I ended up having more fun at the smaller festival Mutek because of the intimacy of the events. We were only there for the last two days of the festival. Saturday night we headed over to Metropolis for an amazing line up. I was excited to see Chloe live but for me the best act of the night was a debut dubby set by Code 9 and Space Ape. This normally isn’t even the kind of music I like but there was something really transcendent about their performance. After their set ended DJ Olive said “Wow that was like Sun Ra!”

The real highlight of the weekend was the outdoor Picnic Electronique with Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur djing together. We danced all day in the foggy wet light rain. No one seemed to be phased by the crappy weather because the music and the vibe was so unbelievably good. In their totally creative set Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur mixed strings and horns into techno tracks. Plus they were super cute to watch as they picked records to play and danced together.

Here is David Last’s amazing photo documentation of Mutek 2008 on Flickr

Me and my new fellow pink haired new artist friend Megan, we instantly became friends after I walked up to her. Photo by my dear friend David Last

We arrived at Metropolis right when the night started, the empty dance floor filled up soon thereafter. Photo by Seze

The visuals were gorgeous and totally different for each act. Photo by Seze

Bunker Bryan with Philip Sherburne, one of my favorite music writers and a super nice person as well. Genevieve & Matt (Portland Techno Promoters Kulture Szene) and Derek are behind them.
Stupid snapshot by Seze

How lucky we are! We danced under a Calder sculpture all day in the rain.
Photo by Seze

I love the pee pee dance logo by Picnic Eletronik
Photo by Seze

Fashioning Kimono: Art Deco and Modernism in Japan exhibit at The Philadelphia Museum of Art

photo by Seze

I had a chance to see the gorgeous Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Seeing the exhibit made me want to watch the beautiful film Frida (2002) starring Salma Hayek again. The film is based on “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera (who also helped to curate the Philadelphia exhibition). I read about two thirds of the book but I had to put it down because her life was just too painful to keep reading about. Seeing the exhibit was great, I had a chance to see some old friends (paintings that I have loved since my teenage years) and I started some new friendships (with some rare photographs and paintings that were included in the show)

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Monkeys, 1943 is one of my favorites

www.spacecollective.org/gallery

Oh I love these pretty portraits! More images here.

Heights of fashion in the world of architecture: Gehry to Koolhaas