Visuals for XXXTentacion’s hit song “Sad!” was posthumously released today and the video is autobiographical and shockingly foreboding. The rapper was gunned down in Deerfield, Florida last week and the video’s death-centric theme only adds to the clairvoyant lore that surrounds the deceased emcee. Written and creatively directed by X himself, the shows him attending his own funeral–presumably a funeral …
Linden Hopwood Channels Kip Omolade: Coincidence or Plagiarism?
With the news of Donald Glover’s hit “This is America” possibly being a product of plagiarization, I coincidentally discovered the same scenario in the arts. For those who aren’t aware, Glover is being accused of ripping off a song, “American Pharoah”, by the lesser known rapper named Jase Harley. When you listen to both songs, there is an uncanny similarity …
Music Video. | “Kuzola” | PONGO.
Penetrating with its simplicity, the Chip & Dale / Raphaël d’Hervez-directed visual for PONGO’s “Kuzola,” is brilliant. Discarded wedding vows plague a pensive PONGO. An array of authentic emotion seamlessly connects with a universal audience. Bred in Angola, and now based in Lisbon, this emerging chanteuse is earning respect from a worldly audience. From Electro-Pop to infused Original rhythms, POGO is …
Musing on the Impossible: The Holographic Worlds of M.C. Escher at Industry City, Brooklyn NY
Yesterday my brain melted. At ESCHER. The Exhibition & Experience, one of New York’s 2018 must-see exhibitions, the Dutch artist’s perspective-mangling worlds sent my mind spinning. Because of my passion for Op and Kinetic art, I was a kid in a candy store. Thanks to the clever, interactive installations that pepper a flawlessly curated selection of Escher’s works, I got …
A Shade of Pale Curated by Carrie Scott @ The Store X, London, Review by Edward Lucie Smith
180 Strand is one of those betwixt and between spaces, found in big cities such as London, that from time to time play host to interesting art shows. It is a former office block, in classic Brutalist style, which seems to be always perpetually in a state of restoration and renovation. It is centrally located, very close to Somerset House, …
Klavdia Balampanidou. | Hand to Mouth.
Currently based in Cyprus, Klavdia Balampanidou is yet another perfect example of a creative finding therapy in the work. Balampandiou newest series, From Hand to Mouth, draws from an autobiographical well anxiety, depression, fragility and instability. The series takes its name from a 1967 Bruce Nauman sculpture. Akeem K. Duncan.Akeem is our founder. A writer, poet, curator and profuse sweater, …
How to Make an NYC “Bedroom” Work for You
I recently moved back into Manhattan after living in Astoria, Queens for two years. I won’t say anything bad about Astoria but I will repeat what a deli owner summed the spot up with: “Astoria is worldly… but not cultured.” Now, I’m no snob- what I missed most about the city was its dirt, its soot-stained streets that looked like …
When Your Gravity Fails and Negativity Don’t Pull You Through, or, Good Medicine for Bad Vibes
Ever walk into an art gallery and felt harmony, serenity, and the presence of a strong force for good? At Paradigm Gallery, artists Dennis McNett and Alex Yanes, with their allegorical totems and spiritual adumbrations, hope to envelop viewers in the warmth of their mellow vibes, through the medium of the collective unconscious. A number of the pieces are in fact …
The Death of XXXTentacion: An Open Letter to Those Who Thinks He Got What He Deserved.
On June 18 2018, rising music star XXXTentacion, born Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was gunned down while leaving a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Two men approached X shortly before 4 p.m. After a very brief exchange one of the two men opened fire on his black BMW and then fled in what appeared to be an attempted robbery. The …
New Music. | ‘Streams of Thought, Vol. 1’ | Black Thought X 9th Wonder.
Black Thought is Art. The acclaimed creator keeps cultivating his unique perspective. Life invested into rhyme, The Roots, has showcased some of the adept MC’s most brilliant work. With the sublime combination of 9th Wonder and Black Thought, an amazing EP, Streams of Thought Vol. 1 has come to fruition. The five-track endeavor displays demonstrations of dope. Rapsody, Styles P, …
You Can Go Shave Your Back Now: Page Six Has the Gall to Tell The Olsen Twins They Should Smile More in Photos
While we’re all well aware that anything the New York Post does is going to be completely tone deaf a result of its natural conservatism as mandated by Rupert Murdoch, there were some articles we never could have imagined being published in 2018, chief among them one about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen–in “honor” of their birthday on June 13 no …
Defining The Demiurge With Artist Justin Orvis Steimer
Almost a decade ago, in my earliest days living in New York City proper (I’m a Long Island boy), I met a tall, quiet, slightly shy, longhaired artist at the coolest annual improvisational jazz-meets-blues jam on the Upper East Side. This was Justin Orvis Steimer. The party, thrown every year on jazz legend “Duke” Ellington’s birthday (April 29th), took place …
Agni Zotis Wants Us to Step Into the Light.
Painter Agni Zotis recently debuted her compelling solo exhibition, Step Into The Light, at Project 200 in Chelsea. The stirring body of work is a culmination of vivid colors and explosive composition. In 2015 on Valentine’s Day, a man jumped to his death from the roof of Zotis’ apartment building and landed directly on her patio. Traumatized, Zotis took the …
Cuntfessions: Da Vinci, Others Rolling in Grave Over Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s “Apeshit” Video
While it is always considered sacrilege to decry or insult anything put out by Beyoncé and/or Jay-Z, some of us must be the lone wolf in taking that risk. And with the release of their only visual accompaniment thus far for Everything Is Love, “Apeshit,” we must ask ourselves, would the artists paraded for the sport and narcissistic benefit of Jay-Z …
Stefano Gabbana & The Privilege of Gay Male Fashion Designers: Calling Women Ugly
As though to coincide with Madonna’s latest Steven Klein-directed advert for MDNA Skin assuring us, “The perception of beauty is all an opinion, and opinions come and go,” Stefano Gabbana’s recent comments about Selena Gomez’s lack of beauty–to be more specific, “è proprio brutta”–are in keeping with an age-old privilege of gay male fashion designers: laying down their uncensored assessments …
Fear of Oatmeal by Muriel Miguel at Theatre For A New City
If you want to take a metaphysical trip to the furthest reaches of time and space, then Fear of Oatmeal by Muriel Miguel is the play for you. Featuring a powerhouse performance from Gloria Miguel, the 91-year-old co-founder of the feminist collective Spiderwoman Theater and nestled in the legendary downtown Theatre for a New City. The play explores the liminal …
Summer 1993-The Timelessness of Loss
Memory is unreliable, facts are not. Summer 1993 takes us back to a time when AIDS was a death sentence and children whose parent died of AIDS-related illnesses were orphans and bore the stigmata of a disease that was sexually transmitted. Feelings like memories are not visible yet both palpable and ephemeral. We think we remember how we felt, how …
Window Dressing: Artist Elliott De Cesare at Bergdorf Goodman.
The other day, while walking from the Quiet Lunch offices on Fifth Avenue and 27th Street to a meeting further up Fifth by The Plaza Hotel, we couldn’t help but stop and stare at the magnificent window display at Bergdorf Goodman, the world’s premier fashion retailer. Not being Christmas, it’s rare our eyes spot something in the windows to temporarily …
(Cuntfessions): Troye Sivan and Ariana Grande’s Duet Kind of Makes You Want to Vomit
Just when you thought you were all stocked up on summer anthems between Drake’s “Nice For What” and Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry,” among others, the latter sneaks her way in again via Troye Sivan and his latest single, “Dance to This.” Not necessarily intended to have a similar baiting title as Steal This Book, “Dance To This” …
The Color Association’s Emily Mann Forecasts 2018-2019’s Color Trends for Interiors | Interior Design
Have you ever wondered why Dior chose shades of raspberry and wine for their 2018 limited edition nail polish line? Or why Nate Berkus’ Target collection teems with sandy tones and warm neutrals? Well, you can look to The Color Association of The United States (CAUS) and its color council for your answer. CAUS formed after the Industrial Revolution to …
(Cuntfessions) Miss Congeniality Has Gone Too Far: On the Miss America Pageant’s “Retooling”
It would be a proud day indeed for one, Gracie Lou Freebush a.k.a. Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock), to learn that the Miss America pageant has eliminated the key aspects of what constitutes conventional beauty: the swimsuit and evening wear portions. And while former Miss America winner Mallory Hagan might have a point about the “fat-shaming” ridiculousness of being able to …
Won’t You Be My Neighbor– I’m sorry, I just can’t but you should
I can’t do it. I just can’t bring myself to see Won’t You Be My Neighbor. the documentary about Fred Rogers and his children’s show, “Mister Rogers’, Neighborhood.” The film is totally legit. It has Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom) directing a documentary about a subject audiences think they know everything about but evidently, do not. The …
When You Were Little You Used to Color Opening Exhibition (Photo Recap).
Last week was the first truly Spring-like week in New York City, so the Thursday Art Walk was sure to excite art enthusiasts and buyers alike. The homie and longtime friend to Quiet Lunch, Gregory Siff, homecoming exhibition When You Were Little You Used To Color at 4AM Gallery. I was so amazed to see Gregory’s style and canvas evolve and …
To A More Perfect Union: U.S. V. Windsor – Another Year, Another Decision
From the moment you decide to have a wedding and not elope it can be a shit show of details. The wedding industrial complex includes shelves devoted to magazines at newsstands, television shows like, Say Yes to the Dress, themed weddings, destination weddings, religious, civil and skydiving ceremonies, and an entire jewelry racket to navigate. Weddings rank right up there …
Anthony Bourdain Was a Friend of Mine
Anthony Bourdain was not a friend of mine. In fact, some of those who know me well thought of him as my bête noir. I thought of him as my bête noir. But I didn’t know the man. I had read his piece, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This”, in the New Yorker in 1999, and it had resonated with me …
J. Lo Switches Track in Her Assurance of “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” to Yo Quiero “Dinero”
While the early 00s might have been a far more concrete example of a time when the U.S. was clinging as best as it could to the excesses it enjoyed in the 80s and 90s, Jennifer Lopez chose to go the “Can’t Buy Me Love” route of The Beatles’ pre-antiwar driven 60s with the repackaged sentiment, “Love Don’t Cost A …
Leah Guadagnoli Just Wants To See You Underwater
Someone once wrote that New York City was a place that could destroy you by simply ignoring you (okay it was me). But being ignored is not an option when one produces work for public consumption, so artists allow themselves, nay, insist upon, the public and private flaying that often accompanies their entrée into the New York art scene. But …
The Sinister Nature of Kate Spade Sayings In the Wake of Her Suicide
Kate Spade (who annoyingly would make you spell her brand in all lower cases–as in kate spade new york–and I only know this thanks to the treachery of writing copy for it) was a designer always noted for her upbeatness and vibrancy. Colorful patterns and “tongue-in-cheek” phrases that were never too unpleasant so much as just abrasive enough–most notably, “Eat …
When You Were Little You Used to Color. | Gregory Siff at 4AM Gallery
Mercedes-Benz, Tao Group and Casa Noble Tequila are proud to announce the latest collection of work by the evocative American artist Gregory Siff. The exhibition is a homecoming for Gregory, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Rockaway Beach, Queens. It is here that his murals in the Rockaway Beach Surf Club bathrooms were included in the MoMA PS1’s show …
Transplants: Greek Diaspora Artists
Currently on view at The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice is Transplants: Greek Diaspora Artists. Curated by Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos, this culturally energetic show sets out to explore “the unique nature of diasporic art by Greek and Greek-American artists in the age of globalism.” Expertly installed within …
Adam Stennett Proves A Humble Master With His Water Paintings
How does or how should someone approach Adam Stennett’s Water Paintings (also the title of his current solo show at Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen, Denmark)? Where does one begin? In the womb, figuratively and metaphorically, of course, or maybe. The title seems to ask for an open mind. But what does that even mean anymore? In 2018, “Open mind,” as …
Dice Soho x You Could Have Album Release Party at Up & Down NYC (Recap)
Tuesday, Houston’s emerging freshman Dice Soho hosted his trending debut album, You Could Have, release party at Up & Down NYC in the famed Meatpacking District. It was all great vibes, bottles, and music. Dice blessed attendees with a live performance of “You Could Have” to close the night. With over 700,000 streams, I am sure the young god will …
“Humility” Video From Gorillaz Offers a Vibe As “Californian” (Read: Mindless) As the Tone of the Song
Gorillaz has always been known for their occasional veerings toward the style of “chillwave” (the miraculously not spelled with a “z” at the end “Empire Ants” featuring Little Dragon being one of the best sonic examples). And with the upcoming release of The Now Now, the animated quartet consisting of 2-D, Russel Hobbs, Noodle and, at present, Ace (filling in …
Cardi B Calls Upon Her Dominican Roots More So Than Usual for “I Like It” Video
The primary source of all contempt for Cardi B, it would seem, does stem from this notion that she is playing a caricature (to borrow the callout from Azealia Banks). And, I guess, if you have ears, that the majority of her music is very, very bad. The kind of bad that will likely take IQ points away from you, most …
Music Video. | “Next To Go” | ¡MAYDAY! .
¡MAYDAY! constitutes creativity! Bernz, NonMS, and Wrekonize make Hip-Hop better. This Strange Music trio inserts life into everything that they do. Following the earned success of their previous album, Search Party, the group is already perfecting its next project, South of 5th. From that album, which is scheduled to be released later this year, “Next To Go,” is becoming a fan-favorite. The Pushers production sublimely sinks into …