Setting up the theme was not as easy as I thought. At first glance, everything was looking great but then I realized that there was a conflict with my All In One SEO plugin: all pages were showing the same meta title: Sebastien Page, which is the blog name. Other meta information (keywords and description) were working fine though. I looked around on the web for hours in search of a possible solution to my problem without finding anything.

So in order to keep my blog as SEO optimized as possible, I had to tweak the <meta> </meta> tags in the header.php file. My meta title nows looks like this:

<title><php if(is_home()): ?>Sebastien Page<php endif; ?> <php if ( is_single() ); ?><php trim(wp_title(“”)); ?></title>

This function basically tells the browser to use “Sebastien Page” as meta title if it is the home page, or else, it will use the post title, tag, category, or archive as the meta title.

I emailed the folks over at FTL to see if they know what my problem with All In One SEO may be and I hope they will get back to me, although I doubt it.

I also had issues with the javascript tags in the sidebar and I had to disable them.

I have to admit that ColorPaper is a great theme but the documentation that came with it was inexistent.

Leave a comment to tell me what you think of this new theme :)

Opening Reception: September 13th, 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates: September 13th – October 4th

White Walls Gallery
835 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
www.whitewallssf.com

Over 100 pieces will go on display at White Walls in a timely new show titled “The Duality of Humanity.” The show marks an evolution for the artist, whose unique form of reverse propaganda emerged from the spirit of the punk movement. With this show, Shepard touches upon, but also goes beyond the “calls to action” against mindless consumerism and war evidenced in previous shows like Nineteeneightyfouria, E Pluribus Venom and Imperfect Union.

Shepard says:

The difference between this show and the previous ones is that now the optimism of a potential Obama presidency is in the mix.

His recent work reflects his own personal shift towards a new optimism, a direct result of his involvement with, and inspiration by, the powerful political ideals of Barack Obama.

The title of the show, “The Duality of Humanity,” is inspired by the peace-sign wearing US soldier in Vietnam, “Joker,” in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Fairey sees a strong parallel between the Vietnam war and the Iraq war.

Fairey says that:

this show addresses the human struggle between good and bad, hope and fear. One of the show’s central pieces is a child with a gun in his hand and a flower in his hat. The theme of soldiers and weapons bearing peace signs, or peace signs comprised of military effects, runs through many pieces in the show. Environmental themes also appear in some pieces, illustrating the tenuous balance between our dangerously uncontrolled consumption of non-renewable resources, and our well intentioned eco-concerns. Suffering and hope are seamlessly merged in a visual mash-up that defies expectations and easy answers.

“The Duality of Humanity” includes larger mixed media pieces on canvas and paper that have been covered with carefully collaged ephemera, self-printed patterns and found clippings from printed media. The backgrounds provide a seductive painterly texture and visual subtext, often allowing apropos words and images to bleed through the iconic images printed and painted over them. The multiple layers create a sense of depth, but also bring in temporal elements through preserved newsclippings, historic images and vintage printing effects. It is the images in the foreground, however, that give the work its power. They are crisp and provocative, communicating in a way that is direct and clear.

Source: Obey

I have been a big fan of George Orwell ever since I read 1984. I remember the first time I heard about Orwell. I was 16 and we studied an excerpt from 1984 for our English class. I particularly remember this:

His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals -

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

over and over again, filling half a page.

This also stroke me when I first read it:

The Ministry of Truth — Minitrue, in Newspeak — was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

I think what I like the most about Orwell’s 1984 is that it was truly a visionary book that decrypted exactly how governments would monitor us, later on.

My favorite thing about the book is how the Government creates a new language called Newspeak. The government deliberately deletes words from the dictionary and from people’s mind. Think about it, if you don’t have a word for “freedom”, how can you fight for it? If you don’t have a word for happiness or sadness, you won’t be able to express your feelings, thus you will be following the leader like a good sheep.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Orwell Diaries, each diary entry is going to be re-published in blog form on WordPress exactly 70 years after it was originally written.  So, 9th August 1938 will be blogged on 9th August 2008 and so on.

The diaries will be published HERE.

I highly recommend you subscribe to the RSS feeds as it will be a very fascinating blog.

If you haven’t read 1984 and feel to lazy to read it, remember you can download a free audiobook of 1984.

[Via GAS]

Al Rockoff’s photos reveal the brutality, but also the conflicted humanity seen in war. The risks Rockoff took to capture his images were often as great as the risks of the subjects he wished to document. I’m honored to be able to work with Al Rockoff. – Shepard fairey

Read

Here is what Shepard Fairey has to say about Mr. Brainwash

Mr. Brainwash is an enigma. I want to hug him one second and smack him the next. He is awesome, infuriating, almost impossible to define, but if an artist is defined by relentless, obsessive passion, then MBW is definitely an artist. Which kind of artist though? When I first met MBW he was a film maker. He started documenting me putting art up on the streets and in galleries back in ‘99. He has hundreds of hours of footage and often risked his neck climbing with a camera to very dangerous spots. MBW’s camera was ALWAYS on. Theoretically MBW is coming out with an OBEY documentary eventually. Somewhere along the way I introduced MBW to Banksy, which seemed to lead him to transition from just a voyeur to a participant, and he began making his own street art. MBW told me he used to paint and had actually sold his art to Michael Jackson years ago. Knowing this art background and his obsessive nature, it does not surprise me how quickly MBW rose to prominence with his street art, becoming one of the most “up” people in LA in a short amount of time. Not all of the work was magnificent, but it improved steadily, reflecting the maxim that practice yields results. Meanwhile, in addition to his street art, as flows logically, MBW was also making canvases and screen prints that could be shown in a gallery. In his usual style, MBW could not just do a small art show, he had to go completely over the top and put together one of the largest, most ambitious, non-museum shows I can think of (more detailed description below). Of course nothing can go smoothly with MBW and over the weekend he wrecked his car and fell off a billboard breaking his foot. A less insane person would have postponed their art show, but he instead postponed his foot surgery and is continuing work. With the ambition and commitment MBW has, I’m pretty sure he’ll pull the show off, but if he doesn’t, to paraphrase Malcolm Mclaren, a glorious failure is better than an underwhelming success. I will be playing records and a jazz band will perform, so it is going to be a good party.

Opens June 18th at 7pm
6121 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036

Link: www.artshow2008.com

Here are just a few samples. Go to Reencoded to see all of them.

]]> http://www.sebastienpage.com/2008/05/26/42-original-business-cards-designs/feed/ 4 http://www.sebastienpage.com/2008/05/17/swiv-tackle-circus/ http://www.sebastienpage.com/2008/05/17/swiv-tackle-circus/#comments Sat, 17 May 2008 20:06:19 +0000 Sebastien http://www.sebastienpage.com/?p=243 What better than good friends, art, an open bar and a cool new location in Ghetto By The Sea Oceanside? Scotty, Jason, Tina, Sean and I went to Swiv Tackle Circus‘ 2nd exhibition to see new works by Lisa Solberg. Lisa’s collection is called “I Spy Yin Yang”. I didn’t get to take pictures of Lisa’s art but you can find some on her website. Hope she won’t mind me copy/pasting some of it…

Lisa Solberg about her and her work:

I believe in expressionism with a mural/street art facade. Raw, energetic, truthful and as little as possible. Refined and edited and purged until you have nothing left besides truth. Simplicity is a vehicle to expose authenticity. The pure and conscience reality in which we all strive in this mayhem world. My comfort level lives in a chaotic world, the beauty of the unknown and the absolution in a numerical equation. I am a slave to natural numbers and have shapes and colors swimming through my head…

The exhibition/party was musically driven with some sick house music spinned by DJ BlackAss.

So what is Swiv Tackle Circus? Well, let’s see how they describe themselves…

Dreams really do come true in the world of Swiv Tackle Circus! Debuting the strong yet delicate tightrope balance of a clean, well-lit gallery in one circustacular ring pulled to an uber chic, tantalizingly premium boutique in the other. Walk into a space so large, you feel you are under the big top with Ringmaster Blackass as your guide! Once a child, always a child. The future is a sophisticated palace and we are here to satisfy. Part gallery, part boutique, über Gallertique.

I love the “part gallery, part boutique, über Gallertique” concept. Swiv Tackle Circus is a place where you can enjoy good art and shop for some of your my favorite brands such as Obey.

The Gallertique is also all about philanthropy! They actively support the Keep A Breath Foundation, a nonprofit breast cancer awareness organization unlike any other. Their mission is to help eradicate breast cancer by informing young people about methods of prevention, early detection and support. Through art events, educational programs and fundraising efforts they seek to increase breast cancer awareness among young people so they are better equipped to make choices and develop habits that will benefit their long-term health and well-being. Learn more about the foundation here.

Artist Statement: (source: Jonathan LeVine Gallery)

Jim Houser’s paintings are the system by which he actively catalogs the images and noises which command his attention. His installations act to create a map of the contents of his head over the course of a particular period in time. His interests include: listening to the cadence of speech. science and science fiction. sickness and disease. plants and animals. sport. time travel. ghosts. the art of children. secrets. radio. codes and code breaking. words that sound beautiful and mean something terrible, words that sound horrible but mean something wonderful. codes and code breaking.

Here are some of the camera shots I took.

Jim Houser doesn’t have a website but you can see more of his work at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery.

Also read his interview by Shepard Fairey in Swindle Magazine.