The problem with an item of furniture that is also an expensive piece of collectible art is that you tend to not want to use it for its originally intended function, which would be, of course, to sit on it. Because we’ve all been told countless items to refrain from touching the art, let alone putting our asses on it.
This unique Spin Chair by artist Damien Hirst, specifically entitled Beautiful Arrested Development, can be found at Other Criteria, Hirst’s gift shop on Broome Street in NYC’s Soho district, selling for $13,400. Bring your Black Card.
In the mid-1990s, when music was an entirely different animal than it is now, there was a fantastic NYC-based power pop quartet, possessed of a wickedly gritty edge, called Thin Lizard Dawn. Thin Lizard Dawn were just about my favorite band in the world for the short time they were together. TLD sounded something like The Beatles meets 10 CC and their self-titled, 1995 debut featured energetic, danceable songs about smoking pot (“Weed”), enthusiastic sex (“Sexual Dynamo”) and how much they thought Oasis sucked (“Sucks). That’s right: they were amazing. Continue reading Video Clip of The Week: The Happinesses “Beautiful Mistake”→
Gail and Ian Dancing at the Wedding of David Lee Beowulf, April 2002
Ian’s Dream, as Told to Gail
We had rented some hotel room in Melbourne as a party pad. I was
there with a bunch of friends, we were smoking something special in a
weird way — putting it on the stem of these miniature palm fronds.
This guy kept leaving the door open for some reason.
We’d closed the door when there’s a knock on it. We open it and it’s
the hotel manager, with a large group of expectant/confused kids
behind him. Like a hundred kids. We’re a bit freaked out, what with
the funny smell and everything, but the manager starts going on and
on, talking about how glad he is to have us here, how we’re
beautiful, and that it’s a real honor for us to stay in his hotel and
visit the town of Melbourne. What the fuck? Eventually we figure out
that he thinks we’re a band from Chicago named ‘Beautiful’ (do they
exist? It’s not a very Google-friendly name), hence the look on the
kids’ faces.
After a while, the band shows up, and we have a good laugh over the
whole thing. I give them my phone number so they can call me next
time they’re in town, writing it on a slip of paper. The singer looks
at it and goes ‘Koss… that’s what’s written on the headphone amp
that we have in the studio.’
