Faces Of Cosmod

The Mabinogion

Some Uni work from the end of last year.. we were asked to create double-page spreads for an adaptation of the Mabinogion, aimed at children. My pieces weren't that successful but I kinda like 'em. The Mabinogion itself was a pretty shocking read. Very violent, ethically-dubious stories, perhaps a manual for hooligans of ages past. The lion is a friendly one, that collects firewood for an aggressive, meat-head knight with a brain the size of a pea. The pig is a boar called Truith. In his story, a knight decides that he fancies this maiden, who happens to be the daughter of some bad-ass ogre (forgive me if I forget details, names). The dad, taking one look at this hopeless moron, declares that he must complete many, many impossible tasks before he will be granted the maiden's hand. Sadly, if predictably, the knight, not getting the message, attempts and successfully manages to accomplish these tasks. One of which is to steal some "precious things" - a comb, scissors and such vanity products - from the boar. Now, ordinarily, this boar just hangs out in the woods, living a peaceful life, relaxing with his lady-friends. But the knight forces him to fight, to protect his belongings, and his friends, and a lot of people, and boars, end up dead. The knight, the "hero", triumphs. It's pretty messed up. A really sad story, and (unintentional) warning of the dangers of unchecked egomania. Knights were actually total twerps, who would have guessed?

Kissan Ruoka

This is a rough mock-up of a design that I doodled in Finland and might redo properly at some point, perhaps as a t-shirt design. Yep. What are those rocks that cats eat? My mum calls them crackalots, but I don't think that's the official terminology at all!

Faces Of Cosmod

Shogun Kunitoki in Helsinki

3/4/09: After the Chip Tune workshop, I headed back to the centre of Helsinki to meet some friends, to go to the Get Busy club event that spanned the Tavastia and Semifinal venues. We saw a great set by Vuk, who had the coolest stoner-metal dude drummer any of us had ever seen. Caught a few other bands too, before Ed Banger's Busy P played a theatrical, crowd-pleasing DJ set, and the weaker few amongst us fled into the night to catch the 03:00 bus back to Lahti (the dozing Irish next to me sleep-cursing the whole way). But earlier in the evening, I slipped away to the Pixelache clubnight at nearby Dubrovnik, to catch an amazing set by Fonal Record's Shogun Kunitoki. They play determinedly analogue music, hypnotic, propulsive, dreamy psych-kraut. And I may not have seen the aurora borealis whilst in Finland, but I'm pretty sure I heard some slow-falling whistlers during their set. The percussionist was also responsible for a Super-8 projector, which created a small intense square of scratchy, blurry focus on the rear wall, the projector's beam carving an elegant arc through the darkness. It was actually incredible just to watch the looped film spinning on the projector, apparently hovering, only just held there by its speed and buffeted by the hot air from the machine. As the music reached its climax, the loop was jammed, causing a brilliant burn-hole to bubble and grow from the centre of the image, a beautiful end to an unforgettable set.


                     

Faces Of Cosmod