Auralphilic Aquaphobic

I recently changed my music selection in my car's cd changer, placing some older 2000s electronica stuff. An early surprise has been the 2005 compilation cd Perfect Remixes Vol. 3 featuring DJ Tiesto remixes. One of the surprises rediscoveries has been this fine specimen of late 1990s trance, to wit, "Aquaphonic" remixed by Tiesto and DJ Jim in 1998. This is a longer version than even the one featured in my cd but it is great stuff, probably best suited to listening to at night or while driving over distance. I recommend skipping the first 1:08 and get to the real heart of the track which has an atmospheric and moody and haunting quality to go with a good trance beat which alternatingly builds tension and breaks down with a drop or two. Note: the background image is by George Grie and entitled "Final Frontier Voyager" (2005) and is an example of Neosurrealism.

Image of the Day - Twelve Colonies of Kobol

Both today after school while driving home as well as tonight, I find myself thinking about the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. I feel it is a metaphor for something else as in God is using it to get me thinking about something that is anything but fictional and imaginary. I'm still pondering and discerning the meaning per the truism in Proverbs 25:2. Left-click on image for expanded view. Cartographic artwork by Werthead HERE. All rights reserved!

Da Vinci Does Xenomorphs

This eye-catching and ominous Da Vinci-esque diagramming of the late H.R. Giger's xenomorph by Elkin Salamanca Alarcon is modern art quite to my liking. Illustrations and accompanying writings by Elkin Salamanca Alarcon (all rights reserved).

Loving Vincent.... Which I Always Have

I found this on Facebook today and am somewhat haunted by it. Yet it is merely a trailer for the upcoming film "Loving Vincent"... I can only image how powerful the complete film will be. Watch and enjoy the art of Vincent Van Gogh come alive.

Graphic of the Day - Celestial Sphere

Artist Pablo Carlos Budassi created this unusual representation of the known universe which he explained this way: “Our Sun and the solar system are at the very center of this image. They are followed by the outer ring of Milky Way Galaxy, one of the two major arms of Milky Way, a ring of other closer galaxies like Andromeda, rest of the cosmos, cosmic microwave background radiation leftover from the big bang, and finally a ring of plasma also generated by the big bang.” Read more about it HERE. To view a more expanded version of this image click HERE and for massively expanded version click on the image in the window accessed via that link. Image courtesy of Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia (all rights reserved).

RIP Rowdy Roddy

Today it was announced that Rowdy Roddy Piper of professional wrestling and acting fame (check out his personal website HERE) died last night in his sleep at age 61. The cause of death appears to have been a heart attack. It seems cliche and trite to say he was one of my favorites... but he was. He had higher intelligence and more charisma than most professional wrestlers. He also lived a more wholesome life than many/most of them being a family man his entire life. Below are my favorite examples of his work starting with an infamous episode of his groundbreaking "show" (the one featuring Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka) on the then WWF program. That is followed below it by one of his matches in the ring against the aforementioned Snuka. 




What many people don't realize is that Roddy Toombs (his real name) was under-regarded actor who showed his surprising acting talent in John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi classic They Live. The movie features the greatest cinematic brawl ever (vs. Keith David) with the closest competition coming from the one at the end of John Wayne's The Quiet Man (vs. Victor McLaglen). Anywho, the They Live brawl is so awesome that South Park spoofed it in the famous "Cripple Fight" episode which part I have placed below the cinematic brawl.



South park cripple fight with "They Live" side by side from JuggleLife on Vimeo. Video posters commentary: " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxFJw0A3-S4 commentary of the creators commenting on the fight scene.I had noticed that they had made a reference in one of there more recent episodes 18x05 (magic bush) so i thought i would create a side by side of the reference to the movie They live prior to the recent one. i will put together another side by side video for the more recent episode eventually."

As I discussed in a previous post on this blog entitled "OBEY and Read This", They Live inspired political artist Shepard Fairey to come up with his now iconic and ubiquitous Obey Campaign. Rowdy Roddy and Fairey met on a couple of occasions and in tribute to Piper, Fairey Tweeted the image below in accompaniment of his condolences today. This merely serves to reaffirm the connection between the They Live and the Obey Campaign.

Courtesy of Shepard Fairey (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Firestorm At Dusk

In my summer school version of Fire & Society at Cal Poly we have an art assignment. After initially planning on doing something involving internet memes involving fire I dropped the idea in favor of something more traditional. Today I painted my first acrylic painting ever and the first painting of any sort I have done as an adult. The requirement for this assignment was something fire-themed. Here is "Firestorm At Dusk." I hope I have earned an "A" on this. Note: doing this was also in keeping with my ongoing theme of challenging myself to go outside my comfort zone and try new things. I am a photographer, not a painter!
Image and painting by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

OBEY And Read This

A couple of nights ago I re-watched the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live for the first time in quite awhile. In addition to other pop cultural references contained therein I noticed the origin of the OBEY advertising campaign which campaign I had noticed before, obviously, but that came AFTER the previous time I watched the movie. The aforementioned counter-culture ad campaign created by Left-wing activist street artist Shepard Fairey began in 1989 as an odd ode to the late Canadian wrestler André the Giant entitled "Andre the Giant Has a Posse." Fairey has admitted the Carpenter film influenced his own "obey" idea. Fairey later created the now famous (or infamous) Barack Obama "Hope" poster in 2008 whose basic image he illegally appropriated from another person's photograph. This iconic image has gone on to inspire innumerable satirical incarnations.   

Still image from the film They Live.

Stylized artistic rendering of previous image.

"Andre the Giant Has a Posse" image.

The most iconic political image thus far in the 21st Century.

The circle is completed with this satirical take on "Hope."

An Encounter with Jonathan Meader

At this past weekend's San Rafael Gem Faire covered HERE I had the privilege of conversing with artist, author and egyptophile Jonathan Meader when he visited the Rocks & Relics booth. I learned a number of significant things from him and thoroughly enjoyed our all-too-brief discussion. I look forward to picking up where we left off next time I am in San Rafael. Meader was kind enough to give me an autographed copy of his 1995 work The Wordless Travel Book. This clever little gem of international communication is based upon the visual symbology of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs updated to represent the context of modern civilization. It now proudly sits in my library. Meader is currently working on an expansive book project more about which I will not divulge here now. Needless to say it will be quite remarkable once completed and I am excited to see the finished product. I hope to acquire a copy of it for my personal library once it is published in light of the fact it relates to a topic of lifelong interest to me.