Fuck Buttons: An Endorphin High

Maybe I am a square, but I think this may be the world's only casiotone-based drone-metal band? I'm much enthused.

It's been a while. Here's some Videos.

1. In Which A Robot Plays The Violin and the Japanese Newscasters Voice Soothes


2. In Which The Rock Band Ida Maria Sings Over Gloriously Glitchy Digital Video


3. In Which There Is An Italian Spiderman


Maybe I will update this more often again, but I'm warning you, it is exclusively to impress girls.

Colours

Because European Sony Bravia Advertising Executives are my favorite video artists.

This entire thing is stop-motion claymation; ridiculously, even the enormous rabbit stuff at the end. Awesome!

RSS is DUP

I don't know why all the blog posts got re-posted to LJ feeds and RSS readers, but I promise that the reason isn't because I am a douchebag who wanted the attention.

AB19

Some beautiful illustrative design work from Four Illusion.

Game Hacks: Super Mario Autopilot

Game hacker has designed levels which can be completed without touching the game controller. The result ends up looking a bit like a Rube Goldberg contraption crossed with Pixelated Ballet.

Here's a Rube Goldberg contraption:



To reiterate, Mario isn't being controlled by anyone - he's just being pushed along by game elements - bouncing, getting pushed, etc. It's pretty cool.

Here's another, even more elaborate (check out the shell action!) Mario World hack:

Graff Lesson

Very cool reverse-graffiti process in action. Artist "cleans" scummy surfaces to form patterns, in this case, said artist is drawing douchey skull iconography that we've seen a billion times on a ton of Hot Topic shoes, socks, neckties and armbands.

STOP DRAWING SKULLS.

Art Trash

MAQ - a Japanese design team - has come up with the best idea ever: Manufacturing garbage bags that don't look like trash. The above is a fish design. There are also some red ones with flowers and green trees; these colors co-ordinate with Japan's garbage classification system. The boxes only cost $3.00, so you aren't paying significantly more, but garbage day looks a lot prettier and (because of the color coding) is significantly more convenient.

c/o Pink Tentacle (again)

Hipster Homework

A Historical Hipster Artifact.

It's "Japanese Game Show" Day!

1.


2.


No comment.

America's War on Terror: Quote of the Month

"You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know," [Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga] said. "It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious."
- Yahoo! News

It's "Say Goodbye to Batboy" Day

That eternal soldier of the journalistic vanguard, The Weekly World News, has broken stories of Aliens in the White House and Jesus' prophecies of the Next Great Depression of 1994. It broke pictures of Big Foot at McDonalds and Bat Boy on the loose. Now, it's just broke.

The last issue of the newspaper is on sale today. RIP.

It's "Too Many Blog Posts" Day!

826 People Take Part in MP3 Player Flash Mob, Results Awesome

Lego Lazer War

By way of apologizing for the Hipster video, here's how to build a portable laser light show out of legos and a laser pointer! Simple!

My Weird Preoccupation with Hipster Culture Continues

Skip past the whole walking around to Lou Reed music part to enjoy the '06 Hipster Standoff. This one care of Inspire to be More.

I should also advocate that we all feel terrible about ourselves for enjoying this kind of thing. What makes me love/hate hipsters so much? It's bordering on a spiritual dilemma.

Software Publishers Association Ain't Nothing To Fuck With

When I think "entertainment," I think, "Early 90's industrially-produced Hip Hop Music Videos recorded and filmed to spread the word about behaviors which lead to the loss of corporate profits."

This video starts out slow, but if you still have a soul after watching the "Toothbeef" video from a few days ago, you will be unable to look away from this gem after the 1:30 mark. Until maybe the part where a bunch of programmers - er, "The Posse" - talk to you about how great teamwork is, and how they're all going to stop making their stupid games for you damn kids if you don't shell out your summer job money to buy extra copies of every program you own every time you get a new computer, because that's totally the law and not a lie, at all.

But then "DP" the rapper comes back, with those eyes filled with self-hatred! Self-hatred that we can only assume is about some illegal 3.5" floppy disk he's got stashed away in his closet, and not at the brutal manner with which the Software Publishers Association has slaughtered hip-hop. After that, you're hooked again.

"If the shoe fits," indeed!

South Park Zen

Alan Watts is a Zen philosopher, most notable for serving as an intermediary between Buddhists like DT Suzuki and Western culture. Something of a patron saint of psychedelic drug users, Watts was more or less a product of the 60's fascination with LSD, but not an advocate on par with Timothy Leary by any means.

"Once you've got the message," Watts said of psychedelics, "hang up the phone."

These videos were produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (you could probably tell) which makes me respect those guys even more. There's another good one here.

Oh and here's a quote, all obligatory-blog-post styled:

"Zen ... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."

Music Video: Hearts Revolution, "C.Y.O.A"

HEARTSREVOLUTION - C.Y.O.A
Uploaded by handz-tv

I've been in love with the electro-fuzz racket of Hearts Revolution for a while now, but since they finally made a video I can post it. The video may not look expensive, but my guess is they probably spent millions building a time machine so they could film it in New York circa 1981.

Go download the mp3 over at Pitchfork, or something.

Japan is Awesome

c/o Pink Tentacle

MP3: Numbers, "Mind Hole."

MP3: Numbers - "Mind Hole"

The video is kind of pretty, but the mp3 is worth hiding away for safe-keeping. I'm reminded a bit of Broadcast or early-90's Stereolab; but mostly I am reminded of hopping in slow motion on a trampoline with a cute girl with barrettes who might get my early-90's Stereolab references.

The album, "Now You Are This," comes out on Kill Rock Stars on August 21. That's this Tuesday!

This Is What Made Your Mom Afraid of the Internet

I was watching this at work in the library when someone approached me during the last few minutes, with the blood. I was sure that it was just too frightening for them to even object to.

Thank you, Jimmy Joe Roche!

Subscription-Art Projects I Can't Afford

I just stumbled across T-post, a Swedish Magazine that is published on the inside of T-shirts, with the "cover" being the front of the shirt.

This reminded me of the subscription-art service provided over at The Thing, in which common household objects are emblazoned by text and mailed to you, to be used in your daily life. The first issue is by Miranda July, and the whole thing costs $120 for four issues per year.

News: The Lego Invasion Will Begin By Sea

This is a picture from a Dutch beach, where an 8-foot tall Lego Man was fished out of the water today. Reuters has the story here with more amazing pictures. His shirt says, mysteriously, "No Real Than You Are."

Disco Dancing

Some of you may have heard the new M.I.A. track "Jimmy," which features a sample of the above song from the beloved early-80's Bollywood Hit, "Disco Dancer," essentially "Saturday Night Fever" set in India with no kissing and five years too late.

I have a somewhat sizeable collection of Bollywood music, because that's what record store hipsters do, and a personal favorite comes from the same film: It's an almost note-for-note rip-off of the Buggle's early-80's classic, "Video Killed The Radio Star."

You've Been Poked by Jenny Holzer

You know the fastest growing social networking site, Twitter, which allows you the devastatingly useless option of sending out one-sentence "status updates" on your life from your cell phone?

Well, it just got kind of useful! Jenny Holzer, one of my favorite artists, is now using it as a slogan-delivery system.

Video: TV on the Radio, "Me-I"

This video finally explores the terrifying yet alluring appeal of pigeons.

You catch catch a better quality version of the video over here (it's worth it if you're on a fast connection).

+ I promise that I will post more than music videos when I return from Prague, everyone.

Video: Thou Shalt Always Kill

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's song (and video) for 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' is essentially the definitive handbook for people who are hipsters without being assholes. It's highly recommended.

"When I say hey, thou shalt not say ho."

Jumping

Don't ask me why I have time to find music videos while I'm in Prague. There's something about this one that, if you can get over the creepiness of watching a bunch of Swedish girls jump-roping, becomes kind of awesome.

The only way I can dance is to jump up and down a lot, so maybe I relate to it on a personal level?

God Bless America!

I'm off to the Czech Republic tomorrow, so I'm leaving this video to help everyone remember that, as wacky and ridiculous as Eastern European politics can be, our country is just as fucking weird.

Video: Peter Greenaway, "Windows"

This Peter Greenaway short turns the traditions of documentary film making into an Edward Gorey-esque math problem about defenestration.

The Harry Potter of the Street Art Vanguard Has Taken Me Down A Notch

Uh oh!
The Situationists and the Graffiti kids are at war in New York City!

I'm excited and I am totally siding with the Situationists on this one - in theory. But not the part where they are literally throwing explosives into galleries where graff artists are getting shows.

The NY Times reporter seems a bit offended and accuse the new Situationists of looking like Harry Potter and being unfocused, arguing that there is nothing wrong with artists making money. That's fine, but he then acts like Guy Debord shares his opinion. Guy Debord does not share that opinion, Guy Debord slept on couches until he was like 103. Still, I enjoyed this paragraph, if only because Situationists never really make it to the NY Times these days:

"Guy Debord, the Situationist writer and spokesman who, before he died in 1994, couldn’t resist responding to anybody who barely mentioned him, would no doubt be exercised by this latest invocation of his legacy. A Situationist in Paris did once dress up as a Dominican priest and read an anti-theist tract to a baffled congregation at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. In Copenhagen, in the ’60s, members of a group calling itself the Movement for a Scandinavian Bauhaus Situationniste were suspected by the police of being responsible for the decapitation of "The Little Mermaid," the city’s famous symbol, and absconding with the head. Still, Situationist pranks were pointedly political. Across nearly half a century of random art world mischief, they seem almost scientific in their focus, by comparison with young people who toss stink bombs at gallery openings or splash paint on street art."

Maybe the intention is nice, but I suppose stink bombs aren't exactly revolutionary, either. There is a situationist trick - adopted by hipsters in regard to music and 14-year olds in regard to everything - where you find something your friends think is cool, then declare it co-opted by the bourgeois. Well, maybe that's not the words they're using, but you know what I mean.

I discovered that I can never fully embrace the rejection of bourgeois art simply because I like pretty things too much.

(Image: Cover, The Situationist Times #6, Bramsen et Georges Clot, Paris 1967)

Music: Vampire Weekend, "Oxford Comma"

This song by Vampire Weekend has been lodged in my head all week thanks to numerous other music blogs, so I'm passing it on, with commentary on the subject matter that most will find ingratiating:

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford Comma? I do, for one. Given that I was bitten by the copy-editing bug a year or so ago, it is mildly concerning. Given that I worked with people who are much more passionate about that job than I was, it was the source of contention and some passionate discourse.

For those who are not grammar enthusiasts, an Oxford Comma is the comma that comes before "and" in a list.

Example, with:
I told him to buy a bag of lemons, limes, and cherries.
Example, without:
I told him to buy a bag of lemons, limes and cherries.

It's controversial because it is grammatically correct either way, but various publishers have unique standards for it. Otherwise, it's a matter of taste. I tend to avoid it. Where do YOU fall, grammatically engaged reader?

"Scout" by Josh Keyes

Josh Keyes has a number of paintings up at his Web site, primarily a collection of whimsical-yet-macabre scenes of animals on small plots of land, floating in an isolated space. It evokes feelings of a peacefully-exploded Earth, while also serving up an all-too-apt metaphor for human sprawl and the dwindling spaces for nature. That said, it also looks a lot like Katamari Damacy.

There's a number of recurring themes in his work: the floating concrete, the signposts, animals growing extra heads, or prey animals that are missing cleanly excised areas of their bodies. When Keyes shifts to the dwellings of humankind, they become planes of inter-folded lawns, literally confronting us with the illusion of infinite space.

Not to say all of his work is Adbusters-level dreary, there's an element of satire that makes the pieces clever (in a good way) in getting at the message involved.

Deconstructing Lichtenstein

The Web site Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein is a fascinating, side-by-side compendium of Lichtenstein's images and the source materials they derived from - which must have taken countless hours of researching 60s-era comic books.

Girl and Bear

A poster-glue-and-wall collaboration between marketing genius Obey and graff writer Gaia that caught my attention.

It's "Dressed In Bags" Monday!

This dress was made out of recycled plastic shopping bags. It was ironed together to form "seams" and you can see pictures of it being worn here.

The Treehugger blog has some other great links to this and other plastic-bag fabric projects, including a link to Etsy's helpful plastic-bag revamping tutorial.

Super Amigos!

Super Amigos is a Mexican-based documentary (really!) about five activists who have adopted super-hero identities to fight problems in their communities. Taking on the characteristics of the Luche Libre tradition of Mexican wrestling, they don capes, masks, and costumes while fighting injustice. There are five wrestlers, including:

- Ecologista Universal, who fights pollution.
- Super Barrio, essentially "Super Union Worker."
- Super Gay, who battles homophobia in Mexico City.
- Super Animal, who battles matadors on behalf of animal rights.
- Fray Tormenta, a priest who fights poverty on behalf of children.

From the distributor:

"With a mixture of live action, comic book-style animation and a surf guitar soundtrack inspired equally by mariachi music and Batman, Super Amigos shows that with a little imagination, a good heart and the right mask, anyone can activate their communities to triumph over evil."

Finally, a trailer:

Drawing with HTML Tables

Go ahead and keep the volume turned down for this one. It's a fast-motion video of a "Japanese guy" (that's all the info I have) who has figured out how to draw images using table elements within HTML. It's a bit like ascii art, only he's doing it in real time and using free-hand techniques. Pretty impressive!