KimpeeK at Brave New World

DIY

Do it yourself,

Its a trend among indie and hipster circles and a tool for young artists/creators with a vision and a dream but maybe not much else. A tool in the sense that with the internet and social networking in its golden age, what you want to do can be exposed and cultivated without investors, corporate interests etc.

Proxart is doing just that, with events, and now a magazine….. we are creating a movement, cultivating a idea, without what is needed traditionally

Basically if you have an idea or something you want to do, do not let anything stop you

ANYTHING

The Birth of Proxart Magazine

This is what I was referring to earlier,

I will be one of the main writers and co editors of what I hope to be the coolest art/music/culture magazine in the world!(Well at least Southern California) . Before being a musician, before being an artist…. I wanted to be a writer, a journalist….. a music journalist.Thanks to proxart and the birth of Proxart Magazine…… this dream I have had is coming to reality….. the images are coming into focus. And it couldn’t be with better people, its one of those things that these guys aren’t just dudes I work with, their friends.

So please visit www.proxart.com because this can’t happen without readers. My dreams cannot come true without you! Help us get the ball rolling on this project

KimpeeK

The name of my band….. based off of Kim Peek the idiot savant featured in Rain Man….. Awesome? You decide

Anyways, KimpeeK has been together for over a year, but as a duo. Me and Tony O did all the stage work and recording of this band over the last year….. we got all the White Stripes and No Age comparisons a band should ever get in a lifetime!

But no more! KimpeeK has retooled with a new line up. Me and Tony O are still here as the band vets and anchors, but we have added the very talented and skilled Krista T and Justin M to the fray!

Justin is the perfect guitar player for this band! His scale melody work gives me haunting chills and they work so well with Tonys dark but not evil guitar sound. Krista is easily the best vocalist I have ever played music with….. don’t get crazy on me when I say this: but I think Krista is at a Feist, Jenny Lewis level! There I said it

We are still open to having a bass player, but I’ll definitely will go to musical battle with just these 3 if need be.

I digress……. We are playing our first show(as this lineup) This Saturday at Brave New World Comics

Be there…….. oh and us on facebook just search KimpeeK and keep an eye out for this:

Bored to Death

Their is a new television show on HBO, if you know me…. that’s a weird thing for me to say as I rarely watch television. But the show Bored to Death has caught my eye and it hasn’t disappointed

With the feel of a Wes Anderson indie comedy(Maybe I feel that way because it stars Jason Schwartzmann) the show combines awkward dry comedy with a nice level of intelligence that makes me worried that this show is going to get canceled(as most good intelligent shows do)

The show is about a writer(Schwartzmann) who is struggling with writing his second novel and a break up with his girlfriend. As a result he begins moonlighting as an unlicensed private detective and the hilarity ensues.

For some reason I feel that I can totally relate, I work as a basketball coach and am a student, I believe I struggle with past relationships and/or flings and as result I moonlight as a musician, artist, but more importantly(at least for the purposes of this blog) a writer. I don’t know if funny things happen as a result, but I believe great things are happening as a result.

Thanks to proxart, I am realizing my dreams of being an article writer for art/music/culture, I am passionate about these things, I often express myself with these things, as a result I feel I must write about these things.

Proxart plans to take my dream one step further with a project of truly epic proportions. My moonlighting could become….. “sunlighting”? Ya I’ll just go with that.

Basically to my point, For the first time in my life, I feel that each day is better than the last one, not worse. For the first time I believe I am living every moment as if it were my last, and for the first time my dreams are coming realities.

Thanks to the proxart guys for making this man much much more happier than I was before I came across proxart…… there still is that whole romantic struggle thing, but that’s best left for another day. Oh and check out Bored to Death Sunday nights on HBO(I just felt like a shameless plug artist the second I finished writing that)

Listening to: Aphex Twin

Reading: Justin’s article on St Vincent! check out www.proxart.com to read the article and stream the album

Watching: Jon Stewart, perhaps the most honest news show we have in this country.

The Desire of Versatility

I am sure everyone does not have this desire as an artist, most of the time I am quite content to have at least a good understanding of painting and music making.

But from time to time, I get the urge or desire to pick up something new and give it a good try.

My favorite artists are the ones who are good painters, photographers, poets, designers, etc. etc. they just seem to have a good grasp of anything and everything creattive. I suppose these kind of artists are my favorites is because I often envy them as well.

As a result, I am going to try to learn the art of photgraphy in the coming months, as well as picking up poetry(again). I have learned now that painting will always be my main source of creative expression and probably be “what I’m best at”. But what’s to lose if I attempt to dabble in other art forms. After all I thought painting was something I would just try for the heck of it.

Video of the week 8.6

As most of you know music is another fantastic form of art, even if its not visual. So I thought I would feature musical artists Animal Collective, who in my opinion, are pushing the boundries of what music can be.

Follow up questions:

1. Is MIDI a permanent part of the future of music?

2. Is Animal Collective blurring the lines between music and sound?

Art in the Park

I am still trying to get into the habit of posting here 3-4 times a week….. I’m getting there.

Proxart has done more for me as an artist than anything or anyone. It may be because this company is made up of great people I consider friends, it may be because I have joined their staff as a blogger, it may be because they/we are doing just as much, if not more, to spread arts and culture awareness than any other local arts group. It’s probaby because of all those reasons. But it doesn’t matter to me, these are great people that gives artists the opprutunity to share our work with people.

Saturday August 1st Proxart had a booth at the Concert in the Parks in Santa Clarita, my hometown. I had the great pleasure of doing some live painting and collaboration with artists Kasey Rae Knapp and Justin Miyamoto. I have no pictures of me during the event, but I was able to take some pictures of the fellow artists working on the background I put down on the collaborative artwork.

This was a great experience, and we got a lot of exposure and positive response for what we are doing.

I have some more exhibitions in the works, including of course, another proxart one.

Until next time

Vlog 7.27

California cuts art education…. again 7.24

From time to time my articles on this blog will be politically charged. I believe that everyone has a responsibility to make their voice heard in the political arena, especially in the age of the Internet. In fact, it may be possible, that artists have a larger voice thus a larger responsibility to be as expressive as they can.

A few days ago, Republican Governor The Terminator helped pass and approve of legislation to balance the state’s budged that was well over 20 billion dollars in debt. But in true conservative fashion the greatest victim in this budget reform was education and not surprisingly the arts and music were cut first from schools in all grades and levels.

Because after all art and music is not important at all, they have only had a significant standing in every major civilization in the history of man(If you believe in that history).

In my opinion two factors are involved with this highly conservative cut:

1. Art and music promote ideas and insert them into the marketplace of thought. Conservatives want to promote beliefs, beliefs cannot be questioned, improved, or moved(ask the yes on 8ers about that). Beliefs require no intelligence, no rational thought. It’s easy for stupid people to believe, and stupid people are easy to control.

2. Art and Music have little to no corporate value, the CEO of Goldman Sachs cannot directly profit off of a painting. I could be wrong, but last time I heard, the New York art market was a billion dollar industry. But there are easier ways to make money, like swindle the po.. I mean sell health insurance, or con the middle cla.. I mean give out shady loans to unsuspecting families. Conservatives have taught us that greed is good, and wanting to be creative is not wanting to be greedy.

Children are no longer told to they can do whatever they want to in life, they are told to do something that will make them money. Of course that belief is disguised in several different ways: ” get married, start a family etc etc…..

But what most people really mean is make as much money as possible, and screw as many people as you can while doing it. Therefore pursuing a creative lifestyle is discouraged….

“There is just no money in it”