Happy New Year

This is the trick, forget a terrible year and we can break the laws until it gets weird :)

I love Jaguar Love

But y'all already knew that

BALCONY FORT

Had a nap in here, drew some pictures and listened to MGMT and Late of The Pier. Perfect afternoon. Merry Christmas for tomorrow!

2011 Lists!!!!

FAVOURITE SONGS!!!

1. Bon Iver- Calgary
2. M83- Midnight City
3. The Rapture- How Deep Is Your Love?
4. 47 Diamantes ft. Tommy Ill- Armageddon Ready
5. Jaime xx/Adele/Childish Gambino- Rolling In The Deep (remix)
6. Jay-Z & Kanye West- N*ggas in Paris
7. Toro y Moi- Still Sound
8. Unknown Mortal Orchestra- ffunny ffrends
9. Metronomy- The Bay
10. James Blake- Wilhelm Scream
11. Florence And The Machine- Shake It Out
12. YACHT- Dystopia
13. The Horrors- Still Life
14. Radiohead- Lotus Flower
15. Jaime xx/Gill Scott Heron- I’ll Take Care Of U
16. Tommy Ill- Birdbath
17. Santigold ft.Karen O- Go!
18. Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris- We Found Love
19. Class Actress- Keep You
20. Cut Copy- Need You Now

FAVOURITE MOVIES!!!!!

1. Drive
2. Submarine
3. Paul
4. Rango
5. Thor..? Okay I barely saw any 2011 films this year so this list is super limited sorry

FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEOS!!!!

1. Disasteradio- Gravy Rainbow
2. Radiohead- Lotus Flower
3. Battles ft. Gary Numan- My Machine
4. Metronomy- She Wants
5. Is Tropical- The Greeks
6. Tommy Ill- Birdbath
7. M83- Midnight City
8. TV on the Radio- You
9. Kanye West- All Of The Lights
10. Lloyd- Dedication to My Ex (Miss That) 

Worlds Be Colliding: Team Perfect cover Nimrod

Okay so this actually came out in 2007, and I discovered it myself back in July, but recent events have made it a perfect time to recommend this to you (plus I only just found the download link again). Team Perfect is Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine), and Dev Hynes (aka Lightspeed Champion aka Blood Orange), two of the coolest people in UK indie, and this album is short mix of the two of them covering Green Day's 1997 album "Nimrod", with all tracks recorded in one take on Dev's laptop.
As you may know, Green Day were the first band I ever loved, and I still believe they can write the perfect pop song. I love this because it ties the geeky high-schooler and the geeky twenty-year old in me together in just 8 or so low-fi acoustic songs. It's cool to a Green Day fan as they cover the less-known album tracks (Nimrod admittedly had a lot of filler, which Dev and Flo choose to highlight) and re-interpret them as folk-punk with a female voice, and it's cool also to hear a rawer version of Florence's usually choir-leader-in-the-mountains voice. Most of all, I love this because you can hear the fun the two are clearly having recording this, and in the end isn't that what it's all about?

Download it here! 
(Also feel free to use the album cover I made for it. Happy Birthday Manu!)

Awesome People Dressed As Captain America: Volume 1

Florence Welch

Micheal Cera

Stay tuned for another exciting installment of Awesome People Dressed As Captain America!

I made a Flash Website

You guys should check out the flash website I made for an imaginary record label, because you're cool and I'm fairly sure that's what cool people do.

http://studentdesign.cpit.ac.nz/level6viscom/garethBlackler/

Hope you like it!

(If you don't see a menu at the bottom, you may have to zoom your browser out to fit the page in...)

Live Every Week Like It's Bill Murray Week

I haven't been sleeping well due to deadline stress and it bringing up other anxieties, so last night I took the night off and slept at my parent's house to recharge my batteries. Here's hoping it worked!

Anyway, it's Bill Murray Week this week, so I thought I'd share the t-shirt of my Bill Murray print I made back in July but have been too afraid to wear, since I used water-based ink and can never wash it.

I heart LCD Soundsystem 2

I think they had to break up because they were hogging all of the awesomeness in the world.

I’m up in the woods, I’m down on my mind

Possibly one of my favourite drawings I've ever done.

Go see Drive, you guys

I don't write about movies here that much, which is weird as I'm a pretty huge movie nerd. Anyway the film "Drive" is out in NZ cinemas and it's very good. I saw and advanced screening a week or so ago, because I'm a big-shot, and I still can't really think of a good way to describe it, except to say it's very stylish, very well-made (and pretty violent), but mainly it creates a really strong mood that stays with you for a while after you leave the theatre, which is a very good thing.

Also the soundtrack is amazing:

Oh No!

A page of development for this flash website I'm working on, it's pretty fun.

Dancing in the Moonlight

Music almost finished after Toploader released this, as the world was worried they'd never be able to make anything better. FACT.

Damn Yeezy and Hov, where the hell ya been?

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, been super busy and without internet! But anyway here's a photo of my new flatmate, Professor Hootsworth. He is terrifying.

Look! I made a Mash-up!

What do you do when you've got a presentation due? Mash-up your two favourite rappers, of course.

Shameless Posting Of Something I've Made And Am Proud Of 2

I recently used my nerdy powers to access my profile from last year on the CPIT computers, and found a bunch of my work from last year that I thought had been deleted. So to celebrate, I thought I'd share one of them. This is one of the pictures I included in my Concertina book from June last year. The real concertina book had this neat interactive 3D changing mechanism thing that I cant really recreate online, but I like this picture anyhow.

This probably isn't worthy of a blog post but I may have found the perfect website

http://meowmania.jqln.org/

Ransom note #1

Let me hear that sooooong

The Rapture- "How Deep Is Your Love?"

I'm obsessed with this song right now, it's possibly a candidate for my favourite song of the year so far, can't wait for the album.

Also I'm loving how between this and M83, Lady Gaga, Bon Iver etc, the saxophone is on it's way back. This guy would be proud.

If you've been wondering what the best t-shirt in the world looks like, it looks like this

So great. It's got the exact same picture on the back too, my only disappointment is that it doesn't glow in the dark. It's pretty much the t-shirt equivalent of two kittens in a barrel.

I like this artist: Derek Eads

Derek Eads is an illustrator and film buff who creates works inspired by his love of pop culture, especially the iconic roles of actors. I discovered him while I was working on this, (discovering he'd kinda done the same thing before me) and I was hugely inspired, as you can probably guess. Check out more of his stuff (he has lots and it's all good and every year he has a Bill Murray week which is something I totally agree with) on his tumblr: derekeads.tumblr.com

Spongebob Dylan

(My favourite, obviously)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception

You rule, JGL.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Brick

I am graceful and stuff

This week's been pretty good, I'm excited for the new assignments at CPIT, my new haircut's working, and I'm feeling kinda positive about turning this year around and making it better. Also I did some sweet flips on the playground at work.

It took some time:

But if you follow your dreams, you too can do a sweet flip on a bar in a playground!

Oh hey guys I'm twenty now

Yesterday was my twentieth birthday. I'd spent the weekend before it freaking out a little over the whole concept of growing up, mainly listening to T-Rex's "Teenage Dream" a lot. As it was a Sunday, the night before my birthday I played cards at Lances, and it was then that James and Tom and I decided I should run down the beach at midnight to commemorate my becoming a man. Since Tom didn't want sand in his slippers, we decided to run down the pier instead. So, at 11:58pm we found ourselves at the pier in the freezing cold of night, before running the whole length of the pier, reaching the end at the stroke of midnight. From there, the ocean and everything beyond the pier was seriously like a wall of black, whereas everything behind us was still lit by the lanterns. It was one of the five or so moments in my life so far that would make a powerful metaphorical scene in a bad arthouse film. Even though I was dying from the run there (I'm so unfit, you guys), I gave an impromptu speech about the unknown future and such, then we strolled back down the pier and blasted Kesha on the radio in the car home.

My twenties don't seem as scary anymore.

Snowman John Lennon

Got home to Christchurch to find it still covered in snow, but warm, so the ultimate mix. So I spent my morning creating this guy. I spent my afternoon trying to come up with Beatles & Snow-related puns.

Went to Dunedin and it was cool as

(Cool as in COLD, hahaha)

Just came back from an awesome break in Dunedin. Here's a small list of the things I did:

• Went to the Aviary
• Attended an art exhibition
• Bought a secret goldfish
• Had a picnic in a hallway
• Had some slumber parties
• Went to a party with a ska band who's singer looked like a creepy guy from my high school
• Wore a cardboard monocle and mustache combo
• Started a band that almost performed at the open mike night, but got cut last minute
• Started a different band called Sexvillian
• Ate a lot of burgers and the world's biggest icecream
• Mixed red wine and coke, lived to tell the tale
• Went to a nightclub that had some sort of Super Mario-esque tunnel system beneath it
• Wore girl's clothing
• Looked awesome in girl's clothing
• Owned at that name on forehead game
• Watched Fantastic Mr Fox twice
• Danced a dance
• Enjoyed some snow

And much much more. It was probably one of my favourite trips ever. If anyone from Dunedin's reading this, you guys all rock and I can't wait to see you all again :D

Drink more juice, guyz

One of my ads for a project re-branding Christchurch apple juice company Mill Orchard. My target market was childless Generation X-ers who are getting older and starting to think healthy.

Here be Dragon

My illustration project, the dragon thing from the Ted Hughes book the Iron Man (the book The Iron Giant was loosely based on). Designing the dragon was alot of fun and I'm super-proud of it, especially the mouths. I think in the movie adaptation of this drawing one of the heads would be played by Liam Neeson.

I heart LCD Soundsystem

So I've been feeling pretty down for the last month and a half or so, the kind of down where I only get out of bed to lie on the couch, bla bla bla angst. Anyway, it was on a lonesome Saturday night that I stumbled across an mp3 of a song called "New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down" on my laptop. I listened and it was brilliant. The next day I did a little bit more research and discovered another LCD Soundsystem song, "All My Friends". And woah. That song, you guys. Go listen to it now. You're back? Good. Anyway, something about it, maybe the driving piano line, who knows, gave me the motivation to get out of bed and do something, I didnt know what, but something good. A few days later I completely impulsively bought their album "Sound Of Silver" on Amazon, it arrived the other week and I've been listening to it pretty much every day. I don't think I've been this excited about a band since I discovered Jaguar Love, it's amazing. The songs are a bit longer and more like dance music in structure than I'm used to, but its great, they never overstay their welcome, instead building up and up until your mind is sufficiently blown, then the album moves on to do the exact same thing with the next song. So good, it's like an album made of the pie from Spiderman 3 (If you're reading this, James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem, feel free to use that as a pull quote).

Anywho, things are getting a bit TL;DR over here, so I'll leave you with possibly one of my new favourite songs, "Someone Great". Enjoy!

Happy Bloguversary!

It's been a year since I started this blog. For better or worse, it's been a huge year, and I'm really quite proud of myself for still keeping this thing going. I hope you've enjoyed reading it and stuff.

Happy first birthday Kyd Wykkyd, in no time you'll be a big Adylt Wykkd! (Expect worse puns in the year ahead)

It's kinda hard to keep feeling down when you have sweet highlighter-coloured shoelaces like these.

9 Portraits of Bill Murray

My Pattern for Printmaking class. Drawing this has been the most fun I've had on a class assignment all year, and I can't wait to make it into a screen print. If you're interested, my favourite Bill Murray role is Herman Blume, I really loved Life Aquatic, and I haven't actually seen Lost In Translation yet.

Just C-3PO out for a night on the town

(Insert Robot pick-up lines here)

Todays drawings

I don't even know what I've done here.

Character from a comic I'll probably never finish

Best Damn Evening

I had a really nice evening tonight. I currently feel like this:

Goodnight internet!

www.thebestpictureontheinternet.com

I like this artist: Aled Lewis

I remember recently waiting for a page at the printers and playing with a toy tank and a dinosaur thingy while I waited. I wish the game I was playing was as cool as these pictures from Aled Lewis' set of works "Toy Stories". They rule.

This horse shares my opinion on haters:

And I'm always up for good classic video game reference:

Anyway, here's the rest of this neat set, enjoy!!! I'm off to buy some toys...

I like this artist: John Kenn

(This was the post I was working on before the quake..)

John Kenn does awesome intricate line drawings of monsters on post-it notes. If thats not the coolest thing you've heard in ages, then I don't know what is (but then again I don't know everything you've heard in "ages" either). Anyway, they're pretty much like a mix of Edward Gorey (writer of one of my favourite alphabet books) and Hayao Miyazaki. Which is pretty much the best mix.

"It is a little window into a different world, made on office supplies."

Here's his site! johnkenn.blogspot.com

Earthquake

I'm not going to write too much about this, but it's something I kinda have to write about? I don't know. Anyway, a month ago a 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch (whilst I was actually writing a draft for this blog). We'd already lived through a 7.1 and pretty much all came through unharmed, there were no deaths and most people I know kept their homes. This was a nightmare version of that. My flat was destroyed, and I'll probably never see any of my belongings again. Most of Christchurch beloved buildings are destroyed beyond repair. Worse then that, many people died or are still missing. It's pretty much like living in a worst-case scenario.

But now, a month on, I'm beginning to rebuild my life. I was so lucky in that my friends, family and loved ones are still alive, and that's the important thing. Everything I did lose was pretty much replaceable (except for my art stuff), and although I miss my life at Poplar Lane, I'm optimistic things will turn out better eventually :)

Till then, I'm gonna focus on the positive. And I'm hoping this blog will help me do so!

Stay safe and keep being awesome, friends.

-Gareth

Follow The White Rabbit!

Because I'm a giant nerd, I've spent my summer doing bits and pieces of designy work. I've made a calender for my Mum for Christmas, messed around on illustrator making t-shirts and album covers and now I've actually designed a poster for a shop!!!!

Check it! Follow The White Rabbit is a really great vintage shop in the poplar lanes which sells all manner of cool things, from awesome jewellery to old Little Golden books. However, they're having trouble advertising so Danica and I have offered to make posters for them. Here's mine! It'll be posted up when the get a Men's section (as the bunny's too manly otherwise). I can't wait to see something I made and am quite proud of on walls around the city :D Until then, please visit Follow The White Rabbit (the poster has all the details). I'm sure you'll love it.

Two Corgis playing tetherball!!!

There is nothing more to say, other then: "AWWWWWHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Lists!!!!!

FAVOURITE SONGS!!!

1. Jaguar Love- Cherry Soda
2. MGMT- Flash Delirium
3. Johnny Whitney- Blinding Rage
4. Kanye West- Monster
5. Mark Ronson- Bang Bang Bang
6. The Naked and Famous- Young Blood
7. Tommy Ill- Robot
8. Die! Die! Die!- How Ye
9. Gorrillaz- Stylo
10. All of the music from the film Scott Pilgrim vs the World because that movie is amazing you guys seriously
11. Vampire Weekend- Giving Up The Gun
12. Felix Cartel- Volcano
13. So So Modern- The Worst Is Yet To Come
14. Duck Sauce- Barbra Streisand
15. Kele- Tenderoni
16. Hot Chip- I Feel Better
17. Klaxons- Echoes
18. Lil Wayne- Right Above It
19. Kid Cudi- Erase Me
20. Drake- Over

FAVOURITE MOVIES!!!!!

1. Scott Pilgrim vs The World
2. Inception
3. Toy Story 3
4. Fantastic Mr Fox
5. Kick-Ass

FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEOS!!!!

1. Hot Chip- I Feel Better
2. Holy Fuck- Red Lights
3. Gorrilaz- Stylo
4. MGMT- Flash Delirium
5. The XX- Islands
6. Vampire Weekend- Giving Up The Gun
7. OK Go- This Too Shall Pass
8. Kanye West-Runaway (40 minute version)
9. Tommy Ill- Robot
10. Grinderman- Heathen Child

Happy New Year!!!

"Happy New Year?" I hear you exclaim as you accidentally click on this blog whilst looking for a forum to post your Teen Titans slash fiction "But it's the 12th of January! He is late!"

Well you're wrong, Hypothetical stranger, wrong wrong wrong. Because every year, as it is happening, is a new year, and to state happy new year at any point of said year is to celebrate this. Anyway, to celebrate 2011, heres a photo of a drawing of a fashionable gazelle.

TWENTY ELEVEN!!! C'MON!!!