The Portrait Challenge Press, Blogs, and Video

I'm so happy to see The Portrait Challenge showing up in so many blogs, press, etc.  I'm only somewhat happy to see my mug show up in videos....

Here's links to a selection of items (more are coming in all the time):

VIDEO: 
City Arts Blog
Pangeality

BLOGS:
Randomville
Best Of
Ireland's King
City Arts Blog (look for all 3 posts on this subject by on the CAB),
Seattle Met Magazine (in the slideshow)
Carol Tompkins
Seattle Weekly
Neil Davidson
Jacquiescence
Speak & Bherd
another Seattle Weekly

Vito's Grand Opening this Thursday

Follow up to my blog post back in April....

I'm sure you all have heard by now, but Jeff Scott and Greg Lundgren are finished with the Vito's remodel and the grand opening is this Thursday, September 16th!

I was lucky to be able to sneak in yesterday for a quick little soft test run of the place and it looks GREAT!  The bar is lovely, and bar manager Justin has hired a great crew.  Jeff and Greg were on hand to say hello.  The whole staff looked excited and rearing to go.  Chef Bruno (formally from Tango Tapas) has put together what looks like a great meal; I tried the Calamari appetizer which was enjoyable.  I'm excited to head back and have a proper meal, plus with things on the lounge menu like a Philly Cheese steak sandwich and pulled-pork sliders along with all the more traditional Italian style fare, well it just all looks really tasty. 

The mural that Warren Dykeman's 35' mural gives Vito's a hipness but does not take away from the classy lounge feel of the place.  The grand piano is shiny and just looking for some sexy lady to be laying across it...check out the website for all the scheduled acts!.  .I suspect a giant brandy glass show up on it soon.  The whole place just seems to be coming together perfectly!  Plus the men's room still has ice in the urinals. 

Props to Jeff, Greg, Justin and Bruno for pulling it all together, it was fun to watch this project take shape over the last few months.  There is finally another restaurant on First Hill other than the Sorrento Hotel, and this one still has that lovely mural in the bathroom!

(sorry no photos)

MOLORAZZI at BLITZ - September Edition

Last night I joined Joey Veltkamp and Troy Gua as judges for the City Arts Art Walk Awards on a whirlwind tour of all the art we could find on Capitol Hill.  It was a blast!  Joey recapped the night very nicely on his blog, Best of, here - check it out. Despite being seriously involved judging art, I was able to snap some MOLORAZZI shots!

Here ya go:

Joey and Troy!

Artist Kimberly Trowbridge and Todd Jannausch (Gallery 40 Owner) setting up Kimberely's show

Curater Amanda Manitach

Jason Hirata shinning a lazer on himself

this one is for Erin Shafkind

A love letter to Robert Rodriguez

Dear Robert,


Thank you so much for making Machete and saving this woefully disappointing summer of would-be action films.  Thank you for doing what Stallone tried to do, but failed, with The Expendables - making a fun, silly, bloody, amazingly over the top, campy and sexy action movie.  Sure, Machete stalls on occasion between action and "love" scenes, but it always revs back up with a new surprising character or crazy scenario (like the hospital sequence??!!) !  Thank you for casting Steven Seagal, and for writing the line "This, this aint nothin'" [gestures to the giant knife in his torso] "i could kill you so easy right now"... and all the other choice bits! 

Machete is everything the adolescent boy in me wants from a movie, (including Lindsay Lohan, topless).  4 Molos!

Thank you so much Robert,

-Ryan Gifford Molenkamp

PS  I can't wait for the sequels, Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again!

MOLORAZZI at FIRST THURSDAY - September 2010

Here's a bunch of photos I managed to snap in my quick tour of shows on Thursday.  Enjoy!

Artist Randy Wood inspecting Nola Avienne's work

Artists Gretchen Bennett and Margie Livingston are only kind of okay with having their photo taken by the Molorazzi.  But that's what the MOLORAZZI does!  Makes ya uncomfortable! 

 Jennifer Zwick's Self-Portrait as an Effing Cheetah  She rocks!

More Zwick images.  Preggers belly. 

Painting by Maija Fiebig at G. Gibson Gallery
 

Saya Moriyasu

Saya's work needs to be appreciated in person

Tim Bavington's show at Greg Kucera was oddly underwhelming in person.  They seem to look better in reproduction.  Strange.  Maybe the Kenneth Noland/Morris Louis references hang to heavy. 

Lynn Yamamoto I enjoyed much more (also at Kucera)

Scott Lawrimore (on the right) outside of his new project space at 117 Main

Isaac Layman's project and Catalogs above.

Ball Point Ink Spill

Margot "Bird" Peterson is putting together a little zine that will be composed of ball point pen drawings that are a response to the oil spill in the gulf.  I had a little bit of time while sitting at press preview for The Portrait Challenge and was able to get this little drawing done for the project.  Ball point pen is not my medium of choice, but I still enjoyed making this drawing.

Deleted Scenes from The Expendables

Instead of giving you a rousing review of this "film", I am going to provide you all with all the deleted scenes that will be on the Special Edition DVD, as reported to me by a friend:

"You know, it's hard to cut even one scene, let alone four... I feel, as a filmmaker, like I had, you know... four abortions."
   --Sylvester Stallone, from The Expendables Special Edition DVD


DELETED SCENE #1: THE CHURCH


Stallone and Willis are confronted by a priest.

PRIEST: "Have you come here for forgiveness?"

Willis spins around and fires a bullet into the priest's forehead (the only use of a muzzle silencer in the entire film).

WILLIS: "It's a little too late for that, padre."


DELETED SCENE #2: THE FIX


Lundgren is shooting heroin as his dealer, played by Samuel L. Jackson, finishes a bottle of beer.
Jackson hands the empty bottle to Lundgren.

JACKSON: "Do that trick you showed me the last time."

Lundgren, barely focusing in his smack haze, accepts the bottle.
Lundgren proceeds to eat the bottle. Afterward, blood pouring from his lacerated mouth, he hiccups.

JACKSON: "Damn."

A wet, flatulant sound eminates from Lundgren, who giggles. Jackson frowns, sniffing the air.

JACKSON: "What the...? Did you just shit cho muthafuckin' pants?! Holy fucking shit, Gunner!! What the fuck is wrong witchoo?!"


DELETED SCENE #3: BRIDGE GIRL


Rourke waits in the blue light, in his tear-filled reverie, for Stallone to leave the shop. Then he stands, slowly removes his shirt, and picks up a hand mirror. On the back of the mirror is a sticker reading "EXPENDABLES." Shot of this sticker is held for eleven seconds. Then Rourke slowly turns his back to a large mirror on the wall, and uses the smaller mirror to ponder a tattoo on his back. The tattoo is huge, black ink, photorealistic... depicts a beautiful, chesty Croat girl in a summer dress, about to fling herself from a river bridge. Her expression is one of incalculable pain, yet in her eyes there's still the tiniest spark of hope, as though she dares fate to grant her salvation at the last possible instant.

ROURKE [whispering]: "I'll never forget you, Bridge Girl."


DELETED SCENE #4: THE BOY


The truck of soldiers chases after Statham & Stallone. As it roars through the capital, a peasant boy hurls a piece of fruit after the soldiers in a display of resistance [this scene made the final cut].

However...

The soldiers' truck skids to a halt, backs up, and the pair of soldiers next to the tailgate empty their automatic rifle magazines into the youthful Che, reducing his body to a spasming pile of lasagna.
Then it's back into gear, and on with the chase!


I'm also guessing there'll be an interview with the actress who played Sandra, the General's Daughter, vis-a-vis the compelling waterboarding scene. She might, I don't know, say...

"Tha scene woss so powerful, yes? We have shot it manny, manny times, ahntell Meester Stallone he say is just right. Then I see how ees come out, and I'm like, wow! How doze he do it? They rope... they writhing... they water ees beading up on my firm, round, tanned, heaving breasts... so passionate. Almose... sensual?"

One new painting, one new review, and a bunch of work on the Portrait Challenge show

I've been really busy getting materials ready for the Portrait Challenge at Bumbershoot, and haven't been keeping up with my blog, but I did have time to write a bit about Kate Tucker's show last week on the CAB here.  And I just managed to finish a work for the Kirkland Arts Center Redux Studio Challenge.  The theme was "architecture" which is a reoccurring theme in my work, which made that aspect relatively easy.  Well, relatively easy once I gave up on my initial idea (long story) and just decided to devote one of my last works in the Place series to this project.

So, here it is, 95 Place -

The KAC Redux show is in October and preliminary details are to be found on their website.


The rest of my days have been devoted to Portrait Challenge preparation stuff like this:

Drawing by Sharon Arnold

making buttons is hard!

Molorazzi at BLITZ August 2010

Check out my thought and some better pics over at my post on the CAB here.

Meanwhile, here's a couple other pics!

BOOM

Andie DeRoux in front of her work at Ghost Gallery

 Artist Greg Boudreau and Brittany in Greg's studio with a coloring contest happening in the background

Artists Julie Alpert and Laura Dean and a couple tall boys

"CAVE-O-SAPIAN" - best rock song of 2010!

ROCK IS GOOD AGAIN

I have never really been much of a Wolf Parade fan.  I enjoyed their first acclaimed release, Apologies to the Queen Mary, but I didn't really get too much from it.  It felt like there were going for a raw, kind of early Modest Mouse-rough but poppy-vibe and trying too hard.  The had an unsettled sound, an unsure sound.  It didn't help any that they took an animal name like every other mid '00s indie rock band.  Subsequently I never checked out their second album.  But for some reason, the other day I decided to pick up a copy Expo '86 and boy am I glad I did! 

Wolf Parade has released one of the best rock albums I've heard in years.  Poppy, energetic, clever, and delightful.  Driving melodies, super tight drumming, and clean guitars guide these songs.  The damn thing hooked me from the start.  You can certainly hear bits of other rock titans in the music, but they own this album.  The difference is they  homage and building on the music and the past. 

The songs on this release are top-to bottom excellent!  It's the kind of album that any given track could get stuck in your head.  I haven't been so enamored immediately by a release in a long time.  The highlight, though, has got to be the closing track "Cave-O-Sapien".  That song overcomes it's silly title (and lyrics) to be one of the best rock songs I've heard in a while.  Damn if there isn't some "oh oh oh oh ooohs" and such on it!  Great stuff  4.5 Molos!


Everyone has been waiting for the new Arcade Fire to come out; well it's here and it's really good.  The Suburbs.  Arcade Fire is a great band, one of the best live bands of the decade, and you have to see them if you have not. 

I doubt they will ever write an album as ground-breaking and universally loved as Funeral (nor should they try). The Suburbs is not attempting to be another Funeral.  It feels like the next chapter in the story, though, especially lyrically.  More mature?  Yes.  And the tracks are more consistent front to back than either of their first 2 albums - there are no duds on The Suburbs.  

That being said, there's something missing - this album is excellent, but it feels too easy.  There is beauty and some great songs.  But maybe they are just almost too good for their own good.  That doesn't make sense, and I don't have time to elaborate on it...but maybe this album is just one more strong step on some kind of amazing musical journey.  If any contemporary band can take us on such a journey, The Arcade Fire is the one.  4 Molos


School of Seven Bells released an album Disconnect from Desire a couple weeks ago that might be in danger of getting ignored in the wave of Arcade Fire love, but I hope that is not the case.  I love this band!  But it's not the kind of music you can listen to all the time, there's a lot of repetitiveness in their music, heightened by the twin Deheza sister's lovely harmonizing - really all they music is built around the vocals, to create stunning atmosphere.  Disconnect is a stronger, more diverse and better-written follow up to the very good Alpinisms and in spots it moves their sound a little further away from the shoegazer to pop to good effect.  You should check it out!.  By the way, Wikipedia says their name comes from "a mythical South American pickpocket training academy"  3.5 Molos