Albert Schweitzer: Artist

Artist Statement

Quirky characters is what I paint. Much of the time,
I let spontaneity and being open create the characters first. I later then organize these beings and put them in an environment where they live and interact with each other. The use of fluid lines and splashy shapes make up the paintings and sculptures. I use bright colors to add cheer
to the sometimes dark and ominous states of some of these characters. At times, these images are autobiographical,
and sometimes they are of people I know or have experienced. It is my intention that I paint a world that
is filled with the various states of the human condition
and how they relate to the rest of the world.

— Albert Schweitzer

SOURCE: AlbertSchweitzerArt.com

This just in from Wired…

Apple Insider Leaks Ultra-Portable Details




An Apple insider told Wired today that the company's new ultraportable, expected to be seen in public for the first time tomorrow, has an extremely thin profile and is shaped like a teardrop when closed — thicker at the top behind the screen, tapering at the bottom behind the keyboard. "It's unbelievably thin," said the source.

SOURCE: blog.Wired.com

"From the Gutter to the Glitter…"

Introducing the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

Since 1995 the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus has traveled the world, bringing its unique hybrid of vaudeville, circus, burlesque, and sideshow to theaters, clubs, colleges, and festivals. The company has produced innumerable cabaret shows, custom performances for special audiences, all-ages and family productions, and sophisticated adult shows. Over the last five years the company has begun developing more theatrical productions, including 2001's Buckaroo Bindlestiff's Wild West Gender Bender Jamboree, 2003's High Heels & Red Noses, and 2005's From the Gutter to the Glitter: A Night Out with the Bindlestiffs.

[GO TO THE SITE]

Separated at birth

Multiple Emmy-nominated actor Oliver Platt (left) and
up-and-coming new media instigator and
unofficial Genesis visual biographer Lou Spirito.

SOURCES: IMDB.com, LouSpirito.com

Crispin Glover. Enough said.

SOURCE: hifilofi via YouTube.com

The secret knowledge of gamers…

15 Minutes of Fame:
Noor the pacifist

I prefer doing stranger stuff, as opposed to grinding high-end instances. Once, my 70 mage was in Southshore, and someone was asking directions to Ghostlands in zone chat. I told him how to go through EPL. Then I clicked on him, and he was something like a level 12 Draenei hunter. I asked him why he wanted to go there, and it turns out he wanted a red cat for a pet -- so I escorted him through EPL, and he only died a couple of times getting there. I've also done a few quests on PvP servers with non-hostile Horde players (not pre-arreanged or anything), such as the mechanical chicken escort in Feralas (twice, so we could all get credit)

Does anyone have a Gamer-toEnglish translation handy?
Just checking.

SOURCE: WowInsider.com

Reel Geezers

SOURCE: ReelGeezers@YouTube.com

1, 2, 3…

SOURCE: YouTube.com

I heart Flash!

Badgers
(Badger, badger,
badger, badger.
Mushroom, mushroom!
Snake!)

by J. Picking


SOURCE: AlbinoBlackSheep.com

Sleazy McQueen

“It was simple, really; each month, he and his Evil Twin Maxula would hire world-renowned deejays willing to play for bargain prices and two-bit haybed accommodations to play for the two of them and one or two other townsfolk, and each month the pair would lose a few hundred more dollars.”
[READ MORE]

SOURCE: myspace.com/SleazyMcQueen

"Karate was actually a dynamic and exciting band"

Karate
595
[Southern; 2007]

If there was ever a band that struggled to overcome sounding cold and mannered, Karate was it. Guitarist/singer Geoff Farina's deeply considered Donald Fagan-meets-D. Boon noodling, aching yet oblique lyrics, and clean, almost skeletal guitars hardly made for sexy listening-- unless you somehow associate aural-hotness with post-structuralism or wet shoes. So it's a surprise that 595-- Karate's first live album-- is so warm and energetic.
[READ MORE]

SOURCE: Pitchforkmedia.com

Charlie Skinny Neck

Charlie stops by the mcglinch-cave every once in a while.

He of small head, long skinny neck and beady black eyes…

SOURCE: McGlinch.com

Strange sightings in Second Life, indeed!

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

Second Life avatars can fly, which is convenient when buildings float above the ground.

Who knew?
I sure as hell didn't.
Damn it!

SOURCE: VillageVoice.com

What rating would you give to the movie of your life, so far?

SOURCE: FilmRatings.com

A Relevant topic…

SOURCE: RelevantMagazine.com

"Where websites do battle"

Jelly! anyone?

Jelly started in NYC in February of 2006 when roommates Amit and Luke realized that they loved working from home, but they missed the creative brainstorming, sharing, and camaraderie of a traditional office. (Office politics, not so much.)

So they started inviting friends to come work from their home one day a week. They soon found that working in close proximity to new and interesting people every couple weeks resulted in new ideas and interesting conversations.

Emboldened by their early success, they made it a more regular thing. Jelly was born.

SOURCE: workatjelly.com/

Announcing the definitive slogan for 2008

"User experience as art:
where is it?"


SOURCE: twitter.com/everyplace

A standout in a year filled with amazing Canadians

Fond of Tigers
Release the Saviours
[Drip Audio]

by David Nadelle/TinyMixTapes

Very quietly in Vancouver, British Columbia, Jesse Zubot is building his empire with Drip Audio, a label that releases an odd contingent of jazz, ambient, and experimental bands, many of which feature the master violinist himself. In Fond of Tigers, Zubot is one part of a seven-strong post-rock, experimental jazz juggernaut.

SOURCE: TinyMixTapes.com

Eureka! Albums of 2007

SOURCE: tinymixtapes.com

…obviously!

This just in from…

Zen formalwear daily

Do what you want and success will follow. It’s true, but it’s also completely irrelevant. It’s what you do next that really matters. Imagine you worked like hell to make something cool. People start catching wind of what you've done, and before you know it, you're rich and famous. You revel in the success. All eyes are on you. You're the new hotness and everyone wants to know what you're going to do next. So what do you do next? You flop. Your reputation descends, and your success rapidly dwindles. Everything you do just makes things worse, spiraling you down the drain. People start thinking maybe you never had it in the first place, or you got lucky. Nobody likes you anymore, and if anything you're worse off.

SOURCE: Atomicwang.org

This just in from GapingVoid…

It's Blogumentary, Watson!

He sees blog people

Chuck Olsen is the founder of Minnesota Stories, called one of the best videoblogs by the New York Times. He is the producer-director of "Blogumentary," the first documentary film about the rise of political and personal blogs. His work has screened at the Walker Art Center, Harvard University, and on renegade laptops all around the world. He is the Minneapolis correspondent for Rocketboom and works as a freelance producer, videographer, editor and educator.

SOURCE: blogumentary.org

Tricky, where you at?

SOURCE: brownpunk.tv/trickyblog

This just in from Seth Godin's blog…

Who you know

One of the mantras of networking (and the many social networking sites that people are flocking to) is that it matters who you know. The goal of having a thousand or more friends online is that you're well known. Connected. A click away.
I wonder if there's a more useful measure: who trusts you?

SOURCE: Senthgodin.com

Thank you, Qburns…

The music biz blows it, while Orlando blows up

LAST DANCE?

…So how can you possibly explain the banner year that little-known artists experienced in 2007? Thank you, MySpace. Gracias, YouTube. Likewise to CDBaby, Last.fm, satellite radio, CMJ, NPR, iTunes and all you other beautiful acronyms and jabberwockies.

The musicians have turned against the labels, and listeners besides. Hoist by their own petard, the corporate tastemakers have relinquished their right as victors to pen the history books of music each year, and strangely enough – impossibly – Central Florida and its neighbors have moved into the leader’s spot.

Record stores are dead? Tell that to Park Ave CDs, who have grown into not only a successful record store but a synergistic multiplatform hotspot. Small labels can’t get the word out for their peeps? Talk to Orlando’s X:144 & SPS, staples in ’07 on college radio Top Ten charts, or Band Marino, whose profile as one of the top 5 “MySpace bands” in Rolling Stone led to a talked-about performance at South by Southwest this year, or local rapper S.K.I.P, one of URB magazine’s “Next 1000” for 2007-2008, or Jacksonville’s Black Kids, named by Rolling Stone one of the 10 bands to watch in 2008. Even in Tampa, Yo Majesty was featured in Stereogum as a “band to watch.” Label-less Orlandoans Summerbirds in the Cellar were so big this year that their CD release party spilled into two shows.

[READ MORE]

SOURCE: OrlandoWeekly.com

This just in from Orlando…

Make plans to attend the
4th Annual
Orlando Latin American
Film & Heritage Festival
from the edge ... and beyond the frame

SOURCE: olafest.org

Happy New Year!

Stereogum brings you a New Year's gift of sound.
Enjoy!

SOURCE: Sterogum.com

This just in from Drowned In Sound

Drowned In Sound posted its top 50 albums of 2007. Read and compare to your own list (if you've been keeping up with it all.)
Enjoy!
Zelo

SOURCE: DrownedinSound.com

Radiohead Celebrate New Year With Webcast

Al Gore brings the rock to your television set

Although there are already plenty of nice musical options to entertain you on New Year's Eve this year, here's a last-minute surprise: Today on Dead Air Space, after wishing us all a "peaceful Christmas", Thom Yorke announced that Radiohead will be "broadcasting a pre-recording of some songs and other bits on New Years Eve.." over at Radiohead.tv. It starts at midnight GMT on December 31, which is in the early evening here in America, leaving plenty of time to go get ready to see Spoon or the Black Lips or R. Kelly or whoever. "this is a wee celebration of the release of the physical manifestation of 'in rainbows'," Thom continues, referring to the fact that the new Radiohead album is finally due in stores. It's out today in Japan (via Hostess Entertainment), the UK December 31 (via XL), and the U.S. and Canada January 1 (via ATO/TBD and MapleMusic, respectively). Apparently the webcast is going to consist of a performance of In Rainbows in full, taped at the band's Oxford studio, a place we are already intimately familiar with. In America, the live show will be aired commercial-free on Al Gore's television station, Current TV. It premieres at 12 a.m. EST/9 p.m. PST. Current's website will also archive the show, so you can watch it again New Year's Day while writing your resolutions. (Resolution #1: Watch less television.) [MORE...]

Link-arrowVideo: Radiohead: New Year's Webcast Teaser #1
Link-arrowVideo: Radiohead: New Year's Webcast Teaser #2

SOURCE: Pitchforkmedia.com

Marshall Arisman: The Ayahuasca Series

Mr. Arisman is the subject of a full-length documentary film directed by Tony Silver titled 'Facing the Audience: The Arts of Marshall Arisman.'

SOURCE: MarshallArisman.com

M. Night is trying to tell us something…

After months of rumors, cast updates, and hints about the film's content, we finally have our first official look at M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, in the form of a teaser poster.
The poster, first made available by ComingSoon.net, shows a city skyline in the distance, with a number of abandoned cars scattered over a long stretch of highway. At the top, it contains the following tagline: "We've Sensed It. We've Seen The Signs. Now... It's Happening."

SOURCE: MNight.com

The Death of High Fidelity

In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever

David Bendeth, a producer who works with rock bands like Hawthorne Heights and Paramore, knows that the albums he makes are often played through tiny computer speakers by fans who are busy surfing the Internet. So he's not surprised when record labels ask the mastering engineers who work on his CDs to crank up the sound levels so high that even the soft parts sound loud.
READ MORE

SOURCE: RollingStone.com

It's not even on itunes yet!

From the fabulous Reax mag crew:

Summerbirds In The Cellar

Summerbirds in the Cellar’s Druids is as haunting as it is healing. Similar to the band’s previous release With the Hands of the Hunter It All Becomes Dead, Brad Register’s lyrics continue to mine dark caves and offer bleak, apocalyptic perspectives about our existence. The words are true, expressing beliefs and fears that have deep, universal resonance.

Druids surpasses its predecessor in intention and execution. The songwriting here is more focused and confident, with melodies that weave in and around the band’s trademark thick layers of guitars and keyboards. None of the nine tracks exist in isolation, but rather build upon one another, providing a powerful unity to the whole record. Rooted in rhythm, the sound is dense and muggy with a dream-like quality unlike anything the southeast music scene has produced. The patience precision of Druids further confirms Summerbirds in the Cellar as the Southeastern region’s most important and talented band.


SOURCE: reaxmusic.com/

Presenting Fader's Listmania!

Once again, The FADER and its extended family present their version of the Best of the Year list type things.
Click more for the real talk. more...

SOURCE: TheFader/Listmania

Getting Evens

The Evens are a band from Washington, D.C. Ian MacKaye plays baritone guitar and Amy Farina plays drums. They both sing. Their debut album was recorded at Inner Ear Studios in the summer of 2004 and released in March 2005. "The Evens, Get Evens", the band's second full-length release, was entirely self recorded in the basement of the Dischord House in the summer of 2006. The album was then mixed at Inner Ear Studios by The Evens and Don Zientara. The Evens have toured parts of the U.S. and Europe and have traveled extensively in the first half of 2007, including dates in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Eastern Canada and the United States.

SOURCE: Dischord Records

Introducing: Antelope

Antelope was formed in Washington, DC in 2001 by ex-members of the Vertebrates, Bee Elvy and Mike Andre, and El Guapo's Justin Moyer. In March of 2002 the band recorded six songs with Phil Manley (of Trans Am) at National Recording Studios. The self-titled EP was released in February 2003 as a split venture between Dischord and the band's own Bug Records. Antelope played its first regional shows in eastern and mid-western US cities and the band accompanied Q and not U and Black Eyes on an extensive tour of the United States in September of 2003. The two song EP "Crowns" b/w "The Flock" was recorded in July of 2003 with Ian Mackaye and Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios and was released in February of 2004. In November 2006 the band recorded it's first full-length, "Reflector," at the Dischord House with Ian MacKaye. Antelope continued regional touring with Joe Lally and Soccer Team and embarked on a full-US tour in March 2007. European dates are scheduled for October and November and more US dates will follow into December.

Antelope:
Mike Andre - drums/bass/vocals
Bee Elvy - drums/bass/vocals
Justin Moyer - guitar/vocals

SOURCE: Dischord Records

This just in from NoRipcord

Angels Of Light
"We Are Him"
(Young God Records / Revolver)

Like some wicked fusion of preacher and devil; like a lost soul leading a band of nine-foot tall Frankensteins, Michael Gira's Angels Of Light return with their new We Are Him. Once again, Gira is backed by Akron/Family; together they chart a determined, frightening descent through personal hells and bleak travails. Opening track Black River Song begins the album like a waking nightmare: haunted piano, ghostly bells, and a guitar figure that sounds like it was run through an electric chair. Gira himself sounds positively possessed, howling, "Black river runs / beneath this ground / black river flows forever / but it makes no sound." The mission of the Angels Of Light may be to find that river and put it to music, and from start to finish, the instrumentation and production on We Are Him is immaculate; notes Michael Gira on the Young God Records website, "Despite Akron's valorous efforts and fine performances, things sounded thin and tentative to me, so I started calling my friends to help me flesh things out." All rise to perfect and glorious occasion throughout the album, never overpowering but pumping each song full of angry, yearning blood.

SOURCE: NoRipcord.com

"What's the point of this interaction?"

…The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing.

— SETH GODIN is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Godin is author of five (no, it's six! [no it's SEVEN Free Prize Inside was published in early May, 2004] and All Marketers Are Liars was published in 2005) books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Permission Marketing was an Amazon.com Top 100 bestseller for a year, a Fortune Best Business Book and it spent four months on the Business Week bestseller list. It also appeared on the New York Times business book bestseller list.

Mind-blowing music

Between the Buried and Me

'Foam Born (a+b)'

From the new release 'Colors,'
Victory Records (2007)