CHRIS STAIN "LOOKIN' FOR WORK" SCREEN PRINT

Chris Stain "Lookin' For Work"...even the angels got it hard.

-Screen printed on archival paper
-Hand colored with spray paint
-2 color
-Edition of 30
-19" W x 12.5" H

DOUG KEYES X BERND BECHER 'WATER TOWERS'

I'm all about water towers and I love-love black and white photography, no matter what the subject matter (generally)...just as long as it stops me long enough to take a '2nd look'. Doug Keyes is a photographer that's got my attention and what do you think I found on his site? A photo of a Bernd Becher water tower...amazing!
Doug currently has a show underway at the Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn, NY through February 26th. I'd strongly recommend checking it out.

KlompChing Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
January 7 - February 26, 2010

WATER TOWERS: FROM THE CHICAGOLAND AREA

So, if you've ever read my blogs or viewed my Twitter, then you'd know that I have a bit of a have a thing for water towers...honestly don't have a clue why I'm so damned infatuated with them, but clearly, I am.

These days, water towers are like visual 'white-noise' to most of us. Many of us are surrounded by them just about every living, breathing moment of our lives. How many of you out there in blog-land can see one from the computer where you're reading this blog this very second? We see them, but we don't see them. You probably can't tell me if there's one on the building you are in right now, can you? They compete for rooftop spaces nationwide. They get crowded out by high tension power lines. Trees don't get pruned and push up against them. Stripmalls, discount cigarette stores & car washes are packed tightly around them. You might even have one right outside your apartment, work or school window. Sadly, I do not. Maybe when it comes time to pack up and move, my new digs will have a water tower, I'll definitely make sure one's on my checklist when that time comes.
They obviously serve a very useful purpose, don't they? They must, mustn't they? Why else would these rooftop structures be strewn all across the landscape, from coast to coast? The bigger question should be, why can't we decide on one common design style? They come in far too many shapes and sizes. Some are way too structurally & aesthetically complicated for their own good.
Do you have a favorite shape or construct? I mostly do, I dig on the classic oak timbered breed, but I'll drop what I'm doing to get a good gander at any of the older varieties made of steel...funnels on stilts or something that looks like an extra from that movie starring Tom 'Mission Impossible' Cruise 'War of the Worlds'...those damned ill mannered Martian 'Walkers'!
Drive through an older suburb near you. Did they see a building boom in the late 70's or early 80's (before the bubble popped), with their fauxe marble and stucco finishes, dark greens, brown and beige painted boxes trimmed in Roman and Spanish arches. I will put money down that you will be staring at an example that looks about as outdated as a Donald Trump building, with it's useless marble and brass bells and whistles.
Do yourself a favor, the next time you're jetting past a water tower, slow down and just look up at it...for a second or two. Don't over think it, just take a mental picture (or better yet, pull out your cell phone a snap one) and be on with your day. Is it a dilapidated oak structure? A bulbous steel phallus decked out in cell phone antennae? A monstrous 10-legged bell shaped beast?

All photos were taken with my cell phone, almost always from the drivers seat of a moving vehicle.

The soundtrack to this slideshow is by: Dengue Fever titled 'Seeing Hands/ Sleepwalking Version'. Grab it off of iTunes.

All photos were taken with my cell phone, almost always from the drivers seat of a moving vehicle.

The soundtrack to this slideshow is by: Dengue Fever titled 'Seeing Hands/ Sleepwalking Version'. Grab it off of iTunes.

CATCHING OUT dvd TRAIN HOPPING HOBOs:

The phrase 'Catching Out' describes the act of hopping a freight train. In the documentary film "Catching Out," several contemporary hobos dissent against mainstream American consumer culture by traveling for free on freight trains. The film features a seasoned eco-activist named Lee, a young nomad named Jessica, and a tramp couple known as Switch and Baby Girl. In three interwoven stories, "Catching Out" follows these trainhoppers as they navigate between the constraints of society and the freedom of the road.
Newly released and available direct from MicroCinema or at your neighborhood Amazon.com
FOUNDED IN 1996, MICROCINEMA INTERNATIONAL is a leading international rights manager, exhibitor, and specialty markets distributor of the "moving image arts." Microcinema International specializes in the acquisition, exhibition, and distribution of independently produced works of an artistic and socially-relevant nature.
Their mission is to seek out, curate, exhibit, promote, and distribute compelling works to a broad audience via existing and emerging mediums. This mission is realized through exhibition-based events, web-based platforms, educational outreach, modern marketing techniques, and digital and physical distribution.

WATER TOWER:

Decorated in cell phone antennas, straddling a car wash and a wholesale cigarette shop, in a neglected stripmall somewhere outside of Warrenville, IL.

WATER TOWER:

This old guy sticks out like a sore thumb in the Suburbs of Bolingbrook, IL where its been planted for at least the last 30 years. It stands strangely overlooking a playground with cookie-cutter, 2-story houses packed tightly around it on 3 sides.
It also reminds me of one of those 'walkers' from War of the Worlds. I expected that at any moment it would free itself of its concrete anchors and make a run for the swingset in the park across the street.