SvenBlog

Heaven and Hell

2009-06-09T12:40:00.002-06:00

awesome movie here!!

Late Stuff

2009-06-04T19:44:00.002-06:00

poetry corner: Pablo the Meat Poet

2009-06-04T19:22:00.003-06:00

Rudy and the Sintenel 1

2009-04-24T16:53:00.004-06:00

Edward Ruiz took these Great Photos of my two new guys

Rudy

and the Sentinel 1

Attack of the Designer Toy show (part 3)

2009-04-24T16:29:00.005-06:00

The Sintenal 1 is my other new guy. He's been in production for quite sometime, yo-yo-ing back and forth in the design stages. I ultimately went with a sleeker design than I began with, and eventually added a large hand and a flashlight.
Below is the Autonomous Rover in a very early stage.

Autonomous Rover (Sentinel 1) (or Sintenal 1)

And the Graphic Artwork (Complete with Atrocious Spelling!)

Attack of the Designer Toy Show (part 2)

2009-04-24T15:45:00.005-06:00

Anybody who knows me knows that I can generate quite an unholy mess, see below for a great example!

The work table with Rudy molding away...

Below is my new piece. He's kind of a combo toy / found object thingy. Here he is in his fresh Resin State.

Below is the Graphic Artwork for my new Character Rudy!
This little Priapatic Fellow certainly gets some giggles!

Attack of the Designer Toy Show (part1)

2009-04-23T14:51:00.000-06:00

Once Again Toy Time has rolled around and delighted the easily amused! Lots of people came through and the overall reaction was quite positive! (Free Beer will do that!)

The Show had everything from Rodents to Robots, with customs and one-of-a-kinds of all sorts. Scott Higgins made and Awesome Smoking Lung which everybody agreed was not only kinda creepy, but was pretty much hilarious as well.

Smoking Lungs...

Ric Bowden of Radioactive Toy Design had some wicked cool little retro-robots with moving arms! The Paint job on these little guys is High and Tight!
The Killbot 3000 was available in resin, and as a poster or T-shirt as well.

KillBot 3000...

Nakanari debuted his custom paint job of Scott Higgins little guy and it was quite simply BaddAss. Things are really looking good for Nakanari !

Nakanari...

Unfortunately I only got a few pics, but our good Friend Edward Ruiz managed to get some great shots. You can Check them out at his Flicker Page!

More Toy Action

2009-04-20T14:08:00.000-06:00

New Toy Stuff coming this way! Once again Avenue Arts Venue had its semi-annual Toy Show. I was happy to participate once again, which means that I get to drive everybody Crazy with my Last Minute Bullshit!

This year I made two guys, of which one of them I am most proud! I let you guess which one...

In the meantime, here are some pics of my previous guys.

Ivan the Red...

Kung Pao, the Chinese Chicken...

Sarge, American Cock Fighter...

And Matillo, The Mexican Hammer Cock...

Abandon all Hope...

2009-04-19T13:54:00.000-06:00

Below is some concept art I made with my Brushes App for the iPhone. It is concept art for a short film I'm currently making with Timothy Andrew Wilson. The Film has been in production for some time now, taking longer than we expected due to the myriad technical challenges we've encountered. The Progress of the film can be followed at my other Blog - Mamu Rising

The Head Wound Guy wanders through the night...

The Interrogator Descends...

The Mona Lisa Curse (channel 4-Limey Town) Download it Yank

2008-09-23T00:31:00.006-06:00

Homo Say What? in this Art Critic uber-bith slapdown Robert Hughes schools you on the overloaded sucky factor of today's astronomically over-priced art. Watching Master Hughes temporal weathered gravity strickin frown turn from undeserved disdain to utter disgust in the presence of Gustave the Klimpts whatever(ass-kiss I guess Idunno) is comic genius diamond plated Skull!

After ample footage of Hughes succumbing to sideburns and frantically typing or smoking or both Mr Hughes, he of the Shock of the New grants us an uncomfortable over the shoulder view of his dismantling of an over enthusiastic art collector whose claim to fame is his fathers 3000 Andy Warhols.

I came for the Damian Hirst bashing but stayed for the Raushenberg. The program has a very entertaing section where Mr Hughes BFF Robert Raushenberg confronts an over zealous Art Collector and actually slaps him on the shoulder when said Douche trys to evade him into the crowd.

The empty can of all this is that Mr Hughes prefers Raushenbergs over-satuated mass media and chaotic Pop aesthetic to Warhols celeberity fetish Pop Method of mass production and calculated marketing. I have to say that i agree woth Mr Hughes on this one.

This is the worlds most expensive piece of art. sigh

Krazy Kontraptions and Krazy Bylaws

2008-09-22T12:00:00.006-06:00

Man oh Man is this game addictive. The game is called Krazy Kontraption and it is fun like Pirated Bacon. I often lie awake late at night mentally engineering level 17.

And Speaking of Pirates check this story out. It seems that the evil powers that be downtown are hard at work destroying the fun and unique. This time it is a Tree House Pirate Ship(Yes!) that the evil overlords of British Columbia have set their sights.

It appears that the courts ordered Architect Andrew Dewberry to remove his kids Tree House Pirate Ship for not complying with city bylaws. Like Pirates respect city bylaws. Oh well maybe they should have built the Arborial Schooner in the back yard instead.

Sorry So Absent

2008-09-18T13:38:00.004-06:00

Haven't Had Many reasons to Blog this year but I am going to try a bit harder. I have recently joined the world of vinyl toy design. I have started a new blog called Dallas Designer Toys - check it out!

Ready or Not...

2007-06-19T17:22:00.000-06:00

Curious little piece of Russian Animation.

I seem to find one or two of these lovely little films each week. And if they are good enough, I will link them here for you to enjoy

Groovy Animation for your Consideration

2007-06-13T11:59:00.001-06:00

Sweet Cheeta

2007-04-13T11:58:00.000-06:00

I hope I do not have to apologize for the simian centric posts as of late but we have some special monkey news for you. Everybody wish Cheeta, the worlds most famous living monkey a wonderful 75th birthday.

According to the internets, Cheeta's career began in 1932 with Tarzan the Ape Man and went on to make a total of 12 Hollywood pictures. Most of Cheeta's pictures were Tarzan films, but he did foray into some animal ensemble work with 1942's Dr Doolittle.

According to Hollywood legend, Cheeta was apparently growing more and more despondent over the publics view of him as Tarzan's sidekick and not the other way around.

After his smashing performance in Dr Doolittle, Cheeta retired to his Palm Springs animal sanctuary were he unwinds embalming sharks in large boxes of glass. No not really, He makes and sells abstract paintings.

I had no idea how long monkeys could live so I checked it out and it appears that monkeys that live in the wild usually live to between 30 and 40, whereas monkeys in captivity live to be about 60.

Unless that monkey picks up bad habits like smoking or wields a firearm in gangsta fashion.

Pan Troglydytes of the World Unite

2007-04-04T18:26:00.000-06:00

It looks like we may have a new spectacle in the Cultural Wars approaching. The Theatre of War this time is ... Wait for it...Vienna- Vienna? say what? Not only that, This showdown is about the human rights of a Chimpanzee!

Check it out

Well it seems it is probably more about his right to stay out of the local vivisection lab. Now a noble crew of Primate Groupies are hurling fist fulls of cash and thumping their chests for all the world, and just generally stirring up some hominid righteousness which, if you think about it, is what is right.

After his trip through the court systems Haisl,the chimp, will surely come out with a new blood thirst for humans and a mean overhand attack with a sharpened stick to impale his chimp detractors.

Or maybe he is held in contempt of court for smoking a cigarette and spends a long week end in the local lock up before being bailed out by Paul McCartney or Robin Williams and ultimately returned to his homeland. Where he would shiv his way to the top and rule benevolently in a self assured god-like status, knowing the human world so intimately. And mucho mating.

All I really know is that he needs to get the hell out of northern Europe. Even their Artist are uniquely barbaric. This Fellow tattoos Swine.

Radio Radio

2007-03-23T09:04:00.001-06:00

So this morning when I am rolling to work in my American Car with FM radio I punch the buttons on the old man side of the dial just in time-I am assured-to ride shotgun with Bad Company or rape and pillage with the mighty Zep.

And predictably for me and classic rock I'm half right.

What I do hear when I tune in is the ending of Led Zeppelins Dancing Days when the lady DJ (always with the lady DJ's these guys) comes on and says that's right That is Dancing Days by Led Zeppelin and it is our Tenth song in a row.

I scream aloud as I wait for my parking gate to open. I scream again "Of Course it's Dancing Days! If you haven't learned that in the last twenty five years then you should be condemned to another twenty five years of listening to this shit" Then My gate opened and they went to commercial and I sat in traffic and punched the buttons some more.

Naturally all of this got me thinking about comfort and predictability.

I commute through the puzzle zones before lunch .Disc Jockey's, in exchange for the promise of a free lunch, posit conundrums for the audience to decipher. The audience is listless and easily distracted.

The familiar noise from the air waves fills thier quiet spots. lists and themes are rigoursly wrought from a small canon of music that stretches from Bono to Zozo. Classic Rock.

The Lunch contests on these radio station are usually in a form not unlike the wheel of fortune where the DJ knows a word or phrase and the listener is supposed to divine this word or phrase from some amalgamation of song titles and band names.

Most times these questions are simple enough for most machine shops, kitchen workers, roofers, carpenters to figure out. The logic is working class as far as I can tell but i have the luxury of having to listen to only the last ten minutes.

Unlike the oldies station that does its best to throw its lunchtime weight around with the office world of women and their many marketability in the obvious parallel of the construction sight- the dentist office gals , the ladies in the printing shops front office, the harpies in accounts receivable at Lockheed Martin.

In a post snack time world where puzzles are hard and just being able to list ten songs passes as achievement, at work when one should be, I dunno working, they waste no time getting their call in in less than ten minutes. And it seems that it is always Alba Garcia who wins.

2007-03-22T20:29:00.000-06:00

So I've been re watching a lot of Peter Greenaway flicks lately and last nights addition was the aptly title The Cook the Thief His Wife and her Lover.

I recall seeing this feature a few times before, but it only looked familiar. So the story seemed new to me.

But I am not here to talk about the film, I just need to note an observation I had while watching this film.

The Bad Guy in the story,Albert Spica- played by Michael Gambone, is a hideous self absorbed thug without a clue as to his vulgarness. Every thing about this character seems to be the prototype of another clueless self absorbed bully Ricky Gervais's David Brent.

Although Greenaway's brute is a disagreeable wife beating murderer with a penchant for scatological violence-he really makes you like him when he shivs a eunuch child-
one must remember he is after all English.

Even though David Brent is a short sighted selfish sycophantic tyrant unable to mask his extraordinary ability to suck-up one wonders how he may behave if he knew his wife was making hot love in the dank blue light of a spider infested mop closet behind the coke machine on the second floor?

Deep Space, Fire and Ice

2007-02-20T19:27:00.001-06:00

Seems like Old Fermi and his Paradox are making the rounds again. But this time the extra-terrestials are waiting on us. And I hope they aren't expecting us to bring the beer.

According to Stephen Webb's new book, If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens… Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life it is the aliens who have come to the conclusion that it is natural, logical and right for other life forms to colonize deep space.

It would appear that everybody is waiting on someone else to make the first move.

And from the Crazy Occidents file we have this.

According to this story, the infamous Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru is smoldering off the coast of New Zealand. The apparent cause of the fire has (ironically) something to do with Whale Oil.

This particular vessel is a bit different then the whaling boats used by Norway and Greenland.

The 8,000 ton "research" vessel not only has a crew of 149 and water cannons for protection, it also has an on board meat processing plant to expedite the whole business of canning whale. It is usually accompanied by several smaller whaling ships of which it uploads their cargo.

This is not the first time that the Japanese Whaling industry has found itself the object of derision. In 1986 several years after the World put a moratoriaum on whale hunting, Japan resumed its ancient practice under the guise of Research.

Greenpeace and other Eco-Activist have repeatedly harassed the Japanese Whaling Industry going as far as ramming one of their ships a few years ago. The Esperanza, Greenpeace's reconfiged tug boat that is well known for shadowing the whaling vessels, received the Nisshin Maru distress call, but the admiral of the ship chose not to receive their help and instead unloaded its crew to one of the additonal whaling vessels traveling with the hunting fleet.

Now the Nisshin Maru smolders in the icy seas of the Antarctic, awaiting for to be swallowed by the mighty leviathan.

You may also remember the Nisshin Maru from Matthew Barney's tedious and lethargic crapterpiece Drawing Restraint no 9.

Incoming Manchu

2007-02-13T23:49:00.000-06:00

I often hear the question, Hey Steven Vogeler, proprietor of this here SvenBlog, what makes you think you have what it takes to blog? And when I tell them that I, Steven Vogeler, proprietor of this here Svenblog only does it for the glory, they look at me as if I may have somehow shamelessly duped them into assisting me with obtaining data on how my blog shows up in search queries. And they may be right.

Remember how the Svenblog contingent was all ready to cancel their subscriptions to Asian Thumbs after China fragged their own Satellite? Well it seems the rest of the world has finally stopped applauding now that they realize all of their precious satellites are now in danger of colliding with some of that yellow tech debris speeding about in loopy orbits at speed upto 10,000 miles per hour.

Long gone are the days when space junk was little more than Monkey parts and the Norton Belt.Today that empty space is a wasteland of blindsiding projectiles. Every thing from Gemini 4 astronaut Edward Whites lost glove to the Vanguard I, launched in 1958 are careening about, destined for re-entry, the Mir or some poor cosmonaut's double wrapped meat sack.

And since we here at Steven Vogeler's Svenblog are big fans of all things cartographical, I now provide you with an approximate map of all the space junk orbiting this mortal coil.

And also for contrast, I give you this rather uncomplicated yet simple cartographical view of something a bit closer to home, Earth junk just doesn't do it justice one would think.

And finally I bring us around to that junk that really sends us for a loop the junk in our trunk that is our DNA. Watch this hypnotic video and forget about all the moon dust and paint flakes that behead future escapees and groove on the almost absolute density of the subject matter and the jabborwockian narration of the seemingly disembodied speaker.

Listen closely as I did and it sounds like some permutation of Latin, now long dead, yet still trying to communicate from deep within. A language not so much lost as absorbed. To consider how these ancient and microscopic systems demand new nomenclature is to consider new worlds, new life.

Amongst the phantasmic jargon and recombinant suffixes, the only verbs I recognized from the narration were secrete, diffuse, activate, trigger, cluster, immobilize, reorganize, migrate, insert.
Sounds like an average day on any scale.

Rubberbands to the future

2007-02-07T00:57:00.000-06:00

Im so so sorry all you nano-fans , it has been a long time since I posted, so long in fact that according to this page, and thinking gestational, which we do here at svenblog, it has been 14,984 days give or take about ten days.

But I hear you and you are probably saying something like"- but what is up with the past and the future and the hey hey uh here and now, what with the comets and the dinosaurs and the comical yet insightful speculations to the demise of our brothers the Neanderthal"?

I won't lie, I wasn't eating sushi, and that got me thinking.

Well not really but here is what I got.

The Japanese seem exceedingly capable of not only finding ancient sea monsters, and catching them on film, yet cannot control physically catching them and thus killing them.

And now that I have your paleo-archeaolgical attention, it looks like that little man from the Flores islands (Homo floresiensis) is up for re-appropriation. He's probably shaken in his yet undiscovered reptilian boots after the shameful bitch slap that Pluto recently took when the Astro's from the planet naming commission downgraded his ass. Now ain't nobody gonna name their child Pluto

And at the other end of the scale is the fascinating concept of Horizontal Gene Transfer. HGT as the lab boys call it, is another spike in that identity crisis I suffer when it comes to contemplating the super-organism that is me.

Basically it is the concept that successful gene combos can cross species by inserting their DNA into another species' DNA by way of bacteria, thus uploading genetic sequences to be uniquely adopted and later grow more adapted.

Kinda like Avian Flu.

Dinner For One, In the Dark

2007-01-23T22:22:00.000-06:00

So you caught me thinking what shall I decide to wear at the end of time? All escatology aside, Enrico Fermi and his pair of weiner dogs (dachsand in German) would deduce that there were to be no guests. He had don his calculations specs and gathered the nearest cocktail napkin and stabbed it staccato with his mechanical pencil. He would wear the clothes he would wear when he was washing all his other clothes. I fancy Fermi wished he had a large array of wardrobes endlessly searching for his perfect suit.

But these one in a million things can be misleading. Consider this-If you live in the southern hemishphere, where I undertand that all pleasure arises from the left hand, you could put on some clothes and step out of your ranch styled bushwack thackshack and behold a mighty spectacle in the sky.

Stellar in its essence and confounding in it presence, this latest gift to the taxonomy of the heavens has a life so mysterious, we wonder if she, in our apparent infancy, may not be the one that delivers our churning cannablistic DNA farm into the kepler belt.

No one saw it coming.

Well actually Robert H McNaught, an astronmer from the underphere conjured it up with the sheer willpower of his comet creating cortex. Or maybe by having the stamina that it takes to become an astronomer Robert H McNaught was paid a star gazers wage to sit around all night in his fancy astro science lab coat and study years and years of photo plates to find what so many of his colleauges never would. A Fuckin New Comet.
I undertand that when he discovered the mighty snake of celestial ice he was wearing his standard astronomy attire-a fancy astro science lab coat.

But science is never pretty, that is why most people do it alone in lab coats.

But what about Comet Schumaker-Levy so many frustrated comet hunters must be thinking. Well yea Schu-Lev was cool. It was new and it had some violence to do, but it all ended up looking like someone throwing a rice crispy at a shirtless Fat Albert.

Somwhere along the other end of all this million to one odds lies the highly disputed theories of the actual apearance of modern culture in the Americas. Did they somehow, like so many other species pilot across the vast waters of the north atlantic on magical McDriftwood, fertile with impregnating info. Or will someday soon that plastic magic global warming reveal ancient pathways sliced through the arctic tectonic plates herding ice age refugees east and west across that most insomniac place on the globe. Never mind the controversies of Mr Ice Cool himself-Keniwick Man, and his arch enemies They who left thier spear in his back, the Clovis People.

But with science straining to listen to the future and religions arguing about the past, can we ever find our way in what appears to be the McNothing? Or can we expect some ark from afar sloshing petri-dishes on this comet raveged rock?

As Above So Below -Breakfast Special with Honor

2007-01-22T23:29:00.000-06:00

Well now that the Chinese have demonstrated thier Big Wong in the form of some Satellite seppuku, hijacked right out of that pure white hot nova of the quintessential Reagan strato-fantasy, have you considered what you are going to eat when the hordes of the city folk (recently insane without thier precious satellites to guide and remember and connect them with thier normal lives, now ripped asunder amd wandering, whining like cortexless emotidrones) choose to desend upon your beautiful garden?
Well I am proud to announce that some determined meat researchers (Yeah Meat Researchers)are using the Black Magic of stem cells to grow the sweet yet sour pork. I like to think of these petri dish designers as some newfangled demiurge ceasley pushing and pandering and providing us with a sustainable life source that has all the hallmarks of an intelligent creator except that part were we kill other living beings to eat them. And Fuck yeah they're Dutch!

And finally in tonights post, I would like to comment on T.A. Winstons contribution in my comments section on the earlier post Mouth Swabs and the Feline Chapel were he so scooly upknowed me to This which in no way reminded me epicuraly of this meatball genie who, let me quote said "You are not a cannibal if you eat art," although his art was made with liposcutioned fat from his own self admittadly fat body.

I am soon overwrought with heavy spells of nausea and thermal dreams that leave me cold and sweaty and some how, through my own fog, reminded me of an other alternate food source that the lean and mean red china machine may be outdistancing us even now, as we eat the solar meat, that eats so neat from the carpets of green outside your satellite dependent panopticons.
And I tremble when I see the Manderin orchards of athanors reflecting wet Mao chrome incubating endless strands of DNA for strains of taste, protein, consistency, logrythmlicly generated to make use of the endless language that is The Rockin Music of life, and in a horrified splendor awesome with celluar architecture, I rapidly taste test the æons of life and yet I always wake up when i see my fellow man eat the petriogenesis of the large man from the valley of Neander.

Mouth Swabs and the Feline Chapel

2007-01-20T00:03:00.000-06:00

How often do you ask yourself, Do I have what it takes to purchase beautiful art made from me or my pet's personal DNA sequence? Well ponder no more, or at least a little less because todays special sponsered link from Gmail happens to be a fancy little sight that goes by the ever proud little name of DNA Artistry and from what they claim, they know the art of science like Gunther Van Hagen knows the art of the long pause. Pet lovers, gods bless you, I can only wonder how you can continualy prove your unconditional love to those lesser forms of life, how you ceasley spare-change them the luxuries of a normal existence, the love and warmth of a medium sized suburban home, the food in a bowl, the litter boxes obstucting the path to the garage and your favorite magazine, maybe People, or Us of which you are trying to read for to them to lie upon. I may someday understand your obsession with accumulating a wealth of beasts who depend on you, in great numbers stare at you, in the afternoon lick you awake. I may find myself in a place where it is clear that a household of cats, and thier kittens, may provide some kind of clutter to fill the orchard of holes in that vast emptiness that is a soul, and I suspect that, time willing, I could find some understanding in living in a world of festering feline filth.
But I still have a bit of a problem with this DNA as art thing. First of all, how do I know that is my (or my cats) DNA?, As far as I know these guys (or gals) could be running some fancy alogrithym using G T A and what ever that other letter is (C?) to make random Art work that reminds me of Tetris with a directional blur. Whatever. And how do they determine what colour to make my painting (yes that was color from the olde english)? Pantene phenotype receptors? Listen DNA Artistry guys, my dog, Max, rest his soul, is fucking brown. Got that, Good because I dont want a Personal DNA sequenced piece of art if it doesen't match my dog-er couch. And if I do decide to make a personalized piece of art from my DNA sequence, I would prefer it to be in a landscape format. I forgot to tell you, I fancy myself a bit of a DNA artist myself but Marcel Duchamp already owns all that and a bandage from a head wound that looks like General George Washinton, IN BLOOD!

Where have you gone Guy de Maupassant?

2007-01-14T21:33:00.000-06:00

Did you know that in January 1984, the year I was kicked out of my local high school, that Art The Garfunkel was plowing his way through James Joyce's Ulysses? Me either. But God-damnit if I Didn't find the proof. Here is a list of all the books that Art Garfunkel has read since 1968. Quite the well read Harmonizer we should all agree.

suicide bridge

2007-01-13T21:48:00.000-06:00

Coincedence in the Incal World.
Oddly enough, recently new to me

Aether Naught

2007-01-12T20:54:00.000-06:00

I have heard it said (much more eloquently than I can put it) that the above drawing may be my finest work . Evah. AHHH Memento mori.

Hot Licks - Extra Cheese

2007-01-12T20:15:00.000-06:00

Of course I thought it prudient to start this sight off with a bit of shameless pandering to the masses in order to draw some hits to my sight. Naturally I thought of linking to that double neck weilding Guitar Hero Mr Pizza. I enjoy this little slice of genius for three reasons.
1. Pizza!
2. Guitar Hero
3. Clark Vogeler behind the camera*

*Clark is my brother and he can rock you some GH anyday.

Primordial Soup D'Jour

2007-01-12T14:31:00.000-06:00

Bow down you post-modern pygmies - Sven's got a Blog! Now when you need your fill of over- opinionated and highly inaccurate bloviating this is the place. Expect much ballyhoo on incongruous themes ranging from ambiogenesis to the phantom limb. Also expect much ado about nuttiness from around the intertubes. You may also find, on occasion, humorous diatribes against the inanities of the modern world. Make note that you will see no sophistry whatsoever.