a business model, so how she has found such success is intriguing.

What I like the most about her work is the impression I get that she has no preconceived destination when she begins a painting. She truly seems to let each one work itself out in whatever way seems best without trying to adhere to a style, theme, or point of view. She is not being purposefully eclectic, either, trying on different styles in a superficially showy way. She definitely has a clear voice but that voice is allowed to come out in each painting in in an unlaboured and natural way. A few motifs come up in multiple paintings but nothing ever seems forced or contrived. Some paintings are beautiful and some are not. Her application and approach to paint varies widely within each painting as wells from one to another. She seems completely open to the possibilities of each panting and willing to pursue them without hesitation.

I guess what draws me to this willingness to explore a painting to a sometimes unexpected end is that it is what I struggle with the most in my work. The tyranny of expectations, the overwhelming desire for consistency, and the tension I feel when a painting starts straying to far from what I thought it's original intent should be, are the things that hold me and my work back the most. She seems to have freed herself from, or never had, these pressures. I've gotten better, especially in drawings and smaller works, but the chance that a painting could fail (whatever that means) or worse that I will somehow make something that doesn't represent the artistic face that I think I want to present to the public is still my greatest fear. To be comfortable enough to make what I make and have the conviction to stand by it is something I'm striving for. In that pursuit, Pheobe Unwin is an inspiration.

Cold Dog

Serious Discussions of Pop Culture

This may just go to show that I spend too much time on the internet or listening to podcasts, but the trend of treating pop culture with an unwarranted seriousness has been getting to me recently. 

What do I mean? Well, talking about the latest Batman movie like it is a complex work of art of such significance that it can, and must, be dissected over hundreds of articles so that we can appreciate it's full glory. Or, Star Wars being talked about with the same respect that was previously reserved for classics of western civilization like The Odyssey.

Look, I know it's fun to talk with your friends about movies or TV  with a seriousness that is completely out of proportion with the work itself. It's what sports fans do. Assigning a life or death importance to a game is fun because you can experience that tension while deep down knowing that really there are absolutely no real world consequences. That's whole reason sports exist. 

I have a particular weakness for reading books about the music I love written with a depth and thoughtfulness that does not match that of the music itself. We all get a thrill from overly investing in something that, in the end, matters very little. Attachment without consequence. And that's fine. That's what "nerds" do.

My problem is when that's all you do. When you start to believe that Star Wars is a timeless classic that stands as a pillar of western culture because you have never actually read or are unaware of any actual works of serious merit which really are the basis for our culture. You can discuss Lost in a deep way all you want but when you actually start to believe that it is a deep work of art, it's time to hit the library to check out the dusty books in the back.

Hey, I'm no scholar. I don't sit around reading Paradise Lost, either. But I am not afraid to admit the deeply unpopular fact that there is a hierarchy of artistic creation out there. Popular culture surely has a wide reaching effect and that is not to be overlooked and I am not saying that it is all insignificant trash but I am suggesting that are many dedicated, serious-minded, brilliant creative thinkers creating powerful works of art and none of them are JJ Abrams.

So, reign it in a bit, please.

Hot Dog / Cold Dog

Everyone: Hey, Dave! Tell us what we should like/dislike, please!

Me: OK

Hot Dog 
Haw-lin

A "mood wall" is something a lot of designers and artists maintain in some form or another. It's just a collection of interesting photos, objects, or whatever has caught their eye and been stuck on a wall. They either draw direct inspiration from them or just use them to work out a general mood they are hoping to convey in a work or a series of works. I have always had something like this in my studio just as a reminder of what has been exciting me aesthetically.

I found a website created by a couple of guys who decided to have their "mood wall" on the internet for all to see. They definitely have a specific aesthetic view point and the photos fall into a few different categories: design/art, clothes/fashion, interesting looking people, quarries/rock formations, and naked ladies. The last one makes the site unsuitable to be viewed at work.

It's updated regularly and is a good way to pass some time and treat your eyes without any words to get in the way. There's no information on any of the photos (although I do occasionally find photos that have been plucked from other websites I frequent) and this adds to the allure. Purely visual.

http://haw-lin.com/

Cold Dog

Dust / Sand

Once in a while, usually in spring, the winds whip across Mongolia and Northern China stirring up the dessert sands. The sand is then caught up in the prevailing eastwardly winds and eventually drifts across Japan. This week we had a rare fall visit from a cloud of super-fine dust which, once inhaled, is as unpleasant as you imagine it would be.

Add to that, there is heavy construction going on where I work. They are tearing down concrete walls and rebuilding more earthquake-resistant ones. A good idea since we had a big earthquake a few years back, but it has filled the air with pulverized concrete dust. Not to mention the futility of holding a conversation class over the sound of jackhammers.

Add to that, I have had a string of colds that have turned into bronchitis this year.

Add to that, multiple other daily airborne attackers I face as a weakling nerd.

Bad times for my respiratory system.