December 19, 2011
John Carter is a fictional character, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who appears in the ‘Barsoom’ novels. Although he is actually a Virginian from Earth and only a visitor to Mars, he is sometimes known as ‘John Carter of Mars,’ in reference to the setting in which his major deeds are recorded, in the tradition of other real-world heroes such as Lawrence of Arabia and Scipio Africanus. His character is enduring, having appeared in various media since his 1912 debut in a magazine serial.
John Carter first appeared in ‘A Princess of Mars,’ the first Burroughs novel set on a fictionalized version of Mars known as ‘Barsoom.’ His character and courtesy exemplify the ideals of the antebellum South. A Virginian, he served as a captain in the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. While hiding from Apaches in a cave, he appears to die; leaving his inanimate body behind, he is mysteriously transported by a form of astral projection to the planet Mars, where he finds himself re-embodied in a form identical to his earthly one. Accustomed to the greater gravity of Earth, he is much stronger and more agile than the natives of Mars due to its gravity.
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December 17, 2011
Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959) is a Japanese artist. He lives and works in Tokyo, and first came to the fore of the art world during Japan’s Pop art movement in the 1990s.
The subject matter of his sculptures and paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict one seemingly innocuous subject (often pastel-hued children and animals drawn with confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. His artwork was featured in the album titled ‘Suspended Animation’ by experimental band Fantômas.
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December 17, 2011
Psychotronic is a film genre made up of horror films, spaghetti westerns, low-budget independent features, exploitation films that was coined by author Michael J. Weldon. The genre takes its name from the movie ‘The Psychotronic Man.’
After seeing this movie, Weldon created an extensive list of reviews of obscure quirky films that he felt were underappreciated by the mainstream and then marketed it as the ‘Psychotronic Encyclopedia,’ which has become known as a reference work for film buffs. The book prompted the creation of the Psychotronic Film Society.
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December 17, 2011
Paul Laffoley (b. 1940) is a US artist and architect. As an architect working for Emery Roth & Sons, Laffoley worked for 18 months on design for the World Trade Center Tower II.
As a painter, his work is usually classified as visionary art or outsider art; most of his pieces are painted on large canvases and combine words and imagery to depict a spiritual architecture of explanation, tackling concepts like dimensionality, time travel through hacking relativity, connecting conceptual threads shared by philosophers through the millennia, and theories about the cosmic origins of mankind.
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December 15, 2011
Breakbot aka Thibaut Berland (b. 1981) is a French producer and DJ born.
After studying at the School of Graphic Supinfocom, he made short films (with Oury Atlan and Damien Ferrié called Overtime), advertisements and videos. He is also a CG artist with credits including ‘Arthur and the Invisibles.’
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December 15, 2011
Beer glassware comprises the drinking vessels made of glass designed or commonly used for drinking beer. Different styles of glassware exist for a number of reasons: national traditions; legislation regarding serving measures; practicalities of stacking, washing and avoiding breakage; promotion of commercial breweries; or they may be folk art, novelty items or used in drinking games.
They also may complement different styles of beer for a variety of reasons, including enhancing aromatic volatiles, showcasing the appearance, and/or having an effect on the beer head. Several kinds of beer glassware have a stem which serves to prevent the body heat of the drinker’s hand from warming the beer. Beer glasses include German steins, old English tankards, and Belgian novelty glassware.
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December 15, 2011
Michael Jackson (1942 – 2007) was an English writer and journalist. He was the author of several influential books about beer and whiskey. He became famous in beer circles in 1977 when his book ‘The World Guide To Beer’ was published; it is still considered to be one of the most fundamental books on the subject.
The modern theory of beer style is largely based the book, in which Jackson categorized a variety of beers from around the world in local style groups suggested by local customs and names. His work had a special influence on the popularization of the brewing culture in North America, and he would later host a popular show entitled ‘The Beer Hunter,’ which was shown on Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel. During his 30 year career as a critic, he wrote columns for a large number of newspapers and magazines. Jackson considered beer as a component of culture and described beers in their cultural context. Although he traveled around the world and discovered different beer cultures, he was especially fond of the Belgian beers.
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December 14, 2011
Spy vs. Spy is a black and white comic strip that debuted in ‘Mad Magazine’ #60, in 1961, and was originally published by EC Comics. The strip always features two spies, who are completely identical save for the fact that one is dressed in white and the other black.
The pair are constantly warring with each other, using a variety of booby-traps to inflict harm on the other. The spies usually alternate between victory and defeat with each new strip. They were created by Antonio Prohías, a prolific cartoonist in Cuba known for political satire.
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December 13, 2011
Kinetic sculpture races are organized contests of human-powered amphibious all-terrain works of art. The original event, the Kinetic Grand Championship in Humboldt County, California, is also called the ‘Triathlon of the Art World’ because art and engineering are combined with physical endurance during a three day cross country race that includes sand, mud, pavement, a bay crossing, a river crossing and major hills.
The concept of kinetic sculpture racing originated in Ferndale, California in 1969 when local sculptor Hobart Brown ‘improved’ the appearance of his son’s tricycle by welding on two additional wheels and other embellishments. Seeing this ‘Pentacycle,’ fellow artist Jack Mays challenged him to a race.
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December 13, 2011
‘Carts of Darkness‘ is a 2008 National Film Board of Canada documentary film by Murray Siple about a group of homeless men in North Vancouver, who use shopping carts to collect bottles and cans to return for money and also race down the city’s steep slope for thrills. The subjects in the film control the carts using only their weight and one foot, during descents that cross intersections, with top speeds claimed to be as high as 70 km/h.
Siple, a former director of extreme sports videos and avid skateboarder and snowboarder, became a quadriplegic after a car accident in 1996. His first film after his accident, ‘Carts of Darkness’ allowed the filmmaker to regain the excitement he had experienced with extreme sports as well as relate to a fellow group of outsiders.
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December 11, 2011
Modesty Blaise is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by Peter O’Donnell (writer) and Jim Holdaway (art) in 1963.
The strip follows the adventures of Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talents and a criminal past, and her trusty sidekick Willie Garvin. It was adapted into films made in 1966, 1982, and 2003 and a series of 13 novels and short story collections, beginning in 1965.
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December 11, 2011
Stieg Larsson (1954 – 2004) was a Swedish journalist and writer, best known for his ‘Millennium series’ of crime novels, which were published posthumously.
Larsson lived and worked much of his life in Stockholm, in the field of journalism and as an independent researcher of right-wing extremism.
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