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            <title><![CDATA[Top 10 Movie Moments of 2014]]></title>
            <description>A handful of scenes resonate from a mediocre year for film.</description>
            <link>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/26/top-10-movie-moments-of-2014/</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/?p=10222283</guid>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael Fox]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2014 14:00:18 GMT</pubDate>
            <kqed:fullname>A Sample Feed</kqed:fullname>
            <kqed:shortname>sample_feed</kqed:shortname>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The year just ending wasn’t a terrible one for movies, but it will be remembered as depressingly uninspired. Earnest craftsmanship is the mantra of the moment, particularly in the risk-phobic American cinema. Consider the siege we’ve endured (especially since Labor Day) of serious, solid movies &#8212; including <em>Gone Girl</em>, <em>Foxcatcher</em>, <em>Exodus: Gods and Kings</em>, <em>American Sniper,</em> <em>The Imitation Game</em>, <em>Unbroken</em>, <em>A Most Violent Year</em> and <em>Still Alice &#8212; </em>that demanded our attention for long hours and repaid us with the briefest flashes of transcendent joy, insight or pathos.</p>
<p>It was no easy task summoning memorable moments from the year’s morass, yet here in chronological order are the sequences that, for me, best captured the vitality and intelligent power that movies are capable of expressing.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/ida2.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/ida2.jpg" alt="ida2" width="640" height="420" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238620" /></a></p>
<h3>Ida</h3>
<p>Polish-born, English-based writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski returned to his birthplace to make a stark black-and-white moral tale that was not only set in the early 1960s, but designed to look and feel like a movie from that period. Pawlikowski cast a non-professional as a blank-faced, convent-raised young woman on the verge of taking her vows who is first sent to meet the aunt she didn’t know she had. The women consequently embark on a road trip to a nightmare past and potentially freeing future. Among countless haunting sequences in this profound, stripped-down movie, I see the aunt &#8212; brilliantly depicted by Agata Kulesz as a ruthlessly idealistic and savagely disappointed Communist long mired in 100 proof cynicism &#8212; lighting a cigarette in a bare-bones restaurant and scoping out a nearby male with all the warmth and empathy of a Siberian wolf.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/leweekend.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/leweekend.jpg" alt="leweekend" width="640" height="399" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238621" /></a></p>
<h3>Le Week-End</h3>
<p>Leading roles for women were in short supply (so what’s new?), especially for actresses of a certain age. Hanif Kureishi’s screenplay about a long-married and palpably frustrated British couple channeling happier days and looking for lost magic in Paris paired the astonishing Lindsay Duncan with national treasure Jim Broadbent. Duncan is a delicious revelation, by turns scathing and rambunctious, flirty and brutally direct. Her playing of a restaurant scene with Broadbent, especially after the shockingly large check arrives, was one of the year’s high points.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/strangelove.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/strangelove.jpg" alt="strangelove" width="640" height="397" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238636" /></a></p>
<h3>Love Is Strange</h3>
<p>Another older couple, the newly married gay men portrayed by Alfred Molina and John Lithgow, supplies the heart and soulfulness of Ira Sachs’ endearing yet rigorously unsentimental family drama. You may relish conflict in movies; I savor unexpected moments of connection and tenderness. <em>Love is Strange</em> gives us a precious handful, notably a late-night conversation in which Lithgow’s usually oblivious character offers encouragement &#8212; and conveys some understanding &#8212; to the justifiably resentful teenager compelled by circumstances to share his personal space (i.e., his bunk bed) with an much older gay relative.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/boyhood.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/boyhood.jpg" alt="boyhood" width="640" height="449" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238742" /></a></p>
<h3>Boyhood</h3>
<p>My first three choices suggest that I identify more with older characters each passing year. In my defense, how could you connect with the bland, blank slate that Richard Linklater chose as the focus of his lengthy, superficial opus? Consequently, the moments I most vividly recall involve Ethan Hawke. Linklater’s decision to use the same actors over a decade-plus of filming produce some unique results &#8212; hence <em>Boyhood</em>’s inclusion on this list &#8212; but the film has surprisingly little to say about the way this child’s passions and values were influenced by his family and society. For a coming-of-age story with exceptional character insight that also punches you in the gut, revisit Francois Truffaut’s <em>The 400 Blows</em>.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/calvary2.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/calvary2.jpg" alt="calvary2" width="640" height="449" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238750" /></a></p>
<h3>Calvary</h3>
<p>The gripping opening scene of John Michael McDonagh’s existential Irish mortality play comprises a single, static shot of a priest’s face in the confession booth as he listens to an unidentified parishioner promise to kill him the following Sunday. Brendan Gleeson’s hulking yet ambivalent portrayal &#8212; in complete partnership with McDonagh’s literate, grown-up script &#8212; carries the scene and the movie into dark, rich places.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/chelseagirls.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/chelseagirls.jpg" alt="chelseagirls" width="640" height="231" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238749" /></a></p>
<h3>Chelsea Girls</h3>
<p>Revived by San Francisco Cinematheque at the Castro in November, Andy Warhol’s 1966 double projection, three-and-a half-hour quasi-fictional portrait of denizens of New York’s Chelsea Hotel was one of the weirder pleasures of the year. The parade of fanatically long takes was quintessentially Warholian in that the interminable moments were as central to Warhol’s conception as the compelling ones. I shall long remember Nico standing in a kitchen endlessly trimming her bangs in a hand mirror (file under Innocence), beloved cult figure and in-person guest Mary Woronov skulking and glowering onscreen (No-method Acting) and Pope Ondine shooting speed and going off on some poor woman (Mania).</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/listenup2.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/listenup2.jpg" alt="listenup2" width="640" height="450" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238747" /></a></p>
<h3>Listen Up Philip </h3>
<p>Alex Ross Perry’s frenetic tale of a self-obsessed young novelist features a relentless performance by Jason Schwartzman as the most insufferable subspecies of educated urban schmuck &#8212; the kind who thinks that being self-aware and owning it somehow redeems his schmuckiness. Perry, wisely recognizing that audiences need a break from this egomaniac, dispatches Philip for a good, long while to follow his erstwhile girlfriend.</p>
<p>Elisabeth Moss (<em>Mad Men</em>) delivers the best pure, concentrated acting to grace a screen this year, most memorably in a sequence where she wordlessly glides through a sequence of four or five emotions in response to a piece of news.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/overnighters.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/overnighters.jpg" alt="overnighters" width="640" height="360" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238746" /></a></p>
<h3>The Overnighters</h3>
<p>A North Dakota pastor risks alienating his congregation by providing shelter and assistance to the horde of homeless men who’ve come from all over seeking oil-related jobs in this riveting profile by Bay Area documentary filmmaker Jesse Moss. In a strong year for documentaries (so what’s new?), <em>The Overnighters</em> exposed the post-Depression dislocation and desperation that is pervasive yet somehow invisible (at least on television). I have questions about the doc’s structure and ethics, but there’s no denying the unsettling effectiveness of an awkward dinner-table scene with the minister’s family.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/selma2.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/selma2.jpg" alt="selma2" width="640" height="360" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238745" /></a></p>
<h3>Selma</h3>
<p>I am ticked off, to tell you the truth, that Ava DuVernay’s impeccably mounted and frequently moving reenactment of a pivotal chain of events in the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t booked into theaters a month before Election Day. It’s all about money, of course: Opening on Christmas Day when children are out of school (and will be for the next week or two) will likely result in better box office than an October run. OK, but if the film’s goals include <em>making a difference</em> &#8212; well, you get my point. I suppose I’ll embrace the silver lining, namely that <em>Annie</em> won’t be the only screen representation of black people that white people will see this holiday season.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/mrturner.jpg"><img src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/mrturner.jpg" alt="mrturner" width="640" height="384" class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238744" /></a></p>
<h3>Mr. Turner</h3>
<p>A lovingly rendered period piece that’s all nuance, shadow and light, Mike Leigh’s portrait of British painter J.M.W. Turner consists almost entirely of small moments. There are no heart-wrenching revelations or confessions, no knockdown, drag-out fights. So how to choose a defining image from Leigh’s compositions or Timothy Spall’s fully inhabited performance? I can’t, except to cite any of the many instances of the rotund, top-heavy Turner walking &#8212; navigating whatever terrain with supreme self-confidence, accepting the labor required without hesitation, oblivious to other people and seeing what only he can see. We feel we have the experience of being privy to a man living his life, not an actor playing a role or following a script. That may or may not be a kind of magic or miracle, but it is transcendent.
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            <title><![CDATA[Radio Show: Rockin’ Roots to Radical Rauschenberg]]></title>
            <description>Cy Musiker and David Wiegand share their picks for great events around the Bay Area this week.</description>
            <link>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/25/radio-show-rockin-roots-to-radical-rauschenberg/</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/?p=10238611</guid>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[The Do List]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2014 02:00:10 GMT</pubDate>
            <kqed:fullname>A Sample Feed</kqed:fullname>
            <kqed:shortname>sample_feed</kqed:shortname>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<aside class="aligncenter">
<h4>Cy Musiker and David Wiegand share their picks for great events around the Bay Area this week.</h4>
<p><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');</script><![endif]-->
<audio class="wp-audio-shortcode" id="audio-10238611-1" preload="none" style="width: 100%; visibility: hidden;" controls="controls"><source type="audio/mpeg" src="http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/thedolist/2014/12/20141226tdl.mp3?_=1" /><a href="http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/thedolist/2014/12/20141226tdl.mp3">http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/thedolist/2014/12/20141226tdl.mp3</a></audio></p>
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<h3>The Roots</h3>
<p>The Roots have been such a mainstay on late-night TV that it&#8217;s easy to forget they were once stars of the touring circuit as the world&#8217;s greatest live hip-hop band. If you&#8217;re among the many who sigh when they see the group&#8217;s fiery, erudite MC Black Thought relegated to the sidelines on <em>Jimmy Kimmel</em>, then get thee to the Fox, where the Roots&#8217; legendary live show lands this week. Whether running through one of their legendary &#8220;Hip-Hop 101&#8243; medleys or picking hits from a career of solid studio albums, there&#8217;s no mistaking the band&#8217;s skill in a genre dominated by DJs. <a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/the-roots/">Details and ticket information here</a>.</p>
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<h3><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-10238468" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/stoned-moon-400x225.jpg" alt="Detail from Rauschenberg's 'Stoned Moon'" width="400" height="225" />Loose in Some Real Tropics</h3>
<p>In 1969, in a historic intersection of space travel and modern art, NASA invited American artist Robert Rauchenberg to visit the launch of Apollo 11, the first manned space flight to the moon. At Cape Canaveral, Rauchenberg was given free reign to visit NASA&#8217;s facilities, with only one directive: to interpret the moment in his work. Having collected over 20 lithographs, collages and drawings, the Cantor presents this rare work together for the first time in an American museum. Photos of Rauchenberg at the Kennedy Space Center and other accounts of the time round out the exhibition. <a title="Loose in Some Real Tropics" href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/loose-in-some-real-tropics/">Details here.</a></p>
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<div class="callout aligncenter noborder">
<h3><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-10238476" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/mcbride-400x225.jpg" alt="Christian McBride" width="400" height="225" />Christian McBride Trio</h3>
<p>At 41, jazz bassist Christian McBride has done it all. He&#8217;s played with Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Chick Corea and many, many others. He&#8217;s led a big band in award-winning albums and performances. He&#8217;s even strapped on the electric bass for his fusion quintet, Inside Straight. Now, as the year winds down, McBride returns to the basics of a classic piano trio. At the keys is Christian Sands, an inventive player who can swing from standards to blues and back, while Ulysses Owens holds down the drums. <a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/christian-mcbride-trio/">Details and ticket information here</a>.</p>
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<h3><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-10238475" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/CamperVanBeethoven_03-400x225.jpg" alt="Camper Van Beethoven" width="400" height="225" />Camper Van Beethoven &amp; Cracker</h3>
<p>In what&#8217;s now an annual tradition, the UC Santa Cruz alumni David Lowery brings his two bands, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, back to the Bay Area for an end-of-the-year residency. Cracker&#8217;s new double album <em>Berkeley to Bakersfield</em> drops plenty of Bay Area references, from Rasputin’s to People’s Park, and Camper Van Beethoven always bring back memorable hits like &#8220;Take the Skinheads Bowling&#8221; and &#8220;Pictures of Matchstick Men.&#8221; Expect a fun-loving, retro crowd—and maybe even a little bit of <a href="http://thetrichordist.com/2013/06/24/my-song-got-played-on-pandora-1-million-times-and-all-i-got-was-16-89-less-than-what-i-make-from-a-single-t-shirt-sale/" target="_blank">Spotify criticism</a>.</p>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/wAkcSd5l9Qg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe></span></p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/camper-van-beethoven-cracker/">Details and ticket information here</a>.</p>
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<h3><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-10160127" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/11/ron-funches-headshot_1-400x225.jpg" alt="Ron Funches" width="400" height="225" />Ron Funches</h3>
<p>A large man with an endearing lisp, Ron Funches is a one-of-a-kind comedian: he takes the manic style of the greats and flips it and reverses it, until the long silences between his surreal stories eventually turn into their own jokes. At the Punchline, Funches appears with Nick Youssef, another Southern California comedian who can take a simple thing like Marcy Playground’s innocuous 1990s hit song “Sex and Candy” and weave it into a spiel on the perils of aging. Together, they guide the crowd through the post-Holiday hangover. <a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/ron-funches/">Details and ticket information here</a>.</p>
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            <wfw:commentRss>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/25/radio-show-rockin-roots-to-radical-rauschenberg/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
            <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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            <title><![CDATA[Watch a Hip Hop Orchestra Perform Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M”]]></title>
            <description>Above: Ensemble Mik Nawooj (EMN), led by  music director, composer/pianist JooWan Kim, reinterprets Wu-Tang Clan’s &amp;#8220;C.R.E.A.M.&amp;#8221; at  YBCA&amp;#8217;s Clas/Sick Hip Hop: 1993 Edition. Ensemble Mik Nawooj (EMN) is the brainchild of composer/pianist JooWan Kim, who introduces western-European classical techniques into hip-hop, rock, and pop. The group&amp;#8217;s lineup includes traditional Pierrot ensemble instrumentation (flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano) with [&amp;#8230;]</description>
            <link>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/24/a-hip-hop-orchestra-does-wu-tang-clans-c-r-e-a-m/</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/?p=10238600</guid>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Siouxsie Oki]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2014 21:05:45 GMT</pubDate>
            <kqed:fullname>A Sample Feed</kqed:fullname>
            <kqed:shortname>sample_feed</kqed:shortname>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Above:<a href="http://ensemblemiknawooj.com/"> Ensemble Mik Nawooj</a> (EMN), led by  music director, composer/pianist JooWan Kim, reinterprets <a href="http://www.wutang-corp.com/artists/wu-tang-clan.php">Wu-Tang Clan</a>’s &#8220;C.R.E.A.M.&#8221; at  <a href="http://www.ybca.org/classick-hip-hop">YBCA&#8217;s <em>Clas/Sick Hip Hop: 1993 Edition.</em></a></p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/joowan.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238602" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/joowan.png" alt="joowan" width="683" height="352" /></a>Ensemble Mik Nawooj (EMN) is the brainchild of composer/pianist JooWan Kim, who introduces western-European classical techniques into hip-hop, rock, and pop. The group&#8217;s lineup includes traditional Pierrot ensemble instrumentation (flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano) with a lyric soprano, deep funk drums, a heavy contrabass and two featured MCs. Kim is a classically trained composer who holds degrees from <a href="http://www.berklee.edu/">Berklee College of Music</a> and <a href="http://www.sfcm.edu/">San Francisco Conservatory of Music</a>.</p>
<p><em>“Nobody has ever attempted anything like this on such a large scale, or with such sophistication.”</em> – NPR</p>
<p>From the same evening, watch the <a href="http://kevchoice.wordpress.com/">Kev Choice Ensemble</a> perform Saafir’s “Light Sleeper”:</p>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='560' height='315' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/TFJcIEQFByM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe></span>
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            <wfw:commentRss>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/24/a-hip-hop-orchestra-does-wu-tang-clans-c-r-e-a-m/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title><![CDATA[Watch a Hip-Hop Funk Big Band Pay Homage to Saafir’s “Light Sleeper”]]></title>
            <description>Above: Kev Choice Ensemble reinterprets Saafir&amp;#8217;s &amp;#8220;Light Sleeper&amp;#8221; at  YBCA&amp;#8217;s Clas/Sick Hip Hop: 1993 Edition. Oakland-based artist Kev Choice is a pianist, MC, producer, bandleader, sideman, music historian and urban griot dedicated to cultural expression. Through his band Kev Choice Ensemble, he produces and performs his own material, including original jazz and classical compositions as well as classical, [&amp;#8230;]</description>
            <link>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/24/a-jazz-hip-hop-funk-big-band-pays-homage-to-saafirs-light-sleeper/</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/?p=10238610</guid>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Siouxsie Oki]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:00:34 GMT</pubDate>
            <kqed:fullname>A Sample Feed</kqed:fullname>
            <kqed:shortname>sample_feed</kqed:shortname>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Above:<a href="http://kevchoice.wordpress.com/"> Kev Choice Ensemble</a> reinterprets Saafir&#8217;s &#8220;Light Sleeper&#8221; at  <a href="http://www.ybca.org/classick-hip-hop">YBCA&#8217;s <em>Clas/Sick Hip Hop: 1993 Edition.</em></a></p>
<p>Oakland-based artist <a href="http://kevchoice.wordpress.com/">Kev Choice</a> is a pianist, MC, producer, bandleader, sideman, music historian and urban griot dedicated to cultural expression. Through his band Kev Choice Ensemble, he produces and performs his own material, including original jazz and classical compositions as well as classical, jazz, and funk-inspired hip-hop.</p>
<p><a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/kev.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-10238616" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/kev.jpg" alt="kev" width="908" height="510" /></a></p>
<p>As a teenager, Choice played in classical and jazz ensembles as part of the UC Berkeley Young Musicians Program, and continued his musical studies at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans  and Southern Illinois University. Choice has toured with <a href="https://www.michaelfranti.com/home">Michael Franti and Spearhead</a>, <a href="http://www.lyricsborn.com/">Lyrics Born,</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/tooshort">Too $hort</a>, <a href="http://www.ledisi.com/">Ledisi</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MosDef">Goapele, Mos Def, </a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4kqL13jGM">Digable Planets</a> and <a href="http://www.lauryn-hill.com/">Lauryn Hill</a>.</p>
<p>From the same performance, you can also watch<a href="http://ensemblemiknawooj.com/"> Ensemble Mik Nawooj</a> perform <a href="http://www.wutang-corp.com/artists/wu-tang-clan.php">Wu-Tang Clan</a>’s “C.R.E.A.M.”:</p>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/68wQ6g9w2xE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe></span>
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            <title><![CDATA[Jason McHenry and His Quest for One Million Paintings]]></title>
            <description>Though the original intent was to make as much art as possible, the project somehow morphed into a goal of producing a seemingly preposterous number of paintings; now the mission of the &lt;em&gt;One Thousand Thousand&lt;/em&gt; project is to amass that amount with the help of friends.</description>
            <link>http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/12/24/jason-mchenry-and-his-quest-to-amass-one-million-paintings/</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/?p=10218934</guid>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Brian Eder]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2014 14:00:19 GMT</pubDate>
            <kqed:fullname>A Sample Feed</kqed:fullname>
            <kqed:shortname>sample_feed</kqed:shortname>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The intent wasn’t always to create a million paintings. Speaking of his early art-making days with his brothers-in-arms back in high school, where the seeds of the idea were planted, artist Jason McHenry says, “We actually just used them like currency, kind of. We would make little mini paintings. That’s how it started&#8230; just amassing a bunch of these things, you know? We would all just push each other to make a new version of our own currency &#8212; like one dollar bills and five dollar bills.”</p>
<p>McHenry and his best friend Chris Dyer are the only two that stuck to it over the years. Now the project has a name, <em>One Thousand Thousand</em>, and a mission to produce one million paintings. Although the impetus was simply to make as much art as possible surrounded by his friends, it eventually took McHenry down an often solitary path. Today he is reaching out to other artists to participate in the project to assure the goal is reached in his lifetime.</p>
<p>“<em>One Thousand Thousand</em> is Christopher Dyer and Jason McHenry,” McHenry is quick to point out. “I honestly do more of the work, produce more pieces; he’s a senior executive at a company in Denver. We’re like partners in crime artistically. All the big projects that we’ve done, we’ve done together. So we push each other that way.”</p>
<p><figure id="attachment_10219177" style="width: 494px;" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="size-full wp-image-10219177" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/JM_245541_640h.jpg" alt="Every work in the edition is hand stamped and dated." width="494" height="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Every work in the edition is hand stamped and dated.</figcaption></figure></p>
<p>McHenry, 43, and his wife, Cathy, live in the South Bay now. He was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. His formative years are as colorful as the art he began painting just a short time later. Describing his youth, McHenry says, “I was the worst. I was raised by bikers. My whole family was involved with porn and tattoos.”</p>
<p>Like many kids growing up around a family-owned business, McHenry was asked to pitch in and help out from time to time. He earned his allowance by way of a broom and a bucket of bleach. He swept the floors of the family&#8217;s adult business and soaked clean the quarters he picked up in his bucket over night. The next day he’d dry them off and head to the arcade to play <em>Pacman</em>.</p>
<p><figure id="attachment_10219180" style="width: 480px;" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="size-full wp-image-10219180" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/JM_325107_640h.jpg" alt="Edition #325107 created on July 17, 2013. " width="480" height="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Edition #325107 created on July 17, 2013.</figcaption></figure></p>
<p>McHenry went to four different high schools in the 9th grade. He kept getting kicked out of them. They finally decided to have him tested and realized there wasn’t anything wrong with him; the tests revealed that he was both highly intelligent and exceptionally creative. As a result, he was sent to <a href="http://www.slps.org/Page/6777" target="_blank">Central Visual and Performing Arts High</a>, a magnet school in the St. Louis Public School district, which describes itself as being “focused on synergistically developing both the artistic and academic student.”</p>
<p>McHenry describes it as being focused and condensed periods for academics with larger blocks of time for creative expression. “It’s a lot like <em>FAME</em>,” he says.</p>
<p>“In high school and when the project first started the whole point of it was that we would just be pushing each other to make new art. So Chris wouldn’t wanna not make anything during the week, because then when it came time for us to show each other what we had done, he’d get savaged. Like ‘What? You didn’t make anthing? Get at it!’ You had to produce, because everybody else was. That was the point of it in a lot of ways.”</p>
<p>“We’d also sit around and do them together as a group. There’d be 5 or 6 or 10 people and we’d all make them on the spot. Sort of like artist trading cards before there were artist trading cards &#8212; limited, one-offs.”</p>
<p><b>Were you guys thinking of it like a factory?</b></p>
<p>“In a way, yeah. Those are all big influences. Warhol and stuff like that. That’s when <a href="http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/mark-kostabi-con-artist-tribeca-film-fest/" target="_blank">Mark Kostabi</a> really got famous and he was known for not even picking up a brush. He would basically just sign stuff. It was like that kind of dialog. At the same time, the work was the work, but it was really an excuse that we could all just sit and talk about these conversations. Because we’re high school students, but we’re skippin’ school to go up to Chicago to see some opening at the art museum up there.“</p>
<p><b>What about the <a href="http://www.finster.com/" target="_blank">Reverend Howard Finster</a>? The way you number your works reminds me a bit of him. Are you aware of Finster yet?</b></p>
<p>“Yes, in high school around that time. He was a huge influence. That’s where the idea had to have come from at some point. Part of it. Part of it was <a href="http://basquiat.com/" target="_blank">Jean-Michel Basquiat</a> doing little anti-product postcards. I think I found Finster by way of <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/talking-heads/biography" target="_blank">Talking Heads</a> and <em>Little Creatures</em>, and <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/r-e-m/biography" target="_blank">R.E.M.</a> ‘cause there was an R.E.M. cover in <em>Rolling Stone</em> around early to mid-eighties with an article inside on Howard Finster.”</p>
<p><figure id="attachment_10219182" style="width: 640px;" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-10219182" src="http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/JM_groupshot_640w.jpg" alt="A collection of works created for One Thousand Thousand. " width="640" height="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A collection of works created for One Thousand Thousand.</figcaption></figure></p>
<p><b>So you keep doing this all through high school. Then what?</b></p>
<p>“Some of us went to the same college afterwards, so we kept doing it. I had saved them all from that time. I had 100. Then I had 500. Then I had 1000.”</p>
<p>“I had awesome scholarship offers based on my portfolio, but I had a crap G.P.A. So I went to a community college at first to get a demonstrable grade point average. And then I got a scholarship to <a href="http://www.slu.edu/" target="_blank">Saint Louis University</a> and eventually I finished my degree at <a href="http://arts.unco.edu/" target="_blank">University of Nothern Colorado</a>.”</p>
<p><b>You shared with me that you had learned of the outsider artist, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/pov/intherealms/" target="_blank">Henry Darger</a>, around your second year in college. How did seeing his work for the first time affect you?</b></p>
<p>“Oh profoundly. Darger was part of the discipline,” explains McHenry. “There was a Darger exhibit at Chicago Museum, I believe, and one of the pieces was this cross-section of a board that every day, or every other day, or seven times a day, he would do a coat of paint. Just a layer of paint. So what you were looking at was like tree rings basically. The board was a two-by-four, but the thing was like (in my memory at least) a foot and half or so thick. Just a lot. Whoa, that’s like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of layers of paint. That was remarkable to me.”</p>
<p>Like Darger, McHenry and associates have been religiously laying down the layers of paint and mixed media day after day for over twenty years now. He’s created and painstakingly documented more than 330,000 works in the <em>One Thousand Thousand</em> edition to date. To put that into perspective, imagine laying the 7.125 x 5.25 inch pieces end to end length-wise, that’s over 37 miles of art!</p>
<p>While <em>One Thousand Thousand</em> has never been about making money, you can find <a href="http://www.anti-product.com/shop.html" target="_blank">available works online</a> reasonably priced around $5. I’ve also seen them at festivals and events completely framed for just $10.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m including a Call to Artists from McHenry&#8217;s Anti-Product website here. &#8220;In the hindsight that is afforded to us after 20 years of going at this project, we have come to realize that it would be a whole lot easier for us to reach our goal of a million paintings in some timely fashion should we get a little help.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you are interested in participating in this project in some way you are seriously encouraged to <a href="http://www.anti-product.com/contact-info.html" target="_blank">contact us</a> and let us know.&#8221;</p>
<p>Find out more about the <a href="http://www.anti-product.com/1000x1000.html" target="_blank"><em>One Thousand Thousand</em></a> project at anti-product.com.
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