I’ve always been fond of Billi Kid’s work, but the addition of Michael Douglas just made my day.
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Links For 05/22/09
The Art Of The Title Sequence
Looking in to the creation and concepts of opening sequences in film and television. Incredibly interesting.
Pictures For Sad Children
A hilariously sad webcomic.
File2HD
How I’ve been taking music from myspace profiles. Arrr.
Bitch Magazine: Who You Gonna Call? LADY GHOSTBUSTERS!
Wondering who the new female ghostbusters might be
70+ High-Quality Free Fonts For Designers
Some incredibly beautiful fonts.
Comics!
I just got a little comic called “My Life” by Ashley Bowman in the mail today. Lovely read. I’ve definitely developed a love for indie comics. It’s just an awesome feeling to know that the creator folded the pages and stapled them together themselves. Hell, John Campbell actually bled on a couple of them. That’s dedication.
One of the comics I’m looking forward to checking out it Dose, put out by Bankshot Comics. I’ll be honest. I hadn’t heard about it until today. But it seems like a really awesome project. Issue 2 contains such greats as Michael Netzer and future issues will feature works from Molly Crabapple and Beau Smith. The preview I read (A Matrix spin of Franz Kafka’s The Trial) was pretty damn hilarious with wonderful art and sharp dialogue all around. Check it out.
I’m also looking forward to Side B: A Music Lover’s Comic Anthology whenever I can get my grubby mitts on it. Brain child of great artist and all around wonderful person Rachel Dukes, this comic anthology has quite a wide range of creators in this 200 page book.
Hmm…I can’t believe I didn’t post anything about the Toronto Comic Arts Fesival on here. Well, to put it simply, it was amazing! So many amazing creators there. Bryan Lee O’Malley, Kate Beaton, The Guy Who Made Dinosaur Comics and Chris Hastings! But the absolute thrill was to meet my two heros in comics, Erika Moen and Lucy Knisley. I’ve been following Erika’s journal comics since I first read a piece she did in Flight Volume 1. She’s quite an inspiration to me and one day I hope my drawing style will be able to match hers. Meeting her was amazing. She had actually remembered me from twitter and signed my copy of DAR Volume 1. I also managed to scrounge enough money for a beautiful print from her “Girl Bits” exhibit. It is now in a nice frame and hanging on my wall.
And Lucy Knisley..well…I just love her style. Very french influenced and her stories are very sweet. If you ever get a chance, pick up French Milk, a beautiful comic journal detailing the time she spent in Paris with her mother to celebrate their birthdays. Very sweet.
Alright, I have to get going. Got things to do, people to see, social situations to be a part of…all that.
AWMusic: Currently Listening: Eric Bachmann’s ‘To The Races’
My new article at AWMusic is up.
Well, to most of us Summer is finally here and we’re starting to go outside with more skin showing and we should already be listening to some more upbeat music (unless you’re one of them goths but even then perhaps a song about how glorious blood is, yes?). I’ve been going back in to some things and rediscovering some old favorites and even finding some gems I can’t fucking believe I missed. One of these gems is Eric Bachmann’s solo album (eg Not Crooked Fingers, which is also a solo project of his) To The Races from 2006. That’s right, 2006. I never said I was “with it” damn it.
Crooked Fingers, Bachmann’s solo project after playing with Archers Of Loaf was always pleasant background music to me. one of those bands that I would hear in the Green Room or some other bar playing on the stereo that would intrigue me to the point of asking the waitress “who is that playing?” and would immediately forget what she told me. When I finally DID look them up, I was amazed at the sound that they produced (And if you don’t have it already, go right to whatever the hell internet store or record shop you go to and pick up the album Red Devil Dawn. Brilliant. Fucking. Album). But I never really looked in to it that much and that was that. Then a couple of months ago as I was skimming through my old music collection, I decided to look Eric Bachmann up and see what the hell he’s been doing since 2005. This album was one of them.
To The Races is a wonderful, relaxing album. The acoustic guitar and Bachmann’s voice are the only prominent elements in this album (with some other instruments and a choir occasionally showing up). The songs are honest, beautiful, and provides further evidence that Eric Bachmann is a lighthearted, less wanky and (to me, anyways) more tolerable version of Iron & Wine. Despite being from 2006 the sound is still fresh and takes me to a happy place when I listen to it while walking in the sun. The song Carrboro Woman and Man O’ War in particular just makes me feel like I could be on a carriage or in my room contemplating…anywhere really. It’s just beautiful.
Bachmann has a great voice, amazing writing skills and can play like a champ. I wish I found this album when it came out in 2006, but right now I’m just happy I found it. Get it. Listen to it. Enjoy it.
Now here’s some mp3s for you:
White!
White!, originally uploaded by Wornoldhat.
Summer is here! I took a few photos today while it was nice out. Check out my flickr! More to come later!
Maybe I’m A Fine Artiste
My friend Luka and I went to the brand new AGO designed by Frank Gehry. All in all it was a fun trip and it gave me a better understanding and appreciation for Canadian art either contemporary or classic.
The first thing that you notice is the sheer beauty of the place. A lovely mix of new and old, all wooden and just stunning. The starcase in particular is, weirdly enough, one of the great centerpieces of the building. It goes a long way up and is just beautiful to see at night since the lights are dim and the stairs are lit up.
The exhibits themselves were pretty good. A lot of very beautiful installations. Some amazing pieces of Canadian (Native and otherwise) works just completely moved me. And it was pretty awesome to see some Andy Warhol paintings up close. Well…just the Elvis one at any rate.
Although…the gallery did have it’s pretty crappy parts. Luka and I both weren’t particularly fond of there only being one tiny tiny room dedicated to feminist art, for instance. And there were entire halls dedicated to really really crappy pieces that people have the audacity to call “art”. We both ended up feeling confident in our “artistic abilities” by the end of it. I’m sure if I…i don’t know, take a picture of a peeled orange and pear and write about it in an “artistic” way (The peeled orange and pair represent the openness towards interracial couples and challenging the conservative 
laws of old) and I can get some of my work in the AGO.
And that’s the problem I have with some of the art that’s out there nowadays. Waaaaaaay too much wankery. A single orange strip on canvas or a neon knot with just the right explanation, you can have a masterpiece. Hell, I saw a video piece that was just recordings of old nintendo games in fast forward and that was a fucking centerpiece. This just annoyed me but, as I said earlier, it gave me hope that maybe I could be a fine artiste.
All in all, I had a wonderful time at the AGO and would most definitely go back to check out more of what I missed. I saw many wonderful piece of art and even found myself inspired a couple of times. But there was a LOT of wankery there. Oodles, even.
And with that little moment, I’m going to end this with a song by R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders titled “Fine Artiste Blues”
Uncovering The Real Gangs Of New York
One of my favorite books when I was little was The Gangs Of New York: An Informal History Of The Underworld by Herbert Asbury. It’s a brilliant book detailing the various gangs that were in New York throughout history and the political atmossphere at the time (The chapter on the Draft Riots was pretty spooky for youngster me). So when I heard Martin Scorsese was making a movie loosely based on the book I was thrilled because I knew that there would be television documentaries on the History Channel or Discovery Channel and more people wouldd learn about this awesome piece of history.
So here’s the Discovery Channel’s special on The Gangs Of New York titled Uncovering The Real Gangs Of New York.
