How Low Can A Punk Get?

Bad Brains at CBGB's 1982
(second song is Banned In DC)

Someone stole my umbrella today.
Am I wrong to think that this was a real dick move?
I walked into a store and put my new-ish, completely functional umbrella in the basket by the door.
When I went to get it on my way out it was gone, and in it's place was a shitty broken umbrella.
I didn't even bother taking it because it was so obviously useless.
Maybe I had low blood sugar or something but my faith in humanity took a little nose dive.
Now I feel like a schmuck for letting it get to me, but at the time I really thought I had witnessed a new low.

New Photos on brockshorno.net

I added some new photos to my site.
Take a look here.
Let me know what you think.

Poster Exhibition May 1970

"Posters from poster workshops on display at the University Art Museum."
UC Berkeley May 1970
Photos by Theresa Loewenberg

I see some Emory Douglas in there and a lot of other interesting stuff.
I like the gallery goers too.
From here.

Swiss Gifs

In case you were wondering, I'm in Brooklyn again.
Went to North Carolina for family Thanksgiving...more on that later.
Got back and saw a link from Carl to this site called Studio Sport based in Basel.
They've got some good work over there including these great typeface gifs.

New Videos etc.

Saturday night was my birthday party.
Kelly made this amazing flier.
Paige DJ'd, lots of great people came, it was a real good time.


My brother is in town from California.
We went to the Frick Collection yesterday afternoon.
Saw a bunch of paintings, bronze sculptures etc.
Real old timey shit.
Big names in there too, Velazquez, Goya, el Greco, Manet, Bronzino.
Some hot stuff.
They had an Annunciation with the Holy Spirit represented as a dove, spitting some gold paint into Mary's ear.
You know I was loving that one, but I can't remember the dude's name.
I'll have to look it up, so more on that later.

Last night I finally got around to editing two of the videos I shot last weekend.
Links below.

Pony


Pillows

Take a look.
You can comment back here if you want.
Let me know what you think.

Glass Lantern Slides Part One: Tipis

Hand colored glass slides by Walter McClintock.
From the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.


Thunder Tipi


Thunder Tipi of Brings Down The Sun


Rainbow Tipi of Head Carrier


Otter Tipi


Crow Tipi


Blue Tipi or Home of the Thunder


Black Buffalo Tipi

"Pittsburgh native Walter McClintock graduated from Yale in 1891. In 1896 he traveled west as a photographer for a federal commission investigating national forests. McClintock became friends with the expedition’s Blackfoot Indian scout, William Jackson or Siksikakoan. When the commission completed its field work, Jackson introduced McClintock to the Blackfoot community of northwestern Montana. Over the next twenty years, supported by the Blackfoot elder Mad Wolf, McClintock made several thousand photographs of the Blackfoot, their homelands, their material culture, and their ceremonies."

A Birthday Present From Google

Today is my birthday.
This morning I read that Google had put about 20 percent of the Life magazine archive online for my searching pleasure.
Followers of this blog can imagine how happy this makes me.

Here are a few pictures.

"Three girls who will be competing in a swimming match sitting in a row boat w. two fully-dressed men and surrounded by others before the meet at Coney Island, Brooklyn". - Wallace G. Levison August 27, 1887

"Mr. Stokes, dressed in a suit w. a bowler and cane, jumping off a stone wall in a park in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn" - Wallace G. Levison October 14, 1886


Two of the very few celebrities I care about, Johnny Depp and Muhammad Ali.
Mr. Ali looks sharp in a suit while Mr. Depp wears a Discharge t-shirt with the sleeves torn off.


Here is Brooke Shields with Snoopy.


Here is Jamie Farr with Snoopy.


And here is a Walker Evans photo from 1960.

The War Against Sleep

The War Against Sleep (The War At Sea)

New Planet Part 2

New Planet Part 1

.................
By popular demand I'm going to edit this post and explain how I found these images.
Basically, I find a phrase that appeals to me in a book and I do an image search for that phrase.
Then I select images and assemble a post based on the interactions of the individual parts and the resulting whole. I have a loose set of rules that helps me decide what to get rid of and what to keep. It can be time consuming and I sometimes forget where I found the originals when I'm finally ready to post them. I've gone back and forth about giving credit because I want it to be sort of mysterious, but now I'm told that it's annoying to not list my sources. Not to mention unkind to the original poster (and possibly illegal under something called a "copyright law"). Of course I'm an artiste and I'm not caught up in your laws, but here is the simple truth:
I heard the phrase "new planet" somewhere so I did an image search for it. It may have been in the book I just finished, "The Beautiful Room Is Empty" by Edmund White, but I think it was actually a headline on my yahoo mail account. Anyway, I found a crazy picture called "new planet" and it came from this website: http://www.funtimebirdy.com/ which is a website that sells toys for birds. If you have a pet bird, I recommend buying a toy from them. The toys come in many sizes and will provide your parrot, or macaw, or parakeet with hours of entertainment. Personally, I love the look of the Fun Time Birdy range of handmade toys because they look very much like contemporary sculpture. The pictures in New Planet Part 2 came from the same search but I used a different set of criteria to make decisions about those. I'll post links for those when I get a chance.

...their magic did not work in the sunlight

Periodicals

Here are some selections from the Resources for Sexual Diversity collection at the University of Saskatchewan.
I picked these magazines for the covers, so they are mostly from the 1970's.










This next one is from 1956.
Can you imagine?
Here's a quote from the library website:

"The first openly gay or lesbian national publication in the United States . The magazine included personal essays, short stories, poems, historical studies and book reviews. In 1954 US postal officials seized and refused to mail an issue, calling its contents obscene and lascivious, prompting a long legal battle. In 1958 the justices of the US Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decisions of lower courts and established the right of gay publications to be distributed through the mail. For a more detailed history see http://www.planetout.com/news/history/archive/08021999.html"


This one is from the '80's, can you tell?


And this one is from the '90's.
I just like the "Monsters In Love" imagery.


I think the overall winner here is "Gay Sunshine".
The award for Best Title goes to "The Lesbian Tide".
And "Mouth Of The Dragon" wins Best Illustration for the inclusion of hanky code.
What are your favorites?


Oh, and here's a bonus.
It's a flyer from a 1977 benefit reading for Gay Sunshine.
Speaking of diversity, I only know John Rechy, Allen Ginsberg, and Dennis Cooper, but I can't imagine putting them on the same bill. Maybe the other writers bridge the gaps.

And yes, it does appear to be autographed by all of the participants.

Today

KellyR and I rode our bikes to Grant's Tomb.
It was about 11 miles on the way there and 15 on the way back.

It pretty much looks like this.


Fewer biplanes around these days.


Don't know what's going on here but it looks like fun.


Doesn't look like this at all.


It was like this but with more buildings and minus the horse drawn carriages.


Here's a clip from a movie called "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante".
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney take a trip to Grant's Tomb.

Yesterday

Yesterday it rained.
I made a video.


I saw Man On Wire.

It was really great.
It's a documentary about a crazy frenchman who did a tight rope walk between the WTC towers in 1974.
It's still playing at the Sunshine Theater if you haven't seen it yet.

Speaking of the Sunshine, every time I go there I think of this photograph by Ben Shahn.

It's called "Houston Street Playground" and it's from circa 1932-36.
That's the Sunshine behind the handball wall.
I don't remember when or how I figured this out but it's true.
Check out this Google Street View for comparison.

The playground is still there too, it's on that little strip between East 1st and Houston.

Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost

Friday Night Youtube Party

The Dwarves - Drugstore


The Ramones - I Just Wanna Have Something To Do


The Germs - Lexicon Devil


Bad Brains - Big Takeover

More Obama Basketball Excellence

I'm pretty skeptical about politicians but after watching this video I'll pretty much do whatever the guy says.
Build a school? Join the Peace Corps?
Fuck it man, let's go!

Upside Down Dogs

Upside Down Dogs is the best website I've ever seen.

President Elect Barack Obama

Barry Obama basketball photo roundup!

I admit that I was planning on calling this post "The Audacity of Hoops", but then I decided to write a book called "The Audacity of Hangovers".
It's all about how I didn't eat any dinner on election night and then I got all nervous and excited and drank a lot of beer and stayed out too late.
Anyway, congratulations America!
You finally pulled your head out of your ass!
Last night I had a dream that I was talking to John McCain at a party.
I was trying to cheer him up but he started getting all weird and clingy and he kept sending me text messages.
It seemed very real at the time but of course McCain is 72 and probably couldn't text his way out of a wet paper bag.
I woke up with a pounding headache and realized I had to go to work.
By the way, the color photo in this post comes from a video of Obama's high school team.
I was going to post the youtube link but I decided not to because it includes footage of our President Elect missing a free throw.
Unacceptable!
Team America DOES NOT miss from the foul line!
At least not after January 20th.

Boxers from the Library of Congress

Frank Klaus

Dan Daily

Eddie O'Keefe

Sam Langford

Sam McVey

Kid Williams

George Chip

Wrestlers From the Library of Congress

Pat Connelly

J. Lemm

Peter Gotz

Nestor Tuominen

Zybsyko

Carl Nelson - Danish W.W. Champion Wrestler of Brooklyn

Herman Gassler

Photographs by Russell Lee

Earlier today I was looking through a book called "Long Time Coming" by Michael Lesy.
It's a collection of photographs taken in the U.S. between 1935-1943 by a bunch of different photographers.
It's a real thick book and I was flipping through pretty quickly, so I was only checking the captions when I came across a particularly good one.
I kept stopping on Russell Lee photos, so I thought I'd put some up here.




(You know I got excited when I saw those snake handlers.)




These are mostly from here and here.

Strolling Down Central Avenue, Hot Springs, Arkansas

These are from the Melting Pot Genealogical Society of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Berenice Abbott Photographs

KR and I rode around the city on our bicycles today. Got some ramen at Minca on East 5th Street then went to some galleries in Chelsea. Whenever I see the Starrett-Lehigh Building I think of this great photo by Berenice Abbott.


Later in the day, I was thinking about the photos she took in Williamsburg. Like this one from Powers and Olive.


Here's the corner of Graham and Metropolitan.


And here's one from South 6th Street and Berry, featuring the very bridge we rode over twice today.


My new favorite bike riding stretch is the path between the Williamsurg Bridge and Battery Park. Coincidentally, Berenice Abbott took a lot of great photos of that area too.


If you haven't seen Berenice Abbott's work before, "Changing New York" is the classic book. She is also the person responsible for getting Eugene Atget the recognition he deserved, through her work with his archive.

Berenice Abbott

People Playing Table Tennis

Bobby Fischer


Elizabeth Taylor


Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer


Ray Davies and John Dalton


Arnold Schoenberg