I finally read Maus. It’s a graphic novel split into two books, although you can find them in one, in which the comic artist portrays himself as trying to understand his father’s past.  His father was a Polish Jew who survived the concentration camps during World War II.  This book is not just about his father’s experience, but also about the artist’s experience with his father. 

The graphic novel is truly a survivor’s tale: the father’s and the son’s.  If you think comics are just for kids or the child at heart think again and read this semi autobiographically comic. Spielgelman uses the art form of comics to the fullest.  The Germans are depicted as cats while the Jews are mice.  There are also a few times in which the people are depicted in human form to separate to reality of making the comic and the comic itself.  The use of exaggeration available to comics also helps with the storyline.  The art is the basic black and white with square boxes that many comics have and its easy to follow. 

If you’ve read Maus what do you think about it?

Kagehime

A photographer died after looking at her.  Seriously.  According to Perez he fell off a ladder after passing out.  Pop Eater says he died in the hospital after collapsing within minutes of seeing her.  I want to know what really happened.

 She’s looks like a  fashionable bride of Frankenstein here but is she that scary?

Kagehime

How Hello Kitty’s been celebrated this year and tons of Lady Gaga! 35 years of Hello Kitty.

Although I have to ask is some of this too suggestive for Hello Kitty?

Kagehime

Lady Gaga has announced that she will release a collector’s edition art book of The Fame Monster to be released December 15. Everything included in the Fame Monster’s collector edition makes sense except for the lock of hair. It includes a collectable puzzle, posters, tons of pics and even paper dolls.  Why would someone need a lock of Lady Gaga’s hair! That’s so creepy! Eww.  And how big of a lock could it be anyways?  I mean she’s only got so much hair.  Maybe its from her extensions or something, but still!  What are people supposed to do with it? Smell it?  And isn’t only the really creepy fans who want locks of hair? I guess if you’re eaten by the fame monster creepy is what creepy does.

What do you think? Creepy or not?

Kagehime

I found a cool new group (okay so Perez Hilton found them before me but I did find them on his site) called Fan Death.  I know it sounds like some weird metal group, but they’re actually a two girl group that sounds kind of like Bat for Lashes and therefore sound like the cure so they sound awesome.  Not only do they sound awesome, but their video for Reunited is as well.  The colors are vibrant and the actions of the people in the video are as quirky and bubbly as the song. 

Kagehime

Anyone else thinks that Dandi looks just like Snow White? Any one know her name?  And the outfit was so cute I couldn’t resist drawing it.

I wanted to insert Duran Duran’s vid for too much information in the TV that the girl from just dance is watching.  I’m not technologically inclined enough to take a video and put it into a still picture, but I do what I can.  So basically I just drew the girl that’s in just dance (not exactly as you should be able to see), but a cartoon version looking at a picture of Duran Duran’s single for Too much Information. She comes into the vid at around 3:00.

Here’s Duran Duran’s Too much Information

Sure the song is from the early 90s so its references are TV and MTV instead of the internet.  But really if a song about too much information should come out again it would be now. I think there is too much information to process.  We could all end up like those bing commercials in which people have search engine symdrome with all the blogs, twitter, gossip, and news that we try to process.  And yes I’m saying process like a computer does, because that’s what people are becoming information processing machines aka computers.

What do you think? Are people becoming computers?

Kagehime

I just read The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation by Siku and Akin. I liked it.   It doesn’t go into too much depth considering that its the entire bible in one volume that around 200 pages.  But because it doesn’t go into depth the reader is able to see the progression of time and the cyclical nature of how the Jews would believe in One God then be led astray and how they were brought back again.  It also shows the similarity between the types of people chosen by God.  No one was flawless. 

And Jesus is awesome in here (not that he’s not awesome everywhere else), but I think people have a tendency of showing Jesus as kind of soft.  In this book he’s definitely kick ass.  And when he think about it he probably had to be.  He lasted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, turned down the devil, knocked some sense into the Pharisees, the list goes on.

The manga bible provides a slightly different point of view than what you’re probably used to, but there are many points of view when it comes to understanding the bible.

Kagehime

The extent to how true “Video Killed the Radio Star” probably couldn’t be considered in 1979, the year the Buggles produced this song along with the first video shown on mtv. 

Its gotten to the point that the audio has become visual. An artist has to do a video in order to sell their songs.  A song without a video is now like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no bread.  And of course in music videos people are not willing to look at ugly or fat so if the artist’s not hot, especially for women, their going to have a harder time making it which means we’re probably missing out on some good music because the percentage of beautiful people to not so beatiful is small. 

Its also gotten to the point that some songs just don’t sound good until the video is watched.  I didn’t really like Black Eyed Peas Boom Boom Pow until I watched the video.  I’ve liked it a lot since.  Lady Gaga’s paparazzi is the same for a lot of people from what I’ve heard.  Personally I liked the song ok and liked it a lot better after seeing the video.

Robbie Williams new album is Reality killed the video star. Thing is both are on video and both are scripted.  So can reality (shows) kill the video star? Although it does seem that lately more people are getting famous from reality (shows, youtube, etc) than through movies and non reality shows.  I hope reality doesn’t kill the video star cuz reality kind of sucks.

What do you think about video killing the radio star or reality killing the video star?

Kagehime

I decided to do some drawings based on real people for a change instead of just drawing comics.  I shaded them completely with pencil which I rarely if ever do.  Then I scanned the images into the computer and put them in front of a black background, white seemed too boring.

Do you recognize these models from their ads?

In order from top to bottom: Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Guess

Tell me if you like them.

Kagehime

Ever since  I heard that the grave next to Marilyn Monroe’s was put on sale,  I’ve been wondering what it was about her that people love so much (men and women) so naturally I had to find out.  What was so captivating that today that people are willing to spend millions to spend an eternity next to her be buried next to her?

Time and time again she appears in pop culture representing the epitome of beauty.  Many female stars attempt to capture her look or are strongly inspired by it.  Need I name some?  I’m sure you know.  Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Anna Nicole Smith, you get the picture.

She’s got at least one good song about her at least  inspired by her.  Know Elton John’s song Candle in the Wind?  It was originally written in 1973 about Marilyn.

And of course Andy Warhol painted his famous images of Marilyn Monroe.

Why?  It wasn’t just because she was beautiful and died tragically (not to mention the conspiracy theories her death spawned) at the age of 36, although that in itself might be enough to develop a cult following.  She didn’t let a hard early life stop her from becoming successful.  And seriously how many successful model, actress, singers are there? And of course she wasn’t just a dumb blonde.

What do you think about Marilyn Monroe and her influence today?

Kagehime