Fetish in Living Color

Paul Outerbridge, best known for his controversial fetish photography, has an exhibit at the Getty in Los Angeles. Although I adore his more scandalous photos, I LOVE the use of color in most of his other works as well. In fact, I like them better. He was a pioneer of the "tri-carbro color printing process," which lends to the juicy, eye-popping saturation of color in his later photos. Outerbridge was a good friend of Man Ray, who championed his work, despite the fact that he was dismissed by critics on account of his use of color.

Unsurprisingly, Outerbridge worked in commercial photography shooting for the likes of Vanity Fair, French Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar magazines up until the '40s. Most of his outside work was too hot for public viewing and has only been revealed in galleries and such over the last 20 years. He died in 1958 on the sunny shores of the OC.

Natural Quiet

Apparently there are only 7 or 8 places left in the U.S. where silence is unbroken in intervals of at least 15 minutes. And not one silent spot exists in Europe. SEED magazine recently published Ear to the Groud: a slide show of acoustic ecology. Warning: NSFW. You may fall dead asleep upon hearing these beautiful recordings. If your boss is ok with that then I highly recommend. Who needs Tylenol PM? I could sleep for days to the sound of flapping butterfly wings.

Vintage Internet

Courtesy of SUBPOP + a brilliant free summer sampler to go with the nostalgia. Click HERE

Yours Truly

Geez, it's been almost a year now since I made this vinyl mix in my dark little Midwestern basement. For those of you I promised this mix to ages ago, I'm sorry for the ridiculous delay. Little things like getting a media sharing account can really hold things up around here.

Anyway, this set took on a life of its own as I was making it and morphed into a '50s nostalgic ode to an array of late '70s punk, mixed with some '60s garage/psych/pop and a little indie rock thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD The Crazy, Savage Punks, complete with cover art (above) by my infinitely talented and creative counterpart J. Mendez HERE.

The Crazy, Savage Punks track list:
1- I Hear a New World/ Joe Meek
2- For Your Precious Love/ Jerry Butler
3- Another Bedroom/ Atlas Souns
4- To Sir With Love/ Lulu
5- Come On Let's Go/ Broadcast
6- The Ballad of a DJ/ Del Satins
7- It's For You/ Cilla Black
8- Gypsy Woman/ The Five Discs
9- Unknown/ Moxie Mix
10- Hurtin' Kind/ The Bittersweets
11- Century City Rags / The Last
12- If She Cries/ The Poppees
13- Love and a Molotov Cocktail/ The Flys
14- Goo Goo Muck/ The Cramps
15- Blank Generation/ Richard Hell and the Voidoids
16- F-F-Fascination/ The Fleshtones
17- I Can't Sleep at Night/ The Deadly Snakes
18- Realistes/ Comet Gain
19- Bend Me, Shape Me/ The Models
20- Psychotic Reaction/ The Count Five
21- 8 Teen/ ? and the Mysterians
22- Save It/ The Cramps
23- You Don't Love Me/ Kim and Grim
24- Golden Rectangle/ Clinic

Life Inc.

Frequent Arthur magazine contributor and scholar/filmmaker Daniel Rushkoff has a titillating new book out about the unending tale of corporations taking over our lives, sliver by sliver. This may or may not be old news to some.

In a way more articulate and intelligent manner, Rushkoff's rants remind me of the suburban "punk kids" I hung out with in high school -- those fired-up-on-Minor Threat mini-anarchists who taught me that "corporate" was the dirtiest of all dirty words and whose parents were working for aerospace companies like Raytheon and TRW. Anyway, if you learn that expletive early, then I think you're in pretty good shape but you should read this book anyway.