Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Daily poster: Slithis.

Slithis_poster_01
Slithis.

Environmental horror. Clean up the planet, or face.....Slithis!

cinemacapman posted this fine Slithis Survival Kit.

Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

"But, what would cause such a change?"

"Why, the radioactivity, my dear."

 

 

Charlie Chaplin vs. Inception.

Literally got goose bumps.

(via groonk on Whitechapel.)

More Panuska for your Panuska pleasure.

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Matt Panuska posted this comic on his tumblr blog.

I swear I grew up with these guys.

"I did this comic for my storytelling class, and I wanted to draw out a true story but make it surreal and retarded. It’s based on a story my friend told me where he killed a baby pig with a bb gun by shooting it in the face about 100 times. I really like working in this childish style. I think im going to try and make more work with this kind of sensibility. Also it only took about 20 minutes which is nice."

Panuska paints.

Mattpanuska
The Juxtapoz website turned me onto the fine work of Matt Panuska.

Panuska fuses comic book-popism and traditional art with the best of them.

Revenge.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

My Little Airport is filling me with smiles.


Mylittleairport
Listening to My Little Airport and feeling happy.
My Little Airport is a Hong Kong sweetie pie band. When the dude sings they are sort of yawnable, but when the girl sings, they are fantabulous.




Not Now, Skeletor!

Notnowskeletor
The creators of Where's Randy Savage? started a new mash-up blog today, Not Now, Skeletor!

It's the bomb dot com.

Ollie Klublershturf vs. The Nazis

Thanks to Sean for passing along this time traveltastic short film.

"Ollie Klublershturf vs. The Nazis is directed by Skot Bright and written by Damon Lindelof (Lost). The film stars Chris Hemsworth, George Segal, Lainie Kazan, Norman Reedus, Rachel Nichols, Samm Levine, and Zach Mills and is an off-the-wall comedy set around the dinner table."

Saturday, May 28, 2011

On Stranger Klaus'.

Kinski09

Merzbow on Merzbient.

Merzbow
In October, 2010, Merzbow (Masami Akita) released Merzbient, a twelve CD boxset comprised of recordings made in the 1980's. The set was released by Soleilmoon and was limited to 555 copies.

Musique Machine published an interview they conducted with Masami Akita about Merzbient, the other day. The writer mistakenly calls the project "Merzbeint," but it is a fine interview, nonetheless.

m[m]Please tell us a bit about what has been done with the sets recording when they were transferred from tape to compact disc? Have the been remastered or cleared up in anyway or edited?
Masami All the tracks were original on 2 -4 track cassette tape. so, all material was remixed volume and EQ of each channels. Next I dubbed it to CD and then used audio editing software on the computer and cleared up and re-edited, but there was no overdubbed or effects added. The  materials is very close to the master recordings, because I wanted to keep the essence of the original recordings much as possible

m[m]Please give us a full list of what you used to create the tracks on the whole of the Merzbeint release?
Masami Various scrap metals, various metals/ tin box with piano wires, various percussion by small objects, paper, stone, woods, kitchen objects etc.
contact mics, audio mixer, motor, electric fan, gas stove, guitar, violin, thermin, various effects. etc. but no synthesizer.

 

HERE is the rest of the interview.

I haven't heard the whole set. I wouldn't absolutely chalk the work I have heard up as ambient, but it is smoother, much smoother, than other 1980's Merzbow recordings.

Masami Akita also stated in the interview that a 15 LP Merzient set would be released soon, with additional material.

A lot of old Merzbow fans grumbled when Merzbow moved away from the contact microphone and turned to the laptop computer for creating noise. Cool to hear some old, new analog recordings from the noise god.

HERE is the Soleilmoon site listing for Merzbow. Scroll down a bit to find Merzbient.

Here is the Merzbient cover and a sample of the project.

Merzbient

MerzbientSAMPLE.mp3 Listen on Posterous

(top photo by Rene Passet.)

Friday, May 27, 2011

Daily poster: 13 Assassins.


13assassins
 
13 Assassins.
My wife and I saw 13 Assassins last night. Director, Takeshi Miike is about the most up and down filmmaker I can think of. I can't stand a lot of his films, but when he really swings at the ball, he can hit home runs with the best of them. 13 Assassins is out of the park.


13assassins1
 
The half-brother of Japan's Shogun is a sociopathic, rapist, serial killer. A wannabe war leader born into a time of peace. The crimes he commits against his own people, early on in the film, are pretty rough. The screams of the female victims are especially hard to take. Once the film establishes the antagonist, it is off and running as a Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven, GI Joe, squad of specialists vs. 200 soldiers, action film.

Other politicians (lords? I'm not sure of their titles) gather and fear that the prick half-brother will throw Japan back into states of warfare. One man takes it on himself to hire an old samurai to assemble a team of samurai badassery.

While the half-brother and his army are traveling home, the samurai hit squad cuts through the beautiful forest to cut them off. The hit squad arrives in a small town first, and readies for battle.


13assassins2
(above, Hirayama, a ronin samurai and the baddest of the hit squad.)

The half-brother and his 200 men enter the city at a little over halfway through the film. The rest is pure, fantastic, murderings. I always get super tense when there are insane odds in films. 13 vs 200? Come on! Will the film handle the situation with class and cleverness (like Leon, the Professional) or just clod it up with 80's cartoon-action? (like Schwarzenegger's Commando)  13 Assassins serves a bit of both both. While the hit squad each kill a ton of soldiers, the booby traps they rig are super cool. I almost never felt cheated or that Takeshi Miike took the easy way (except for the CG bulls, which were a teeny bit lame.)

Someone told me today that Roger Ebert said that the massive battle was broken down into vignettes. I'm refraining from reading Ebert's review until I'm done writing this, as I don't want to be tainted by his superior writing. I think most team action film battle scenes are broken into vignettes or scenes within scenes. This isn't new (see Uncommon Valor for a kickass example.) But what is especially good in 13 Assassins is that the story does not disappear in the action. Like a five star professional wrestling match, Takeshi Miike weaves the story into the action masterfully. Characters retain their traits and motivations. The story does not stop and wait for an action scene to end in order to continue, like in a lot of action films. The story is propelled and even integrated into the action scenes.

If you can get past a nude, armless, legless, half starved, tongue cut out, Japanese woman screaming at you for a minute and enjoy hot, steamy, samurai action, this film is AWESOME. Want something a little less violent and visceral? Get your greasy mitts on Seven Samurai, still the best samurai film of all time.

This preview is rad and the foley sound effects are crunchy and sweet.

Success.

Deal with him Hemingway!

I need a t-shirt, "Deal with him Hemingway!"

 

(via Will Ellwood on Whitechapel.)

Exorcising with the Dirt Devil.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Dark Horse's Spider-Man.

Spiderman2
Uh, this is kind of strange. Marvel Comics' number one web-spurter, is scheduled to be released in statue form, on September 14th, courtesy of Dark Horse Comics. Color me confused.

Marvel is now owned by Disney, you would think they could get a statue of their own created, rather than going to another comic book publisher. Very strange.

Spidey is 5 1/2" tall and limited to 2,000 numbered pieces. He shall be packaged in his own tin box, with a pin-back button and character booklet.

I love the awkward pose and how the costume is slightly baggy on Spidey's skinny legs.

HERE is the Dark Horse page for pre-ordering and more information on Spidey statueized.

 

Gossel's ladies.

Gossel-blue
He Said He Loved Me.

Gossel-red
Burden of Life.

Greg Gossel has just released the above prints minutes ago. Check out burlesquedesign.com for more information.

The prints are 19 x 25" and 5 color screenprint on French paper. They are $45 each, which includes shipping.

 

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Will Ferrell.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Misfit II.

Spidey
Misfit II is artist, Sage Vaughn's latest sweetacular piece.  The "10 Colour Autographic Screenprint on Somerset Tub Sized Satin 310gsm" print shall be unleased on May 26th.

The edition is limited to 50 prints and measures 97 cm x 76.5 cm. The bone-age is £200.00 and the print is signed and numbered.

Check out The Ousiders for more information.

10 colors? I bet this thing looks bonita in person.

Turn up the damn lights!

Pirates
Yesterday, Roger Ebert posted an excellent article on the dimming of theater projectors, The Dying of the Light.

Projectionists dimming projector bulb wattage in order to extend the life of the bulb is one issue. However, much of the problem of late, stems from projectionists refusing to change out 3-D projector lenses when not projecting a 3-D film. This results in a dark, muddy 2-D picture. The process of changing the lens is long, and sometimes complicated. So, many projectionists simply don't bother.

I was pleasantly surprised to read that less than half of Pirates of Carribean's opening weekend gross came from 3-D showings. The darker image projected for 3-D films is sort of a buzz right now. If it grows, this could be the beginning of the end for this go around of the 3-D trend.

At the end of Ebert's article, he quotes from Matthew Humpries at Geek.com :

What can you personally do to be sure you see an ideal picture?

The title of the movie listed by the theater will have a "D" after it if it is being shown on a digital projector

• If you are in a D movie, look at the projector window when seated. If you see two stacked beams of light it is a Sony projector with the 3D lens still on.

• A single beam of light means no 3D lens, or a different make of projector that doesn't have the issue

• If you see the two beams, then get up and go complain. You paid good money to see the movie, so make a fuss until they either give you back that money or remove the lens. Seeing as that's an involved and time-consuming process, expect a refund.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Daily poster: The Projected Man/ Island of Terror.

Combo_projected_man_poster_02
The Projected Man/ Island of Terror.

Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.


Projected Man - Classic Sci-Fi Trailers by kmail

 

Are you eating Franken-fruit?

Fruit
Do you know how to tell if your fruit has been genetically modified or not?

Thanks to Rain for sending this info along. The information comes from plantea.com.

The "Price Look Up number" or PLU code has some very interesting information in it. Here's the secret code:

For conventionally grown fruit, (grown with chemicals inputs), the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered (GM) fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 8. For example,

A conventionally grown banana would be: 4011
An organic banana would be: 94011
A genetically engineered (GE or GMO) banana would be: 84011


Since the FDA doesn't require labelling of modified fruit, it's pretty cool that consumers who care about this kind of stuff, can decide for themselves what to put in their pie hole.

(photo by Doug88888)

 

Annual shuriken harvest.

Shurikenharvest

Killing me softly.

Jameslassey3
Big Menace led me to French artist, James Lassey's, latest creations.

Super fun plush leather firearms!

Jameslassey4

Jameslassey2
Jameslassey1

Monday, May 23, 2011

Daily poster: Death Stop Holocaust.

Death_stop_holocaust_poster_05
Death Stop Holocaust.

Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Fantastic poster.

I don't know much about this film. Wrong Side of the Art has a handful of great posters for the film HERE.

IMDB doesn't have much either. It does say that the budget for the film was $13,000, so there's a high chance that it RULES.

HERE is the official website for the film as well. Obviously, I'm not endorsing the film or anything, as I haven't seen it. However, if you know more about it, let me know.

I had to watch the trailer with no sound. It's pretty R-Rated so clear the room before watching. The trailer had me at horse head.

 

Robert Crumb on....

Crumb
If you care what Robert Crumb thinks, his website has posted Crumb's thoughts on various celebrities and well known folks. Read it HERE.

It's a funny read. Much more thoughtful and open than most Crumb interviews.

I couldn't agree more with his take on Bob Dylan:

"It used to irritate me in the mid-sixties when he was worshiped like a god. I thought that was really annoying. I thought his schtick with his whiney voice was really irritating."

 

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Daily poster: Children of the Corn 4

Childrenofthecorn4
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering.

Watched this last night and was surprised how good it was. I'm sure it was straight to video so technically, the image is not a poster, but a video cover.

Naomi Watts is in the film and many of the murder effects are pretty darn good.

IMDB's Trivia section for the film says: "A deleted scene features Jane and Rosa Nock telling Grace (Naomi Watts) and Donald (Brent Jennings) how the children called Josiah by a different name: 'He Who Walks Behind The Rows'."

This would have been rather interesting and cool.

I've got four more films to finish the series. After the horribleness that was part 3, I wasn't sure I could do it, but part 4 has given me a second wind.

 

 

GAME METAL!

This. Is. MEGADRIVER.

Brazil's MegaDriver is "devoted to videogame music, the creators of the “GAME METAL” music style."

 

Invader to slap up Lichtenstein.


Lichtenstein
Pictures on Walls has posted this image of an upcoming future Lichtenstein-ish print by Invader.
The piece is called Rubik Masterpiece Lichtenstein.
No details given. 

(via StreetArtNews.)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Daily poster: The Gorgon.

Gorgon_poster_04
The Gorgon.

"She had a face only a mummy could love."

Great movie. One of my favorite Hammer films. Horrible makeup job on the title character, though.

Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

The trailer is a bit dark and quiet. Please forgive it and see the film. Don't be prejudiced against the dark and quiet trailers of the world.

 

Maker Faire 2011

Maker-faire-2011-poster
If you are anywhere near the Bay Area this weekend, you simply must find your way to the Maker Faire. It could change your life. Seriously. No, I'm serious.
"2011 Maker Faire Bay Area is an amazing showcase of creativity and cool technology that celebrates the DIY mindset. It’s stimulating, inspiring and fun for all ages.
You just have to be there to experience it for yourself."
Here's a good primer pdf brochure for the uninitiated.
Here are some of my pics from past years.
Mf3 Mf Mf1 Mf5 Mf2 Mf7 Mf4 Mf9 Mf10 Mf6 Mf13 Mf8 Mf11 Mf12
Survival Research Labs had a show at the second Maker Faire. I posted some extremely loud videos here.