Calgary Comic Expo pt.2

mo'. The lady in the first picture had a pentagram on the other arm, but the crowd was moving too quickly for me to get a clear shot of it. METAL! SATAN-ATION IN THE NATION OF FRUSTRATION!





Calgary Comic Expo pt.1

Met up with some fellow acad kids to experience the comic convention thing that happened a couple weeks back-ish. I think that I've seen comic-cons mentioned in pop culture so much that nothing really surprised me when I finally went to one. It was good fun though. Here are some snaps... and also the most racist thing ever, from an old Stampede poster.





Tegan and Sara July 9th

Bought a ticket for their show in a couple weeks. 80 bucks, ouch. I'm sure it will be more than worth it though.

"We are planning to do very special, intimate shows, with a new ensemble. There will be an audience Q&A component and every ticket comes with a limited edition silkscreened poster designed by EE Storey!"

Stoked.

Hmm + Product Design

This thing needs a redesign, but for now a standard template should do...

Here's a Japanese afro cookie.


via TWBE/Thesedelights

Everything is a remix

So this thing has been creating a bit of buzz lately, and this post isn't so much another case of linking to the videos (here), but my opinion on it.

I watched three of the episodes and I'm surprised about the attention it's getting. The concept of it is pretty common knowledge I thought. Everything is ripped off something else... refer to the Jimmy Corrigan/Family Guy post.

I'm not really a follower of Led Zeppelin, so I didn't realize how Led Zeppelin copied and did "covers" without crediting the other bands! I hate it when bands do that. The example of the beat from a Led Zeppelin song being sampled/copied was meh though, If you ever pay attention to drums or play drums, you know that the leeway for "copying" a beat is much more than a well known guitar riff. Tons of songs have the same beat.

So here's my contribution to "Everything is a Remix": How one of the main drum beats in death metal and the like is actually a polka beat (aka skank beat) and a really really fast polka beat (aka the blast beat).

The polka beat:


A metal song with a skank beat that turns into a blast beat later:

Business Card Design

Wile E. Coyote demonstrates the effectiveness and elegance of a minimal business card.

Plenty of Syph

This is hilarious and utter genius. Must be some sort of public service thing about syphillis, obviously playing of plentyoffish.com and those late night TV chat line ads.

Just saw the ads on TV... the Youtube view count is pretty low so this thing must be new. You saw it here first!!!





The Greatest Writer Alive

Saw this poem on TWBE and had to share it here. It's about stolen bicycles.

FIXED

I hope all my stolen bicycles
got ridden fast
and passed around often
had their best parts swapped out
and traded for drugs
that were used to write good songs
and have good young fun
like stealing bigger things
and crashing them into walls
and getting arrested on accident
and getting ratted out by a guy
who only days earlier
let you burn him with a cigarette lighter
because he said you were brothers for life.

I hope they found new homes
in abandoned warehouses
and darkened alleys
and were taken in by older men
who could no longer hold a license,
were running from something,
weren’t supposed to be here at all.

I hope those men took off on them
as far as they could get
before their old knees and old hearts gave in
and stranded them
some place they’d never been
and never thought they’d be
and they met someone there
at a store
on a dark road
who reminded them of a daughter
they hadn’t spoken to in some time
and they tried to call her
but the line was dead.

I hope the remains
were salvaged for scrap
by industrious someones
good with their hands
who saw promise in those old beasts
and roped them to a roof
and drove them through the rain
and into a converted garage
where they were stripped with gasoline
and fit with different pieces
from orphaned others
and made strangely better
spray painted a young child’s favorite color
and given as a gifts
from one person to another
the first gift they would ever get
that would teach them the value
of falling down
and getting back up again.

—Dallas Clayton

Matt Groening and Apple

An advertising guide made by Matt Groening in 1989 for Apple. Via RW



David Falconer

The topic of the "Rat King" came up at work today. I guess it's kind of an urban legend where the tails of several rats become entwined and knotted, creating a mass of rats that kind of live as one.

Anyway, that reminded me of the work of David Falconer. Some of his best known work are sculptures created using casts of what must be hundreds of dead mice. I wish I could find more info and pics but they seem to be scarce.