Today, I also popped down to Paddo and finally visited the Topshop pop up store on the 2nd floor of Incu. It’s ok. More interestingly, I went into a mod pop art gallery with a great and awesome selection of signed prints by Kozyndan. The gallery in question is Outre Gallery.
I will buy the Takanodaba on Acid when I move house next year.
I always remember that scene where Harrison Ford is about to order noodles from like this floating Asian noodle spaceship but his colleague stops him in his tracks. Or the one when he’s running after the female replicant wearing the transparent raincoat and the multiple awesome flyby city scenes like the one above. Bladerunner is just one of those movies where visuals > content and it’s something I find admirable, although the storyline itself was good as well. Sometimes it just doesn’t matter what you’re looking at because it’s just beautiful.
Ooh, here’s a good one. It’s an anime that came out back in 2006. Tekkonkinkreet is the story of a pair of street urchins who rule the backstreets of Treasure Town, side by side with the yakuza. Even the police recognise them as a force to be reckoned with. Black, is the older of the two and like his name suggests, is the darker, serious and more responsible one. He takes care of White, who’s younger, more carefree and innocent. Together, they’re like yin and yang, balanced in harmony and they call themselves The Cats.
An evil yakuza/amusement park developer dude called Snake comes into town and manages to convince the local yakuza to bow to his vision of progress and development. This includes building a brand new amusement park in Treasure Town, eroding away the very essence that makes Treasure Town Treasure Town. Snake wants to take over the place and turn it into his own joint, a soulless, corporate everytown that’s just another money spinner for the greedy mob bosses. He’s got 3 goons with him, robotic and probably German, that are assigned to assasinate The Cats, who represent the last vestige of vitality and innocence that is Treasure Town. In amongst this is also the side story involving an older yakuza head trying to guide his protege and doing it Obi-Wan style. Ultimately, it’s about the reality of life and that pursuit of money that chips away the values that make us human.
It is superbly crafted, chock fulla action and absolutely beautiful. The animation is slick and stylish with loads of awesome action shots. The protagonists literally bounce around the screen, defying gravity and defying logic. It’s a fantasy set in ultra detailed Japanese alleyways, in a town that’s a perpetual Disneyland, colored with the paraphernalia that you’d expect from a Miyazaki fantasy on acid. Director Michael Arias based the film on the comic by Taiyo Matsumoto and the art is a riot of color, bright and delirious. This is juxtaposed by the dream/fantasy sequences which sway and swirl in washed out, brushy drawings like that of a child.
Check the trailer for less gibberish moar visuals.
I iZ oN pHAiZZZzZZbuUuKKkK!!1111!!!1 (at last) U iZ cAn C mY iZ p1cpo5tings lololLoL!
warnign! iz NSFW sum tings. butt iz laffing or mega goosebumpps! or pukingz!!!!!! mak su re y iz 2 not b eat fud or drin king sum juuz wen c pixorz!11
/sUmMuN KiNG oF PoPcOrN
Waltz With Bashir is an Isreali animated documentary that has been nominated and awarded to the high heavens. A drastically stylish take on the events leading up to the Sabra & Shatila massacre in 1982, the viewer follows director Ari Folman as he tries to rediscover his memories as a soldier for the Isreali Defence Force during that time. He is visited by a friend haunted by dreams caused by the war, some 20 odd years ago, which triggers his own hallucinations. His friend advises him to investigate and find out just what happened, so he goes off to talk to various people involved. Piece by piece, the details of that tragic event are revealed, woven into an incredibly sad tale about the horrors of war.
The title for the film comes a scene within the film itself, when one interviewee, Frenkel, bursts out onto a street in the middle of heavy shooting, and breaks into an absurd waltz, with posters of Bashir Gemayel. Bashir had just been elected president of Lebanon but was then murdered. The massacre the film looks into was revenge for that killing. It’s probably the most dramatic, unbelieveable shot in the film. The pic below shows Frenkel’s feet dancing as the shells fall out of his MAG machinegun.
Waltz is gripping and engaging, tainted by the trauma of war. As an outsider, I cannot begin to understand the true events or the complexities that would lead people to commit crimes like the one portrayed in the film. I can only sit in my cosy albeit ergonomically shitty little chair and postulate on a world far removed from my own and remain comforted that it is so. Beautiful as the Max Richter enabled soundtrack is, I feel guilty that someone feels the need to color over a tragedy to make it easier to swallow.
Another scene I remember well, is when one of the soldiers reminisces how he was on a boat and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Enola Gay played like it was a party until everything gets blown to bits. The song, references the B-29 bomber that dropped that jawn on Hiroshima in WWII. Call it hippie, peace loving crap if you want, but civilians and innocents do not deserve getting the shit. Ever.
Filed under: Design, Fashion, Graphics, Music, Photography | Tags: new wave, raf simons, steez
I somehow came across this image. You can see a guy wearing a jacket that has New Order, Bauhaus (the band) and OMD patches on it. There’s also a Factory Records logo in the background and I’m pretty sure that’s the cover to Joy Division’s Closer on the left.
I somehow was completely clueless that it was an image from a Raf Simons book. Or that he had full access to Peter Saville’s work for his AW 03/04 collection.
Filed under: Art, Comedy, Culture, Film, Food, Graphics, Politics | Tags: surrealism
The DVD cover art for Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie has got a giant pair of lips with some feet and a big hat. Its kinda cute and says a good bit about what the film involves. Instead of a face, we get enlarged, fetishized elements of a person, presumably someone who puts on airs. A big black hat, glossy painted lips and high heeled shoes.
Its a satire in the strongest sense of the word, not just poking fun, more outright denouncing the subject matter entirely. I wouldn’t say its funny though. Its really cynical and pokerfaced. You may be puzzled by the odd sequencing and bewildered by the situations but I never had a laugh out loud moment, that’s for sure. I don’t even think I snickered.
The central element of the film is the attempts of a group of upper class donks to get together for a meal. They try their best, but a combination of unfortunate events and their animalistic impulses deny them this. Towards the end, they even sit down and get to the main course, but Bunuel denies them the finish. These dogs aren’t even allowed a simple meal.
The subversion is obvious. Its purposeful but not spiteful. These crusty, fako folks are pathetic, sad creatures. You almost feel sorry for them. They gather and shoot shit, mostly shitting on a fictitious country and the ambassador, or talking about how their poncey food is so good. They do the same thing 500 times over. It’s sad. Plus, they can’t even finish what they wanted to do. From a simple misunderstanding to the death of a restaurant manager to an army invading the room, we get a whole spread of crazy interruptions. Which saves us from the boring episodes of inane behaviour amongst the preening actors.
Every facet of the Bourgeois is given a grilling here, even the church. A Bishop with a green finger fetish joins the group, buffoon like in one interchange where he reveals the depth of his lack of knowledge. He appears at first in his robes, greeted with a kiss by a maid but returns in gardening gear and gets ushered out by the owners of a house. Yet, in Clark Kent swiftness, he rings the bell again and is greeted with apologies when he’s back in the robes. Clothes maketh the man. If he were wearing papal robes, they’d probably take him for the pope too.
Then there’s the dream sequences. The characters get into nighmarish situations, where they variously end up in jail only to be saved by a dead policeman or they end up as actors on a stage when they thought they were going for dinner, even forgetting their lines. There’s dreams within dreams and these get stitched together by the 6 main characters walking down a lonely road in a huge field with no destination in sight. Rather peasant status for some rich folk.
It’s one big slap in the face for anyone who thinks they’re anything more than the apes we really are. There are those who will feel aghast at the thought of themselves as pretentious twats. Then there are those who think it’s a massive insult. Then there may be those who might dismiss it as mere entertainment. And yet others might actually trump the film as some sort of masterpiece, like the Academy For Motion Picture Arts And Sciences handing out the Oscar Discreet Charm won for best foreign language film back in ‘73.
Filed under: Comedy, Fashion, Graphics, Sport, kpnv | Tags: football, t-shirts
Was digging through my old clothes, looking for something to wear when I came across the above. I made it myself, dyed a plain white Uniqlo tee a minty green. (It was supposed to be kelly green but I didn’t use enough dye or whatever.) Then I stole a picture of Jurgen Klinsmann in a diving motion and posterized it before masking a layer and adding some text in a font I can no longer remember the name of.
It says, rather faintly, “Let’s All Do The Klinsmann”. I shoulda used a darker color and/or bigger font but whatever.
And that’s what I printed on the top of the back.
This shit prolly took me like 5 hours to do. Which is maybe 1 hour masking the thing, 3 hours sleeping, 30 mins with the font/color and 30 mins printing/ironing. I wanted a green shirt so it’d look like a footy pitch. I had a sense of humor back then. Sorry Spurs fans.
Filed under: Comedy, Fashion, Film, Gadgets, Graphics, Music | Tags: wes anderson
If you can’t tell, I’ve been utilizing Singapore’s high speed internet quite a bit recently, since I’ve also been down with the cold from eating too much heaty durian. Anyway, enough of confessions.
I like Wes Anderson. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is one of those typically offbeat films that’s right up my alley. It stars Bill Murray in the lead role as Steve Zissou, who’s probably based on Jacques Cousteau. He’s the captain of a ship that makes film documentaries of their adventures, which involve many fantastical sea creatures and mysteries of the deep blue. At the start of the film, he’s depressed because his best friend and first mate, Esteban, gets eaten by the elusive Jaguar Shark. His recent work has also been panned by the media and critics and he’s in a bit of a life crisis.
A man who claims to be his son, Owen Wilson’s Ned Plimpton character, manages to reignite Zissou’s drive somewhat and he is determined to find the creature that ate his friend. He rallies his crew, which includes his wife and the brains behind Team Zissou, Angelica Huston’s Eleanor, Seu Jorge more or less playing himself as Pele, Willem Dafoe’s Klaus, who sees Zissou as a father, Cate Blanchett’s pregnant reporter hottie as well as a token Indian guy, a token Japanese guy, a token Russian guy, a token Italian guy and a token script girl who’s usually topless. Jeff Goldblum plays Zissou’s nemesis, Alaistair Hennessey and there’s also a producer with lovely octogonal glasses, a “Bond Company Stooge”, a bunch of interns on the ship and Filipino pirates to complete the large-ish cast.
We get to see their adventures, which seem like a blend of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with a mockumentary style. There’s the cutaway side view of the boat, where you get introduced to the various partitions. One particular scene is quite memorable as you see Zissou and Ned walking through the whole ship, which includes a “science lab”, a recording studio and a spa. Oh there’s also 2 homing dolphins that accompany the ship plus a helicopter and have I mentioned they have their own private island with a killer whale?
Much like The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic is filled with tons of minutely detailed, unique to the film stuff. These manage to help create a very vivid picture of a world with imaginary places, filled with color and character. Its a romantic idea of the old world time of exploration and adventure, before cold hard science eliminated the idea of magic and fantasy and kids really believed in Santa Claus.
Standard issue on the boat, the Adidas Zissou edition Rom, which was part of a failed internet campaign to get Adidas to reproduce it. Plz excuse shitty lace job.
I loved the costumes and the identity design for the film. Zissou’s insignia was a big Z in baby blue over a white background, with 2 smaller Zs at the top left and bottom right. They also wear similar baby blue tracksuits and red beanies as well as sweaters with a Z stitched in white. Its like a tacky sort of Scandinavian Navy/Star Trek uniform concept. Even Zissou’s nemesis, Hennessey, had a white and gray H logo amidst a psuedo gay concept seeing as his ship is full of boys with swept back blonde hair wearing shorts.
The music is superb, with work from Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh mingling with Sigur Ros (perfect match for that scene) and Seu Jorge’s Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs.
I think the film is one that definitely appeals to the boys. Its chock full of boy concepts like deep sea adventures and cool gadgets and funky uniforms and harpoons and glocks and shit. Missed/repressed childhood x missing patriarchal connections status. Quirky for sure, and makes you wish life really was like that. Pure escapism at its mocking best.
Brian Eno has a music generation app for the iPhone called Bloom, which basically allows you to listen to or create some ambient style music if you’re so inclined.
A similar program is Electroplankton, by Toshio Iwai, which I gleaned off the previous viddy’s comments. This one is for the Nintendo DS and introduces a more varied interface with interesting sandbox style results.
