Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Jubilee

Derek Jarman's Jubilee is fantastic as well.

Kraftwerk realizes the futurist sound poetry.

More futurism realized. The Art of Noise (name taken from Luigi Russolo's manifesto) with a computer generated personality Max Headroom.

Monday, April 26, 2010

More GG.

Glorious cartoon performance. Jane Whitney does a GREAT job getting him riled up & it's a beautiful thing. I love this.

A ROOM IN THE "CAMBRIDGE RAPIST HOTEL"

"There are two rules I've always tried to live by: turn left, if you're supposed to turn right; go through any door that you're not supposed to enter." ~Malcolm McLaren

Love this GG Allin on Jerry Springer. Almost everything he says is a great quote.
Jerry Springer sounds like the Kwik Bunny.
"If you get raped at my show, you're probably better off for it."

Also, check this out, "Who Killed Bambi?", Roger Ebert's original screenplay for the Great Rock & Roll Swindle, to have been directed by Russ Meyer if all had gone according to plan. Thanks to Theo Auer for the heads up on that!

Who Killed Bambi?

The ability to be absurdly timely on the internet creates these media cluster-fucks where as news breaks, everyone covers whatever is going on & the thing sweeps through the circuits, like baseball fans doing "The Wave". Malcolm McLaren dying is just another one of these media waves that i had no interest in piling on top of. I also believe that it takes a bit of time to gather one's wits about them & actually assess these sorts of things.

I hadn't become reobsessed with Andy Warhol before McLaren had died either, so the picture was incomplete. McLaren & Warhol are very similar sorts of people, people with the Midas touch, people that create broader value out of things that might be otherwise overlooked, ignored & undervalued. Curators of humanity! In the Art world, there is alot of emphasis on "creation" & things being "new", but when you take a look at how many people are creating all of this new stuff, how much of all this stuff is just piling up in hidden areas, it becomes ludicrously apparent that what is needed is one of these McLarens, one of these Warhols to come & put something together out of it. As they begin to assemble this thing, it gains a bit of cultural gravity & people begin to find this new thing & even conform to it & soon you've got an enormous snowball rolling down the mountain collecting everything in its wake.

People have called McLaren & Warhol exploitative as if it's a bad thing, seems to be that it's better to be exploited than to be ignored. Once you get a bit of that gold value, you can run with it & do with it as you like. It's fantastic.

McLaren's art is fully realized in the movie "The Great Rock & Roll Swindle", make sure to watch it soon!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Futurist Toy

THE FUTURIST TOY by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero from the Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe
In games and toys, as in all traditionalist manifestations, there is nothing but grotesque imitation, timidity (little trains, prams, puppets), immobile objects, stupid caricatures of domestic objects, antigymnastic and monotonous, which can only cretinize and depress a child. With plastic complexes we will construct toys which will accustom the child:
to completely spontaneous laughter (through absurdly comical tricks);
to maximum elasticity (without resorting to thrown projectiles, whip cracking, pin pricks, etc.);
to imaginative impulses (by using fantastic toys to be studied under a magnifying glass, small boxes to be opened at night containing pyrotechnic marvels, transforming devices, etc.)
to the continual exercise and sharpening of his sensitivity (in the unbounded realms of acute and exciting noises, smells and colors) to physical courage, to fighting and to war (with gigantic, dangerous & aggressive toys that will work outdoors).

After reading this, it seems clear to me they are talking about Japanese Robot toys with the shooting fists, transformations, missiles & the like. I still sometimes can't handle how amazing what the Futurists wrote was/is... they really saw the future, America is exactly what they are talking about, but as i say in my Futurist pamphlet (which you can order from me for $2), without the soul of the artist & the packaging of the poet, it has the same passeism as the Italy of their time. I profoundly believe that with just a small amount of guidance & direction, the things that so many Americans point to as excuses for their alienation: shopping malls, car culture, fast food, television, education, mass media on every level, everything really, can be sources of joy, inspiration & pride. The work of Andy Warhol points to this, the work of Gary Panter points to this & the formula is laid out clearly by the Italian Futurists.

Earth Day Message from the Ramones

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Art Clokey (Gumby Creator) Joins the Revolution

Art Clokey turns his back on his family & responsibilities to explore himself as America has its own cultural revolution.

Andy Warhol by David Bowie


Bonus Andy Warhol eats a hamburger. This should probably be its own television channel.

Another idea for a television channel i had was the GUMBASIA channel.

GUMBASIA!!!!

Warhol & Jackson

I was just noticing a strange similarity between Warhol's plastic appearance & Michael Jackson's plastic appearance, the wigs too.

"I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic." ~Andy Warhol

Friday, April 16, 2010

SUPER MUTATION!

One of the first times i felt totally violated by the pain of the "sell out" was with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1986, the TMNT were a successful, but still very underground black & white comic that was half tongue in cheek, half totally serious. Eastman & Laird's drawing style combined all sorts of awesome comics references & essentially defined to me what a cool drawer was. As the comic series progressed, the title was interpreted by lots of different artists, introducing me to Mark Bode & Richard Corben, but also giving me headaches because of certain translations of the characters & drawing styles i didn't like. It seemed like as soon as i got into the turtles they began an immediate hurtling forwards into popularity which just kept going. At first i had the same feeling i would have years later when "Punk" became popular with bands like Green Day, Rancid & the Offspring: violated.

Years later as i am slowly creating my own media empire, i dream of having millions of cartoons & toys & cookies & slime pies & gelatin deserts & oven mits with my designs on them. I still think that Eastman & Laird screwed up on some levels with the recreation of the turtles as commercial products, on the other hand, some of the wrongness of having something as absurd as teenage mutant ninja turtles cereal & the Archie comics series end up being very right in a very right way.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

BUG-EYED TAR BABIES?

When you're a hammer, the whole world starts looking like nails.
"BUG-EYED TAR BABIES? Once again, EW makes a racist faux pas in its choice of “clever” cartoons. First was the baffling image of a man passing off his Nazi salute as a pose for Lord of the Dance — in SCOTTISH garb. Now we have the distasteful April 8 cover by Sean Aaberg. The style may be a nod to R. Crumb and/or underground comics of the ’60s/’70s but I’m sorry to report that there are images of blacks portrayed as bug-eyed big-lipped tar babies. Of course, they’re in the back of a bus. It’s pathetic. EW, aren’t you even looking at this stuff?! Again I must remind you that we’re in the 21st century. Glenn Leonard, Eugene"
Eugene Weekly Cover 4-8-10
The bus in question is being driven by my character, "Fabulous Mario".

Friday, April 9, 2010

Toni Basil

Toni Basil - Shopping From A to Z.

Toni Basil - My Little Red Book

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Psychotic Banana @ Kitsch


4.2.10, originally uploaded by Katie Aaberg.

Kitsch is a cool vintage boutique here in Eugene run by my mate Aaron Chester, whose wife runs the also cool Deluxe vintage boutique. This banana recently appeared in the window there.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Goblinko Vending Machine


Goblinko Sticker Machine, originally uploaded by SEAN ÄABERG.

Goblinko has launched its first vending machine at Olive Juice in Eugene, featuring new STICKER PLEASE! stickers & Monsters, Weirdos & Creeps cards. Operating our own vending machines has been one of our plans since day 1 of Goblinko & is now coming into fruition. We aim to get a comics & zine vending machine together next as well as other sticker & card vending machines in other locations.