live faith no more

I love this band..

state song

Do You Realize - the new state rock song of Oklahoma..

hum

Hum.. Stars... reminds me of 95..

bottomless belly button

I've been reading a lot of indie comic lately. Not sure why, just a lot of good ones have come my way lately. One of the best is Bottomless Belly Button. Coming in at over 600 pages, BBB tells the story of a family falling apart.. Although personally I think that the true magic of this book is not the family dynamic, but how each character personally deals with the downfall. Alan Moore once said that with Watchmen he aimed to tell a story in a way only comics can. BBB does this as well. with diagrams, blueprints, handwritten letters, the author, Dash Shaw, has melded straigh ahead narrative with emotional, yet simple art. This is def a book worth the time it takes to read it.

spring

always puts me in a mood for a good Quentin Tarrantino flick..

a short video

about the book I'm reading now

vicky christina barcelona

I like Woody Allen, but I feel that I'm not always his intended audience. Especially with his newer films. I'm not the upper class, jet setting, tennis playing type, so for about the past decade I've appreciated rather than loved his films. Then comes Vicky Christina Barecelona. The tone of this movie is so pitch perfect. I'm in awe of how he balanced to make the characters seem real, yet at the same time poke fun at the culture that has been his bread and butter recently. Well congrats Woody... Ya still got it.

i love

Ghostworld. And Seymour is my favorite character..

a graphic history of the beats

Harvey Pekar, the cantankerous genius behind American Splendor, has put together a comprehensive history of the Beat scene. It's always been one of my favorite movements in literature and the effect it had is still be felt in popular culture today. Pekar and friends leave no stone unturned. Everyone from the big guns (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs) to lesser known but still important contributers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti (co-founder of the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, Diane DiPrima and rabble rousing band The Fugs are covered in a clear and respectful style. This is a beautiful introduction to these writers. And ever sparked my interest in poetry again.

A song from..

my favorite film. Magnolia. Aimee Mann, "Save Me"

covergirls

Got this book today. I generally don't pick up coffee table books, but this one is a very entertaining look at the evolution of the female superhero in comics. From Supergirl moaning about not having a date to Catwoman's modern s&m garb it's easy to see that comics have been the canary in the coal mine when it comes to reflecting the cultural mores of society at large.

art is rebellion

Walking the side streets around Union Square in Manhattan. Discarded technical books, abandoned half empty bottles of red wine, stores selling stereos too expensive for anyone walk by the windows can afford. Then you hit the square... The sun shines. People selling homemade trinkets, jotting down stories in beat up note books, sketching furiously. Making art..

art is creation
creation is rebellion


there's too much death already..

this..

cracked me up. Does a great job of poking fun at Bay's over the top style.. and his choice of shitty music.

here comes a regular

This has to be one of the saddest songs ever written. What makes it even more sad is that the older I get the closer it hits home...

single of the year?

This is the single of the year.. So far.

10 cent plague

Reading a good book at the moment. The 10 cent plague is a comprehensive history of comic books. In particular the struggles they've had with cencorship. Specifically the 1950s crusade agasint the horror comics publisehd by EC. You can talk all you want about morality, but the problem the stuffed shirts really had with comics is that they were by and for the working class. Comics as a medium has had to fight since its inception for respect and the only real reason why is that they have always been blue collar. Judging by the history books it was rock n roll that changed society in the 50s... I think comics had just as much to do with it. Here's to jazz and comics. The two true American art forms.

feeling down

so here's a Velvet Underground video... Something very.. empathetic about their music..

nighthawk

Just finished reading the Nighthawk graphic novel. Based on the 00's version of the Squadron Supreme character rather than the 80's version, this is exactly what I look for in a graphic novel. Tight storytelling with cinematic art. Marvel originally created the Squadron Supreme characters as a perralell to DCs stable of characters. There was a Superman, a Batman, a Green Lantern, etc.. The first Squdron Supreme was one of the first to deal with superheroes in an adult way. They were flawed.. They died. In fact it preceded Watchmen. As much of a classic as it is, it never had the cultural ressonance. I guess it was a little to ahead of tis time. But in the 00's Marvel decided to re-imagine the characters. Nighthawk is the Batman inthe Squadron Supreme. IN the new version he is a black man trying to clean up the streets. Then comes the psychopathic Whiteface to fuck up his world. This graphic novel is violent, but never gratuitous. It may not let you look away from death, but it doesn't make it look good either. If this was made into a film it would do just as much to place the Batman mythos in the forefront of American culture as the Dark Knight did last summer.

all the young dudes

what can I say? I like this tune

mastodon

Southern rock, prog and metal. Having these genres come together should be a disaster. But not in Mastodon's hands. Grimy guitars soaked in mud doesn't get in the way of complicated song structures or virtuosic playing. Added to this songs about Moby Dick and Rasputin you have thinking man's metal for the music's working class roots. I've never really had much desire to learn guitar. That was until I started listening to Mastodon regularly. Now I kinda want to pick up a guitar and play around. Or maybe I'll pick up an ax and find a tree to cut down.