Not an Oil Painting: Flowering Tree in The Rain (All Photos By Gail)
We haven’t had much of a winter in NYC, but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to spring! In fact, the siting of 14th street’s first flowering tree of the season made me think back to May of 2019, when my pal Jamie and I made plans to attend the annual Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri) at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The fact that it happened to be pouring down rain that day did not dampen our adventurous spirits! Continue reading Ten Flowers Photographed in the Rain→
It is a fact that if my sister had not needed to visit the local Post Office during our recent stay in the funky little desert town of Moab, Utah, then I would not have had the good fortune to discover this fantastic mural of a Black Crow poking its head through a sea of cactus. The unfortunate presence of two trash bins is owed to the fact that the mural faces an alley between the Post Office and the town’s Main Street. Continue reading Crow Mural By Skye Walker→
A lady holding a potted cactus seems like an apropos image to usher in the spring, but this mural by artist Sara Erenthal has actually been up since September of 2018. You can find this work at the corner of Delancey and Allen Streets, where you previously saw This Piece and This Collaboration! Continue reading Lady with Cactus Mural By Sara Erenthal→
Hey what’s up. I hope that you are enjoying your weekend. Now that we have done some cursory bonding, I would like to say that with today’s Video Clip of The Week, which is for the awesome song “Middle Of The World” from LA-based trio Flights Over Phoenix, it is my hope that I am exposing you to a potential ear-worm that is powerfully addictive enough to supplant Ed Sheeran’s quasi-pervy, aural seduction device, “Shape of You” — which, I am sure we will all agree, simply cannot be resisted. You’re welcome.
Filmed on location at Soggy Dry Lake, in the California desert, and visually styled in the manner of, say, a John Varvatos photo shoot, “Middle Of The World” features the band performing on an arid plane punctuated only by inflated black balloons tethered to the dry earth like bobbing, mutant cacti. And speaking of cacti, the protagonist of our story is an anthropomorphic cactus who finds a picture postcard of California and decides to take a cross-country journey to the beach — trading one sandy environment for another, but with a few essential differences that change his world completely. In this way, “Middle of The World” serves as a powerful metaphor for breaking free from your restrictive comfort zone to find what you need in order to attain a state of true happiness, or something like that. Heavy.
Aurally, “Middle Of The World” is guilt-free ear candy. The lyrics convey a universal message of self-empowerment and lead singer Keith Longo has a voice like butter. The band explains that, “‘Middle Of The World’ is a song that explores the feelings of isolation through imagery that one might experience in a dream of that nature. In writing the song, we wanted it to feel like a journey, and so we wanted the music to be up-tempo and have a lot of movement.” Mission accomplished.
“Middle Of The World” can be found on the band’s newly-released EP, Where I Comedown. Like them on the FaceBook at This Link! Enjoy!
Flights Over Phoenix are Chris Santillo, Jordan Nuanez and Keith Longo.
Laser cut from fluorescent green and fluorescent red acrylic, the Cactus Garden acts a both a day and night lighting fixture. The sculptures offer a subtle glow when in light thanks to the fluorescent material from which they are created.
