Monsters, Tough Guys & Guts in SF

Photo courtesy of Joshua Lim Photography

Art exhibit at a high-fashion women's clothing store? I thought it was going to be a nightmare. I would have put money down that the gallery would be either a bunch of abstract nonsense or a collection of yawn-inducing still life.

Wrong and wrong again! The collection at RGB shop+gallery was nothing short of awesome. And that comes from someone fresh outta Comic-Con.

The show is called Monsters, Tough Guys & Guts, and that's about the best four-word description you could possibly give this display of multi-surface massacre. Monsters laying waste to cities. Tough guys decapitating monsters and… other tough guys. Guts everywhere. And there's even some good ol' anti-establishment works that late '80s-era Cube, Dre, Eazy, Ren and Yella would surely outbid everyone for.

My favorite part is a three-piece sequence of tough guy dominance by Zejian Shen. On top, an armored cyclops warrior on a horse slices all three heads of a bat-wielding troll as blood sprays out to the edge of the paper. On bottom, a scuba diver stabs a killer octopus. In the middle, the two victors from the top and bottom meet and high-five while the warrior lugs around one of the decapitated heads. All three images are set on a white background, and the only color is a sunset red that marks the warrior's armor, the scuba diver's accessories, the octopus and the three-headed troll's blood.



Those pieces are a little outside of my financial range, but I did buy another really cool one from Amanda Carmel: A large horizontal water color of a city being destroyed by a huge purple octopus firing lasers from its eyes. It's going to look great over my dinner table.



Bay Area dwellers can see Monsters, Tough Guys & Guts at RGB shop+gallery in San Francisco until September 1. There might be a closing party, too – check out rgbsf.com for details.

This post was written by:
Trey

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Goin Local- Toy Fair 2011

Toy Fair 2011 will be hitting the NYC in less than 2 weeks and though most of the big companies are keeping things sealed tight until the show, there were some releases with more to hit twitter and the rest of the web until showtime hits February 11th.  Warner Bros. Consumer Products went with the first mover approach on all things GL-related.  Props to Toy News Intl for the assist.

Like many of my toyhead brethren-- never really been a fan of much movie-related action figures as for the most part-- they just don't compare on any level of aesthetics or articulation to the comics-inspired figs.  What these 6' figs do hint at though is my guess that we just might see Hal go Parallax in the end of the film (the 2nd fig on the left does sure look familiar right?).

What really made me bust a geekgasm were these two incredibly crafted accessories that I am sure will be popular with kids of all ages.  First is Mattel's Colossal Cannon, yeah the name is lame-- but the fact that you have a GL construct that forms a hand blaster ala John Stewart-- ILL!!!  I now have the chance to LARP with some of my friend's kids with their Wolverine and Hulk gauntlets.  Second is the NECA Projection Ring that shoots a GL signal up to 50' away.  You know this is just about as dope as the Bat-Signal right?!

Answer?  Yes!!

As for show exclusives, the only thing that is out there right now are two extremely limited figs crafted by none other than Four Horseman Designs.  Though they don't quite pique my interest to the point of dropping a Franklin for the pack, I do so love how their projects outside of Mattel are finding their way into the DCU Classics waves.  Realize how many more extra pieces we have been getting in figs with interchangeable parts...look how they do!!

Though we will be missing the trip to this fantabulous show this year, you can count on us to keep you plugged in via all the cool news/pics as we get them from all of our fave toyspots.


This post was written by:
big O

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RIP- Andy Irons (1978–2010)

The Surf world was robbed of one of the most decorated and gifted riders of the sport last month along with a native son to Kauai, Andy Irons.  At the young age of 32, Irons had supplanted himself as a 3-time World Champion and was considered by many of surf culture as a spirited competitor, brother and true friend. 

Here is a picture taken from my cousin's wedding-- Jared pictured with Andy and his brother Bruce.

And another shot taken directly from the Memorial yesterday in Kauai.

Photo courtesy of Sabrina Callahan

Take in some of the beautiful footage of the memorial that was attended by over a thousand friends led by his brother at Hanalei Bay -- ANDY IRONS: A LIFE CELEBRATED, NOV. 14, 2010




This post was written by:
big O

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Making the Rounds: Switch - A Short Film

The first thing I really enjoyed about my first visit to Savannah, Ga. was the historic town's ordinance that allows people to drink alcoholic beverages on the streets in a cups.

The second was bar hopping and toasting drinks with the creative minds of Savannah College of Arts and Design .

Enjoy Tyson Hesse's recent thesis Switch.

This post was written by:
tim-chi

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Goin Local- Mavericks Surf Contest

The Mavericks Surf Contest is one of the premiere big wave competitions around the world that took place just last week.  The location of the comp is about 20 minutes south of San Francisco, off the coast of Half Moon Bay with massive swells that can reach heights of 50' and with that you get only a few that dare to take on the life-threatening Mt. Everest of surfing.

This year's champ, Chris Bertish repped Cape Town well by bringing back the crown that was also won by a South African in 2006. Peep some of the footage and the wave(at 2:25) that won it for Bertish.



Check this great POV of around 40 fans that were brave/stupid enough to get so close and got more than they hoped of the Mavericks experience.



This post was written by:
big O

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Goin Local- Swizz Beatz

Bronx native, Kasseem Dean aka Swizz Beatz has been pushing himself forward as a renaissance man beyond the arts with the likes of  Mos Def, Jay-Z and Russell Simmons-- not only for his genius production skills, being adept in the fine arts but most notably for his philanthropic role in the collaboration of Hope For Haiti Now.

Most heads outside of the realm of Hip-Hop rarely knew of the talented "One Man Band" beyond the sound that owns the airwaves- Jay-Z's On To the Next One...



In this behind the scenes footage with MTV, Swizz humbly (a term rarely used in Hip-Hop) passes off shine towards Q-Tip and Pharrel on the now famous Justice "Dance" sample that he transformed to propel the chart-killin track.



Swizz masterminded the incredibly moving lyrics and sounds to support the anthem- "Haiti Mon Amour," that is helping to spread awareness efforts in rebuilding Haiti-- performed by Rhianna, The Edge, Bono and Jay-Z.




And man you can't hate on em just cause he gets served breakfast by Alicia (just with a chain on--ha!!  check the Drake joint for reference).

This post was written by:
big O

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Goin Local- Tyson McAdoo

Make way for ATLien and Joe Kubert's: SoA alumni- Tyson McAdoo who worked many years in the comicbook industry for nearly every company and eventually found his niche; which has led to such bodacious masterpieces as his original piece below...

Tyson has fused the world of tattoo-art and comics on a more stylistic level than I have been exposed to before-- while keeping true to the indie feel of expression, he casts a compelling commercial appeal across various consumer channels.

His published work- The Death of Me, propels his flair for the female anatomy centerstage in ways that leaves the reader- in need of wiping my their glasses and salivating for what is on the next page.  Peep the delicious footage from an art show last year that brought his book to life.

This post was written by:
big O

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Goin Local- Hana Hou!

Extreme conditions arrived Tuesday on Hawaii’s North Shore for the first time in five years. Congratulations to Greg Long who took first place at the "Eddie", The Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau surf contest which is held only when waves top 40 ft at Waimea Bay. Thousands

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Goin Local- Dj Haylow

For those of you missing out on dope Hip Hop music- well you don't have to look too far in the Bay to have some local DJs

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