FunFunFun Fest!!!

M83 performing at Auditorium Shores, Austin Texas


Last weekend's annual FFF Fest was not at Waterloo Park but instead at much larger Auditorium Shores. The change in venue left me a little cold. Since Texas has had a severe drought for half the year it was more like a dust bowl than anything else. However, the music this year kept with tradition and had lots of up and coming artists like Austra, MNDR, Childish Gambino, Neon Indian, Yacht and Picture Plane on the Blue Stage. Headling performers included Passion Pit, Odd Future, Slayer, Danzig Legacy, Spoon, and Public Enemy.



MNDR, Franki Chan, Austra, Public Enemy,

Thing to do in Dumbo area of Brooklyn

Dumbo stands for Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This area is becoming a hot-spot for artists and galleries. When the weather is nice take the East 34th Street ferry to Fulton Ferry Landing/Dumbo. You'll get some nice views of the East River, Empire State building, the United Nations building and once you're in Brooklyn you can walk over to the park. In the summer the park is busy during the day with kid's day camps but also festivals such as the BRIC's Celebrate Brooklyn.

It's a short walk to P.S Bookshop (76 Front Street, between York St & Main St). This book store caters to those interested in books on art, architecture, graphic design, performing arts and a fairly ample fiction section broken into many different genres. I happily found Steven Heller and Mirko Ilić's Genius Moves under ten bucks but they also carry rare and limited editions of books in a wide range of categories.

A quick turn of the corner and you're at Zoë (68 Washington Street). To a non-New Yorker this store typifies the cliche of the chic understated tastes of the edgy New Yorker. Of course, everything in the store were well known high-end labels but it is a well edited collection.


Next go to the galleries in the area. A.I.R Gallery, Suite 228 is part of the Front Street Galleries. A.I.R Gallery is an artist run gallery for women. Gallery Hours during this exhibition: Thursday 5:30 - 8:30pm, and Fri - Sun, 11 to 6pm.

Other galleries of interest, LAND (League Artists Natural Design) which is an organization which helps adults with developmental disabilities express their creative impulse. I especially liked the aluminum foil creations in the window on display.

For a bite to eat stop into the once artists supply shop turned cafe called Al Mar (111 Front St.)
This Italian bistro has good coffees, pastries, sandwiches and a totally funky artsy vibe without any of the granola crunch.

After lunch walk to Pearl Street where you will find Olga Guanabara (63 Pearl Street) which has a wonderful collection of tree-stump modern furniture, home accessories, whimsical artwork on display by Mauro Baiocco and even some Brazilian purses. Right next door if you are a lover of vinyl do not pass Halcyon. Here's some history for ya: "Headquartered since ’04 in Dumbo, the brand’s second concept space, integrating the DJ-centric record store from the previous embodiment with an expanded gallery and design boutique that define the avant-garde of Brooklyn street aesthetics." The store's river rock/pebble floor with astro turf is a nice touch too. Two large marshmellow-shaped plastic white chairs sit in the entrance seeming to invite conversation.

Winding down the afternoon stop in at Almondine for a treat. They offer Croissants, Éclairs, Fraisier, Mille Feuille, Tarts, Mousse and so much more. This is not a place to stop however if you have gluten-free dietary restrictions or are on any sort of diet for that matter. :P

What a lovely neighborhood which has a lot of character without all the attitude.

By Juanita Fralin

AMOA Exhibit on Herman Miller Furniture

Before an AIGA Austin Adobe CS5.5 demonstration lecture I went into a Starbucks across the street from the Austin Museum of Modern Art (AMOA). I haven't visited the museum in quiet some time and decided to take a look at the current exhibits. The one that caught my eye was the show, Good Design: stories from herman miller from June 4th–September 2011.

The exhibit will show the design process of the revolutionary company and its designers. There is a lecture on Thursday, July 14th @ 7pm at the museum where John Berry, who is the curator for the exhibit will be speaking about the creative culture at Herman Miller and will be signing his recent book, Herman Miller: The Purpose of Design.

Delaunay's Dutch Connection

On a recent trip to New York I visited the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. The exhibit I wanted to see was on Sonia Delaunay's work as a textile designer and the connection she had with the Dutch store Metz & Co.

She also was heavily influenced by the De Stijl movement. I believe her textiles are vibrant examples that good color theory and a strong sense of rhythm never goes out of style.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces from the collection:

SXSW Music Reviews

Thursday MARCH 17th 2011–

I started my SXSW experience off at Moby's Vegan BBQ Event and we stopped to hear Egyptrixx and Teen Daze on Thursday afternoon. The POP'ish super happy melodies of Teen Daze made it hard not to want to dance even in the hot dusty food trailer park on East 6th Street. Next on the list was Esben and the Witch and Wiz Khalifa at the Fader Fort by Fiat tent. Almost everything was free once we were inside the Fader tent. Free food, drinks and music. The atmosphere was pretty nice as well with a bloggers room, a Fiat Cafe with beautiful women making espresso and giving away ice cream. Lots of high design, super mod sponsors that really pulled out all the stops to make this year's event pretty amazing.



Unfortunately, the acoustics of the tent were horrible so actually enjoying the music was kinda a strain. Also, the crowd was so loud it was hard to actually hear the music. I noticed that people who showed up didn't seem to be into the indie rock nearly as much as the hip-hop line up.

Later in the evening The Strokes played at Auditorium Shores and we had a hell of a time trying to get parking down there and ended up driving around for an hour in desperation I tried to park on a curb and then two police officers showed up so I moved :P Long story short... I heard the music but didn't get down there in time to see the Strokes perform. First day was pretty decent and considering I had to go into work the next morning I was thankful to not make it a super late night.

Left: Fader Fort Boom box Art Display, Right: Burtn Ones @ Glitter Taco Party Peckerheads.
FRIDAY 18th 2011–

Started the day out on South Congress and biked down Riverside to 6th Street to go to the check out the Under the Radar Party at Flamingo Cantina. However, the line was too long and didn't look like it was moving so instead opted for the Glitter Taco Party at Peckerhead's. We decided to stay at one place and wait for Das Racist to come on at 7pm and I am really glad I did. Andy D was off the hook. This guy is hilarious and all I can say is that I've never seen anything quiet like it in my life. His get-up was 80s Rocker/ Hillbilly/African BamBaataa/Peaches/Weird Al all smashed together into one rather large sweaty package.

We also saw Burnt Ones, which had a really bad start with lots of tuning and mike problems but once they got started had a nice surf/beach/lo-fi rocker touch that I liked and made me wanna build a bonfire on the beach! Asobi Sesku was alright but I was not really into their style. The vocals didn't hold my attention and seemed kinda watery and lack luster with muddy guitar riffs.
Das Racist show was fun and I enjoyed seeing them play live. Last stop for the evening was Shangri-La's Sailor Jerry's Party and we really enjoyed seeing Rainbow Arabia. They have a very intricate way of weaving techno, house, drum and bass, vocals and all in a non-club style which to me was very refreshing and new. We also stayed to hear Lesands which I was not at all familar with but the chill upbeat vibe was pretty awesome for this 80s synth-pop style seem to be going for. We stopped into the East Side Showroom for dinner and enjoyed a yummy dinner while listening to some Gypsy music by Wino Vino. We got an assortment of meats and cheeses as an appetizer and then pork chops as the entree. Everything was wonderful! I've never seen the place buzzing with so many people. I hear one woman say she had waited an hour and a half for a table, but all in all everyone there seemed to be flying high on the SXSW excitement.

SXSW 2011 Free Parties

SPACE 12
http://www.space12.org/upcomingevents/

March 17
3:00pm – Broken Gold

4:00pm – Books Died On

5:00pm – Wealthy West
6:00pm – Picardy the Third

7:00pm – Mole People

8:00pm – Round #7

March 18
2:00pm – Sunglasses

3:00pm – Coolrunnings

4:00pm – Light Pollution
5:00pm – Prince Rama

6:00pm – Adventure

7:00pm – Houses

8:00pm – Pandit
9:00pm – White Rhino

March 19
4:00pm – Gobble Gobble

5:00pm – Washington

6:00pm – Bikini
7:00pm – Class Actress

8:00pm – A Lull

9:00pm – Engine Room

Photography of Faded Logos

Left: Dusty Marfa, Texas Right: Richmond, Virginia



Outskirts of Prague