Happy 90th Birthday, Ray Harryhausen!!

He is the greatest- yes GREATEST- film animator who ever lived... his stop action work from the 60's still has more life and artistry than 99% of the CGI work out there.

The Guardian put it best..."After that it was impossible not to consider how different cinema would be without such an inspiring figure. Just going by the list of acolytes who contributed to the evening alone, we'd have no Star Wars, no Terminator, no Toy Story, no Pan's Labyrinth, no Edward Scissorhands, no Jaws, no Shawshank Redemption, no Wallace and certainly no Gromit. Those are just the collateral damage, without Harryhausen there would be no Jason And The Argonauts, no 7th Voyage Of Sinbad and no 20 Million Miles To Earth. That's not a world I'd want to live in. It wouldn't be much fun."

Order FREE promo copies of OBSOLETE #1 !!

Do you own or operate an independent bookshop, record shop, infoshop or newstand? Do you know someone who does?

Drop me a line and I'll send you a free promo copy of OBSOLETE #1, due out next week!

OBSOLETE! Preview: Beer Mystic by bart plantenga

 OBSOLETE Magazine #1, which will hit the streets the first week of July,  features an excerpt from bart plantenga's new novel, but you can get a sneak peek right now!

Beer Mystic: A Novel of Inebriation & Light is a unique literary adventure that will take you on the longest, rowdiest literary pub crawl ever. Follow the Beer Mystic’s story around the world through excerpts in a global network of host magazines.

" Furman Pivo believes he [plus beer] may be the cause of a rash of streetlight outages. This sense of empowerment transforms him into the Beer Mystic. He has a mission and a mandate. Or does he? In any case, 1987 NYC will never be the same and the rest is history or myth or delusion...."




Download Beer Mystic excerpt 37-38 (pdf)
Prior BEER MYSTIC Excerpt #35-36: Sensitive Skin
Next BEER MYSTIC Excerpt #39: White Fungus

Illustration by Tobey Anderson

OBSOLETE #1 goes to Press!

OBSOLETE! Magazine #! is going to press tomorrow.... I am really excited to have such a great group of contributors for the premiere issue.  Look for previews here on the blog starting next week.  You can order your copy now.... hey, It's CHEAP!

Obsolete #2 - Call for Submissions

Issue # 1 is due out in just a few weeks, and it's time to start planning for the fall issue!!  The theme is "What I did on my summer vacation", and the deadline for submissions in Sept. 1st, 2010.

Did your band go on tour? Did your neighbor dump several million gallons of garbage in your back yard? Did you work this summer as a road-repair flagman thanks to the Stimulus Bill? Did you spend the summer in a cubicle fantasizing about...anything?

We are looking for fiction, poetry, essays, cartoons and artwork. Check the submission guidelines below for more details.

OBMag #1 update: Feral Technology An excerpt from the Feral Technology column in issue #1:

The Dymo Label Maker
If you over 25 years old and live in a country that uses the English alphabet, you probably have used a Dymo label maker at some point in your life. The hard plastic embossed labels have adorned everything from file cabinets to sports equipment, lockers to utility panels, notebooks to foreheads, from their invention in 1958 until the advent of digital labelers in the mid 80's. The daisy-wheeled pistol-shaped labelers and their shiny, brightly colored strips with raised white capital letters may not be as popular now as in their heyday, but they are still available, in new, ergonomic designs. The classic models can still be found on ebay, at yard sales and flea markets everywhere.

The peel-and-stick plastic labels still have many advantages over their modern counterparts- they require no electricity to produce, the plastic labels don't fade when exposed to the elements, in fact,  they are virtually indestructible. Not to mention that they just look so damned cool. So cool, in fact,  that the look of the Dymo embossed label has been duplicated in several font designs, like “Punch-label” and “Plastique.” The font suggests a low-tech, retro, DIY attitude-  and we here at OBSOLETE are down with that.

 

Clothing Company Trademarks Phrases "Locavore" & "Locally Grown". Really?

"Locally Grown Clothing Co LLC" was featured in last weeks Des Moines Business Record. Two friendly- looking guys quit there jobs at Polo-Ralph Lauren and Hubbell Real Estate and started an apparel company featuring organic cotton tees and bags featuring slogans like "Urban Farmer" and  "Locavore". They are selling through farmers markets and hip, environmentally oriented retail outlets. Nice, right? Local guys start a business promoting the local food movement.

What the article also mentions is that the organic cotton tees (their website states "we place a high priority on sourcing and manufacturing our products in the USA") are printed in Oregon (not Des Moines) and that the owners have trademarked the phrases "Locally Grown" and "Locavore".  In the article they refer to it as their "intellectual property."  Really?  Did you guys come up with those phrases on your own?

As far as I can see, there is nothing locally grown about "Locally Grown Clothing Company LLC" - it appears to be two guys trying to cash in on a movement that was built by farmers and foodies while they were busy selling real estate and flogging Polo corporate sweatshop apparel.

Hey little local t-shirt printers making shirts for your local farmers market- your cease and desist letter is in the mail.

 

History of Post-Apocalyptic Films Entry #5: The Omega Man

 Before there was "I an Legend",  before there was Will Smith, before there was CGI,  there was Charlton Heston......