Paul Antonson

A color study and sketch for the upcoming Siren Festival art.

Some of the greats which came to my attention last year – starting with 3 great albums:

Matisyahu: Live at Stubb’s– This hasidic reggae/dancehall artist from Crown Heights is no novelty act. This live album showcases his powerful backing band and a rapid-fire yet soulful voice.
Oranger: New Comes and Goes– Strong 4th album from this Californian outfit … Radio Wave has been one of my favorite songs of this past year.
Dungen: Ta Det Lugnt– Swedish Psych/Folk/Rock which sounds like it was pryed from an early seventies time capsule. Brother J and I caught them at the Bowery Ballroom and they were damn impressive.

Orson’s Shadow– A play showing at the Barrow St. Theater in Greenwich Village. A great true story about the dueling egos of Orson Wells and Lawrence Olivier.
Good Night Good Luck– David Strathairn puts in an incredible performance in this important film.
Cloud Atlas– As Keegan and Kerry could attest – an engrossing, genre-jumping novel.
Superman The Movie– My favorite rediscovered movie of the past year.

On the left is a detail of a drawing I slapdashedly made while crossing Pennsylvania on a train this past week; just quickly sketching whatever I caught a glimpse of. To the right is a drawing/watercolor of a nice geezer who was sitting ahead of me. For anyone whose sketched much on trains, this over-the-shoulder pose should look familiar.
Click the picture for the full version of the ink drawing.

It’s always nice fleeing the city to break bird with the family; crossing the Pennsylvania landscape along the train tracks.

I’ve been playing around with tree-hugger imagery such as this; emphasizing textures and silhousettes.
A couple nights ago I caught Jeff Tweedy perform in Tribeca with my brother/invisibleman/superpal Jamie. Percussionist and wilco drummer Glenn Kotche opened the show and joined Mr. Tweedy and Jim O’Rourke for a short encore set (those 3 form the band/sideproject Loose Fur). They played a tune about a crack-smoking, sidewalk-surfing messiah and it was an all around amazing show.

A follow up here to Keegan’s post… it was beers, bongos and bohemia on east 63rd st. Being the mecca for illustrators, its an inspiring place to hang out.

Break out the black light for optimal viewing.

Via kottke.org I came across a video in which a small group of Hornets attack and destroy a colony of honeybees. An amazing scene which stuck in my head and caused the drawing above. View the video here.