CRAIG'S POP LIFE: April 2014

Friday, April 18, 2014

FRIDAY FIVE HIATUS

Hey everybody - I'm in the middle of moving (again) and finishing up some writing projects, so I'm going to take a brief break from "Friday Five." But I plan to be back in a month or so. And I'll still be posting the "Daily Snaps." Love you all - Craig

CRAIG'S DAILY SNAPS

(Key West, 2012)

Friday, April 11, 2014

CRAIG'S FRIDAY FIVE 4.11.14

My five fave finds & re-discoveries of the week.

(In no particular order)

1) Vivian Maier documentaries

Vivian Maier, the Chicago nanny who was a secret street photographer, is the subject of two recent documentaries: Finding Vivian Maier and The Vivian Maier Mystery. This week, I took to the couch to check out both of them since Finding, is available On Demand, and Mystery is on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video. I highly recommend them as double-feature.

Finding focuses on the very cute John Maloof, who discovered some of Maier's photos at an auction. He went on to become both her biggest collector and greatest champion. Finding, which he co-directs, chronicles his quest to find out more about her life, particularly why she never showed her work and didn't even develop a lot of her film. He talks to a lot of families that Maier worked for and discovers that the camera bug nanny definitely had a dark side.

I didn't expect to like the BBC-produced Mystery as much, but I actually really enjoyed it. Maloof doesn't participate in this film, so you get to see some of the other collectors and hear the extremes they went to in order to find more of Maier's work. In Mystery, you also get to see a lot of the lesser known Maier images, since Maloof owns the bulk of the images that have been popularized.

Both docs provide a fascinating look at an intensely creative yet deeply troubled soul.

F.Y.I. Here are some of my favorite Maier photos

Friday, April 4, 2014

CRAIG'S FRIDAY FIVE 4.4.14

My five fave finds & re-discoveries of the week.

(In no particular order)

1) "High Maintenance"

If you're anything like me, then you lose a certain degree of your will to live whenever "Girls" wraps for the season. Fortunately, I've discovered a new show that deeply examines the travails of the type of narcissistic, priviledged city dwellers that most people find annoying but I find profoundly relatable. "High Maintenance" is a hilarious web series about a weed delivery man and his crazy band of customers. The episodes are generally less than 10 minutes, but they have all of the smart humor and emotional resonance of shows like "Girls" and "Louie." I'm, well, addicted. You can catch all the shows here, but you can see my two favorite episodes below.