This is probably recommended reading for anyone who wondered why I was thoroughly annoyed with what the Guardians of the Galaxy movie looked like, and what it was missing.

I guess it's already pretty clear that Adam Warlock is my all time favourite comic character [closely followed by the Silver Surfer]. In fact most of what I've read of Marvel Cosmic throughout the years, has somehow been the result of following Adam Warlock's trail... this actually includes Guardians of the Galaxy.

Since Warlock's annihilation at the end of DnA's Guardians a few years ago, I've been waiting quite impatiently to see him surface again. During the Annihilators mini series, Magus managed to come back for a very short while, and then got captured and put back into the cocoon by the Annihilators. Not that I had any interest in seeing his slimy purple face anyway. And since then there was absolutely nothing, 'till now.

Recently Marvel released Jim Starlin's new "Thanos: Infinity Revelation", which somehow took me a while to hear about, but I had to read it since Thanos happens to be my favourite Villain. So I got myself the digital copy... and lo and behold, here comes Adam Warlock, hitching a ride back to existence with Thanos, no cocoon needed this time. =D You can imagine my utter excitement... YAY! Finally!!

To make things even better, the book is simply brilliant. Jim Starlin is the author who made Warlock into what it is, and he's done it again. This is basically the archetype of the story line that got me interested in Marvel Cosmic in the first place, a million years ago. And I must say I haven't seen the like of it for quite a long time.

The plot explores a situation in which the universe is re-created in 2 versions, one based upon the mind and soul of Warlock, and the other after Thanos. The story is very abstract, it's mostly self discovery for these two characters, and it's more a philosophy lesson than anything else. This, is why I love Adam Warlock in the first place. Oh, and then Silver Surfer makes an appearance too. How about that? Is this the perfect book or what?

As I wrote in the beginning, this is what you should look at if you're wondering what all the fuss was about when the Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out, disappointing many of the Cosmic fans. This is generally what we're looking for, and this is the sort of thing Guardians  has always offered, before the movie happened. An intelligent plot, meaningful ideas and characters, and a respectable amount of food for thought.

Of course now I'm totally in love, since last week I got my hands on the hard cover version of the book [as usual thanks to KABOOOM], and it even looks fantastic!! It's not very clear in the pictures I've posted here, but on the cover Thano's head is a glossy print while the rest of the page has a matte finish, giving you the feeling that Thanos is coming right at you from the depths of the abyss. ;)

And this is not the end of it, Jim Starlin is soon to release another one of the same "series", called "Infinity Relativity". I'm currently dying to read that one.

If you're living in the Zurich vicinity, you can pick up a copy of this at the KABOOOM comic book store.

And yes, if Warlock keeps looking 2 different ways to you for no apparent reason, it's not you, it's him.

Perfection. Everyone I love is in there!

Labels: Adam Warlock, Art, Authors, Books, Comics, Sci-Fi, Silver Surfer, Thanos

On Saturday evening we went to Zurich's long night of the museums 2013. It was my first time to finally manage to attend this, and I really loved it!

We started our tour from Uhrenmuseum Beyer [the clock museum], which to me was absolutely amazing, and among the best of what we saw this year. From there we went to Alterthümer-Magazin, where we looked at a large collection of old… well… everything! House appliances, tools…. Then we visited the Rathaus [town hall], which was also cool to see, and from there we headed to Kunsthaus. It was interesting to have a look at Kunsthaus' pretty huge collection… However perhaps "everything mixed with everything"  to that extent isn't really for me. =P

Then we went to Museum Rietberg Zürich. Their special exhibition of the month is themed "Tibet in Comics". From Tintin to Super Girl… that was absolutely awesome. We also had a look at their general exhibition, which is a truly impressive collection of artefacts from various ancient cultures. What was very impressive to me was that they actually had a small but nice Persian collection too.

After that the museums started to close down but there was of course parties at a couple of venues 'till about morning. ;) For me this year's museum night was a great experience and I think I will go again in the next years to see what I didn't get the chance to see this year.

Pictures here.

Labels: Activities, Adventures, Art, Friends, Fun, History, Switzerland, Zürich

Well surprise surpriiiiiiiiise! =D New ASD demo it out and it just won 1st place at Euskal 2013. YES!

Labels: Art, ASD, Coding, Demoscene, Digital Art, Music

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep….

Labels: Art, Feelings, Poems, Poetry

Last Tuesday I attended a really cool IoT meetup on the topic of "Internet-connected Art". The presentations were great, and a number of truly awesome projects were discussed. There's a list of the projects that were mentioned or talked about in the 2nd part of the evening here in this PDF, for anyone interested in any IoT related topics, I recommend having a look at these projects.

One of the project that somehow [I have no idea how] I had never heard about, and really caught my attention, is called "Delivery for Mr. Assange". It's an art project by the Swiss group called Bitnik. They sent a parcel to Mr. Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The parcel contained a camera and a whole load of batteries, so the parcel transmitted images of the whole delivery route, as well as the destination and Mr. Assange himself. Pretty brilliant, you can read all about it here.

Labels: Art, Digital Art, Electronics, Events, IoT, Technology

This image, with which I'm madly in love, has been going around the web for a while now, unfortunately without any kind of proper citation or artist credits. Does anyone know anything about the origins of this picture? Who took this? Where? When? [And for that matter, is this even really a dolphin or some kind of whale?] If anyone has any information about this, please drop me a line and let me know!

Labels: Aesthetics, Art, Nature, Photography

Labels: Art, Digital Art, Electronic Music, Electronics, Interesting

So thanks to my tablet, I was able to watch the whole presentation regarding the earlier version of Mona Lisa, live yesterday. And I must say it was extremely cool! The proofs that were presented, both historical and technological, were VERY interesting! Check out the Mona Lisa Foundation website which now has a good  load of info to offer. This little documentary is also pretty cool.

Labels: Art, DSP, History, Interesting, Technology

Blue blazes!! Wow! I find this quite exciting! So apparently the Mona Lisa Foundation has finally found enough evidence to prove that the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" is actually an earlier version of Mona Lisa, by Da Vinci himself! They're going to present the painting and the evidence tomorrow at Geneva. Anybody know how I can get in there by any chance? =)

In fact I have not been able to find any info about where in Geneva this is happening, or what is the title of the book that's going to be released! I think they're being pretty secretive about the whole thing... even the foundation's website is only going to go live on the 27th, so there is no info on there right now.

According to RT.com:

"The opinion of art historians is split. American scientists are skeptical, saying that it is not the first time researchers have tried to attribute the ‘Isleworth Mona Lisa’ to Leonardo. All previous attempts failed, and they do not believe this time will be any different. Moreover, the Mona Lisa is one of the most copied and imitated paintings ever."

Full article here.

Labels: Art, History, Interesting

So here's something I received in the post recently, from Venice. It's a dip pen, entirely made out of glass, also known as a "Murano Glass Pen". Thanks to a good friend I recently learned about the existence of these... yes, I had never seen one of these before, which given my general obsession with odd writing/drawing equipment, says something about the rarity of these pens. Apparently they're quite old, and even less popular than normal dip pens. 

I must say this is definitely the smoothest dip pens [or generally drawing / writing equipment] that I've ever used. The numerous cuts around the tip allow the pen to hold onto enough ink to fill a page with, without any need for re-dipping. And the glass tip simply draws like a dream... Honestly the pen feels like magic in my hand. I'm generally a huge fan of dip pens, but this is just mind blowing. 

Labels: Aasemoon, Art, Drawing, Fun, Obsessions

So, that was Demodays 2012. The crowd was much bigger than last year, which was fantastic. The quality of the demos however still needs a bit of work. Altogether, it was a fun weekend. [Of course the fact that the Expat Expo was on the same weekend didn't make my life any easier... but oh well, they were both great. =) ] You can check out all the prods here.  

[Few more pictures here]

P.S.: A whole lot more pictures [even a couple including the back of my head ;) ] here!

Labels: Art, Demoscene, Digital Art, Events, Fun

Assembly 2012 I'm afraid did not really excite me that much in regards to the quality of the demos, to be completely honest. But at least there was a ton of excitement to be had for the release of Metamorf II, the new Satori demo. Check out the pure awesomeness! ;)

Labels: Amazing, Art, Demoscene, Digital Art, Electronic Music, Music, Satori

Labels: Art, ASD, Coding, Demoscene, Digital Art, Music

So for a bit of out of the box [or, out of "my" particular box] reading.... I recently read this. Don't ask how it happened. But it's interesting.

Araris - The Art of Dramatic Writing (1946):

Labels: Art, Books, Literature, Reading

YAY there's a new Satori demo, and it is as usual awesome! =) In addition to the usual Satori goodness, there's the soundtrack by Chaser to make things even more interesting. [If you've been reading, you've probably seen posts here about a couple of tracks by Chaser in the past... my favourite being "Petarda" so far!] So, check out the demo's Pouet page here.

Labels: Art, Coding, Creativity, Demoscene, Digital Art, Music, Satori

Can't get enough of this new Spythriller track... and the video is pretty awesome too!

Labels: Art, Music

Last weekend Demodays 2011 [aka Buenzli 20] took place in Olten Switzerland, and I was finally, luckily able to attend it. It was an awesome party, and even more awesome was meeting some of the people I had only known by nicknames till then, in person. I also had a chance to meet with the founder of one of my top 2 favourite demogroups, Satori. The weather was quite lovely, the BBQ was great and all in all it was quite a load of fun. I only wish I had taken more photos. But the few that I did take, you can find here.

There was also a good number nice productions this year. The OHP demo compo was as always very cute. In the "interactive" category, someone had come up with a type-writer, auto typing one liners from various scene websites for the duration of the party. In the PC demo category there was a lovely new demo from Satori, and interestingly enough Calodox had a prod after pretty much forever.

The Satori demo, named "Burnside Odyssey" is definitely one of the most awesome demos I've ever seen. It really is a work of wonder, with breath taking visuals and lovely music. Some of those colours and patterns really send me tripping. Seeing that demo on the big screen was quite fantastic. Even though unfortunately due to hardware efficiency issues the demo was running at a pretty much slow motion rate, it still was a marvel to look upon. Below you can see a video of it, but it's best if you check out the exe here.

The one thing that I find somewhat less than fortunate, to be completely honest, is the result of the demo compo. I'm sorry to be saying this, but I find the winning demo completely and utterly dull. To me it looked like a poor remix of scenes from a few previous demos of the same group, dyed with a rather awful layer of gray on top. There were at least 2 demos in the compo that would have deserved the spot quite a bit more... but anyway, it looks to me like the events that followed have caused a bit of a drama... check for yourself here.

Labels: Art, Coding, Demoscene, Digital Art, Satori, Switzerland, Technology

Don't ask me how this happened but here comes a 2nd new ASD demo in less than a month. And honestly I like this one even better than the previous. "Spin" was just released at Assembly 2011, and so not surprisingly won 1st place. =) This is certainly one of my favourites ASD demos. Download the exe here.

I am spinning out of control
Drinking my dark side on a moon patrol
Dropping an anchor on a concrete floor
The links are dragging me out of the door

Can I close my eyes and see?
Can I disappear and be?
Can I play the absentee,
In this cage I built for me?

Can I stand up where I fell?
Can I spiral in my shell?
Can I cast a binding spell,
On this winding road to hell?

I am spinning against the wall
Grabbing on corners when I feel so small
Give into impulse as I drop the ball
Breaking the habits I cannot recall

Can I close my eyes and see?
Can I disappear and be?
Can I play the absentee,
In this cage I built for me?

Can I stand up where I fell?
Can I spiral in my shell?
Can I cast a binding spell,
On this winding road to hell?

I am spinning and the world is still
Pointing the finger on the things I feel
You find me exhausted and crawling uphill
To colourful nightmares against my will

Can I close my eyes and see?
Can I disappear and be?
Can I play the absentee,
In this cage I built for me?

Can I stand up where I fell?
Can I spiral in my shell?
Can I cast a binding spell,
On this winding road to hell?

Can I burn my wings and fly?
Can I justify a lie?
Can I turn my back and cry?
Can I be there when I die?

Labels: Art, ASD, Coding, Demoscene, Digital Art, Lyrics, Music

TaaDaaaaaaaa! From ASD's magic vault, comes out yet another work of wonder! =) Check it out and enjoy! As always I suggest you download the executable from here. Below the video you can see the lyrics to the soundtrack, which by the way I find quite brilliant.

Who would you rather kiss
on the very first date if you had to chose?
How big a bet you'd make
on your very first game if you couldn't lose?
What would you rather wear
on the very first dance with the one you like?
And how would you really sing
on a difficult song with a broken mike?

Small decisions,
life incisions,
big in retrospect
Bracing gently,
consequently,
the butterfly effect.

Where would you rather go
on your very last June that you spent apart?
What would you leave behind
on your very last smile before you depart?
Who would you rather kiss
on your very last chance of another start?
And how would you rise again
on a difficult slope with a broken heart?

Small decisions,
life incisions
big in retrospect.
Scopeless seeding,
always feeding,
the butterfly effect.

Labels: Art, ASD, Coding, Demoscene, Digital Art, Music

And of course here's the new fabulous Satori demo, which totally made my week. I must say this was specially a breath of fresh air seeing that out of about a good 30 or so [recent] demos that I watched in the past week, this was one of the very few [about 3!] that I actually enjoyed.

As it is the usual case with Satori, this is demo is quite a mental trip. One unusual side effect was that the first time I saw it, after I finished watching the demo I noticed that my heart beat had risen quite a bit. Part of that might be due to the unusual and very effective soundtrack. Check it out! =) Of course it's best if you download the real time from here and watch that. ;)

Labels: Art, Demoscene, Digital Art, Kool, Music, Satori