Michael Jackson - This Is It - Directed by Spike Lee from 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks on Vimeo.

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To each of you from little ole me have a wonderful day, a blessed holiday season and make sure you spend a little time remembering all the things you should be thankful for. Whenever you start to feel bad about the things you want or need, GIVE a little something to someone else who needs it. You will feel so much better in the process.

Ricky

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2009 has been one of the most trying years of my adult life in many ways, but it has provided a wonderful opportunity for growth and self reflection. I am blessed to have been given this opportunity to see who I really am as a man and an artist. This tough year has also provided an opportunity for those who I consider friends to stand by me and show who they really are.

My cousin Melvin, my dear friend Jeff F. and road dawgs and best friends Akim B. and Adam Irby have all been with me every step of the way providing moral support and even some material support when the recession came home. Of course my family has been better than ever and this has been a banner year for renewing ties with family (both paternal and maternal).

I will be taking a much needed break from blogging for a bit to celebrate the holidays and focus on a great new nightlife project that has fallen into my lap. To those who know me, I know what you're thinking and I don't really believe I'm going to take this break either (lol), it is my intent.

No worries art lovers, Urban Pop Life will be back better than ever at the top of the year. I'm planning new features, new content, and eventually an updated look and feel. There are also plans to add contributors so if you are a writer, photographer or artist interested in contributing contact me at uptownsun@aol.com to express your interest.

Happy Holidays with love and respect,

Ricky

Did you Pop today?

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Apparently the Vatican likes The Simpsons. Check out the story I found earlier here: (Vatican paper praises The Simpsons) and then watch this great clip from the 20 year old series.

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For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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Alice in Wonderland

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I think this is my favorite song of 2009. The lyrics are clever, slightly bitter, but oh so effing real. The vocal performance is commanding and sincere. The production is off da chain and this is simply a great pop/rock song. There is great movement in the melody, lots of tension and the proper release and a strong bridge. This is the kind of joint that makes me miss writing and producing music. Let me find out Rihanna may get me back in the studio!!!!

By the way, the entire Rated R CD is truly a well produced and performed album. Great songwriting, strong performances and an artist not afraid to grow. I'm pleasantly surprised at how capable Rihanna has turned out to be at working the gifts bestowed upon her.

Press play, read the lyrics while you listen and have a great day.

Firebomb
(J. Fauntleroy II, B. Kennedy, R. Fenty) Produced by Brian Kennedy for Team BK

Gunfire left a hole in the tank, losing gasoline
Fire is on my trail and he's after me
Hope it don't get here before I get where I'm going
I gotta get where I'm going
Take off my mask to breathe
You could've been a part of a masterpiece
Fluid in the breaks was the last to leak
That's the thing

Where I'm going, I don't need my brakes
Can't wait to see your face
When your front windows break
And I come crashing through

The lovers need to clear the road
Oh, oh, oh
Cause this thing is ready to blow
Oh, oh, oh

I just wanna set you on fire
So I won't have to burn alone
Then you
Then you'll know where I'm coming from
Fire bomb
Fire bomb

Seems cold but baby, know it doesn't have to be
Microwaving our metal tragedy
Watching it burn and it's beautiful and it's blue
And it's pitiful when its through
It's the other half of me
I didnt do it, you lit the match for me
Now we're flying from the blast, baby
That's the thing

Where we're going, we don't need no brakes
Can't wait to see your face
When your front windows break
And I come crashing through

The lovers need to clear the road
Oh, oh, oh
Cause this thing is ready to blow
Oh, oh, oh

I just wanna set you on fire
So I won't have to burn alone
Then you
Then you'll know where I'm coming from
Fire bomb
Fire bomb

Baby, we were killing them
They couldn't handle the millionth degree
We were criminals
As we were burning, the world called the police

Fire department, ambulance
You can call me crazy 'cause I believe
The only move for me and you
Is to go out blazing

The lovers need to clear the road
Oh, oh, oh
Cause this thing is ready to blow
Oh, oh, oh

I just wanna set you on fire
So I won't have to burn alone
Then you
Then you'll know where I'm coming from
Fire bomb
Fire bomb

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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Matthew Day Jackson: The Immeasurable Distance

Matthew Day-Jackson: Chariot II

Matthew Day Jackson
Chariot II—I like America and America Likes Me, 2008
Car frame, steel, wool felt, leather, stained glass, fluorescent light tubes, solar panel, fiberglass, and plastic
40 x 80 x 240 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York
Installation view courtesy MIT List Visual Arts Center
Opening reception: Friday, October 16, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m
On view: October 17, 2009 – January 17, 2010

Matthew Day Jackson: The Immeasurable Distance is a solo exhibition that includes works based on Jackson’s artist’s residency at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA. Jackson’s complex research, histories, and hagiographies are manifested in sculptures, constructed paintings, objects, books, and videos. In this exhibition, organized by Bill Arning, Director of the CAMH, Jackson continues his investigations into human consciousness and explores how positive evolutionary developments in human thought and culture occur under physical or mental stress. Other works explore how constructive and destructive technological developments often stem from a similar impetus: to expand human experience despite all odds, proving that progress is possible, whatever the risk. Drag racing, the Apollo space missions, test-pilot culture, the nuclear legacy in terms of both science and culture, commingle with iconic twentieth-century figures like visionary Buckminster Fuller, Big Daddy Don Garlits, Eleanor Roosevelt…even the artist’s mother. Jackson relates these modern myths using his iconic players as mischievous tricksters to question what it means to live at a time when technology has rewritten philosophy and religion.

Born in 1974 in Panorama City, CA, Matthew Day Jackson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Jackson’s solo exhibitions include Drawings from Tlön, Nicole Klagsbrun, New York, NY (2008); Terranaut, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY (2008); Diptych, Mario Diacono at Ars Libri, Boston, MA (2007); The Lower 48, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY (2007); Paradise Now!, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, OR (2006); and By No Means Necessary, The Locker Plant, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Heartland, Vanabbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2008); Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Gallery, London, UK (2008); The Old, Weird America, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2008); and Greater New York, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY (2005).

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a not-for-profit, non-collecting institution dedicated to presenting the art of our time to the local, regional, national and international public.

Admission
FREE!
Admission to the Museum is free due to the generosity of our donors.

Hours
Tuesday - Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thursday, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Friday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday, noon - 5 p.m.

Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day

Visitors with Disabilities
The Museum is wheelchair accessible.

Phone Number
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston General Information Line: 713.284.8250
http://www.camh.org

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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Heroes and Villains: The Battle for Good in India's Comics

October 17, 2009–February 7, 2010

This exhibition examines the legacy of India’s divine heroes and heroines in contemporary South Asian culture through the comic book genre. Indian superheroes and their archenemies are visualized from ancient archetypes that have long been depicted in traditional painting and sculpture, and are deeply ingrained in India’s historical imagination. In the twenty-first century new incarnations of ancient Indian gods and goddesses are made manifest as modern superheroes brought to Earth to vanquish the evil forces. Demons take the form of modern villains, and raise havoc in today’s troubled times. Today comic book production takes place in a global cultural context and within a multimedia framework that combines traditional hand-drawn illustrations with computer design and animation technology. These issues are explored through a selection of vintage Indian and American comics, and contemporary pencil-and-ink-drawn character explorations by Indian artists from the Liquid Comics series Ramayan and Devi. To illustrate the continuity of the heroic narrative tradition in Indian art, a selection from LACMA’s historical collection of Indian paintings will also be on view. These include folios from Mughal illustrated manuscripts, paintings and drawings from the northern Indian princely states, and story-telling paintings from central India. Curators: Julie Romain, Tushara Bindu Gude.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA. 90036
http://www.lacma.org

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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Michael's never gonna be gonna be forgotten if I have anything to do with it. MISS U MUCH bro.

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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I'm feeling a lil nostagic on this rainy fall day in NYC. So as I so often do I am listening to 80's music as I get some work done. Check out these great video moments from music legends Blondie fronted by music and style icon Deborah Harry. Urban Pop is at the core of what Blondie was and remains to this day. They were edgy, authentic, real, equal parts sub-culture and pop-culture, irreverent and yet deadly serious in their pursuit of artistically authentic pop and punk pleasure.

Enjoy.

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LeBasse Projects is proud to present the first US solo exhibition from Scott Belcastro as he returns to Los Angeles with his largest body of work to date. Belcastro's paintings are a collection of thoughts on existentialism, meditation, religion, prayer, isolation, sin and forgiveness. Subtle washes of color and finely detailed elements create environments designed for the viewer to get lost in. Taking on new form and structure the work is not about the artists view of the world - but more about what can manifest through patience and self awareness.

'Chasing the Last Glimpse of Light'
Scott Belcastro
Saturday, December 12th, 7-10pm

For more info or preview, please contact the gallery at:
contact@lebasseprojects.com or 310.558.0200

The gallery will complement Belcastro's show with the debut solo exhibition of Linda Kim, a recent graduate of Pasadena's Art Center College of Design.

Linda Kim was also a participant in "The Kids are Alright," a group show series curated by LeBasse Projects. Now Kim will be presenting a new body of paintings and sculptures for her first solo project. Her work features a whimsical style that engages the viewer with scenes of interaction between nature and man.

'A Light Within' by Linda Kim
Project Room:
Saturday, December 12th, 7-10pm

For more info or preview, please contact the gallery at:
contact@lebasseprojects.com or 310.558.0200

LeBASSE Projects
6023 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
310.558.0200
www.lebasseprojects.com

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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The list of artists for 2010, the Whitney Biennial, which will take over the Museum from February 25 through May 30, 2010 have been announced. The fifty-five artists participating were selected by curator Francesco Bonami and associate curator Gary Carrion-Murayari. The Biennial includes established and emerging artists from all over the country. Visit whitney.org to see a video of the curators reading the list of names.

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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Martin Wong
Everything Must Go

Curated by Adam Putnam

December 10, 2009– January 30, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 10, 6-8pm

P•P•O•W is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by Martin Wong, curated by Adam Putnam. Martin Wong, who died in 1999 due to an AIDS related illness, was born in 1946 in Portland, Oregon and moved to New York City in 1978. He received a degree in ceramics, but decided to become a painter when he was thirty years old. He first started exhibiting at the Semaphore Gallery in New York. Martin Wong's last exhibition at P•P•O•W was in 2000.

For most of his time in NYC, Martin Wong stayed nestled in the Lower East Side, enmeshed in the fabric of his neighborhood and the people around him. His work has traditionally been described as a document of that time in the 1980's and 1990's, capturing a moment in the history of the city marked by vacant lots, graffiti and a burgeoning club culture.

This exhibition presents an intuitive ramble through the estate left by this unique and visionary artist. It offers a glimpse into a private world populated by crumbling tenements, vacant lots, prisoners (with those burning eyes), closed gates (and open legs), downtown poets, hustlers, and if we are lucky, perhaps an off-duty Fireman.

Martin Wong wanders through an urban landscape and refashions it into something new. His paintings take us inward, through a hidden, alternative landscape of longing and deeply felt subjectivity. Following this logic of desire, a crumbled brick tenement can become laced with the erotic or a painting of a single cactus can carry all the restrained passion of an unmet gaze from a sexy stranger.

Also on view are several rarely seen photo collages on loan from The Fales Library archives as well as drawings and sketches. These photos are remarkable for the fact that they not only exist as source material for some of the larger paintings but also as a rare document of the long walks the artist would take in and around the Lower East Side.

The vacant lots have long since been filled in, but don't let the glass facades fool you. There is always the torn seam or frayed edge... you just need to know where to look.

The exhibition is accompanied by a full color illustrated catalog with an essay by Carlo McCormick.

On January 26th there will be a panel discussion tentatively based upon the themes of secret languages in the work of Martin Wong. The event will be hosted by the NYU Steinhardt School of Art and Arts Professions.

Adam Putnam is an artist living and working in NYC. His work has been exhibited at P.S.1, Art Statements Basel, the 2008 Whitney Biennial and most recently, at Taxter and Spengemann Gallery. In 2006 Adam Putnam, with artist Shannon Ebner, curated the show Blow Both of Us at Participant Inc.

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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Carrie Secrist Gallery
835 W Washington Blvd
Chicago IL 60607
312.491.0917 T
312.491.1145 F

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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It's right here, right now...the new Sade single 'Soldier of Love'

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net

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(Santa Monica, CA) – Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Kelis announced today that she will release her next album through will.i.am Music Group / Interscope Records. Kelis has just given everyone a taste of what’s to come with the David Guetta- produced “Acapella,” which is now available on her website www.iamkelis.com. The new album features production work by some of today’s most influential producers, including will.i.am, David Guetta (Black Eyed Peas), Free School, Boys Noize, Burnz and DJ Ammo.

Says Kelis, “I love that I am now a new part of the Interscope family. 2010 is around the corner and I can’t wait to put out new music and spend time with real music fans on tour again.” Adds will.i.am, “Kelis represents the kind of edge that pushes all of us not just musically but stylistically as well. She has always opened new doors for her audience and we’re ready to walk through this next one with her.” Jimmy Iovine, Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records concurs, adding, “Kelis is a true artist and we’re so excited to start this new chapter in her musical life.”

Kelis exploded onto the global musical landscape in 1999 with her debut album Kaleidoscope, which featured the ubiquitous MTV hit “Caught Out There.” Her career has seen her deliver five albums, garnering her a BRIT Award (for Best International Breakthrough Act in 2000) and two Grammy Award nominations. Over the last ten years, she has worked with music’s biggest talent, including The Neptunes, Andre 3000, Bjork, Enrique Iglesias and Raphael Saadiq. Perhaps best-known for her Top 5 smash “Milkshake,” and the million-selling ringtone “Bossy,” the fashion icon and New York native is also a certified chef and a recent graduate of Le Cordon Bleu.

So here's the deal, go to the link below...listen to the new joint and hit me with your feedback. The label wants me to report back with your comments so your opinions will be heard.

www.iamkelis.com

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