Hold Me Close Now, Tiny Trancer

Jack Death has been a hero of mine ever since my too-young mind was exposed to 'Trancers' by the scifi and fantasy obsessed uncle who used to supply me with kick ass video tapes, from the A-Team to Star Trek, cartoons to cult movies most people haven't even heard of now, and sometimes even the odd book. Thank you Alan. You probably shouldn't have, but thank fuck you did.

He also got me into 'The Sword and The Sorcerer', another gleaming gem of my childhood. The crucifixion banquet scene has stayed with me my whole life, informing my sense of heroism and the masochistic pursuit of revenge. Plus the bit when he pulls the nails out is fuckin' awesome.




But I'm getting distracted... What did Jack Deth, the peerless, hardboiled trancer-hunter teach me? Well, he taught me that Whistler had a mother, for one thing.

You know, actually, that might have been it.

Still, it had Helen Hunt in it. So there's that.

Okay, so my shameless love of an 80s anti-classic is likely be based on an 8 year old's warm reception for all things kick ass, but it's a very real emotion, and I'm happy with it.

Given my uncritical acceptance of same, you can imagine my joy when Seth over at Bang the Bore sent me a link to this:



I'm not sure if any of this rambling nostalgia trip has a point to it, but Black Stepdad's video pushes a lot of my buttons, and not sharing it is not really an option.

An hour and a half of synthesisers, trancers,  grainy VHS and some really terrible physical acting. What's not to love?

More of the Lyken Love - Bit Riot

Featured artist Mark Lyken has shared a video of his recent show at XOYO London with us. The music is also his.

Lyken Love

We have a backdrop by one of our favourite artists this morning, as part of an ongoing series showcasing visual art we dig. Meet Mark Lyken, Glasgow producer and painter.

Max Hattler

Reminiscent of the angry baroque of a peyote-addled Disney, Max Hattler has reinterpreted some of the work of the renowned-by-a-handful automatic painter Augustin Lesange.

1923 is based on Lesage's painting 'A symbolic Composition of the Spiritual World' from 1923:

1923 aka Heaven (by Max Hattler) from Max Hattler on Vimeo.

1925 aka Hell, is based on Lesage's painting 'A symbolic Composition of the Spiritual World' from 1925:

1925 aka Hell (by Max Hattler) from Max Hattler on Vimeo.


One can only wonder what happened to Austin in 1924, but I imagine it scared the shit out of him.

Paul Laffoley's The THANATON III Extraterrestrial Communication Portal

Just because:



And why not?

UNITE exhibition @ Collins Gallery

And speaking of Emma Shannon, there's only two days left for Glasgow punters to get down to the Collins Gallery (Strathclyde Uni campus, near Merchant City) to see her skills! The exhibition is called "Unite" and displays the ceramic, textile and sculpture work of 35 different Scottish-based artists. Emma does a neat line in woven pieces influenced by Brutalist architecture (above).

Emma's show is of particular interest to us because it is also joined by a very special installation soundtrack by our own Aleks Jurczyk, aka Line Idle. It's called "Brutal Britain: A Soundtrack" and it goes a little something like this:

Brutal Britain: A soundtrack by line idle

Info on the exhibition is available from the Collins Gallery website and also from Craft Scotland, home of the "Unite" collective.

Tonight in Manchester

Love this poster, by artist David Bailey.

Peter Collins - Huesca

More exceptional work from Peter Collins. If you don't get the reference, shame on you. Big Tune.

Peter Collins - Noir

A wee preview of a new project from Peter Collins (aka Rothko of Molotov Disco), based around the 'noir' style. As well as the obvious references (Bogart, Orson Welles, Chandler etc), there's hints to modern pulp like 100 Bullets and Sin City, all filtered through his unique blend of seemingly-choatic scribbling and bold linework. Really awesome.

"I had been commissioned to create some pieces in the "film Noir" style (dark shadows, moody figures etc). For want of a better model, I ended up using myself (in a photo shoot) - so I could draw e.g. exactly how a shirt looks when opened at the top, or how a face looks when the head is tilted backwards. I wasn't bothered whether the final pieces actually looked like me or not, in fact, if anything, I prefer the pieces that look less like me...."

Chorus of Susans

From the hands of Laurence Elliot (Chorus of Gastornis). Amazebolz!

Edinburgh's creative industries = best in Scotland?

From the Guardian.

"Opinion: Let's celebrate our creative capital
Nearly half of Scotland's creative industry workers are here in the capital. Today's guest blogger Milo McLaughlin tells us why he believes Edinburgh's artistic community has the edge over other cities. "

Oh really?

This subheadline has really misrepresented this article, but it's an interesting read and worth commenting on.

Thanks Bram. .

Lola Does David (again)

Lola Dupré goes from strength to strength:

Gene Police

The Metropolitan Genetic Surveillance Unit uses bees to monitor the unlicenced growing of GM crops - generally those modified to manufacture narcotics or copyrighted pharmaceuticals. Or so postulates Thomas Thwaites with his intriguing addition to British surveillance culture.

'Grow Your Own' - from the Policing Genes Project from Thomas Thwaites on Vimeo.

The artist's other work is worth a look too, here on his website. Other projects include: a bicycle bought to be stolen (containing an Android phone giving GPS details of its location in addition to taking photos); and his attempt to build a cheap toaster from scratch (including making the plastic and metals required), which is finely documented in his TED talk below.



Thanks to Dalai for the heads up!

Vivian Maier - a Legend is Born

Thanks to Paul McCann for the tip-off - this is pretty extraordinary.



An old nanny dies in Chicago and in her belongings are found thousands and thousands of negatives. When developed it turns out that her photos were incredible - some of the best street photography of the 20th century. They are all unseen until now:



More of the photos are in this slideshow:



WOW.

Mondo Posters

There are some insanely good cult film posters to look at and buy right now over at ugo.com.

Poetry Is Nearer To Vital Truth Than History

Last night I was speaking to a friend about poetry. I was advising her to go and hear some performed, or at the very least read it out loud when she reads it. To me, the real power in poetry is in performed poetry. I figured that out a few years back, and was fairly amazed nobody really mentioned it in school. All great bard traditions began as oral traditions, and the live context is still how poems are best experienced, as far as my experience goes.

That said, I'm always willing to try something new...

Some of you may know Jason Nelson from some of his other projects(he made it on to boing boing with I Made This, You Play This, We Are Enemies for example), most of which are a bit wierd. Okay, I think probably all of them. Anyway.


He's recently made, or maybe composed, some digital poetry.
I'm undecided as yet what I think of the individual pieces, but glad he's still working on weird ass shit.

If you'd like to see more of his recent work, check out his Videograph Fictions.

Veal by Craig Collins

Art by Jacek Zabawa

Gary Erskine in the Guardian

Hey kids! Do YOU want to become an internationally reknowned comic book artist? Well our pal Gary Erskine has some tips for you...

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/behind-the-job-title-comic-book-artist

Sensory?

Sensory! Wear yr headphones and turn the lights doon doon doon...

ENVISION : Step into the sensory box from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

Fox Gut Daata remixes Dam Mantle

Short and sweet! The track is called Rebong (originally from Dam Mantle's excellent "Grey" EP) and you can hear FGD's twist at the top of this page: http://dammantle.tumblr.com/. It's mighty fine! There's a chance that this is going to appear on a forthcoming split release by Dam Mantle/Fox Gut Daata in September on a new Glasgow label. More news on that as it happens.