Skinemax is Koyaanisqatsi  for a generation raised on late night television and B-movie VHS tapes. It’s long form entertainment for short attention spans. An hour long VJ odyssey, it will move your body and warp your mind.

A nostalgic look back at a half remembered childhood growing up in the 80s and early 90s, Skinemax takes a close look at the culture of that era. The images that motivated, delighted, and terrified us on the silver screen, set to propulsive modern music that pines for a simpler time.

And what’s even greater, it stars Kurt Russel Lots of scenes shot by that I hadn’t seen in while …

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I’ve written about this in the past. Its an old fascination of mine: WWII and other animated propaganda from the 1940s onwards. Bored with the regular assignments at University and willing to do discover something unknown or at least have a good time while spending hours behind your typewriter doing research I even wrote a paper on the matter.

The following are a couple of those WWII and cold war propaganda films released by well-known studios. Household names which often are associated with fluffy clouds and gumdrop smiles. Kids stuff and nothing what you’d expect.  The “hidden messages” in them, the way the music plays an essential part, … is really interesting to analyse. I have spent hours looking at such animations and its surprising to see some well-known characters do their part for Uncle Sam.

Besides that its a discovery (for many), reading up on the matter, when you realise the big studios where able to survive the war by taking on these assignments.

Japoteurs, by Technicolor short films based upon the DC Comics character of Superman.

Hitler’s Children Education For Death, a Walt Disney production.

Even the Russians loved their cartoons.

Want to see more of this stuff, just run a search in YouTube on banned cartoons or cartoon propaganda and discover the dark side of animation throughout the 1940s to 60s.

Got any favorites of your own, please share

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Finished Crooked Little Vein by comic book writer Warren Ellis. Been reading steady again ever since a Kindle found its way into my hands. Now I am not an established book reviewer, but Amazon can provide you all with a short description as this is one read worth sharing:

Michael McGill is a burned-out private detective who suddenly becomes enlisted by an army of presidential goons to retrieve the Constitution of the United States, but not the one we all know about. This would be the real Constitution (the one with invisible amendments) created by some of the Founding Fathers as a fallback for their great experiment. Along the way, McGill gains a polyamorous sidekick named Trix, gets scared to death by what men do with warm salty water, and descends into a world where crime, sex, and madness all seem to be the same thing.

Full of mind-bending style and packed with a wild cast of characters, Crooked Little Vein infuses Robert B. Parker with Kurt Vonnegut and the madness of the graphic-novel world. A surprisingly surreal treat, it will appeal to hardcore comic fans, mystery aficionados, and all readers looking for a riotous summer reading adventure.

I could not agree more with the paragraph above. Its a great read by a great author who clearly has one sick mind and does his research thoroughly. Even more, the book was based on research material posted on Ellis’ websites, mostly odd news items and disturbing pictures from the web that the author had found or had been sent.

Clearly there are some sick minds out there and this translates itself in a a journey through some of America’s darkest rooms

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Couple of weeks left till FACTS, the biggest comics, sci fi & anime festival of the Benelux. Never been there before, but curious to go and have a look Have a feeling it will be straight out of space!

through NerdCore

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through

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#ROFL

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Wait a second, there’s two Mickey’s?!

Great picture through Sean Bonner. Out.

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As promised, part 2 offf what we saw the passed days in Paris. You can read all about the first day overhere.

Friday – Big beamers keep on beaming

An experienced person is just someone that’s made a lot of mistakes. Hoss is very experienced. This is your opportunity to listen to Hoss do his first ever ‘acoustic set’ ? An intimate sharing of lessons learned, punctuated by the odd bit of work, including his latest collaboration with Rob Chiu, and a very simple explanation of how to be profitable on Apple’s App Store. . That’s what the description stated and I regret that we only caught Hoss Gifford‘s presentation halfway true.

Pity as his Things I have learned was really interesting. Not a shocking keynote but a collection of insights & stories that anyone who’s good in what he does should already have experienced but it was nice as I considered it a little fresh-up course.

“Don’t do anything for free and do not give discounts to new clients as you will never taste the same afterwards” is the one that stuck to me the most. An ongoing discussion I have had with a couple of people lately and his comparison was great. “Its like going to the supermarket, buying 6 yoghurts for the price of 4 and afterwards not finding the same deal.” A wise & bold statement. One to ponder upon amongst others!

Hilarious was also the fact he made an iphone app which has paid his lunch every day. An app that gives you the time, more or less

“Unicorns farting glitter metal band names”

He was soon followed by Tara Mcpherson. I bet you have seen work by her already! A great artist besides being a hot girl with tats (something you do not see a lot on stage at #offf) I am all for more girl designers, … taking the stage next time around

Tara is an artist based out of New York City. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. She exhibits her paintings and serigraphs in fine art galleries all over the world. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Melvins. Her array of art also includes creating toys with companies like Kidrobot, Dark Horse, and Toy2R, painted comics and covers for DC Vertigo, advertising and editorial illustrations for companies such as Wyden+Kennedy and Spin Magazine, and teaching a class at Parsons in NYC. A lot of stuff you can know her from and worth a look at

The program states that Firstborn came after her? Can not really remember from the top of my head what they showed us, so I will just refer to their website

Knife Party I do remember vividly. It was the point were a little voice inside my head yelled “finally” as our visual appetite had grown more hungry. ‘Coalition of the Willing‘ is an animated film about an online war against global warming in a post-Copenhagen world. It was written by Tim Rayner, who is the brains behind the campaign in this digital struggle against global warming following the failed summit. Bare in mind that the following animation is a collaboration between lots and lots of people who ech took upon themselves a part of the film.

Universal Everything continued to nurture our longing for great stuff. These are the guys who did the international MTV rebrand which means that all you guys have seen their stuff passby. I will let the following clip speak for itself but google them!

MTV / International Rebrand Overview from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

They also did some short reveal films for AOL’s relaunch for instance. These got used in web video, mobile, digital campaigns and outdoor LED displays. Nice stuff to say the least

You can find more stuff on their Vimeo which is worth going through.

Goodby & Silverstein are the big boys who took the stage. They are the agency who brought us the awesome HP ads with Jigga, Gwen Stefani, Jerry Seinfeld, … But they also did this campaign/viral for Häagen-Dazs in order to draw attention on their bee program. Hilarious Homebees

Then something totally different followed: SoSo Limited. These guys take word clouds to a master level as they are specialised in interactive installation and audiovisual performance. They create immersive works that play on the immediacy of live media by creating word art by the analysis of what is said. I can not describe it all that well bt the following clips will emlighten you I guess. The first one for instance is a four minute edit remixing the ministerial debates from the UK.

Sosolimited – Prime Numerics (Taster) from FutureEverything on Vimeo.

Prime Numerics (3 of 10) from Sosolimited on Vimeo.

We ended our Friday at the Wooster Collective meet-up near de Quai de Jemappe by the way. Great to meet Marc & Sara amongst others IRL. We we’re amongst great company to say the least

Saturday – The return

We had to skip the festival Saturday. Other stuff called. Pity as I heard it was the best day. Crowd seemed enthusiastic and some of the previous organisational problems belonged to the past.

That being said, it is a great festival with a good vibe, but we have some liner notes for the band

• communicate better, it is clear that this is not the organisations cup of tea
• queues ain’t good, if you say you can pick up passes earlier stick to it (we travelled a day earlier to the venue for nothing!)
• good WiFi = a must have
• more sanitary provisions
• venues? how about signposting these or at least getting your organization to know where what is
• check peoples tickets, we met a couple of people who got in for free where we paid full price #sad

Btw, its 2010 and we’re in a post-digital time as you all know. Organising means to get all digital communication streamlined can be great. Tell people what tags to use for their pictures, … and give them the tools at the venue in order to share their experiences.

Do not want to end negative though as I had a great time and will recommend the conference to anyone who’s interested in this kind of stuff. Maybe we should finish with the end titles for the sponsors. Yet another great piece of work! See you next year so Out.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Thanks to On Point & Eckelwood for the company and great talks/laughs thoughout the days.

You can still check part one of our report overhere.

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I ain’t got that much to say as the following ad speaks for itself. Advertising used to be so much cooler back then Why don’t ad men make such cool ads anymore? Out.

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Sometimes I really wonder what it must be like to grow up or live in Japan or another Asian country. The following ad just reminded me af that. Its an anime themed commercial for Nike which features a futuristic sneaker wearer battling skyscraper size robots.

What’s not to love about the whole anime & manga culture. Out.

(through PSFK)

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Growing up as a kid I was relatively interested in art. There was the art class, which failed to uncover my artistic talent, with its semi-history education program. Picasso, Ensor, Dali, that Dutch dude which cut of his ear, … all pretty nice I guess but none which could inspire me. It was Keith Haring though who grabbed my attention. His art was different and appealed to a kid like me. It simplicity. Its social critic with a smile. Judge for yourself.

I used to spend hours drawing his stuff on roughs, tracing, coloring in, … Thinking about it, I guess my love for street art started with Haring. No Banksy, Obey, Toykyo, … for me without Haring. And then I read that its been 10 20 years already since he passed away. A great loss. Out.

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The Bubble Project drew my attention once again today. Its been around for a while but thought I’d share it for those who have never seen. Over 50,000 bubble stickers have been printed. They have been continually placed on top of ads on the streets of New York. They are left blank, inviting passersby to fill them in. This project instantly transforms the intrusive and dull corporate monologues into a public dialogue. Our public spaces are returned back to the public. Since its launch in 2002, the Bubble Project has become a global project. Bubblers all around the globe are bubbling their own towns.

How to take part yourself is rather easy, as they have provided ready to use speech bubbles. So take to the streets and start adbusting away. Out.

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Wolverine, the Hulk, Flash … all superhero favorites. Well soon, in april, another ‘hero’ movie will be hitting theatres: Kick-Ass!

It tells us the story of an average teenager whi goes by the name Dave Lizewski, a comic-book fan, who decides to take his obsession to the next level. Inspired by his comics he decides to become a real-life superhero. Just like any other superhero, he picks a name “Kick-Ass” and assembles a suit and matching mask to wear before he starts fighting crime. But… there’s only one problem, as he  absolutely has no superpowers.

The trailer looks great, so it made me wonder if this movie is going to be kick-ass… Out.

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