Cool Indie Xmas Gifts at Arhoolie Down Home Records, SF East Bay

Just dropped by Arhoolie Records Down Home Music and did some Xmas shopping. They have a cool new book and CD set out-  "Hear Me Howling! Blues, Ballads and Beyond"... 

If you are a blues fan or have someone on your list who is, this is a great selection. Produced locally, sold by indies and full of great art and music. Love the cover!

"Long time coming. The most exciting documentation of this great music in the last 25 years. And not only will you be able to read and see, you'll be able to hear and see, too. Enjoy!!!" 

-- Taj Mahal 

136 page, 8 1/2 x 11" full color, hardcover book with 4 CDS, 

Over 4 hours and 40 minutes of music, 

72 tracks, including 38 previously unissued. 

Over 150 photographs.

Dennis Fortin of Eclair De Lune

Arhoolie also had in stock - the band's CD who used to rock Eclectix opening receptions regularly - "Eclair De Lune". Many of you wanted to purchase one at the openings and we were sold out. So here's your chance. They play a fantastico mix of gypsy swing jazz. Wonderful tunes to paint by...

Ended up checking off many people on my list in one local stop, which is a great thing. For a good friend I picked up "Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women". Great rockabilly-bluegrass-rock-country combo, you may remember Dave Alvin from The Blasters. He also wrote the wonderful X song, "4th of July", which John Doe sang. We sing it every year around the 4th.

And for a salsa/Latin jazz fan I picked up "Estrellas de Areito, Los Heroes". 

Called the original Buena Vista Social Club, 

a crew of Cuba's best musicians got together in Egrem Studios in Havana and recorded epic sessions. Might have to get this for myself as well. Clever and clean cigar box design on the cover, above...

Arhoolie also has used CDs, vinyl record albums, collectibles, music books and just tons of easy gifts for the peeps on your list. With lots of listening stations it's easy to pick just what you want. They are located in the East Bay, just north of Berkeley in El Cerrito. You can shop online as well... but its mo' fun to finger the covers. Support some musicians! 

LINK.

Best Dang Book of the Year, "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver

I have been putting off writing a review of this book for way too long, it is just daunting trying to write anything about writing so incredible. But one of my FB friends Jenny,  raving about "Rat Girl" by Kristin Hersh (another great book) made me realize I need to get off my butt and do this.
If there is one book to get all your friends for Xmas, this is it. It has everything - incredible imagination, art history, detailed and consuming research, emotionally involving characters, a complex and intriguing plot, fantastic writing, fascinating history... The only negative thing to say - is the cover sucks. But you can't judge a book by it's cover right? Oh the fantastic visions I had reading this book! How they came up with this lame excuse for a cover is beyond me...
Enough, now back to the book. After looking at a few other reviews out there, I don't want to give away too much of the plot or it's punch. Plus, there is no way my feeble attempts at writing could come close to Kingsolver's. The very few negative reviews out there had to have been written by illiterates, those who can only handle the narrative of a comic book. "The Lacuna"  has Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Trotsky and the history that weaves them together. It has the wonderful flavors of Mexico and it's people, the insides of artists and writer's brains, chunks of America around World War II, insights into art and the art world, censorship, McCarthy and his "red" hunts, sexual politics, economic injustice, small town hypocrisy, the beauty of nature and the pursuit of beauty. All of this and more - wrapped up by the most beautiful writing, deeply sensitive, heart warming characters and the essence of life's worth. Gut wrenching in it's pain and soulfully humanitarian in it's motives. It's fiction with a whole lot of non-fiction - put together in such a masterpiece that putting it down to go pee will be a problem. Kingsolver spent a good 7 years researching and writing this book and it shows. The kind of book that makes you cry when you've finished it because there isn't anymore. So - don't read about it, (or look at the cover) - just get it and read it. And then pass it on. The best book of 2010 easily, in my opinion - the best book of the decade.    
Just one excerpt for you here, (one that wouldn't give away any of the plot)-
"In the afternoon when the sun lights the stucco buildings across the street, it's possible to count a dozen different colors of paint, all fading together on the highest parts of the wall: yellow, ochre, brick,blood, cobalt, turquoise. The national color of Mexico. And the scent of Mexico is a similar blend: jasmine, dog piss, cilantro, lime. Mexico admits you through an arched stone orifice into the tree-filled courtyard of its heart, where a dog pisses against a wall and a waiter hustles through a curtain of jasmine to bring a bowl of tortilla soup, steaming with cilantro and lime. Cats stalk lizards among the clay pots around the fountain, doves settle into the flowering vines and coo their prayers, thankful for the existence of lizards. The potted plants silently exhale, outgrowing their clay pots. Like Mexico's children they stand pinched and patient in last year's too-small shoes. The pebble thrown into the canyon bumps and tumbles downhill. " (page 393)
P.S. - Although you might have to expand your vocabulary and look up a few words while reading this book, here at least, is the definition of a "lacuna" - An empty space or a missing part; a gap.

GoodBye To 1988- Another Bay Area Gallery Bites The Dust

With a very heavy heart I write this. Gallery 1988 will be closing it's doors for good here in San Francisco. It has shown consistently solid shows here for a number of years, never have I been disappointed by their overall selections and presentation. One of the very few galleries left around here that this can be said about.

Stopped in to see their last show - EWELINA FERRUSO, JEREMIAH KETNER, & YOSUKE UENO and was not disappointed. Ewelina's works (above) have been featured here on Eclectix before and she had a whole wall of very small, detailed incredible little paintings. Picked two of my favorites, below (although they are all favorites!)

And here are a few more picks (below) - by Jeremiah Ketner... These pieces were so much better in person.

And last but never least, two wonderful pieces by Yosuke Ueno ...

Gallery 1988 also has a space in LA which is doing well, they are opening another gallery in Venice after closing the one up here. Why is it LA supports it's artists but not the Bay Area? Come on, all you Nor Cal peeps - support your local galleries and artists before they all move to So Cal!
The final show at 1988 "Sailing Through Shadows" opens on Dec. 4th, it looks to be another great show. So get out and say goodbye, buy some art while you're there - 'tis the season.

Cris Brodahl Rocks The Seattle Art Museum

Spent the good part of a cold day strolling around the Seattle Art Museum and was riveted by the works of Cris. Her paintings are based on collages from magazines that she puts together, so from far away they really look like huge collages. Up close it is obviously a painting... They have a great mixed marriage of surrealism and symbolism- added with the dark sepia tonalities, they juxtapose modern day with vintage times, in a strange but beguiling way. Easily the best stuff on display in the museum, better than even the huge Picasso exhibit. Skip the lines for Picasso and go see Cris instead.
SAM link.

Seattle Street Art

Thought you all might enjoy a few pix of some cool street art that we spied on our recent trip to Seattle.

"Machine Punk" and "Hybrids" at La Luz de Jesus Gallery

Laurie Lipton

If you are an LAlien and are going home for the Thanksgiving holidays or if you live there in LA, make sure you go see this dual solo show at La Luz de Jesus. It is not to be missed and a fun, cool thing to do with family and friends. Both the artists - Laurie Lipton and Jessica Joslin are incredible creative forces of the newbrow art world. Laurie's intricate graphite works will have your jaw dropping. And Jessica's demented little steampunk pets will cry out for you to adopt them. 

Jessica Joslin

Both artists create beautiful works and the two of them together just makes my heart break that I can't go.. so if you can, you better!
The show ends on Saturday, November 28th, so scoot on over to Hollywood Blvd. and get some art on.
Link

Foto Fix: Beheaded by Phil Poynter

From Phil comes a fun digital work of a cool, calm and collected model beheading herself. His site is mostly fashion photography, the coolest series being his Vogue Italia Flea Market. Wish there were more like this one... maybe there are, somewhere?

His site