Take a look. Have a taste. Sniff it out. Spread it around.

MIDNITE TILL DEATH JANUARY 23rd AT CAKE SHOP from Matthew Caron on Vimeo.

LA isn’t all just freeways and silicon implants – there are a lot of great art galleries here, and this month the Belgian art collective Cum opened their first LA showing at the Kinsey/DesForges Gallery in Culver City. The three gents from Ghent have shifted their focus from nudity wheatpasted on the streets, to nudity on canvas hanging in galleries, and that is reflected in their latest artwork I think.

A contemporary Cum canvas featuring a variety of media, and of course, nudity.

If you’re in the neighborhood, inspect some more Cum at:

Kinsey/DesForges Gallery
6009 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

The heads at Kentucky Fried Chicken have teamed up with the Fleet to bring us the “Frak Pak Sweepstakes.” You don’t have to watch the show to know that “Frak” translates to “Fuck” and is an easy way to let the characters curse on the show. So in non-nerd-English, KFC is offering a “Fuck Pak.” Maybe the Colonel has never seen the show, but it’s awesome to say Fuck Pak out loud.

There’s going to be 10 winners and the prize Fuck Paks are pretty sweet: BSG DVD set, framed “Last Supper” photo, autographed script, BSG toaster, “one big frakkin’ bag” (whatever that means), and a year’s worth of KFC. One year of that sticky-icky for your arteries? I’m on board.

On a serious BSG note, anyone really buy that Helen is the Fifth?

It’s been a pretty shitty week.

Us Torontonians are just getting back on our feet after a ridiculous half-city-wide blackout.  It’s like -10 degrees (Celcius).  The economy is in the shitter.  And in the past two weeks, I’ve been clipped in the mouth with a stick and took a puck in the ear in each of my subsequent hockey games.

To boot, there’s a new President in town and….shhhh…..I heard he’s black!

So to cut these tense times in an attempt to bring smiles to all, I present to you the newest mascot (see above) of the Bear Cub State – deep in pensive thought – Bolodenka the Bear.

Oh and FYI, I was Just JK about the whole President thing.

Good news to all the bootleg Terry Richardsons, Polaroid has been saved. Austrian businessman and “artist” Florian Kaps bought the previously doomed company and is claiming he will begin production of a new type of Polaroid film by December of this year, just before existing stock was expected to run out. The full article is here.

  Here is a fine example of Polaroid film use.

Soundgarden – Superunknown (1994)

Vs.

Daft Punk – Homework (1996) 

The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be?  What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…

Gee whiz. What a year. Already. Is anybody else totally having a month to remember? Jesus Christ.

These days, the only thing that can really chill me out is wasting hours on end in my FFFFound feed. If you haven’t tried it, you should check it out; it will inversely affect your productivity guaranteed or your money back.

I was pooping around said feed the other day when I came across these particular clicks of genius. Someone had the goddamn rad idea to wheatpaste some CS3 workspace panels and palettes onto some subway ads, and boy are the results impressive.

I tried my hand at wheatpasting (just like everybody else) when I was in my early 20s…I could never get the mixture right. Granted, my ideas for subversive and important poster bombing were nowhere near as complex or worthwhile as these beautiful and costly gems, but still, it made me feel as though I deserved to read those $13 issues of Adbusters inside of Tower Records (RIP).

Anyway, I’m no gawkerholic, so these might be old hat to any devout giz readers, but, well, I felt like slapping a brush palette next to a cracked out, crazy, somewhat-naturally-beautiful billionaire had it’s air of poignancy in 2009. Enjoy.

We’re throwing our own inauguration party starting 12am on January 20th until January 21st 8pm(EST) by celebrating our new President with Savings of 44% for 44 hours!

Head over to our Webstore now where you’ll find reduced prices on almost all Fall & Holiday 09 merchandise that you can then take an extra 44% off* of simply by putting in the discount code of OBAMA44 when checking out.

*There are a few product exclusions from the sale but not many! the Obama44 code will not work on the following: Mishka Custom Shop, Black Bart Obama Bootleg T-Shirt, 2009 Calendar, Keep Watch Aviator New Era, Mishka Youth Pin & Keep Watch Navy & Green Corduroy New Eras.

We’ve also re-stocked our infamous and previously sold-out Black Bart Obama Bootleg T-shirt in our Online Exclusives Section!

Director George Tilman’s Biggie Smalls biopic, Notorious, is a great tribute to the rapper’s life and legacy, but not that great of a movie. The first half is the movie’s saving grace and provides an insightful look into Biggie’s life from middle school up until the release of Ready to Die. His relationship with his mom Voletta, played by Angela Bassett, provides the most poignant moments; she holds young Biggie after he realizes his father is never coming back, they pray together over the phone from jail as Biggie’s eyes water, she slaps him around the kitchen as she pleads with him to give up hustling. Their interaction on screen is pretty extraordinary since Bassett has so much experience and newcomer James Woolard (Biggie) has none. The second half of the movie felt sort of forced in some areas, like they were trying to make sure Biggie rests in peace, if at least on the screen. He makes good with his ex-girlfriend and daughter, offering the fatherly advice, “never let any man call you a bitch.” He makes good with Lil Kim, telling her he’s sorry for using her as his fuck-doll and that they should hang out when he gets back to NYC. He makes good with Faith Evans, after she catches him screwing another woman in a hotel room. This convoluted last act ties up all the loose ends in Biggie’s life before he’s shot in LA but gave the movie way too much of a Hollywood Happy Ending. I mean, we know he dies, but I’m sure there was some more tension in his life when he was killed than the movie implies.

Newcomer and Brooklyn native James Woolard was born to play Biggie. His voice is uncanny to the point of scary. He even had the breathing down. All I really knew previously about Voletta Wallace was from Nick Bromfield’s 2002 documentary Biggie and Tupac, and Bassett captured the heart and strength of her very well. Derek Luke nailed the arrogance and drive of Diddy and performed that goofy Diddy-Dance I love so much to a T (or a D). Anthony Mackie’s Tupac was okay, Woolard’s narration told us more about Tupac than Mackie’s role did. A really great surprise was Biggie’s actual son, Christopher Jordan Wallace, as the young Biggie. Playing my father who died before I knew him would make me feel dirty and dizzy, but young Wallace feels pretty awesome about it in this interview.

PS: To the dude who sat in front of me, it’s really cool that you knew the lyrics to every Biggie track used in the movie (I’m sure 80 percent of the audience did). Even when they cut the track off because there was a fucking movie going on you couldn’t help yourself and had to keep the verse going. Bravo douchebag.