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Posts tagged as “Awesome”

Them Presidents, they so SEXY.

Are you serious? This is the greatest shit I have ever seen.

picture-43In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.

I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that’s strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably “controversial.” One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its “Fuck the Man” symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.

Check out all of them here: Justine Lai – Join or Die

Obviously, this is Not Safe For Work.

Hate Eternal I, Monarch – Reissue!

detail-hateeternal-imonarchlarge

I, Monarch was my first Hate Eternal record. I bought it on a whim and never regretted it. I recommended it to my brother Charlie, and even sent him a copy, but it took two years and another Hate Eternal record for him to finally get into them.

He’s an idiot.* They’re too awesome for words.

I’ve posted a Hate Eternal video here before, but it can’t hurt to do it again.

If you haven’t yet heard or own I, Monarch, now is the perfect time to pick it up since it’s been reissued with a second disc with live versions of the record on DVD. Pretty rad. Everything Erik Rutan touches these days turns to gold and it’s pretty easy to see (hear?) why. I mean, listen to this band. They are fucking awesome. And when you are done with I, Monarch, go out and pick up their most recent record, the superior Fury & Flames. Rutan is also responsible for the production of countless other solid metal records in the last few years. I bet if you spend a little time reading through the liner notes of your metal collection, you’ll be surprised how often you find his name in there.

You DO have the liner notes, don’t you? If not, here’s a more or less complete list of his credits.

Hate Eternal I, Monarch @ Amazon.com

*Not really. He’s good.

Two French-as-hell videos for this cold Saturday

This first is a video sent to me ages ago by my brother Charlie. It is a beautifully animated video for the song “Le Café” by the French group Oldelaf. I don’t know anything about the band, but the video is super awesome and unbelievably French.

Here is the video on YouTube with subtitles. Oldelaf – le Café (english subtitles)

The other video is a short animated film by Paris-based studio Passion Paris which I encountered on BoingBoing. It deals with the impending end of the world in 2012. Scary stuff. Also beautifully animated and possessing of a biting sense of humor.

Enjoy!