"The Collectors"

 

I found this earlier today on picturedoesnotbelong but couldn't find a credit for it.  Where is it from?  I wish that this was a scene from a movie- the four tall guys are aliens sent to earth to collect different objects.  The thing would be that there would be millions of these guys.  They're never violent- just annoying- always asking you for your shirt, or your shoe horn, or your ticket stubs.  They never get upset, they always just have this semi-stupid concerned look.  Eventually you'd just want to run away "give me a break!" and try to live your life without getting hassled.  

AJ Comics, 1992-1994

When I was in 5th and 6th grade my friends and I had a comic book company called AJ comics.  It was called AJ because the founder, Andy, had a mysterious best friend at another school named Jonathan.  We didn't meet Jonathan until 7th grade when we were all in junior high together.  Anyway, our teacher let us draw for an hour every day if we got our math done, so this is what we did with our time.  The comics themselves were normally 2 or 3 pages long and sold for a quarter.  We didn't have access to a copy machine most of the time so if a new issue came out with 4 copies, they were all done by hand!   There were actually a few competing comic book groups that we fought against- Eraser, Stick People, and the books "Super Street Cop" and "Return to the Gulf".  I don't have access to my whole collection right now, just some of the drawings that I did.  The last image in the AJ section is by Andy.  You might notice that some of the comics are taged with "Sinyo" or "Future comics" or "CC"- these are all subdivisions of AJ.

 

  

  

  

  

 

Below was one of our main competitors, notice that the comic is marked AJ but the letters appear side by side instead of stacked.

Cubic Pyrite Crystals- CPCs

 

  

Cubic Pyrite Crystals were what Picard referred to as "Borg stones".  These ones formed naturally in Spain, really amazing.  These images are from www.naturaltreasures.com

GreyHandGang

The GreyHandGang is a group of young toughs from New York.  Their blog has some really great images that they've collected from around the internet, a few of my favorites below.  www.greyhandgang.com

 

  

 

Half Dracula/Half Cinderella: La Bicicetta

 

Valeria started a blog a couple of days ago.  She already has some cool recipes up and has written a little about the typical drink of the old, card playing men in Tuscany- the bicicletta.  Fully investigate the blog, and the drink at www.apeox.blogspot.com

New project!

Repurposing unplayable 45s with a RFID player.  You always see a lot of scratched up, neglected 45s at flea markets and garage sales.  Records that won't play anymore. This system uses a sticker wih an RFID antenna inside, and a reader in the form of a "record player". You can program the stickers to cue up any playlist you want.  This is something that I've been working on for the last couple of days.  They're still mp3 files, and the records still take up space, this is just a new, cheap way of listening to music at parties without people all huddled around a computer.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Phil Renato

Wow. Jewelry Design and concepts by Phil Renato that really make 3D printing look beautiful. TONS more on his site- www.philrenato.com

 

Herceptin

 

Grammar

 

PieBald

 

Bioxene

Forgotten Detroit: Michigan Central Depot

Today I found ForgottenDetroit.com and was really moved- especially by the pictures of the Michigan Central Depot (where the last train went through in 1988).  As a human I think you should check this out.

 

  

 

Mela Annurca Campania: the oldest apple of them all?

Last week I made a post about the Pink Lady apple of Italy Australia and I thought that the branding around the fruit was great. Today, another apple.  When we went to the store this morning, a nervous but smiling woman gave us an apple in a box for free- the Annurca apple from Campania!  This is one of the earliest apples that we know of- you can see it in the  frescoes of ancient Rome.  They pick the apples when they aren't ripe, and then lay them out on some hay and turn them every once and a while to ripen them until they turn red.  It's a little too mealy for me but still fun to eat.  Plus- another example of interesting apple branding.

Strong Beer, Strong Cheese, Strong Movie

This is my plan for Saturday- Urbock, Fiordimonte cheese, and "The Running Man".

 

  

 

Slow textile design: Ruedee Sarawutpaiboon

 

I went to school with Ruedee and I think that this was my favorite project of hers.  It's a little hard to understand, but it's about the wear and tear of clothes, future technology, and slow design.  Pockets that keep growing, gloves that transfer thread to other gloves, and shirt sleeves that remember.  I think that if you go into it with an open mind it's pretty inspirational.  You can check out this project and others here.

Watermarked frame paper

Here's a new project that I'm working on- paper with a watermark on it with a graphic of a frame- nice if you want to hang your drawings on your windows...

 

  

  

 

Dee Dee King: a second look

Did you know that after the Ramones, Dee Dee Ramone started rapping? Now a lot of people make fun of him for this, but I've gotta say...There's something really innocent and interesting about these songs. It's like he just did whatever he wanted to and didn't care what anyone else thought- or maybe it was the drugs who knows? These videos aren't really videos at all, but I suggest that you let them play while you go to wikipedia and read up on Dee Dee. First song isn't rap, second one sort of is, and the third one- is. He even raps in german.

Brian Knapp

When I was going to school at KCAD in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Brian was my drawing instructor. That second image in this post? I remember when he drew that in class- it took him maybe 3 minutes. He's got a great style and still does his art while also doing animations/illustrations in the medical industry, the contract furniture industry, as well as some stuff for the film industry and every once and a while an album cover. Industry. Check out his blog here, and more animation work here.

 

  

skrov.com news

I've updated skrov.com with some new projects in the works, and gave it a new look.  I have the feeling already that this site will be getting a lot of new looks...