Update: Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

Music Appreciation

Dead or Alive was a British new wave band from Liverpool, England, best known for the androgynous lead singer, Pete Burns. They are also most recognized for thier song, You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), which reached U.S. Billboards twice in 1985 and 2003.

When I was a kid, I remember thinking Pete Burns was girl who resembled one of my elementary school teacher. What's even more disturbing is that I thought my school teacher was pretty.

Before Pandora, iPods, or CDs, there were records. One could purchase an LP (Long Play) or a 45", which usually contained singles. To play the old vinyl records, one needed a record player. I had a small portable one, which my mom used to play her records as she exercised. This was one that I remember hearing over and over and over again.

Pete Burns, who was born on August 5, 1959, passed away on October 23, 2016 following a sudden cardiac arrest.

Source: Wikipedia

Kent Williams

Art Appreciation

Kent Williams is an American contemporary figurative artist known for his neo-expressionistic work. The vivid colors and the use of light in his paintings allows the viewer to draw a narrative.

You can find more of his work HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Mother and Daughter (2009) via dailyartfixx

Trace Double-Portrait (2005) via lesdiagonalesdutemps

Devon's Back (2008) via artnet

Sources: http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2011/01/25/kent-williams-painting/; http://comicblog.septagonstudios.com/kent-williams-a-dynamic-contemporary-artist/; http://www.lesdiagonalesdutemps.com/article-kent-williams-76705157.html; http://kentwilliams.blogspot.com/; http://www.kentwilliams.com; http://painthouse.wordpress.com/; Wikipedia

Voting "La Palanca"

I've been around elections since I was very little. My dad was in politics and eventually became an elected board member of a school district. After his tenure, he continued to support friends who ran for other offices either in the local, state or federal level. We walked streets, knocked on doors, and asked people to vote.

My dad instilled in me the importance of being involved in the community and having a voice through the voting process. I remember going with him to vote at my school, which was a polling location, entering a booth and having the curtains close behind us. Each candidate had a lever. At the very top were levers for parties, which allowed voters to vote straight party or as I grew up knowing it as "la palanca."

Lever machines were phased out and replaced with optical scan, which is similar to bubbling in Scantron sheet. Then after the "hanging chad" incident, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which introduced America to electronic voting machines.

Although voting "la palanca" is a phrase from the past, the idea of voting straight party is still practice.

Check out this article from American City and County, which provides a retrospect of the lever machine and how it was once promoted as "tally-fraud-proof."

Source: http://americancityandcounty.com/blog/voting-technology-develops

Enur feat. Natasja Saad - Calabria 2007

Music Appreciation

I will admit, I like the music video. Hey, I'm a guy. But this music video has a story. Sad, actually.

Natasja Saad, who is featured in the music video, was a rising music artist. She was a Danish rapper and reggae singer who died at the young age of 32. Soon after the release of Calabria, Natasja was in a deadly car accident in Jamaica on June 24, 2007.

You can see more of her music videos HERE.



Source: Wikipedia

Juan Francisco Casas

Art Appreciation

The absolute talent of Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas transposes his photographs to oil paintings and blue ballpoint realistic sketches. The majority of his work are of beautiful women in playful and sensual settings captured in self-pic-like photos.

You can see more of his work HERE.

Seis y Cuatro Autorretrato #1 (2008) via Buamai

Fuck Artist (2009) via hypemuch

Sources: http://artodyssey1.blogspot.com/2012/05/juan-francisco-casas.html; http://www.juanfranciscocasas.com/en/galeria; http://hypemuch.com/2011/04/19/photorealistic-ballpoint-pen-drawings-by-juan-francisco-casas/

Nelly Furtado - I'm Like a Bird

Music Appreciation

Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird," which is considered her signature song, was released on October 24, 2000. The song even won her the grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

The CGI music video featured Nelly Furtado levitating off the ground in the woods before crowd surfing.

Source: Wikipedia

Robert Rauschenberg

Art Appreciation

Robert Rauschenberg was a Neo-Dadaists American Pop Artist known for his three dimensional collages. He incorporated trash and objects found on the streets and used various paint applications and materials in his work to make political or cultural statements.

Rauschenberg is recognized for Erased de Kooning Drawing, where he basically erased a drawing by Willem de Kooning. Signs is another Rauschenberg work widely recognized for the images of Janis Joplin, Bobby Kennedy, John F. Kennedy and the 60s era.

Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas on October 22, 1925.  He later received a National Medal of Arts in 1993.

Retroactive 1 (1964) via orangemercury

Signs (1970) via artnet

Untitled 'combine' (1963) via artmastered

Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953) via secretforts

Hot Shot (1983) via jasonaltobelli

Sources: http://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/; http://artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/pop_art.htm; http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-rauschenberg/about-the-artist/49/; http://www.theartstory.org/artist-rauschenberg-robert.htm#; Miles, Frank J., "Partners in Love & Art," LstyleGstyle Magazine, September / October 2012, Page 27.