Um

What is this? Seriously, what is this?? And better yet, what kind of person would paint this? I did a little surfin trying to find out who this Chris Ryniak character really is, but all i found out is that he was born a baby.


(an ulcer with eyes eating a rock?) by Chris Ryniak


(an angry hummbingbird carrying a giant lima bean?) by Chris Ryniak

So what have i learned today? Hallucinogens make you crazy.

mp3: MEW - Introducing Palace Players
Blog credit: Esoteric Mumblings

Grasshopper-kabobs

Few times in my life have i been cruel to animals, but when i was about 4 years old with family and friends at an outdoor Blues Festival in the Okanagan, i did a terrible thing. The Okanagan is hot and dry and laden with grasshoppers. Me and my little friends thought it would be fun to make grasshopper-kabobs, skewering them alive, and then placing the kabob in a plastic bag and pulling the stick out and watching them spazz about until they eventually died. It was disgusting. Lucky for my conscious, i saved a baby bird that had been bitten on by my cat a few months later. Its brains were coming out of the holes my cat's teeth had left in its skull. Regardless of that act of sainthood, my conscious has not been cleared. The first thing i thought of when i saw this beautiful illustration, was grasshopper-kabobs.


by Feric

For the record, i now hold a deep respect and love for animals (and insects), and prefer vegetarian food.

mp3: LA ROUX - In For The Kill
Blog credit: Chrome Music

Gayness

Today's topic of conversation is gayness. The happy, fruity kind. Imagine a world where black, white and the infinite gamut of grays in between didn't exist - where your standard choices were lime green and hot pink, and instead of shadows there was a flurry of rainbow noise. In that world, the boogieman would look a little something like this:


by Nagi Noda

Did you even realize that a flurry of rainbow noise could be so scary? Well that's what i'm here for. To edjamicate you. The spunky Japanese born NYC artist/director, Nagi Noda, has directed music videos for The Scissor Sisters and TIGA, a series of fashion installations and a bizarre series of Animal Hair Hats:



I don't know about you, but if i had a bizarre Animal Hair Hat to wear out tonight, i'd be pretty gay.

mp3: PATRICK WOLF - The Vulture
Blog credit: Obscene Mannequin

Paper Cuts

OMG! WTF! I'm so giddy! Cut up paper! Paper. Cut. I can't even hold it together long enough to write about this artist i just found. Taylor McKimens makes life-sized 3D cartoon installations out of paper:


Sorry Truck by Taylor McKimens


Sorry Truck by Taylor McKimens


Boob Tube by Taylor McKimens


Detail of Boob Tube by Taylor McKimens


Detail of Boob Tube by Taylor McKimens

On the music tip, Telepathe is coming to Vancouver on June 9th at the Biltmore. So gonna be there:

mp3: TELEPATHE - So Fine
Blog credit: Et Musique Pour Tous

Polterguys

Maybe i'm a creep. I'm always assuming there are poltergeist (polterguys?) in my apartment, making the printer go off in the middle of the night, or the coffee maker spray black goo all over the kitchen, or condiments whip out of the fridge, across the room and directly into my eye. But maybe the polterguys are actually in my brain!

All that might explain why i want creepy art like Matt Duffin's on every wall of my apartment. Even his medium sounds creepy... encaustic wax. Buh Buh BUHHHH...


In The Hole by Matt Duffin


Greener Grass by Matt Duffin


In sticking with the theme here, Murder by Death has a creepy name, taken from the 1976 Robert Moore film by the same name. And Adam Turla's vocals are pretty effin creepy, too. This entry is like one gigantic party for creeps... and polterguys.

mp3: MURDER BY DEATH - I'm Comin Home
Blog credti: Anyone's Guess

And now, for just $18K...

...you could own this magnificent sci-fi nightmare! What is it with sculptors and their uncanny ability to create frighteningly beautiful (and frightening) works? Like those lady-busts with their perfectly firm tits poppin out for all the world to see... beautiful, beautiful tits... on headless, armless, groinless women!

And what is this now? A squid? A squid wearing a jaw-restraint so he doesn't bite your face off? Good. And what if this "jaw-restraint" breaks? Do you think Timothy thought of that? Do you think he considered the consequences??


Midori Ika by Timothy Hochstetter

mp3: PHOENIX - Love Like Sunset, Pt.I
Blog credit: Cities of The Plain

Water Studio

With ever-increasing human populations and the value of waterfront property these days, i've often wondered why we haven't yet mass-adopted floating communities.



Water Studio in the Netherlands is the leading architectural firm for floating homes, roads, parking garages, airstrips, restaurants and harbors. Global warming bla bla bla... when the flood comes, Noah green-eyed, these people are going to be ready.




mp3: THE WALKMEN - On The Water (Live on WOXY.COM)
Blog credit: The Futurist at WOXY.COM

Images

Dudes, i just looked at this blog using someone else's computer and all the images were stretched wonky. I'm gonna try to figure out why and fix it, cuz that shit's embarrassing. Come back soon, ya?

Ric Stultz

Hey it's a long weekend!! What does that mean to someone who doesn't have consistent work (like myself)? That there's no need to feel guilty for a lack of productivity!! AND... it's time to get reckless in the streets!! POW! ...and possibly nude at some point.

But while you're deciding if you want to take your clothes off or not, check out Ric Stultz. He tends to illustrate popular cliche's in a consistent color palette and simplified, blocky, cartoon style. His medium is gauche and gesso on paper, and he currently has three series on the go:

1) Things

There Goes The Neighborhood

2) People

Making Ammends

3) Sci-Fi

Bird On A Wire

Believe it or not, you can get a piece commissioned by Ric for under $300 (or at least that was the price when i inquired several months ago). He is also a Gelaskins artist - Gelaskins make a variety of illustrated covers for laptops and iPods.

Here's a dance party song for your dance party Friday night... booty shakin strippin tunes. Now GO - get reckless!

mp3: DON DIABLO & EXAMPLE - Hooligans (Extended Mix)
Blog credit: We Like It Indie

Stumbled Upon

So i use StumbleUpon to fill voids in my schedule, which were rare up until this week. Generally i love Stumbling because it allows me to discover all kinds if great web sites i otherwise would never see, however, since certain items are sometimes added by themselves (like a JPG instead of a www) it can be tricky to explore the authors of certain articles or art. I found this haunting, erotic drawing, for example:



If it weren't for pasting the URL in this blog right now, i would have no idea who created it. Lucky i can now tell that it's by a Japanese artist whose web site (written entirely in Japanese) is called Hakuchi. In researching this term, i've found no further information on the artist, but have learned that hakuchi is the Japanese name for the years 650–654.



mp3: JAPANESE CARTOON - Firing Squad

Jeremy Shaw

As an esteemed visual and installation artist and musician, Jeremy Shaw understands aesthetic and intrigue more than most people. Add that to the worldliness acquired by traveling the globe on tour with his band Circlesquare and showing exhibitions of his installation art, and you've got a recipe for unimaginable kicks.



The most noteworthy of Jeremy's installations is probably DMT (2004) an 8-channel video installation featuring video cameras focused on 8 different subjects (including himself) who have taken Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a potent psychedelic drug that is found naturally in many plants and even in the human body. Though the drug's purpose in the human body is not entirely clear, it's release has been noted during birth, death, and dreaming. The 8 subjects were then filmed with the music of their choice in the background and their eyes and heads rolling. In the editing room the subjects' post-trip description of their experiences were added as subtitles - curious, disjointed recountings that might make even the squarest of squares want to go circle. The exhibition has shown in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles and London.

• • •

The album "Songs About Dancing and Drugs" (2009) leaked in Vancouver several months ago because Jeremy has so many friends here, but whatevs, sharezies today are still Circlesquare's "Hey You Guys." I was browsing through all the remixes of Circlesquare that are out there as freebies right now (by artists like The Juan MacLean and Russ Chimes/Annorak), thinking maybe i'd turn up something a little fresher, but while the remixes seem to be getting significantly more attention from fans and critics, i staunchly swear by Jeremy's OG (Original Genius).

mp3: CIRCLESQUARE - Hey You Guys
Blog credit: Certain Songs

Mark Jenkins

Back to more relaxing things, like stumbling randomly around the Internet. I just found this sick installation artist named Mark Jenkins who has a tendency toward creating "natural" things like plants and animals out of unnatural materials like packing tape and placing them in interesting settings, sometimes natural and other times urban.



He also has a series like the below, where he uses stuffed clothes that end up looking like parts of people, and placing them around the city generating reactions from passers by. Defs check out his web site if you have the time.

Le Sigh

Usually i'm not a procrastinator. Usually i just get the shit done. But that's when it's something i love. Currently, the looming responsibility is term-end grading. I do not love passing the judgment. I cleaned my whole apartment from top to bottom yesterday (and like taking everything off the counter and scrubbing in the back corners) because "it just had to be done" and not at all because grading is the worst thing in the world. Today, after mom's day brunch with someone else's mom i absolutely had to update my blog and surf Hype Machine. Lucky for you, it means i have a killer song to post.

mp3: MODERAT - A New Error
Blog credit: MBV Music

Oh! And i found this hilarious, adorable photo yesterday. Hahahaha! It makes me laugh so hard.

Couch Surfer

My genius room mate just figured out how to surf the internet on Apple TV using this shareware called Couch Surfer. Obv we are using it so we can listen to Hype Machine on our big system in the living room.

Poked Studio

I found these awesome free desktop wallpapers the other day by
Poked Studio and downloaded them all. Then i set my desktop to change images every 30 minutes and it's added this sick, burly excitement to my work day. Almost as much as the time i figured out you could add a widget to your iGoogle called "The Daily Puppy".




by Poked Studio

RemixFace

I was listening to my music collection earlier, doing ye old spring cleaning whilst blasted on pot, and KAPOW! i was hit with a case of the "this is TOTALLY AWESOME"'s and every song that came on the jook melted my brain a little more. This was the moment i fell-in-love-all-over-again with two remix EPs: Junior Boys "Dead Horse EP" and The Raveonettes "Remixed". I rushed over to Hype Machine to heart these songs for my stream when i realized that the perfectly balanced rock/electro Trentmoeller remix of Raveonettes' Lust was not on there. The world deserves this track (and be patient with it because it gets progressively better and better):

mp3: THE RAVEONETTES - Lust (Trentmoeller Remix)

This one, however, was on there, courtesy of the talented illustrator Lauren Hrybyk. It's the kind of track that you can shake yer azz to while getting ready for the Playas Ball Penthouse Party. I should know, cuz i'm going there. Red carpet, biznitches! Meow.

mp3: JUNIOR BOYS - In The Morning (Hot Chip Remix)


A piece for Urbanite Magazine by Lauren Hrybyk

So Over Vocoder

Does anyone like autotune and vocoder anymore? Q of the day, fo rilzz. If you can't sing, maybe you shouldn't try. Maybe you should just make the instrumental part... like Mimosa. But if you CAN sing, like Peaches, for example... maybe you should just keep up the good work, Merrill.

mp3: MIMOSA - Kinetic (mp3)
blog credit: www.dinlemeparki.com

mp3: PEACHES - I Feel Cream (mp3)
blog credit: Reformusique

Crush-a-saurs

Well i'll say, isn't this a treat: www.textsfromlastnight.com

I Twitted it and shared it on Facebook and then realized that i really want to post a text that the crush-a-saur sent me a few days ago, in all it's ridiculousness... but then it dawned on me that we might not be in that zone quite yet... you know the one where you can publicly mock someone you like, or make jokes at their expense. That's, like, at least 3 months in, right?

Speaking of crush-a-saurs, do you ever, say, join eHarmony just so you don't lose your mind when you're super into someone?

Jizz Shrubs

You know those shrubs with purple leaves and yellow flowers that smell just like jizz? Jizz shrubs... um... good one, Big Guy.