Category: video

A Bride at 100

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My sister shared this video with me. Listening to the 100-year old bride, Dana Jackson, talk about what weddings were like when she was young is my favorite part.

Getting married wasn’t a big thing back when I was young, it wasn’t no big thing— you just got somebody to preach or knew the bible a little bit, give a short talk, and that was it…just simple, you know, just simple — wore clothes, maybe a bouquet cut out of the yard. It’s not what you got, it’s what you make out the marriage.

 A great reminder in an age where weddings can become quite excessive…

life + art

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I have been seriously stressing over the past few weeks about this artist lecture I needed to put together for a colloquium. The lecture was this evening at MSUM, and I finished this video at 5am this morning (luckily I’m in New York gained a few hours to complete it for a Midwest deadline). 
I really love talking about my work, but I was so nervous to put this together. Sometimes things are hard for me to put into words — here is my best effort to talk about life + art. Enjoy.

xo
j

Timshel

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I’ve been on a Mumford & Sons frenzy lately, and they’ve got me feeling pretty calm. I’m especially enjoying this song, “Timshel.”


And you have your choices
And these are what make man great
His ladder to the stars

two songs (that got me through the past three days)

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Adele | Make You Feel My Love
This song makes me feel like hugging everybody, probably crying a little bit (happy tears), putting my arms around several friends and swaying side to side, then falling onto my goosedown comforter and sleeping the rest of the day. Oh, and eating chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Okkervil River | Okkervil River Song
I feel like I should be in a forest when I listen to this, or down by a river, or swinging from a tire swing into a lake, or sitting around a campfire with a banjo. That’s the beauty of this song. It takes me to a place that’s entirely uncivilized.

• • •

Going to push through this paper (it’s been connnnnnnsummmmming my life for three days), hand it in today (after I crank out an annotated bib) then:

01. GALLERY OPENING RECEPTION!
      4 o’clock, Center for the Arts
      5:30, Awards ceremony
    
&   6 o’clock, sleep.

a half-ass book review/gushing: jay-z’s ‘decoded’

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I’M GOING TO PUT THIS TO YOU PLAIN and SIMPLE: I’m fairly sure (94%) that there’s not a single person on the planet that has a legitimate reason to dislike Jay-Z (people who are jealous of him don’t count). I love Jay, and how can you not? He’s talented, wisdomatic, and married to one of the sexiest women on the planet (Beyoncé, holla gurl). Sure, there’s a curse word or two or twenty in what he writes (we all have them somewhere in our heads), but it’s genuine. Sometimes I’ll youtube ‘Empire State of Mind’ when I’m in my studio and just…blast it. Because Jay is a feel-good kind of guy.
I was ambling about Target today (looking for tennis balls, no less) and somehow meandered into the book section (?) where I saw this: DECODED. On sale. Did I buy it? No. Did I look through it? Yes. Do I want it? Chyeah. A lot. There’s great visuals, quotes, and plenty of deep explanations to his lyrical genius. It’s a thick book with more pictures than words and a lotta soul to go with it. I would slap that thing on my coffee table (if you can call it a coffee table, more like a shoe caddy) and look for reasons to read it.
Jay’s had me since his classic ‘Big Pimpin” hit my ears in 7th grade, or ‘Heartbreaker‘ he sang with Mariah Carey (whichever came first)(warning: there is a lot of Mariah booty, etc. in this song).
You can watch Jay-Z talking about his life and his book…for 112 minutes, in an interview with Cornel West. Glorious. Watch as much as you can, there is so much passion here!

“Jay Z, I was not ready to be somewhat…bowled over…by your book.”
Cornel West

and one of my favorite Jay youtube clips (from a few years ago):



xx
j