FOURTYPERCENT Presents: WE'RE BACK

If you're here for the first time, hi! If you're reading this because you're subscribed to my blog, awesome!

Everyone's allowed some time to regroup and refocus, right? It's been nearly a year since my last post with this project, and I've developed the time to jump back on it. For now, flip through the posts I've saved from the culling to see what FourtyPercent used to be about. More of the same is coming, in different and better ways hopefully, and some new stuff I want to work on and get involved in. I want to up the readership, throw in some collaborations and put my skillzzz to use, because I've got a lot of time on my hands, and too much that shouldn't be wasted.

I gots a new logo. I gots a new year. You gets what I gots.

Christopher

40% Summer Style Guide

It's been a while since I've taken on the 40% persona. The last rant I went on was about the religious zealots that are taking over Norfolk. What a horrible way to go out! Since then I've been working on other projects, being generally lethargic during the winter months, and lamenting over my lack of big city life. However, it's allowed me some time to refocus my energies and really get to the core of what I want to do with this outlet. (My main goal being to score a gig writing for a magazine or paper one of these days when the economy evens out. Or maybe even make money off a culture blog! We can dream, right?)

If you paid any attention to fashion week(s) this year, you'd have noticed special attention to men's lines. A lot of fashion houses added men's stuff to their production to beef up their sales first of all, but also because the Dapper Dan is making a comeback. I got endless amounts of inspiration from shows like Band of Outsiders, Tim Hamilton, Rag & Bone and Antonio Azzuolo (even if I didn't agree with the use of fur everywhere). I'm in love with all of the classic styles for summer and fall, and it's inspired me to create a series of mini style guides, incorporating a few of the ideas pitched at fashion week, but also putting my own modern twist on a few things.

A few months ago, I decided that chambray was going to be huge throughout summer and fall '09, and I'm happy to see that I've been validated! Chambray is a breathable, denim-like material that was primarily the material of choice for blue-collar work shirts when American men did things like manual labor on a daily basis (a much under-appreciated skill). It's a sturdy fabric, with a comforting rigidness that keeps its shape, no matter what you do to it. So naturally, the brilliantly quirky Koto Chambray Workshirt is number 2 on the style guide.

1. Zuriick Beata Chukka Boot. I actually bought this Zuriick Beata Chukka Boot from Provisions here in Norfolk in a black, with a purple sole. Though I considered buying the grey shown here. The baby blue piping breaks up the gloom a little and adds a modern, whimsical twist to the overall construction - which is exceedingly simple. This is a one-piece shoe molded from the same fabric and shaped for a more fitted look to your foot. They're also mega-comfortable and look great with a skinny jean or even shorts. 2. Koto Chambray Workshirt. Oh, Urban Outfitters, you've always got affordable finds that look so expensive. One of my favorite things about this shirt is the attention to design. Check out how the left breast-pocket is actually turned upside down and in the shape of a jean pocket. The rounded hem, and webbing n the sides (for a bit of stretch when you sit down without giving away too much skin) really add to the style of this easy, comfortable spring/summer day shirt. And it's on sale! 3. Matt & Nat Warhol Grey Weekender. Hello, new gigantic weekender bag I'll use for everyday toting! Matt & Nat are an eco-friendly design company that specializes in women's bags, but has recently branched out into men's accessories and unisex bags. This is one of their new styles, and it's definitely a favorite of mine right now. Grey canvas is broken up by bright blue zippers and vegan purple leather straps to give this throwback to one of the world's greatest art marketers a pop feel, with a fashion forward (and animal-friendly!) twist. Simply, I love this bag. It's a tad pricey ($325), but you're not paying for animals suffering so maybe it's a more satisfying buy. If that's not your thing, and you prefer a more classic bag, the Deerfield Weekender Bag I wrote about a few months ago is available in different colors now, at a more affordable price. 4. Dolce & Gabbana The One. Every now and then I'm pretty into typical big brand things. I love D&G's Light Blue, and was really excited to discover that The One is an even better summer scent. It's a more spicey scent than Light Blue with notes of ginger, cardamom, tobacco (!), and orange blossom, and literally makes you think about a permanent sunset. (The best part of the summer day for me is that hour between sunset and night, when everything is just a little more burnished by the sunlight and the breeze seems at rest.) $70 at Nordstrom, which isn't too bad. 5. Safari Animal Belt. Remember The Darjeeling Unlimited? If you're a Wes Anderson fan you probably noticed the Marc Jacobs-designed luggage featuring safari animals that the brothers carried around India with them. In a brilliant stroke of inspiration, Urban Outfitters is now offering this belt, which bears a striking resemblance to the luggage. At $38, it's definitely not a Marc Jacobs piece, which I'm totally fine with since Marc Jacobs is a bit of a bank breaker. It features a removable roller buckle, so you can replace the buckle with one of your choice. I got this as a gift from the Easter Bunny (via my mom), and can't wait to start rocking it in a whole Hemingway-inspired outfit. (Without the elephant gun, or dead animals of course.)

Summer is all about classic, personalized style. Think literary references like Thoreau, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby wasn't great for nothing.

fever ray // if i had a heart.

gorgeous.



If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

in other news, i'm working on things behind the scenes right now. approaching this blogging thing from a different, more sustainable angle. february will be the month to do this.

how much do you love that video?

where the hell is matt?

most. brilliant. thing. ever.



here's a great article about how the video was faked*. (with photoshop. what else?) the video is almost as good as the original.

*even the fake is fake. this is the single most amazing piece of internet art ever created, fake or not. (and clearly it's real.)

happy new year.

all this happened on the last day of 2008:


túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

i'm really, really inspired to make 2009 beautiful. (and to go visit sandbridge in the blinding cold to watch the night sky over the water. if you want to make that happen, grab a bottle of wine and let's go soon.)

befriendageek.com

all of my friends think i'm santa clause, and i'm totally okay with that. anything that brings joy and happiness is a good thing in my book, and martha stewarts i'm pretty sure. (and who doesn't love martha?) well, imagine my glee when i stumbled upon this video while researching topics for my company's blog this morning:


Befriend a Geek from White October on Vimeo.

it seems quite funny, and like a great practical joke for the holidays. but, like most publicity stunts, it's got a great message behind it all: millions of elderly (and homeless, and orphans) will be alone on Christmas Day this year. there are so many charities and organizations you can get involved with to brighten the day of just one other person on what can be one of the loneliest days of the year. visit a nursing home, cook a meal for some orphans, donate to a homeless shelter. do something.

merry christmas!

snowday grab-bag.

if you've noticed the lack of the promised theme lately, so have i. somewhere along the way i lost my vision and have gone askew! (i just wanted to say askew.) however, i'm working on getting it back, with half of today's snowday grab-bag being j's (the letter we left off at)!

yeah, it snowed in virginia today. in november. for folks in northern virginia, this isn't a huge deal. but, we never get snow this early in the southeast portions of the state. i woke up to it, had lunch to it, and there's a looming threat of it later this evening. which is pretty exciting. i'm gearing up for a bit of a holiday-tastic weekend. norfolk has their annual grand illumination parade tomorrow evening. my mom and dad are coming into town for it (they live 40 minutes away in newport news). i'm going to attempt to decorate some this weekend, even though my roommate is completely anti-christmas. i am not. obviously. (which explains the garrish cheating in today's picks.)

1. colored lights. oh yes. when i was younger, i really hated colored lights. i approached christmas at a much more traditional angle, opting for white lights on a green tree with the standard hallmark ornaments. as my own style has grown and solidified over the years, i've gained a deep appreciation for vintage tinsel trees. you know - charlie brown gawked at them in "a charlie brown christmas". they made clunking sounds, and were portrayed as solid metal. awesome. you can't (read: shouldn't) put white lights on a tinsel tree. they beg for the rainbow treatment. so, in the event that i have white tinsel tree like i want this year, i'm throwing colored lights on it. 2. another cheat! i just blogged about this in a separate post, but i thought i'd summarize it here. i'm not a huge fan of the bond movies, but the books are top notch. i will be buying this beautifully designed quantum of solace anthology as soon as i find it at barnes and noble. 3. target ornament sets. if your family is anything like mine, their christmas trees aren't just christmas trees - they're investments that take years and years to perfect. my mom's christmas tree has been in the making since my brother and i were born. her mom's tree has taken even longer, consisting of over 50 years of a mix between vintage and modern ornaments. mine unfortunately tends to change ever year. that's why i love these convenient ornament kits you can buy at target. of course, you need to buy free-standing ornaments and accessories to really get your tree right, but these provide cheap and easy fillers while you perfect your own legacy. 4. and finally, another cheat. janelle monae, my new obsession. while you're out listening to britney's new album that you pirated (read: i pirated and burned you a copy), or kanye's new heartbreak, i'm jamming to a record that was released about 4 months ago. janelle's "metropolis" is a brilliant piece of r&b, pop, hip-hop, future love that stands out from every single one of her peers. where beyonce goes for the over-the-top diva, estelle opts for the reggae roots, and rihanna goes for the edgy teen-pop sensation, janelle goes for the weird. the eccentric. the concept album. (who does that anymore in the main stream?) you can read about it in the gushing post i made last week. i really, really love her, though.

before i stop this joke of a 40% post, check the holiday card i designed for this year. i might actually get them printed for once!

quantum of solace.

first, a definition.

if you didn't know, quantum isn't just exclusive to the leaps made by mr. sam beckett. in fact, it means almost exactly what it sounds like - a quantity. in 007's case, a lot of solace. (or ironically, lack thereof.)

quantum of solace is now the umbrella title for a beautifully designed hardback anthology of several short-story versions of the infamous womanizer and international spy. behold:







"Angus Hyland and his assistant Fabian Herrmann have designed the hardback edition of Penguin Books’ Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories. The book collects together all of Ian Fleming’s Bond short stories in a single volume for the first time and includes stories that inspired the Bond film classics From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, The Living Daylights and of course, Quantum of Solace, the latest in the series." via Pentagram.

let the right one in.

if you're secretly anticipating watching the very pretty robert pattinson take a bite out of love in "twilight," but don't want your friends to know, tell them you're going to see this: "let the right one in".

the film hails from sweden by director tomas alfredson, and tells the tale of a girl (eli) who has been 12 years old for a very long time, and her love for the very blond, very swedish, oskar (also 12 years old). oskar becomes friends with eli, and eventually connects the dots of blood to deduce that eli is in fact a vampire. it's a bit of a coming of age story, and ends with oskar tapping "kiss" in morse code to eli, who has taken refuge in her coffin.

at least it's not an allegory for abstinence. fuck that noise.

faces of evil.

"Using digital technology, graphic designer Hans Weishäupl has carefully reconstructed portraits of 13 dictators over the past 100 years. However, the photo montages, which measure 1.8 m x 2.3 m do not contain a single piece of original picture material, but are made of countless tiny, specially shot portraits of the citizens of the country the dictator ruled over. Christian Lechelt and Hans Weishäupl photographed over 350 people between November 2007 and March 2008, in Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow, Belgrade, London, Barcelona, Paris and Milan.

The portrait of Hitler is made up of 37 people. His nose belongs to an estate agent from Berlin, his upper lip is from a locksmiths in Dresden, and so on. Each wrinkle, each mole, each eyebrow was reconstructed to resemble the original."

having tried something similar to this in the past, i can tell you this project was not easy. it's been seamlessly produced, though. gorgeous work.

black cat // broadcast.

broadcast has the worst web site on the internet.

infrequent updates, out of order (sequentially) updates, and just maddening for a rabid fan such as myself. so i was quite pleased with the most recent news (that being septermber 1st 2008) that they're back in the studio working on the album we were supposed to have heard in early 2008. martin, the band's manager, claims they're working with different drummers right now laying down drum tracks.

there's a few disappointing things about this statement. it had been rumored that trish and james were hoping to use the drummer (and the same church) they had used to record Haha Sound. that's been squashed, i assume. and it also means that we've probably got quite a while before we hear any new broadcast material. but, it also means a return to live drums, which i am definitely looking forward to.

in the mean time, i stumbled across this video for "black cat" from 2003's excellent Tender Buttons. apparently, there was some contentious conversation about whether the girl in the video is trish keenan or not. thankfully, that's been cleared up and it is.

it's pretty halloween-y.

Carnival of Souls (1962).

herk harvey directed this box office flop in 1962, inspired by film maker and director ingmar bergman. he wanted to make a film that was "a drive in movie that looked like a movie ingmar bergman would make." he succeeded, and in 1989 it was re-released after garnering a late-night movie cult following. the film's score (which i originally unintentionally spelled "scare") is entirely scored for a church organ, which lends itself nicely to the haunting feeling of the film.

this film was the direct inspiration for romero's "night of the living dead."

a brief synopsis of the plot: Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around with two friends but everything goes wrong when challenged to a drag race and their car gets forced off of a bridge. The car sinks into the murky depths, and all three women are assumed drowned. Some time later Mary emerges unscathed from the river. She tries to start a new life by becoming a church organist but Mary finds herself haunted by a ghostly figure that instills fear and dread into her.

here's part one, courtesy of it's public domain status and youtube. enjoy!

yuki's sentimental journey.

directed by nagi noda.

incredible, incredible, incredible. how did it take me a year to find this beautiful bit of j-pop?



for more nagi noda brilliance, check out these awesomelyweird animal hair "hats". nagi noda is dead, so naturally she will be world renowned shortly.

alice in wonderland.

not one to give up easily on people i really, really like, i'm ridiculously excited for tim burton's adaptation of "alice in wonderland". (please, no comments on how my blog has suddenly taken a turn for children's literature fanboy site lately.) among the cast: johnny depp as the mad hatter, helena bonham-carter (burton's wife) as the Red Queen of Hearts, and anne hathaway as the White Queen. no pictures have popped up yet from production, but i can only imagine how beautiful it could be with burton at the helm.

i'm thinking sleepy hollow meets the cheshire cat? hot.

louis garrel, by bruce weber.

that's all i really need to say about that.

except, i was surprised to find that weber didn't have louis prancing about the french country side naked, with a football, reeking of A&F.

maurice sendak, gay at 80.

there will always be a majority, and there will always be a minority. whether i fall into the former or latter hasn't always been an issue with me. however, it hasn't always been the easiest waking up every day and facing the majority of my peers as a man thrust into the gay minority. i'm lonely often. i'm moody and self-deprecating. but sometimes, i'm really strong. i'd like to take the time to thank one of my heroes, long before i even knew it, maurice sendak, for helping me to feel strong again today.



[via the New York Times]

Maurice Sendak’s 80th year — which ended with his birthday earlier this summer and is being celebrated on Monday night with a benefit at the 92nd Street Y — was a tough one. He has been gripped by grief since the death of his longtime partner; a recent triple-bypass has temporarily left him too weak to work or take long walks with his dog; and he is plagued by Norman Rockwell.

Or, to be more accurate, he is plagued by the question that has repeatedly been asked about Norman Rockwell: was he a great artist or a mere illustrator?

“Mere illustrator,” he said, repeating the phrase with contempt. It’s not that Mr. Sendak, who has illustrated more than 100 books, including many he wrote, is angry that people question Rockwell’s talent; rather, he fears he has not risen above the “mere illustrator” label himself.

Never mind that Mr. Sendak’s originality and emotional honesty have changed the shape of children’s literature; that his work is featured in museums; that he has designed costumes and sets for operas, ballets and theater; that he has won a chest full of awards and prizes including a National Medal of the Arts. As the playwright Tony Kushner, one of his collaborators, said, “He’s one of the most important, if not the most important, writers and artists ever to work in children’s literature. In fact, he’s a significant writer and artist in literature. Period.”

Mr. Sendak protested, “But Tony is my friend.”

Mr. Sendak, a square-shaped gnome, was sitting in the dining room of his Connecticut retreat. His shoulders are a bit stooped, but his fingers are long and delicate. When he hears that the 92nd Street Y event is sold out, his eyebrows rise in surprise.

“They must be coming to see the other people,” he said, referring to guests like Mr. Kushner, Meryl Streep, James Gandolfini, Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers and Catherine Keener.

Even his heart attack doesn’t seem up to snuff. People aren’t impressed with a triple bypass, he lamented; now it has to be a quadruple: “You feel like such a failure.”

That Mr. Sendak fears that his work is inadequate, that he is racked with insecurity and anxiety, is no surprise. For more than 50 years that has been the hallmark of his art. The extermination of most of his relatives and millions of other Jews by the Nazis; the intrusive, unemployed immigrants who survived and crowded his parents’ small apartment; his sickly childhood; his mother’s dark moods; his own ever-present depression — all lurk below the surface of his work, frequently breaking through in meticulously drawn, fantastical ways.

He is not, as children’s book writers are often supposed, an everyman’s grandpapa. His hatreds are fierce and grand, as if produced by Cecil B. DeMille. He hates his uncle (who made a cruel comment about him when he was a boy); he hates anything to do with God or religion, and Judaism in particular (“We were the ‘chosen people,’ chosen to be killed?”); he hates Salman Rushdie (for writing an excoriating review of one of his books); he hates syrupy animation, which is why he is thrilled with Mr. Jonze’s coming film of his book “Where the Wild Things Are,” despite rumors of studio discontent.

“I hate people,” he said at one point, extolling the superior company of dogs, like his sweet-tempered German shepherd, Herman (after Melville).

He is, at heart, a curmudgeon, but a delightful one, with a vast range of knowledge, a wicked sense of humor and a talent for storytelling and mimicry.

When Mr. Sendak received the 1996 National Medal of Arts, President Bill Clinton told him about one of his own childhood fantasies that involved wearing a long coat with brass buttons when he grew up. “But Mr. President, you’re only going to be president for a year more,” Mr. Sendak said, “you still have time to be a doorman.” Mr. Sendak insisted he was trying to be ingratiating, not funny.

Against all probability, some of the nightmares that have relentlessly pursued him since childhood — like the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping — have been laid to rest. A couple of weeks ago a dealer found one of the tiny reproductions of the kidnapper’s ladder that were sold as souvenirs at the New Jersey trial.

“I was floored,” Mr. Sendak said. He traded one of his drawings for it. “That ends my obsession with the case,” he said.

His fascination with the kidnapping, like many of the other details of his life, has been repeated endlessly over the years in the hundreds of interviews he has given. Was there anything he had never been asked? He paused for a few moments and answered, “Well, that I’m gay.”

“I just didn’t think it was anybody’s business,” Mr. Sendak added. He lived with Eugene Glynn, a psychoanalyst, for 50 years before Dr. Glynn’s death in May 2007. He never told his parents: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.”

Children protect their parents, Mr. Sendak said. It was like the time he had a heart attack at 39. His mother was dying from cancer in the hospital, and he decided to keep the news to himself, something he now regrets.

A gay artist in New York is not exactly uncommon, but Mr. Sendak said that the idea of a gay man writing children books would have hurt his career when he was in his 20s and 30s.

His latest book is one he started about four years ago, right after Dr. Glynn became sick with lung cancer. The illness and setting up of round-the-clock care in their home were just “so unbelievable,” he explained. Mr. Sendak is mostly finished with it, but he admitted that for the first time, “I feel extremely vulnerable.”

He is afraid — not of death, which is as familiar to him as a child’s teddy bear — but of not being able to finish his work: “I feel like I don’t have a lot of time left.” After Dr. Glynn’s death, Mr. Sendak said he was “still trying to figure out what I’m doing here.” “I wanted to take his place,” he said. “His death became a demarcation.” He added that he lost touch with many of his friends, unable to return phone calls and reply to e-mail messages.

Mr. Sendak is pleased with the coming birthday celebration, just as he is about his awards and honors, but in the end, he maintained, they don’t add up to much. They “never penetrated,” he said. “They were like rubber bullets.”

It’s not that he isn’t grateful. “They made me happy, but at a certain point in your life, you see through them,” he said. “You don’t mock them, you don’t hate them, you feel sorry for them” — tiny, inert emblems that just aren’t up to the task of answering pressing questions about meaning, soul-touching greatness and durability.

So he spends his days pondering his heroes: Mozart, Keats, Blake, Melville and Dickinson. He admires and yearns for their “ability to be private, the ability to be alone, the ability to follow some spiritual course not written down by anybody.”

Mr. Sendak is quick to insist that a vast distance stands between his own accomplishments and theirs. “I’m not one of those people,” he said. “I can’t pretend to be.”

Still, he has the feeling that “I will do something yet that is purely for me but will create for someone in the future that passion that Blake and Keats did in me.” What he has failed to consider, though, is that he may already have.

you most definitely have, mr. sendak.

dan hilier's moleskine.

i've been writing more lately, and it's inspired me to look for a really nice notebook i can carry with me everywhere to jot things down in. fourtypercent is great for blogging, but for things that are a little more personal, i like a pen and paper. plus, having all of that written down no matter where i am is great preparation for the fourtypercent zine i'm working on with some of my lady friends.

i stumbled across this moleskine on skulladay.com. the graphic is absolutely gorgeous, and it's a genuine moleskine. i love the combination of olde style illustration, and sea life. who doesn't love an octopus? the artist is dan hilier. a quick visit to his Web site had me developing a bit of an art-crush. i love artists who combine animal traits with humans - and i've yet to see one who does this so artfully as mr. hilier. absolutely beautiful work. check out his whole web site for more examples of his work.

///40% Mixtape Vol. 2: youas22.

tracklist:

1 papaya year // high places
2 renovo // mahogany
3 unknown // tujiko noriko
4 boundary addiction // geodesic
5 night // the field (fourtypercent edit)
6 the companion // the mary onettes
7 canal // atlas sound
8 bruises // chairlift
9 supervitesse // mahogany
10 from stardust to sentience // high places

sorry for the lack of knowing tujiko noriko's tracktitle. it was just really pretty and i couldn't leave it out of the mix. here's the link to download it: download fourtypercent's YOUAS22.

first day of fall soundtrack.

and also by mahogany,











thanks to cfs for no kids & simon bookish's "everything/everything" (out on tomblab october 28, 2008 in north america). much loved.

maybe i'll start djing again.

still alive.

Portal - Still Alive typography from Trickster on Vimeo.

i don't know what this is for. i hope it really is for aperture. but it's so so so good.