W.T.F.W.H.Y.
Posted on 20. Apr, 2010 by Erika Kim in Arts, Column
Has anyone else noticed this?
M.I.A., H.A.T.E.U., D.A.N.C.E., G.L.O.V.E.S., N.A.S.A., R.O.O.T.S.
That list is only the tip of the iceberg.
In the past, other bands and artists have done this, but lately this trend has become so blaringly obvious that the only way you could miss it is if you were blind, deaf, dumb, in a cave, and probably dead.
There have been a ridiculous number of song and album titles, band names, and artists that have been using t.h.i.s. technique as a cheap marketing gimmick. It was a trend that happened to be present in a lot of music, but it wasn’t the reason why we listened to it. Good bands and artists happened to make good music under those names or those song titles. Inserting random punctuation marks between each letter of a title does not make for good music. If record labels really wanted to cover their gimmick bases they should move away from that trend and make a new band called The! Crystal wolf WH/\LE mAnBeArPiG triangle moustache and hit every key demographic in the hipster sector.
Of course, credit needs to be given where credit is due. The period has been used in practical and/or effective ways before. There were lots of people who did it first who were revolutionary in their use of the period by being original, others used it responsibly to represent acronyms (“D.O.A.” by Jay-Z stands for death of autotune), or to separate individual letters (D.A.N.C.E. by Justice).
When you have bands called R.I.V.E.R. who make songs with titles like L.O.A.D. (I was about to end with an ellipses to make my point, but now even you must be sick of seeing unnecessary periods, so from here on out they will be replaced with *)*** It’s time to move on* The period thing is dead!
Here’s an initial list of random ones I’ve come across:
b.o.b.
c.l.a.w.s.
c.y.o.a.
d.a.n.c.e.
d.i.m.
d.o.a.
d.r.u.g.s.
e.v.a.r.
e.v.i.l.
F.C.P.S.I.T.S.G.E.P.G.E.P.G.E.P.
g.l.o.v.e.s.
g.o.a.
h.a.l.
h.a.t.e.u.
k.i.a.
l.e.s. artists
l.o.a.d.
l.o.v.e.
m.a.f.i.a.
m.a.g.i.c.
m.a.n.d.y.
m.a.t.h.e.s.
m.a.u.
m.i.a.
n.a.s.a.
n.i.c.e.
n.o.r.e.
o.l.d.
o.n.e.
p.e.s.t.
p.g.d.m.
p.o.s.
p.y.t.
p.y.x.
r.i.v.e.r.
t.e.e.d.
t.o.n.y.
u.n.k.l.e.
I can’t tell you where they all came from, but trust me, they’re real* Is that not ridiculous??
Email me love: You guys know more than this, I know it* Please add to the list to further prove how ridiculous this trend is* Send me the title of the band/artist – song name in the subject heading of your email:
Student Art on Display at the RAG
Posted on 20. Apr, 2010 by Staff in Arts, Campus
Entering the Rasmussen Art Gallery right now is like being punched in the face with a marigold. It may be beautiful, and may make one feel warm and fuzzy inside, but at the same time, it leaves one a little dazed and disoriented. There are simply so many artworks that it is difficult to know where to start.
For what it is worth, looking at the winners of the sundry awards is a good point of departure. The graphic design winners are particularly worthwhile; Sianna Stewart’s Fast Forward is not only aesthetically sound, but also visually and philosophically complex, as with Enoch Tengler’s first-place Song of the Century, which looks better than ninety percent of movie posters one might see at a theater. Jasmine Kelley’s color photo Two Bikes practically defines color and texture juxtaposition, and Neil Soiland’s Starving Dog #1 is reminiscent of that National Geographic picture of the Afghani girl (you know which one, trust me), only with a dog. Generally, I am not much for realism, but Issac Lopez’s first-place watercolor Bay looks better than a good bit of the color photography, and his third-place drawing Paint Supplies has so much visual depth, I was afraid I might fall into it. In fact, one should definitely take a good look at all of Lopez’s works, particularly the amusingly disturbing La Muerte de Pollo.
But enough about the winners, as fantastic as they are. There are several other noteworthy pieces or artists that one should definitely not miss in the milieu of potential. Amador Jaojoco has a trio of paintings that dance smartly between cutesy and shocking, making for a mind-slapping experience all the more accented because of their pseudo-kitschy exterior. There is something incredibly right in the wrongness of Commode-o Dragon, and something incredibly wrong in the rightness of Dependent that continue to draw one’s eye.
As far as photography goes, Grant Ordelheide’s trio of scenic panoramas strike one as Aaron Copland set to photography. They are a celebration of that rugged natural beauty that makes up so much of the Western hemisphere, and particularly the stark Bonsai Rock deserves a long pause of admiration.
Mixed media collages have a tendency to go one of two ways: they either look like a bunch of random media mixed together, or they provide layers upon layers of meaning with an overtone of brilliance. Richard Hawkins’s Obama definitely falls into the latter category. Overt in its subtlety, profound without being too political, this piece is not only visually enticing, but worth a bit of reflection and closer reading.
If fantasy were a card hand, then Elizabeth Stottlemeyer and Nicole Hubbard have it in spades. From scratchboard to drawing to sculpture to painting, these two blend genre and medium like potions. One probably could not throw a stone in the gallery right now without hitting one of Stottlemeyer’s pieces, most of which should catch one’s attention for more than a glance-over.
One cannot speak of art at PUC be without mentioning Cabel Bumanglang, who not only has the best last name in the show, but also a wide variety of exceptional works. I do not have a great deal to say about Preying Mantis except that there is no way one can miss it, and that it is brilliant. It seems trite to say that his acrylic Anger captures the tension of, well, anger, but it truly does; not just the sort of rage-against-the-machine anger, but the sort of rage-against-the-dying-of-the-light anger, the kind that seethes and digs under the skin (be sure to check out Carrie Lam’s Somehwere Over the Rainbow and City or Nature? While you’re over there, though the juxtaposition might make your head look like Marc Cruz’s Skull of Many Colors—which is also worth a look). Bumanglang’s abstract sculptures are also mind-bending explorations of shape and texture that are worth getting closer to understand (but don’t touch!).
I would apologize for the relative disjointedness of this review, but frankly, content dictates form; there is so much potential energy inside RAG right now, merely setting foot inside might initiate some sort of art-pocalypse. After checking out some of the heavy-hitters, I recommend sitting down in the middle of the gallery and just taking it all in as some sort of harmonically dissonant orchestra of color. If you have a moment, even just a moment, dash into the Rasmussen Art Gallery, not just to support friends and peers, but to enjoy some truly worthwhile art.
The show runs until 4 May, and is open from 1-5pm on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
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