A Tribe Of One : Jim Blanchard’s “Primitiva”

Posted on September 28, 2021 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

Running a gamut of garishness and ghoulishness from the grotesque to the giddy, it’s tempting to say that Jim Blanchard’s splendidly-produced mini Primitiva (Noreah/Brownfield, 2019) is something of a “sampler” of the artist’s wares — and while there’s no denying that it is, there’s also more to it than that. And while it’s admittedly not the long-form showcase afforded to the artist by Fantagraphics in books such as Visual Abuse or Meat Warp, that’s not necessarily a strike against it : in fact, the selection of acrylic and ink drawings herein seems hand-selected for its ability to really jump off these slick, glossy, high-production-value pages, which means the aesthetic focus here is —at least somewhat tight?

I realize full well that the beginning and ending of the preceding paragraph contradict each other, but let’s just go with it all the same, because deliriously contradictory (even self-contradictory) imagery has…

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Artwork of the Day: New Man In The House (artist unknown)

Posted on September 28, 2021 by Dazzling Erin

Artist Unknown

This is from 1963. There’s a new man in the house and he’s serving drinks. It’s good to stay useful. The artist is unknown. I know it looks like there might be signature on the cover but I think that’s actually something that a previous owner wrote on it. Why anyone would ruin a cover by doing that, I don’t know. It actually makes me a little mad.

Music Video of the Day: Cruel to Be Kind by Nick Lowe (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on September 28, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 64th music video played on MTV was the video for Nick Lowe’s Cruel to Be Kind. This video was shot on the same day that Lowe married country singer and Johnny Cash’s stepdaughter Carlene Carter at the Tropicana Hotel in West Hollywood. In fact, shooting the video took so long that Lowe was actually late for the wedding, actual footage of which was included in the video. Carter and Lowe’s marriage would last for ten years, from 1979 to 1990.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV: