When the clock runs out on Super Bowl XLIV tomorrow, the Gatorade that gets dumped on the winning coach’s head will be one of three new sports drinks that the beverage company has debuted in Miami over the past week, the culmination of a marketing blitz that has made heavy use of social media and some of football’s biggest stars.
Want to know what it takes to start, and develop, a successful career path in the realm of social media? I recently had the pleasure of talking with 17 bright, enthusiastic professionals who are on the rise in their respective careers about some of the things they have learned and are continuing to learn along the way about using social media in their daily […]
AT&T kicked and screamed when Verizon stung it with its “There’s a map for that” series of ads, but deep inside it knows its wireless coverage needs to be improved.
Social media marketing campaigns are proving to be goldmines rich with customer engagement and insight that companies wouldn’t likely have otherwise. Companies like PepsiCo are going to extensive lengths to foster this type of collaboration with fans, and the payoff has been big. > Read More
All around him couples were clinging to one another, shrieking n’ shivering from the horrors director Patrick Lussier (Scream I, II & III) persistently threw in all their faces. And they loved it. Every last adolescent one of them was in cheesy splatter heaven. Holding onto one another as if they were dropping off the face of a way too complicated world, My Bloody Valentine –3D delivered such gratuitous ultra-violence to make their little hearts explode.
Cupid is right outside a suburban window. An old angel with dirty wings, he stands there peek-a-booing through the frosty glass of someone’s living room. He takes a withered hand and wipes away the chill, wonders why the roses and the paper hearts aren’t hung around the living room akin to the holly and blinking lights that the Christmas angels all adore. He thinks his lovely celebration is dwindling. Cupid deems our hearts are growing bitter. So our wee-sized cherub with a duffle bag filled with dusty arrows and a bow shakes his head, walks away bewildered.
As a child, Chet Zar would doodle the fantastic and macabre. In fact, he drew the weird and wonderful very well indeed. And when he could finally hide in the shadows of the local movie house, his visions matured. For Chet Zar realized he had a deep connection to the more pungent horror films he witnessed. He could relate to the anxiety and isolation the dark imagery flickered from the screen.
It touched the wounded child, caressed the artist fair, and launched another icon into the maddening spinning sphere.
I am in awe of his oil-based world. Like a kid with my nose pushed up against the window of an exotic toy store or sneaking into the tent of the Freak Show that just rolled into town, Chet’s art attracts my notice complete. Something dreadful is happening but I cannot look elsewhere. I cannot turn around, walk away from it. I cannot forget the mysterious metaphors resting on the canvas there.
Chet Zar is an artist of unique vision. He has an extraordinary talent. Fall into his world of sinister beauty that in many ways mirrors all of us. For these are not creatures looking back at us. They are merely all of us upside down and inside out.
“The characters i paint may seem like creatures from another dimension, but I think they are simply us, here and now. Modern humanity without it’s masks, without the adornments that make us acceptable to whatever group we are a part of. From the straight laced conservative to the tattooed, anti-social rebel, we all cover up to fit in someplace . Yet the only place where we are truly the same is on the inside. We all share feelings of fear and loneliness. We feel ugly and insecure. We feel separate from our environment and each other. These are the feelings that i try to convey in my paintings. These are the feelings that connect us.”
Fine artist, sculpture, and doll maker extraordinaire, Whobyfire is from Sweden. She spends a lot of her time making fantastically macabre art such as strange dolls from clay, super-sculpey and steel-wire.
We think she’s über imaginative. A real “find”. In fact, our editor has many of her works, including the original Kreep doll. Imagine that?
Visit her. Fall in love with her treasures. Buy them. Show them off to art critics and friends. Giggle at how affordable they are, now, before she’s whisked away by an even greater success.
“i’ve decided to burst my bubble again and let new creations climb out of my dark cave and see the world with half blind eyes. i just have to let them go so there’ll be room for new thougts, new energy, new dolls and sculptures in my mind. the ones who managed to climb out of my cave are now in my etsy shop.”
Gorgeous, talented plus highly innovative, model/musician Viktoria Modesta is a site to behold. Really. She’s renaissance, deliciously eccentric, and sculpted from the school of hard knocks. Too cool.
We love that she’s launched her solo music project with musician/producer Nik Hodges w/tracks written and produced by Viktoria and Nik. They’ve established a sound that reflects a mix of Electro, Dirty Pop, and a wee pinch of Indie/Rockabilly twang.
From the mouth:
“The project is already gathering an exciting amount of attention from the music industry with great reviews from MUSIC WEEK (Jane Bond has been featured on MUSIC WEEK playlist) , BRAND AMP, KISMET and BIZARRE. Her appearance @ London Fashion Week generated an amazing response after she performed an adapted version of SATELLITE, live as a finale of ZIAD GHANEM & FIRETRAP’s fashion show at The Freemasons Hall – Vauxhall Fahion Scout, stealing the show wearing a white couture gown.”
Oh, and Viktoria is an amputee. Something that she’s thrilled about. We can see why.
“Since the operation, there hasn’t been a single day where I’ve thought I shouldn’t have gone through with it. I do sometimes still wish I had a normal leg – but not my old leg.” -Viktoria, Bizarre
One of the fathers of modern horror, HP Lovecraft (Howard Phillips) wrote horror, fantasy, and science fiction, coined in the early 1900’s as weird fiction. Own a piece of the historic “Lovecraft Circle” with this near mint postcard penned to horror writer/illustrator Howard Wandrei in HP’s own hand.
Inscription:
“Hail Spawner of Daemons! Am harboring a guest of honor whom I believe you are not unacquainted. Have just produced an ice-cream famine at Maxfields & a general famine at Jakes (has Donald told you about these centers of…) & now absorbing scenic impressions. Now by the shore at Buttonwoods. Hope you’ll get over to these parts before you flash away towards the sunset!” Also signed at the conclusion, “Greetings out of the dark from the unknown, but not malefic. James Morton.”
ALS signed “H. P.,” on the correspondence side of a 3.5 x 5.5 picture postcard of the Providence County Court House, no date, but postmarked August 4, 1934. Postcard to Howard Wandris in New York.
Lovecraft died unknown and penniless in 1937 of cancer, aged 46.
We’ve updated our social media landscape including facebook, Myspace, and twitter. Thanks to Dull1, street artist and graphic designer, our look couldn’t be better.
Robert G. “Bobby” McGuire passed away in Milwaukee at 50 years old on May 26, 2009. He was a natural talent. He sang, acted, played a variety of musical instruments, and was even a great comedian. Like Tim Conway or Lou Costello before him, Bobby had the ability to make you laugh with a simple glance or gesture. He was, as they say, gifted.
When Bobby auditioned for the Chicago theatre company New Age Vaudeville back in the mid 80’s, he was so funny that they asked him to join the group right on the spot. He stayed with them for over four seasons performing supporting roles in many of their biggest hits. In An Evening With Elmore and Gwendolyn Putts – The Neighbors Next Door, Bobby created the role of the ever-loveable greaser Helmet Head. He recreated that role at their Crosscurrent’s Location to rave reviews, landing on the inside cover of the Chicago Tribune Art section .
Bobby later Co-starred in the Fox, Chicago TV variety show R. Rated, which aired midnights following Jerry Springer. As a regular player, Bobby created the controversial advertisement wearing only an orange Speedo and wig while lying on the Lakeshore Beach blowing bubbles announcing the show’s upcoming arrival on channel 32. It played consistently for two weeks prior to the airing of the show, and was responsible for building a substantial following.
A Memorial Mass will be held for Bobby on Saturday, May 30, at 10:00 AM, at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, at 41st and Oklahoma. He was cremated and will be buried at a private ceremony along side his maternal grandfather with whom he shared the love of laughter. Inquiries: Bruskiewitz Forest Lane Chapel, (414) 321-1700.
For the last three years, 351 of the world’s oddest and most talented animators, artisans, and puppet fabricators have been hand-making CORALINE. Led by Henry Selick, the director of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, this team has created the first stop-motion feature shot entirely in 3D. Based on the beloved best-selling children’s classic by Neil Gaiman, CORALINE is a fairy-tale nightmare steeped in classic storytelling, craftsmanship, and the old-fashioned art of moviemaking magic.
This is one of many cool 3D images that blogger Darkmatters received in his “Coraline” Mystery Box. They came with a beautiful 3D viewer; an old-world Viewmaster of sorts. They refer to these as Magic-Eye or Parallel-Viewing images. Don’t have a handmade viewer from Laika films, no problem: cross your eyes.
Gothic poet and illustrator The Kreep (a.k.a R. O’Donnell) has received an entirely handmade box of treasures collected specifically for him by the CORALINE team at Laika films. Inside the box, numbered 46/50, are highly decorated secret compartments that contain relics from the film including a bat/dog model, a bat body mold, authentic skeleton key with secret password, and a wing skeleton prototype #3. An old envelop with a wax seal with inlaid black button (as used for the eyes of the witch) and a hand-typed note explained the curious gift:
DEAR R.,
INSIDE THIS OLD BOX IS A ONE-OF-A-KIND COLLECTION WE’VE AMASSED AND CATALOGUED WITH YOU AND YOU ALONE IN MIND…THE PLAIN TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS, WE ARE PRETTY OBSESSED WITH DARK STORIES. LIKE YOU. WE ADMIRE YOUR DEDICATION TO THE KREEP. PLEASE KEEP UP THE SUPER WORK. WE’LL BE READING.
SINCERELY,
THE CORALINE TEAM
For the last three years, 351 of the world’s oddest and most talented animators, artisans, and puppet fabricators have been hand-making CORALINE. Led by Henry Selick, the director of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, this team has created the first stop-motion feature shot entirely in 3D. Based on the beloved best-selling children’s classic by Neil Gaiman, CORALINE is a fairy-tale nightmare steeped in classic storytelling, craftsmanship, and the old-fashioned art of moviemaking magic. CORALINE hits theatres February 2009.
The Kreep is produced by R. Productions in association with Hoffhines Productions, and published by Static Networx on 100% of Nothing, an art and culture ezine linked to a free downloadable podcast on iTunes.
