Politicians Are Criminals: A Special Message From Vivienne Westwood

Politicians R Criminals / COP 21 is a lie - say one thing + mean another. Business as usual will kills us. A green economy will save us.

Be Specific: Save Venice - Stop the Cruise Ships - weareherevenice.org
Be Specific: Save our Rainforest - Cool Earth - coolearth.org
Be Specific: Save our Ocean - Stop $ubsidies to Industrial Fishing - seashepherd.org
Be Specific: You - switch to Green Energy - www.ecotricity.co.uk
I like Save OUR Rain Forest
Save OUR Ocean
Who do OUR! politicians think they are? 
Who gives them the right to WRECK the Earth? 
www.climaterevoltuion
 

A Happy 70th Birthday Shoutout To Discreet Comedy Legend Michael Barrie

For the last five decades, comedy writer and ultimate gentleman Michael Barrie has penned jokes for Joan Rivers, biting barbs for comedy roasts (when they were good), and he has written the monologues for the likes of the late Johnny Carson and the recently retired David Letterman. In fact, he has been with Carson and Letterman through most of their careers. There is about a 99.9% chance that if you have watched Carson or Letterman in the last few decades, you have laughed at a joke written by Barrie. If you meet him, you would think he were a spy – he is that discreet about his legendary status in the realm of comedy. Happy birthday Michael Barrie! photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon "Forgetting the Hand" @ David Zwirner in New York

David Zwirner presents an exhibition of collaborative works by Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon, on view at 533 West 19th Street in New York. Gallery artists since 1998 and 1995 respectively, this is the first time the pair has worked together. The drawings were originally created for a zine published by David Zwirner Books to coincide with Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 (September 2015). The collaboration began in Summer 2015 with the artists swapping the first of a series of drawings to be completed by the other. In a variation of the “exquisite corpse” method in which a partner is only given portions of an otherwise concealed drawing to work on, Dzama and Pettibon developed each other’s compositions through illustrations, collage, and writing. Just as the surrealists invented the technique in the early twentieth century as a playful and ultimately enriching exercise, the present drawings combine the two artists’ distinct styles in a revealing and often seamless fashion. In several works, it is almost impossible to determine who made what, which indicates how both strove to assimilate the other’s vision or anticipate his response. Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon "Forgetting the Hand" will be on view until February 20, 2016 at David Zwirner Gallery, 533 West 19th Street in New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer

Sistaaz of the Castle Explores Transgender Sex Workers That Roam The Streets of Cape Town, South Africa

Photographer Jan Hoek and fashion designer Duran Lantink present Sistaaz of the Castle, a project about the style and fashion of transgender sex workers in Cape Town, South Africa. Together they created a series of photographs and a fashion collection around their fashionable appearances, and their ability to make the most exuberant creations of everything they find. The project will be shown during FashionWeek Amsterdam and an exhibition at Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam. The local sex workers’ organization, S.W.E.A.T., gave Jan and Duran the opportunity to meet and collaborate with their transgender support group Sistaazhood. For this project, Jan and Duran zoom in on six girls from the community: Coco (25), Cleopatra (23) Sulaiga (30), Gabby (29) Flavinia (33) and Joan Collins (57). Most of the girls are homeless, living under a bridge beside the castle of Cape Town. Jan Hoek made photographs of them, their lives and their outfits. The documentary images serve as a lookbook for the collection of Duran Lantink. The designer was inspired by the creative ability of the girls to produce beautiful creations from found garments. He recognized a similarity to his own process, using different recycling methods and collage techniques. Along with the creations, the artists were interested in how the girls would like to look if they had unlimited possibilities. One of the girls would like to work in a luxurious Victorian brothel. The 57-year-old Joan Collins dreams of a wedding dress and a third wants to become Miss Africa. All these fantasies are translated into a dream-couture capsule collection by Duran, which is also photographed by Jan. In addition to the fashion show and exhibition, a printed publication (APE) will be published and distributed worldwide in March 2016. Eventually, Jan and Duran will return to South Africa to present the Sistaaz of the Castle project on its original site. Usually, transgender sex workers are presented as perpetrator or victim in the South African media. The girls of Sistaazhood expressed their wish to be seen positively in the news. The collection will be presented during FashionWeek Amsterdam at the Gashouder on January 16 at 7p.m.. The Foam exhibition will be on view until January 20.

"Fall Out Shelter" Maya Jeffereis Gives An Artist Talk and Facilitates Hypothetical Dooms-Day Scenarios at Overnight Projects In Burlington, Vermont

New York based Maya Jeffereis invites participants to engage in a conversation about politics of identity and morality by participating in a military training exercise. The exercise is taken from a US military training document to test officers’ values and decision-making processes. In a hypothetical end of the world scenario, ten people of diverse backgrounds occupy a fall-out shelter. However, the shelter can guarantee survival for only six people. Participants must decide which four are to be excluded from the group in order that the remaining six may live to rebuild society. In this exercise, participants must argue in favor of and against each of the occupants until the group reaches a full consensus. "Fall Out Shelter" will be held at Overnight Projects on January 16, 2016 in Burlington, Vermont. 

"Looking Back" The 10th White Columns Annual, Selected by Matthew Higgs

White Columns present “Looking Back”, the tenth installment of the White Columns Annual. For the past decade the exhibition has been a fixture on White Columns’ calendar. Each year, an individual or a collaborative team (e.g. an artist, a curator, a writer, etc.) is invited to organize an exhibition based on their personal experiences with art in New York during the previous year. For the tenth ‘Annual’ exhibition – coinciding with his tenth year as White Columns’ Director - Matthew Higgs has made this year’s selection. (Higgs also selected the inaugural Annual in 2006.) Looking Back will be on view until February 20, 2016 at White Columns, 320 West 13th Street, New York. photographs by Tenlie Mourning

Hanging Out With Bowie: Terry McGovern Remembers A Night Out With the Thin White Duke

John Carter was a record promoter in San Francisco. I was a DJ on KSFO. I was doing something typically silly on my show. Boom-chuck-chuck. It takes two people, taking turns w/the syllables in waltz time. You say boom, I say chuck, you say chuck…and so on until someone messes up. The door to my studio opened while I was playing this nonsense game on the air with a caller. I saw John and we exchanged a smile. And then I saw who he was with. "David wants to play this game w/you." I almost fell off my chair. It was David Bowie, in town to promote his latest album. Bowie sat down and we began to play. I think he wiped me out in no time. After the show, David, John and I went to the Boarding House, the very hip venue on Bush Street. John had to take off, so I sat there for over an hour watching the show with David Bowie. It was surreal. Just two guys, taking in a show, knocking back a couple of drinks, checking out the scene. I was struck by how polite he was, warm and sincerely interested in everything going on around us. At one point, the light hit his face and, yep, there they were. That one blue eye, and one green eye. He caught me looking at him and smiled. "Odd, aren't they?" he said. We laughed. Bowie was on his way to Japan…by ship. He said he was terrified of flying, so he planned on taking a cruise ship from San Francisco to Tokyo. I remember thinking how cool that was to turn a morbid fear into a leisurely, sophisticated sea voyage. I can't recall much else. The show ended. (Sadly I have no idea who was on stage.) We said our farewells and he thanked me for playing his music on the radio. We parted. This morning, I woke up to the news that he was gone. The Thin White Duke with those extraordinary eyes. I had his company for an hour or so one night a long time ago. I'll never forget him. I'll never stop listening to him. And I'll play boom-chuck-chuck with anyone who'd like to.

Text by Terry McGovern. A San Francisco media fixture for decades, McGovern is well known on radio, TV, commercials, animation, feature films, theatre, and video games. You may remember him uttering those immortal words “These are not the droids we’re looking for” in Star Wars, A New Hope. He has also appeared in films such as American Graffiti and Mrs. Doubtfire. 

When A Hero Dies: Read Musician Lorde's Touching Tribute To The Late David Bowie →

When a hero dies, everyone wants a quote. I woke up this morning with a tender head from tears and that big red cup of Japanese whiskey, gulped last night just after the news came. People were already asking me what I thought. It feels kind of garish to talk about oneself at a time like this, when the thing that has happened is so distinctly world-sized. But everything I’ve read or seen since the news has been deeply intrinsic in tone, almost selfish, like therapy. That’s who he was to all of us. He was a piece of bright pleated silk we could stretch out or fold up small inside ourselves when we needed to. Click here to read more. 

A Glimpse Into the First Issue of The Feros Review, An Erotic Notebook From France

Sometimes sensual, sometimes sexual, Feros a call to awake the senses. Firmly rooted in this time, the erotic review explores an obsessive look aesthetic and contemporary fascinations for impulses living being. The publication stands out as the need to reveal the principles of a contemporary eros which seeks and is constantly renewing itself, without manipulating representations. In each issue, art and literature intersect, align and interact freely. Wild beauty and sought: Feros. The first issue includes contributions from Julian Feeld, Apollonia Saintclair, Mirka Lugosi and more. You can purchase the first issue of Feros in a standard edition and limited edition here. 

A Winter Weekend In Joshua Tree, California

The air in Joshua Tree is sweet, thin and immaculate. It is high desert air at its finest. It is a forsaken landscape. The Joshua trees that line the horizon and the desert seem like lost souls trapped in a spinning chokehold, moving so fast that everything is brilliantly still and hopeful. Despite its alienness and despite its strangeness, it is a beautiful landscape full of boulders and small shacks and homesteads. In the summer, it is too hot to live here, so many people move North or somewhere more forgiving. When you wake up in Joshua Tree, you want to walk for miles until you are an invisible stranger. At night, have a shot of whiskey at Pappy + Harriet’s and in the morning eat at La Copine in Flamingo Heights - make sure to order the beignets, which are splattered devilishly with cinnamon-coffee sugar. Just two hours away from Los Angeles, Joshua Tree is a strange and beautiful oasis. text and photography by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Masami Teraoka’s Apocalyptic Theater/The Pope, Putin, Peach Boy and Pussy Riot Galore at Catherine Clark Gallery In San Francisco

Catharine Clark Gallery presents Masami Teraoka’s Apocalyptic Theater/Pussy Riot, The Pope, Putin, and Peach Boy, a solo exhibition of new and selected work by Masami Teraoka. The exhibit features four large triptych paintings more than a decade in the making, in which Teraoka continues his brazen portrayals of abusive power. While shocking and lurid, the exhibit (titled after the villains and heroes in the artist’s theatrical renderings) is also sardonic and impishly humorous: power changes hands, traditional roles reverse, and fates are reimagined. Mirroring the triptych construction of his paintings, Teraoka’s tableaus literally and figuratively open the secretive and dark underworlds of institutional power to Teraoka’s singular brand of unabashed truthtelling, searing criticism, and playful ridicule. The exhibition will be on view until February 20, 2016 at Catharine Clark Gallery, 248 Utah Street, San Francisco. Photographs by Bradley Golden

R.I.P. Legendary Musician and Artist David Bowie Is Dead At 69

Sad day indeed, the words come in fits and starts, David Bowie's music was and is and has been the soundtrack to many of our lives. He was 69. He died peacefully. He will be eternal. His most recent album Blackstar was released on his birthday on January 8th. From the official statement: "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief." photograph by Gijsbert Hanekroot