You know what? We haven’t really had a new Keep Watch Tattoo Club member in a long while… too long! You guys have either stopped getting eyeballs permanently etched onto your flesh or you’re just not sending them into us. Don’t be shy! If you get a Мишка inspired tattoo, email us!

But back to the tattoo at hand… Cody Klutzko joins our illustrious Keep Watch Tattoo club with this classic colorway on his arm. The magenta iris/cyan veins Keep Watch is actually one of my personal favorites and Cody joins Lauren Flax of Creep and Paul of Ultra Pop in getting one!

It’s that time of year again, where the Bloglin throws up it’s usual year-end lists on music and movies. I tend to do a different sort of list each and every year centered around my passion for collecting weird/odd objects and toys. While I do tend to pick up quite a deal in my travels, I still avidly search on eBay for a variety stuff that will capture my eye. So, with that said  I present my top 10 eBay purchases from 2010.

This list is in no particular order, just ten of my favorite things that I won on eBay this year. I kept the titles as they appeared on their respective eBay auction, however this year I opted to just shoot each one of them myself instead of throwing up the images from their auctions. It’s just easier for me to take them myself. Enjoy!

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10) PALITOY GOR KING OF TERRONS BOXED & COMPLETE VERY RARE!

I actually already owned a Gor King that I found loose at flea market when I was a kid. It’s from the 70s and part of G.I. Joe’s Super Joe line. If you’ve never heard of those figures before, check them out. The Super Joes had some pretty rad characters including Gor King of Terrons.

This particular Gor King is a UK version made by Palitoy which I won for about $50 shipped, which is a steal. One of the best things about this particular Gor King is the rad packaging. It’s totally different from the US release, and I think it’s by the same artist who did all the artwork for the Cyborg/Cybo-Nator figures.

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9) King Kong Rubber Jiggler Keychain Store Display

I love vintage King Kong toys…. But I probably didn’t need to get this, but it was just so cool. A set of these still attached to the store card? Too hard to pass up. I could only imagine walking into a store as a kid, seeing this and buying one.

There was actually one Kong missing from the header card when I bought this… So maybe I did buy one as a kid, and don’t even remember?

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8) Old Graphic Trash Can Tot Stickers Vending Machine Sign

As a kid there was this Pathmark supermarket by my house which had a bunch of those ¢25 plastic bubble toy vending machines. My favorite one was this one machine that sold these bootleg Garbage Pail Kid stickers called Trash Can Tots.

At the time the machine was actually busted, and my hands were still small enough to wiggle up the door. I remember stealing a bunch of these stickers. But I don’t steal anymore, I don’t think its right whether it be from a small store or a large corporation.

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7) Vintage Bullmark Bagged Hawaii Spray version. Ultra7

I usually don’t get caught up in buying packaged Vintage Kaiju. The figures tend to usually go for way more than I’m willing to pay. I randomly found this listing one day and decided to bid on it on a whim. I actually ended up getting this guy for a pretty good price.

This particular paint job is from Hawaii and I know figures from Hawaii are typically more rare. This guy unfortunatley, is more common than others. However, to find him mint-in-bag? Well that’s just not common at all. I kind of want to sell him, so if you are interested, make me an offer!

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6) Weird Bootleg He-man figure in Hebrew

This was not the name of the actual eBay listing. I’m actually not sure what the original listing was titled unfortunately so you’ll have to make do with this. I cant ready Hebrew but I’m sure it says something really cool all over the packaging.

Where did they sell these? In Isreal? Hasidic neighborhoods? Who bought them? I want to know and get more of them. But I have one and I think that’s enough.

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5) vintage monster rubber head 3.8 pez

I know I said this list is in no particular order, but this is probably one of my favorite eBay wins from this past year. This Pez is part of a series that came out in the 70s called the Eeire Spectre series, and this guy’s name is “Spook.” There are 6 characters in total from the linel.

I am trying to collect an entire set, but I always seem to get outbid, and let me tell you, these don’t go for cheap! They also don’t come up very often, so this is something I am constantly on the hunt for. If you happen to have a set, let me know, Ill make it worth it to you!

Fun Fact: eBay was originally set up to buy, sell and trade Pez dispensers

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Laurel Halo - King Felix EP (2010) [Hippos In Tanks] // Grade: A-

Cue the Kate Bush comparisons. Call it way obvious, but Brooklyn singer/producer Laurel Halo has such the theatrical Fairlight vibe about her, it’s impossible not to connect those dots. King Felix could be our modern Hounds of Love—just instead of that extended “Running Up That Hill” 12-inch cut, we’ve got Oneohtrix Point Never on a space-ride re-edit through Halo’s “Metal Confection”.

But let’s be serious: most of King Felix is a space-ride, Oneohtrix or no. The Signature Halo Sound is one of fallen angels and glitter, slinky synth-pop hovering just below the heavens. Thick layers of vocal harmony going creepy, then choral; a perpetual starlit twinkling. And though some tracks find a split-second of Animal Collective or Pet Shop Boys (“Embassy” and “Supersymmetry”, respectively), they never threaten the EP’s Halo-only POV. If anything, those moments ground it: body in the clouds, just one toe on Earth.

And it should tell you something that, only one EP and a couple self-releases in, Halo’s already created such a sonic niche. Not to belabor the reference, but Kate Bush too found a preliminary signature with debut The Kick Inside—even as early as “Wuthering Heights”, Bush sounded like nobody so much as herself—and we know where she went from there: better and better, weirder and cooler, so much further out. Halo already makes beauty feel dangerous and danger feel comforting; we already know her songs, her voice, her whole angelic atmosphere when we hear it. Now there’s nothing left to do but to wait, excitedly, for where among the heavens her next songs will go.

What first attracted me to Nattymari wasn’t really the music but how he wrote about it. His “mission statements” for his mixes parted the curtain usually obscuring most Witch House artists. He wrote eloquently and gave deeper insight behind artistic intent than the usual dark and demented allusions listeners were left to assume.

But none of that would have really mattered if his mixes didn’t deliver on his heady words, which they always have. I’m proud that Nattymari has joined the Bloglin as a regular contributor, because regardless of how well he’s known for his actual music he’s become a sort of Sheppard guiding the young and old neophytes embracing the art “Ov Thee Hexan Danse Musik.”

The Shepard or the “William S. Burroughs of Witch House” as I like to call him has just released his third mix (correct me if I’m wrong) called Winter On Ibiza.

No one was aware that the plague had come again. At first it seemed nothing more than a nagging cough. A nasty cold. Too much E on the weekend, some kidded.

Within a week the bodies started dropping. At first they were buried properly, but after a few weeks more they lined the sidewalks and supermarket floors. The acrid stench of decay had filled the air.

After a month nearly half of Europe had perished. Some at their jobs and some in their homes. Others were away. Their lifeless forms littered the dancefloors.

Corpses on holiday…. winter on Ibiza.

“Winter” is an apt way to title this cold as hell mix whose crunches into the red bring a chill up and down your spine. Winter On Ibiza is Nattymari’s strongest mix to date, equally terrifying as it is catchy. I love not only how he’s not contempt with merely dragging things to one speed within a track but that he’s developing the digitial skip/stutter as a signature to his work… it reminds me a lot of early Oval meets Prince Jammy. Give it a listen below or download it here.

Winter On Ibiza by Nattymari

Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. My name is Caffeine Powered, and I will be guiding you through the final Near Mint Condition of the year. 2010? Done already. Jesus Fuck. Herein you’ll find the comics I’m digging this week. And with taste so remarkably suspect, I encourage you to drop what you’re checking out in the comments box. I’ll try anything. My therapist tells me its probably to my detriment.

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S.H.I.E.L.D #5
It’s fitting that an issue of my favorite comic of the year is dropping on the final week. If you haven’t been checking this comic book out, you’re missing a god damn adventure. Hickman and Weaver have journeyed through time and narrative technique to give us the finest Marvel has to offer. Taking something as rote as S.H.I.E.L.D and reworking it into a secret society designed to govern humanity’s destiny? Fantastic.

Hickman has weaved together enormous philosophical ideas and epic action sequences in a way that makes my nuts hurt. One minute he has Leonard Da Vinci and Isaac Newton talking in algorithms and symbols, the next he has goddamn Galactus storming the planet.

I love my wonderment and intellectual ideas strewn through epic. I can’t help it. I love my capes, but I love them even more when they’re getting the rusty cogs turning.

Read this fucking comic book.

Also In Marvel:
Captain America #613 is coming out, following Bucky as he heads to trial for his crimes as the Winter Soldier. Now that Daredevil’s massive run is done, Cap remains the book that quietly goes about its business. It’s solid every month. Also, Avengers #8 is droppin’, and it features the fucking Infinity Gauntlet. I don’t get pumped for many Avengers titles anymore, but this throwback to my childhood has it gleeful. Nostalgia a-go-go!
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Action Comics #896
Since I’m being introretrospective and shit, I should point out that 2010 was the year my appetite for the unexplored kicked into overdrive. I wanted to check out anything and everything people were ranting about. Comic book wise. Maybe fetish wise too. I figured if I was writing a comic book column, I needed to check shit out. So I snagged a copy of Action Comics based on praise alone, and I was pleasantly surprised. I never (ever) would have figured that a comic book starring Lex Luthor would have been dope. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. I started up with the issue following Luthor’s metaphysical rant with Death, and I’ve been engaged since.

Cornell makes Luthor at once sexy and diabolical. The douchebag you root for, the asshole you love. Also, as I’ve mentioned, the Jimmy Olsen serial in the back of the comics is hilarious and almost worth the price of admission alone.

Fair warning: This is a crossover issue, bleeding into Secret Six #29. [Which I'll probably skip and read a synopsis of.]

Also In DC:
If I had enough money, I’d be checking out the current run on Detective Comics. Jock’s artwork is worthy of purchase enough. If you know, I didn’t have a caffeine addiction to fuel, and an already bulging pull list. Detective Comics #872 drops this week, and if you’re looking for something to snag that you usually don’t, you probably can’t go wrong here.

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Air – Moon Safari (1998)

Vs.

Depeche Mode – Music For the Masses (1987)

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…

Our homie and D.A.R.T. rider Wilis has a new blog called Milk Money. Unlike a lot of new blogs, Milk Money is a collection of Wilis’ photographs, not just reposts. These photos range from his messenger days in Seattle, to his time in Philly and everything in between.

From daily snaps of the street of dumbass lock jobs, to graffiti and bums, Milk Money gives us a look into the gritty streets of NYC through the eyes of a bike messenger.

But one of my favorite parts of his blog are his portraits. Here’s our friend Tom LaMarche with his “fast bike”. Lamour Supreme loves Tom so much that he went out and bought the exact same bike after he saw this photo. How rad is that? Be sure to check back with Milk Money often!

Since the 80s, Garage Rock has forever been a bustling scene full of interesting bands and characters that’s managed for the most part to stay just left of center from the larger Indie Rock scene it’d usually share fans with. Sure there would be forays in the mainstream (or rather more mainstream than the garage scene) where one or two groups would jump effortlessly from simply be garage acts every couple of years, by in large the scene lived on bands releasing records at a steady pace and touring their asses off for devoted fans across wherever they play and picking up new devotees along the way to spread the gospel.

I’ve always genuinely loved Garage Rock, but truth be told always found the volume of releases to keep track of pretty intimidating, especially when I happily like to spread my ear around…something I’ve found most die hard Garage fans do not. And while I in no way am a stringent expert on all thing Garage, I can say with some confidence that over the past decade the scene has grown a large number of bands who’s song savvy have made them darlings not only within but outside the great Garage community.

New Garage Explosion!!: In Love With These Times is a new documentary, presented by Scion A/V in association with VBS.TV,that explores just that. Scion’s been a pretty big out and front benefactor to the scene for the past year or so throwing shows and releasing free 7-inches with some of Garage’s biggest names. So it’s no surprise they’ve gotten together with Vice to create this film about the bands and the  culture surrounding the Garage Rock community. Artists and labels featured in the film include The Dirtbombs, Black Lips, Jay Reatard (R.I.P.), Jack Oblivian, Hunx & His Punx, Pierced Arrows, Thee Oh Sees, The Clean, Girls, Goner Records, Human Eye, Vivian Girls, Smith Westerns, Ty Segall, Davila 666, Golden Triangle, Magic Kids and many more. the whole thing is online and free to watch. You’re snowed in right? Watch it!

With their take on True Grit, Joel and Ethan Coen didn’t remake the 1969 John Wayne film of the same name. And they didn’t “update” the film’s 1968 source material by writer Charles Portis. What they’ve done is make the best damn western since 1992′s Unforgiven. But the Coen’s masterpiece isn’t filled with brooding and extraneous landscape shots. In true Coen fashion, the two hours are stocked with dark humor, bursts of violence, Roger Deakins‘ masterful cinematography, and characters so well-crafted that no time gets wasted on unnecessary background stories. In one of the great surprises of the year, one of these characters is played by 14-year-old newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

Young Hailee effortlessly steals the show from acclaimed veterans Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. She plays Mattie Ross, a girl whose father is shot dead by drifter Tom Chaney (Brolin). Because Chaney flees into Indian territory, the local authorities will not pursue. Mattie hires Deputy U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Bridges), a man with a merciless reputation – a man with “true grit.” Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Damon) is also on Chaney’s trail, for a murder he committed months previous in TX. And the great adventure begins.

Bridges plays Cogburn hardboiled as hell, without the character devolving into a goofy, tough-guy brooder. He’s filled with interesting contradictions: gruff marshal with the heart of gold, drunk mess who’s a competent lawman, constant heckler with a sensitive spine. All of this makes up another classic, quotable character for Bridges. Damon’s La Boeuf is the all-American Texas Ranger swollen with pride. His boasting makes him sound foolish, but he’s got the gunslingin’ chops to back up all the touting. Out of the plethora of colorful characters the Coen’s have penned over the years, True Grit‘s cast makes up some of the best. They all deliver dated dialogue in an obsolete, contraction-less language that comes off Shakespearean at times. I left the theater wishing people still talked that way.

Like every great Coen film, the tone of the film shifts flawlessly from comedy to drama to dream-like and back to comedy. At this point the brothers are masters and can play with tone like play-doh. Their shifts never feel clunky or forced. They can flip-flop between genres without question. The content and performances are accompanied by long-time Coen cinematographer Roger Deakins. Like previous westerns, True Grit has its share of stunning scenery, but it’s the dialogue-driven scenes where Deakin flexes his muscles. He makes watching Cogburn, La Boeuf, and Mattie sit around a campfire making fun of each other just as beautiful as a horse ride on a gorgeous Arkansas plain.

In what I think is a first for a Coen film, True Grit is genuinely touching. The third act contains a moment of such moving human strength that my eyes welled up. I’m a huge sissy/sucker, but I never thought the Coen’s would make me cry. Not because they lack the skills, hell no, because their films have stayed away from “touching” territory. And unlike the Coen’s previous work, True Grit is a straightforward film that remains within a single genre. It’s almost weird that the Coens made this film. But I’m glad they did. Go see it now or you will regret it, I reckon.

Reading Rainbow - Prism Eyes (2010) [Hozac] // Grade: B

“Our parents now take our band seriously; it’s not just a hobby,” say Philadelphia spouses Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia about their band Reading Rainbow. Moving from Virginia and cutting their teeth on various 7”s, Philly punk house shows and a scrubby 2009 debut, Mystical Participation for SMK Records, their current LP Prism Eyes isn’t exactly what I’d call sobering.

Tight guitar-led groups branded ‘lo-fi’ echoing tales of enticing, everlasting affection, sunny-day romps and hollow-eyed nights are everywhere. While the umbrella widens to cover the buzzing drops, it’s the particular slacker mentality of haze, reverb, reckless down-stroked instrument release or coy empty-bucket percussive thuds that are slouching, blank-faced at the genre’s forefront, a beer hanging between its fingers. Possessing largely the same lazybones take on shimmery pop (Everton learned drums mere weeks before an early tour) Reading Rainbow to the casual ear aren’t much different- there’s the token Velvet Underground guitar hum throughout, vocal ohh and awws supporting and lines like “Transmit your energy with mine,” to seize the familiar.

It’s with sophomore effort Prism Eyes though, that we find this lovebird duo some paces apart, waltzing a bit closer to the edge of the crowded coverage of above. Rolling along together on stage grinning and facing one another might be a listeners’ blinding device thanks to its “Ahhh cute” factor, but surprisingly, Reading Rainbow’s dreamy, 60s punk Mates of State thing— lyrics like “Send a shock to my heartbeat when I see you” help—actually succeeds as a package that’s worth some attention.

Guitarist Garcia calls their sound “Blown out sonic love” and it’s with mystery gone that Reading Rainbow’s newest release, droning and jangling, feels more substantial (try “Animals Take Control of Me”), enveloping and, well, more legally certified than before. Debut Mystical Participation suggested the band at practice, tape hisses meeting stagnancy, whereas these 12 songs, mostly heaving and bright, bubble up with a surprisingly occupied sound, one that feels all in place on title-track standout “Prism Eyes.” Like its lyrics, “Shut my eyes and gently slip away, through prism eyes I see…,” here Reading Rainbow evoke a lovely sense of scattered feeling, from genre reference to song drive, that plays noticeable levels above the known lo-fi laze. Now, let’s see what upcoming dates with The Dum Dum Girls do for them.