28 Jul 2010

LEE

Happy 50th to LEE Quinones.


I once met Lee when I sold him some pens and paint when he was in London for a show. We're not best mates or anything, I'm just saying...

Click here for the Juxtapoz article.

26 Jul 2010

I've said it before and I'll say it again -

fuck China.



On this July morning, 75 tonnes of sharks are being processed in the city of Kesennuma in north-eastern Japan. The animals feed a brisk domestic market in shark fins for soup, though some of the meat also ends up in Chinese bowls. Last year, Japanese fishing boats hauled in 35,000 tonnes of shark; 90 per cent of it came through this port, which operates six days a week.

The image was caught by photographer Alex Hofford, based in Hong Kong, who over two days witnessed 119 tonnes of blue shark arrive as well as salmon shark, shortfin mako shark, and endangered bluefin tuna pass through these docks.

23 Jul 2010

fonk.

‘Confinement in this case, stretches as far as the eye can see.’

Kicking against the war. Looking for a sign of life, somewhere and anywhere and everywhere. Life that remains hidden in the spaces between TV shows. Warming milk on the stove until the bubbles explode and stick. Blistering heat and freezing cold. Pain and pleasure making birds fly and angels fall to earth. Any sign at all. Kicking out of a paper bag like a newborn with a grudge on creation, its ears open and eyes closed. A rolled cigarette sitting alone in the drawer waiting to die. A headache removed a hundred times from the everyday. The skirmish breaking out behind your eyes pacified only by solitude. A night in December that gathers others around a cauldron to cast spells on you, and you alone. Freedom, ecstasy, kicking, burning. Looking for a sign of life, somewhere and anywhere and everywhere. Signs hidden in those tiny black spaces between the stars.


circa 2009

15 Jul 2010

Quote of the Day

'Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.'
Francis Bacon

13 Jul 2010

Movies...

A couple of quick reviews I forgot to post at the time of watching...

The Lovely Bones is a pretty good book. I generally don’t read fiction but wanted something easy to read and picked it off the shelf, finding it nicely written and quite different from most of the other popular novels on offer at the time. The book is pretty graphic but also balanced out with some ethereal aspects and that is one of the main reasons it works in my opinion.
The film removes all the specifics of the darkness that the book so intimately describes – and for that reason above all else, it falls down at the first hurdle. The beauty and colour and otherworldly elements are all present, Peter Jackson being a master of communicating those things – but making it a more ‘PG’ screenplay kind of shifted the balance away from the poetic aspects of the original story, and for someone who has no idea of the source material it may come over as a little overly romantic or even cheesy.
That said, it’s still well made and the main plot changes work well on screen, even if they did leave a little too much subplot on the cutting room floor.
And while we’re talking about books...

The book of Eli – What a waste of a great idea. I hate to say that about a film starring Denzel and Gary Oldman – but I think the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society / From Hell) let a potentially great idea escape them with this one. I won’t spoil it by elaborating on this – you find out the basis of the story about halfway through – but after it was over I couldn’t help but think about how much deeper they could’ve gone with the initial premise. It’s a nice looking, well made action film with a small twist and good performances – but had they rewritten the original script and maybe extended it out for another 30 minutes – they could’ve had a classic cult movie on their hands rather than something most people won’t really remember in 5 years time.

12 Jul 2010

Vert


I remember seeing this pic when it came out - a reminder if people needed it that Tony Hawk is gnar.

8 Jul 2010

Amongst the waves

Pearl Jam Oceans from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.



New PJ video - and website.

History of the NBA



If you don’t have cable nowadays you don’t get to see any NBA games – or if they're on TV they’re pretty old and shown around 2 in the morning.

The NBA website has a great archive of history of the game, players and lots more to read through instead of working like you should be.
For people like me who were big fans but have essentially missed a 8-9 year chunk of games and goings-on within the NBA – it’s a great resource.

6 Jul 2010

'Quote' of the day

We the [American] working population
Hate the fact that eight hours a day
Is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn't us
And we may not hate our jobs,
But we hate jobs in general
That don't have to do with fighting our own causes.
We the [American] working population
Hate the nine-to-five day-in/day-out
When we'd rather be supporting ourselves
By being paid to perfect the pasttimes
That we have harbored based solely on the fact
That it makes us smile if it sounds dope.

Aes Rizzle.
9-5er's Anthem

1 Jul 2010

Of no consequence.

Her name was Joan and she was ITALIAN.
Only she wasn’t that Italian.
I mean – her name was Joan…

Joan was married to Colin. I liked Colin.
He was a nice guy, and as we all know, nice guys finish last.
I guess part of me should feel bad for being this way but
Fuck him.
I know too many people that were/are nice
And given the choice, I wouldn’t sit and drink with a single fucking one of them.

I prefer madness.
Deviance,
Subterfuge,
Underhanded tactics and ulterior motives.
All are signs of a more interesting human being.

I thought of them both today, Colin and Joan. I remembered them.
How odd that a couple with whom you spent so much time, in this case at work, would disappear entirely from memory.

Two people over the course of maybe 2 years, and I can recall not a single conversation. Not a gesture, not even a goodbye from either of them.

Life is full of these people.
They take your time, your energy, and ask unreasonable things of you while they make more money than you ever will. Because they are nice, they are professional.

And they do not know a single thing about their own minds,
And so shall never ask even the simplest of questions
As they’re too busy making it,
Climbing the ladder,
Being all they can be.

What bullshit.

Style you'll never have


Just added a link to Steve Caballero's blog some artwork of his and some great old photos on there too... I think he's gone all religious like Hosoi did - but still, he's Cab. He can do what he wants.

PIXAR


'To say the word Romanticism is to say modern art - that is, intimacy, spirituality, color, aspiration towards the infinite, expressed by every means available to the arts.'
Baudelaire.

Any excuse to sing the praises of Pixar... here is a little article from the Guardian.

RIP Rammellzee




A key figure and innovator in Hip Hop culture, Ramellzee's name is derived from "RAM" plus "'M' for 'Magnitude', 'Sigma' (Σ) the first summation operator, first 'L' - 'longitude', second 'L' - 'latitude', 'Z' - 'z-bar', Σ, Σ - 'summation'.