More than you care to know about SART 3480 “LOL” COMICS

October 3rd, 2010

Before I became a superstar artist with several website domains registered in my name, I used to attend university where I learned the tools and skills to be unemployed and miserable. It’s also where I created SART 3480 “LOL” COMICS, my groundbreaking unfinished clipart comic saga. Anyhow, last weekend I ran into a long-unseen friend at a bar who with fond recollections mentioned to me how much he liked the comic back when it was still alive and hopeful for the future.  Whether he was a little drunk at the time or a lot, the kind words stuck with me and were apparently all it took to get me to dig up all the old strips and put them back online, right where God intended them to be (on the left sidebar under “Projects”). While I could go on at great length about what made SART 3480 “LOL” COMICS so special, so endearing that someone still remembers it over three years after the fact, I’ve decided to just hit you with a quick point-form list of trivia—answers to the questions you haven’t even had the chance to ask. Brimming with exclusive, never-before-shared creative insights, you may opt not to read these divulgences until after you’ve absorbed all thirty-six gut-busting strips. Or, eager to tackle the text with as much background understanding as possible, you may choose to read my insider knowledge beforehand. Ultimately, it’s really up to you and how you want your SART “LOL” experience to be (i.e. as painless as possible). Make your decision now, and find the facts after the jump.

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Yukon Do It!

September 30th, 2010

I just received a letter from the Windsor Printmaker’s Forum that Sense of Place, their touring printmaking show which includes an etching of mine, has now opened at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse, where it runs until October 29th. (You check out my contribution on the gallery’s website).

Whitehorse. Wow. I’ve never been to the Yukon. Then again, I’ve hardly been anywhere. In fact, over the past couple years I would say my art has logged more miles on the road than I have. Reminders of my boring life aside, submitting to and being accepted for Sense of Place has been quite a boon. All its touring has really padded my sorry-looking CV, and the artist fees it’s paid have been a pleasant surprise, not to mention some of my only art-derived income ever (I should really make a career out of this). It’s a good show, too, put together very well with a nice catalogue and some notable guest speakers. If you happen to be in Whitehorse over the next month I would certainly recommend you take a peek, and e-mail me some pictures so I can see how it looks, too. Just until I make it up there myself, of course.

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Commercially Sponsored Websites for Kids: Chapman’s Kids Club

September 22nd, 2010


“Wow! Angry Dad, an internet cartoon! I’ll be in cyberspace next to the Nabisco cookie website!” – Bart Simpson, “I Am Furious Yellow”

In an otherwise typically mediocre later-season episode of The Simpons, Bart’s enthusiasm for the opportunity to have his work placed alongside the online home of a leading manufacturer of junk food says much about the corporate sector’s thoughtfulness in providing free entertainment to the internet’s largely neglected school-age audience. While parents and grown-ups enjoy the full vastness of the World Wide Web and its myriad shopping, at-home stock trading and kink-oriented social networking sites, kids often face a veritable needle-in-a-haystack challenge to find even one new website that meets their hard-wired need for product-related games and activities. Fortunately for the morning cartoon contingent the path to browser-window fun can often be found as nearby as the kitchen pantry, the fridge freezer or on a favourite television station. With these words in mind I invite you to read and play along as I seek out the best in children’s online amusement in this, the first installment of Commercially Sponsored Websites for Kids!

Today I take a “lick” at Chapman’s Kids Club, the interactive webzone from Canada’s leading manufacturer of economy-priced frozen desserts. Will children love Chapman’s games and activities as much as they love their Super Lollies and checkerboard ice cream? Find out after the jump!

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The Lesser Vandals’ Greater Hits

September 15th, 2010

As undisputable greatest punk band of all-time The Vandals find themselves once again the target of frivolous legal action from entertainment trade rag The Daily Variety, some so-called “old school” or “classic Vandals” fans have cited their hard luck as a case of karmic comeuppance for bassist Joe Escalante’s alleged misappropriation of the Vandals’ name, songs and master tapes following the successive departure of his then-bandmates during the mid-to-late eighties. It’s messy stuff, and impossible for me to say who did who wrong way back when, but I can say that the ‘new’ and to-this-day fixed incarnation of The Vandals is leaps and bounds better than the original in just about every way possible. That being said, the cruder, less polished Stevo-fronted Vandals of yore wrote and recorded some gems themselves, and though they were an almost entirely different band it would be unfortunate to overlook their contribution to the group’s stellar discography.

And so, preamble aside, here’s a list, in no particular order, of my five favourite songs by the early-eighties era Vandals. They can all be found spread over their debut Peace Thru Vandalism EP (Epitaph, 1982) and When in Rome Do as the Vandals full-length (National Trust, 1984). Listen to these songs, cherish them, and one day pass them on to your children as I have to you. Streams and comments after the jump:

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Adam Medley: artist/person/blogger

September 13th, 2010

Returning visitors to adammedley.com (hi Mom!) will have noticed that the site has undergone an overhaul in the last week or so, with the addition of sidebars, a blogroll, a goofy little picture of me, and much more. After having had a rather plain artist’s website up over the course of the summer I decided that I’m not really a conventional artist (or strictly a visual artist, or maybe not an artist at all), and that a conventional artist’s website didn’t suit me. I felt that I wanted to write more, which I would never get around to doing if I didn’t have an immediate, unfettered venue to publish in. So, a few days ago I sat down with web design expert and good friend of mine Dale Harrison (ask about his broke-ass artist discount) to begin rebuilding my site with a focus on blogging. My artwork is all still here and looking slicker than ever (find it under ‘Projects’ on the left sidebar), but I’m imagining that the main week-to-week attraction from here on out will largely be my fantastic new blog. It’s going to be the best blog around, with a lot fussy media criticism, insightful, original essays and a torrent of brazen, unfounded call-outs against a Toronto arts community that has done absolutely nothing to engender these feelings of inadequacy and alienation that I harbour as an artist. Expect occasional posts on semi-obscure punk bands and old video games as well, as these are topics I like to discuss more than any other. If you think any of this may interest you, please bookmark my site, subscribe to the RSS feed, tattoo its url to your forearm–anything to help you remember to come back and visit often–and follow along as I try in vain to string together a sentence without the aid of a thesaurus. I’m guessing my enthusiasm for this won’t even last until Christmas.

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    Adam Medley (pictured above) is an artist living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This is his website.

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    medladam (at) gmail (dot) com

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