soundtrack to this blogpost will be the decemberists. because they are dope. because colin meloy is a lyrical god. because legionnaire’s lament is pretty much one of my favoritest songs ever. and finally because any band that has the balls to put together a prog rock opera based on british folk tales is fucking gangster. and yes, i know this is an improper use of gangster… but goddamn.
boston. the bosom from which i arose large headed, wide eyed and drunkenly reeling. you can never go home… that’s the truth, ‘cuz as long as you leave for any significant amount of time, the world changes around, you change and nothing is quite as it was. but sometimes, you catch glimpses of what it once was, the moments where you are happily back in some childhood place, imagined or otherwise.
it is appropriate enough that i feel this way getting smashed playing flip-cup with a bunch of boston irishmen. oh alcohol. oh dorchester day, ridiculous holiday celebrating the day an independent municipality was taken over by boston. oh neighborhood pride, cause of so many problems, but so comforting nevertheless. there really is a great feeling of safety and simple appreciation when you see the strength of feeling that people have for a neighborhood. fuck the problematics that are inherent in that pride… let me enjoy the phenomenon.
so i’m here, boston for the next week or so. seeing my family, watching my sister grad, getting my shit together before my odd-yssey. the journey only ends when you are back where you started, or so it’s said… so i’ll start it here, the introspection, the appreciation of what makes america american. the art, the culture and most importantly the people.
which is why i saw shepherd fairey’s work at the ICA. i like it quite a lot. the degree of intricacy, the eye to the ironic, the contrasts, both of images and colors, but also of subtle next to bold. yes, his work eventually gets old with a quickness. yes, he does the same shit over and over again. but hey man, you can be a little unoriginal when you’re as big of a street artist as he is.
obey.
i will be posting more as time goes on. more on my journey, more on the art project i’m doing for it. i just wanted to post this so you know i’m alive, well, and getting drunk still.
life is a fight, and even the fuckups gotta a puncher’s chance long as they keep on swinging.
thematic, patterned. sure. unoriginal, i dunno. it works not because he’s a big street artist, but because his whole concept is repetitive imagery that bombards the eye to make us question our urban environments, the media/ad images in them…i wish i were going on an odyssey. admittedly envious.