Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?

UNDER CONSTRUCTION...



What's up out there in dreamland?

It's been awhile since I've been in the neighborhood. Been slowly trying to acclimate to 2010. Been interesting so far on many different levels...

I'ma lay low for awhile. I'm going to lock myself in and force myself to work. Like I'm my own pimp. I wanna vurk on my output before I give you my input, if you know what I mean (More than likely, you don't.).



But seriously, Fokkers, I wanna have some all new & all awesome stuff to show you, so I'm gonna chill on the regular posts (You're all heart broken, I know. I can hear the cries and sniffles as I type this.), only chiming in every once and awhile to share any lil' juicy nuggets that I should happen to shite out along the way.



P.S. (Oscar Stylez)

I know AVATAR is going to probably FORREST GUMP its way to Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year (Not that it really matters, though. Right?), but I'm pulling for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS or... THE HURT LOCKER.






Liked AVATAR. A lot actually (Not treading new ground, storywise, but a technical marvel. Yes, it did, indeed, fuck my eyes, folks.). I haven't seen all of the Best Picture noms (10 this year!). Just a handful, but there is no way in mind, any of the others (As much as I enjoyed UP, and as much as I love me some Coens...) could possibly touch the emotional impact (Both in very different ways.) that these two flicks had for me. Plus I'm a huge sucka for both QT and Kathryn Bigelow, so... SUCK IT!!!

So consider that juicy nugget shat.

B

Art Gallery: "New Eden". This is a photograph of an 11" x 14" piece done on bristol. It's the first in a series of illustrations I've been working on for awhile (And I use that word broadly.) now. The series is tentatively entitled "Food". I hope to have a better scan of this up in the future.



Click for a bigger bite of his apple...

Sigh...

Hola!!! I know, it's been awhile (Like you care!), but so far, 2010 has been a lil' bumpy. At least with certain aspects of "mi vida loca". But I'm tryin' to prepare myself for things. What things? All I can say is... "things". We'll leave that at that and...


On the comic book scene, I recommend that y'all check out writer Cristos Gage's "Absolution" (With art by Roberto Viacava.) from Avatar Press. This is a real solid read, folks. The premise: A serial killer is on the loose. But this serial killer is different. He is a cop. A super powered cop to be exact (He can create a kind of aura that can manifest itself physically around/through him. He wields it like a weapon, impaling and ripping through his victims, a seemingly untraceable weapon.). His name is John Dusk. But he isn't your typical viscious pycho. He is conflicted about the things he does. But he has become so disallusioned by the inadequacy of the justice system, that he slowly comes to the realization that "his work" is the only way to make the scum really pay. He starts to find his mind and his world unraveling, and must struggle to keep his sanity, all the while trying to keep his dark secret from his collegues (There are other super powered cops on the force.) and his lady (Also a detective on the force, though she has no powers.).

That's the gist. I don't wanna get too much into it 'cause I don't wanna spoil anything should you decide to take the ride. The writing is top notch. This is Gage's baby (He currently writes books for Marvel & DC.) all the way. He expertly builds up the tension for the readers, who no doubt will find themselves riveted by Dusk and his dilimma. The design of the characters is strong, but the finished artwork leaves a little to be desired. Viacava style is serviceable to the story, but I find it a little stiff and it just lacks that extra lil' something that this type of story requires.

TALES FROM THE SHUFFLE (Mega Catch Up Styles):

1/6/10:

1. "Hunting Bears" - Radiohead

2. "Weak Spot" - Wu-Tang Clan

3. "The Next Shit" - Pharoahe Monch feat. Busta Ryhmes

4. "Only You" [Live] - Portishead - Live from 'All Tomorrow's Parties'

5. "I'll Be Your Man" - The Black Keys

1/7/10:

1. "The Big Rip-Off" - Augustus Pablo

2. "(Only Rasta Know The) Voice of Jah" - Mikey Dread - Taken from the Madlib mixtape, "Blunted In The Bomb Shelter".

3. "She Said, She Said" - The Black Keys

4. "Redman" - Kenna

5. "Trapped Underfoot" - Led Zeppelin


1/8/10:

1. "Strange Times" - The Angel - From the 1998 "Deep Concentration" compilation.
2. "Tilijem's Forest" - Nobody

3. "Insensatez" - Antonio Carlos Jobim - From the soundtrack for David Lynch's dark film noir, "Lost Highway".
4. "Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd

5. "House of The Rising Sun" [Live] - Cat Power - In typical Cat Power fashion (Reworked lyrics and all.), this unorthodox cover of The Animals' classic has been stripped down to just a piano and Chan's beautiful voice.

1/11/10:

1/2: "Holden On Affleck" - Dialogue from "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" by Kevin Smith - The funny thing is Holden IS Affleck (Or played by him anyhow.)

1. "I've Been Thinking" - Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Cat Power - The best song off of the "White People" album, bar none (And the whole album kicks ass!). A perfect collaboration. The stars aligned on this one.

2. "You May Know Him" - Cat Power - I don't what's up. I've got 11,000+ songs on my iPod, and she just seems to keep popping up. I'm not complaining, mind you.

3. "Big T.W.I.N." [Instrumental] - Twins - Not a fan of the acutal group ( They're afilliated with Mobb Deep and have appeared with them on tracks.), but always down for any Alchemist instrumental.
4. "Burning Down The House" - Talking Heads - What's to say? Classic.

5. "Dumb" - Nirvana - One o' my fave Nirvana joints.


1/12/10:

1. "Silence" - Portishead - The opening track of the third album entitled (Wait for it)... "Third".

2. " Still In Love" - Cat Power - And here she is again...

3. "Craig's Overture" - Carter Burwell - From the Spike Jonez/Charile Kaufman mindfuck of a flick, "Being John Malkovich". If you haven't seen it, what the fuck is your problem.
4. "Rocket" - Cat Power - ...and again. This is one of my favorite Chan songs. The imagery it conjures is (Here comes the pun..) out of this world.
5. "Love For Sale" - Freedom Power - From the awesome Italian soundtrack compilation, "Stroboscopia".



That's all for now. I'ma go check out Katherine Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" right about now. Hear nothing but good things. I love me some Bigelow (Expect "K-19: The Widowmaker". Sorry. Harry Ford ain't no Ruskie!)!!!! Let'cha know whats the haps on this flick when next I return.

Have a bad-ass weekend everyperson.

B


Art Gallery: "World's Finest" - Just a lil' Bats & Supes for that azz!!!



POW!!! BANG!!! ZIP!!! CLICK...

2010!!!! (Only two more years left 'til John Cusack really has to go out and dodge those damn natural disasters. Fuckin' Mayans...)


But anyway...

HAPPY EFFIN' NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!

I hope to hell that you all had a great time celebratin' the coming (Hee-hee.) of 2010. I didn't do shit, and had to turn in early 'cause apparently, I'm not on the right page or 'the same page' as I should be with certain people. (Nevermind. Long story. No moral.)



To everyone else, WOO-HOO!!!! And I hope the next 363 days of this year are 'tits' for you and all and your families. (Unless, of course, I hate you. Then in that case, a big FUCK YOU to you and yours!!!)

Sorry. Apologies. That wasn't me... NOT!!!


Flickie Quickie:

Check out:

District 9 - As good as you've heard. The special effects are "something like a phenomenon".

Paranormal Activity - Not as good as you've heard, but probably really effective at home... in the dark... really loud. I'd recommend watching it with the more classically effective theatrical ending. And then watch the much, much, much darker alternate ending as an extra afterwards. I unfortunately saw it for the first time with this ending, and while I usually lean towards darker, I felt in this case, the original ending worked better. Wow. I sure did ramble about that shit. Anyway. Worth a rental. I would have felt ripped the fuck off if I paid to see it the the theater. Suckaz!!!

Public Enemies - Good performances all around (It's fun to peep the great actors that show up in small, small roles.). The action set pieces - jail breaks, bank robberies & tense getaways - are filmed with typical Michael Mann gusto. A little looong at 2 horas y 20 minutos. And I thought, in this instance, Mann should have gone with film over digital. Appreciated the doc feel it gives, but didn't work for me given the time period of the piece. Still say, peep it. Johnny Depp. C'mon!

All are out NOW on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Aaaaaannnnnndddddd...

Here are the last three TALES FROM THE SHUFFLE for 2009:


12/29/09


1. "Rotten World Blues" - Eels - From the four track 'Rotten World Blues EP' included with 2002's 'Souljacker' album.

2. "Dangerous Mindz" - Gravediggaz - The opening track (After the 'Intro' - Hey, it is a hip-hop album, after all. Need those Intros, Skits & Outros...) off of the their second joint.

3. "NYC Everything" - Rza - "Stuck to your ass like a Victoria's Secret wedgie." Rza and Meth trading verses like two champs. Plus, come on, "Stuck to your ass like a Victoria's Secret wedgie." !!!

4. "Rainy Day" - Shuggie Otis - A sick instrumental joint. Cool for just chillin' out on a cold, wet winter's day. (Or fuck it, any day'll work.) Shuggie works the funk.


5. "... Meets His Maker" - DJ Shadow - Off of the 'Private Press'. The companion piece to the album's eariler track, "Mongrel...". Classic Shadow.


12/30/09

1. "Shadows Drown" - Company Flow - From the instrumental album, "Little Johnny From the Hospital". Dark, sonic beatscapes from the dirty underground of New York.


2. " Don't Give Up" - Peter Gabriel feat. Kate Bush - From Gabriel's 1996 album 'So'.


3. "Two Of Us" - The Beatles - The 'naked' version of this 'lesser-known' (By me anyways.) Beatles song.


4. "Lick Samba" - Bob Marley


5. "Do Your Thing" - Lynn Collins - From the 'Kings Of...' series. This is from the 'Kings Of Funk' compiled by The Rza and Keb Darge. This is a bad ass lil' funk diddy.


12/31/09


1. "Nigga Please" - Ol' Dirty Bastard - The title track off of the late 'Big Baby Jesus' second album. Also what I said at Starbucks when I found out they ran out of Caramel Brulee Lattes (Actually, I didn't say that, but now I wish I did.).


2. "Roygbiv" - Boards Of Canada - A sonic soundscape. Some of this shit will make your mind bleed through your ears.

3. "Pretty" - The Cranberries - Shout out to J. Alex Koss out there in Ireland. Get me some of Delores O'Riordan's panties!


4. "Bbydhyonchord" - Aphex Twin - Another Oi-rish laddie (Although, I don't want any of his panties, Alex.). 'Drukqs' (The double album off which this track comes from.) is definitely a unique listening experience. It deftly blends fierce and furious electronic tinged beats and counters them with some pensive, more reflective string and piano pieces.


5. "Phesto" - Phesto - Off of Bay Area hip-hop collective, Heiroglyphics' 2001 album 'Third Eye Vision'. Just a lil' sumpthin' from one of the founding members of Souls of Mischief.

Thasallfonowfokkers.

Still workin' on the 'corndog' pieces and other nifty things. Trying to get back into using acrylics. I like 'em over the slooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww drying nature of oil paint (Which I was never into when we had to use 'em in school.)

B

Art Gallery: "Desert Heat". A photo of a large sketchbook piece. One of my favorites of my older stuff. I was really happy with the varying line weights I got using those Sakura micron pens (Expensive lil' fuckers, but worth it, I think.) You likes?



Click for bigger 'head'... and 'tail'.

It's XMAS EVE, but you knew that. If you didn't, you're probably dead.




TALES FROM THE SHUFFLE:

Gettin' a lil' spotty with this shit, I know, but if I don't write the shit down right away in the mornin', the brain farts all day. I try, for the life of me to remember, but I hear waaayyy too much music during the day to try and bring it back from the haze sometimes. So here is a sampling of some shit that I heard over the last few days...

12/24/09


1. "Kiss On My List" - Hall & Oates - Yes. For real.


2. "American Flag" [Live] - Cat Power - From Bernal, Switzerland, November 26 1998. My bud, Jr. hooked me up with this recording of the show. I've never seen her live, and I'm sure it's a lil' different now that she is 'happy', but you can't beat this old shit. I love that it's not all polish. It's what it is. You're in a smokey lil' hole-in-the-wall joint and Chan is pouring her shit out pure and raw.


3. "Sam" - Massive Attack - Another track off of the "Danny The Dog" (aka "Unleashed") soundtrack. I love that this album can stand alone and doesn't rely on the fact that it is a soundtrack from a Jet Li flick, and doesn't have all kinds of shitty, cookie cutter hip-hop like you might expect.


4. "Out The Way" - Ghostface Killah feat. Wigs - Off of the double-billed album "Put It On The Line" featuring Ghostface and Trife Da God. 'Course the Ghostface shit is the good shit. I'm not sold on all of the lil' Wu affiliates. There a few like Killarmy, Sunz Of Man, Street Life & Black Knights that are solid. But some of these other cats are so-so.



5. "Take Up Space" - Lord Superb feat. Solomon Childs - Another one of Ghostface's cronies. Sick beat but not big on his delivery. Too loose for the beat.

12/23/09


1. "Numb" [Live] - Portishead - From 'All Tomorrow's Parties, UK', December 8, 2007. Cool show with some of the new shit off of the 'Third' album and other classic 'P'.



2. " Vexed & Glorious" - Kenna - Off of the 'New Sacred Cow' album.


3. "Fistful Of Peanuts" - Spacemonkeyz Vs. Gorillaz - A reworking of Gorillaz' biggest hit, 'Clint Eastwood' off of the album 'Laika Come Home', a brilliant collabo that reconstructed tracks off of the Gorillaz first album and transformed them into laid back 'dub' joints.


4. "Tribute To Monk & Canatella" - Portishead - A rather dope-like jazzy instrumental track from the 'P' off of the 'Glory Times' EP - which combined two import maxi-singles (With remixes of 'Sour Times' and 'Glory Box' and other b-side material.) into one package.


5. "Sound Of Fear" - Eels - Lyric sample: "Some people like to call me Chuck. It's Charles and you are shit out of luck." Good shit, to say the least.

A lil' sampling of other missle anal-ous tracks that I heard...

"Streets Disciple" - NaS

"Oh Donna" - Cappadonna feat. Ghostface

"La Feme d'Argent" - Air

"Big Acts, Little Acts" - Afu-Ra feat. Gza

"Saturday Morning" - Eels
"Let Me See" - Morcheeba

"Go Slowly" - Radiohead

B

Art Gallery: Two religious-themed sketches fo' that ass. "Gabriel" and "Father". Still workin' on the some new shit and hope to have a sampling sooner rather than later. Chickenjoy!!!






Click for a bigger...

Catchin' up real quick-like fo' I hit up the new Milpi IHOP!!!



TALES FROM THE SHUFFLE:


12/18/09:


1. "Please Stay [Yesterday]" - El-P - The main dude behind underground hip-hop group Company Flow, and the founder of the Def Jux record label. This dude is brilliant. Hard, dirty, synth heavy beats (Heavily influenced by 80's synth soundtracks ala John Carpenter.) and never baking with cookie cutter lyrics (He's worked with the likes of Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Mr. Lif, Trent Reznor, Cat Power, Del The Funky Homosapien and many, many more...). This is off of his jazz-fusion album, 'High Water'. Peep it!


2. "Natural Mystic" - Bob Marley - Bob is God, but spelled B-O-B.


3. "Bachelorette [Live]" - Björk - Another great one from the 'Live Box' version of the 'Homogenic' album. I saw her at the Shoreline a couple a few years ago. I'll tell you, she does not half-ass it one bit.


4. "When Something is Wrong With My Baby" - Sam & Dave - From the second volume of the Hughes Bros' "Dead Presidents" soundtrack. Years and years and millenia ago, Criterion had a sweet laserdisc of this flick. So how come the dvd (out for years) sucks ass when it comes to special features. Haven't bought this flick yet because of it.


5. "Show" - Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man - Dark, moody song from the Portishead vocalist's solo joint. Would be perfect for a movie soundtrack (My idea, so fucker take it so I can use it in the [distant?] future.

Have a good weekend. Finish that Xmas shopping, asses!!! (I wear XL tops & Size 11-12 shoes. I'll also take gift cards and CASH, if you're not feeling original or creative...)

B

Art Gallery: Nada para hoy!

I Ron, Man...

Here it is! The trailer for IRON MAN 2. Lookin' pah-ritty good, thus far.

Wat'cha tink?!




B

>>>>>>>>>>> * <<<<<<<<<<<

WhuTiTizz???

Just checkin' in wif you real quick, mother folkers.



TALES FROM THE SHUFFLE:

12/15/09


1. "Absolutely Nothing" - Lily Allen - B-side from the "Smile" single. I'm a sucker for chicks with British accents... and third nipples.


2. "Wrong 4 Dat" - Redman - Constantly entertaining.

3. " Get Together" - Beastie Boys feat. Q-Tip - Classic. Sick ass beat. It's like sitting in on a freestyle session at like 4 in the morning. Eastern time.


4. "Take It There" - The Roots - Quest?Love is a maniac on dem drums.


5. "Brush Descends The Length" - Stereolab - It's repetition pounds its way into your head and causes you to float into the atmosphere. Singer Laetitia Sadier's voice is poppy perfection. I need to explore this group some more in the future...

12/16/09


1. "I Will Not Apologize" - The Roots - One thing about The Roots is that their albums are always consistent. There's rarely any filler or 'skits'. It's cool that they are constantly exploring and evolving. I think it comes from actually being 'a band' and not just a rap act.


2. "New Life" - Depeche Mode - Upbeat Depeche Mode.


3. "Distant Land" - Madlib - Brilliant album. Madlib gets open access to the Blue Note Jazz catalog and is given free reign to remix and reinterpret as only he can. Peep it and chill.


4. "Strangers" - Portishead - This track hits hard. Off of P's debut album, "Dummy". One of my faves groups of a.t.

5. "Here Comes The Judge" - Ol' Dirty Bastard - I love me some Wu, but this "album", which the Wu had nuthin' to do with, is garbage as it's mostly remixes and old shit, unreleased shit set to whack ass gangsta beats. The best is the 'skit' where ODB is actually taking a shit and it's being recorded!



I'ma try to make all next week (Time allowing, o' course.), XMAS FLICK WEEK. The wife and I checked out Vince Vaughn's "Four Christmases" a couple of weeks ago. (Not bad! Nothing mind blowing though. I miss when Favs & Vince had a lil' edge. Like in "Made". Or Vince Vaughn in the underrated "Clay Pigeons" from a years back.) I busted out three Xmas classics from the dvd vault - "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", "Bad(der) Santa" & the Will Ferrell, Jon Favreau directed modern Xmas classic, "Elf". That should do me till Xmas eve. I might work in a couple o' more.

On the immediated flick agenda for the weekend is... (To finish) "Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince", Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" & (I know. I haven't seen it yet! Get off my nards!) "The Hangover" [Unrated].

B

Art Gallery: "Mission To...". A pencil drawing that I might take to a more advanced stage somewhere down the road. I like his Euro-mustachio.




Click me, please. Make me big...