I dig The Selby, which features "interesting people in creative spaces," as much as the next decor junkie. So what if it's a masturbatory celebration of hipster lifestyle? I can't count the number of times I've clicked in and spent way too much time fawning over some fantastic spaces that anyone with a soul would have a really good time in.

But has anyone else noticed that with two questionable exceptions, representations of Black people on The Selby are limited to the inanimate? And that the object d' blackness is always singled out and displayed like some sort of honor badge? Attention, hipsters: Black people actually exist. In fact, some are responsible for some of the music you listen to, much of the art you covet, and just about all the slang you bandy about in your incessant attempts at irony.

I'm not mad. It's Todd Selby's world. And in Todd Selby's world, Todd Selby should do what Todd Selby damn well pleases-- which may include shooting, of all the Black creatives in the world, Kanye. I'm just saying.

I'm not as interested in pop artist Hulbert Waldroup's dealings with a now defunct, high-end escort agency-- or his subsequent jail time-- as I am in this necklace he made. I want one. Calling Barneys-- hop on this, please? Photograph taken a couple of summers ago by Altamira.

A love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American twenty-somethings dealing with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco-a city with the smallest proportional black population of any other major American city.

Writer-director Barry Jenkins' debut film, Medicine for Melancholy, opens today in New York. A post-modern, post-Love Jones, Black love story-- rounded out with bikes and sunshine and identity crises. Sounds like a good time. Although New York Post "critic" V.A. Musetto-- whose review of the film is titled, "Cheerful Indie Easy to Swallow"-- thought that the Before Sunrise-like, "carefree" film was weighed down by fleeting allusions to gentrification. Right. The Invisible Woman conducted a great interview with Jenkins last October-- read it here.

If you're in New York:

IFC Center
323 Sixth Avenue
New York, NY 10014
A, B, C, D, E, F or V to W 4th

MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY
A film by Barry Jenkins NR, USA, 2009, 88 MIN
11:45 | 1:45 | 3:50 | 6:00 | 8:05 | 10:10 | 12:10am
Buy tickets

Former Studio Museum director Edward Spriggs has organized a major retrospective of New Jersey-based artist Ben Jones at the Jersey City Museum. The 67 year-old artist is little known outside of New Jersey, where he's spent his entire adult life. A professor at New Jersey City University, Jones is as inspired by his Roman Catholic upbringing as he is by his heritage.

The retrospective, which was the museum's largest and most successful opening, includes some of the artist's better known, iconic works like "Black Face and Arm Unit" (1971), his "Blood Series," some trippy female figure studies, and a new, site-specific installation. I discovered yesterday that my local museum, which I've never visited (even though it's across the street from my preferred grocer) has some Ben Jones; I do need to pick up some veggies today. I should stop in. (Snow day.)

If you're in the New York area:

Deliverance: The Art of Ben Jones 1970-2008
September 18, 2008-February 21, 2009
Jersey City Museum
350 Montgomery Street
Jersey City, New Jersey 07302

I'm rather late to the party, but this shall not deter me from singing the praises of artist/designer Alicia Piller, whose work is just bananas. Her paintings and drawings-- which bear titles like "Rebirth," "Apparition," and "Lasting Existence"-- are perfectly bizarre and alluring, but I'm particularly drawn to her wall hangings and jewelry, both of which are crafted of suede and beads and crystals and wood and love. Lots of love. Can you feel it? I can.




As if this wasn't enough, Piller, who is as stunning as her work, uses her singular vision to create hand painted apparel-- also bananas, also made with love. View it-- and loads more art and jewelry-- at designsbyaliciap.com.

Industrial designer extraordinaire Stephen Burks is noted for his seamless integration of classic handcrafts and modern aesthetics. His newly launched Rajboori Collection-- created at the suggestion and with the cooperation of young Indian entrepreneur Mitun Chakrabarti, who approached Burks at a design conference-- features brightly hued, geometrically patterned throws, cushions, and bedding made of luxurious eco-silks.

The artisanal textiles, which boast the resilience of cotton, are produced in by a group of families living a small Indian village that has been engaged in silk weaving for centuries. Learn more on the website of German design magazine, Form. No word on where Rajboori will be sold, but it the collection will be on view to retailers and buyers at the New York International Gift Fair (Jan 25-29).

Photo from the New York Times Magazine

At 39, Burks is already a powerhouse of productivity: his firm, Ready Made Projects, has produced work for B&B Italia, Missoni, Calvin Klein, Triple Five Soul, Tods, David Yurman, and other big names. Burks has been hailed as one of the most recognized American industrial designers of his generation.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm looking forward to getting a closer look at artist Nick Cave's "soundsuits"-- wearable, mixed media sculptures of the most fantastical proportions. Constructed of materials like found fabric, metal armatures, plastic bags, twigs, sequins, and hair, the sculptures are a marriage between haute couture and African ceremonial costume. So, Carnaval's more cerebral cousin on very good acid.

Cave's journey to the role of visual artist has been a slightly but admirably circuitous one; a dancer at Alvin Ailey, he previously produced his own clothing line. He currently serves as the chairman of the fashion design department at the Art Institute of Chicago. Interestingly, his first soundsuit-- which had not yet been christened a "soundsuit"-- was created in response to the Rodney King beating and the riots that followed the acquittal of the government sanctioned perpetrators. It wasn't until Cave actually donned the suit, which was intended to stand on its own, that the artist realized it produced sound.

Naturally, "[Cave] is as interested in fashion and cultural, ritualistic and ceremonial concepts as he is in politics, a domain that has always been part of his work as demonstrated by acts of collecting and reconfiguring elements and concealing the identity, race, and gender, of those who wear his suits. Rendering them faceless and anonymous the suits help these individuals transcend the political realm in order to enter the realm of dreams and fantasy" (jackshainman.com).

Having just spent a couple months in Japan, I could definitely stand to relax, relate, and release. Even if it's just vicariously. Also, the ski mask at the top there? I'd wear that.

If you're in New York:

Recent Soundsuits - Nick Cave 2009
January 8 - February 7
Jack Shainman Gallery
513 W 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
www.jackshainman.com