The Year of Colossus

We're coming up on 1,000 views shortly, which is both exciting and surprising given our rather lax update schedule. There has been a number of features that didn't play out quite as soon as promised, and although there's a number of reasons for this, both legit and just excuses (Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men pretty much ran my life for about a week there), they're coming. Trust me.

My wife and I have had somewhat of a time dealing with the impact of 2011. It's been a heavy year for us, filled with emotions good and bad, and we've made few efforts to keep our resolutions for 2012 and beyond.

So, join us in celebrating The Year of Colossus this February 1st, 2012! Leading up to the AC New Year, I'll be finally be posting the 11 Albums of 2011 feature as well as a number of 2011 leftovers including some design work from our October wedding.

Look forward to more music reviews this new year, because writing seems to be where I'm at right now. I'm also adding the final touches to a logo I can be excited about.

Thanks for hanging in there, guys, and to AC 2012: Get healthy, get wealthy, and get lost!

Soundtrack: Grimes, Visions | Lana Del Ray, "Born to Die (Clams Casino remix)" | Mos Def, The Ecstatic

Review: DC Comic Logo, or Logo Lingo

Comic book fans today have been inundated with a barrage of public relations and advertising lingo upon reveal of the new DC Comics and DC Entertainment logo(s). We're talking the type of "corporate ladder" terminology rarely heard outside team meetings, focus groups, and Jack Donaghy's inner monologue. But there's been little professional mention of the quality or effectiveness of the logo(s) outside of DC's "brand identity" in what Fast Company, the media and design website that broke the news this morning, calls DC's "ongoing corporate and creative initiatives".

 

Basically, are they any good?

 

SOPA-compliant Batman - Dean Trippe

Here's a missed meme opportunity if I ever saw one. During yesterday's SOPA protest black out comic illustrator Dean Trippe posted the following piece on his Tumblr account, entitled "SOPA-compliant B*TMAN".

Batman has been protesting SOPA since the fateful day that bat crashed through the windows of Wayne Manor, inspiring Bruce Wayne to take on the mantle of The Bat and fight crime and injustice and the censorship of kitten blogs everywhere.

And for those of you still fired up from yesterday's protest, here's a little piece of jaded-yet-entirely-accurate commentary by internet villain Maddox on yesterday's events and the Passive-Aggressive Protest Complex in general.

11 Albums of 2011 feature by day's end. I promise.

Soundtrack: T. Rex, Electric Warrior | Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak

Stop SOPA!

Almost Colossus is joining with over 7,000 websites today in "going on strike" to raise awareness of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) currently awaiting decision in the U.S. House and Senate, respectively. SOPA/PIPA would allow the government and corporations to censor the internet at will without threat of due process, thus crippling freedom of speech and access to information in accordance with our 1st Amendment rights.

To understand the effect of these laws from the perspective of the independent artist (and since I could not have stated it any better), posted below is a petition to Pennsylvania Congressmen from Gavin Robb, friend of Almost Colossus and human avatar/front man of Philly Cyber Art Rock group S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D.

To learn more, visit AmericanCensorship.org and help stop Congress from passing this Orwellian bullshit!

Dear Representatives Toomey, Fatah, & Casey,

The internet has been instrumental to each and every modern artist, rewarding them fairly for their often undervalued sacrifice and the hard work required to make a living (no matter how meager) sharing their talents and passions. In the frighteningly common event that we are unable to sustain ourselves on our art alone, simply being able to share it with others is instrumental to our sense of compensation. S.968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would cripple that ability, ultimately taking the simple, sincere joy of sharing art for arts sake away from those who cherish it. And for what?

The very industry that has forever shortchanged the artists who have sustained it is comprised of the corporations who support this bill, all in the name of their own infinite greed.

Their self serving interests in ending the golden age of the internet is not worth irrevocably hindering something that has meant so much to so many.

Gavin Robb

Listening to: David Bowie, Low | S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D.

That Shit Cray

Just a little something to keep the posting momentum going.

Stereogum reported that comedian Aziz Ansari (Parks & Recreation, Human Giant) and Matthew Shawver (I don't know) created an emoticon tribute to Jay-Z & Kanye West's Watch the Throne track "Niggas In Paris". This isn't the first time Aziz has paid tribute to "Paris". Leading up to a Conan O'Brien appearance last year, he tweeted that the two were to perform the track as a duo.

And because it's hilarious (and I'm still waiting for that mixtape to drop, guys!), check out this video of Aziz as rapper/comedian Raaaaaaaandy with Dave Sitek (TV On the Radio) and Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) in a recreation of the theft of Justin Bieber's hit "Baby" by the Pop-tart himself.

"Bieber straight popped a shit in the tank; killed the fish!"

Baby, baby, baby: Oneohtrix Point Never, Replica | The Big Pink, Future This

Batman - Rafael Albuquerque

Consider this my first "First!" Gotham Spoilers reported this morning on DC Comics announcement regarding the dollar price hike ($3.99) and backup story to the Batman flagship title beginning with April's issue #8.

The backup will be co-written by Batman writer Scott Snyder and illustrated by American Vampire's Rafael Albuquerque, also written by Snyder. Check out the full story and these character sketches via DCU's The Source. Albuquerque's interpretation of Jim Lee's often clunky looking new Batsuit is the best I've seen yet.

Well worth the extra buck.

Tunage: Battles, Gloss Drop

RIP Cgunit

Modern art online gallery Cgunit announced via a post entitled "As A Final Note" on December 31, 2011, that it will no longer accept submissions and the website will no longer be updated.

Cgunit has served as a regular source for modern art and artists since 2005. Art mediums and styles were varied, ranging from traditional illustration and paint to computer design and photography and included works by notable artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Mark Ryden, and Almost Colossus favorite Matthieu Bessudo (McBess).

frigidaire3, by McBess

Leading up to the announcement, the site curated the End of Cgunit Countdown, celebrating its best featured artists. Cgunit will remain open as an archive, so please do browse the Countdown and more.

R.I.P., Cgunit.

Morning Spin: St. Vincent, Strange Mercy

Are Mokkelbost

Two hours after fighting with the Blogger html and Facebook and last.fm widgets, I'm throwing in the towel on this layout for the evening. But before doing so, I have to credit Norwegian artist ARE MOKKELBOST for the placeholder background currently gracing the page.

I'm not sure of the title of this specific piece, but MOKKELBOST's website credits it as:

Let´s Get Physical, group show, Oslo, 2003. Posters, paper collage, spray paint, paper and light box.

Let's Get Physical, for lack of better name, has served as avatar and background on a number of my online profiles. I was first introduced to the work of MOKKELBOST, and this piece specifically, through the blog of HYDRAHEAD RECORDS founder and recording artist AARON TURNER. There's something about the imagery of flames at the base transitioning up to what looks like smoke and melted lava rock cascading energy outward into solid black stone at the top that reminds me of slow and deliberate creation, all in stark grayscale on vast colorless white. How this hasn't become a SunnO))) album cover yet is beyond me.

MOKKELBOST's latest series, ION, depicts a "teenage image world" (Mokkelbost) through collage "based on visual transformation of fashion magazine photography to symbolic opposites with the aid of only scissors and glue (artistaday.com)."

Neat.

Musics: Thundercat, The Golden Age of Apocalypse | Shabazz Palaces, Black Up

Resolutions // Mary Anne Hobbs

Happy New Years, droogies. Hope your holi-daze were swell and you're steadfast in your resolutions.

I've never been too fond of New Years resolutions. They're a platform for failure. But as such, I resolve to contribute more frequently in 2012. There will be an 11 Albums of 2011 feature coming shortly to coincide with a page banner and new layout and I'll probably continue updating in look-at-this-cool-shit Tumblr style until I fall into a regular content schedule.

Speaking of, check out the Mixcloud page of British XFM DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, champion of hip-hop and electronic music. I've been rotating these mixes on the reg ever since I finished my 2011 album listens, particularly this Thom Yorke mix. Cheers.

Thom Yorke MoneyBack Mix - Xfm Music: Response 15/09/11 by Mary Anne Hobbs on Mixcloud