Jellyfish!

New flyer design for the upcoming, special acoustic/orchestral in-store performance by Marcus Rubio and the Gospel Choir of Pillows — of which I now play drums and percussion for. Check out his site, and support local record stores by coming out on Saturday!

Actor Christian Bale, The Dark Knight himself (and soon to be John Connor … and I think he was a Swing Kid), was arrested in Britain today for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister. This sounded fishy to me when I heard the news this morning, but according to Wikipedia (and they’re never wrong. Right?) Bale launched a “verbal assault” on his family, which apparently is against the law in England.

I’m not sure what constitutes as a verbal assault. Yelling? Swearing? Talking in your Batman voice? “Yo mama” jokes? Regardless (and without a single shred of evidence or testimony heard), I sympathize with Bale in this situation (who can’t relate to annoying family problems?), and to show my solidarity I designed this T-shirt. Christian Bale — sir — we’ve got your back through this. And you’ll never have to thank us.

UPDATE: According to tmz.com, there may have been some physical contact, but not anything as severe as a Batman-style headbutt. Stay tuned for more developments — same beat-time, same beat-channel.

UPDATE 2: Bale is innocent according to The Daily Mail, and apparently depressed over the death of his arch-nemesis, Heath Ledger. I forgot that they worked together before Dark Knight in the awesome Bob Dylan pseudo-biopic I’m Not There (rent it if you haven’t seen it). They didn’t have any scenes together (Ledger — a Dylan stand-in — plays an actor playing another Dylan stand-in, Jack Rollins [Bale], in a Rollins biopic. It sounds complicated, but trust me, it’s awesome), but they must have really hit it off.

So why (and where) should we “VOTE ROBO?” Brian Villalobos wrote an impassioned treatise on why Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi action masterpiece deserves a hallowed spot in the Library of Congress.

For RoboCop’s underground propaganda campaign I was inspired by the grimy, worn exteriors of the movie, or maybe a more colorful version of the urban wasteland of my favorite film of 2006, Children of Men (which should have won Best Picture that year, damn it!).

Anyway, the VOTE ROBO poster was created by local artist Beto Gonzales (partly inspired by Obey Giant’s Obama print), and the other posters and wall detritus are visual references to past Current covers that also had something to do with posters or flyers (namely, our Summer Guide and Music Issue). Look close for tiny “I Own You. Turn it Off!” stickers as well. 

If you don’t think RoboCop should be preserved in the Library of Congress, you obviously never saw the scene below. Thought-provoking! Vote Robo.

I’m in a jazz quartet, the S.A. Jazz Workshop, and we’re playing this month’s Sunday Jazz at the Witte this weekend. Above is a flyer I designed for the event (which I should have done sooner … but illness had me sidelined this entire week … ) It’s a good mix of Clarendon Bold (which is featured on so many classic Blue Note covers) and Glypha, a font family I’m really digging right now.

Good morning, workers. The San Antonio Current’s Summer Guide is out today on stands and on the web, and I’m pretty happy with the whole package. Typically, summer represents a time when you can take road trips or fly to more temperate climates, but with gas prices skyrocketing (I predict it’ll hit $5.00 a gallon this summer) it feels like there’s an invisible oppressive force keeping our summer fun from being too fun. With that in mind, our theme for this year’s Guide referenced Chinese Communist propaganda: Despite the economic turbulence, global warming (it’s hot, damn it!) and outrageous gas prices, we want to put a happy face on the season. That happy face belongs to none other than Patty, editorial intern and all-around good sport.

I took the initial photos in our conference room, and shot variations on the same pose (we also tried a turkey leg and a shish kabob — thanks, Central Market!) but the watermelon really balanced out our makeshift Communist manifesto (thanks, Half Price Books). The book was key: It features prominently in most propaganda art; even better, it ties in with our Summer Reading List.

Pop in some clouds, doves, and extra-rosy cheeks and before you can say “Listen here, mao” — summer propaganda for the masses. Or, we could have just got this guy to do it for us. But where’s the fun in that?

I’ve always thought that Artslam! was a cool idea, but when I found out that the next theme was going to be “Revenge of the Superheroes” I knew I had no excuse not to volunteer to participate. Comic books practically taught me how to read, draw, and tell right from wrong (“With great power comes great responsibility”; “Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot”; “Hulk smash”), so if there was ever a time to jump in, this was it.

I’m going to be one of many artists (check out the Green Goblin on the back of the flyer, created by Deadbeat Hero) making live art at my favorite bar. Question?, DJ Tech-Neek, and others will be performing live music and there’s a silent auction. In short, true believers, this is going to be a off the (grappling) hook.

I’ve got to start practicing.

To be continued …

A friend brought this New York Press cover to my attention today, which represents Armond White’s review of Sex and the City: The Movie. (I find it amusing that 33.4% of my blog content is Sex and the City-related, and I’ve never watched the show — except for the one where Samantha won’t date a guy because he’s too short.)

The question, originally posed by Jezebel.com, is whether or not the cover is degrading toward women. As someone who designs covers for a living (and once got attacked for putting a “topless” woman on horseback for the Current’s second-annual Texas Books issue), this is definitely a question that I am interested in. 

Is the cover offensive? Let’s start with the imagery.

So, we’re looking at four women (our four protagonists, presumably — but they’re still basically anonymous) in stylish footwear, upturned and dumped in grimy trash barrels. It appears that they are either crumpled or dismembered, since there really isn’t enough room for their heads and shoulders in there (their legs would be sticking out a lot more if they, you know, had heads). So, yeah, once you get past the initial chuckle of the MAD Magazine-style play on the headline, there is some cause for concern.

Could there have been a better, less insensitive way to convey the article (which is indeed negative but doesn’t necessarily “trash” the movie, so much as lecture at it)? It’s eye-catching, for sure, and with its bright yellow background its clearly not meant to be crime-scene real. But it’s probable that another image would have worked just as well.

The problem is that there’s a precedent here. Jezebel points out the 1967 Esquire cover designed by George Lois (he had a great run of covers in the sixties, including “The Passion of Muhammed Ali” and Andy Warhol getting sucked into a Campbell’s soupcan) where a naked woman is broken in half and sitting in, yup, a trash can. The headline reads “The New American Woman: through at 21.” Yeesh.

Interestingly, the NY Press cover was designed by Art Director Wendy Hu, and unless “Wendy” is short for “Wendell,” than that means a woman was responsible for this cover — no 1960s-era male to blame for this one. Is it less offensive to women if it originated from a woman? Does that make a difference?

In the end, I think this cover was just a little too mean-spirited to be funny, and while it’s a good example of avoiding the use of lame-ass promo art on your cover (ahem!), the “women in trash cans” imagery is simply too loaded — it has 40 years of bad history behind it. 

Sure, it says “Armond White trashes Sex and the City,” but it also says “New York Press trashes women.”