Artist Barbara Bloom Comes to CollectOne has to figure that photographer and conceptual artist Barbara Bloom, whose collection-themed survey opens today at the International Center of Photography, has a basement full of stamps, coins, and collectible spoons.
Dead Meadow: Mostly Cloudy With a 100 Percent Chance of RockingStage banter was held to a minimum at last night’s Dead Meadow show at the Bowery Ballroom, as the D.C. stoner trio used the gaps between druggy guitar epics simply to give thanks and catch their breaths — which certainly couldn’t have been easy given the huge clouds of pot smoke billowing up from their audience.
Artist Bwana Spoons’s Bad OysterThe paintings and illustrations of Portland-based, early-nineties ‘zine-ster Bwana Spoons look like something out of an indie children’s book — the kind embraced by the spawn of Brooklyn-based aesthete parents.
The Entertainment Business’ War on Piracy Is Practically WonGreat news for content owners everywhere today as the Wall Street Journal reports that prosecutors are close to filing charges against the operators of Swedish BitTorrent hub the Pirate Bay with conspiracy to breach copyrights.
ranters and ravers
‘Cloverfield’ Gets the Harry Knowles Stamp of ApprovalIn an over-the-top rave the likes of which have not been seen since David Denby’s review for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles declares Cloverfield “Utterly Brilliant,” a “true milestone in film,” and “a complete reinvention of the disaster movie, the giant monster movie, and even the love story.”
Michael Pollan just might solve the omnivore’s dilemma.Pollan takes on the food industry’s idea of “nutrition” (they’re just trying to make money, y’all!), but mercifully clues us in on what foods aren’t made of mutant ingredients.
agenda
‘Golden Opportunities Mixtape’ is gloomy, great—and free.Now free on the band’s site is Golden Opportunities Mixtape, a collection of covers and one original track, all recorded at various radio stations, gigs, and “empty hotel stairwells.”
Is ‘Sweeney Todd’ Too Gory for Best Picture?Sure, the Oscars have rewarded dark, violent movies in the past, but Sweeney makes Silence of the Lambs and The Departed look like Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2 (respectively).
the comics page
Exclusive Comics Excerpt: ‘Lawless’Today on the Comics Page, we’re proud to present an excerpt from Lawless, the second collection of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s outstanding noir comics series Criminal, on sale December 12 from Marvel Icon.
J.J. Abrams’s ‘Cloverfield’: Okay, Maybe There Are RaptorsAin’t it Cool News has purported new plot details from J.J. Abrams’s Cloverfield (or Monstrous or 1-18-08 or Overnight or whatever it’s called) which seem to corroborate what we told you last week about the movie featuring — in addition to the big monster— multiple smaller raptorlike ones.
Big in Japan: ‘The Butt-Biting Bug Song’We’re not sure why, exactly, but in Japan “The Butt-Biting Bug Song” is more popular than “Chocolate Rain,” the Star Wars kid, and LOLcats combined.
art candy
Bling: Now With More PotassiumPuerto Rico–born, Brooklyn-based artist Miguel Luciano, one of 45 Caribbean artists showing in the Brooklyn Museum’s “Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art,” brings us Plátano Pride, a seamless amalgamation of North and Central: one precocious teen, a taste of hip-hop culture, and Puerto Rico’s favorite starch.
