- I’m giving an album AllMusic gave a fairly glowing review of recently. The album is called “Cover Art”; the debut from a new Jazz-based group of musicians called The NEXT Collective. What’s interesting — considering the amount of talent and experience that comes with the group — is that this is an album of covers. But it really does not feel that way, considering it is instrumental music: jams that go on without much structure beyond, “alright, just keep in the key Drake initially had…” It’s an interesting way to do a debut, and it’ll test your opinion on how artistic covers can or cannot be. If you didn’t know it, you’d think this is a collection of 10 original and very organic songs, recorded with very few takes. This is the cover:
- That blog I spoke of last week is now up and running (though the visuals may still change). The first piece is mine. Which means you’ll know my real name. Oooohhhh… I’m definitely trying to flex some creative muscles I haven’t used in some time; I’m sure it could be better. But it was a blast to get back into more creative writing. There’s definitely a thesis, I hope it’s as clear to everyone else as it is to me. Hopefully this will turn into a good little music blog for people to RSS and follow on Tumblr, cause it’s a great mixture of people writing for it.
“A pair of psychology professors have discovered that a hockey player’s month of birth influences how scouts and coaches judge his talent, and this subconscious selection bias often puts the wrong players on the roster. The study, published online in the journal PLOS ONE, found NHL teams have long underestimated the talent and potential of players born in the second half of the year and tend to overlook them in favor of relatively older players. That is exactly the opposite of what they ought to do, said James Deaner of Grand Valley State University. For any given spot in the draft, players born in the first three months of the year are more likely to be successful than those born in the second half of the same year. “If teams really wanted to win, they should have drafted more of the relatively younger players,” Deaner said.”
“But with The Dark Knight Returns being given the full conversion treatment, this criticism of the film can no longer be the result of compression failure. The problems of the film do not come from lack of loyalty to the source. Far from it – this movie shows us, once more, that overzealous reliance on the original work is not necessarily a boon. A lot of what made The Dark Knight Returns such a good comics was, well, comics-related stuff. The movie tries to re-use some of these elements which remain inert in a medium not suited for them – there are long parts in the novel in which Batman’s actions are interjected with a point/counterpoint-style TV show, Miller and Johnson’s art scatter these discussions (along with dozens of other occurrences) all over the page, they become a representation of fragmented culture (as opposed to the more unified and direct media age that gave birth to Batman and his ilk) and watching them, we realize that Batman no longer operates in a world he was not meant to inhabit (and why the story must end the way it does).”
This is what a lot of people fail to comprehend: there are certain storytelling tropes that are completely unique to sequential art. These tropes may very well explain why (some) comics have turned out to be about the things they’re about; these tropes lend themselves very well to certain high-concepts, visual action, and narrative succession. No matter how faithfully you adapt a comic to a film, or television show, or web series… it still will never be the same thing as reading the comic. Because sequential art — though it’s been around since the Dawn of Man — is one of the most unique storytelling mediums we have, for many reasons I won’t get into here.
- Artists Ryan Ottley and James Harren have a Tumblr where they release non-comic pieces of art they’ve been conjuring up. There seems to be themes, too. Like the other week they called ‘Shadow Week’. The site is called “THEBOG“. James just posted this, as winter is not over yet:
- More comic stores are refusing to sellOrson Scott Card’s new Superman book on account of his straight-forward, clear stance on gay rights and indeed lesbians, gays, and bisexuals as people too. I love that Mark Millar came out and said something to the tune of, “that’s the thing about free speech, it isn’t always something you’re going to agree with. But that doesn’t mean you ban someone, you threaten their livelihood.” Actually Mark, that’s the thing about Free Speech, you can sell or not sell whatever products you choose as dependent upon however you feel about said products, production methods, or producers themselves. And while we’re at it, work on your dialogue please.
- Very interesting perspective here. Former ‘sex worker’, now journalist on what feminists get wrong when it comes to prostitution (from Guernica): WAGING WAR ON SEX WORKERS.
“I’ve been free in my writing to have that opinion. I’ve never been constrained by journalism in a formal way in which I have to hear both sides. I don’t even know who “both sides” would be on this issue. No, I’m not going to have a debate with you about how you feel about sex work. It has no impact on what happens tonight with the police in the streets. Our feelings alone don’t change what happens with the police, what happens in jail, what happens when someone tries to go to the welfare office, the unemployment office, or any kind of state agency where a criminal record comes up for prostitution. How we feel about the commodification of sexuality and violence doesn’t actually translate to those people’s lives. A lot of the debate is really academic and a waste of time.”
- The latest Watch Dogs video looks unbelievable. Too bad this is a PS4 game, cause I’ll probably wait to buy one of those ’til they go down in price. I still haven’t finished even 50% of Skyrim, and have Dishonored to get into. A new Playstation will guarantee one thing though, super outrageously cheap games on eBay and Craig’s List for the last system. Anyways, here’s that video:
- That Sioux Falls group Phantom Balance — I discussed them a couple posts ago — is releasing a new album called “Loser” tomorrow I believe. I’ll stream it here either tomorrow or later in the week.
- New How To Destory Angels (Trent Reznor’s latest band; his wife is the singer, and Atticus Ross co-producers/performs) is streaming. The new album is called “Welcome Oblivion” and will be released March 5th. 13 tracks at 65 minutes. On Columbia Records. Wikipedia’s labeling it as “post-industrial” and “electronica”.
- To get personal shit out of the way (even though I know very few people who may be reading this care; and those who are probably have been linked here by google searching “george tooker”): That job I interviewed for last week? I got it! I’m getting closer and closer to a final product with this album I’m working on. It should be pretty neat. My wife is pregnant, so soon I’ll be able to share all this art and music and information with a mini-me. Also, my life will obviously get insane… so, I may have to shut this thing down. Okay, enough of that.
- Some of my buds from across the pond, specifically Daniel the curator, will be starting a music blog very soon that I’ll occasionally be writing on. I’ll definitely be linking to it once it’s up and running, I think he’s shooting for a Tumblr-based site.
- New Game of Thrones trailer:
- Jonathan Hickman has been teasing a new creator owned project that comes out sometime in March with Image Comics. This is the latest teaser:
- I saw Beasts of Southern Wild last night and I really, really enjoyed it. Surreal, haunting, powerful, peaceful, humanistic, with a very something-bigger-than-you vibe to boot. The occasional glimpse at the extinct ancient beast “Aurochs“, who have risen from their frozen states, melted out of the ice caps, is perhaps the best visual metaphor in film this year. The acting is top-notch with the occasional good. The directing and cinematography are beautiful, from the fireworks celebration early on to the parting shot of the characters strolling carelessly as the power of the rising ocean bears down on them. There needs to be more movies like this.
- I don’t why — considering I’m a Minnesotan — I just recently heard of the Sioux Falls group Phantom Balance. Good Lord, they’ll tear your face off. This is the kind of thing that can only be conjured up in the midst of frozen lakes, crops, and wind chills of negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit:
- Quick Warren Ellis brain dump on the current state of social media, and where it might be heading in the immediate future. The recent Instagram ordeal (probably a mostly imagined ordeal) and the applied changes to Facebook seem to be the first steps in a new paradigm for social networking. One that Uncle Warren describes as the entire network “calcifying into Big Media”. Which is kind of a problem and counter-intuitive. It feels good to read that the interest in blogs continues to grow, even if the active number continues to decline. Blogging is the constant, it has always been there and always will. Even after the major news media outlets (print, online, and everything in between) declared it dead more than a couple years ago. Less blogs, more blog interest, good for me. Even if I suck at it.
- I’m hearing really bad things about The Hobbit. Often times I get more of an idea of whether I’ll like or not like a movie based on its BAD reviews. Rotten, if we’re talking RT lingo. The Rotten reviews of The Hobbit could be easily summed up as: “long, overstuffed, and tedious”. Which really makes sense when you think about the fact that it’s a relatively short children’s/young adult novel stretched into a 3 motion picture trilogy, the first of which clocks in at nearly 3 hours. And everyone that enjoyed it keeps saying “it isn’t fair to expect another Lord of the Rings”, while a bunch of critics who think it’s terrible keep saying “it seems Jackson is less interested in telling the story of The Hobbit and more interested in making another Lord of the Rings”.
- Speaking of Smaug the Dragon, I’M ADDICTED TO SKYRIM. Alduin’s way cooler anyways. World eater.
- When it comes to movies, Ethan Anderton of SlashFilm posted his 5 biggest disappointments of the year. I can’t say I agree or disagree because I have not seen literally any of those movies.
- Really insightful post from my guy PEESHE (over in Australia) about using the MPC for live shows. Specifically the MPC2000XL. Number 5 is something I always try to remind myself of. This is where he blogs now, mostly. What an excellent collective site. Dang. Beautiful design.
- And speaking of collectives, the new Minneapolis/St. Paul collective F.I.X. (“F to the I to the X”) is giving away three free albums in one nifty package until their debut collective show Friday the 17th: No Bird Sing’s “Theft of Commons”, Kill The Vultures’ “Ecce Beast”, and Kristoff Krane’s “Hunting For Father”. The last I’ve spoke of on here before. Probably multiple times. It’s an awesome album. The other two are as well. And hey, the shit is FREE. Here’s the Bandcamp stream:
- Hey, independent comics retailers/press… wanna know a good way to not sell your shit? By ripping on any of Warren Ellis’ friends in the public net-square. This includes blogs, Facebook, in this case Twitter. His wrath will be swift and severe. And I’m betting his site gets more views than yours. Not to mention that is just being an asshole. Saying that shit on Twitter.
The social, cultural, and political turbulence chronicled by such off-radar newspapers as Rat Subterranean News, Screw, San Francisco Oracle, East Village Other, Black Mask, and Los Angeles Free Press, to name only a few, is commonly overlooked in mainstream histories. As a result, what often remains is the same scattershot of familiar imagery from the late 1960s/early 1970s that’s lingered in the nation’s collective memory: hippies dancing with flowers in their hair at the Monterey Pop Festival during the Summer of Love; Timothy Leary at the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in 1967, urging the Haight-Ashbury crowds to “Turn on, tune in, drop out”; U.S. military tanks on city streets during the race riots in Detroit and Newark; the rise of the Hell’s Angels as the new American outlaws; and the Kent State University shootings and Mary Ann Vecchio’s haunting scream.
- Francsesco Francavilla has been doing minimalist Breaking Bad posters for each episode throughout July. I’m hoping he’ll eventually do the entire series. Here’s an example:
- Economist Dambiso Moyo explains how to close the resources gap with China, and how they’re quietly and very successfully buying up land all over the world to extract exotic minerals and other natural resources:
“Even if all nations were to engage in multilateral discussions about resources, the world would still face the core problem–too little supply for too much demand. Aggressive government meddling in commodity markets (such as banning commodity speculators) has, on balance, tended to do more harm than good. Policies aiming to curb demand, such as higher taxes on consumption, are possible but remain politically unpalatable in a world dedicated to possessing ever-more material goods and a higher standard of living. A few supply-side policies show more promise. These include eliminating inefficient food subsidies and discouraging food waste, encouraging the recycling of metals, and investing in research and development for alternatives or solutions to resource scarcity.”
- There’s a really cool internet show going on right now featuring original X-Men art at Planet-Pulp. A lot of them are pretty typical. Logan looking tough, and Shadowcat going through solids. But I like this one by Otis Frampton (an excellent new take on Xavier’s very first class):
It’s hard to get inside the existential paradox of Kroeger’s life on tour: Every day, he gives interviews to journalists and radio DJs who directly ask him why no one likes his band. Every night, he plays music to thousands of enraptured superfans, many of whom love him with a ferocity that’s probably unhealthy. Every concert ends with a standing ovation; if he feels motivated, he spends the remainder of the night partying with forgettable strangers who will remember him for the rest of their lives. Eventually, Kroeger falls asleep. And then he wakes up in a beautiful hotel room, only to read new articles about how everyone in North America hates his band.
There is not one part of his life that’s real.
- A friend of mine blogs over at Film Misery. Today he shared his thoughts on the new Sight And Sound poll of the greatest films of all-time. They only come out with the list of the 10 best films ever every 10 years, so it’s neat to see how it changes — or doesn’t change — from decade to decade. I can’t believe how much the list changes from Directors to Critics. Or maybe I can, I suppose. HA
- I’m sure you know, but Gore Vidal is dead. BBC has some of his best quotes of his life up today. Some are priceless. He was a bit full of himself, like a shitload of writers, but at least he had the brains to back himself up.
“In America, if you want a successful career in politics, there is one subject you must never mention, and that is politics. If you talk about standing tall, and it’s morning in America, and you press the good-news buttons, you’re fine. If you talk about budgets, tax reform, bigotry, and so on, you are in trouble. So if we aren’t going to talk issues, what can we talk about? Well, the sex lives of the candidates, because that is about the most meaningless thing that you can talk about.”
“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.”
“There is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person. There are only homo or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices.”
- ARTIST OF THE DAY: Roxie Vizcarra. That will take you to her official site, she also has a blog (though she hasn’t updated since April; probably because she’s incredibly busy for being a BOSS artist). Roxie’s art is mildly surrealistic, but her figures always seem to be anatomically spot-on. Just check out some of her NSFW pieces. Her use of color is great, it hearkens back to pop art a little, though her designs and compositions are much more sophisticated than that would lead on. One word I would use for her stuff is energy. All her art has this wicked sense of energy flowing through it. Here’s one from her site called “Adulthood”:
- New poster for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master”:
- The story about the comments sections getting closed on Rotten Tomatoes “Dark Knight Rises” page has more to it than it seems. Initially I had read that ardent fans of Nolan’s Bat-films had been so disgustingly brutal — some going so far as to offer death threats — to ANYONE who didn’t like the film, that the Admins shut down commenting. That is true. But there was/is a twist: film critic Eric Snider (who’s had his share of controversy before), put up a review saying this…
“The Dark Knight Rises is easily the most disappointing Batman film so far – and I’m including Schumacher’s Batman & Robin in that statement.”
Not a big deal, right? Snider, with the power he had been granted by RT, uploaded this mini-review and when clicked, it would bring viewers directly to his site. To up his traffic count. Also — what’s worse — he hadn’t even seen the film yet when he posted that. He was trolling. For hits on his site. Ugh.
Why does everyone get so fucking weird about these movies? I don’t get it. I wrote extensively about the hubub surrounding The Dark Knight upon release back in July of 2008, I may have to do that again soonish. There are lots of cultural ticks at play with things like this. If you’re a fan, why the hell do you care if people don’t like the movie? I would love it if everyone didn’t like this movie… the theaters would be way less crowded. And annoying.
- To cope with the genocide and war and terror of the Congo, some citizens are turning to art. Specifically, making socially conscious hip-hop music. It makes sense, it requires the least money to manufacture. It has always been a voice and/or outlet for the oppressed.
“Rap music provided escape and inspiration. The young men listened to it on the local radio and when the Institute’s internet connection was working, they watched videos on YouTube of American and French rap groups. Many of the youth she met were in rap groups themselves. They had organized a concert with cash prizes for winners, around $100; a large sum in a country where the average monthly salary for a teacher is around $50. The two-day event took place at the Kaoze Community Center in the village of Rutshuru, Nord Kivu.
The shows, which took place during the day due to security concerns, were full of the euphoria of youth anywhere. Using pre-recorded tracks, they sang and danced until sunset, when the Community Center was cleared.”
- New Com Truise is streaming at Stereogum. Beautiful, ambient, dancey stuff. The album came out yesterday, it is called “In Decay”.
- Exhibit A of why Image Comics can compete with the “big 2″ year-in/year-out: people who don’t normally read comics don’t give a shit about the big new “event” crossover comic, but they are interested in things like Saga and Fatale. Things that are familiar in a way, and relatable, yet wholly foreign and bizarre at the same time.
“Part of what we do is make good comics, and we want to be the best version of Image Comics. But part of what we do is create a sustainable market. It has to be a part of what we do. Things like Saga and Walking Dead and Fatale, these are things that people want to return to. People can recommend these things to their friends, even people that don’t read comics. As opposed to tailchasing events, these yearly spike makers, but who’s going to be talking about AvX ten years from now.”
- NewFlying Lotushas been announced. The album is called “Until The Quiet Comes” and will be out via Warp Records October 2nd. Damn, this is a good year for me in terms of music releases. This is the cover:
Track listing:
1. All In
2. Getting There feat. Niki Randa
3. Until the Colours Come
4. Heave(n)
5. Tiny Tortures
6. All the Secrets
7. Sultan’s Request
8. Putty Boy Strut
9. See Thru to U feat. Erykah Badu
10. Until the Quiet Comes
11. DMT Song feat. Thundercat
12. The Nightcaller
13. Only if You Wanna
14. Electric Candyman feat. Thom Yorke
15. Hunger feat. Niki Randa
16. Phantasm feat. Laura Darlington
17. me Yesterday//Corded
18. Dream to Me
- After Daniel Tosh’s recent remarks to a female heckler, the internet has become ablaze with all kinds of knee-jerk reactions to him. From defending him at all costs to wanting to crucify him and get his show cancelled. MN poet/rapper Guante wrote a piece on his blog about the whole thing that makes a lot of sense. This point needs to be understood especially:
“1. We’re not picking sides between “pro-censorship” and “anti-censorship.” We’re picking sides between “pro-rape jokes” and “anti-rape jokes.”
This is not a free speech issue. As a comic (or poet, or rapper, or singer or whatever), you have the right to say whatever the hell you want to say on stage. But your audience has that same right. If you say something hurtful or offensive, they can heckle you, call you out, start internet campaigns to ban you from clubs, whatever. And you have to deal with that.
No one is trying to make it illegal for a comic to say offensive shit; we’re just trying to hold you accountable. That’s a huge difference, and people hiding behind the “free speech” argument are really missing the point. I want you to take chances on stage, to challenge people, even to deal with hecklers harshly—but there are a million ways to do that without joking about something that is extremely hurtful to so many people. Less offensive ways, sure, but funnier ways too.”
- One of the best things to come out of Comicon thus far this year is news that the second Captain America movie will be titled, Captain America: The WinterSoldier. I didn’t really like the first one, but I love the character of Winter Soldier. I’m sure it still won’t be my favorite movie in the world… but the other awesome part of this is that the character was created by a favorite comics writer of mine, Ed Brubaker. Ed is one of those guys who’s been writing excellent stuff for a really long time. Actually, he rarely writes anything that sucks. So he deserves whatever kind of paycheck he’ll be getting in the mail from Disney and Marvel. I just hope they have him consult on the movie a little. Oh and Brubaker recently started a title simply called “Winter Soldier” and it’s cool: post-Cold War intrigue thriller shit. Great artwork, great writing.
- Bleeding Cool actually talks about the best movies of all time? Wow… I figured all comic book websites do is speculate about the shit (umm… Captain America?). Kudos to Craig Skinner. This post from him discusses the quarter four releases for “Masters Of Cinema”, who put out old/classic films in modern formats. Their list of releases is impressive. Their quarter four sees the releases of Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, and Fritz Lang’s longest film Die Nibelungen (among others).
- Blueprint wrote a very humble and appreciative piece on his blog recently about his time being a full-time musician. Ten years ago last week he handed in his resignation as a software programmer to become a musician. It’s kind of impossible not to love that dude:
“I’m very appreciative of the fact that I’ve been doing this as a full-time job for ten years now. Shit, I’ve now held this job twice as long as any other job I’ve ever had. The irony is that unlike most jobs where people grow more jaded and bored as the years go by, I’ve found that my attitude has followed the opposite path where I become more appreciative and excited as the years pass. I don’t know if it’s a result of the extended amount of time I took to make Adventures in Counter-Culture, or a side effect of becoming more mature and realistic about what having a career as an artists really means, but either way I probably wouldn’t be writing this if my perspective were any less positive. For that I’m thankful.
That said, I feel extremely blessed that the people and the universe have blessed me with an opportunity to pursue music full-time for ten years now. It seems like the most common gift to give is one that satisfies someone for a day, but the rarest gift is one that satisfies someone for a lifetime. So I decided to ask the universe for the gift of artistic longevity and will try my best to spend every day cultivating that opportunity and gift.
For all of my people out there that are pursuing their passion, try to build something that brings you a lifetime of joy. Understand that in a world full of people who may have not been given the opportunity to pursue the things they love – you are an exception, and should therefore cherish that opportunity for as long (or as short) as it may last. Be inspired by all the things you don’t know about your craft, and celebrate the fact that get to try to learn them everyday.”
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Glass Half Empty.
In Sonny's Journal on July 19, 2012 at 8:01 am- ARTIST OF THE DAY: Roxie Vizcarra. That will take you to her official site, she also has a blog (though she hasn’t updated since April; probably because she’s incredibly busy for being a BOSS artist). Roxie’s art is mildly surrealistic, but her figures always seem to be anatomically spot-on. Just check out some of her NSFW pieces. Her use of color is great, it hearkens back to pop art a little, though her designs and compositions are much more sophisticated than that would lead on. One word I would use for her stuff is energy. All her art has this wicked sense of energy flowing through it. Here’s one from her site called “Adulthood”:
- New poster for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master”:
- The story about the comments sections getting closed on Rotten Tomatoes “Dark Knight Rises” page has more to it than it seems. Initially I had read that ardent fans of Nolan’s Bat-films had been so disgustingly brutal — some going so far as to offer death threats — to ANYONE who didn’t like the film, that the Admins shut down commenting. That is true. But there was/is a twist: film critic Eric Snider (who’s had his share of controversy before), put up a review saying this…
Not a big deal, right? Snider, with the power he had been granted by RT, uploaded this mini-review and when clicked, it would bring viewers directly to his site. To up his traffic count. Also — what’s worse — he hadn’t even seen the film yet when he posted that. He was trolling. For hits on his site. Ugh.
Why does everyone get so fucking weird about these movies? I don’t get it. I wrote extensively about the hubub surrounding The Dark Knight upon release back in July of 2008, I may have to do that again soonish. There are lots of cultural ticks at play with things like this. If you’re a fan, why the hell do you care if people don’t like the movie? I would love it if everyone didn’t like this movie… the theaters would be way less crowded. And annoying.
- To cope with the genocide and war and terror of the Congo, some citizens are turning to art. Specifically, making socially conscious hip-hop music. It makes sense, it requires the least money to manufacture. It has always been a voice and/or outlet for the oppressed.
-Sonny