When Things Start to Crumble...

title: When Things Start to Crumble, Keep the Good Things Close.

Like pepperoni pizza... or a good pair of kicks... or even a devilish owl robot thing.  It could even be a best friend... a tiny chihuahua... a feral cat... a bike... an art book... but those things wouldn't fit on the page. Maybe for the sequel to this piece...

Please click here to see the image full screen!

Anyway, you get the picture. We all get down and things sometimes seem bleak. When that shit happens you gotta focus on everything good in your life. It's so easy to forget about that stuff and just hold on to the bad, but in the process, you're only hurting yourself further. So the next time life hands you lemons, throw them fuckers out and order a pepperoni pizza.

•••••

Music is one of those good things for me. In fact it's an essential element that I must ingest in large quantities on a regular basis to stay healthy and sane. And everyone knows that 90's music is the best, most nutritious music there is. Well, sensible and intelligent people are aware of that at least.

Which brings me to the featured song of the blog:

title: Flow Like a River

artist: Gutter Twins

So, first off this isn't a 90's song, but it sounds like it was plucked directly from that decade. And there's a reason for that. It's performed by the Gutter Twins which is a band fronted by 2 treasures from that time: Mark Lanegan from the Screaming Trees and Greg Dulli from the Afghan Whigs. These guys are incredible singers and in my humble opinion some of the most underappreciated talent in music - from the 90's through today. Separately these guys have had their hands in tons of different projects, which more than not, really shine. Together they create one of the best rock harmonies in rock music today. Their first album Saturnalia was one of my favs of 2008, and when I saw them last summer at Lollapalooza - they completely blew me away. By the way, thanks Adam for erasing all the videos you shot of them playing before we could even watch them once. I still love you though.

At least Adam kept a few photos of them performing from Lollapalooza 2008.Thanks buddy - this one's my favorite.

Recently, they had a second release called Adorata, which is an 8 song EP comprised mostly of covers. While I don't quite like this work as well as their first, it does have a number of strong songs on it. Stylistically, this EP has a lot of depth on it, but "Flow Like a River" is a full-on return to 90's grunge complete with big crunchy guitars and a catchy chorus I can't get out of my head. The song is actually a cover by a band called Eleven whose members worked with a lot of 90's acts. Usually I try to post featured songs on my MySpace profile, but this song isn't available there so I posted some of their other songs. My advise though is to just go out and buy both albums. I promise you'll love them, unless of course you're deaf or have abysmal taste.  ;)

I realize that these blogs are going to be too long if I keep the art and music together. From now on I'm gonna do separate entries for the music stuff. Thanks for stopping by.

Much Love - Ryan

The Sculptured Ice Fountain

I just posted a new set of photos on my Flickr page that I took in January, but just got to editting today. Here's the scoop: We had a bad freeze that lasted a few days and the fountain in my complex was left on. It's a big sculptured fountain with 3 semi-nude ladies whom I prefer to think of as lovers. During the freeze I noticed that Ice had been building on it for days giving it kind of creepy look. The last night before it was supposed warm up, I went out, braving the frigid temp to make some photos. I think they came out pretty cool, but there's a few different things I want to try if it ever happens again. Oh, and as a note, I was originally gonna edit these to black and white, but the detail in the marble and awkward night lighting ended up looking better in color. Check them out on my Flickr page and make sure to hit the "all sizes" button to see them as they were intended. www.flickr.com/photos/ryshu

Let me know if you dig 'em!

•••••

My music post yesterday could be considered a little sappy. So today, I've decided to post somethin with a little edge. This will be featured on my MySpace profile playlist for a week or so if you wanna check it out. I'm gonna do this whenever I can with Music I feature here.

Todays feature song:

"You Ain't Know" by Birdman & Lil Wayne

album: Like Father, Like Son 2006

Great high-energy hardcore thuggish song with an infectious Scott Storch beat. I've been playing this shit non-stop for the last couple days.  

So, this is my first post...

Just so you, know my main aim in starting this blog, was to start creating more art, and then to share it with anyone that's interested. I already have a deviantART site for my completed work, which I beg you to explore first, if you're not already familiar with my stuff (http://ryshu.deviantart.com). The particular piece featured here doesn't quite exhibit the high level of quality that I would aspire to exhibit for my opening post, but the point is to showcase my output here, even if it's a little rough or a bit off. Besides I've learned over the years that everyone's tastes are different, and things that don't work for me may, completely intrigue somebody else. 

Full Size

Artwork title: 

"So Many Birds"

This is a sketch book drawing that I've been working on for a few days on and off. The medium is pencil, marker and black pen on brown paper. There wasn't a big concept here but I wanted to remind myself that when I get down, I need to remember that there's still so many birds. You figure it out from there.

•••••

On top of possessing a deep affection for visual art, I'm also a sucker for music. In fact, music is engaged in a very tight race for "My Favorite Thing in the World" with my chihuahua Doby. Sorry Doby, if you happen to be reading this. Anyhow, I'm gonna feature a song for each blog post I make, that I think YOU should go check out, and then buy if you like. If you are unaware, much of today's music can be listened to, in full, for free on MySpace. And just so you know, the song may have everything, or nothing at all to do with the rest of the blog.

Today's feature song:

"Joey" by Concrete Blonde. from the album - "Bloodletting" 1990

There was a time, a long, long while ago that I liked this song. I'm not even sure exactly when that was, but really, it doesn't matter. The truth is, this is just one of those trancedental songs that either works for you real good, or not at all. For me, it's real good.