the gorillaz have a new album out eh?

These are some screenshots from the music video for ’stylo’.

Bruce Willis? … Bobby Womack & Mos Def ?
Car chases!

Awesome.

Check out the full video for Stylo and more at the Gorillaz youtube place on the internet

The Gorillaz always have ridiculous beats, and smooth lyrical sounds. The mystery that surrounds them as they are known to the world merely as their animated incarnations.. check out their home too!

Also on the album are musical artists such as Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Mos Def, Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, Little Dragon, The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music, etc…

Check it out!!

I helped some artists set up today and it was pretty much like walking into Spring. They were setting up full fledged gardens, with fountains, there was some art getting set up, there will be demos going on and art on display by the Skaneateles Artisans.

There will be a painting dog portrait and a stained glass demo for sure!

See the CNY BLOOMS website, to get more information.

It’s right around the corner from Variety Studios headquarters. Check it out at the Oncenter Complex, 800 South State Street, Syracuse, NY 13202.

Enjoy!

11 days until Pittsbirds as I’ve been calling it. I will be showing my ever expanding series entitled ‘birds’ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday the 20th.

The shindig starts at 7pm at Mr. Smalls Theatre (map).

There will be work from 15 different artists on display, work in all sorts of media & available for purchase. Five bucks to get in which includes a free beverage.

The name of the event is ‘Art Bash’, in addition to the artists, there will be music and a pretty solid representation of variety studios and friends heading down. It’s going to be pretty awesome, check it out if you’re in the Pittsburgh area or feel like a destination for a road trip!

I will also have prints available in addition to the canvases and wood paintings!

This past weekend was the 24th Annual AM-JAM TATTOO EXPO in Syracuse/Liverpool NY, where Winky Dink Ink’s Bobby Ciffone and Matt Truiano participated in the festivities. It was an impressive convention that I expect to attend every year from now on. So many talented artists from all over set up shop at the Holiday Inn with tattoo enthusiasts mingling and getting tattooed everywhere you turned.

*Bobby Ciffone and Matt Truiano

Lots more pictures after the jump…

Even if you’re not into getting a tattoo or interested in the people inking themselves it was an amazing thing to see. Tattoo art can be as simple as you’d like from a couple of words tattooed on your finger to a detailed image of whatever you can imagine, it is definitely something to witness in person. Each company/artist had their portfolio laid out on a table  with a couple of extra things they were looking to sell, or some business cards on the side. But personally I would say fingering through the portfolios was so inspiring and amazing, each one had something the other didn’t have and equally outstanding.

I was able to shoot a couple of pictures and I look to take much more next year…

*Matt Truiano doing his thing

*Yea it is Mr. Miyagi

*No flinching or facial expression on this guy, he was a monster getting this tattoo

Now, the tattoo that stole the show, in my opinion, was a tattoo of Bob Marley on the shoulder blade of this gorgeous looking female.

Enjoy!

Craft Chemistry is a neat little gallery up the street in little italy, syracuse. Tonight they will be showing ‘beautiful losers’ at 7pm
check out the teaser:

Beautiful Losers film trailer from beautifullosersfilm on Vimeo.

Get out there and enjoy Syracuse!

- Randy

I heard about this song/artist a few months back and keep listening to it on my iTunes… you ask why? BECAUSE!!!! This video actually made me a huge fan of Imogen Heap… Just For Now

Enjoy

I’ll be showing my ever expanding series of birds with the newest fuzzy little guys and prints available for purchase! Check it out at Mr. Smalls Jazz Club in Pittsburgh, PA.

February 20, 2010; 7pm.

Here’s a photo from the last show, which was a blast.

See you there.

- Randy

Marcus and I got to meet up with the guys from the wolves as they performed with some of their side project groups, up in Oswego, where the whole venue pulsed, singing along. This illustration will be available soon on t-shirts and stickers.

Also exciting news, there is beginning phases of a new cycling team going into effect with the combined effort of BTB Athletics, Mello Velo Bicycles, Variety Studios, and a handful of other local people who like to ride hard and have fun. Nothing solid yet, but their is some potential! Let us know what you think, or if any of you cyclists are interested!

Hopefully this rain stops soon and it gets nice and cold for some pond hockey!

- Randy

Featuring New & Rising Artists along side the Great & Legendary
The AM-JAM Family proudly presents the 24th Annual
Tattoo Expo
Featuring The Lizardman / Shows Daily

January 29th-31, 2010
Fri: 6pm-12M
Sat: 12noon-midnight
Sun:  12noon-6pm
continuous entertainment
live music

over 75 working international artists
piercing artists & assorted vendors

Our friends at Winky Dink Ink will be having their own booth so come join the fun and support these great artists!

*** 3 Ink-Filled Days ***
The AM-JAM FAMILY Proudly Presents its
24th Annual  AM-JAM TATTOO EXPO

January 29 – 31, 2010

Admission: $10 per day or $25 for all 3 days call 518-893-2273
AM-JAM, PO Box 336, Corinth, NY 12822

HOLIDAY INN: SYRACUSE/LIVERPOOL-EXIT 37 off the Thruway ,NY – LIVERPOOL HOTELS, LIVERPOOL NEW YORK

Hotel Info. 315-457-1122 (tell them its for AM-JAM)
FORGET ITS WINTER * Everything Located in ONE Hotel!

Friday – 6 – Midnight, Saturday – Noon – Midnight, Sunday – Noon – 6pm

Special AM-JAM room Rates * Pool * Bar * Restaurant * LIVE MUSIC*
Call 315-457-1122 (tell them its for AM-JAM)

Meet internationally known TATTOO ARTISTS & get some ink
Many Tattoo competitions including “Tattoo of the Day” Trophies awarded in all categories
Theater seating for the competitions * Art Gallery * Leather & Jewelry Vendors
Body Jewelry & Piercing * National Magazine Coverage

CHECK FOR BOOTH AVAILABILITY CALL 518-893-2273

Admission: $10 per day or $25 for all 3 days
AM-JAM, PO Box 336, Corinth, NY 12822
518-893-2273
www.am-jam.com Email to:  AMJAMtat2@aol.com
American Motorcycle Jamboree

There will also be a number of tattoo competitions going on throughout the 3 day festivities.

World Class Artists at work Piercers – Tattoo Competition each day – Flash Competition (All tattoo entries will be judged on quality and consistency of the outline, color, aesthetic appeal, placement on body, use of space on the body, composition and presentation. All tattoos must be fully healed (except Tattoo of the Day)  Leather and Jewelry vendors, Rock ‘n Roll  If you are a Tattoo or Piercing enthusiast or just a curiosity seeker this is a “Must Do” event to experience the competition, the artists at work, the Rock’ n Roll and general Tattoo fever that takes over Up-State, N.Y. each January ! For a tattoo experience you’ll never forget check out the 22nd Annual EXPO.

To learn more about the categories and rules Am-Jam

Enjoy and we hope to see you there.

“The Facebook Facelift is a self initiated project to challenge the form and functionality of Facebook. It’s streamlined, structured and linear interface is more comprehendible, enhancing the user experience and absorbability of content.

The home page features many new benefits: the publisher toolbar enables users to post content from any page within facebook, saving time in navigating needlessly through profiles; the streams’ two-tiered filter (content type & content contributers) also creates a more coherent structure with the core elements retaining their position throughout most of the site; and the live feed displays a constant stream of all content posted in a users network, which expands upon mouse over.

Profiles also integrate with the system more seamlessly. Just as friend lists filter the stream by a select number of people, user profiles simply filter content to a single person, creating a clearer and more comprehendible layout.

The Facebook Publisher subsite is designed to support the growing use of Facebook as a primary form of contact as email once was. The separate address, publisher.facebook.com, would be permitted in businesses where Facebook is banned, allowing users to send messages without the distractions of user generated content. The interface is a mirror of the publisher toolbar ensuring a consistent interface.

Skimmer: I openly accept that components of this were inspired by the beautiful Skimmer but I think there is more than enough individuality in this project to not call it a copy. I’ve never understood making things different just for the sake of it, it is a method of progression. From using Skimmer I found that the feed layout and expanded view were useful, and tried to improve these aspects through further simplification and clarity.

Advertising: As this is a concept, I intentionally omitted banner advertising. However the layout has been designed to accommodate ads to the right, user content would simply scale to make space. It’s no different to a concept car leaving out, say… the engine.” – Barton Smith

Click Here for full size image on flickr.

*Picasso’s Light Painting

Light paintings have been around for years, people create long exposures and paint their own picture using LED’s, flashlights and other illuminating tools. There are numerous amounts of videos out now showing light animations that would blow your mind. Plus I love some stop animation as you already know.

Here’s a quick video from STREETLIGHTS collectif…

Enjoy!

It’s all about what you can do with what you have, and Peter Callesen recently started to mesmerize people with his brilliant paper sculptures.

Lately I have worked almost exclusively with white paper in different objects, paper cuts, installations and performances. A large part of my work is made from A4 sheets of paper. It is probably the most common and consumed media used for carrying information today. This is why we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper. By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning. The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works. – Peter Callesen

Enjoy and keep doing what you do!

Personally I have song for everyone and some songs simply to get laughs out of friends and family. I’m not opposed to some (emphasis on some!) country music, love me some good ole caribbean reggae, dancehall music, baltimore club, definitely must have classical music in there too. Lots of R&B as well as old school hip hop and R&B can get the mood right, can’t turn away from pop and recently a little bit of rock. I have to place Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 in their own category and I’m definitely not against some good folk music (going to see The Wiyos in a little over a week).

*The Robot is Pharrell

Today we bring you Common’s Universal Mind Control ft Pharrell. Not only is it a catchy upbeat song that gets you bobbing your head or wanting to dance, but its presentation is incredible. Take a look for yourself and enjoy.

You may be saying to yourself “that beat is pretty catchy, I feel like I’ve heard it before,” and that’s when Randy would chime in with “…Afrika!!” Yea, you give him that crazy look, like okay you crazy nut, but what he’s referring to is Afrika Bambaataa, the creators of “Planet Rock,” which Univeral Mind Control samples from.

I’m not finished yet because some of you young ones might still be scratching your heads saying “what in the world is this song and who is this Afrika Bambaataa character?!?” Well to refresh your memories, a few years ago a commercial came out for And1 basketball with players dribbling and goofing around to a sick beat which was created by Afrika Bambaataa.

You may remember the music video “Freestyle?” I know I do…

Learn from the old greats and you’ll come into your own.

Enjoy and happy 2010!

An architect friend has been working with Joel Fitzpatrick, rumor is there should be a new site released soon with some of her work on there. Thought this was a pretty cool stop animation project…

It’s also been a while since I checked up on the Cracker Jack Gang. I hadn’t seen this one yet, check it out.