Here’s pop culture superbrain and potential Provigil poster child Douglas Wolk on the way to moderate his gazillionth panel of the weekend. In addition to being a complete sweetheart, Douglas is one of the most influential journalists in the industry. His fantastic book Reading Comics has been nominated for an Eisner Award this year. Congrats, mister!
EDIT: Reading Comics won the 2008 Will Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book! YAY, DOUGLAS!
A comely consortium of Slave Leias gathered at Gentle Giant‘s booth this morning to pose with GG’s larger (and droolier)-than-life Jabba statue. Not pictured: legions of mouth-breathing Frito-eaters with cheap instant cameras and sweatpants boners.
How hot is this? Needs to be worn with a space helmet, though. Another lavish image after the cut, and more from this collection at Scherer Gonzalez’s site.
Previously in futuristic fashion:
[thanks, Storm]
Rage, rage! Against the frying of the… oh, nevermind.
It’s only the end of the first full day of SDCC 2008. I’m already shattered. Pray for me.
Once you start down the dark path, salve forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will!
Huzzah, comrades! I’m here at the 38th annual San Diego Comic Convention, the smelliest largest comic book and popular arts convention in the entire world. ‘Tis a strange and wondrous place, brimming over with fascinating media, enthusiastic people, stimulating conversation, and entertaining outbursts from shut-ins with socially crippling personality disorders. Over the next few days, I’ll be sending you postcards from the proverbial edge. To start things off, here’s some free product placement for the new iPhone:
Figure A: Russia’s bad kids [via]
Oh, modern Russia! My former homeland, with your gold-plated toilets, your polonium, your hotpants, your outdated military technology, your simple modesty… how you continue to enchant me with your many wonders! Especially when it comes to feats of social engineering. Witness, for example, the Kremlin’s ingenious new plan to ban emo and goth, as reported by The Moscow Times:
State Duma deputies, Public Chamber members and social conservatives have hammered out legislation aimed at heading off the spread of emo culture, which they describe as a “dangerous teen trend.” The Duma last month held a parliamentary hearing on a raft of proposed amendments contained in a document called “Government Strategy in the Sphere of Spiritual and Ethical Education,” a copy of which was obtained by The Moscow Times. Among other measures, the proposed legislation calls for heavy regulation of emo web sites and for banning young people dressed like emos from entering schools and government buildings. The bill also outlines what it calls a “spiritual and ethical crisis” facing Russian youth, including the high rate of alcohol abuse, teen abortions and “negative youth movements.” Emo ideology encourages and justifies drug use and sexual relations among minors, according to the bill, which also lumps emos and goths together with skinheads.
Negative youth movements? Sexual relations among minors? Of course you’d never encourage such a thing, Russia. Certainly not with government funds! And especially not if they dress like Anonymous! Oh, wait…
Update: Zo adds, “just wanted to supplement the post with this link submitted to me this morning by Apaniyam on Flickr. There is talk of curfews, a ban on body mods and more.
Under the new measures, schools would be prohibited from celebrating Western holidays like Halloween and St. Valentine’s Day, which are deemed inappropriate to “Russian culture.” Toys in the shape of monsters or skeletons would be banned as “provoking aggression.”
Bonus extended remix: compare and contrast to the Mexican government’s treatment of its young emo citizens. After violence against the subculture increased, government officials actually launched a campaign to promote understanding under the slogan “for the freedom of being young, live and let live.” Russia vs. Mexico: it’s on!
Figure B: Russia’s good kids [via]. The one with the asymmetrical bangs is about to be seized and removed from the scene.
[thanks, Milly.]
..is what I would say if this concept design for a fingernail timepiece were to actually make it into our daily lives. From the 2154: The Future of Time Design website:
TX54 is a disposable timepiece that is worn on the user’s thumbnail. While its translucency makes it blend seamlessly with the hand, a selection of text color options and a glow feature that activates on command make it easy to read.
Now, forget the finger. Wouldn’t you prefer to simply know the time, without having to think about it? On second thought, that might be a little maddening, especially for those as obsessed with the passage of time as your truly. In any case, here it is:
Sublimex is worn on the eye like a contact lens where it periodically flashes the time so quickly that the brain isn’t conscious of how it got the information. The user seems to simply know the time, raising a host of possibilities about how the nature of clockwatching would change.
But you see, we live in a time where designers make drooling lechers of us all. They flaunt their charts, mock-ups, concept art and shiny 3-D models without concrete promise of these ideas ever making it into our homes, laps, nails, etc. But I always come back for more, grateful to them for bringing this Future For The Home we dream of just a little closer.
[Thanks, Kris!]
Saturday night marked the opening reception of the Fantastic Contraption exhibit I’ve been blustering about. Curated by Device Gallery owners Greg and Amy Brotherton, this show focuses on man, machine and the fusion of the two.
A very happy Greg Brotherton with his work.You may have seen Greg on Coilhouse before – read Nadya’s writeup here.
Device is nestled comfortably among dozens of galleries near the ocean. The touristy neighborhood is full of art, boutiques and eateries but there’s nothing quite like Device here! The gallery has plenty going for it besides its location, too – its spacious interior is overflowing with art I’d only dreamed of seeing in one place. Where else can you see H.R. Giger hanging alongside the huge canvases of Eduard Anikonov, wander beneath the shadow of Brotherton‘s Mercury 5000 and hover over the several enhanced insects on display before getting lost in Halleux’s menagerie of characters! I even spied work by Kazuhiko Nakamura of Mechanical Mirage – one of my earliest mentions here on Coilhouse. The exhibit has a distinct zeitgeist feel, this much I tell you with complete certainty.
Sculpture by Stephane Halleux
After some time spent exploring I had the pleasure of chatting with Greg and Amy along with Nemo Gould and Stephane Halleux, whose work is approximately 98% more impressive in person. I also took tons of photos some of which are below the jump while the rest are being uploaded here, as time allows.
It will be interesting to see how a space like this does among galleries specializing in friendly still life, idyllic beach scenes and the like. Considering Saturday’s turnout, my prognosis is “just fine”. Fantastic Contraption is Device Gallery’s inaugural show and runs through September 2. Go now.
‘Aaliyah’ / The Fader
Via Wurzeltod – Russian-born, London-based artist Vania Zouravliov has recently been interviewed at the Gestalten blog. Click here to read the interview. To my knowledge, this is Zouravliov’s first-ever interview on the web.
Fate
In the interview, Zouravliov discusses the symbolism in his artwork (the women usually represent him, while the men represent peril and fear), his working process (usually one drawing, start to finish, with no preliminary sketches), his parents (yep, they Made Him Weird), his inspirations (including artists as diverse as Sally Mann, Igor Bilibin and Franz van Bayros) and more. Zouravliov’s first book, Vania, comes out this fall.
Zouravliov currently doesn’t have his own website (his art site, unclevaniart.com, has been down for about a year), but you can still see a large collections at Big Active. Some of my favorite Zouravliov images, after the cut.
Also: in the same post that announces the Zouravliov interview, Wurzeltod also points to a new interview with our dear friend Madeline von Foerster at Beinart. Check it out!
Poe 4