Huge Magazine

This video from She & Him is pretty great in the way it mixes cartoon bloodshed, death and cute 70s pastiche (kind of reminds me of Sonny & Cher). There even seems to be a “little” homage to Evil Dead 2 thrown in there. In case you missed it, “She” is Zooey Deschanel and “Him” is M. Ward.

Michael Jackson’s bizarre inner world is now on display and up for auction. You could actually own these terrifically frightening and strange paintings if you were the highest bidder. There’s a really creepy collection of oddities amongst the otherwise “normal” collection of antiques and furniture…a Virtual Boy, thrones, more weird paintings of Master Jackson (many with children), lots of Peter Pan inspired art and artifacts, creepy (actual-size) red-haired girl figures, haunting baby dolls and more. Watch the slideshow of photos (taken by comedian Paul Scheer of Human Giant fame) and see if you don’t feel the need for a shower afterward. As someone wrote in the comments section of Flickr, can you imagine working at Neverland and having to look at this stuff everyday?

When you’re done tea-baggin’ with Newt the Grinch, Dick Armey and their right-wing corporate-sponsored “grassroots” movement, you might be hungry. Might we suggest something not on the regular menu…?

The Free Music Archive is a new repository of free mp3s from independent artists like the Vivian Girls, Robyn Hitchcock, The Sea and Cake, Xiu Xiu, Daniel Johnston, and even Alan Vega. Songs are “curated” by several sources, including radio stations WFMU (NY) and KEXP (Seattle) who have uploaded live in-studio versions of album tracks and other obscurities. There’s also full albums shared directly from artists like Kristin Hersh (former head of Throwing Muses), who is giving her album Speedbath away for free. Like what you hear? You can tip the artists directly through PayPal — no more label middlemen!

All tracks have been pre-cleared for download, sampling, and remixing via Creative Commons licenses. You don’t even have to register to download tracks, and look ma, there’s no advertising! What a breath of fresh air in today’s over-marketed world (just look at this site to see what we mean). All in all, a very groovy site, and maybe a peek at the future of music distribution. Visit the Free Music Archive now and start listening to some damn fine free music!

We haven’t created any new desktops in a while, but here’s a new one. And, here are some old ones from the archive, and some desktop patterns if you prefer that sort of thing.

Old illustrations from a book titled, “Aluminum: How It’s Made And Where It’s Used” from 1968. Rescued by the Draplin Design Company at a little junk store in the wilds of Kentucky, on their “World’s Longest Yard Sale” adventure. See the whole Flickr set here. Lost of cool photos of vintage products and signs can also be found…

Of course it would come to this. Also a fantastic example of why the internets are so vital (we can’t live without them!)

A sculpture of a giant white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of a scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England. The 50-meter high horse, the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, will dominate the landscape in the surrounding area. Designed by artist Mark Wallinger — whose previous work has included dressing in a bear suit and wandering around a gallery in Berlin — the £2 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK.

So, is this art as spectacle or spectacle as art? Either way it was commissioned as a tourist draw, so it seems at first to be more of an attraction than anything else. But, the artist is indeed working the system and creating something he could never do on his own. One thing we can say for certain, “watch out for the giant manure piles!”

The new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion is being hailed by many music magazines as the best album of 2009, and it’s only January. The album seems to work best when listened to in its entirety from beginning to end, but this song (My Girl) is nice and hypnotic all on its own.