Battle of the Lowbrow Books
(not as exciting as ' Battle of the Network Stars')
(or even 'Circus of the Stars')

Pop Surrealism - The Rise of Underground Art
Kirsten Anderson (editor)
Carlo McCormick (essay)
Larry Reid (essay)
Robert Williams (essay)
Ignition Publishing / Last Gasp
Hardcover
156 pages
$39.95
ISBN - 0867196181

Weirdo Deluxe - The Wild World of Pop Surrealism & Lowbrow Art
Matt Dukes Jordan
Chronicle Books
Paperback
192 pages
$24.95
ISBN - 081184241x

Both books feature 23 artists, 15 of them are the same:
Josh 'Shag' Agle
Anthony Ausgang
Glenn Barr
Tim Biskup
Kalynn Campbell
Joe Coleman
Camille Rose Garcia
Liz McGrath
Scott Musgrove
The Pizz
Mark Ryden
Isabel Samaras
Todd Schorr
Eric White
Robert Williams

Pop Surrealism also includes -
The Clayton Brothers
Alex Gross
Don Ed Hardy
Charles Kraft
Niagara
Marion Peck
Liza Petrucci
XNO

Weirdo Deluxe also includes -
Gary Baseman
Stacy Lande
Skot Olsen
Gary Panter
Kathy Staico Schorr
Owen Smith
Joe Sorren
Gary Taxali

Shag images in Pop Surrealism -
Prelude To Domestic Strife (2001)
Masquerade (2003)
Vice Monkeys (1999)
In Dreams (2003)
Fashionable Terrorist (2001)
West Coast Jazz (2003)

Shag images in Weirdo Deluxe -
Kind of Blue (1999)
The Rare Steak (2001)
Spirits (2002)
The Watcher (2002)
It Is Certain (2002)
The Impossible View (2000)


It really is a Coke/Pepsi thing - they're both colas (or books about 'lowbrow' art), it's a personal decision. i like the formality and professional presentation displayed within Pop Surrealism, but i also enjoy the 'Lowbrow Influences + History' running from pages 14 to 27 in Weirdo Deluxe and that Panter and Baseman were included.

Shag-wise, i think that the images in PS give a better idea of his scope - too bad neither of them have any pre-1999 paintings...

If you have the cash, get both. If not, hang out in your favorite independent bookstore, thumb through both books, and make a decision.

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i need a new topic for the ol' voting system on the left - any suggestions? Best idea will get a prize.

What sort of prize, you ask? I have no clue - something or other (once we get done unpacking all of our stuff {yet again]).

The "Hot Chicks and Cool Rides" Group Show will be opening at the Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery on Saturday, April 2nd, going until Tuesday, May 3rd.

Shag's cover for Barracuda #10 will be taking part (already sold).




Looks like there will be a shindig in the alley next to the gallery on Sunday, April 3rd, from 1:00 to 8:00 PM featuring a Hot Rod Car Show, Live Music, and Pinstripe Booth.

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Weirdo Deluxe showed up in the mail yesterday and, although i haven't absorbed it completely yet, i can say that it is a well-designed book. Shag is featured on pp 28 to 33 with a page of info/quotes and 6 images - Kind of Blue, The Rare Steak, Spirits, The Watcher, It Is Certain, and The Impossible View.

Well designed, but nothing a stack of Juxtapoz mags can't equal (other than the fact that Mr Williams' periodical doesn't cover much of anything Shag-related). i'll take "Pop Surrealism: The Rise Of Underground Art" off the bookshelf and run a "Pepsi-challenge" of sorts against them.

The Los Angeles Downtown News has a review of SWaT up - 'Shag' Stumbles in Trip From Painting to the Stage.

The LA-area Daily Breeze has a great article about how Shag With a Twist came about - fascinating stuff!

Here's the OC Weekly's review of SWaT - "Extra-Pointy Nipples! The Shag-iest party on Earth"

Like his paintings, we just want to stare at Shag With a Twist for a while, soak it all in and leave smiling. And that’s exactly what we did. It’s actually something worth shlepping to downtown LA for.

(i hope to eventually see the show when i score a role as a extra [or a potted plant] for the movie version [hopefully directed over-the-top a la the great Bollywood musicals])

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Update from this AM - Weirdo Deluxe is out now, my copy was just sent by Amazon from Lexington, Kentucky, about 90 minutes ago! Nitpicky review to come sometime next week!

(This is in no way a plug for Amazon - i make it a point not to be an Amazon Associate and/or use Google Ad Sense.)

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Oops - forgot to publish the image from Copro Nason & Track 16's "Eye of the Illuminati" Group Show -





"Business Deal"

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...speaking of plugging stuff - i'm going to plug the upcoming
"Ultimate Tiki Tunes" CD series released by WorldSound with Tiki Farm's assistance (and mugs to boot)!

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Hey, digging through my links i remembered that the Pink Panther will be releasing a tome on entertaining sometime soon (10 Apr 05?) via Surrey Books.

...and from looking at the web-site for the new Pink Panther movie with Steve Martin *shudder* Shag's design of PP is used for the site intro. Will Shag's designs be used for the opening credits animation sequence?

Having endured the trailer, it looks like Otto ("Don't call me stupid!") assigns The Jerk (with Leon as his Kato-like partner) to find The Transporter's ring and somehow Foxy Cleopatra has something to do with it. Oooooo!

Worse yet, the cool looking 40th Anniversary site that promo'd the DVD box set has been killed to push the Steve Martin *shudder* remake. Spiffy.

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Scanning the Omaha public records on-line, appears that the "Shag Vodka Bar" (mentioned here back on 10 Dec 04) at 705 N 144th Street has been granted a liquor license - no posting on when it will be opening. Again i wonder, has this been ShagCorp approved?

Even more Shag With A Twist info (while I'm stuck in my cubicle)!

Madame Cinderella sent the LA Weekly's review -

In case you've never set foot in Wacko or a thousand similar slacker galleries and novelty shops, Josh Agle is the artist currently known as Shag, a Southern California illustrator who celebrates, through graphic mimicry, the sybaritic early to mid-1960s. Tiki bars, Scandinavian fireplaces and jet-set bistros are all part of the Shag milieu, a cocktail-napkin landscape of blue-eye-shadowed sirens and turtlenecked swingers. This dance collaboration between Shag and the San Pedro City Ballet uses those napkins as storyboards for a murder-mystery, kicked off when one of the artist's beautiful people is done in with a corkscrew at a party. Composers Chris Lang and Cesar Benitez's 80-minute, bookless musical perfectly captures Agle's shagsthetic, thanks in large part to scenic designer Douglas D. Smith, costume director Joel Berlin, but mostly to director/lyricist/co-creator Cynthia Bradley, whose bouncy choreography sends her human pictographs on a twisting, frugging search for style, if not meaning. LATC, 514 S. Spring St., dwntwn.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru June 11. (888) 515-7424. See Theater feature in two weeks. Written 03/24/2005 (Steven Mikulan)

(I learned a new word today - "sybaritic")

Tidbits from Ms Cherry Capri -

If you are in the Los Angeles area this Saturday, don't miss your chance to see the show "Shag With a Twist." On Saturday, March 26th at 8PM sharp, Otto Von Stroheim of Tiki News and Baby Doe will be hosting a very special night at this play.

This show is open to the public and walk up tickets should be available. The best part is if you mention TIKI NEWS, you will get 20% off the ticket price for this one night only! PLUS, there will be a no-host Tiki bar in the lobby serving drinks and a Q&A with SHAG himself after the show!

Advanced tickets may be purchased here

OKAY... well, if you can't make the show - at least pull up your favorite shaker and mix up a "SHAG WITH A TWIST" pineapple-vodka cocktail officially taste tested AND approved by the Master SHAG himself!!!

The recipe is on on Cherry's website!!!

Anyone going to the Q&A? Ask him about the upcoming coffee-table book from Chronicle Books for me, alright?

...and, while you're at it, ask for a sneak peak of whatever he's doing for the Disneyland 50th Anniversary too.

(Don't worry about me, i'll be safe and sound in my cubicle.)

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Speaking of Chronicle Books, they have published (or will be publishing) "Weirdo Deluxe: The Wild World of Pop Surrealism & Lowbrow Art." The release date is either last February or 01 April. Pretty lofty words that it is "the first significant manifesto of the genre" - I expect that Last Gasp's "Pop Surrealism" begs to differ...

I haven't gotten official word, but a little bird has told me that Shag is one of the 23 artists featured.

Just Google'd to find out that the designer has a preview of the book on his blog.

The Orange County Register has "It's a Shag, Shag, Shag World" in today's paper.

Need an account? Try CovetN as username and password!

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Shag With A Twist officially opens tomorrow! Here's how to get tickets, and please send me a review after the show.

(Stuck in Denver waiting for the movie version of SWaT to debut...)

Ms Cinderella has kindly sent some Shag With A Twist rehearsal photos -

LA Downtown News has a story about Shag With A Twist - "Shag and the Tupperware Party Killing: How a Choreographer Turned a Painter's Works Into a Murder Musical"

Google News Alerts - a helpful tool and a monkey on my back...

There's a short blurb about Shag With A Twist (scroll down to the bottom) from LA Downtown News.

(i will unfortunately be missing the Sneak Preview show tonight due to annoyingly lame reasons - cheers!)

Another hit from Google News, an interview with Theresa Cano on azcentral.com.

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i'm hearing (reading) positive things about Shag With A Twist - anyone else out there that has been to see it that has a review? Send me an e-mail with your submission and Shag-related pseudonym (if you wish to retain a level of anonymity)...

Get Out, Arizona's Premier Entertainment Guide, has an article online - "Local artist has turned the feel of the ’50s into an industry."

Best part - "He's even the subject of a coffee table book due in September from Chronicle Books. “One of my gallery owners said he was going to a publishing show and he thought a book would be a good idea,” Shag says. “He came back with three or four offers,” which astounded the artist."

Here's hoping it's one of those bang-zoom comprehensive type coffee table books!

(Thanks to Google News for the hit...)

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Here's a link to Shag's contribution to Copro Nason & Track 16 Galleries' "The Eye of the Illuminati" Group Show. No idea what the title is - anyone out there have the info?

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"Infernal Intentions" opens at Phoenix, AZ's Perihelion Arts this Friday, 04 Mar 05. They sent an e-mail out yesterday stating that some of the items are still available for sale, they can be reached here.

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Recapping the last two originals up for grabs on eBay -

Religious Icon #2
Show - Anatomy of a Swinger
Dates - 02 Jan to 01 Feb, 1998
Gallery - La Luz de Jesus
eBay Auction #7301593113 - ORIGINAL SHAG PAINTING ART -THE EARLIEST
Auction Started - Feb-16-05 09:27:22 PST
Auction Ended - Feb-23-05 09:27:22 PST
Seller - vintage-animation (also here)
Opening Price - $5,000.00
Closing Price - $5,000.000 - NO SALE - BID RETRACTED

Birdnik's Table
Show - Night of the Tiki
Dates - 12 Jul to 14 Sep, 2001
Gallery - Copro-Nason
eBay Auction #7301919240 - Josh Agle- Shag Origional "Birdnik's Table"
One of a kind Origional from the "Night of the Tiki"
Auction Started - Feb-17-05 17:38:23 PST
Auction Ended - Feb-27-05 17:38:23 PST
Seller - gene5654
Closing Price - $4,050.00
Winner - foxxtv

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Make sure to check out www.swampzombies.com for all your Swamp Zombies' needs - still under construction, but the guy who's making the site knows way more about the SZ's than most mere mortals (like me).