Gang Gang Dance are giving away a free MP3 of ‘Mind Killa’, ahead of its release as a 12″ on April 11th. www.ganggangdance.com
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A Very Fine Pair Of 30-Bore Flintlock Duelling Pistols By Robert Wogdon, London, Circa 1785 made for the Duke of Bedford.
It was indeed a dueling pistol made by the Robert Wogdon of London gunsmith company that killed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1804 in Weehawken, New Jersey. Usually the goal of the honorable duel was often not so much to kill the opponent as to restore one’s honour by demonstrating a willingness to risk one’s life for it. Even though it was illegal after the 17th century, one was rarely persecuted. This late April a dozen pairs of dueling pistols, including a set made by Robert Wogdon of London – by far the most synonymous manufacturer of dueling pistols, will go on the auction block at Bonhams. The set of pistols are expecting to fetch between £2,500 to £60,000 as “items of historical interest and fine workmanship, not death and destruction.” And o’ how glorious these pistols are in their intricate perfection – objets d’art that were once symbols of masculinity, honor, and inevitable permanence. Dueling Pistols at Bonhams: Objects of Beauty and Death will go on sale Wednesday 20 April 20 in Knightsbridge. www.bonhams.com
In 1934, at the age of 20, poet and nomadic wanderer Everette Reuss travelled into the red rock canyon lands of Southern Utah with two burros and vanished without a trace. In 2009 his apparent remains were found, but upon further analysis were called into question as to their authenticity. What happened to Everette Reuss? Some say he was murdered by natives for his burros, some say he simply drowned or fell off one of the many jagged cliffs, and some legends recount that Everette Reuss fell in love with a Navajo woman and ran away with her tribe. The life, disappearance and legend of Everette Reuss has been an enduring mystery, an American saga exemplar to our own imaginings of the great adventure. A new book, Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife, due out this summer on University of California Press examines the life and legend; going “…beyond the myth to reveal a troubled, idealistic adolescent who flirted with death and lost.” www.ucpress.edu
Porn Grid (#1-4) 1989 enamel on metal 4 panels, 52 x 64.5 inches overall
Marilyn Minter, who was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1948 gained recognition with her first series of photographs: images of her drug addicted mother. During the 1980s Minter explored pornography and erotica with a style that can be described at pop art. Marilyn Minter: Paintings from the 80s is on view at Team Gallery until April. 30. www.teamgal.com
CENTURY GIRL feat. Devonte Hynes
Theophilus London is a rapper, songwriter and producer from Brooklyn. His debut LP is due to drop this summer. www.theophiluslondon.com
Photojournalism is in the midst of a remarkable, and singularly unexpected, renaissance. New practices, strategies, viewpoints, techniques, and agents have radically transformed the institutions and the fundamental concepts of the field. Whilst it has become fashionable to lament the death of photojournalism, actual events suggest that something quite different is taking place. The group exhibition Antiphotojournalism charts these new developments in exciting ways. Antiphotojournalism is on view until June 8 at Foam, Amsterdam. www.foam.org
Light wood and elastic: shoe designer Nicole Brundage’s line Acrobats of God Spring 2011 collection. www.acrobatsofgod.com
Its a tale all too Hunter Stockton Thompson. In 1958 he completed his first novel, The Rum Diary – he was in his late 20s. Letters around this time, Hunter Thompson was a voracious letter writer – he kept a carbon copy of almost every letter he ever wrote since his teens and lasted until his suicide at 67 as some kind of obsessive, seemingly feverish, prophetic preservation of his legacy, before and after completion of the Rum Diary, paint a Hunter Thompson excited about finishing his first, real novel – after hopscotching from one one horse town newspaper to the next throughout much of his early journalistic career. But letters also show the harsh side of rejection and many letters to the effect from editors, as well as replies back from Thompson with belligerent threats of murder, revenge and spilled teeth. The Rum Diary tells the tale of a young American journalist disillusioned by a hopelessly bland America under Eisenhower who moves to a pristine San Juan, Puerto Rico to work for a flailing newspaper and becomes obsessed with a young blonde fiancee of a cohort. Its a tale all to Hunter Thomson: reportage of the strange world from behind the bullet proof glass of his own conciousness, a consciousness too big in a world that at same time made him feel so small. Rum soaked and covered in white tropical sand, The Rum Diary is a tale of bliss and abandon from a young writer finding his voice at the apex of an entirely American 20th century, groping madly for the American dream up the fuzzy blouse of some young, dumb secretary. The Rum Diary wasn’t published until 1998, nearly 50 years after it was completed. This October, a film, entitled The Rum Diary, will bring this incredible book to to the silver screen.
