Commercial Break: Retro Bobby via Copenhagers

I just watched The Avengers and Cabin In The Woods, back to back -- in that order. It's going to take me a while to process writing down something of logic and cohesion. In the mean time, There's this guy.

Retro Bobby Ågren's store, Ruben & Bobby, located Jægersborggade 6, Copenhagen. Yup, that's a mouthful. Thanks to the fine folks at Copenhagers for putting a spotlight on Bobby's retro-game-and-toy-shop, that also doubles as a barbershop.

Also, Bobby's hair is magical.

In all seriousness, it's good to have these reminders as to why you write. Knowing that there is one guy out there in "Jaegerville" doing what he loves and wearing amazing sweaters to boot, in a way, is pretty darn inspiring.

What Is The Role Of The Photographer?

[Props to Ruben Salvadori winning Milan's Photo Dreaming contest.]

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Art You May Hate: Video Game Cover Art

That's it. They've done it. They've evolved past anything we could have ever imagined.

Starved for ideas to write about, I found myself google searching cover art and reminiscing about the days when I had less discerning tastes. What you will see after my words here is a small compilation of a user by the name of David Freeman's collection of video games and covers he's collected. I give him all the credit to this posts existence. The reason I didn't hotlink you directly was because his collection exists on his Google+ page. A page I'm not sure is open to any and everyone [I think you may need at least a Gmail account to view].

Now scroll down and let your eyes drink in some of the best and worst video game cover art I've ever had the pleasure of posting on this blog.

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Art You Might Hate: Pinkroad by Limee Young + U Joo

Many thanks to Colossal for pointing me in the direction of this power couple. Husband and wife duo, Limee Young and U Joo are a pretty cool team. I've been studying a lot on kinetic art, and sculpture specifically, Limee Young's name kept popping up.

Imagine my surprise when I ventured to their site and noticed some pretty amazing paintings, illustrations and video of their meticulous works.

I've always been interested in the construction of kinetic sculpture. I use to build robots for crying out loud! But this? This is a little over my head. The whole idea of kinetic sculpture is reliant on either wind energy, a standalone electricity source, or an artist having an active hand in how the kinetic energy is stored. Like being on a seesaw, but an amazingly beautiful and complex machine is on the other end of the plank.

So in these videos, you are seeing machines function because of liquid, weight and equal amounts of pushing and pulling on joints. Depending on how far a joint moves a microprocessor on a circuit board uses the energy generated to tell another joint to move. Or in the above video's case, a processor is telling a joint to move back, while the kinetic energy stored in the joints are telling it to move forward. This is as best as I can describe the very little I understand.

I thought I was getting closer to understanding kinetic art, but this work is proof I'm no where near comprehension. It's truly amazing work. After the jump is more stills, illustrations and videos. Thanks for the inspiration U_Joo and Lim!

 

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Happy Holidays From The Brog

Oh that Krampus always causing a ruckus

As I sit here wrapping the final gifts, infested with flu-like symptoms, imbibing both wine and Theraflu. I'm reminded of several things: 1) no matter how hard I try, my allergy to alcohol will continue being my Achilles' Heel to a life of drunkatude. 2) I've never felt luckier to have met and made connections to you great people on the internet. Your tweets and inboxed links haven't gone unnoticed. Sidenote: some of that s**t is straight-up weird and has resulted in a record number of blocks and reports. So, yeah, there's that.

What was I getting at with this? Oh yeah, 3) I'm not a rich guy, or even moderately "balling." I spent a fair amount [okay, all] of my spending money on my mom and little sister this holiday. At the same time, I'm not trying to go in debt or make a material statement as to my status in life. I got lucky with this friend group. They only expect me to be me. It was super-unfortunate I couldn't get everyone at least a joke/gag gift, but this post will have to suffice.

Below you'll find links to art, articles, and videos that I hold very dear. Some are to be taken in jest, others not-so-much. Thanks for the support.

And don't let Krampus poke you.

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Graphic Update: Asterios Polyp

I’m terrible at preparing for long distance travel. Choosing something to read on a flight gives me the sweats. In August I visited San Diego, I took Phonogram: Rue Brittania and Asterios Polyp. I’ll just say I’m glad I read “Phonogram” first. When you’re trapped on a plane with a crying baby and a man who smells like sour bratwurst, you’ll thank me for recommending this book.

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Commercial Break: Naked People Humping

The Humping Pact, Zollverein Coalmine (excerpt) from Dmitry Paranyushkin on Vimeo.

So here we are. Getting ready to go stuff ourselves with large plates of food, while others who are less fortunate go [potentially] forgotten. But everyone hates seeing those Sally Struthers commercials right? No one wants to see a group of Natives on C-SPAN demanding that the actual holiday of Thanksgiving be abolished. No. We want sports, an Adam Sandler movie of questionable quality and Black Friday deals.

I can't compete against that. But before you cart yourself off to your incubated home of familial love. I want the first thing you think of, prior to shoving corn fed meats into your gullet, to be a group of naked dudes humping stuff.

Why? I mean, when you think about it, why not. There was someone out there that had the presence of mind to ask some models, "Hey, mind rubbing your pee-holes up against sharp, rusty metal and dried twigs?"

Now go on and have yourself a delicious dinner. 

Commercial Break: Women's Clothing Through Time

I talked to my mom really early this morning. I told her about the changes to facebook, and why everybody hates it, but, you know -- still uses it. I told her about my flat tire and how I'll have no time to repair it until my one day off.

She yawned. She said, "you'll be alright, take it one day at a time." Then she did her hair. My mom's always done her own hair. Funny how things never change. 

Commercial Break: Ira Glass On Creative Writing

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

My job is pulling every ounce of energy out of my body. So I better get these in while one eyelid is half-open. I'm not the biggest fan of Ira Glass, but I do appreciate his views on writing. I think his writing is better than his speaking. Since I'm always thinking of ways to tear down my writing [the stuff you see on this site, it's usually deleted three times before an actual posting], I thought it'd be best to look up someone I know is talent, yet I'm not particularly fond of.

I got this. This works.

Thanks to Current.tv 

Commercial Break: Can You Walk Like This?

After a day of writing and hanging with some friends, I'm realizing that we are all working too hard. I mean, I love working, sometimes really hard. Builds character. But do you ever think to yourself, "Damn, I need to just straight space out for a bit?"

Above is a clip that I can't really make heads nor tails of [pun scanned...it's real!]. I would assume that it is in some way related to bugs [or glitches depending on your school of thought] found in modern programming. 

So cheers to you hard working people out there. The glitch in your life will have a patch, I just don't know how soon it'll come.