If I ever had the creativity and guts to fuse artwork into an urban landscape- I'd definitely do it while wearing a pair of classic blacked-out aviator fashion goggles. Or maybe steampunk-styled goggles. Both sound cool.
Artist unknown
Artist: Phlegm Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Artist: Fintan Magee Location: Byron Bay, Australia
Artist: Liqen Location: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Artist: C215
Location: Marseille, France
Artist: ROA
Location: The Gambia
Steampunk goggles aside- Street art isn't just something that Bansky cooked up a few years back. It's spread around the globe and has been thriving for centuries. My personal favorites are the pieces that just freak you out in some way (I am a Surrealist fan haha). For instance, check out the one below:
Artist: Claudio Ethos
Location: Cologne, Germany
I mean, what's not to love? If you want to see more, check out http://unurth.com/
I think I spent an hour and a half there just scrolling through street art photos. It makes me wish I had some kind of substantial artistic talent haha.
So I can't remember where I saw this, but dang I think it's great. I love Young Justice- Aqualad is the best thing that ever hit the planet (although he isn't above). Great Gorillaz spin-off haha.
I think what gets me is how well they got Robin to look like Murdoc.
I love Johnny Knoxville and his high-pitched crazy man laugh. He's gotta be my favorite of the Jackass crew; Bam is a close second, well, either him or Chris ha ha. This is a clip from the third movie that I got a kick out of:
I think what kills me is Knoxville's laugh. Ha ha ha oh man.
Sooo some commercial I can't remember has a Skrillex song in it; I think it's the song "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites." Actually, I just checked and I was right hahaha.
Anyways, so I was on a Skrillex kick for a while after that and found someone online who actually takes the time to write out each individual sound in a dubstep song. Pretttty coooool. Heads up though, if you're epileptic- it seriously could break your brain. Whoo!
The song is First of the Year (Equinox). I'm in an intro to ELANG class and we're going over phonology and stuff; I got a kick out of the way this guy writes out sounds haha.
I went to Sidereel to watch one of my favorite shows, Haven, (whooooo Haven!!) and a video featuring some crazy biker started playing automatically. I absolutely loved the song they used, so I looked it up- and here it is! The song is The Wolves by Ben Howard.
Thank you universe, for letting me stumble on some more good music.
Okay, so I've never been very interested in cartoon tv shows, but I stumbled upon The Amazing World of Gumball and I think its absolutely hilarious.
The show centers around Gumball, a blue cat, and his brother/best friend Darwin, who is a fish with legs. Gumball's father is super lazy, his mother is a workaholic, and his little sister is incredibly smart. Darwin is my favorite character; the kid who voices him does a great job.
The clip below is from the episode "Pressure". Misami, (the cloud) has told all her girlfriends that she's in a relationship with Darwin . . . . the poor kid has no idea what's going on and she's trying to kiss him haha.
Hahahaha yes, it's still a kids cartoon show, but dang I still think it's funny.
I love Surrealism (notice Dali in the background . . .) It's so weird and fun to look at/admire/analyze/whatever you like to do with art. Rene Magritte is a surrealist artist whose works really stand out to me; his paintings capture everyday scenes and objects, but are given dreamlike qualities. Here are a couple of my favorites; a lot of them are probably familiar to you already:
Golconde, 1953
Presence of Mind, 1960
The Cut-Glass Bath, 1946
This one actually reminds me of Dali's flaming Giraffe. Giraffes are just so cool . . .
The Lovers, 1928
This last painting is probably one you've seen before.
I wish I could meet Magritte in person- he was probably quite a character.
The Spinto Band was formed in 1996; they have a fun Indie pop/ Electronica sound that I really like. This song makes me laugh- the lyrics are just strange haha.
The concept for the music video is pretty dang cool too.
remind me once more where this is going
before I fling it out into the ocean
it’s kind of level but its wavy
Its looking more blue than it is green
it’s looking quiet as I jump in
so I can finally hear you scream
You got a gnome in the backyard
you put him right on the X mark
you’re eating brains out the back of my head
oh yeah, that's where the money is
So my current gaming obsession is a little PS2 game called Rogue Galaxy. . . and yes, it's about space pirates.
YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! Hahaha this game has all the elements to be drop dead amazing:
Over-dramatic story and poorly voiced cut-scenes? CHECK
Main character with an ugly hair-cut who's on a quest to save the world? CHECK
Annoying C3PO type character named "Steve"? CHECK
Suspicious eye-patch wearing bounty hunter who's loyalty is questionable? CHECK
A-bajillion different weapons, weapon upgrades, fighting abilities, fighting strategies and . . GUNS?! DOUBLE-CHECK
And if that doesn't sell you, there's an ex-military man/dog who has like an 8-pack and fights with a giant axe and a robotic machine-gun arm named Deego.
I LOVE DEEGO!
I just finished exploring and conquering Vedan, the seedy/ghetto Mining Planet that's run by gangsters. Fortunately, if you have money, you can get along swimmingly with most everyone. See? This game even promotes good morals and behavior!
Seriously, what more could you want from a game that revolves around pirates . . . IN SPACE.
Two Sally Mann photographs: Candy Cigarette and Holding Virginia.
Sally Mann is still alive actually- she was born in the early 1950's.
This is "Holding Virginia"
This is "Candy Cigarette"
I like the contrast between the two. Mann actually created a lot of controversy with her third collection Immediate Family; the first photo is from that album.
So this week I'm posting a song from my favorite album of all time: Ghost. I feel like there isn't a single track on this cd that's weak- something that is very rarely accomplished. Radical Face is actually one of many pseudonyms used by Ben Cooper. Fun Fact: He's releasing a new Radical Face cd, The Roots, October 4th. I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on it.
I was listening to this cd in my car when I was moving all my stuff to my new apartment. I actually started crying when it got to the last track on the album, homesick. Hahaha I know, I know, I'm totally a loser, but it IS a really emotional song for me.
I left my home on hollow bones
While you were curled and sleeping
And I wandered far beneath the concrete star
And I slept along the highways
But even though I've been lost all the time
I've got hooks in my sides that you left there
But you're not the same, you died along the way
Now we're ghosts and we're praying for winter
Yes, I missed Wednesday because I was busy moving into my new apartment/just really lazy.
This is one of Andy Warhol's many screenprints; the title of this one is Race Riot. These prints are based on the Birmingham Alabama race riots- although the only ones who rioted were the local police.
When I first bought this album I remember my Mom once referring to it as "Magic Horse and Super Rat" haha. Danger Mouse has collaborated with other artists before; the lead singer of The Shins worked with him in Broken Bells.
This is one of my favorite tracks off Dark Night of the Soul; Insane Lullaby.
After a long hard day at work assessing the damage of a Chinese cyber-attack (I wish I was making that up) I went home and decided to start up my good old Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance game. Now it's 3am . . . and I just beat Chapter 9. . .
The story revolves around Ike, (you may have seen him in Super Smash Bros Brawl) a blue-haired, sword wielding, mercenary who's traveling around the country with his army. Seriously, do I even have to give any more of an explanation to prove how awesome this game is?!
If you haven't played any Fire Emblem games before, I'm not really sure how to explain them. They're like chess . . . but not really haha. More like a grid-style strategy fighting game. . . so yeah . . . it's kind of nerdy . . . IN AN AWESOME WAY!!
So what is it that makes Fire Emblem so awesome you ask? Well, you have like fifty million people that join your team in the game- and you can pick and train your favorites. Speaking of favorites- HERE ARE MY TOP AND BOTTOM 3!
#1 Soren
Is that a girl? Actually- no, it's just a very girly looking guy! Soren is the first and by far the BEST magic user in the game. He may look feminine, BUT HE MOWS DOWN EVERYTHING IN HIS PATH ONCE HE GETS GOING!
He's also kind of a jerk, which just makes me like him more haha. When the other characters are saying stuff like "We shouldn't hand over the princess to the bad guys! It's not right!" Soren is like "Pfft you guys are losers- let's hand her over so we can get paid."
He also sports some pretty trendy sandals.
#2 Boyd
Boyd has an axe. And that's pretty much all you need to know about him.
Later on in the game when he hits his class change (he changes from "fighter" to "warrior"), you can also give him a bow- making him twice as much fun to fight with.
Also after his class change, he starts wearing a helmet with like a fur-hood thing around his shoulders.
I don't think you can get much better than that.
#3 Gatrie
Gatrie would probably be my 2nd favorite if he didn't ditch you like 1/8th of the way through the game. The guy is a human tank.
As a knight, Gatrie is suuuuuuper sloooooow. However, all you have to do is send him off into a crowd of enemies and he'll beat the heck out of them in a matter of minutes. YOU CAN'T BUY THAT KIND OF POWER!
After he ditches you, he comes back like 10 Chapters later . . .
BOTTOM THREE:
# 3 Rolf
Rolf. Stinks. I mean, c'mon, the kid's name is ROLF. With a name like that, you already know you're going to have problems.
If you work with him, he can actually turn out to be a pretty good archer/sniper, but the catch is that YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH HIM A LOT.
He's actually Boyd's little brother. He's basically a crybaby at the beginning and even though he decides that he wants to be tough and fight like his brother- I still think he's a waste of space haha.
Look at those stupid green shorts . . . pfft, they're so stupid . . .
#2 Astrid
Whyyyyy? WHY does Astrid think she can fight?! She starts out at like level 1 when the rest of your team is at 19 or 20! You can even work with her to help her catch up- and she's STILL terrible!
Thing is, if you don't recruit Astrid, you can't recruit the super-amazing Gatrie.
If I remember right, she's some kind of princess or rich girl or something who decides she wants to fight with your team.
It just goes to show, if you're not good at something, just give up while you still can.
#1 Makalov
I. HATE. MAKALOV. From his Ronald McDonald pink frizzy hair to his ugly horse with its horse-bowl-cut. He's not a good fighter AT ALL, and he's super annoying.
My first playthrough I ended up killing him off in battle haha. I felt a little bad, but I was far enough in the fight that there was no way I was going to turn off the game and start over. . . especially for Makalov.
Duncan Grant was a Scottish painter whose style seems fairly post-impressionistic. In fact, a couple of his paintings remind me a bit of Henri Matisse.
There are a lot of self-portraits out there, but for some reason this one continues to be my favorite; I love it how only one of his eyes catches the light and you're not quite sure what he's thinking.
I was deciding between posting "Howlin' for You" by the Black Keys and "Houdini" by Foster the People. I then realized that I can just post both haha. You've probably heard of one, if not both of these songs; they're quite good :]
From what I gather, the album "Brothers" does not capture the true essence of "The Black Keys" haha, whatever that means. Regardless of whether or not the album is a good representation of the The Black Key's body of work, I still think it's awesome.
I must admit
I can't explain
Any of these thoughts racing
Through my brain
It's true
Baby I'm howlin' for yoooou
I think this song hit the radio at one point in time actually. It's made me look more into Blues Rock, which is pretty dang cool.
Foster the people released their first album, Torches, earlier this year, (I think January or February?) and It's a ton of fun. This is currently my favorite track: Houdini.
When I feel kinda bad and I'm all distressed
Pass if off on a better day
Well you got whatcha want whatcha never knew
Perfect gift from me to you
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
I think Foster the People is a good example of just how much fun Indie-pop can be haha; I'm a dork and like to blast this album in my car when I'm driving home.
I love the Simpsons. It's my favorite TV show; I even like it better than The Colbert Report- and that's saying a lot. My sister and I probably have a good deal of the episodes memorized by now actually. We have about four or five seasons on DVD that we'll pop one into the TV whenever we have any spare time :]
My absolute favorite Simpsons character has got to be Milhouse van Houten. I mean, just look at the guy, he's seriously such a goof. I can't get over his "hhhhHHHEEEY Bart!" ha ha ha. If you watch the show, you know what I mean. Every episode he's in just becomes that much funnier.
This is a clip from the episode "Mom and Pop Art". Homer floods the town in an attempt to create a modern work of art. This is a classic Milhouse line ha ha ha.
Guess who likes you??
HA HA HA HA! This poor kid . . he's just so uncoordinated.
I've always loved Claude Monet, he and Cassatt are my favorite Impressionist artists.
Although it seems like Monet is most famous for his paintings of nature, I quite like this painting; it captures a casual and beautiful moment of Jean and Camille Monet during an afternoon stroll.
I feel like there are a lot of parasols in Impressionistic works, haha.
