visa 110 project

i'm taking this extremely remedial art class in the hopes of learning the specialized craft of graphic computing and digital manipulation. at the same time, i'm taking the piss out of the course, seriously. here's my digital mockery triptych with equally pretentious artistic statement.




In many ways I wanted to emulate a pseudo-Dadaist, Pop Art piece in order to illustrate the irony of how the most mundane, common objects can simultaneously invoke repulsion and reverence. Indeed, the fleshy background of the first image was manipulated to increase the contrast of the red to green ratio, giving the impression of over-ripeness. Further, the tree impression made with the fat reserves in the meat is designed to illustrate how the grotesquely overfed have become a natural variety of their own.




The second image is designed to show the meat in another way - overmedicated and wistful. The pills diffuse lightly over the fatty flesh to create dream-like clouds to represent the psychoanalytic connotations of chemical medications. The third and final image in the set takes this idea to its most absurd end: a bubble-gum poppy image of multicolored pill bottles designed to cure every visceral and emotional ailment. The cyan appearance of the meat signifies the over-ripeness and necrotic effects of this kind of self-medication - the privilege of the North American tradition. Lastly, the number of pills reinforces the message of mass production and the mechanization of these products which have now become absorbed by the bodies of the consumers.

best musical religious-satire of 2008... so far

Plunder, Beg and Curse
Colour Revolt
Fat Possum Records


Plunder, Beg and Curse is fantastic. Based out of Mississippi, the quintet's new album rocks out softly and sadly with a satirical, seven deadly sins theme, complete with messy, blemished illustrations on the jacket cover.

The opening track sounds eerily like early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but then gets way more hypnotic. Singer Jimmy Cajoleas croons “I’m still swinging from the liquor tree” imitating God’s image, the fall of man, and the garden of Eden which is later described as “a hell of a place.”



The album peaks at “Ageless Everytime,” a pained song about rejection and unrequited love, not to mention the absurdity of carnal, animal attraction. Utlimately depressing, this track is like an ugly version of Kevin Drew’s prettyboy music, but the gritty aesthetic is completely satisfying on a different level.

Altogether abysmal and dreary, Plunder Beg and Curse is a cycle of sin and redemption that we can’t help but fall into over and over again. The album as a whole seems to feel like 2005 new music sampler, caught somewhere between alternative rock and indie-pop, and with surprisingly insightful lyrical sensitivity. Colour Revolt sounds much like Franz Ferdinand imitating Death Cab, but with a holier-than thou, pretentious, never-ending quality that emphasizes the fall from grace and man’s descent into a world of pain.

a proof of love?

Proof of Love
Old Man Luedecke
Black Hen Music




A follow-up from the critically acclaimed album Hinterland, Old Man Luedecke’s new album captures the ad lib words and feelings of the tender hearted. Recorded in two days flat, Old Man sums up the spirit of the ages and the search for a proof of love in under three minutes each.

Beautifully simple and stripped down, the album glosses over the beauty of the world, nature, and under it all is the theme of individual self-determination. Lyrics such as “I’ve been to the bottom of fear and self-loathing/but this is my home” show both the problems of introspection and the brimming optimism that things invariably get better. “Send my Troubles Away” is a song that bridges the gap between rural life and death by urban streets, complimented by soft female backup singers who have that delicate sing-song quality that makes you want to stretch out on the grass on a warm summer afternoon. Songs like “Sad as a Forest” and “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier” have the same poetical integrity as Iron and Wine, but with the banjo twang adds sharp pep to their otherwise mellow sound. It’s definitely the childlike honesty and simplicity that makes Proof of Love the quintessential, ‘cheery’ kind of album you’d need on these rainy Vancouver days.