THE SPRING ISSUE
Posts Tagged ‘features’
Michelle Monaghan
On the move: From mega blockbusters to the indie gem Trucker, Michelle Monaghan is navigating a new direction for her career on the silver screen Michelle Monaghan is not what one might consider a house-hold name. Yet, there is a good chance that if anyone has been out to the movies in the past five […]
Modern Day Romantic
Robert Geller sat next to his older sister on a flight from Germany, en route to London Fashion Week. It was 1989. He was 13-years-old, The Cure was in his Walkman, and he had no idea what he was about to experience. During the trip he saw a few runway shows and visited Yohji Yamamoto […]
Public and Private
J. Mayer H. Discusses The Relics And References That Inspire His Built Environments In its 13 years, J. Mayer H. Architects can already count among their creations a scallop-edged science museum, office buildings with arthropod windows, a house that seems bent on melting into its surroundings, heat-sensitive sheets and furniture, and even a tattoo. Jürgen Mayer […]
Sarah Morris
Structures of Control: Chasing cultural Connections with Sarah Morris minimum number (in lbs) of paper clips us manufacturers developed last year: 20 million, number of sheets of paper used while researching, editing, writing, and producing this feature: 53, number of paper clips needed to hold said pages together: 1. “I cannot live in this world without […]
Genius in the Glitter
ITEMS PURCHASED/CONSTRUCTED FOR THE OF MONTREAL, SKELETAL LAMPING FALL TOUR: One giant foam rock, four ready-made cowboy costumes, 100 cans “Great Stuff” insulating foam sealant, one fake upright piano, one Centaur costume, one custom-fabricated rotating steel riser, 24 breakaway bottles, one gilded roman litter, one 300 pound steel gallows on wheels, one human-sized pig costume, […]
Kid Cudi
Eclipsing the Record Industry’s Preconceptions Scott “Kid” Mescudi’s music doesn’t really fit the profile of rap, at least not in the most common sense of the word, and one should hesitate before simplifying his sound by calling it that. Then again trying to place it into some type of “post-genre genre” that doesn’t even really […]
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker’s Un-Ironic, Post Post-modern Rock Moment A rock and roll band took over an art gallery in Paris this May, setting up camp for five days. They rehearsed, provided the background music for yoga classes, and played for a children’s event. In between downward-facing dog poses and puppet shows, they also performed for the gathering masses, […]
Sirens of Rock
Three pop singers get trapped in an elevator. This is fate’s way of creating a supergroup. Here at SOMA we drew names from a lotto at random. The following ladies are our lucky winners. The next Ronettes as dictated by probability… Allison Mosshart, started her first band in the eight grade. Unlike most teenage punk […]
Platinum Submarine Dreams
Guided by his own compass, Wyatt Cenac divines the humor in race, identity and ultra-wealthy jackasses There was a time when Wyatt Cenac worried that he might actually become a hobo. One might argue that he would have made a great (if not the greatest) hobo to walk the streets of Los Angeles. He’s gregarious, […]
On Grace of Graphite
Adam McEwen: Burning Bridges to the Mundane Were there a single thread interwoven through his past and current work, Adam McEwen would have no idea what it would look like. “I’m just trying to make the thread visible,” he says. “I don’t know what it is, but I know for me, an obituary of Kate […]
Wilde Kingdom
Rising starlet Olivia Wilde embraces adventure and ambiguity as the next evolution in style Text by Jasmine Pahl Photography by Matthew Welch Fashion editors: Kemal & Karla Like any storybook princess worth her salt, Olivia Wilde is both benevolent and beautiful. Wearing dark skinny jeans, Converse, a plaid shirt and a wide, warm smile, her teal-eyed extra-terrestrial […]
Translating Life’s Asymmetries
Concept couturier Jan Taminiau plays by the rules of romantic reverie Text by Michael Cohen Photography by Petrovski & Ramone A highly conceptual creator, Jan Taminiau designs each couture and ready-to-wear garment along well developed themes that have attracted worldwide attention for their intellectualism, romanticism and genuine craftsmanship. His collections beg to be examined closer inside and […]
Jaime King: Pretty Girls Make Graves… Into Box Office Gold
Earrings, ring and cuff Stephen Webster; Nail color Awaken China Glaze. Text by Sophia DeArborne Photography by Matthew Welch Fashion editors: Kemal+Karla If I had a dime for every time I heard the career description “model-turned-actress” I would be a millionaire many times over. I found an exception to my dime hoarding in Jaime King, […]
ONExONE: Marketing Charity to the Masses
Text by Karena Akhavein Is it a PR agency or an aid organization? Founded in 2005 and raising over $1 million in its first year, ONExONE is one of a new breed of über-charities, an “umbrella” corporation that groups together a number of philanthropic organizations, melding business sense and marketing with philanthropy to maximize efficiency. […]
JMary: Rolling Out The Red Carpet
From the sunny, silicone-injected land of trendy snow boots and sweat suits comes a true couture label, JMary. Created by Jennifer Gheur in 1999, it began in a small studio in the LA neighborhood of Los Feliz—-long before it was the Williamsburg of the West. The evolution of this label has been slow and methodic. […]
Front Line Assembly: Experiments in Design by Front
Text by Mila Zulo Many of Front Design’s projects begin with a philosophical question. “Can a designed object exist without being materialized?” “What defines a home?” Through such Socratic dialogue, the four women who comprise the Swedish design group answer these questions with a collectively conceptual mind and a spirit of healthy rebellion. SOMA spoke […]
Herzdog & De Meuron: Sublime Skins
Text by Franklin Melendez I’ll admit it, I’m an architecture novice. I don’t understand the allure of a building’s hidden facades, nor am I moved by the tendril-like cracks in concrete. Sure, I can recognize a handful of names and noteworthy projects, enough to throw around at cocktail parties, but for the most part I […]
The Dark Prince of Manchester: The Incomparable Peter Saville
Text by Alexis Georgopolis Photograph by Anna Blessmann It’s safe to say there is no one quite like Peter Saville. Certainly no other album designer has exerted such personality and such a distinct aesthetic as he has. Borrowing from Russian constructivism, the New Typography of Jan Tschichold, and Italian futurism, Saville made covers for Factory […]
The Reign of Indie
Voodoo-EROS’ Casady and Shimkovitz define the new indie DIY with self-produced and cross-pollinated music, a holistic grassroots attitude, and a dash of gender dysphoria. Photograph by John Minh Nguyen Hasta la victoria siempre might as well be the rallying cry for the hundreds of independent record labels struggling against corporate conglomerates. What happens behind the […]
Peaches for President
Text by Patrick Knowles Photograph by Alex Freund Merrill Beth Nisker answers the phone with an impossibly charming, “Hello baby.” It’s a cool New York afternoon and while it’s been a whirlwind press day for the artist better known to the rest of the world as Peaches, there is an immediate sense of playfulness and […]
Summoning the Sonic Sages
Text by Hunter Holcombe Photograph by Martien Mulder If relationships were like bands, you’d want yours to be Sonic Youth. The many torrid, short-lived love affairs of rock – Stone Roses, Nirvana – burned hot while they lasted, but, for reasons ranging from drugs to incompatibility to fame to death, could never physically survive for […]
Gypsies, Tramps, and Devendra Banhart
Text by Adam Pollock Photograph by Todd Cole Add the title Musical Anthropologist to the already diverse resumé of freak-folk pioneer Devendra Banhart. For without this Texan-Venezualan Boho-about-town’s penchant for creating roving bands of “artistic families,” most of us would never have heard of Vashti Bunyan, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the Watts Prophets. “I get […]
A World Apart
The provocative art of Mexico City Teresa Margolles’ haunting Vaporización Text by Franklin Melendez Much like Mexico City itself, the art scene in the complex metropolis sprawls in unexpected directions, encompassing a dazzling array of media, discourses and strategies. Despite a few “crossover successes” though, this vibrant community remains largely unknown – or more accurately, […]
Capturing the Unknown
Two photographers find beauty in the war-torn. Text by Fiona Killackey Holiday photos usually feature blood-orange sunsets, cocktails, tans and a beach that spans over an imaginary horizon. Eliciting memories of a distant time in which you escaped the drone of keyboards, the painful tone of an alarm and the inane chatter on the subway, […]
