Steven Cerio‘s film “The Magnificent Pigtail Shadow” – narrated by Kristin Hersh – will have its screen debut at the MAKING MOVIES 2012 FILM AND VIDEO SERIES curated by Terry Cuddy and organized by the Schweinfurth Art Center and held at the Auburn Public Theatre (108 Genessee street, Auburn NY) tonight, Thursday, May third. Check it!

For those who were without New York public access TV or forgot to steam this last night. It’s Jason Martin on the Chris Gethard Show. Apologies to our Philly friends. The Jason action starts around 21 minutes in with “Alpha Dog”. They return at 45:30 with Mariah Moriah. After that you’re on your own. It’s pretty much an Evolution Revolution reunion with Aaron Smith, Troy Pohl and Jesse Pellerin. Chris knows his history, and he gives a little love to Brown Cuts Neighbors:

On top of all THAT, we will be joined by the fine musical stylings of Jason Martin. Not ONLY will he be bringing his danceable, experimental, crazy cool pop music to our fine show from the northern wilds of Albany, NY, Jason is ALSO an old school public access hero who was one of the masterminds behind a show that is clearly a kindred spirit to our own, Brown Cuts Neighbors. I am excited and flattered to welcome a musician of his caliber to our crappy little public access stage.

In other Jason news, there are some astounding photos up on Brooklyn Vegan of the Andrew W. K. show from a few nights ago which featured Jason’s Power Animals with Aleister X.

Get Jason’s songs on his SoundCloud page.
Jason’s most recent release is the Harmonic Time Cycles & Scary Guitar Man Cassette on Yeay! Tapes

The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes It’s episode #41.

Lady Starlight is profiled in the online magazine IN*TANDEM, with many pull-quotes and video loops by Jason Martin. Jump to page 95 for the action. Has she traded in the Jack Daniel’s for donuts? Denim for diamonds? What is going on?

Git yr ass down to the Roxie in SF this weekend for the Mission-style glory that is Cine-Madness! Friday, March 23 – Sunday, March 25, the Roxie teams up with L.A.’s Cinefamily and Austin’s Alamo Draft House to present three nights of wrong and twisted viewing pleasures. Get all the details on the Roxie’s site.

The stylish poster above was designed under great duress (seriously, it’s been a pretty heavy week here) by Wow Cool’s own Marc Arsenault (me). How often do you get to draw Nixon, Elvis and George Kuchar together?

Three of my all-time favorite songs from when I first heard them to forever.

Erin is my hero. Go listen to her awesome Life During Wartime radio show, which she’s been co-hosting for over 15 years. The shows used to be released on cassette back in the ’90s. This is the video of the week over on Maximum RockNRoll, where Erin and I are both fairly lazy contributors.

OMG, the cameraman is quite in love with Erick Lyle and Anandi in that concert video! Erin rocked the drums with our own Joshua Baker in Things I Hate and Chased and Smashed (as seen in the video, duh). The Chased and Smashed – 30 Seconds Over Hillsboro EP is still available right here.

Joe Sorren and The Veridic Gardens of Effie Leroux. Looking forward to more motiony goodness from the Annie and Attaboy team. Wow Cool has been stocking the print edition of Hi-Fructose in the new shop since the re-launch last October.

If you can click on only one, please check out “The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World” by Emily Temple, on FlavorWire. The ultimate in shelf porn. I think I’ve been to only one of these, Shakespeare & Company in Paris.

As you may have heard, the artist Mike Kelley is dead. The above video of the unholy trinity of art hooligans Mike, Gary Panter and Matt Groening is a great romp to lift your spirits.

The Magic Band (as in Captain Beefheart’s) has been touring recently – with original members John “Drumbo” French, Mark “Rockette Morton” Boston and Denny “Feelers Rebo” Walley. This tour report from Drumbo is much more interesting than you might guess. His history of the band Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic is well worth tracking down.

Sold out of its first printing well before it actually goes on sale this Monday, the new comic book of Adventure Time looks like it might actually be ‘all that’. The many alternate covers of issue three – including one by Michael DeForge – are previewed on the Frederator site. Read Wow Cool’s roundup of the Artists of Adventure Time.

You may have heard of 24-Hour Comic Day, there appears to also be something called Hourly Comic Day – “On February first a bunch of people make a journal comic every hour they are awake. and then they show these journal comics to other people on the internet.” Bad Machinery‘s John Allison participated. I’m sure others did, but there are only so many hours in the day…

Apparently Too Much Coffee Man shows up as an NPC in some strange incarnation of Half-Life.

Frank Santoro is on tour preaching his comics gospel. I managed to miss him in the bay area (sick kid). Hey, Pacific North West! Don’t you pass up this opportunity! He’s been posting tour diaries too: Part One | Part Two

Lynda Barry delights in coloring book misuse and abuse and many other wondrous sights on her tumblr.

Didn’t hear much noise about this elsewhere, but it seems that the “Monty Python team set for film reunion with Absolutely Anything” It’s animated, yes.

I’m currently in the process of reading this interview with and exploring the sounds and software of Richard Devine. I’m a particular fan of Graincube. Richard’s DEVSND blog.

Wow Cool crucial guy Joshua Baker has recently returned to Portland after a long sojourn up in Maine. He and partner Eli have a blog of their trip up that you may enjoy. So… does this mean a chapter three in the God Hates Computers/Chased and Smashed Saga (or is that a chapter four in the Things I Hate/God Hates Computers/Chased and Smashed Saga? Or wait, are there more?… goddamn punk bands…)

Simon Gane draws cathedrals. Sure, mummies and Rodan are cool, but these big ass churchy things could probably kick your ass too!

The actor Ben Gazzara has died. He may be best remembered as part of that great trio with John Cassavetes and Peter Falk that made the film ‘Husbands’ as sort-of promoted above. I thought I had run this video before, but can find no evidence of it. This is one of the most insane talk show appearances ever. I could never get quite as behind the rat pack or the beat crew of Bill, Jack and Al as I could with these guys.

Jason Martin brings his Power Animals to Florida today, Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2012…

POWER ANIMALS TRANSMISSION DEVICE 2012 (video projection w/sound, runtime: 1 hour, looped) @ Orlando Museum of Art, event curated by artist Johannah O’Donnell: “From Robots to Warlocks: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Art in the 21st Century.” Power Animals screening 6-9PM @ SunTrust Auditorium, Orlando Museum of Art, 2416 North Mills Avenue, Orlando FL — Features new videos, strange raw footage, works made for the internet, previously screened videos, all remixed and scored with original music for this particular screening.

In 1977, Ringo Starr did four commercials hawking Simple Life Leisure Suits for Japanese TV. They contained variations of the song, “I Love My Suit” – sung by Ringo, featuring background vocals by Harry Nilsson and Davy Jones of The Monkees.

I can’t begin to say how awesome I think this song and video are. Would love to see a higher quality copy of the commercial. Info here.

Download the song from backup singer Davy Jones.

UNREST Perfect Teeth / 7″ Box Set from Teen-Beat on Vimeo.

UNREST’s landmark indie-rock album, Perfect Teeth, has been out of print for 15 years. Their last, and widely considered their best album. Featuring M.T.V. hits “Make Out Club” and “Cath Carroll”, the other 8 songs, plus 6 non-LP tracks.

it is being re-released in it’s original 7″ vinyl box set format, revised with a 7″ 24-page booklet filled with photographs of the band by Erin Smith and recording session photos by Mark Robinson, six records all on color vinyl, full-color labels, replicas of the Unrest and Teen-Beat stickers, and a download coupon. Just like the original, the box will be printed by Independent Project Press, this time with metallic gold ink. Each box will be numbered.

You may pre-order it today at http://teenbeatrecords.com It will ship in Spring, 2012.

It is no secret that we at Wow Cool *heart* Unrest all over like a cheap suit.

Media artist Dara Greenwald has been a close friend to many of the people involved in Wow Cool on both coasts for many, many years. I am sad to report that she lost her fight with cancer on Monday, January 9th, 2012. Although I have never met Dara in person, I feel her loss greatly and have never heard so many great things said about someone by so many people involved in my life and work from so many different areas. She contributed much to this world and I invite you to explore her work at http://daragreenwald.com/

This post will be updated with more information as it becomes available.

This is a couple years old, but somehow I totally missed it. The Empire State’s favorite sons The Scientific Maps present a video loveletter to Albany, New York(!!!???). Starring ace designer Philip Pascuzzo as the bubblegum bandit. Makes a nice follow up to the Andy’s Chair 4 video zine posted here awhile ago – see the same settings virtually unchanged after over a decade and a half. Look for a special appearance by my Brown Cuts Neighbors “Make Room” poster featuring Frank Beam, towards the end of the video. Thanks to all the folks that shared this on facebook this week.

Pieces of Ralph E. White performing his original tunes “farewell to the river daughter” & “no stranger” live at the United States Art Authority. Video by Neil “Cloaca” Young of Yeay! Records and Fat Worm of Error. This is an astounding performance.

Please do watch the above and have your mind gently blown before reading the following. But you might want to wait…

I had never heard of the Czech-born International cartoon legends Pat & Mat until today. It’s very likely that you had not either. I discovered them while trying to find some fun new games for my son to play – browsing the offerings in the Steam Autumn Sale. He’s five, and he loves Pajama Sam and puzzles. There do not seem to be a ton of age-appropriate point-and-click adventure games for him out there currently. We mostly pick up older games that will still run in the classic environment on his iMac. It’s one of the last ones that Apple made that will still support it. So, at some point I stumbled on the Steam page for the Pat & Mat game. Oh no! This doesn’t seem to work right! Can we fix it?

The description makes a big point of playing up the international brand recognition of these two schlubs that I had never heard of nor seen before. Google power to the rescue and it is little wonder why. Despite having logged 78 episodes in over a quarter of a century and being shown worldwide (apparently being quite popular in most of the middle east and even Iceland!), they have somehow skipped any sort of US TV programming or video release. You can score More Pat & Mat – Series Two [Region 2] on Amazon, if you want to spend a bit… or the show is available through YouTube and the other usual sources.

The shorts are astounding. They are mind-rendingly funny. The two clear animated decedents of the show in both style and content are Bob The Builder (Which could be read as an elaborate apologia of it’s Slavic ancestor) and Wallace & Gromit, which pays clear homage in several moments, especially Wallace’s chin-grabbing pondering.

The short I picked to show above brought many great attempts at audio art to mind, including the various vinyl-de(con)structive releases by the Haters. Remember the slab of vinyl, needle and set of instructions LP they did? No? Ok…

Seriously, whoever can sell me the North American distribution rights to these cartoons, please get in touch soon. Oh, was that too crass? Sorry. Have a happy Macy’s Day.

With music by Burial! Archangel from Untrue, even! Jason used to make fun of me for liking that kind of stuff! Hey!

I used to play the shit out of We Got Our Own Thang back in ’89. It was such an amazing time for music and this was a great bridge between hip hop and the emerging House music scene. Godspeed, brother.

LA Times: Heavy D dies at 44; singer who shaped rap music

OK. To get started. This game looks fun and gruesome. Stealth Bastard: Tactical Espionage Arsehole is free to download and play. It’s Windows only, but may run fine on Mac and Linux through Wine. Read the write up on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Serious funnyman Michael Kupperman is the subject of the latest Gweek podcast over in Boingerland. We just recently got a stack of Mike’s bit of awesomeness he did for Timely Comics a couple years back in the shop – All Select Comics #1 featuring MARVEX!

Theo Ellsworth gives strange interview over at Don’t Panic. In further related, ‘hey go buy stuff from the Wow Cool Shop’ news, there is now a page of Theo art on there. Yup, Capacity, Sleeper Car and two anthologies with bonus Ellsworth are on sale now.

The guests and exhibitors for the 2011 Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival have been announced. Wow Cool won’t be there in person, but, about sixth tenths of the artists whose books we carry will.

You must go watch this wild Salvador Dalí documentary narrated by Orson Welles! “A Soft Self Portrait” from 1967 on Ubu Web.

Paul Pope talks about teaming up with Legendary Comics (publishing arm of the film studio that produced Inception, The Dark Knight and others) to finally get some more books out, over on CBR.

Susie Cagle has posted a report on AlterNet about her experiences with the Oakland Police Department while trying to cover Occupy Oakland as a journalist. “Oakland has spent more than $1 million on Occupy policing, but nearly all of that overwhelming force has been used against innocent people.”

Once upon a time, Charles Band, director of such personal favorites as Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn and Trancers, got the option to produce a film based on Marvel Comics’ Doctor Strange… and then the rights expired. He braved on with the project, changing various odd details, and created “Doctor Mordrid Master of the Unknown”, which was released in 1992. I had never heard of it before I picked up a promo copy VHS tape of the film for 99 cents today. The whole thing is viewable online, of course. It’s quite entertaining. you can also get it on DVD.

Jack Kirby allegedly did concept art for the film.

I’ve been wanting to write something here about Susie Cagle’s coverage of Occupy Oakland for a couple weeks now. But, given the occupation’s escalating nature and Susie’s work on it being ongoing observation and documentation for an eventual full report, there was not an easy way in to hang a post on. Recent events and the press attention given them makes this seem like a good time to jump in. Occupy Oakland has been a strange story to try to follow, from the reports that make it all sound like a raging riot in the Guardian to the feel good piece in the LA Times on Thursday morning about protesters grabbing breakfast burritos from a food truck with the dockworkers Union boss. Add to this the such mindblowing events as solidarity protests in Tahrir Square and it’s all just a bit much to take in. One thing is certain, however, The Oakland Police Department is deeply fucked up. That’s not a big surprise to anyone, but it is shocking that the press has repeatedly been on the direct receiving end of their repressive measures — from their dusting off the riot playbook last Tuesday to this weeks imprisonment and intimidation exercises. Susie Cagle has been one of the most visible targets of their insane anti-journalist campaign — catching an exploding can of teargas right in front of her face (video above) to her arrest, imprisonment and the holding of her personal belongings by the police over the last few hours. As of this writing they are still holding her stuff, including her apartment keys. Yet, she is determined to follow this story until the end despite all of this. That level of commitment is a true inspiration. Just be safe out there, Susie. I don’t ever want to see you added to this roster at CPJ.

Follow Susie’s regular updates from the occupation on Twitter.

Susie’s homepage “This Is What Concerns Me“. You will want to also check out her Copyright Explained cartoon and her investigation of Bay Area faith-based ‘pregnancy centers’ What Every Woman Should Know and the accompanying Behind The Scenes report.

UPDATE: Posted late today on YouTube, Susie’s video from the plaza raid right before she was arrested. Yes, the footage is a bit rough. If I was ever in a situation where a large group of people were being told “Get on the ground, you’re under arrest”, I would probably try to run, break into a building, something–all Gordon Freeman style–because I would assume the alternative was far worse…

Found via Jeff Newelt on Twitter

A movie trailer project inspired by the graphic novel “The INCAL”, from Moebius and Jodorowsky.

A while ago, I reunited a bunch of the artists from the original “Heavy Metal” movie, to produce a trailer based upon this great work. Then I got busy building my company and it sat on shelf until a few months back, when I decided to revamp it with today’s digital punch.

Two sequences from the original “Heavy Metal” movie were borrowed from Moebius’s work; “The Long Tomorrow” story and “Arzach”. Given that till this day, Moebius and Jodorowsky are heralded as some of the world’s greatest Sci-Fi visionaries; it seems to me that a film, based on their work would be even more successful than one inspired by it.

Bringing these incredible artists’s work to the big screen, I am convinced would be a great success…so much so that I animated and directed this piece with other like artists.

-Pascal Blais

Happy Hallowe’en!

Tune in to the Travel Channel tonight, Sunday October 30th, 2011, for their new special “Halloween Crazy”, which includes a segment on San Jose’s Psycho Donuts. The spot features photos and videos produced by Marc Arsenault and Wow Cool, largely as part of the Psycho Nurse Calendar project.

From $1000 pumpkin carvings to a terror fest in a former prison, we’ve dug up the most spine-tingling, wacky and festive Halloween traditions in the nation.

Halloween Crazy debuts at 9pm Eastern/Pacific Sunday, October 30. Repeats are at 5pm and Midnight on Halloween.

The New York Times talked to Jason Martin about his Power Animals installations, videos and performances as part of a longer piece on Brooklyn’s Microscope Gallery and the live birth that recently happened there. A version of this article appeared in print on October 30, 2011, on page MB1 of the New York edition with the headline: For a Gallery at the Edge, Fame Is Born Tuesday. Jason’s Power Animals Systems NYC Windows installations run through January 14, 2012.

THESE risks include screenings and performances by emerging local artists, like Jason Martin. Mr. Martin, 38, makes what he calls “power animal videos,” in which he dresses as a wolf or dog and conducts séance-like rituals intended to contact the half-animal, half-human creatures that visited him in dreams as a child.

Read the whole article online.

And much else as well. At least seven titles by Kevin Huizenga and a few hundred other fairly awesome comics, zines and records. Many more on the way. Do come explore.

Power Animal Systems, an installation by Jason Martin will be on view through January 14th, 2012. A solo show in windows on Broadway and Washington Square in Manhattan. Viewable 24/7. Works in photography, video, sculpture, and teleportation. Presented by 80WSE Galleries.

Power Animal Systems asks you to please assist in transmission. There are many creatures beyond our perception, but we have technologies to evoke some. These are attempts to bring inter-dimensional, species-queer, animal/human hybrids into a collective reality. They appear here staring intently at us. What do they want? To live! It is only with your participation and contemplation that we can make them come alive. Please assist us in transmission.

http://www.gothicfuturism.com/

Tom Hart writes about spending some time with the talented Derek Ballard, and about about this whole fusion comics business. Many illustrations.

Sean T. Collins has coined the word “Hanawaltian” is his glowing in-depth review of Thickness #2.

Today is a second monday, which means that Michael DeForge has posted the fourth installment of Ant Comic.

Brian Ralph is interviewed by the National Post about the new hardcover collection of his brilliant Daybreak comic. Daybreak is now in stock at Wow Cool and available in the shop.

Box Brown spotted this one: Mars is a romantic comedy in space that counts James Kolchaka, Kinky Friedman and Cynthia Watros among it’s cast members and has a soundtrack that features Kristin Hersh and Neko Case. All you need to know is on the Swerve Pictures site.

And lastly, on my old on-air stomping grounds WSVA (Where I hosted Grunion Radio with Ben Jackson, Sam Henderson and many others back in 1988-89), Sam Weber is interviewing Lisa Hanawalt Wednesday, October 19, and they need your questions. We just got copies of a thick mini comic and a limited edition letterpress print by Lisa in the shop. You really should check those out.

Stalker is an astounding film that you simply must see.

Go to nostalghia.com for all the Tarkovsky info you could ever want.
You can watch just about every film Tarkovsky made and much more online. Here’s a convenient gateway.

Stalker is also available on DVD Sadly no Criterion edition yet.

Found via Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Adam Curtis may be the greatest journalist of our age. Yes, whatever, or whenever, that is… He is certainly one of its greatest documentarians. His skilled use of the video medium – in films that demand that you both look and listen to get the full effect – persuasively show and tell that things are not quite as you have been told (and shown). His most recent work – All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace – named for the Richard Brautigan poem of the same name – seems particularly relevant in light of the spread of the current Occupy movement. This documentary series also gives perspective on the origins of aspects of the Tea Party Movement and the influence of Ayn Rand in particular. Strangely, one of the greatest proselytizers of Randian Objectivism – especially in Canada and the Northern mid-west – the rock band Rush, is not mentioned.

You will want to pay regular visits to Curtis’ blog at the BBC. His access to their archives has leant him unique incite into many of the world’s recent shaking events.

Watch All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace on Archive.org.

Television has had many memorable encounters over the years… David Frost and Richard Nixon; Tom Snyder and Public Image, Ltd.; and, then there’s Groucho Marx and Albert Hall. The whole show is hilarious… although, um, the way Groucho addressed the ladies back then gets almost disturbing in nature. The real gem is veteran newspaper pressman Albert Hall – has Drew Friedman ever drawn this guy? He shows up a little after 16 minutes in. This is just amazing stuff. Classic TV.

The Google tribute is all kinds of awesome. I made the above video with my son last year.

APE 2011 – The Alternative Press Expo – took place on October 1-2, 2011 at the Concourse in San Francisco. Five of the artists who work on Adventure Time with Finn & Jake were in attendance: Thomas Herpich, Andy Ristaino, Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Jesse Moynihan. Another A.T. artist who was not in attendance was conspicious by the presence of his many works at the show – Canadian contributor Michael DeForge.

Table sign from the 2011 Alternative Press Expo – APE - in San Francisco, CA.

Thomas Herpich

Thomas Herpich is a character designer and storyboard artist for many Adventure Time episodes. He is also credited with writing six episodes so far, including “Her Parents”, a personal favorite. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts (SVA), Thomas has been getting his comics and illustration out there for about a decade. He’s done two solo books and appeared in Meathaüs and Nickelodeon Magazine.

Thomas created two books for Alternative Comics - Gongwanadon and Cusp.

From the great collection of art by Adventure Time staff on the AT Wiki.

ThomasHerpich.com | Herpich Brothers Blog | Interview on MeatHaüs | Interview on Vice

Andy Ristaino

”

Andy Ristaino is the lead character designer on Adventure Time with Finn & Jake. He also designs many of the title cards on the show. When not drawing crazy creatures for work he can be found drawing comics and playing the theremin. Two collections of his comics were published by SLG: The Babysitter and Escape from Dullsville. His work has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including Popgun, Meathaus, Nickelodeon Magazine, and Spectrum, and he has been featured in the magazines Coilhouse and Hi Fructose.

Andy’s blog Skronked! | Follow Andy on Twitter

Rebecca Sugar & Ian Jones-Quartey

I had no idea that a whole crew from Frederator Studios had made the trip up to APE. I stopped by the table specifically looking for Andy Ristaino, who I knew was there… somewhere. Each time I came by, he was nowhere to be seen. By the time I caught up with him it was nearly the end of the show on Sunday. I quickly discovered that the guy I talked to each time I’d visited was Thomas Herpich (I had him sign a copy of Cusp that I picked up at the show), and that they were with two other artists from the series. I managed to say hi to them and snap their picture. I had to run off a talk to someone else at the show then, and when I came back they had left. I imagine everyone thought I was just being rude.

Ian Jones-Quartey has also worked on The Venture Bros. as animation director. He recently worked as a storyboard artist on “Secret Mountain Fort Awesome” for Cartoon Network and is currently the Storyboard Supervisor on Adventure Time. He has also created the comics Tent Sale and Beta Temple. Beta Temple was sold out when I got to the table.

Beta Temple

Rebecca Sugar is a storyboard artist on Adventure Time and the creator of the graphic novel Pug Davis. She is credited with writing nine episodes of Adventure Time to date, including  Susan Strong, which I’m watching right now. She has also composed many songs for the show. Her impressive animated short “Singles” is considered a bit of a classic.

Jesse Moynihan

I took two blurry photos of Jesse Moynihan. He is a writer and storyboard artist on Adventure Time. His newest book is Forming from Nobrow Press. His earlier books are also available from Wow Cool. Everything you need to know about Jesse can be found in this recent interview with the Comics Journal.

Michael DeForge

Michael DeForge was not present at APE 2011, but his presence was felt. As the headlines say, Michael DeForge is making the most exciting work in comics today. Michael is a character designer on Adventure Time. He has released three issues of his solo comic Lose through Koyama Press, co-edits the anthologies Root Rot and Thickness (adults only!), and has appeared in seemingly a hundred comics anthologies in just the last couple of years.

There have been several in-depth interviews with and profiles of the artist in recent days. Frank Santoro describes him as being at the vanguard of what he calls fusion comics along with Brandon Graham and Dash Shaw. Michael lives in Toronto, so he probably is celebrating Thanksgiving today. His work is well worth seeking out. A large selection of it is available direct from Wow Cool.

Michael DeForge Home Page | The King Trash Blog | Michael DeForge on What Things Do

Profile by Rob Clough on TCJ.com | Interview with Squidface & The Meddler | DTU Interview with Matt Seneca

Interview with Avoid The Future | Interview with Spraygraphic | Interview with the(excerpt)

Michael DeForge’s Cartoonist Diary for The Comics Journal

UPDATE: Notably absent from this list was Ron Russel, who does the painting on the amazing title cards for each episode.
He has worked on many other classic shows including Futurama, Invader Zim and The Mighty B!

Adventure Time with Finn & Jake airs Monday’s at 8pm/7pm Central on Cartoon Network.

More goodness: Adventure Time with Finn & Jake | Frederator Studios | Official YouTube |  Adventure Time Wiki 

AT creator Pendleton Ward’s Home Page | Get the Adventure Time DVD

Fred Seibert’s Adventure Time collection on flickr

Go make these papercraft cut and fold AT Characters. I made Beemo. Tonight, my son made Mr. Cupcake.

I was just sent this by Scott Beibin, who worked on it, and am sharing it. I’m a little behind on what is going on in New York at the moment, so playing catchup now. Whatever your view, this is pretty major and you should stay informed. This video makes an interesting gateway into the datastream.

I’ve been watching the news enough to think that is very likely that London is going to erupt over the next few days. The City of London, commonly just, The City, is one of the largest financial services centers in the world. It has just been revealed that half the donations to the Tories have come from that sector. The Conservative Party Conference is underway. In the meanwhile, you see articles like this one in the Guardian about how great the $100 Million Lloyd’s building is and you can start to get a little steamed too. So… Occupy the City? I can’t wait to read what Charlie Brooker has to say.

More info: Adbusters Occupy Wall Street Page

Having covered the one-off PiL reunion of Jah Wobble and Keith Levene – sans their well-known ginger-out-of-the-bottle singer last year – I’d be amiss to not point you to their much more official reunion on an upcoming release on Cherry Red Records and in the promo clip for the single ‘Tightrope’ from the new unit centered on Wobble and Julie Campbell called Psychic Life. More so than anyone else in Public Image Limited, Jah Wobble has regularly issued vital slabs of new tunes, from his collaborations with Bjork, Sinéad O’Connor, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell, Adrian Sherwood, and members of CAN and Urban Dance Squad, to his more recent excursions like Damage Manual, The Chinese Dub Orchestra and last year’s ‘Welcome To My World’. Wobble has been a singular example of an artist who has balanced a long history of DIY releases (most recently and consistently on his 30 Hertz label) with major label outings. He continues to be a vital artist and an inspiration to anyone trying to make a go of it in the current Bizzaro World landscape of the music industry. So this new joint is certainly worth a listen. Psychic Life also have a very lovely website. I’m curious to see where they go with this clear nod to psychogeography. Hopefully something a bit deeper that what you get from a Will Self column.

Tightrope’ is released as part of a four track Psychic Life EP on 10th October. It features Keith Levene on guitar. ‘Tightrope’ is also on the Psychic Life album which will be released on the 7th November 2011. Both the EP and album will be released on Cherry Red Records. Keith Levene features on three tracks of the album.

From 1993. Never before seen! Punk zine goes video with live performances by Doc Hopper, Nuisance, Drop Dead, Slave State and Lumpen Proletariat (Ottawa)!

Pay a visit to Reconstruction Records with Peter Ventantonio of Sticks & Stones! Tour Albany, New York’s Tulip Fest with Andy, Paul and Jason! See the members of Huasipungo scowling in back of ABC No Rio! Special appearances by Sam Henderson and Human Lard Dog!

Sadly this version is not the best quality. The raw footage was shot on VHSC… I want to go back and capture from that or the VHS dump of it. I did this edit on a crappy system at the old Schenectady public access. It chewed up the video and jumped at every edit. grrr. I was so disappointed that I never released it, and it was only shown a couple times. The encoding to get it on the web didn’t do it any favors either.

Additional camera by Darryl Kahan. Believe it!

Andy’s Chair was a punk and comics and such zine created by Marc Arsenault. There were three regular print issues and a tour zine half issue called puppydoglove released between 1991-1995. The second issue included the Sounds of Suburban Dance compilation tape.

Poster for the Nuisance & Doc Hopper show that was taped for the episode.

In the meanwhile, we are holding a one week beta test of the shop. There are currently 157 items. More are being added every day. All your old favorites are in there from the likes of Steven Cerio, Brown Cuts Neighbors, God Hates Computers, Sam Henderson, Cometbus and many more. Yes, Wow Cool has basically gone and picked up where we left off when the old Berkeley warehouse closed way back at the end of 1998. But, you know, much better.

PLEASE NOTE: The shop will not be staying in it’s current location. This is a one week test that will end early on Tuesday, August 23. Please ignore the ugliness of the current layout. Most of the work on the site has been focussed on developing the product pages and making the integration with the post office and PayPal rock solid. The shop is also fully HTTPS/SSL secured and certified, as guaranteed by Comodo. The whole ordering process should work smoothly. Shipping is now based on size and weight. The old flat priority weight for everything is long gone; you may now select the shipping method that meets your needs. Any orders placed during this period will be shipped with as many extra goodies that will fit in the box.

Please enjoy The Wow Cool Shop.
Please send all problems, suggestions, bon mots, etc. through the contact page or use the comments function on this post.

OK, now some random interesting stuff out on the interwebs…

As has been reported just about everywhere else first, Hedi Slimane has posted photos of Frances Bean Cobain in which she is clearly sporting a lovely tattoo of Al Columbia’s Seymour Sunshine. I like to imagine that when she sleeps, Seymour leaps off her arm – Out of The Inkwell style – to go make out with Quentin Crisp on her right shoulder.

Gary Panter has been posting many great links and articles on the artists that influenced him through the Gary Panter Fans Facebook group and elsewhere. Two recent ones you will want to be sure to check out are the website of Bob Zoell and this article by Gary on Peter Saul on HiLowBrow.

This story by John ‘King Cat’ Porcellino, to celebrate 20 years of German small press Reprodukt, is pretty great. Via Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter.

A whole slew of upcoming shows have been announced involving Joshua Baker/Offset Needle Radius and Jason Martin. If you are in the Northeast you should check some of these out.

Just posted a couple days ago is this version of the short film Radio Free Blissville. The soundtrack features a brief, but significant contribution by nickname: Rebel. I have not seen this version before and am guessing it is, if not the definitive version, then, possibly, the final one. It’s my favorite mix of it yet. Enjoy.

Radio Free Blissville is a short film made in 2009 directed by J.F. Culhane. A version of the short premiered at the Anthology Film Archives NewFilmmakers series in New York City. It is the starting point of a longer feature project called Transmission888.

More info here.

A hot topic recently has been that of the Chinese Ghost Cities. A Sino-Housing Bubble of a scale appropriate to the nation that happens to have the most damn people on earth living under it. Get the satellite view here.

In case you thought we might be the heck super efficient in land use here in the West, I would like to send you to this report on the UK’s Post Office Railway. You will want to read all of it and take in every photo.

In the meanwhile, for something that just quite resembles context for our position here, I request that you read these interviews with Simon Reynolds on Ballardian: “Magisterial, Precise, Unsettling” from 2007 and ‘Magisterial, precise, unsettling part 2’ from 2009.