GelaSkins | What's the Skinny?

Dr. G'N'F'N'R

Ok, so the marketing geniuses over at the Dr. Pepper compound have offered a can of their delicious tonic to everyone in America if Guns 'N Roses release their ridiculously over promised, under delivered Chinese Democracy album is released in 2008.

Brilliant! Seriously, Dr. Pepper gets great coverage and realistically the only thing Axl is going to release this year is probably another couple notches on his belt. It's funny, you know, as his waistband gets larger and the odds of Slash coming back and saving his ass get smaller. Coincidence?

I'm glad Dr. Pepper is doing something to make up for this atrocity.

Are you down with Hope?

Our latest vinyl awesomeness by Jason Limón hit the street today. Alkaline, as it's known around here or "totally bad ass astronaut robot holding batteries skin" to you can be peeped and owned from here.

Low brow alumnus Sam Flores gets on the the Obama train with this new print available at Upper Playground for 2 bills a piece.

An interesting new show opened yesterday at the Lazarides gallery in Soho (London). Entitled "War Paint", this exhibit features work by Massive Attack co-founder 3D (AKA Robert Del Naja), Warren Du Preez, Nick Thornton Jones, William Bankhead, and Ben Drury and is inspired by the U.N.K.L.E album War Stories. Apparently Del Naja was one of the most notorious graffiti artists in the UK (part of the Wild Style Crew circa 1985)  prior to forming the now classic trip hop outfit from Bristol.  James Lavelle (The Man from U.N.K.L.E. yeah, I'm going there) and 3D are long time collaborators with 3D creating the album art for a few U.N.K.L.E records and all Massive Attack's work over the years. The Show goes until April 25th and has free admission. Link here.

What 'Choo up to?

"Amaranthine"

"Land of Dreams" creator Amy Sol released a couple new sweet prints last week. The Apple and the String and Amaranthine are both limited to an edition of 50 and can be purchased for $150 each.  I'm sure these will not last long so hurry on over to Amy's website here to grab one.

Long time GelaSkin collaborator WKY has a cool new resin figure featuring his latest character the Monstre De Marais in various versions. The "MDM" as we'll call him, is hand poured and hand cast from resin and you can pick him up in a Rainbow Candyman or Jurassic Park version.

 

Via Vinyl Pulse.

Last Rites Gallery has a show debuting April 5th called "Transgression" featuring recent GelaSkin artist Travis Louie amongst a slew of others including heavyweight macabre don, H.R. Giger. Awesome.

"Amaranthine"

"Land of Dreams" creator Amy Sol released a couple new sweet prints last week. The Apple and the String and Amaranthine are both limited to an edition of 50 and can be purchased for $150 each.  I'm sure these will not last long so hurry on over to Amy's website here to grab one.

Long time GelaSkin collaborator WKY has a cool new resin figure featuring his latest character the Monstre De Marais in various versions. The "MDM" as we'll call him, is hand poured and hand cast from resin and you can pick him up in a Rainbow Candyman or Jurassic Park version.

 

Via Vinyl Pulse.

Last Rites Gallery has a show debuting April 5th called "Transgression" featuring recent GelaSkin artist Travis Louie amongst a slew of others including heavyweight macabre don, H.R. Giger. Awesome.

She & Him - Volume One

 

So after reading the post SXSW fallout, I noticed a commonality amongst all the reviews-  She and Him. Hmmm, She. And. Him. Sounds indie, playful but not altogether too loathsome as is the case with FAR too many indie bands these days ( see !!!, Shout out out out out, F&*k Buttons, etc...) and not only that but there's only two people in this band so more points for not trying to be ironic with the name.     The duo features the talents of first time recording artist and screen darling Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous, Elf, Hitchhikers guide to...) and indie scene veteran M. Ward (Matt to his friends) as the musical backbone as well as filling the shoes of producer.

Wow. Just wow... This is the first really great record of 2008 as the shivers down my spine can attest to. Smoky bar room jazz, 50's rock and roll, Alt-Country tinged licks, a full countrified Beatles cover and a completely awesome version Swing Low Sweet Chariot are just a few of the thematic swings this album takes at you and does it all with surprising little ego or pretension. M. Ward has masterfully assimilated (paid homage to) a wonderful cross section of american music in one fell swoop, all laced with the superb vocals of Ms. Deschanel who at times reminds me of Patsy Cline and Rumours-era Stevie Nicks. M's  arrangements provide the best example of this works lack of ego as they're simple, well balanced and let Deschanel do what she does very very well.

Overall, two large thumbs way up...and here's a few tracks to chew on until you quit what you're doing and go and buy that album from iTunes.

She & Him - Why do you let me stay here.mp3

She & Him - Change is Hard.mp3

Boba, Bags and a Dutch mess...

Greg Simkins AKA Craola opened a new show this past weekend at M gallery and as always is releasing stupendous creations from the recesses of his cranium. How awesome is this Boba Fett and Kermit homage? I'll tell you. Really awesome.

Joe Ledbetter has a new little vinyl munchkin being released tomorrow. The Dunny "Tiger" will go on sale Thursday via Kid Robot and will cost you 40 beans to lay your paws on it.

Giselle Silvestri, the person behind our favorite monkey, has her piece "Bang" showing at the Art 101  show in UpCountry Gallery here in Toronto until April 9th. More details here.

Studio Rosengaarde out of Rotterdam, NL has a very cool art installation planned for an as yet unreleased date this year but it's definitely wicked looking. This mess o' lights, tubes, random electronics, mechanics and motion sensors will engage it's on lookers in a real-time conversations and change it's shape based on a whim. Coooooool! I always wanted to ask a glowing mass of stuff what it thought about other stuff and whether the Cubs will win the World Series in my lifetime.

So. Cal. artist and longtime GelaSkins collaborator Aaron Kraten has designed a new line for Etnies  - peep the "Fakie" Hoodie, Shoe and Tote bag here. Nice.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings...

Ok, so I feel terrible today (thanks common cold! ) so I'm going to post a few things that are comforting some how. Hopefully this will have some cathartic effect and I'll be back in the saddle ASAP...

1) Drumming: I can't drum. Ok, that's a lie, I can play a hand drum a little, but put me on a kit and it's a disaster, but I love listening to them. I took in the Festival of Drums in Queen's Park last summer, which approximately rocked, but I caught a tabla player performing on a drum designed in Switzerland that's only been around for 8 or so years. This drum is part of the steel drum family so it's very melodic, but is played with hands instead of mallets. I found a great video of a chap playing one... view it here. Just awesome...Oh and here's a link to something I also can't do.

2)Laughing and Food: Two of my very favorite things in the world and here's a few of places that you can enjoy both at the same time...

986 reviews of for Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128fl Oz  - What I find odd is that Amazon sells milk? Is that weird or is it just me?

Steve, Don't Eat It! is a section of the hilarious blog The Sneeze and is seriously one of the funniest things I've ever read. Ever. Whatever, I know Maddox is funny, but this is hernia-inducing funny.  I found this gem about 3 years ago and go back to re-read this section every month or two and still end up crying and unable to speak for minutes afterwards because I'm laughing so hard. If you don't laugh at this, it means you've expired, you're deceased, dead. Or you're a ginger kid and have no soul.

Ok, this isn't so much funny as it is just awesome. Maple and Bacon Lollipops.

Muffins!

3) Animation: I'm a sucker for cool, or interesting animation and this particular piece I saw over 10 years ago and was shown to me by a buddy in Film school when we were in college and I still really just love this. It's called Animando and was produced by the phenomenal National Film Board of Canada in 1987. There's TONS of amazing videos on their site, so check it out if you like this...

Hope you feel better than I...

See you tomorrow..
B

"Ragdoll, livin' in the city..."

So we released a kick ass new skin yesterday by Japanese pop surrealist wünderkind Yoko D'Holbachie. "Ragdoll" is available for all the usual devices and looks just awesome. Slowart.com has a short interview with her here.

I came across an interview the other day with the Dolla Lama, another GelaSkin family member, over at The Worst Horse. It's a pretty interesting read; talks about his style, beginning and all the haters. Check it here.

Two of our artists, Steven Daily and Greg "Craola" Simkins along with a slew of others will be taking part in a show opening April 5th entitled  "Gag me with a Toon" at Melt Gallery on Sunset Blvd, LA. The subject matter or theme of the show will be, you guessed it, cartoons, specifically from 1980's. ThunderCats HOOOOOOO!

Monkeys and Millions

The always beautiful Audrey Kawasaki, will begin selling a limited number of signed prints of her very popular new work "Lacey" starting this Saturday (15th) at 9am PST. Be sure to get online right at 9, because these babies will go faaaaast.  Info here.

Chuck Trunks has a video of him putting some touches on some of his more recent works.... Go Chuck!

UK (not-so) underground artist Banksy had a few of his works sell at Sotheby's auction house in London making him a fairly well-off man.   

This one specifically one going for almost $1.3 million. Wow. I wonder how much his stuff will be worth when he's dead?

Obama's camp had this piece commissioned from Shepard Fairey (the man behind the Obey Giant) for the current campaign. Obama 1, Hilary 0. Here's another representation of the US Democratic leadership race. Thank you Germany! (Also thanks for delicious sausages, beer, good engineering and anything else I may have forgotten - please don't yell at me). Thanks to FYW and Haha.nu.

Greg Simkins (Craola) has a one-night only, solo show happening in Palm Springs, CA on Saturday March 15th at the M Modern Gallery. Details.

I'll leave you with Spike Jonze' contribution to Lakai's new skate video, "Fully Flared".

Fully Awesome.

Friday Flurries.

Well we're hunkering down for yet ANOTHER frickin snowstorm here in the GTA. Yipee. Apparently, in another 25cm we'll have broken the all time snowfall record for one season. Again, awesome. Someone make it stop.

Hopefully this super wicked-looking trailer for the new Iron Man movie will help.

Apple announced yesterday that version 2.0 of the iPhone's software will be released in June and the immediate release of the Software Developers Kit. I love my iPhone and can't wait to see what the new upgrade will entail. That Spore game looks pretty rad too... Check details here.

GelaSkin artist Joe Ledbetter has some new sweet looking vinyl toys being released. Check them out here.

Les Savvy Fav'er Tim Harrington dresses up as a giant mosquito to promote the new Nothing But Nets campaign. Pretty funny video...