Trent Parke Profile In Tank Magazine

Trent Parke is the only Australian to have been represented by the revered Magnum photo agency. In their 10th Anniversary Edition, which has been a long time coming and worth every penny, Tank Magazine pay homage to this master of atmosphere.

Parke's most stunning photos happen in black and white, where he masterfully uses intensely bright weather to draw out dark atmosphere in his compositions among other brilliantly effective techniques. A selection of his work can be found here, some personal favourites being the ones below (taken from his Seventh Wave book), and one that turns a day on the beach into an Independence Day apocalypse. It's well worth purchasing Tank just to see the photos on paper if for nothing else.

'The Informers' Trailer Is A Bit Cloak And Dagger, And More Bret Easton Ellis News

There's something a bit funny going on with 'The Informers', the latest Bret Easton Ellis book to be made into a film. Following in the footsteps of the brilliant 'American Psycho', 'The Rules of Attraction' and the less than brilliant 'Less Than Zero', a bit of digging finds that most trailers have been taken offline, and coverage is very thin on the ground, especially for a film with a cast this good (Kim Basinger, Billy Bob Thornton, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Rhys Ifans etc and the interesting Amber Heard).

The trailer looks slick, and spot on for how I imagine an Easton Ellis social scene. Whilst both 'American Psycho' and 'The Rules of Attraction' perfectly depicted their settings, I don't think that until this point any film has truly captured the nihilistic decadence of his soul-less-rich-kid work, be it an Easton Ellis work or otherwise.

In further Easton Ellis news, there was an interesting interview, albeit a bit raw, over at Suicide Girls of all places, where apparently he has a bit of a fanbase. Furthermore, it looks as though 'Less Than Zero' is set for a remake, by Tarantino no less... this could be interesting.

My Namesake Makes Good Things

So, whilst trawling the web I came across this Brooklyn artist who happens to share my name. Normally I'd take exception, but his stuff is pretty interesting, so it's probably not worth an argument.

Apparently exhibiting regularly since 1999, there are some very surreal and tense undercurrents at play in his work, with the focus frequently on textural aesthetic and form. Of paticular interest are the wall mounted painting/sculptures that seem to be evolving and trying to break free of the canvas, and the surreal plastic-draped box sculptures which exude menace.

Fever Ray; Karin From The Knife Goes It Alone

Fever Ray Myspace

So, it seems half of what's been best about electronic music in recent years is going solo. This news might explain the absence of sharp implement related activity beyond grime recently.

There's only one track up at the moment, but it hints at a very interesting, if not somewhat similar direction. It's slightly more rough around the edges, where The Knife was very precise, this is somewhat darker and more organic. Gone also seem to be the dramatics of mask and mystery, which might have become a bit banal if continued over a vast body of work.

However, I can't be the only one holding out hope for a third slice... despite half wanting them to take the slightly frustrating live-fast-die-young route, at least we might get to see her live.

Tim Walker Shoots Patrick Wolf

So, according to the Vanity Fair website, this little collaboration happened back in January of this year...

Tim Walker probably being my favourite working mainstream fashion photographer, and Patrick being one of the only worthwhile pop artists, it's a fantastic collaboration.

He is surrounded by the cygnets of the Ballet West in the Stag Ballroom of the Mar Lodge Estate, in Braemar, Scotland.

True Blood opening credits

True Blood is the new vampire series from everyone's favourite thing about American TV; HBO. The show's a bit like a sexed up Buffy, which is not a bad thing.

In fact it's a very addictive slice of teenage TV, a strange mix of candy floss disposability and genuinely tense/dark undertones. It pitches it's story against the deep south and uses the history of the area to illustrate it's key theme; vampire integration.

All I know, is it makes for a great title sequence; a bit Holy Mountain-ish, it's a fantastic bit of editing, utilising found footage etc. Anyway, 'True Blood' available at your local Pirate Bay.

Chris Cunningham Interview in Vice Magazine

As part of their recent interviews issue (and one of their best recent outputs), Vice interviewed the elusive Chris Cunningham.

With a reputation for being a bit like Larry David crossed with a cave troll, he is surprisingly lucid and upbeat.

However, that might all be a bit boring (/) if he hadn't included a stomach turning 'self portrait', which is interesting as well as disgusting.

Here

Much like the porn he discusses in the interview, the reality is, however clichéd, that people have become desensitised to shocking imagery, and demand more to trigger a reaction. The point of interest here is where it even crosses the limit of human possibility, and much like Lynch's infamous baby in Eraserhead, overtakes genuinely explicit real-life produced imagery (such as war photography and genetic mutation, for example).

Once again Cunningham proving himself to be worthy of his visceral cutting edge reputation. Can't wait for the feature films he mentions, imagine a horror in the style of Rubber Johnny or the 'Sheena Is a Parasite' (pictured) video.

Commes des Garçons collaborate with H&M (opening tomorrow)

Following in the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, and Roberto Cavalli, Japanese label Commes des Garcons have organised an exclusive collaboration with H&M.

There is an interesting flash page for the collection here, featuring a changing light effect that works really well. As for the actual collection, I'm not too keen on the men's stuff, but for girls there's a couple of pretty cool things that will no doubt fly out like a lovely little greased up turd tomorrow morning.

Vote for Katie Paterson at Creative 30

OK, I'm not sure how long is left of this Creative 30 competition, but it's a pretty substantial prize for an artist to win. (Run by Volvo and Vice magazine).

Of all the entries, the only one that really stands out to me is Katie Paterson, who is doing some really interesting art conceptually, which includes making a moonlight bulb, making ice records, and mapping shooting stars... and not a hint of Shoreditch, very refreshing.

Unfortunately the whole thing feels a bit more Volvo than Vice, so all the more reason to vote for someone that stands out. Anyway, take a look at the entries, then agree, and vote for Katie! You can vote up to once a day, so pick your favourite person and give them a bit of support...

Arcade Fire Interactive Music Video for 'Black Mirror'

It's probably a bit behind, but I've just seen this which is very cool. The always brilliant Arcade Fire have done something really interesting with their video concept for Black Mirror.

Here

It's an interactive video where you can manually select elements of the music... I particularly like it with 2 (drums) deselected... anyway, great concept, good to see people trying new things, even better that it's Arcade Fire.

OldBoy remake

It seems Spielberg has gone rogue. Taking a scientologist and one of the worst screen writers with him, he's singlehandedly carrying a personal vendetta of rape and pilage across the boundary lines of 'my own exhausted shit ideas' and into the weaker territories of 'collective foreigners with functional imaginations'.

So far he's been spotted hurtling towards Ghost in the Shell like a bulldozer on MDMA and someone's tipped him and his boys off that the after party's happening over at OldBoy.

I look forward to a startled Will Smith when he's told it involves some hardcore method acting; eating a live squid, taking on 30 guys in a corridor with just a hammer, and cutting out his own tongue. Oh, you didn't hear Will? Yeh the actor never worked again... not many roles for actors without tongues.

Image 09/11/08

Wode by Boudicca

A still from the film made by Boudicca for their new perfume Wode.
Taken from www.dazeddigital.com.
www.boudiccawode.com

The First Blog

Like a geeky version of that Band of Horses song.
So I knew this blog had to start off like fireworks, you know, start as you mean to go on and all that. Usually when I need a great idea I'll sit on a train for a couple of hours, but apart from being a bit over the top for an internet blog, I don't have any trains in my house. But I do have a bath.

I don't know if anyone's managed to come up with a great idea in the bath before, and if they have I think it was either not a great idea, or they were pretty stupid, and as it's all relative, it was only a relatively good idea. You see, in the bath, your brain travels at about a 1000th of it's usual speed, and seeing as we supposedly only use a 10th of it anyway, it's not looking good for an Archimedes moment.

Anyway, so the best I could come up with was this blogging (verb) parody of Adaptation, where my first blog is all about coming up with my first blog, in the bath. Charlie Kaufman would be proud; I even had a narrator in my head putting together this post. I'm not sure if it was my own voice, but if it was, would that be self-indulgent? Wouldn't want that in a blog. No sir.