Rhed Banana Media

Monkey See, Money Do. Marketing, Design, Social Media and Consulting services for indie artists and urban brands.

[devoutfashion-deactivated201906]

NYKHOR PAUL shoots for Glamour Italia by Ali Mahdavi

[lunaticnormalcy]

STAPLE!

In March, I had the opportunity to go to Austin’s independent media expo Staple! I ended up arriving fairly late on the last day of the event, but I still got to meet plenty of amazing artist and get a lot of new reading material.

I picked up flyers and bookmarks from a few artists: Ashley Guillory (1) draws a One Direction comic in the style of Peanuts, called Blockhead, that I was really taken with as a remix text. The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (2), by E.K. Weaver, is a long running strip about the fallout after Amal comes out to his family and agrees to go on a cross-country road trip with TJ, who he’s just hooked up with. Rachel Dukes (3) has published her work widely and done art for Garfield and Steven Universe, but I most love her webcomic about her cat. Zoe Coughlin’s The Last Cowboy (4) explores “three women whose lives are linked by the discovery of a mysterious alien planet” and Josh Lesnik draws You Suck!, a sex-positive slice-of-life webcomic (5). 

I bought three comics to read. Probably the most exciting to me is Couri Vine (6) by Vanessa Shealy and Leah Lovise. It’s about Couri, a young girl with a disability who “discovers that her difference can become her superpower.” The Elephant (7) is a graphic novel by Eric Michener about Topsy - the elephant executed by Thomas Edison in 1903 - and how she goes on to haunt the man who killed her. It’s not just a graphic novel, though: it comes with an accompanying album by the band Fishboy meant to be listened to while reading.

The first thing I read when I got home from the expo was Cat Therapy by Meg Golding (8). Meg told me that the comic came about when she was institutionalized and grappling with severe mental illness. She drew pictures of cats to cheer up the other people in the hospital with her, and, eventually, they became so popular that she published a book! I’m also really fond of her whimsical cartoons of Freud. 

I also got to meet Kate Leth - the artist behind Kate Or Die! who also writes, just, a bunch of cool comics. I love, love, love the way she writes Marceline in the Adventure Time graphic novel Seeing Red, so I was stoked to get to meet her and snag an autograph (along with a mini caricature of Marcline). 

I grew up reading comics like Betty and Veronica and Hot Stuff - so I’m thrilled that there are so many emerging (and now well-established) artists using the genre to write about women and people with disabilities.

[rickyounger]

She gives an awesome shout out to vanessasy and Leah Lovise’s amazing comic Couri Vine! Find out all about Couri Vine at http://CouriVine.com

[lostinurbanism]

James Baldwin in New Orleans. Steve Schapiro (1963)

[niaking]

Please help me publish Queer and Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2! Photo of Vivek Shraya (Interview forthcoming)

[npr]

The latest robot sensation in Japan is so lifelike that when she was on the floor of a Tokyo department store recently, she was confused for a human being. The new humanoid’s name is Aiko Chihira, and she was working in customer service, clad in a traditional silk kimono.

“She’s 165 centimeters [5 feet 5 inches] tall … and she’s supposed to be 32 years old,” Hitoshi Tokuda says. He’s Toshiba Corp.’s head of new business development, who led the making of Chihira with a team of programmers.

“Her movement is done by 30-times-per-second data [transfers],” he says, and she’s powered by 43 motors. So Chihira’s movements — like bowing or blinking — look subtle and her silicone body looks more wax figure than R2-D2.

Even in Japan, where new releases of robots are common, she was a surprise for customers like Masayuki Yamamoto.

“It’s stunning, seriously I never expected this would be real,” Yamamoto says. “I thought, why on earth are all these people taking a picture of a receptionist? I looked at her carefully and I realized it was a robot.”

She’s Almost Real: The New Humanoid On Customer Service Duty In Tokyo

Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

[amroyounes]

Rethink homelessness

[eternallybeautifullyblack]

“Every mighty king was once a crying baby! Every great tree was once a tiny seed! Every tall building was once in paper! And so I dream my dream!”  – Eunice Akoth, Age 12, 2015 Women in the World Summit

[iwanttoberecycled]

I want to be on top of things.

(via ReFabDiaries)

[euneirophrenia-team]

[teesadutta]

5.4.15

[theusafunny]

[ethniccrying]

SAY IT LOUDER

[17mul]

lmsig

[yoblackpopculture]

Pop: I wouldn’t do that just yet. [smack] ‘Cause your ass is mine…. I’ll whip that damn high top fade up off ya… I’m sick of your shit! I done worked too hard and too [smack] LONG for you to be running over me like you’re outta your damn mind! I done walked all across this damn city, got stopped by the [smack] GOD-damn law, looking for your monkey ass… All y'all kids over there dancing, [smack] doing the grind, and the [smack]PEEPIN’ and hiding, but I know your ass. You was there, wasn’t ya? Wasn’t ya? Wasn’t ya? WASN’T YA?[smack] I’m running the show around here. I’m wearing the pants and the apron, and I’m wearing yo’ ass OUT! [4 smacks] Whip ya ‘till I get sleepy, 'cause I’m wide awoke, 'cause I [smack] JUST woke up. You think 'cause you’re, you’re big and yellow, I’m supposed to be like Mello…. Hell [smack] NAW! I’ll start a fight in an empty [smack] ROOM! You can call Child Abusers if you [smack] WANT to, but they better not come in here 'cause I’ll kick their ass too. [3 smacks] I’m gonna give you a whipping from now ON! I’ll kick the cowboy shit out of you [horse neigh, gallop, smack] Get your ass to bed. And don’t wake up 'til I TELL you to!

[randilauren-deactivated20151018]

[thee-renaissance-man]

Basquiat

[sunny-24-7-deactivated20150317]

[thesociologicalcinema]

Follow this link to find a short clip and analysis that considers intersections of privilege and colonialism.

[say-prettyy-pleasee]

Can never reblog this enough

[soundofthegenuine-deactivated20]

Especially the first map…Ethiopia alone is unconquered.

[demmama]

I’ve seen the second image more than any.

[nashaawest]

They’ll say “look at Africa, they’re savages. They kill people and kidnap there people. Black on Black Crime ran by Black people” if only they understood that Europe has Fucked up the motherland causing Africa’s (over exaggerated*) pain.

*= Europe also over exaggerates the pain of Africa to inflict their White Man’s Burden.

[sweetcajun]

#Runningman

[b-l-a-c-k-o-r-c-h-i-d]

 ARTSlovenia - Franc Grom- Intricate Egg Sculptures 

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Slovenian craftsman Franc Grom drills hole at one of his special Easter eggshells with ornamented holes on it. He drills an approximate number of 2500 to 3500 holes to make a single special Easter coquille d'œuf for which he spends usually one week. Grom is the only man so far known as the artist making craftworks on eggshells by drilling holes on them. Lately, as his record he made special Easter eggshell with 24.000 holes.