Avant-Garde

  Lately I've been thinking a lot about art. What exactly is art? I've found that everybody likes some form of art, even if they don't notice. One of the main forms of art all of us know is visual art, such as paintings, drawings, or sculptures. When we think "art museum," these pieces immediately come to mind. Music is also an art form, and from my experience, I've never heard anyone say "I don't like music." Therefore, all of us have something in common, which is the common interest in experimental sound known as music.
  Being an avid arts fan myself, I'd have to say my two main focuses are in fact visuals and music. As much as I like interpretive experimental art (like much of Yoko Ono's works, read my post on her protests and art with John Lennon here), I don't tend to focus on it as heavily as I do with drawings and music.
  A few of my favorite visual artists include Andy Warhol, Klaus Voormann, and Stuart Sutcliffe (who my popular music teacher oddly looks like). As most of you know, my favorite musicians would have to be The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, and The Runaways.
  There are, however, quite a few musicians in the experimental world that I like as well. Experimental music is music made not to impress others and result in a profit, but rather to, well, experiment with sound and emotion in order to create a truly unique piece. Unfortunately today, there are few experimental musicians left. But back in the day, mainly the late 60's and early 70's, experimentalists like Frank Zappa, the GTO's, (if you wanna learn about the GTO's, click here for my post on them) and The Velvet Underground. Back in his early days, Andy Warhol was considered an avant-garde artist, before he rose to fame. Even though he is a household name in modern times, in the mid-1960's, he was known for his almost risky and experimental works of art.

Klaus Voormann in 1966 holding one of his most famous works of art, the cover to the Beatles' 1966 album, Revolver (Source unknown)

Chess Set

Designed for Ringo Starr in 1972

Klaus designed this chess set for Ringo Starr, using all different types of hands for the various figures.  There are only five of these original sets in existence.  They were cast in sterling silver with one side gold plated.  Notice the rings on the bishop, king, and queen.

(Source)

Klaus donated the car to the Biodiversity Project: Ancient Trees and Endangered Beetles. This project is a collaboration between Christina and Klaus Voormann, Volkswagen AG, State Ministry for Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection and Center of Environment/Wiesenfelden Castle. The car will be auctioned or sold to the best offer.
More than 8,000 people visited the 6-day event. Plans are being made to continue this successful exhibition in other countries.

(Source for all Klaus Voormann car images)

Plastic Ono Band, 1969, Toronto Music Festival,
L-R: Klaus Voormann, Alan White, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Eric Clapton

Hamburg Series #13 by Stuart Sutcliffe
Mixed media, collage with ink and oil on buff paper
24/26 x 34 in. image / 32 x 40 in. overall mounted
Circa 1961-62; (Source)

Stuart Sutcliffe c. 1960-61, Source Unknown

When I visited the Liverpool Museum of Art this October I was fortunate enough to see an actual work of art by Stuart Sutcliffe in person.

My new Fender Squier Strat, hopefully I can make my own avant-garde music!

If you're interested in seeing more of Klaus Voormann's works, click here
If you're interested in seeing more of Stuart Sutcliffe's works, click here

Avant-Garde Delight from itsamodmodworld on 8tracks Radio.

1. "Sunday Morning" by The Velvet Underground
2. "Muffin Man" by Frank Zappa
3. "The Captain's Fat Theresa Shoes" by The GTO's
4. "Technicolour Dreams" by Status Quo
5. "Beck's Bolero" by Jeff Beck (and friends)
6. "I'm in Love With the Ooo-Ooo Man" by The GTO's
7. "Give Peace a Chance" by The Plastic Ono Band
8. "Heroin" by The Velvet Underground
9. "The Nitty Gritty" by Manfred Mann (ft. Klaus Voormann)
10. "Jamiroquai" by Canned Heat

She's a Mod, She's a Mod, She's a Mod, yeah yeah yeah

I found this at a thrift shop for 99 cents. What a find!

My Valentine's Day outfit. Sweater: Delia's; Skirt: Vintage; Tights: Thrifted; Boots: Thrifted

The necklace that my lovely girlfriend sent for Valentine's Day!

Hair is slightly blonder but not quite blonde enough!

$3 mini sweater found at a thrift shop from the 70's.

My life-size Robert Plant and Jimmy Page posters that took FOREVER to make

Sent from my girlfriend, d'aww

ALL MY PINS! (Well some fell off but thats most of them) I made the Jimmy Page and David Bowie ones on the left and the Cherie Curie one on the right.

Recent Obsessions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=begMgjEBdAw

Check out this guy's sweet moves! He's known as the "modfather," king of the mods. And check out the bass player in the top left!

Just a Little Weird Sometimes

  I find that everyone I meet has a little quirkiness to them or a weird side of them that they don't necessarily show to the public. They bottle this "weirdness" up inside and don't like to show it off because they're afraid of other people not liking the real them. But this weirdness is a good thing, and it shows how much a person cares. This weirdness could be having an obsession that they love about a TV show or band (I know half of Tumblr follows this rule, including me) or a secret hobby that they don't like to show. It could be the things they decorate their room with sometimes or the clothes they wear when their friends from school aren't around. Whatever it is, some form of weirdness dominates us all.
  I think my own weirdness shows through the music I listen to, the clothing I wear, and the way I decorate my room. Just a year or two ago, my room was this dull, drab pink, with posters my friends had given me of Eminem and Harry Potter plastered all over my walls. Harry Potter is obviously an exception, but that was back when I just listened to music that was played on the radio for me and dressed the way all the other girls in school dressed. I was just another teen doing what everybody else did, and I hated it.
  Then I rebelled, letting my inner weirdness take over. I started dressing however I wanted at the end of eighth grade and beginning of freshman year and started listening to the kind of music I liked, which happened to be classic rock. I started letting others know that I liked this music as well, as opposed to bottling my musical taste up like I did throughout most of the eighth grade. I wore band shirts and changed my computer and phone wallpapers to musicians I liked, and soon a few of my friends started to say that they liked my music, too. I took down the posters and hung up new ones of the Beatles, Woodstock, and other bands/music that I liked, and decorated the room with lava lamps and beads hanging from the doorway (which eventually got very annoying, so I had to take them down).
  Maybe you all will enjoy a little more weirdness in my room; so here it is, a few knickknacks from around my room that show who I really am.

My tin Beatles lunchbox that got too noisy and clangy to carry around everywhere. It didn't fit in my bag, so I stopped using it in seventh grade. Hard to believe I had a Beatles lunchbox in the seventh grade and barely knew who they were!

My lava lamp, a picture of my neighbor and I in one of those electric cars made for kids, a little bear figurine standing on its head that my friend who moved to Germany sent me, a miniature waterfall that broke that my dad gave me for Christmas, a mini clog that the same German friend sent, a small painting from Jamaica, and behind that, the hardcover to a Beatles book I received for Christmas.

The head of my old Sequoia guitar that I no longer play because it sounds absolutely dreadful and some bumblebee stickers.

This crazy Elvis purse my friend gave me. It's made out of a high heel!

Oh, remember that time when I was seven and I met Hilary and Hayley Duff?

I love this; Purchased in Cape Cod, a mini figurine of a dachshund in its best Hawaiian gear.

The old bag my grandmother gave me that I now use as a book-bag for school. I used some of my dad's house paint and painted the RAF roundel (or more commonly known as the 'mod symbol' by me) on it, and now I feel like a real mod!

My Quadrophenia poster, which I love love love! It even compares the film to A Clockwork Orange, another favorite of mine!

Maybe Just a Little Weird from itsamodmodworld on 8tracks Radio.

1. "Honey Pie" by The Beatles
2. "Hurdy Gurdy" by Donovan
3. "I'm in Love With the Ooo-Ooo Man" by The G.T.O.'s
4. "People Are Strange" by The Doors
5. "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" by The Kinks
6. "Strange Magic" by Electric Light Orchestra
7. "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" by Bob Dylan
8.  "Wild World" by Cat Stevens
9.  "Victoria" by The Kinks
10. "The Captain's Fat Theresa Shows" by The G.T.O.'s
11. "Baby You're a Rich Man" by The Beatles
12. "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin