July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 31st, 2010 | brainjuice
July 30th, 2010 | microlog
If you were interested in the Lastwear waistcoat offer but their site crapped out on you due to, um, me having sent quite a lot of people there and thus vaporising their hosting… we’ve given Lastwear a home on Whitechapel to take questions, give further details on their scheme and basically do their business.
July 30th, 2010 | photography
Sent from my outboard brain
July 30th, 2010 | photography
July 30th, 2010 | researchmaterial
PDF-mag, this issue focussing on Parisian alt.culture. 4 euros a pop for this one, previous issues are free downloads.
July 30th, 2010 | brainjuice
July 29th, 2010 | researchmaterial
Norman Spinrad just emailed me this link to what appears to be the first of a series of posts about The Publishing Death Spiral, the core of which is this:
Here’s how it works. Barnes and Noble and Borders, the major bookstore chains, control the lion’s share of retail book sales. They order centrally for all their outlets together, for instance there is a single buyer for all science fiction, all mysteries, etc. How, you may well ask, can these buyers read and pass judgement on, for example, the over 1000 SF titles published in a year?
Of course the answer is they can’t. Instead, an equation makes the buys of most of the books on the racks or blackballs the ones that don’t make it that far. It’s called “order to net.”
Let’s say that some chain has ordered 10,000 copies of a novel, sold 8000 copies, and returned 2000, a really excellent sell-through of 80%. So they order to net on the author’s next novel, meaning 8000 copies. And let’s even say they still have an 80% sell-through of 6400 books, so they order 6400 copies of the next book, and sell 5120….
You see where this mathematical regression is going, don’t you?
July 29th, 2010 | researchmaterial
Jess Nevins never fails to amaze me.
…if the pulps are supposed to have died around 1950, why were there so many pulps published after that? Certainly, it seemed to me that there were a lot of pulps published after 1950, and that the "death" of the pulps was overstated. But there was really only one way to resolve this: a spreadsheet (Yes, I’m a stat wonk, I guess)…
And, at the link, you will find the link to said spreadsheet, as well as all the relevant history, explanations and details.
July 29th, 2010 | music
I like to think that if Cranes had formed last month rather than 20 years ago, this is what they’d sound like. "See Birds," Balam Acab.
July 29th, 2010 | brainjuice
On my message board tonight:
* QUICK CENSUS Because I’m Senile – Who Here Makes Magazines?
July 29th, 2010 | researchmaterial
Clothing company Lastwear are trying something interesting. They are offering a tunic-styled waistcoat for men and an underbust waistcoat for women for… whatever price you’re willing to pay over the base cost of the materials (USD $45 for the men’s, $40 for the women’s).
All the details are here. Lastwear make interesting clothes, and this is an interesting way to spread the word.
July 28th, 2010 | microlog
July 28th, 2010 | comics talk, microlog
Laurenn McCubbin’s issue of DC Vertigo Comics’ MADAME XANADU is out this week. Laurenn’s an old friend and previous collaborator, and the online comic she did for us at Artbomb.net is still up for free reading.
July 28th, 2010 | brainjuice
July 28th, 2010 | photography
The day in photos by friends and acquaintances:
1. john, 2. deer_bleedingout, 3. MADAME XANADU sketch, 4. And Now It’s In Print, 5. Starling working session, 6. Intrigue
July 28th, 2010 | microlog
there are two types of people on twitter: people I enjoy following, and people I’m afraid will confront me if I unfollow them.
Morgan Murphy
morgan_murphy
WARREN ELLIS
jwz - 30 Jul 10
Jean Snow - 30 Jul 10
I mentioned last week that I’d be a guest this week on game developer Grasshopper Manufacture’s podcast (Flower, Sun, & Podcast), and the episode (5) is now up and you can download it here (it should be on iTunes too). Check it out if you want to hear me ramble (and ramble) about mostly game-related topics.
Pictured, the Grasshopper conference room — complete with ping-pong table — where we recorded the episode. Big thanks to Grasshopper producer Esteban Salazar for inviting me on the show.
Kieron Gillen - 30 Jul 10
Catching up a little with stuff that happened when I’m away. I’ll talk Generation Hope later, but here’s the two comics I’ve got out this week.
My Thor In Hell and Hel arc continues. Here’s the five-page-preview. Enormous metal seriousness. My dual influences remain I, Claudius and the cover of 1980s Metal albums. Assorted random reviews: IGN. A Comic Book Blog. Weekly Comic Book Review.
The concluding party of my two part character-study/fight-comic. Preview here. And no reviews which I can find, but pleased to see that at least some people thought it was funny. Few things make me worry more than writing comedy.
Oh - here’s Seb’s review of the first one, which will give you a taste for it.
Coilhouse - 30 Jul 10
So… any Mad Men fans in the ‘haus? No spoilers in the comments, please, because I’m not sure if Mer and Zo have had a chance to catch last Sunday’s Season 4 premiere. But without giving away any plot points, I just want to ask: what was up with Don Draper pulling a Dov Charney with his horrible Jantzen pitch? Our colleague Copyranter eats this kind of American Apparel shit for breakfast. The Portland-based swimwear company was portrayed as a stodgy, conservative business to whom Draper declares angrily, “you’re too scared of the skin your two-piece was designed to show off.” I guess he (and/or the show’s writers) never saw Jantzen’s Vargas-inspired campaign, which ran in LIFE in 1947 (below). Dear readers, I proudly tag this post “Stroke Material” and present you with my stash of vintage Jantzen advertisements from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Sun-kissed beauties with Bettie Page smiles and space-age swimsuits – as well as a few clever parodies – after the jump.
Read the rest of Vintage Jantzen: The Pin-Up Powerhouse
Post tags: Advertising, Fashion, Stroke Material, Ye Olde
Kung Fu Monkey - 29 Jul 10
Coilhouse - 29 Jul 10
Photo by Ben Corrigan.
Ryan Francesconi‘s wonderful music has been lilting around the edges of my life since 1995 when I briefly worked together with him and Dan Cantrell in the Toids, an experimental folk group that riffed off various Eastern European idioms in tandem with Francesconi and Cantrell’s eclectic compositional styles. Back then, Francesconi was one seriously intimidating guitar/tambura/bouzouki shredder! He reveled in playing faster, smarter, better than anybody. He’s a shredder still, and no one can approximate his style… but over the years, wisdom seems to have smoothed over some of the sharper, more Malmsteinish edges of his virtuosity. Lately, the music he makes has deepened into an expression of something far more present, and pure.
Nowhere is this more apparent than on a quietly stunning record Francesconi released earlier this year, called Parables. A series of songs for solo acoustic guitar, it reflects his interest in American bluegrass, Bulgarian folk, jazz improvisation and Baroque lute music. Recorded live (no overdubs!), the music is graceful and green with nods of kinship to everyone from Nick Drake to Herman Hesse to the forests of the Pacific Northwest– which is where Francesconi lives when he’s not trotting the globe.
Speaking of– if you’re a fan of Joanna Newsom, the name Ryan Francesconi is probably already familiar to you, since he’s been one of her key players for several years, leading her live touring performers in the Ys Street Band and arranging/playing on just about every song on her new triple album, Have One On Me. They’re kicking off their summer West Coast tour of the States tonight in San Diego, California. Newsom had this to say about Parables:
“Ryan Francesconi is one of the most awe-inspiring musicians I’ve known. On “Parables,” he distills his many realms of artistry [...] into a beautifully minimalist, poetic, intricate, emotionally realized study of themes, variations, organic counterpoint, and such devastating forays into fractal-metric out-lands that it is nearly impossible to believe he’s picking those strings with just one hand. This is solo music that sounds like an ensemble, an ecstatic and measured reconciliation of West African / Balkan / Baroque / bluegrass influences, which ultimately resembles nothing I know.”
Pick up Parables on vinyl over at Drag City (they’re currently sold out of the CD), or in Mp3 format from CD Baby or iTunes.
Post tags: Events, Faboo, Music, Personal Style
Coilhouse - 29 Jul 10
Nick Cave’s participation in the remake of the new Crow has been confirmed, and I’m finally starting to get excited. The Crow, a film based on James O’Barr’s eponymous comic book series, was a sort of holy grail to me and my darque little crew back in the early nineties. Unapologetically dramatic, The Crow had everything an angsty kid could want: love, destruction, hot bloke in makeup, great villains, pretty girls. There was one year when I watched the film at least five times.
Now, I haven’t actually seen it in over ten years, for fear that it won’t hold up. I’m told it doesn’t. Still, the concept of a shiny new remake of my childhood/adolescence favorite is an uncomfortable one. Nostalgia and Brandon Lee’s death on the set veil The Crow in shimmery, inviolate mystery, and, had it been anyone other than Nick The Stripper doing the re-write, I would have probably shunned it. As things stand though, I think there’s reason to get at least a little fired up, especially with new rumors of Cillian Murphy possibly signing on to play Eric – almost as weird as casting Brandon Lee! If only Stephen Norrington could be replaced… Yes, then I can almost picture it. Until we know more, let us remember The Crow that once was. I leave you with a question: who would you cast as the ideal Eric?
The Crow is available on YouTube in its entirety.
Post tags: Comics, Fairy Tales, Film, Stroke Material, Surreal, Uber
Coilhouse - 29 Jul 10
A patchwork biography of Igor Oleynikov: Growing up in Lubertsy, Russia ? a small town outside of Moscow ? his entrance into the art world was at the Russian animation studio Soyuzmultfilm in 1979. Since 1986 he has been illustrating children’s books and has done 25 to date.
Children’s book illustration is a lot like veterinary school ? the common misconception being that medical school has a much higher barrier of entry, and yet the opposite is true. Children’s book illustration is a notoriously difficult nut to crack.
Oleynikov’s work is testament to the talent involved in the field. His paintings are lush and yet his tones are muted just enough to give everything a dream-like quality. In addition, they possess that air of danger and foreboding so often found in literature for young readers. Really, I could look at these all day. See more after the jump and even more here, here, and here.
Read the rest of Igor Oleynikov
Ectoplasmosis - 29 Jul 10
When I found this last weekend, I watched it obsessively a number of times. It just seems right. Not exactly a vision of prophecy, but for a myth of collapse it will do?
Apocalypse -Cthulhu- Now by Cthulinos [Youtube]
Apocalypse Now intro – In case you’ve forgotten the visual pun [Youtube]
© ECTOPLASMOSIS!, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us | digg it | reddit it
