Radio Tania

The Changing Face of Retail

I live in San Francisco and today, while walking on Fillmore Street, I noticed how many stores were either having massive sales or had just closed down all together. What brought me to that area was The Storeroom, a pop-up department store curated by CITIZEN: Citizen (which is owned by someone I respect very much). For five weeks, The Storeroom will bring together brands that they believe are interesting, engaging and beautiful and offer their products at a remarkable value. It's a sign of the times, no doubt, but it also raises the issue of what we value, how we value it, the ways that is reflected in retail and how it is evolving as our economy changes and we are asked to be more creative. Unconventional retail spaces is hardly a novel concept. Take for instance, The Wrong Store or The Pirate Store or The World's Smallest Department Store. All of these and many more play with our notions of consumerism and remind us of our habits of consumption. But for now, we can just have fun with it all, explore the ways creativity seeps itself into everything and experience The Storeroom.

Fiction, Fantasy and the Power of Film

This past year, I have had the honor of interviewing some extraordinary filmmakers, all of whom navigate this fine line between fact and fiction. Maybe all filmmakers do that (now that I think about it!) but it seemed to come up over and over again. Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, NY moved me to tears (honestly). And Steve Buscemi's Interview really got under my skin. John Waters' Pink Flamingos simply shocked me. Today, I had a lovely conversation with Laurent Cantet who made The Class, a film that looks at the racially diverse, inner city classroom in Paris and the clashes that arise amongst students and with the teacher. Speaking with Cantet reminded me of the work of Frederick Wiseman, who made a cinema verité documentary called High School in the 70s. I also interviewed Frederick Wiseman early on when I still worked at WBAI. He had just made a film in Paris, so maybe everything comes together full circle.

 

 

 

 

The History of Strangers

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Katy Grannan. More on this later but here are some images from the series she has created since her move out west. She has a show coming up in London and I wrote about her work for The Times in the UK.

It's been a long ride

It has been so long since I have written on this blog and the whole world of blogging has changed in that time. A lot has happened that I would love to share, both with people I have interviewed and various things I have seen that have been utterly inspiring.  So this small post is to say, thank you for visiting the blog, please send your comments and if there is anything you would like to contribute, drop me a line.

Quilts of Gee's Bend

I generally don't blog my own work but I am so excited about being on the BBC and this piece meant so much to me that I just had to. The piece is about the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Essentially, an art colector and preserver discovered the quilts when traveling the south. He had seen an image in a magazine and was so struck by its beauty that he tracked down these women. Gee's Bend is one of the poorest counties in America and yet the work and the spirit that emerges from there is so brilliant, full of life, of love, of gratitude. When I interviewed these women, they cried, they laughed, they bursted out in song, they inspired me and humbled me. Here are their quilts and a link to the piece.

Art Basel Miami

Art Basel Miami is like a mini city of artists, designers, photographers, curators, journalists and collectors that just springs up in the middle of Balmy Miami for a week, and it's extraordinary. A couple of the pieces shown here are works that I especially appreciated from the show (particularly Charles Guice's Gallery and Josee Bienvenu) except for one, the one of the boat on the water. I just happened to fall upon it because it's by fellow journalist and Armenian, Nubar Alexanian (who also shares his name with that of my Grandpa, Noubar).

This American Life

For the longest time, I wouldn't join the masses who adore this show. But this week, on my way to some fassoulia at Grandma's, I couldn't leave my car. The story was about two kids who babysat imaginary children so that they could find respite from their difficult home lives. There are countless quotes that have stayed with me, about love and abandonement and desire and sadness and strength. This is art at one of its finest, the art of sound that remains, that resonates, that fixates you, that reminds you of how blessed you are. Click here and then just listen. Listen.

kiss

I saw this beautiful Constantin Brancusi sculpture in person at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. The manager of the museum store said that countless times, men have called the museum to reserve a spot in front of the sculpture so that they can propose to their wife to be. When I came home, my friend Michael gave me a similar sculpture, in miniture form, one he had discovered in the mountains of Peru.

no music day

nothing more to say about this....except what would you do if there wasn't music in your life? here are some answers....oh and click on no music day.

how disposable is it?

My studio mate Gage invited us over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. He lives in the neighborhood I grew up in, an area that has changed dramatically over the last years, both aesthetically and culturally. In fact, a German friend staying with us talked about how much his neighborhood, St. Pauli, in Hamburg had changed in the 15 years he was there (much like the East Village in NY). He so wished he had tracked the changes, through video or photography. But alas, the evolution is only evident in his memory. But back to Gage. We had gone to get some beer and the shopping bag from the corner store was a collage of discarded medical records from the medical school near by. Why had someone taken the effort to create such disposable items as paper bags...I found the intersection of something so impersonal as a shopping bag and something so utterly confidential as a discarded medical record (albeit an anonymous one) infinitely interesting.