baby art blog

“controversial images : media representations on the edge” edited by fiona attwood – contains a chapter on me written by adam stapleton – other wide-ranging chapters cover photoshopping, prophet mohammed cartoons, bulgarian transexuals, guantanamo bay, kurdish female suicide bombers, a mass murderer’s media manifesto, the british board of film classification, ichi the killer anime, max hardcore, torture porn, animal porn, screened rape, spankwire, call of duty modern warfare 2, and news images – a good read for sure – i’d have bought the book myself, if it wasn’t so hellishly expensive (even the kindle version is over $70!) – the essays are written almost exclusively by university professors and lecturers – so factually intensive and you always get a couple of pages of references – but despite being “academic” it’s very accessible

“moral crusades in an age of mistrust : the jimmy savile scandal” by frank furedi – the first “real” book out on the case – tho it’s more a sociological analysis of the surrounding moral panic – how words like victim and abuse have shifted meaning over the decades, the collapse of trust in authority establishments, crime trawling with people paid for unquestioned allegations (or victim compensation as they call it), the disallowance of skepticism, etc – not a book that’ll receive much love – i enjoyed it! – “savile: the beast (the inside story blahblah)” looks like the pulp paperback that’ll supply the desired sensationalism and requisite disgust – out now in the uk but another month or two wait for america (and thus me) – inevitably other assorted knock-out cash-in kindle books have appeared – the titles give the game away as to their worth: “the ghost of jimmy savile”. “now then : jimmy savile’s adventures in time”, “the folly of deference : what sir jimmy savile, irish paedophile priests, drunken doctors, and incompetent monarchs have all had in common” …and “arrest and trial of jimmy savile” which might be readable except the text is all formatted centered so it’s “unreadable”!

just been tempted by and bought rebecca ray’s “a certain age” (aka “pure”) – a coming of age “lolita” book (there appears to be a number of similar themed books about, by and for young females) – written by an 18 year old (16 when she started it!) – so it does sound authentically brit teenager – of course the appeal is that it’s possibly autobiographical – either way, far removed from melissa p, but i hope a fun read

tho currently reading maurice blanchot’s “aminadab” – which is a sorta allegorical kafka thru the looking glass

and thanks to adam stapleton, russell trainer’s “lolita complex” has now fallen into my possession finally – i must admit i wanted it more as a fetishistic/cult (?) object more than the desire to actually read it!

exhibition at parabolica-bis – part one: 02 may to 13 may – part two: may 31 to june 17 – ¥500 admission, not sure how much access that grants you to other ongoing exhibitions in the building but keiko miyata particularly worth seeing

pictured above is “candy floss” – she eats our badness – the more badness she eats the more her candy floss hair grows – (then we eat her hair?!)

related posts:
yaso : stuffed animals
toy box pix
trevor brown x hippie coco collaboration
hippiecoco nurse bear
victimisation complex baby art fan : addendum

two designs from span art gallery – “angels of death” and “black tuesday” – B2 size (or slightly bigger?), 200 copies of each, all signed (in white and purple respectively) – now available for pre-order from akatako (along with the clear files!) – they’ll be available from span art gallery shortly, i guess, and of course at bunkamura gallery

semi-translucent plastic, A4 size (ie. to fit A4 sheets of paper), made by span art gallery – two designs (front and back shown) – as with everything, i imagine available from akatako as soon as katie gets her hands on them

a bit of a japanese thing? – typically they come with boy idol or anime characters printed on them : )

almost identical cover art, almost identical games – symptomatic of the homogenuitification of aaa games to blend them all into one bland blockbusting vanilla flavour action shooter – most all former personality and/or cool cheesiness of these two games wiped away – gears just isn’t the same so it’s not the same anymore – admittedly i was getting bored by the last one so really i should have known there was nothing more for me here – but it looked pretty on youtube clips so i bought it – regrettably gameplay is mindless and terribly unengaging – go into a little area, clear out same boring enemies (literally a meagre 5 minutes or so), level over, view stats you couldn’t care less about, deep yawn, go to next similar little area – repeat 40 times! – the afterthought “aftermath” mini-campaign almost saves it (made it feel less of a complete waste of money) but really it’s a generic tired excuse for a game (critics loved it) – conversely the mainstreaming of army of two into a bog-standard assembly-line tried’n'tested shooter has actually resulted in an unassuming simple hellafun game (critics slammed it) – yes it’s the same 40 or more (not nearly so stupidly) short chapters, so-so story, “witty” (pfft) banter, token (macho)female, mandatory explosions, run-n-gun, slide into cover, kick in doors, “revive me!” syringe stabbings from y’buddies shit …BUT far better continuity and far better set-piece battles – scenery less remarkable but you can demolish it! (shoot off masonry etc) – an “overkill” mayhem mode heightens the destruction fun factor – and really, as everything’s apparently been seen’n'done already (or game-makers are now utterly devoid of imagination), “was it fun?” should be your criterion to assess by should it not? (heretic opinion!)