Dances Dances Dances!

Cab Calloway, old animation (so weird!), and St. James Infirmary!I had to go and leave this on Coopers Myspace profile when I found it, there was really no other choice!



This clip is from a silent film with the FABULOUS Josephine Baker in it. I watched it with no sound and prefer this one with a modern remix of "Jauna La Cubana". She is so long-limbed but so fast and energetic! She gives gangly tall me hope for coordination!



This was used as the opening clip for the movie "GhostWorld". It is so wacky and rad and somewhat eerie (what is with the masks?) I love it. I have adopted a couple dance moves from this!



The undisputed queens of tribal bellydance drink Jameson and dance/mug to Man Man!! AWESOME. They are the light-hearted, technically-proficient and very inspired The Indigo. Their mugging and crazy faces remind me of Josephine Baker.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST


most AMAZING group dance sequence ever! All the men are so awesome, and the girl.....BE STILL MY HEART! Bollywood with some Footloose flavor, all on top of a moving train. I want to get a group of friends together and watch the whole movie (called "Dilse") at my house and then have a dance party. On top of a moving trains. Davis has a train station. It would be NO PROBLEM!

I hope you all enjoyed these videos. May we all live in a dancing and singing world!

Out in the world

Things to do in your lifetime (A List)

Learn another language
Build your own home
Hold a baby chimpanzee
See the Northern lights
Go to a Tom Waits concert

Wait(s)! Scratch that last one OFF! I have seen the man and been illuminated by his sparkly bowler hat!

Mykle and I went to Texas for the sole purpose of seeing Tom Waits but also got to hang out with our good friends and meet other good friends. We got to meet one of our close friends' baby, and bike around humid artistic Austin, eating good food and keeping ourselves submerged up to our eyeballs in cool spring water.Thank you Chris and Brenda, and baby Sasha, and Annie and Holly, and all of their lovely friends whom we are the better for having met....

My report on Tom Waits.
by Kai Smart
His voice is of a much lower gravel than on his albums when he preforms, and he dances like the crazy drunk old men on the corner in the natty suits, brown-bagging it, and singing together in the afternoon. It's less of a dance and more of a jerky incantation. Waits stomps his big boots and puffs of white powder rise up like he is dancing in hell. he doesn't seem to favor any one album except Real Gone, off of which he plays "Hoist that Rag" "Dead and Lovely" "Trampled Rose" "Make it rain" and I forget...time for me to harness the poswer of the internet;
set list
Lucinda
Down in the Hole
Falling Down
November
Dead and Lovely
Lie to Me
Day After Tomorrow (everyone clapped during this, it's an anti-war song)
Hoist that Rag (his young son came out to play bongos)
Get Behind the Mule
Cemetary Polka
Trampled Rose
Jesus Gonna Be Here (My band covered this in Antarctica, badly yet soulfully)
Lucky Day (Tom on piano)
Tom Traubert’s Blues (Tom on piano)
House Where Nobody Lives (Tom on piano)
Innocent when you dream (Tom on piano) (I cried, Everyone cried...I cried some more)
Make it Rain
Murder in the Red Barn (done jazz style with a flamenco guitar opening)
Come on up to the House
Eyeball Kid
Dirt in the Ground (what a good way to end it)


I'm not sure if it is just my extensive knowledge of Tom's entire catalogue or what, but at the start of every song I was like, "Oh yay, he's gonna play THIS!!"
There was something on the little stage he was standing on that was written in arabic. Let's see if the internet knows what it is...

nope, oh well.

Anyhow, it was a great show, and when Tom took off his regular black derby and put on one encrusted with mirrors, TURNING HIS HEAD INTO A DISCO BALL, it was worth the commute. Ha ha.

old home

, originally uploaded by fjordscape.

The new guy at work, Nathan, and I were talking about our favorite smells because I was eating Pad J and it's full of Thai Basil and extremely aromatic. We each knew our top three, for me it is:

Basil
Amber
Bergamont


but I forgot a very important one that for me is like the intoxicating breath of childhood/mystery/ancient times:

The Sea.

bone lady

bonelady, originally uploaded by hbobisuthi.

By some stroke of luck or fancy I often get requests to draw things that "look like a woodcut". There are many different kinds of woodcut looks, from incredibly detailed and precise (wood engraving) to chunky and crude (linoleum block prints). It's interesting to do art with one material and try to make it look like another.
For years, inspired by Dave McKean, I would paint and try to build up layers and layers to make it look like his computer/xerox manipulated images. Of course I was using papers and colored pencils and acrylic paint and gold leaf and so the effect was totally different. Which made my paintings more original, I think.
I have to do 2 illustrations for bands that "look like a woodcut". I want them to have the effect of the above picture, which is a photo by Holly of a wheatpasting on a wall in the Mission. I look at stuff like this though and think- 'maybe the best way to make it look like a woodcut is to make a woodcut'. It's just an incredible look that is so hard to mirror. I may invest in some knives and tree pieces.

feeling unreservedly sweet

Happy Birthday to You

My buddy Rico, originally uploaded by kai smart.

This weekend, My buddy Rico turns 40. I am only assuming he doesn't care about his age being broadcast across the internet. However, you can tell by the above picture that this coming milestone (millstone?) effects none of his charm or sophistication. Rico has The Cool, and always has had it.

Rico wears Raybans and khakis like it's 1986, and I think that probably hipsters across America will be biting this style very soon. Also, his name is Rico, for Christ's sake, and he travels all over the world. He is also the Number One Best Person To Be Stuck At A Boring Party With.

When we were first friends I dragged him to all these weird parties with my peers (he's 12 years older than I) and he didn't complain and ended up being the most entertaining person there and everyone knew it. Mainly because he can tell a story that will kick your ass up and down the block. He cares nothing for age difference, and has friends from every generation. His voice is so mesmerizing that a friend of mine tracked him down and asked him out just because she had heard his voice on the radio.

Sometimes, Rico's hair looks like Beethoven's hair. We hardly ever agree on movies, but went to the movies together weekly for many years. He's a highly motivated writer who has written many books and stories. Once, he wrote a book in which there is a character based on me and my life. It is an honor almost impossible to describe.

This weekend, I shall see Rico, and I will get to celebrate this important date with him. I am so happy.

"Rico brings the Darkness, and I follow his shredding rule"

-inside joke from another birthday party

Living in a dream

Boardwalk runoff, originally uploaded by kai smart.

I didn't realize it, but I have another peice of writing up on "Ids Greater Than" the excellent online magazine that Paul Davis puts together. This story is not about tattooing, it's about how a certain band embodies my damned hometown, and it also about nostalgia and teenagerhood and I just realized that I didn't change anyone's name. Whoops. Sorry, aimee. Oh well, Aimee doesn't get into the internet so oh well.

Getting Confused in Santa Cruz, Living in a Dream

You should read the totally sweet comment I got on the story! Yay! Actually, you're gonna have to read it, cause I am including it here:

"That is a beautifully-written remembrance. Every music lover has stories like that, and when they’re this well-crafted, they’re a joy to read. I connect. Great stuff."

Thanks Robby, for making my day!

I used to write a lot, and felt like I had a handle on it. Now I don't , and am only getting back into it because Paul asked so nice. I think it's probably good for me. I have the boatload of journals that I've kept forever, but slacked off on the journal writing because of ....THIS BLOG!!

RANDOMIZE

thought: leaving comments on Youtube = Screaming into a void


Inspiration: Surrealist photo collage a la Max Ernst:

Claudia Drake, collage extraordinaire (who has her pictures protected so you can not show them here)(trust me click the link)

Amazing Alexis McKenzie



thought: how much control should I take of a person's tattoo design? By drawing it I take artistic control- should I also take design control if there is something really bad/messy about their idea? Re: the man who wants seven different tattoos all crammed into one. A calla lily, automotive instruments, a crest and a straw boater (that's a hat). Done traditional style, but with chrome effect. Hmmph.

Watched a documentary on "Freak Folk":

Youtube it here:The ETERNAL CHILDREN

Why are my most aesthetically favorite youth subcultures the ones MOST DISSED by my boyfriends and social circle? I defend, but I am one little voice, usually unheard and dissmissed. Don't cry for me, I am USED TO IT.

A LIST:

Kai loves the aesthetics of:

1. Goth (the old standby)
2. Steampunk
3. Gypsy Mission hipsters
4. "freak Folk"
5. Circus punk


All I talk about is tattoo tattoo tattoo. All I think about is getting better FAST and stressing that I am not proceeding fast enough (but I am) and I'm almost thirty and I got a late start oh no.....

Ready to get your ass kicked by inspiring and masterful tattoo ?:

I want to get tattooed by
ADAM BARTON
Look at how amazing this skull is! The shadow is a solid lilac color! The turquoise in the eyes! Wow.
















Also a masterful color artist is the smoothest tattooer ever:

LU

He's in Berlin, so I'm not sure if that will ever happen. God he is SO GOOD. Look at his pics on his Myspace profile. Each one is jaw dropping. Look at this sparrow he did:



And to finish we have a picture of me and the Coug, proudly displaying our Baroness T-Shirts by the AMAZING artist John Dyer Baizley:


When I found his art is was one of those moments where I was almost sick- his art is so much the style of what I want to do...it's recognition and jealousy all wrapped in one.


A tattoo I started recently. I think it looks lovely already: