Bryan and I were invited to Colorado to play and document the Communikey Festival. I had a fabulous time catching up with old friends, visiting a gorgeous part of the country, eating yummy food, and hearing really good music.

Friday night at B-Side
with David Day, Ejival, Spinoza, Nordic Soul

Saturday night after hours Dirtybird Showcase
with Christian Martin and J. Phlip

Saturday Communikids workshop

Sunday in the Park with Communikids

Communikey Festival Site

Helen Levitt died this week at a ripe old age in her sleep.  Reading her obituary reminded me how much I have always loved her street photographs of children in New York City.  Here are some of my favorites:

Melissa Block’s interview with Helen Levitt on NPR

Photos by Seze Devres

Steve and I had a blast today trying out my new lights, so far this is my favorite shot.

Photograph by Seze Devres

This movie looks like it is going to be really good.

watch the trailer

 

Based on a true story, EVERLASTING MOMENTS follows the story of Maria (Maria Heiskanen), who is married to an alcoholic and womanizing dockworker (Mikael Persbrandt). Her husband leaves the worries of family responsibilities entirely to Maria. Her situation is desperate until she meets a camera shop owner (Jesper Christensen) who encourages her to start taking and developing photographs. She soon begins to see the world in new ways that threaten her already perilous situation.

Today is a beautiful day.

source

source

www.guerand.com

Bettie Page, Queen of Pinups, Dies at 85

Our beautiful pinup queen has passed away.  Photographer Unknown.

This is pretty cool:LIFE photo archive hosted by Google

My dear friend Zoh invited me to see The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.  Her costume shop she worked on the fancy crystal costumes for the final skit.  It was a such a treat to have a ridiculously festive date with her.

All photos by Seze Devres

I just returned back from a weekend of deep listening in Boston. It was amazing to see my old Boston friends and meet some of my favorite musicians. I am thankful to Jon Whitney for putting this festival of strange and wonderful music.

The Brainwaves festival started on Friday sharply at 8pm with JG Thirlwell’s Manorexia project, a symphonic mix of strings and electronic sounds that sway from beautiful to haunting. Manorexia was the highlight of the Friday performances for me. JG Thirwell is a good friend of mine and I love the direction his music is going in these days. Each day Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound fame, played some songs in between acts. I was not sure why he did not perform in the festival but it was great to see him hanging around all weekend. I made it my mission to get to know him. I have been listening to the strange surreal music of Nurse with Wound for over 20 years. His is a kind and modest man. I learned that Stapleton is a shepherd living in the countryside of Ireland where he works on his music and art. When I asked him how many records he put out he said he had no idea. He may not know his own discography since 1979 but knows exactly how many sheep, chickens, and goats he has living on his farm.

The highlight for me was meeting Steven Stapleton/Nurse with Wound. Photo by Bryan

On Saturday I was most excited to see The Threshold HouseBoys Choir the new project of Peter Christopherson from Coil. His performance did not disappoint. I was super excited to meet him and shake his hand. Part of me wanted to go on and on about all how much I love his music, but I spared him what he already knows.

Threshold HouseBoys Choir

Little Annie AKA Annie Anxiety’s quirky cabaret performance of standards, was a nice break from all the experimental music. Little Annie has collaborated with Nurse with Wound, Marc Almond, Coil, and dozens of other people. She was like a gothic Edith Piaf on stage. Brainwaves ended on Sunday with a luscious dreamy performance by The Stars of the Lid. I saw them perform at a church in NYC a few months ago. Their Boston show was totally different but just as good.

Stars of the Lid

Lovely Video Projections at Brainwaves

Meat Beat Manifesto played a great set at Brainwaves but the whole time I was wondering of I was a decade too late on seeing them. Their sound might not have aged well but there were plenty of gorgeous video eye candy to keep me entertained.

Meat Beat Manifesto

We found an R on the street, photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

Zaha Hadid at Sonnabend Gallery, photo by Seze Devres

On November 6, I went to the Whitney Museum of American Art for the opening of the William Eggleston’s exhibition The Democratic Camera.  I consider William Eggleston to be one of the fathers of color photography. I used to stare at his images in photo books for hours at the library when I was Stephen Shore’s photography student art Bard College.  His strange images were a huge influence on me.  Eggleston made it ok to turn snapshots into works of art, and therefore he made me feel more confident about my own early images.  He is a master when it comes to color.  The richness in the way Eggleston printed his images was something very new at the time.

Photo by William Eggleston
In my opinion this is one of Eggleston’s best photographs.  It displays the sheer bliss of light (sunlight) and photography, my two favorite things.

I showed up alone at the opening but I ran into a few friends, which was an unexpected surprise. It is always a nice to bump into people from a another part of your life at a completely different kind of event.  I saw my friend Kirsten there who happens to be an old family friend of the curator of the exhibition Elisabeth Sussman. Kirsten immediately introduced me to Sussman and her brother Paul Sacks. We were all very excited for Sussman!  I have admired her curatorial work for years and it was a pleasure to meet her.

Elisabeth Sussman and her brother Paul Sacks

Kirsten Sonnenberg and Paul Sacks

With my mentor Charles Traub, the head of the SVA MFA Photography program.

Then as if it was not already an amazing night,  I had a chance to walk through the exhibition with Dan Bell?!!  It is always great to see how another artist that I admire reacts to iconic works of art.

Photo by William Eggleston
Dan Bell could relate to this photo because he tours all the time.
More images at www.egglestontrust.com

Oh this makes me want to play the guitar.

Stripes!

Photos by Seze

Photos by Seze Devres

Model: Monkey the Dog
Photography & Design: Seze

Y know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from us
Nice and easy
But theres just one thing
You see we never ever do nothing
Nice and easy
We always do it nice and rough
So were gonna take the beginning of this song
And do it easy
Then were gonna do the finish rough
This is the way we do proud mary

If you come down to the river
I bet you gonna find some people who live
You dont have to worry if you got no money
People on the river are happy to give