buchino

i sing you sing we sing by Michael Buchino

Some friends of mine are making an opera comprised of two Gertrude Stein librettos. It’s called Gertrude Stein SAINTS! and they’re bringing it to The New York International Fringe Festival this August.

It’s gonna be rad. See:

So they started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to pay actors and artisans. 

That’s where this poster comes in. It’s a line from the play. It’s available at the $35 reward level, and includes a live recording of the show. You can also get work from Kyle Durrie (Power & Light Press) and Jordan Harrison.

i sing is all unique hand lettering (You can tell I like A.M. Cassandre a bit). It’ll be screen printed in the next couple weeks. 

Joyous as hell, right? The more of us singing, the better it gets. It would look great in your kitchen, dontcha think? 

Stop giggledicking around—buy a copy and send my friends to the Fringe!

Last Sunday Miss Utah gave the most publicized answer to a beauty pageant contest question since Miss South Carolina Teen was talking about maps and “U.S. Americans” in 2007. I was expecting the worst when I clicked on the video, but it wasn’t so bad, just a stream of nonsense about jobs and education. In fact, if she had better delivery it would have sounded like any random politician we continually elect to run the country.

My new comic on millennial-bashing. Read the whole thing at CNN dot com.

A History of Everything, Including You by Jenny Hollowell

This short story is best thing you’ll hear today.

It’s from Radiolab’s “The Trouble with Everything” episode, read by Hollowell herself. Kyra Sedgwick reads it on Selected Shorts’ “About Time” episode, too. 

My poster for Portland Center Stage’s production of Venus in Fur is in The New York Times today.

Erik Piepenburg, the ArtsBeat journalist who interviewed me, was interested my choice of color and composition, as well as who influences me. The published version goes like this: 

Black, white and red never fail. They speak to something dark and shadowy. Adding the red gives a level of seductiveness. It says we’re discussing an adult topic, and it should titillate and tantalize. The collar symbolizes power. And anytime you show imagery of a big face, people automatically want to look at it. You can paint her expression how you want.

Our email discussion went a little further: 

You asked why black, white and red. More succinctly, I would say that black and white provide a level of formality and sophistication, and red adds the necessary sexuality and sensuality.

The typeface, Bodoni, reinforces that formality and elegance. Playing off the most seductive element, the lips, the title had to be red. 

The front-facing woman is very intentional. She is at once vulnerable and powerful, beautiful and imposing. A profile or three-quarters view is too fragile for Vanda [the female protagonist in the play]. 

As influences go, I have two examples for you that demonstrate what I try to achieve when making a poster. 

L’Atlantique by AM Cassandre

I wish every subject matter were as simple as this piece. Posters need to be brief and clear. I want to whittle down a play to just one or two main elements, and then leave it up to the viewer to imagine a story. L’Atlantique is just a boat, but I see myriad adventures on holiday in my mind. 

With Venus in Fur, I want the viewer to be transfixed by this mysterious muse and begin to imagine a very dark, sexual story. 

Peace by Robert Brownjohn

This sort of shrewdness is exemplary of Brownjohn’s work. It didn’t influence my process on Venus per se, but the clever solution is one worth pursuing. (Being able to realize that solution is another story.)

It was awfully nice to be included in this piece. Last year’s bit on Red was fun, too, although it did not feature my art for the play.  

"Giving Gas a Pass" by @SorensenJen

Your moment of Zen

Someone help

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The cheetah crouches in the undergrowth. When a young antelope strays a little too far from the herd, the cheetah explodes out of the bush -- and, with a burst of speed unrivalled in the natural world, brings down its next meal.

Now here’s an axe actually worth a few hundred dollars, as opposed to that Best Made bullshit. This is amazing technology.

Found via Lloyd Kahn’s blog. More info here.

These people. My god.

Ampersand

Sean Parker, who amassed a fortune as part of of Napster and Facebook, was recently wed in a ceremony that would put most one percenters to shame. He paid millions to refashion parts of Big Sur into an old crumbling castle so he could swoop in to elope. Facebook and Napster never really create too many jobs, but they do figure out a way to create a ton of value from all the time everyone contributes to it and funnel it into the pockets of smug young men. Here’s what all our time liking each other’s posts paid for:

I was ready to chalk it up to the standard excesses of crazy rich people. But that was before I read the California Coastal Commission’s report on the Parker wedding’s destructive, unpermitted buildout in a redwood grove in Big Sur. Parker and Neraida, the LLC he created to run his wedding, ended up paying $2.5 million in penalties for ignoring regulations.

On the bright side, it did create some construction jobs.

Book shelf / Stair porn

Hipsters

Home-intruders typically wield tomahawks right? That’s a thing they do?

In 2012, City Council tried to pass a measure to fluoridate the Portland water supply. The citizens petitioned to put it to a vote, enthusiastically collecting twice the number of required signatures to do so.

Yesterday, for the fourth time since the 1950s, Portland rejected fluoridating their water. 

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Some folks think the debate is crazy. I think it’s good. 

Some folks were skeptical of fluoride’s effectiveness. Clean Water Portland launched a campaign against it. Some folks just ranted.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland launched a campaign favoring of fluoride. Health care, organized labor and even minority groups came together to support fluoride. The Portland Mercury debunked the anti-fluoride faction’s concerns. 

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Generally, I share the opinions of that Mercury article. The anti-fluoride sentiment is riddled with bullshit. The majority of the argument is based on junk science and leans too libertarian for my comfort.

That doesn’t mean I want fluoride in the water.

There’s nothing wrong with the water, so don’t mess with it.

There is something wrong with our dental hygiene. There is something wrong with our diets. I would propose hiring dedicated dental hygienists in schools and banning junk food and sodas throughout all of Portland. 

That’s pie-in-the-sky, romantic liberal socialism. No need to discuss the idea’s merits—it won’t happen in my lifetime. 

So, as a last resort, fluoride would serve as a social safety net. It’s not the best measure, but it’s something. And I can get behind that. 

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Whether you’re for or against fluoridating the water, this debate was good for the city.

I feel a bit strange thinking it’s good that we fought so hard to do nothing. But the people weighed the issues and sussed it out. A lot of folks I know researched this issue more than they researched the last presidential race and considered the advantages of both sides in earnest. And while Portland didn’t vote for my preferred outcome, it did keep alive a tradition of antiestablishmentarianism. 

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"Where were you when CO2 passed 400ppm?" by Jen Sorensen

My Limited Vocabulary

The Kama Sutra Alphabet by Malika Favre

(Buy the book.)

Legends of the Blues by William Stout