dickhouse

cute product alert: from ummmm to der

Life is all about balance. Yin meets yang. Good spoons evil. Dick does Jane—or Dick does Dick, or Jane does Jane, or two Dicks do Jane air tight, but that's really going a long way out of the way when I've already strayed a good ways from the way.

In other wayward words, what I'm trying to say is that one day you can come here and see bears, the next you can come and see art. Not that there isn't any art to being a bear—I've seen the denim and leather ensembles, not to mention the serious amount of manscaping work needed to maintain such facial hedgerows lining the lips and chin—but this is like real art channeled from a plane of existence occupied by Thomas Campbell's brainpan.

Like many of our longtime friends and acquaintances, Thomas emerged from the world of skateboarding in the '80s, but prior to that he most likely sprung out of some spongey moss beneath a massive redwood where a gnome ejaculated on a mushroom spore. Thomas has always lived and moved about the world with a very different perspective than most, and over the past two decades he's left a long and wonderfully varied trail of creative transmissions in his wake, including anything and everything from scribblings to paintings, photos to film-making, sculptures to installations, and any sewn-up mixed-media combinations thereof.

From Ummmm to Der: Recent Works and Installations of Thomas Campbell, published by Gingko Press, documents and encapsulates his working processes through a recent two year period (mid-2009–mid-2011) with nothing but pages upon pages of big pretty pictures all dolled up in a beautifully yellow and doo-doo brown hardback package.

Shooting Twitter blanks on the toilet? Coffee table in dire need of a facial that's non-semen based? Soup up your lot of cultural poop by picking up Thomas's new book here: From Ummmm to Der: Recent Works and Installations of Thomas Campbell 

bangs bangs bangs: a los angeles triple shot

Do you live in Los Angeles? Are you down with Lance Bangs? Well, starting tonight, Thursday, September 6th, at 7:30pm, you can kick off any and all fetishes for Bangs you might have with his "Photo Strays" launch event and poster show at Family Books. And it doesn't stop there...

...because on the night of Friday, September 7th, at Cinefamily, Lance will be projecting documentary excerpts, short films, music videos, concert footage, tour projections, and collaborations featuring Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Guided By Voices, Jay Reatard, LCD Soundsystem, Menomena, Neutral Milk Hotel, No Age / Black Flag, Pavement, R.E.M., The Shins, Elliott Smith, Sonic Youth, Syd Tha Kid, The White Stripes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and others. The "Immortal Volume" program will also include an excerpt from Lance's forthcoming feature length documentary Breadcrumb Trail about the Louisville band Slint, as well as excerpts from the unreleased feature length concert film Arthurfest. Following the screening, Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound / Deerhunter), Randy Randall (No Age), Dean Spunt (No Age), and Mike Watt (Minutemen / Stooges) will perform live. But wait! There's more...

...much more. The night of Saturday, September 8th, Cinefamily continues to kick out the Bangs with not only a selection of rare and unreleased comedy clips from his personal archives, but also a full-on live comedy show featuring Tenacious D, Chelsea Peretti, Nick Kroll, Jonah Ray, Kumail Nanjiani, Moshe Kasher, Brett Gelman, Jon Daly, Ron Funches, Rob Heubel, and more. Plus DJ Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem / The Juan MacLean) will be there to spin tunes before and after the show.

Whew. That's a whole lotta Bangs for your nightly Los Angeles buck.

last call: opening night of earl parker's photo show

Needless to say, working at Dickhouse could be perceived as one of the strangest jobs on the planet. But for this Canadian transplant, not only has it been the most positive work experience of my life, it was a chance to put the faces behind the names that I was partially raised by: the writers and photographers at Big Brother magazine with one of the highlights being getting to work alongside Earl Parker, Master Journalist, in the jackassworld.com offices. Earl worked quietly in his own corner, writing and cracking jokes under his breath, and of course smoking cigarettes. Late at night and on weekends it was just Earl and I for the most part; working and drinking coffee late into the Hollywood twilight.

After we stopped working at jackassworld, I'd see Earl in Hollywood a lot, walking around, shooting photos, and that was something I could really relate to. Not a lot of people walk in LA, and if you do you see a whole other side of the city that most people choose to ignore. But not Earl. He captures the beauty and reality of the people who work and call the "Walk of Fame" their commute, their stomping grounds, and sometimes even their home. It's the furthest thing from the red carpet you can get, but the most honest perception of the people that truly run this town, despite of stature, cameras, and lights. A real true Hollywood story.

I was glad Earl agreed to letting me curate this show. I can't wait to see what he sees over the coming years, and most importantly, read.

His show Pop Culture Sucks is open for two more weeks at the Burgundy Room Gallery (1621 1/2 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028; open after 8pm). —LG

Photos left to right: Jeff Tremaine with some guy he worked the door with in Washington DC at some bar; Josh Lingenfelter stands in harm's way with Knoxville's oft-Photoshopped friend Bryce; four-fifths of the OG Big Brother magazine staff—Marc McKee, Tremaine, Earl Parker, and Rick Kosick—with johnny-come-lately Knoxville.

Photos from left to right: A thumbs up from Tony Hawk, a former "washed-up" skater from the pages of Big Brother magazine in 1993; Naomi and Knoxville; Rose and blue periods ... check.

Photos clockwise from upper left: B.A. Backassus; Yeti Beats and Squeak E. Clean, upbeat as usual; Street Bike Tommy points out the ärt in the art; could Erik Roner possibly be pondering a tramp stamp cover up with a photo of Earl's?

Photos from left to right: The women from Venus and the men from Mars, Dimitry Elyashkevich and Chris Casey; A self portrait of the artist as a middle-aged man; former Big Brother editor McKee and former Big Brother scan boy Bret Banta steep in the burgundy aura.

P.S. Thanks to Knoxville and Tremaine for making this possible, and thanks also to Sean garrison and Kate Power—without your help I'd be still crying in a corner. 

(Photos by Johnny Knoxville, Rick Kosick and Ryan Rich; Hollywood, California 2012)

i want you...

...to attend the first ever photo show of Earl Parker. Because I can't. And I'd like to, I really would, but there's just a small geographical matter of 2700 miles between me and the Burgundy Room Gallery in Hollywood, CA, and the mappers at Google tell me that's a two day and 15 hour trip by car. Personally I think they're being a tad optimistic, considering the bulk of the travel goes through Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, all of which have many open-ended interpretations of the word "road" and the infrastructure it should entail. So no, that's not happening, and I don't feel the least bit negatron in saying so. But if you're in the Greater Los Angeles Basin, you have absolutely no excuse for not making it out to Earl's exhibition tonight from 8-11pm. Besides, it's a one night only affair, so if you snooze, you lose, and that's no karazy talk.

For fürther show details: Pop Culture Sucks

skate + art + atlanta = skartlanta

I dropped out of algebra in my junior year of high school. Good thing, too, because the poor grade I was receiving in the class was really putting a D in the A of my GPA. So instead of busting my brain cells on numbers and letters and the numerical equations thereof, I picked up a free hour during the school day that I more often than not spent in the art room. Hindsight is the proverbial 20/20 in terms of vision, but I'll S a D if things didn't work out for the better because of that strategic move. Besides, it's not like a single living, dead, or Limboed soul in all the years since my graduation has ever asked me to determine the value of x, a letter that can suck my cosine whenever it ventures out of the alphabet into mathematical lands beyond.

However, I do realize and acknowledge that there do exist algebraists in our midst. People that do enjoy the letter x and all its unknown potential. Should you be one of these folks, more exponential power to you, and please don't feel you're not invited to come and check out the "Skate it or Hang it?!" exhibition* now running at the Museum of Design in Atlanta, Georgia. The opening was cool, too bad you missed it, but the show will be up until September 16, 2012. In addition to walls o' skateboards galore, featured artists include Michael Sieben, Lance Mountain, Steve Olson, Andy Howell, Wes Humpston, Jim Phillips, VCJ, Alex Brewer, Charlie Owens, and myself (Sean Cliver, the guy with the goofy grin at left in the photo above with Lance and Chris Solomon).

Every show has its dog and pony and these suspended walls were my Skippy and Princess favorites.

* Special thanks to Todd Vaught for the innumerable hours it took to curate/wrangle the show.

For further information on hours, events, directions, and all museum else, please visit: museumofdesign.org

pop culture sucks: the earl parker photo show

Earl Parker is your quintessential enigma tucked into a mystery and hand-rolled into a riddle—a real Quazar of a quandary. He came out of the Midwest in the early '90s, a young 'zine maker by trade, to the city of Los Angeles. This is where Earl lived, thrived, and survived throughout the early days of Big Brother skateboard magazine at its most lawless, where he first found employ as a writer. His articles became the stuff of legend—and often controversy—but his eyes were more and more often found behind the lens of a camera. Street photography became his passion. Light meter readings his daily tic. Earl would disappear without a trace only to return days or weeks later with rolls and rolls of shot 35mm film documenting his journeys throughout LA and beyond. The photos weird, wonderful, and real. Then came the Dark Days. A period of time marked by the absence of a trusty camera by his side—a time that just so happened to coincide with the mass exodus from film to digital mediums. But in 2008, through the help of a few friends, a camera found its way back into Earl's idle hands. It was a rebirth. A reawakening of his nimble eye to a city now decades older. The results of which now comprise his first ever photo exhibition. And you are cordially invited to attend the opening night on Thursday, June 28, from 8-11pm.

skate it or hang it!? the evolution of skateboard art

It's not exactly the age-old Chicken v. Egg quandary, but it is something that's actually considered nowadays. I mean, you didn't hear it at all in the '60s (okay, give or take the random OCD lunatic that inhabits the fringe of every subculture). And maybe someone somewhere in a Venice bungalow pondered it briefly in the late '70s (and possibly even tripped out on it with a blacklight experiment or two). There is documented proof that a smattering of synapses around the globe definitely sparked in the late '80s (*cough* OCDs *cough*), but it wasn't really until the '90s that eyebrows started to be roundly and openly arched in actual arty appreciation.

And with that, the skateboard transitioned from a relatively short, hard, and abusive life on the streets and ramps to a pristine existence of boundless years as unconventional interior wall decor. 

Ever since this circle of life was broken and the age of skart was entered, the art world has openly embraced skate culture with entire gallery and museum shows dedicated to the art and artists responsible for shaping its visual mythology*. This summer, the Museum of Design in Atlanta, Georgia, explores the evolution of skateboard art with "Skate It or Hang It?!" The exhibition opens Saturday, June 16, 2012, with a number of artists in attendance that day, including Andy Howell, Steve Olson, Lance Mountain, Wes Humpston, Michael Sieben, and, if you could kindly excuse the third person break, Sean Cliver.

For a timetable of special events, appearances, and information in general, please visit: museumofdesign.org

* Nostalgic inside joke.

all-new loiter squad tonight on adult swim

Tonight is not just your usual all-new episode of Loiter Squad on Adult Swim at 11:30pm ET/PT. No, in fact, it's more. Much more. More of what? More on? Nope, not even.

Instead, for a select few of us that toiled in the toilet of jackassworld.com, it is a celebration of the arts—or rather the "artwins", Vanessa and Ashley Caswell.

The Caswells were definitely among the more "stand out" community members back then and they certainly contributed to the visual mythology of our site—even if it did burn faster (but not brighter!) than a lit fart from a cow's ass.

Anyway, here's a hearty "Cheers!" to the artful twins from me, Seth, and Josh on your work that appears in tonight's episode.

the brain farm digital cinema reel

The words "beauty" and "jackass" may not always be the closest of neighbors—give or take some wayward artistic sensibilities—but I do believe we came our closest to the pretty realms of pulchritude* on jackass 3D. You know the bits I'm talking about. From when the kids were back to simply talkin' baseball, all those super slow motion sequences where time went by in frame-by-frame glory. I'd spotlighted the camera responsible for said shots a while ago (see the Phantom and the men who drool over the Phantom here), but here's the latest hot shit sizzle reel from Brain Farm Digital Cinema, the Key Masters of the Phantom:

* A word that sounds like something that might possibly fall out of Dave England's ass or exude from Preston Lacy's pores, making it the optimal word to be used in conjunction with jackass should any form of beauty need be described.

bam margera & friends art show

Welcome to the age-old question oft posed of thinking mankind: "What is art?" A question I fondly—and out of much loving respect to Ryan Dunn—respond: "Who gives a shit?" So leave your snoot suit at home and check out "Bam Margera & Friends", an upcoming art show at the James Oliver Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, featuring the works of Bam, Ryan Gee, and Geoff "Red Mohawk" Blake. The opening reception is this Saturday, April 7, from 6:00pm–11:00pm, but the show will be up through April 21st if you're not the wining cheese and crackers type or suffer from agoraphobia.

For more information: http://jamesolivergallery.com

photo of the day: tremaine and roner

The other day while digging around for a clear shot of Erik Roner's tramp stamp, I happened across this image I'd thought lost in the great laptop theft of 2010 and it gladdens me to no end that it still exists. Seriously, they could discover Atlantis tomorrow and I wouldn't be anywhere near as happy as I am now. Yeah, gill people, whee. Whatever. If they were so damn suave and Patrick Duffy then how'd they go and lose their whole stupid continent for all these millennia? Bunch of aqua dumb-dumbs, if you ask me. Not like these guys, Jeff Tremaine and Erik Roner, and their mouth-breathing hard bodies (and, yes, that soft rumble you just heard was about 15 guys in the Eagle LA bar going "Grrrr..."). Anyway, this is what happens when you film for the Nitro Circus television show at Ken Block's* DC Mountain Lab in Park City, Utah, and he brings in a catered sushi dinner and loads of adult beverages to celebrate a long, cold day of slope abuse. Pure ping-pong synchronicity with a Bizarro body twist shaken not slurred.

Prefer more men over Mormonism? Donnie Anderson over Donnie Osmond? Slather your new skin with the jazz of Nitro Circus Season One and Season 2 on DVD.

* You know he's hardcore, he had a gold tooth.

(Photo by Sean Cliver; Park City, Utah 2009)

an odd fucking outtake from terry's world

Remember when "double rainbows" were all the viral rage? Did that come after the "surprised kitty" or before the "sneezing panda"? Better yet, who gives a shit? By the time everyone wakes up to smell the distraction, millions of dead memes will be buried under the rubbish of a billion other self-obsessed hopes and dreams and insidious marketing rim shots not heard round the world. But every once in a while you'll find something tossed out onto the super information byways that merits a good rubbernecking, e.g. this Terry Richardson shot of Taco in officially licensed Dickhouse apparel! To find this hooded sweatshirt and more, check the full line out at: http://www.merchmethod.com/dickhouse

Fancy yourself a photo aficionado? Stifle of a fistful of giggles whenever you see FLICK in capital letters? Point, click and shoot your way over to Terry's world for a good time: http://www.terrysdiary.com

art in the fart: evolution of a steve-o drawing

When I first heard of the Twitter thing back in 2008, I was flat out "Who gives a shit?" Just ask Shannon Connolly, the poor girl assigned to the late great jackassworld.com experiment. She would try to sell us on all these neat developments in the social networking world, and we, in turn, would be all, "Yeah, but can we brand it in the fucking chrome?" because we were much more interested in kicking our new buzzword knowledge around the wheelhouse than planting any evergreens in our pocket. Only later—much later—like way after the unplugged fact later—did I start dabbling in the perceived banalities of Twitter only to realize that it is, like most anything in life, exactly what you make it to be. Since then I've come to love, embrace, and fuck with Twitter like a booty call and, I have to admit, it really has enhanced my lengthier stays on the shitter. So out with the old 5-7-5 haiku and in with the modern day 140-character haipoo—the new hack poetry of the self-obsessed and generation me mE ME!

Every once in a while though, something of linkish interest will pop up amongst the poop, so for today's Dickhouse diversion I'd like to share this time-lapse rendition of Steve-O by Ms. Bethany Bonner. Art is my life, after all, and it's good to see it hasn't all gone to the digital dogs yet.

cute product alert—i hate: the art of todd bratrud

If you're looking for unconventional shit to stuff a stocking with this year, I suggest you check out this man-tyke of a tome, I HATE: The Art Of Todd Bratrud. Unfamiliar with the name? Todd's been making graphic waves ever since he first started working for Consolidated Skateboards in the late '90s. The scene by then had grown a bit blasé with a preponderence of logo boards, but Todd bucked the floundering Donner Party and found new frontiers to rape, pillage, plunder and burn. Doubt me? Congratulations! It's a man.

His artistic themes run the quirky, offbeat, off-kilter, and cleverly absurd gamut. His women are alternately chunky, bruised, damaged, tattooed, tailed, green, or dead, yet all oddly hot—the same deft artistic touch that R. Crumb bestows upon his big-bottomed brigade of illustrated female figures.

Beyond that, he's the first person I'll cite as providing me with a good swift kick in the creative ass when I was at a waffly low in my own drawing career, so I can never say too many great things about Todd and his perpetually fresh output—this book included.

Check out the sampler plate below and see if he doesn't whet your appetite for arty destruction, too...

I HATE: The Art of Todd Bratrud features a selection of his work from such companies as Nike SB, Flip, The Skateboard Mag, Volcom, Enjoi, Teenage Runaway, The High 5, and many more. Spec-wise it's the exact same look and feel as the first edition in this series, WARNING: The Art of Marc McKee [see this previous post], clocking in at 96-pages in a full-color, fun-size, 6.5 x 8.5 softcover format.

Order your copy today for the hot shit price of only $19.95: I HATE: The Art of Todd Bratrud

heads up NYC: "pave the way" photo show

If you've an eye for the arts and that eye is currently within eyeshot of New York City there is an opening reception for "Pave The Way" at The Vans DQM General on the evening of December 1st from 6:00–9:00pm. "Pave The Way" features a historical selection of photos from the lenses of iconic skateboard/lifestyle photographers Mofo, C.R. Stecyk III, Lance Dawes and Tobin Yelland, the last of which worked extensively with us on Big Brother skateboard magazine. In fact, that's his shot of John Cardiel up above that was featured on the cover of Issue #21, circa 1996—the very same issue I exposed my fear of suffering a rectal prolapse at an altitude of 36,000-feet and referred to Beck as a "folk twerp". Anyway, there's probably free drinks and snacks, so it's a win-win no matter which way you slice the brie and get merloaded. "Pave The Way" runs through January 4, 2012 at The Vans DQM General, 93 Grand St. New York, New York 10013.