Red Riding Hood Remix (a Review byte)

A girl running through the woods with a blood red cape is an interesting image to look at when it comes down to movie ads. But when you are in a movie theater waiting for the beginning credits to roll in you are hoping to be scared off your seat; especially with a title such as Red Riding Hood in blood red font. This movie is a werewolf story taken place in medieval times with actors dressed elaborate enough to bring you back to that time shared by shows like Hercules and Xena The Warrior Princess. Although, the title is promising with its blood red color, the gory scenes are left to be desired. There aren't any good hot sex scenes despite the romantic turmoil and the dialog doesn't match up with the suspenseful music. Despite these certain factors, Catherine Hardwicke did a good job bringing the original parts of the childhood fairytale at the conclusion of the movie. So, expect the DVD to have better extras than the actual production. I will give it 3.5 stars for its attempt at giving it a Grimm Brothers theme but not doing the full scare it could have done.

Jinx in the Sky...With Diamonds! (an interview)

With the LowBrow Art Movement becoming prevalent now since the 1900’s according to The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby, artists all over the world have emerged with different color schemes to display outrageous surrealist themes. I was able to interview one artist in particular who for the past year has gained a popularity increase in New Zealand: Jinx in the Sky. Here is her take on being a LowBrow Artist:


Me: Thanks for agreeing to this interview today, I checked out your blog and I am not filled in exactly with the event with Christchurch, can you fill me in on what that event is about?

Jinx: Hi, no problem. A big earthquake struck the city of Christchurch killing heaps of people. The city lies in ruins and lots are still missing. It's in the media all over the world. Very sad.

artwork auctioned for the Christchurch earthquake

Me: Wow that does sound tragic. I saw the painting you did for it. Was it directly influenced by the occurrence or did you dream about it?


Jinx: No, it was a painting I did in 2009 after returning from Austria. I thought it would be a good thing to auction it off and give the money to Christchurch.


The painting was influenced by a dream I had about my friend moving into a new house in Vienna and the house was all crazy with stairways coming in and out of the walls and floor.


Me: That sounds interesting, what has been the craziest dream you ever had?


Jinx: Wow that’s a hard one...I think the first one that springs to mind was a dream I had when I was about 16 or 17. I dreamed I was running up a spiral staircase in a dark stone tower. On the side of it there were small windows. On one of the windowsills was something white and translucent. I looked at it and it was an embryo but only like the white, translucent skin of it. I looked closer and saw the skin of its guts and organs like a cicada larvae leaving its old body. Then I ran downstairs again, it started snowing and there were logs on the stairs. Wild animals and dogs were racing upwards as I was running down. I exited the tower and was looking for a friend. I went into a restaurant and ordered a glass of milk. It was on a tray and I looked at it to find it making waves like the ocean. Then the milk turned hard and black like ashes. That was my dream.


Me: Besides dreams, is there anything else that inspires your artwork?


Jinx: Just life, music and nature. I'm a very emotional person and whenever I don’t know how to express or don't want to talk about it, it goes into my paintings, disguised in symbols and metaphors like dreams do.


Me: That is how I am with poetry and drawing. How long do you usually take in completing a painting?

"Those who walk with diamonds"

Jinx: It depends on the size and such. Usually around 30 - 40 hours, but that's just painting time without drying then. All in all it can take 2 - 4 weeks to complete. Darker paintings take longer than lighter ones.


Me: I went to your websites and checked out the photos on the "Sk8 of the Art" event at New Zealand's Te Papa Museum. How did it feel like to see your artwork displayed like that?


Jinx: It was awesome! I also loved everyone else’s stuff, some very crazy boards there!


Me: what sparked to get your first gallery viewing of your artwork?


Jinx: I didn’t show my art to any galleries until the start of 2009 when I moved to Wellington, which is where most of NZ's art is based. Friends of mine told me about this gallery that looked like they'd like my style and so one day we went in and I showed them my stuff. They loved it and shortly after displayed some of it in their "shop" area. That was the first time my art was shown in public.
The gallery was Manky Chops Gallery which is Wellington’s lowbrow, pop surrealism gallery

Me: How exciting! Would you ever consider your artwork as part of the "low-brow movement"?

Jinx: the Low Brow movement and Pop Surrealism as such, has many facets. Artists that are very different in style all belong to it. For example, Lory Earley belongs to it just as much as the likes of Mark Ryden. So yes, if you were to put my art into a category then this is the one that fits best.


Me: I am really curious and interested in the low brow movement, so when I googled images for low-brow your painting "The Glory of Gloria's tadpoles" came up. I was instantly captured by the color scheme and the pink coming out of "Gloria's" mouth. How did that one come about?

"The glory of Gloria's tadpoles"

Jinx: Well the painting originally was made after a much darker sketch. In the original sketch the girl’s eyes were rolling upwards and black stuff was coming out of her mouth. I painted it to express how you feel when lots of bad things happen all at once and instead of swallowing them down you spit them out again because you know they're no good. I decided it was too dark and swapped the colors for brighter ones because I love color and you can still see the darker core of the picture without it having to be all black.

Me: Do you see your artwork ever crossing over to a museum in the United States? (If it hasn't already happened)

Jinx: I would love to show over there, but it's hard to network with galleries when you live so far away. Maybe it will happen someday.


Me: What is one strong symbol that has drawn your attention to you from your dreams, artwork, or both?

Jinx: For me, the crescent moon because it stands for dreams. I recently got it tattooed on my wrist. It helps me to do reality checks during waking life so it makes lucid dreaming easier. Lucid dreaming is when you know that you're dreaming and you can influence what's happening. Don’t even get me started on that one.

Me: Cool. What inspired your art name, "Jinx in the Sky"?

Jinx: I’ve had my name "Jinx" since I was 17 or 18. During class we wrote into a little "chat book" at school instead of passing letters. We all had incognito names in case the teachers would ever find it and my name was Jinx. I chose it because in my dictionary it said it means something like "unlucky talisman". I liked that at the time cause I felt I was a bit unlucky and dark - I guess lots of people of that age do... later on I really liked the Beatles song "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" and I named myself Jinx in the sky with diamonds but that was too long so I dropped the diamonds. The diamond symbol (as cliché as it might be in hipster art nowadays) also means a lot to me. My website is called diamond soul so I haven’t completely lost it.


Me: Last but not least: if you could go back in time and visit yourself, what time in your life would you go to and what would you do or say to yourself?


Jinx: hmmmm, I think possibly I'd visit myself around 6 - 9 year old, just to relive everything. I think that time of my life was very cool, playing in the garden, climbing trees and walking in the river, living in a fantasy world at times. I don't think I'd say anything to myself, I wouldn't want to change anything because everything that happened made me the person that I am today.


Me: Great! Thanks for agreeing to this interview!

Jinx in the Sky is just one of many Low Brow artists gaining popularity. She sells T-shirts with her artwork as a front piece. If you are interested in checking out what is up with Jinx in the Sky’s artwork and travels check out her blog: http://jinx-in-the-sky.blogspot.com/

Romanticism is An Epidemic? (rant)

provided by google images. (swoon??)

Sick Love? What?

I noticed in the winter I see a consistent flow of couples. I don't know if the seasons have to do with it, but I always found romance itself interesting. I was in a forum of one of those teen websites and there was one discussion on romance. The discussion was on whether general romanticism in couples are influenced by romance novels, music videos, soap operas, etc. We hear them in dialogue when people call the person they are in a relationship with "significant other", "baby","my girl","my man","my boo", "my girlfriend", "my boyfriend." You get the deal (hopefully).Thinking about it now, what does it mean to be romantic? Do all couples do the same thing? I know these questions are so commonsense but in reality, I just want to know if it really has become a thing you can easily sell on a newsstand. There are magazines telling girls "how to please your man" but never really "how to please your girl." As a matter of fact, my guy friends always talk about how there is a high rate of divorces in the United States, so marriage isn't really worth it. Meanwhile, a lot of girls I know hope to get married. Do you think that it is only a girl thing, or do guys do it too? I would like to know your opinion, so feel free to comment.

The Immortal Trend

You ever seen anyone on the street with their earlobe stretching like this?Whether you have seen it or not, it has been a recurring New York trend for a while now. Believe it or not,gauges have been here for more than just 5 years. You can say it would be one of many trends that has survived centuries. As a matter of fact, one of the World's famous religious icons wore gauges. Come on! take a guess.....(5 seconds later) BUDDHA! According to the Buddha story, Buddha was a prince before he became one of the most famous religious icons on the Globe. At the time of his prince days, he wore huge gold earrings on his earlobes. However, Buddha is not the only one suspected to have wore gauges. Mummified bodies "found in an Italian glacier" were also found with stretched earlobes. In that case you can guess that gauges were worn even during the ice age (well according to Wikipedia anyway). That is just a theory in my perspective, but hey...It goes to show a trend like this that has currently increased popularity in many styles (i.e. goth,punk,urban,etc), has survived centuries. It seems almost Vampyric, dontcha think?

One goal Down and A Bucket To Go!

Well guys, I finally started on one of the promised projects: the philosophy blog. I still have to work on it a bit but I already had a start on it. So if any of you are interested in philosophy and what I might contribute to it, visit my new blog called The Endless Bucket. I will hopefully do a blog on theology or something like that. But don't worry Rockinglicious will still go on. I personally don't like ending something that is going really well just because new stuff has been made. But whateverrrrr... 

Cowboy Be-bop Boots! and Dr. Oz

With the chance of new things happening, adventures ahead and craziness altogether; I was able to get some good shoes for that "new promise" look. Awesomely enough I was able to get two pairs of shoes: a pair of boots and a pair of Airwalk boot style sneakers (don't really know what to call them). They were on sale at a local Manhattan Payless Shoe Store and I figured why not? As you can see, the boots have this Bob Dylan thing going on. If you replace the belt buckle on the side with one of those old school cowboy star things I swear it would be a total throwback to the Twilight Zone but enough of that....
The other pair of shoes are awesome because of the good graphics on the whole entire fabric of the shoe. For those of you gals who are into good graphic shoes I recommend these with some good fishnet stockings, a skirt or something quite rocking to show those crazy graphics out. Buying these two pairs of shoes made me think of an episode on the Dr. Oz show about high heels. It is an interesting thing to think about something so simple as shoes affect your health. Dr. Oz is a show hosted by a doctor who gives recommendations that are natural to its best in helping people avoid medical risks. In the segment I am referring to, Dr. Oz talks about the fact that wearing high heels 4 inches and above affect not only your gait but can cause other medical risks of having knee joint problems and spine alignment issues. Sure high heels define those legs but at the same time: is it worth it? Dr. Oz is a very good show for "adult" problems I am sure younger people than the audience who goes to the show share similar/same health problems/risks. I recommend to watch it because you will be surprised with the small things that matter a lot to your health. If you are interested in watching more on what he has to say about high heels click here

Could you be teetering on the brink of injury or a lifetime of arthritis?
Learn how wearing high heels throws your body off..

New Year's Good News?

Hey guys, HAPPY NEW YEARS! I am sorry, I have been MIA (missing in action). I have been dealing with some life drama-rama's (I am sure you have your deal too). Anyways! This new year I have decided that part of my resolution is: to write more STUFF! Yes, more stuff! And I know your question would be what must this STUFF consist of? Well, when I started this blog I wanted to talk about "weird" fashion  and other oddball things. So I am going to continue a bit of that goal with a new twist. Now, the twist is a total surprise that all of you readers must figure out on your own as you continue to read, skim, or whatever you do with each blog post I broadcast. (What type of surprise would it be if it wasn't?! cheaaaaa)....In other related news, one of you asked me, or rather, recommended that I write more on theology/Christianity and I have decided to write TWO spankin' new blogs! YES! One on philosophy and another on Christianity/theology (something of the sort). I will be posting news on that later. As for today: may 2011 be a fucking AWESOME experience! love ya

xoxoxoxox
-Miss Eleanor Bobo