Camino Camp

Ben and Paul return after a yearlong hiatus to discover a world that is remarkably different...and utterly the same.

Ben and Paul have returned from a lackluster performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics breakdancing competition with something new for the campers. This week, we're trying out a new concept where we read snippets from the preferred written content medium of our time: The Email Newsletter. Highlights include a Petersonian meditation on Marcus Aurelius, slightly sexy poem snippets, and some bare knuckl...

Bowie. Warhol. Chalamet. Need we say more? Paul and Ben reunite to discuss Dune Pt. 2, the fall of an iconic trad arts publication, and how to create a sun dial from a deconstructed milk carton.

It's Super Bowl Sunday, campers. And you know what that means—Ben and Paul participate in the futile but entertaining pastime of ranking and coronating the ineffable—pop songs, painters, and quarterbacks. So grab an Impossible chicken wing or three and crank the Tracy Chapman, because it's football night in America.

After a hiatus, Paul and Ben return to admit which member of the doomed Roy family they are, the horrors of AI art (have you ever wondered what's going on *outside* the frame of your favorite paintings?), and the glory of Nikola Jokic, Denver's favorite bear who learned ballet.

That's right: It's Fashion Week, campers. Not sure what to wear besides your favorite Punisher tee and under armor shorts that go past your knees? Don't sweat it. Ben and Paul offer a few tips to stay drippy on your local coffee shop cat walk this week, unpack a sexy new prestige TV program about copywriters called "Mad Men", and establish the ground rules for cafe culture in our "new normal" WFH...

Shhh! This is a library, not a dance hall! But seriously, libraries are actually a pretty cool place to hang out, no cap. This week, Ben guides us through the arduous but healthy process of Shelf Maturation. We also talk about our old friend Cezanne, our new friend from the U.P. Joe Pera, and Nathan Fielder, our Canadian friend. Thanks to Trevor Welch for the tunes, as always. Check him out at tre...

Summer is here, campers! Paul returns from walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain with keen insights, a backpack full of good vibes, and one of st. James's finger bones. Ben asks incisive cultural questions like "Do they have trucks there?", and tells us how to spot an American Fascist, a la Umberto Eco. Hint: it's all in the color palette. We gave Trevor Welch the week off, so special thanks to...

Ben and Paul unpack an underwhelming experience at the world's largest Chuck E. Cheese, otherwise known as Meow Wolf, share their respective calisthenics routines, and consider a problematic usage of the word "balm," among other creepy descriptions of art. Remember, we already know what art is: it's pictures of horses. Thanks again to Trevor Welch for providing the tunes for our second season of M...

Happy New Year, campers. This week, Paul and Ben take a closer look (with John Berger's help)at the raw and revelatory paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Then Paul summons the spirit of the great Sufi poet Rumi to take us once again into the mystic. Links to follow along as we look at SAMO's work: https://arthur.io/art/jean-michel-basquiat "Boy and Dog in a Johnny Pump" https://arthur.io/art/jean-...

Magic Camp resumes after Paul's Omicron sabbatical to discuss the Dadaists, the radical jesters of the early 20th European art scene. Paul test Ben's knowledge of notable thinkers while Ben lavishes praise on Paul's recent essay, linked here: https://therumpus.net/2021/12/picasso-shares-his-screen/. Thanks to our friend Trevor Welch for lending some of his music. Follow @trevorwelch on twitter and...

The Magic Camp Manifesto We the head counselors of Magic Camp declare, That a painting is not a painting unless it is made of paint. That the entirety of New York-based abstract expression art is one gigantic op, conceived and carried out by the Congress for Cultural Freedom and Central Intelligence Agency, we name Taos, New Mexico the artistic center of America. That the word moist is fine, you’r...

Horror movie buffs Ben and Paul discuss Robert Eggers' masterpiece of puritan paranoia The VVitch and take down the needlessly sadistic and extremely f***ed up films of Ari Aster. Ben shocks Paul with some gory paintings from Francisco Goya and others, the original arty-goth kids. All Hail King Phillip the Black, he rules the land with mirth! Thanks to Trevor Welch for the new tracks for this epis...

Hope you brought your flashlights, campers, because this week we journey to the place where art began: the cave. Ben reflects on the primal power of well-drawn line—be it of a horse's mane or a real big piggy. Paul confesses his past love for Trad-Indie Folk music. Speaking of music, thanks to our friend Trevor Welch for lending some of his. Follow @trevorwelch on twitter and find more of his musi...

Ben and Paul return to Christian camp to check in on an old nemesis: Mark Driscoll. Not much art in this episode—just the way Mark would have wanted it. Thanks again to Trevor Welch for the bangers. Check him out at: @trevorwelch on Twitter trevor.welch or soundcloud.com/trevorwelch

S2 E3: Rousseau and Cezanne Go to Space by Camino Camp

S2 E3: Rousseau and Cezanne Go to Space by Camino Camp

Ben and Paul venture into the desert to encounter the art of the Transcendental Painting Group and the Taos Society of Artists, just two of the under-appreciated groups who made the mystical landscapes of New Mexico their primary subject matter in the mid 20th century. Paul considers the poetic but largely unintelligible Desert Fathers, whose lives and words remind us that in the desert, there is...

Welcome back campers. Claim your bunk and get ready for a discussion about the Paris Avant-Garde. We're reading from the Manifesto of Cubism, sizing up Hemingway & seeing what the Evangelicals are up to. Music provided by our friend Trevor Welch. Follow @trevorwelch on twitter and find more of his music at the links below: http://trevor.money https://ladyboyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/onsen

Happy Christmas campers. We're discussing degrees of kitsch in advent art, from Thomas Kinkade to Norman Rockwell. Finally we ask: what if the infinite became finite in the womb of Charlie Brown?

Breaking news: the president has covid! It took a while to post, but in this episode your counselors chat about Sweaty Walt Whitman, Lodge 49 and Zen.

Dream with us as we consider the works of Andre Breton and his Surrealist coven. Check out the Manifesto of Surrealism and apply the SECRETS OF THE MAGICAL SURREALIST ART to your own society today!

Bust out the hemp bracelets, we're back at Christian camp. Paul describes how Giotto spread the humanist vision St. Francis to the masses of disgusting, illiterate peasants and helped spawn the Renaissance.

We're camping with the Italian Futurists. Were they fascists or were they just in their twenties? Marinetti gets drunk and crashes into some fluid. Ben rolls coal. Paul swirls a glass of finely aged vino. We read from Manifesto of Futurism and Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto.

Your counselors are talking Caravaggio, Italian master and absolute pimp.