ANIMAL New York

Banksy Responds To Idenity Question With Deflective Self-Deprecation

2008-07-19T02:40:54Z

After plausibly being ID'd as Robin Gunningham earlier this week, Banksy, the popular not so anonymous street painting stenciler responds on his website:

"Please Note I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being "good at drawing" doesn't sound like Banksy to me."

And in response to this perfectly predictable piece, no it doesn't matter if he went to a fancy prep school, and he ain't "middle class" either, he's rich!

Idol Worship

2008-07-18T23:52:34Z

It's not everyday you get to see a decapitated, sacrificial gold cow with an erection. Available exclusively at the Kate Werble Gallery in NYC. |ArtFagCity|

Everything must go: Tupac's Jaguar on eBay. |Nahright|

Kehinde Wiley’s latest show, "The World Stage," opened at the Studio Museum of Harlem. |TWBE|

As if you needed any more reasons to NEVER go to McCarren Park Pool. |ABC|

Shepard Fairey's super-limited, more artsy styled version of the campaign image he made for Obama has hit the $80K mark. 5 more days to go! |CharityBuzz|

Seriously guys, some advice: stick to the sneakers! |Complex|

Lastly, someone please call Geoff the 'Dark Knight price gouging scumbag' and tell him where to stick those $200 a pop tickets: 646-226-6755. |Craigslist|

More Jokerizing for 'The Dark Knight

2008-07-18T23:03:31Z

Even with The Dark Knight officially out in theatres, the movie promo remixing artist is still hard at work, pumping out a few more of her Jokerized posters since Warner Bros. is too cheap to send Batman ones. With the smeared smiling red lips quickly seeping right into the pop cultural collective conscious, almost any film will do at this point, including these: "Fred Claus," "P.S. I Love You," and "Mad Money." So did all of this hype work? Maybe. It could knock super-corny Spider-Man 3 right off it's top grossing spot.

Photos: |Apes| (Click to enlarge)

Blastmaster Rocking the East River

2008-07-18T22:28:59Z

After recently performing at The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, the 'Teacha' KRS-One will take the stage at the East River Amphitheater in the LES next week: Thursday the 24th at 7: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM thanks to notorious call dropping cell phone company Verizon. Here's a map for those that don't know where Cherry St. and FDR is.

Photo: |FlySi| (Click to enlarge)

NYC Should Be So Lucky

2008-07-18T21:53:51Z

Here is today's cover of the Washington Post showing double-decker riding tourists getting assaulted by low hanging branches during a tour of the nation's capital. Unlike NYC, in D.C. people actually die on these tours: "[T]wo passengers were killed after their heads struck an overpass along the Southeast Freeway. The victims, Joshua Stoll, 24, and Michael Feiock, 35, were on their way to a Washington Nationals game, riding on a bus owned by Open Top Sightseeing." |WaPost| (Click image to enlarge)

Chinatown Wallpaper Provides NYC-Centric Coverage

2008-07-18T20:48:03Z

Pattern reworking "graphic distractor" Dan Funderburgh designed this amazing Chinatown inspired wallpaper. The toile was commissioned by art collective, Chinatown Soccer Club, for their adidas sponsored clubhouse in Vienna, Austria to help hype the 2008 European Cup. The idea was to create "a wallpaper that aims to give viewers an idea of our home turf," writes Funderburgh. Included are images of graffiti splashed box trucks and other culturally relevant oddities. Flavor Paper in New Orleans are responsible for the printing the soft red toile and are selling limited edition quantities: $150 for a 27×15 inch roll. |12ozProphet|

(Click image to enlarge)

"Inglorious Basterds" Revealed

2008-07-18T18:26:55Z

"Fuck you and your jew dogs." With dialogue like that, it must be "Inglorious Bastards," aka "Inglorious Basterds," the not-yet-shot Quentin Tarantino penned and to-be-directed script that makes its online debut here at ANIMAL (PDF doc). I just got through reading all 165-pages of this World War II-themed wackadoodle tale, and it's a doozy. Rumors abound it could be a fake, but it sounds like authentic Tarantino to me. One thing's for sure: Quentin, your spelling is fucking atrocious.

A mix of bloody mayhem-filled scenes and politically incorrect dialogue that takes down whites, blacks, and Jews alike, the ensemble-ish tale sort of follows the highfalutin mission of a group of murderous Jewish-American soldiers who like bashin' in heads with bats, carving Swastikas in foreheads, and "Killin Nazi's."

]]> The screenplay consists of five "chapters": "Once Upon a Time... Nazi Occupied France," "Inglorious Basterds," "German Night in Paris," "Operation Kino," and "Revenge of the Giant Face." It's not clear what the studio heads currently reading these pages will think when they encounter lines like, "That's what we need, pigs that can root out jews," or notes that intone, "WE JUST SEE A SUPER QUICK SHOT OF Goebbels FUCKING Francesca DOGGY STYLE," but nevertheless there's something relentless compelling about a Hollywood player who dares to write scenes that end with this kind of reveal: "During her conversation and strudel with the man that exterminated her entire family, shosanna pissed herself."

On the one hand, "Inglorious Basterds" offers a comedically cartoonish, eye-poppingly surreal micro-vision of a war that never was. At the same time, Tarantino takes on a bigger story--about the relationship between Hollywood and movie stars, heroes and murderers, and what happens to filmmaking in a world where Joseph Goebbels dreams of becoming David O. Selznick. "Inglorious Basterds" is a mess, but nobody can deny the beauty of a war movie that ends in a "literal red rain of legs, arms, heads, torsos, and asses." -Reverse Cowgirl

The Many Faces of the Batman

2008-07-18T18:22:04Z

So last night The Dark Knight opened. It's the sequel to Batman Begins the DC Comics franchise-saving set of movies starring Christian Bale that set the superhero back on track after some disastrous performances by George Clooney and especially Val Kilmer. As the above video shows, the Batman has come a long way since first being played by Lewis Wilson in 1943. Press play to see the various incarnations of the Dark Knight, but do remember it was the birth of the graphic novel that gave the Caped Crusader his edge back. The Joker's too, otherwise he was just a bumbling benign cackle of face paint.

NYT Changes Headline Suggesting Obama As King Leonidas

2008-07-18T17:50:26Z

Toady, the New York Times ran a story about Barack Obama's several hundred person strong army of advisers with the headline: "Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy," but have since changed it to "300 Advisers Shape Obama’s Foreign Policy." Maybe editors at the Times were worried its readers would be confused and assume the Democratic presidential candidate consults with a contingent of buff, Spartan-dressed thespians? |NYT|

New Nike Spot Just Doesn't Do It

2008-07-18T16:50:09Z

Nike has produced a new 'Just Do It' TV spot for the Beijing Olympics titled "Courage." Today's athletes? Courageous? Please, more like Coddled. It opens with a title board that reads: Everything You Need Is Already Inside. I'm sure the people of Tibet and Taiwan will find it very inspiring. AdWeek and AdAge posted articles on it yesterday that were basically expanded press releases for the $16 billion company. The commercial, which includes 31 "Nike athletes," is admittedly wonderfully edited (It ends with footage of double amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius). The soundtrack is provided by bland band The Killers' and their song "All These Things That I've Done"—which features the refrain "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier." How profound, and perfect for China! Watch the spot, and tell me what you think. I think it feels too much like a hastily thrown together Nike ode to Nike. I would expect better for the Olympics.