WHERETHEREAREWOLVES

IL VIAGGIO DI VETRI

2008-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

The book has been out for a bit. Just wanted to let everyone know that it feels fuckin good to finally have this book completed. Couple of my chef friends have looked at it- Matt from Joel, James from Le Bernadin, Justin -chef from The Box, all seem pleased, so it that makes me think it doesn't suck.

The project was simple and complex, just like the food. We generally would shoot super rustic style outside Marc's restaurant or in the dining room next to the windows. Thanks to Marc for breaking my balls to get the best out of me, pushing everyone to not compromise and sell out. Something that I am quite pleased with is that 99% of the images in the book were shot on film with natural light.

THE FEDERAL RESERVE, WALL STREET, BANKSY

2008-10-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

When the world was coming to an end a few weeks ago- up went this piece a block away from La Colombe. Quite amazing- my friend David Guinn who is a rad painter and muralist was impressed by the size of the piece and the gestural quality. I have to say I have become quite a fan of Banksy. He is one of the few people I know that was able to publicly express the outrage of the American people in a public space in a timely manner. I love it when the banking system suddenly gets socialism when they need the big bailout! Privatize the profits and socialize the losses...

EL GUITAR HERO

2008-10-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

Do you know when you've mastered the highest level of guitar hero and after picking up smashed plastic schrapnel off the kitchen floor- you ask yourself, "What next?" Well my friends, come by next Thursday to see the kid who has got chops! See the light of Jesus (pronounced HAY SEUSS) emit out of this man's fingertips. Carlos Cuestes of Colombia will be performing at NYC LA COLOMBE this Thursday Oct. 16th @ 8pm. The program will exist of new contemporary works of latin american composers that will blow your f'n mind!

UTINGA!

2008-09-09T05:52:00.000-07:00

Recently came back from a trip to Brazil that was somewhat life changing. It solidified much of what I knew was true with the coffee world, but brought a new perspective to how I view the farmer. The coffee farmer's work ethic, soul, and passion for life is huge. The only things that are huge in the states happen to be our levels of insatiable materialistic consumption. The farmers have nothing, but that allows them a level of freedom that is hard to attain here in the states. What can you do? Slow the fuck down, be kind, don't be a douche, treat every single fuckin person with respect. I should listen to myself sometimes...

BUSH WTF?

2007-07-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

JUST WENT AND SAW THE DOCUMENTARY - NO END IN SIGHT - AND ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS - WTF?! HOW IS IT THAT THE PIRATES THAT ARE RUNNING THIS COUNTRY ARE NOT IMPRISONED? GO SEE THIS MOVIE AND IT WILL CONFIRM EVERYTHING YOU ALREADY KNOW IS TRUE AND THEN SOME.
No End In Sight

Manufactured Landscapes

2007-06-24T00:18:00.000-07:00

Just saw Burtynsky in Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary film on the photographer and his ongoing work dealing with man's effect on the landscape of the industrialized world. After the Mao dynasty the agrarian/urban landscape in China was 90%/10%, that figure is now changed completely to 30%/70% urban. The imagery that he deals with is on a massive scale: industrialization, overpopulation, pollution, human rights issues, and the irreversible ecological effects that man forces on the planet make for a queezy documentary. However, Burtynsky's strong view on not vocalizing sides, rather letting the imagery speak is what makes him as an artist and documentarian so effective.
Check him out here - Edward Burtynsky

Silk Screen Posters

2007-06-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Jason over at HeadsofState design was commissioned a poster for the new cafe we are building.
Check them out here THEHEADSOFSTATE!

THE SIZE OF THINGS.

2006-12-04T13:09:00.000-08:00

I remember as a kid watching those ridiculously kitchy Japanese Godzirra movies on sleepy, stormy days, with mom making grilled cheese and tomato soup. God those were the days!!!

Well this article isn't about lazy afternoon food nostalgia, rather commenting on the current status of contemporary art scene, particularly photography and more specifically, talking about the finances and the business of art and its effects on the "SIZE OF THINGS." Taking a gander at photography's current loved ones there are a number of artists including Alec Soth, Katie Gannon, Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Candida Hofer, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Vik Muniz, Thomas Ruff, Rineke Dijkstra, and Robert Polidori that are taking on works of monstrous proportions that would even make Godzilla blush.

Robert Polidori's current visual anesthesia is viewing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art seems to solidify the idea of big is better. Oh, the mind numbing epicness of it all!
Polidori at the Met

There are many philosophical, emotional, and academic implications in the decision for an artist to create a photographic work large: to create a visual tension and impact through sheer size is the most evident. Would the iconic imagery of Irving Penn's cigarette buds be as powerful if rendered as 8x10" prints? Ever since the mid 80's when Jeff Wall started creating huge lightboxes creating cinematic art tableaux that were derivatives from famous large representational paintings from masters, the size the photographic images have taken, the lush scale and grandiose proportions has been pushed to obscene proportions.

A few weeks ago, I emailed photographer Alec Soth represented by Gagosian Gallery and very gently asked some questions of about why he prices, sizes and editions his work. His comments are posted here on his blog, Alec Soth's Blog.
I respect Alec's work and what he has to say for the most part, but I questioned his gigantic sizes of his prints as just a mechanism to sell his work for more money and I asked him how he feels the bigger is better component plays into the visual integrity of his work. His reply in short, "I understand there is a hunger amongst photographers to talk about these financial matters but I am utterly bored with the topic."

In a recent article in Art Forum discussing the paintings of Julie Mehretu, Christian Haye, gallery director of The Project Gallery in NYC has an equation that sells art by the square foot:

"Can art be priced by the square foot, like carpet? On the stand, Haye testified that the gallery currently sets prices for Mehretu's work in just that manner, using a formula based on the size of the painting: $1,000 a square foot for works over 100 square feet, $1,500 a square foot for works from 50 to 100 square feet, and $2,500 per square foot for works smaller than 50 square feet, with a minimum price of $25,000."

The rise of photography in the contemporary art world has now placed itself on the same pedestal with painters and sculptors. Last year Alec Soth's show was followed only months later by a multimillion dollar Richard Serra extravaganza. In order for photography to take it's rightful place in contemporary art history and in the art market the financial gaps between sculptures-paintings-photographs, has to be relatively bridged.

A collector walks into a Chelsea gallery expects to spend at least $100,000 on art, and is now asked if he is interested in stimulating his collection with 4 photographs for the same price that are from the same series that are hanging in the Whitney. To help photography to command prices that can compete against a Serra, Koons, or Twombly the criteria of the photographic work is not defined by the historical importance of the artist, rather the criteria in question is "Can the work be measured in feet and not in inches?" The economics of multimillion dollar gallerists have dictated that there is a relative equation with size and importance.

Recently, a friend of mine, Emmet Gowin had a surprising exhibition at Pace Macgill in midtown, and the show was simple and beautiful. The photographs were full of wonderous emotion, elements of alchemy, spirituality, created works of one of a kind prints that were painstakingly crafted. I said the exhibition was suprising because the prints were impressively small, fitting the intimacy of the work. The price of the print was dictated by the quality of the image not its physical girth. Needless to say it was refreshing.

Just as modernism and abstraction was a direct act against representation I hope that there are photographers out there that wish to create works that communicate with much power but rely soley on THE SIZE OF THINGS, and leave the work to speak for itself.

I'm up at the Museum

2006-12-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

Anyone interested, I have a couple of my early images up as recent aquisitions in the contemporary photo section of the PMA. Recently, Katherine Ware curator of photographs from the museum purchased some of my work. Check this.
Philadelphia Museum of Art

White Truffle Winter

2006-12-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

Ok so its not quite winter out yet. Its actually Dec 1 and 70 degrees out, but it is a White Truffle Winter. Had some ridiculously delicious grubbin food over at Vetri the other nite. Went over around 9:30 when Vetri was finishing up a busy Wednesday. My girl and I sat down at a beautiful farm table that will be used at Vetri's new Osteria that opens up sometime in late January. The inital plan was just to eat a nice white truffle risotto with a glass of red. Marc Vetri showed up at the table soon after and said with a smile on his face, "Nice risotto and a glass of wine? It's that kind of night." A few minutes later other dishes secretly started to make there way onto the table. The initial offering was a smoked octopus pizza which conjured up that Italian vacation you took that summer where you seemed to have rockstar status with the natives. Delirious Homer Simpson drewls occurred because the pizza was so perfectly paired with a wine from Piedmont. I don't claim how wines should be paired, but this simple pizza and glass of wine were having hot sex in my mouth, you know the kind of romp that happens when you haven't seen your girl in three weeks because you were at that bad business conference in the midwest.
Next up- a ricotta stuffed giant ravioli with a sunnyside egg atop, and slathered with a copious amount of white truffle. Something this dish did to really tug on those primal urges, kind of akin to the primal epiphany man finds himself having when in the woods camping for the very first time. Third was a white truffle risotto which was sick. After wiping the tears of joy from my face we finished the dinner with a bowl of perfectly round Bomboli, an italian doughnut that is dipped in hot molten bowl of italian chocolate. A embarrasing giddy Mozart-like laugh ensued.

Mark made his way out to the floor, the service for the night was winding down, he sits down at our table and watches us laughing uncontrollably and he starts to laugh at us laughing at how fucking good his food is.

Seriously, electric chair, hanging, or lethal injection, Vetri better be cooking at Sing Sing for the last meal.

return to authenticity?

2006-11-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

This is just the first of many posts about coffee.
Everyone wakes up and drinks coffee just like we take a piss and brush our teeth, but there are few cafes or roasters currently that produce a culture that has the same mentality behind why I drink coffee.
In my 17 years as a barista I have spent some quality time behind the bar on both sides of the coast; Seattle and now Philly and you know what I've found? Every customer is right. Everyone has their favorite cafe, their favorite barista, and their favorite drink. So you say opinions are like assholes-everyone has one and thats true. The guy with the gigante-triple-nonfat-butternut-crunch-latte with extra whip can't have the same expertise as someone who cups the newest organic fairtrade shadegrown with his hipster barista cronies, right??

This is my humble advice. Just make coffee and drink it. Educate yourself and formulate your tastes without affectation.

In Italy there is no take out cups which I love, the barista dresses well, wears designer glasses, pulls 7 drinks in 2 minutes while he makes fun of your ugly outfit that you've put together. All the while he flirts with your girlfriend in front of you and is still charming. How does he do that?
The espresso is pulled perfectly, perfect crema that makes you want to throwdown and make babies and the coffee tastes right everytime and there are no Synesso machines or 17 gram shot pulls in Italy. You know what? I had a coffee in Tuscany, small town called Sena Lunga. I went into the cafe where an old lady made me an amazing espresso with the least amount of coffee I have ever seen in a single gruppe head. She pulled this languid syrupy shot in a original e61 and it was simply amazing. I asked her where she got the machine and she looked at me dramatically discusted, "Ohh! i got that in 1961 -original, my machine!"

As Americans because we created Starbucks we think we created espresso. I think it is going to take a while for people to understand that we are still quite knew in this game. How is the guy with the vente triple blahblahblah different then the Afficianado's socially-politically correct roasted coffee with insane crema made through a $10,000 machine? There both slightly obscene.

My friend Marc Vetri is a great chef and when we were talking about coffee he made this analogy with cooking. I'm loosely quoting him but for the most part he said, "Everyone can make an amazing meal when you've got white truffles, but what kind of meal can you make when you just have cauliflower?" I find this relative to a knew elite style of consuming coffee that deals with certain varietals selling for $30 and up per pound. First, you're getting hosed, and second I feel that you're missing the point. The point is the soul and beauty in life isn't derived through decadence. In Italy they use robusta in some of their blends, because they are notoriously economic and they want to make something taste excellent with beans that are sub par, now that is an art.

Much of the beauty in coffee is in restraint. Restraint in the creation/roast of the coffee, restraint and respect in craft in creating a drink and I ask everyone to look into the history of coffee to reflect and formulate ideas about taste and return to authenticity.

Deth P Sun is your favorite artist

2006-11-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

I went up to the big shitty this past weekend and despite all of my hate and anxiety for it, I had a wonderful time. Took my girlfriend around and went to a number of gallery shows in midtown. David Byrne at Pace Macgill provided some comic relief, new work from Raushenberg at Pace Wildenstein was hit or miss, and a remarkably boring show of Robert Polidori's Chernoybl photographs at Edwynn Houk. Polidori is amazing for creating an enormous slick production and creating a type of visual anesthesia about something you really should be caring about. On that day neither Raushenberg's $800,000 paintings and Polidori's $20,000 giant color photographs of death and destruction were not nearly as delightful, intriguing, heartfelt and compelling as was a strange quiet show of paintings of strange somber creatures, akin to Maurice Sendak with a street edge. This was a show by California artist Deth P. Sun and its showing at the Giant Robot Gallery next to the Giant Robot store.

437 East 9th Street
Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, in the East Village
New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769) | grny.net

Snack Bar Opens tonite

2006-11-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know about Snack Bar. It officially opens with some of the biggest buzz among philly foodies. Have you ever heard a first night that produces Philly faves Vetri, Shola, and now Liebrandt all swinging by to bless the kitchen? If you've ever thought about cooking up some crank on the stove, instead of smoking your usual herb or crack than the Snack Bar is for you. John and John have made it undeniably egoless, comfortable and accessible to anyone that has some idea of living the right way. Front of the house is meticulously maintained by Nicky who has brought the experience of 536 successful restaurant openings with him. Food is fashioned by arguably the best kitchen ever assembled in recent Philly memory. Imagine Paul Liebrant having gay sex with Andoni Aduriz in Morimoto's bed and you have some sense of the um...flavors here. Check this out before you read about it in Food and Wine bitches.