‘Kick Ass’ propaganda

‘Headcovers’: Sleeveface goes to the bookstore

There’s a whole Flickr group.

(Via, via, via.)

Bleak Expectations: If Dickens wrote the story of EMI

There’s a Dickensian novel just dying to be written about the plight of EMI. An iconic British institution mired in debt, unraveling quarter by miserable quarter. A tragicomedy of financial hubris, with offshore tax havens in the Channel Islands, betrayals, and corporate vultures circling the sad carcass of a once-great record label.

And the names! Guy Hands, the swashbuckling, baby-faced financier who gambled big and blew it. David Wormsley, his foil at Citigroup, whom Hands accuses of fraudulent counsel (and really is “widely known as The Worm”). Wormsley! Only Murdstone is a better name. Then there’s Elio Leoni-Sceti, the stylish Italian label manager who wears his overcoat loose over his shoulders and once handled Mop & Glo and French’s Mustard. Edgar Bronfman Jr., the cash-hoarding ginger ale heir, waits to swoop in for the kill.

The names of the firms are not quite Jarndyce and Jarndyce, but they’re good. Hands’s company is Terra Firma, whose $8 billion investment ends up on shaky ground, written down by 90 percent after an exodus of artists who objected to being treated like “furniture.” In the bidding for EMI three years ago, Terra Firma competed with Cerberus Capital Management and Fortress Investment Group. So in this drama we have firm ground, a fortress of money, the guard-dog of hell, a Guy who can’t keep his Hands off bad investments, a profligate Citi/City, and a deceitful worm.

(If you haven’t been following every sad update in this tale, read Devin Leonard’s excellent summary in Sunday Biz. The basic plot is that Terra Firma relied on Citi as both advisor and lender, but is now suing the bank, saying that Citi deliberately misled Hands & Co. by failing to report that Cerberus had dropped out of the bidding, causing Terra Firma to overpay.)

I see a young Guy Hands at school, ridiculed for his dyslexia and driven to prove the bullies wrong and win the love of his sweetheart, Julia. He finds his way from the hinterlands to the halls of power in the City of London; makes shockingly risky, obscenely profitable deals; marries Julia; buys Churchill’s house and an estate in Tuscany. He’s a Guy of the world, and he did it all with his own two Hands — as well as the help of his friend Wormsley, with whom he became so close that he invited Lord and Lady Worm to Tuscany for her 40th birthday.

At the height of the credit bubble our hero hitches his do-no-wrong company to a crusty old anchor that sinks immediately to the bottom of the sea, taking endless liquidity with it and leaving Hands dry. That Worm tricked him! Guy thought he had triumphed over the dogs of Cerberus but in reality they were never really there. Then the market crashes, and Hands becomes increasingly isolated at Guernsey, his family life sacrificed for a tax protest. To succeed, and turn it all around, he’ll have to pull off some kind of incredible heist, and do a far, far better thing than he has ever done. (That is, woo Paul McCartney back.)

Serialized for your enjoyment every three weeks in the Financial Times.

Once again: Neil Young, American idol

Previously.

‘Even retro record covers can be used to create something amazing’

(Via This Blog Rules; see also.)

The Young Prince of Bel-Air

Another case of Obama imagery ‘plagiarism’?

You remember the whole controversy over Shepard Fairey’s Obama picture. Now there’s another case in which an artist is being accused of stealing editorial imagery without credit.

Noli Novak, one of the artists who creates the distinctive “hedcut” stipple portraits for the Wall Street Journal, has complained on her blog about José-María Cano, a Spanish artist (and musician), who makes large-scale wax paraffin portraits based on the Journal hedcuts, which have earned him, as Novak puts it, “recognition, praise and ka-ching.”

She takes issue with his approach, calling it “a bold case of plagiarism (?)”:

He cuts out portraits from papers, blows them up and painstakingly recreates them in wax paraffin ... dot by dot. He’s flying under the cover of “newspaper clipping” appropriation, but does that apply in this case? I say no way Jose!

Here’s an example of his work. On the left is his Obama picture, from his “Wall Street Journal Wax Museum” series, and on the right is Novak’s original:

And here’s some of that ka-ching, in situ at the Dox Center for Contemporary Art in Prague:

It’s almost exactly the same situation as Fairey: an artist has taken an image from a news source and recontextualized it. In Cano’s case he even clearly revealed its source; by placing the hedcut within columns of type, one could argue, he could be making a more general comment about a public figure’s imprisonment within the narrow bars of the news media. It’s Warhol’s soup cans — nothing new.

Except for two things. First, Cano’s picture — and every one he does has the same schtick — is a careful recreation of a copyrighted image, hardly the abstracted interpretation and “radically different message” that Fairey claimed about his own work.

Second, Novak would have a strong argument for artistic intent. Mannie Garcia, the freelance Associated Press photographer who took the picture that served as Fairey’s source, has said more than once that he captured that shot of Obama simply by shooting in quantity. “I want to avoid calling myself an artistic photographer,” he told Terry Gross. “ ‘Wire guy,’ I am comfortable with that.” But Novak clearly thinks of herself as an artist, even if an artist for hire.

Does she have a case? Better yet, does Rupert Murdoch?

(Via Romenesko.)


UPDATE: Some pretty major Shepard Fairey news, in case you didn’t see it elsewhere:

Shepard Fairey, the artist whose “Hope” poster of Barack Obama became an iconic emblem of the presidential campaign, has admitted that he lied about which photograph from The Associated Press he used as his source, and that he then covered up evidence to substantiate his lie. (NYT)

Wild Thing about to chomp babe

A heroic reader, Marco Kaye, sent in this masterpiece of chompjamming as a contribution to the ongoing if occasional reunion tour of my monster-about-to-chop-babe poster series. The image comes from a contest on this site, which has a whole bunch of goofy Wild Things posts.

Thanks, Marco!

Death Cab for Bollywood

‘Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version’

(Via.)

‘Muppetstar Galactica’

(Via Topless Robot.)

Shepard Fairey ‘beautified’ SXSW

I hadn’t known about this, but Arrested Motion reports:

Visiting the Lone Star state with buckets of wheat paste and some good old fashion Obey elbow grease, Shepard hit up many prominent spots including Lance Armstrong’s Bike Shop: Mellow Johnny’s, Red 7, Emos, Home Slice, and many more.

(Via OMGP.)

UPDATE: More from Fairey’s site, Obey Giant.

The Dude, in prints

Finally I can post about this, now that a gift has been delivered.

I stumbled across the above image by Ben Swift last month in the GigPosters.com classifieds, where dozens of prints are offered each day, usually by their creators and for very low prices — basically, you can get original work by the Shepard Faireys of tomorrow for 20 or 30 bucks a pop. Not all of it is exactly for the ages, but there’s some interesting work being done. Despite my occasional tirades, this really is a boom time for fresh, young poster art.

Anyway, the brilliance of Swift’s poster speaks for itself, even while the Fairey Obama portrait is fast on its way to becoming a visual cliché. I ordered one for myself and another for a friend. (USA Today ran an online item, and within a day Swift ran out of his 80 prints. He had to print up a second edition of 180 to satisfy demand.)

What’s even cooler is that the piece is a contribution to “This Aggression Will Not Stand, Man,” a group show of Big Lebowski-inspired art at the Signed & Numbered Gallery in Salt Lake City, which is run by the sister of a member of Weezer:

There’s some very nice stuff in the show, including the below posters by Tyler Stout (“Il Grande Lebowski”) and Pete McDonough (“Gutterballs”). A report from the gallery opening, with pictures and interviews, is here.

‘Suicide Food’

A blog devoted to menus, restaurant logos, and other imagery in which animals participate in or promote their own consumption, complete with a five-noose “psych evaluation” rating system.

Suicide Food actively participates in or celebrates its own demise. Suicide Food identifies with the oppressor.... Suicide Food is not funny.

Via a contributor on Vintage Ads, where a version of the following classic was also posted:

Watchmen cupcakes

Definitely the first time I’ve ever thought the words, “I wish I lived in San Antonio.”

(Via, via.)

‘Jai’ hos

Larry Rosin at Edison Media Research took note of the skanky and extremely lame lyrics in the Pussycat Dolls’ remix/remake of “Jai Ho,” A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning song from Slumdog Millionaire:

In an attempt to make the song more palatable for American audiences, it has been re-created with the Pussycat Dolls replacing the original singers.

Let’s take a look at the original lyrics translated from Hindi:

Jai Ho! (Victory to thee!)
Come, come my Life, under the canopy
Come under the blue brocade sky!

Iota by iota, I have lost my life, in faith
I’ve passed this night dancing on coals
I blew away the sleep that was in my eyes
I counted the stars till my finger burned

Come, come my Life, under the canopy
Come under the blue brocade sky!

And now, the Pussycat Dolls lyrics for American consumption:

I got (I got) shivers (shivers),
When you touch my body,
I’ll make you hot,
Get what you got,
I’ll make you wanna say (Jai Ho)

I got (I got) fever (fever),
Running like a fire,
For you I will go all the way,
I wanna take you higher (Jai Ho)

I keep it steady uh-steady,
That’s how I do it.
This beat is heavy, so heavy,
You gonna feel it.

You are the reason that I breathe,
You are the reason that I still believe,
You are my destiny

“I wanna take you higher”? Seriously, Nicole, is that the best you could do?

‘Rorschach Tilley’

By Marcus Thiele, a.k.a. Marcus Parcus, for the New Yorker’s annual Eustace Tilley contest.

In other Watchmen news, Dave Gibbons will be speaking at the Apple Store in SoHo this Friday; and on Tuesday, Feb. 17, there will be Apple Store appearances by Gibbons in San Francisco and Zack Snyder in Santa Monica.

ObamaBats

Somebody writes:

I’m proud to announce and share the ObamaBats: A collection of 24 high-quality dingbats featuring Barack Obama and various design elements! This collection is completely free for download, upload, distribution, use and modification. Use these dingbats to start creating your own Obama paraphernalia today! (Link.)

Museum of propaganda: 2008 remixes

Museum of propaganda: 2008 remixes