Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always
been the two most beautiful words in the English language. – Henry James

Hey now, I’ll be out of town and unplugged for most of the week, posts will be sporadic at best; summer is happening. I’ll be back next week. Please browse the archives or check out the other fine weblogs listed on the menu to the right. See you in a few days!

Trevor Loveys – Organ Grinder
Insane bonker house from the fine people at Dubsided, Trevor Loveys with Sinden steps up to deliver beats on tourettes. Organ Grinder appropriates the same Giorgio Moroder sample as DJ Shadow’s track of the same name, but Trevor manhandles the tune like an axe murderer whacking his way through farting bass lines and manic beats. Tons of weird ‘lost in space’ samples, perfect for early doors and late night sounds, super glitch pop fans only, heavy strobe and smoke machine.

Serge Gainsbourg – La Horse
Le Smoke Disques released Les Selections Du Cinema De Gainsbourg, a bunch of original Serge recordings and soundtracks. La Horse is taken from the soundtrack of the French movie of the same name. Free from the constraints of vocal pop he got especially funky with the instrumentals. La Horse is a slinky sleazy downbeat monster with chunky breakbeat drums, banjo, harpsichord, offbeat keyboards, and an especially strange arrangement filled with quirky darkness.

The third annual US Images In Advertising Awards for best demonstrating inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals (GLBT) in mainstream print, broadcast and internet advertising campaigns saw IKEA win Outstanding Commercial for Living Room. Commercial Closet Association, a nonprofit organisation that educates advertisers about GLBT references for a more accepting society and successful business results, chose Swedish furniture company for the night�s top honour. Outstanding Print/Outdoor Mainstream Media went to
Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams/We Fell in Love (in-house). Outstanding B2B/Trade Ad went to Time Magazine for Time Know Why. Watch The Outstanding International Commercial from Nokia’s Coffee Shop Date. Outstanding Print – Domestic GLBT Media Subaru of America/Signs – Moon City Productions for Know Where You Are Going. Every way is A.O.K.and Being Ready for Any Occasion. See the remainder of the winners and nominees at Commercial Closet.

The plan for a so-called “love bomb” envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a ‘distasteful but completely non-lethal’ blow to morale is OLD NEWS. The BBC reported on it in 2005, so did the Telegraph U.K.. Viral or not, GAY BOMBS make good copy.

I can’t tell you how many times I spanked my meat to Black Flag’s Damaged, and wrote HANK’s name in jis on my bedroom floor. I had my first gay epiphany at a Black Flag show, and met other boys like me; disenfranchised art punks. The summer heat was almost unbearable at that show, I slammed and charged all over the Cleveland Public Theater dance floor in angry fits while Rollins who looked like Charles Manson then, screamed like a banshee. Fast forward a few years, Henry is giving pep talks to gays in a magazine. Henry Rollins Gets The Last Word in Instinct Magazine. I suppose ‘Rise Above’ is anthemic enough of a tune for any self respecting gay rights supporter.

I got turned on to Guanabee from Blabbeando. Check out Guanabee Spicy Coverage for the Latino in You. This new Gawker-esque-style blog consisting of Latino commentary on media, pop culture, and entertainment. It’s necessary reading for the culturally addicted that want to stay on top of all things Latino. The site is constantly updated throughout the day and provides a fresh glance into the world of Latino affairs without the sentimentality or stereotypes found in other media. Check out It’s About Time They Bedazzled Shirts In Spanish, In Your Dreams Tonight, A Shirtless A.C. Slater, Celia Cruz The Musical: Beyonce And Charo To Play The Cuban Queen and The Parade That Keeps On Giving: Puerto Rican Day Uncensored.

Are you ready for the ultimate Pepsi experience? Pepsi Ice Cucumber officially went on sale Tuesday in Japan, it can be found in most supermarkets and convenience stores around the country. While the bottle clearly describes it as ‘combination’ of cucumber and cola, there is very little cola in the beverage. Reports claim the drink takes on a somewhat sweet and fruity flavor, but the artificial cucumber flavor is noticeable. It’s said to be interesting for a few sips, but then the artificial cucumber aftertaste kicks in, making it pretty nasty. Watch some YouTube reactions to the drink. One videoblogger claims that it tastes like ‘Satan is in his Mouth’. Buy your flavor filled bottle off eBay, yum! Official Japanese only Japanese Press Release.

Gay.com reports, The William J. Clinton Foundation received a grant to fight AIDS in Caribbean countries Wednesday, a step donors hope will attract more support for fighting a growing epidemic. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton accepted the $1.25 million grant from the Estee Lauder-owned MAC cosmetics company in a ceremony in New York, Clinton Foundation spokesman Ben Yarrow said by phone. The money will be used to support and develop new rural clinics, including mobile HIV/AIDS clinics in the vulnerable border region between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Other funding will ease access to AIDS-fighting drugs in those two nations and the Caribbean countries of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, MAC AIDS Fund director Nancy Mahon said. The Caribbean has the second-highest AIDS rate in the world. 100% of the selling price of Viva Glam Lipstick and Lipglass is donated to the Mac Aids fund which supports a variety of AIDS related charities around the world.

In a New York Times piece entitled YouTube Passes Debates to a New Generation, Katharine Seelye summarizes the traditional format for presidential debates: “A guy in a suit asks mostly predictable questions of other suits. The voter is a fixture in the audience, motionless until he or she gets to address the candidate, briefly and respectfully. Everything is choreographed.” and contrasts with the future of the CNN/YouTube debates: “Now imagine a kid in jeans and a T-shirt asking a question, less reverentially, more pointedly and using powerful visual images to underscore the point. Maybe he or she will ask about the war in Iraq — and show clips from a soldier’s funeral. Or a mushroom cloud. If global warming is the issue, the videographer might photoshop himself or herself onto a melting glacier. The question might come in the form of a rap song or through spliced images of a candidate’s contradictory statements.The presidential debates are about to enter the world of YouTube.” Jackson West of Newteevee has a rundown of How CNN and YouTube Debates Will Work.

From my favorite bitches over at the BBC Chart Blog: “NOTE: Even if she looks like an ice-cream. Even if she looks like a very tasty ice-cream indeed. Even if she looks like the most delicious ice-cream in the whole wide world, and you are boiling, and you’ve just eaten a massively hot curry and your curtains are on fire…PLEASE do not eat the Bjork. You’ll have nightmares.” ShowStudio has a Volta Download Gallery that keeps growing and growing…

I’m officially declaring Banksy over on my weblog, it’s not interesting anymore, except when one of his pieces gets stolen or demolished. Stacking urinals now, yawn…until he fronts me some art love, nada, nothing…fuck the KLF burning money was more interesting. Let’s move on…it’s all about the Leipzing School for me, buy now, buy often, anything and everything, except perhaps that your very small window of opportunity closed 10-15 or so years ago. Adding to my shrine of Neo Rauch adoration (Neo Rauch at the Met and Leipzing School) Art Info interviews Neo Rauch. As Polly Mellon once said, “It Simply Erases Everything”.

I love carrying about my Zym’s, the portable electrolyte drink tablet. Problem is I’m sometimes accused of being a pig at my mixed martial arts class because I can’t seem to smash the tablet into the opening of the water bottle. Things get a bit nasty when I’m chomping the tablet trying to spit the remains into the bottle while foaming at the mouth. I can’t hack the other sport drinks like Gatorade, they crash me down hard with their doses of sugar and salt. Zym’s looks cool and it’s the perfect balance of electrolytes and B-vitamins essential in order to maximize your hydration and improve mental clarity. One gram of sugar, whoa yea, good stuff and mighty handy too.

Adam Kirsch writes in the NYSun about the democratization of discourse about books and throws in some fairly scathing comments about bloggers and literary bloggers in particular: “As anyone who reads literary blogs can attest, hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned. And the scorn is reciprocated: Professional writers usually assume that those who can, do, while those who can’t, blog…there’s no chance that literary culture will thrive on the Internet until we recognize that the ethical and intellectual crotchets of the bloggers represent a dead end.” I agree with some part of the following assertion by the author, but lets not be hasty: “Literary criticism is only worth having if it at least strives to be literary in its own right, with a scope, complexity, and authority that no blogger I know even wants to achieve. The only useful part of most book blogs, in fact, are the links to long-form essays and articles by professional writers, usually from print journals.” What about books that aren’t getting pushed by the publishing companies, or reviewed in the the NYTimes, where do you find those gems that slip through the cracks?

Just in case you haven’t heard, Apple honcho Steve Jobs at WWDC07 revealed the new Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard today. Take a sneak peek. Shipping in October for a very reasonable $129 dollars or £89 U.K., the operating system includes over 300 new features including support for writing 64-bit graphical user interface applications, an automated backup utility called Time Machine, support for Spotlight searches across multiple machines, and large revisions to most core operating system components. Oh and Apple Introduces Safari for Windows a public beta available today for mac & windows. You might like to read deeper; Leopard Desktop improvements heavy on the eye candy, light on the useful from Lifehacker and a run down from Engadget.

Pro-Diver Bulldog, Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Guatemala, Art Director: Juan Jose Gonzalez, Photography: Erwin Palacios.

Mash Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ with the Pistols ‘Pretty Vacant’ and ‘God Save The Queen’, climax the beautiful mess with the Pistols career-making, expletive-riddled appearance on Bill Gundy’s UK talk show and you get one ‘Ray of Gob’. Mark Vidler, the genius behind Go Home Productions, created ‘Ray’ and so many other great mash-ups over the years. Originally released as a bootleg in 2004 he’s made the entire ‘Pistol Whip’ EP of mash-ups available for download on his website to mailing list members. Sign up and it’s yours free. His brilliant remix of Max Sedgley’s ‘Happy’ is now being used in the new Bacardi TV Ad.

Today on Meta-Filter: “Painter and comic artist Jun-Pierre Shiozawa visited the Tokyo National Museum recently to view da Vinci’s Annunciata which created protests in Italy when the Uffizi Gallery lent this artwork to Japan. Shiozawa then created a fantastic “manga review” of the experience for Tokyo Art Beat’s TABlog. You can see the steps Shiozawa made to create his manga review on Shiozawa’s Flickr account or blog.