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damon "23" soule @ kidrobot

Continuing the series of local artist shows at Kidrobot, Damon Soule will be doing an exhibition starting August 29th. I am really looking forward to this opening. I checked out a showing of his works at a clothing boutique on Lower Haight a couple years back, and I am really eager to see his latest stuff. The robots come across as organic, the antithesis of your average, everyday Gundam. Almost like the rock-monster in Galaxy Quest.

Of particular interest: some exclusive hand cast figures (of extremely limited quantities, I am told) will be displayed and available.






Event Details:
Friday August 29, 2003, 8:00 p.m.
Kidrobot
1512 Haight St. (near Ashbury)
S.F. CA

As always, free beer.

Posted by justin at 5:58 PM

RC boat

1/64 scale. At the pool. Summertime living.

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Posted by justin at 6:43 PM | Comments (2)

wifester

This was my wife's idea, actually. She finally joined Friendster, and then realized it was roughly 50% as pointless as match.com.

I also keep here in a category called "Wives" in my IM list, populated soley by her, of course. The other IM categories are "Friends" and "Ex-Coworkers". The latter is far and away the longest, after two dot-com tours of duty.

And the friends list is, well...

Hey, at least I'm on wifester now.

Posted by justin at 12:46 PM

XLR8R Party

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Posted by justin at 12:04 AM

Das Bootz

Most folks know that the retrocyle keeps compressing. In theory, this will continue until all eras and time-specific subcultures will be continually pervasive. In my opinion, nothing demonstrates this better than bastard pop. Also known as boots or mash-ups, these tracks are the culmination of pop cultural intersections that span all musical eras. Take, for example, Justin Timberlake "Rock your body" vs. Siouxsie Sioux "peek a boo". It sounds just plain wrong, but it works. Better than the originals, in fact. You find yourself constantly thinking that these songs should have been done this way in the first place.

Some high-concept mash-ups like The Streets vs. U2's Where the Streets Have No Name don't execute as well. However, the vast majority are catchy as hell. How can they not be, especially when you take the catchiest song of 20 years ago and put it underneath last year's catchiest track. For example, here is Eminem vs. M.

A good place to start listening/collecting: Bastard Pop. Want to create? Start with the vocals.

Let me also point out the added bonus: consuming this media is another way of giving the finger to the RIAA.

Posted by justin at 2:09 PM

Arthur "The Ponz" Ponzerelli

Here is a handy tool, ostensibly available to let you know that you are probably going to get scammed in a pyramid scheme. However, it also serves the purpose of calculating the take on any fraud you decide to initiate yourself. So, if I start a money matrix, make it jump 10 levels, require 8 new recruits per participant, then I will only need 1,227,133,512 folks to be involved before I get paid. Hmmm, I think that is slightly more than the number of registered Friendster users. Certainly more than there are on Fiendster, though it would be a more fitting venue to exploit -- and certainly safer than STD-ster. Plus, for everyone to get paid, i would need a total of 1.31762457546641E+18 people. That's a serious epidemic.

Play with the numbers, build your scam, then target your community. Or, use it to figure out how fast a meme can get your blog to the top of google. Only translate "recruits" to "readers" and "levels to jump" to "trackbacks". You'll be a web superstar in no time. Or incarcerated.

Posted by justin at 1:12 PM

Rene Garcia Jr.

Hail Mary

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Posted by justin at 7:10 PM

Gigli will have you singing

Like "My Fair Lady", "Gigli" is a musical adaptation of a novel about a young woman who rises from poverty to riches. Elaborately staged, heavily orchestrated, with clever but carefully inoffensive lyrics, both films dubbed the voice of the female lead, as a pretty face must have a pretty voice.

Gigli, although played by 27-year-old Jennifer Lopez (the ingenue from "An American in Paris"), is a young teenager who has lived a sheltered life despite coming from a family of mistresses. Her mother is an unseen minor opera singer; while she often rehearses offscreen in another room, she doesn't make an appearance even as Gigli is repeatedly visited by famous wealthy playboy Gaston (Ben Affleck). Gigli is raised by Christopher Walken, and trained to be a lady by imperious Isabel Jeans.

Gaston receives training of his own, from his mentor and relative Honore (Al Pacino). Pacino is most famous in America for his first number, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" (when Broadway next revives the play, expect 'Pretty' to be substituted for 'Little'). However, the best production number is "The Night They Invented Champagne". Here, the choreography is excellent, although it is difficult to believe that Gigli would be able to make the wordly, clever comments that the lyrics give her.

The Gaston-Gigli romance provides the context for the musical's lampooning the elaborate Victorian-era ritual built around men obtaining sex, and women obtaining security. They have to work so hard at attaining their differing ends that they can't long savor their fleeting victories. Gaston's intensity at courtship is contrasted with affable Honore, who pursues woman without emotional involvement or any intentions of marriage. "Gigli" seems to side with Honore, despite the inevitable happy ending for Gigli and Gaston.

Posted by justin at 10:47 PM