CHECKIN MY FRESH

Colby Bird, Ring Flash Self-Portrait with $6 Champagne-Wrapping Gold Teeth, 2006


There'll be more extensive news soon. In the meantime check out Colby Bird try get swagger like us at CRG if your in the area. Known for his highly conceptual sculpture and artistic obsession with hip-hop, it'll probably be pretty interesting, starts this Saturday the 28th at CRG Gallery in NYC.

If you can't get into that, some bands that have some new things in the works that could be good can be found at the following links:

SOCIETY
Emperor Machine
In Flagranti

Or just check a tumblr or two, here's mine that no one ever looks at, and here's some other's that are more accessible. Ffffound owes them a couple of dollars for sure.

UUIUU
DTYBYWL
Yimmy's Yayo

FEVER RAY

Fever Ray, When I Grow Up (Directed by Martin de Thurah)

The Helmut Newton Foundation

Marie Claire, 1973


Nova, 1973


Got back from Berlin/London last week, one of Berlins greatest modern cultural attractions has to be the Helmut Newton Foundation. Magazine clippings, Helmut Newton's personal camera and prop collection as well as huge lifesize prints, works by Alice Springs and an extremely well stocked Taschen bookstore are what's discovered upon entry, which is free if you find yourself there on a Thursday night between 6 and 10pm. Curated by Dr. Matthias Harder, a man with a somewhat encyclopaedic knowledge of photography (in particular that from Germany), it's definately one of the most impressively cohesive artist based museums(especially when you've just been to the comparitively boring Salvador Dali museum which only recently opened in Berlin's forward thinking Postdamer Platz).

Currently showing is the exhibition Helmut Newton: Fired, containing work that was produced after being fired from French vogue for failing to adher to an apparent obligation he had to remain monogomaus to the publication.

Helmut Newton Foundation
Jebensstrasse 2
D - 10623 Berlin
Germany

Phone +49 30 3186 4856
Fax +49 30 3186 4855

Information
info@helmut-newton-foundation.org



P.s. A couple of photo's of the visit can be found somewhere here in the archives.

Yayoi Kusama

Dots Obsession - New Century, 2000


Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is now open at the MCA in Sydney. From 1965's Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field to 2008's Clouds, the exhibition is a worthy retrospective, if not a little colourless, especially for those so fond of her particular brand of polka dotted dementia.

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years
February 25th - June 8th
MCA Sydney

Taryn Simon

Playboy, Braille Edition


The art collection of the C.I.A., cryogenic freezing units, braille editions of premier men's mag Playboy and the only legal marijuana crop in America. These are but some of the images found within Taryn Simon's investigative and particularly interesting portfolio. Plunging into her work like a dead weight in a deep ocean, Simon manages to colour in between the lines created by countless inquistive conversations and considerations.

Her work currently hangs on the walls of a few galleries around the globe, most notably at The Photographers Gallery in London until April 12, as a contender for the The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, the Met in NY until March 22 as part of Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography and as of tomorrow, the OK Centre for Contemporary Art (Linsz, Austria) till April 26th as part of the Biennale Cuvée.

FAIL

iPhone got stolen in London, current mood redefines unkeen.

VOLTA

Fernando Mastrangelo, Avarice



Fernando Mastrangelo, one of many artists featuring at this years
Volta Show NY which takes place in March.

March 5th - 8th
7 West 34th Street
betw. 5th Ave. and 6th Ave
NYC

Berlin

Berghain, located in a converted power plant



Possibly be heading to the Germanic capital next week. Places of interest so far include the Berghain nightclub in Friedrichshain, the current home of European techno, considering the relative simmer down that the Tresor has encountered due to its change of venue. Upstairs in Berghain hangs the photographic work of Turner Prize winner Wolfgang Tillman looming over a dancefloor with a ceiling so high you may as well be outside. Downstairs on the bottom floor, in true Eurotrash style, the Berghain features a dark room generally reserved for sexual or otherwise illicit encounters (the kind of place you'd find yourself swinging like a rusty gate, tongue deep in a close friend after too many absinthes). As well as an amazing exterior and music deeper and darker than the rabbit hole, it's considered quite unfashionable to arrive before at least 3AM, and the club operates a 24 hour licence so don't be suprised if upon your exit you find the sun setting as opposed to rising.

As for the Tresor, it's still operating today albeit on less hallowed grounds. On the 14th of Feb what might be the first of a few Adventure Circus Club will be in full swing, promising "an excursion into a world of pantomime, machine-beings, acrobatics and shadow dancers that, next to extensive displayed visuals will provide an unforgettable adventure". Something I don't doubt, with the interior of the club as industrious as it is.

100th Post

Just got the internet back at home. Expect some more updates soon, good ones.
Tumblr is active

Rick Owens

Little. Forever.

Luis Gispert, Smother (Trailer) 2008



Luis Gispert, Let Them Lose Their Souls, They’re Animals Anyways 2008

Blair Thurman, Vanishing Point 1999

Old Youtube videos, miscellaneous pictures and assorted media from the vault can be found at BusyBeingBetter's brand new Tumblr .

Magazine Fiends

Spread from Paradis Magazine Issue #4



A magazine subscription can be the perfect Christmas gift to bestow upon friends or family. So, in order to pre-lick your fingers for the holiday season, BusyBeingBetter has compiled a list of several publications that will remind you once again of why you gloat over gloss.



Dazed and Confused (UK)£75 p.a.
Not to be confused with its lesser Australian counterpart, the UK version of Dazed is quite a well balanced representative of the alt vox populi. Even if you find it can't impress you with reviews of the young brit-pop stars of tomorrow, there's at least one obscure reference made per issue thats worth a wiki.

Paradis Magazine30,00€ per issue
The one thats taken top spot on my own Christmas wish-list, Paradis Magazine is a bi-annual publication with an archive only 4 issues deep. Distributed in both French and the Queen's English, dense sections of prose have so far articulated the life and times of Damien Hirst, Rupert Murdoch and Simon De Pury to name but three. No cheap thrills here, Paradis lay the pulp to rest and opt for opulence.

Gotham Magazine US$70 p.a.
Heavily NYC orientated, Gotham is the magazine you'd be reading if you found yourself twixt the glammer and glitz of anything Josh Schwartz has lent his production talents to. A mature outlook on the best the Big Apple has to offer.

Forbes 17 issues for US$19.99
It's no guarantee but if you're brushing breadcrumbs off the pages of Forbes whilst you tuck into your toast, your shares are going to be moving on up. Or given current conditions, falling less fast.

Alaska Magazine £25.00 per issue
A photography publication for those who demand a little more than a combination of Google image, FFFFound and some Tumblr's in your favourites, Alaska is more of a book than a magazine. Again, it's bi-annual, so I don't know if it's safe to call it the gift that keeps on giving, but it showcases fresh photographic talent from all 4 corners of the globe in a crisp graphic-conscious format that could easily outstay its welcome on your coffee table if you pushed it.

Russian Vogue ??????
Yes, Vogue Russia. With Anna Wintour's reign over the fashion mega-mag due to come to a close any day now, all eyes are on Aliona Doletskaya, editor-in-chief of Russian Vogue. Her editorial skills are hard to fathom when you can't read any of the articles, but Russia has it's finger on the pulse and features generally 100% original content, only sharing perhaps one shoot with it's US sibling per issue. It should be noted that Russian Vogue also boasts higher paper quality and printing resolution for the videophiles.

Purple Fashion Magazine 64.00 € p.a. (2 issues)
Purple magazine, curiously created as an 'anti-fashion' magazine of the earl 90's is anything but. Bi-annually released, each issue comes with an artist book, arguably more valuable than the magazine itself, which is so thick it's more of a tome. Artist books to date have included Terry Richardson, Hedi Slimane, Dash Snow and Juergen Teller.

ZINEZ
For those discontent with culture rags, hit the above link for all you could ever want and then some re: homemade zines. From design, to fanzines to even lofi porn pulp all you need to do is let the links point you in the right direction. A lot of content to get through, so if your down for the independent press and have no desire to better yourself through contemporary knowledge, dive into the piles of pages that await!