Going to a Wilco gig on Super Bowl Sunday is like stepping into an alternate reality. Prior to the veteran Chicago alt-rock group’s show, Granville Street was experiencing Saturday-night levels of bedlam as jersey-wearing yahoos, sozzled on Jägerbombs, spilled into the streets to celebrate America’s high holiday. Inside the Orpheum Theatre, it was as if […]

I recently completed a site for Edward McKeever’s eco-friendly, decorative painting and design company, Strong River. Check it out… www.strongriver.net

Recently I helped coordinate the design and construction of 1000 masks that we gave to attendees of the massive NYE Party at the Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver. We contacted 8 talented artists, got them to submit two designs each, printed them, cut them out with scissors or boxcutters, then strung them. I would not recommend […]

Dubstep might be the new heavy metal. It’s dark, it’s aggressive, and it’s already conquered North American suburbs with little mainstream media support. Born in the clubs of south London in the early oughties, Dubstep is a hybrid of dub, drum and bass, and glitchy electronica. At its most inoffensive, it’s moody restaurantica. At its […]

The premiere issue of Bag is now available for purchase from the Bag Store. Part monograph, part magazine, each issue of Bag is devoted entirely to one emerging Canadian artist. The first issue of Bag is about Vancouver artist Devitt Brown. Let’s have a look at it…

On (Black) Friday November 25, the first issue of Bag was launched with an art show by Devitt Brown at Dynamo Gallery in Vancouver. Here are some photos from the show.

On Friday November 25, join us for We Will Buy Your Dreams, an art show by the dark (Devitt Brown) and the launch party for the premier issue of Bag. This event will take place at Dynamo Gallery located at 142 West Hastings in Vancouver. RSVP on Facebook About Devitt Brown Devitt Brown has been […]

I recently had the pleasure of working with too many brilliant and talented people to help produce the Artists Midway for the Waldorf Hotel’s 4-day Halloween bash. Attendees were invited to play carnival games of luck and skill designed by some of Vancouver’s best artists to win incredible prizes. Have a look at all of […]

There’s something about M83’s music that’ll make you feel like a teenage girl. Though we’re talking about a band from France, a country whose cultural producers have a proud history of picking fruit that’s not fully ripe, I don’t mean in the tactile sense, creep. M83 just have this way of making you curl up […]

Here’s a zine I made for Bag Publishing and you can buy it from the store on that site, the Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver, Art Metropole in Toronto and a few other places. It’s 24-pages of posts people made on Facebook event walls about why they can’t attend. It includes over 200 perfectly valid excuses […]

New site I’ve been working on. The design might look a little familiar. www.bagpublishing.com

Many years ago I helped on the Vice Guide to Vancouver. In wake of this year’s Stanley Cup Riot, Vice republished an article I wrote the History of Riots in Vancouver on their site. At any given moment a riot can break out in Vancouver. Michael Barnholden wrote a 112-page book about it recently called […]

As heartbroken hockey fans from Atlanta grieve the loss of their second NHL franchise to the Canadian prairies, those dozen or so Thrashers supporters can console themselves with the fact that they’ll always have the Black Lips to call their own. And that’s no small consolation. With the release of Arabia Mountain, their sixth studio […]

Recently did a redesign of Raif Adelberg’s site. www.raifadelberg.com

Apparently they recreated Rammellzee’s Battle Station for the Art in the Street exhibition at the MOCA in Los Angeles. There are some pics here but I would like to see that in person!

I just finished Swords & Sworcery. If you own an iPad you should really buy this game. It’s incredibly clever. When you finish the game, you’re given a phone number in a rather demonic sounding voice. 408 634 2806 It’s a San Francisco number. I called it and got this message. [audio:https://www.whatsupmann.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/message-at-the-end-of-swords-of-sworcery.mp3|titles=message at the end […]

If Cy Twombly or Jackson Pollock grew up brandishing spray paint cans under the cloak of night, their work would probably look a lot like José Parlá’s. Inspired largely by his roots in Miami’s graffiti scene and travels around the world, Parlá’s work is a contemporary take on abstract expressionism. Highly personal, emotive, intricate and […]