Conor McGregors 'F**k You suit

They say clothes maketh the man, apparently we have Mr William Shakespeare to thank for that one, I can neither deny or confirm if that's true or not, a quick Google search suggested it was from ancient Greece but hey, what do I know?
You may or may not be into boxing or MMA fighting, I'll claim ignorance to knowing much about it to be honest but the recent words of wisdom between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor last week were talk of the town, things got pretty amped between the pair, one turned up in a baseball cap with a big bag of money ( well, stacks of $1 dollar bills) and one turned up in a sharp looking 'pinstripe suit' and a truck load of attitude.

Getty Images

However, on closer inspection,what everyone thought were the traditional designer lines on McGregor's pinstripe suit were hugely mistaken, closer inspection reveals the suits pinstriped lines were actually in fact very small text that said "fuck you". Designed exclusively to wear at the press conference this week to promote their mega payday fight on August 26th.
Much of pre-fight press conferences  for big mega pay day fights is all about the psychology between the fighters and for setting up the hype to push ticket sales for pay per view, its about putting serious doubt into your opponents mind before the fight- unless of course things get really heated and fists fly which isn't unheard of.

The 'fuck you' suit is actually an inspired piece of mind games, for all of Mayweather's material wealth and TMT self-endorsed branding (The Money Team)  not to mention the endless Instagram money stack photos he posts - all this despite the fact it appears that the IRS is chasing him for around $29 Million in back taxes. McGregor went into this press conference to get inside Mayweather's head. 'The man had a pinstripe suit which said 'fuck you' all over it - now Floyd is a big boy, he's probably not all that bothered about the man inside the suit but from now until the fight he'll be wondering how much did that suit cost to make, who made it and who the hell came up with that idea?. Additionally it gets press talking, GQ already did a big article on it.

The suit was designed and made by David August who makes all of McGregors suits, this one was custom made, Navy Wool and was designed with McGregor's personality in mind.
Mayweather's track record speaks for itself, the man has made lots of money from winning in a career that is currently 49 wins with no losses so lets hope that McGregor's press conference willy waving and grandstanding doesn't make him look the fool come August 26th.

JAWS: The Art of the Poster

Back in 2015 the movie JAWS hit its 40th Anniversary, released on June 20th 1975 (December 26th  in the UK) the film did for beach holidays what Fatal Attraction did for having an affair. Jaws installed a fear of deep ocean water in me, I will not swim in deep open water from a boat unless I'm with lots of other people (the chances of being attacked are somewhat reduced if there's more meat swimming around). The film was responsible for the massive decline in the shark population in the late 70's and very early 80's when fear and the 'cool factor' of shark fishing, "hey look ma, I killed a predator" painted sharks in a bad light rather than the crucial role they play in the ecology of the ocean. The point is the only thing more dangerous than a man eater is a man hunting for the thrill of it.Man remains at the top of the food chain, 11,417 sharks are killed every hour according to a 2013 Huff Post article. Anyway, I digress  -(sorry about that), when JAWS reached its 40th milestone back in 2015 the Alamo Drafthouse in Texas celebrated by showing the movie Jaws on Austins Lake Travis where viewers could sit on inflatables to watch the movie at night. It's been a yearly event and shows the movie through June and July.

Designer Roger Kastel was responsible for the original JAWS movie poster painted as an oil-on-board painting for the purposes of the films marketing for Universal. (He's also credited with The Empire Strikes Back movie poster.) The JAWS shark mouth and swimmer design was based on Paul Bacons original book cover for the Doubleday hardcover which was created in 1974 depicting a shark below a swimmer, the image was black and white. Kastels updated version for Universal brought more life and menace to the premise of the story and the terror of an impending shark attack.

The Kastel cover featuring the nude swimmer ended up getting the book banned in Boston, Massachusetts and St Petersburg Florida. Further complications including a  lawsuit between DoubleDay and Bantam over the revised and updated cover and Paul Bacons original concept ended up with DoubleDay receiving compensation.

The original Kastel artwork, once framed and hanging in the Society of Illustrators in New York was shipped off to Hollywood for the movie promotion back in the late 70's, it was never returned, lost forever and has never been since since.

JAWS remains a iconic movie over 40 years on, an almost ageless classic -  it defined the summer blockbuster and created a cultural phenomenon. 40 years down the line it inspired fans, designers and artists all over the world to express their love and respect for the movie with some truly awe inspiring poster designs. Here's a selection of some of the best.

Phantom City Creatives JAWS poster print limited to a run of 325 now fetches a tidy sum if you can get your hands on it via Ebay with prices in the region of $299
Check out the red variation below.

Phantom City Creative: Red JAWS variant - Ltd Edition print run

Designer: Laurent Durieux

Designer: John Barry Ballaran

Designer: Anthony Petrie

Designer: Flore Maquin

Designer: Kyle Brown

Designer: Matthew Thomas

Designer: Remulous

Designer: Phantom City Creative

 Designer: Matt Ryan Tobin

Designer: Mike Wrobel

Designer: Kevin M Wilson

24″ X 36″ 3 color screen prints, regular “Beach Open” edition of 100 and variant “Beach Closed” edition of 75. Private commission.

Designer: Patrick Connan

 

Designer: Paul Shipper

Links

Check Out Roger Kastels art here
The Literary Hub showcased Paul Bacons Book covers here

What The F***k is NEX MACHINA?

You may or may not be familiar with the side scrolling voxel based shoot em up Resogun back in 2013, beyond that, you might remember R-Type or even perhaps 1942 with the WW2 plane that spewed out ridiculous amounts of firepower against waves and waves of enemies....yeah that.

R-type in all its glory

Well, dial that all up to 11 and add a neon disco like you've never seen before because Nex Machina is the arcade players dream shooter. A marriage of what Robotron and Smash TV were back in the day, frantic eye busting affairs of onscreen digital mayhem.

Developed by Housmarque who developed the original Resogun, Nex Machina is a twin stick shooter, on PS4 you can either use both the analogs to move the character and shoot or use each of the joypad buttons to fire your characters weapons in the direction of the button press. 

What initially looks like a manic onscreen frenzy is actually a well choreographed enemy threat, timing is crucial to utilize your characters dash ability to avoid the seemingly impossible pulses of plasma shots and spinning shurikens of laser filled death. If you actually watch the patterns you'll see that timing and strategy...as well as pulling off some crazy moves can work in tandem.

Onscreen pickups like shields are essential, multi-shot blaster upgrades and dash pickups are challenging to reach too, you'll need to blast your way through a wall of enemy bots homing in on you or the hapless humans that are wandering around on each level that you need to save.

Resogun - developed by Housemarque in 2013

Waves upon waves of enemy droids will stream towards you in a seemingly endless tsunami,walking spider bots with cannons lumber towards your position from all angles and stationary mortar stations target you from afar with a neon crosshair that gives you enough heads up that standing still is a death sentence. The game is tough but very easy to play, dying a lot is the norm, as is utilizing copious amounts of continues as you look to keep the action going. One of the most striking aspects of the game is the visual chaos, electric neon blues, pinks, greens and purples mix with a heavy dose of reds and blacks which are then further contrasted by exploding enemies that disintegrate into a mash of coloured pixel spray as your shots hit home. 

The game takes up less than 1 Gig of space on a PS4 and is a perfect pick up and play blaster that takes what Resogun, R-Type,Smash TV and Robotron did but cranks it all up another level and delivers an eye bleeding and satisfying arcade shoot em up.

Above: The on-screen arcade mayhem of Nex Machina.

The video below was me on 'Rookie' setting, I was sweating like a demon even on this setting, I think my wife thought I was going to have a heart attack, all she could hear from the lounge was me shouting "holy shit" or "this is bloody impossible"...additionally flavored with 'thank Christ that's over".

Check out the Gameplay video here and see for yourself

The Good Stuff

• Pick up and Play instant Arcade action
• Visuals are incredible
• Challenging and also has co-op mode
• Bound to become a classic much respected arcade shooter
• probably THE best arcade shooter since Resogun

The Bad Stuff

• Insanely challenging for novice arcade players, you'll die...a lot
• Limited Scope after prolonged play
• lacks any real customization to make the game your own.

End.