Steven Chu Blog

Film Alert: Kurosawa’s RAN Feb 5 – 18th @ Film Forum

February 4th, 2010 0

MUST SEE!!

The Public Baths of New York City

January 28th, 2010 0

Hamilton Fish Pool, 1936 (All images in this post courtesy NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation)

I’ve had the above image of a massive visually endless pool with dividing walkways strongly imprinted in my mind from a dream I had a couple years ago. I’m not sure if I’d seen this imagery before, or if I was pulling from something collective– but interesting to come across this again.

In the 1930’s floating baths on barges popped up around Manhattan as a service for the tenement residents. It’d seem like such a crazy idea if it popped back up today. We have a variation though.. a floating swimming pool in brooklyn bridge park!

Birds Eye View of Astoria Pool Bathers with Hell Gate Bridge in Background

The Aquazanies perform at Astoria Pool in Queens, early 1940s.

Check out the videos on the pools (including mccarren park pool) and more images on the NYC Parks and Recreation’s site:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_history/pools.html

I stumbled onto all these while looking at possible shoot locations. This seems like a nice website to learn about the types of architecture in this city: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/GRP034.htm

Clifton

January 13th, 2010 0

For more reading:

http://www.eastvillageboys.com/2010/01/03/clifton/

• Myspace: Clifton Music NYC
• East Village Boys Interview
• Coverage on TheImagist.com

Clifton shot for East Village Boys.

Photography

• Bruce Benderson

  January 3rd, 2010 0

  

  

  

  Find the hidden phallus.

  Author Bruce Benderson. Shot for East Village Boys

  Photography Bruce Benderson, East Village Boys

• Local Natives @ The Echo 12.22.09 (Los Angeles, CA)

  December 23rd, 2009 3

  
  [real shoddy picture]

  This is how I discovered them 4 hours before their only local show for a while as they head off on a European Tour.

  I met Jon Pierce (of the newly formed The Drums) a couple summers ago at a lazy weekend afternoon party at his then apartment. I saw a lot of press recently around his new work (I love hearing that folks I’ve met are doing well, and hearing about the new stuff they’re working on. Watching growth is pretty amazing.), and this afternoon I finally sat down to listen to The Drums, which turned me onto the Rcrd Lbl site where I spent some nice time discovering new artists.

  I happened to check out Local Natives’ myspace and saw they were playing a few miles from where I’m currently staying. $10 door for an all ages show.. that, or it being LA might explain the toxic smell of Fructis corn syrup shampoo in female hair.

  They put on a nice show.. I mean, I was only 4-hours familiar with their music, but what I heard online got me to the door of the venue and a 40 minute line. The pace reminded a little of Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear or as one friend pointed out: XTC, but these guys are from the west coast (silverlake!). I found the consistent harmonizing endearing, and favored their more dramatic melodies.

  The one thing I paid good notice to was that bassist Andy Hamm had the best style of anyone in the venue.. oversized deconstructed grey knit cardigan, and I believe drop crotch pants, something like tan boat shoes, and a baseball cap. Seeing personal style independent of the local culture is always a treat.

  I’m glad I got to check out The Echo on my first night out in LA. I know of nowhere to go, so everything is new to me.

  (As for their openers.. while Voxhaul Broadcast’s new songs aren’t *bad*, the older ones made me cringe for their flatness. The attempt at tormented screaming at the end of the set left an unerasable expression of horror on my face. I couldn’t stop thinking that their reference was THE VEILS THE VEILS THE VEILS. Oh The Veils, I appreciate you so much more now.)

  Listen Here on Rcrd Lbl: “Sun Hands”

  Edit on 2/5/2010: My love for Local Natives grows stronger by the month! so good!

  For More Reading:

  • Local Natives @ RCRD LBL
  • Local Natives Myspace
  • BBC: Introducing Local Natives
  • Local Natives Best of the Decade Artist Survey
  Bands andy hamm, local natives, rcrd lbl, the drums

• “Nowhere Kids” – EastVillageBoys.com x Opening Ceremony

  December 19th, 2009 0

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Link: http://www.eastvillageboys.com/2009/12/18/fashion-story-002-opening-ceremony/

  Clothes: Opening Ceremony
  Photography shot for EVB: Steven Chu
  Fashion Editor/Casting: Marc Sifuentes
  Grooming: Linh Nguyen
  Models: Matthew V. [B1 Models], Keith Edwards

  Photography East Village Boys, Keith Edwards, Linh Nguyen, Marc Sifuentes, Mathew V, Opening Ceremony

• Watch Online: Zeitgeist – how astrology and the zodiac explain religion

  December 5th, 2009 0

  (ie. Christianity, and other astrotheological stories throughout history.)

  It starts about 8 minutes in, after the intro. It’s quite fascinating!

  Culture, recommendations astrology, religion, zeitgeist, zodiac

• Phoenix @ PC Richard & Sons, Dec 3 2009

  December 3rd, 2009 0

  Nothing beats winning tickets to a 24 minute show. They’re fun and sound great live. I like them lots!

  

  Bands, Events phoenix, wolfgang amadeus

• the woman in the dark

  December 3rd, 2009 0
  
  -the woman in the dark.-
  
  She was a young woman.
  
  A savior,
  
  Sufferer because life, even if not hers, was hard.
  
  She was a martyr.
  
  She was strong for more than just herself.

  But she knew not yet why.

  Photos by Steven Chu
  Styling by Marc Sifuentes
  Beauty by Ariel Vega
  Maddie Welch @ Supreme

  Art, Photography Ariel Vega, Maddie Welch, Marc Sifuentes, Supreme

• MUST SEE: THE RED SHOES

  November 16th, 2009 0

  I tried to catch the 7pm showing earlier tonight but it was sold out. I waited 2.5 hours for the next showing and passed time in Washington Sq Park.. and it was so worth it.

  So good!

  

  http://www.filmforum.org/films/redshoes.html

  Art, Events, recommendations

• Albert Lamorisse – Title Unknown (Postscript to Baadeh Sabah) (1970/1978)

  October 27th, 2009 0

  I went to the well-curated arts performance venue The Kitchen for a night put on by Bidoun (biduon.com), a middle eastern arts magazine. In one of the sections, they showed this 7 minute postscript (I’ve posted that above).. and clips of “The Lover’s Wind” by filmmaker Albert Lamorisse (1922-1970). Lamorrisse is most known for The Red Balloon, 1956.

  After the program I realized the person I had asked to watch over my bike because I forgot my lock was actually Matthew, one of The Kitchen’s curators.. who I’d met through friends a while back.

  Watch both here: http://ubu.com/film/lamorisse.html

  Art, Events Albert Lamorisse

• Claude Grant: Time Out New York Designer’s Spotlight

  October 15th, 2009 0

  Congrats to Claude. Ok.. well I’m really late on this, since it came out in Sept 10, 2009 and I just found the article now.
  Here’s a portrait I took, I like this crop they did:

  

  [Read the Full Article here]

  Photography claude grant

• Indian Jewelry @ Cake Shop NYC 10-9-09

  October 13th, 2009 0

  
  Opening Song

  
  Temporary Famine Ship

  Sorry for the poor quality. I’m new to all this video conversion stuff!

  10/14/09 Show @ Glasslands was something I guess you really *had to want* to see. Meaning, there were audio problems almost the whole way through and they gave up and just played with instrument sounds missing. It was also a looser and.. wilder performance. Was it the same set? The band that went on before them was kinda fun.

  Bands cake shop, glasslands, Indian Jewelry, temporary famine ship

• FILM: Ulrike Ottinger @ Anthology Film Archives this week

  October 13th, 2009 0

  

  My friend Richard invited me to see Joan of Arc of Mongolia (1989) Sunday evening, with Q&A afterward by Ottinger herself! The plot focuses on eclectic female passengers aboard a Trans-Mongolian rail, but it’s so strange that it first starts off as a hypothetical adventure, but then transforms into an actual cultural adventure for all parties involved (the film’s characters, the actors, and the audience as well). I’m sure you’d enjoy the smart character roles, how smartly it was made, and how humorous it is. The first half is filmed in Berlin at a studio (the visual solutions for this are quite amazing), and the second half is filmed as an adventure documentary / anthropological study in Mongolia – it was both a conceptual and cultural delight to watch.

  And the languages! Mandarin, Russian, Mongolian, French, German, English. So involved and international.

  The film leaves you with a lot of curiosity of how it was done and the experience of filming it, so it was pretty great to have Ottinger there to answer our questions. (I don’t know where else you can catch this film though..)

  On Monday, I sat through a marathon run of her films. There’s a marked difference between Joan of Arc and the rest of her work from what I’ve seen. ‘The Korean Wedding Chest’ is a good neutral documentary, unless you’re Asian and you’ve seen the wedding banquet process enough times over; though the opening scenes of the temples were quite nice. Anthology threw in a bonus short film called Still Moving.. and that was honestly horrible and *really* hard to sit through. Not only did it go on forever with no new insight, it gave me a headache and then kicked me while I was down with 3 minutes of costumed machine gun firing.

  Lastly, I saw ‘Ticket of No Return’ which is about lesbianeroticism (which was accompanied with gestured man-hating) and alcoholism. Some points were visually clever: when she took from ‘Suspiria’, and the Fellini inspired scene. Also to note, it seems that David Lynch was looking to Ottinger when making his films. Stylistically so, but also the imagery of a midget opening the curtains.. taken from signature Ottinger. But after the short, and then this.. I could only handle 40 minutes.

  For More:

  • Anthology’s Complete Schedule: http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/schedule/
  • Ulrike Ottinger Official Website
  Art, Culture, Events Joan of Arc of Mongolia, Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia, Ulrike Ottinger

• Antonella Graef @ Supreme

  October 4th, 2009 0

  Antonella opened for Givenchy SS 2010 women’s show in Paris today (Look 1). Congrats!

  

  

  

  

  

  Styling: Marc Sifuentes
  Hair: Ryan Taniguchi
  Makeup: Vincent Oquendo

  Photography Antonella Graef, Marc Sifuentes, Ryan Taniguchi, Supreme, Vincent Oquendo, Women Management

• St John the Divine (Will Lewis @ Red NY)

  September 30th, 2009 0

  

  Styling: Marc Sifuentes
  Beauty: Ariel Vega

  Uncategorized Ariel Vega, Marc Sifuentes, Red new york, St John the Divine

• DRAFTS: A Mobile Diary *updated*

  September 22nd, 2009 0

  I finally got this project up and running in its photographic state: documenting the text messages i write to myself about everything i think about or come across on the go. I’m still fine tuning it (and this is the only place you’ll find a link to it) but wanted to share in the meanwhile.

  

  —–
  Current Update: Sept 22, 2009
  1st Update: June 16, 2009

  Photography, Thoughts drafts, photography projects

• Thoughts

  September 21st, 2009 0

  When looks fade, you’re left with a person.

  Thoughts

• New York Fashion Week Photos – IMG Party @ The Griffin

  September 17th, 2009 0

  Supermodels.
  
  [left to right] Louis Liu (Mykromag), Chiun-Kai Shih (GQ Taiwan), Du Juan (IMG), Peter (Manager, IMG), Emma Pei (IMG)
  
  Du Juan, Emma Pei, Philip Huang
  
  Ling Tan (IMG)
  
  
  
  

  Jym Benzing, Chiun-Kai, Ling Tan	Du Juan, Emma Pei, Philip Huang	Jean Paul
  Chiun-Kai & Jean Paul	with Parker Gregory
  with Parker Gregory		Jennifer Jann, Peter Black
  	Bastiaan Ninaber Van Eijben, VNY

  
  
  For More Reading:

  • Ling Tan
  • Emma Pei
  • Du Juan
  • Pure Model Management NYC
  • CQ: Commence Quest
  • Chiun-Kai Shih Studio
  Events, Photography Chiun Kai Shih, Du Juan, Emma Pei, GQ Taiwan, IMG, Jean Paul Pfeiffer, Ling Tan, Louis Liu, mykromag, Parker Gregory, Pei Pei, Philip Huang

• New York Fashion Week Photos – Rad Hourani SS’10 @ Milk Studios

  September 15th, 2009 0

  
  
  
  
  

  Rad Hourani	Fabiola Beracasa w/ Leigh Lezard & Geordon Nicol of the Misshapes	Mike Nouveau
  Bryan Boy	Susie Bubble, Dazed Digital	Sebastian Kim, Photographer
  Kate Lanphear, Fashion Editor Elle Magazine	Liz from Seven New York	Marc Sifuentes, Fashion Stylist
  Jason Campbell & Friends	Seven New York’s Joseph Quartana & Steve Sang	Linnea, Fashion Director Surface Magazine
  Friends of Jason Campbell	Backstage with Will Graper	Marc, Vava, Rene Garza, Bernardo Siatong

  
  
  
  

  

  
  Events, Photography Bernardo Siatong, Bryan Boy, Dazed Digital, Fabiola Beracasa, fashion week, Geordon Nicol, Jason Campbell, Kate Lanphear, Leigh Lezard, Linnea Olson-Schwartz, Marc Sifuentes, Mike Nouveau, Misshapes, rad hourani, René Garza, Sebastian Kim, SS'10, susie bubble, Vava Marevicheff-Ignatenko, Will Graper
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