New Anime Review Section!!

We have had loads of emails asking ESP if we are into our anime and the short answer is: Hell Yes!! Anime has been a major part of the ESP Team's visuals libraries for years and so we have asked a major anime nerd (otaku) to join our team! JJPeebody is gonna help all of you decide whether or not to stock your own libraries up with some choice DVD's that are available at the moment. Peebody has got them all; there's gonna be reviews of old movies and series, brand new ones, scary ones, weird ones and whatever else that may float your boat. If you jump to the enlarged picture above, you will see just a small fraction of the anime reviews we have in store for you.
We will be starting the anime reviews from this coming weekend and appreciate any feedback we can get on them.....

Security Guard Snake

To their high society owners, a pair of haute couture shoes can be a precious thing. But to guard a 62,000 pound (120,000 dollar) pair of ruby- sapphire- and diamond-encrusted Rene Caovilla sandals at their London launch, retailer Harrods went to extreme lengths: bringing in a live Egyptian cobra to patrol the shoe counter. Whether hiring a poisonous snake is, strictly speaking, the most effective means of guarding precious footwear might be a moot point with security experts."

Man, the lengths people go to get a bit of publicity eh? And here i am posting about it!

Source

Jeff Soto Show

A definite fave artist here at ESPV, Jeff Soto just opened a new exhibition at the Jonathan Levine Gallery. Another group of incredible paintings that we will never be able to afford and I guess we will just have to gawp at the jpeg images instead. Wish we could be there to see them in person.....








Thanks to Supertouch for the super images!

Best Custom Bart Qee

Recently, there's been a whole bunch of custom 10" Bart Qees done for various shows and to be honest, I haven't found many of them to be very original or inspiring. Finally Plastic & Plush posted a decent one by the artist M.Heisler, who was originally known for his original Slobots creations. It will be exhibited at Toy Tokyo in NYC this coming week. Apparently, the LED light in Bart's eye works as well as having articulated arms and legs and a small mini Bart controlling the robot.

Animated Album Art

Brilliant little animation of when album art turns bad.

Thanks to Jeff Metal from Look Rare for the cool vid.

U.S. Spaceport Unveiled

A very interesting and tragic story regarding the unveiling of the newly-proposed "Spaceport America".:-

"The press conference unveiling the design for Spaceport America, the New Mexico facility from which Virgin Galactic intends to launch paying customers on suborbital spaceflights, was originally going to be held on July 27. The day before, however, a tragic explosion killed three engineers at a test facility in California operated by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, the company building Virgin's spacecraft.



The press conference was quickly postponed to September 4, which unfortunately turned out to be the day after adventurer Steve Fossett, a close friend of Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and pilot of Rutan's around-the-world Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft, disappeared on a flight over the Nevada desert. His condition remains unknown, but many fear he perished in a crash.



The announcement went ahead because it wasn't until Tuesday morning that news of Fossett's disappearance began to circulate. The timing is terrible, of course, for Branson and the Virgin team—who, according to a statement released by Branson, are hopeful that Fossett has survived.



The spaceport is quite striking, which isn't surprising given that it was designed by famed British architect Norman Foster, in collaboration with American design firm URS Corp. The facility is a low-slung structure that uses natural earth as a berm and relies on passive energy for heating and cooling, with photovoltaic panels for electricity and water-recycling capabilities. A press release describes "a rolling concrete shell that acts as a roof with massive windows opening to a stunning view of the runway and spacecraft. The terminal and hangar facility are projected to cost about $31 million, and will provide a destination experience for visitors to Spaceport America. It will include Virgin Galactic's pre-flight and post-flight training facilities and lounges, as well as the maintenance hangar for two White Knight 2 and five Spaceship 2 aircraft."



Words [VIA]
Images Courtesy of Spaceport America

Drum Pants

A wicked hacker known as Odbol has invented wearable drum trousers.......Sound strange? Check out the video and his SITE for even more weirdness.

"DrumPants are a wearable set of pants and gloves that enable the wearer to produce drum sounds by hitting various parts of the pants with his hands. The wearer thusly becomes a cyborg musician, his body assuming the roles of both player and instrument, allowing for spontaneous electric hambone solos or even collaborations with other musicians in a band setting."



And just outta interest; hambone percussion was totally new to me, I had never heard of it before and was blown away by this below video too!



To get a tutorial on how to make your own drumpants, visit Odbol's site HERE.

Science Tattoos

Ektopia recently posted about anatomical tattoos and that gave me the idea to post Scientific tattoos. Apparently, "geek" tattoos are big right now with more and more intellectuals getting some form of scientific message tattooed on their bodies. Here are a few that I found from a gallery on the Metro site:

This guy had the entire periodic table of elements emblazoned on his arm.

The formula for working out the Schwarzchild radius of a given mass (the radius at which, if the mass were compressed to fit within it, the mass couldn't be stopped from undergoing gravitational collapse). Black Holes.


Einstein's formula for the equivalence of mass and energy on one arm, Newton's Second Law of Motion on the other.

The graphical message that was engraved into plaques placed on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 space probes - universally comprehensible messages sent from humanity to any alien intelligences that might encounter the craft.

A dromaeosaur - that's the family of dinosaurs that includes Velociraptors and Deinonychus.

Brick Lane Music Festival

If you are not going to Bestival this weekend then check the Brick Lane Music festival taking place this Sunday 9th September. Four brick lane boozers (Vibe Bar, 93 Feet East, 1001 and the Bill Chill bar) will be joining forces to bring us this one day free music festival.

93 FEET EAST Feat.PETE AND THE PIRATES // THE MOTHS //SKYLINE // LE SHARK // THE BRICK LANE BOOGIE BOYS // THE DUKE OF UKE PRESENTS THE CRISPS //OUT-DOOR THEATRE from // THE DOG-EARED COLLECTIVE //

VIBE BAR Feat.IMPERIAL LEISURE // SHAMELESS & BAND //FOREIGN BEGGARS // SKALLYWAGS //TOM MANSI AND THE ICE BREAKERS // MC XANDER & DUB FX // Plus THEATRE // CABARET & BURLESQUE FROM FEEDBACK

BIG CHILL BAR Feat.NORMAN JAY // DJ SHEPDOG

CAFE1001MINIMAL TECHNO RAVE Bringing the RESIDENT DJS of CAFE1001 to all day & night rave Plus CAPOEIRA // DRUMMERS // PAINTING and MORE

SUNDAY 09-SEPT. 07 | 12pm-02am | FREE ENTRY
OLD TRUMAN BREWERY | BRICK LANE E1

Thanks to the ever informative MJAR for the info!

Cool Tee

"Back in 2005, (see image below)Hong Kong’s premier skate shop 8five2 put together a special collaborative t-shirt with LA skate brand Diamond Supply Co. Using the same provocative slogan “Hong Mutha’ Fuck n’ Kong!” as before, In4mation has now given their own little twist on this latest t-shirt."

I wanted one of these back in 2005 but missed the chance, now they are back again for the second installment of HKG cheekiness. PHilfy, any chance you could get me one pleeeease?



"Back in 2005, Hong Kong’s premier skate shop 8five2 put together a special collaborative t-shirt with LA skate brand Diamond Supply Co. Using the same provocative slogan “Hong Mutha’ Fuck n’ Kong!” as before, In4mation has now given their own little twist on this latest t-shirt."

What can i say? You gotta represent your hood right?

Available from 8five2. Info & Images [VIA]

Camilla d'Errico

This is an artist to look out for in the future. Camilla d'Errico has a sweet style that is very comic-esque, sexy and kinda dark all at once. She's doing a show tonight in LA with two other female artists, Kelly Haigh (Vancouver, BC) and Angelina Wrona (Merrickville, ON). sponsored by the Thinkspace Gallery entitled "Triple Threat".



This is what her website had to say about her work:

"I am a product of my split heritage, Italian and Canadian rolled into one. Being Italian I am used to drama; growing up it was the loud voice, the hit and the hug. And growing up in Canada I adopted independence, high levels of politeness and the need for Saturday morning cartoons.



I first got into comics in high school when I was constantly drawing dragons and sexy girls for fun. It was in 2000 that I attended the San Diego Comic Con International. I realized the instant I walked through the doors that I wanted to draw comic books and illustrate for life. Coming to the conclusion that a 9-5 day job would kill me, my course was soon clear to me.



I drew comics for a few years and realized that I could actually expand my style into a variety of genres. Snowboards, advertisements, magazine covers, the mulitude of possibilites continues to grow. I feel like I've really begun to carve out a niche for myself all due to my unusually high amibition and fiery Italian nature."



WEBSITE via info from Vinyl Pulse.
Images copyright of Camilla d'Errico.

Takashi Amano The Aquascaper

Imagine you have had a long day at work, you get home and crack open a bottle of beer. Instead of turning on your telly, you settle down in front of a fishtank designed by the world-renowned aquascaper Takashi Amano. This is a dream for me and hopefully, one day, it'll come true. Aquascaping is being taken more and more seriously in the design world and so it should be! It's not all about landscaping and architecture you know! Mr. Amano is in my opinion, the king of all aquarists as he actually takes so much care into each tank he designs, big or small.






I have come to realise that if you want to be good in this game, you have to have the patience of a saint! The plants (flora) must establish their root networks first and the water quality must be pristine before any animals (fauna) can be introduced. This can actually take from 4-6 months! A period of time most of us would not be bothered to wait. However, if it is all done correctly, it will involve less daily up-keep than a normal fishtank as it it becomes self-cleaning, non dirty/smelly ecosystem that looks after itself.
For tutorials and more info, check his WEBSITE