I spend a lot of my days reading random sites and blogs, keeping an eye out for bands that intrigue me. Give or take a couple times a year, I find one that just intrigues me. And here's that one.
Boys and girls, Seasick Steve.
Born Steven Gene Wold, he left home at 13 and worked random jobs, sometimes as a carnie, cowboy or even a migrant worker. In the '60s, he started to form his craft of being a blues musician, even becoming friends with Janis Joplin. He learned to work in the studio and began producing music, including a few Modest Mouse albums. Ya, weird.
He then went over to Europe, and spent his time writing music and busking. In late 2006 he released his second full length album. Someone noticed him and invited him to play the New Year's Eve Jools Holland's 'Annual Hootenany' show in the UK (see video above). And then his popularity sky-rocketed. Well, so much that people now knew about him, and he even got his own Wikipeida page. Thankfully, as this is where this info is all coming from.
He plays a 3-string guitar that he bought for $75, and he refuses to add the other 3 strings missing too. He also plays a single-string guitar.
Anyways. He just looks like a weird creeper, but he isn't too shabby of a musician. Plus, no one knows when he was born, which just adds more to the mystery of this man.
Gallery 1988. A place I seem to just tell everyone about, any chance I get. Their 3rd annual Crazy 4 Cult show took place this past week. The encouraged more 3-D works of art this year. As per usual, it's time to share some of my favorites pieces.
"Crazy 4 Cult 3-D: The Secret Weapon" by Tim Doyle Various movies Screenprint on archival paper 18 x 24 inches
"BTF 1" by Jim Horwat Back To The Future Giclee print on archival paper 12 x 16 inches
"Trap" by 2cents Ghostbusters Screenrpint on archival paper 16 x 20 inches
"Welcome Back To The Land Of the Dead" by Jason Limon Army Of Darkness Acrylic on wood 10 x 30 inches
"Cult Showdowns" by Scott Campbell
Lord Of The Rings, Rushmore, Aliens, Three Amigos, Trainspotting, Highlander, Big Lebowski, Boogie Nights, The Shinning, Point Break Acrylic on watercolor paper 3.5 x 3.5 inches
"UHF" by Tom Whalen UHF Giclee print on archival paper 10 x 20 inches
I'm a mega Foo Fighters dork. I think Dave Grohl is one of the best people to ever grace our generation. Not only is he a unbelievable musician, but he's also a stupidly kind and sincere person.
So when Dave announced last September that the band was going to take a 'long hiatus', I was clearly saddened. Granted, they've never really stopped playing for years and there's many little babies that have since been introduced to the world.
But the FF were asked to play at the White House on the 4th of July. And they instantly accepted. They played a very short set, but one of the songs that they sang was 'Wheels'. This is a new song that they're planning to add onto an album that they've got coming out in November. Unfortunately, this album is supposed to be just a 'best-of' album but they do planning on adding two brand new songs this album, with Wheels being one of them. Which is awesome.
Here's the first live performance of Wheels.
I find it'll end up being a super nice summer driving tune, which makes it strange to be released in November. Oh well. I'll take any new Foo that I can.
Side note: Dave is working on some music with Queens of the Stone Age singer / Eagles of Death Metal drummer Josh Homme as well as Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Which just screams like it'll be fricken' awesome! I'm am eagerly anticipating this. Collaborations generally kick ass.
Just a follow up to a previous post. I found some more images regarding Tim Burton's new Alice In Wonderland movie that's he's working on. They're mostly concept drawings, which is usually just as creatively awesome.
I found these all on a cool site that I had never knew even existed! The Art Of Disney Animation. This site has drawings from what seems to be most of Disney's flicks. I honestly assumed that all of this would be locked up in a vault, and tucked away for no one to ever see. So cool. Here's just a little taste.
Cinderella - 1950
Sleeping Beauty - 1959
Alice In Wonderland - 1951
Pinocchio - 1937
Peter Pan - 1953
If you're any sort of fan of animation, drawings or just enjoy something quirky, then I highly recommend spending a couple minutes and just appreciate the talents of Disney'sextraordinary artists. And even let out a laugh at just how ridiculous some of the ideas were.
My life can simply be summed up as random. Random events. Random people. Random stories.
So following what I know, I figured I should just write about that.
I enjoy learning about miscellaneous things, mostly relating to some sort of graphic design, films or architecture.
As is with most others, music and movies are a big part of my life. I can only hope of one day being more involved in either industry.
Awesome.
7/31/2009 09:10:00 AM
mikey b.
