Mr. Struggan's Regards

Mr. Struggan’s Foolish April Playlist Hello, Wilson and Nico...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:18:00 -0400

Mr. Struggan’s Foolish April Playlist

Hello, Wilson and Nico here, checking in just under the wire with Mr. Struggan’s Foolish April Playlist. Please enjoy this selection of tracks from the likes of Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake, Miles Davis, and more, finely crafted for your listening pleasure.

Mr. Struggan send his regards.

The Mr. Struggan Foundation's April Loan

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:20:56 -0400

The Mr. Struggan Foundation's April Loan:

Hello, Wilson and NIco here. It’s been a quite the slow month for us here at the Regards, an ebb in productivity that Mr. Struggan is constantly fighting against in his determined fight to be the best blog mogul / philanthropist / international man of mystery / reclusive savant he can be. Mr. Struggan has come out of his rut to disburse this month’s Kiva loan, which we are pleased to announce to you here today.

Each month, Mr. Struggan will be pledging a $25 loan to a borrower on Kiva’s website, which helps connect loan applicants from around the world with people who are willing and able to provide them with the funding they need. These microloans can go a long way towards helping people, especially in parts of the world where typical banking infrastructures are inadequate or do not exist.

This month’s Mr. Struggan Foundation loan recipient is Mariatu, a 41 year-old wife, mother, and business owner from Sierra Leone who has applied for a loan for her construction supply business. A loan of $1,175 will help her buy additional building materials for her company’s inventory.

Please consider helping Mariatu out; she is only $1.050 dollars away from getting her loan fully funded. For lenders new to Kiva, use this invite link to sign up, and The Mr. Struggan Foundation will receive an additional $25 for our endowment. Once you sign up, you can become a Foundation Member by joining our Lending Team, where you can track the Foundation’s progress and attribute your own lending activity to the fund. After four months of progress, our endowment currently sits at $125.

Mr. Struggan sends his warm regards.

The Mr. Struggan Foundation's March Loan

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:24:01 -0400

The Mr. Struggan Foundation's March Loan:

Hello there. Wilson and NIco here, wishing you a peaceful and positive Palm Sunday. Mr. Struggan, quite counterproductively, told us earlier this month to stop publishing posts on the blog, explaining to us that he’d given up blogging for Lent. This didn’t make much sense to the two of us, but we were unable to convince Mr. Struggan to remain on our regular schedule. After much pleading, he finally agreed to disburse this month’s Kiva loan, which we are happy to announce today.

This month’s Mr. Struggan Foundation loan recipient is Ganbayar, a 23 year-old man from Mongolia and recent college graduate who has applied for a loan for his furniture manufacturing business. A loan of $1,450 will cover the costs of starting inventory to get his business up and running.

Please consider helping Ganbayar out; he is only $875 dollars away from getting his loan fully funded. For lenders new to Kiva, use this invite link to sign up, and The Mr. Struggan Foundation will receive an additional $25 for our endowment. Once you sign up, you can become a Foundation Member by joining our Lending Team, where you can track the Foundation’s progress and attribute your own lending activity to the fund. After two months of progress, our endowment currently sits at $50.

Mr. Struggan sends his warm regards.

Mr. Struggan’s March Mysticism Playlist Hello, Wilson and...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:44:52 -0500

Mr. Struggan’s March Mysticism Playlist

Hello, Wilson and Nico here, kicking of the month with Mr. Struggan’s March Mysticism Playlist! We both, on behalf of Mr. Struggan, hope you enjoy this month’s selection of tracks, featuring Holy Ghost!, David Bowie, Birdy Nam Nam, Cat Power, and much more.

Happy listening!

Mr. Struggan send his regards.

Regarding Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:30:55 -0500

Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, 2012
Directed by Ice T

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan, the hip-hop aficionado he is, assigned me to review last year’s documentary The Art of Rap for our film review this week. He has been bugging me for quite some time to watch it for him, ever since he learned of its release from a subway ad tucked away in Brooklyn’s Morgan Avenue station last summer.

The Art of Rap is a strong, but incomplete history of rap and hip-hop’s roots and traditions. The film’s goal, as director and narrator Ice T states from the start, is to give insight into the technical processes behind the global cultural movement that is rap music. Towards this end, he takes the audience on a loose and winding historical tour through the Bronx, the movement’s birthplace, south through New York City, then across the country to Los Angeles. Along the way, Ice T stops to meet with some of hip-hop’s greatest emcees to chat about their processes, approaches, techniques, experiences, and influences. What comes out of this odyssey is a remarkable amount of insight into the art form and what it takes to be the best in one of the world’s most popular musical genres. We also get treated to a wide range of entertaining freestyles and anecdotes from some legendary figures, including Grandmaster Caz, Melle Mel, KRS-One, Q-Tip, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg (pre Snoop Lion reincarnation), Eminem, Yasiin Bey (The Artist Formerly Known as Mos Def), Kanye West, and others.

Ice T, as our tour guide, is able to show us the inside story from the perspective of a true insider. He is perhaps the most logical fit for a project of this scope and ambition, considering his own position as a founding father of the hip-hop movement in LA and his consistent career as an actor. The perspective he is able to offer is fascinating and what he achieves is a film that truly celebrates the craft of hip-hop, without damaging itself by taking a self-congratulatory tone.

What Ice T doesn’t quite achieve, however, is the full picture. There is an over reliance in the narrative on the dichotomy between hip-hop’s New York origins and its second life in Los Angeles. The only thing in between is a brief stop in Detroit to pay homage to Eminem. This leaves some glaring omissions, most notably from the South; such figures as Ludacris, TI, Lil Wayne, and Andre 3000 and Big Boi from Outkast are left unrecognized. Perhaps this doesn’t concern the film and it is simply content to present the huge sample that it does. From my point of view, though, that sample would have been better if fully representative of hip-hop’s stylistic diversity.

Mr. Struggan sends his Regards.

The Mr. Struggan Foundation's February Loan

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:04:00 -0500

The Mr. Struggan Foundation's February Loan:

Wilson and Nico here. It is our pleasure to announce the recipient of The Mr. Struggan Foundation’s February loan, powered by Kiva.org

This month’s Mr. Struggan Foundation loan recipient is Sarah, a 32 year-old mother of two who works for her local town council in Uganda as a health inspector. A loan of $450 dollars will help pay for the construction of rental homes she is building.

Please consider helping Sarah out; she is only $425 dollars away from getting her loan fully funded. For lenders new to Kiva, use this invite link to sign up, and The Mr. Struggan Foundation will receive an additional $25 for our endowment. Once you sign up, you can become a Foundation Member by joining our Lending Team, where you can track the Foundation’s progress and attribute your own lending activity to the fund. After two months of progress, our endowment currently sits at $50.

Mr. Struggan sends his warm regards.

Regarding The Art of Scent: 1889-2012 at The Museum of Arts and Design

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 20:26:19 -0500

The Art of Scent: 1889-2012
The Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Nov 20, 2012 - Mar 3, 2013

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan has, for several years, maintained a boycott against the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. A member of their staff, who shall remain nameless, displayed a great amount of rudeness the last time Mr. Struggan was in touch with their institution, and their typically uninteresting exhibition program hasn’t motivated him to return since. Hearing about their current exhibition, The Art of Scent, held Mr. Struggan’s curiosity enough, however, to send me there this past Thursday to review the show.

After wading through some truly strange exhibitions on the lower floors, I reached the 4th floor, where the assigned exhibition is installed. What met me in the gallery was stranger still, consistant with Mr. Struggan’s expectations. Embedded into the walls were several large indentations, with projected wall texts next to each. Accompanying these indentations, which served as smelling stations for the content of the show, was an introductory text to the exhibition projected from the ceiling onto the middle of the gallery floor. The text explained the exhibition’s aim to give historical context to the craft of scent design, starting from the dawn of the industrial revolution, which began a modern era for scent makers with the development of synthetic chemical production on a large scale, through the 20th century and up to the state of perfumery today.

The exhibition, according to the supporting text, aims to situate the “olfactory arts” within a larger historical context alongside the history of visual arts and design. The exhibition is interesting from this historical standpoint, but the show accomplishes little else. Twelve seminal fragrances from the field of scent design are exhibited, each available to experience at one of the indented stations along the wall. Though the wall texts provided some stimulating information about the history of the perfume industry, they failed to provide a full and adequate context to the show for me to leave with a clear understanding of what I had learned. It was the kind of information that could have been just as easily been read in a book. Actually, i take that back; a book would have been far easier, not just as easy. And far more convenient, comfortable, and informative to boot.

Beyond these shortcomings, the experience of the show uncomfortable. If the exhibition designers didn’t think it would be an awkward experience for visitors to thrust their heads into holes blatantly shaped like vaginas to have perfume vaporized at their nostrils, then they were very wrong.The show was wrought with other inconveniences as well, besides the disconcerting wall vagina vaporizers. The wall texts, for instance, were projected on the wall and faded in and out on a loop. When approaching a new station, the texts would just as often than not fade out of view before you had a chance to finish reading. This made the experience not only awkward, but also needlessly frustrating.

The exhibition also featured a side gallery with liquid samples of a range of perfumes to try, as well as a totally unexplained projection of a “live feed” of descriptions of the scents. In all likelihood a poorly conceived social media plugin to garner viewer participation.

In short, the show lacks adequate contexts, both in its physical design and in its content. Every aspect of the exhibition was approached with all style, and little substance. Mr. Struggan, after hearing my thoughts about the show, is fairly sure he won’t be sending me back to MAD anytime soon.

Mr. Struggan sends his Low Regards.

Regarding Warm Bodies

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:55:18 -0500

Warm Bodies, 2013
Directed by Jonathan Levine

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan has a hefty dose of disdain for the type of rom-coms that roll out every year to capitalize on the emotional ups and downs of the Valentine’s Day ritual. It is for this reason that his interest was piqued by Warm Bodies, which seemed to him a very atypical early February release. He sent me to see it this week for a review ahead of the 14th to let you all know his thoughts.

Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer lead the film as R and Julie, the latter a young woman and member of the human resistance against a zombie apocalypse that has overrun the planet, the former a young zombie who falls in love with Julie during a feeding frenzy in which he eats her boyfriend. Vowing to protect her from his undead cohorts, R and Julie begin to discover a bond between them despite their differences, and ultimately unlock the key to the zombie cure (spoiler alert: the cure is love).

The story, adapted from a novel by Issac Marion, largely follows the story arc of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; two young people (or one young person and one young zombie) from two warring factions, thrust into an improbable love despite their differences. Added to this is a clever take on the typical zombie story, giving us a humanized protagonist in the midst of an existential crisis surrounding his droll routine as a zombie and his self-contempt at his need to satisfy his hunger for human flesh. The end result is a unique genre bender that, despite an oddball premise, delivers a fun and funny film with an authentic message about love and the human experience.

The film is not without its shortcomings, however. Hoult and Palmer carry the film with two very strong performances, but the rest of the cast is very one dimensional. This is somewhat the fault of bad pacing, where parts of the film could have used more breathing room to further develop the characters and their motivations. The film is still a very entertaining watch, especially for fans of the zombie genre, and provides breath of fresh air to the standard February fare.

Mr. Struggan sends his High Regards.

Regarding Until the Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:00:54 -0500

Until the Quiet Comes, 2012
Flying Lotus

Nico here. Mr. Struggan, an avid pilot and horticulturist, unsurprisingly invited me to review Flying Lotus’ newest album, Until the Quiet Comes. Flying Lotus’ last album before this one, Cosmogramma (2010), was a cool album during a cool time.

Effective music elicits physical reactions. The 5th Dimension makes me dance. This album makes me fall asleep. No surprise, since the album’s concept relies heavily on dreams. This is not a negative criticism, I’m just saying this album is a dangerous selection for a solo road trip.

So, It’s a sleepy album. No less meaningful, though. “Sultan’s Request” has this deep repetitive riff/bass line that lulls the listener like a mantra. Not in a rocking way, but in a sleepy way, even to a point of monotony that begs attention. Interesting effect.

Furthermore, I disagree somewhat with critics who have said this album delves deeper into the jazz influences FlyLo began experimenting with on Cosmogramma. The jazz is there, but I hear a lot more hip hop rhythm on these tracks, albeit abstracted. Even thematically, this album is more hip hop-influenced. Think turntablism. Two of his collaborators, Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu, are good flavors for the songs’ drowsy soundscapes. FlyLo is an ascetic, not a baller. ”DMT Song” is more introspective trip than psychedelic roller coaster.

On Until the Quiet Comes, Flying Lotus continues to work his butt off and gets us listening in new directions. Thought-provoking music is important, but not always super-fun.

Mr. Struggan sends his High Regards.

Shout out to Plan 9 Music in Richmond, Va., where I bought this album. Helpful staff. Good selection. Be sure to make a visit if you’re ever in Carytown.

Mr. Struggan’s February Hearts Playlist Wilson and Nico...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:02:00 -0500

Mr. Struggan’s February Hearts Playlist

Wilson and Nico here, ushering in our second month of the New Year with Mr. Struggan’s February Hearts Playlist! We hope you enjoy this preview for the month ahead, featuring the likes of Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Dr. Dre, Rufus Wainwright, and other artists. Happy listening!

Mr. Struggan sends his regards.

Regarding Darren Almond and Nayland Blake at Matthew Marks Gallery

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:00:39 -0500

Darren Almond: Hemispheres and Continents
and
Nayland Blake: What Wont Wreng
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City
Feb 2 - Apr 20, 2013

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan sent me to Chelsea last night for a a special double assignment. Matthew Marks Gallery opened two shows last night in their galleries in Chelsea, Darren Almond: Hemispheres and Continents at 522 W22nd, and Nayland Blake: What Wont Wreng at 502 W22nd.

Darren Almond’s exhibition features 17 large format landscape photographs taken at night under the light of a full moon. Shot across all seven continents between 2002 and 2012, these long exposures are the result of a specific process, where Almond vets locations for his photos ahead of time and then returns at night to execute his planned shots. In addition to the photographs, the show features another piece, a glass sculpture designed to function as a radiometer whose moving parts rotate when exposed to light.

The work on view was magnificent. The long moonlight exposures convey night’s quiet stillness, but the quality of the light also creates an alien setting, one we are familiar yet also unfamiliar with. The gallery’s press release notes Almond’s forgoing of technical control by working in the darkness as an important aspect of the work. Though he is unable to control the camera, Almond’s photography is by no means haphazard or accidental. On their large scale, the work has a transportive effect.

Down the street, I was similarly pleased with Nayland Blake’s exhibition of 6 installation pieces. Blake incorporates both found objects and his own fabrications into his work, including such media as fabric, metal, paper and vinyl prints, plexiglass, denim, stuffed animals, furniture, mirrors, and more.

Using found objects in art is often helpful when aiming for a rough or worn aesthetic. Blake doesn’t allow for this type of quality to come through in his work. Much like Almond’s photographs, Blake achieves a refined quality in these installations. His pieces are clean-cut, and where they incorporate found objects, these recycled elements attain a sense of rehabilitation. I especially liked the two floor installations, Eleventh and Buddy, Buddy, Buddy. Each of their four sides is almost its own separate installation. The 3 wall mounted pieces were also strong, but were not quite as versatile.

Mr. Struggan sends his Highest Regards.

Wilson here, wishing you a happy Superbowl Sunday with a new...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 17:00:37 -0500

Wilson here, wishing you a happy Superbowl Sunday with a new poem in Mr. Struggan’s Magnetic Poetry Series.

Mr. Struggan’s style is often said to be celestial, so his subject matter today is no surprise. Watch out for that event horizon!

Mr. Struggan sends his regards.

Regarding Siegfried Vol. 1 by Alex Alice

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:34:00 -0500

Siegfried Vol. 1, 2012
Alex Alice

Nico here. As a participant in the Graphic Novel Reading Group at Politics & Prose Bookstore, I read at least one graphic novel per month. Mr. Struggan has invited me to share my criticism of this month’s selected reading here.

Alex Alice’s Siegfried is the first volume of a three part adaptation of German composer Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, a pretty grand story to be condensed into 50 pages of comics. Alice weaves the origin-story of Siegfried, a boy who is friends with wolves, raised by an outcast and whose mother was a goddess. Pretty epic.

Unsurprisingly, Alice’s art is heavily french-influenced, from the looks of characters to unabashedly cinematic paneling, even to the innocent, hopeful tone of the story. His warm, romantic style is evocative of late ’70s heavy metal, The Legend of Zelda, and the art of Disney animated films, an influence the artist credits.

It’s a beautiful book. Alice deftly mixes hand-drawn and computer-generated illustration to create evocatively, detailed panels. As good as the graphics are, the quality of the materials used in printing made a huge difference. With a hard cover and glossy pages, no expense was spared.

As strong as the work is, Siegfried may be a little too psyched about itself. Over 60 pages of an interview with Alex Alice and preliminary sketches are nice, but unwarranted. I might expect these extras in a reprint, but not a first edition. As nice as they are, I’d prefer the first edition to let the work speak for itself. That said, it’s a great change of pace from diaristic indie comics and more familiar American comic books.

Mr. Struggan sends his High Regards.

Regarding Les Misérables

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:30:00 -0500

Les Misérables, 2012
Directed by Tom Hooper

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan had to call an audible this week with his film review assignment. He was going to have me go see the new film Movie 43, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, considering the nearly unanimous bad reviews it’s received) it was not playing at the theater near me. Instead, he asked me to pick an Oscar contender that I hadn’t seen yet, so I caught a showing of Les Misérables.

I feel it is important to note, given the popularity of Les Mis, that I have never seen it before, neither on film nor on stage. I didn’t even know much about the story going into it. My suspicion is that this fact directly affected my inability to like Tom Hooper’s film, which seemed, in its marketing campaign and the actual viewing of it, like it wanted to position itself as a bold remake of a beloved story targeted at its fans. To me, the uninitiated, I could not buy in.

Listening to music is an emotional experience above all, and the musical genre succeeds best when it is able to tap into this emotive potential and elevate the action of a story. Hooper’s Les Mis attempts to tap into this aspect of the genre by paying particular care to the music, but rather than having the intended elevating effect, it instead distracted. The film tries to ride a line between musical and realist drama which shouldn’t, maybe even can’t, be riden; musicals demand a suspension of disbelief, mostly because people don’t actually burst into spontaneous moments of choreographed song and dance when expressing their feelings in real life. Hooper’s attempt to inject a bold, in-your-face grittiness to his production is, therefore, ultimately ill conceived.

Hugh Jackman, as the most competent member of the cast, managed to keep me with the program with his performance as Jean Valjean. Similarly, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, kept me entertained as the comic relief. The rest of the cast had too little screen time to impress me, or enough to bore me.

From a technical standpoint, the film had some great moments; the grand visuals and set pieces were truly awesome, and Hooper deserves a lot of credit for his ambitious vision alone. Ambition without execution, though, left me feeling nothing about the film. Given the hype, that only left me disappointed.

Mr. Struggan sends his Low Regards.

Regarding Zarina: Paper Like Skin at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:23:30 -0500

Zarina: Paper Like Skin
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
January 25 - April 21, 2013

Wilson here. After a very exciting night on Friday at Postcards From the Edge (my piece sold!), Mr. Struggan sent me out Saturday night to the Guggenheim to cover their new exhibition, Zarina: Paper Like Skin. I was supposed to attend the opening Friday night, had I not had business in Chelsea, and Mr. Struggan was kind enough to let me reschedule the assignment. The long, cold line for the Guggenheim’s pay-what-you-want hours was well worth the visit for the new retrospective exhibition of the work of this Indian-born master printmaker.

The exhibition charts Zarina’s practice through several decades of her career. Her work draws on traditions of religion and spirituality, poetry and calligraphy, and western minimalist aesthetics, all to a beautiful and delicate effect. The work on view, a wide range of prints and sculptures, is nothing short of gorgeous.

Zarina’s work could best be described as schematic. Sometimes this is manifested quite literally in pieces that map cities or the layout of a room. More often though, her pieces reveal inner structures, such as in a series of ink prints made using found scraps of wood, or even in the material presence of the handmade paper in some of her more sculptural pieces. The results are, for the most part, powerful and evocative.

I found the show’s curation was awkward at at times. This is mainly due to the fact that I find the Guggenheim’s annex galleries to be somewhat awkward spaces. The work on view deserved a bit more breathing room, and generally I found many of the curatorial choices, especially the texts, to be a bit stuffy. I’d be curious what the differences are between the Guggenheim’s installation and the installation at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, where the show originated. Regardless, Zarina’s work speaks clearly for itself as masterful and elegant.

Mr. Struggan sends his High Regards.

Regarding Everything Must Go

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:30:43 -0500

Everything Must Go, 2010
Directed by Dan Rush

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan, in search of something to assign for my next film review, took a scroll through his Netflix queue this past week. He settled on Everything Must Go, a 2010 film that he’d been hesitating to watch for some time. Being the willing test subject that I am, I offered to watch it and write up a review to save him the trouble.

After watching the film, my recommendation to Mr. Struggan was clear: don’t bother. The film reaches for the pinnacle of mediocre filmmaking, and nearly makes it to the summit. It is no surprise that the film was director Dan Rush’s debut, and no wonder that his IMDb page lists no projects since.

Will Ferrell leads the film as our protagonist Nick Halsey, an alcoholic who, after being fired from his job, returns home to find his wife gone, the locks changed, and all of his possessions piled up on his front lawn. With nowhere to go, Nick decides to take up residency on the lawn and, with the help of teenage neighborhood loiterer Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace) and with the emotional support of his new neighbor Samantha (Rebecca Hall), sets about staging a yard sale to rid himself of his things.

None of the cast members are particularly bad; Ferrell, considering the circumstances, actually forces a good performance into the production, seemingly through pure willpower. His character conveys the sad charm that it ought to, and his chemistry with Rebecca Hall holds a few key scenes together, like their middle-of-the-night confrontation, enough to add a silver lining to the viewing experience.

By and large, however, they are let down by core characters whose relationships with each other aren’t developed well enough for us to care about them, and extraneous secondary characters who add little (Glenn Howerton’s second scene as Nick’s boss at the end of the film), if anything at all (Stephen Root as Nick’s BDSM enthusiast neighbor) to the story. An overhanded score, several unresolved plot points, and ultimately a lazy script, amateur editing, and unassertive direction top off the the long list of reasons why one mustn’t go see this movie.

Mr. Struggan sends his Low Regards.

Regarding Beta Love by Ra Ra Riot

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:59:51 -0500

Beta Love, 2013
Ra Ra Riot

Nico here, reporting from Mr. Struggan’s Possum Alley bureau in Washington, D.C. In keeping with our new schedule, Mr. Struggan has assigned me a review of Ra Ra Riot’s new album, Beta Love, this week. Tuesday morning, I stayed home with a fever of 100.8. Beta Love did not soothe my senses as well as other music could have; it sounds like a quarter life crisis.

The main problem with this release is that it does not offer much sonic or thematic breadth. Lack of lyrical ingenuity could be forgiven if the sounds were more convincing.

“Wilderness” shows me something, but then, the verse line’s cheesy, repetitive arpeggio drops in. It doesn’t give the listener much to work with. I can’t tell whether this is minimalist, or just bad. I’m leaning towards the latter. ”I Shut Off” is supposed to be some kind of final-track-of-the-album anthem, but it lacks instrumental backbone. Aside from a few tracks, this album is pretty flat. “When I Dream” showed a lot of promise as the album’s single. As lead vocalist Wes Miles switches between alto and falsetto, it creates interplay that is absent from the rest of the album.

Synth rock can be a great genre from bands to tap into. Add some synths and beat, and your average rock group can fill arenas, get people moving, and reach a broader pool of listeners. This summer, Passion Pit’s sophomore album Gossamer attained a broader reach emotionally and musically than the group’s debut album, showing that the genre doesn’t result in being pigeonholed. Ra Ra Riot does not have the same success in their reinvention.

One might expect that after three albums, Ra Ra Riot would know a thing or two about restraint and focus. Many groups come to a point when they jump the shark in their creative direction. Perhaps Ra Ra Riot is there now.

Mr. Struggan sends his Low Regards.

Mr. Struggan's Shameless Plug: Wilson Duggan in Postcards From the Edge at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:00:41 -0500

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan has decided that, on occasional off-days, it would be alright for Nico and I to advertise some of our own projects. So for the first ever edition of Mr. Struggan’s Shameless Plug, I am pleased to announce that one of my pieces has been accepted to the Postcards From the Edge benefit exhibition hosted by Sikkema Jenkins & Co!

Postcards From the Edge, now in its 15th year, is an art benefit sale conducted by Visual AIDS, an arts non-profit that works to promote AIDS awareness in the arts. Every year, their benefit sale draws submissions from some of the art world’s biggest names. All the artists in the show exhibit anonymously, and all the postcard sized pieces are $85, meaning if you show up opening night and have a discerning enough eye, you could snag yourself an $85 Baechler, Ruscha, Baldessari, Marclay, … or even a Duggan!

Consider stopping by and seeing the show if you are free this weekend.

Mr. Struggan sends his regards.

Regarding Eugene Hyon: Fire Escapes, Waterfronts & Rooftops as Urban Landscape at A Gathering of the Tribes

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:00:41 -0500

Eugene Hyon: Fire Escapes, Waterfronts & Rooftops as Urban Landscape
A Gathering of the Tribes, New York
Jan 18 - Jan 25, 2013

Wilson here. Mr. Struggan sent me out last night to attend the opening of Eugene Hyon’s new photography exhibition at A Gathering of the Tribes in Alphabet City. Mr. Struggan first learned about Tribes and their reputation as a vital New York arts organization through his association with Exit Art (RIP) and their 2010 exhibition Alternative Histories. When he heard about the opening last night, he knew I’d be in for a treat.

After hustling through the cold from the F train, I arrived at 285 East 3rd Street unsure whether I was in the right place. I had to check my directions a second time before I was bold enough to try the door of the unassuming building. Realizing it was open, I trekked up the stairs and into the gallery, a worn-in apartment that is the home of Tribes founder Dr. Steve Cannon and the home of his organization since its foundation in 1991.

Eugene Hyon’s photos, as the title of the exhibition states, depict urban landscapes such as rooftop vistas, building facades, and sweeping waterfront views in a range of black and white, full color, and sepia tones. The 22 prints on view comunicate a quiet and tender concern for composition; Hyon, a native New Yorker, describes himself in his statement as a “patient witness,” interested in “stillness, elegance, and classical proportion” in his practice as an artist.

The Eugene Hyon I met at the gallery, however, seemed to me much more than a patient witness. The mild-mannered, sweater-vested man I spoke to came across as Peter Parker, sans Spidey Suit. The man who took these photos, the one who casually recounts his adventures climbing on rooftops for his shots in the wall texts, must be an alter ego.

Hyon’s work conveys a certain timelessness in the way it depicts the city, especially where he works in black and white or in sepia. He by and large reaches his aim for classical compositions, but his incorporation of contemporary elements, sometimes subtle, sometimes not, are key to understanding his work. This was perhaps best illustrated in his explanation of one of his photographs, a wide riverfront cityscape in sepia taken in Moscow that does not appear in the show, but rather was printed on the business card he gave me. He described the piece as one of his favorites, pointing out that upon first glance the photo conveys the antique qualities he appreciates. It is only when one notices a modern day traffic jam on the road running along the bank of the river that one can identify the piece as a contemporary image. The inclusion of these elements into his compositions is what sets his work apart.

As a contemporary artist, then, Hyon is clearly an innovative player, even if he doesn’t seem to be pushing many envelopes too far. But why live on the cutting edge when you could be timeless instead? He seems quite content doing what he knows and loves, and lucky for us, he does it well.

Mr. Struggan sends his High Regards.

Regarding Rabbit, Run by John Updike

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:01:00 -0500

Rabbit, Run, 1960
John Updike

Nico here. As mentioned previously, Mr. Struggan is not terribly familiar with, nor fond of, twenty-first century literature. When I reviewed Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower last week, Mr. Struggan stated that it was “not the type of novel [I] should be wasting my time with.” This week, he assigned me John Updike’s “Rabbit, Run”, having read Paul Elie’s recent essay in the New York Times Book Review “Has Fiction Lost Its Faith?”. I have not read any of Updike’s work before, so I took the assignment. Plus, I didn’t really have a choice.

Note: Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, the protagonist in Rabbit, Run, is not to be confused with Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith of the 2002 film 8 Mile, although a comparison of the two characters might be an interesting assignment. Moving on…

Updike does a good job of potentially antagonizing readers with Rabbit’s general ideas about women and the way he treats them. Janice, his wife, is disregarded as stupid, Mrs. Eccles, the minister’s wife, is seen as pompous, and Ruth, Rabbit’s lover, is taken advantage of.

Christian elements emerge frequently in the story. Rabbit observes parishioners leaving Sunday service, goes golfing with a minister and contemplates beauty in his self-confident, short-sighted way. The way people talk about Updike’s writing, I was expecting something a little more thought-provoking.

Updike’s writing can be irritating to read. The humor is there, but I grimaced more than I laughed out loud. Upon review, the plot’s interesting parts are less then the sum of the story’s whole.

Mr. Struggan sends his Regards