Cult of Corgan

I have seen the Pumpkins on nearly every major album tour, and I was interested in seeing the new revamped Smashing Pumpkins. On Sept. 15 I got to check them out at a music festival called, "LA Invasion", where they headlined playing on a bill with acts such as Cypress Hill, Foo Fighters, Perry Ferrel, and Chris Cornell. The show was definitely skewed toward the over 30 crowd, and the big names of the 90's poured out the hits.

Let me just say, the pumpkins of yesterday are gone. If you go see a Pumpkins show now, you will experience the "Cult of Corgan". Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just different. Corgan's new Pumpkins are a well oiled machine, a rock machine, a "heavy metal machine" even. The performance is a show, with costumes and a hi-tech light show included. The hits of yesterday, are played differently, either faster tempos or stripped down to acoustic. And dare I say it, but Billy has created a Pumpkins' Jam band. If you know the track "United States" off the new album, a 10 minute Jam... you start to see the direction of the live show. And yes, they did open with that track... which is not exactly a "crowd pleaser". But nonetheless, I did enjoy the show, and they sounded good (dark and heavy). Billy is a gifted musician either way you cut it.

Skull Heart-Tee

A Woo product suggestion.... nice

Chinalogue

I had a crazy night last friday when I came face to face with the Peace Corps Volunteer
who had taken over my site after I left. It was amazing to recount stories and hear about his experiences. His sitemate Andy, put together a website where you can see and read about all the very near same experiences Angela and I encountered.
Check it out. Noteworthy, is the section on yours truly lively mural painting, which the school apparently did not paint over, and these guys inherited... and took great length in discussing.... Rad.

Kurt and Barkley

I found this clip, pretty funny stuff. A fresh faced Dave Grohl, making some really good faces for the camera. This is the behind the scenes clip for the promo spot, the week Nirvana was on Saturday Night Live. Clip

D.O.A

I didn't get a chance to see this in theater, but it looks really fun, and I do intend to watch it on DVD. Hot chicks and Martial Arts, awesome, plus I heard the tone of the film is fairly tongue and cheek. So go rent it the weekend!

Character Actors

At first I was going to do a post about newcomer Dan Fogler a "Tony" award winning actor
who is getting his start in dumb and dirty comedies, but who may soon be chasing Oscar gold for his portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock, in the "Then Number 13" co-starring Ben Kingsley and Ewan McGregor. And how... Fogler looks like a heavy version of Curtis Armstrong.. Aka Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. But then I found a cool link to a whos who of character actors, so now, that's what this post is really about. So go ahead and click here for a "very special look" at some beloved cinema stars.

Tired... like a three legged duck.

Last week before shooting is OVER!! Time to party...

Gorilla Rock

This is awesome, a gorilla and Phil Collins! Sound a link

Michael Wolf

Awesome collection of china photos... check out his site link

Anthony Lister

I love the looseness of these paintings, and of course the irreverent sensibility.
link

Hollywood Stock Exchange

Love movies, wanna feel like an industry insider? Then try out the Hollywood Stock Exchange - game. It's free, and you can finally take all your hollywood predictions and see if they come true... Check it out, here

Hirst Skull

Is it art...? Or decoration? Damien Hirst makes headlines again when his diamond encrusted skull sells for $100 Million! Read more here

Electroma

Watch this great teaser for Daft Punk's new album
link

More than meets the eye, indeed...

At $50... I think this is a lame toy/figure... but if you must have it, here ya go

Robots!

The art of Rod Hunt

The faces of A.M. Hall

Strange things are a foot with the actor Anthony Michael Hall. We all loved him as the adorable dork of the 80's, but for the last 15 years or so, he's transformed himself. Most recently, I noticed that he has a doppelganger in the Scottish actor, Kevin Mckidd, who is about to star in a TV show called Journeyman. I also found a pic where A.M Hall is doing a pretty sweet Christopher Walken imitation, as he plays Walken's "Johnny Smith" character in the Dead Zone TV show on the USA channel.

The King Candy

Read about whether you should try one here!

R2 Projector!

This would be great for watching Movies on your wall!
link

Killer Alien

Nice Alien suit, made for a Polaroid commercial, not cool for the films, but would make a great halloween costume me thinks.

Boys vs. Girls

An increasing crime rate, growing demand for pornography and illegal marriage are some of the consequences that could result from the widening gender gap in China, experts have warned. Currently, there are about 18 million more males of marrying age than females, the Xinhua News Agency said on Wednesday. The report said it is estimated that by 2020, males between the ages of 20 and 45 will outnumber their female counterparts by 30 million.

At the moment, 119 boys are born for every 100 girls in China, Jiang Chunyun, director of the China Family Planning Association, one of the country's largest non-governmental organizations, was cited as saying by the report. The international average ratio is between 103 and 107 boys for every 100 girls.

Mr. Lynch

If you did not see Lynch's "Inland Empire" then rent it on DVD. I promise you will have an experience that you haven't had in a long time while watching a movie. David did this interview with MTV recently where he talks about his film and tells an interesting story about turning down the offer from Lucas to direct "Return of the Jedi"!!??....go here.

Summertime in Pusan

Nothing like relaxing on your favorite beach in S. Korea. Yes, Pusan offers some cool breezes and a sea of umbrellas, notice many beach goers don't take their clothes off to enter the water.

Opera Child

1982 Comic-Con

How far we've come... you would hardly recognize the comic-con today. Check out these flickr pages of how the con use to be... not too many people dressed in costume.
old school Con

Femme De Darth

Your (my) face!

I finally made it on "yourfaceblog" which is an art blog, where you send in a picture
of yourself, and then the guy draws your face - with a beard! I sent this to him about 6 months ago, so if you send something, expect a wait.
your face

The Gooch

Who does not enjoy some good conceptual art, and or performance art. Want to see some cool projects, then check out Jennifer Gooch's
great art website. I really like the "Minimalist Tacos" too.

Me Co.

Me compmany

Weirdo Rippers?

Your looking at a real non-photoshopped picture of a storefront in L.A. Can anyone guess what kind of place is this? For more of these L.A. cultural gems, check
here

Rose Bowl Flea Market

I made my first pilgrimage to Pasadena's Rose Bowl Flea Market. First off, the flea market is not inside the bowl, but around it and in the expansive parking lots. There must of been 1,000 vendors. This place was huge, and it was hot! All told after checking out as many tables as I could, all I purchased was this kick ass Alien board game, made by Kenner in 1979. The cover of the game features the Alien figure that Kenner made. The game looks as if it has never been played... its even got the original instructions. Too bad I don't know anyone who would really enjoy this fine (antique) board game....

Black Sheep

What's not to like, killer Zombie Sheep and Weta Workshop's special FX... trailer
here

Frank Zappa on Miami Vice

See Frank play a baddie....
Watch it!

Suck UK

This is an online gift company that has great stuff, we actually bought stuff from them on the last show. Anyhow, I really like their catalog and thought this solar powered "Sun Jar" was pretty cool, great for a deck or a balcony. Check out their stuff here.

3-D World

If you think this little guy is cute, you can make him your desktop... here

Ninjak

Sorry for the lack of posts, heavy work week... Anyhow, for fans of Valiant Comics, our storyboard artist, Mark Moretti, worked there for years and created the character, Ninjak with the now Editor-in-chief of Marvel Joe Quesada. Check out this wikipedia article, here. Also, Mark seems like a really easy going guy and has storyboarded some good projects such as I, Robot, Blades of Glory, and the upcoming presidential assassination thriller called, Vantage Point with William Hurt as the president.

TGIF

Wow, busy week... had to move the whole art dept. to the Paramount lot. Ahh, Hollywood, here we come.

Nick Thune

I saw this guy live the other night, one of my new favorite comedians, definitely one to watch his site

Jeremy Blake R.I.P

One of my favorite L.A. artists mysteriously drowned himself this week. Read about it here

Maneater

Funny thing, a while back I was working on a David O. Russell film that was about a geeky kid who switches bodies with Vince Vaughn, anyway... about the only thing I liked about the script was that the kid was obsessed with the musical act, Hall and Oates. Because the thing with Hall and Oates is, the music isn't horrible, but they have such a funny 80's style. Anyhow, recently H & O held a Youtube lip syncing contest and here is one of the videos here

Another Kitchen Shot

Sunshine

I saw Danny Boyle's Sunshine this weekend, I must say I was a fan of his previous films, but this new one was confusing in several ways, but overall entertaining. I really liked the sets, and the way that space travel to the sun was dealt with but about 3/4 way through, the movie changes tone, and I can't say it's for the better. Interesting note, A's work always screens these films the day of release, but for some reason Searchlight opted not to do an employee screening... hmmm. I wonder why? Certainly it wasn't because the film was a dud, who knows... If you liked Event Horizon, or for that matter Armageddon, you will like Sunshine, and if you've seen the film, then be sure to check out this site which offers back stories of all the characters and an interactive virtual tour of the spacecraft, the Icarus II.

The Short House Show

Saturday night, Culver City got a tad bit brighter as a group of Otis MFA artists put on a house show... it was refreshing to see these artists exhibiting such high quality work, taking risks, and having fun. Nice job folks. The image shown is by artist Terra Kuroda.

The Forbidden Kingdom

"Perhaps there is a bit of fear and trepidation in the film-geek community about hyping up a martial arts/family film directed by the guy who helmed The Lion King and Stuart Little. Forbidden Kingdom tells of an American kid who accidentally travels back to Ancient China by a magic [staff] and he has to team up with three masters to rescue the Monkey King. We want to love this film because it has teamed up Jet Li and Jackie Chan. By golly, this is a match made in heaven. Here we see our four leads in full costume - (L to R) Michael Angarano, Jet Li, Liu Yifei and Jackie Chan." A friend of mine read an early version of the script and said it was terrible... but he had heard since, that the rewrites were better... Could be cool, we'll see Sept. 2008.