When I started this blog one of my first posts was about me preparing to build a guitar.  Flash-forward two years later and I have finally begun.  This afternoon I cut the body blank out of a joined block of 3/4 inch sugar maple and sanded down the sides.

The cutting took about 30 minutes and the sanding lasted for 4 hours or so…  ugh.

]]> http://stokingtheroots.com/2010/05/08/it-has-begun/feed/ 1 http://stokingtheroots.com/2010/03/31/links-10/ http://stokingtheroots.com/2010/03/31/links-10/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:50:13 +0000 Chad http://stokingtheroots.com/?p=2869 + Make Money

Five of the top career fields for the future.  Nothing that surprising, but if you’re looking for a career change then become a nurse.

+ Buy Coffee

and insulate it with an endothermic reaction…

Get a free heatswell HERE.

+ Buy Furniture

Brent Comber

+ How will Obamacare affect you?

Here’s a nice concise rundown of how the new healthcare system will affect you.

+ Late Pass on the Tickle Fight

How did I miss this?

Representative Eric J. Massa, who resigned from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, vehemently denied any wrongdoing during a television appearance on Tuesday even as he described having tickle fights with staffers in a house they shared.

(via NYTimes)

Here’s an awesome 20 minute video of Fucked Up playing a couple of songs for the French (French-Canadian?) website Bandeapart.fm.

After dismissing this band for so long, watching this video really pumps me up to check out their old releases.

+ Gaia in Baltimore

Anyone know where in the city this is located?  More of Gaia’s art HERE.

(via Wooster Collective)

+ Alexa Meade – Living Still Lifes

D.C. based Artist Alexa Meade uses acrylic paints on her subjects to create some crazy live installations.  I feel bad that her subjects have to sit for so long caked in paint, but they do look very impressive.

]]> http://stokingtheroots.com/2010/03/24/fucked-up-gaia-alexa-meade/feed/ 0 http://stokingtheroots.com/2010/03/21/the-meaning-behind-lady-gagas-telephone/ http://stokingtheroots.com/2010/03/21/the-meaning-behind-lady-gagas-telephone/#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:01:37 +0000 Chad http://stokingtheroots.com/?p=2829 These two articles explore the artistic substance in Lady Gaga’s video for her new single Telephone.  Be sure to watch the video before reading the articles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This article from Vigilant Citizen focuses on Illuminati references, mind control and the elite’s manipulation of the population via mass media.

Just when I thought I’d written everything I had to write about Lady Gaga, Telephone comes out. An inevitable deluge of e-mails instantly followed, demanding an article about it. So I watched the video and, gosh darnit, the people who wrote those e-mails were right. There are, yet again, a whole bunch of Illuminati/mind control symbols in Lady Gaga’s latest video. I can’t say I was surprised, however, knowing that Jonas Akerlund co-wrote and directed the video. In the article Lady Gaga, the Illuminati puppet (which I suggest you read before this one), I dissected the Akerlund-directed video Paparazzi and its references to mind-control programming.Telephone acts as a sequel to Paparazzi, where Gaga still plays the role of a mind-controlled drone who kills people. This concept is never openly discussed by the artists when they are asked to explain their videos because it is not meant to be understood for the masses. The hidden meaning of the video actually depicts the elite’s contempt for the general population, hence the scene of ritual murder of average Americans in a diner by mind-controlled slaves. Don’t know what the hell I’m talking about? Keep reading.

via Vigilant Citizen

This article from The Atlantic focuses on the video’s theme of socially imposed gender boundaries through the deconstruction of repeated imagery.

Stripping Gaga of her clothes, they also strip her of her persona, leaving her exposed and vulnerable—naked. Her sexuality is on full display, but she’s helpless behind bars—a statement about the trappings of fame (a theme continued from “Paparazzi”) and society’s entitlement to comment so freely about the sexual identity of its celebrities. As the guards are leaving, we hear one address the rumors of her gender, saying “I told you she didn’t have a dick.”

And my favorite quote…

Inspired by the Warhol’s exploration of mass consumer culture and advertising through his Campbell’s soup studies, Gaga and Akerlund challenge the gender stereotype of the “perfect housewife” portrayed heavily in 1950s pop culture, using Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip as their artistic devices. Bloggers and fans are crying product placement—which in the case of Miracle Whip, it partly is—but its inclusion is more likely an homage to her greatest idol, who himself was a living, breathing piece of art.

Herein lies the convenient Catch-22 Lady Gaga has created for herself. Much like Warhol, she has as much a part in feeding into pop consumer culture as she has in making a statement against it. Whatever product placement or triviality exists within her videos can be excused as art under the pretense of her participation in the pop art movement—whether “Gaga” as a product is really who she is or the product of a label is almost irrelevant when you consider that maybe she’s the modern-day Marcel Duchamp or René Magritte. Now chew on that for a second…

via The Atlantic

Jennifer Love Heweit’s new self-help romance book, The Day I Shot Cupid, includes a chapter discussing how Vajazzling helped her get through a tough break up – I bet that’s going to sell well.  I’m sure her publishers were thrilled when she told George Lopez that her vagina looks like a disco ball.

Maybe the next time I’m feeling blue I should bedazzle my ballsack with some led lights or something to boost my self-esteem.

I really like the loose caricature styling of these illustrations from German artist wischnik.  If think this style of illustration would transfer really well to tattoo design.

+ David Galbraith top Ten

David Galbraith posted an article on the Top Ten things that Defined the ‘Noughties’

I really like his explanation of Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God crystal encrusted skull:

“Nothing defines the decade in more compact form than this diabolically expensive piece of shit. It’s almost impossible to think of anything more disgusting than a diamond encrusted skull, it combines the graveyard exploitation of a human skin lampshade with the ostentatious vulgarity of a gold plated toilet. It didn’t sell, so unfortunately there isn’t a single Russian gangster or Connecticut hedge fund manager to crucify for purchasing it. Instead, it belongs to them all, the people who took tainted money and unimaginatively tried to launder it, by buying taste, via a largely obsolete but prestigious medium – gallery art. Who knows, perhaps Hirst was indeed joking, in which case this was genius rather than an ironic, decade defining, atrocity.”

+ Top Ten Baltimore Art of the Decade

So many Top Ten lists as of late.  I really need to work on my top 10 albums post.

HERE.

This is the final painting submitted by Jeremy Geddes for the 3A HK Venture show in Hong Kong.  So awesome.  I posted about some of his other work that’s in a similar vein HERE.

+ Steve Albini Interview HERE.

+ Risky Business Fail

Graphic Designer Eric Testroete decided to build a big-head paper craft costume for Halloween this year.  Eric says has was inspired to build the costume by the big-head mode found in many video games.

Man, I’m really jealous of this.  I’m glad this guy was able to pull it off so well though and didn’t just half-ass the construction process or print it out at a low resolution.  His other photos of the building process are really interesting.

Pianos become the teeth was just signed to Top Shelf Records.  They’ll be helping us press 1000 copies of the album.  I’m excited because this takes a TON of financial strain off of our backs, the bands on Top Shelf rule and it’s always a plus to be working with good people who are doing positive things.  We’re planning to tour for a bit this winter with In the Hollows and also a bit on our own.

+ Fabio Viale

These are ridiculous.  Master sculptor Fabio Viale carves his sculptures out of white marble.  I can’t imagine how much that industrial tire weighs – or how expensive it was to buy that much white marble.  I love how the skull and the woman look like they could’ve been constructed from packing Styrofoam.

+ More Than Life – Brave Enough to Fail

More Than Life is a hardcore band from the UK that are comparable to MLIW, Comeback Kid (musically speaking), Defeater, Have Heart, etc.  Their music has a sense of desperation that I think all of the previously mentioned bands share.  Also, check out the sick acid-washed AFI jean jacket.

Some dude from Sputnik wrote a glowing review…

“The ‘Brave Enough To Fail EP’ is certainly a very enjoyable and exciting listen and must surely translate incredibly well in a live setting – provided that the band can maintain the level of intensity shown here. More Than Life have had a very successful career given the short time span that they have been together, and they have deserved it. This EP is simply a milestone following a lot of time spent on the road touring- it is also bloody good too!”

Buy (both colors) of Brave Enough to Fail HERE.

Download Brave Enough to Fail HERE.