Saturday, December 22, 2012

birth of the the 'burbs

i recently got into watching the alfred hitchcock hour, and i came across an episode called "to catch a butterfly", which is like the birthplace of the 'burbs (the 1989 film...possibly the most taser movie ever made.)

it possesses the same type of creepiness as the 'burbs, and is even shot on universal studio backlot's "colonial street"...just like the 'burbs!

considering what i know about the 'burbs, i imagine the similarities were planned.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

caviar boutiques

this came to my attention not so long ago, but yes...caviar vending machines!


"Described as "caviar boutiques," the vending machines stock caviar from all over the world. They also offer other gourmet foods like truffles, escargot, bottarga blinis, gourmet salts and caviar accessories.
A sample of the wares include Imperial River Beluga Caviar, for $500 an ounce, and a pink mother of pearl spoon for $4, notes Los Angeles Magazine"
this def tops the cupcake ATMs.

while i totes miss the opportunity to experience the claw-grab style lobster machine, i'm looking forward to the pizza vending machine that supposedly offers over 200 toppings, and most personally important...an escargot ATM. i'm so sure it would be...perfect.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

shinro ohtake

needed some cheering up yesterday, so i took a long overdue tour of one of my favorite artists, shinro ohtake.
the way he seems to remix practically everything around him really impacted the way i think about all the cool trash i collect around me.
being a fan of his more fucking weird stuff, i forget how far his hand has stretched into the more recognizable realms.

he also makes sounds. juke (19) was rad.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

5 favorite jiang shi films (mwhahaha)

(mwhahaha) tis the season for scary shit and jiang shi (chinese vampires) films are by far my favorite type o scary (and funny) movie.

a lil background: (jiang shi are more like zombies than western vampires. due to rigor mortis, they hop or fly around in order to move. they usually appear dressed in qing dynasty garb, and are combated by a taoist priest (generally played by yam ching-ying) who puts them to sleep by placing spells written on pieces of yellow paper on their foreheads. other things used to fight them include: male virgins, sticky rice, chicken eggs, dog blood, and lots of sammo hung action.)

*full versions of most of these (yes, subtitled) are available on youtube...

1. the dead and the deadly (1983)

2. encounters of the spooky kind (1980)

3. ultimate vampire (1991)

4. exorcist master (1993)
5. mr. vampire (1985)


(mwhahaha)

Sunday, October 28, 2012

pepsi summer - 1990

pepsi released this edition of cans in 1990. i was 10 years old. 

that was a totally rad summer, with lots of skateboarding, nintendo, pizza, swimming, and staying out all night.
teenage mutant ninja turtles were huge, and we would run around and fuck shit up pretending to be ninja turtles. i was always raphael cuz i actually had a real pair of sai(s). i also punched somebody for the first time. we drank a lot of pepsi from these cans becuz there was a machine at our apartment complex.

if you stacked 2 of these cans on top of one another in a certain way, it kinda spelled "sex". very taser.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

giant fail statue

adel abdessemed's new giant "headbutt" statue is pretty taser factory for sure...
it captures one of french soccer star zidane's most memorable, but not necessarily shining moments. the scene chosen by abdessemed is from the 2006 world cup final between france and italy, where zidane, in the last outing of his career, headbutted an italian player.
he was red carded, which subsequently led to a win for the italian team.

love it, but after reading abdessemed's comments on the piece, it left me wishing for a different direction. initially, i thought it was celebration of failure. a reversal of statues celebrating great moments and good things and success.

i really like that idea and can imagine all the great fails in sports history that could be immortalized in similar manner...but that's not what the artist had in mind. 

fuck it. it's still totally taser.
so is a bunch his other stuff:
http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/adel-abdessemed/

Monday, September 24, 2012

shangrila, joshua tree, ca 2012

rad excuse for a desert weekend with my friend diane. this little compound out in joshua tree hosted a fine show and party. saw some good work and met some good folks. 

the trip out there from la is ass, unless you love low-rise, throw-up hot, bleak towns.

stayed in pioneertown. very well worth it. especially after witnessing a lesbian fronted country/folk/klezmer band ripppp up a high velocity cover of purple rain, crossing over to hava nagila as a breakdown, aimed directly at the ladies attending a bachelorette party.

the desert seems like a great place to do things. 2013? would love to.


Monday, July 23, 2012

aurora dorey alice...

aurora dorey alice. aurora, colorado. the first one makes makes me really happy, the other doesn't. 
i prefer to be happy, and stay that way. 
dorey is rad, and her approach to sound-making is very quite taser.
she performed at an art event i was a part of in bloomington, indiana. it was terrific to see this action again. 
we also share a birthday every year.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

my two cents.

a recent art transaction was sweetened by these. 
i think it's rad.

Monday, May 28, 2012

masters degree in profanity

crab jackson had a tape of this back in the day. he scored it from a crazy older dude he worked with. it was lost on tour, presumably in joplin, mo...which may explain that whole tornado devastation thing. 



this is required listening for anyone interested in using profanity gracefully.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

the descriptive camera!

instead of bitching about how i can never seem to make it to any screening of christian marclay's "the clock", or migraine headaches (as originally intended), i thought i'd come through with something positive...
so smile, and say gorgonzola for the descriptive camera, from matt richardson. 
this is absolutely taser factory. with a capital T. instead of an image, this beautiful device produces a description of what ever it is that one is shooting! it cleverly explores a very interesting, and possibly burgeoning concept...like maybe a camera that automatically "tags" people, places, and things via whatever technology from whatever huge tech firm that nails it first and puts it our device-hungry hands for around $300. i don't think this exists yet. does it?


here's the rundown of it from the matt richardson website:

The Descriptive Camera works a lot like a regular camera—point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene. Modern digital cameras capture gobs of parsable metadata about photos such as the camera's settings, the location of the photo, the date, and time, but they don't output any information about the content of the photo. The Descriptive Cameraonly outputs the metadata about the content.
As we amass an incredible amount of photos, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage our collections. Imagine if descriptive metadata about each photo could be appended to the image on the fly—information about who is in each photo, what they're doing, and their environment could become incredibly useful in being able to search, filter, and cross-reference our photo collections. Of course, we don't yet have the technology that makes this a practical proposition, but the Descriptive Camera explores these possibilities.
some of the descriptions are hilarious and beautiful. 


this is fun.

surely check out the official word from matt richardson here:

Saturday, March 31, 2012

this exhibition by franklin evans...

seems absolutely taser factory, and tops my recent list of action that i'd love to experience in person. 
however, seeing as how i will not be in new york anytime during the run of eyesontheedge, that won't be happenin'. 
oh well. but. this is exactly what i go crazy for in a gallery setting. overwhelming mixed media installations that present a full environment that combines process, past, present, and future with material in raw and refined forms...so much.


aside from the mass of work here, i really appreciate the organization with it's blocks, frames, and screens.
i have to plan carefully to take in such exhibitions. if something is off with me, the experience will make my head hurt really bad.


i would really like to go to this.


http://www.suescottgallery.com/exhibitions/view/Franklin-Evans_7

Saturday, March 24, 2012

office to the walls...

decided to [add to] and [swap out] a little visual action in my office to help pass the sometimes numbing hours spent here....

untitled piece by chuuu. gifted by j. shelley harrison to me from berlin.

for me! from rob hessler. a parting gift.

mexico city...the postcard. from amy karr.

the original "vision board" by me.

a happy fu-ku card from leah yeppi.

some jiang-shi action from chloe ching. frightening. (r.i.p. aotd)†

an original man can fan from mark rice.

the "happy honda days" seasonal card from justin clifford rhody. hands down the best holiday card ever. 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

TOTALL RECALL...



i'm gonna go ahead and call this one o' my fav recording of 2012. i don't give a fuck if it's only march (?)....
behold TOTALL RECALL an album by THIT...the bulging audio division of the forever-taser 
goatmother industrial.


i listened to it and it was fun, and i vow to never watch the film Total Recall again. i prefer to remember it this way, thru the words of the "recallers". plus, the movie was pretty gross.


words about from goatmother:


[TOTALL RECALL IS A COLLECTION OF
TWENTY-ONE RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE PLOT SYNOPSIS OF A MOVIE
THAT WAS RELEASED IN 1990
AND TAKES PLACE IN THE YEAR 2083.

THESE RECORDINGS WERE COLLECTED BETWEEN
DECEMBER 2010 AND JANUARY 2012
IN RHODE ISLAND, INDIANA, PENNSYLVANIA, AND
SOUTH CAROLINA BY A HANDFUL OF
WILLING VOLUNTEERS.

“RECALLERS” WERE GIVEN ONLY A FEW MOMENTS
TO COLLECT THEIR THOUGHTS
BEFORE RECORDING THEIR INDIVIDUAL TRACKS.
ALL “RECALLERS”SHALL REMAIN ANONYMOUS.
THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED.]

credits


Saturday, March 10, 2012

The 2011 Dow Flipbook

The 2011 DOW Flipbook.

This book was created as both a fun and interactive way to relive the rollercoaster ride that was the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the year of 2011, and as an object that reflects the increasing prominence that economics is gaining in the daily commentary of people throughout the world at this point in history. The 2011 DOW Flipbook allows the user to flip their way through the 252 daily closing prices of everybody’s favorite market index.

WHY: Many reasons... the combination of the taser factory coverage and insight provided by Marketplace (APM) + Freakonomics that sparked a hobbyistic obsession with economics and kicking my own ass for NOT attending Kelley School of Business in retrospect... an constant internal want to just quantify my personal time vs. $$$, a thrill for coming in under budget on a project, etc.


I realize I'm not alone. At this point in time, economic matters seem to be threaded deeper into the everyday dialogue of folks from all walks and age. It's a response to all that.


Big thanks to Jennifer from Phiffer Books for beautifully constructing the book. 
I sent a copy to America Public Media's Marketplace. Kai Ryssdal is the coolest.
More info: http://www.rebelhandspress.com/


Saturday, March 3, 2012

the square drive revolution...

screws...phillips head, slotted, star drive, etc. 
fuck all those!
square drive is superior.


minimum slip.
maximum torque.
single-handed driving.
taste like no other (the only phrase i can say with a nearly convincing australian accent).


they're the only type of screw i'll use...or at least the only type i'll purchase.
square drive=easy life.


buy the screws. buy the bit. 
make something taser factory.


this place has much more to say on the subject:
http://www.mcfeelys.com/tech/faq.htm

Monday, February 20, 2012

josh beagle.



when i was a teenage skater in the 90's, i wanted to be josh beagle.



that's it.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

what a tool...

tools. my life is full of them. this is my favorite:
a well worn Stanley 10-099 utility knife.


i got this one when i first started working on houses.
over the course of years i ended up with piles of utility knives, but i only used this one, even stopping work to find it if it wasn't there when i needed it.
U.S. Patent: 4586258 & 4621425
it is precious to me.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

NO...

so, seeing as how i managed to skip any "best of 2011" action a few weeks back, i thought i'd pull out one item that did cross my mind for such a run-down...


best cover art i've seen in a damn minute: 
NO - "Don't Worry, You'll Be Here Forever"


this is a more appropriate way of celebrating this particular taserness, since it's kind of a 2011/2012 type of deal. i got the online version last year, but the physical 12" is coming very soon. they're in pre-order mode right now, more info here:
http://origamivinyl.bigcartel.com/product/no-don-t-worry-you-ll-be-here-forever-pre-order


simple is best...kinda like the band name. 
behind the rad cover art, you can find a very taser band...can't wait to have it on the shelf. 
your radar should be beeping.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

scoot scoot.

so, i'm not attempting to make taser factory 80's-ccentric or anything (see: simon & simon post below), but tubeway army and my new t'pau- "heart and soul" 12" have recently been getting a lot of play time in the studio, and things just...happen.


however, i've developed a fascination with 80's scooters. scooters of action. scooters of the future. space scooters (thinking tom selleck in "runaway", or robotech: saga 2)...


my research turned up some tasered up honda scooter commercial campaign featuring some true bad-asses: miles davis, devo...



and grace jones and adam ant...



as well as that "dog-faced obstructionist" lou reed...


fuck you, lou, i enjoy walking...i wonder if he rides this to band practice with metallica?


it didn't take long to fill up my desktop with taser factory imagery galore!


tf: do you want one?
jk: fuck yeah!
tf: would ride it around?
jk: fuck yeah!, no!? ...well maayyyybe.


there will definitely be a new scooter division at united eggroll.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

simon & fuckin' simon...

hands down the best show ever. 
with the best theme song ever. we used to jam this right before doing something really stupid...check out the bad-ass truck and the part where rick busts out of a burning shack in a piece of construction equipment:





here's a taste-uh...features rick, a.j., short shorts, san diego, and "marathon" music:



this is what taser factory was born from/for. eat it.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

new year, new project - rebel hands press.

today, instead of reflecting on 2011, which would undoubtedly be marred by negativity and dwight yoakam videos from youtube, i've opted for taking an initial glance at what 2012 has in store. 
the perfect fix for a new year is a new project. enter rebel hands press...


during the summer months of last year, jeff moerchen, david smith, and i put together a shiny little project revolving around the film Point Break, which culminated in a book titled "the Point Break is..."
the success and excitement from that project poured over into the founding of rebel hands press:
Rebel Hands Press is an independent publisher of books, and possibly other items, with a leaning towards art, photography, and great ideas. Established via phone, Rebel Hands exists in the roaming mind and pockets of Jeff Moerchen (Right Hand) and the cramped Los Angeles studio of Jeremy Kennedy (Right Hand). When the idea is right, we do something.


so this year we'll be moving comfortably forward with this venture. in the time leading up to now, we've been able to reinforce our catalog with 2 new books, along with the "the Point Break is..." project. a totally taser way to start things off. 


meet the new books:
Zephyr
photographs: Jeff Moerchen      Tyrone Toral :layout
Zephyr is an attempt at continuous photographic seeing, a document of memories. It is not cohesive, a timeline, or thematic but a document of what I see as a photographer. Similar to the blur of flipping through channels of a television these images are nonsequiturs that if strategically organized gain significance. Simply put these are pictures about taking pictures. 

thirty two page newspaper,  215 black and white images.
materials: newsprint, black ink
measure: ~17x22

cheerleaderisms
by: jeremy kennedy
a collection of selected comments from a former collegiate cheerleader concerning her personal views and recollections from high school and coming of age in the sports culture. set with xeroxed images.

sixteen pages, black and white.
materials: xerox on plastic core book-block.
measure: ~4x6

check out the site: rebelhandspress.com
and/or follow us on facebook or tumblr, as there will be updates for sure.