Me and Thorne are in Miami at the

Here is the link to the blog (http://vice.typepad.com/vice_magazine/2008/11/chicago---daily.html).

And just in case you don't feel like clicking, I'll post the article here.
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CHICAGO - DAILY LIFE SUCKS

Yony Leyser spent a couple years documenting places most people would consider total scumholes: Ida, a utopian vegan transgender commune in Tennessee; Christiana, an anarchist village formed in 1969 in Copenhagen; and Kopi, Europe's largest squat. Yeah, yeah, you've seen tons of photos of punks and most of 'em feel overly nostalgic for safety pins, or square and clueless and borderline judgemental, or like some kind of dirt-ass jock gangbang full of total nonfunny fucking idiots. But we talked to Yony about his photos (click below for that) all he's doing is showing contemporary crusties at their finest. (Yes, that girl above is smoking weed out of a noodle.) His show opens at Heaven Gallery in Chicago tonight at 7 PM. Grant Hart from Hüsker Dü is appearing out of the ether to perform, as is 4AD's Anni Rossi.

Vice: Sometimes I see this stuff and feel like, "Thank god that's not me," and sometimes I see it and I'm like, "FUCK YEAH!!!" Do these photos make you sad or make you feel more punk or what?

Yony Leyser: I think each photo sparks a different emotion in me. Mostly, they just remind me that there are a lot of people under the radar, most of them hiding out in Europe. I got to meet everyone from an aging punk who demanded to be naked and claimed she had the first pet rat. The rat had babies and she gave them to the Sex Pistols and other punk bands, sparking the trend; to nine-year-old runaway anarchist kids. The name of the show came from the tattoo you see in the photo above. There was a punk who was passed out on a rock at 3 PM in Christiana. He had a big red Mohawk and the words "Daily Life Sucks" on his head. Yeah, in a way it can be depressing. But when I ask myself why it is depressing, I'm not sure. I think it has to do with the rigid square goggles that we are all trained to wear that lead us towards success, straight life, and to offices on the tops of skyscrapers. So I really don't know who I feel worse for, sexually frustrated business people stuck in traffic in their SUVs or passed-out punks. The show is more for those business people who have no idea any world exists out of suburbia or their yuppie bars, or the office Christmas party. We need to diversify our surroundings.

Did you know your subjects?
I did get to know many of my photo subjects. That meant hanging out in very unsavory environments. Some of them were really not cognizant most of the time.

I heard you're a fancy reporter sometimes.
No, but I've been working on a documentary about William S. Burroughs. That's how I met Grant Hart. They were good friends. Burroughs was friends with a lot of punks for some reason. Well, many happened to be good-looking guys. I've been working on the documentary for four years. It all started in Lawrence, Kansas. I've interviewed Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, John Waters, David Cronenberg, Gus Van Sant, Hal Wilner, Laurie Anderson, Genesis P-Orridge, George Condo, Diane DiPrima, Anne Waldman, James Grauerholz, Peter Weller, the worlds largest deadly snake collector, and many other interesting characters that were friends with Burroughs. It should be out early next year.

Join our Facebook group!
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30587433723

Sure, Dave says that the economic crises is not real...

But I'm pretty excited about Alex Blumberg's blog and podcast explaining the real estate bubble burst and other issues that are hard for an arty animator/curator/performer/street artist to get her head around.

Planet Money Blog
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money

Planet Money Podcast
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=94411890

Also, This American Life has an older episode covering this issue. You can listen for free here:
#355: The Giant Pool of Money
May 09, 2008
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355
Ira has a raspy voice. hee hee.

This friday This American Life is broadcasting an episode about the financial crises and what has happened the past couple of weeks. I listen to this and believe what they say because they use true stories to illustrate what is happening, and of course...I trust them to tell the truth.

#365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy
October 03, 2008
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

Wicker Park’s Heaven Gallery on a roll

Posted in Art & Design by Lauren Weinberg on July 31st, 2008
Hot Chicago artist Cayetano Ferrer brings his subversive style to Wicker Park’s Heaven Gallery (Yep, that's this web site) on Saturday 2 with “Death Drive,” a one-day show on view from noon–10pm. (Docent Abby G. leads a tour at 7pm.)

Heaven Gallery has been busy lately: TOC contributor Jonathan Kinkley was impressed by its previous show, “Means to an End,” which closed this week. Jonathan writes that the photography-heavy show, curated by Brad Troemel, revolved “around the theme of nature as both an end and a means” and “featured worthwhile works by some big local names, like Melanie Schiff and Jason Lazarus, as well as 17 other American, Dutch and German artists.”

“Schiff’s photograph," Jonathan continues, “juxtaposed a mall with a graveyard at sunset, commenting on consumerism and mortality with her signature stylized, waning golden light. Troemel inserted one of his own works into the show [Mountain, pictured], which perhaps best illustrated the exhibition’s curatorial intent. He Photoshopped numerous parking lot snowdrifts (means) to create an illusion of a mountain (ends).” Jonathan also reports that Heaven was concurrently showing “Rerun,” a group show of “Boston-area artists who create their own wallpaper.” Although the artists’ “media and the dimensions [of their work]” were the same, the show “spotlighted a rich, diverse range of talents and styles quoting greater visual culture,” Jonathan concludes.

It sounds so awesome, I could almost forgive Heaven for not sending me a press release.

Link to full article here -->
http://www.timeout.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/?p=6381

Kind of weird to blog my own press on here, but I guess somebody's got to do it.
Read full article here -->
http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/art-design/41311/concrete-canvas
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Time Out Chicago / Issue 178 : Jul 24–30, 2008
Public art
Concrete canvas
Risking fines and jail time, street artists install pieces that (temporarily) enhance bleak cityscapes.

By Gretchen Kalwinski

FOREST FOR THE TREES Eskimos and assorted creatures gallivant in this piece titled "A Forest Happening" at Co-Prosperity Sphere at 32nd St and Morgan St.
Photo: Pooper

If you traverse Chicago’s North and Northwest Sides with an eagle eye, you’ll soon start seeing art where it doesn’t belong. On mailboxes, parking signs, abandoned buildings and windows, art ranging from a painting in the shape of a kiwi to a sticker proclaiming YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL to a paste-up of a swooping bird brightens the urban landscape.

The artists installing this “guerilla” art (mostly in the warmer months and the dark of night) call themselves street artists and often hide their identities from cops by using nicknames. Most have jobs as designers, art directors or production artists and don’t consider their art vandalism because it’s usually not on private property; they favor surfaces they believe belong to all of us—signs, newspaper boxes, lampposts and construction sites. But don’t confuse their work with gang graffiti or tagging: It’s illegal, but there’s an altruistic mission to their madness.

Kime Buzzelli, one of our artists showing in August worked on "The Lost Ones".

Her book is available August 2nd at Quimby's!

Saturday August 2nd 4:00PM till 6:00pm
DR. REVOLT and Gary Panter signing The Lost Ones

Steve Niles teams up with four visual artists to bring you a graphic novel that will challenge what you think about time and space travel. DR. REVOLT, an original member of the historic New York City graffiti crew The Rolling Thunder Writers, Gary Panter, an illustrator known for his surreal and raw style, Morning Breath, Brooklyn-based art and design duo, and emerging painter/fashion designer Kime Buzzelli - each bring a remarkable and unique drawing style to the project. Gary Panter and Dr. Revolt will be on hand to sign comics.

Justin B Williams’ strange image landscapes are at once familiar and foreign, nostalgic and alien, like a well-worn recurrent dream or a new favorite quilt at the thrift store. Populated with unknowable situations, projected desires and the like, they seemingly unearth subconscious thoughts, deja-vu sentiments or unknown anxieties. Justin’s works function like maps, organizing and reorganizing his own inner tangential philosophies, experiences, fever dream thoughts or esoteric rants. His work calls to mind the representational work of Philip Guston, infusing cartoonish imaginative interpretations of personal narratives with a sincere sense of wonder and a mild sense of irony. On a purely formalist level, Justin has an impeccable sense of color and composition—if Matisse were alive today and knew about rock n’ roll, Freudian theories, cartoons and Raymond Pettibon, this might be what his paintings look like.

To read the Interview, go to Anthology

Noah posted a bunch of cool stuff on his site.
Go here to check it out --> http://www.retardriot.com/shows/?p=150