Power Trip - Dallas Hardcore/Thrash

If you are a thrash metal fan, you'll love this Crossover from Dallas, Texas. Power Trip is an energetic five piece band, with influences that include Speed Metal, Thrash, and obviously Hardcore. Their latest release, "Manifest Decimation" was released this year on Southern Lord Recordings.

https://www.facebook.com/powertripTX

Expire -Midwest Hardcore

Check out Expire.The band, hailing from various states in the Midwest, plays hardcore the way it was meant to be and has been touring almost non-stop since their inception in August of 2009. Expire released a demo in late 2009, followed by the well-received Grim Rhythm 7inch in Spring of 2010. They went on to play Rain Fest, Sound & Fury and This is Hardcore that same year and released the Suffer the Cycle 7inch on Six Feet Under Records in Spring of 2011. Most recently, Expire played United Blood and Sound & Fury festivals, and will be taking a jaunt to Europe this November with new labelmates Foundation. No strangers to the road, 2012 will see Expire touring, touring, touring and recording their Bridge Nine full-length debut earlier in the year. The band had this to say,  Bridge Nine owner Chris Wrenn commented, "Expire is one of the best bands in the Midwest right now and I love their take on simple and stripped-down yet super fun and heavy hardcore. If you haven't seen this band play live yet, I recommend you do. In the meantime look up their live videos from Sound & Fury - you'll be sold."

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/expirehc?fref=ts

Animation Project

I constructed the image from a variety of images that I found on google. I used Photoshop CS6 to piece a GIF image together with different layers and such. I appropriated the images I used without violating copyright laws because I used different pieces from each appropriated image to create a new work of my own. My image is a moving GIF also. The message I am conveying is humorous because... well its obvious in the piece. Stormtroopers don't ride on top of ATATs. ATATs don't run and all of the proportions are off also. I updated Muybridge's original image by making it Star Wars (though Star Wars actually takes place "a long time ago in a galaxy far away", the technology in the movies is far more advanced than ours). I just love Star Wars and I can do whatever I want because Lucasfilms sold out, literally. SCREW YOU GEORGE LUCAS! *RAGE*

151-M

151-M:

• This is a Pokemon map. The image on the left is all 151 Pokemon from the first generation and the image on the right is all the maps of the Pokemon world. I chose to use Pokemon as my theme because, to this day, I still love it. It's what I grew up on and yet I still enjoy playing it every day. 
• To create the image, I appropriated all the images of the Pokemon and maps from an online forum. I imported the images into Photoshop and then changed the opacity, fill, and gradients to produce a piece that I found aesthetically pleasing. I violated no copyright laws because the images I used were produced under Free -Use already. I also modded each image beyond recognition.
• To me, my piece is happy and fun. Others may interpret it as dark or mysterious because it has no obvious meaning and the colors are dark and ominous. The title is 151-M (151 for the number of Pokemon I used and M for the maps i appropriated and for the assignment title).
• I would have liked to do more with it, but struggled with concepts and with  time.

Dedicated to Ash Ketchum:

ASH

On trading cards and TV shows,

He meant so much to me.

He’d grab his elements and go -

of fire, earth, and sea.

It seemed it was his destiny,

to find them in the grass.

Team Rocket was his enemy.

He always beat their ass.

His sidekick was a Pikachu.

They never were apart.

They’d roam until the day was through,

adventures from the start.

Collecting badges was his gig.

He always passed the test.

A hero to us nineties kids,

our generation’s best.

Mapping (Work in progress)

This is just my background. I don't want to post the rest of my progress, because it is pretty much done.

"Who cares?"-a social commentary

       I constructed the image combining multiple images together. Each aspect that I changed (the plugs, the septum piercing, the tattoo) were from separate images that I found online. In order to make his ears appear stretched, I had to build them from scratch using multiple tools and blending options. I don't believe I violated any copyright laws because I incorporated multiple images and layers. As stated before, I also composed parts of the image from scratch. I believe all of my work falls under Free Use.

       I began building this image with the concept of "Who cares?". I'm sick and tired of society being so judgmental and literally scared of people with body modifications. Who cares? Would Mr. Rogers have been any less effective in teaching, had he looked this way? No. Would parents have let their children watch his show if he looked this way? Most likely not. Why? Who cares what he looks like, as long as he doesn't have a swastika carved into his forehead? Get over yourselves.

Farewell- A Dramatic Monologue

(Kurt Cobain)

Life just can not satisfy me.

Pain is a part of my every day.

Music can not save me, so I’ll

burn out fast, not fading away.

Do you believe twenty-seven

is the curse that burdened my life?

Fame and affluence just are not

worth an empty house and crazy wife.

Never can I live forever

is what I’ve always believed.

Now I leave you, still a legend.

Please, I beg you- Do not grieve. 

            

                  by Tony Mascazzini