Mast on the Selby

The title of this post will probably make absolutely no sense to most of you.

The Mast Brothers are an ultra-hip sensation based in Brooklyn (natch, Williamsburg. Woot.) who have been cultivating a strong following within the rising artisanal movement of bringing back trade work in the food production industry. I mean things like small farm milk and butter, local pickling productions, the return of the art of butchering, and in this case, bean to bar chocolate production.

The Selby is an online photo journalist (is it all right to call him that?) who, in my opinion, takes photos with an eye reminiscent of a love child of The Cobra Snake and Annie Leibovitz. Mostly pulled from the homes and spaces of rocks stars, artists, stylists (basically party all night, rock all day type of people) and cool young businesses, Tom Selby has capitalized on the art of photojournalism by indulging in our developed social stalking tendencies. Awesome. I love his website, get a kick out of the written interviews at the end of each entries, and pretty much fall in love with all the Australians on the website.

Check out the Mast Brothers on The Selby here.

twits

So as most of you know or have figured out I have a twitter account. For those of you who had no idea, there it is, now you know. For those of you who won't be my friend now that I've revealed this, I don't want to be your friend either.

I've only twittered (tweeted, whatever) maybe once or twice, and probably log in three times a week at most. I'm not that much a fan of the site, and though it can be slightly intriguing it is pretty darned pointless. Plus, I hate the fact that all links are scrambled and you can never get an idea of what you'll be linking to. Dangerous, I tell you! But I'm certainly not going to hate on people who tweet like there's no tomorrow. Not only is that unfair, but I know that Twitter has become a relevant Thing (like, it's a Thing with a capital T, something culturally significant, maybe more of a fad than anything lasting in our world but not just a plain ol' thing.) and plus it allows me to stalk, ahem, find out about people and kill some free time. I know, me, free time, crazy right?

Today, however, I found that Twitter can indeed be a really useful, stimulating and even educational tool.

Okay, yes, I think this way because it will tell me things like the location of the Kogi truck and what flavors ice cream the General Greene is serving on any given day. Nay, any given MINUTE. But that's not why I'm blogging about twittering (like whoa, so 2009 of me). See, I've been racking my brain to find ways that I can stay in tune with the art world. When I was in college, (Ready, time warp machine?) my very right brained self was relatively sharp in making art world criticisms, comparisons, and assessments of works and of artists. By the time I graduated I had trained myself to talk art lingo, to see things in art that did not exist, and to familiarize myself with not only older art history figures, but current and emerging artists as well.

Then a funny thing happened - I forgot everything. It was like my brain was wiped clean by alien mutants! (weird comparison, sorry.)

I went from knowing how to talk about art, to knowing how to talk about a signle roster of 25 artists. I suppose this happens in many fields, and frankly I'd love for my neurosurgeon to be focused on exclusively my brain and the synapses that are firing...not my brain a little, and my toes a little, and oh, a little bit of my gall bladder as well. But art is not a science (duh) and is informed so SO much by its history and by it's relevance, you gotta be in it to win it.

Now, of course I can do my own reading and research. But I'm not disciplined enough to do this, aside from the fact that I'm so far removed it's hard to figure out where to jump in, or even how to retain any information that I do manage to collect.

This is where twitter comes in. I knew that everyone was on twitter. But I had no idea that EVERYONE IS I ON Twitter. Artnet, The MoMA, Art Fag City, the list goes on, all these amazing institutions and publications and super knowledgeable art sources, they are all there talking art and art world gossip. What I like about art news in twitter feed is the more approachable and digestible format for which art news is presented. I love ArtForum just as much as anyone else, but sometimes the articles and reviews are so scholarly and so word-centric that I get lost in the writing and can't even begin to analyze what the art is about. All I need is a 140 word round-up about what's going on, who thinks what, which artist is featured in which museum this month. Twitter, I've discovered, allows me to pick up names and bits of information much like I would gain in any normal discussion.

140 words or less. That's how I'm going to get back into the art world.

Wedding Photos

I have been absolutely infatuated with wedding photography lately.

Which is weird because I was never one of those little girls who dreamt about my perfect wedding. Up until recently, I wasn't even positive that I really wanted to have a formal wedding. I've since decided that yeah, maybe a ceremony would be cool...but these photos make me want to find a husband and get married and have a HUGE ceremony and even bigger party! If not just to have some amazing photos of myself - is that too vain? But really, I just want these amazing photos, photos with vibrant color schemes, hard and soft focus points, pretty dresses, handsome men, bright blue skies, and so so so many smiles!

I've come across tons of wedding blogs lately. TONS. There seem to be as many wedding blogs online now as there are food blogs. And you know, that's a lot. I stumbled upon one today (HERE) that I spent way too much time on, but I'd like to share it with you because it makes me simply happy. And excited to one day have my own! :)

Good Week/Bad Week

I highly recommend adding The Week to your daily reading list, or just subscribing to it (It's pretty cheap not to mention a great bathroom read). The Week is, as it's namesake indicates, a weekly publication of current events, editorial roundups, cartoons, and all sorts of random bits of information from news sources all over the world. It's informative without being too wordy, which is important to me. (I could have just said it was concise, I know...)

My favorite section is the Good Week/Bad Week page. The editors take pretty bizarre news stories and deem them either good or bad for whoever or whatever is involved. Example:

Good week for:

'Heteropaternal superfecundation,’ after Mia Washington of Texas entered the biology textbooks because a DNA test revealed that her 11-month-old twins have different fathers. She admitted to have been sleeping with two men when they were conceived.

Internships, after a small Spokane, Wash., distillery developed a small army of volunteers to bottle and package its vodka and gin for no pay, as long as they get free shots of the products at the end of their shift. “It’s grown popular entirely by word-of-mouth,” said Don Poffenroth of Dry Fly Distilling.

Miracles, after a Texas couple reported finding a Cheetos cheese snack that bears an incredible resemblance to Jesus. Dan and Sara Bell said they will see what they can get for “Cheesus” on eBay. “If it’s only 25 cents, we’re just going to eat it,” said Dan.

Bad week for:

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times columnist, who admitted that a 43-word paragraph in a recent column was nearly identical to a paragraph written by blogger Josh Marshall. Dowd’s explanation was that she somehow lifted the paragraph from a conversation with a friend, who “must have read Josh Marshall without mentioning that to me.”

Driving under the influence, after a Massachusetts man was ticketed for driving erratically while eating a bowl of cereal on his lap. He explained that he was hungry.

Bodybuilding, after doping officials showed up to do steroid tests at the Belgian bodybuilding championship, and all 20 muscled competitors grabbed their gear and ran out the door. “I have never seen anything like it,” said doping official Hans Cooman.

See more Good Week/Bad Weeks HERE