sent the goddam John B poster off to print today. January's almost done... it's been a busy month... feels like i've been working on these John B jobs for years, man. started this complaint project at college properly as well, although i need to focus down on whats happening there- more research, then some clever shit, hopefully..

that thread about my flyers mentioned below has got me thinking a bit about my work. when am i going to stop hiding behind photoshop layouts and really experiment, i need to find my voice, do something totally new. for myself as well as for "the future". i feel a bit stagnant. i need to smash down my own borders and do new things. with skill. "girls only want boys who have great skills"

i'm hoping my drawing project is going to kick off some new directions. the print workshop also beckons. drawing is really the basis of everything, so time to get scribbling..  ¶ 4:21 PM 0 comments

  ok so that thread got well out of hand, but at least something funny came out of it. this from lessrestneeded:



Looks like dem bad ass weegie mofos startin trouble again

Team Glasgow- It'll be RST and MC Sian joining forces putting differences aside and puttin on hard man looks ,closely followed by top junglist soldier gonzo (who obviously is the best jungle dj north of the border) and a few other cottaging bastards. Reset giving the orders ie flank them, were gonna live evil there ass and such like

Team Edinburgh- JBD, Captain and Ali-M carrying chibs with the rest of the menacing obscene crew on alert with their jump up bizness. Rumours of Gmac making an appearance with Dj Kiddy fiddler 'gaun pure mental wi his beyonce dubplates'

Meet up in a field off the M8 about quater past nine, evening of course 'strictly no machetes' (this rule will be enforced coz ive got a dog and a machete and i well quoted in using them likes) I'm the referee of course (and trust me I will fucking regulate all your asses) with a select panel of judges including Jimmy Saville and Alan Hansen.

Losers have to lick their teammates arses in a daisychain fashion supervised by Michael 'Big Man' Barrymore

Let the greatest battle of all time commence

  ¶ 2:45 PM 0 comments

  rather amusing thread on the Scottish Drum and Bass forum where LivevEvil boss Paul Reset raises his suspicions about my John B flyers... seems I unknowingly used the same PR photo for one side of the flyer as they did 3 months ago... shock/horror... i'm on the forum as Futurproof, one of my old DJing aliases, if you want to see my response. i like the comment about Designers Republic as well (LvE basically wholesale nicked their characters from the Wipeout games and whole aesthetic...)  ¶ 9:53 PM 0 comments

 

finally sent the john b flyers to print today. i'm so excited about the gig. check out John's new song 'Stalking U On Myspace' at myspace.com/johnbbeta  ¶ 1:05 AM 0 comments

 

Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese artist, born in Hirosaki in 1959. I first became aware of his work through a small feature in The Face, four or five years ago. I quickly cut out the illustrations they had printed and blu-tacked them to my wall, where they remained until recently finding a home in my critical diary. Since then he has received attention from the likes of Dazed & Confused, Vice and other magazines, and now has a couple of books available.

My attention was captured, in equal measures, by the style and content of Nara's work. It is hard to really define what the "purpose" or "idea behind" his drawings, paintings and sculptures are; he does not belong to the school of high-concept art that requires an explanatory plaque mounted beside his work, and in interviews seems hesitant to provide a verbal equivalent - something I admire him for. It would be fair, however, to say that his work is focused on childhood. Be it the experience of, or reflection upon, or most likely (in my view) the void that exists between childhood and adulthood. To me his pictures look like the work of a person who never gave up being a kid, but most definitely moved into the scary, complicated world of the adult... something a lot of us can definitely relate to.

The first pictures I saw in The Face were all on the same theme: child-like drawings of kids with big heads, big eyes and tense expressions. One smokes a cigarette. Another mischievously paints the words 'Fuck about everything but I draw again and again!'. Another brandishes a small knife, 'Aggressive Teens' scrawled in red above her head. Little did I know that pretty much Nara's entire body of work is on the same theme, although also encompassing animals and different media. He is the kind of artist whose focus is obsessional. He says he has no choice: "Even if I try to draw something different, it always comes out this way."

Although the artist produces oil paintings, giant sculptures and other forms for his cozy-but-disturbing enfants terribles, I'm still drawn back to those first few images I found years ago, drawn with coloured pencils on battered lined paper, seemingly torn straight from the kind of books we all wrote in at primary school, with smudges, rubber marks and pre-school handwriting. They spoke to me then, and they speak to me now.

"I only draw what I know from experience," says Nara. It's hard to tell at first if these are the works of a disturbed child, or an equally disturbed adult. I'm not sure which category he truly falls into. Whichever, I'm in there with him.

links/bibliography...
bio from the-artists.org
review from assemblylanguage.com  ¶ 11:07 PM 0 comments

  ...this from the Anxiety Culture newsletter...

John Catt, an 80-year-old peace campaigner, was stopped by police officers as a terrorist suspect in Brighton in September - for wearing a T-shirt with anti-Blair and Bush slogans. Mr Catt, who served in the RAF during the Second World War, was stopped, searched by police and made to sign a form confirming he had been interviewed under the 2000 Terrorism Act. The official record of the encounter confirms that the "purpose" of the search was "terrorism" and the "grounds for intervention" were "carrying placard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info" (sic).

Mr. Catt was offered a caution by police, but refused and plans to plead not guilty at a trial due to start in January. He had traveled into Brighton from his home in Withdean, on the outskirts of the city. "I said I was going to voice my opposition to the Iraq War. He [the policeman] said: 'We're going to give you a copy of this form.'

"People should have the right to protest non-violently. The anti-terrorism laws should not be used to stop people doing that."  ¶ 6:02 PM 0 comments

 

this is the kind of debauched shit a john b gig usually turns into, yes yes. if yous are lucky i might put my own famously compromising pic of me and john up which went out to the entire student population of edinburgh and glasgow in The List's student guide.  ¶ 11:45 AM 0 comments

 

back in leeds and working on flyers for obscene in february. its our 4th birthday - fuckin hell! - and we've asked this electro robot from the future to guest for us... ladies & gents introducing John B... check out the site for all sorts of funny shit.  ¶ 11:33 AM 0 comments