#pop-ups

BSoD (Blue Screens of Death, or BSoDs) - DEPTH SPELUNKING

"BSoDs avoid direct confrontation. When a Delver enters their line of sight, they quickly flee in the opposite direction. If a Delver manages to approach one, they can pull the lever on its back, causing the BSoD to blow up in an explosion that damages any Delvers caught in its blast radius."

It’s Fine Press Friday!

This week we present Oaxaca (wa-ha-ka) and the Saguaro (Sa-wah-row) Cactus (A Twice-told Tale) designed, written, illustrated, printed, and bound by American book artist Joe D’Ambrosio (1934-2009), printed in 1996 in a limited edition of 125 copies in Phoenix, Arizona. The book relates the legend of how and why Saguaro cacti are found only in the desert.

Caotlicue, goddess of the Earth and patron of life and death, strikes down a human whom the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl has fallen in love with, as she is human and he is a god. Quetzalcoatl creates the saguaro to mark the maiden's grave. The hunter Oaxaca encounters the saguaro and then the ghost of the maiden, who tells him that she can be released if the saguaro is removed. But Caotlicue tells him the maiden can be revived if Oaxaca eliminates the cactus and marries the maiden. To this end, Caotlicue sends Oaxaca on a quest for a daisy that will kill the cactus.

Along the way, Oaxaca meets and falls in love with another woman, Siouxi. They both return with the daisy, but Quetzalcoatl kills Oaxaca. Siouxi convinces the two gods to bring Oaxaca back to life and turn the maiden into a goddess in order to be with Quetzalcoatl. Brilliant solution! In return, Quetzalcoatl has the daisy attached to the Saguaro as a symbol of his power and commands that the cactus, the humans, and their descendants may never leave the desert.

This fantastical story also comes with commentary from the author about the lack of believability of such a tale, but he does tell the reader that they will have to “proceed on the assumption that there is some truth to [the] story.”

The book is Illustrated throughout with color prints made from paper plates by D’Ambrosio, with hand-colored pop-up illustrations and 14 pt Antique type printed on two different colors of Confetti paper. Our copy is another donation from the collection of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View other books from the collection of Dennis Bayuzick.

View more Fine Press Friday Posts.

In theory advertisements aren't bad. I mean there are still a great number of people who loudly and proudly declare they only watch the Super Bowl because marketing agencies spend big bucks on funny, interesting advertisements. There were scenarios where advertisements were acceptable and even enjoyable!

But not anymore. Since a person can register for Google Adsense and slap as many ads on a thing as they want to, the more desperate and sleazy among us decided to fill entire pages with ads. The value of a single advertisement bottomed out, as instead of guaranteeing a viewer's undivided attention, websites started being lit up like the Las Vegas strip. Memorable ads suddenly matter less than whatever's the most simple and flashy.

The side effect, the thing that I'm actually thinking about today, is how little advertising matters to me now. The only ads that ever actually command a single iota of my attention are the most annoying things: websites with "sign up for our mailing list!" pop-ups, or when I go dumpster diving on my Roku and find a streaming app that plays ads every 90 seconds, or when a news website is covered in "SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PREMIUM SERVICE" banners in every corner (or limits how much you can read before paying).

The only ads I remember are the ones that feel like a punishment.

To the point where, on a website that actually tries to show an acceptable number of advertisements, my brain has been automatically trained to ignore them. I don't even see them. I was using the tumblr app five minutes ago on my phone and I can't tell you what the ads were. I salted the earth for those neurons in my brain. That kind of mental spite is a reflex for me now. The rest of the internet has made me so resistant to all forms of the most annoying, forceful, attention-grabbing advertising that it will probably never work on me ever again for as long as I live.

But I can still recite the Toys'R'Us song by heart. It's been more than twenty years since its debut and people still remember the McDonalds "I'm Lovin' It" jingle.

...Actually, I'm so inoculated to modern advertising I had to double check whether or not McDonalds even still uses "I'm Lovin' It" because I cannot remember having seen a McDonalds advertisement in a very long time.

I suppose my ultimate point in all of this is never feel obligated to watch ads. Never feel guilty for using an adblocker. When that website says "We noticed you're blocking our ads, please turn it off" there is no law that says you have to (if they try to force you, a quick google search will probably solve that).

assume vivid astro focus

Eli Sudbrack

Rizzoli, New York 2011, 176 pages, 24 x 32 cm,  Hardcover with dust jacket, ISBN  978-0-8478-3305-4,  Out of Print at the Publisher

euro 35,00

email if you want to buy :[email protected]

The first book on the artist collective known for their raucous multimedia installations. Founded by artist Eli Sudbrack, assume vivid astro focus has been dazzling the art world since 1994 with its exuberant, visually spectacular room-size installations.

Created out of recycled and appropriated imagery from a wide range of sources--such as unicorn tapestries, children's stickers, pages from gay porn magazines, album covers, Buddhist thangka paintings, and street graffiti, to name a few--the finished works can feel like a cross between a '70s disco, Brazilian Carnival, and a psychedelic version of Andy Warhol's Factory.

This volume, their first, will include many of the elements featured in their installations, which are known for the many "give-aways" the artists provide the visitors: a blow-in poster, postcard and sticker pages, and a pop-up, all designed by avaf.

07/01/23

orders to:     [email protected]

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