Anything Can Happen on Halloween

Happy Halloween!
From a terrible made-for-TV movie from the 80s (so you know it's good!)

The Jimusho System: Part One

Note: I didn't write this. I pirated it from someone else, in true arrgb form. Collective intelligence is great.

Each country or cultural region has a uniquely-structured industry responsible for producing, promoting, and distributing the products that make up what we consider “pop culture.” In the case of Japan, there is a single organizational category most responsible for the form and content of pop culture: the artist management company, called colloquially jimusho (”office.”) The jimusho wield a powerful cultural influence on all fields that require performers — television (variety and drama), advertising, music, modeling, gravia, and films.

I will argue in this series that much of the content produced in these specific fields conforms to the business needs of artist management companies much more than it is created in response to audience desires. The opposite is also true: Non-jimusho controlled fields such as manga and indie music have enjoyed much more freedom of expression. In the case of manga, placement of certain titles within magazines is often tied directly to consumer feedback, meaning that competition is alive and well and consumers play a large role in guiding the industry.

With this in mind, we aim here to get a full understanding of the jimusho system in order to understand the structure in which Japanese popular culture is produced. Seeing that there is little written formally about the jimusho, we offer this multi-part series on Japanese artist management companies.

A note: This series is not meant as an “exposé” but a collection of the most reliable information about a relatively secretive industry for the purpose of sociological and business analysis. We welcome any corrections and additions.

Part I - What are the Jimusho? Roles and Labor Relations

The main role of the jimusho is essentially to “manage” the careers and schedules of artists, entertainers, athletes, and celebrities. They, however, claim a much deeper hold on the industry than simple management. The jimusho create stars much more than they just help maintain their fame. The stronger jimusho plan out every part of the performer’s persona, style, mannerism, and career. Most jimusho also have publishing wings, creating long-term revenue streams from songwriting related to their stars. Many idol management companies — such as Johnny’s Jimusho — finance and produce the master recordings of their singers, relegating record companies to pure distribution roles. This also means the jimusho can capture a large percentage of money made from CD sales.

The first important thing to understand about Japanese jimusho is the relation between labor and management. These companies are sometimes called “agencies” but they do not normally use “agent relations” — i.e., where stars hire the jimusho to act on their behalf. In the United States, William Morris and CAA perform agent services for 10% of the deals they broker, but stars have the ultimate power in that specific relationship as they are allowed to change agents or agencies at any time.

Japanese jimusho, on the other hand, hire their talent as salaried workers. They pay their “employees” a monthly salary, which usually starts at the relatively low ¥200,000 and can be re-negotiated on a yearly basis. (That being said, many famous stars have not been able to significantly raise their salaries to match the revenues they have brought to the company.) In exchange for the salaries, the artist relinquishes rights to 100% of their media appearance fees, copyright royalities, publishing payments, and any other income. Yes, 100%. If an artist secures a lucrative commercial contract, for example, this will not be reflected in his/her salary as any kind of bonus.

Management companies claim rights to this income, however, on the logic that they invest large sums in building up a young star. Hiroshi Aoyagi, author of Islands of Eight Million Smiles: Idol Performance and Symbolic Production in Contemporary Japan notes that the price of producing an “idol” singer can cost upwards of ¥30-40 million. The companies provide new talent (although most often charge for) lessons in singing, acting, dancing, manners, speech, and other skills required for celebrity status. Jimusho create appealing stage names, change appearances (sometimes even fronting money for plastic surgery), and provide clothing and cosmetics most flattering to the talent. Only when the talent makes their formal debut does the company see any returns. Therefore this high risk business model requires that all eventual income go directly to the management company.

Now many stars are able to negotiate an income increase in light of greater sales, but those who cannot unfortunately are not able to move to a different management company. While stars in the United States can change their agents and personal managers at a whim, Japanese stars cannot freely move management companies. In my own survey of 1300 popular musicians between 1985 and 2004, only around two dozen changed management companies. In other words, it is not a free market where Japanese stars can look for the best management deal. It is a “closed system.”

How do the jimusho keep stars in their stables? As a way to ensure that talent do not leave for other agencies for better deals, the jimusho have informal agreements to blacklist any talent who “defect” to other companies or go independent. With each star being an “investment” — both in terms of training but also of use of the management companies’ established media and industry connections to become famous — the jimusho have an economic incentive to curb their talent’s mobility. This secures profitability for their initial investment.

There is only one accepted way of changing jimusho: moving up to a more powerful organization. Horizontal movement or going independent are essentially verboten. Larger jimusho, however, can steal talent from smaller ones. We saw this with Kanno Miho, for example, leaving the small Tani Promotion to enter big player Kenon.

Like most aspects of the “closed” jimusho world, this blacklist is rarely detailed in specific terms. The case of mega-star Suzuki Ami, however, offered a very strong example of the blacklist in action. As reported by Steve McClure in Billboard, Suzuki attempted to leave her management company AG Communications after its CEO Yamada Eiji was arrested for tax evasion. Her parents cited “damage to her reputation” and received legal approval to break her contract with AG. Despite the legal right to go independent, the industry appeared to have conspired behind-the-scenes to punish her actions. All her advertising contracts mysteriously dried up, and later when she released her own music, she could not find basic distribution for the CDs nor television airplay. In effect, she was frozen out of the industry. She only came back in once she signed a new deal years later with Avex Entertainment. Not all blacklists are permanent, but they can “disappear” a star right at his/her peak, which is normally a death blow to a long-term career. Suzuki Ami never really recovered.

Cabal-like blacklists like this fail in most markets because there is such high incentive for companies to “break” the agreement and steal the profitable talent. The strongest jimushos’ power over the market, however, may be adequate to scare away anyone who wishes to scoop up ronin talent. And the blacklisting may not require wholly negative action. For example, YouTube star Magibon recently made allegations that her former jimusho would call up and offer Magibon’s clients their pick of the agency’s stable of famous stars to work in the place of Magibon. This could be considered a “positively-reinforced” blacklist.

The end result of this labor relation between talent and their jimusho is that the management company has full control over their salaried employees. And with the jimusho world working together to discourage movement, talent cannot use labor mobility as a way to break the agencies’ power. And with investments into master tape production, jimusho do not just hold power of their talent but within the industry as a whole. We will look at the source of jimusho power in later installments.

Next time we will look at broader organizational characteristics of jimusho: specifically, small size units structured into keiretsu hierarchies with a single company at the top of the ladder.

W. David MARX
April 5, 2010

E-baby

An interesting and slightly creepy little 3D film that explores computer-generated reality.

http://www.pleix.net/e-baby.html

brought to my attention thanks to Imp Kerr of the New Shelton wet/dry

Best use of kicks EVER.

I don't know if any of you remember the music video for Justice's D.A.N.C.E., but the French creative duo (Jonas & Francois) that brought us that fantastic video have made another amazing piece, and this time it's for Audiobullys's new song titled "Only Man."

The video is absolutely superb and executed to perfection:

AUDIOBULLYS / ONLY MAN from MATHEMATIC SAS on Vimeo.

Gainsbourg Incest (ahem, I mean "Lemon")

It's been established that Charlotte Gainsbourg is on the cool side of the scale, blah whatever.

ANYWAY, check out this super awesome, yet somewhat uncomfortable performance she did with her dad at the tender age of 13. The single is her father's, Serge, and the song; Well I think the song is pretty badass (I mean c'mon, the title is LEMON INCEST.

Team William - You Look Familiar

Hello friendly friends,

Here's a really amazing music video

true blood: vampires and doggs

don't get me wrong, i love true blood. in fact, i really can't seem to get enough of it. call it a guilty pleasure, pathetic a "sorority show," whatever... this HBO series is phenomenal in my opinion and i have far too much fun watching these beautiful people prance around louisiana's swamp land with blood in their mouthes and supernatural mysteries to solve.

however, even i thought this was a little ridiculous-



kind of uncool snoop dogg... we may all love sookie, but i don't know that this makes you look like much of a bad ass rapper... it actually just makes you look like a rich dipshit that is completely out of touch with his audience.

well done, snoop. can't wait to hear your next song about how you fuck werewolf cubs and drink vampire blood.

Sophia Coppola's "Somewhere" Trailer

Coppola's new film stars Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning while also featuring music by Phoenix. It's set to come out in December.

The beautiful song in the trailer is a demo version of the Stroke's You Only Live Once called, "I'll Try Anything Once."

Beauty and the Beast

Dir. Jean Cocteau (France 1946)

Disney is leagues away from Cocteau. Whilst the story is classic, the visual effects were my absolute favorite. They add a delightful whimsy to the film that remind me of the more contemporary film maker, Michel Gondry. This is especially noticeable with the personification of the objects in the Beast’s castle. The doors whisper, the wine pours itself, and bodiless hands light the castle. Rather than try to deceive the viewer, the cinematic illusions are blunt and display extraordinary imagination and creativity.

One of this film’s most beautifully striking moments is when Belle first enters the castle. Her skirt dances in slow motion as she runs through a hallway lined with isolated candle-holding arms that move as she passes by to light her way.

This classic story combined with its avant-garde stylings is a total triumph.

The Spirit of the Beehive

BRILLIANTAMAZINGHAUNTINGWONDERFULSTUNNINGGORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL.







Dir. Victor Erice (Spain 1973)

Any words here cannot do this film justice. This is film is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. The story, the performances, and the cinematography were all impeccable.

The film takes place in 1940 (after the Spanish Civl War) and is centered around the two young girls of a disjointed family. Ana, the younger of the sisters, is an adorable little girl whose world unravels quietly and darkly after viewing Frankenstein with her sister at a traveling cinema.

At just five years old, Ana Torrent delivers an extraordinary performance. The viewer feels the same suspense and fear as she escapes into the forest and sees her reflection turn into Frankenstein's. The fear and curiosity in her eyes can be easily and completely absorbed. Apparently, she wasn't only acting, but she was also living in the world of the film. Her reactions to Frankenstein are completely genuine, since Erice captures her as she views the film for the first time.

And the cinematography, OH GOD the cinematography! To begin with, (as over-used as this is) every single shot is like a beautifully composed photograph. Beautiful golden tones are used throughout the film to aid the allusion to the beehive, and even the windows of the house have a hexagonal pattern. Frames contain vast empty landscapes and desolate imagery. In fact, I want to call this a minimalist film because of the economical dialogue, clean lines, and white space in the framing (oh boy do I like white space). Every word spoken had incredible weight to it because of the small amount of dialogue, but it was something I really appreciated- to receive only the essential dose of phonetic information. The visuals were vital in setting the mood and communicating the somewhat difficult-to-decipher story. To top it off the film's cinematographer was going blind during the making of the film!

BRILLIANTAMAZINGHAUNTINGWONDERFULSTUNNINGGORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL.

Don't do drugs

Here's a music video from 15 year old L.A. rapper Earl.
Just watch for yourself. And not on a full stomach.

Moving Countries foward with Moving Images

These spots for amnesty international speak for themselves.

Death to the Death Penalty



Russian Dolls

Adicolor

So Adidas launched Adicolor back in 1983 and the premise of the campaign was to customize your footwear. You would purchase a pair and inside the box there would be goodies for you to decorate your shoes with, cool right? Well Adidas relaunched this concept in 2005 but things got a lot cooler; the trainer shoes used for the campaign included characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Betty Boop, and Tron (to name a few). The best part about this is the promotional viral videos made.


Charlie White made Pink (and one of the most pleasurable minute twenty seconds of video that I've ever had the privilege to lay eyes on.




Neil Bloomkamp, the director of Yellow, went on to direct District 9.




The darkest of the series was (surprise surprise) Black, directed by Saiman Chow.



There's also one for green, red, white, and blue. You can watch all of them here.

kids and youtube

my seven year old cousin is visiting me from boston and all we've been doing is wrestling and playing really intense games of chess. so that i could take a break from his insanity i sat him down and we decided to watch some youtube videos.

i think this gummy bear thing is the new thing people should roll too. thank you cousin.



also, i showed him yo gabba gabba and he flipped out. i think it tripped him out too much.



i seriously don't understand how yo gabba gabba got a show on nick jr. but i can say this much, i wish i was dj lance rock. he's raising a generation of ravers.

High Speed Cameras/ Ultra Slo-Mo

What's cooler than watching things collide? Watching them collide in SLOW MOTION! The quick pace of technology has allowed for some very advanced equipment, including sophisticated high-speed cameras. I stumbled across this video a few weeks ago, and although the song is maybe a year old, the slow-mo trend is still very much alive. It may increase in use, but I don't think it will ever really die. The fascination with seeing things at speeds much slower than capable for the human eye will always continue to exist because, let's face it, it's pretty fucking cool.

Here's Blamma! Blamma!'s Collide Sparks video by Christopher Hewitt




And here's the more commerical side, with an adorable Pedigree ad



And let's not forget those who came before in one of my absolute favorite moments in film. EVER. (The gold begins at 2:25)

Alexander Nevsky

Dir. Sergie Eisenstein (Russia 1938)

This movie struck me as particularly nationalist, and then it all made sense after I took a second glance at its release date. Essentially it is the story of how Russia, close to falling to German conquer, calls upon Prince Alexander (the man responsible for a previous victory over Sweden) to save her. There is a grand battle scene where swords clash against swords in this epic set in the 13th century, and ultimately (but not surprisingly) Russia comes out victorious.

I wasn’t particularly captivated by the film, but was impressed with many of the compositions. The shots where the horizon line is placed at the bottom 1/8 of the frame resulted in beautiful dominating skies. The difference in tone in these frame divisions evoked a monochromatic Rothko-esque feel. The production design is especially amazing for a film made in 1938, although you can totally tell some things were made in some indoor set.

Viridiana

Dir. Luis Buñuel (Spain/Mexico 1961)

This is film is ALMOST interchangeable with an image of Luis Buñuel urinating in the church’s holy water; Viridiana is a ferocious critique of the Catholic church, it’s hypocrisy, and piety.

Above all, it is simply an amazing film. Not only is it beautifully shot, the events that unfold are both wildly captivating and terrifying. The photography is amazing and the most memorable scene is a moment in the film where amidst chaos and debauchery, time comes to a halt and a reconstruction of the Last Supper with a group of drunken, careless beggars is revealed.

Before watching this film the only Buñuel piece I had seen was his 16 minute surrealist film Un Chien Andalou, but after watching Viridiana, I am certain this will not be my last date with Mr. Buñuel.



You should totally watch it.

Art House Everyday!

This summer, I’ve set several goals for myself. One of the ones I’m most excited about (besides a long awaited entrance into the workforce) is watching 50 artsy-fartsy films. It’s more like 49, and most of them are regarded worldwide as cinematic masterpieces. With great joy and enthusiasm I announce that I will watch or (re-watch) one of the following films every day and simultaneously cross out a good 70% of the movies on my netflix queue:

1. Alexander Nevsky (1938)
2. Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
3. L’Avventura (1960)
4. Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
5. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
6. Black Orpheus (1959)
7. Brief Encounter (1945)
8. The Fallen Idol (1948)
9. Fires on the Plain (1959)
10. Fists in the Pocket (1965)
11. Floating Weeds (1959)
12. Forbidden Games (1952)
13. The 400 Blows (1959)
14. Grand Illusion (1937)
15. Haxan (1922)
16. Ikiru (1952)
17. The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
18. Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1958)
19. Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
20. Jules and Jim (1962)
21. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
22. Knife in the Water (1962)
23. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
24. The Life and Death of Colonel Blim (1943)
25. Loves of a Blonde (1965)
26. M (1931)
27. M. Hulot’s Holiday (1953)
28. Miss Julie (1951)
29. Pandora’s Box (1929)
30. Pepe Le Moko (1937)
31. Il Posto (1961)
32. Pygmalion (1938)
33. Rashomon (1950)
34. Richard III (1955)
35. The Rules of the Game (1939)
36. Seven Samurai (1954)
37. The Seventh Seal (1957)
38. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
39. La Strada (1954)
40. Summertime (1955)
41. The Third Man (1949)
42. The 39 Steps (1935)
43. Ugetsu (1953)
44. Umberto D. (1952)
45. The Virgin Spring (1960)
46. Viridiana (1961)
47. The Wages of Fear (1953)
48. The White Sheik (1952)
49. Wild Strawberries (1957)

SO EXCITED.

New Orleans vs BP

after spending a couple days down in New Orleans all I can say is this:

New Orleans is the fucking bomb.

for some crazy reason, this tight ass city has been screwed in all sorts of different ways (c.f. hurricane katrina). most recently one of BP's oil tanker exploded off of the gulf of mexico and now it's effecting marine life all over the south east. new orleans is dealing with the worst of it, especially since hurricane season is fast approaching.

think about what a hurricane carrying BP's gross ass oil would be like once it hit new orleans. what if the thunder set the skies on fire? WHAT IF PEOPLE THINK IT'S THE END OF DAYS?

well that hasn't happened yet but Agent Provocateur did a pretty cool stencil about the oil spil

Richard Colman Solo Exhibition

richard colman, a san francisco based artist, is having a show in santa monica this month. check out some of his art on his website.




i feel like everyone should always be down for some psychedelic eroticism, don't you?

here's the address if any of you wanna check it out:

New Image Art Gallery
7908 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90046
T: 323.654.2192

PACMAN 30th anniversery

I don't really enjoy video games but even I can appreciate google's home page today.

Ass to Mouth

The Human Centipede (The First Sequence)

It really says it all ladies and gentlemen

Telephone Remake

This is truly a masterpiece.

MUSE

Coachella may have happened over three weeks ago, but I'm still reeling from the phenomenal show that Muse put on. I think I have permanent eye damage from all those lazers. So worth it.

Here are some videos for you to enjoy.







This one's not from Coachella, but how amazing does this show look??

JULIA RANDALL

There is something fascinating about the human mouth. It's the way skin and meat fold outwards and expose deep reds and purples from within while simultaneously framing strange calcified white-ish structures. It's also the fact that our mouths are orifices that enclose one of the strongest muscles in our bodies- that strange pink wet-carpet like thing we call a tongue.

Whatever it may be, artist Julia Randall captures the exquisiteness of the human mouth in many of her drawings. Her weapon of choice is the colored pencil, and the results are simply amazing.

New Music

Why not share a new song?

BLUR IS BACK. Maybe....

Check it: http://www.blur.co.uk/

Powerful New M.I.A. Video

M.I.A. has been... well... M.I.A. for a while. Those who've missed her are in luck. Over Coachella weekend it was announced that her third album will be released later this summer, June 29th. And in the mean time, she's released a new single and video "Born Free." Directed by Romain Gavras who has done many videos for electronic artists like Justice, this is not work safe and is rather shocking.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Feminist Art Porn??

"Dirty Diaries (2009) is a collection of thirteen pornographic short films made by Swedish feminists. The idea for creating Dirty Diaries came after Engberg and some of her friends had made Come Together for the Stockholm Film Festival. It was a short where each participants filmed themselves with mobile phone cameras while masturbating. Come Together received a large amount of negative commentary, primarily from men, which complained about the actor-photographers as unattractive. To Engberg, this was proof that pornographic films demanded that its female participants should be seen as pleasing to its primarily male audience."

I came across this project while researching Fever Ray. Apparently Karin Dreijer Andersson (aka Fever Ray and half of The Knife) created the music for Dirty Diaries. The project is truly fascinating, and I encourage you to check out their official website and read their manifesto. I warn you, the trailer is NSFW.

The above photo is a still from one of the pieces entitled "Flasher Girl on tour," a semi-documentary manifesto of Swedish artist Joanna Rytel and her alter ego Flasher Girl, a woman flasher. In the film she travels to Paris where she exposes herself to men.

Happy 4/20

The Aesthetics of Prosthetics

This is Aimee Mullins. As a Division I track and field athlete at Georgetown University she ran the 100-meter dash in 17.01 seconds and jumped 3.14 meters (10' 4") in the long jump. She modeled for British fashion designer Alexander McQueen in 1999, and in 2002 she appeared in Mathew Barney's Cremaster 3. She's sexy, smart, and successful. She's also a bilateral amputee.

Aimee was born with fibular hemimelia (missing fibula bones) and had both legs amputated below the knee at age one. After her collegiate track career she began modeling in order to challenge normative conceptions of beauty and wholeness.





As well as redefining what a prosthetic should look like.

Sex, Drugs, HIV...and a really awesome PowerPoint

This is Elizabeth Pisani, a public health specialist talking about HIV treatment and prevention as it relates to the rationales of policy makers, voters, and those in at risk demographics. Her talk is amazing, and it's worth watching just to learn about the ins and outs of HIV prevention policy, but I felt like the PowerPoint she uses might be of particular interest to the aR[RGB] community. The design is impeccable, and I think it speaks to the power of graphic design to make complex sets of data--and the scientific reasoning extrapolated from them--accessible to non-specialists, thus allowing all thinking people to engage with intricate problems and do as Elizabeth charges her audience at the end of the presentation: demand informed, rational decisions from our leadership. Enjoy.

Green screen magic

So this director's career has skyrocketed with the above viral video. Check out the piece, its pretty amazing that it was all done with green screen and visual effects.

Read the Wired article to see the making of: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/04/nuit-blanche/

Pieter Hugo's Photography

Pieter Hugo has photographed different areas of Africa.

Turns out, Nigerian cinema, or "Nollywood," is the third largest film industry in the world, releasing about 1,000 movies via home rental.

Hugo's photos are moving and shocking, but mostly just beautiful.

http://www.pieterhugo.com/selected-work/nollywood/nollywoodescort.jpg/

Bruce Bickford and Stop-Motion Animation

Bruce Bickford may have been fried from too much acid, but an absolute artistic genius. When Frank Zappa found him, he immediately featured Bickford's work in his film "Baby Snakes" (which I HIGHLY recommend). Bickford's use of morphing clay-mation is incredible. The people in the video measure just 4mm high in height.

RIP Malcom Mclaren

Malcom Mclaren, legendery shocker, died of cancer yesterday. he's best known for discovering and managing the sex pistols, but he also opened up a store in London with his then girlfriend Vivienne Westwood called Sex. The store was only open for a couple of hours at night and didn't sell very much clothing, but it became a punk hang out.

he's a pretty awesome guy. apparently he got kicked out of 12 art schools one of which tried to get him committed to a mental hospital.

gotta love the punk movement...

BMW Art Cars

Since the 1970s, the German auto manufacturer BMW has asked select artists to paint/design their automobiles- including Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein. The latest of the artists that have been able to participate in this art-meets-auto tradition is Jeff Koons. Koons just unveiled his design concept for the car that will go on to the annual 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans, France.


Andy Warhol's design for BMW, 1979



Jeff Koon's concept design for BMW, 2010


You can check out the participating artists and their designs on here.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

The notorious (yet anonymous) Banksy just finished producing his first feature film. The street artist turned filmmaker put himself in front of the camera (completely blacked out and rocking a weird british synth voice) so that we can see all the super legit stencil creations and aerosol art stuff that he so brilliantly - and illegally - publisizes.

Mostly the film circulates around graffiti groupie Theirry Guetta and his love of filming these artists. Sounds like the narrative actually is about Mr. Brainwash's public exhibitions in LA.

Trailer:


Here are some works by Mr. Brainwash for those of you who are unfamiliar. I'm sure you guys have seen his stuff around LA at some point or another... I've noticed a lot of his stuff ends up being around La Brea and San Vicente...

Thank goodness all the shit in my room can be made into something cool...

Roski is having a class next semester called Ideas in Intermedia. One of their jumping off points is the work of Haim Steinbach.

"Steinbach displays objects, ranging from the natural to the ordinary, the artistic to the ethnographic, giving form to art works that illuminate objects’ aesthetic and social qualities. Exploring the psychological, cultural and ritualistic meanings of objects and their context, Steinbach has radically redefined the status of the object in art."

I love that ET is the focus in the piece above. Anyways, I'm not convinced if the class sounds pretentious or really really interesting....

Interview with Steinbach here. Reeeedz eight.

Moby - Wait For Me

In the name of shameless self promotion I present this: a music video I just finished working on for a competition for Moby.

Check it - Love it - Vote for it.

http://genero.tv/watch-video/4978/

For all you future filmmakers and music enthusiasts Genero TV is an awesome website that has constant competitions to make music videos. Not only do you win some cash, but your video also gets to be the official video for the artist.

Maarten Wetsema

Martin Wetsema
Beauty, 2003

Recipe for simultaneous "AWWWWW" and giggles. Dutch photographer, Maarten Wesema's work is comprised mostly of portraits of dogs. You can see the rest of his stuff here.

H Jon Benjamin of "Archer" is my voiceover crush

There's really nothing that needs to be said...

Wonderland Award//Lewis Carroll Portrait

Every year the USC Libraries hold a contest in order to promote the use of their Lewis Carroll/ Alice in Wonderland special collection. Here's a quick little video I whipped up of the later progress of a painting I made of Lewis Carroll for USC's Wonderland Award Contest. I've known for a while what I was going to make, I just don't know why I kept putting it off. I started painting it Monday and finished it this morning. The contest itself is fantastic and if you're a USC student, I would encourage you to participate. More details on the contest can be found here. I have yet to document the painting, so this low quality isight video will have to do for now.

Ada Lovelace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, is considered to be the first computer programmer. Women in science and math, hooray!

http://findingada.com

Coachella, Friday April 16th

In anticipation of coachella I'd like to share some videos by bands who will be performing Friday, April 16th.

Girls -





The XX





Vampire Weekend





Fever Ray





LCD Soundsystem


- David

Nostalgic for BMSR

With Coachella slowly coming upon us, I can't help but get put in the spirit of all things psychedelic, youthful, and mischievous. With bands like MGMT making the kaleidoscopic culture quite the trend, sometimes I get a bit discouraged with the extent we interpret psychedelic music, or art, or just the idea in general.

Cut to: Black Moth Super Rainbow

This group has been one of my favorites for a long time now. To put it simply, they are fresh. Their latest album Eating Us is a masterwork in post-rock/electronic music. For some reason they always seem to go under the radar. Maybe that's a good thing... BMSR stays legit album after album.

Eating Us is a 30 mph car ride down a street by the beach with your hand out the window; it is a dark cool night in your best friends' room with smoke in your eyes. It is the epitome of summertime. BMSR is the type of music you just put on and let play, let your mind wander and get really inspired - just what psychedelic music should be.

Under the influence or not, BMSR is a must listen. If you don't own their music just yet, get on this right away. Would be a refreshing addition to those Coachella playlists and mix-tapes we're all working on right now.

Here's a more recent track from Eating Us that has a pretty awesome music video.

-Andi

St. Vincent

This is the video for St. Vincent's "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood."

I discovered this solo female singer watching the Austin City Limits' coverage on PBS (if I wasn't a nerd before that sentence, I am now). She dropped out of Berklee School of Music in her third year to hitch up with Polyphonic Spree. This album "Actor" is so hipster you should really be listening to this on vinyl (psshhh), but the video is fairly strange and (I think) hilariously self-mocking. In fact, Fred Armisen has labeled himself somewhat of an indie-music comic, and often makes cameos in these artsy-fartsy vide0s.

Bringing New Understanding to the Director’s Cut

The eventual pattern of film editing will approach 1/f, a ratio thought to be related to attention and other mental processes

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02angi.html

Spike Jonze collaborates with Absolut Vodka

This month saw the premiere of "I'm Here," a short film written and directed by Spike Jonze for Absolut vodka. Although it was made for Absolut, there are no shots of the product in the film, which I really appreciated. I loved it, but considering I'm part of the company's target audience, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Robots, indie music, British accents, young love, L.A., AND Spike Jonze? Looks like someone did their research. You can watch the entire thing here: http://www.imheremovie.com/.

I'm here is a 30-minute love story about the relationship between two robots living in L.A. The film is written and directed by Spike Jonze. Andrew Garfield and Siena Guillory are in the lead roles, and the soundtrack includes original music by Sam Spiegel and original songs by L.A. based art musician Aska Matsumiya and other emerging musicians.

Here's the trailer:

La Blogotheque

here are some of the greatest blogotheque videos (in my opinion) ever. all directed by vince moon:

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck - "Heaven Can Wait"

Directed by Keith Schofield

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Heaven Can Wait from Charlotte Gainsbourg on Vimeo.

ramona falls - i say fever

Brent Knopf, former keyboardist/guitarist of Menomena, started a solo career under the name Ramona Falls. Pretty sick song, but the best part about it is the animation.

Stefan Nadelman directed the video and, oh by the way, his film Terminal Falls premiered at sundance in 2009.

Check out the trailer here.

Tarantino actually reached out to Gaga, explaining the cameo of the Pussy Wagon.

Very much a throwback to Russ Meyer and the extraordinary Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Walt Peregoy

Walt Peregoy was a background painter and color stylist at Walt Disney Productions in the 1950's and 60's. He worked as lead background painter on Sleeping Beauty (1959) and was the color stylist for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

Peregoy's innovative use of color and strong designs are still amazingly fresh, even fifty years later.

http://cartoonmodern.blogsome.com/2007/04/21/101-dalmatians-color-keys-by-walt-peregoy/

michael alan: draw-a-thon

Michael Alan, Brooklyn based artist, started doing these insane participatory art exhibits around New York. Draw-a-thon's consist of finding a space, inviting tons of people to said space, creating living sculptures amongst everyone and then drawing,

drawing,

and drawing more.

BRING DRAW-A-THONS TO LA!



DRAW-A-THON: featured in NY Times from Michael Alan on Vimeo.
get some more visual masturbation by checking out more cool things by Michael Alan.